Entries 129
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time and sleep
I think I slept 18 or 20 hours yesterday. And today I feel like I am on track, back to self, back to normal. It’s been rough. Coming home is always a little jarring. a 12 hour time change, not t...
Air
Honestly the air quality never bothers me in Taiwan. It’s probably because I am used to it. I would rather have 30 degrees and poor air quality like I had when I left than what I came back to -...
So Asian
While I was in Asia, a friend of the family had a baby. A boy. Cute baby. I’ve known her parents since Taichung days and our children grew up together. I was the MC at her wedding a couple of ...
Back again
Q: What’s a very Canadian thing to do on your first full day back in Canada? A: Go to Costco! So I went and got all my favourite things, spent a ton of money on meat mostly. It is weird and n...
Tomorrow I fly to Canada
Tomorrow is the day I leave Taiwan. I have a bunch of stuff to do today. A second deep cleaning of the apartment. Packing. Actually, that’s about it. I want to go out to my favourite noodle r...
Art, because
Vonnegut once said “I admire anybody who finishes a work of art, no matter how awful it may be.” He’d be proud of me today, awfully proud. I did what I said I would do. I stayed in and listene...
Strong magnets
On my walk along the river this morning, I saw a guy that I stop to chat with when I see him. He’s an expat from Ohio, living here in Taiwan now for about 7 or 8 years. Like most people I know...
I've got a green thumb for writing
I’d like to write everyday. I think it is a good habit, a gift you give to yourself. And a gift that keeps on giving. It is so great to look back at the person you once were. And writing is a p...
YouTube loses its way again
The algorithm was great. The year was 2017. YouTube got good again. It was good at the very beginning. I was there. I remember Boh3m3 and Lonely Girl. I was there before Google bought it. It...
That's not a burrito in my hand
I’m afraid my American friends are starting to not like me. It’s my own fault. I have the rest of the world on my side, which is one of the reasons I don’t mind talking about Trump and the Repu...
Bob's Philosophy of Drift
To be idle and aimless without getting bored is true contentment. Since I retired and since I’ve been living alone in Taiwan for most of the past six months I’ve found a real acceptance of slo...
Funny, but not in the way you're thinking.
When I worked as a real estate agent, I used to flip through the local glossy real estate magazines and marvel at the random ugliness of my colleagues. I’m not bragging. I’m not the best looking...
Greenlanada
I don’t mean to be a shit disturber, but Canada would be a better home for Greenland than the USA. We have a lot more in common with Greenland than the US does. I’m not just talking about univer...
Pocket protector guy vs Biff
Somethings, like cranberry sauce at a thanksgiving turkey dinner, are best to just ignore. The news and entertainment coming out of the White House is another. It’s Reality TV. Something I’ve ne...
Zero Dark Chirpy
I woke up at 4:45. If I wake up anytime after 4am, I just go ahead and get up. The sun comes up at about 5:30. The birds wake up shortly before that. Someone here on PB called the time Zero Dar...
Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Good, fast and cheap.
Food is central to Taiwanese culture. People talk about food all the time. People think about food all the time too. People watch food videos on Youtube. In fact, every Taiwanese YouTuber eventu...
Walking around Bob
I had 7 subscribers. One day later I have 66. Sometimes the internet delivers. Truth is, on Bob’s Utopia I am authentic. Consistent too. And I know from personal experience that we build a bo...
Where's Bob Walking?
When you have nothing to lose, you should just do it. Doing something is always better than not doing something. People regret the things they haven’t done, more than the things that they have. ...
Stopping to check his stocks in Monkey Mountain
I spend a lot of time online. You do too. It is rare to hear about anyone these days that doesn’t. There are a few holdouts. There are people who don’t own a cell phone. I know one. There are pe...
Bob's your uncle
Today feels like a Sunday because yesterday felt like a Saturday. Four day weekends are a little discombobulating. I mean, the train yesterday was busy at 9am. The breakfast place today has a l...
Temporal Displacement and a Side of Toast
It’s a four-day holiday weekend which means crowds at my favourite breakfast restaurant and later near the harbour. I’ll make toast. I want to watch the news anyway and see what that idiot in th...
Where's Bob walking?
Today I saw a guy who I met last week. He didn’t see me. It is now 8:15 Wednesday morning and I am out on my 26th floor balcony with a cup of coffee. I hear the city rumbling and humming. The ...
The rise and fall of the blog
In the 17 or 18 years before I retired, I worked as a real estate agent. In the first few years, I struggled. But after that, I made a decent living. I was lucky. Timing was on my side. I starte...
Windows
The stories we tell ourselves get better over time. If it is true that there really are only two kinds of stories, comedies and tragedies, mine are certainly comedies. I like to look back an...
Bob needs a friend
I don’t like any of my friends in Taiwan and this is a bit of a problem because I only have 2. With Joe, my American friend, the longer I know him, the more he reveals about himself and those ...
Book Description
This is a restart
