Karaoke

The last time I went to a karaoke was perhaps when I studied for my Ph.D. in Colorado a decade ago. From time to time, the bored Taiwanese students would ask me to join them and we would car-pooled out to Denver for a night out. We had our moments with karaoke.

My friend Jane is a very good singer and she performed at restaurants when she was still in college. She had asked me to go with her to a Karaoke but it hadn't happened until a couple of days ago when I was really bummed and in a bad mood. At the lunch with Eric and Jane, I proposed to have a "singing our hearts out night" and Jane gladly agreed to go.

We were taken to this huge room with only the three of us! The snacks were not impressive but we loved how we could be our own DJs with the innnovative digital song request system. Jane dedicated an English song to me at the end and she sang so beautifully. Her specialty is Taiwanese songs and I think she is one of the best singers that I have ever heard. Even the very reserved Eric tagged along and he did pretty well too. As for me, I tried some Taiwanese songs with Jane's help. She thought I was good, but I had problem with some of the Taiwanese lyrics. Well, having a compliment from a pro was something!

These two photos were taken with my Nokia N-70 phone camera. Jane didn't mind my spontaneous photo shooting but Eric was not thrilled with it. He blocked my camera with his microphone.

Another summer outing

I am in my summer slumber here so am not motivated to do a lot other than vegetating in the air-conditioned room. Ooh, the electricity bills will be scary to look at later. Here are some photos I took on a day trip to southern Taiwan. As there is an increasing southeast Asian population here from immigration (and mostly through marriage), we found that there was actually a place called "Vietmese village" in a little town in Tainan. We bought some dried pho, a can of coffee that was super sweet from the little shop. I tried to practice some of my Vietmese with the store clerks but all of them spoke Taiwanese to me.

And here is my voice greeting to you all for a great summer ahead!