It’s widely known that members of Polaris Media Group subscribe to the principles of James Arthur Ray’s ‘The Secret’.

Before everything became centralised via the Polaris website backend many distributors advertised that they had utilised the teachings of the Secret and were all too willing to pass their expertise on.

Late last year two people died during a ‘The Secret’ event (a third died a week after the article was written), and authorities were left to decide whether or not to prosecute Arthur Ray, who was running the event, for criminal negligence.

Sometime yesterday authorities arrested Arthur Ray and have charged him with three counts of manslaughter. [Read the rest of this entry...]

I was walking around Taichung shortly after I arrived in Taiwan and as I’ve mentioned previously soon began to miss pedestrian crossings.

For the most part Taiwan has road crossings which are automatically timed. You walk up to the Zebra crossing and wait patiently until the little timer counts down, then checking for traffic running red lights you cautiously cross the road.

What I wouldn’t give for a button to push and feel like I’m speeding up the entire process.

After becoming reasonably adjusted and comfortable with the change in crossing I couldn’t help but notice several prominent intersections in Taichung were completely devoid of any type of pedestrian crossing.

No lights, no zebra crossings no nothing. It was like somebody forgot the footpaths leading up to intersections would be carrying people… on foot. [Read the rest of this entry...]

You never quite know what to expect when walking down the streets of Taiwan. From the people to the buildings to the cars and scooters on the roads, the Taiwanese urban environment is always surprising me in new ways.

A while back now I was walking through downtown Taichung and perched high up above street level I spotted these little guys keeping watch.

I’m certainly not versed in architecture but even if I was, I think I’d be struggling to explain what exactly the designers of this building were going for. [Read the rest of this entry...]

I’m a few days late with this post due to internet problems but give or take a week I don’t really think the blog is going to mind.

It’s been an interesting year for me writing for this website. I started off with absolutely nothing. I had no web presence under OzSoapbox and started from scratch.

In just one year I’ve attempted to take OzSoapbox from internet nothingness into what I believe is a decent sized blog.

For my first year review I decided to take a look back and share where the last 12 months of blogging has taken me. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Somewhere in the dark and nasty regions of Australia, where nobody goes, stands an ancient castle.

Deep within this dank and uninviting place, lives Michael Atkinson “Ello!” – overworked servant of the Thing Upstairs.

“Atkinson! Feed me!”

…But that’s nothing compared to the horrors that lurk beneath the Trap Door… for there is always something down there, in the dark, waiting to come out!

I don’t know what’s worse, Stephen Conroy and his bloody internet filter or Michael Atkinson and his election censorship laws. [Read the rest of this entry...]

It was about 8:30am on a Monday morning and still a little bit groggy I was waiting for a train at Taichung station.

As I stood there in my shirt and pants, the sting of a lazy imprecise morning shave still tingling over my jawline I looked around at the ensemble of waiting passengers.

You had your rag tag adults, you’re weirdly dressed religious types, young people heading off either home or to shop in other cities and random little kids who’d stare at you with their mouths open.

On this particular morning out of the corner of my eye I then spotted something different. Across the platforms to the rear of the train yard was a woman in a white dress.

At 8:30am on a Monday morning this crazy woman was taking wedding photos at a public train station.

…really? [Read the rest of this entry...]

When I came to Taiwan there was two things I was deathly afraid of that the country wouldn’t be able to provide me with.

It wasn’t the quality of life I was used to, reliable internet, cheap food, language barriers or

No, what I feared most of all was the lack of slurpees and Milo. [Read the rest of this entry...]

News broke last week of a dispute between Aboriginal flag creator Harold Thomas and Google.

After holding a competition across Australian schools to design the Australia day ‘doodle’ (a design to replace the Google logo on the Google website), a design was chosen which featured the Aboriginal flag.

What should have been a proud day for Aboriginals and recognition through the largest online search portal in the world quickly degenerated over what anything Aboriginal boils down to;

Money. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Although I’m sure road rules exist in Taiwan I’m yet to see any evidence of it. The police just seem to cruise around not doing too much and Taiwanese drivers take full advantage of this.

A typical day observing a busy intersection in Taiwan is more potent then an entire season of ‘World’s Worst Drivers’. Seriously with some of the crap I’ve seen pulled I’m surprised countries haven’t flat out rejected international driver’s licenses from Asian countries.

Unfortunately it’s not just driving a car that Asian people seem to have a problem doing, even parking a car presents challenges in itself. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Despite being a relatively western country there are a few throwbacks to older times to be found throughout Taiwan.

One of them is the squat toilet.

Perhaps more at place in Thailand or Vietnam I was surprised to see the squat toilet feature prominently in public toilets as you move out of Taiwan’s main cities.

Although appreciative of the body dynamics of using one I kinda always feel a bit uh, vulnerable the few times I’ve had to squat over and use one.

Something about having the boys just dangling there and me worrying about keeping my balance kind of detracts from the experience.

With the squat toilet being just a notch above a hole in the ground the next level up in toilet comfort is the traditional outdoor toilet. On a cycle ride the other week up into the remote mountains I happened upon what I thought was the penultimate in outdoor toiletry. [Read the rest of this entry...]