In our free society, we actually allow people to hold silly, bizarre and even dangerous views.

-Liberal Senator, Eric Abetz


So…anyone tried going public in our free society with any dangerous terrorist’esue views they might harbor lately?

How’d that work out for you?

It was always going to be a difficult task, getting the parliament of Australia to accept that a religious organisation in Australia was worthy of a senate inquiry.

Still, Australian senator Nick Xenophon’s efforts are to be commended. With worldwide controversy following Scientology everywhere it rears its head, countless stories of victimisation, abuse, coercion, flaunting of employment regulations and a PR machine that works tirelessly to discredit any negativity against the organisation, even public acknowledgement by a senator was a big step.

Today Senator Xenophon’s proposed Australian parliamentary Senate inquiry into the tax exempt status of Scientology in Australia failed. Xenophon argued that in the UK, organisations were required to demonstrate that they were of public benefit to qualify for the exemption.

Today both the Liberal and Labor parties voted down the proposal.

So what now? [Read the rest of this entry...]

When researching software programs to learn Chinese Mandarin with it’s pretty hard to go past Rosetta Stone. The United States Army, Airforce, Marine Corps and Department of State are all Rosetta Stone customers.

For some that might be a reason to skip over the software but I figured if it was good enough for the US military then at the very least Rosetta Stone was worth looking over.

I’ve been using it for a few months now exclusively learning Chinese Mandarin for use in Taiwan (I’ll go into this later). In this post I aim to share my thoughts so far on my language learning experience. [Read the rest of this entry...]

I’ve often wondered how the roads of Taiwan function. Bad driving Asian stereotypes are nothing new but it’s not until you actually mix it up with Asian traffic that you develop a whole new appreciation for it.

Confidence on Taiwan’s roads seems to be a massive problem. People will seriously half pull out of a car park and then seem to hit a ‘oh crap what do I do now?!’ mental stumbling block.

If you’re coming up behind them you’re then stuck as they’ve taken up too much of the lane for you to pass… but they’re worried you won’t stop. I’ve lost count the amount of times, even on a bicycle, that I’ve wanted to get out of the car and kick someone in the nuts. If for nothing else then just to give them a shot of confidence to pull out confidently and get what should take no more then two seconds over with.

I’ve seriously seen cars have stand offs where, regardless of who has right of way, neither party is willing to budge either out of politeness or losing face. Meanwhile the traffic backs up and everyone else is cracking the shits.

Then there’s the ‘if I’m bigger then you, you better get the hell out of my way’ attitude that exists here. Truck and bus drivers are no more confident then the rest of the drivers on the roads, they just know that if someone smashes into them they will come off second best.

As a result they don’t give a shit you were doing 60km/h down a one lane road. If they want to join the lane you’re going to stop for them whether you like it or not.

Due to the sheer universal prevalence of bad driving in Taiwan I started to wonder just what the hell was taught in Asian driving schools.

One cloudy Saturday morning I was on a cycle ride and found out… [Read the rest of this entry...]

So I walked into the office the other day. It was sunny outside, the wind was still and I’d just returned from a killer weekend up in Taipei.

Life was good.

I plonked my courier bag down on my desk and then I saw it. The most horrendous case of calculator abuse you’d ever hope to not see.

There was me thinking that I’d finally gotten to know the girls at work…

…

…how utterly wrong I was. [Read the rest of this entry...]

One of the most common questions I encountered back in Australia when I told people I was moving to Taiwan was ‘have you travelled much?’

The last time I left Australia was back in 1993 on a family trip.

The reaction I got when I told people I was moving abroad was thus usually one of surprise. As the conversation progressed the questions ‘won’t you miss home?’ and ‘how will you cope?’ inevitably came up as well.

To perfectly honest these weren’t even considerations when I was convincing myself that moving overseas was right for me…

…how naive. [Read the rest of this entry...]

I’m a guy and when it comes to buying condoms, unless I walk into a store with a hot girl on my arm things are usually a bit awkward.

Sure I might be exaggerating the situation in my head but I’ve never felt comfortable going out and buying a box of condoms on my own. Part of the reason is the narcissistic habit that kicks in when I see another guy doing the same, or worse another girl.

If I’m stuck behind someone on the conveyor belt and I see a box of condoms, instinctively I’m looking them up and down and wondering how ugly or hot their partner is.

If the conclusion is they’re really ugly then I feel like they’ve ruined my night before it’s even begun with their ugliness. If the conclusion is their hot then, as stupid as it sounds I get little pangs of jealousy run through me. Even if I’m not single at the time.

I assume I’m not alone in this and thus when I’m standing in line buying a box of condoms I can’t help but think this is what if someone else sees my box this is what they start thinking about too. [Read the rest of this entry...]

In what was arguably the stupidest online based legal case last year here in Australia (followed closely by a Chinese company suing a UK blogger using Australian laws), news broke yesterday that Z-Geek won their legal battle against Jonathan Nolan, Greg Smith and their company Myrmidon Enterprises.

In other news, it’s still possible to launch expensive defamation cases against people in Australia without a shred of supporting evidence. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Go Karting in Taiwan is a hearkening back to the era of personal responsibility. There’s no helmets, the brakes don’t quite work, no legal liability papers to sign, not a safety track status light in sight and you fly around a track holding on for dear life.

Located in central Taiwan and tucked away in the mountains, I recently got to experience my first go kart outing at Neiwan in Hsinchu County. [Read the rest of this entry...]

I woke up this morning to the strange sensation of my bed rocking.

“Wow, that’s some hangover. What the hell did I do last night?”

“…”

“…hang on last night was Wednesday night… and… I didn’t go out. Wait what the hell just happened?!” [Read the rest of this entry...]

It was late on a Monday night. I’d just finished teaching and had walked into my local 7-11 to grab a bite to eat before the walk home.

A girl I’d seen regularly around the area came up and started to talk to me. She told me her parents lived in Taichung and she’d just come back from visiting them over the weekend.

“Wait a minute, I have present for you-” she blurted out mid conversation. Before I had a chance to even process what she’d said, protest or ask her why she was off racing down to her apartment.

I was left standing in 7-11 wondering just what she’d gotten me… [Read the rest of this entry...]