Taipei 101

Keona with nainai


Photo at the 101 building!

Hair Clips - Keona

We bought hair clips for Keona - clips with the bow and a netting

with two bows to hold the hair in! So cute!

Traffic in Taipei

All of the mopeds lined up on the street.

Hardly any place to park if you have one!
Another picture with the mopeds parked.
Look behind the parked ones and you will see all of the drivers wearing their helmets waiting for the light to turn green.

In Taipei

We arrived safe and sound to Taipei, Taiwan on Thursday night, 10 p.m. ! Yay!
It was a long flight, and an hour drive back to home, but it was great to go to bed!!

Keona slept twice on the way to Tokyo, and slept the ENTIRE way from Tokyo to Taipei!

Still feel a bit jet-lagged and tired...

Hope to upload (more) pictures later today or tomorrow...

Fast Talk

So, I have purchased a package of magazines (I pay for 5 magazines at very low prices) and one day a few months ago I was receiving about 3 magazines per day (no joke). I thought, this can't be right. I was getting more magazines than I was paying for. Alas, the company said I was on their list of eligible customers to receive 8 for FREE! That's more than I am paying for. Apparently the magazine companies can charge more for the magazine with the more total circulation... So, what does this have anything to do with technology, you ask? Well, I received Fast Company (I never heard of, but am loving every issue of it!). In the May 2009 edition, there are about 10 pages of technologies that are in line with Kindle. "The Kindle is not the only way technology is changing--and saving?--book publishing." Among them are two that stand out:

1. Josh Hug, CEO and Cofounder of Shelfari, Seattle, WA. Adding a social component to reading books. So, there are conversations of what others are thinking, liking it or not, etc.
   
2. John Yoo, David Levithan, and Rachel Griffiths, The New Storytellers out of New York, NY. They created the children's series, The 39 Clues, weaving through 10 books, an online game, and trading cards. They reveal 10 clues in print and 29 online. They are interested in how kids deal with the virtual and the physical pieces. "The perceived gap between readers and gamers is just not that big." I want to find it!

The Digital Mom

Okay, so I was waiting in the doctor's office for Keona's wellness shots on Tuesday. I glanced at the magazines, primarily Pregnancy (which I am far beyond) but a title caught my eye from the May 2009 issue: The Digital Mom: 9 easy tech projects to brace yourself for baby (one for each month!).
So, Month 1 is low-tech - make a list of what you should and should not eat, print it out, and carry in your wallet. There are four websites to visit as well... So, combining information.
Month 2: Follow baby's in-utero development at whattoexpect.com, parents.com, and thecradle.com.
Month 3: pick your baby's name: thecradle.com/babynames/search (50,000+ baby names!), and nameberry.com.
Month 4: Join the blogosphere! Okay, so here it gets more ditigal - create a photo blog (typepad.com and blogger.com). Add a web gallery, and start a photostream on Flickr.com.
Month 5: Learn about new-mom resources in your area: themommiesnetwork.org, meetup.com, lilaguide.com, momslikeme.com, twittermoms.com, and yelp.com
Month 6: create a perfect playlist for your delivery! They say most hospitals won't let you use the plug-ins provided in the delivery room, but invest in the battery-powered iPod speaker docks.
Month7: Design personalized notes for baby gifts. Create Thank-You cards for use when you get baby stuff after delivery.
Month 8: Set up a high-speed labor notification system. This one is specifically using Twitter to update your loved ones when you go into labor.
Month 9: Create a newborn data tracker. Now that you have Twitter, you can write down when your baby eats, how often and what time they eat (so that you can accurately tell the pediatrician after lack of sleep!). Or print out a PDF file or iPhone app (trixietracker.com, $15/3 mo).

Facebook in Glamour

Glamour magazine, May 2009, has a snippet about Facebook and Your Love Life. They say that social networking may make you feel connected, but takes away from the in-person intimacy, says Gail Saltz, M.D., author of The Ripple Effect. Chatting with the opposite sex gives only an illusion of intimacy. The hormone released during affectionate touching, oxytocin, can be lost when destressing. That means that individuals who consistently destress on the comptuer will not feel as destressed in real life with their partner. The advice given: Enjoy the Web, don't live there.

So, in mainstream magazines dealing with personal health and relationship issues, this is starting to pop up. My prediction will be that in the coming months there will be articles published about the dangers of online intimacy and how it ruined some person's relationship in real life.