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Well I'm almost finished posting/recording the saga of the end of the time that I spent in Taiwan on this occasion at this time this past year. Whew!

But you see, I have to pack all these wordy posts in now before I hit the road and go offline for a while. Since I don't want to post in cafes in Thailand, that means it may be a while that I'm lurking, maybe a couple months, so that's why I'm running off at the fingers now.

Those silly losers I work with pulled another fast one today. Yesterday the boss lady asked for my passport, which they handled frequently when I first arrived in order to set up the year long visa. But now they have no reason to see it, not that they could really do any harm. So for fun I asked "What do you want it for?". She said "Uhhh it needs a stamped number for tax purposes."

So I'm like "Ok, whatever". So this one guy from the office buzzed by (since I'm off today. Actually, there are only four working days till departure time next Sat! Woo hoo!) and he was being saccharine nice, which is a tip off because he's usually a jerk (they never seem to catch on that we Westerners aren't going to forget how they've been acting, they just change their behavior and seem to think it's a believable change!), Anyway, I digress. He buzzed off with the passport, then a ridiculously short time later he called and said "OK do you want it back now or Monday", I said "Now's ok." So he brought it back smiling and buzzed away again.

I went inside and looked over it, there was no tax number, but there was a stamp canceling the multiple entry visa that came with my work permit! That's so gay! Like I care, like I'm dying to come back to this dump for NO reason. In fact, we get a 30 day tourist visa every time we go to the airport, so I can come back any time I want. Also, we can easily get a 2 month extendable visa from any American embassy in the world!

That's just what they're like, though. They really think they are these awesome players and they're just stupid fools. You should see the economy collapsing here, businesses closing all over the place. All the money's moving to China.

You can also see their total lack of originality (they really beat it out of kids when they're little, "just say what I say, don't suggest anything!") In a panic to do any kind of business, people keep opening the same standard businesses on already over crowded streets. Right now everyone is opening tea shops and kid's clinics. There are already tons of them open, like 5 on one tiny little street, and the same all over town, and people are still opening more. It's like they can't think of anything different to do. That's why they're so attracted to things like that visa stamp silliness, for a few hours they feel like they know what's going to happen. They're worse than heroin addicts that way, they can't resist!