My pinyin skills are awful.
So I tried calling my grandma's house in Taiwan early this morning using a phone card and discovered that the South San Jose access number was busy. And the Cupertino one too. And the Saratoga, Campbell, Fremont, Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward, and 1-888 numbers as well. It's like the entire freakin' Bay Area tried to call Taiwan at the same time.
Anyhow, a few minutes ago, I tried again and got through. My uncle is visiting so I was able to chat with both of them. They seem to be doing well themselves. Though the world feels like it's getting a bit suckier.
I remember as a kid going to Taiwan during the Lunar New Year celebrations that there were a lot of cool firework shows. They're cutting back on them because "you can't tell the difference between a firecracker and a gunshot."
Well crap. It's been how long since guns were invented and firecrackers were used for the celebrations? And I thought it was only the US being overly paranoid after the 9/11 stuff.
Okay, sure, it's seems like reasonable precaution in public areas. In fact, in 4th grade, I went to Taiwan to visit and one night a police officer died in a street gunfight against a robber literally right around the corner from my grandma's house. Quite frightening. Quite depressing to die during a celebration week.
But if you're putting on a show in a controlled area like a stadium, it's more likely that the sound of a firecracker really is a firecracker. Afterall, you can screen people if you're paranoid. And the density of people usually makes it hard to get away with something evil anyways.
Posted by hachu at February 8, 2005 10:40 PM