Dolphin Anyone?

Recently I was very surprised to learn from a neighbor, and verify from other acquaintances, that dolphin meat can be bought and eaten near the post office at our market here in town. We're not talking about dolphin fish, dorado, or mahi-mahi. We're talking about good old Flipper. Porpoise!

Apparently enough of these mammalians get into the ocean fish farms and into the fisherman's nets to make for a good side business. The fish farmers see them as nuisances and pests. 

Since I tried dog in western Hunan province in mainland China some years ago, I'm  tempted to try dolphin as well. Come to Taiwan for a visit... Maybe we could take a trip to the market as a team-building activity!

Inspirational Basketball Story

My Uncle Bill sent me this a while back but somehow I lost track of it in my inbox. A truly inspirational feel-good story!

Back when my knees could handle it, I used to love to play this game. In high school, my brother and I were regular gym rats at the post gym where we lived in Germany. My senior year when I finally made varsity, I was very briefly on our starting five but quickly slipped back into oblivion... never had a moment of glory like this amazing kid who overcame all the odds!

Suzuki Swift Mileage Up!

Just now I was happy to calculate that, even though I've been driving basically the same routes back and forth every week in mostly highway driving, my last two measurements on the Swift have resulted in considerably higher miles per gallon. As compared to the very disappointing 10.64 km/liter (25.03 mpg) for the first two tanks of gas, I came up with 12.97 (30.51 mpg) and 13.88 km/l   (32.64 mpg) respectively for the next two calculations. That last figure is down from $2.88NT/km to $2.16 NT per kilometer. That's a big deal since gas prices are finally being hiked now, having been artificially kept down before the presidential election.

I also got the broken wiper mechanism repaired when I went for the first 1,000 km oil change maintenance, so this week I'm a much happier camper!

April 5 Update: Mileage now up to 33.71 mpg (14.33 km/l).