In Taiwan, Everything is Easy

The Dangers Of Talking Without a Filter Via Social Media What could possibly go wrong with an idea to come home every night and tell one unfiltered story of what happened that day, on Youtube? :) I know I am walking into dangerous territory when I start talking without a filter, especially given the current climate. People have perfected their ability to be offended. However, I also realize that if I don't look deep enough inside, and let some dark and unfiltered stuff out of the gut and the heart, it will just be another generic dude telling stories for the sake of popularity, which misses the point. The Birth of The Story of The Day Last week, I just had a gut feeling that it would be a good thing for me to take a few minutes every night and tell one story from something that happened that day. I decided to go with it even though I don't have the first clue about setting a room for proper lighting, nor do I know anything about sound editing. Finding A Movement After the third...

After recently spending twenty consecutive nights on different dirty Korean hostel floors followed up by nine nights of utter debauchery in Phuket, Thailand, a guy in a suit and tie was happy to greet me at the information counter of the Bangkok Airport. He proudly showed off a packet full of laminated advertisements for the different five star hotels he had available for me.  He had a better chance of selling pork to a devout Muslim than he did of getting me into a five star hotel. My grungy backpack and my 29 day beard should have been key indicators to set his standards lower.    I tried to cue him in on what I actually wanted.  "Yeah man, what's the cheapest thing you got ?" "With this one sir, you get...." "Dude. I just want something reasonable."   "How about this one sir? $1500 Baht/50 US Dollars." "Yeah, let's do it." Shortly after forking over my cash, I was led to a hotel van by the driver with two other customers I as...

  After one night in a legit hotel room in UB, I decided to go cheaper for my next night in Mongolia. We’re talking seriously , dirt fucking cheap. It was going to cost $7 for a night in a bed, and   that included a home-cooked breakfast in the morning.   As I got into the guest house, there is always a bit of shame for me whenever I do the bunk bed thing, I took an incredible amount of ridicule the previous year by the family about staying in dorm beds. To be honest,   it is just fucking embarrassing at this point.   I tend to make up stories in hostels like, “Yeah, I am divorced, and never got a chance to travel, so now I’m making a journey through Asia.” It’s not that hard to bullshit your way through that conversation. Because what happens next is the kid will almost always say, “Oh cool. Did you start out in Thailand?” “Yeah, of course.” “Did you hit Pataya?” “Yeah, that place was awesome.” “Where else have you been?” “Nepal was a good one...

America  has developed a distinct ability to create a holiday for just about everything.  From Hug Your Cat Day to Christmas, Americans are always finding innovative ways for an excuse to celebrate.  Did  you know that on April 9th of ever year Americans have gone as far as to initiate a little-known holiday called # NationalNameYourselfDa y?    The fiesta works like this. You can choose any name you want to be called and roll with it for a period of twenty-four hours. Why let actors have all the fun of occasionally living and playing as a different character, right? Of course, some people take it too far. In 2017, a lawyer named Andrew Felt, changed his name to Richard Felt for this special event. Imagine calling his office if you were in need of an attorney, "Hello, this is Dick Felt, Attorney at  Law." Are you surprised about Mr. Felt? He should have went all in on the gag, and changed the sign to servicing N...

"Look at my face. Not even the hairs on my   beard grow close together. Some lonely shit   here in Yunlin County, Taiwan” Steve clasped Charles ‘ shoulder ”It’s all good bruah. In a week from now, we   will both be gassing up on Babes and Blow   in   LAS VEGAS! ” Charles chuckled, while making eye contact with  everyone at the table.  He raised his dixie-cup full of  whiskey and a strange concoction of black dots floating to the top of his cup.  He switched  to Mandarin so everyone could  understand.  “Steve and I have had a lot of fun Saturday nights   here with you guys. But, this is gonna be our last one together. Thank you so much for all the good times.” The two local farmers at the table clenched   their hands together while their cheeks   burned with apple-red pride. “Ok-La. Don’t forget." " Always drink more   whiskey, because it ma...