Taipei’s Lin Family Mansion and Garden is an off-the-beaten track type of tourist destination, ideal for getting away from tour groups and the profound heat of summer in tropical Asia. This lush and quiet park was constructed as the personal dwelling of the Lin Ben Yuan family, one of Taipei’s most wealthy and prominent families. […]
Author: Faine Greenwood
Taiwan: The National Palace Museum Taipei and Some Cabbage
On Thursday we went to the National Palace Museum, which I’ve been hearing about from my Asia-dwelling family members for approximately forever. Located a bit outside of the center of the city in the green and hilly environs of Shilin, it’s one of the biggest collections of Chinese art in the world, with a whopping […]
Taiwan: Longshan Temple and Shaved Ice
On Tuesday, I went to the Mengjia Longshan Temple, one of Taipei’s largest and most long-standing places of worship. It’s been around since 1738, albeit in different incarnations, and was last extensively rebuilt in World War II following bombardment by Americans. On a Tuesday morning, the place is choked with worshipers lighting incense and candles […]
Today I Went to Taiwan
On Monday, I arrived in Taipei. I have gone through the airport in Taiwan many times on the way to Phnom Penh, because it’s a convenient Eva air hub and a nice place to get noodles and beer as you await onward transit. But I had always wanted to properly visit Taiwan, bolstered as I […]
Hobby Lobby: No, Preventing Cheap Access to Contraceptives Won’t Save You Money
Amidst the explosion of justifiable online rage over the Supreme Court Hobby Lobby ruling, it’s worth remembering one thing: subsidizing birth control saves taxpayers money. Many supporters of the Supreme Court ruling noisily claim that they’re opposed to insurance-covered contraception because it will cost them money. “But I don’t want to paaaayyy for it!” they […]
Monterey Bay Aquarium: Tentacles and Photos of Tentacles
Between the last post and this one, I’ve graduated with my Masters, finished a thesis about drones (surprise!), and have traveled to the East Coast to see family. This made me embarrassingly remiss about blogging. Here’s some recent photos from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Myself, my cousin Laura, and my friend Curran all made […]
Bottega – Yountville, California
Bottega Napa Valley 6525 Washington St, Yountville, CA 94599 My family takes a bi-monthly or so road trip from Sacramento to Napa to go to restaurants and buy wine, which really translates into “spending a day pleasantly making fabulously wealthy people even more fabulously wealthy, sort of a wealthy-people vicious cycle of overeating.” If you […]
Irresponsible Photoshopper: Snowden Doge
I’ve considered putting “purveyor of fine obnoxious Photoshop” on my business card. I wonder how that would go over. I have long felt a profound, sympathetic connection between Doge and Snowden. I may be delusional.
Hate Crimes, Misogyny, and UCSB: Some Early Thoughts
I woke up yesterday morning to the news that a privileged 22-year-old Santa Barbara kid from a movie-making family who drove a black BMW had brutally murdered seven people, and had injured seven others. The headline at that early hour made it sound like a pedestrian, by US standards, sort of mass shooting. But as […]
MakerFaire Day Two: Game of Drones, Flaming Octopi
I spent most of this day at MakerFaire hanging out at the Game of Drones encampment, but got the chance to wander around the main show area again. I left early in the morning, arriving from my place in Palo Alto around 8:15 AM, and quickly learned one useful MakerFaire trick: the Franklin Templeton Investments […]