by Jonny | Sep 5, 2012 | Opinion
Let’s just say that life is being a pain in the butt for me right now.
I have probably the most controversial decision that I have ever made in my life. Whatever decision I make now will have an impact on my life later on in the future.
I really want to obtain a degree in computer science or even at least to have some sort of degree. At this point, anything will do. – An English teaching degree would probably be ideal seeing as it’s likely the best job a foreigner could obtain in a foreign country. This is because my girlfriend is Korean and I’m thinking that perhaps one day I’ll be able to live in Korea with her and I could possibly teach English.
I haven’t even completed university and she has. Although she is 26, and I’m 20, I feel that perhaps we are destined that we will break apart as long distance relationships aren’t that easy. It’s worked up until this point. We’ve been together for over 10 months with 3 of those months actually together in Taiwan. The rest of those months, well, for the most part we have been talking over Skype and KaKaoTalk. We have had fights, wonderful talks and just a general feeling of not being alone. — Sort of, having someone to speak to and someone waiting for you. – That genuinely feels good.
The problem
My options
- I could go back to London and complete a degree in something, preferably something to do with computers. – Although, if that isn’t possible or not worth the hassle, then I don’t mind doing other things. – Like a teaching degree. I like that feeling of being able to go to different countries to teach English and if I have a degree related in that field of study, then I have a higher chance of getting some sort of job in Asia, preferably Korea. That would take 4 years. I would spend 1 year taking a foundation degree course then spend the last 3 years doing the actual degree. By then… well, my girlfriend has already said that she wants to get married to someone by at least 30.
- I have an obligatory military service tenure coming up next year in April. I have no choice but to do this military service. I do however have the option of deferring the draft, however I need to be a university student. That is my dilemma. The military service will be for a 1 year period. I’m thinking of getting this over and done with then after I can go back to England to apply for a degree or something. — I could also save up money from the military service ($6000NT per month/£120 per month/$200USD per month), then use that money for a ticket to the UK. Literally, the ticket would cost the same amount I could actually save, if I did one year of military service in Taiwan. It’s quite absurd.
Those are my two options.
At the moment, I’m leaning moreover to option 2. When I first heard when I had to do military service, my initial reaction was pretty much of option 1. Now I have realised the better option.
Just get my military training over and done with then I’m free to do what the fuck I want in Taiwan and I won’t have any travel restrictions to Taiwan. Unless, I intentionally want to be pulled into military training.
But first, before I do the military training, I want to go to Korea to see my girlfriend.
by Jonny | Sep 2, 2012 | Updates
Explanation:
They look kind of like pandas, but they are not! They are in fact dogs, and the owners placed them there, on a busy high-street to collect money for them. It says to spread the word on Facebook (FB) etc to raise awareness.
Where Burger King in Feng-Chia, Taichung used to be located
Oh, and this is where Burger King used to be located; however it seems they either weren’t profitable enough or they are just renovating the place. Who knows? Either way, Burger King seems to no longer be here anymore. Instead we have cute fluffy dogs sitting in-front of the old restaurant’s position.
by Jonny | Jun 20, 2012 | Updates
Taichung City Government has issued a typhoon warning, and they have said the following:
“It is hereby announced that offices and classes are closed on June 20, 2012 due to the latest tropical storm.”
Essentially, this means that I have no work today as my office is closed.
I’m not complaining, but I’ve been outside and there doesn’t appear to be a typhoon of any kind. Last night however there was a typhoon, as it was raining quite heavily, though I’m no typhoon or weather expert, so perhaps there will be typhoon later in the day that I am supposed to avoid.
Good news, after yesterday.
Update:
Around 4 hours ago it started raining quite heavily, and it is still raining right now. When I mean heavy rain, I mean the heaviest rain I have seen so far in Taiwan.
by Jonny | Jun 19, 2012 | Updates
It seems life has slowed down and I’m now experiencing life at a pace which I’m not enjoying. I guess, my life is somewhat robotic in the sense that I do the same thing everyday. At least, when I was in the ‘building websites’ business, at least, I was doing something different. Instead I’m at a job which I’m not enjoying, and I can’t make heads or tails of whether or not I’m going crazy.
The first issue that I’ve encountered is a communication problem, I can figure what I have to do, but everyone obviously speaks Mandarin and my Mandarin is not exactly that good. I can understand some of it, but when it comes to absorbing it as anything useful; that’s where I fail. Essentially, I can understand the basics and that’s about it. I can understand what they want me to do, but when it comes to the question of “How?” they can’t answer me in good enough English.
I had no problems before they moved me to another department. I went from working for my job’s General Motors department to working for the BMW department. I thought, great, it’s a change from the same stuff I’ve been doing everyday for 2 months. Instead, it is the same in someways while also being totally different in other ways. It is unnecessarily complex. Why do I say that? Well, General Motors created a machine to make the task of coding other system’s machines to work with it. With BMW you need a separate computer to connect to the hardware, however the display is all on this other computer; which makes things ten times complex, it need not be this way. Plus, on top of learning how to run a new system, my bosses want me to type in Chinese words that I can’t even read. I can read some of it, but all I have is the English translation, but that isn’t good enough seeing as Google translate is just not accurate enough when it comes to translation. (It could be perfected, but I understand why it would be hard to translate 1,000’s of Chinese characters.
Whatever the case, I’ll be really starting in the BMW department tomorrow. I hope all goes well.
by Jonny | May 19, 2012 | Updates
I haven’t posted in a while as I’ve been working and literally have no energy to come up with anything to write on this blog anymore.
My daily experiences are almost robotic. I look at code all day long and have to check for errors, verify them and create new code. This week I looked at 3,000 lines of code and to be honest, I was tired all of that week. The week before, I looked at around 6,000 lines of code. I was a little more energetic then. But I have kind of slowed down a little as I’ve become a little tired.
The worst thing is making typos and purely errors without noticing it before submitting any file I’ve modified or created for review. The mistakes really get to you as they are the most obvious mistakes in the world. However, when you are constantly creating new files, it is easy to get distracted and your eyes start becoming lazy. – You will then not notice the smallest of mistakes which may or may not occur.
Coffee is a good remedy for this, and know I why everyone drinks it. To stay focused.
I’m not a very focused person as it is; having ADD definitely doesn’t help, especially when not on any medication.
I’m not a complainer, and I think things will be alright. What else is there to hope for?