9/01/10 Mindfuck: Orrin

Nothing could have prepared me for my encounter with Orrin even though Space and Iris had spoken at length about him. He's strange man from Oregon with a caustic personality and a nasty temper.  Orrin’s difficulties as an English teacher had apparently peaked when he beat up one of his students a while back.  Not surprisingly, he was running out of teaching opportunities.

Space and Iris place foreign residents in one of two categories: those who want to be here; and those who are here because they have nowhere left to go.  Orrin fell squarely within the latter group.

To look at him you wouldn’t know he’s a shit disturber.  A slight fellow, you could easily picture him as the leader of a spock of nerds.  Bright white running shoes, dark pants pulled high above his waist, tropical print shirt tucked sharply into his pants.  The problem is that he’s confrontational and prone to drinking heavily: a volatile combination.  Space and Iris go to great lengths to avoid him since he’s not worth the trouble that seems to follow him.

We ran into him while getting together for drinks with Rob, who Space describes as the last true hippie on the planet.  Rob had long grey hair, half baked eyes and a habit of finishing sentences with “man”.  If you close your eyes and listen, he kind of sounds like Tommy Chong.  It was Rob who noticed Orrin across the bar and the scratches on his face.  Rob asked him to take off his cap and glasses to get a closer look, and when he did it was clear that someone and a group of that someone’s friends had laid a serious beating on him.  He was stitched, bruised and puffy.

“You lead one strange life man” said Rob in the calmest of voices.

The strange thing about Orrin is that this is not the first time this has happened to him in Hualien; he regularly gets into fights and always gets beaten up.  He recently had to stay overnight in hospital for observation and lamented that he had no friends when nobody showed up to visit.

About Orrin, many have wondered: at what point does someone realize that they’re the problem and not simply victim of unfortunate circumstances.  For a guy who’s in Hualien because there’s nowhere else left to go, the answer might be never.

Orrin was getting worked up, so Space decided that it was time to go.  We were two extremely tall gin and tonics into things and needed to get home before they kicked in.  It had started to rain again so we put on our “shower curtains” and hit the road.  The fast way home down the coast road.  It’s surprising how fast you can get a 50 CC scooter to go…just employ the full tuck technique.

*****

Update

Orrin was less than genuine about the reason he took such a beating.  The truth has bubbled its was to the surface and its shocking; he punched a woman in the face.  Whatever twisted reason he had isn’t important (he tried to justify it), the fact remains that he punched a woman in the face.  Without a doubt, this guy takes the term asshole to a new level.

9/01/10 Boxing 911

On my way through a pedestrian walkway I saw three kids playing a videogame that I’ve seen in Canada.  A speed bag drops down and you have to hit it as hard as you can with one punch.  The game measures your power on a scale of 1-1000.  The kids laughed as I watched them; they were conscious of the fact that I was a foreigner and they tried to hide the fact that they were talking about me.  Unfortunately, they were not skilled in the art of subtlety and I happen to be a master of the obvious.  It didn’t help that they were pointing at me while they spoke.

They were overjoyed when I indicated that I would give it a try.  Two scores in the 700s didn’t do much for my ego.  In fact the kids used the universal hand sign for “so-so” to describe my performance.  One final punch returned a score of 911…the crowd went wild.  They asked where I was from and were blown away when I said Canada.  They couldn’t believe that someone had come from so far away.

I had a smile on my face.  The overwhelming dampness had sustained some damage.

9/01/10 Clearing my Head

This trip was intended to spend some time with a good friend in a different part of the world, but also to just get away and clear my head.  Leave behind the demons that make my mind race.  I’m about as liberal as they come, but the stark cultural differences would also cause me to be more open and accepting of those around me; allow me to let things go and immerse myself in the experience, whatever it was.  Equally important was the opportunity to say “I don’t give a shit” and actually mean it.  The “Philosophy of Yes” was helping, but it can only go so far.  As much as solitude can give you the chance to think without distraction, if you tend to dwell on the negative and revel in regret, solitude can be your worst enemy.

Clearing one’s head may be an unattainable goal, but as with other things in life it’s all about the journey.

9/01/10 Things That Hang in the Air

My daily walks have offered me the opportunity to be a keen observer.  By nature, my mind is constantly racing.  It's a trait that I have attempted to suppress, but I’ve never succeeded.  How glorious it would be to have a blank mind when you need it; true clarity when it is called for.  Instead, I get a car crash of thoughts; a train wreck of ideas; a cluster fuck of sleepless nights.  Jesus!  It’s a goddamn miracle that I’m not into drugs!

Where was I?  Oh, I remember.  Three words kept repeating in my head… an overwhelming dampness…and overwhelming dampness…an overwhelming dampness.  The humidity just hangs.  It’s caught between the ocean and the mountains, and you can’t escape it.  It can get uncomfortable, but most of all it’s the fact that the overwhelming dampness has you in its grip, there's no escape.  The shade of a tree won’t help, a breeze is practically useless.  Depressing.  Depressing because there doesn’t seem to be any options.

An overwhelming dampness.

I had begun to explore more side streets and alleys.  Unlike the main streets which were occupied almost exclusively by businesses, the side streets are largely residential.  In each home that I passed a similar scene played out:  Very dim lighting, television on, person sitting quietly in the corner.  Even when many people were sitting in the same room it was rare to hear anyone talking to each other.  Loneliness among those most familiar to you.  Depressing.  Hualien is not a poor city by global standards, but the air of poverty hangs over it.

An overwhelming dampness.

Some of the smaller storefronts project a similar image of despair.  An empty storefront with no discernable purpose.  Desk in the back corner, television on, dim lighting and a proprietor waiting for patrons to come.  It’s hard to imagine that commerce of any kind can take place in the face of this profound loneliness.

The most satisfying subject of my photography is human suffering.  The challenge of capturing human emotion is formidable, and when successful, a photographer feels a real sense of accomplishment.  The side streets of Hualien seemed to provide ample material, but I’m smart enough to know that mine is just the perspective of a spoiled outsider, one who has had it comparatively easy.  This overwhelming dampness is a metaphor for the state of affairs off the busy streets and in the heart of Hualien’s neighbourhoods.  I can’t imagine that life is as hard here as I perceive it to be.  I just wish that someone would give me a sign that I’m wrong.

9/01/10 Walking Induced Hunger Pains

I had been walking for about two hours exploring new parts of the city and venturing down side streets with no destination in mind.  The hunger pains started and eventually I couldn’t ignore them anymore; I’ll use any available excuse to justify eating, I blame it on the fat guy that lurks deep within.  I stopped at one of the buffet places that dot the city to sample a small portion of a couple of things.  Here’s the rundown:

Pork Belly – Really fatty and really delicious, but would have been much better with crispy skin.

Chinese Sausage – Same as last time.  Still sweet, still needs salt.  It will take a couple of centuries of development for this to dethrone anything from Europe.

Sliced Pig Heart – I was going to eat it without sauce, but the cashier’s automatic reaction was to put it on.  I guess they go together.  Nothing special here, Remove the image of a heart from your mind and it’s just another piece of meat.

Oh, and I finally remembered to get the napkins before I sat down.

9/01/10 Fairweather Rider in a Rainsuit

I absolutely hate riding a motorcycle in the rain.  As a motorcyclist in Canada, when it’s raining you probably have the TTC option, as in Taking The Car.  If you don’t, it's a virtual certainty that you’re an idiot who can’t prioritize his modes of transportation.

In Taiwan, traffic congestion can make taking the car a PITA (Pain In The Ass), so sometimes you need to suck it up and don your body condom (aka rainsuit) and grin and bear it.  Thankfully for me, I averted the downpour and only had to endure a drizzle.

9/01/10 Cabin Fever Breeds Stupidity

Even hours after the hard rain had started, it was essentially unrelenting.  There were 10 minute breaks every now and then, but nothing substantial.  My idle mind turned to Space’s bug zapping racquet.  It’s shaped like a small tennis racquet, but is strung with horizontal metal rods through which an electric current runs to kills bugs that you smack in mid-flight…"serving up death" seems like an appropriate description of the motion.

The red light means "Danger"

Exactly how much current do you need to kill a bug?  Space knew what I was thinking, but out of concern for me, he avoided asking the question in a yes/no question because with the “Philosophy of Yes” in full effect he knew what my answer had to be and he didn’t want to feel responsible.

So, how much current does it take to kill a bug?  I have no fucking idea, but however much it is, it hurts like a ‘sumbitch!  I’m surprised I didn’t end up with grill marks on my finger.  My reaction was the stuff of YouTube.  Too bad we didn’t think to record it.

I asked Space if he wanted to try.  His response: “I always wondered what it would feel like, but I was never stupid enough to try.  Now that you’ve done it, I don’t feel that curious anymore.”

The “Philosophy of Yes”; even when someone gets hurt, we all win!