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Jeremy Lin – Chinese or Taiwanese?

Apart from basketball of course, this whole Linsanity thing has also awakened people who were previously unaware, as to the issue of Taiwan vs China. Personally, I would say it’s fine to refer to him as “Chinese”, because when you say that, you generally refer to him as being of “Chinese race”, not specifically of mainland Chinese heritage. So really, either term is fine.

However, I think this reader comment sums exactly my sentiment regarding Taiwan vs China (from this Time article)

“He (Lin) can be both. Most people from Taiwan are ethnically Chinese. This is not to mention the fact that Taiwan is the Republic of China, giving them just as much right to be called Chinese. In fact, since the culture of China was destroyed in the mainland, the only people who should be called Chinese, in both culture and beliefs, are actually those in the free world, not China. People in China should be called “Communist Chinese,” not Chinese.”

the car-shopping thread

Yay! I’ve got permission to trade-in my land-barge for a new car. Aiming for about $50K purchase price. Requirements – wagon/hatch, auto and “sporty”. Here’s my short-list that I’m currently pondering..

1. Subaru Forester S-Edition

2. Subaru WRX Hatch

3. Passat R36 (Used)

4. Volvo V50 T5 R-design (Recently discountinued. Only available used or demo)

5. Volvo V60 T5 or T6

And here’s a few “outside-the-square” options I’ve considered…

1. Citroen DS5 (Coming out in June)

2. Mercedes C250 CGI Estate (Not sporty, but it’s the only Merc I can afford)

3. Falcon XR6 Turbo/Commodore SS V8 Sportwagon (Yes, it’s bogan. But the amount of KW you get for the $$ is ridiculous)

Any other suggestions similar to the above? At the moment, I’m pretty keen on the Forester. Being an “SUV”, the wife won’t realise it’s actually a WRX under the bonnet. I’m not sure I could get away with blatantly buying a WRX. The massive bonnet air-scoop, and the letters “WRX” plastered all-over the car might give it away…

YPR #66.1 – the ride that actually wasn’t

It was a beautiful morning for a ride. HP texted me at 6am to say he wanted to sleep in. So I texted Geek and HY to say I was going to sleep-in too. Apparently Geek had no idea what was happening, so he texted everyone else. In summary, nobody went for a ride.

Building our backyard RC track

Update 16/12/11:

Just picked up my 1/16 truck, and had a test-drive around the track. This is a much better size vehicle for this track. Even so, the track runs better if it widened slightly more, especially around the corners. Track width is now about 2ft on the straights, and 3ft on the bends. The new grass in coming in nicely. About 70% of the track border has been planted with new grass now. Truck veered off-course a few times, and the long grass did either slow it down or bogged it down completely.

Since there’s been a flurry of posts in the past week, I thought I might add another.

One of the great things about having kids, is that it gives you a reason to buy toys “for them”. I’ve been getting into RC stuff lately – helos, trucks, buggies. Helos was fun for a while, but for me, I reckon land vehicles is where the fun is to be had. I just need a track though, to give some purpose to the driving, instead of driving aimlessly in circles. My backyard is pretty small though, so really, racing is only gonna work for small vehicles. Probably something like a 1/36 Losi Micro-T.

I’ve decided to start “building” my own backyard RC track. It’s not a “real” track, so nothing to get excited about. All it is, is mowing the track razor-flat, and just letting the rest of the backyard grass go nuts. A grass track is probably good anyway, as it’ll hold the soil together and prevent soil erosion. I’ve mowed the basic track layout. It looks pretty lame at the moment, so no pics yet.

To do list:

- test drive the track and work out minor track adjustments such as optimizing corners and getting the right track width.

- dig up weedy lawn, and replace with nice thick kikuyu grass. It’s strong and thick grass, so it’ll definitely slow down the cars if they veer off the track.

- currently track is an “ovalized” shape, but aim to change to figure-8 eventually.

- when final figure-8 track is confirmed, build either a bridge or dirt jump at the track intersection.

- maybe add track walls or crash barriers. Something like the plastic lawn edging you can buy at Bunnings.

Try out-running this police car…

Is this the world’s scariest police car?

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