The Sky is Falling

Back in Taipei.

The City of Taipei is divided into districts, and each district has a separate district office that manages the full range of city services. Over the past decade, there has been a real push to improve customer service and make the visit as pleasant as possible. When I walked into the district office yesterday to get my new I.D. card, I was greeted by a volunteer who directed me to go to the 4th floor to the Household Registration Office. I was greeted by another volunteer on the 4th floor who helped me get a number and told me to make myself comfortable on the overstuffed leather couches in the waiting area until my number was called, and I can help myself to some fresh-brewed tea in little ceramic cups, peruse the assortment of newspapers on the rack, use the free internet terminal, browse through the rummage sale in one of the conference rooms, or just enjoy the classical string quartet at the far end of the room that is getting ready to belt out some lovely tunes from dead German composers. Now that's what I call customer service!

I had the opportunity to hang out with my Aunt and Uncle (my Mom's older sister and younger brother) yesterday, we met up for lunch and then had dinner. My Uncle has some "interesting" views of the future that he wanted to share with us, information he culled from a Brazilian guy in his 40's who has predicted, among other things, that the Earth's average temperature will rise to triple digits in 7 years. The heat wave will start out in Africa, killing all of the people on that continent before moving onto other parts of the world. Here's what else the future holds:
--Later this year, Japan will suffer from a massive earthquake, setting off a tsunami with 30 foot tall waves.
--In two years, the US will suffer from a devastating man-made disaster.
There were a number of other things too about the US stock market crashing, and other disasters, but I cannot remember them all. My Uncle also claims that he single-handedly kept 5 typhoons from hitting Taiwan too hard last year through the power of his prayers.

So what does all of this mean? Who knows. All I know is that everything is going downhill from here and we have 7 more years before mankind is wiped out from planet Earth, so you'd better start putting down the deposit for that condo on Mars.