Another Chinese New Year has come and gone ... it's now the Year of the Dog. I'm not much into Chinese astrology, so I have no idea if it's supposed to be an auspicious year or not ... I just know that it's been cold, rainy, and the locals have been shooting off firecrackers for the past twenty-four hours non-stop. Chinese New Year is always really boring for me ... everything shuts down and everyone goes to spend a week with their families. Being that I have no family in Taiwan, it's always just me and my cats. My first Taiwanese boyfriend, however, took me to his grandparents' house in Taichung (in central Taiwan) for my first Chinese New Year here, and that was pretty good ... lots of food and everyone was friendly ... but I've never really been into "family time," so I prefer being by myself.

I still need to get cracking on the conclusion for my thesis. It only needs to be about five pages long, and I could probably crank it out in about two days if I put my mind to it, but I've been lazy (as usual) and have spent the last couple weeks sleeping, watching tv, reading stories online, and sleeping some more. Speaking of stories, however, I read a couple really good ones by Vance Lister. They could use a bit of editing and cleaning up, but the stories are really good, and very very moving:

http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/shane

http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/tyler

That's about all I can think of to write for now ... I wish my life was a bit more exciting than it is so I'd actually have something interesting to write about. I certainly had an eventful life in high school and college ... I guess my life peaked too soon ... hehe

l8r