Okay ... so now you're probably asking, "Who in the hell is Ma Ying-jeou?" Well, he is the current mayor of Taipei city, the chairman of the Nationalist Party (KMT), and is expected by most people to win the presidency in Taiwan in 2008. He's a very charismatic and down-to-earth guy, and you just can't help but like him. He's also Harvard-educated (Ph.D. in law), was a professor for a number of years before going into politics. He was the justice minister during the latter years of the KMT's hold on power, but was fired for doing too good a job at going after corrupt officials. Anyway, I have a lot of respect for him, and if anyone can fix the many social and political problems Taiwan is facing, he's the one.

So, anyway, he gave a speech this morning at the National Central Library, where my office is, and I got to shake his hand and say a few words with him as he was leaving. It was quite an experience ... you can just "feel" that he has that quality. The only other person I've experienced that "feeling" with is when I met Elton John back in 1999.

OK, story stuff ... I haven't gotten the final edit of Ch. 17 back from Kitty yet, but she's been busy and is taking care of her father back in Texas, so if for some reason it's a few days late, please be patient and don't send any hate mail or anything. It should be up by the end of the weekend or early next week ... although it could also be up by Saturday ... it all depends. Ch. 19 is finished and has been sent to Kitty, and I've started working on a couple new projects. I've posted a "sneak peak" of a story I started working on in the forum, so you can go check it out and leave comments. At first, it was supposed to be a short story, but now I'm thinking of making it into a "writer's block serial" (kind of like what Dom's 'Desert Dropping' was originally supposed to be). Anyway, we'll see.

I've got lots of writing to do, and lots planned. Besides finishing SOOTB, I have to get to work on my entry for the Summer Anthology. I've scrapped my original idea for that and am going to try something different. I'm also working on another short story, which is my first attempt at writing something in the third person. It's not something I'm sure everyone will like, so it may never see the light of day, but we'll see ...

BTW, I got the health certificates for all three cats from my vet, and they're all taken care of with their rabies shots, microchips, and check-ups. I also shipped another box off this week, and will get the last (I hope) box packed up this weekend. I also need to make a dentist's appointment, since I have excellent health care here, and won't when I first get back to the States. So, lots of these little things to remember to do and get taken care of in the last month that I'm here.

Anyway, that's about it for today.