painting

I’m doing a whole slew of painting, drinking black label whiskey, listening to hard rock music, and getting sweaty with a brush in my mouth and one behind my ear. Damn I’m cool. You can see my progress on my blog. http://derekmurphyart.blogspot.com/

Apartment hunting

Now that I’ve got two empty rooms in my 4 bedroom house, I’m thinking of moving again. It sucks to pay all the extra, and even though it would be a pain to move, I don’t really like my apartment that much anyway. The FengShui is terrible and the ceilings in my room are too low. Plus its just too huge to clean and I’ve accumulated a lot of crap...moving is easier than dusting. The best find today was an old Taiwanese house for 4,500nt (about $150 usd). The 2nd floor apartment is ugly, but the third floor was pretty neat. Strange, but with a couple big rooms, lots of light, and a bizzare little bungalow with a ladder, like a barn loft. It would be too scary to sleep there but I need a lot of storage. As I may be out of Taiwan for months at a time next year (Japan, Korea, Mexico, Peru....) a nice cheap place would be great. The drawback is that whoever lives on the top floor has to cut straight through the 2nd floor apartment, which is kind of wierd for whoever’s living there, and there’s no door to separate the top floor which means its wide open for somebody else to come snooping.

However, its fun to look. For about 7,000 ($200usd) I could get a big place with a couple bedrooms, maybe rent one out. For 10,000 ($300usd), I could get a massive-pimped-out-shiny-new-kickass place. I could rent one of the extra bedrooms and I’d be paying as much as I would in the small one. So.... that’s what I’m leaning towards. It’s still better than what I’ve got now, which is over $500usd (17000nt)...sure it’s a deal when I’ve got all the rooms rented out, but I end up eating the extra bills or rent when someone moves out.

200 ghosts

Funky's mom has a hurt knee. The doctors couldn’t do anything so she went to a spiritualist. He told her that she’s being haunted by 200 ghosts of her deceased family members. Apparently, she somehow found the grave of one of them and moved them to a better grave. Now, all the rest of them have come to her house, too. The ’doctor’ says she needs to go find and dig up the 200 bodies and move them all - but a shared burial plot is OK, just as long as they’re recognized. What a pain in the ass! Apparently, however, ghosts won’t follow you if you have to a foreign country. You’re "off the radar". Sweet!! So I’m ghost free I guess.

Terrible Hit and Run Video

This is the world's worst hit and run video....shocking and disturbing; not only because the woman flies through the air, but more importantly, because she is ignored and left for dead by others who witness the accident.