Haircut and Jumper

I got a haircut today. But didn't I just get one a little while ago? Since I'm going to Taiwan for 8 days and will be staying in cheap hostels with shared bathrooms, I decided to get a low-maintenance do that I won't have to spend time on. I went to my hairdresser and said, "I might not be able to take a shower for the next week, so give me something that's easy to style."

This is what I got. I don't like it. He tried to keep it stylish which I appreciate, but now I've got widower's peaks. He cut that part extra short to emphasize the semi-mohican look and it looks like I've got a receding hairline. At least hair grows back.Oh yeah, so I'm going to Taiwan for a week. When I found out that my workplace is closed for spring vacation, I daydreamt about going to Italy or Egypt, but I was just too busy to plan anything and then all of a sudden the vacation was upon me. I didn't want to just sit around my apartment the whole time so I looked up some places to go.

Taiwan and Hong Kong were the best options - cheap and close, and signs are in English so travelling by myself with little planning would be okay. The bookstore didn't have any English travel guides for Hong Kong, so I got the Taiwan book and reserved a ticket. The travel agent told me to just show up at the airport counter and they'll print me a boarding pass. I'm a little wary of this ticketless system.

It's been a while since I've travelled alone. I booked a single room at a hostel in Taipei for my first two nights, and if I feel comfortable I'll try for dorm beds when I head south. I've got my heart set on some mountain temples in remote villages, but that depends on if I can get train tickets heading out of Taipei. I'll be there during a long weekend and everyone might be travelling.

To get back to the title of this post. After my haircut I went to see Jumper. You might be wondering why I've been seeing so many movies lately when they cost $18 a pop. My credit card is connected to the movie theater, so the more I use the credit card, the more free movie tickets they send me (I pay all my bills and buy all my groceries using this card). For the past five years I've been collecting these tickets, and they all expire this coming August. Thus, the sudden movie spree.

The effects were good but I didn't like the main character's personality. He was a bit too selfish and egotistical for my tastes. I wonder if that's how he's portrayed in the book, which I'll have to read simply because it's written by Stephen Gould. What a fantastic author. My first touch with Stephen Gould was through required reading at university, probably because he deals with topics related to science and technology and my university was overrun with pre-meds. I didn't realize he wrote fiction. Most of what I read dealt with evolutionary anomalies and biological hypotheses.

And that's all for now. Goodnight!