A couple of my pix from EDC were used for this month's URB mag :) check it out. There is a full halfpage photo of Eddie Halliwell on stage and another of a guy (who gave someone a ravername called lassie) a lightshow.

If the embedded issue isn't working, check it out here online - http://issuu.com/urbmag/docs/urb_158_kid_cudi starts on page 58

First day back was quite an interesting day. My parents, Grandma and I all got up early and went downstairs to the local breakfast place before my dad had to leave for work. I thought we'd go to a Taiwanese breakfast place but instead my dad took us to this new chain western/asian fusion place called Laguardia. The logo even has an american flag (Didn't I just come back from America??). So my family had breakfast sandwiches and panini's and I didn't want to eat that so I had some egg roll thing with bbq beef... it was ok.. a little more expensive than the regular local vendors but it was pretty clean. Afterwards, my dad went to work and my Grandma, Mom, and I went back to the apartment to do more unpacking and wait for my Aunt to come pick us up.

My Aunt finally came to pick us up about 11 and they chatted a bit. We went to have lunch and ended up at a KOREAN restaurant. Yes.. a korean restaurant.. because apparently I don't eat enough korean food in LA... lol. My mom wanted to eat there so whatever. Afterwards my aunt wanted to buy some plants so we drove downhill towards Taipei and went to a garden center in Hsin Chuang. I got bit twice by mosquitos there :( They had my favorite fern there and I really wanted to buy it but there isn't enough sunlight on the porch at my parents new place for it. I took a video of the fern called sleeping grass.. I'll have to upload it later. Here is one I found on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0LFBM3hOLs&feature=related I used to love playing with this little plant as a kid, I thought it was magic!

After the garden center, my aunt dropped my mom and I off at IKEA (yes, another Ikea this month...) so we could buy some kitchen organizers for her new apartment. The IKEA here is huge, but much the same as the ones in the US/UK. Their cafe had better food though! They had a Japanese short rib and rice dish and a Beef Hamburger steak wrapped in bacon dish. My dad met up with us after work and we had dinner there together.

Afterwards we went to Carrefour which is the German import type Walmart over here. They have beaten both Tesco and Walmart in this market.. even Marks and Spencers. They sell a lot of chinese groceries and misc stuff there but they also have good european import foods too. That was pretty much day 1..

Day 2 morning, woke up early and I made breakfast for my parents before my dad left for work. Afterwards my dad dropped off me and mummy at the wet market to get some groceries for dinner. I took lots of pix.. they also had a lot of live fish freshly caught for sale and pigs/chickens just hanging about :\ I feel like my days here start so early .. I've already been out and about and back to the apartment and its only 10am! Gonna go see some more family today and cook dinner for my parents.

 Labour Day Weekend went by real quick. On Saturday I spent the day waiting for the window blinds guy to come and get measurements and show me samples while the carpet dudes installed all the carpet upstairs and living room. It feels like a home again with all the flooring in. Now it just needs a past touch of paint fixing, furniture, and mirrors/glass and it will be home again.

Saturday night, I had dinner at Gordan Biersch - yummy meatloaf and cajun pasta. We went to Borders and laughed at funny books and got some cute furry mittens for the next massive. I got lots of cool science books for my nephew - he is really into Space and Astronomy right now. I also got him some cute Star Wars books, one was called What is a Wookie? heehee. I bet my brother won't let him read it, but I hope he can. Then he can enjoy Star Wars just like we did when we were kids. After Borders, we picked up some beer at Bevmo and then went to Best Buy to buy Lego Star Wars and another PS3 Controller for Zooks new PS3. We spent most of that night playing lego star wars :)

Sunday we got up late and went to brunch at this bagel place - I picked a really yummy bagel and Zook picked a wrap that tasted like something from McDonalds :p We got coffee afterwards at Better Buzz.. mmm they have really good coffee. Picked up some grocery's from Henry's and went home to play Lego Star Wars again. That game is a little bit addicting. I'm not really good at the flight simulation parts of the game, I always get confused which way to turn the controllers to go back and forth. There was this one level I had to be r2d2 and I couldn't do anything except float around and open doors - I couldn't kill anything that would attack cuz he has a really lame little gun.

Monday, I woke up early and got back to LA to finish packing, check out the house and see what was left for remodelling while I was gone, and took my Grandma to lunch at a Korean Japanese sushi place. We had a lot of time to kill by the time we got to the airport, Grandma has a gold card for EVA airlines so we got to sit in the VIP lounge while we waited for boarding. You get lots of free food and drinks there with free wifi, but I already ate and I didn't bring my laptop so that was kinda pointless to me. I didn't get to go to a bookshop to read magazines either cuz there was none up there! I just took a nap and waited for boarding.. my plane didnt fly till 6pm.. so I took a long nap :)

Eva air has really stepped up their game in terms of their on air entertainment. The seats were wider but I felt like I had less leg room. We had personal tv screens with on demand entertainment so I watched The Proposal, part of Night At The Museum 2, Personal Effects, and Dance Flick. Personal Effects was so sad.. I didn't realize Ashton Kutcher had done such a sad movie.. he scores with michelle pfieffer in that flick. 13 hours later I arrived in Taipei.

First thing off the plane.. it is HOT... sticky humid HOT. The airport is full of people with masks on... I feel like it was that SARS time again. A few people had worn it on the plane but the airport was full of people with masks. We got all our luggage and my dad was waiting with the van outside on the curb.

The going home experience was a little different this time. Usually, and for the past 27 years of my life, we'd drive or take the bus into downtown Taipei. The streets would be busy and basked with neon lights, a closeup of the twinkling city scene you'd see in the sky. However, my parents have now moved a little outside of downtown to Lin Kou where the streets are quieter. We took a road that had lots of contruction sites and there would still be beetlenut vendors along the streets with half naked girls... but it was quiet. We stopped by a 24 hour Soy Bean Milk stand to get some breakfast food and soy bean milk.. yum. I only ate one meal on the plane so I was starving for some fried gyoza and veggie/meat stuffed buns. I missed Taiwan food. Home is no longer an apartment downtown, but an apartment in a huge skyscraper in Lin Kuo. I came here before when they were still building the place, but now I get to see a finished product and its nice.

I already know I'm gonna be jetlagged.. its 2am here.. 10am in california.. I need to get to bed but I am wide awake. The heat in the morning awaits.

Timelapse - Los Angeles Wildfire from Dan B. on Vimeo.