Funny Taiwan Teaching Method

One of my best friends from high school has lived in Taiwan for the past 5 years. He taught English to kids. He mailed me this sheet that is a teaching aid for the kids. It is a story that most of us will know from childhood, but with a little bit of a different ending. It made me laugh so I am sharing it with all of you.




One day, while the ants were going to work, the grasshoppers were going to dance. The ant's said, "We will work all summer, because we want to have enough food for winter." The grasshoppers laughed and said, "We want to be happy, so we are going to dance all summer."

The winter came. The ants had a lot of food and thought they were going to have a wonderful winter. They were very happy, and they danced and sang songs in their house. When the ants were happy, the grasshoppers were sad. The grasshoppers had no food to eat in the cold winter. They asked the ants for help, but the ants didn't want to give them food.

So, the grasshoppers were going to die. They said to themselves, "We will work hard next summer." But it was too late. After they finished the words, they died.


I guess they want to teach the kids the hard lessons early in life.

The Working Life

The holidays are the busiest time of the year for catering. Everybody is having parties and so my company was sending out lots of people everyday. I ended up working in the office 4 weekdays and Saturdays for the past 3 months. It was nice money, but it really wore me down. Part of the problem is that catering attracts a lot of idiots. Most of the people we send out are fine and do an excellent job, but it is the idiots that cause all of the problems. Canceling on a job a couple of hours before you are supposed to start is a huge hassle for us, because there is no way that we can get someone else to take the job and get there on time. But when people cancel jobs, they act like we are the bad guys because we tell them it will affect their future with the company.

The other thing that really gets my goat is when people don't do any planning to get to there job on time. Here is one such exchange.

Me: How can I help you?
Joe: Yeah, I am supposed to be at a job and I can't find it?
Me: Okay, what is your name?
Joe: Joe.
Me: Joe who?
Joe: (exasperated) Joe Smith!!!
Me: Okay, so you are supposed to be at Cal Tech in 10 minutes.
Joe: Yes.
Me: Okay. Where are you?
Joe: I'm not sure.
Me: Alright. Do you have the address?
Joe: No.
Me: Do you have a map?
Joe: No.
Me: Did you mapquest the directions before you left?
Joe: No. I thought I knew where it was so I just got in my car and drove.
Me: Can you tell me the city you are in.
Joe: No sure.
Me: Can you tell me the streets that you are near.
Joe: I am on 1st street, passing Main st.
Me: Okay.
(pause as I try to call up a map on the internet)
Joe: You there?
Me: Yes, Joe. I am trying to find where you are. We gave you directions on your
calendar. Did you look at them.
Joe: No.
Me: Okay, hold on let me see if I can help you. You need to have the address
and directions with you when you leave for a job.
Joe: Hey man, if you don't wanna help me that's fine, I will just not show up.
Me: No Joe, don't do that, let me find where you are and get you there.


So I spend the next 20 minutes helping this guy to get to his destination, only to have him do it AGAIN the next time he goes on a job. Thankfully, he will not be working that much now that it has slowed down. When it is so busy during the holidays, we need every warm body that we can get. So, really shitty people work for us.

Now, I am not working in the office that much, which sucks for money, but is great since I have time to do other things. Like acting, which is why I moved out here.

Home For the Holidays

I went back to Chicago for Thanksgiving. My sister still lives there and my parents were driving in from Pennsylvania to have Thanksgiving in my sisters new place.

I got there a couple of days before my parents did and it gave me some time to catch up with old friends. I saw my old roommate from college who now lives in San Francisco, another old friend from college who still lives in Chicago, my old roommate from Chicago, and some old improv friends. It was a full day, but it was nice to get to see everyone.

My parents came in and then we had family time. My mother and sister made Thanksgiving dinner. My mom makes the BEST turkey ever. Her secret ingredient is that she puts grapes and grape juice in the bottom on the pan you cook the turkey in. The grapes, along with some cranberries, makes the turkey really most because of the acid in the fruit. My sister had a friend over for dinner and she said it might have been the best turkey she had ever eaten.

After dinner, we went and saw "Wicked" in downtown Chicago. We all enjoyed it a lot, even my dad.

It was good to have a day of rest before heading back to Los Angeles.

Then I went to my parents house in Pennsylvania for Christmas. It is nice to go there because we don't know anyone there since they only moved a couple of years ago, so it is only family time.

I was really, really sick when I got there. I had a cold/flu from being run down and not getting enough sleep. After a couple of days I felt better and began to annoy my family again, at which point they wished I was still sick.

Christmas was fun and got some good stuff, but mainly it was nice to see my family again and to take a little break from the insanity that was work.

New Years was spent in Los Angeles. After work, I took the Hoya to a mutual friends house to ring in the new year. The Reverend and Rockstar met us there and we all had a good time hanging out and taking pictures. New Years came and then we left because I had to get up and work in Malibu early in the morning.

I love holidays, but I wish I wasn't so busy this year because it seemed like I never really got to enjoy them.

Hello Old Friend

Well, as you can see I have not updated this blog in over a month. The main reason being that the past several months have been exceptionally busy. The holidays are the busiest time of the year for catering and I was working in the office just about every day, and doing other events in the field and doing improv at two theaters and getting a sketch comedy show together to perform in January. That, plus traveling for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and to perform this show, made my time at home minimal. But, things have quieted down and I will be back to writing several times a week to keep everyone updated with events going on in my life. For now, I will post several entries with what I have been up to the past couple of months.