I’ll start this thread here, but it may be a flounder.
Read the first part of my sig. and then come up with your own…
Taiwan is like…
Bassman, this is a good idea for a thread, but one question, before it gets floundered, if it gets floundered. WHY ON EARTH would you want to start a thread like this? What’s the purpose?
Your sig is cool. But why have us write 1001 more epigrams like that. One is enough. It’s very very good.
So my question: why this thread?
Taiwan is like a box of chocolates. You never know how fat you are going to get.
This from the guy who thought Michael Moore being fat warranted a thread.
Taiwan is like a poutine with no cheese. 
This from the guy who thought Michael Moore being fat warranted a thread.[/quote]
Tetsuo, if you feel so strongly about this, ask that guy why he started the MM fat thread. It’s a good question. SMILE
[quote=“lane119”]Bassman, this is a good idea for a thread, but one question, before it gets floundered, if it gets floundered. WHY ON EARTH would you want to start a thread like this? What’s the purpose?
Your sig is cool. But why have us write 1001 more epigrams like that. One is enough. It’s very very good.
So my question: why this thread?[/quote]
Why, because sometimes it’s nice to poke some fun at the place without venting or spewing vile everywhere. It felt good to put that in my sig and I wanted to give an opportunity for anyone else to get the same feeling. That’s why. Would it be better to type… " Sometimes I hate this place, but I can’t leave at the moment."? No, I didn’t think so. 
From Terry Pratchett’s “Interesting Times” (which is honestly not loosely based on China and Japan at all, really, not even a little bit, not even the bit with the terra cotta soldiers…)
Taiwan is like a steam room that isn’t cleaned often enough.
Taiwan is like a good idea that isn’t fully developed.
Taiwan is like a meal with no salt.
Taiwan is like…almost understanding but missing a few important parts.
Taiwan is like a map with a page missing.
But remember…I do like Taiwan. 
Wow! Taiwan. It’s like, man…I mean, so…y’know it’s, it’s just just so…
[color=red]
Taiwanese!!!
[/color]
…a picnic short of a few sandwiches.
[quote=“Bassman”][quote=“lane119”]Bassman, this is a good idea for a thread, but one question, before it gets floundered, if it gets floundered. WHY ON EARTH would you want to start a thread like this? What’s the purpose?
Your sig is cool. But why have us write 1001 more epigrams like that. One is enough. It’s very very good.
So my question: why this thread?[/quote]
Why, because sometimes it’s nice to poke some fun at the place without venting or spewing vile everywhere. It felt good to put that in my sig and I wanted to give an opportunity for anyone else to get the same feeling. That’s why. Would it be better to type… " Sometimes I hate this place, but I can’t leave at the moment."? No, I didn’t think so. [/quote]
And here I thought you were looking for witty, positive epigrams, but in fact, sometimes you hate this place but you can’t leave at the moment, so you wanted to use this forum to vent. Now I see.
Yes, it would have been better to post your real feelings and say sometimes I hate this place but right now I can’t leave. Why hide behind it? Face it. It’s okay to hate this place. Nothing to be ashamed of.
I was just curious what you were trying to do with this thread. Now I see.
Cool.
… is like 5000 years of culture, but you ask yourself WTF did they do the whole time
[quote=“lane119”][quote=“Bassman”][quote=“lane119”]Bassman, this is a good idea for a thread, but one question, before it gets floundered, if it gets floundered. WHY ON EARTH would you want to start a thread like this? What’s the purpose?
Your sig is cool. But why have us write 1001 more epigrams like that. One is enough. It’s very very good.
So my question: why this thread?[/quote]
Why, because sometimes it’s nice to poke some fun at the place without venting or spewing vile everywhere. It felt good to put that in my sig and I wanted to give an opportunity for anyone else to get the same feeling. That’s why. Would it be better to type… " Sometimes I hate this place, but I can’t leave at the moment."? No, I didn’t think so. [/quote]
And here I thought you were looking for witty, positive epigrams, but in fact, sometimes you hate this place but you can’t leave at the moment, so you wanted to use this forum to vent. Now I see.
Yes, it would have been better to post your real feelings and say sometimes I hate this place but right now I can’t leave. Why hide behind it? Face it. It’s okay to hate this place. Nothing to be ashamed of.
I was just curious what you were trying to do with this thread. Now I see.
Cool.[/quote]
You missed the point entirely.
These feelings are “Sometimes”, sometimes is not always, and there is no point in getting bile over everyone is there. So, witty lines, if it was witty, give one a release rather than complaining. I hate complaining too much, there isn’t any point. This thread makes that easier. I don’t hate this place at all, ok, sometimes I hate this place, but I still like Taiwan.
Do you get it now?
…a goiter. It grows on you and you learn to live with it. You may even decorate it to suit your style.
A collegue of mine said to me when I had just arrived here: “Taiwan is like a fungus that grows on you and it sucks the life out of you until you suffocate”. He moved back to Arizona with his Taiwanese wife after 6 years spent here.
Taiwan is like a bass player in a bar band. Nobody pays any attention to them until they screw up.
A drunk, deaf and blind bass player…who thinks he’s Jack Bruce. 
Taiwan is like life itself. You get out of it what you put into it.
It is. Only I don’t buy it as a rule in general.
Apart from a few areas that is. I can put in treating people fair and equally, but will never be anything but a foreigner and be treated as such by government policy. I can put in the same time to get a drivers licence and still only be given the same expiry date as on my ARC. I can put in the taxes and get nothing in the way of meaningful service for my tax dollars.
I can put a lot into my own life and what I do and get a lot out of it, that is true, but I don’t agree that you get out of Taiwan what you put into it. What you get out is what you put into your own little circle of life that you have control over, that is where you can be rewarded as much as anywhere else.
Taiwan is… more like the mainland than it would care to admit. 
Just kidding.