Work is going OK, but at the same time, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt the level of pressure to perform that I have on me right now. I currently have four manuals assigned to me for editing, all with basically the same deadline. Unfortunately, whoever assigns deadlines on these things have their heads firmly stuck in the sand (time is money, afterall), so we get maybe two weeks to edit a 600+ page manual, accompanied by, at best, spotty information on what changes have been made in the switch and software. Add in the language and culture barriers between us technical writers and the software engineers (Chinese vs. English/Western language and culture as well as Engineer vs. non-Engineer language and culture/mindsets) and you have a real recipe for constant frustration and stress. It is nice that I’ve been instructed to essentially ignore the deadlines. Now if only the Project Managers would quit nagging.. 
Last weekend was Moon Festival, so practically the entire nation of Taiwan observed a 4-day long weekend vacation (Monday and Tuesday off), had barbeque’s and stared at (worshiped?) the full moon. Monday I went to the beach in Nanliao with Tim and Julie (both from church), Dougal (Julie’s dog) and Bean (my dog). We just sat around and talked and watched our dogs chase each other into the ocean. It was nice. Bean hasn’t been around the ocean much yet and is generally unhappy around water, so it was amusing to watch her cautiously approach the water’s edge just to be chased up the beach by every new wave. I swear she’s a cat, down deep inside. 
So it’s been way too long since I’ve posted anything. I have lots of excuses, none of them valid.. A lot has happened since I last posted in December. Since May, I have a new job and live in Hsinchu, in the north of Taiwan, instead of Kaohsiung, in the south of Taiwan. I’m back into the IT and networking field, which is nice, and in many ways it’s not as intense as life as a network admin at KCOnline was for me, which is even nicer. I’m finding that I definitely miss aspects of that job though too. My job at Accton (http://www.accton.com) entails writing manuals for network equipment, so far exclusively for ethernet switches. Accton is also involved in 802.11 wireless and VoIP equipment, so I’m sure I’ll get to play with some of that in the future too.
Now that I’m here in Hsinchu, I miss Kaohsiung and all my friends there, to be sure, but am loving where I’m at now too. Making friends here in Hsinchu has been a bit slow mainly because of the timing of my move, but that’s drastically improved in the last 6 weeks. I’ve been able to get involved with the youth group, called God Squad, at my church, Victory English Fellowship. What a privilege! These kids are absolutely amazing. Almost all of the kids are ABCs (American Born Chinese) because their parents studied and/or worked in the States. Most of the parents are now working at jobs in the Science Park, like me (though most of them are degreed engineers of some sort..). I never figured I’d end up being able to use my status as an MK/TCK/expat for ministry like this, but here I am, and it’s certainly been great so far.
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