In many ways, I am more in tune with American pop culture after having moved to Taiwan than I was while living in America. Surprisingly, I am getting my daily fix of what’s hot in the States from various sources on the internet.

Just before moving here, I made sure that Taiwanese television offered some decent English channels, which it does. Here, there are the ever-popular cable channels CNN, HBO, and ESPN, which provide news, entertainment, and sports. Although they lean toward a more international flavor than their equals in America, there is enough pop nourishment coming from the States to keep one from starving.

Beyond those channels, there are other English offerings, such as: Discovery, National Geographic, Travel, Star Movies, Cinemax, and AXN (a channel showing some of the more-popular US television shows). They are all good, yet none of them go into detail about happenings in the States. None of them take the time to put things into perspective, giving one a sense of what it is like actually being in America. It is for that purpose that I turn to the internet.

Through reading weblogs, online newspapers, and downloading current movies, songs, and radio shows I can begin to feel what it is like to be a well-informed American, living in America.

Now, I seldom watch TV. In fact, a few weeks ago Shu Mei and I decided to have our cable cancelled. That means we will have absolutely not TV, as there isn’t any television broadcast over the air in Taiwan. It is all strictly via cable. I have mixed feelings about our decision to have it cancelled, because I’ve always had TV available to me, but it’s the right move to make for the boys.

Billy has become addicted to the thing and I see no reason why Tyley wouldn’t follow in his footsteps, if given the opportunity. Apparently, it is too difficult for Shu Mei to monitor and control their viewing habits. So, we just decided to have it turned off. As I stated, I seldom watch television, so going without it really won’t be a huge sacrifice. It is akin to losing a tie that I wear on rare nonspecific occasions. I would miss the tie, but I wouldn’t cry about it. Again, the internet has become my American pop culture source.

Last year, I read an online article about Howard Stern. In the article, it stated that he was moving from regular radio to satellite radio at the first part of this year, 2006, for a reported 500 million dollars over the period of 5 years.

Browsing through some bit torrents, popular peer-to-peer shared files, I saw some of his radio shows late last year. So, I downloaded and listened to them. Current events were covered in considerable detail, with a focus on the entertainment industry. This was the source of information I was looking for. So, I continued to download and listen to the show, via my MP3 player, on a daily basis. Then they made the switch.

Howard and his crew went on hiatus for a few weeks between moving the show from terrestrial to satellite radio. It was during those weeks that I realized I had become addicted to the show, as I felt like a junky needing a fix. I was elated when the show went back on the air and have listening to it on a daily basis ever since. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the new show is videotaped and played on an on-demand cable channel called Howard TV. Some of the best episodes were uploaded as bit torrents, allowing me to see them. As time goes on, the show just gets better and better.

Aside from talking about current events, Howard and his crew play various comedy bits that are totally hilarious. Often, I use my earphones to listen to the Howard Stern show in bed, before going to sleep. My wife, Shu Mei, puts up with my frequent outbursts of laughter.

True to her uncaring nature, she has never asked what I am laughing at. She knows that I am listening to the Howard Stern show, as I have told her a bit about it. However, Shu Mei never shows any concern or interest in learning about things I enjoy. From almost the first day of our marriage, she has continued to remain emotionally distant from me.

For the first few years, I tried everything I could think of to bridge that gap, but she stayed selfish and stubborn throughout. Recently, I have lost interest in trying to chip through her hardened shell. I never saw the slightest crack in her emotional armor and I doubt I ever will. I just let her be her ornery self and I concentrate on the only reason I stay married, Billy and Tyley. After all, they are my lifeblood.

I have no greater joy in my life than Billy and Tyley. I look forward to spending time with them after work each day. On the weekends, I spend most of my time with them. I don’t do it out of fear that I’ll miss out on something special if I don’t do it, though that is in the back of my mind, but basically because I enjoy it. They are growing so fast and absorb the things I have to teach them like sponges. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to teach them important things and hope that they’ll turn out a great deal better than me.

It is to that end that I try to point out some of the pitfalls in life to Billy and Tyley. I don’t want them to make the same mistakes I did. Also, I want them to have a better life than I did. I cannot give them the many material things that I had as a child, but I can give them my emotional support and love, something that I lacked growing up. Oh, my parents were loving, but the way they showed it was in giving me things.

I wanted them to show me in a more emotional way, by hugging me and telling me that they loved me. This just wasn’t in their character. It is in mine, however, and I strive to make certain that Billy and Tyley understand I love them very much by demonstrating it emotionally.

I am trying to get a grip on my feelings about things of a spiritual nature. I’m beginning to see how people develop differently. As a Mormon missionary in Brazil, over 20 years ago, I was very sure about the truth about my religion. There were other missionaries that struggled with formulating a testimony, but I developed one quickly and easily. Since then, I have strived to nurture that testimony. Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful in that pursuit.

I now find myself in the same predicament as those confused fellow missionaries were in all those years ago. I am a regular attendee at the local LDS Church, but go solely because of my children. Personally, going to Church bores me to no end. It is good for Billy and Tyley, though. It is there that they learn important life lessons and develop proper social skills. Most importantly, Billy and Tyley are exposed to teachings about things of a spiritual nature. This leads to an expansion of their imaginations, a sense of the importance of humility, and further love for their fellow man. These traits will undoubtedly help them in the future.

I attend a small branch of the LDS Church in Shalu, Taiwan. Only about 30 – 40 members make it to the 3-hour block of meetings each Sunday. Most of those that attend do so on a weekly basis, but there are many that come and go beyond that core group. You see, the six missionaries in the area are doing their job of getting people who are of the mindset to be baptized. But, once they’re baptized, they never seem to come back to the Church.

We meet in a rented space on two floors of a building. Until recently, we only occupied one floor. I feel the second floor is overkill and wishful thinking on the Church’s part for future growth. The Church is also in the process of building their own building near to the one where space is rented. The construction of the building has already begun and should be complete within several months. I guess the thinking is that if they build it, more people will be likely to come to Church. I tend to agree with that attitude, as a bonafide official building is much better than a rented space.

I do hope that our branch grows, as there are a lot of programs in the Church that are beneficial to people and it takes a large number of members to actuate those programs. For instance, I would like to see my boys attending some social functions of the Church. To date, there are only a couple of those per year and they’re not geared toward small children. With a larger congregation of members, more activities are bound to take place that involve members of all ages.

Also, a bigger branch will help me to become more interested in the Church again. Currently, the small group is comprised of new members who continually talk about gospel basics every week. Having been a Mormon my whole life, I need something deeper than that to keep me interested. Through periodic personal study, I have managed to stay relatively strong in the Church. I mean, although I don’t do every thing I am supposed to in the Church, I don’t break any major commandments. Without personal gospel study and daily prayer, I think I’d flounder and quit going to Church regularly. I think I’m heading in the right direction, but I’m taking an awful long time to reach certain levels that others attain quickly.

When I was younger, people used to complain about how skinny I was. Now that I am older, it’s all about how fat I am. I never liked the jibes then, but prefer them to ones I get now. Being skinny did not adversely affect my health, while being overweight has brought about all sorts of maladies.

I had a brief period of time with a weight problem in my twenties, but lost the extra pounds quickly. The real problem didn’t begin until around the age of thirty-six. It was about that time that a combination of things took place. First of all, I ceased all physical activity. I hadn’t really been -that- active before that period, but did manage to do some exercising, albeit sporadically. Second, I started eating exclusively at fast-food joints. For example, I ate lunch at the Burger King in the airport where I worked. That went on daily for over three years, until they built a Philly cheesesteak sandwich shop at the airport. Then, I alternated between that and the Burger King, mixing it up on occasion with a pizza from the airport Pizza Hut. Before that time, I was used to consuming a healthier diet of homemade dishes. Third, and probably the biggest reason I put on weight, my metabolism slowed down. I noticed it was taking longer for cuts to heal. My skin was becoming drier. My joints started aching.

I believe those three chief causes of me gaining weight could be negated by a proper diet and an adequate exercise regime. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that. The problem now is motivation. I don’t have much of that when it concerns losing weight. I rationalize that there are things of a higher priority right now, so I put my health problems on the backburner.

Furthermore, there is an addiction problem to overcome and I don’t relish the thought of going through -that- nightmare. What I’m talking about is my addiction to Coke. No, not the drug, but the beverage. (It would be a money problem and not a weight problem if I were addicted to the drug.)

Throughout my life, I have overcome many chemical addictions. I did this not out of a desire, but out of fear. I was afraid that those addictions would end up killing me if I didn’t overcome them, and rightfully so. Many people have died from the same addictions as I had. Without going into detail here, as it will undoubtedly be in other entries, suffice it to say that I was addicted to almost every legal or illegal drug I could get my hands on at one time or another in my teen and young adult years.

I never felt the life-threatening problems from Coca-Cola as I had with my previous chemical addictions. To my knowledge, there are no reports out about the damaging effects of caffeine, the addictive agent in Coke. Common sense leads me to believe that it is bad for me, but just as any addiction is bad for someone. One would think that this alone would compel me to give up drinking the soda, but no, I need some kind of medical proof it can kill me before I can muster up the willpower to stop drinking it. The byproduct of all this Coke drinking is the weight gain I have experienced, because there is a lot of sugar in Coke. Currently, Diet Coke is not readily available where I live, in Taiwan.

Recently, things have been getting worse. I developed a condition where it is difficult to breath. One would have thought this shortness of breath was a result of my weight gain. However, after several tests at a local hospital, I learned that I now suffer from asthma. I am not happy with this, as I have been suffering from many health problems already in the past half dozen years. Moving to Taiwan accelerated the onset and increased the number of those health problems. I have often wished that I could be back in America, living in a cleaner and drier environment. However, there are other, more important, reasons for staying here. Chief among those reasons is the need for Billy and Tyley to become fluent in Chinese. I want them to be able to speak, read, and write the language like a native. Having that knowledge will give them future opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t have. To that end, it is necessary to stay here another 10 years, until they are through with elementary school.