Haggard Given the Boot

Rev. Ted Haggard was permanently removed as senior pastor of New Life Church by the church’s Overseer Board. This comes just two days after he temporarily stepped down in the wake of allegations of sexual immorality and drug use. You can read the story of Haggard’s demise by following this link. An official statement made by the church can be viewed here.

New Life Church is in Colorado Springs, CO, a city in which I used to live. The church is actually located just across the street from where I used to work and I attended services there for six months before I moved to Taiwan. I enjoyed Pastor Haggard’s sermons and I’m sorry to hear that he fell into this kind of sin. Hopefully he and the church can pick up the pieces and move on.

An Easy $2500

Hsinchu is home to a large science and technology business park called, oddly enough, Hsinchu Science Park. It’s home to dozens of science and technology based companies. One company in particular is Apex Biotechnology Corporation. Apex Bio manufactures blood glucose and uric acid monitoring systems for home use.

Occasionally, the company requires foreign English speakers to help test different models of monitoring systems. Your “job” is to read the English manual for a certain product or two and then fill out a short survey asking how easy each section of the manual was to understand. You then go over how to test the machine and interpret the results. After that, it’s off to the lab to have your finger pricked and your blood tested on a number of different monitoring systems. On some occasions, they also draw a blood sample. For what reason, I’m not sure. Maybe they’re going to clone me or something. Since I’m such a handsome and wonderful person (or so my fiancé tells me), the world could only benefit if cloning is indeed the purpose. But I digress.

At any rate, the whole process takes roughly an hour and for your time, minor pain, and blood, you are given a healthy reward. The first time I took part, I was paid NT$1500 (about US$50). Last Friday when I went, they were drawing blood, for which I was compensated with an extra NT$1000. That brought my total for the day up to NT$2500 (about US$80). Not bad for a little reading and some minor pain. Maybe someday one might be able to make a career out of this type of “work”. Until then, I guess I’ll have to keep searching for what I’m really supposed to be doing with my life. One can dream, though, can’t he?