| Jessie님의 프로필盘丝洞블로그리스트 |  도구  도움말 |
盘丝洞6월 2일 WokaiZemanta will be giving away $6000 (split) to the five charities who get blogged about the most before June 6. Please help us reblog and spread the word about Wokai!
What is Wokai? Wokai delivers an internet microfinance platform that allows individuals to provide Chinese microentrepreneurs with loan capital. Our organization acts as an intermediary in this process, transferring funds from contributors abroad to microentrepreneurs in China through our field partners. Who does Wokai support? A typical Wokai microentrepeneur is a female rural inhabitant, living on less than $1/day. Her microfinance loan, ranging from $150-$300 dollars, provides her with the capital to start a small business. Her business varies by location, raising sheep in a rural grassland or operating a small fruit stand in a city center. With her income, she accumulates savings, which allows her to allocate money towards long-term investments like education and health. By the end of her loan cycle, she has experienced increased financial independence, bolstered self-confidence, and a strengthened sense of community. Learn more and contribute today at http://www.wokai.org. This blog post is part of Zemanta's "Blogging For a Cause" campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about. 2월 7일 "Sports Patriotism"Seahawks lost the Super Bowl. I felt sad for them. Not that I've been a loyal Hawks fan or anything; in fact, I watched the game with a Steeler fan, and I pratictically know nothing about football. I should've been indifferent about the result. But I can't help taking sides when watching sports. In fact, that's largely the reason I would watch a game. The same goes for Blue Devils. Am I a basketball fan? Not until I went to Duke. I hardly watched any basketball games live before that. I still don't watch other basketball games except those that Duke plays. I'm sure this is not just me. A lot of people would probably watch a game only when their teams are playing. For lack of a better word, I call this "sports patriotism".
Not that there's anything wrong with it, maybe it precisely reflects the true spirit of sports - it's all about competition and ts direct results, winning or losing. What's different in my case, I guess, is I can hardly see myself attached to a team that has nothing to do with me. Many people, take soccer fans of the world for example, would root for AC Milan or Real Madrid even though they may never have been to Italy or Spain, but just for the good plays these team put on year after year. They are "sports fans" in the true spirit, whereas I am, at best, a "sports patriot".
Btw, Blue Devils, ranked #2 in the country, is still undefeated in ACC. Go Devils! 2월 5일 Happy Chinese New Year!It's the eighth year that I didn't spend the Chinese New Year with my family. I could hardly remember what it was like to celebrate the New Year's eve with feasts and firecrackers. Mom told me after more than a decade's ban on firing firecrackers in my city, they lifted the ban and resumed the tradition this year. Those who were most excited were late teens and twenty-somethings, because younger kids born in the last decade have never seen a firecracker! (They don't know what they missed out...)
In the true spirit of celebrating the New Year, I got up at 5:30 Sat morning (1/28) to watch the New Year's eve TV show. The Chinese channel (CCTV4) comes with my cable service from Millennium. It's the first time since I came to the States to watch the show at the same time with another 1 billion people! I compared notes with Mom after the show. She told me Dad pretty much slept through the whole show - how boring it must've been to him! I enjoyed the most part of it though, not the 1 million singers and dancers on and off the stages part but some of the comic skits were pretty funny.
The only other thing I did for the New Year was going to Tootoo's party. I posted some pictures in the Photos section. The party was a blast. There were maybe only five or six Chinese at the party, but apparently the 60-70 attendees all seemed to have had a great time eating Chinese food, listening to Chinese music and doing trivia about Chinese culture. I was asked if the Chinese music played on the stereo was truly Chinese because it sounded "so... not Chinese". My answer was "globalization, man, it's all part of the globalization process".
Oh well, the New Year celebration apparently has come to an end... I have yet to get some rice balls before the 15th (by Lunar calendar).... 1월 22일 Temporarily DisabledIt's been 24 hours since I tumbled over on top of the snow hill and injured my knee, thus throwing myself into this state of temporary disableness. Other than gaining new life experiences such as cruising down the hill in a snow sled (which was really cool), I realized there are actually more benefits than costs:
Pros:
- Being able to work from home without having to make up excuses
- Being able to procrastinate without feeling guilty
- Messing up the room without feeling guilty
- Not going to the gym without feeling guilty
- Eating junk and frozen food without feeling guilty
- Having more time to read (i.e. if there's nothing good on TV)
- Having friends drive you around and carry your stuff when going out - Parking in disabled parking spots (too bad I'm not driving anymore)
- Learning a new skill: walking in crutches (you never know, it might come handy sometime)
- Knowing my limitations: skiing is probably not my sport
- Which leads to another benefit: taking snowboarding off of my new year's resolution list!
Cons:
- Not being able to function normally (Da)
- Having to miss my salsa class next week
- Not looking very good walking around in crutches
Not too bad, huh?
1월 17일 Sweet TalkRemeber the new officemate I mentioned yesterday whose wife calls 10 times a day? Here's how a typical conversation goes:
- Hi Sweetie! (my officemate picks up the phone, it always starts like this)
.....
.....
- I miss you too (my officemate in low volume. It is 10:30 in the morning. Didn't they just part 2 hours ago?)
....
....
- Love you! (my officemate picks up some volume, in his sweetest voice, sounding most cheerful)
After one of the phone calls like this, I asked him how long they've been married. "12 years." My officemate said. 12 years???!!! "So you guys have been like this since day 1 huh?" I couldn't believe my ears. "Pretty much. Marriage can feel like business partnership with all the talks about remodeling the house and paying the bills, so sweet talk is important."
True, I've heard too frequently couples telling each other "I love you" over the phone several times a day, but day in and day out for 12 years? I wouldn't have believed it had I not heard it with my own ears. And with such joy and tenderness! Most of the I-love-you-s sound to me more like doing homework than deep caring for each other.
Ok maybe I shouldn't glorify the love between my officemate and his wife. Maybe it's not unlike other routine greetings and checking-ins, except done in a more persistent and pleasing way. Maybe it's just an exemplification of how important reaffirmation plays in human relationships. Apparently it has worked darn good! Just like students need encouragement from teachers, employees need a pat on the back from bosses, lovers need reassurance from each other. Sweet talk is perhaps the most direct way of showing reassurance. (although it can be really hard for most guys in this world to use this technique. During courtship? maybe, ok, sure. After marriage? No way.) |
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