I have been listening to 刀郎's CD Andy brought back from China. I like his singing style very much. It sort of resambles Bon Jovi in Chinese folk songs... His voice and music has the wild open prairie kind of feel to them.
"都怪你" is the record we have. This site gives a very nice short intro to his background and his music style.
While searching for 刀郎's related info, I accidentally found another very interesting Chinese blog site, 六翼的天使. I think I just maybe falling in love with it. I haven't read Chinese books for so long, I just couldn't stop reading this site's various entries like a thirsty traveler found the springs in a desert.
The author's identity is some what confusing. I couldn't tell if it's written by a he or she. A Chinese American writing in Chinese so well... I wish I could do that. Of course that means I would have to learn how to type in Chinese much more efficient than 拼音 and copy/paste.
Friday, December 31, 2004
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Raising fish in a tank is depressing.
I'm not sure if I get more pleasure watching the fishes swimming about or does the frequent trips to the garbage can with a dead fish in my hand erase all the pleasure of having them in my possession in the first place.
When I urged Andy to buy 2 gold fishes for Alex at his 3rd year birthday, I, aparently, forgot all about the darker side of it all. Now he has gotten into this fish raising hobby but is temporarily out of town for the month, I'm facing their dying and the cleanup afterwards all by myself. It is depressing. Even though I also have a small jug of new borm fries growing, the constant depleding adult population in our 25 gallon tank is such a downer.
Some people believe, perhaps myself included, that every dead fish represents a bad luck it blocked for its owner. What BS that is but a self deluting execuse for fish owners to give themselve for their neglect toward the helpless creatures in their tanks. I'm sure all fish owners have good intentions toward their lovely pets that keep themselves entertained. But are we not playing the role of God? What if we, human beings on eartch are like the fishes in the tank to our God? Are our self killing and death from nature disasters on this planet the fault of our God's neglect and carelessness?
Disclaimer:
We're responsible fish owners. I know my water to fish ratio is within the recommended ratio of 1 gallon to 1 inch of fish. We have a few neon tetras, 4 guppies and a couple other barbs and algae eaters. We keep our water temperature and salinity at the recommended degree for these fishes.
When I urged Andy to buy 2 gold fishes for Alex at his 3rd year birthday, I, aparently, forgot all about the darker side of it all. Now he has gotten into this fish raising hobby but is temporarily out of town for the month, I'm facing their dying and the cleanup afterwards all by myself. It is depressing. Even though I also have a small jug of new borm fries growing, the constant depleding adult population in our 25 gallon tank is such a downer.
Some people believe, perhaps myself included, that every dead fish represents a bad luck it blocked for its owner. What BS that is but a self deluting execuse for fish owners to give themselve for their neglect toward the helpless creatures in their tanks. I'm sure all fish owners have good intentions toward their lovely pets that keep themselves entertained. But are we not playing the role of God? What if we, human beings on eartch are like the fishes in the tank to our God? Are our self killing and death from nature disasters on this planet the fault of our God's neglect and carelessness?
Disclaimer:
We're responsible fish owners. I know my water to fish ratio is within the recommended ratio of 1 gallon to 1 inch of fish. We have a few neon tetras, 4 guppies and a couple other barbs and algae eaters. We keep our water temperature and salinity at the recommended degree for these fishes.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
The Battle Against "Supersize Me"
It's been a month since my last entry. By now, Andy and Alex both are back home from their 2-months journey in China. This is officially the end of our China trip and life resumes back home in S.F. Their trip did not end in Shanghai like mine. They visited their ancestry home near Shan Tou in the second half of November before their return to SF. I wish I could have been there with them. And I would if it wasn't because of limited vacation days from work. I don't think I will attempt to write up their part of the journey though.
What prompted me to write this entry is actually more relevant to a couple of new things Alex has learned since his return. The brief month of bachelette life in Nov. got me back on my movie watching trend. I went through quite a few latest movie releases as well as the popular documentaries such as Fahrenheit 911 and Supersize Me. On Alex's 3rd day back, we watched Supersize Me together. Now he learned the truth behind the Big Macs and Happy Meals sold at the golden archies, he has agreed that he will not eat at McDonalds any more... :) It is amazing how easy it is to influence a 3-year old either to love something or to hate something. I know some of you may think this type of documentary is not suitable for kids, but what about the hundreds of TV ads aimed at your kids everyday, selling them on fast foods and snacks? Is that fair? I only hope that I can influence my kids at an early enough age where they would always get the message on both sides of the fence. So they will always learn to think twice about what they see on T.V.
Today, Alex helped me to thread many of our junk mails, under my supervision of course. They're mostly credit card offer letters and some are blank checks sent from our existing credit card companies for us to use as cash advances. We never use those checks. It got me to think how when I was a kid, any such type of letters at home would be kept away from us. Even papers used in our notebooks for homework are reused at home for other things. But my kids are learning a whole new aspect toward these documents. They will have no respect for them, no matter how pretty they're printed or packaged. Alex will learn how to filter out the real important mail from the junk ones. Material things, wehther toys or pretty picture books are so abundant in his little life, he will learn at this early age that you just can't keep or save everything just because they're nice or pretty things. You have to throw away or give away what you cannot use and don't need.
Because of my Chineses upbringing in an age of shortage on everything from food to clothes, not to mention toys, till this day, I still struggle with every decision I make to throw away something I don't use or need. I do realize now that I must change my mentality in order to keep my life and household lean and organized. The new shows on TLC such as, "Clean Sweep" really openned my eyes on how others suffer from the over abundance of material things and allow their homes to be clogged with junk they don't need. The battle against the big commercial interests in making profits by supersizing us and our lives has just begun. As conscious and responsible consumers, we must learn how to differentiate the psuedo demands advertisements create in our minds and teach our next generation to do the same just as how they need to identify friends from faux.
What prompted me to write this entry is actually more relevant to a couple of new things Alex has learned since his return. The brief month of bachelette life in Nov. got me back on my movie watching trend. I went through quite a few latest movie releases as well as the popular documentaries such as Fahrenheit 911 and Supersize Me. On Alex's 3rd day back, we watched Supersize Me together. Now he learned the truth behind the Big Macs and Happy Meals sold at the golden archies, he has agreed that he will not eat at McDonalds any more... :) It is amazing how easy it is to influence a 3-year old either to love something or to hate something. I know some of you may think this type of documentary is not suitable for kids, but what about the hundreds of TV ads aimed at your kids everyday, selling them on fast foods and snacks? Is that fair? I only hope that I can influence my kids at an early enough age where they would always get the message on both sides of the fence. So they will always learn to think twice about what they see on T.V.
Today, Alex helped me to thread many of our junk mails, under my supervision of course. They're mostly credit card offer letters and some are blank checks sent from our existing credit card companies for us to use as cash advances. We never use those checks. It got me to think how when I was a kid, any such type of letters at home would be kept away from us. Even papers used in our notebooks for homework are reused at home for other things. But my kids are learning a whole new aspect toward these documents. They will have no respect for them, no matter how pretty they're printed or packaged. Alex will learn how to filter out the real important mail from the junk ones. Material things, wehther toys or pretty picture books are so abundant in his little life, he will learn at this early age that you just can't keep or save everything just because they're nice or pretty things. You have to throw away or give away what you cannot use and don't need.
Because of my Chineses upbringing in an age of shortage on everything from food to clothes, not to mention toys, till this day, I still struggle with every decision I make to throw away something I don't use or need. I do realize now that I must change my mentality in order to keep my life and household lean and organized. The new shows on TLC such as, "Clean Sweep" really openned my eyes on how others suffer from the over abundance of material things and allow their homes to be clogged with junk they don't need. The battle against the big commercial interests in making profits by supersizing us and our lives has just begun. As conscious and responsible consumers, we must learn how to differentiate the psuedo demands advertisements create in our minds and teach our next generation to do the same just as how they need to identify friends from faux.
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