The King’s Speech

 

Saw "The King's Speech" last night.

Wonderful movie!

Surely deserves to be the Best Picture of 2010.

Coffee & Biscotti

Just shoveled the snow off my driveway.  Now having hot coffee with gingerbread creamer and enjoying the delicious biscotti prepared by my Chinese teacher's husband.  很好吃!

Hike through downtown Redmond 2010-12-28

 

A six mile hike through downtown Redmond! The Adventure! The Danger! The Exotic Food!

3 Signs that you may be rich.

3 signs you may be rich: You have at least one treasured memory, 1 friend, and 1 book you haven't read yet.

a great mystery movie - "The Ghost Writer".

 

Just saw a great mystery movie - "The Ghost Writer".
I recommend it.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20100224%2FREVIEWS%2F100229991%2F-1%2FRSS

My teacher not well, but better today than last week

 

今天我的朋友告诉我了, 我们的老师还全身都不舒服.

 

然而,我们的老师更好.

Shopping with my wife

After our river walk (where we saw that bald eagle), Shari and I went shopping.

I noticed that other husbands were accompanying their wives.

The husbands had no expressions on their faces, no emotions, walking like zombies.............

不错

 

不错 = bùcuò = not bad; pretty good. It means "so-so" in English, doesn't it? But it's a sincere complement in Chinese.

你放心好

 

你放心好 = nǐ fàng xīn hǎo = put your heart at ease

Chinese Jokes

My good friend, Bill Ng, sent me the below jokes, so that I might better learn the Chinese jokes.  I'm still translating, and, with the help of my Chinese teacher, I am learning the Chinese humor.

Thank you, Bill, for sharing these with me.

哪里哪里（先来个老掉牙的）

   一位外国朋友不知道中国人的“哪里！哪里！”是自谦词。一次他参加一对年轻华侨的婚礼时，很有礼貌地赞美新娘非常漂亮，一旁的新郎代新娘说了声：“哪里！哪里！”不料，这位朋友却吓了一大跳！想不到笼统地赞美，中国人还不过瘾，还需举例说明，于是便用生硬的中国话说：“头发、眉毛、眼睛、耳朵、鼻子、嘴都漂亮！”结果引起全场哄堂大笑。

中国人喜欢打架:

   一位美国友人回国，请他谈谈观感。他说：“在你们这儿吃一餐饭，要打三次架。”

他解释说：“一进餐厅，为了推让座位，主客就开始互相拉扯，接着上菜，主客又要你推我挡一番，最后为了付账，更会展开一场精彩激烈的争夺战。”

不是东西:

   一位自命为中国通的教授，向他的学生讲授中文课时说：“中国人把物品称为‘东西’，例如桌椅、电视机等等，但是有生命的动物就不称东西，例如虫、鸟、兽、人……等等，所以，你和他都不是东西，我自然也不是东西！”

中国太奇妙了

有位美国朋友访问了中国后，对翻译说：“你们的中国太奇妙了，尤其是文字方面。譬如：‘中国队大胜美国队’，是说中国队胜了；而‘中国队大败美国队’，又是说中国队胜了。总之，胜利永远属于你们。”

True Importance

 

http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/12/15/true-importance/

A good man and friend passed away this week.

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101216/NEWS01/12160398/-1

Chinese practice 2010-12-13

My assignment this week is to focus on the following nine words:

1. 头

2. 买

3. 卖

4. 病

丙

5. 疼

冬

6. 痛

用

7. 医

矢

失

8. 院

完

元

9. 住

主

王

Then, I must learn these three new words:

全 = 人+王

身【shēn】 body

嗓【sǎng】 throat; larynx; voice =口+桑

I must make a phrase with each new word.

全部【quánbù】 whole; complete; total; all.

完【wán】finish

Examples:

饭全部都吃完了.

or 饭都吃完了.

功课全部做完了.

or 功课都做完了.
or 功课全部都做完了.

茶全部喝完了.

茶都喝完了.

or 茶全部都喝完了.

全身=全部的身体

你身上有什么?

嗓子很好.

嗓门 = voice

好嗓子 = good voice

大嗓门= loud voice

Yugo Sauk

Now preparing "Yugo Sauk", an old world recipe containing sauer kraut, tomatoes, and onions.  Slow simmering for 4 hours.  I will let you know how it turns out.

My lovely wife & I 2010-12-12

A Chicken Dish with Sherry vinegar sauce

Yesterday, I made a chicken dish with Sherry vinegar sauce.  It was very good, although my wife questioned whether it was worth all the time I spent on it.

Cooking dinners

I'm cooking dinners to give my lovely wife a break.  Yesterday I made beef stew.  It was great!  Tonight I will try making a chicken dish with Sherry vinegar sauce.  Tomorrow, I may try making chunky gazpacho with Sautéed Shrimp.

The Worlds Hardest Tongue-Twisters! ~ English, Chinese, Japanese & Korean 中文的绕口令，早口言葉，혀 비틀어진 사람

The Worlds Hardest Tongue-Twisters! ~ English, Chinese, Japanese & Korean 中文的绕口令，早口言葉，혀 비틀어진 사람 http://goo.gl/ymTT2

A Paradox of Ages

 

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

More conveniences, but less time;

We have more degrees, but less sense;

More knowledge, but less judgment;

More experts, but more problems;

More medicines, but less healthiness;

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We build more computers to hold more information to

produce more copies than ever but have less communication.

We have become long on quantity,

but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall man but short character;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It’s a time when there is much in the window,

but nothing in the room.

Written by His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

China must release Liu Xiaobo – or lose its credibility | Václav Havel and Desmond Tutu | Comment is free | The Observer

 

China must release Liu Xiaobo – or lose its credibility | Václav Havel and Desmond Tutu | Comment is free | The Observer

Christmas Card 2010

 

Now gathering photos and preparing text for our 2010 Christmas card.  I hope to have it completed by tomorrow and mailed on Monday.

Guatemala

My lovely wife just suggested we travel to Guatemala.  Any advice?

Arm Wrestling with my Parakeet

 

Sitting here, watching the snow fall, arm-wrestling with my parakeet, and wondering if I should take the next bus to Trinidad.

Deer in our back yard

This deer was in front of our window this morning.  It was one of six in our back yard.

Snow 2010-12-03

an easy way to post entries to your personal blogs.

Just discovered Windows Live Writer.  It's an easy way to post entries to your personal blogs.

你住在哪里?

 

你住在哪里？我住在俄勒冈州。

ThinkProgress » Former Republican Sen. Warns GOP May ‘Have Gone So Far Overboard That We Are Beyond Redemption’

 

ThinkProgress » Former Republican Sen. Warns GOP May ‘Have Gone So Far Overboard That We Are Beyond Redemption’

A Healthy Lunch

My lovely wife is having lunch at the Culinary Institute, but I must stay home and study. I will have a healthy lunch -- blackberry pomegranate yogurt and a banana.

Geili

Chinese Internet buzzword which means “cool,” “awesome” or “exciting.” Literally, “giving power.”
The Shanghai Daily reported that a Chinese neologism, “geili,” which means, “cool,” “awesome” or “exciting,” had been granted the “official seal of approval” by appearing in The People’s Daily – the official paper of the Communist Party:
“Geili” is created from two Chinese characters “gei” and “li.” Literally, it means “giving power,” but is now widely accepted as an adjective describing something that’s “cool.”
A test of a Chinese jargon word’s trendiness is if users translate it into a foreign language, according to its pronunciation. “Geili” has been transformed into the English-sounding “gelivable,” and “ungelivable,” and the French “très guélile.”
But it was the word’s antonym “bugeili” – meaning dull or boring – that first grabbed wider public attention after it appeared online in May in an episode of a Chinese-dubbed Japanese comic animation.

Leslie Nielson, RIP

Leslie Nielson, RIP

Anna Karenina

Now reading "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy.  Why have I not read this book years ago?  What a great author!

Friends

Friends are like snowflakes -- beautiful and different.

Why I Switched to Blogger.com

Wordpress sucks!  Why did MSN switch to this?  Unlike MSN Spaces, Wordpress is  extremely difficult to use.  I'm switching to blogger. com, which is much more user friendly.

Las Vegas 2010