Thursday, July 31, 2008
You know she’s Chinese when…
she wants La Choy crispy rice noodles sprinkled on top of her cake and ice cream.
Passing the baton
I had a final follow-up with my infectious diseases doctor this morning.
After looking at my ultrasound results from last Thursday, he said my liver and spleen were still slightly enlarged but were no larger than the first ultrasound showed during my hospital stay in June.
He is now passing the baton to our family physician so I won’t be seeing the three specialists anymore unless I feel it’s necessary.
Even though it’s a little late in the game, I requested that a copy of my records be faxed to another infectious diseases specialist in a larger North Carolina hospital for review.
Never hurts to get a second opinion, eh?
{extended}Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Daddy’s been left out
What big glasses you have
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Christmas came in July
I’m such a sucker. There…I said it.
Eliana has been begging for a Nintendo DS for a long time. Carmi even said the child prays for one every night. So I crumbled and bought her one.
Doggone it. I took Eliana and Karys to summer camp this morning and walked them in. In the main room, one wall was lined with kids and each kid had his nose buried in a game console. Eliana moped over to the group, dropped her book bag and watched with a long face as the others clearly enjoyed themselves.
I witnessed this same scenario play out again and again but this time my heart really ached for her.
Carmi and I have been telling Eliana that we would consider buying a DS for Christmas. Well, Christmas came in July and the smile on her beautiful face (plus the big hug she gave me later) made the purchase worth every penny.
Garmin announces City Navigator China NT 2008
The 2008 Beijing Olympics are just 10 days away and Garmin has released the City Navigator China NT 2008 in conjunction with the games.
This new application stores nearly 7 million points of interest on a microSD/SD memory card which is compatible with a Garmin navigational device. The names of locations will be displayed in Pinyin. Beijing won’t be the only city to benefit from these maps, though, as they extend to over 980 other Chinese cities, just in case you’d like to take an extended tour after the Olympics is over.
Tourists’ will definitely find these handy, that’s for sure - especially when you’re in dire need for the nearest restroom.
{extended}Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday ride
Eliana’s audience
China: Pride, Protest and the Olympic Games
The Olympics are an irresistible stage for athletes—but also for those who wish to act out their grievances before the world. The Beijing Games, which kick off on Aug. 8, are hardly an exception. While Chinese leaders furiously insist they’re not, and should not be, “political,” these Olympics promise to become one of the most charged in history. Rarely has a more varied array of contentious issues crystallized around a single sporting event.
China is bedeviled by internal problems—human-rights violations, media censorship, corruption, pollution, labor abuses and lack of due process, to name a few. Several “domestic” issues—Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong—have also regularly spilled over into the international realm. At the same time, a host of relatively new, purely international problems have accrued to China as the country has aggressively sought access to natural resources around the world. By dealing with pariah states like Burma, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Iran in order to feed the country’s voracious appetite for oil, timber and metals, Chinese leaders have been accused of playing an irresponsible global role. Their critics would like nothing more than to flay Beijing before a worldwide television audience of hundreds of millions.
Read the entire article from Newsweek.
{extended}Saturday, July 26, 2008
Quake couples can have more children
Parents who were crippled in the Sichuan earthquake have been given the right to have another child. Those whose only child was seriously wounded in the quake can also have another, local authorities have announced.
On Friday, the standing committee of the Sichuan provincial people’s congress passed the long-awaited implementation rules on which quake victim couples were eligible to have more children.
Yang Guo’an, chairman of the education, science, culture and public health committee of the congress, said the decision is in line with people’s wishes and the requirements of the State Council.
A large number of parents whose children died or were crippled in the quake had shown a strong desire to have more children, he told the media.
A survey conducted in the city of Deyang showed more than 90 percent of parents whose children were killed in the quake, are of childbearing age (20-49 in China). More than 74 percent of them plan to have another child. The sample size was not disclosed.
According to the Deyang population and family planning committee, some parents went to the committee just days after the quake, consulting policies pertaining to the birth of new babies. But they had to wait for the detailed rules from the provincial commission.
“Both officials and ordinary people said parents whose children died or were crippled in the quake had to be permitted to have another,” Wang Yukun, vice-chairman of the standing committee of the Sichuan provincial people’s congress, said.
Meanwhile, the more than 5,200 Sichuan parents who lost their children or whose children were crippled in the earthquake will get 100 yuan ($15) a month each, a provincial population and family planning commission official said on Friday.
He Tiangu, deputy director of the commission, said at a press conference in Chengdu that parents will get the subsidy at the end of the year.
It is designed to help parents who lost their children or whose children will not be able to support their families in the future.
In June, authorities in Chengdu said they would pay the subsidy to parents in the city, but this has now been extended to the whole province.
Earlier regulations said parents with just one child would get 60 to 120 yuan a month, depending on their employers, until the child is 18. They would also get a one-off payment of 1,000 yuan, when they turned 60.
[source article from China Daily]
{extended}Married man, married man, drives around in a minivan
Our 3 years of bliss without a car payment has come to a close.
Yesterday evening, Carmi and I paid a visit to a Kia dealership and drove off with a pre-owned 2005 Kia Sedona minivan.
Just in time for a roadtrip next weekend to Charleston, SC.
Woohoo!
Bang, bang
Friday, July 25, 2008
Post-floss checkup
1st grade assignment
We received a postcard today from Eliana’s school.
She has been assigned to a class for the 1st grade. We were given her teacher’s name and information about orientation on August 21.
Time to go purchase that new backpack.
{extended}Beijing Olympics made of Legos
What can you build with 300,000 LEGO bricks and 4,500 mini-figures?
The Hong Kong LEGO User Group kicked off an Olympic-themed exhibition featuring some creative models of Beijing Olympic landmarks such as the Bird’s Nest, Water Cube and Sports Village. Check out these and others on their blog.
Bird’s Nest
Water Cube
Sports Village
