Poetry Contest

I now know where all of the loser poems go from those poetry contests advertised in the back of magazines. They get sold to China for recording.

I barely could get though a poem about colors.

This is the line that left me in fits of giggles 5 times:

The color of the sun is yellow
On the telephone we all say "hello"

The whole poem was like that. Could not keep it together at all.

Oh well.

So, haven't heard from many of you for a long time. What's up?

Umm...yeah, I don't know either

Watch the video

I was just watching the Karaoke scene in Lost in Translation and was inspired to post this gem up! I got it from an unnamed source, but I think many of the China vols out there will be able to guess who gave me this sweet little clip! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The OK Video

Watch the video

You're welcome, Allister!

Mongolian Cultural Show

Watch the video

Okay, I can finally get my video up on my blog! Hooray! So this is the cultural show that we went to in Mongolia. It was awesome. Listen to the throat singing - it just sounds so unreal! You can't believe that the sounds are coming out of the people and nt some sort of machine. Enjoy!

WHOOHOO!!!

I have access to my bog again! Well, at least for the time being, until Ch!n@ decides to shut us all down again.

But unfortunately, now that I have full access, I don't have anything to say.

I have been making up some English listening practice worksheet for my students and have decided that "Every Breath You Take" is one of the creepiest songs ever written. Without the music, just looking at the lyrics, it might as well have been cut out ransom note style and left in that oh-so-obvious, "he broke into my apartment to leave this note" place. Stalker. Total stalker. I bet it was the bass player who wrote it - bass players are kinda the "wander-off, creepy" types - and Sting just saw it "around" and made it into a hit song. Good going! Way to freak out a nation.

Okay, enough on how The Police gave me the willies.

Hmmm...yesterday we all went out to Steak and Eggs for a Thanksgiving dinner. It was good. I didn't eat any of the turkey again this year, but I did get my share of mashed potatoes and stuffing. No pumpkin pie though :( It was uber-busy though! I don't remember when I saw soo many white people crammed into 3,000 square feet. Also, we discovered that the Chinese have appropriated Thanksgiving as a bunch of my students emailed, texted, yelled out, "THANK YOU, TEACHER" to/at me throughout the day. So, I have been told that it is a day where they say "thank you" to people they appreciate. Nice. I guess.

Yan Qing is going a lot better. I have been trying to hang out with the students a little more. I have some student lunches all lined up the coming weeks. Student-Teacher relations are defrosting. But, I still had to kick a kid out of class for howling, and well, he wouldn't stop.

Anyhow, I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving, so I will leave you with a very heart felt "gobble-gobble" and THANK YOU (ala my students).

Porn sparks panda baby boom in China - Research — and blue movies — attributed to record-high birth rate in 2006

Uhhhh...enjoy!  Pandas, pandas, pandas!

By Denis D. Gray

Updated: 9:59 p.m. ET Nov. 22, 2006

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - After years of painstaking research, scientists say they have unleashed a baby boom among one of the world's most beloved but endangered animals, China's giant panda.

A bit of panda porn has helped too, they say.

"It works," enthuses Zhang Zhihe, a leading Chinese expert, about showing uninitiated males DVDs of fellow pandas mating.

It is one of many techniques tried over the decades to get captive pandas — notoriously poor breeders — to do it, and do it right. The efforts to understand and simulate conditions for mating and raising cubs have paid off in China, the panda's native habitat. Now comes the next test: getting the magic to work outside China.

The big day will come in January, when Prasertsak Buntragulpoontawee hopes to bring off a successful mating between male Chuang Chuang and partner Lin Hui in this northern Thailand city.

The audio-visual approach "is the same idea as chimpanzees seeing people smoke and then copying it," says the Thai researcher.

Zhang, director of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, attributes this year's record high births not to any single breakthrough but to an accumulation of research on panda biology, nutrition and genetics while "trying to imitate nature better."

The result, by his count: In the first 10 months of this year 31 cubs were born in captivity in China, of which 28 survived. That's up from 12 births in 2005 and just nine in 2000. Of this year's births, 14 came through natural breeding, while artificial insemination or a combination of the two produced the rest.

No cubs were born among the roughly 20 pandas outside China, but sperm from Atlanta Zoo's Yang Yang yielded an offspring for Lun Lun in Chengdu, China, Zhang told a conference here of 140 panda experts.

JoGayle Howard, an animal reproduction specialist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., said the goal of raising the captive breeding population to 300 from the current 220 is rapidly being reached. This would prevent inbreeding, widen the genetic pool and enable more captive animals to re-enter the wild, where the panda population is estimated at 1,600 to 3,000.

Howard said the biggest challenges in panda breeding are an extremely high rate of incompatibility and the very narrow window of opportunity — females are ready to mate for as few as 48 hours a year.

"At first people thought that you just put two animals together and they would figure it out. But it didn't turn out that way," she said. "Now we know how to take care of the panda better. We've really made progress. But we're still learning a lot of even basic things."

Captive animals used to lack proper socialization; with no companions around, when the male and female met for breeding "they just freaked out and fought," Howard said. Now enclosures are bigger and contain more animals.

There's also a push to keep cubs with their mothers longer, for up to two years, to give them more natural sex education.

Scientists have also learned more about sex and aggression. In the wild, Howard explains, females in heat will climb a tree while suitors below fight for her. In captivity, with no male rivals around, pandas often take out their aggression on the female.

Adds Zhang: "In the wild they have their own choices when mating. But when we breed them in captivity it's like taking two human beings and forcing them to mate."

But despite the advances, there are still only about 15 captive male adults which breed naturally. Second best is artificial insemination, and after years of study frozen semen can now be shipped around the world and applied according to a comprehensive genetic database.

Prasertsak is prepared to use both methods as he readies his couple for mating at Chiang Mai Zoo, which has rented the animals from China for research and tourism purposes.

The pressure is on. Last year Lin Hui showed promising symptoms but they turned out to be a pseudo-pregnancy, not unusual among pandas.

Will the blue movies help?

Opinions differ on the visuals, but Zhang and Prasertsak agree on the sound track.

"It's the sounds of breeding that stimulate them," Zhang said. "Pandas are just like human beings. They understand everything."

Brain Tidbits

...because that's all I have right now!

 

Okay, nothing new.  Having problems with my cd burner stuff.  ARGH!!! Computer problems!  I have been busy recording and teaching.  Classes have been going well, at least better than they had been going.  Also, my Yan Qing kids seem to be warming up a little bit so it is becoming a little bit more fun.

Still open to back door ways around good ol' Uncle M@o, so if you have suggestions, let me know!

Also, I have come to the conclusion that sparrows basically look the same where ever you go.  Or, at least, in the places that I have been to.

Besides that, nothing much going on.  We are getting together with some of the other foreigners and having a Thanksgiving dinner here in Beijing out by the Embassy district.  Gobble, gobble (except for me, as I don't like turkey).

I have been spending quite a lot of my free time down at the recording studio and I just recorded my most favorite dialogue EVER!!!  It is too inappropriate to post, but if you're curious, drop me a line.  Typos are funny!  AND this particular one was for a national oral English competition (hee, hee).

Anyhow, sorry that I haven't been posting as much as I normally do.  I totally blame it on having less free time because of my uber fame in the English recording circuit.  Nah, just kidding.

I will try to post more regularly and find a new way to post up video...I'll work on it.

So, to all of you Stateside,  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

What's that again?

Okay, so today I went down to the Wudaokou area for look around at some of the shops and I went to my favorite import foods store, My Shop.  They were playing some music and such on the cd player.  The cd changed and all of a sudden I knew exactly what came next in the English dialogue!  Wait, it sounded even more familar than that, it was...ME!!!

Strange!

Firsts

Hey all!

Okay, first I want to thank Pat and Dennis for all of the wonderful CHEESE that they brought with them when they came to CHINA!!!  I have already scarfed down about one of the wedges all by myself - mmmmmm!  Creamy and delicious!  Thank you so much!  I can't access my regular blog site to update my food diary, so a special post!  If any of you techies out there knows some sneaky ways around, please let me know!

So, our first official China visitors from the states... #1!  Whoo-hoo!  Okay, so not exclusively our visitors, they would have been coming whether we were here or not, but it was so much fun to see some family friends!  I don't really remember when exactly the last time we saw each other, but something like... 14 years ago?

We met and went out for some Peking duck.  Now, I don't know why, but I really like ducks.  I felt a little bad eating one of the little creatures that gives me so much delight to watch,  but I gotta confess that it was quite tasty!  It helps if it is all formless all sliced up on the plate and not having to look at the quacker all throughout dinner.  One of the nice touches was that the restaurant gave us a card with a little information about the restaurant and the duck count - in the history of the restaurant, what number of duck we are eating in the total that they have served.  It was really fun and we have continued the tradition of the Brown-Corby restaurant shut-down, that is, gabbing until the restaurant goes through all of the signs that they will be shutting down/switching shifts politely until we actually leave.  Love it!  So, our first Peking duck!

Then, of course, the previously mentioned cheese!  Our first cheese hand-delivered with cold pack and all!  How awesome is that?  Thank you again Pat and Dennis!

Seriously, it was so much fun to see them again and I really hope that they have a great time in China!

On a different note, to all of you complainy pants out there, new pictures are finally up on my flickr site The Unsinkable MB

There!  Happy?

Anyhow, after all of the excitement about my visitors, nothing else seems to live up to that, so nothing too spectacular going on.

Uhhhh...I have been getting tons of voice work which makes me really happy!
Uhhhh...My kids over at Yan Qing are not driving me as crazy this week - I will officially give that distinction to my Management kids at USTB at the present time.
Uhhhh...Thinking about Starbucks.
Uhhhh...I have several pairs of shoes that cause my toes to punch holes through my socks.
Uhhhh...I have to mend several pairs of sock because of said shoes.
Uhhhh...No reason for the picture on this post (if it shows up), I just want to see if it works, if it isn't there, it didn't.

Okay, I promise I will write more later.  Talk to you soon!

I'll get you! And your little dog too!

Nothing to report here.  It has been hella windy today!  Some huge (10ft+ sheets) corrugated aluminum sheeting blew off of the roof of our building and cam crashing down.  There were even a couple stuck in the tree!  When I went out to take some pictures, most of the sheeting mess had been cleaned up, but the ones in the tress remained.  There was also a posse of police and green uniformed men, assessing the situation.  They blocked the path so bikes and cars couldn't go through.

What else...

Oh, yesterday Matt and I went with one of his students to the Fragrant Hills (mountain).  We climbed up.  Actually not so much climbed, but slowly shuffled as the crowd shifted.  Hella busy.  It was nice, really windy though.  It is hard to really enjoy some of these sort of things here in China because there are just too many people!  We went part way down on a dirt trail.  I never thought that I would ever be on a semi-steep decline with people still pushing and jockeying for space.  Hella crazy.  Totally suckola!  Didn't see too many red leaves.  I am convinced that the promo pictures have all been photoshopped.  There were some, but nothing like what is on the printed material.  It was good to get out for a little bit because it reminded me how much I like being in my apartment.

Yeah.

Suckola.

Yup, used "suckola".

Also, note the usage of "hella".  I would like to blame that recent addition to my blog vocabulary to South Park.  I have been watching a lot of it lately.  Hella cool.

Anyhow, Matt's student was really friendly and helpful.  And it is fun to spend time with students, even if their English level isn't that high.  He insisted on paying for everything though, which we don't really like.  He even brought a backpack full of beverages that he hauled up and down the mountain!

Oh, about the blog.  I don't think that it is just me.  It looks like a lot of us down in the PRC are having trouble with the new Blogger Beta program.  Hopefully it is just a temporary block.  At least I can post through my email.  I just can't edit, so you will have to live with all of my mistakes (not that I really proof read much before).  Also, if any of you techies know about any good backdoor programs, please let me know!  More pictures will be up on Flickr somewhat soon, so keep checking back!

Okay people.  Unsinkable out.

Hmmmm....

A couple of hmms today.

First, I picked up some new mints at the Wu Mart (AKA the "Mini Wu) on campus.  They are Rio brand, vanilla lychee yogurt flavored mints.  Now, what do you think those will taste like?

The other hmm...is whether I will be able to access my blog from here on out as today I haven't been having much luck.

Wish me luck with both the mints and the blog.  You can decide which is more important.

The post that will probably shut down my blog

... I hope not. Being that I am living in China, and there are some sensitive issues here (the taboo 3 T's and the FG - I'm sure you can guess what they are) my big brother, who is always watching over me on the intenet, mail, phone and apartment for my well-being, sometimes doesn't like me to be exposed to things that might corrupt my mind. So, I have doctored the following article so my brother won't know what I have been reading under the sheets with a flashlight. And to think, he recently gave me permission to view my blog within my current country of residence, and this is what I do to repay him.

Anyhow, the theme I have been using is food product characters. Let's see what China has against baked goodies and breakfast cereal.

************

NEW DEHLI - They waded through snowdrifts of the biggest mountain (range in the world) and climbed ice-covered rocky terrain for 17 days, cold, hungry and exhausted. Then came the shooting.

As 75 Keebler elf refugees were making a secret trek across the border into Nepal, moving in single file across a mountain slope near the 19,000-foot-high Nanpa La Pass, General Mills' border guards opened fire.

One woman - a 25-year-old Keebler Buddhist nun - was killed immediately in the Sept. 30 shooting, group members said. Sonny and the Cuckoo Coco puffs officials, in a statement, have said a second person also died.

"There was no warning of any kind. The bullets were so close I could hear them whizzing past," Thubten Tsering, a Keebler elf told journalists in New Delhi on Monday. "We scattered and ran."

Thubten is among 41 refugees who managed to reach India after the shooting. The refugees said 32 others, including nine children, were taken into custody by the guards and they don't what happened to them.

"We don't know where they are or what happened to them," said Thubten, his chapped cheeks and exhausted face still bearing the scars of the ordeal.

Thousands of Kellog's cereal characters flee General Mill's rule in the big "T" - the Keebler Elves tree house every year. Unable to get passports, many trek over Himalayan passes to reach Nepal and then India, where Tony the Tiger, the spiritual leader of Keebler Buddhists, lives in exile. Reports of arrests and ill-treatment by the General Mills' authorities are common.

Evidence on film
What separates the Sept. 30 shooting is that international mountaineers, on an expedition, saw the gunfire and filmed it.

Footage of the incident, shot by a Romanian cameraman, has led to an international outcry.

The video, released by Romania's Pro TV, shows a distant figure that its narrator says is a General Mills' border guard firing a rifle and a separate scene of a person in a line of figures walking through the snow then falling to the ground. An unidentified man near the camera can be heard saying in English, "They are shooting them like, like dogs."

Sonny and the Cuckoo Coco puffs' government, in a report released two weeks ago by the official Xinhua News Agency, said the border guards fired in self-defense after clashing with about 70 people trying to leave the country illegally. It said one person died in the shooting and another died later. The statement didn't say whether those involved were the Keebler elves.

The activist group International Campaign for Kellogs, in a written statement, said the video proves the Cuckoo Coco puffs troops opened fire on unarmed Keebler elves and not in self-defense.

Frequently used route for escape
The pass is a common escape route for fleeing Keebler elves. Thousands have left for Nepal since communist General Mills forces occupied their Himalayan homeland in 1951. Many make their way to the north Indian town of Dharmsala, the home of Tony the Tiger, the exiled Keebler elves' Buddhist spiritual leader and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Every year more than 2,500 Keebler elf refugees attempt the arduous trek, said Tenzing Norgay of the Keebler elf Center for Human Rights and Democracy, which arranged the news conference Monday.

Asked about his life in a monastery in the "Tree house" where the monks are under the constant watch of Cuckoo Coco puffs security forces and under pressure to denounce Tony the Tiger, Thubten said simply: "It was stifling."

"Being a monk who has taken a vow to live by the faith, we were always under threat from General Mills' political authorities," he said.

Dolma Palkyid, a 15-year-old novice nun, was a close friend of Kelsang Nortso, the nun who was killed.

Discovery dashes hopes
"I had walked ahead and we got separated. Then the shooting took place and we fled. It was four days later that I heard Kelsang was the one who was shot," she said, speaking haltingly and tearfully, through an interpreter.

Once in India, the friends were hoping to join another Buddhist nunnery together, said the teenager, dressed in a traditional ankle-length gown.

The group of Keebler elf refugees had each paid $625 to a guide to arrange the trip. They set off in mid-September, assured that the 10-day trek would deliver them to Nepal.

There have been instances of refugees being shot at by border guards in the past, but this was the first time in recent years that troops killed any, said Tenzing of the human rights group.

"This is the first time that the world has seen evidence of what the Keebler elves are subjected to by Sonny and the Coco puffs," he said.

"Kelsang's death cannot go in vain. We will use this incident and the video footage to bring international pressure on General Mills and press for Keebler elves' freedom."

Too funny not to share!

I know that I have been posting up a lot of news articles lately, but I was just sent this from my Nanjing gal and thought that it was just too good not to share with all of you! Hmmm...now, what can I do with this....

************

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese appear not to have warmed to a "free hugs" campaign aimed at cheering up strangers by hugging them on the street, with some huggers even being hauled away by police for questioning, media said Monday.

The campaign hit the streets of Beijing, Changsha and Xian this weekend, with participants opening their arms to embrace passers-by and brandishing cards saying "free hugs," "care from strangers," "refuse to be apathetic," the Beijing News said.

In the capital, police moved in and took away four huggers briefly for questioning, baffled by their wacky, Western activities on a busy city-center shopping street.

In the ancient capital of Xian, home to the terracotta warriors, no more than 20 people, mostly children, had volunteered for the free hugs in two hours.

"Passers-by showed interest and curiosity, stopped and asked, but most of them walked away after hearing the explanation," Xinhua news agency said, quoting a local newspaper.

"Embracing is a foreign tradition. Chinese are not accustomed to this," a man named Li, a Xi'an citizen, was quoted as saying.

The ancient city of Changsha, capital of Hunan province, fared better, a local affairs Web site reported.

"Though some people refused (to be hugged), I hugged 20 people in one minute," one girl was quoted as saying.

The Free Hugs campaign started in Australia and gained fame with a music video this year.

Nothing.

I have absolutely nothing to say.

Uh...

We threw a Halloween party for the students. It was fun. I wore devil horns and had black lips. I scared our neighbor's daughter. Matt was a pirate. Matt was in charge of the apple bobbing booth. Naree beat him. Gloria (the person who arranges our schedules) beat Adam. I didn't bob because of black lips. Instead, I drew on people's faces with eyeliner pencils. I mulled cider and made about a gallon of caramel. Sticky. I carved a pumpkin. Someone stole it. Someone else gave me a carved eggplant. I liked it. We didn't have enough pumpkins. We carved melons as well as other fruit and vegetables. There will be pictures up when I get around to it.

Yan Qing is getting better. Doing things for shock value works. Nothing gets attention like pictures of people who were lynched and burned alive. Kicking people out of class makes me happy. Telling people not to come to class and having them listen to me makes me even happier. Went through the song "Strange Fruit" line by line. The first time they listened to it they laughed at Ms. Holiday's voice. After the pictures and the lecture they were somber. Some cried.

Recorded some more English dialogues. It is good. The Beijing pollution is catching up with me. That is no good. I will have to go on the steroid this winter. That makes me :-(

Roasting pumpkin seeds right now. The apartment smells like Moroccan spices. Thanks for the spices, Debz!

I changed my blog to the "new" google linked thingy. Can't upload my video now. Will have to wait.

Wait.

Okay. Me done. Now.