Congratulations to Pirates OF Nate McLouth and wunderkind reliever Matt Capps for making the Pirates 25-man roster. They'll head north to Milwaukee for Monday's game and I'll sleep better knowing Nate will see some time in center and lots of time off the bench, accoring to Post-Gazette reporter Dejan Kovacevik (see link).
On an unrelated note, despite Internet reports to the contrary, the bookstore at Xidan is way, WAY better than the foreign language bookstore at Wanfujing. Right off the subway at Xidan, find the Beijing Books Building, then head to the basement floor for a wonderland of English books from Harry Potter to Amy Tan to a veritable Barnes & Noble "Summer Reading" table of great books, from the classics to current best-sellers. They even had Dave Barry. I was real impressed upon my visit this afternoon. Speaking of new releases, has anyone read the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel? I almost picked it up but decided to wait. Needless to say, I was happy to find a new place to fill some time and spend some kuai.
On the missing home front, it'll be tough to miss Opening Day around the baseball world this weekend. Watch lots of games for me, cheer hard and go Bucs! Oh, and if anybody's got a copy of last year's Cabinet April Fool's edition, check it out and have a laugh for me. I thought of Stewie's giant mug today and smiled.
April 1, 2006
March 25, 2006
The Olympics are coming
I think I mentioned this before. It's the "Please Be Civilized, The Olympics Are Coming" campaign that Beijing is running, urging folks to follow common rules of courtesy. These posters are in a local subway station and probably will be until 2008.
March 22, 2006
Words of a friend
I’m talking on the phone with my Chinese friend the other night when all the sudden she says something that just blows me away. First, some back story… how do I describe my friend, exactly? She’s a year younger than me—which makes her 22—teaches English in the Kindergarten with me, and is a real interesting gal. She likes to laugh, learn new English phrases she hears on her favorite show Friends, and she loves to make fun of me whenever possible. She’s my Chinese tutor this semester (though granted we haven’t had an official lesson together yet) and, for a good example of our relationship, she bought me this baby’s Chinese book so I can learn to speak better—picture me with this round, cardboard book with big colorful animal pictures on a plastic ring, saying “ba ba ba” over and over. See why we hit it off?
Anyway, we’re talking on the phone when all of the sudden she starts saying some familiar words: the passage from John’s book, chapter 3, line 16 that we all know so well. On Monday, she’d been asked to memorize this particular verse as she continues her study of John’s book. She had, she said it to me and then she says that she wants to memorize more, that she feels it is good to do and wants to know if I have more words to share with her. I tell her I do and set up a time to study Chinese and read some more from this book she's so interested in.
This friend doesn’t believe, but she has a real desire to learn more of His words and even to commit them to memory. I’ve been so, so humbled by being a part of a study she and some other girls have been attending (one of whom has already made a commitment!), to see their devotion and seriousness and their earnestness and willingness to learn. How many times do I find myself caught up in doctrine or theology, taking sides and uninterested in spending time with the Author of our faith, remembering His words and listening for more? Each week, as we’re now through John’s third chapter, the girls learn something brand new, and I find myself thinking, for all the things I know and have learned over the years about His Word and about what it means to live the life He calls us to, when it comes down to it, it’s still the simple things that mean everything: faith as big as a mustard seed, listening for the still small voice, a glass of water, a piece of bread, the love of a father, the birth of a child, and remembering the words of dear friend:
“For the Father so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.”
Anyway, we’re talking on the phone when all of the sudden she starts saying some familiar words: the passage from John’s book, chapter 3, line 16 that we all know so well. On Monday, she’d been asked to memorize this particular verse as she continues her study of John’s book. She had, she said it to me and then she says that she wants to memorize more, that she feels it is good to do and wants to know if I have more words to share with her. I tell her I do and set up a time to study Chinese and read some more from this book she's so interested in.
This friend doesn’t believe, but she has a real desire to learn more of His words and even to commit them to memory. I’ve been so, so humbled by being a part of a study she and some other girls have been attending (one of whom has already made a commitment!), to see their devotion and seriousness and their earnestness and willingness to learn. How many times do I find myself caught up in doctrine or theology, taking sides and uninterested in spending time with the Author of our faith, remembering His words and listening for more? Each week, as we’re now through John’s third chapter, the girls learn something brand new, and I find myself thinking, for all the things I know and have learned over the years about His Word and about what it means to live the life He calls us to, when it comes down to it, it’s still the simple things that mean everything: faith as big as a mustard seed, listening for the still small voice, a glass of water, a piece of bread, the love of a father, the birth of a child, and remembering the words of dear friend:
“For the Father so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.”
Our depth in center
You know you're addicted to Pirates baseball when you have a nightmare about losing outfield prospect Nate McLouth to some other team (yes, I'm calling it a nightmare). I remember specifically dreaming last night that Buccos General Manager, Dave Littlefield, made some sort of mistake and McLouth was out of Minor League options, subsequently he was claimed off waivers when DL tried to send him down. Maybe I'm reading too much about Spring Training and thinking too much about our depth in center, but now I'm a little worried (about the fact that I had the dream... and about losing McLouth). Check his options, DL!
March 21, 2006
Hao ting
Chinese popular music is, for the most part, as equally catchy as it is ridiculous. This song [click on the link in the title] is my newest favorite... and it's actually in Mongolian, so I understand the same amount of it you do. I heard this song Saturday night when I was shopping for DVDs, got the MP3 (or as Chinese people say: "M-P-san," which I think is real funny) from a friend Sunday and have had it stuck in my head since. It's called 吉祥三宝, in pinyin: Ji Xiang San Bao, which translates to "Three Lucky Treasures." As my Chinglish-speaking friends would say, have a listen!
I'm fond of telling taxi drivers when a song I like comes on, "hao ting," which literally means good listen or sound, but translates to: I like this music, turn it up, friend! Which they then do. Actually, Three Lucky Treasures is a bad example of Chinese pop music, because it has that "traditional" sort of sound. Most pop music here is like pop music in the States, times ten: really cheesy and is just plain not good, like the song which says: Like the mouse loves the big rice, I love you; we call it "Mice Love Rice." There's the band S.H.E. with the hit song Super Star, whose chorus suddenly says in English, Wo zhi ai ni (I really love you), "You are my super star." When they're not playing Western classics such as John Denver's "Country Roads," Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, or the Eagles' "Hotel California," it's some crazy Chinese pop song played on an endless loop blaring in and from every store down every street. And I swear they've all got the same 5-track CD.
Hao thing, indeed.
I'm fond of telling taxi drivers when a song I like comes on, "hao ting," which literally means good listen or sound, but translates to: I like this music, turn it up, friend! Which they then do. Actually, Three Lucky Treasures is a bad example of Chinese pop music, because it has that "traditional" sort of sound. Most pop music here is like pop music in the States, times ten: really cheesy and is just plain not good, like the song which says: Like the mouse loves the big rice, I love you; we call it "Mice Love Rice." There's the band S.H.E. with the hit song Super Star, whose chorus suddenly says in English, Wo zhi ai ni (I really love you), "You are my super star." When they're not playing Western classics such as John Denver's "Country Roads," Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, or the Eagles' "Hotel California," it's some crazy Chinese pop song played on an endless loop blaring in and from every store down every street. And I swear they've all got the same 5-track CD.
Hao thing, indeed.
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