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Short Vowels

ACT	BED	BEG
BOP	BUG	BUM
COD	COT	CUT
DEN	DID	DIG
DIM	DIP	DOG
DUG	FAT	FED
FIT	GIG	GOT
GUM	GUN	HAT
HEN	HIM	HOG
HUM	HUT	JOG
LOG	LOP	MEN
MET	PAN	PEN
RAT	TAG	TIP

Tags: Activities, Games, Pronunciation, Short Vowels

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Categories ESL Wordsheets, Life

This beautiful statue of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy lies in Daxiangguo Temple in Kaifeng, Henan, China. Gold-plated, it is a memorial to both propriety and filial piety, two of the great Chinese Confucian virtues. The story below is a combination of the story told by the tour guide and some local conversationalists who were happy to relate the story to me.

Many centuries ago,

An old emperor of China grew very, very ill and saw that his country was suffering as well. Realizing that the country was troubled and needed heavenly assistance, the worried king called out to Buddha and asked for guidance on how to appease the heavens and reclaim the blessings from above.

Buddha responded that the country and its king had done some very wicked things in the past and that now a sacrifice would be required to repair the damage. Buddha asked that the Emperor offer up to the heavens one arm and one eye from someone within his family. If he did so, Buddhas said, the country and emperor would be healed and would live in peace once more.

The Emperor was very saddened and worried, because the only family he had left were his three young daughters. The Princesses though were very concerned about their father and finally convinced him to share what Buddha commanded. Upon hearing of the sacrifice required, the sisters were quite upset.

The eldest daughter went to her father ~ “My king, although I love you and would do anything else that you asked of me, I cannot do this for you. I am a new mother, my baby is still nursing. If I only have one arm and one eye, how could I possibly care for my baby the way a good mother is supposed to?” Continue reading →

Tags: Buddhism, Chinese, Goddess of Mercy, History, Kaifeng, Legends, Myths, Travel

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Categories China, China, Life, Literature

#PrayersforParis

13 Nov

Paris, You Sent Your Love to Us for Years, Now We Send Our Love to You

Tags: france, hope, Paris

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Categories Life

Image

So Cool!

13 Nov

Tags: book, Book Art, Library

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Categories Interesting, Life

Chinese Cultural Beauties ~ Moderation

11 Nov

The local cafe has recently acquired a new employee devoted to customer happiness ~ Gordy, the resident Koi fish 🙂

Adorable little guy, he swims around in his bowl quite contentedly, entertaining children and adults alike.

Having attempted to keep koi fish myself and discovering a problem wherein they kept dying, I asked the owner how they have kept him alive so long.

One of the beauties of Chinese culture is how often they answer simple questions with ancient proverbs or philosophical explanations.

The owner’s enlightening response was that the key lay in finding moderation. The Koi fish are like people~they are a little strong and a little weak. They have particular environments that they need to survive. If it is too clean and easy, they will be lazy and unhealthy. If it is too dirty and difficult, they will be depressed and find it hard to breathe. They need balance to survive.

So every day, he changes Gordy’s water. But where I would change the water completely, they balance clean and dirty water. They dump out half of the old water and add half with new/fresh water. This way, the water is a lot like the local ponds that Gordy comes from ~ a little fresh water (from rain and connected waterways) and a little dirty water (from algae, dirt, and other natural dirtiers). In this natural environment, Gordy grows both strong and happy.

Go Gordy! Live Long and Prosper!

Tags: China, fish, Funny, Koi, Life in China, Outlook, TESOL

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Categories China, Life

The Wanderess

5 Oct

“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city”

**Roman Payne

Tags: Quote

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Categories Art, Life

Vypr VPN (Update)

29 Sep

Vypr VPN

A while back, I did a review of VyprVpn and mentioned some problems I was having with it here in Asia. Since, I seem to have fixed most of my problems, I thought I would post an update on how it’s going!

VYPR

Price: Same

Check out this post for a pricing run-down

Review: If you do decide Vypr is for you, go through this link for an extra 50% off your first month 🙂

Installation: Easy, but Repetitive

Review: The process for installation is pretty easy. Initially, you visit http://www.goldenfrog.com to set up an account and download the VPN. That process is actually really easy. And I didn’t have any problems with the DNS server when I set it up (unlike with Astrill).

One problem I’ve now run into is that the program keeps stalling (I hit connect and it stalls out, delivering a warning) and I have to re-install it every time I re-start my computer. I’ve got the installation program downloaded now, so all I have to do is re-open it and run through the steps (takes about 3 minutes). But it’s still a little annoying.

Also, the last update doesn’t work for me at all. It just shuts down Vypr.

Use: Easy (pretty much)

The recent update didn’t change appearance any, so the use-process is the same.

When I turn on my computer, I open the program from my desktop. You can set it up to start automatically if you want. The box will look like this:

Untitled picture

If you want to just connect right away, just click the blue connect button. If you want to change locations, click the exclamation mark looking blue button. I have found that I never use the “Fastest Server” setting and I am constantly changing servers. Just a tip, try to run with locations that look like someone no one else would use–the less famous nations on the list.

The little gear in the top right corner is where you can change the protocols. I found however that the only protocol that works for me is PPTP. Anything more and it won’t connect. I also recommend that you set it to “Automatic Reconnect” — Vypr tends to dis-connect and re-connect frequently for me on poor internet servers so I like for it to reconnect without having to repeatedly punch the buttons.

That’s all there is to it! Just click connect and then close the program when you’re done.

Continue reading →