TRAVEL BLOG

Advertorial So as I told you guys, my car sponsorship with DUO Rewards is that I get to change my car once every 4 months! The time has come to change my Sylphy into something else, and I actually felt quite sad!! In the short four months that I drove her, she has become a huge part of my life... It's no wonder that people who drive hardly ever can bring themselves to go back to public transport. Having your own vehicle, your own private space to travel that you don't have to share with strangers, having a powerful feeling of freedom that you can go anywhere you please... It's a seductive feeling indeed, even with a rental car!! I've always told Mike that him picking me up to drive me home in Laopokasaurus (that's what we call Mike's car) and me taking a cab home by myself technically isn't much difference since I'm chauffeured in both cases. But when I am on a cab I feel like I'm still on strange grounds, like I cannot completely unwind yet. I sti

  This week marks a time when Americans celebrate a uniquely American holiday—Thanksgiving. No other nation marks this time, and as Americans have become accustomed to having a day set aside as a national time of refreshment and rest, the meaning of the season has often been lost on football (also uniquely American), tons of food—turkey ad nauseum--and the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Even this year, stores cannot wait til “Black Friday,” so called because the day after Thanksgiving on Thursday is the busiest retail shopping day of the year that brings billions of dollars to stores. In 2012, that was a $59 billion dollar day. This year, shopping starts after dinner on Thursday. Has the nation lost its mooring to the original intent of this time? In 1789, George Washington, a freshly minted first President and Father of a new nation, proclaimed a time to be set aside for all Americans to honor God in a time to give thanks for the blessings bestowed on a country that was br

So I was just saying that it is tough for me to continue blogging because I don't usually turn on my computer anymore, I just use my phone. AND IT JUST SO HAPPENS I FOUND LIKE THE BEST APP TO BLOG FROM THE PHONE!! Introducing my DAYRE !!! Been using Dayre for a few weeks now to try to update more... The app is really really a breeze to use and very addictive! Basically it seems to be quite simple. 12am to 12am constitutes a "day". In chronological order, whatever you update that day will be consolidated into one blog entry!! You can also post an unlimited amount of photos, videos, text and cutest of all, put really fun stickers (ala Line) on your blog post!! A Dayre sticker I found myself updating quite a bit there... And even though the content tends to be quite mundane and is mostly made up of baby pictures, at least some blogging is better than no blogging!! (right???) Today for the first time ever I went to the web url http://dayre.me/xiaxue to see how it looks like

Today marks the 50 th anniversary of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35 th President of the United States, in downtown Dallas, Texas. A huge shock to the nation, it singlehandedly affected the entire population at once and forever changed the image of news coverage in the US as well as the leading cause of the end of the “Age of Innocence” in America. Also, the tragic loss of JFK was a harbinger of how vulnerable society was to violent acts and violence in general. As an 8 year old living in southwestern Pennsylvania, I remember distinctly this day. Although it has been fifty years to the day, I still remember the announcement by our elementary school principal over the loud speaker in our room, and how the entire teaching staff and some students reacted to the news pronounced slowly and haltingly by a grown man not typically known to be emotional. Many of the female teachers screamed and ran into the hallway, crying out loud and shaking. Some of the students in my

Choking is the mechanical obstruction of the flow of air from the environment into the lungs. Choking prevents breathing, and can be partial or complete, with partial choking allowing some, although inadequate, flow of air into the lungs. Prolonged or complete choking results in asphyxia which leads to anoxia and is potentially fatal. Oxygen stored in the blood and lungs keep the victim alive for several minutes after breathing is stopped completely; but unless the choking issue has been resolved and life saving measures have been implemented in time, you could die. According to the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide, a person who is choking will instinctively grab at the throat. The person also may panic, gasp for breath, turn blue, or be unconscious. If the person can cough or speak, he or she is getting air. Nothing should be done. If the person cannot cough or speak, begin the Heimlich maneuver immediately to dislodge the object blocking the windpipe. The Heimlich mane

Many people worry about losing their hair, especially if they are going through certain medical procedures or illnesses that can cause loss of the hair on their head. However, some baldness is caused by the body’s reaction to some drug therapies, and some is due to genetics. Also, aging has an effect on losing your hair. There are multiple reasons that cause baldness. According to the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University, baldness, also known as alopecia, is hair loss, or absence of hair. Baldness is usually most noticeable on the scalp, but can occur anywhere on the body where hair grows. The condition is more common in men than in women. Hair loss is believed to be primarily caused by a combination of the following: ·          Aging ·          Change in hormones ·          Illness ·          Family history of baldness ·          Burns ·          Trauma ·          Untreated ringworm of the scalp ·          Deficiency in iron or protein intake ·          Exc

I know you've all missed my blog entries, the ones that aren't advertorials. I've had my longest hiatus ever since Dash was born, the longest break I ever took from blogging in ten years. And weirdly enough, it's this period of time that the most exciting thing happened in my life (having a baby) and I've had so many new interesting experiences and revelations to blog about, but I haven't been doing it. I wish I had the time to. Let me explain a little about TIME. The concept of TIME is a confusing one... My geeky engineer husband told me that time won't exist without the speed of light and that if you can go faster than light, you can time travel. Or something to that effect - naturally I didn't understand him, developed a headache and then decided it's best not to try to understand. Now after being a mom, the concept of TIME has also changed for me. It used to be I'm not really aware of time wasting away - everyday I'm just happy doing my u