Entries for January, 2006December 31st, 2005
Happy New Year!
Posted by MikeyMike at 06:24 PM on December 31, 2005 in Congrats!.
Almost that time!! Happy New Year everyone! 2006...
Watch the ball drop at Times Square Here (IE only!)
Auld Lang Syne (means Times Gone By)
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days of auld lang syne?
And days of auld lang syne, my dear,
And days of auld lang syne.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days of auld lang syne?
We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pu'd the gowans fine.
We've wandered mony a weary foot,
Sin' auld lang syne.
Sin' auld lang syne, my dear,
Sin' auld lang syne,
We've wandered mony a weary foot,
Sin' auld ang syne.
Heard about this from Gema (Kir):
Eating 12 Grapes
on New Year's Eve
Agustina Pascual from Spain
For a long time, Spanish people have had a traditional custom to celebrate New Year's Eve. On the last day of the year, the 31st of December , they wait until twelve p.m. Everybody has to have twelve grapes ready to eat when the clock starts to chime. It is traditional to listen to the clock from Puerta del Sol in Madrid.
When it is midnight, each time the clock chimes, they put a grape in their mouth. By the time the clock has finished chiming, everybody has to have finished their grapes and the New Year starts, but nobody finishes eating the grapes on time.
Eating the grapes is very funny because everybody starts the New Year with a full mouthful of grapes. It's almost impossible to finish eating the grapes by the time the clock finishes chiming. Normally people still have all the grapes in their mouths, and they start looking at each other and have to laugh.
You can imagine what would happen if the laughed with all the grapes in their mouths. It's really difficult to have a second to swallow them. I think you can imagine the rest of the story.
This tradition started in Spain because one year when there was a big grape harvest, the king of Spain decided to give grapes to everybody to eat on New Year's Eve.
Currently listening to: Auld Lang Syne
Su Lin Adopted!
Posted by MikeyMike at 07:17 PM on December 31, 2005 in Congrats!, Geographica, Kawaii, Wild.
Lord - I hope that she's "potty trained"!! 
Just got her today...
Actually, I'm one of many contributing to her maintenance... Cutie, ain't she??
January 2nd, 2006
The Sydney Opera House A 7TH Wonder?
Posted by MikeyMike at 05:56 PM on January 2, 2006 in Geographica, Arts.
Blimey mates! Looks like the famous Sydney Opera House could be a contender for exclusive fame. An organization is taking nominations for a modern "Seven Wonders of the World". Instead, this time they are using modern technology (The Internet) to determine the winners from around the world. The winner will be announced on 1 January, 2007... Good luck Oz!
The sifting process has taken six years so far, since the initiative's launch in 2000 by The New 7 Wonders Foundation, which aims to protect manmade heritage.
Project organiser Bernard Weber said he wanted people to vote for the new seven wonders by internet or telephone.
"The ancient Seven Wonders were declared by a single man about 2000 years ago, so I thought as a millennium project it would be fun to combine the latest technology ... (and have) all the people of the world select what they decide to be the new Seven Wonders of the World," he told ABC Radio.
The 21 finalists are: The Acropolis, Athens; Alhambra, Spain; Angkor, Cambodia; Chichen Itza, Mexico; Christ Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro; Colosseum, Italy; Easter Island statues, Chile; Eiffel Tower, France; Great Wall, China; Hagia Sophia, Turkey; Kyomizu Temple, Japan; Kremlin, Russia; Machu Picchu, Peru; Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany; Petra, Jordan; Pyramids of Giza, Egypt; Statue of Liberty, New York; Stonehenge, UK; Sydney Opera House, Australia; Taj Mahal, India; Timbuktu, Mali. More Here
Website: http://www.new7wonders.com (You have to PAY to call voting phone number)
Mikey's picks: Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera House, Eiffel Tower, Angkor Wat, Alhambra, Spain (only "new" or unknown to ancients) What are your picks??
Get a 1024x786 wallpaper version of above Here
January 3rd, 2006
Cantonese Is Losing Its Voice
Posted by MikeyMike at 03:57 PM on January 3, 2006 in Geographica.
I've been hearing the same thing...
Speakers of the spicy tongue that can make words of love sound like a fight are having to learn its linguistic kin, the mellower Mandarin.
By David Pierson, Times Staff Writer
Carson Hom's family has run a thriving fortune cookie and almond cookie company in Los Angeles County for 35 years.
And for much of that time, it was a business that required two languages: Cantonese, to communicate with employees and the Chinese restaurants that bought the cookies, and English, to deal with health inspectors, suppliers and accountants.
But when Hom, 30, decided to start his own food import company, he learned that this bilingualism wasn't enough anymore.
He checked out the competition at a recent Chinese products fair in the San Gabriel Valley and found that he couldn't get much further than "hello" in conversing with vendors.
"I can't communicate," said Hom, whose parents are from Hong Kong. "Everyone around used to speak Cantonese. Now everyone is speaking Mandarin."
Cantonese, a sharp, cackling dialect full of slang and exaggerated expressions, was never the dominant language of China. But it came to dominate the Chinatowns of North America because the first immigrants came from the Cantonese-speaking southern province of Guangdong, where China first opened its ports to foreigners centuries ago.
It is also the chief language of Hong Kong, the vital trading and financial center that became China's link to the West.
But over the last three decades, waves of Mandarin-speaking mainland Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants have diluted the influence of both the Cantonese language and the pioneering Cantonese families who ran Chinatowns for years.
More Here
January 8th, 2006
Your Closest Relative??
Posted by MikeyMike at 05:44 PM on January 8, 2006 in Geographica, Wild.
You thought I was kidding??  And guess which World Famous Zoo has been helping to preserve the bonobo for over 40 years?
Some scientists believe that bonobos are the most intelligent of the primates (other than humans, of course!). Maybe that’s because, genetically, bonobos are considered our closest living relatives. They share many of our human behaviors, such as teaching their young social skills, using tools to get food, and working together for the good of the entire troop. Scientists have taught a few bonobos, housed in labs, how to communicate with humans by using symbols that represent words on a board. They can understand spoken words and reply to questions or ask for things by pointing to symbols. Bonobos even laugh when they are tickling each other or playing together, and they do other things that may remind you of some people you know!
Sadly, there are few bonobos left in the wild and so they are considered the most endangered of the great apes. Humans continue to move into bonobo habitat, hunting these amazing apes for food and selling their babies into the pet trade. Commercial logging operations create new roads to harvest timber, giving people easier access to hunt or capture many rain forest species. There are also few bonobos in zoos. The San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park have successfully bred and maintained these intelligent and curious apes for over 40 years.
More about our cousins the bonobo Here
Currently feeling: U belong in the Zoo
With 16 You Get Eggroll
Posted by MikeyMike at 06:15 PM on January 8, 2006 in Geographica, Kawaii, Wild.
Update: Video of the new Panda arrivals!! Here
And... everything Panda at Panda Fix dot com!
Staffs holding giant panda cubs have a group photo taken on November 11, 2005. [newsphoto]
"For all of you interested in an update on the 16 panda cubs born this year at the captive breeding center in Wolong, China, see the link below. Recall that Hua Mei’s latest cubs are among this group, and would be two of the three youngest there." Suzanne Hall - SD Zoo Panda Specialist
More Panda Blogs Here
January 16th, 2006
Better than iPod Design?
Posted by MikeyMike at 10:56 PM on January 16, 2006 in Tech, iPod, Rants.
Here's an interesting article about the 2006 CES show, overflowing with iPod wannabes. This design guy is tired of all the iPod hype, but can't see anything out there at is any threat at all to the iPod design. I have to agree. I didn't start out an Pod fan. I tried and used and found massive design flaws of one sort or another in all the others I used or read about, especially with Microsoft supplying the software... Basically bricks with buttons...
If you have something else and it works for you, great. But my advise for people looking is to examine the ipod lineup first. Have someone at the Apple store, or a friend that has one show you how the interface works and listen with good headphones. Check out the article Here
Currently listening to: my iPod
January 17th, 2006
Mariah
Posted by MikeyMike at 07:27 PM on January 17, 2006 in Arts, Performers.
Love this video!  You must run it in IE for it to work, sadly...
Q: How come all her videos look like you stumbled in to a soft porn site?? I wanted to put up We Belong Together, but it won't let me add that one yet...
Click here to launch music video
- I'LL BE THERE (LIVE)
- BUTTERFLY
Currently listening to: I'll Be There
January 18th, 2006
'Idol' Season Five Begins: America, Brace Yourself
Posted by MikeyMike at 12:57 AM on January 18, 2006 in Rants, Arts, Performers.
HEHEH, It's that time of the year again, but Mikey never gets to watch, since he is always at work on Tuesday nights... 
"American Idol" kicks off its fifth season on Tuesday (January 17) with what will inevitably be a horde of hideous singers with a few truly talented ones sprinkled throughout.
It's the same formula the show has relied on since the beginning,
and for many fans, the auditions are their favorite part of the season. Certainly the popularity of William Hung after his unforgettably out-of-tune rendition of "She Bangs" proved America's fascination with the not-so-"Idol"-like.
On the other end of the spectrum, however, are those who find the first episodes cruel and a waste of valuable time that could be used putting more real singers in front of the judges and the cameras — something the producers and judges find themselves explaining this time each year.
"This is not a show that goes out and says, 'Listen, find me the crazy, weird singers, that's what I want to show because I want to be cruel to people,' " Randy Jackson said recently. "That's not even remotely what we do. We're just showing you a cross-section of what's out there, because we can't believe it as much as you can't believe it. We're like, 'What?!' "
By airing the bad, however, some might argue that it encourages the talent-less and attention-starved to give it a whirl. But Jackson and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe believe that's rarely the case.
"People genuinely think that they have it, and they are convinced that they have it," Jackson said. More Here
My American Idol Signup Page Here
What sign should I be?
Posted by MikeyMike at 01:04 AM on January 18, 2006 in Arts.
Got this from Sasha...
You Should Be A Cancer
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What's good about you: you're incredibly kind, caring, and generous
What's bad about you: you can be too moody and impossible to understand
In love: you enjoy wining and dining the object of your affection
In friendship, you're: likely to depend on other friends for emotional support
Your ideal job: historian, marine biologist, or religious figure
Your sense of fashion: you dress to match your mood
You like to pig out on: classic home cooked meals, like mac and cheese
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January 22nd, 2006
Auspicious undies the rage for Malaysians for lunar New Year
Posted by MikeyMike at 06:36 PM on January 22, 2006 in Geographica.
Hey, where's my auspicious underpants!!
Fri Jan 20, 9:54 AM ET
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Good luck charms are usually worn around the neck or on the wrist. But this year, Chinese Malaysians are wearing them under their pants.
Red men's underwear emblazoned with auspicious animals and characters have become the rage among Malaysian Chinese ahead of the Chinese lunar New Year holidays, the New Straits Times reported Friday.
Red is considered an auspicious colour among the Chinese, and an essential component of feng shui, the Chinese belief of improving fortunes.
Retailers are cashing in by stocking up on these unique items for the Year of the Dog, which begins on Jan. 29, the Times said.
Its article was accompanied by a picture of three young women laughing while looking at a cut-at-the-waist mannequin wearing the reversible bright red briefs with Chinese characters in gold. The underwear can be worn inside out to reveal red characters on gold fabric.
"Red underwear make up three of every 10 boxes of underwear we sell daily," the Times quoted sales assistant Nabila Ramli at a department store as saying. More Here
January 24th, 2006
Panda Pileup
Posted by MikeyMike at 02:35 AM on January 24, 2006 in Geographica, Kawaii, Wild.
New Picture!
This where they throw the pandas that don't quite work out... 
Kidding! Really it's just a scrum of sleeping babies at the Chinese Panda Research Center
Currently reading: Zen and the Art of Panda Maintenance
New Baby Su Lin Pic!
Posted by MikeyMike at 04:29 PM on January 24, 2006 in Geographica, Kawaii, Wild.
My baby Su Lin showing mega-cuteness at the World Famous San Diego Zoo...
Try the baby panda puzzle Here
Panda Dog
Posted by MikeyMike at 08:41 PM on January 24, 2006 in Kawaii, Doggies.
How to save stray dogs... ( Dori: Looks kinda like BB, huh? :>) Looking like a Panda can pay off for the rescued stray... here's more about this story:
A dog named 'Columbo', a cross-breed between a poodle and a Maltese and dyed to look like a panda, sits on a chair in Tokyo November 30, 2005. The owner dyed the originally white coloured dog, with a special hair dye to cover up stains around its eyes which was conspicuous when he was first found abandoned. As a result, the panda look-alike became the most popular dog in the neighbourhood and the owner said he hopes Columbo's popularity will help rescue other abandoned dogs like Columbo, where in Tokyo last year, 700 of them were put to sleep. (REUTERS/Toru Hanai)
My lil' Pony
Posted by MikeyMike at 11:16 PM on January 24, 2006 in Rants, Kawaii.
Guess who this is, back in the day?? 5 years old in San Diego, when you could buy a house one block from the ocean for $20,000(!)
This is the picture you can never escape from - the one all your relatives have when you come visit... 
January 25th, 2006
'Stanford On ITunes' Is For Everybody
Posted by MikeyMike at 04:05 PM on January 25, 2006 in Tech, iPod, Arts.
Here's the wave of the future. Now you can can tell the parental units you need that iPod to learn... 
Kate DuBose Tomassi, 01.24.06, 10:00 AM ET
NEW YORK - In an unprecedented move, Stanford University is collaborating with Apple Computer to allow public access a wide range of lectures, speeches, debates and other university content through iTunes. No need to pay the $31,200 tuition. No need to live on campus. No need even to be a student. The nearly 500 tracks that constitute “Stanford on iTunes” are available to anyone willing to spend the few minutes it takes to download them from the Internet.
While a number of other universities are now using iTunes to distribute class-specific content to their students, including Duke University, Drexel University’s School of Education and the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Stanford is the first to make a substantial amount of recorded university events available to the public at large.
“One of Stanford’s primary missions is to educate the public,” says Scott Stocker, director of Web communications. Allowing the public to access the content “just felt like the right thing to do,” says Cindy Pearson, director of alumni programs.
Duncan Beardsley of Stanford’s class of 1959 says he has already downloaded about 30 tracks from Stanford on iTunes since the public launch last October. A lecture called “Trials and Truth” from a series entitled “Classes Without Quizzes” originally piqued Beardsley’s interest. He’s also downloaded lectures about global warming, why baseballs have stitches and correlations between how baboons and humans live. More here
Click here to Connect to Stanford on iTunes
Currently listening to: Stanford on iTunes
January 27th, 2006
San Diego Tet (Lunar New Year) Festival 2006
Posted by MikeyMike at 11:52 PM on January 27, 2006 in Congrats!, Arts, Performers.
Hey the Vietnamese are celebrating in a big way here. There are other celebrations, but this one is being held at Qualcomm Stadium, where the San Diego Chargers play... I do notice that they will have Lion Dancers...
*waits for Adam's reaction*
Happy Chinese/Lunar/Tet New Year!!
San Diego Tet Festival 2006
Join NBC 7/39 at the San Diego Tet (Lunar New Year) Festival 2006, held January 27, 28 and 29 at 10 a.m. The event hosted by the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance of San Diego takes place at Qualcomm Stadium, with the highlight being the Miss Vietnam of San Diego contest Saturday, Jan. 27 at 5 p.m. See more Here
Who will be Miss Vietnam of San Diego 2006??
January 29th, 2006
American Dragons Dance
Posted by MikeyMike at 06:03 PM on January 29, 2006 in Arts, Performers.
One in five in America was born in another country, or is first generation...
Great imagine for Chinese New Year/Tet, huh?
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MikeyMike Mike from (Spring Valley) San Diego, CA
Uses Nikon P5000 digicam and Nikon D70 DSLR for most pictures here.
Mike's Crazy Hours (Pacific Time -8):
SUN: 10am-9pm
MON/TUES/WED: 3pm-1:30am
THU/FRI/SAT: Off - ;)
mavila_92111 AT yahoo DOT com
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