Posted on 29 September 2008 @ 12:43 in People
I remember being very excited about my trip to Vancouver in 1997. In addition to seeing cousin Robert and his family, I was also going to watch the “coming out” episode of the Ellen sit-com. It was one of the most anticipated events of that year, and I was going to watch the premier (I think that’s what it’s called). Unfortunately, as I arrived only that morning, I found myself dozing off during the show. No worries, I got to see repeats later on.
Things didn’t go so well for Ellen DeGeneres, the sit-com’s star, for a few years after that. Ellen herself talked about it during a recent episode of her talk show. In contrast, The Ellen DeGeneres Show is one of the most popular talk shows on TV today. Last night, I put on my FaceBook status that I was watching the show, and received two comments about it. Both comments were positive, and showed what a widely diverse audience Ellen is reaching.
She is funny. She is good. She is caring, too. And she lives up to her name (generous).
Last night’s show was her birthday show, featuring clips of her 50th birthday celebration. Sitting next to her was her life partner, Portia. Looking at her, I found myself thinking “mmm … she’s come a long way from that other woman. Good for her.”
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Posted on 18 September 2008 @ 16:22 in Stress Busters, Travels
I wrote an article for the Pandas International newsletter, about my recent volunteer trip to the Bifengxia Panda Base.
Full story here
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Posted on 16 September 2008 @ 09:05 in News, Stress Busters
One of the worries coming out of the May 12 earthquake was the possibility that panda births would be down this year. But to many people’s surprise, this has not been the case. In fact, since July 2008, there have been 14 cubbies born in Bifengxia!
Guo Guo – twins on 6 July
Ying Ying – single cub on 13 July
Long Xin – twins on 21 July
Bai Xue – twins on 26 July
Cao Cao – twins on 6 August
Fei Fei – single cub on 8 August
Zhang Ka – single cub on 26 August
Zhu Yun – twins on 3 September
Ye Ye – single cub on 14 September
Probably the most special birth is Fei Fei’s cub born on the first day of the 2008 Olympic Games.
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Posted on 13 September 2008 @ 09:41 in Pictures
We’re all familiar with the spectacular opening of the Olympics 2008 games in Beijing, especially the sight of Li Ning being hoisted up to “run” mid-air around the stadium before lighting the Olympics flame. Well, here’s something even more spectacular.
Hou Bin of China, a Paralympic Gold medallist climbs a rope to light the Paralympic flame during the Opening Ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games at the National Stadium on September 6, 2008 in Beijing, China (direct link to copyright picture)
I saw the lighting of the Paralympics flame by chance – I was channel surfing when I came to the CCTV English news channel just as Hou Bin was lifting himself and his wheelchair up to where the “wick” of the flame waited to be lit. I tell you, I’ve never seen anything so awesome and touching in my life.
More Paralympics pictures here.
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Posted on 8 September 2008 @ 16:55 in Personal, Writing
I keep remembering something Robert Raymer said at the July 2008 MPH Breakfast Club event. He said we should write for ourselves before anything else (not his exact words but what I remember of it). He said a lot of the time we are posting comments on other people’s blogs when we should be writing for ourselves. The time spent reading and posting on other people’s blogs should be spent writing for ourselves.
During my recent excellent panda adventure trip, I wrote most nights into my AlphaSmart Neo, which would be my personal offline journal. I also posted on the Pandas Unlimited group on Flickr. I’ve been home almost three weeks, and I’m not doing very well with posts I mean to write about the trip. Why is that? Is it because I have already written about the trip, altho not here, but elsewhere? In which case, maybe I should just repost what I have written elsewhere? I could do that for a start, as a way to jumpstart the posts I have in my mind that’s exclusively for here, and not elsewhere.
No, it’s not going to work. Different time, different place, different frame of mind …
*goes to bang head against wall*
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