ET… Blob

Last night when I was visiting someone, there’s this car that stopped right at the exit of the round-about, so the round-about was blocked… I did a short “beep”, then the car went double orange lights flashing (打雙燈). So I had to drive pass the round-about using the other side… When I drove pass that car, I saw a young girl crying… half doubting whether I should help (and whether it’s safe in the dark), I got off the car, and asked the girl if there’s anything I can help… apparently she got into a fight with her bf I think, and her bf pulled the park brake so hard that it’s jammed and the car’s stuck blocking the road. Thoughts ran across my mind… “what kind of bastard would do this to a young girl??” “maybe I can try to pull the brake” “what if it’s a trap” “boys should take care of girls!!” “I don’t like that boy, whoever it is” “can will calling car insurance help?” “only if there’s someone strong enough around” “can we knock on someone’s door for help?” ……. I gave a pat on the girl’s shoulder and tried to comfort her… then we took turns in trying to un-jam the park brake… after maybe 5 mins (not that long), we managed to loosen the brake - both of us had to pull it up the same time. How fortunate!

Now… I hope the girl’s ok, seeing her cry makes me think about boy/girl relationships, and how immature some people can be. I mean, leaving a girl stranded in her own car and blocking the road - really, the one who did it was so selfish!! Anyway… I’ll remember to pray for her…

I remember hearing people say that leaving the TV on for children will “help them pick up more words”. However on the contrary, study shows that this is not true. Instead, the steady stream of noise coming out of the TV makes no sense to children, hence it doesn’t help them learn. What teaches children speech is interaction with the usage of words and phrases. This is what enables children to learn how to express themselves. Bringing up kids can be an enormous challenge. At the same time, I believe this is also a very rewarding experience for the parents.

Study finds TV bad for baby brain development
From correspondents in Washington, Agence France-Presse, June 02, 2009 09:52am
(from news.com.au)

Having the television on constantly in a household with infants and toddlers is bad for brain and language development, a US study claims.

The study claims the constant television noise reduces the number of words kids hear and say.

It found that for every hour that the television is on with the volume turned up in a household with small children, the children heard between 500 to a thousand fewer words from adults.
[Read the rest of this entry...]

Once again, another recipe I’ve deemed a success.
Well, the basic biscotti ingredients I got it from another source, then I tweaked the amounts so that it suits my taste better
e.g. reducing the amount of sugar, replace soda with a combination of self raising flour and plain flour (cheaper too), replacing the fruit/nuts used, etc etc etc.

Ingredients:
1 cup self raising flour
1 1/2 cup plain flour
3 eggs (lightly beaten)
approx 2 cups of nuts (when I made it, I used around 1 1/2 cups macadamia and 1/2 cup walnuts)
lemon zest from 1 lemon
some lemon juice (~1 tea spoon)

Method:
1. sift self raising flour and plain flour into large bowl
2. combine eggs, lemon zest and a little bit of lemon juice (to give some moisture)
3. combine the above into the flour mixture
4. when nearly combined, knead until it comes a dough
5. knead nuts into the dough
6. split dough into 2 long doughs, width of around 4 inches, thickness of around 1 inch
7. bake in oven for 15 mins
8. take out dough, cool for 5 mins, then cut each dough into thin slices
9. lay the slices flat on the baking tray, bake for a further 10-15 mins or until slices are dry
10. done! these can be kept for up to 3 weeks if placed in an air-tight sealed container

最近TVBJ重播1992年兒歌金曲頒獎典禮, 真讓人懷念丫! 其中一首就是以下的歌, 到現在還是覺得好聽.

長腿叔叔 (HK TVB ~1992)
主題曲: 夢中天使
主唱: 唐葦琪

心中的牽掛 悠悠講給天空知
每一串夢兒 埋藏我的心事
簡單一封信 朦朧愛意話你知
盼會交到你手上 心中的天使

藍色的天空任鳥飛 水邊青青小草讓我躺
心中永永遠遠懷念你 你是我家
長腿叔叔你好嗎 交出溫馨的心是你嗎
可否某個季節來伴我 解開牽掛

I feel gloomy after reading this news article… The world needs a lot of prayers… The financial crisis is only one part of it. At the end of the day, it’s all in people’s hearts, and that is where prayers are needed.

(from news.com.au)
Greed at the heart of the global financial crisis: Pope Benedict
Agence France-Presse
April 22, 2009 09:57pm

POPE Benedict XVI says “greed” is at the heart of the financial crisis gripping the world.
“This crisis was born out of greed,” the pontiff said during his weekly general audience.

The Pope cited eighth century religious figure Ambroise Autpert, who criticised the wealth of monasteries at the time.

Autpert “denounced greed as the root of all evils. In light of the current global economic crisis, this is still the case,” the Pope said.

Too many kids, teenagers and young adults are addicted to computer games nowadays… It’s really worrying, yet they simply don’t realise that they’re addicted. Society nowadays is so different from 20 years ago; in the way technology is used, and in the way people interact.

Game addiction is linked to the upbringing of the child. Parents have need to put in a lot more effort into influencing their children and in teaching them the morals and values of living in the society. With the Internet, the whole world’s information is out there, parents can no longer “lock in” their children. Then there’s peer pressure, and many other exposures through the media.

Controlling game time is one method in preventing game addiction, but helping young gamers understand is far more important. It’s like the story about whether you should teach someone to fish or whether you should just feed them fish. The first step to ‘fixing’ an addiction is to find its underlying source, then tackle the problem from beneath… Anyway just read the article, I’m starting to not make any sense…

(from news.com.au)
1 in 10 young gamers shows signs of addiction, study finds
April 21, 2009 08:45am

• Study compares gamers with gamblers
• Looks at 1178 children and teens in US

ABOUT one in 10 young gamers shows signs of addictive behaviour that could have negative effects on family, friends and school work, according to a new study.

The US study of 1178 children and teenagers found some young gamers showed at least six symptoms reminiscent of a gambling addiction.

These included lying to family and friends about how much they play games, using games to escape their problems and becoming restless or irritable when they stop playing.

They may also skip homework to play games or spend too much time playing and do poorly in school.
[Read the rest of this entry...]

嗯… 今晚在city… 想說吃完飯再回家. 看見有一家叫”旺角”的, 可能是跟Sunnybank同一家? 只知道我吃完就很後悔… 我點了日式咖哩雞飯, 結果雞肉又乾又硬, 白飯有怪味, 咖哩吃太鹹, 我真的再也不敢回去吃, 寧願在家裏自己煮好了… -_-” West End 那家 Jackpot 煮的也不錯吃, 不過真的不敢再去city的旺角了.

Before heading home, we went to city’s “Orient Corner” for dinner. I ordered a curry chicken rice, and it was probably the most disgusting thing I’ve tasted in months… it was deep fried chicken, so the crust was ok. But the chicken inside the crust… it was like 3mm thin, dry and hard (probably over fried), the rice tasted weird (you can tell it’s not fresh, or it’s bad quality rice), and the curry sauce was way too salty… I regretted eating there but finished the meat anyway since I’ve already paid for it. No way I’ll be going back though :S I’d rather go to West End’s Jackpot and their food is way better than this.