Madness In The Middle Kingdom

Today I kicked off work a bit early to spend time with Carter on his 4th birthday. We went to the playground area in The Emporium shopping center where Carter spent a lot of time playing a driving video game. He drives at least as well as the average Chinese driver. We followed it up with dinner at McDonald’s. The evening was capped off with cake at home family and his best buddy Magnus.

Having his cake and eating it too

Presents from Mom and Dad … he also got a scooter which he loved.

Who would have thought 4 years would pass so quickly. You are becoming a very handsome boy and a great kid. We love you more and more each day.

Hope you have a great birthday today!

Love Mommy and Daddy

2004 - 1st day out of Mama’s tummy

2005 - A laughing 1 year old

2006 - A 2 yr old’s trip to the zoo.

2007 - Still laughing at 3 years old

Without supporting photos I can only give the update which is that Team Gray defeated Team White by a score of 4-0 to take the 2008 Dong Bei Cup title. Although the score was lopsided the play was not. The White Tigers were unofficially the people’s champion with the majority of the crowd cheering us on and hoping for us to win but we could not capitalize on their good faith. After the game we had plenty of comments indicating we worked our tails off.

It’s all over for another year … except the bragging that is.

As reported in the previous post Team White (White Tigers) were victorious in the semi finals against Team Black (Black Rats). Here are some pics of the action

Me trying desperately to get around Shaun Forde

Scoring a goal.

Darren Seath trying to get me the ball … yes the 2 Darrens

Celebrating our Cinderella upset!

The White Tigers

Despite going 0-3 for the round robin we entered the semifinals on a high about our recent improvement in play. We faced a tough opponent in Team Black (Black Rats) who were 3-0 but we emerged victorious as 8-7 winners in OT.

Only Team Gray stands between us and the Dong Bei Cup!

White Tigers!!

One week ago today at 2:28 China Standard Time a 7.9 earthquake rocked Sichuan province for 3 straight minutes of what must have been unbelievable horror.

At 2:28 pm today at our school we joined the entire nation of China in standing and mourning the victims of the quake. We stood quietly for 3 minutes as emergency alarms, air raid sirens, bus and car horns wailed in memoriam. After which we stared at each other in silence and despair as tears streamed down our cheeks.

2:28

At the Engleson Files Craig wrote a post about the bad luck that China is having during this Year of the Rat and ended the article querying, “Year of the Rat what have you done?” ( Click here for his story

A summary of the issues China has before it in 2008

• Blizzards in Southern China strand hundreds of thousands and force people into near starvation as supplies and food cannot reach millions
• Passenger train goes off the track hitting another train killing 400 people
• Tibetans riot in Lhasa and neighbouring provinces putting egg on the face of the government
• Worldwide protests against China’s handling of this issue and their general human rights record
• Devastating earthquake in Sichuan province kills between 20,000 and 50,000 people (at latest count)

A little investigative journalism on my part has turned up a potential cause as explained in this story from the Canadian Press

Feng Shui master Raymond Lo says animal astrology could explain why China is off to a terrible start in 2008 - the long anticipated year of the Beijing Olympics.

Lo said part of the problem might stem from the birthdates of China’s current leaders - president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao. Both were born in 1942, The Year of the Horse.

In Chinese astrology, 2008 is The Year of the Rat and, according to Lo, this is part of the problem.

“Chinese people believe in animal astrology,” Lo said in a telephone interview. “In animal astrology we know the horse clashes with the rat. This is a very common thing, well known among Chinese people. So if you are born in the Year of the Horse, because of the clash against the rat you will have a turbulent year.”

Lo offered a remedy. He said carrying an ox pendant - for people such as Hu and Wen - could help ward off problems, because the ox is seen as a friend of the rat.

I am not superstitious at all (my mathematical training has seen to that) but in this case in light of the tragedies China has seen I am urging Mr. Wen and Mr. Hu to wear one of these

It can’t hurt can it?

Mom,

If I were in Canada and could actually bake a cake AND your name was Martha I think it would look something like this

But I am not there and there is no way I could bake a cake like that and your name isn’t Martha so instead you’ll have to settle for this humble birthday wish from all of us

Happy Birthday from the gang. We love you and we miss you.

Yours truly in an all too familiar checking role.

Well the Year of the Rat has definitely been unkind to the White Tigers team. We have been outclassed in our first 2 contests being doubled in each by scores of 8-4 and 4-2. Tomorrow we face Team Black for the first time. They are a very strong team with plenty of hockey experience and so we are in tight. Regardless of the outcome tomorrow we will be facing Black again in the semifinals so tomorrow is the tuneup game.

Last week we used Rocky III’s Eye of the Tiger for inspiration but it was to no avail. Our real inspiration should have been the 1982 Los Angeles Kings who performed the miraculous feat of knocking off the powerhouse Edmonton Oilers in the postseason. The Kings did it in fine form after being down 5-0 heading into the 3rd period they managed to score 5 unanswered goals to send the game into OT. Capping the greatest single game comeback ever they scored to win the game 6-5.

We will do our best … no one can ask for anything more.

The 1982 comeback in video

By now you have no doubt read that a large earthquake rocked central China near the city of Chengdu. While the quake was enough to shake buildings in far-away Beijing and Shanghai we did not feel anything in Dalian and only read about it on the news.

This is truly a devastating event and my prayers go out to the many families who have suffered from this tragedy.

A young boy is rescued from the rubble .

To my mother and to the mother of my boys … Happy Mother’s Day.

The two of you did a great job raising 3 fine boys!

To all the other Mother’s out there who may read this .. the same wish goes out to all of you.

This is to the boys of Team White - The White Tigers. Let’s take it back boys! Let them look into the Eye of The Tiger

Well the first game of the Dong Bei Cup V tournament is in the books. Unfortunately for the White Tigers (Team White) we came out on the losing end of an 8-4 decision. The first half was owned by Team Grey as they mercifully unloaded on our goalie Craig and it seemed like we didn’t do much to stop them. Physically we were in great shape but mentally we just plain beat ourselves. Score at the half was 6-1.

Fast forward to the second half where we took the brakes off and let it fly outscoring the opponents 3-2 and outchancing them by a wide margin but their 5 goal cushion was more than enough to take the W. We finally started playing to win rather than playing not to lose and what a difference it made. Their goalie had to come up big several times which unfortunately he was able to do.

2 more exhibition games to go - one on Thursday this week and one next Thursday. Stay tuned to see if the White Tigers can maul their opponents.

For the humility of it all a little Beck ditty simply titled “Loser”

Several weeks ago we headed out to the Deer Park (our favourite/only grassy park area) and Carter desperately wanted to get a kite and fly it. He had been playing a Winnie the Pooh computer game where Pooh Bear flies a kite and so he wanted to give it a go.

Alice found a kite vendor and bought him this super cool SpiderMan kite

Nathan wanted to get in on the act.

Getting ready

It’s hard to run with that little hefty kid and fly the kite at the same time

Sadly we didn’t get any still shots of Carter with the kite but I did manage to get a few seconds of video. He flew it twice and then just wanted to kick a ball around.

Lately Carter has had quite the hankering for French Toast and wants some EVERY morning. Today I decided to enlist his help on the production end of things. He was pretty good with dipping and flipping the bread but where he really excelled was eating the bread.

Congratulations to us (that would be Alice and I) on five wonderful years of marriage!

I love you babe.

In the Dong Bei Ren song (see previous post) there is a line that says “We all live according to the principles of Lei Feng.” This might beg the question, “Who is/was Lei Feng?”

Lei Feng was the poster boy for self-sacrifice under Mao Zedong’s Communist rule. Although there are doubts as to whether he really existed or was merely a propaganda piece I would prefer to think that he really did exist and was as close to selfless as Mao ascribed him to be.

From Wikipedia

Lei was orphaned at an early age and raised under the wings of the Communist Party. He became a member in the Communist youth corps when he was young and joined a transportation unit of the People’s Liberation Army at the age of twenty. Lei died in 1962 at the age of 22, when a telephone pole, struck by an army truck, hit him while he was directing the truck in backing up. After Lei’s death, his diary was published, and Lei was built up as a good example to the Chinese people to be cheerfully selfless and noble in thought.

From another website

Diligent study of the works of Chairman Mao taught him how to live a life of extreme frugality, to eschew selfishness and to devote himself body and soul to the revolution and to the people. His greatest desire in life was to be nothing more than “a revolutionary screw that never rusts”.

Lei Feng left behind a diary which became an object of national study. On March 5th, 1963 Chairman Mao Zedong called on the nation to learn from the 22-year-old martyr by penning the inscription Xiang Lei Feng tongzhi xuexi (Learn from Comrade Lei Feng). Nowadays the term huo Lei Feng which literally means “living Lei Feng” has become a description for anyone that is seen as selfless, or anyone that goes out of their way to help others.

This Dong Bei Cup I pledge to be our team’s Lei Feng - selfishly helping those around me on my team.