Madness In The Middle Kingdom

A hilarious blooper from a newscast. I laugh every time I watch it … you?

Some headlines just hit you like a fist in the face and this was one of them.

I am a great fan of Paul Newman’s work and I was saddened to read of his passing. He was a phenomenal actor and there will never be another like him.

I would say of all his movies my favourite was Cool Hand Luke. The movie was a tour de force and if you haven’t seen it you should. Paul Newman as the anti-hero and he did it better than anyone.

For the Canadian readers of this blog I have not overlooked his role as Reg Dunlop in SlapShot which is a movie I am sure he hated but it is true to the heart of every hockey fan. Cool Hand Luke however is just a tad better.

Below are my 2 favourite scenes from Cool Hand Luke: 1) How he gets the name Cool Hand Luke and 2) Singing “Plastic Jesus” after learning of the death of his mother.

When we posed this question to famed Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi

She replied “No but I do have kidney stones.”

To the companies of Sanlu, Mengniu and Guangming all I can say is thank you for putting profit first before the lives and safety of children. There is a hell and it is waiting for you!

Going a bit retro again .. all the way back to the year 2004 .. can you remember where you were? The crazy clothes we used to wear? The crazy hairstyles? Aaah the good old days .. where have they gone?

Well May 28th, 2004 was the day my life changed for good. Little Carter Xiaolong Brown was born. Back in those days a blog was simply unheard of .. I think the internet had really just got rolling then. Anyway Carter never got his due in terms of the birth announcement so here it is complete with a photo of the newborn.

One of the happiest pics I have.

Alice was given a promotional VCD (similar to a DVD) that teaches kids various things they need to know like washing hands and of course how to use the potty. Below is a segment from the video that makes me laugh every time I see it. If you feel the urge to go the bathroom during this video I won’t blame you.

What’s the title mean? Just watch

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節, zhōng qiū jié), also known as the Moon Festival or Lantern Festival is a popular East Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness. It is held on the 15th day of the first lunar month which happens to be this Sunday (Sept. 14th).

The typical food eaten (and given as gifts) are the mooncakes (月饼; pinyin: yuè bĭng). The mooncake is in celebration of Chang’e - the Moon goddess of Immortality.

I have tried several varieties of mooncakes but largely I find them kind of pasty and some are akin to eating a hockey puck. In my view the mooncake is the Christmas cake of the Asian world. Alice disagrees.

Standard mooncake

Drop the puck!

Always sold in decorative boxes to make up for the taste

Novelty - The Nokia Cellphone Mooncake

There are four main traditional fillings used in moon cakes.
* Lotus seed paste (莲蓉, lían róng)
* Sweet bean paste (豆沙, dòu shā)
* Jujube paste (枣泥, zǎo ní)
* Five kernel (五仁, wǔ rén)
In recent years there have been many other non-traditional fillings which include chocolate and Brandy. The outer pastry part can be chewy, flaky or tender depending on your individual tastes.

Due to its connection with the Autumn harvest I would say this festival could be considered the Chinese Thanksgiving. As typical with many Chinese festivals you can expect a lot of eating and fireworks and karoake.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to you!

Carter did a lot of falling down last night despite having his blades on for an hour. Tonight he fared much better …. within 10 or 15 minutes he was able to get from one side of the living room and back. Great progress my boy!!

The video evidence is below .. yeah it’s more walking on wheels than blading but you gotta start somewhere.

This weekend Carter got a bug up his arse about rollerblading. This was a kid who was adamant only a few short weeks ago that he was not going to skate on ice, play hockey or rollerblade. True to the fickleness of a 4 year old he has done a 180 on the whole thing. Two nights ago he told me he was going to ice skate and learn to play hockey so that he and his cousin Marshall could play when they grow up. When I asked him about rollerblading he said no because he did not want to break his leg like me.

Today in the play area square of our apartment complex he saw a boy with rollerblades and decided that he would give it a go. He bugged us all day about getting a pair so tonight just to end the silence we bought him a pair.

He took to them right away (in terms of enjoyment not skill) and we had to fight to take them off him for bathtime … videos to follow

Just scanning some old photos this weekend (we bought a new printer/copier/scanner).

I want my hair back

But maybe I could ditch the facial hair

Sigh

Having only started this blog with the birth of Nathan in 2006 I realize that we have a hard drive full of Carter’s first 2 years (and our life before kids) on this planet. This post is a small snippet of a great trip to the Bowron Lakes we did in August 2004 when Carter was only a few months old. Unfortunately we didn’t do the Bowron Lake Chain cause we were weenies with a new baby and we didn’t really camp either. We stayed in a cabin.

Here is Carter with his requisite camping jacket.

The slideshow below shows the highlight of the trip .. a helicopter ride to the top of a mountain. We were up on the mountain for about 15 or 20 minutes and it was like being on top of the world! I would ride in a helicopter again in a second if given the chance.

You probably don’t immediately know who Don Lafontaine is by sight but if he spoke you would recognize him immediately as the guy who does the voiceovers for movie trailers. Sadly he died today leaving a vacuum in the voiceover biz. Still not sure who he is .. watch the video below.

He is so famous that he is parodied by comedian Pablo Francisco in this hilarious segment

Next to James Earl Jones Don Lafontaine is probably the number one voice heard around the world. We here at MIMK are saddened by the sudden silence.

As children progress through the Chinese school system the school uniform becomes an integral part of their educational experience. Carter has now entered the age where he is required to wear a uniform (but only on Mondays).

I can’t say I am proud of it but he shows it off with pride.

The uni itself is alright but what the heck is with that hat?????

Well .. the title needs some explanation. Marshall had a DVD called Crazy Frog that Carter and Nathan fell in love with this summer. Nathan had some trouble saying Crazy Frog and instead it came out as either “Breezy Frog” or “Greasy Frog”.

A pretty annoying little creature that Greasy Frog but catchy as well

Here’s an excerpt