Thought I was real tired of ADSL , so I switched to Cableplus today. Pretty fast and I just hope it functions well....

1300 RMB for ADSL one-year plan - 512KB

1200 RMB for Cableplus one-year plan- 1 MB

You do the maths....

The download speed is quite impressive.

A speech given by Arnold Schwarzenegger at Tsinghua University

Download RealVideo(42'32''/110M)
Download mp3(42'32'/29M)

The Houston Rockets are experiencing what many called "black November". Back to back games, Tracy's back injury, deplorable outside shooting, Yao Ming getting little support--- all these contributed to and sort of explained the Rockets' current situation- You might scratch your head like Jeff V. Gundy but you must be thinking: What? They are worse than New Orlean Hornets? Yeah, bottom in the southwest division.

  The Rockets are lost....

Some impatient fans, oh, don't forget our passionate Chinese fans have already begun to voice their negative views or suggestions. Use Yao Ming as a tradebait or fire Gundy and find a coach who knows how to run the offense. Some Chinese fans went as far as saying Yao Ming is a disgrace to the country and he is a Mr. Softy (ESPN today suggested that Yao should be tougher when it comes to handling the ball and executing offenses on court). They, too, like the Rockets players counted on Mcgrady as the only hope spiritwise.

You know what I think? Come on, it is just a game. Don't give me the nationalism thing and I enjoy watching a big guy like Yao Ming play no matter how many points he can make. Every player goes through ups and downs in their career. Talking about Mcgrady, I think he slided back to where he was when he was with the Orlando Magic. He tries to carry the whole team singlehandedly to a victory (90% of the time he can't) and we have never seen much of one-two punch (or Shaq and Kobe tandem) between him and Yao. At times it seems no one knows how to pass the ball. And look at the statistics sheet you will know why they lose night after night. Assists? hardly ever.

Go the Rockets, go Yao Ming!

PS.

Something I read from wangjianshuo.com: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20051122_some_recent_magazines_about_me.htm#001185

中国网民：我们可以畅所欲言

Mr. Wangjiashuo, do you 畅所欲言 today?

Cheap garbage!

哈尔滨市人民政府关于正式停止市区自来水供水的公告

　　哈政法字[2005]27号

　　根据省环保局监测报告，中石油吉化公司双苯厂爆炸后可能造成松花江水体污染。为了确保我市生产、生活用水安全，市政府决定于11月23日零时起，关闭松花江哈尔滨段取水口，停止向市区供水，具体恢复供水时间另行公告。望市区内广大市民群众及各机关、企事业单位给予谅解。

　　特此公告。

　　哈尔滨市人民政府

　　二00五年十一月二十二日

Apparently this explosion affected the use of drinking water, no, they practically cut off drinking water in the city. Insane, um?

Cool indeed~~!

I am going to get an apple if the marriage between intel and apple works!

LG NOTEBOOK

NEC notebook

Hitachi Desktop

Logitech USB speakers

Can't log into my gmail account so I had to activate my 163 account again. The interface is neat now with no flying flash ads.

Dennis Rodman's new book- seven time rebounding champion, best ever.

Rodman in a coffin promoting his book

ThinkPad Z Series (Singapore prices - 1 singapore dollar is roughly 5 RMB)

from

$2,455.95

Web price*

The new Z Series widescreen notebooks offer the ultimate multimedia experience
Stylish Notebooks for Work and Life

The Chaterhouse booktrader called me at noon and told me Chris Patten would be there from 3- 4 PM to autograph his new book (see picture 1 below). I took a bus and rushed there only to find it was almost over. So I quickly grabbed the book and asked Patten to autograph my book. He was nice enough to do it for me (see picture 2) and I plucked up my courage and asked if he could take a picture with me (see pic 3). He said, "sure". And he complimented me by saying "you speak good English and you got great accent and blah blah blah.." you know, things that make you really happy.

Cost me 165 RMB. It could be cheaper somewhere else but I feel better when I got my autograph and picture with the author

His book

his autograph in my book

Chris Patten and me

the shop

Read my two previous blog articles at http://blog.donews.com/speaking/archive/2005/09/11/549892.aspx and http://blog.donews.com/speaking/archive/2005/09/12/550960.aspx 

Last weekend I passed the Putonghua test and got my certificate all right.

About Chris Patten-

Christopher Francis Patten was born in 1944. He was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Modern History and was elected a Domus Exhibitioner. In 1965 he won a Coolidge Travelling Scholarship to the USA.

Lord Patten joined the Conservative Research Department in 1966. He was seconded to the Cabinet Office in 1970 and was personal assistant and political secretary to Lord Carrington and Lord Whitelaw when they were Chairmen of the Conservative Party from 1972-1974. In 1974 he was appointed the youngest ever Director of the Conservative Research Department, a post which he held until 1979.

Lord Patten was elected as Member of Parliament for Bath in May 1979, a seat he held until April 1992. In 1983 he wrote The Tory Case, a study of Conservatism.

Following the General Election of June 1983, Lord Patten was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office and in September 1985 Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science. In September 1986 he became Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1989 and was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1998. In July 1989 Lord Patten became Secretary of State for the Environment. In November 1990 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party.

Lord Patten was appointed Governor of Hong Kong in April 1992, a position he held until 1997, overseeing the return of Hong Kong to China. He was Chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland set up under the Good Friday Peace Agreement, which reported in 1999.

He was European Commissioner for External Relations from 1999 to 2004, and in January 2005 he took his seat in the House of Lords.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University in 1999, and elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2003.

Lord Patten married Lavender Thornton in 1971. They have three daughters, Kate (born in 1973), Laura (1974) and Alice (1979).

Lord Patten reads a lot and is keen on tennis and gardening. In 1998, he wrote 'East and West' a book on Asia and its relations with the rest of the world.

香港科技大学丁学良教授日前批评国内经济学家纷纷成为利益集团代言人，认为国内真正意义上的经济学家“不超过5个”。对此说法，你认为：

1、所言极是。
2、苛求经济学家了。
3、难以判断。

Professor Ding Xueliang at Hongkong Technological University criticized some economists (definitely referring to economists on the mainland) for representing different special interest groups. He thinks that there are at most five "bona-fide" economists. What is your opinion?

1. absolutely correct

2. too hard on economists

3. hard to judge

President Jiang was famous for his "three represents" and that was not just for show. Many economists save spoken on hot issues such as housing prices, mobile population in big cities and infrastructure development. I am a laymen and I don't know much about economics but sometimes I know they are talking nonsense. Want an example? You might have read a story about a professor of economics making those misleading remarks about housing development here in Shanghai (in case you haven't read this- he said there is still room for further price increases). That is just insane. Way off the mark.

Driven by money and some materials interests, these economists will say something against their conscience. And this will jeopardize the interests of the people- people like you and me. So who is there to stop these over-educated idiots from making these remarks?

Got off morning classes and arrived home. Just in time for an NBA game. OMG, they are still playing- the second overtime. You know what "toughness" means if you are watching.... Jason Terry put up good numbers but he sucked at free throws in this game. He could have won it for Mavericks in the fourth quarter if he had made both free throws.

Steve Nash is still fast as wind and pitching out those dazzling assits. Dirk is playing real tough. K. Van Horn made two free throws and sealed the victory. Nash last shot attempt failed and Dallas Mavericks won it big, baby. A sweet victory. Without Amare Studmire the suns does lose its explosiveness somehow.

Dirk Nowitzki- 28 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assits and 2 blocks

Steve Nash drove past Jason Terry

Steve Nash- 30 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assits

Jason Terry is what we Chinese would call Xiao He (萧何)- You win because of him  and if you fail, it is because of him too. But he made some wise decisions at the end of the third overtime. Break, break and break- that is what he did and that gave them something to win it.

Think it is safe to walk into a supermarket and pick up food packaged in plastic bags or boxes? According to the Quality Control Bureau, over 50% of one-time (throw-away) plastic dinner sets or trays contain fillers that can cause cancer.  Then why 90% of fast food chains (or takeaways) continue to use these? It is about money. They can save a lot by using these low quality materials.

Liu Xiang- gold medalist at the East Asian Games Macau

This cover story picture is pretty interesting. Americans are still fond of playing these mind games. But it is a lot of fun. And it is a good selling point.