Once moved to Shanghai, I noticed that time spent on commute becomes almost unbearable. Taxis are hard to find during peak hours and even if you are lucky to find one, the hours you could end up spending on roads could easily drive people crazy. The roads are usually a parking lot with cars coming from all directions and people honking, cutting lanes or making stunts to get ahead. The subway are quick and punctual; but, first, it is very, very crowded and secondly, when a beggar or junk mail spreader turns up, they could make me easily regret for a whole day for deciding to take a subway.

Then, I found audio books at www.audible.com. With less than $10 subcription fee, I could download the latest audio books and put them into my ipod instantly. it is my saver!! I suddenly could not be bored to death when sitting in the car in vain. (I tried newspapers, but they could only make me dizzy after 10 minutes. And I want to relax my eyes if I could). The site has more than 25,000 titles and I could find books easily by genre, awards or by popularity ratings. It enables me to keep track of what’s most popular, sensible or controversial in US and the audio technology helps me to continuously improve my English skills. This service seems to satisfy all small, but important desires in my heart. I just can not stop raving the service and the business model!! (BTW, it could be a destroyer to Focus Media too. When people could make use of their idling time well, will Focus Media be disappeared in China? Maybe…)

Thought this site would be a great candidate for another copied-by-China idea. But, first, we need to create all the audio books and secondly, we need to fight for copy-right breachers. I know how to do the first. Not sure how to get the second right???

I hate ads sent out by Focus Media. Their ads are like virus, sneaking in all my personal space. No matter I take a taxi or subway, no matter I step into the office building or my apartment, they always follow me. There are countless Chinese companies, willing to throw thousands to get their face time with consumers. No effective tracking system also gives Focus Media a big advantage. It changes the game and eliminates competitors. Focus media now just needs to buy placements with loads of money and make noises. The only thing merchants could check is how long their ads are on… Focus media could still boast that their ads are targeted and effective.

I don’t respect focus media because their ads don’t bring me any value. Their ads invade my personal space, but I have no means to turn them off!! In some sense, Jiang Nanchun builds his fortune on the sacrifice of me… and other nameless and powerless consumers who might feel the same.

Just relearned the solar system because Pluto was recently classified as “dwarf planet”. And the news flew from newspapers to TV stations quite fast. 

The inner solar system contains the sun（太阳）、Mercury(水星）、Venus（金星）、Earth（地球） and Mars（火星）。

The planets of the outer solar system are Jupiter（木星）、Saturn（土星）、Uranus(冥王星） and Neptune（海王星）。 Pluto is classfied as dwarf planet now.  

The textbooks in China for the coming fall couldn’t reflect this change made by the late August. I heard teachers were worried because probably the first time in the history, the black-and-white prints will no longer be telling the ”truth”. The text-auditing committee claimed they chose not to revise the textbooks because editting textbooks is such a serious thing and it has to be approved by layers of authorities. It makes me wonder why the textbooks in China can only spread doctrines but encourage questioning and exploration. How about just put it as “Whether Pluto is a planet in the solar system is still under debate. Pluto was discovered in 1930 and considered as a planet since. This school of thought has been challenged by many scientists and in Aug 2006, Pluto was classified as a dwarf plant by the International Astronomical Union. However, the new classification also has many dissentents. Some scientists are working very hard to reverse the decision. Thousands of debates are still there about the universe since human being only knows it so little. If you are serious about the Astronomy, the below are the reference books. Welcome to explore the mysterious universe…” When could teachers in China give up the role as the authoritative figure but be a cheer leader among millions of knowledge-seeking kids?           

杭州知味观-味庄是西湖边上的老字号的饭店。甜点还是满招人喜欢的。

雪媚娘：是我看过最漂亮的点心之一，原来是用糯米、奶油和芒果粒做成的

西湖花港的锦鲤和接天的莲叶

本小姐的见解如下：

• 光明牌益生菌酸奶显然是比美国的”Yoplait”酸奶好喝。（不过吗，益生菌这个名字满吓人的，估计凡夫俗子也不懂那是什么东西。要是直翻成英文，更是要把国际友人都吓个半死：what? benefit-generating bacteria yogurt??)
• 中国菜市场里蔬菜比美国Ranch 99里的味道好多了。估计是土生土长，还没有用那么多化肥的关系。先生曾发表感叹说，回中国后厨艺大进，其实全都是因为原材料的素质有了显著的提高。
• 饭馆了，这就不用多说，中国有句古话说民以食为天。中国餐饮业的蓬勃兴旺发展成为海外游子还乡旅游的重要理由之一。
• 针对于美化身体的各类服务啦：从头到家，从内到外，从上到下，品种齐，项目多，收费从廉到超贵，都有选择。美国呢，这方面服务的发展就落后多了
• 使用互联网，干什么都不收费：不知道是从哪个商人起头，反正是马大善人把这门武功登峰造极了。帮人网上开店居然不收费，由网络公司出人、出力、出钱，真的是活雷锋呀。美国吗，不管是干什么，网上还是网下，有利可图而且没有成本的事情估计找不到了。