Irene Eng The Kibbitzer

The U.S. economy is on stronger footing than a year ago, but Ben Bernanke wants to be careful not to squelch the recovery now.

“A premature tightening of monetary policy could lead interest rates to rise temporarily, but would also carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery and causing inflation to fall further,” the Federal Reserve chairman told the U.S. congressional Joint Economic Committee today.

The Federal Reserve has kept its key short-term interest rate near zero since December 2008, and expects it to stay there for a “considerable time” as the recovery strengthens, Bernanke said.

Happy Mother’s Day ..
We were stopping for the right light on the Marathon Parkway over the LIE (Long Island Expressway). Suddenly and quickly a woman came out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door. A little boy came out. We all thought he might be vomiting but no. She helped him to pee. My lord. This isn’t a jungle! I thought about a comment Putin made a few years ago that ..

.. This is the reason why everybody is made to believe .. [Russians] are a little bit savage still or they just climbed down from the trees, you know, and probably need to have … the dirt washed out of their beards and hair.”

Apparently, someone might have just climbed down from the trees here.

新文化街 45 号
45 Xinwenhua St Xicheng, Beijing, China
It’s the former site of the 京师女子师范学堂旧址 Jingshi Woman Normal University School when/where Lucy attended. Xiaoyi attended it when it was No. 8 Girls School 女八中. And now its 鲁迅中学, named after the famed author Lu Xun.

Left map is from Baidu and right from Google, both on 2013-03-31

鲁迅中学史

鲁迅中学始建立于1901年，为基督教圣公会创办的笃志学堂，后改笃志女中，1949年后改为北京第八女子中学、北京第一五八中学，1958年迁入现校址，1996年改名为北京市鲁迅中学

Tags: Beijing

This pic was taken back in 2009 (April 22?), I think was at NYU, New York University. The February 14 2003 Rolling Stone issue has an article, The rape of petty officer Blumer. From this article, I watched The Invisible War, a documentary of females being raped in the military.

Injustice or an orgy isn’t for me to judge. What strikes me the most, were couple of vivid moments I couldn’t shake off:
.. a girl/woman said she chose military bec she wanted to see the world (a rather common sentiment among the girls being interviewed in the doc) – she’s from a small town in FL and took the plane for the first time when she joined the army at age of 18.
.. the devotion/consideration they have for the unit they’re in, camaraderie, be a man .. etc.
Maybe just because I had to forfeit a court in the Long Island league, it made me more appreciative of the military’s characters.

David tipped me off on this new book: Tang Wuji’s Philately Memoirs.

邮王，周今觉外孙，集邮家唐无忌集邮回忆录出版，欢迎订购

周今觉外孙唐无忌著《邮林纪事：唐无忌集邮回忆录》赠品请见图

《邮林纪事——》目录如下：
·序
·难忘“拉都路”
·我和集邮
·我的新中国普票情缘
·我的上海老邮商情结
·我的老一辈邮友们
·他们和我一起开始集邮
·参与筹备市邮协随感
·上海集邮人心中的辛人会长
·我的虹口集邮情
·附录：新中国普通邮票印刷与发行阐释
·无忌邮话——集邮随笔选
·跋

—————-
每部43元包邮政挂号

一律供应唐老亲笔签名钤印本
并独家特别配赠二件具有一定意义的纪念品：
一是为唐老出版大著而发行的《集邮文献报》特刊（并在特刊上亲笔签钤）
二是首发式启用的唐老“二维码”名片既藏书票1张（在集邮名片上印有二维码首见）

Tags: Philately

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I got them on January 24. Without any special care, only the New York air and water, they survive till today.
Remarkable.

A wise man vs ..

第一章 学会尊重他人 ­

1．智者满脸微笑，愚者冷若冰霜­
2．智者记住别人的名字，愚者希望名字被记住 ­
3．智者了解别人的心思，愚者表示自己的需要 ­
4．智者善于倾听，愚者没有耐心 ­

第二章 不做无意义的争辩 ­

5．智者先赞同，愚者先否定 ­
6．智者让别人逐步说“是”，愚者会引起 更多争论 ­
7．智者聪慧幽默，愚者呆板无趣 ­
8．智者知过就改，愚者固执己见 ­

第三章 说话不说破 ­

9．智者委婉建议，愚者直白否定 ­
10．智者不把话说破，愚者单刀直入 ­
11．智者三缄其口，愚者口不择言 ­
12．智者委婉拒绝，愚者冷漠反对

第四章 学会随机应变 ­

13．智者说话看对象，愚者盲目乱开口 ­
14．智者善于察言观色，愚者不会“投其所好” ­
15．智者看场合，愚者“一根筋” ­
16．智者谈对方感兴趣的事，愚者说自己 感兴趣的事 ­

第五章 做个让人喜欢的人 ­

17．智者低调谦虚，愚者骄傲张狂 ­
18．智者宽容大度，愚者锱铢必较 ­
19．智者诚实可信，愚者虚伪可憎 ­
20．智者照顾他人的自重感，愚者满足自己的虚荣心 ­

第六章 关心他人，快乐自己 ­

21．智者细微处关心他人，愚者处处为自己打算 ­
22．智者善意赞美，愚者乐于批评 ­
23．智者给人以激励，愚者以冷水泼人 ­
24．智者善于替人解围，愚者遇事避而远之 ­

第七章 高效率做事 ­

25．智者目标明确，愚者糊涂度日 ­
26．智者善于制订计划，愚者眉毛胡子一把抓 ­
27．智者与人有效合作，愚者喜欢单打独斗 ­
28．智者挖掘自身潜能，愚者只会埋头苦干 ­

第八章 行动成就梦想 ­

29．智者付诸行动，愚者耽于幻想 ­
30．智者雷厉风行，愚者拖沓懒惰 ­
31．智者标新立异，愚者盲目从众 ­
32．智者未雨绸缪，愚者亡羊补牢 ­

第九章 不钻生活牛角尖 ­

33．智者淡然看待得失，愚者为名为利所累 ­
34．智者懂得放弃，愚者牢记忧伤 ­
35．智者改善自己的弱点，愚者埋怨自己的短处 ­
36．智者知道变通，愚者死钻牛角 ­

第十章 信心是照亮成功的阳光 ­

37．智者不为打翻的牛奶哭泣，愚者常常 拿过失处罚自己 ­
38．智者克服自卑，愚者被自卑俘虏 ­
39．智者对生活充满热忱，愚者缺乏激情 ­
40．智者为最坏的结果做准备，愚者凡事 总往最坏处设想 ­

第十一章 别和工作过不去 ­

41．智者创造机遇，愚者等待好运 ­
42．智者靠智慧工作，愚者靠体力工作 ­
43．智者热爱自己的工作，愚者在工作中 变得麻木 ­
44．智者懂得休息，愚者堪称工作狂 ­

第十二章 享受生活，享受快乐 ­

45．智者给心灵放假，愚者让心弦紧绷 ­
46．智者驾驭金钱，愚者被金钱束缚 ­
47．智者过好每一天，愚者浪费好时光 ­
48．智者感受快乐点滴，愚者总是不快乐

Pumpkin is home and she couldn’t wait to have hot pot and dumplings. This flour isn’t too good, I took the advice of the store clerk.

Mom, I think I got the flu ..
Oh no .. My first urge is rush to her bed side, at least her dorm.
I wish I could have our soup noodles now
Oh .. wish I were there too..
Among other things, I told her to drink water, honey + lemon, etc.
” .. but our cafeteria doesn’t have either .. ”

Think fast .. Ok, I can have someone deliver .. I called Whole Foods Market but their catering department needs 24 hours notice and the min deliver charge is $30.

Next best thing, I rushed to post office, and mailed her honey with two fat lemons. The next day cost $26 and two days $6.55.

When your child is sick, I know is not the worst thing in the world, but it’s the worst thing in my little world. That I couldn’t be there to help and to comfort. I stared at the Google screen again. Randomly called couple of other vendors. A girl at Wisemiller’s picked up at first ring.
No, they don’t deliver but their other branch does.
I called there immediately. A man with warm voice picked up on the second ring. It’s 12:16.
Of course we deliver to Georgetown.
No we don’t sell honey by bottle but I can give you some, free of charge.
So, I paid for a soup, two lemons ($1 for two), the total came at $7.27
For the next five minutes I just stared at the screen again, hoping that whatever I ordered, could remotely comfort my sick child.

It was deliver at 12:43pm.

12:57pm: Thank you so much mom. The soup is delicious.

I’m very grateful to have found this place. We’ve passed by this establishment a few times, actually we parked in front of it at least once.

Celebrating the Chinese New Year with Rita and George Chang at Tzu Chi’s function, a public school on Colden Street (near Kissena Blvd and the Gold City supermarket) in Flushing. Nothing really changed over the years. More volunteers in blues milling around than us, the attending audience. They showed their activities over the year, and then invited the beneficiaries of the Sandy Storm to the stage to share their story, and their gratefulness toward Tzu Chi.

Their daughter Ginger is 28 and a confident young lady, who works for her father at Tzu Chi as a broadcaster. She still remembers my kids as the little rambunctious toddlers.
Ha ha ha .. No, they both are in college now.

I lost a check ($62) from a person I knew, and asked the person to paypal me. The person is going to stop payment on the check and deduct the bank fee of $25. I said I won’t cover the bank fee because the check is made out to me, no one could cash it. And I certainly would NOT cash it IF I find it.

Stop payment on a missing check is common sense. A check has personnel information with name, address and account number. Maybe it dropped on a floor and someone else had it. I would do the same. I know that you wouldn’t cash it if you found it later. But I wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing a “live” check is somewhere. I have been working in finance long enough to know this is a common practice.

Stop payment won’t prevent others from seeing the check and picking up the check. It only prevent me from cashing it.
What am I missing here?

Timing is everything. I borrowed two of his books from a friend, a month ago:

Moment in Peking 京华烟云 (1939; The John Day Book Company)
The Red Peony (1961; World Publishing Company)

For some reason, I couldn’t get into it till today. I almost finished it in one sitting. I don’t know how many version of Chinese translations are out there, and if this one by Zhang Zhenyu is the best – I hope there are better translations.

Pumpkin visited a physical therapy six times in August 2012 to rehabilitate her sprained ankle from lacrosse back in April. This therapy charges $75 per hour/visit without insurance. Because of the type of health insurance we have, I paid out of pocket for her sessions, as uninsured, but asked the therapist to file with the school insurance.

• June 4: Dr. Bregman
• June 5: MRI
• July 30: Dr. Michael Schwartz
• August 1 – 22: physical therapy

Out of all the doctors/facilities we’ve visited for her injured ankle, this therapy office is the most helpful and efficient, because they’re the first one being reimbursed. Dr. Bregman and MRI have sent our accounts to collection, in spite of them saying they’ll take care of it, contact the insurance company, etc. The insurance company is looking for itemized bills but I couldn’t get them to send me.

Anyway, today I contacted the insurance again, the insurance rep said,

“We’ve send out two checks to the therapist, $1,460 and $520.”

I called the therapist, she said: “I haven’t received any checks. The insurance company sent us a discount form on Dec 18, 2012, saying if we accept the reduced amount of $1,900 [their responsibility is $3,200], they will process the matter quicker.”

What’s wrong with my math here? Why does the therapist charge so much more with insurance? Free money or what? I do not think for a minute that they would take a loss to treat my daughter, so $75 must be a fair amount. But when a insurance is involved, they charge $533 instead?

What would the insurance do differently to process the same claim? Obviously $3,200 to $1,900 is a big drop.

The therapist did her job and was paid in full – $75. Now with few paper exchanges, she stands to profit again, rather handsomely. A therapist makes upward $500+ an hour is ironic. The health care system is a joke and I still strongly feel the medical doctors are being ripped off by the MBAs.

Cafe China
13 E. 37th St,
New York, NY 10016
(212) 213-2810

We had dinner with Tiger’s daughter Carina and her cousin Rick. Rick said the restaurant has one Michelin star. Impressive? Not really. Neat? Yes but why many bowls are chipped??
Such a turn off.
Food: decent
Chairs: high school
Street parking: easy

Half way through the meal, I realize that we are alumni – Zhongguancun Erxiao 中关村第二小学校.
More pix in gallery

Alan has been trekking to China to recruit students to attend schools in the USA. He’s familiar with the universities in his area and was first enlisted by his friend, the chancellor of University of Arkansas, then St. Bernard Prep. – an expo he went last October with the TABS. His/their biggest problem is the location: most kids from China would want to go West Coast, like L.A. and San Francisco, or East Coast, N.Y. and Boston, with direct flights.
One thing he said has surprised me a great deal: Chinese kids are poor students. They all know how to take exam but suck in other area, especially problem solving. I thought the USA spends way too many hours to prepare the kids how to deal with exams. He said Chinese kids ..

• have poor studying habits
• most of them face the language barrier when they come
• they don’t learn much in China, when the teachers don’t care much

The excellent Chinese grad students are totally different breed: they’re the best.

Alan’s mom is still in good health, at 90 years old, she still cooks and thinks herself as able as ever.

There are so many recipes out there to make an eggplant parmesan, but this has to be the most delicious of them ALL ..