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Toastmasters

I’ve been a member of Toastmasters International about a year.

It’s an international organization that helps people improve their public speaking.

I joined Toastmasters back at my old job in order to improve my presentation skills. However, I didn’t feel up to the challenge of actually giving any speeches, although I gave a few table topic speeches, which were short speeches on impromptu subjects.

Since joining the new company, I started attending their Toastmasters meetings. The folks in this club are quite different than the other one, where people horsed around quite often. This club has a much more official and seriousness to it, which is neither good or bad.

I made a new year resolution to actually give all 10 requisite speeches to achieve the Competent Toastmaster certification this year.

I’m starting by giving my first speech this coming Thursday, it’s called the ice breaker speech.

I will be posting most of my speeches on my blog if I write them out. Otherwise, I’ll post the summaries.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy the speeches as much as I do delivering them.

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Chocolate

I was never into Chocolate.

For some unknown reason, I just never enjoyed chocolate. It was not an essential food for me, and I can say with certainty that I haven’t had anything chocolate related in at least couple of years.

Then it changed.

I read a fascinating article about a week ago on the Dallas Food blog. It was investigating journalism at its best.

The articles are an expose of Noka chocolate which is supposed to be the most expense chocolate on the planet at more than $2,000 a pound.

Now, I’m not into chocolate, but my wife JY is a huge chocolate fan. She kept on bringing home Dove Rich Dark Chocolate, Ghiradelli, and Hershey’s Symphony Milk Chocolate. She goes though them pretty quickly. Since I don’t normally eat chocolate, I don’t really know what drew her to it.

While reading the Dallas Food article, I remembered seeing some recent researches on the health benefits of dark chocolate, such as this WebMD article.

This got my intrigued. There were two questions on my mind. What are good chocolate for me to try? The rationale behind this question was maybe I was not into chocolate because the ones I tried before wasn’t that great tasting. Also, how can I achieve the maximum benefits from chocolate without incurring the negative effects of the additional fat and sugar contained with in.

After quite some research, I think I found the answer to both of my questions to be extra dark chocolate, and unsweetened cocoa drink.

If you look at the ingredient label of most supermarket chocolate, the first one is usually sugar. Which means there is more sugar in the chocolate bar than cocoa. I don’t think that’s healthy.

The dark chocolate, especially the extra dark, also called bittersweet chocolate has much less sugar, you can actually get them unsweetened. However, I think the unsweetened variety is a bit too bitter. Sugar actually enhances some of the chocolate flavors. I make my cut-off point at 70% cocoa content. There are milk chocolate on the market that approaches that, but I will not consider them because some research showed milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate, so they are out of the question.

I think the best way to enjoy chocolate, both it’s taste and health benefit is to take extra dark chocolate in moderation. Whatever additional calories I take in with chocolate needs to be balanced by reducing calories from other foods. And since moderation is key, I definitely want only quality chocolate.

Fortunately, the Dallas Food article also recommended some brands of quality to try. I’ve ordered a bunch of from Chocosphere, and just got them couple of days ago.

I ordered couple of Domori bars that were on sale, a Michel Cluizel Les 1ers Crus de Plantation, a Lindt Excellence 75% bar, and a Bonnat Ceylan bar.

So far, I’ve only tasted the Domori Chacao Absolute bar. Compare to my control sample, which was the Ghiridelli 60% Cacao bar I got from a local supermarket, the Domori bar was slightly more bitter, but with much more layers of tastes to it. Not being chocoholic, the difference was quite obvious, maybe it’s even more pronounced for those in the know.

I’ll report back on the other bars once I have a chance to taste them with my wife.

The ones still on my list for my next order are:
Amedei Chuao
Bonnat Chuao
E Guittard L’Harmonie
Lindt Excellence 85%
Valhona Guanaja

I may also get some Michel Cluizel or Santander Chocolate covered Espresso bean as well.

What’s your favorite chocolate? Have your tried any of the above?

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Looking back at 2006

It’s the beginning of a new year again.

I think you’ll agree that the beginning of a new year is a good time for reflection and planning.

By planning, I don’t mean new year resolutions. We all know how those fare. I meant creating yearly plans that aligns with your long term plan and execute it.

But enough about planning. I’ll cover it in more detail in another post.

Looking back is also important, to see how my family and friends did in 2006 and recount lessons learned.

Couple of life-changing events happened to me during the year. One was the birth of my first child – Lauren. The other one was changing my job.

Although both of these events were life-changing, but they differ much in degree.

First, the birth of Lauren. If you’ve been reading my blog entries, you would know my journey as a first-time parent. It’s filled with anxiety, uncertainty, and most importantly, joy. It was an awesome responsibility and it taught me many things.
Since Lauren’s in China with her grandparents now, I miss her very much. Which brings me to the second major event for me in 2006, changing my job.

During my 9+ years working life, I held different positions in five companies. Most of my past job changes were triggered by circumstances, not of my own choosing.

Right after Lauren was born, I realized that my current house is simply not big enough and the area I live in does not have good public schools. The way for me to improve my family’s situation is to find another job that pays better and move to an area that has a better school district and a shorter commuting distance.

That’s exactly what I did. I found a job in the energy industry. I’m in the process of selling my current house now, and will start looking for another house close to work once I sold this one.

I enjoy my new work much more than my previous job, and I’m earning a better living for my family as well.

Both of these events made me rather happy.

Some of the other events that happened in 2006 were:

  • Lauren has been living with her grandparents since October 2006
  • Jeff and Iris had their first baby as well
  • My mom found a permanent position in a great company
  • We signed with a listing and user agent to help us with the selling and buying of a house
  • Our friend – Xiaoen’s got married

All of these things had a positive impact on our lives.

I thank God for blessing my family with such abundance. And I prey year 2007 will be even better.

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My favorite magazines

My taste in magazines has changed with age, and it’s still changing.

When I was younger and still back in China, I had no discernible taste in magazines – I read whatever I could get my hands on. I must confess though tabloid style magazines became my preferred choice toward my late teen years. Couple of magazines that I really enjoyed right before I left China for the US were the Reader magazine and Young People’s Digest. Both were a collection of stories from other magazines, very much like Reader’s Digest, and I enjoyed the human dramas portrayed in them which was rare for Chinese magazines at the time.

When I first came to the US, I spent the first few years learning English, and I mostly used newspapers as a way to understand the language and cultural context of things.

I spent a big chunk of my high school years here in the US participating in math, science and computing competitions. My taste in magazines turned to science and technology. My favorite magazines by the end of my high school years were Popular Science and
Popular Mechanics. They were fascinating in that they convey the wonder of science and engineering while making them applicable to the everyday life.

I then went to Singapore to work for an international bank. While there, I enjoyed reading a couple of weekly entertainment magazines in Chinese. They were fine as a popular diversion. Then I discovered FHM. It was imported from the US, and I was instantly pulled in by the glossy prints, the beautiful ladies and the interesting stories, and the overall life-style portrayed in it.

After I came back to the US in 1999, I subscribed to FHM. After I finally got tired of it, I subscribed to Maxim, which was also a man’s magazine targeting similar demographics. I actually enjoyed FHM a bit more because the writing was better, however, I essentially got tired of both of them because the shallowness of their coverage.

By now, since I went through so many magazines, I thought I’d do some targeted search. I wanted a news magazine that has up-to-date information, is unbiased, and can be read quickly. I went through the usual suspects, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and TIME. None of them suited my needs. Then I found The Week, which meets all three criteria and more. It’s succinct, unbiased, funny, informative, and a quick read. After subscribing to it for almost a year, I must say it’s worthy investment of my money and time.

I also enjoy reading The Economist, especially during my visit to my optometrist. It’s a great magazine with good cover of world economies. It was a bit dry for my taste though.

Recently, the company I worked for participated in a New Yorker cartoon caption contest, and as part of the contest, we all got a free copy of the latest The New Yorker. Now I must confess I’m a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s. I found his writing insightful and intriguing. So naturally the first thing I did was to flip to his article, which was one about how a group of people are trying to use neural-networking to predict the box-office performance of movies. It was written with the his usual subtle brilliance. After reading it, I decided to check out the other stories, and found a number of them equally interesting and insightful. Wow, it’d be difficult to have a couple of great pieces in one magazine, and there were at least 5 or 6 just in this issue of the New Yorker. I’m seriously considering subscribing to it. The only things stopping me right now is that I don’t have much time to read magazines. I have to either give up reading some books or The Week, neither is a good option in my mind.

I’m also searching for a good magazine in finance and business. Again, my problem is with time. I just found out from my public library that I have access to all the Harvard Business Review articles online. That will help me with part of my problem. I’m also trying to decided between Smart Money,
Forbes, Fortune, and Barron’s. Again, my selection criteria would be that it’s:

  • Succinct, so I can read through the relevant information within couple of hours
  • Beneficial, so I can translate the advice directly into action
  • Insightful, so I’m constant intrigued by the unusual angle or recommendations based on solid research

Which ones do you think will work better for me?

What’s your favorite magazine and why? Please leave them in the comments area.

Until next time.

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My China trip with Lauren Part 3

So now Lauren and I have our boarding pass. My mom brought Lauren to the bathroom, trying to get her to go poop before boarding. The care-taker we hired for Lauren first introduced the practice to us. Basically, the process goes like this. I hold her legs with my hands and let part of her left butt-cheek rest on my my left leg over the toilet bowl. Then I basically make funny noises like grunting to get her to poop. I understand it’s been practiced in China for quite awhile because they didn’t have paper diapers so regular pooping is a necessity.

Anyway, Lauren is used to being held to have her bowel movement, and she’s quite regular on the timing. You probably wonder why I brought this up, and you’ll see later.

The next hurdle is the actual security check-point. It was difficult even for me to go through the security check-point, much less with Lauren. I brought Lauren to the security-checkpoint, and everyone said teary good-byes.

I dutifully put all Lauren’s food inside a quart-size plastic bag as instructed. The first problem when I approached the check-point was that they officer told me to put the stroller through the X-ray machine as well. The stroller I have can not be folded with only one hand. After looking around, I had no choice but put Lauren next to me on the floor, she’s actually sitting quite well, so that’s not a worry. She just sat there and looked around while I folded the stroller. I carried Lauren through the metal detector with no problems. Well, I then needed to put Lauren back into her stroller, and I really didn’t want to leave her on the floor again. Just when I was trying to figure out my options, a lady behind me kindly offered to hold Lauren while I unfold the stroller. With a sigh of relief, I did exactly that. I came to realize that I needed to depend on the kindness of strangers on this journey, which was a completely new experience for me.

I pushed the stroller and my carry-on luggage with me to the gate, which is one level down, so I had to find the elevator. I then waited in line at the gate counter trying to find out how the gate-checking of stroller works. It turned to another 30 minutes wait in line because there was only one lady behind the counter and about 40 people in line.

The CSR lady turned out to be real nice. She explained to me the gate-check process, and actually got the gentleman who can actually does the gate-check to give me the forms to fill out.

To be continued.

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My China trip with Lauren Part 2

Since I’m traveling to China with Lauren alone, I needed to repack my suitcases because now I can only bring two big ones instead of four. It proved to be a big challenge. As a result, quite a few of Lauren’s toys didn’t make it to China. The suitcases were filled with diapers, wet wipes, canned baby food, baby medicine and toys. It was a struggle to keep each suitcase below the 50 pounds limit.

On the day of the trip, which was really just the next day, a friend with a van came over to drive me to the airport. I was actually unsure about the whole thing, and the thought of cancelling the trip came through my mind couple of times.

After praying about it, I decided to take on the challenge of bringing Lauren to China myself.

The flight was at 2:45pm, and we left my house at 10:45am. I strapped Lauren securely into her car-seat. She seemed to be happy, actually, she’s happy whenever she’s out of the house. I then loaded the two big suitcases, a small carry on, her diaper bag, and her stroller onto the van.

BTW, I just want to mention the stroller. I bought it specifically for this trip, and intend to leave it with her in China. The model I bought was the
The drive to the airport was uneventful. Cosmo Ex Merlot Stroller, which turned out to be a great stroller to use in the airport and for general day to day usage. It’s basically an upscale umbrella stroller but with some very nice features. For more detail, read my Amazon review on it by following the link above.

But I digress.

The trip to the airport was uneventful, traffic was light, and the mood was good in general. Lauren shouted quite a few times, she’s very vocal nowadays, trying to prepare for her language development I assume. Our friend, who drove the van, got startled when he first heard her shouting, it was kind of funny.

Check-in was pretty easy, although there were quite a few folks in line already, JY and my mom brought Lauren to a seating area to feed her and change her while I waited in-line. It took me around 30 minutes to check-in.

I asked about the bassinet that I ordered for Lauren at the check-in counter, and was told that I should have ordered the hanging one because it’s much bigger. My problem was that when I first ordered the bassinet, I was put into non-bulkhead seat, so the bassinet I ordered was the floor model. On the 747-400 I was traveling on, only two bulkhead rolls can have hanging bassinet, and although I changed myself to a bulkhead row couple of weeks ago, I didn’t change to the bulkhead rows that have that feature. The problem was, I was never told about this before I arrived at the airport. I actually called United a few times to change things, and every time I was told I’ll get a bassinet for Lauren, but the difference between the bassinet was not explained to me.

This has just made my trip much more difficult, because the floor bassinet can only hold a baby up to 6-months. Well, I was at the airport, and there was no turning back.

To be continued.

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My China trip with Lauren Part 1

JY and I decided to send Lauren to China to live with her maternal grandparents for awhile.

It was not an easy decision to make, as you can well imagine.

I’ve grown used to waking up to her cries, seeing her in the morning, and her big smiles when I get home.

JY and I have quite a few things to do before we bring Lauren back. We need to sell our current house, buy a new house in a neighborhood with better schools, maybe for JY to work closer to where I work, and prepare for Lauren #2.

We could’ve done all these while Lauren’s still here, but it would be much harder. Plus, her grandparents adore her, and they were the ones suggested that they take care of her while we get our house in order.

We originally planned for JY and I to bring Lauren back to Shanghai together. However, JY developed a severe case of stomach flu the day before our scheduled departure, and she had to stay home to get some blood work done.

So I took on the responsibility of bringing Lauren to China myself.

To Be Continued.

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Got a new cellphone

I’ve been having problems lately with my trusted LG VX6000 from Verizon. It’s a great phone, the camera is a bit limited (no flash, VGA only), although I really enjoy using it.

Lately though, the battery charger has been acting up, the red light keeps on flashing and won’t keep a charge. I needed to periodically took out the battery and replace it in order to get the charger to work with it again.

I finally decided to get a new phone, and found out from Verizon that I have a new-every-two discount credit that I can use toward a new cellphone.

I went shopping. There were quite a few new phones on the market, the ones I had my eyes on were the LG VX8300, the LG VX8500 (Chocolate), and the Motorola KRZR K1m.

I checked my favorite source for Cell Phones, Howard Forums. It seemed that the chocolate was too prune to scratches, and I don’t really need a mp3 phone since I already have couple of mp3 players that suit me just fine.

If I were to select my next cellphone by looks, I probably would have gone with the KRZR, which looked very elegant. However, it’s about $150 more than the cost of the VX8300, and it’s faceplate is a magnet for finger prints. There were also some concerns regarding its reception.

I finally settled on the VX8300. So far, it’s been a great phone, battery life is good, reception is much better than my VX6000. I’m still waiting for my Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth Headset with Multipoint Technology (one of THE best bt headset there is) and a SanDisk 1GB MicroSD Card.

Hopefully they’ll make my VX8300 even better with the new ringtones and animations I put on phone.

Until next time.

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免费电话到50多个国家

我昨天看到一条新闻，有一家公司提供免费电话到50多个国家。不需要通过电脑。
公司网址

你只需要拨打712-858-8883， 是在Ohio的号码。然后用你以前直播的号码（0118621。。。）
我还没试过。我象如果你有手机，周末可以试试。

你也许注意到中国，香港，及台湾的地区号不在那个Pull-down Menu里面。
我刚从这家公司的Customer Service收到以下电邮。

“Country code for Mexico is 52, China 86, Hong Kong 852, Taiwan 886. We have a drop down box on the website for thes lower left hand side.”

下几个星期JY,Lauren和我回去旅行，请为我们的行程祷告。