Code

I got a job at Walgreen's a little less than 2 months ago. It isn't the best job but it pays cash. I've noticed that there are a lot of codes at Walgreen's. When I worked at Chick-fil-A there weren't any codes.

Here are a few:

Code 10- Cash pickup
Code 60- Cash refill
Code 30- Returns
227- Front Register
IC3- Help at Front Register
226-Camera
228-Cosmetics
221- Office
230- Stockroom
231- Breakroom

I use the phone to page and call codes at Walgreen's every time I work. Possibly 3-5 times and hour if we are busy.

Beverages

I am a fan of beverages. I love tea, water and natural juices (i.e orange, apple, grape, ect...). I don't like coffee or soda but that's just me.

So my question is:
Soda, Coffee, or both?
Tea, water, or both?
Juice, energy drinks, or both?

Kirstie Lovelady

One of my great friends Kirstie Lovelady is an amazing singer. Check out her myspace!

http://www.myspace.com/kirstielovelady

baimanzhi

Story
I've been taking Chinese for almost a year now. After a few weeks, my Chinese teacher gave me a Chinese name. It took him a while to think of because in China names are very important. It should tell something about the person or what the parents hope the child to become. After a couple of weeks he came up with bai man zhi. These words in Chinese are readable in English and called pinyin.

In Chinese names the first name is the last. So bai is my last name in Chinese. He picked bai because of my legal last name Blair. My other name is man zhi. Man means full and zhi means intelligence/wisdom/knowledge. So my name literally means: White, Full of Intelligence. My Chinese teacher (Li Zhengrong or Mr. Li) gave that name to me because he said that I am a fast language learner.

Pronunciation
Bai is in the second tone which is the rising tone. You would say bai like you wuld say what? in English. So you'd say Click Here to hear the correct pronunciation.

Man is the third tone which is the falling then rising tone. You'd say it like the word huh? in English. When you say huh? You go down and then up. Click here to hear the correct pronunciation.

Zhi is the forth tone. The forth tone sounds like the English word no. Imagine yelling at your dog no! and you'd have the forth tone. Don't think its silly to almost yell this tone but thats how it is. A friend of mine's mother said that she hears Chinese people talk and it sounds like they are yelling. Its true though, it does sound like yelling. Click for the correct pronunciation.

You can't change your tone of voice to expresss emotion in Chinese. If you ask a question with a question tone like English speakers, Chinese people would scratch their heads and wonder why you just said a bunch random words. You chould have said: How are you smart fish? So, be careful if you speak Chinese or immiate it.

I covered 3 for the four tones so why not finish. The first tone in Chinese is a high flat tone. It sounds similar to the Ahhh! sound when the doctor tells you to open your mouth. Here is a little example of the four tones using the word ma.

First Tone: Click
Second Tone: Click
Third Tone: Click
Fourth Tone: Click

There is another tone but it doesn't qualifty as a tone in some of the Chinese eye. This tone is called the neutral tone and sounds like the name. If you were to say ma in the nuetral tone you'd say ma very light and soft unlike the other tones (numbers behind the pinyin is the tone 1-4).
Mama1 ma2 ma3 he2 ma4. This means: The mother bothers the horse and grasshopper.

I hope that helps and don't get too confused. But that's my name! :)

PS -- > My Chinese name in characters:

iPhone

I want an iphone; everyone wants one and I decided to join the crowd. I could use it for a phone, ipod, and chinese. I was looking at the applications and they have Chinese, Spanish, Korean, or any language you can think of. Its a learning sleek amazing machine! So, I'm sold. I have enough money and I am really considering it. I can take it to China (just switch the service to a Chinese phone provider via sim card and unlock it with software from ebay). I think it'd be a great investment and would last me a long time. I'm sold!

Art Collection

I love to draw. I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. Here a few pieces of my art. Click for a bigger image.
My friend Erin really likes tigers and she wanted me to draw her one so, I did!

























This was my first attempt of coloring using Adobe Photoshop.




















This is a sketch of my friend Bennett Farkas. We were on the was home from NY and I was bored so I drew him.

Chinese Keyboard

Click for a bigger image.

The Chinese symbols with the phonic letters are called Chinese radicals. Each character is comprised of radicals which mean certain things. (e.i The radicals for woman and son together means friend. If you add the heart radical under it it means close friend).

Chinese ATM

Looks the same to me. What do you think?

Say what??

I was bored and was looking up random facts here are a few.

1. The dot in the letter "i" is called a tittle.
2. India has a Bill of Rights for cows.
3. The average raindrop falls at 7 miles per hour.
4. The “save” icon in Microsoft Office programs shows a floppy disk with the shutter on backwards.
5. The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with (not counting the words “North” and “South).

Wish

If you could wish for anything what would it be?

At this moment, I'd wish to be able to study languages and have language classes every day all day. I'd eat stir fried veggies and meat, yummy tea, and have my Cindy with me. That would be nice!

Update

One the right hand side of my blog you see a picture slideshow. I made the Keyword "chengdu" thus, it displays photos from flickr that have that keyword. I was watching the slideshow of pictures the other day and I clicked on a picture and browsed some of the photos. I messaged the owner of the flickr account and he replied pretty fast. He is an American working over in China (I think) and he gave me a long description of Chengdu from his point of view. I think he took all of the doubt I had away. I doubted if I'd like Chengdu a little but now I know that I'll like it or at least enjoy it more than I thought. He said that it's not very fast paced, said that there are foreigner spots I could go to and feel like I was in America, and recomended some restaurants (American and good Chinese food). He said its a little hard to find cloths that'll fit an American if you are tall and said to bring extra cloths. He also said that the people are very friendly but I might encounter might have never seen a foreigner and I'd get looks a lot. His final thought was that in China you need to expect 70% quaility in everything.

This helped me a lot. I am so greatful! Praise God!!

Happy Birthday!

This blog goes out as a Happy Birthday for my Dad and my Sister. Ages will be kept private. haha

Chengdu Downtown Biking

Matthew Vaughan is a busiman (middle 20's) living in Chengdu, China. This is a bike ride he videotaped. I hope to go to this same city. This song is an award winning song:
吉祥三宝
by 布仁巴雅尔
It's in Mongolian, but there are Mandarin versions too.

Thoughts

I was thinking about living in China and my life right now and a thought popped into my head (I have thought of this before, but I feel like it's evidence that I am called to China for Him). This isn't my life, for I didn't make it nor did I wish for it in order for my creation. God created me out of love and has put forth a calling in my heart for His will. I believe that God placed China and the Chinese language in my heart in order to perform the calling He placed in me. I can become an interpreter in America by studying a language for 5 years, but I think God wants me to go to China to minister, teach, and love with "beneficent affection" to the Chinese people which means learning the Chinese language in China. I don't think I can perform my calling for Him to the fullest in America, but that could easily change if He wishes it so. That doesn't mean that I have to learn this second, but I think the time is coming shortly. The simplest way I can say it is this: God wants me to go to China to learn Chinese and that is His plan; I don't think I'm supposed to become fluent in America. I am not certain on this, but I think that is what He is trying to tell me. I need to pray about it and please pray for me in my journey.

Que Hora es ? Soap Opera

This has to be the funniest thing I have ever seen!

Programming

I learned php when I was 15 and can finally say that I know php. It is very useful and helps in various webjobs that I might do. To start off php us a computer language scripting device that interacts with databases in order to make something like: facebook, myspace, or even blogger. They are not all made with php, but you can make them in php. If you want to completely master php you will need to know a few other script langauges as well. First there is mysql. Mysql is the database scripting language that allows one to interect with an online datebase that could hold you account information. For instance, on blogger you have serveral database tables (in a single database tables are the categories: users, blogs, blog_replies, and others). Inside each table are what you call rows. If you take the users table the rows might be username, email, password, or about_me. You get the point. Second, you'd need to know html. Html is a website scripting language that is very common in today's myspace page. A simple bolding of a text or as complex as the creating a post page on blogger was made in html. Html is a visual script so all (or 98%) you see in html will result in something visual. Lastly, is the very helpful script called css. Css is a visual script as well. It can be used to change the background color, font color, table bg color, and more. Html can do all of this as well, but css is a fast way or plugging in design with a simple added tag.

That's a little info about php and it's relatives. It's a little part of me, but not something I want to continue as a career. I will program for money in tight spots, but I don't want to sit at a computer desk my entire life.