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Inspiring True Story Movies for Kids
As a father of two primary school children, I am always looking for ways to inspire and motivate them. Whether through books, activities or family conversations, I want to teach them values like perseverance, courage and kindness. Lately, I’ve been exploring movies based on true events — movies that not only entertain, but also teach…
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Unraveling the Husband Stitch
Some may think that gender inequality is a thing of the past. However, contemporary authors like to remind us this is not the case. Using an interesting premise, author Camen Maria Machado calls attention to the issue of gender inequality while providing an engaging tale of an unnamed woman as she falls in love and…
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Semplica Girls: Tunnel Visions of a Loving Father
I had never read any of George Saunder’s work until recently, and The Semplica Girl Diaries was certainly a banger of an introduction. The weird diary-entry style of writing, the dumb insights of the narrator, and the intrigue of the SGs (Semplica Girls) kept me engaged throughout. By the end, I went, “What the heck…
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Make Love, Not Generational Wars
Our workplace is not a battleground for different generations, as Professor Leah Georges, a renowned authority in the field, effectively asserted. In her TEDx speech at Creighton University, she questioned the widely held belief of a generational war, arguing how such misconceptions can keep us from working and communicating better at the workplace. Georges claimed…
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Not a Just Flower Girl
In ninth-grade English, Mr. Johnson showed us the movie “My Fair Lady” for the first time. We watched Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins transformed Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza Doolittle from a poor flower girl to a sophisticated lady. He accomplished this feat through the power of speech. When the professor sang the verses to “Why…
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Shanghai, Disneyland Trip
Previous Post: https://hueyly.com/chimelong-zhuhai-trip Your mom and I couldn’t decide if we wanted to go to Zhuhai for some warm weather or to Shanghai for a visit to Disneyland. Since we haven’t been able to travel for such a long time (because of the pandemic), we decided to do both! The flight from Zhuhai to Shanghai…
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Chimelong, Zhuhai Trip
In January of 2023, your mom and I decided to celebrate the New Year by taking you two to Disneyland in Shanghai. After three long years of the Covid19 pandemic, the government of China finally lifted travel restrictions. So everyone was excited to be able to travel again! First, we would go to Zhuhai for…
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Top 10 (mostly wholesome) Animes to watch that is not made by Studio Ghibli
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Jacky Cheung – 月半弯 Yue Ban Wan – Lyrics and Translations
月半弯, 倚于深宵 Yuet bun waan, yi yu sam siu A half cresent Moon, appears deep in the night 晚风轻飘man fung hing piu the night breeze softly blows 一张俏脸泛着, 半点的醉意 yat jeung chiu lim faan jeuk, bun dim dik jeui yi.A pretty face flooded with a touch of drunkenness . 夜已醉了 夜已醉倒了ye yi jeui liu , ye yi jeui dou liuThe…
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死了都要爱 (Si Le Dou Yao Ai) – Translations and Lyrics
死了都要爱 (Si Le Dou Yao Ai- To Love even in Death) by 信乐团 Xìn Yue Tuan 死了都要爱 不淋漓尽致不痛快 si le dou yao ai bu lin li jin zhi bu tong kuai To love even in death, if you don’t love vividly you won’t be happy 感情多深只有这样才足够表白 gan qing duo shen zhi you zhe yang cai zu…
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Saigon Oi Vinh Biet Lyrics and Translations
Sài gòn ơi, tôi đã mất người trong cuộc đời Dear Saigon, I’ve lost the people in my life Sài gòn ơi, thôi đã hết thời gian tuyệt vời Dear Saigon, the time of greatness has ended Giờ còn đây, những kỷ niệm sống trong tôi The time that remains are the memories that live…
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Nicholas Tse – Fei Jau Bat Ho – Lyrics and Translations
I think Nicholas Tse is a good looking guy, charismatic, and a decent actor in certain roles. But I think his singing is just so-so. Sadly, the wifey loves him and wants me to learn his songs for KTV sessions. That’s how I spent an afternoon translating the lyrics to this okay song. 谢霆锋 –…
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Homemade Treasure Hunt
I am going out of town for about a week and decided to create a little treasure hunt puzzle to amuse the fiancee while I’m gone. Here is what I came up with: Before I head out the door, I put a little sign on the drawers next to the bed that says “Look inside…
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Learning Chinese: The Structure Of A Sentence
Learning just the vocabulary of a language is not enough. We have to be able to put the words we learned together to form coherent sentences. Knowing the correct word order is an important milestone on a student’s way to language fluency. Indeed, it is one of the last pieces of the puzzle that, when…
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Memories of Lunar New Years Past
I will tell you about my experiences with the Chinese New Year while growing up in Vietnam. Even though we are Chinese, both of my parents were born in Vietnam. My grandparents were from southern China and immigrated to Vietnam in the late 50s. My memories growing up were of poor but simpler times, filled…
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Andy Lau – 最後妳也走了 – Zhui Hou Ni Ye Zhou Le – Lyrics and Translation
Like most Hong Kong movies in the 90s, the script of The Prince of Temple Street turned to crap half way through the movie. But it did leave behind a decent song and some wonderful images. A young Andy Lau and Joey Wong made a pretty nice on screen couple as well 🙂 最后..妳也走了 In…
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Congratulations! “Lived-In-Xi’an” Graduating Class of 2012
Leo, Guy, and Lee are holding the mics, belting out their rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, while the rest of the room joins in. Empty beer bottles and snack plates litter the table in our dark-light enhanced KTV room. About twenty or so energetic singing lunatics are crammed together, declaring that they got a moose and…
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Beyond – 光辉岁月(The Glorious Years) – lyrics and translation
光辉岁月 gwong fai seui yuet The Glorious Years 钟声响起归家的讯号 jung sing heung hei gwai ga dik seun hou The clock bell chimes the signal to go home 在他生命里, 仿佛带点唏嘘 joi ta sang meng leui, fong fat dai dim hei heui In his life, there seems to carry a small sigh of regret 黑色肌肤给他的意义 hak sik…
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Learning Chinese: Things You Shouldn’t Say In Polite Company
Did you know you should not say the phrase “chuī xiāo” (吹箫 – literally “blow flute”), even though you really mean to express the act of flute playing? I learned this, embarrassingly, during one of our content design sessions, in which I was tasked with designing the lessons teaching musical instruments to our users. When…
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Learning Chinese: The Importance of Tones
The word for “mom” in Mandarin is mā, in the first tone (high pitch). And the word for “horse” is mǎ, in the 3rd tone (falling-rising pitch). An American friend of mine once tried to insult someone in Mandarin by suggesting inappropriate behaviors to another guy’s mom. But he inadvertently proclaimed himself to be a…
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So You Want to Learn Chinese
As kids, my brother, sister and I knew how to speak both Vietnamese and Cantonese growing up in Vietnam as Chinese immigrants. And instinctively we always knew they were separate languages, without having anyone really explained to us the intricacies of being bilingual. When we moved to the U.S., we picked up English easily, and were…
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Xi’an City Wall Marathon
November 5th, 2011. people from all over the world came to the city of Xi’an to participate in the Xi’an International Marathon held on top of the city wall. Thousands of people participated, from hard core athletes who are actually there to compete, to running enthusiasts there for the experience, to out-of-shape guys like me…
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My First Hash Run
You would think that running and drinking wouldn’t go well together. But there is this weird club for runners and drinkers call The Hash House Harriers that does exactly that. The Hash House was started by a bunch of Brits living in Malaysia in the late 1930s and had spread throughout the Far East, Europe, Australia,…
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Beyond – 海阔天空
Beyond was one of the few true “bands” out of Hong Kong. While other canto-pop groups and artists were being manufactured by the commercial beast of the HK industry, they started out as an indy group and did everything themselves without the backing of a major publisher. They write their own songs, played their own…
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Teaching English, part 2, tips and tricks
< Read part 1 of my teaching adventures Kids are harder to teach than adults. Their attention spans are shorter, they are not very obedient, and often times they’re forced to be there by their parents to sit in a dreary classroom instead of playing outside with their friends. It is one of the toughest…
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Teaching English to Chinese kids
I thought teaching English would be easy. Holy Cheesestick it’s harder than trying to put a sweater on a wild panda! At least that’s how I feel after the recent stint at the J Plus English school and the tutoring lessons I’ve done here in Xi’an. Kids are like monsters on little legs! Granted, I’ve…
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The Great Xi’an Scavenger Hunt
This past Saturday, Los Tres Stooges that are Patrick Antony, Shane, and Daemon organized our very first Great Xi’an Scavenger Hunt to great success. There were 11 teams of three’s and four’s comprising of over 30 participants! Everyone chipped in 20 yuan toward the pot, grabbed the hunt list from Patrick, and proceeded to “discover…
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你怎么舍得我難過 – Lyrics and Translations
你怎么舍得我难过-黄品源 Nǐ zěnme shěde wǒ nánguò-huángpǐnyuán 对你的思念 是一天又一天 Duì nǐ de sīniàn, shì yītiān yòu yītiān The thoughts of you I have day to day 孤单的我还是没有改变 Gūdān de wǒ háishì méiyǒu gǎibiàn The lonely me still have not changed 美丽的梦 何时才能出现 Měilì de mèng, hé shí cáinéng chūxiàn Beautiful dreams can still appear 亲爱的你 好想再见你一面 Qīn’ài de nǐ,…
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Language Exchange Meetup
Recently I joined an online community (talkxian.com) that is geared toward English speakers living in Xi’an. There are both expats and locals visiting the site, bantering and helping each other out on the online forum. For the most part it is a fun and friendly community. One of the things I missed from…
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Journal Entry: Bell Tower Starbucks
July 31, 2011 Xi’an, China Sipping a latte at the Bell Tower Starbucks. There are four smokin’ hot Russian models sitting across from me, all tall and skinny and European looking. How do I know they are models? I talked to one of them while we were both mixing sugar into our coffee. I asked…
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Video: Xi’an Surroundings
Made this video for family and friends to get a glimpse of my surroundings in Xi’an. It wasn’t too hard to make, I just whipped out my camera whenever there’s something interesting to shoot or talk about. Footage from 3 different days.
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Journal Entry: Moving to Xi’an
July 10, 2011 Xi’an, China Lots have happened since I wrote the last entry. I left Virginia on May 26, taking a twenty hour flight on Air Nippon to Hong Kong, with a layover in Tokyo. Spent the weekend in Hong Kong, stayed at a hostel called “YesInSpace” in Mongkok for around $40 a night.…
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Farewell Rackspace
To my most affectionate Rackers, April 1st is my last day at Rackspace. It has been quite a journey this past 8 years growing and sharing experiences with you all. We’ve laughed together and danced together and sweat through rough times together. We’ve labored through long days and toiled through late nights and built digital…
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lyrics – xa em ky niem
Xa Em Kỷ Niệm Ngày ta yêu nhau mùa thu đến có lá thu rơi The day we fell in love, Fall had came, autumn leaves were falling Đôi ta bước bên nhau không nói năng chi tim yêu chứa chan. We walked side by side not speaking, only our hearts are filled with love.…
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A Tale of Two Wives
According to my mom, my dad married two women on the same night. One of them was my mom, the other was his real love. This my mom told me, and of course I didn’t fully believe her. That’s so crazy, like something out of a television drama! (old family pic with youngest aunt, mom…
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A Tale of Two Wives, pt 4
< read part 3 There’s even more craziness to how this story ends. Being the only daughter he had, Nga’s father had given her an ultimatum after the wedding. She’d be excommunicated from the family if she didn’t leave my dad. So that particular night when she was visiting them, she made her decision, took…
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A Tale of Two Wives, pt 3
< read part 2 But my mom noticed a strange woman at the wedding that tagged along all through out the day. She had a gloom about her, and was always a step behind, looking sad and forlorn. She even fought her way to sit in the front seat of the wedding car. Who is this…
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A Tale of Two Wives, pt 2
< read part 1 At the same time, my mom’s granddad had developed a close relationship with my dad. They were great friends, and my dad reminded him of his lost son who had died years earlier. There were also other reasons my mom explained involving the compatibility of our last names and such, but…
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Growing up in Vietnam: Flaming Paper Airplanes
Vinny and I caused a lot of trouble when we were kids. I mean, we weren’t spoiled brats or anything. We were obedient, respectful of our elders, and fairly good kids, considering. But man, we were curious and active and got into everything! Case in point, here’s a memory I have of one of our…
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Why I Want to Teach English in China
This was the letter I wrote to the academy in China where I will teach English for 6 months starting in September. The interview process took a few weeks over several Skype sessions, and I officially accepted their contract today. I’m so excited! But if you’re curious to know why I’m quitting a well paying…
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I Took the Strength Finder Test Twice
The company I work for have stacks and stacks of the Gallup Press’s Strengths Finder books. Everyone that work for us have to take the test to find their top 5 strengths. New recruits will have a print out of their strengths by the end of the orientation process, to be taken to their cubicles…
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Playa del Carmen, part 2
< read part 1 We fought our hangovers and got out of bed relatively early the next day (around 9 o’clock). After a hearty Mexican breakfast at the resort’s buffet, we prepared to go on our jungle excursions by grabbing as many beach towels as we can find. Berger and Angela hugged them like they…
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Playa del Carmen, storm’s 30th
For her 30th birthday, Pat Matthews flew his little sis, Angela, and the entire Matthews clan to Mexico to celebrate. Only a handful of friends managed to book the last minute flights to join them. The 30th birthday seems to be a big deal for the Matthews, as they’ve thrown crazy parties for both Pat…
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My Brother’s Old MySpace Blog
So I’m cleaning up my files and found a saved archive of my brother’s MySpace blogs. I don’t know why I saved it 4 years ago, but it only took a few mouse-clicks and I figured what the heck. Well, it’s 4 years later and he no longer uses MySpace. He thought he saved the…
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Nostalgic Blacksburg
I made this video in the winter of ’09 before I left Blacksburg for Austin. It’s only been a year, but those days seem so long ago. I miss everyone there, thanks for being a part of my cherished memories. https://hueyly.com/videos/player_flv_mini.swf On a side note … I figured out to convert a video to…
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DC Events on Oct 30th
A few people on the Daily Show forums has expressed interest in finding out which special events are going on that day after the rally. Being the helpful guy that I am, here’s a compiled list of noteworthy links and events for October 30, 2010. I tried to list only events that are after 5pm.…
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Richie Ren – dui men de nuihai kan guo lai lyrics
========================================================== 對面的女孩看過來, 看過來, 看過來 Duìmiàn de nǚhái kàn guòlái, kàn guòlái, kàn guòlái The girls across the way, look over here, look over here 這裡的表演很精彩, 請不要假裝不理不睬 Zhèlǐ de biǎoyǎn hěn jīngcǎi, qǐng bùyào jiǎzhuāng bù lǐ bù cǎi The performances here are wonderful, please do not pretend to be cold 對面的女孩看過來, 看過來, 看過來 Duìmiàn de nǚhái kàn…
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Excellence Playa Mujeres, Cancun
I did not know the resort was meant for couples and honeymooners when I booked it for my brother and I. It got 4.5 out of 5 stars on Trip Advisor (out of 1200+ reviews) and the price, $1080 per person for an all inclusive package, including airfare, all your meals and drinks, and three…
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Word of Warning Regarding Timeshare
This was our first time to Cancun, so we didn’t know where to go or what to do, and I’ve forgotten to print out the vouchers and instructions telling us where to meet our ride to the hotel. So Vinny and I decided to approach one of the official looking men under the “hotels and…
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Car2go Austin
Stu and I took a little time out of this hazy Sunday to test out the new car2go program that recently launched here in Austin. Created by the German automobile manufacturer, Daimler, this car-sharing service has just recently completed its beta phase and is now available to the public. Being the hip and trendy nerd-geeks…
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My Uncle, Who Is Named Sam
I’ve always wanted to hear the story of how my uncle came to America, because without him, the rest of our family wouldn’t be here. One day I decided to give him an interview about his trip from Vietnam to the U.S. It is such an amazing story, and I’m glad I had the opportunity…
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The Greatest Mom in the World
When my dad married my mom, he was 39 and she was 21. When they were young, my mom’s granddad loved my dad like a son. One day, he asked my dad to pick one of his oldest three granddaughters to be his wife. My mom was granddaughter number 3, and he picked her.…
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A Tour of Castle
Here is an unofficial, hacked up tour of the Rackspace office in San Antonio, which we lovingly named “Castle” after its predecessor, the Windsor Park Mall. It has been mentioned before, but worth mentioning again: Rackspace is all about substance over flash. Instead of spending a crapload of money building a new campus from the…
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Birthday Pranks at the Blacksburg Office
This is both a testament to the creativity of my fellow Rackspace co-workers, and the amount of free time they have at work. In either case, these are exercises in love and compassion for each other …in the let-me-pull-your-hair-because-I-like-you kind of way.