Your diary in LE forum

Marcos · January 9

lisa said:
@mheredge My Chinese name sounds like a boy's one, and it did make people confused for several times. Here is the joke and also a truth. My senior middle school classmate's mother once thought her daughter fell in love with me because of my name, believe it or not, I therefore called her in order to prove that I was a girl rather than a handsome boy.

My name was made by my mom, and I have asked her for thousands of times "why did you give me this name?", and she said she did not know the real reason.

Hahahah @lisa, very interesting your story. Here in Brazil your name would be considered cool. I don't know how it is there where you live, but here it's like a contraction or a kind of nickname for ''Elisabete'' or ''Elizabete'', because we don't use words ending in ''th'' (like ''Elizabeth''). So by convenience in everyday pronunciation those names are shortened to ''Elisa'' or ''Eliza'' so finally would be one more time contracted to just ''Lisa'' a new, stylish and freshly baked name.

Marcos · January 9

@Powerage wise decision. No matter what are your goals, I think all of us have the same target, that's be able to write any kind of texts and of course improve other skills. The more we use English, more we learn it, said a clever person once.

mheredge · January 10

Welcome back @Powerage. What have you been doing since you were last here?

There are quite a lot of first names that sound the same for girls and boys - like Jo and Joe for example. In Nepal there are many names that can be given to a boy or a girl that are exactly the same regardless of gender. It is very confusing @lisa.

gentle345 · January 10

Oh, right.

I must tell something.

We prepareing some things for Chinese new year now.
Chinese people will back home and eat foods with family, for celebrate Chinese new year.

mheredge · January 10

What special foods will you eat @gentle345? Do you stay awake until midnight and see in the new year?

Powerage · January 10

@mheredge Most of the time, I was finishing my PhD and sixth January this year I have finished it. I wrote three hundred ninety pages. A lot of hard work. Now I'am waiting until my major advisor read it. After that, I'm starting to prepare myself to PhD defense. What you have been doing, if I could ask? You live in what country?

Has anyone seen Ozark? I consider to start watching it.

gentle345 · January 10

I will eat jiaozi(饺子) and meat.
People will eat different foods. This usually is the best meal of the year.

Yes, I will waiting the new year.
@mheredge

lisa · January 12

@mheredge Yes, but usually people could make their decisions on the genders according to their names in China except the names like mine

.

The coronavirus is more serious than before in China now, the city-Tianjin, which is an autonomous one and very near our city, there have been many but less than 100 infected cases, I think, what is worse, there are some infected cases once travelling in my city. I do not know what will happen in the following days.

mheredge · January 12

Here now although many people are catching the Omicron variant, far fewer people are ending up in hospital with it, or dying @lisa. Now the problem in the hospitals is that nearly all those being admitted with covid are unvaccinated. I read that around 90% of people eligible for vaccination have been vaccinated, but this is still only 70% as there are some people who have valid health reasons for not getting vaccinated and also children have so far not been generally vaccinated.

It all comes down to how well the health systems are able to cope, which varies enormously from country to country. Whilst in France the numbers of new cases are similar to the UK, I have much more faith in the health services here. When hospitals get full in one region, they are very well organised in transferring patients to areas where there are available beds.

Unfortunately, and I don't know why, it appears that it is no longer mandatory to wear a mask outside except in specified places. I noticed that more people seem to be going around maskless. I still wear mine outside anywhere where there are people around.

Powerage · January 12

It seems that in Poland much more people than before are pissed off because they have to wear masks in the public places. When I go shopping, I also observe that many people ignore the signs in which is written that one should wear a mask during the shopping. Even security of the mall don't wear the masks sometimes.

mheredge · January 12

I think masks are probably all the more important, given the Omicron variant is so much more contagious. And since for Europe it is now winter and cold, I really don't see the problem. I'd rather have to wear a mask than catch covid @Powerage.

Max80 · January 12

I agree with @mheredge . Wear the mask should be the basic rule. I understand that is unconfortable, especially for those who wear glasses (like me!), but if we want to eredicate the virus we must wear the mask and get the vaccine.

Powerage · January 13

@mheredge In which country do you live? You haven't answered me yet and I'm curious.

Vok · January 13

I can't wear my glasses and a mask simultaneously while driving a car. When it's brass monkey outside and the car isn't yet warm enough, my glasses keep steaming up because the path of my warm breathing directed up towards them. Rarely does it happen but I don't wear my glasses while driving.

Paulette · January 13

My thoughts about be creative ✏️ 🎨 🛠️

Creating something yourself, as we sometimes call it, is something many people do.
Maybe I have some good advice for these creative people.
Every time you are creating something, you need to realize that making it yourself is already a gift, a reward for yourself. Whether it's a poem you write or a painting you make, or maybe you're a woodworker... the devising and the time to make a creation is a real therapy for yourself, you enjoy it.

Maybe you think, for the makers of these works the temptation is great to want as much applause as possible for the end result.
You may think that's where the reward lies, but that's a big mistake.
Of course, it's a surplus if your creation gets an appreciation: that's nice and gives you the energy to continue.
But most importantly, don't forget that you are the privileged one to be fluent with texts, active with paint or anything else, to create something with it.

That is what is important in the end, you created something, IT CAME OF YOUR BRAIN. Admire yourself, be glad and cherish the other person's appreciation.

But to be honest, I am also glad about my knitted creations of animals when seeing the glitter in the eyes of my grandchildren, and even more when discovering a worn-out example in a corner in their room.

lisa · January 13

@mheredge Wearing mask in public space is mandatory in China or people will be not allowed to access to the places, such as supermarkets, schools, libraries, and so on.

Powerage · January 13

@Vok, when I wear a mask, I can't breathe as deeply as I can if I breathe without one, but I suppose that everyone feel the same. Masks are necessary evil.

@Paulette
when you speak about creation, I think - due to my profession and academic background - about Christian's idea that God create a universe out of nothing. If you don't beliebe in God, you don't have an explanation of the origin of the universe. Atheistic view on this is that the world came to exist out of nothing by coincidence and heads toward nothingness, so life doesn't have any objective meaning. It's a tragic and very pessimistic worldview and I myself occasionally overwhelmed by its terrifying consequences. On the other hand, if you are a believer, you can admire God's creation.

mheredge · January 13

@lisa, I think in Italy they are mandatory still outdoors and I think it not a bad idea. It appears I must have passed close to someone with covid recently, thought it took 6 days for my covid app to send me an alert that this had occurred. On January 2nd (a Sunday) I only went out briefly shopping for a few things, so it must have been then. I took an antigen test last Monday (negative) and just now received my PCR result (negative) that is needed to enter Italy, as I am going tomorrow to join my Ligurian friends there sketching.

I am sure wearing a mask saved me from catching it. I find the paper masks a bit more comfortable, and easy to breath through. But I use cloth ones a lot (which are not quite so effective) when I am outdoors.

lisa · January 14

@mheredge Wearing mask does help us a lot but there are still many denizens in my city reluctant to wear maskes, even in some public places. Therefore, they are forced to use maskes or they are refused by many places.

mheredge · January 14

I would have thought that in some places, masks are also useful because of the air pollution @lisa.

It's interesting to hear that there mavericks everywhere @lisa. Here, we tend to think Chinese people are often more used to wearing masks, and doing what the authorities tell them to do.

lisa · January 14

@mheredge You're right, we are used to doing what we have been asked, by the authorities, to do, unless residents can not hold the decrees or orders, then there will be conflagrations. I am interested in history, aftering analysizing the process of some dynasties, I found that Chinese people, the former and current ones, are the most tolerable groups.

gentle345 · January 14

Because people have a deep fear for the authorities.

mheredge · January 16

I'm not sure that everyone has a deep fear of the authorities @gentle345. In some countries people are not so afraid to protest when they don't like something or want change. Yesterday the streets of Genoa in Italy were filled with demonstrators who are opposed to the latest rules for being vaccinated, where unless the person is vaccinated, they will not be allowed to work at their workplace. In France too, this weekend people over 65 who have not had their third vaccination, are losing their covid pass that enables them to travel, enter restaurants and many other places. They are defiant, but at the end of the day, if they don't comply, it will be their loss as they will not be able to do the things they might want to do.

Max80 · January 17

But I don't understand what those people want. Also past pandemics was eradicated with vaccines.
I think that internet allows too many people to have their say, passing it off as real, creating confusion.
We should only listen to qualified people...

Vok · January 18

Max80 said:
We should only listen to qualified people...

This is the difficult bit to decide who is well enough qualified to advise us. And the titles one accrued may be just misleading.

mheredge · January 18

@Max80 I agree with you. I have a lot of friends who are doctors. Without exception they say that we should get vaccinated, not only to protect ourselves from perhaps suffering the worst symptoms of covid should we catch it, but also to help spread it to more vulnerable people, who catching it, might then take up hospital beds that then mean patients with other life threatening health problems are not able to be treated.

It is not a simple matter and while people who don't want to be vaccinated should be allowed to express their free will, I don't believe it is fair on the majority if this then impacts on the wellbeing of others.

@Vok in general, doctors are of the view that vaccinations are an important measure. There are some doctors in France who has become renown for their anti-vaccination stance, who have rallied behind the anti-vax movement however. They potentially do a lot of damage as they are seen as 'experts' and those people skeptical of the idea of getting vaccinated latch onto their arguments.

https://www.codastory.com/waronscience/french-doctors-against-vaccines/

However, this BBC article from March 2021 is now very out of date in its suggestion that France is one of the most vaccine-sceptical countries in the world. France has become one of the top countries (in the top 10) right now.

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

Vok · January 18

I also remember reading an article about French people being very sceptical of getting any vaccines because they have had bitter experience in the past @mheredge .

mheredge · January 18

That's right @Vok. Quite a turn up for the books. But there are still a vocal group that insist that their liberties are threatened if they get vaccinated.

Riviera Radio News reported today the following:

Administrative closure of two establishments in the Var for failure to control health passes - The prefecture of the Var has ordered the administrative closure for seven days of two establishments in the Var for non-compliance with the control of the health pass. For the past week, the police and gendarmes have carried out 120 checks in the bars and restaurants of the department, more than a thousand customers have been asked for their health pass. 37 people were fined 135 euros. Fifteen formal notices were made, and two administrative closures were issued.

Paulette · January 18

Life of pigs....

You may have read it too, on January 7, a genetically engineered pig heart was implanted in a human. The man was no longer eligible for a human heart, so a pig's heart was chosen.
In the newspaper you could read that a specially developed pig heart was used.

The word 'developed pig' sounds strange to my ears.I thought pigs were born, maybe you could say bred, but what means specially developed?
Do we find ourselves in a society where we are quietly discovering that something is changing about the habit of breeding animals on a huge scale to fill our stomachs, but that they will now be developed to stretch the lives of people.

I am a bit of a poet and I can cling poetically to the inner affairs of the heart. Perhaps I am not realistic enough to imagine how a pig's heart behaves internally. We know that a pig has the intellect of a four-year-old child, recognizes itself in a mirror and mourns the death of a fellow pig.
Perhaps I see it too gloomy, perhaps this animal organ has a special effect and will connect people and animals more intensely with each other.

But there remains the question: would you eat pork if the heart of a pig was beating in your chest?

Max80 · January 18

Eat also stretch my life! 😅

But it’s a very beautifull story. I like to read the way the science uses his wits to give better our life!

Hello.

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