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Blurty for Chet's Chatter v2.
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| Sunday, September 5th, 2004 |
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| This online journal has now been consolidated with Chet's Chatter v1 and can be found at Chet's Chatter. | ||||||||
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| Saturday, September 4th, 2004 |
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First, it was sex tapes. Now, it's baby tapes. The first round was apparently successful as it led to two cubs. Now, tapes are being used to help her know how to look after her two young cubs, including how to feed them properly. What's more, she's actually watching the tapes! Besides the videos, she's also listening to recordings of baby pandas' cries to remind her of her role. Actually, while mating and having babies may not come naturally to giant pandas, looking after the babies once they're in the world is natural to giant panda mummies and need not be taught. However, they usually only can care for one cub. So when they have twins, they end up abandoning the weaker one to give full attention to the stronger one. That's sad, but at least one cub survives. Back in August 2003, an ultrasound showed Bai Yun (Hua Mei's Mama in San Diego Zoo) to be carrying twins but eventually, she only gave birth to one (Mei Sheng, just turned 1 on 19 August and weighing more than 50 pounds as compared to a paltry 4 ounces at birth), and there was never any update on what happened to the other. Now, Hua Mei has pipped Mama / Grandma Bai Yun to it and had twins of her own! To ensure a better chance of survival for both cubs, the elder one is being hand-reared. At some point soon, both cubs will be swap-reared, with each spending time with Mama Hua Mei in turn. Below is a picture showing Hua Mei giving birth to one of her cubs. I'm not too sure about that - the pink thing looks more like her tongue.
Besides, the birth of a giant panda cub is usually more dramatic, to the point of it shooting out of the mother's body. Full story of her Hua Mei's mama education here: Panda gets video tutorials on cub care Caption story of the birth: Returned panda gives birth to twins |
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| Friday, September 3rd, 2004 |
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Oh my ... I woke up yesterday morning to the wonderful news of Hua Mei giving birth to a pair of twin cubs, and now I'm about to go to bed after seeing the first picture of her and one of her twins. Here, you can see it, too.
Here's the news release: Hooray for Panda Hua Mei: She's a mom Picture downloaded from China Daily. |
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YP! |
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| Thursday, September 2nd, 2004 |
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Until last night, I wasn't aware how cruel I could be. How selfish, too. I nearly killed something very precious, and if it had died, I would've died with it. It's been said we don't really appreciate something until we no longer have it. I'm just glad I've been given a second chance. It's also made me realise how I've not been giving my best to my friends, but have often demanded much more from them. Something nearly died last night, but something's definitely changed last night, too. For the better. |
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*happy sigh* |
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Hua Mei's a mother ... Which makes: Bai Yun a grandmother ... Little Mei Sheng, who only turned 1 about 11 days ago, an uncle ... But most of all, Shi Shi, Hua Mei's Papa, a grandfather. That last fact is the most amazing of all. More later ... |
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HUA MEI'S HAD TWINS! According to a statement from the San Diego Zoo, Hua Mei delivered her first cub at 7:45 p.m. local time at China's Wolong Nature Reserve. The second cub followed 37 minutes later. Yippee! *doing cartwheels, somersaults* Official San Diego Zoo Statement: Hua Mei Update: Hua Mei gives birth to twins in China! More later ... |
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| Tuesday, August 31st, 2004 |
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When I was going to school at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, there was a second-hand bookstore where students would go to sell their books at the end of each term, to be purchased by newer students later on. I was there one afternoon when I came across this book which had a really touching inscription. I can't remember the name of the book, but I'm sure it wasn't on my reading list, that's why I didn't buy it. There were two names at the beginning and end of the inscription; again, I can't remember them, except the first was a girl's name and the second a boy's. What remained in my memory after more than 15 years is the actual inscription itself: It was written in pencil, since (obviously) the book didn't belong to the person who wrote it. And quite obviously, he was not given the chance to try again, as the book was sold off to the secondhand bookstore. Dang ... I wish I'd bought the book, if only for the inscription. |
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| Monday, August 30th, 2004 |
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Lyrics to the song I'm listening to: "But for Your grace I could not be saved But for Your grace I would go my way I'm forever grateful That You have been faithful to me Lord For Your amazing grace" Music and lyrics by Rita Baloche 1998 Integrity's Hosanna! Music Thank you, Lord, for Your amazing grace to this wretched soul. |
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Oo ... he's given me an idea for an early night. I think I'll take a book to bed with me. |
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| Discovered Joy of Tech from the Humor section at David Clark's site. So cool. A must-visit site for me from now on. | ||||||||
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| Final Chet's Chatter entry | ||||||
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| Sunday, August 29th, 2004 |
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My brother came home to keep our father company. He's never done it before, never been alone with father. When we used to visit him in Singapore, it'd be three of us - father, mother and little sister (me). Now that mother is living in a nursing home, it's just father and I at home. And with me away for my first holiday in three years, we couldn't leave father on his own, that's why my brother was home. He was hoping to catch up on his sleep during his time here. But he found out that for father, old habits die hard (isn't it true for all of us?), which affected his plans for sleep. Father's old habits ... I'm very familiar with them. |
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Val (aka CHiQ), YP and I got mentioned in VaLz's blog dated 26 August 2004: Blog Entry here Thanks, VaLz. Appreciate it. |
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Saturday evening at the San Diego Zoo's Giant Panda Research Station: I couldn't resist sharing such a cute picture. Image downloaded from San Diego Panda Web Cam |
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A fly / drive tour package is one where you fly to a destination and then drive back to where you came from, stopping along the way and taking in the sights. I just came back from my own fly / drive experience yesterday evening. It didn't start out as that; I had a return ticket ... well, actually I had two single tickets, as only one leg of the journey offered a 50% discount and the other didn't, and in order to get the 50% discount, I had to get two singles ... but I digress. I'd flown to Kuala Terengganu for a really short break. How short? Thursday evening to Saturday evening. Two nights but really just one full day in Kuala Terengganu. But it wasn't the place, it was the people. Cousin Soo was going there to visit son #3 Nigel who's studying at ALAM (Akademi Laut Malaysia) near KT. She, husband Herb and daughter Hazel were supposed to have gone to Kluang, Herb's hometown before driving up to KT. Which was why I didn't go with them, but instead met them at KT. When we met up at KT, she said they hadn't driven from Kluang, cuz they hadn't gone there at all. Almost on the spot, she suggested I drove back with them, which I was very agreeable to, seeing as how she's my favourite cousin and all. So we called the MAS office and cancelled the KT / KL leg of my ticket. Flying to KT, I left the house two hours before the flight and met up with Soo and family about two hours after arriving (cuz they were still on the road when I got to KT so I'd waited). Driving to KL, we left KT around 11:25 a.m., took a slow, leisurely drive, stopped in Kemaman for lunch around 2:30 p.m. (at this really quaint coffee shop called Hai Peng which has its own web site - www.kopi.com.my), and continued on to Kuantan. Before reaching Kuantan, we went in search of a chalet place called Gloria Mas that Soo and Herb had stayed in 14 years ago. We found the place which turned out to be called Gloria Maris and had been expended to include a swimming pool these days. We also learned that the owner had passed on three years ago and Gloria Maris is now run by his son. But I digress ... Along the way, it'd rained on and off, and when we got to Kuantan around 3:30 p.m., it was raining too heavily to continue, so we took shelter in a shopping mall and didn't resume our journey till about 6:00 p.m. We found the new East Coast Expressway and had a smooth and free drive along it. Arrived back in KL and got caught in the traffic jam caused by the closing of the "cracked" portion of the MRR2 (hope I got that right). It wasn't that bad a jam as we were sitting down to dinner in TTDI less than an hour later. Condition in the car throughout the journey back was subdued as we were all tired. In all, it was about 10½ hours on the road from KT to KL, with quite a few stops along the way. If I'd flown back, I would've reached home around 11:00 p.m. But then I would've been by myself most of the day until my flight at 9:00 p.m. It was one of two flights still available at the time I booked; the other one was at the early-early hour of 8:15 a.m. I'm glad I changed plans and drove back with Soo and family, even though it was a long and tiring journey. Overall, having experienced both flying and driving on this recent short break, I'd opt for flying from now on. It's too tiring to be doing not much most of the time during the drive. There's only so much to chat about with fellow passengers, not because there's nothing to chat about, but because we all get tired after a while. |
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| Thursday, August 26th, 2004 |
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I'm crazy about you. There, I've said it. |
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| Wednesday, August 25th, 2004 |
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We hosted the analysts' briefing this morning. It was a more formal function this time, as our new CEO was meeting the analysts for the first time. So there was a proper intro, etc., etc. And that concludes this round of quarterly results announcements. The web site version's up online, the ads published in the various newspapers, plus we got pretty good press coverage this time, too. Again, actually. Cuz we're an old, established company with good media relations. On the personal front, I'm thinking of someone. |
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| Tuesday, August 24th, 2004 |
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What more can I ask for?
And about 40 minutes later ...
I think that's where I'm headed, too. ZzzzzzzzzLand ... Images downloaded from San Diego Panda Web Cam |
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Blurty for Chet's Chatter v2.
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scared.
lazy.
giggly.
contemplative.
happy.
mellow.
geeky.
tired.
indescribable.
