102 dtg (MFB, PP, KL)

This is an essay I have just written for my class about a few of my former colleagues in Hong Kong, so I'm just getting a bit of practice at typing in Chinese by posting it here.

MFB / PP / KL - hope you enjoy!

我在香港的公司真是卧虎藏龙， 虽然他们都很帮， 但是大部分的时候我和 Mary Frances， Priscilla, Karen 一起工作。

从2004年开始，Mary-Frances 是我们公司市场部的经理。 她有丰富的市场经验，而且她认识我们CEO的时间很长，所以她了解他的工作方式。我想是这两个原因让公司选择她来当市场经理，帮助我们完成2004年的计划：把美国《上午周刊》在亚洲会议自费参与者的收入增加一倍。 于是，他最重要的任务是每周和我们一起讨论两次项目计划。 Mary-Frances沉稳的性格让我们不管遇到什么情况都应该先完成需要做的事情。

Priscilla和我是做市场具体实施工作的。 她负责处理每次会议的直接市场（direct marketing)。通过许多方法（直接邮件，HTML电子邮件，在杂志里的广告等等）为了让各种各样的商务人士知道我们的会议。因为Priscilla做事非常仔细，组织能又强，所以她工作做得很好。

Karen负责处理我么会议参与者的登记。在每次会议前的时候，他总是准确地知道多少人已经登记好了，而且那些人通过什么方法了解我们会议的。这让我们知道每个星期需要注意什么样的市场活动。

还有另外两个同事帮我们，Flora和Louisa。Flora保证我们公司消息的准确； Louisa在市场部很忙的时候给我们各种各样的支持。

这个组合使我们六个人成为一个很成功的团队。到了2004年底，我们工作目的是把自费参与者的收入增加到300%。加油！

121 dtg (Homer was right)

Homer Simpson had a point when he told Flanders that the only reason people didn't like crab grass was because it was called crab grass, and that if we called it something nice instead it would be no problem (from memory I think he suggested "flower grass").

You know that yellowish gum you sometimes find in your eye after you wake up? I normally call it "sleep", and it never occurred to me that it might be embarrassing to point it out to somebody ... "ahh, you've got some sleep in your eye ... there you go, that's better".

Well, apparently it can. In Chinese, the word for sleep is Yan-Shi （眼屎），which literally translates as "eye - secretion". The problem is that the second word, shi, has a more widely used meaning - excrement. So, the next time you tell your Chinese friend they have some sleep in their eye, if they look a little embarrassed (as my teacher did), then it's probably because you've just said to them "ahh, you got some pooh coming out of your eye".