FIFA Craze gone over the top (LoL)

Man Pulls TV From House Fire to Watch Soccer

Reuters, BEIJING (June 29) - A Beijing soccer fan refused to let the small matter of his house burning down disturb his enjoyment of Tuesday's World Cup match between France and Spain.

A fire broke out in a hutong in the center of the Chinese capital at 3 a.m. local time Wednesday -- kickoff time in Hanover -- and gutted the traditional courtyard dwelling, the Beijing Daily Messenger reported.

"When the neighbors shouted 'fire!', I took my little baby and ran out in my nightclothes," the man's wife told the paper.

"My husband paid no attention to the danger, just grabbed the television and put it under his arm.

"After getting out of the house, he then set about finding an electric socket to plug in and continue watching his game."

The anti-social timing of the matches broadcast from Germany, which is six hours behind China, has forced some Chinese fans to go to great lengths to follow the action.

One man quit his job in Beijing to return to his hometown Chongqing so he could watch the whole tournament uninterrupted.

State news agency Xinhua reported that the 23-year-old's boss at the IT company had offered him a pay rise, but he turned it down flat, saying the World Cup was more important than his job.

The Guangzhou Daily reported that local police were forced to release a thief arrested for stealing a mobile phone when the victim refused to press charges because he did not want to miss the start of a match.

Although there are also many female World Cup fans in China, one man in the southeastern city had to sign a contract with his wife agreeing to do all the housework during the month of the finals so he could watch the matches at night.

Another from Putian, Fujian province, took a less diplomatic approach, Xinhua reported.

When his cheers during the Argentina-Ivory Coast match woke his wife and she switched off the television, he locked her in their bedroom and settled back down to watch the game ignoring her loud protests.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

The Beaver

Thank you Bananapouch in Baltimore for posting on my guestmap ! My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Headers.... (As promised to Nyasha)

En passant :

Bonne Saint-Jean
a tous les Quebecois
et les Quebecoises!!!!

Today is Quebec's national holiday, La Saint-Jean-Baptiste! Yesterday, just like last year, I spent the evening serving beer to party-goers. (Go figure, this year, St-Hyacinthe was partying 1 day ahead!) My comments remain essentially the same.

I wrote an extensive post about it last year which you can find here.

Bonne Saint-Jean to one and all !

============================================

So here we are again with some technical entries. I haven't done one in (oh) about a year, so I hope you will be forgiving and that I'll be able to answer you appropriately.

How to change the picture in the header

First, if you have a customized header you would like to use, you need to host it. Personnally, I like to use Flickr, but other services exist that will give you a URL for your header.

So:
1) Obtain a Flickr account.
2) Upload your picture. If you wish to, it can be set to "private" and still be used.
3) Go to your photo page. On it, click on the link "All sizes".



4) Grab your header's URL.



5) Then, go to www.blogger.com
6) Log in and select the template tab.



7) Make sure you are in the "edit current" option.



8) in the text box, look for a block of code that ressembles the code in RED: (It should be at the beginning of your template).



9) Then replace the URL in blue by your URL from Flickr.

I hope this helps !


The Beaver


My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

With Fear and Trembling

"Amelie, a Japanese-born Belgian, returns to the East after a decade and a half's absence, employed as a translator by an oriental mega-corporation. Her first job is in 'The noble art of making tea'. Her second, a brief stint in passing out post, is cut short since the mailman nearly has a breakdown, believing he's been fired. Amelie is repremanded for taking initiative. Her third task is keeping the calendars up to date. It only goes down (and down) from there."

The movie is an exact replica of the novel, an easy read of a few hours, at the longest, a few days.

With 90% of the text in Japanese, it's expected that this movie (from a french novel) will be subtitled in english and in other languages, as its theme, cultural gaps in working relationships (in this case between the East and the West) is a universal one.

This story, autobiographic as it may, makes you wonder whether Amelie Nothomb allowed herself to be treated this way in order to better write it later.... or if she wrote about it to overcome the trauma. An entertaining movie that will make you think.

Official Websites:
En francais
In English

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

1 + 1 = 2

The aftermath...

So I've been sick (royally, imperially sick) during my 2 weeks of vacation. Yes, I had dengue fever. Yes, I had it pretty bad, with a saddleback fever (going as high as 40C) and a saddleback rash that left me walking around my neighboorhood at 4AM, unable to sleep because of the *unbearable* scratching.

So my plans of spending a week of rest, love and romance at CQFD's family's cottage, on the shores of the beautiful and calm Lac Huard (Loon lake)..... were completely destroyed, and CQFD's only vacation week was used to nurse me back to health instead of snuggling in a canoe.

On the flip side, I've been declared unfit for travel for another 4 weeks. For a TRAVELLING BEAVER, it's almost a death sentence. But I will get to know again my friends and loved ones back home, and spending a month 1/2 with CQFD will bring me back on my feet.

In a way, this was unhoped for, but a god-send. I think I can really use the rest.... the stability... the love.....

(lots to come, soon, movie reviews and pics pics pics!)

The Beaver


Thank you Elizabeth in Afghanistan and Anthony in Taiwan for posting on my guestmap!

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

I've had it for 4 days now. Thank GOD I'm Home.

Dengue (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are caused by one of four closely related, but antigenically distinct, virus serotypes (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4), of the genus Flavivirus. Infection with one of these serotypes provides immunity to only that serotype for life, so persons living in a dengue-endemic area can have more than one dengue infection during their lifetime. DF and DHF are primarily diseases of tropical and sub tropical areas, and the four different dengue serotypes are maintained in a cycle that involves humans and the Aedes mosquito. However, Aedes aegypti, a domestic, day-biting mosquito that prefers to feed on humans, is the most common Aedes species. Infections produce a spectrum of clinical illness ranging from a nonspecific viral syndrome to severe and fatal hemorrhagic disease. Important risk factors for DHF include the strain of the infecting virus, as well as the age, and especially the prior dengue infection history of the patient.

Clinical Diagnosis

Classic dengue fever or "break bone fever" is characterized by acute onset of high fever, 3-14 days after the bite of an infected mosquito. Patients develop frontal headache, retro-orbital pain, myalgias, arthralgias, nausea, vomiting, and often a maculopapular rash. Many patients notice a change in taste sensation. Acute symptoms, when present, usually last about 1 week, but weakness, malaise, and anorexia may persist for several weeks. A high proportion of infections produce no or minimal symptoms, especially in children. Treatment emphasizes relief of symptoms, avoiding aspirin and other non steroidal anti-inflamatory medications and encouraging oral fluid intake (see Treatment below).

Treatment

Even for outpatients, the need for maintaining adequate hydration should be stressed. In addition, monitoring for signs of hemorrhagic fever and early appropriate treatment are key to ensure survival if the patient progresses to a more severe form of dengue infection. DHF/DSS can be effectively managed by intravenous fluid replacement therapy, and if diagnosed early, fatality rates can be kept below 1%. It is very important that physicians and other health care providers learn to recognize this disease.

To manage the pain and fever, patients suspected of having a dengue infection should be given acetaminophen preparations. Aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications may aggravate the bleeding tendency associated with some dengue infections and in children can be associated with the development of Reyes syndrome.

For more info: visit the CDC

The Beaver


My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !