Monday, April 28, 2008

Learning Chinese

Tonight as I was teaching English to Wei Wei (my 7 year old step daughter) she was trying to tell me to write my name in Chinese characters just like she writes her name. I tried to tell her that USA kids and adults do not know how to write our names or any words in Chinese. She couldn't believe this so she ran to her mother to ask her if this was true. That kids in USA don't have to learn all the Chinese letters and write in Chinese. After her mother confirmed that this is true--- she still could not believe it. I guess she will have to wait when she arrives in the US to learn what the American school kids learn.

See attached video of Wei Wei's entrance to her school.
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White Ghost in China Dinner

This Sunday evening on one of my few days off since I have been back to China. We went to a traditional Chinese dinner and had several styles of food prepared by a factory owner friend of mine. The styles of dishes you see in the video are: Cantonese Style, SiChuan, and Hunan food.

As usual after four years of living in China, I dont know what half of the food is that I eat and go by smell and how it looks (like most Americans). If it doesn't look good my mind tells me it will not taste good. If I could only get out of this thinking I would enjoy more Chinese styles of food!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

White Ghost in China Quoted in St. Louis Business Journal

This week we had a mention in our local business paper. See the link below for the St.Louis Business Journal.

White Ghost in China Quoted in St. Louis Business Journal


I am busy traveling back and forth to Hong Kong and Guangzhou since I have arrived back to my second home in China.

This is the time of the year that many of my customers are visiting and I must show them around to factories and work on our new solar/lawn and garden product lines.


My family also got an update for paper work on the Visa process. We are working on another form for the National Visa Center in the USA to hopefully get all the paperwork transfered over to the Guangzhou, China Embassy, then they will start the paperwork process to prepare Hong and Wei Wei for the interviews. Hopefully we will have three months more to wait and then get a visa for them to experience a new way of life. Are they ready? The are holding back their excitement and fears as I doubt they are ready for the American way of life.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

China Olympics and Wal-Mart

Below are TWO video clips on my weekly adventure to a Chinese Walmart Supercenter. Because of the Olympics, there was security protecting the premises outside of Walmart along with its competitor Carre Four ( a large French grocery store chain). Why? Because there are a lot of protesters in the USA and France trying to push their government to boycott the Chinese Olympic opening ceremonies. The protesters are also trying to stop the Olympic torch by trying to tackle the athlete carrying the torch. All because these protesters are making a point of China's poor record on human rights violations. This has sparked the Chinese National population, who are very proud of their country, to also protest and boycott American and French owned companies. There have been reported incidents but no injuries.

VIDEO ONE--





VIDEO TWO---


Friday, April 18, 2008

The Asian Diet Blog

If you'd like to read about Mike's diet program and fitness progress, read his blog here:

http://whiteghostinchinadiet.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Back to China

I just returned to China after five months away from my fiancee and step daughter. It took a while Xiao and I to get our chemistry back after me being gone for so long. To break the ice we all went to get our hair cut, shampooed and styled. I have always thought my Chinese hair cuts were the best hair cuts in the world. There are mostly guys that cut and style your hair. I always wondered why so I asked several of my female friends. They told me they feel that the Chinese guy is more detailed and creative at styling hair.

See my Chinese hair cut video below in the one out of three salons that are located in a one block area close to my apartment.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Fat Ghost, Thin Ghost

Results of Week 1 of the White Ghost Diet:

I've been eating steamed rice and light proteins for every meal, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything...no Big Mac attacks, no Crave Cases dancing through my head-- I've never been a big fast food guy.

I tried out the bike path that snakes around the perimeter of my subdivision, and got in a 45 min. ride Saturday. I was winded after the first two miles, but I pulled off 8 miles and felt great after. No soreness. Guess my legs remember when I used to put in 20-30 mile rides just over two years ago.

On Sunday, I goaded my wife into riding with me. Got the kid cart attached to my bike, and then lubed and aired up my wife's bicycle. We rode for forty minutes, and Nora complained the entire time, but she was glad to get back in the saddle. The little guy howled when I would stop, but as long as we were moving, he just looked at his board books and played with his Mozart cube. The toy makes electronic sounds, jingles of famous classical music. Some little kids playing in the street heard me ride by, Beethoven's Fifth blasting out, and they thought the ice cream man was coming.

MMmmm. Ice cream. Or, maybe sorbet is a better choice.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

FOX 2 NEWS White Ghost interview

Mike and I were both fortunate to have Tim Ezell at Fox 2 News interview us about our book and one of my past inventions that I launched in 2001 before 9.11 happened. We had a great response to the lost my cup magnet in 2001. However, after 9.11.01 this inventions hype lost its appeal to the media and retailers.

Tim helped us launch this invention in 2001 and loved the "lost my cup magnet" and wanted to play some April fools jokes on drivers while talking about our book.

The interview is a good laugh and gave us some White Ghost book awareness and more book sales at the Sunset Hills Borders Book Stores.


Check out our Fox 2 segment One interview on You Tube:



Segement TWO on You Tube:


Segment THREE on You Tube:

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

White Ghost Diet

So I'm watching myself on TV, and I'm thinking, "How in the heck did I get so fat?!" I look like a human a balloon! I'm swollen!

And then it dawned on me: over the past 2 1/2 years, since my wife and I conceived our first child, I've been on a food binge freefall. The old Me went to the gym three times a week. He biked 10 or more miles each day three or four times, weekly. The old Me ate healthy foods and rejected high-carb, refined sugar-loaded foods.

In a nutshell, the old Me was lean and healthy.

The current Me has gained fifty pounds and has the activity level of a garden slug. Time to get back on board the health train, I thought, as I watched a very bloated Me on replay.

So here's the White Ghost Diet Plan:

1. Hit the gym 3X each week, working out with weights for 30 min.
2. Biking 5-10 miles 3X each week.
3. Walk as much as possible, especially since the weather's turning to spring.
4. Follow Xiao's Cantonese nutrition plan: slow-cooked rice with each meal, with steamed vegetables and lean meats.
5. No eating after 7:00 p.m.

My goal is to lose 30 pounds in sixty days. I will be blogging my progress and taking pictures along the way. Right now, I wouldn't go out in public without my shirt on. By May, I plan on being ready for the pool.

To make the nutrition side easy to follow, I bought an electric rice steamer (which also doubles as a vegetable/meat steamer), frozen chicken breasts and tilapia filets, and a dozen bags of frozen vegetables.

Look for weekly updates as I transform my flabby shape. If you want to follow my plan and see how it works for you, subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog. The more, the merrier.