You're Welcome

I just received my receipt for my local Chinese tax filings, i.e. my contribution to the growth of communism in this world. On this receipt reads a statement that exclaims "Thank You for your contribution to China's flourishing and prosperity!" First, to take a page out of Seinfeld, the use of the exclamation point makes me feel like the Chinese Tax Authorities are yelling at me, but I guess they are just happy to have some American paying them money. Second, I am not sure if this sentence is proper English (came as a real shocker as the Chinese really have that Chinese to English translation down), but from my extensive research, I think flourishing is an adjective, so while prosperity is used correctly, I am not sure flourishing is used right (I read this sentence and thought, flourishing what? economy?). Anyway, maybe they can use some of the tax money that I paid (to clarify a cent didn't come out of my pocket, my Company flipped the bill for me) to clean up some of their English.

IN: Omega 3 Fatty Acids. Coming off the heals of my latest cholesterol tests, I was doing research on how to increase my HDL (good cholesterol) and came across a bunch of articles on Omega 3 Fatty Acids (oil that is produced mostly by fish). Now to inform all you readers, I actually was taking Omega 3 Fatty Acid pills about 3 years ago, so I was ahead of the curve on this one (just call me a trendsetter), but it appears that you no longer are limited to swallowing a fish oil pill to get your Omega 3 Fatty Acids (by the way, I took them in the morning and they made me burp fish all morning long, pretty disgusting). Company's are introducing foods like chocolate bars that contain Omega 3 Fatty Acids (although a fishy chocolate bar is not really something I am looking forward to). Anyway, just goggle Omega 3 Fatty Acids and look at the News section and you will see countless articles saying that OM3 decreases risks of cancers and brain dysfunctions and helps out in many ways, so join all the trendy people in burping up some good ole fish in the mornings by taking your OM3 supplements.

OUT: The China Bowl. No I am not the bearer of breaking news, I read this on Shanghaiist.com, who obtained their information from a Peter King article on SI.com, but the NFL is going to cancel this year's China Bowl. This was going to be a game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots that was going to take place in Beijing's newly finished Olympic Stadium (not done yet, but was going to be one of the firsts events to be held in the new facility). I guess my biggest problem with this is the fact that there were people who most likely booked a trip to come over to China to watch the game (as it was announced last August) and now they will not be able to watch the game. I guess they can spend the time looking around Beijing, but I can see where they can be a little mad at the NFL. The NFL wants to focus their efforts on their first regular season international game that will be taking place in London on October of 2007, an event that was planned after the China Bowl was announced. I was actually looking forward to watching a pre-season game over here, getting an opportunity to see how people would re-act in person to this kind of real American football (let's face it, its still the preseason), but I was figuring it would only be foreigners at the game anyway, so it probably wouldn't be too different.