2000-01 (January 2000)

2000-01-03 Monday

I checked out a reference on China, the volume on China from the Time Life Library of Nations set. This book is copyright 1986. I'd love to see a newer updated version. I also checked out a (Mandaran) Chinese set of tapes.

2000-01-04 Tuesday

Found a free clock at http://www.7am.com. Put two on the adoption index: one for Pataskala and one for Nanning.

2000-01-05 Wednesday

Read the first three chapters of the Library of Nations book on China. I probably read from 7am until 10:30am. Very, very interesting. It's written in 1986. I'd like to see something a bit more up to date. I'm thinking of reading Beijing Spring next.

Tammy was a bit upset that I'd not painted the baby bed, but I wanted to sand it.

Tammy and I took the first Chinese tape and played it while going down to JC Penney Outlet to look at a baby bed. It was one that Mary said was one hundred dollars. It was four hundred dollars. D'Oh!

We listened to the tape on the way back to the Pataskala Public Library. This is all pronuncation so far. Whew! What a complicated language.

2000-01-06 Thursday

Sanded the crib. Ouch, my hands hurt!

Read the fourth, fifth, and into the sixth chapter of the Library of Nations book on China in the evening.

2000-01-07 Friday

Finished reading the China volume of the Library of Nations this morning. A very good book and yet, much has happened in the past 15 years.

2000-01-10 Monday

On the way home, I stopped off at the Pataskala Public Library and picked up a few things:

National Geographic Video - Save the Panda (1983)

The Last Emperor by Edward Behr (1987).

This is an over-sized paperback. I was looking for the movie on VHS, but they don't have a copy. I want to read this too, but I still want to see all of the film. Ryuichi Sakamoto does some of the music.

Red Scarf Girl, A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-li Jiang.

This is a recorded book. It's also in the young adult section.

Tammy and I watched the Save the Panda video in the evening. In the beginning, there was a collection of films showing pandas arriving in various foreign countries. One was in Britian. It was quite embarassing. There was some fellow in a uniform who took the bear and tried to lay it on a folding army cot. He gave it a toy stuffed panda and tried to cover it with a blanket. He was treating it like a human child. It was a ghastly example of people forcing their ways on others. This time instead of Western ideas and behaviors being forced onto other people, they were trying to apply them to animals.

2000-01-11 Tuesday

I scanned the water color pencil sketch I've been working on of karst formations that are found in Guilin, China. It still needs work. The boat needs a reflection, the clouds could have better edges, and the dark building in the middle with the water-wheel didn't turn out at all like I wanted it to be.

I've painted the cold air return and sanded the crib some.

2000-01-22 Saturday

Tammy and I sponge-painted the clouds in Delainie's room.

We went to the spaghetti dinner and silent auction for Jay & Marcia at the Lutherian Church in Heath.