Whoa!!!!! I got a request from my friend to translate a document from Chinese to English for official use. During the translation, I seek help from my American friend for proofreading via MSN. While chatting, we talked about the name of the applicant and wondered if she's someone we both might know or at least my friend knew her. Yet, my friend said that he didn't know many Chinese who can't speak English. Then an interesting conversation went on as follows,
A: She might be a perfectionist or she just doesn't speak perfect English since it's not her native tongue. Besides, it's a formal document, and that may be the reason why she's looking for someone professional to translate that document.
B:Could be.
A: Otherwise, how can she communicate with her fiancee?
B: True.
A: Unless he speaks perfect Chinese, but if so, he then can write his own document.
B: Yeah
A: Did I just said someone professional to translate the document...am I that good ??? (I was flattered by my own words and felt a little bit embarrassed.)
Anyway, I'll give all the credit to my dear Heavenly Father who blesses me with all the talents I have.
Even with medical treatment, I am still and have been coughing for three weeks now. Last week was the Chinese New Year, which was VERY COLD or maybe I should use the word, EXTREMELY, to describe how cold it was. I finally got my new quilt, which kept me warm enough to fall asleep at night. Perhaps because of the cold weather, my cough is getting worse and I even couldn't sleep with the help of the sleeping pills.:S During those time, My sweet Becky, a Labrador retriever, stayed with me in bed and when she's not in bed, she'll even come to the room several times to check upon me and make sure I'm doing OK. I can see through her sympathy eyes that seems to tell me if possible she'd suffer for me to make me feel better. She's really a sweet, considerate dog and an angel.
By Steve Holland and Claudia ParsonsThu Jan 31, 11:26 AM ET
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney angrily accused his rival John McCain on Wednesday of "dirty tricks" for saying he had backed a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.
"It's offensive to me that someone would suggest that I have," Romney said.
Simmering tensions from the campaign for Florida, where McCain outdueled Romney to win the state's Republican nomination contest on Tuesday and solidify his front-runner status, spilled over into a crucial debate in California.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor now fighting for his political life with more than 20 states to hold their nominating votes on "Super Tuesday" next week, accused McCain of lying about his Iraq record.
Those races could well determine the Republican Party's choice for the November 4 election against a Democratic candidate to succeed President George W. Bush.
Gone from the debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who quit the race after a dismal finish in Florida and endorsed McCain.
Romney's job was to try to stop the momentum of McCain, who leads opinion polls in some of the key "Super Tuesday" prizes -- California, New York and New Jersey. But Romney looked frustrated and defensive at times and it was unclear how much headway he had made.
Romney accused McCain of holding liberal positions out of step with mainstream Republicans. In response, McCain said Romney raised taxes as governor of Massachusetts and suggested he had changed his position on important issues.
Romney said he "absolutely, unequivocally" had never supported setting a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq -- a proposition that was a live item for debate a year ago before a U.S. troop build-up began to stabilize parts of the country.
"And by the way, raising it a few days before the Florida primary, when there was very little time for me to correct the record ... falls into the kind of dirty tricks that I think Ronald Reagan would've found reprehensible," a tense Romney said, with McCain sitting at his side.
OTHER REPUBLICANS COMPLAIN
McCain, an Arizona senator who backed the Iraq build-up even though it was unpopular, said Romney was asked last year whether the troop "surge" was a good idea and had said: "We don't want them to lay in the weeds until we leave..."
McCain said he took that to mean Romney backed a timetable for a pullout, prompting an angry denial.
"How is it you are the expert on my position when my position has been very clear?" Romney demanded, saying McCain had multiple chances to bring the issue up during the campaign but had done it only to try to damage him in Florida.
The exchange was so heated at the CNN/Los Angeles Times/Politico debate that the other Republican contenders, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, complained.
Paul said McCain and Romney were engaged in "silly arguments about who said what, when."
Romney said McCain's record on illegal immigration, global warming and tax cuts put him "outside the mainstream of American conservative thought."
Romney also poked at McCain for his endorsement last week by The New York Times.
"Let me note if you get endorsed by The New York Times you're probably not a conservative," Romney said.
McCain, who won the contests in South Carolina and New Hampshire before taking Florida, shot back that he had been endorsed by two of Romney's hometown newspapers in Boston and said Romney had his own liberal tendencies.
"I heard Gov. Romney describe his record, as I understand it his record was he raised taxes by $730 million -- he called them fees. I'm sure the people that had to pay it, whether they called them bananas, they still had to pay $730 million extra," McCain said.
"I'm proud of my conservative record. It's one of reaching across the aisle to get things done."
Former GOP opponent asks his delegates to support Arizona senator
The Associated Press
updated 5:26 p.m. MT,Thurs., Feb. 14, 2008
BOSTON - Republican campaign dropout Mitt Romney endorsed John McCain for the party's presidential nomination and asked his national convention delegates to swing behind the likely nominee.
"Even when the contest was close and our disagreements were debated, the caliber of the man was apparent," the former Massachusetts governor said, standing alongside his one-time rival at his now-defunct campaign's headquarters.
Romney collected 280 delegates during his run through the early primaries and caucuses, enough to move McCain close to the total of 1,191 needed to clinch the nomination a full nine months before the November general election.
The officials who disclosed Romney's plans did so on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting a formal announcement later in the day. McCain was campaigning in Vermont and Rhode Island, and added a flight to Boston to appear with Romney to accept the endorsement at his waterfront campaign headquarters.
McCain effectively sealed the nomination last week when Romney withdrew from the race; only former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and libertarian-leaning Texas Rep. Ron Paul remain. Both lag McCain in delegates to the Republican nominating convention this summer.
Romney's nod of support capped a bitter yearlong rivalry between the two men over the party's nomination. Romney criticized McCain in television ads in New Hampshire, and both candidates targeted each other almost daily during campaign events and debates. Neither is especially fond of the other.
Over the past year, Romney cast McCain as outside of the Republican conservative mainstream and a Washington insider who contributed to the problems plaguing a broken system. McCain, in turn, argued that Romney's equivocations and reversals on several issues indicated a willingness to change his positions to fit his political goals.
The clash effectively ended on Feb. 5, when McCain won a string of big-state "Super Tuesday" primaries from coast to coast.
Officials said the former Massachusetts governor made his decision to back McCain earlier in the day, citing a desire to help the Arizona senator wrap up the nomination before too much more time passed and while Democrats still did not have a nominee.
McCain is on a steady march toward amassing the 1,191 delegates he needs, but Huckabee has proven an unexpectedly durable challenger. With a strong appeal to evangelical conservatives, Huckabee defeated McCain in two out of three states that chose delegates last weekend, and ran a far stronger race than expected before losing the Virginia primary on Tuesday.
The senator began the day with 843 delegates, to 242 for Huckabee.
While Romney can ask his delegates to support McCain, he will not be able to simply hand over all 280 delegates. Many are from caucus states that will not select the actual delegates until state conventions this spring. Those delegates will be selected by people who supported Romney in the initial caucuses; the direction they go depends on whether they follow Romney's lead in endorsing McCain.
In other states, the delegates are bound to Romney, and their fate is governed by state party rules. In states like Montana, where Romney has 25 delegates, they would be free to support whomever they choose after Romney releases them.
Six of Romney's delegates are members of the Republican National Committee who continued to endorse him even after he dropped out of the race. These RNC members are free to support any candidate they choose at the convention, and not all of them appeared eager to endorse McCain,
"I will support our nominee," RNC member Diane Adams of Indiana said simply.
Other Romney supporters like Stewart Iverson in Iowa said they will work to rally others behind McCain.
"My main focus is to try to bring Republicans together and say, he may not have been our choice in the caucuses but he is where we are today," Iverson said Wednesday.
In the next round of voting, Louisiana holds a state convention Saturday in which caucus-goers will help decide how 44 of the state's 47 national convention delegates are split. At stake Tuesday in Wisconsin's primary are 40 Republican delegates.
A former Massachusetts governor, Romney suspended his candidacy last week after it became apparent that toppling McCain would be near impossible to gain the delegates needed to defeat McCain.
In a speech before conservative activists in Washington, D.C., Romney acknowledged the difficulty in overtaking McCain. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," he said at the time, adding that doing otherwise would increase the chances that Democrats would reclaim the White House.
At the time, Romney did not offer an endorsement, and McCain said he did not seek one when the two spoke by telephone.
Romney was the only one of McCain's main primary opponents who had resisted lining up behind the nominee in waiting; former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former politician and actor Fred Thompson both have endorsed him.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
SALT LAKE CITY12 February 2008 “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). So inquired the anguished Job. On this one fundamental question hang much of the hopes and fears of mankind. And how one answers it will largely determine not only how one approaches death but also how one lives life.
The passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley has moved Latter-day Saints to reflect more deeply upon the meaning of death and its implications for how we live our lives. Death is not the final stop on life’s path but a mere gateway that leads to an eternal course that we continually shape by our choices. President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles likened the long journey of human life to “a grand three-act play” in which the first act is a previous pre-mortal existence with God, the second act is the trial of this mortal life, and the third act is a glorious future of eternity. Such a broad vision of life endows each moment with eternal significance.
During President Hinckley’s recent funeral, the choir sang a hymn that he himself composed titled “What Is This Thing That Men Call Death?” There is no doubt how he answered Job’s question. Echoing his typical brightness and optimism, the hymn proclaims that death “’Tis not the end but genesis of better worlds and greater light.”
Accordingly, Mormon funerals are typically marked by an atmosphere of hopefulness and peace. They generally are not burdened by the inconsolable grief and despair so often seen in other funerals. Latter-day Saints who mourn the death of loved ones are lightened by the assurance and understanding that the gospel of Jesus Christ offers. In addition, some might be surprised by the lack of formal ritual in these funerals. The commemoration service is conducted by a lay minister and features heartfelt tributes and comforting music. Moreover, the basic format, tone and length of President Hinckley’s funeral are typical of what might be seen in the funerals of regular Church members.
Regarding the undaunted way in which Latter-day Saints confront death, well-known literary scholar Harold Bloom proclaimed the following: “What is the essence of religion? … Religion rises inevitably from our apprehension of our own death. To give meaning to meaninglessness is the endless quest of all religion. … Of all religions that I know, the one that most vehemently and persuasively defies and denies the reality of death is the original Mormonism of the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator Joseph Smith.”
Most important, this affirmation of life in the face of death arises from faith in God’s abundant mercy. Joseph Smith taught that God is “more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive.” It is on such a foundation that the fears of death can be reconciled with the hopes of life.
我是在1996年12月29日受洗加入耶穌基督後期聖徒教會. 我在此留下我對這復興的福音的見證,我知道約瑟斯密確實是神的先知; 藉由約瑟斯密,神復興了耶穌基督的教會即耶穌基督後期聖徒教會; 摩爾門經是耶穌基督的另一部約書,與聖經共同見證耶穌是基督.而我們今日仍有一位活著的先知,多馬孟蓀會長
I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on December 29, 1996. I know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is indeed Another Testament of Jesus Christ. We have a living prophet today, even President Thomas S. Monson.
