#550 Dream Home

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Todd: OK, Mark you said that you want to own your own home.

Mark: That would be nice, yes.

Todd: So let's say you can have any home in the world. You can make your dream home, reasonable dream home. (Right) OK, what kind of house would you have?

Mark: Well, I don't normally dream of and enormous mansion, or anything. Just a nice, you know, a medium to large size home. I guess more importantly for me is to have some land with the house, like I don't like, I wouldn't want my neighbor to be, you know, just three feet away from my house. I'd like to have a little bit of space.

Todd: OK, so assuming you have a big yard and you have this space, you have land, what kind of landscape would you have?

Mark: Um, well, I grew up in Alabama and I really like the landscape there. It's kind of hilly and lots of trees and lots of pine trees, you know, the deciduous area of America, and lots of lakes so I guess, you know, that kind of setting, you know like a deciduous trees, lots of lakes, you know or some water nearby and hills. Things like that.

Todd: OK, but actually, what would you want your yard to look like?

Mark: Oh, I see.

Todd: You don't want a lake, right?

Mark: No, no, but, yeah, I don't know, I would want it to be taken care of, but not overly manicured, like I don't want it to be, you know, too much pruning, but I wouldn't want it to be completely wild either, so green but not like a completely perfect square, or anything. I'd like for it to be a little bit, um, a little bit chaotic.

Todd: OK, so what do you want: a big bathroom, small bathroom, big kitchen, small kitchen?

Mark: Big bathrooms, big kitchen. Yeah. The bigger, the better.

Todd: The bigger, the better.

Mark: Yeah.

Todd: Two car garage?

Mark: Sure. That's be fine. And actually the way the house is decorated, you know, if I'm married, my wife can decorate most of the house but I'd like to have one room that was my room, like that, you know, maybe I could put a small library and lots of books, maybe a pool table but one room that I got to do, you know, my own things with.

Todd: Yeah, man. You need your territory.

Mark: Yeah, just that one room.

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#549 ELLLO Mail Bag - What people write ELLLO about

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Mark: So, Todd, you run and operate this site, elllo.org, yeah? (Yes) How long have you been doing that?

Todd: I've been doing it now for about two years.

Mark: Two years. OK, and I've been on the site and there's a place where I can send a comment to you, right? (Right) Do people ever send, send you comments, or?

Todd: Yeah, actually, I get, I do, I get about five letters a day, usually, from people all over the world, some days more, some days less, and usually people are very sweet and they say, oh you know, "Nice Job" and sometimes they give me suggestions for how to improve the site.

Mark: Really! Do they ever, is anyone ever critical or say any negative things?

Todd: Well, the one, the main critical thing I get a lot, often is, "Why don't you have real authentic speech?" Like, why don't you have people talking natural. And actually, there's quite a few reasons why?

Mark: OK, well, I don't understand exactly because right now, you and I are talking (right) and this is not scripted, we're basically talking (right) we're talking off the top of our head, so how is this not natural?

Todd: Well, this conversation actually probably is more natural because I'm really explaining why I don't have natural conversations. It's kind of ironic, but I think because a lot of the conversations are staged. They're unscripted, but I do just sit down and ask two people to talk about something, and because I tell them to talk about it, it's not as natural as it would be in real life.

Mark: Ah, I see, because they're not, they didn't think of that topic on their own. They're given the topic and then, sort of, they must say something about that topic.

Todd: Right. And also there's a problem with just the recordings. You know when you record audio, you have to have the mic equal distance to both speakers, and so that means both people have to sit down and put on the headsets to get good quality audio, so in order to get people speaking naturally in real life, I would have to follow them around with a microphone, and it's, technically it's just too hard to do.

Mark: So what do you do to try to, is that, well let me ask you, actually, is that the only criticism that you get?

Todd: Ah, no, there's, well, there's quite a bit. The other criticism is that, this is the funny part, it's either too easy, or it's too difficult, so usually

Mark: So you need more intermediate.

Todd: Well, I guess that's what they say, they say that there's not enough stuff for low level listeners, and there's not enough stuff for the advanced listeners.

Mark: So what do you think your gonna do in the future to address those needs?

Todd: Well, hopefully by next year, Ill be able to have enough that I can do both. For the people who really want high listening, or more advanced listening I think they should just go to the links page and listen to authentic stuff, because if you're listening is that good then, that's probably the best thing to do, but I do need to start working on stuff for beginners soon.

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#548 Jeannie's Family - Jeannie talks about her unique family

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Todd: Ah, hello.

Jeanie: Hello.

Todd: Can you say your name please?

Jeanie: Yep, my name is Jeanie Cherry.

Todd: Jeanie Cherry.

Jeanie: Yep.

Todd: Really?

Jeanie: Yep.

Todd: Cherry's your last name? Is it spelled like the fruit?

Jeanie: Yes.

Todd: Really. That's cool.

Jeanie: Oddly enough, someone asked me before, "Is it spelled like the fruit?" and I said, "Yes" and she spelled it incorrectly.

Todd: Oh, no. Oh, man.

Jeanie: I go "OK."

Todd: And how old are you?

Jeanie: I'm 25.

Todd: Wow. You look young though.

Jeanie: I know. It's because of my parents.

Todd: Oh, so you have good genes in your family.

Jeanie: Yes, very good.

Todd: How old is your father?

Jeanie: My father is 52 this year.

Todd: And how old does he look?

Jeanie: He looks like he is about 35. That's what people often say.

Todd: Man.

Jeanie: Yeah, I showed pictures to other people. He's a twin, identical twin so I show people their pictures and they're like, "Wow, they're so young. That can't be your father" and "Oh, yeah, that's my dad."

Todd: That's cool. So your father has a twin.

Jeanie: Yeah.

Todd: And do they still look identical?

Jeanie: They still look identical.

Todd: Do they have the same hairstyle?

Jeanie: Yes, and they always dress the same. The do a lot of stuff together all the time so.

Todd: That's cool.

Jeanie: Yeah, people always ask me, "Yeah, how can you tell me which one is which?"

Todd: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You must get tired of that question.

Jeanie: Yeah. It's like, "I know my own father."

Todd: Well, why do twins do that? Why do they often where the same clothes?

Jeanie: Well, I don't know. For my dad it's always been a thing of, they like to make a big impression on people so they always want to dress in the best suits. They always got to look flashy, so that when they go out, they're like the show stoppers, and they happen to look exactly like the twins from a music group called the Whispers.

Todd: Oh, no kidding.

Jeanie: Yeah, so they get lots of people taking their photos and screaming, "Oh, my gosh. It's the Whispers."

Todd: Really.

Jeanie: Yeah. They get a lot of publicity for that.

Todd: Well, does your father have a good voice? Can they sing?

Jeanie: Oh, no, they can't sing for anything. They can pretend to some background music but they can't actually do it.

Todd: That's cool. So you dad looks like he's 35. Wow! And who else is in your family?

Jeanie: My mother. She's also 52 this year and I have an older brother. He's 31 years old and my sister is 30.
My brother has three daughters and he's got a son on the way.

Todd: Oh, that's good news.

Jeanie: Yeah. And my sister has two daughters, so for a long time it was only girls, so my parents are starting to look at me like, yeah, we need some boys in the family. OK, so I'll think about that later.

Todd: Ah, sounds like you have a really nice family.

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#547 Meditation - Jeanie gives tips about the art of meditation

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Todd: Ah, Jeanie, you say you are really into meditation.

Jeanie: Yes.

Todd: So can you explain what meditation is and how you meditate and what are good way to meditate for other listeners.

Jeanie: So as far as meditation is concerned, I feel that it's really finding your center, which is quite. Think of like a cyclone. Now there's all types of activity except for in the dead center where it's really still and quiet. I feel that meditation is a way to get back to that quiet inner self and it's something you need just to keep you settled in everyday life. For me, I'm very used to either bursts of activity or just being still so when I meditate I just like to absolutley sit still. I don't worry about sitting in a lotus position or anything like that. I sit more in a comfortable position and one that's not going to distract me from what I'm trying to do. If I can, I just don't think about anything but if I've got too much on my mind then I'll concetrate on my breathing. I'll pay attention to the rise and fall of my stomach and just count each breath one to five just over and over again and usually it can get me to my center pretty well.

Todd: Um, wow, sounds good. When do you meditate and how often do you meditate?

Jeanie: I usually meditate in the mornings if I have time. On weekends I usually meditate in the morning. Weekdays I don't usually have time so I meditate at night on those days. I try to find a time that everything around me is very quiet. If there's too much activity going on with other people then well I get easily distracted, and so I try to find a really quiet time and a quiet place to do it.

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#546 Gangs - Jeanie talks about why people join gangs

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Todd: Jeanie, you are from Philadelphia, correct?

Jeanie: Yep.

Todd: Now is Philadelphia a safe city? Do you have lots of crime?

Jeanie: Yeah, we've got lots of crime. Depending on the area where you are. Um, where I grew up, I lived in a black ghetto where there was like gun shooting at least three times a week. Usually it was, it had to do with conflicts between African Americans and Jamacians, um, pretty territorial. Basically, the African Americans were there first and when the Jamacians moved in they decided that they wanted to take over so lots of wars going on along with that.

Todd: That's pretty scary.

Jeanie: Yeah, so.

Todd: How did you get along? How did you survive or..?

Jeanie: Um, well, I've always been to myself for the most part. A lot of people in the neighborhood, thought I was very strange because anytime you ever saw me I was walking around reading a book or something like that. I didn't have any friends, because everyone would always say I was too smart to hang with them or something like that, so yeah, I basically just kept to myself. When people wanted to fight me, instead of mouthing off which is a very big part of it, I would just sit there and say OK, let's fight and they didn't understand that kind of thing. They felt like, no we have to argue first, so I didn't encourage arguing and so they would feel intimidated just by feeling that maybe there was something more to me than they knew about.

Todd: Wow! You're brave. You were saying earlier though that there is also a serious problem with Asian gangs.

Jeanie: Yeah, in the neighborhood we moved into, I moved out of my old neighborhood when I was about 17, so my new neighborhood, we don't have so much of the African Americans versus the Jamacains, we have Korean gangs, and they're often at odds with the Hispanics.

Todd: Man!

Jeanie: Yeah, so not so much gun shooting. I don't really hear so much about guns in that area, but lots of knives and robberies and such things.

Todd: Now do you think you have a solution to solve the problem, that we can get rid of these gangs. Is it just the poverty, or?

Jeanie: It has a lot to do with the poverty, but a lot of it also is the image that these people are striving to achieve. They do rely heavily on Hip-hop, the Hip-hop culture. They feel like in order to be really cool, they've got to due this stuff that they see on TV.

Todd: Ah, so it's like a peer pressure thing. Not a peer pressure, it's an image thing.

Jeanie: Mm, very much an image thing.

Todd: Wow.

Jeanie: And sometimes the only way to survive is to actually join a gang so that you don't get hurt from just someone not liking you.

Todd: Wow. Well, you have a very candid views and stories to tell so thank you very much

Jeanie: No worries.

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#545 Hip Hop Music - Jeanie discusses rap music and censorship

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Todd: Now Jeanie, you listen to Hip-hop music.

Jeanie: Yeah.

Todd: Right. Actually me too. I like Hip-hop when I run. Do you think that Hip-hop music negatively influences people? Do you think it should be censored or should be controlled in anyway?

Jeanie: I feel like it has a tendency to negatively influence people, mostly because the people it influences aren't very strong or very confident in themselves. They feel like that in order to be something they have to
do what the people who made money are doing. For them it looks like the easy way out. For example if you're stuck in poverty and you look at the TV and you look at people who are exactly like you, who are stuck in poverty and suddenly all they did was, they did gang banging and stuff like that, and then they rapped about it, and they got money, it's like "Wow", why don't I do that. And I have to build up this hard image so that I can make money. You know, get to the top.

Todd: So you're saying part of the problem is for people to aspire to be a popular Hip-hop artist, they actually have to do some type of criminal activity first?

Jeanie: Yeah, it's the image that you get because in all the music they're rapping about what they did. You know, and if you ask somebody later on, "oh did you really do that?" and they say, "Oh, no. It was just for a song" then you know, people are all "Oh, you're not cool." You know, you want to rap about something that you've actually been through. It's a really, you know, "Yeah I did this. I'm really hard." You know. Otherwise you're just, you're just speaking.

Todd: Well, do you think that the music should be censored in anyway?

Jeanie: I think to a point it should be, just as far as kids, children don't need to hear this stuff all the time and you know, unfortunately what you get, even if they censor it in the stores and say "Oh, it's, this is not for kids", or you know, stuff like that, you're going to get in these areas, people driving down the street in their big expensive cars blasting this kind of music, so the kids are going to hear it anyway, so I don't feel that there is a real way to censor it

Todd: Yeah, I guess this problem is always going to be around.

Jeanie: Yeah.

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#544 B.C. Travel Tips - Alan gives tips about Vancouver

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Todd: Um, hey, Alan, so I want to go to Vancouver, and I'm really excited about going. I don't know anything about the city. Can you give me some advice or tips on things I should see or do?

Alan: Yeah, sure Todd. I'd be happy to. There are a lot of things to do in Vancouver, especially in the summertime. I would recommend first you go to Stanley Park. It's one of the largerst and most scenic city parks in the world. There's a sea wall around the park that you could jog, go for a walk, and beaches. It's one of, it's high on the list of tourist attractions of Vancouver.Secondy I would reccommend you take a gondola up Grouse Mountain. From Grouse Mountain you can see the whole or mainland. It's a very good view from there, and there's a nice restaurant and gift shops up there and there's hiking trails and so on, mountain biking trails you can go on, in the summertime, of course in the winter, it's a ski area.

Todd: Ah, sounds good. Hey, what about all the islands? Can I take a ferry to one of the islands?

Alan: Yeah, you can take a ferry from Vancouver to Victoria located on Vacouver Island. It's about an hour an 35 minutes and in Victoria there's sights like the legislative buildings, because victoria is the provincial capitol. It has the legislative buildings, goverment buildings. Buchart Gardens which are world famous flower gardens, and of course if you drive out of Victoria on the highway up north you can see many small towns and places on vancouver island.

Todd: Now to get around the city should I rent a car or should I just use public transportation?

Alan: Well, it depends on where you want to go. I would, for the close sights, things like Stanley Park, even Grouse Mountain, the Canada Place, another attraction in downtown Vancouver, any of those close attractions you could use public transport. If you want to go out of Vancouver a little bit, maybe to the islands, or maybe you want to drive up to Whistler, which is only two hours away, I would recommend you rent a car, for the longer distances.

Todd: OK, well, sounds good, man, I'm really excited about my trip.

Alan: All right.

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#543 The Baker - Alan talks about being a baker

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Todd: Now Alan, you used to be a baker.

Alan: Yes I did.

Todd: That’s pretty cool. So you can make anything right, like bread, donuts, cake?

Alan: Yeah. My specialty, what I did a lot of was, different varieties of bread. I baked a lot of white bread, whole wheat bread, 60% whole wheat bread, rye bread, sour dough, Italian bread, French bread. So mostly I did breads.

Todd: Ok, sounds good. What is the routine of a baker? Do you have to get up early, or how does that work?

Alan: Yes. Generally most bakeries, especially bakeries that sell bread, they start operations very early in the morning. With the bread, you want to get the bread out and fresh as early as possible. So bread bakers will start at 3am or 4am. They’ll come in and open up the shop. They’ll get everything going, fire up the ovens and start mixing the bread dough. So if the bakery opens at 8 in the morning, the customers come into fresh baked bread.

Todd: I love that smell. So what would you say was the best thing about being a baker?

Alan: The best thing about being a baker would be, making all those fancy pastries: Danish, croissants, apple strudel. I enjoyed that part of baking, making those kinds of products.

Todd: Was there anything that you did not like about being a baker?

Alan: Pretty much everything else. Specifically, I didn’t like the hours. Mostly the hours I didn’t like. The actual work was not bad but it was the hours and the pay wasn’t so good.

Todd: Ok well, still though you’d have to have loved that smell of fresh bread everyday.

Alan: That I did enjoy yes.

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#542 The Ice Sport - Alan talks about hockey

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Todd: So Alan you must be happy. You have hockey again in Canada.

Alan: Yes, I was quite happy to read that the NHL’s come to an agreement with the players. And there’ll be hockey again starting in October.

Todd: Ok now as a fan of hockey or just a sports fan in general, do you think that the athletes are making too much money, that it’s ok for them to strike and ask for more money?

Alan: Yes I do think the athletes are making too much money. And I actually agree with the idea of having a salary cap, because I think it makes it more fair for all the teams in the league. Not just the big market teams that make a lot of money, but all the teams have a fair chance at the best players.

Todd: Ok, can you just explain exactly what is a salary cap?

Alan: Salary cap is the amount of money that a team is allowed to spend for their players. So, if you have a salary cap of 35 million dollars, the team is only allowed to spend that much total for all their players’ salaries.

Todd: Oh I see.

Alan: They cannot go over that.

Todd: What is the reason that you would have a salary cap? What’s the argument behind it?

Alan: So teams that have more money than other teams can’t just buy all the good players and leave the less talented players for the smaller market teams. So there’s more chance for the smaller market teams to compete with the large market teams for the good players.

Todd: So do you think that hockey now is doing well, and that you will not have a strike for a long time to come?

Alan: Yes I think after this one there won’t be another strike or lock-out for many years. Actually I think this deal is a 10-year deal. I think I read it’s a 10-year deal, so there won’t be one for at least 10 years, or longer hopefully.

Todd: Well I’m glad you have hockey again.

Alan: Thank you.

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#541 Weight Loss - Ruth and Akane talk about losing weight

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Ruth: Akane, I hope you don't think I'm being rude but you look amazing. Have you lost weight?

Akane: Actually, I have.

Ruth: Wow. How did you do it?

Akane: Well, I've been really eating healthy and working out a bit as well.

Ruth: Wow. I read recently actually in the newspaper that there are lots of new gyms opening up.
Is that what you've been doing, going to the gym?

Akane: Ah, yeah actually. I joined a new gym. It wasn't that expensive either and it's been really good.

Ruth: So, how much was it?

Akane: It was about $30 a month. (Oh) Yeah.

Ruth: So when you so to the gym, what kind of thing do you do?

Akane: Um, well, my favorite thing to do is to run on the treadmill, and sometimes I also do weights.

Ruth: You do weights as well? (Mm-hm) Really heavy weights?

Akane: No just lighter ones.

Ruth: Oh, I see.

Akane: Yeah.

Ruth: So do you mind the fact when you're in the gym the air is really stuffy and you can always smell people's sweat? Does that not bother you?

Akane: It does actually bother me so I do prefer to go when it's not too crowded.

Ruth: Of course, yeah.

Akane: People tend to go after work so I try to go a little bit earlier, or a little bit later. That's a good plan.

Ruth: But you know, sometimes I still wonder if it's healthy to exercise inside because if you
exercise outside you can get more fresh air.

Akane: I think you're right about that. It does feel better when I do get exercise outside,
but sometimes I'm so busy and if the weather's not good, it's just easier to go the gym.

Ruth: Well, I suppose so.

Akane: Yeah, and a little exercise inside is better than no exercise.

Ruth: You're right actually.

Akane: So if I want to lose weight, what would you recommend?

Ruth: Basically, just exercise within you limits and eat healthy.

Akane: I think it's just common sense.

Ruth: Really. Do you think I'll lose weight.

Akane: For sure. I think so, but I don't know what you're talking about. You definitely don't need to lose weight.

Ruth: Well, that's kind of you Akane. OK, thanks.

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#540 Dinner - Ruth and Akane discuss dinner plans and food

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Akane: Hey, Ruth.

Ruth: Hey, Akane.

Akane: I just came to pick up my plastic container than I lent you the other day.

Ruth: Oh, right. Well, I've just washed it actually, so here you go.

Akane: Thanks. So did you like that potato salad I made you?

Ruth: It was really nice. Yeah, it was really nice. I'm not sure how you made it, but I enjoyed it.

Akane: Yeah, I gave some to Todd as well and he really liked it too.

Ruth: Oh, good, I'm glad he liked it. That's good.

Akane: Yeah. I made some stuffed peppers too, but unfortunately there's meat in it, so..

Ruth: Oh, no. That's a shame. I would have really liked some of those, too.

Akane: Yeah. I gave it to Todd and he really liked it.

Ruth: Really.

Akane: Yeah.

Ruth: You're such a good cook. I wish I could cook like you can.

Akane: Oh, I'm sure there's a few tricks up your sleeve as well.

Ruth: Oh, I don't think so. I've yet to discover them.

Akane: So do you want to go out for dinner again this Saturday?

Ruth: Oh, that sounds like a really good idea.

Akane: Um, last time, last week I think we went to "Joyful", right?

Ruth: Yeah, that's right. We had rice and things like that. Is that right?

Akane: Mm-hm, and I think I might of had a hamburger, or something like that.

Ruth: Oh, yes, you did.

Akane: Yeah.

Ruth: So, where do you think we should go this time?

Akane: Uh, I don't know. Do you want to go for sushi again?

Ruth: Oh, I really like sushi. Yeah.

Akane: Yeah, there's that, that other store, the sushi shop that we haven't gone to yet.

Ruth: Ok, well, we could go there because that would be a nice walk as well.
We could walk there and walk back and we could get some exercise at the same time.

Akane: Oh, that's a great idea.

Ruth: Yeah, and then we wouldn't feel so bad when we're greedy.

Akane: Hm, for sure.

Ruth: Why don't you go and ask Todd, and find out if he wants to go..

Akane: OK.

Ruth: And then we'll organize it for tomorrow night.

Akane: Great idea.

Ruth: Oh, excellent. Oh, and Akane?

Akane: Yeah!

Ruth: You know, if you're making anymore potato salad,..

Akane: Mm-hm?

Ruth: Feel free to bring some around.

Akane: Sure. No problem.

Ruth: Alright. Bye-bye.

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#539 Sleeping - Akane talks about how she can sleep anywhere

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Ruth: Now Akane! (Yeah) I've noticed that you fall asleep everywhere.

Akane: Oh, you've noticed. Oh, no, it's actually a problem that I have.

Ruth: Really?

Akane: Yeah, I do get sleepy.

Ruth: Well, it's just that whenever we come back from work, or we go to work, you always fall asleep on the bus.

Akane: I do. I'm so tired in the mornings.

Ruth: So, you're tired in the mornings (Mm-hm) so don't you sleep at night?

Akane: I do. I actually do go to bed quite early but I hate waking up really early
so I think it's the early mornings that really get to me.

Ruth: So do you think lots of people in your family do this, because you know,
you really do seem to sleep far more than anybody I've ever met.

Akane: Actually, yeah, my father does say that he falls asleep at work.

Ruth: No!

Akane: Yeah.And my mom falls asleep at work as well when there's not costumers.

Ruth: Oh, you're joking.

Akane: Yeah. Yeah. So it runs in the family.

Ruth: So have you ever done that? Have you ever fallen asleep at work?

Akane: Actually, well, I don't fall asleep when I'm teaching, cause its such a busy job (Yeah) but when I was working in an office, when I was doing medical research, it was such a boring job that I did used to fall asleep in front of the computer sometimes. It's really embarrassing.

Ruth: So have you ever had an embarrassing moment when you've fallen asleep?

Akane: Actually, yes. One time we went to watch the symphony orchestra
and it was beautiful music and I was enjoying myself but I just fell asleep in between.

Ruth: Oh, no, Akane.

Akane: Yeah.

Ruth: So how many hours sleep do you normally get Akane?

Akane: Well, I try to get at least nine. Of course that's not always possible,
so I'd say on average about eight and a half hours.

Ruth: Eight and a half.

Akane: Yeah.

Ruth: Well, I suppose if you add that to the five hours a day that you sleep that's quite a lot.

Akane: If you put it that way.

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#537 20 Questions - Ruth and Akane talk about a famous person

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Akane: Hey, Ruth, let's play a game?

Ruth: Oh, great idea.

Akane: So, you think of one person in your head and I'll ask you
questions and I'll try to guess who you're thinking of.

Ruth: So does it need to be a famous person?

Akane: Yes, make it a famous person.

Ruth: OK. OK, I've got one.

Akane: OK, is this person an athlete?

Ruth: No

Akane: Is this person a movie star?

Ruth: No, not that either.

Akane: Is this person a politician?

Ruth: No.

Akane: Is this person a singer?

Ruth: Yes.

Akane: Oh, OK.

Ruth: Now, is this person a man or a woman?

Akane: It's a woman.

Ruth: Oh, OK.

Akane: Is it a child or an adult?

Ruth: An adult.

Akane: Oh, I see. So a woman, and an adult. Is this person from Asia?

Ruth: No, definitely not.

Akane: Is she from North America?

Ruth: No.

Akane: Hm. Is she from Africa?

Ruth: Not Africa either.

Akane: Is she from Europe?

Ruth: Nope.

Akane: Oh, dear. Is she from Australia?

Ruth: That's right.

Akane: Oh, Australia. OK. Let me think about this. Does she have brown hair?

Ruth: Kind of brown, kind of blond.

Akane: Kind of brown. OK. Does she have big eyes?

Ruth: Yes she does.

Akane: Oh, big eyes, blond hair. Is she very beautiful?

Ruth: Yes.

Akane: Is she muscular?

Ruth: I think she's got a good body.

Akane: Has this person been famous for a very long time?

Ruth: Yes, as far as I can remember, actually.

Akane: For a very long time. And is she popular amongst older people?

Ruth: Not very old people but popular among twenty and thirty year olds, I think.

Akane: Twenty and thirty year olds. OK. Alright. Is this person on TV a lot?

Ruth: Yes, and she used to be on TV even more than she is now.

Akane: Oh, I see. So does that mean she used to be an actress?

Ruth: Yes she did.

Akane: Well, I think I know who she is.

Ruth: Go on then. You have a guess.

Akane: Kylie Minogue.

Ruth: Correct. You got it.

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#536 Thai Cooking - Akane talks about a cooking class she took

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Ruth: So, Akane, you've been to Thailand, right?

Akane: That's right. I went once on a holiday with my friends for Chinese New Year.

Ruth: Wow. I've always wanted to go to Thailand.

Akane: Yes, it's a really nice place. I really enjoyed it.

Ruth: So what did you do there?

Akane: Well, one of the things I did there was to take a Thai cooking course and I learned how to make Thai food.

Ruth: Oh, wow. So how do you make Thai food?

Akane: Well, I don't know if I remember but I really enjoyed the cooking course. What was the course like?

Ruth: Well, it was really interesting actually. They picked me up first thing in the morning and drove me to an outdoor market where they sold all kinds of fruits and vegetables and meats and spices and it was a kind of market where only the local people would go and they introduced me to a lot of different kinds of herbs and spices and fruits and vegetables that I've never even seen before so that was really interesting, and then they took me to the kitchen which was actually an outdoor kitchen right by a beach so I got to do cooking right in front of a beach it was very beautiful.

Akane: Wow.

Ruth: I was really lucky that day because I was the only student. It was still a new company that just opened up so I was the only student and so I got a lot of attention. There were two teachers that taught me how to do all these things and there was a lot of extra time at the end so they even taught me how to do fruit carving. I made leaves out of cucumber and flowers out of papaya fruit and things like that.

Akane: That sounds fantastic.

Ruth: It really was.

Akane: And do you ever cook Thai at home now?

Ruth: Ah, unfortunately I don't, but maybe if I have some time I might try it

Akane:Good.

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#535 Cork - Eucharia talks about her city in Ireland

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Todd: Eucharia, can you talk about where you are from?

Eucharia: I’m from Ireland and I’m from the second biggest city in Ireland which is Cork. Now the name ‘Cork’ doesn’t come from wine bottle cork, it comes from the irish word ‘kirkig’ which is ‘marsh’ so you can imagine how wet Cork is. We have a lot of rain.

Todd: And is Cork a big city?

Eucharia: It’s a sprawling city. Most people live outside of the city and commute and my parents live about a 25 minute walk to the city centre and that’s quite normal, so most of the city spreads outwards and the surburbs tend to be quite big and you can get lost quite easily!

Todd: What are the people in Cork like?

Eucharia: Well when I go home its really strange for me because the men in my city speak with a very high pitched accent voice so it sounds very strange to me, and girls tend to speak in a lower voice because a lower voice in Ireland usually means intelligent and most people would like to seem intelligent. However, most people love to laugh in Cork so there is a really good sense of humour: you just walk on the streets and you hear people laughing all of the time. It’s great.

Todd: Oh that’s nice. And what would you say is the best thing about your city?

Eucharia: The best thing are the people of course, but also the food. The entertainment is just fantastic. Every night you can go out, you can have dinner. After you can go to the theatre, you can go to classical music concerts, you can go to pop concerts, rock concerts. You can go dancing, different types of dancing. Oh I miss dancing! You can do Irish dancing, more Hip hop dancing, disco dancing. Anything is possible any night of the week.

Todd: Ok and what’s the worst thing about your city?

Eucharia: The worst thing has to be rain because Cork is such a wet place. We don’t have a lot of snow in Cork because when it snows the snow quickly fades away because the ground is made of limestone so I’ve never seen real snow before, but getting back to the rain, it rains almost non stop from autumn until spring.

Todd: Wow, that’s a long time!

Eucharia: So it’s a long time having a grey sky over you.

Todd: Still it sounds like a nice place.

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#534 Irish History - Eucharia gives a brief history of Ireland

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Todd: Hey, Eucharia can you give us a brief history of Ireland?

Eucharia: Sure well, I think most people know of St Patrick’s day and that it is an Irish festival which celebrates being Irish. Well, St Patrick was brought to Ireland in 460 as a slave from Wales and then he left and went to Italy where he was converted to Christianity and then he went back to Ireland to bring Christianity to the Irish Celtic people. So, skipping ahead a few years. The Celtic people were always quite unique within Europe because we… the Celtic people always believed in equality between men and women and therefore there were women warriors in Ireland which used to frighten many of the potential invaders away because a lot of men didn’t like to be beaten by women back then and maybe it’s still true today.

Then the next biggest thing in history was the colonialisation of Ireland by England, starting in the 16th century until the early 20th century. And it wasn’t taken to readily because of the nature of the Celtic warriors. It was probably the bloodiest period in history because the Celtic people did not like to be colonised, so there was a lot of fighting and battles between the English and the Irish even though the English had, to all intents and purposes, colonised, it was not an easy colonisation. But the single most effective tech that the Eng used in the colonisation came in 1822 when the English implemented a national education system. Before this the Irish people used to go and learn in schools called ‘hedge schools’ ,so they were outside and they were given by people who wanted to teach, so genuine academics and people learned stuff like ancient greek, latin, so most people have this tradition of speaking other languages, mathematics… So when the education system was changed in line with the English colonial system it became illegal to speak Irish in the classroom and it became illegal to speak Irish in many places. Now in my city there’s a lovely trading area called ‘The Old English Market’ and its called ‘The Old English Market’ because there is a sign inside the door: ‘Anyone who will speak… who will speak in Irish and not in English will be sent to jail’. So it was really strictly enforced and it was a very… I can’t say laudible technique but… it was a very effective way of colonisation. Nowadays in Ireland people spk English and people speak Irish, both, and it’s considered bilingual. All documents, all street names are written in Irish and English.

1922 there was what was known as the civil war and that was the beginning of the end for the English so the firstt Irish constitution was written in 1935 and it stated that Ireland is a neutral country so therefore Ireland did not enter World War 2 and it was declared a Republic in 1949.

Todd: Thanks. That was a good history!

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#533 New Home - Eucharia talk about her new house in Japan

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Todd: Eucharia, you have a new house!

Eucharia: Yes I just moved last week and I have a new house. It’s on the side of a mountain. At the back of my house there are rice fields. There’s one house immediately next door to mine and it has a crazy barking dog but luckily I like dogs and the dog likes me so when she sees me she gets really hyper now and welcomes me home.

Todd: That’s a nice feeling, it’s got to be nice having a dog welcoming you home! So how big is your house?

Eucharia: Well it’s like a small bungalow. It’s one storey. When you go in the door there is a japanese style porch for taking off your shoes. Then you are in a hallway and there’s an extremely large kitchen which goes from one side of the house to the other on the right hand side.

Todd: Wow that’s cool! So does it have an oven? Can you bake?

Eucharia: I don’t have an oven yet. I have everything else but I enjoy cooking. One part of my very, very chequered past I worked as a chef so I really enjoy cooking. I’m not very good but, yeah, it relaxes me after a hard day at work and I let my stress loose on the onions. Chop chop chop chop. And then there’s a living room and there’s what I euphemistically call a work area. It’s where I have a computer, my computer and some books and research stuff. And then there’s my… It’s all Japanese style flooring except for the kitchen, so its all bamboo flooring so it smells really nice because it’s all really fresh and it smells like hay to me.

Todd: Sounds like a barn!

Eucharia: I know it’s bamboo. It’s like sleeping in a barn!

Todd: How many bathrooms do you have?

Eucharia: Oh just one but that’s completely normal in Japan. It’s a Japanese style home

Todd: So do you have the bath-shower thing? Or just a shower? Just a bath?

Eucharia: I have a bath and shower but - I really like this about Japan that - the toilet room and the bathroom, shower room are 2 seperate rooms in most places. There’s also a washing machine room, a pantry thing.

Todd: You have a washing machine?

Eucharia: Yeah I can’t live without a washing machine! I need to buy a new bigger fridge because my fridge is too small and because it’s in the country I cant do shopping as often and by the time I get out of work most… many of the shops around here are closed.

Todd: Well congratulations on your new house!

Eucharia: Thank you!

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Chèn Banner Vào Blog

Có 2 cách làm:

C1:
Các bạn vào Template>>>chọn Page Elements>>>sao đó, chọn vào Edit ở cái khung ở trên cùng:

Sau đó nó sẽ hiện ra cái khung như sau:
Ở mục From your computer là hình từ máy của bạn
Ở mục From the web là link hình của bạn.
Sau khi chèn hình xong các bạn bấm nút save là xong.

Nếu nó hiện lên mục Placement thì bạn chọn vào Instead of Title and Description. Sau đó save lại.

C2:
Cách này hơi phức tạp hơn 1 tí, nhưng ở cách này bạn có thể chèn đường link blog bạn lên cái banner, để khi nhấp vào banner thì nó sẽ link tới blog của bạn. Ở cách 1 thì có một vài trường hợp, cái title nó đè lên Banner không được đẹp. Ở cách 2 thì ta có thể giải quyết dc chuyện đó.

B1: Bạn vào Template>>>Edit HTML>>>Tick chọn Expand Widget Templates. Sau đó tìm đoạn code sau:
<div id='header-wrapper'>
<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='3' showaddelement='yes'>

Ở maxwidget bạn tăng lên thêm một giá trị nữa, tức là cộng thêm 1 vào giá trị hiện thời của nó. Vd: maxwidget của mình là 3 thì bạn phải cộng thêm lên nữa là 4. Và ở showaddelement bạn cho nó là "yes".
>>Nhấn nút Save lại

B2: Vào Template>>>Page Element>>> Bạn chọn vào Add a page element ở khung header, dưới thanh navbar

Sau đó ở mục HTML/JavaScript, bạn chọn Add to blog.

Và copy đoạn code sau vào cửa sổ hiện ra.

<a href="http://danglvh.blogspot.com/" title="yourtitle"><img border="0" width="920"
src="yourbanner" height="190" align="center"/></a>

Bạn sửa lại các mục sau:
http://danglvh.blogspot.com/: ở đây bạn thay thế blog của bạn
yourtitle: bạn sửa title của blog bạn ở đây
yourbanner: bạn sửa link banner của bạn ở đây
width: chiều rộng banner của bạn
height: chiều cao banner

Sau khi sửa xong, bạn có thể Save lại được rồi đó.

Quay lại blog và xem kết quả thế nào.

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My template blog's Source Code

Đây là code template của Đăng, các bạn có thể lấy về tham khảo.
Download Here

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#532 Three Things - Eucharia plays a game about choices

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When the audio stops you will see a question with three possible answers.
You must choose the correct answer to move forward. If you choose the wrong answer you have to listen again.

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Todd: Erm, ok, Eucharia, we’re going to play a game: ‘Choices’. I will say 3 things, you tell me which would you choose. Ok, the first one: coffee, tea or water in the morning?

Eucharia: Water.

Todd: Water!

Eucharia: Yeah, when I wake up I usually have 2 glasses of water and then at the moment I’m trying not to drink coffee and not to drink caffeine so at the moment it’s water but if I were given a choice normally it would be coffee.

Todd: Ok how about at night time. You’re at a party, which would you rather have: beer, wine or a cocktail?

Eucharia: It depends on the party. If I’m going dancing, cocktail. If I’m going out eating, wine and if it’s just friends getting together, beer.

Todd: You’re on an aeroplane and you’re flying across the ocean. What would you prefer to read: newspaper, a magazine or a book?

Eucharia: A book, definitely.

Todd: A book, why a book? That was a very strong answer!

Eucharia: I love reading. I have to read every night before I go to sleep for maybe 30 minutes so I really enjoy reading and I find that I emotionally engage with the book and what’s happening in the book and I forget the fact that I’m on a 12 hour inter-continent flight.

Todd: Ok you have to choose between 3 seasons: summer, fall or winter.

Eucharia: Summer.

Todd: Summer?

Eucharia: I love sunshine, I love heat, I can’t stand rain, which is why I don’t live in my home country and I don’t like snow.

Todd: Ok I’m with you on that. Ok next one. To pass the time at night you can watch TV, you can check the internet or you can watch a movie, a dvd. What would you prefer?

Eucharia: Probably watching a dvd because, yeah if I’m on the internet I’m on the internet at work and so I don’t want to go on the internet late at night because I start thinking too much and I can’t sleep.

Todd: Ok last one. You’re at the beach. Would you prefer to: play a sport on the beach, on the sand; go in the water and swim or surf; or lie on the beach and get a tan?

Eucharia: Lie on the beach and get a tan! Yep, I’m from a country we don’t see a lot of sunshine
so I still get very excited when I see sunshine. Maybe I’ll go to the beach and maybe I’ll go to the water and swim a bit but my favourite thing is to lie on the beach and get a tan.

Todd: Thanks Eucharia.

Eucharia: You’re welcome.

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#531 Actor's Fear - Eucharia talks about stage fright and drama

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Todd: So, Eucharia, you are into drama?

Eucharia: Yes, I have a Masters in drama and theatre and at the moment I am hoping to get onto a PHD programme in drama and theatre.

Todd: So what’s the thing about drama? What excites you about drama?

Eucharia: Well I find it’s a very communicative way to study things and study about people and
you learn how to read people in drama, so usually I can understand what people are saying even though they might be lying, which comes in handy sometimes.

Todd: That would be useful!

Eucharia: Yeah, so erm, I think it’s very useful for me as well. I am an English lecturer so I use a lot of drama in my classes such as role plays. And I ask my students to create little plays, little mini dramas so they really respond well because it’s a semi-controlled version of English learning in so far as they can rehearse but it has to sound reasonably natural. So, at the moment I’m hoping to get on to a PHD course which will investigate about drama in the English… in English as a foreign language classroom, so especially I would like to concentrate on a lot of…I would like to concentrate a lot on Asian drama and try to bring Asian theatre to the world’s attention. I don’t know how successful I will be but here’s hoping!

Todd: Oh, I’m sure you will be successful! Now, Eucharia, you are into drama. Can you tell…what do you do for stage fright?

Eucharia: Ah, stage fright! Well, usually I get stage fright still, it’s just… many actors get stage fright, many famous actors get stage fright. I get stage fright every time I’m going to teach a new class. The night before I’m usually throwing up my dinner in the toilet, I can’t sleep…

Todd: What, for teaching?

Eucharia: …I’m sweating, yes!

Todd: No?

Eucharia: Yes! I get really bad stage fright but the minute I step into the classroom or the minute I get onto the stage it just all falls into place. I just feel like ‘Yeah this is what I’m made to do’ but the night before it is always the worst case scenario so I am always thinking of what can go wrong. So that’s my particular brand of stage fright but once I get on stage or once I get in front of the class I will be fine. I know this.

Todd: Wow, that’s cool

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#530 Best Play - Eucharia discusses her favorite plays

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Todd: Er, Eucharia, why don’t we talk about what is our favourite Shakespeare play and actually what is the story about?

Eucharia: Ok, I love the story of Romeo and Juliet (I know, I’m a girl!) which is a tragedy. It’s about a boy and a girl who fall in love but unfortunately their families are sworn enemies of each other and it ends up with both of them killing themselves, so it’s quite a sad play.

Todd: So that’s a tragedy, right?

Eucharia: That’s a tragedy. I also like Hamlet. Hamlet the play opens and we see Hamlet talking to the ghost of his father and the ghost explains to Hamlet that he was killed by his brother who has now become Hamlet’s stepfather because he married Hamlet’s mother.

So hamlet has to avenge his father by killing his stepfather slash uncle. And Hamlet procrastinates throughout the play: he keeps on putting it off and putting it off and putting it off, and at the end, because he has put it off the situation just gets worse and worse and the reason I like Hamlet is I’m exactly the same. I procrastinate if I don’t want to do something, for example if I don’t want to correct homework my appartment gets cleaned, my car gets cleaned, I clean out the computer… I’m like Hamlet but eventually I do correct the homework!

Todd: You’re not going to go and kill your uncle?

Eucharia: No

Todd: Oh, just checking!

Eucharia: No, no, nothing like that. I could kill some of the journals that I get sometimes (the homework).

But I also love Shakespeare’s comedies. They have this timeless quality: they’re funny now and they’re funny to many different cultures even though humour is a culturally related issue, but I think Shakespearian comedy might.. er ..are accessible to all. I like The Taming of the Shrew and I don’t know if you remember an American soap opera called ‘Moonlighting’ with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd and they did a version of The Taming of the Shrew and I saw it when I was a child and I thought ‘wow that’s a really funny story for that particular soap opera’ .

And then when I went to junior high school and senior high school I realised ‘oh it’s a Shakespeare play’ so I really like that, I really like A Midsummer Nights Dream and I’m not sure if can tell the story any more
Erm and I remember in school I had to study the sonnets and I really liked them which surprised me because I’m not a big poetry person but I really found Shakespeare accessible.

Todd: Oh thanks

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#529 Shakespeare - Eucharia talks about Shakespeare

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Todd: Eucharia, you are into drama so I thought we would talk about Shakespeare.

Eucharia: Cool!

Todd: First of all, who is Shakespeare?

Eucharia: Well, Shakespeare is one of the most famous playwrights of the world. He was born in 1564 in Stratford on Avon in England which is a really pretty town and he opened the Globe theatre in London I think at some stage but the main thing why Shakespeare is so famous… he had a really short life. Back in those days to make it to 40 was considered old age but in his relatively short life he produced an enormous body of work. He produced historical plays, tragedies, comedies, poetry, sonnets… So he was an extremely prolific writer and I think the reason that he’s so famous even today is because the themes he chose for most of his work were universal. They’re themes that touch us whether we speak English, whether we speak Spanish or Russian, whether we’re in the 21st century or in the 16th century. They’re themes that are eternal and they concern humanity, and have concerned humanity for such a long time.

Todd: How much of the English has changed since the original Shakespeare to the Shakespeare we have today, I mean the English we have today?

Eucharia: Well if Shakespeare suddenly appeared in the 21st century he would be almost illiterate because back in those days English had a vocabulary of about 150,000 words, whereas now the vocabulary of English is one of the highest in the world. I think 300,000 now, probably more, so Shakespeare wouldn’t be able to make himself understood if he came back today, so in a way the vocabulary he’s using is really easy. But of course English has changed from that era from middle English until contemporary, English keeps changing even if you talk to your grandparents, well not just English, all languages change and develop over time so even if you talk to your grandparents they’re going to use a slightly different variety of the language you’re speaking.

Todd: But wait a minute. You’re saying that his English is easy? When I read it it doesn’t seem easy, it seems pretty tough!

Eucharia: Well that’s because his English was used in a different way. So some words and some grammatical structures are no longer in English, they’ve fallen out of usage except when we read stuff like Shakespeare and then for us it seems almost like a foreign language because we don’t have these grammatical structures any more and we don’t use English in this way anymore.

Todd: Ok thanks.

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#528 U.S. Travel Tips - Tres talk about when to visit the U.S

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Todd: So Tres, lots of people might want to know when is the best time to visit the United States season-wise. What would you recommend to somebody that might go to America?

Tres: Definitely the best time is in the fall part of the year: end of August through end of November, beginning of December. The reason why is because the weather is beautiful. You have blue skies almost every day. There’s not too much rain, no tornadoes or hurricanes that come through, and the weather is just generally cool and pleasant. On top of that you have the amazing food that’s associated with the fall months and the holidays also take place then. For example, Halloween, we go door to door trick-or-treating, receive a lot of candy. There’s also Thanks Giving, where many families cook the traditional turkey. Some other families have chop-suey, what have you, and there’s also the tofu-turkey.

Todd: Tofu turkey.

Tres: Yeah, tofu-turkey.

Todd: Have you had tofu-turkey?

Tres: I’ve never had a tofu-turkey but I’ve only heard about it. I went to a little arts college where there were only a few meat-eaters.

Todd: Oh

Tres: I always heard about it.

Also in the fall it’s a great time to visit the out doors in the United States. You have fall foliage. Especially if you’re in the New England States, where the mountains are just “on fire” with the oranges and yellows.

Todd: Yeah, it’s nice. Nice time of year. OK, and any other season you think is a good time to visit? So the fall’s really good.

Tres: I think the fall’s great. It also depends on personal preference. If one really likes the summer atmosphere, then of course going to New York or the West Coast in the summer time is great. You can visit the beaches. If you like skiing, of course winter is great, if you go to any of the Rocky Mountain States. Colorado for example, you can really take advantage of the snow out there. Great powder.

Todd: Have you traveled much in the United States?

Tres: Ever since I was a child, I’d get in the car and travel with my parents. We’d drive from OKlahoma to New York, or down south to the Pacific Northwest. Almost every single state. Maybe five, six states that I haven’t visited.

Todd: OK sounds good. Thanks Tres.

Tres: Thank you.

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#527 Family Road Trip - Tres talks about taking road trips with his family

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Todd: So Tres, you said when you were younger, you took many family car trips.

Tres: Oh yes. You can say I grew up in the car. We’d take road trips from Oklahoma (state of Oklahoma) to say Florida or Georgia, Mississippi. We’d even drive up north to New York, and I’ve taken road trips to Colorado, and Seattle Washington. Inside the car, when I’m with my brothers and sisters, sometimes we’d fight but most of the time we’d play various games. For example we’d count the license plates.

Todd: So license plates are the, like I.D. on the back of a car.

Tres: Right. I.D. on the back of a car, and depending on the state, the license plate changes. So we try to see, how many states we can count. And who every got the most states by the end of the trip of course would win. We’d do other things, for example, my parents always made sure that we visited historical sites to learn about the local culture of the area. And we’d also try the local foods that existed. So whenever we’d drive to the south, for example, if we drove through Louisiana, we’d try Cajun food. Which is full of gumbo (which is another word for okra), and rice, and Cray fish (which is sort of like a lobster).

Todd: Sounds good. It’s spicy?

Tres: Oh yea it’s very spicy. Very very spicy. So we had a lot of fun times in the car.

Todd: So did you have some bad times in the car? Did you fight with your brothers and your sisters?

Tres: Occasionally we would fight. I was the youngest of three, so I always lost. So it was very hard. And I had the middle seat. So if my older brother fought with my older sister, then I was stuck in the centre.

Todd: Not fun.

Tres: Not fun at all. But we hardly every fought and I would say the road trips were a lot of fun.

Todd: Yeah. I took a lot of road trips with my family I remember them very fondly.

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Random Banner

Dạo một vòng các blog, để ý các banner của một số blog. Mõi lần truy cập vào thì cái banner được thay đổi bằng một banner mới. Nếu bạn chưa thấy thì có thể ghé qua blog của YHT

Rất đơn giản, bạn chỉ cần copy đoạn code javascript sau đây:
<!-- wrote by Danglvh -->
<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl' style='display: block'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var banner= new Array()
banner[0]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner1.jpg&quot;
banner[1]="http://yourURL_banner2.jpg&quot;
banner[2]="http://yourURL_banner3.jpg&quot;
banner[3]="http://yourURL_banner4.jpg&quot;
banner[4]="http://yourURL_banner5.jpg&quot;
banner[5]="http://yourURL_banner6.jpg&quot;
banner[6]="http://yourURL_banner7.jpg&quot;
banner[7]="http://yourURL_banner8.jpg&quot;
banner[8]="http://yourURL_banner9.jpg&quot;
banner[9]="http://yourURL_banner10.jpg&quot;
var random=Math.floor(10*Math.random());
document.write(&quot;<img src='"+banner[random]+"' width='955'/>&quot;);
</script>
</a>
<!-- wrote by Danglvh-->


Vào Template/Edit HTML, tick chọn vào ô Expandable Widget. Tìm đoạn code sau:

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>
<b:widget id='Header1' locked='false' title='your title (Header)' type='Header'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<div id='header-inner'>

....paste code javascript here.....

</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
</b:section>

Sau khi tìm được đoạn code như trên bạn nhớ sửa giá trị maxwidgets lớn hơn giá trị hiện thời là 1 giá trị. Và showaddelement sửa lại là Yes. Vd đối với dòng code trên thì ta phải sửa lại là:
<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='2' showaddelement='yes'>

Sau đó bạn copy đoạn code javascript ở trên và paste vào chổ đoạn ...code javascript here....

Vd: Sau khi copy sẽ ra như thế này.

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='2' showaddelement='yes'>
<b:widget id='Header1' locked='false' title='your title (Header)' type='Header'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<div id='header-inner'>
<!-- wrote by Danglvh -->
<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl' style='display: block'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var banner= new Array()
banner[0]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner1.jpg&quot;
banner[1]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner2.jpg&quot;
banner[2]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner3.jpg&quot;
banner[3]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner4.jpg&quot;
banner[4]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner5.jpg&quot;
banner[5]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner6.jpg&quot;
banner[6]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner7.jpg&quot;
banner[7]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner8.jpg&quot;
banner[8]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner9.jpg&quot;
banner[9]=&quot;http://yourURL_banner10.jpg&quot;
var random=Math.floor(10*Math.random());
document.write(&quot;<img src='"+banner[random]+"' width='955'/>&quot;);
</script>
</a>
<!-- wrote by Danglvh-->
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
</b:section>

Chú ý:
yourURL_banner1.jpg là url(link) đến banner của bạn.
Đoạn code ở trên sử dụng cho 10 banner, nên Math.floor(10*Math.random()); giá trị ở đây sẽ là 10. Nếu bạn chỉ sử dụng 5 banner thì giá trị ở đây phải là 5.
width='955' đây là chiều rộng của banner

Sau khi đã tinh chỉnh và sửa xong mọi thứ, bạn nhấn nút lưu và quay lại blog để kiểm tra.
Chúc bạn thành công! Có gì thì comment nhé!

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Công Cụ Tìm Kiếm - Hỗ Trợ Proxy Truy Cập Blogspot, v.v...

Đây là công cụ giúp bạn tìm kiếm rất hiệu quả hơn là cách tìm kiếm thông thường của bạn. Ngoài ra chương trình còn hổ trở Proxy cho phép bạn truy cập vào các trang web mà thông thường không thể truy cập vô dc chẳn hạn như bị chặn IP.
Như hình bên dưới, giao diện rất thân thiện và dung lượng chỉ 1.9MB, file được nén còn 500KB.

Sau khi download về bạn chỉ việc giải nén ra và chạy file Googlehacks.exe.
Nhập từ khóa bạn muốn tìm vào mục Search String
Sau đó chọn type mà bạn muốn tìm.
VD: mình tìm ebook về Java thì mình đánh từ khóa là Java và chọn type là Book và ở dưới mục File Type, bạn chọn kiểu file cho kết quả tìm kiếm của mình.




Truy cập vào các website thông qua Proxy
Bạn chạy file Googlehacks.exe
Sau đó chọn type là Proxy và nhập vào Search String địa chỉ trang web mà bạn muốn truy cập tới. VD như hình vẽ bên dưới. Cách này cũng có thể dành cho những bạn truy cập vào blogspot không được. Vì có một số khu vực mình ko hiểu vì sao mà không truy cập vào blogspot được.



Download Chương Trình

Chúc các bạn thành công nha, đặc biệt là trong việc tìm kiếm ISAS đó, đừng nói là không tìm được tài liệu nữa nha.

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Label Tabs For NEO Template

Cũng như cách mà mình đã hướng dẫn làm label tabs ở bài trước(link) bạn làm theo các bước như ở bài trước, chỉ thay đổi một tí ở bước 4 để làm cho tab của bạn hoàn hảo hơn đối với template NEO.

Ở bước 4 không làm giống như bài trước(link) mà làm thế này:

Các bạn copy đoạn code sau:
Code 1:

<b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Nha~n' type='Label'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<div id='tabsJ'>
<ul>
<li><a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><span>Home</span></a></li>
<li>
<a href='javascript:fetchLatestPosts("http://yourblog.blogspot.com/","Ten Label");'><span>Ten Hien Tren Tab</span>
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href='javascript:fetchLatestPosts("http://yourblog.blogspot.com/","Tên Label");'><span>Tên Hiện Trên Tab</span>
</a>
</li>
</ul>
<!-- <b:include name='quickedit'/> -->
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

Trong đó "Tên Label" là Tên Label trong blog bạn, vd: blog bạn có một label là Tin Học, thì bạn phải để chính xác là "Tin Học" vào "Tên Label" ở phía trên. Và "Tên Hiện Trên Tab" là dòng chữ được hiển thị trên Tab của bạn.
vd: Mình có một label được đặt tên là "Blog Hack" thì mình sẽ sửa như sao:
<li>
<a href='javascript:fetchLatestPosts("http://danglvh.blogspot.com/","Blog
Hack");'><span>Blog Hack</span>
</a>
</li>

Ở trên mình chỉ ví dụ cho 2 Tab, nếu bạn có nhiều label thì làm nhiều dòng như thế này và thêm vào "Tên Label":

<li>
<a href='javascript:fetchLatestPosts("http://yourblog.blogspot.com/","Tên Label");'><span>Tên Hiện Trên Tab</span>
</a>
</li>

Sau đó vào Edit HTML/Chọn Expand Widget tìm và paste đoạn code 1 ở trên vào dòng ".......copy code 1 bỏ vào đây....." ở đoạn code bên dưới:

<div id='header-wrapper'>
<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='2' showaddelement='yes'>
.......copy code 1 bỏ vào đây.....
</b:section>
</div>

Sau đó nhấn nút lưu lại. Quay lại blog và F5
Chúc bạn thành công, có gì thì comment nhé!

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Label Tabs

chú ý: bấm giữ phím Shift và click vào các hình bên dưới để xem hình rõ hơn

Trong bài viết này mình sẽ hướng dẫn các bạn cách làm label tabs. Vậy Label Tabs là gì? Công dụng nó là để làm gì? Mời các bạn xem hình sau thì sẽ rõ:

Như hình vẽ, label tab là những label(nhãn) được đặt lên trên với những nút(button) có đường link tới label(nhãn) đó.

Vậy là bạn đã biết thế nào là Label Tabs rồi đó. Bây giờ mình sẽ hướng dẫn cách làm nó như thế nào.

Bước 1: Vào Template>>Edit HTML tìm và sửa đoạn code sau:

Tại class='header' bạn sửa maxwidgets='2' và showaddelement='yes'. Nhấn nút Save.

Bước 2: Bước này chúng ta sẽ copy đoạn code cho các nút tab (xem minh họa). Các tab này điều có tên và mõi tên tab sẽ tương ứng với các đoạn code sau đây(nhấp vào link down về). Các bạn xem hình minh họa rồi chọn cho mình một tab ứng ý sao đó copy đoạn code nào có tên tab tương ứng với tab bạn chọn vào notepad.

Ví dụ mình chọn tab F
Vậy đoạn code mình chọn sẽ là:

/*- Menu Tabs F ------*/

#tabsF {
float:left;
width:100%;
font-size:80%;
line-height:normal;
border-bottom:1px solid #000;

}

#tabsF ul {
margin:0;
padding:10px 10px 0 50px;
list-style:none;
}

#tabsF li {
display:inline;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}

#tabsF a {
float:left;
background:url(" http://www.yourwebsite.com/labeltabs/tableftF.gif")
no-repeat left top;
margin:0;
padding:0 0 0 4px;
text-decoration:none;
}

#tabsF a span {
float:left;
display:block;
background:url(" http://www.yourwebsite.com/labeltabs/tabrightF.gif")
no-repeat right top;
padding:5px 15px 4px 6px;
color:#666;
}

/* Commented Backslash Hack hides rule from IE5-Mac \*/

#tabsF a span {float:none;}

/* End IE5-Mac hack */

#tabsF a:hover span {
color:#FFF;
}

#tabsF a:hover {
background-position:0% -42px;
}

#tabsF a:hover span {
background-position:100% -42px;
}

Bước 3: Bạn tải về và giải nén file có đường link sau:

http://exploding-boy.com/images/CSSmenus.zip

Đây là file chứa các nút, các image mà ta sẽ sử dụng cho các tab của chúng ta. Bạn hãy nhấp vào đường link dưới để xem các tab mẫu:

http://exploding-boy.com/images/cssmenus/menus.html#

Mở file vừa mới giải nén xong và up lên host của bạn 2 file là tableftF.gif và tabrightF.gif

Bây giờ bạn lấy đường link của tableftF.gif thay thế cho đường link http://duonglink/tableftF.gif . Và đường link của tabrightF.gif thay thế cho đường link http://duonglink/tabrightF.gif ở đoạn code được tô đen bên dưới.

Vd:

/*- Menu Tabs F ------*/

#tabsF {
float:left;
width:100%;
font-size:80%;
line-height:normal;
border-bottom:1px solid #000;

}

#tabsF ul {
margin:0;
padding:10px 10px 0 50px;
list-style:none;
}
#tabsF li {
display:inline;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
#tabsF a {
float:left;
background:url(" http://duonglink/tableftF.gif")
no-repeat left top;
margin:0;
padding:0 0 0 4px;
text-decoration:none;
}

#tabsF a span {
float:left;
display:block;
background:url(" http://duonglink/tabrightF.gif")
no-repeat right top;
padding:5px 15px 4px 6px;
color:#666;
}

/* Commented Backslash Hack hides rule from IE5-Mac \*/
#tabsF a span {float:none;}

/* End IE5-Mac hack */
#tabsF a:hover span {
color:#FFF;
}
#tabsF a:hover {
background-position:0% -42px;
}

#tabsF a:hover span {
background-position:100% -42px;
}

Sau đó bạn vào Template/Edit HTML, Copy đoạn code này vào trước chữ ]]></b:skin>

và Save lại.

Bước 4: Bạn tick chọn vào ô " Expand Widget Templates" tiếng việt là Mở Rộng Mẫu gì đó ở ngay trên khung code. Tìm đoạn code sau đây:

<div id='header-wrapper'>
<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='3' showaddelement='yes'>
.......copy code bỏ vào đây.....
</b:section>

</div>

Sau đó copy đoạn code sau và paste vào đoạn ".......copy code bỏ vào đây....." trên.

<b:widget id='Label10' locked='false' title='' type='Label'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<div id='tabsF'>
<ul>
<li><a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><span>Home</span></a></li>
<b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
<li><a expr:href='data:label.url'><span><data:label.name/></span></a></li>
</b:loop>
</ul>
<!-- <b:include name='quickedit'/> -->
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

Chú ý ngay chổ id='tabsF'. Ở đây mình sử dụng Tab có tên là F nên id='tabsF'. Nếu bạn sử dụng Tab có tên là A thì id mình phải đổi là id='tabsA'.

Tới đây bạn Save Template lại lần nữa. Và quạy lại trang blog của mình nhấn F5 để xem kết quả thế nào.

Chúc mừng bạn đã hoàn thành xong một hack mới cho blog!
Chúc bạn thành công!

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