Social Networkng Simplified

Confused about social networkng.  This video should help

Social Maturity in China

Retirement age in China is 60 or 61. This is to make jobs available for younger generations.

But here, unlike the USA, retirement becomes a time for socialization. The retirees gather outside to talk,play cards and most often to do morning exercises. The exercise sessions can last 2 to 3 hours and consists of various types of TaiChi (conventional, with a racket and ball or with ribbons.After exercise the people go to lunch together.

There appears to be very little obesity here – no problem with belly fat.I’m sure there is some obesity but it’s not obvious – no extremely thin people either

Maturity is indeed social in China.In certain areas USA has much to learn.

From Xi’an on the way to Chongquing…

Larry

Air quality

The air quality in the major cities is even worse than one can imagine. We were quite lucky in Beijing because it was windy but here in Xi’an you just cannot see more than a couple of blocks. The life span of a traffic cop averges 49 years.

In xi’an, the farmers are burning the corn stalks adding to the problem of the traffic.

BUT, and this is a big but
,The streets are spotless. No one seems to litter. And there are peoe cleaning abd sweeping everywhere

Yesterday we visited the Little Goose Pavilion. I was on one knee taking a couple of pictures when one of the guys with abroom pointed at my feet and smiled. I shrugged my shoulders to ask why he smiling – he laughed and drew his hands apart to indicate the large size of my feet.

Onthe bus on the way to the airport. More of Social Maturity in China

the Great Wall and Beyond

Early morning departure by bus and police escort.the police escort was hysterical. He managed to clear the traffic from our lane. The police escorted the bus to the front of the line of buses much to the dismay of all other tour groups.

A gondola ride to the wall saved a steep climb. From the top the walk to the bottom involved uneven stairs and some uphill climbing. Th crowds were incredible – mostly Chinese – all climbing from the bottom – young as 3 or 4 and elderly both. Incredible experience – not only being in China but walking on the Great Wall.

Cloisonne Factory was our next stop – all is manufactured by hand. The process is labor intensive – the patience it takes to add fine pieces of copper the painstakingly adding layer upon layer of enamel.

The day was capped off with a visit to the Summer Palace and a Dragon Boat ride.

Larry

Beijing

The old side of this city is even more amazjng than the new. The Forbidden City, a complex of 9999 rooms in size covering about 128 acres, took only 14 years to complete. The size is hard to comprehend until one has visited. Under foot 15 levels of paving stones make up the foundation. The number of tourists of all nationalities and the sheer numbers of people inside during the day is incomprehensible. Surprisingly most tend to be Chinese.

Once you can get through the throngs of “Hello” people selling caps, postcards, and books for $1.00 Tiannanmen Square is larger than One expects. The portrait of Chairman Mao dominates the plaza. Once again the vast numbers of people was astounding – most of the tourists were Chinese.

A visit to hutong on a trishaw filled the remainder of the afternoon. We visited with a local woman in her home. She entertained with anti-American songs from the 1950s and answered questions about her way of life. Although the surroundings were modest all her children received college educations as did her grandchildren.

Tomorrow the Great Wall

Larry

The Flight

New York to Beijing non-stop. What an amazing world considering my first flight was from Boston to Philadelphia in 1957 on a twin engine turbo-prop seated next to a guy smoking a very large cigar.

The flight took just about 13 hours leaving Newark at 12:30 PM and arriving 1 PM next day. Despite efforts to darken the cabin for sleep – body clock made even napping a problem.

The flight heads east rather than west as would be expected and tracks over Newfoundland, the Davis Strait, Greenland, north of the North Pole, over Russia and down into China.There was adnittedly some momentary apprehension about flying over 3ussian airspace in the middle of the night.

First impression of Beijin was the of a city showing amazing growth and change.

More later

Larry

Even the NIH…

Are you as tired as I am of everyone talking down to anyone over the age of 65 as if we were children who had difficulty understanding even the simplest of verbal and printed information?

The most recent egregious offender is the senior health web site from the NIH. You can take a look at this yourself at www.nihseniorhealth.gov. T – A – L – K       A – B – O – U – T        S – P – E – A – K – I – N – G         S – L – O – W – L – Y enough so that we obviously addled brain 65+ year olds can understand – the site is actually insulting.

From the exercise section of the site:

Exercise for Older Adults

Benefits of Exercise

“Congratulations! You are joining an elite team of women and men who appreciate that exercise is one of the healthiest things you can do.
(For more, click below on “Next Page.”)”

Gee, glad you told me…

“Frequently Asked Questions

2. What is the difference between exercise and physical activity?

Exercise is physical activity that follows a planned format using repeated movements to improve or maintain fitness. Exercise progress can be scored and counted. Physical activity is any voluntary body movement that burns calories.”

So happy to know that…

Take a look at this video that purports to teach seniors how to peform endurance exercises, for example

Before I get flamed at this blog, I know there are many seniors who do have mental and physical problems that make comprehension difficult. And I do know that much of what is posted at “official” web sites is under the scrutiny of their legal departments – the same legal departments that insisted that a warning label be placed on coffee cups at MacDonald’s that informed that coffee is hot – but just once, somewhere, I’d like to see us treated as alert, intelligent, effective, individuals who had the capacity to understand complete sentences.

Larry

Karma’s not a bitch

…In fact, she’s a patient, fair, and positive form of energy ”who” comes calling when the time’s right. Don’t get me wrong, Karma is calculating and manipulative, but she uses these powers for good…in order to right evil. Karma might not catch up with her prey at a time that’s convenient for you. In other words, she may not swoop on your schedule so you can see the fruits of her labor wreaking havoc on the person who screwed you. But that’s because Karma knows much more than you about what the universe holds for that sh*thead. Recently, Karma caught up with an ex-colleague who I’ll call Corky. I was Corky’s boss for many years. In the beginning, Corky seemed hardworking, smart, motivated and ethical. Corky blew a significant amount of smoke you-know-where, mind you; so it’s possible that I wasn’t seeing too clearly. As time passed, Corky’s modus operandi became perfectly transparent. This kid, masking as an adult, lied, gossiped about me and others, put me and my company in risky situations, was divisive, conniving, and wholly inappropriate. When Corky’s department was down-sized because of a change in strategy, Corky was given a chance to apply for a new job. He took the severance package. Just a few months later, I heard that he had asked a good friend of mine for help getting a job. This good friend happens to be someone that Corky stabbed in the back, unapologetically, many times…and she knew it. Good Friend picked up the phone and called Karma. Karma advised Good Friend to ignore Corky. And as far as I know, Corky’s still gainfully unemployed, and drowning his sorrows at the local dive. I wish him nothing worse than what he has coming to him. To you Dear Reader, I want only to send the message that bad things do happen to people who do bad things. It’s only a matter of time. My next KNAB post is coming soon…when the time is right!

EmmyB

Could it be?

We’ve gotten some indications lately that SocialMaturity.com is being noticed.

And that some of the larger senior networking sites are reacting.

To be sure, we’re no bigger than a mouse to the larger sites like Eons.com, MySpace and Facebook but SocialMaturity.com is making inroads. We’ve cracked the first page in Google for a couple of search terms, our AdWords campaign is right on target.

We’ve simplified the registration process to be cleaner , simpler and more innovatively designed than any of the large sites and we’re adding content and things to do daily.

If you’re a boomer or older check us out.

Larry

Bass Phishing

No, I’m not talking about the fish! Or going fishing.

I’m talking about trying to find a way to learn the identity of all those generous folks who feel that they must share their choice of music ( I use the term loosely) with everyone within a couple of mile radius of their location.

Their cars have been outfitted with subwoofers so that the bass reverberates through the neighborhood, usually after 11PM.  The walls shake, sleep is interrupted, cities have anti-noise laws still these inconsiderate $%#&!*s continue to insist that all around listen to their choice of drone.

Wouldn’t it be great to round up all these car owners, put them in a room and force them to listen to a couple of hours of Barry Manilow and see how they like it? Let the punishment fit the crime, I always say…

Larry