My Dad Vs. GPS

Last week my uncle gave my mom a GPS. She decided to install it into the family car, the one my dad drives most of the time. My dad is in his 60s and pretty set in his ways. He's knows Calgary inside out and any new neighbourhoods that he doesn't know he just looks it up on google maps. If he's in another city, he just buys a map.

So we install the GPS and immediately an argument ensues. First he's trying to get from University to around 1600 Acadia Drive. GPS suggests Deerfoot Trail.

Dad: "This machine is insane! Either take Crowchild to 14th Street South to Anderson. Who the hell would take Deerfoot?" My dad doesn't like taking Deerfoot unless he has to.

Another time he was driving somewhere:

"Turn right in 3 intersections"

"Bullshit, only an idiot would go that way"

It's turning into quite a contest. Odds are 3-to-1 that the GPS will be thrown out the window by the end of the month.

What do you think of GPS?

U.S. Births Hint at Bias for Boys in Some Asians

Source: New York Times

The trend is buried deep in United States census data: seemingly minute deviations in the proportion of boys and girls born to Americans of Chinese, Indian and Korean descent.

In those families, if the first child was a girl, it was more likely that a second child would be a boy, according to recent studies of census data. If the first two children were girls, it was even more likely that a third child would be male.

Demographers say the statistical deviation among Asian-American families is significant, and they believe it reflects not only a preference for male children, but a growing tendency for these families to embrace sex-selection techniques, like in vitro fertilization and sperm sorting, or abortion.

New immigrants typically transplant some of their customs and culture to the United States — from tastes in food and child-rearing practices to their emphasis on education and the elevated social and economic status of males. The appeal to immigrants by clinics specializing in sex selection caused some controversy a decade ago.

But a number of experts expressed surprise to see evidence that the preference for sons among Asian-Americans has been so significantly carried over to this country. “That this is going on in the United States — people were blown away by this,” said Prof. Lena Edlund of Columbia University.

.....more

Woah woah woah woah... excuse me? New immigrants typically transplant some of their customs and culture to the United States — from tastes in food and child-rearing practices to their emphasis on education and the elevated social and economic status of males but EXPERTS are surprised that Asians prefering boys over girls has carried over? That's the most important one! If people are going to carry on eating rice and praying at the altar then they certainly are carrying on the custom of having boys. If you have no boy, who's going to pray at the altar!? Experts can be so dumb sometimes.

Mum's catching up with with me ... on Facebook

Source: Asiaone

WHEN his mother added him to her friends' list on popular social networking website Facebook, SIM University student Chris Chen accepted the request readily.

But she soon discovered photographs of the Honda motorcycle he had secretly bought and things quickly changed.

Mr Chen, 22, had not told her he had learnt to ride a motorcycle, or that the money he saved from working part-time had been spent on the two-wheeler.

'She got really angry about it, so I blocked her on Facebook,' he said, matter-of-factly. 'I don't want her to see the offending pictures till she can come to terms with my riding a bike.'

Mr Chen's situation, though prickly, may not be such an unusual one. An Australian survey last month found that one in four children has his or her parents as friends on online social networking sites such as Facebook. Adults aged 35 to 54 using Facebook doubled from 7 per cent of its total users last year to 17 per cent in January.

A final-year project by a group of students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) found that parent-child relationships actually improved when they used networking sites like Facebook.

The study, funded by the National Youth Council, interviewed 20 sets of parents and children who were online friends.

Project member Lee Weiyi, 22, said parents read about activities and pictures their children put online to feel closer to them and to find common topics to talk about. But this works well only as long as the parents do not find objectionable content in their children's profiles.

'Of course, the children are generally more tech-savvy than their parents and know how to censor what they put online,' said Ms Lee.

Some youth, she added, delete images they know their parents will disapprove of, or prevent their parents from seeing certain photo albums by limiting access to 'safe' content.

Student Dew Low, 17, was amused, but not surprised, when her mother, Madam Dorrianne Yeo, sent a request asking to be her friend on Facebook. In fact, Dew's grandfather, Mr Eddie Yeo, 71, is also on her list of Facebook friends.

They use Facebook mainly to share pictures with relatives living overseas.

'It's a little unusual, but I think my mum is quite hip,' said Dew. 'I don't worry too much about what she'll see on my profile, since I only upload things I don't mind sharing publicly.'

Madam Yeo, 45, is not worried about what she might find in her children's online profiles. 'I won't intrude into their privacy. But if I see anything I am uncomfortable with, I would talk openly with them about it.'

If you're a good kid and have nothing to hide and then adding mom isn't a problem.
But we were never good kids were we? :)

Teen girls trading sex for favours

Source: Edmonton Sun

Somewhere in the city, children as young as 11 and 12 are gathering in basements and playing intricate, graphic sex games.

I first heard about these parties a few years ago from my 12-year-old daughter, who said kids at her school played games where each girl had to perform oral sex on several boys.

Naively, I dismissed the story as another urban myth, like Pop Rocks causing heart attacks and maggots in milk-shake machines.

Turns out, these parties are very real and frighteningly commonplace.

Edmonton is featured in a new book and documentary DVD called Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss by Sharlene Azam, where she explores "the growing phenomenon of middle-class girls trading sex for money, drugs and luxury goods."

If the girls wanted money, they'd call a man named Luu Chi Dang and tell him that they wanted to work.

He'd pick them up and take them to one of three homes, where a dozen or so middle-aged men were waiting.

For each man the girls had sex with, they'd be paid $60. Dang got $40.

Said one girl: "I just had to lie there. The lights would always be off, and the few times it bothered me I would think that I could go get Boston Pizza after or something. The best part was getting paid. I did it for the money. It took 15 minutes and I would have $500."

Azam described Dang as a "really nice guy, very polite and deferential." He never recruited anyone. The girls took care of that.

"Most of the girls said they wanted to make money to go shopping. When their friends saw them shopping they would tell them, 'If you want to make money contact Luu' and I would hook it up," he told her.

Azam offers advice for parents who fear their girls are being sucked in. It's all common-sense stuff, like communicating, spending time with them and building up their esteem. She also reminds adults that they have a job to do.

"Don't be afraid to assert your authority... your daughter might not thank you for keeping track of her whereabouts, but it does not matter," she says. Azam adds: "The biggest problem is that parents aren't worried enough."

Exactly, where are the parents? And how can parents not know what's going on with their daughters. My mom always knows what's going on with me no matter how much I try to hide it. When I started to see a boy in High School, my mom knew immediately even before she met him. I just acted different. When I lost my virginity in University, my mom questioned me even before she knew I had a bf, "you been having sex haven't you, I can tell by your figure". Later in University, I got into a bit of trouble with gambling and poker (from a bad boyfriend) and my mom, who knows nothing about poker, knew I was gambling cause I looked suspicious around the house and whenever someone mentioned money, I'd jump. Moms know EVERYTHING! These kids either have moms who don't care or don't have moms at all.

'Jon & Kate Plus 8' heading for divorce?

Source: Alpha Asian

Jon and Kate Gosselin of TLC's docudrama Jon & Kate Plus 8, about their family life with two sets of multiples, may have trouble in paradise.

The couple appears to have serious marriage problems now that Jon has started spending increasing time away from home and partying with college girls, claims InTouchWeekly.com.

In a Feb. 6 incident, Jon was reportedly hanging out at Mimi's martini bar in Huntington, Penn. -- easily three hours away from the new home he and Kate moved into with their children -- when he met some girls from Juniata College who invited him to a house party.

"He walked in with two girls he met at Mimi's bar," a senior tells the magazine. "It was so cool."

Jon then proceeded to play beer pong and then follow the party with a nightcap at Memories Sports Bar & Grill, where he reportedly got drunker, flirted with the Juniata girls and told one, "We might be getting a divorce."

Star Magazine had earlier reported one witness' account:

"He was dirty dancing with several of them, making out, kissing them on their necks and mouths. I thought it was rather surprising for a father with his wife and so many kids at home to be acting like this. He was all over one girl, a long-haired blonde who's nearly 6 feet tall. He left with several of the girls, including her."

That's some sad shit isn't it. Give a guy a tv show and some money, why would he stay at home with a wife and eight kids! No man in his situation would resist choosing a night out with two young girls over EIGHT kids. Looks like he wants to take his millions and get out, and get out fast.