Telling Children About Financial Problems.

Since now is the crisis time, many people who have children have lost their job. Not only they have to face the financial problem, but also they have some problems with their children. The question is should they tell their children about their financial problem or not? In this podcast you will hear some parents talk about their problem with the children. The interested thing in this podcast is the conversation ( kind of an interview) between Singletary and one woman with a very natural idea about telling her child about her financial problems. It's helpful because not only that woman got into that case but also a lot of people. So i hope this podcast will be handy for some of you.
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=100774287&m=100774266

Japan initiates new finance minister

Hi, this is Megumi.

This news made me so embarrased as a Japanese. Below video shows how awful our former finance minister was.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/17/japan_fm/

After the G7 conference in Roma, he talked in front of the cameras from all over the world. He usually speaks weird and looks sleepy, but no one could doubt but he was drunk or had problem in his brain or something. He drunk some gin and tonics on a plane, plus a little wine at lunch the next day, and then he slurs his way through a press conference with six other ministers. He excused that he took a cold medicine, who believes is!?!? Unfortunately, the news were watched by not only Japanese but all people abroad, he obviously let the reputation of Japanese down. I feel so sorry about it.

Stimulus bill

Hi everyone:

I am interested to know the benefit from stimulus bill. I have listened at link http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/06/mm_1st_homebuyer/

They were talking about tax credit for "First-time homebuyer" The first-time homebuyer will get an $8,000 benefit from tax credit this year without paying back . It is different from last year because tax payer got $7,500 and they have to pay back. In this link, they also talked about the qualification for tax payer who will get benefit from this plan. I think this is a good time for someone who wants to buy a house and get the benefit from first-time homebuyer tax credit. I am thinking about this benefit.

Teens, Television, and Depression

Hi, this is Megumi.

Today I would like to talk about the news about 'Teens, Television, and Depression'.
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-02-10-voa2.cfm

According the VOA news, the more teenagers watch television, the more likely they are to develop depression. Young people are asked how many hours they watch tv, and how often they play the com games. In seven years, more than seven percent of the young people got depression.
Doctor Primack says some activities, such as sport and socializing, might be able to prevent from depression. Also sociologists from the University of Maryland found that people who describe themselves as happy spend less time watching television than unhappy people by the VOA news.

I agree that even it is fun to watch movies or tv, I get frustrated to continue it for long time and want to go out and do something active. Probably to get exercise or breathe fresh air are good ways to refresh and be positive. Get wild and feel nature!

Dog Talk

Hi everyone:
I have just listened and read the transcript from http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2008-12-06-voa4.cfm
about the title "Dog Talk: Every Dog Has His Day". The main idea of story is comparison between dog and human.

Examples from the story are: [1]. to lead a dog's life means a person who has an unhappy existence. [2]. dog-eat-dog world means many people are competing for the same things. [3]. every dog has its day means every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life.

After I have listened to this story, I felt more positive about the word "dog". The word 'dog' is used in my country mostly in a negative way. Example, when anyone does something wrong that person is called a dog. When used in the positive sense, the word dog relates to being honest.

If you are interested to know more about the word "dog" in American culture, go to the link stated above.

What do you want to drink in cold weather?

Hi friends:
Do you have any things to drink for cold night? If you want something to drink, please go to this link.
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=100089836

This link will tell you how to make hot chocolate for cold night. It is not difficult to make it by yourself. I like to drink hot chocolate at night too. Don't keep up, lets make it.

My first posting!

Hey I'm Megumi.
This is the first posting on our blog 'The Wilder', haha.

Ok, I would like to put an address which I listened to just now.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99755918

This is about the Academy Awards, who hates movies?
It says 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' got the most — 13 in total. 'Slumdog Millionaire' had 10, while the lyrical biopic 'Milk' drew eight. The most surprising at this Oscar was the nomination tally for independent picture Frozen River. It took two nominations, for Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay.

Actually I went to see Benjamin Button, and it was pretty interesting. The story was good enough to get attention even nearly 3hours long, and the computer graphics was amazing. Apparently Bob, the guy on the potcast, didn't like the movie so much though.
Slumdog Millionair is about a boy from slum in Mumbai, who appeared on a game show and was changed his life, I don' t know the story much... But I'm sure to check it out!

My first post!!!!!!!!!

Hello Megumi,Vichada and my fans, this is my first post as a V.I.P member in The Wilder group. I found somethings really cool about grammar. The main ideas of this episode is about answering some question that came from the reader. It's interested because all of the questions for example "How should sur names be pluralized? Our name ends in ‘x.' However, people almost always greet our family by simply pronouncing our name, ‘Hey, Bruyninckx!' even though there are five of us." or "I have a concern with the use of the term 'antisocial.' Commonly people use it to mean someone who shies away from social contact. In medicine it refers to someone who doesn't adhere to the usual societal rules, like a habitual criminal. Is one meaning more proper?" are the same to mine( maybe it's also what you are questioning for) and the answer was pretty good. Here is the website: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977578875&grpId=3659174697246175&nav=Groupspace
Let's check it out,buddies