What's the difference of the pronounciations between flower and flour? What's the difference of the pronounciations between flower and flour? This morning, I did some reading in English and the above question popped out in front of me. I thought they were only slightly different, because I always pronounce flower with emphasizing the "w" sound a little. In order to make it clear, I looked up in the dictionary. But guess what? It says that they pronounce in a same way, i.e.['flauə]. What about you? Do you pronounce them exactly in the same way?

A restaurant There is a restaurant right opposite the apartment I rent. It is easy to know what kinds of food the owner will provide from its name, which is "湘吉一家人”. They are Hunan dishes and Jilin dishes. "湘“ is short for Hunan province, and "吉” is short for Jilin. This restaurant has been open for months, three or four months. It opens every day till late. The lights are so bright that you cannot ignore that there is a place that you can have your meal done. However, I never saw a customer in there. I live on the 15th floor and the glass of its large window is very clean. So I always can see inside through its window from my balcony. Tonight, my shoulder was a little stiff after I sat in front of my PC for about two hours. Therefore, I rode my new bike out for about 50 minutes. I felt much better after I got sweaty. Sometimes, I like spending time in this way. I mean go outside, passing by slowly, watching people. It is a little way for me to feel real life is going on. People walk around, with their children or just alone. They are carrying some plastic bags with stuff that they just bought from somewhere. Everytime when I am being a people watcher. I can't help guessing their professionals or destinations that they are going to. It seems that I go too far away from what I was wanting to say. (As always I do. Lol) Let's back to the restaurant. After I came back home, it is still opening, but still is empty, no clients at all. I am wondering how long will it be last under this situation. Anyway, wish it a bright future just like its lights.

Bitcoin Have you heard about bitcoin? I listened to a podcast this morning and it mentioned a digital currency which is called bitcoin. It's nothing like the currencies that already exist. We cannot actually hold it in our hands. However, it can buy things or pay restaurant bills in reality. It caused my curiosity, what exactly it is and how does it work? Who created it in the first place? How does it spread to people and how does it make people trust it? I did some search on the internet, but it seems too complicated for me to understand. So, I am writing here for asking some simple explanations of this digital currency. Any help will be appreciated. Thank you for reading！

My learning method In order to get used to switching my thought between English and Japanese, I am learning Japanese by English. This might be a little bit crazy since I am not that good at English, but somehow I feel good at this idea. There's no language environment here for me to practice my English, so I need to create one. In this way, English replaces my mother language Chinese to help me learn Japanese, which means there's only two languages left on my mind. So it became a daily language for me as long as l keep learning Japanese. I've tried it for about one week and I have to say it's not that difficult as we think to learn a foreign language by an other one.

Changing Are you a QQ user? If you are, then you might know that there's QQ zone where you can share your tears and joys with others. When I was a college student, I liked to write diaries in QQ zone. To be honest, there's not many things that could be writing materials at that time. However, I still kept my diaries updated often, almost every day. After school, the first thing that I would do is log in and go through my QQ zone. If one of my entries got a high page view and many comments, then I would be very happy and motivating me to write down more. Time passes by, I am not the little girl who always had a lot of feeling and eager to tell them to everybody. Gradually, I became another person, just like the other grown-ups. In my life, QQ doesn't matter now, it's just a convenient tool. After I graduated from college, friends don't update their QQ zone any more. If I entered someone's QQ zone now, the latest entry could be posted in 2010. Just like the last time I went there. We don't write diaries any more, but we post some short sentences by personalized signatures. It became a way for us to know our friends' lives. Now, we don't often change the personalized signatures. Sometimes we change, but not for everyone, just want to say something to that one who we can not talk with directly. Hoping that he/she can see the words and knowing that is for him/her. Not like years ago, we just got QQ. Right now, we also have weibo,wechat,Skype and so on. The communication tools are richer and richer, but our distance are further and further. I don't like the person who always keeps his/her eyes on cellphone. They don't want to miss any messages even they are having dinner with you. Sometimes I can't help thinking, what kind of messages is more important the real friend who is sitting in front of you. So I made an agreement with my boyfriend, when we have dinner together, never take out our phones. I received letters from friends or pen pal every week when I was a senior high school. It's a cherish memory of my life. I know, I won't get any hand writing letters any more. It's because people don't like to use pen but keyboard these days. Writing was replaced by typing, but something can　be replaced by nothing.

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day is coming soon. If you are with the right one, then every　day is Valentine's Day.

Spring Festival and Age Chinese Spring Festival is around the corner, which means I am going to grow one year old soon. Not like other countries, we take the new year as a standard of age.