My Very Interesting Pet!

Can you guess the most exotic pet I've ever had?

A spider...nope!

A snake...wrong!

Try again...

A cricket...nah...sorry!

The answer is an OCTOPUS! (ปลาหมึก = Pla -Muek)

Yes, a live octopus with tentacles. This is the same creature that is served as a delicious dish in Thailand! Have you ever eaten octopus? Does my pet look delicious?

Eddie, the octopus, was the pet my husband and I had when we lived in Thailand. I named him after Eddie Murphy, the movie star. He had a funny look that reminded him of 'Eddie'. Look at his picture on the left, then you will see what I am talking about.

Per Wikipedia, octopuses are highly intelligent, probably more intelligent than any other order of invertebrates. They are intelligent enough to escape from secure tanks, due to their problem solving skills, mobility and lack of rigid structure. Eddie tried to escape from the tank, too. Fortunately, he was not successful due to how our aquarium was built. When the octopus escape, they can't find their way back to the tank. They are usually found dead on the floor. What a sad way to lose your pet.
Have you lost a pet in some sad way?

Keeping Eddie was a lot fun. We provided him with different types of homes. Lucky him...I only had one home...hahaha. He didn't stay at one place for long. He liked to relocate from one home to the next. One of his favorite homes was my dad's whiskey glass. His second favorite home seemed to be a clay pot (see the picture on the left). It was actually made to be a bird house but it was perfect for Eddie.

See the pictures below. Looks like he was moving again. :)














One thing about Eddie that fascinated me was every time he moved to his new home, he always moved his "belongings" with him. What am I talking about? Well, Eddie collected quite a few empty shells. He used them to decorate his home. He was very particular about how placed the shells. He would rearrange them until he was happy about it. Isn't that funny?

We fed Eddi a live fish sometimes and let him hunt his own food.
He was a good predator. Here is a picture of him grasping the fish
with his tentacle.







Have you ever pet the live octopus?

It's very cool that Eddie let my husband pet him. He was very smart and figured out that my husband's hand was neither food nor his predator, so he didn't try to attack his hand. It was scary to think about it now because the octopus can bite you and inject you with poison and digestive enzymes if he feels threatened.

The octopus has a short life span. On average, they live about one year. We had Eddie about 6 - 7 months or so before he died from old age. He was a great and cool pet we've had!

If you would like to see Eddie's video, please visit the links below. We posted 2 of his videos on sharkle.com 3 years ago.

Part I Eddie the Octopus, My Interesting Pet

Part II Eddie the Octopus, My Interesting Pet

How about you? Tell me about your pet.

What is the most unusual pet you've ever had?

ชื่อนั้นสำคัญไฉน --- Cute Name or Not?

วันนี้อยากจะเล่าเรื่องชื่อค่ะ มีชื่อน่ารักๆ ในภาษาไทยจำนวนมากที่เมื่อนำมาเขียนเป็นภาษาอังกฤษแล้วกลายเป็นคำศัพท์คำหนึ่ง ซึ่งไม่น่าจะมีปัญหาอะไรถ้าคำศัพท์นั้นๆ มีความหมายน่ารักเหมือนในภาษาไทย ทีนี้มันไม่ใช่อย่างนั้นน่ะสิคะ ชื่อบางชื่อเวลาเขียนสะกดตรงตัวในภาษาอังกฤษ กลายเป็นคำศัพท์ที่มีความหมายตลกหรือน่าอายไปซะแล้ว วันนี้ก็เลยอยากจะขอยกตัวอย่างชื่อหรือคำนำหน้าชื่อที่พูดถึงนี้มาฝากไว้เป็นความรู้กัน

• พี่ -- คำนี้ถ้าเขียนเป็นภาษาอังกฤษว่า PEE และใช้นำหน้าชื่อ เช่น PEE Nuch รู้ไหมคะว่า PEE หรือ PEE PEE นั้น แปลว่า ปัสสาวะ ถ้าจะให้ดี ควรใช้ P' หรือ Pi นำหน้าชื่อ เช่น P'Nuch จะดีกว่าค่ะ นอกจากนี้ ชื่อที่มีคำว่า พี นำหน้า เช่น พีรพงษ์ เวลาสะกดเป็นภาษาอังกฤษ ระวังอย่าสะกดว่า PEErapong นะคะ ถ้าให้ดี สะกดว่า Pirapong จะดูน่ารักกว่าเยอะเลยค่ะ

• ชมพู่ -- ถ้าเรียกย่อๆ ว่า พู่ และเขียนเป็นภาษาอังกฤษว่า POO รู้ไหมว่า POO หรือ POO POO แปลว่าอะไร แปลว่าอุจจาระ หรือ crap ค่ะ ถ้าจะให้ดีเขียนว่า Chompu ดูดีกว่า

• บุ๋ม -- มีหลายคนเขียนว่า BOOM ซึ่งดีค่ะ แปลว่า grow / develop แต่หลายคนเขียนว่า BUM คำนี้มีความหมายว่าเป็นคนไม่ทำงานทำการ ขี้เกียจสันหลังยาว และในภาษาอังกฤษแบบ British เป็นคำแสลง แปลว่า ก้น ค่ะ อยากจะเป็น Boom หรือ Bum ก็เลือกดูตามใจชอบค่ะ

• พร หรือ ภรณ์ -- สาวๆ หลายคนมีคำนำหน้าชื่อด้วย พร หรือลงท้ายชื่อด้วย ภรณ์ คำนี้ถ้าเขียนเป็นภาษาอังกฤษว่า PORN ความหมายไม่น่ารักเท่าไหร่ เพราะ PORN ย่อมาจาก Pornography แปลว่าหนังโป๊ ค่ะ โป๊แบบ xxx เลยนะ

• พิศ, พิศมัย, ชวนพิศ -- คำว่า พิศ ถ้าเขียนว่า Pis ไม่เป็นไรค่ะ แต่ถ้าเขียนว่า PISS เมื่อไหร่ล่ะก็ กลายเป็นคำแสลงที่ไม่สุภาพ แปลว่า ปัสสาวะ ค่ะ

• ฮัว -- ชื่อนี้ไม่มีปัญหาเรื่องเขียนสะกด แต่มีปัญหาเวลาออกเสียงค่ะ ฝรั่งบางคนฟังไม่ชัด อาจได้ยินว่า คุณชื่อ Whore (โสเภณี) ไม่ใช่ Huo ยุ่งเลยค่ะทีนี้ :)

จะว่าไปก็ไม่ใช่มีแต่ชื่อในภาษาไทยเท่านั้นที่อ่านออกเสียง หรือสะกดแล้วกลายเป็นเรื่องหัวเราะ ตลกเฮฮาในภาษาอังกฤษ ชื่อในภาษาอังกฤษเองก็มีเหมือนกันที่อ่านแล้ว กลายเป็นเรื่องตลกขบขัน จนเจ้าของชื่อต้องไปขอเปลี่ยนชื่อเป็นอย่างอื่น เพราะไม่อยากโดนล้อ ตัวอย่างเช่น

Ann Chovie ( sounds like 'Anchovy')
Bea Sting (sounds like 'Bee Sting')
Bill Ding (sounds like 'Building')
Brice Tagg (sounds like 'Price Tag')
Dinah Sore (sounds like 'Dinosaur')
Carl Arm (sounds like 'Car Alarm')
Doll R. Bill...(Dollar Bill)
Ira Fuse (I Refuse)
Justin Case (Just in Case)
Kent Cook (Can't Cook)
Lou Sirr (Loser)
Rita Book (Read a Book)
Stu Pitt (Stupid)
U.P. Freehly (You Pee Freely) --- จำคำว่า Pee ได้ไหมเอ่ย
Val Crow (Velcro)
Zoltan Pepper (Salt and Pepper)

ถ้าอยากอ่านเพิ่มเติมเกี่ยวกับ Funny Names ในภาษาอังกฤษ คลิกที่ลิ้งค์ ค่ะ

How about your name? Does it sound funny in English? How do you spell it in English?

Do you know someone who has a cute Thai name but when it is written in English, it can be translated into something funny or terrible?

Do you know….?

Americans see the world differently that we do in Asia. One of the strangest things I've observed is how Westerners assign the pronouns HE or SHE to living things in the environment. American’s want to extend these pronouns as a friendly gesture or they want to superimpose a human personality on this thing. It is almost as though people here see animals, insects, fish and birds as things that live a similar life to humans. All this sounded very weird to me when I first heard it. In Thailand, we generally call any animal, including family pet, ‘IT’. HE and SHE are only used for humans. After living here and having different kinds of pets, I have no problem calling my dogs, rats and other pets, HE or SHE. In fact, it seems appropriate.

Mosquitos, roaches, fleas, ticks, and other pests don’t seem to have earned this same privilege. They are simply called by their names (roach) or perhaps they earn an explicative (Damn mosquito!, Stupid roach!).

Maybe this strange system is popular in America, because Westerners are lonely, and they want more friends. Americans are trying to enrich their families with new members. I have observed families are often separated by hundreds (if not thousands) of miles, only seeing each other at Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Are there any of you from Asia who have been surprised by this strange part of Western culture (HE/SHE)?

What do you think about my assertion that Western culture promotes feelings of loneliness? Do you have a story to share? Do you miss your family in Asia?

What did people think about my blog?

After 10 days of publishing my blog, it's time to check my traffic. Yes, it's reality check time!

I sent emails to my friends and posted the URL of my blog on my favorite forum. Like other bloggers, I hope that people would be interested, decide to come visit my blog and like the content I presented. And they sure did!

Friends, do you know you really made my day?

What did people say about the blog? The feedback I received was good. They like my blog. They said it's helpful...YEH!! That's encouraging.

Anyway, the funny thing is they didn't post their comments here at the blog. People let me know by sending me an email or posting their comments on my favorite forum instead. Why? I don't know but surely would like to know. Looks like if I want to add comments, I might have to do it myself..hahaha. :).

Back to the traffic tracking, I am pleased with the result so far. Like I said, I couldn't believe people actually read my posts.

I created the blog on Aug 5th and as of Aug 14th, 08, I had 57 unique visitors or about 5.7 visitors per day. Total pageviews were 498 which were very nice. Per visit people spent about 12.14 minutes reading my posts. Wow!! that's great! Bounce rate is quite low. That means the content of my blog didn't scare people away. The visitors didn't run away from site as soon as they opened the page.

Where did my visitors come from? I am curious to know, too. Did my friends in Thailand visit the blog? The blog is writen in English for the most part, so that might be a problem. They might not like it because we don't speak English in Thailand.

Well, as you can see, I had 104 visits from the U.S. and 9 from Thailand. The number of pageviews per visit from Thailand was lower than the number from America but it's not bad at all. People from Thailand browsed almost 2 pages. That's a high number for me.

Would you like to know more which province in Thailand my visitors were coming from?

5 of them were from Bangkok and 4 were from Phisanulok. Thanks for visiting, guys!

How about people from the U.S.? Did I know where they were? Let's check it out.

They came from 10 different states. Again, guys, thanks for visiting!

I don't want to overwhelm you with statistics and such. Just want to give you some basic idea. So, let's revisit the site stats in the next 10 days or so and see how things go. See if I have any returning visitor or any visitor at all :).

If you have any question or comment, please let me know.

I try make my blog useful and entertaining at the same time. Also, try to update it as often as I can. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Let’s get to the BOTTOM of this!

I got a question from my Thai friend regarding the word BUM (slang), meaning, in this case, part of the human body that we sit on. I don’t hear this word, used to describe the part of the human body, very often. Frequently, I hear people use the word BUNS (plural) instead. And it is said in a complimentary way. For example, nice buns! Also, there are some other words with the same meaning as BUNS and often used in America such as BUTTOCKS (plural), BUTT and BEHIND. So I did a little research and found that BUM is actually a British English slang. That’s why!

Speaking of the part of the human body that we sit on, TOOSHIE, BOTTOM and HEINE are the words that people normally use when they are around children.

When comparing a degree of politeness, outside of the 3 words above, REAR, REAR END, BACKSIDE and BEHIND are most polite in general. BUTT is not as polite as REAR or BEHIND; however, I see people use it a lot on TV. The word that is least polite compared to others is ASS. So try not to use it much! Btw, I found Slang Map of the Human Body Part which is very cool. You might want to check it out.

I still don’t totally understand why, in English, there are always more than one synonym, invented just for substituting one word. If one word has had only one synonym, it'd have made my life a lot easier. :)

HTH :)

My dog loves her treadmill

You might find this very cute! My dog loves to be on the treadmill. We bought the treadmill just for her. It took about 2 weeks to train her. After that, she has no problem working out on the treadmill and seems to really enjoy it. What a dog!

Abbreviation - What is it?

วันนี้ขอเขียนอธิบายเป็นภาษาไทยหน่อยแล้วกัน เพื่อเป็นการเปลี่ยนบรรยากาศ ไหนๆ ก็เป็นวันหยุดเสาร์ แล้วก็เห็นใจน้องๆ หลายคนที่ต้องเปิดดิกเวลาอ่านคำอธิบายเป็นภาษาอังกฤษ

วันนี้อยากจะพูดถึงคำย่อในภาษาอังกฤษ หรือ Abbreviation คำย่อในที่นี้หมายถึง รูปย่อของคำหรือวลี หลายคนอาจจะสับสนว่าทำไมภาษาอังกฤษมีคำย่อเยอะเหลือเกิน มันคืออะไรกันบ้าง แตกต่างกันอย่างไร (อยากจะบอกว่าไม่ต้องตกใจกับมัน เพราะบางคำก็ถูกประดิษฐ์ขึ้นมาเพื่อใช้เฉพาะสถานที่ เช่นตามบริษัทต่างๆ มักจะมีคู่มือคำย่อที่ใช้ภายใน จัดทำเป็นเล่มให้พนักงานไว้ศึกษาและอ้างถึง)

คำย่อ (Abbreviation) มีอยู่หลายชนิด แต่ในที่นี้จะขอพูดถึงที่พบเห็นบ่อยๆ ในภาษาอังกฤษ ได้แก่ Acronym และ Intialism.

What is the difference between those two?

Acronym เป็นคำย่อที่เกิดจากการผสมตัวอักษรตัวแรกของชื่อหรือวลี เมื่อเวลาออกเสียงรวมกันแล้วกลายเป็นคำใหม่ อย่าเพิ่งงงนะคะ มีตัวอย่างให้ดูค่ะ

• NATO อ่านว่า เน-โต้ ย่อมาจาก North Atlantic Treaty Organization เกิดจากการผสมตัวอักษรตัวแรกของแต่ละคำ ทำให้เกิดเป็นคำใหม่ คือ NATO หลายคนอาจจะเคยเห็นคำนี้ในความหมายของ No Action Talk Only
  

• RADAR อ่านว่า เรด้า ย่อมาจาก Radio Detection And Ranging

หรือ 2 คำต่อไปนี้ เป็นคำที่ผู้เขียนคิดขึ้นมาเอง เพื่อใช้เรียกสมาชิกในครอบครัว

• MOM ย่อมาจาก My Other Mother

• MAMIA อ่านว่า มา-เมีย ย่อมาจาก My Another Mother In America
  

นอกจากนี้ยังมี acronym จำนวนมากที่ถูกแต่งขึ้นมาเพื่อความบันเทิง ที่พบบ่อยๅ เช่น

• ICE = In Case of Emergency

• HOLLAND = Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies

• GOLF = Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden

• NINJA = No Income, No Job or Assets

• YAHOO = You Always Have Other Options

Intialism เป็นกลุ่มของตัวอักษรซึ่งมาจากคำแรกของชื่อหรือวลี และแต่ละตัวอักษรออกเสียงตามตัว ไม่ได้รวมกันเป็นคำเหมือนกับ acronym ตัวย่อประเภทนี้พบเห็นกันบ่อยมาก เช่น

• BTW = By The Way (เห็นไหมคะว่าเราอ่านตามตัวอักษร ว่า บี-ที-ดับเบิ้ลยู

• FAQ = Frequently Asked Question

• HTML = Hyper-Text Markup Language

• TTYL = Talk To You Later

• LOL = Laughing Out Loud

• WTF = What The Heck

• LMAO = Laughing My Butt Off

• RTFM = Read The Fine Manual (หรือ Read The F*cking Manual)

คำต่อไปนี้ใช้มากในการเขียนอีเมลล์เชิงธุรกิจ

• FYI = For Your Information

• ASAP = As Soon As Possible

• EOD = End Of Day

• TBD = To Be Determined

• ETA = Estimated Time of Arrival or Expected Time of Arrival

• C/O = Care Of

อันนี้เป็นลิ้งค์ที่รวบรวมคำที่ย่อแบบต่างๆ ไว้ หลายๆ คำตลกมาก ถ้าสนใจก็ลองเช็คดูนะคะ

HTH (= Hope This Helps)

Ask Gee

Friends,

You're welcome to post your question here. I don't know everything, of course, but I am happy to answer your question if I can.

Have a nice day!

I got it!

I couldn’t be more proud of myself because I finally got Google Analytics added to my blog. I am very familiar with GA because I create many reports for my clients. However, the funny thing is I didn’t know how to set it up on a blog. After visiting many sites and blogs over the past few days and took a little detour, I found my answer:).

My goal is to get a free blog accepting GA so that I could track site traffic. I took a wrong turn at first by creating a blog on wordpress.com because I read from many sources that GA can be installed easily to WordPress. I just have to download the plug-in, open WordPress Dashboard and browse to PRESENTATION > THEME EDITOR > FOOTER.PHP and paste GA code into FOOTER.PHP file in WordPress. Sounds very simple, doesn’t it? Oh..well, the problem was I couldn’t find ‘THEME EDITOR’ anywhere on my Dashboard. After searching some more, I found the instruction I got is for someone who installs WordPress site on their own domain, NOT for WordPress.com website. OK, now it makes sense! That’s why I didn't see the darn thing on my dashboard...:-)

I wondered if I could find the free blog to play with without purchasing a domain. The answer is YES, fortunately. (Btw, I am really thankful to have the internet. It’s the best way to search any information I need quickly. I don’t know what to do without it.) I found out that www.blogspot.com (free weblog publishing tool from Google) was the solution. I was able to insert the code easily by going to the LAYOUT TAB and clicking on EDIT HTML. After that, added the tracking code just before the body tag, (body), saved and waited for the result on the next day. Simple and sweet! Love it!

American English vs. British English ---- Isn't one version enough?

Before I moved to America, I didn’t know the difference between American English and British English. To me, English was English. There was no difference. Later on, I learned that people from England and America, not including Australia and South Africa, have different accents. Some words used in England are not used in America. Some words I learned in school in my country are spoken primary in England, but not in America. It was very confusing at that time. I was wondering WHY one version of English wasn't enough. Why didn't make it simple? Anyway, it's out of my control, so I had no choice but to learn. After living in America for a while and working my rear off to improve my English, my language skill has been a lot better (thank goodness!), so the difference between British English and American English is no longer a big issue.

For a reference, I put together some frequently used words that have the same meaning in British English and American English but spell differently. I am sure most of you've known these words in both versions already. Thus, think of it as a review. ENJOY!!

American English vs. British English

Closet = Cupboard / Wardrobe

Elevator = Lift

Pants = Trousers

Underwear / panties = Pants / Underwear / Knickers

Turtle Neck = Polo Neck

Bath Robe = Dressing Gown

Eraser = Rubber (rubber in America also means 'condom'.)

Parking Lot = Car park

Cross Walk = Zebra Crossing / Pedestrian Crossing

sidewalk = Pavement

Gas Station = Petrol Station

Fire Truck = Fire Engine

Duplex = Semi-Detached House

Apartment = Flat

Candy = Sweets

Chips (such as potato chips, chips you eat with dipping sauce) = Crisps

French Fries = Chips (French Fries in McDonald's)

Jell-o (flavoured gelatin) = Jelly (a dessert in th UK)

Check = Bill (at restaurant)

Bathroom / Restroom / Lady's room = The Toilet / Loo / The John / Bog / WC / Visiting the little boys (little girl's room) Btw, please don't say you need to go to a TOILET in America. It sounds very funny and is too much information!! If you are a woman, says ' I need to go to a lady's room. It sounds a lot better.

Faucet = Tap

Backyard / Yard = Garden

Trash Can = Bin / Dust Bin

Range or Stove = Cooker

Policeman / Cop = Policeman

Mailman = Postman

Soccer = Football

Stand in a Line. There's a line. = Queue (There's a queue)

Want to learn more? Click on the link below:


Hope this helps :)

English and Me

When I first came to America as a student, it’s a nightmare. I had a hard time understanding what people said. When I watched TV, I caught only the first and the last word of a sentence. The rest of the sentence…who knew where it went. When I went to a movie, I laughed when people laughed because I didn’t want to look stupid but I had NO IDEA what they laughed about. That’s stupid..hahaha!

My situation was so bad that I told myself I had to do something to change it; otherwise, I would not survive and would not graduate. My action plan was to isolate myself from my friends so that I didn’t speak my language (Thai) all the time. I moved out from a dorm, rented an apartment and bought a BIG TV. That was a big investment for a college student :). I started watching TV with closed captioning on continually. I wrote down a new word I learned from a TV show and practiced using it whenever I could. I attended special classes to correct my pronunciation. I tried to speak, read, think and breathe in English (the last one was very difficult to do ;) ). After a few months or so, I started seeing my progress. I couldn’t believe myself when I was able to understand every single word a lady on the news said. Also, people could understand what I tried to say. That’s EXCITING! And the most important thing was I dreamed in English. That was a big accomplishment to me!

I was very happy that I was on the right track. I kept learning and making progress on my English. As a result, I graduated. I was very proud of myself for working hard and got over a big hump. Afterward, I have been able to use my knowledge and experience helping other people to improve their English. It’s really a great feeling! English and I, we I finally made peace!

Learning English is a life long learning. It’s something I like and continue doing. I like to make it fun. When I learn something new, I feel I couldn’t keep it to myself. I would like to share it with the world! That's why I start writing this blog. I hope what I share will be somewhat useful to my readers.

about

After creating this blog, I asked myself what I am going to write about. There are many things I am interested in but I can’t post all of them, so I need to narrow them down. I would like to talk about web analytics for sure. That’s one category that I can add to my blog. What else’s? I like to talk about learning English and share my knowledge with my friends. A-ha, the second category was born. And last but not least, sharing experience about living and working in America might be fun, too. Great! Now I have my topics set-up. The hard part is done!

And let the journey begin…