Bliss English Club

Dear Blissers

Golden Autumn heralds our Bliss Q3 Outing on 9/23!

Don’t miss such a memorable ever gathering again!

Let’s gather at 13:30 on 9/23

Stoll on Sansia old Street for archway architecture

Sip on snack bars for Early Taiwanese Taste

Visit Li-Meishu memorial Hall for the literary feeling

Most importantly,

Experience Forging Art in Retro-Blacksmith Store there!

Bringing Back Handmade “Exclusive Maple” Souvenirs!

Without further delay, use the following sign-up link here to go forging with us NOW!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1I5fKdFXiPGWISwiPzc1eoyRMqcnWEdDLQoAtDhZIVfg/edit

Other references:

李梅樹紀念館連結 
https://limeishu.org.tw/tw/ 
打鐵人藝術工坊 
https://m.facebook.com/ironglassstudio

秋高氣爽的九月～9/23 Bliss又要出遊囉！！這次再沒跟上就又少了一次有趣的回憶了！ 
9/23下午13:30快跟Bliss到三峽體驗不同的老街景色跟楓情 , 除了參觀李梅樹紀念館了解在地文學及超有Fu的建築與令人懷念的古早味小吃外 
這次還帶大家親手體驗手作打鐵的樂趣 , 讓你帶著獨一無二的片片楓情回家送給家人朋友們 
 

就是你～就是妳!! 快報名跟我們逗陣一起去趴踢（打鐵台語） 
請到以下連結報名,若超過一位報名者請在報名表單最下面的question and suggestion 註明其他同行人的資訊,謝謝 

報名期限截止：2017/09/18 (一) 
取消報名期限：2017/09/20 (三) 
活動行前通知：2017/09/21 (四) 

Other references:

李梅樹紀念館連結 
https://limeishu.org.tw/tw/ 
打鐵人藝術工坊 
https://m.facebook.com/ironglassstudio

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Hi, Blissers,

American football, one of the favorite pastimes for the people of the United States. 
The heavy protective gear, the muscles, the collisions, the strategies... 
Nothing else can show a part of the American culture than this! 

This Saturday on 9/9, our new blood, Carmelo is about to give us a primer on American football, where he will talk about the basics of the game along with highlight reels. Also he will explain how popular this sports in America and how it affects commercial fields. 
 

Don't miss it! 

Recap of “Boston Trip” by Yung- Li-Wang on Sep. 2, 2017
 

Host: Yung-Li Wang

Date: Sep.2, 2017

Topic: Boston Trip

Meeting Photo link: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPr4m5AYm2eFquNDRr1C3iOnbcTAcIrJvtnP_tus9c-q_9q-7y7LEE4lYl0ILJ7Kw?key=Z1FLdFNlM0tCWTFDNjZvQWpvTC1rOVV5dlIzWUt3

Participants: Sophia, Hazel, Lynn, Ellen, Yung-Li Wang, Winnie, Annie, Willy, Fox

Meeting started …

Thanks to our beloved Blisser, Winnie’s invitation, our guest speaker, today’s host, Yung-Li Wang supported to give us such a great meeting as interesting as expected.

What do you know about Harvard or MIT? They are...

1.     Prestigious universities for business, scientific fields and Nobel laureates.

2.     Both are neighboring universities but with different campus climate; Harvard is more diversified while MIT is more systematic.

Why choosing Boston?

1.     Famous as Biotechnology silicon

2.     Many startups for medical talents and entrepreneurs.

Scientific interest stemming from Childhood

As a child to a mechanic, he liked to deconstruct and assemble machines, for which he gained no blame but encouragement from his father instead. Since then it made the scientific observation his best career choice—study in single-cell protein and bio-chemistry. For your ref: https://www.facebook.com/scimaker/

Boston Trip & others

1.     Freedom Trail about 2.5 mile long

2.     Site of Boston Massacre

3.     Capitol Hill, Jefferson Memorial Hall, Washington Monument, White House and Mount Washington, and an aquarium there.

An Ideal place(s) to explore

They were varied by ages and situations; one said it would be nowhere but the site for spiritual peace; one for Holland; one for literary spots; one for 3-day Robinson Crusoe’s drift in an isolated island; one for Ecuador Galapagos and someone said to make an ideal one from her end. All answers were innovative and inviting

Reflections:

We really appreciated Winnie’s invitation and Yung-Li ‘s splendid topic which really aroused our biological and observing interest. In addition, he rewarded the winners with wonderful flame-less picture gifts. With Yung-Li’s efforts and the outputs of all the participants, we enjoyed a memorable meeting ever this Saturday afternoon.

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My Dear Blissers,

Guests! Guests! 

In September they come to enrich Bliss meetings by totally fresh topics from Scientific Observation via magnifying glasses, Alternative Education Form, to World-wide Remarkable “NFL-spirit of America”.

Their supportive enthusiasm and warm-sharing friendship bring us here in Bliss again!

Last but not the least, our Q3 “Blacksmith-Retro Outing in Sansia” surely let us relax and rejoice!!!

You bet, Bliss September is never boring!!!

Date: 9/2

Host: Yung-Li-Wang

Topic: “Boston Trip”

Date: 9/9

Host: Carmelo

Topic: “NFL-spirit of America”

Date: 9/16

Host: Techun Chen

Topic: “Wanhua School(萬華社區小學)”

Date: 9/23

Bliss Q3 Outing

Blacksmith-Retro in Sansia

三峽懷舊打鐵情

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My Dear Blissers,

Have you heard of Boston?

Maybe not, but you may be attracted by… 

Its Boston Lobsters

Its courageous fights to throw off the yoke of colonial oppression as in Boston Massacre

Its famous shopping place called Quincy Market

Its JFK Presidential Library and Museum in the Dorchester, neighborhood of Boston

Its independent spirit as a cradle of civil rights

Its outstanding Freedom Trail

Its Trinity Church in the Back Bay of Boston

Its prestigious universities such as Harvard and MIT

Its literately memorable appearances in Faulkner's “The Sound and the Fury” or Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s “The Scarlet Letter” 

Therefore, Boston’s proud legacy always has been one of perennial tourist favorites

This Saturday, we are so pleased to invite a Guest Speaker, Yung- Li-Wang, “once working as” a researcher in Sinica, to lead us to a different angle under interesting scientific observations and life experience in Boston.

Welcome to enjoy such “Exotic” Boston Experience with Yung-Li Wang on 9/2 NOW!

Distinguished Guest Speaker: Yung-Li -Wang

A Ph.D. scientist with extensive experience in stem cell differentiation, stem cell repair, stem cell 3D culture, effects of PM2.5 on animal, polyclonal antibody production and innate immunity in Aedes aegypti.

My Dear Blissers,

Now! Tesla! Tesla here in Bliss!

Which car business gained widespread shareholders’ attention?

How do the electric powertrain components work?

Is it a bubble or a real dream to activate a car with initially active cruise control, lane holding and preventive collision-proof hardware?

What was the magic to make some tiny little California startup that passed GM as the most valuable American automotive manufacturer on April 10, 2017? 

This coming Saturday our informative Blisser, Peter, is going to unveil the myth behind the overwhelmingly cutting-edge motor technology.

Let’s explore where the car manufacture will go and what other prospective we can develop in this “advanced” car revolution!!!

Welcome to jump on the bandwagon on 8/26 with Peter!

Recap of <” My Two-month Handmade Life in A Japanese Isolated Island” by Jessica on August 19, 2017>
 

Hostess: Jessica Yang

Topic “My Two-month Hand-made life in a Japanese Isolated Island”

Participants: Jessica Yang, Jessica Huang, Jacky, Alphonse, Pauline, Christine, Annie, Fox, Edgar, Angela Lai, Camelon

Meeting photo: https://goo.gl/photos/UcYtu8rBGRy41H6i8

New members:

Pauline Hsu: https://goo.gl/photos/seAYgNPFCq7BWaMJ8

Stacy :https://goo.gl/photos/dhWymgc54wbyTrKy6

Alphonse: https://goo.gl/photos/HhBLMPJrsKWReJRJ7

Christine :https://goo.gl/photos/gr9pFGZmRp3kpy2YA

Edgar :https://goo.gl/photos/EPyvZHfcaYdckrmD8 
 

Meeting started....

Jessica started the meeting punctually, vigorously, and interactively as expected. To our surprise, five new members attended the meeting!!! Let’s join me in welcoming Pauline, Stacy, Alphonse, Christine, and Edgar who is from the Philippines.

What are in the 5 bottles?

During break time, Jessica presented 5 bottles of pickles, all of which were handmade by her the meeting morning, and which is supposed to make within 10 minutes soon after arrival to show the gratitude from a guest as requested in this island customs.

You got it!

After tasting each bottle, Jessica asked us to guess what ingredients were inside and gave away these bottles of pickles as prizes for the winning guessers!!!

What is your dream if you live in heaven?

Participants took turns by sharing which was (in) their dream heaven by saying, “current home”, “New Zealand”, “taking parents to go on trips”, “living in San Francisco”, or “Realizing my dream in practical steps”, and jokingly Jessica said one dream figure in her “heaven” is 金城武  and some others responded, “Hostess Jessica ” would be their dream figure!!! What a fun sharing!!!

Taiwan, Taiwan

After travelling or taking long stay in most of the world, Jessica concluded Taiwan is the most beautiful country, whose scenery is diversified from mountains, gorges, beaches, to small trails as well as its rich cultures.

“Carpe Diem”—Seize the day while you may

Jessica kept reminding us to build our own “heaven” life while we may-- don’t wait until your son gets married, you buy a house, you quit the job, you find your better half, you get enough money, and many others.

Unwritten Rules

1.     First meet with high respect

2.     Visit a friend and bring a present in return

3.     Make a dish if you are a guest

4.     Island Security taken care by all

5.     Living room=bedroom

6.     Formal way to say good bye 

Island Life

1.     Tree houses and baked bread

2.     Three elements of composting

3.     Reserve seed for future planting

4.     Energy and saving

5.     School of 7 students, principal, vice principal, 3 teachers, and 1 for cleaning. A small town with 1 post office, 1 bus driver for 5 routes, and a mobile library.

Eco-friendly

1.     Collect oil before wash

2.     Sweep dish before wash

3.     Collect leaves to make feminizer

4.     Use leaves to make enzyme

5.     Collect kitchen waste

6.     Classify trash

6.     Three dishes shared by 8 people, a small bite for each one. How incredible!!

7.     Handmade scarf, hat, clothes, broom, food, or cut firewood, and etc.

Movies for ref:

1.     Tosha Tudor  A still water story

2.     小森食光

Reflections

We appreciated the participants and the efforts by Jessica who made the delicious pickles to demonstrate what dishes to make in 10 minutes as guest gift to a host island family!  Jessica showed us that we can also live as simply as presented in her meeting!!!  It echoed “Not need but greed makes us poor people.”  Blissers, what do you think?

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 My Dear Blisses,

Surprise! Surprise!

Newly launches a remarkable travel experience before shared on the paper or TV.

A Hot-baked Version will be presented by our elegant and intelligent Blisser, a professional traveler, Jessica, who just came back from her modern “Robinson” stay in a Japanese isolated island and offers her instant support for Peter as well as Blisses.

If you love to travel, you surely won’t miss the chance to sip the taste of “Exotic Food and Experience” from Jessica on Aug. 19, 2017!!!

Introduction by Jessica:

This island has only a few hundred residents. It’s hard for you to see 10 people show up at same time. The blue coast and white sand beach are the only landscape. Time seems frozen in this area here.

Even though just a tiny island but people are dedicated to keep their environment clean and have good sense of healthy daily style.

Elderly grow the rice to make wine, vinegar, Miso, soy sauce, and yeast. All the family members grow vegetables and fruit to make pickles, jam tofu, sugar. Men go diving and fishing to get lobsters, shells, squids, Shell, squids easily. We have various sashimis almost every day. 

People made everything by hand, such as building the house, knitting cloth, dyeing sheet or tying brooms. People who live here are highly confident by saying” we live in heaven.”

Let me share my life experience in heaven and handmade pickles together. Please bring you own chopstick if you like to try pickles, thank you.

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<Recap of “Let’s Play” by Vicky on Aug 12, 2017>

Host: Vicky Lu

Topic:” Let’s Play”
Attendees: Kevin.H, Fox ,Cindy, Lynn ,Selina ,Daniel Yang ,Ellen & Nania

Meeting Photo:

https://goo.gl/photos/ac4gJryhyPn4UmUa6

With lot of surprise and pleasures , we receive a lot of “old Blissers” back to Vicky’s meeting on 8/12….

In the warm up session , after the quick self-introduction , we started with the “Ask Anything” game introduced by Vicky , which she asked each of us to ask one sensitive yes/no question in turns then vote for the answer anonymously and then each of us guess how many “yes” in the total votes ….the one who guessed the right number of votes of" yes" most would be the winner then….to our surprise , our young talent –Nania got the most right answers and it seemed she understood what was in Blissers’ mind most though she just joined Bliss last year !!

 
After the warm up session , Vicky separated the Blissers to 2 teams (A&B) , and started to play the card board game – “Dixit”.

Each player starts the game with six random cards. Players then take turns being the storyteller. The player whose turn it is to be storyteller looks at the six images in his or her hand. From one of these, he or she makes up a sentence or phrase or a story that might describe it and says it out loud (without showing the card to the other players).

Each other player then selects from among their own six cards the one that best matches the sentence given by the storyteller. Then, each player gives their selected card to the storyteller, without showing it to the others. The storyteller shuffles his or her chosen card with the cards received from the other players, and all cards are then dealt face up. The players (except for the storyteller) then secretly guess which picture was the storyteller's, using numbered voting chips.

If nobody or everybody finds the correct picture, the storyteller scores 0, and each of the other players scores 2. Otherwise the storyteller and all players who found the correct answer score 3. Players other than the storyteller score 1 point for each vote their own pictures received.

A large part of the skill of the game comes from being able, when acting as the storyteller, which is neither too obscure (such that no other player can identify it) nor too obvious (such that every player is able to guess it).

The game ends when a player reaches the end of the board (30 points).In the end, Kevin was the Winner from team A while Yvonne was the winner from team B.

Reflections:

Thanks to Vicky’s guidance and all the Blissers enjoyed the card board playing time as much as the story telling from each of the Blissers , we all definitely spent a fun and relaxing afternoon together and most importantly, playing and having fun in English .

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My Dear Blissers,

There is no denying that

“Play is the answer to how anything new comes about!”

This Saturday we feel very pleased to invite our intelligent hostess, Vicky to host a meeting of “Board game” hopefully via which the spark of joy will ignite the innovative power in your life!

Introduction by Vicky Lu:

Hello Blissers,
Let's play board games and have fun together NOW.
 

Dixit(說書人) is an entertaining game to broaden your imagination, practice your English speaking skills and even provide an opportunity to know more about other Blissers.

How to play: 
One player is the storyteller for the turn and looks at the images on the 6 cards in her (his) hand. From one of these, she makes "at least 6 sentences (a story or her own life experience) regarding the image on the selected card and say them loud without showing the card to other players.

Each other player selects the card in her hands which best matches the sentences and give the card to the storyteller without showing it to the others. The storyteller shuffles her card with all the received cards.Then, all cards are shown face up and every player has to bet on which card the storyteller’s is.

If nobody or everybody finds the correct card, the storyteller scores 0 and each of other players scores 2. Otherwise the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer score 3. Players score 1 for every vote for their own cards. The game ends when a player scores 30 points.


Agenda: 
14:30-15:00 Self-introduction
15:00-15:40 Warm-up: Ask anything
15:40-16:20 Play Dixit -Round 1
16:20-16:40 Break
16:40-17:20 Play Dixit- Round 2
17:20-17:30 Conclusion

 

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 Hi, Blissers,

This coming Saturday we won’t have a meeting on Aug. 5, 2017 for Father’s Day, for which we send our best wishes and regards!!!

Then, we expect your coming for the following August Bliss meetings, in which do enrich your lives and leap & jump in English learning journey via the reminders:

1.     Be well -prepared for the meeting-required Q, key words, agenda

2.     Be on time: Plan your arrival before the meeting

Date: 8/12

Hostess: Vicky

Topic: Let’s Play

Date: 8/19

Host: Peter

Topic: Tesla, I love you

Date: 8/26

Host: Yung- Li-Wang

Topic: Boston Trip

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Dear Blissers

With the concerns of safety , we have to cancel the meeting tomorrow on 7/29 due to the typhoon is going to hit Taiwan tomorrow 

Appoloies for the late notice and hope every Blissers will stay sound and safe in your place during this weekend 

And see you all soon at our next meeting on 8/12 (Sat) afternoon same time same place !!

All the best

Hi, Blissers,

This Saturday we feel privileged to invite Uncle Ting Lee, Blissers' role model, informative and modest enough to give us a presentation, divided into two parts, which all attendants need to answer in Q &A:

Part I: “Pay Toilet-the Fun of Traveling”

Part II: How to apply “Chapter I, “The Art of War”—Planning into Touring Guide Career

Agenda:

Introduction:

If you travel to foreign countries, you probably will see a sign in front of toilet facility asking you to pay before using it.

A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires the user to pay. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the equipment. Paying to use a toilet can be traced back almost 2000 years, to the first century AD. (From Wikipedia)

(You may find more information on Wikipedia under the title “pay toilet”.)

Here are some important quotes from “the Art of War”. Chapter one.

1, Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

2, It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

3, the art of war, then, are governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

4, these are: (道、天、地、將、法)   1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.

Reminders:

1.     Be on time: Plan your arrival before the meeting

2.      Be prepared for above-mentioned Q & A 

***Another reference:

第一章始計Detailed Assessment and Laying Plans 始計，始计

1. 孫子曰：兵者，國之大事，死生之地，存亡之道，不可不察也。 It mains to explore the five fundamental factors (the Way, seasons, terrain, leadership, and management, and seven elements that determine the outcomes of military engagements. By thinking, assessing and comparing these points, a commander can calculate his chances of victory. Habitual deviation from these calculations will ensure failure via improper action. The text stresses that war is a very grave matter for the state and must not be commenced without due consideration.

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