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This post had been edited to include several expressions/idioms given by Gil Gaudia, Ph.D. Tara Benwell and Gabriel Sowrian. 

Isn't it interesting that the name 'John' is so generic that two well-known phrases use it?  I wonder if there are other names that are used generically?. Thank you Gil Gaudia, Ph.D.  for the corrections. 

Did You Know?

1. Dear John Letter

Did you know that a 'Dear John letter' means the end of a relationship. Basically it's a letter from a woman to her boyfriend or husband t

This week marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. MLK delivered his speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC 50 years ago. 

I visited the exact location where MLK delivered his famous speech just a few weeks ago with my family. Taking the kids to the site where MLK delivered his speech was a very memorable experience for me. I took short video clips of my children telling me their own dreams for the future. Thanks to people like MLK who

This is such a heartwarming and feel good story. Peggy Shafer and Muriel Cowley, both seventy nine years old, had been writing to each other since they were both ten years old young girls. They had been writing to each other telling stories about their lives, school, siblings, hobbies and such since the World War II. Please click here to read their full and amazing story.

Soon both Peggy and Muriel found out that they had many things in common, thus formed a strong and long lasting friendship thr

Dear Captain,

I dreamed a weird dream last night. It's about the sea, but different from the real sea.

In my dream, the sea wasn't blue. It was bright white, just like the snow. Even though it was sunny during the daytime, but at night there wasn't a star, nor clouds and the moon. They fell onto the sea, and were in a hypnosis by the voice of the sea waves. I was also sleeping on the sea. I wondered why I didn't sink into the waters.

While I was thinking the reason why I was floating on the sea, th

British MP George Galloway eloquently describes the hypocrisy of the UK and US regimes:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35970.htm

Dear Captain,

I was busy with my graduation dissertation in the past months. Now I am taking an internship as a copywriter and planer. It takes 2 months, and after the internship I'll go back to university to attend the graduation ceremony.

It's "breakup season". I have witnessed three couples of lovers break up since each part of the lovers have different plans after graduation. I am sorry for them. But life is life, to live is always the first thing for an adult, after all, development and enter

I remember one of my friends asked me :Sima what does Love mean ? I looked at his face and reply ,means you do not know what does it mean? He said : nope I just wanna know your idea ! I answered that is too easy .Love is ..hmmmm ..uhhhh..emmmm..mmmmm…………….wait  Love means hmmmm ..mmmmmm and after a moment I got angry and answered what is this hard question .I do not know about it !

I am still the same if you ask about love; I still refuse answering, because I do not know which  word can describe

We must take our hats off to all the spambusters who've helped to make MyEC a pleasent place. They are active members here. They read all the blogs by other members and always try to leave a comment on what they just read. When they find an inappropriate blog by a spammer, they will try to go to the spammer's page and click "Report Member", and they will warn other members of the spammer. I really appreciate the excellent job our spambusters have done so far.

Tara just came back from her vacation

This is another famous fable among children. It is a story about the crow and the peacock. 

The Story of a Crow and a Peacock

Once upon a time, in the deep jungle, a crow and a peacock were the very best of friends. During that time, both of them were just plain white birds. They will scavenge for their food together, play together, and even build their nests next to each other.

One day, while both of them were looking for food near the border of a village, the Crow suddenly stumbled upon a bucket

Dear Captain,

Time flies! I am going to graduate in next July. This may be my last winter holiday.

Captain, you said you would come back when I finish my study. Do you still remember your promise? You said I could choose a tough sea life with you or an easeful city life with mom. I can't wait to tell you my answer——I want to be a sea girl. And I am sure I can persuade mom to allow me pursue my goal. What's more, mom trusts you.

The Spring Festival is coming. Yesterday it snowed. Mom and I both don'

Hello friends!

It's been quite a long while since I haven't had written a blog on MyEC. When I was preparing for my exam a few weeks ago, I had lots of ideas to blog. However, the moment I logged into MyEC after my exam, all seemed to vanish into thin air ! Naturally, I was looking for something to write about because I had come back to MyEC and also because I had only a little time to stay here, for I had to prepare for another exam.

Today, while browsing through the net, I came across birth flow

I was reading an article about how Prince Harry visited Angola and how he was sad that after 25 years there are still a lot of landmines left scattered in Angola. He was irritated that the Companies that supplied those landmines in the first place did not do enough to help clearing them.

Reading this article made me read more on the work done by the HALO Trust. The HALO Trust had work tirelessly and endlessly in destroying various landmines in many countries devastated by wars. These countries fa

Dear Captain,

It was a busy month last month. Congrats on me, Captain. I passed the exams and got the tourist certificate. Yeah, I am excited now.

I like staying at home, but I also dream to travel around to other new places. Alas, how I hope myself not timid and dependent! But to get out of my comfort zone and change is so hard. Yet, I am taking the babysteps to change.

It was a happy day. To celebrate my success, Fay and I went to Karaoke. On the way back to our campus, I noticed a new shop near

I read this interesting article in BBC news about "Moser Light" which was invented by Alfredo Moser, a Brazilian mechanic. Mr. Alfredo Moser uses plastic bottle with water and bleach to invent the most amazing light without the usage of any electricity. The Moser light is based on principle of refraction to light up a dark room during the day.

Mr. Moser had been using plastic bottles filled up with water and a splash of bleach, to avoid algae, to illuminate dark rooms since 2002 and now the idea

I think I have been dragging this Did You Know? series as far as it can goes. I have been thinking of ending it a few times, and hence the reason of this blog talking about swan in general. This may be the last of the series, or may be just an interlude, but what ever it is going to be, it is really fun writing the series so far. And I would like to thank to each and everyone of you for reading and commenting on the Did You Know? blogs.

Did You Know?

1. All Swans in England are belong to the King

I

Dear Captain,
Guess where am I! I am by the sea which is 10 minutes' walk from grandma's house. Which sea are you at?
The summer holiday is almost over, I have enjoyed a carefree holiday though. I just had my dinner. Right now I am sitting on the beach, barefooted. It rained during the daytime. Now it's windy and cool. When I was going out, grandma stuffed a cluster of grapes into my bag. Hehe, would you like some?
As for grapes, I think of a tale that grandma has told me before——The Weaver Gir

I wanna tell you about 5 books that really changed my life, so if they are a lot and most of them are by the first writer that I will mention  you but I choice just one book of him to tell about other also .these  5 books made  me feel that I have to think about every thing even every detail, even the way that I have to praised God  . Unfortunately till now I have not read a book in English which change my life and effect in my personality because maybe my English is poor and take maybe sometime

I am writing this blog as to celebrate my own milestone. This is supposed to mark my 50th blog. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, my 50th blog is posted earlier which is a blog dedicated to my dear friend Noora; Wake up Soon, my Dear.

I never knew that I would be able to write a single blog, let alone my 50th. As I said in my previous blog "Practising English Online", I was one of those people that "don't do blogs, don't read blogs". It all started to change when a friend asked me to read

As mentioned in my previous fables, the story about mouse deer is very famous among children in Malaysia. There are various stories which show the brilliance and cleverness of this mouse deer when facing some difficulties. It seems it always can think on its feet when it needs to be. In this blog, I want to share with you another funny story about how a mouse deer tricked the mighty Tiger. I hope you will enjoy reading it.

I want to dedicate this fable to my little EC Grand daughter Noora. I hope

These are what I remember now. Of course I remember more red books, but let me start from this list... All these books was red in Russian.

The Doomed City by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - I red it in difficult period of my life. And probably this books works more effectively exactly at the difficult moments. Book is fantastic! It's about everything. And this book is positive. Actually I really love brothers Strugatsky. I red many their books and I like almost everything.

The same I can say about H