Live Long and Prosper.com

If any of you are like me, you count your pennies more often than you should. I have always been interested in making the most out of my money. I am not stock savvy, nor do I have a portfolio that anyone would care to gawk at but I always lend an ear to the term "save money."

I am trying to build a nice CD ladder, not the most extravagent way to make money but it suits my need just fine. As I was browsing the web today I stumbled upon prosper.com. Basically it is an innovative way to skip the whole bank process and either get the lowest interest rate that someone will offer you, or on the investment side it provides the potential to lend money and receive a higher rate of interest than you by storing the money in the bank.

I have not signed up for an account, I am just now learning about the whole process. Like you, my first thoughts are skeptical "how can I trust my money to an internet site?", but I remember when many of us were skeptical to buy things from Ebay etc. Interestingly enough even foreign websites of a similar nature will be coming to the US in the near future.s

If anyone has had experience with this type of online "banking" please let me know what you think of it!

今天的中文量词 - "班"

今天的中文量词 - "班"

"班" (bān) - is used to describe a group or a bunch of people。

一班年轻人 - niánqīngrén - a gathering of young people
一班人马 - rénma3 - a staff of personnel
一班学生 - xuéshēng - a class of students
一班战士 - zànshì - a troop of soldiers

"班" (bān) - can also be used for the service frequencies of means of communications and transportation.

一班船 - chuán - a steamer service
一班飞机 - fēijī - an airplane flight
一班火车 - huo3chē - a train service

今天的中文成语 - 祸不单行

Save this Chinese idiom for a rainy day, or better yet for one of those days where everything seems to be going wrong.

祸不单行 - huòbùdānxíng

Literal Meaning - Misfortunes don't come singly.

This Chinese idiom mostly serves as an independent sentence which may be preceded by a phrase indicating an affirmative tone such as 真是 (zhēnshi); this may be placed before, in the middle or at the end of the phrase expressing the coming of two or more disasters.

Example Sentences:

真是祸不单行, 他先是得了肺病, 后又得了肝炎, 最后连饮食起居也不能自理。Zhēnshi huòbùdānxíng, tāxiānshì déle fèibìng, hòu yòu déle gānyán, zuìhòu laiń yin3shíqi3jù yě bùnéng zìli3。

那年冬天, 祖母死了, 父亲的差使也丢了, 正是祸不单行的日子。Nà nián dōngtiān, zu3mu3 si3le, fùqin de chāishi yě diūle, zhèngshì huòbùdānxíng de rìzi.