The Husband Store

A brand new store has just opened in New York City that sells Husbands.

When women go to choose a husband, they have to follow the instructions at the entrance:

You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are 6 floors and the value of
the products increase as you ascend the flights. You may choose any item
from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you
CANNOT go back down except to exit the building.

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband.
The 1st floor sign on the door reads:
Floor 1: These men have jobs.
The 2nd floor sign reads:
Floor 2: These men have Jobs and Love Kids.
The 3rd floor sign reads:
Floor 3: These men have Jobs, Love Kids and are extremely good looking.
"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.
She goes to the 4th floor and the sign reads:
Floor 4: These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and help with Housework.
"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"
Still, she goes to the 5th floor and sign reads:
Floor 5: These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, help with Housework and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the 6th floor and the sign reads:
Floor 6: You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor.
There are no men on this floor.
This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please.
Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opens a New Wives store just across the street.
The 1st first floor has wives that love sex.
The 2nd floor has wives that love sex and have money.
The 3rd,4th, 5th and 6th floors have never been visited.

Chinese Models at the 2007 Shanghai Motor Show

Tibet, the Roof of the World.

Tibet (known as Xizang in Chinese) lies on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau towards the southwest border of China. The average elevation of the this region is more than 4,000 meters above sea level, which gives Tibet the name as "Roof of the World". Part of Mt Everest lies on the Tibetan side and it is 8,846 meters above sea level.

Although a part of China, Tibet has a unique culture of its own. It is mainly inhabited by Tibetans, a minority nationality. Lhasa is the capital and it sits at an elevation of 3,700 meters. When you are up that high, oxygen level is really thin. Lhasa, Holy-Land in Tibetan, is the heart and soul of Tibet. The magnificent Potala Palace is the grandest sight in Lhasa followed by the Jokhang Temple, and a number of sacred Buddhist monasteries.

The population of slightly more than 2.5 million people comes from a variety of ethnic groups including Tibetan, Han, Monba and Lhota. Nearly all Tibetans follow Tibetan Buddhism, known as Lamaism.

The Magnificent Potala Palace in Lhasa

The mystical Potala Palace at night

Courtyard of the Potala Palace

The Summer Palace of the 14th Dalai Lama


Downtown Lhasa


New culture?

Street scene in Lhasa

Fireworks at the Potala Square

The Thousand Buddha Stupa, Gyantse

Statue of Maitreya in the Thousand Buddha Stupa Temple


Prayers" Drums

Buddhist monks chanting

Guardian Deity in Samye Monastery

Buddha in a Cave shrine

Entrance to the Jokhang Monastery

Prostration at the Jokhang Monastery, one of Xizang's holiest shrine

Candles burning in Jokhang Monastery

Kumbum Monastery


Buddha in Kumbum's Monastery

Gyantse Fort

Barkhor

Barkhor Square


Gyantse, Tibet's third largest city.

Tibetan nuns chanting and seeking alms

A Tibetan cultural dancer

Tibetan monk talking with a Tibetan woman

Tibetan sisters

A Tibetan woman praying

The modern Lhasa Train Station

At 4,000 meter above sea level, the Xizang - Qinghai railway track is the world's highest.

Mt Everest from Rongbuk

Yamdruk Tso, The Turqoise lake

Train onto Qinghai

The Tibet - Nepal border

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2008 when......

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list. AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

16. You use abbreviations like lol and brb to your friend in person

Meanwhile at the Dog Pound ....

Panmunjom DMZ, North Korea

Panmunjom is a small village located 10 km east of Kaesong (North Korea) and 48 km northwest of Seoul (South Korea). It is offically known as the Truce Village. The village sits on what is now the known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The DMZ is a strip of No Man's Land that runs across the Korean Peninsula serving as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. It literally cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly into half, crossing the 38th parallel. It is 248 km long and approximately 4km wide, and it is the most heavily fortified border in the world.

The truce that ended the Korean War was signed here in 1953, but as peace was never agreed between the two sides, both countries are still technically at war. Within minutes of this border are more than one million soldiers on each side in battle order with enough arsenal to obliterate the whole Korean Peninsula. Pillboxes, barbed wire and tank stoppers line the entire border and stretch way back to Pyongyang in the North and Seoul in the South. A visit to Panmunjom requires you to sign an Indemnity that you are going into a war zone. It is that tense here.

The three blue buildings where the Joint Security Agency (JSA) of both countries meet on a regular basis.

The South Korean flag as seen from the North Korean side. One of the tallest and largest flag in the world.

The North Korean flag is the tallest and largest in the world. It is said the flag is as big as a soccer field. This is seen a few km away. The North Koreans deliberately had the flag post built taller than the South Koreans.

North Korean soldiers guarding the Blue buildings.

South Korean soldiers in the foreground with North Korean soldiers in the background.

South Korean soldiers on guard watching the North Korean side.

The concrete pavement divides North and South Korea. The right side with the better looking pebble is South Korea.

The Armistice Room.

South Korean soldiers guarding the North Korea's door. Away from this picture are North Korean soldiers guarding the door that opens to the South. The idea of guarding doors of the opposite sides is to prevent defection from either countries.

Demarcation Signboard along the DMZ. There are mines all over this stretch of No Man's Land.

Heavily fortified border with mines and cameras.

Another view of the heavily fortified border

A North Korean village in the vicinity of the DMZ.

The Freedom Building in South Korea as seen from North Korea.

The monument comemerating the Axe Incident in 1974 in which North Korean soldiers hacked two American officers to death over a tree cutting incident.

Bridge of No Return
This is the only known bridge crossing between North and South Korea. In reality, to travel between North to South Korea, one needs to catch a flight from Pyongyang then onto Beijing before landing at Seoul's Inchon Airport. A three hour trip.