写华文 讲华语

自小二來，我的華文就開始退步。有一次，老师发回考倦时，面对着我的眼睛竟然是个凄凉的６８分！我母亲一怒之下，命令我在家里只可以用华语沟通。对那时的我，这是个很大的打击　－　虽然我不是那種 kentang (马铃薯），但我从小就习惯在家里讲英语。更可惜的是，我總覺得英文的故事書看了比較精采。比如說，enid blyton 所描寫的magic faraway tree series, 或mr galliano's circus series, 或 malory towers 和 st clares, 甚至她出名的 secret seven 和 famous five 的故事，都讓我和我的朋友們陪養成喜愛看書的好習慣。《水虎傳》和《西遊記》和《紅樓夢》似乎對我來說，印象卻一點也不深刻。

到了中學的時候，可應用華語的机會已減少了幾倍：隻會講華語、英文比交差的同學就辨得“不酷”。為了保守我的“酷”的表像，我隻好把 七龍珠 和我正在迷的各種漫畫藏在家里，等放學後回家讀。從那時後，華文跟我的關係辨成了一種“隻需要來看漫畫”，或“隻用來過考官”的不重要的關係。

我外婆曾經是個華文老師。她時常必需使尽全力，让我对华文有一点兴取。奇怪地，因为她那时逼我死背唐诗的关系，我渐渐地喜欢上华语，还开始欣赏我们华人的文化。近几天来，我突然想找回十年前所背的一首诗　－　白居易的《琵琶行》。　想当年我死背得那么辛苦的一首诗，　现在会对我有这么大的含义，真不敢想像。最令我惊奇的是，华文有多么美丽的含义，在几个字内可以表答出。已往只听英文歌的我，现在也渐渐开始听华文歌了。

this entry has taken me as much time as if i were to have typed a short essay in english. it is not lengthy, yet it has traced the process of the importance of chinese to me. it makes me proud of my roots, and just a little wistful that my chinese vocabulary isn't what i'd describe as 'bursting at the seams'.

writing in chinese is typically a pencil-in-the-hanyu-pinyin-first process for me. if not, it is write-in-the-english-meaning-first. whatever the case, it cannot be said that my brain is capable of switching back and forth bilingually. it stubbornly retains its 268 processor speed, and refuses to process any commands in chinese. naturally, this poses a problem in conversations. evidence that my chinese grammar sucks big time is when my chinese-speaking friends are sent into soundless, tearful laughter by my gesticulations attempting to make up for my broken speech.

this music meme with a horribly weird twist

that will reveal my all-time [lack of] taste in the stuff i like to listen to.
thanks, jettykey. now people will know.

it's odd how much the music you listen to says about yourself.

========

Instructions: Go to your music player of choice and put it on shuffle. Say the following questions aloud, and press play. Use the song title as the answer to the question. NO CHEATING.

How does the world see me?

Best I've Ever Had - Vertical Horizon

whee! i kinda wish this was the answer to the next question, though.

Will I have a happy life?

Love and Napalm - Gary Numan

hmmm. i love the smell of napalm in the morning. and, yes! by george! i'll live my life in pursuit of pure happiness now.

[from Apocalypse Now, 1979]
With the jungle leveled and engulfed in flames behind him, he smells the napalm, squats on the beach, becomes rhapsodic, and exclaims to Willard - in a now-famous line of dialogue about the thrill of senseless murder:

"Kilgore: You smell that? Do you smell that?...Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know, that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like - victory. [A bomb explodes behind him.] Some day, this war's gonna end."

right it will.

What do my friends really think of me?

Starfuckers, Inc. - Nine Inch Nails

my god comes in a wrapper of cellophane hmm. hardly, but maybe. those friends that think of me like that... aren't really friends - they are really just impersonations of me.

Do people secretly lust after me?

You're So Vain - Carly Simon

uh. i suppose that means i'm the object of superficial lust. and lust is superficial.

even i'm lusting after myself, so vain i am.

How can I make myself happy?

Rockin' the Suburbs - Ben Folds

oh no. does this mean a life relegated to the understated joy in the mediocrity of the 'burbs? will i never be allowed onto the city sidewalks ever again?

What should I do with my life?

垃圾車 - 五月天

a noble ambition. recall the black plague and imagine what could happen if all the rubbish piled up to reach your 4th floor window.

Will I ever have children?

Scheherazade, The Young Prince & the Young Princess - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

great! a boy and a girl. hopefully that meant dogs. a boy dog and a girl dog. and then i can be a champion breeder. and sell each pup for an exorbitant amount. my dog of choice: the miniature bull terrier.

that should generate enough to keep my mansion-of-mediocrity in the suburbs going for awhile.

What is some good advice for me?

Something I Can Never Have - Nine Inch Nails

something my dad used to tell me: aim for the best, but prepare for the worst. i suppose. life's going to be so short, how else can i get my hands on my suburbian McMansion in its wrapper of cellophane?

How will I be remembered?

The Goat That Haunted Me - The Lizard's Convention

i'm coming back as a goat to haunt the design world. you'll have goat-wallpaper on your desktop, goat-themed furniture fairs, goat cheese, goat-dropping-shaped chocolates and goat-patterned shirts with goat-hair ties to go with the sheepskin suit to wear for evening parties.

What is my signature dancing song?

Prelude In C-Sharp Minor, Op. 3 No. 2 - Sergei Rachmaninoff

it will have to be a goth party. white faces and dark eye shadow now, everybody. goat-hair is out of fashion now.

What do I think my current theme song is?

The Beautiful Ones - Suede

definitely. without a shadow of a doubt. i am one of them. prancing around in my goth get-up. and i am lovely, beautiful and vain. please do secretly lust after me!

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?

Electric de Chocobo - Nobuo Uematsu (music from Final Fantasy VII OST)

QUEEQUEE!! and i run! and i fly! and i jump! and i race on a lovely track! I AM REALLY A LOVELY YELLOW, CUTE-AS-ALL-HELL BIRDIE! the song of my life!

What song will play at my funeral?

Beautiful Girl - INXS

...but? i thought i was a cute fluffy yellow birdie? maybe i was a girl... man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. lalalalaaa lalalalaaa elmo's bottom's dream.

What type of men/women do I like?

Bedshaped - Keane

men shaped like beds? oooh. then i can save some money decorating my suburbian McMansion. just bring on them men, i say!

What is my day going to be like?

I Hope, I Think, I Know - Oasis

shouldn't be too tough now, would it.

Bloggers to tag this to
this has been a great way to burn an hour of my saturday afternoon! go on! y'know you want to!

1. LMD
2. Narcissistic Mao
3. Lexie
4. Kachuaz
5. Tym

and anyone else who's got an hour to burn! it' pretty cool - you never know what you're gonna get...

se7en

via LMD.

yeah. i dig making lists. they're very insightful. sometimes i'm not even certain of myself til i see what's on my own list!

Seven dreams before death
1. have a beach hut fronting the pacific ocean
2. get my boat licence
3. own a really luxurious, wood-panelled boat
4. observe a wiccan sabbat in scotland
5. live for several years on an orchard, and celebrate the harvest
6. be an acclaimed designer
7. finding a pearl in an oyster

Seven things I can’t do in this lifetime
1. make edible scrambled eggs
2. be near a cockroach without going into convulsions
3. perform magic
4. make homemade ice-cream
5. dance gracefully
6. write a meaningful song/poem
7. live in a commune for more than a week at a go

Seven things that attract me
1. originality
2. the ability to make me laugh
3. a smile
4. sunlight
5. green grass and fluffy white clouds against an azure blue sky
6. a sense of responsibility
7. blue-green waters lapping against soft white sand

Seven things I say
1. omigosh!
2. wahlau!
3. how come like that?!
4. you win!, or i win!
5. chiquitita, tell me the truth
6. chocoLAAAAT for meeeee...!
7. dunno

Seven books that I love
1. that babarpapa series from childhood (created by some frenchie)
2. the 6 harry potter books so far (jk rowling)
3. the soundscape (r. murray schaffer)
4. the practice of everyday life (michel de certeau)
5. the sandman series (neil gaiman)
6. the witching hour; the the vampire armand (anne rice)
7. city: rediscovering the centre (william h. whyte)

Seven movies that I’ve loved
1. spirited away (hayao miyazaki/studio ghibli)
2. hilary and jackie (anand tucker)
3. be with me (eric khoo)
4. gosford park (robert altman)
5. eight femmes (francois ozon)
6. kung fu hustle (stephen chow)
7. immortal beloved (bernard rose)
8. nightmare before christmas (tim burton)
yeah, i know, that makes it 8 now...

Seven tags
anyone's free to do it.... get cracking!

easter feaster

easter's a big deal over here in oz-land. with supermarket aisles stocked up with chocolate easter bunnies, bilbies, wombats, care bears, thomas-trains, bob-the-builders and whatnots from the beginning of march. oh. and 1kg easter eggs. can't imagine what it'd be like to go through an entire egg!



chicks come into play a lot over here as well. one crept over my choc egg the other day, hopping over the whole mess on my desktop. must've been hard work for the li'l chickie. he was sweet, and loved basking in the artificial light of the computer screen. it's lying, exhausted, at the side now.



since most of the shops are closed over the long weekend (fri-tues) we decided to stock up and stay home and go picnicking! lots of google-ed recipes involved, and cooking up a storm in our little kitchen over the past week. it's an exceedingly good feeling to have the aroma of yummy comfort foods infuse the whole house, especially with the cold weather.



yummy soft-centred choc souffles the flatmate made.

to add to the list of incredibly sinful foods consumed the past few days:
homemade chicken-mushroom pot pie
blue mould full fat milk cheese with crusty bread
fresh fettucine with spinach-and-mascarpone-cream sauce
lots of chocolates!
a whole tin of primrose cocktail sausages
grilled eggplant and zucchini, drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice
a takeout hawaiian pizza
homemade custard danish with apple filling (thanks to the flatmate!)
beer, prawn crackers and camembert cheese

ok. am definitely not planning on buying myself a weighing scale.

my favourite things

at 10am this morning, i was rudely awakened by the doorbell. so i decided to ignore it. anyone trying to wake me up before 11am deserves to be ignored, or face being haaaa-ed with my bad morning-breath.

and when i finally decided to open the door sometime in the afternoon, lo and behold! it had "brown paper packages tied up with string" was handwritten on this! i really dig snailmail. i've said it before and here i am saying it again. thanks, ms tyh. it made my day. and easter weekend! and entire week ahead! :) i was so chuffed to find this hanging on my doorknob!



i think i remember this story ms tyh had to tell the entire class as part of some english lesson back in primary 3. postman pat's busy day. and it made me seriously (and secretly) consider a career as a postgirl. plus, they get to ride cool old-school vespas. a very romantic notion. still very much so.

whoever came up with the idea of snailmail ought to be awarded, posthumously, of course, a nobel prize. nothing like surprise snailmail from an old friend to give that warm fuzzy feeling. if everyone received a surprise parcel once in awhile, maybe less wars would be taking place. or maybe nobody likes bush/osama enough. and whoever it is that's involved. that's why all they got was anthrax. :\

busybusybusy

with work. and this is just a small part to show for it.

but i was wondering. just wondering, y'know, if your chances with the RIGHT unflipped card (lurking just behind) changes with every click on the deck with solitaire. it's like the computer knows what you're after, and purposely withholds it?

now the question to seal your $64,000

from archie comics, what's jughead's real name?