Sunday, October 31, 2004
Sleep less, frolic more
Daylight saving time (DST) where we move our clock hands one hour ahead of local standard time in order to take advantage of the sun's desire to shine on the land. This way we will get to save more electrical energy as we wake up one hour earlier to await the sun's full unveiling of her glowy countenance.So for those night prowlers the next six months will prove to be hostile territory.
Spring forward, fall back.
lux at 1:38 am
Monday, October 25, 2004
planets
My little achievement of the day: to draw out 92 words of varying lengths from the word 'planets' in under 20 minutes.a, an, at, as, et, plane, planes, ant, ants, lane, lanes, lap, laps, tap, taps, sap, sat, pet, pet, net, nets, ten, tens, alp, alps, eat, eats, ate, plate, plates, plan, plans, nap, naps, set, pen, pens, apt, nest, pest, last, lest, lapse, ape, apes, nape, napes, leap, leaps, peat, peats, pat, pats, tea, teas, tan, tans, pan, pans, lean, leans, pant, pants, lent, pale, pales, tale, tales, pleat, pleats, neat, seat, plena, pate, paste, last, past, pates, aspen, sale, seal, teal, ale, tape, tapes
and the seven words dictionary.com helped me clarify the meanings with:
ent, nat, penta, peta, sept, plat, plats
There hopefully no word got left out of the equation.
lux at 3:57 pm
Sunday, October 24, 2004
mea culpa
And as always there is the occasional politically-incorrect, xenophobic jibes at other nations' icons of national pride and worth.Now on the Effiel Tower:
'She is the symbol of France. I think she is perfect.'
Langdon nodded absently. Symbologists often remarked that France - a country renowned for machismo, womanizing and diminutive insecure leaders like Napoleon and Pepin the Short - could not have chosen a more apt national emblem than a thousand-foot phallus.
The da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, where our lead is reflecting on the beauties of his host country.
... as always there will be someone who shares the same ideas as you but has gotten ahead in terms of putting it down in words.
lux at 1:44 pm
Thursday, October 21, 2004
A little on body matters
Talking about metabolic rates. I am not too worried about mine but there is no harm getting worried in preparation for the future right?So well, how to increase it then?
- exercise more: we all know this but problem with this is that most peeps don't find hitting the treadmill daily as enjoyable as hitting it weekly. Or bi-weekly.
- eat three proper meals and snack healthily in between: again regulation's relative. Most either skip a proper or snack less-than-healthily.
- consume chilies: they are spicy, hot and make you jump up in shock at their daring. They can burn your stomach walls but if they make you burn calories faster... to hell with a collapsing stomach!
And if your stomach collapses then food becomes a secondary concern right? Talking about metabolic rates. I am talking about serious stuff mate!
Additions to my list, anyone?
lux at 5:05 pm
Monday, October 18, 2004
stunt doubles
This is not happening to me now but I feel like I have to mention it anyway.When you are infatuated you drive yourself so deep into a hole, and keep on trying so hard to climb your way out. The more you tug at the walls, the more dirt fall into your eyes, blinding you to the seeming futility of your efforts. So if no one looks down and realises your predicament, will you keep on trying to claw your way out? Silly as it seems?
lux at 1:04 am
Saturday, October 16, 2004
mind spasms
You know what a myoclonic twitch is, bonny boy?...Well, when you're falling asleep. And your mind's wanderin'. And you've crossed over the boundary of sleepin' and wakin', and you're beginning to almost dream, and in the dream you take a step, or move an arm, and in real life it twitches too. And it wakes you back up.
- Gaiman in Death, the high cost of living
Wake me up from the nightmare I've been going through for the past couple of days, because I am unbelievably exhausted by it. Mentally, then physically. Ever felt like blood pouring out from within you and flooding your whole body over? Flowing terribly it pushes against your skin which is like the membrane of a blister about to burst from the pressure coming from within. Mine's a tired worn-out blood. And I've done things for selfish reasons, realising beforehand the risks I was taking, and then chastising myself after everything has happened. Because what I feared did indeed occur.
Just tired before it happened, when it happened, and now indescribably exhausted by what had happened. Why do I make things so difficult for myself? Because I can never understand how emotional matters could ever be easily resolved? Or because I subconsciously take secret pleasure in pushing myself to the limits and indulging in the drama?
You do not have to be so hard on yourself. Yeah right. There are so many things that cannot be simply explained away.
lux at 9:39 pm
Saturday, October 09, 2004
For external use only. Keep out of the reach of children.
You never realise how important something is till you are separated from it. Gradually, and rather painfully, I have become more aware of my linguistic inadequacies. I was never competent in my Mandarin and over the years made minimal efforts towards improving it. There was always schoolwork, english novels to read and music from the West to listen to. Chinese characters are elegant, rich in historical meaning and excellent calligraphy material but for many years they have remained like this to me - beautiful, and detached from me. Always setting a distance between the language and myself; respecting its depth and breadth but not eager to plumb those dimensions. I was always the babuschka looking with fascination at the multiple miniature versions of me, realising they all make up me but yet are not part of me, because I keep pushing them out of me. Mandarin becomes that, fragments of my identity waiting to be understood and accepted, not some appendage I can throw away and ignore at will.Here in Melbourne the value of knowing how to speak read write a mother tongue, or other languages for that matter, is made startingly clear. Suddenly I realised that I have to go back, reexamine my relationship with Mandarin and renew my interest in it. Not only because it is an obligation or that others will respect me for it but more because I know I want to. Knowing that I have access to many other languages on top of English unlike many monolingual aussies has made me proud of where I come from. Wherever it is. The only problem for me now is procrastination. How long will I wait for the moment when I can confidently start picking up the pieces?
lux at 10:56 pm
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
A series of Ben Day dots
Today I learnt a few words! Once more I am that wide-eyed innocent little girl who realises that the world is enormous and full of waiting-to-be-discovered surprises. I am standing in a pretty pink frock and open-toed sandals, giggling delightfully as the adults tell me new things in that matter-of-fact tone and severe facial expression. All these small cautionary tales.The words!
Doujinshi: the japanese word for fanfiction based on manga. I have always known that 'yaoi' referred to male-male relationships of overt sexual nature, and 'shonen-ai' pointed to male-male relationships of a more emotional, immature nature; whilst the females got 'yuri' and 'shojo-ai' respectively. Doujinshi is not interesting, and perhaps worth writing/reading, unless it involves the above 'lemons'.
Slash: the english word for fanfiction with narratives involving homosexual relationships between protagonists of a TV series/film/cult whatever.
Vanitas: particularly popular during the Baroque, or more generally in 16-17th century Western art. An image or element in a painting, like skulls, flowers, bubbles, timepieces or guttering candles, which compel viewers to contemplate their mortality and remind them of the fultility of earthly achievements.
Because we are all going to die anyway.
One of the things I have learnt in this process of growing up, and discovering the secrets of the world adults walk in.
lux at 3:28 pm
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Tu Vous rendezvous?
Argh enough of this already! I have had enough with all these pseudo-French blabberings. As part of MSN sign-in nicks, in blog entries and emails. Yeah I know the discovery and acquisition of a few phrases in a foreign language stir up the desire to put them into use but it is irritating when a safe number of people are using it at the same time. Maybe they can level the criticism at me that just because I do not understand it, I cannot be jealous/envious and run them down for using French at every opportunity present. But then again what is the point of using phrases few people can comprehend, let alone share your sentiment?Like how I will throw in a quote for good measure:
Great art can communicate before it is understood.
T.S. Eliot
lux at 1:22 pm