Cantonese.
Cantonese is a beautiful language. We don't speak it. We
sing it.
For example:
獨臂刀 - dok bay dou
The tones of the three words coincide exactly with:
E-F-G
So, when you say the three words in Cantonese, it will be 'dok(E) bay(F) dou(G)'.
Another example:
蒸鬆糕 - jing song go
G-G-G
So: 'jing(G) song(G) go(G)'.
One more example:
豉油皇炒麵 - si yao wong cao min
E-C-C-E/G-E (/ = glissando as in violin)
So: 'si(E) yao(C) wong(C) cao(E/G) min(E)'.
Haha that's why Cantonese songs are all like spoken. Because we are basically singing when we talk. That also means when you know how to sing a Cantonese song you automatically know how to narrate it.
In case you are wondering:
獨臂刀 (literally 'single-armed warrior') is the nickname my family gave to a friend of my sister (who calls her pretty often and then they'll talk and talk and talk until the wee hours of the morning). He is given the nickname because he once came to our house for a barbecue and he was using our kitchen to cook
with one arm because he injured the other.
蒸鬆糕 (literally 'steamed rice cake')is the nickname my family gave to one of my friends. He knows it. Guess who.
豉油皇炒麵 is a roadside dish eaten as breakfast or supper in HK. It's random here. And it means 'fried noodles in soy sauce'.
We are
very good at giving nicknames. My sister's friends are the hardest hit (er it's not me! It's my mum!). I call my sister 'sushi' these days for some reason. We call our dad 'fish'. Mum is 'penguin'. I am 'meh meh gor' (er don't ask me what it is).
And apparently to other people my family is basically one bunch of funny eccentric clowns. We went for blood donation one day (I am the only one doing it on that day though) and after that we were having (free) snacks at the HSA cafe. I was talking about something (I can't remember what) and there was this lady sitting directly opposite me. I could see that she was listening to me, because she was trying
very very hard to
not laugh. You should have seen her expression man. I was really trying very very hard also to say things which is funny to her (but not to my family because they are used to it) to see when she
have to burst out laughing. But the rest of my team didn't know what I wanted to do at that time (I couldn't communicate it to them) so it's a pity that we left before I succeeded :P
By the way, some photos!
Guess what. All Hong Kong! On the same island some more!
Labels: Random, Travel
More Stuff.
Can't escape AR attacks in HK at all, because of all the pollution and dust in the air-conditioners and everything, made worse by the endless burning everywhere because of the seventh month. Started eating antihistamine yesterday, and it made me very tired and grumpy when I was supposed to meet GCS and his friends for seafood in Sai Kung. Though I bet he didn't notice it because I, hmms, had to be civil no matter how screwed I feel right. It was his last day in HK after all, I am the so called 'host', and it's supposed to be a fun time... Screw the antihistamine.
The trip turned out great. He liked the seafood, and I made him pay for it. Nearly S$300 :P
Me, GCS, Jian Wei, Lei, and lobster.
Picking seafood. Have to have mum with me to give me advice while I translate everything to a language GCS understands :P He can, er, call me while I was on the MTR and ask me to talk to the taxi driver because the guy cannot speak English. I was the centre of attention on that carriage for some time (it is like, I have to almost shout into the phone?!).
Spot the starfish!
Though again, I had a bad AR attack this morning, triggered by the age-old fibrous mattress my uncle has in his house. Had puffy eyes and extremely runny nose for the whole morning despite antihistamine... Argh it's terrible. I am sleeping on the sofa in the living room tonight. No way I'm lying on that bed again.
Oh, by the way, the computer and electronics stuff in HK are really cheap comparatively. I think I will be getting my next laptop here. And, Canon IXUS-950 IS costs S$530 only... I was telling my dad, I should have waited for a year. Last year, my IXUS-800 IS costs S$600 and it was considered cheap already. I'll see what will happen 2 years later!
And got a 5-CD Classic Disney box set for US$20 from Amazon. It is unbelievably cheap; I just have to buy it. Realised also that Amazon has this funny way of highlighting categories of books which might be of interest to you... Once I log on there will be a list of categories displayed under 'recommedations' and they will be in all kinds of different font sizes. The biggest ones for me are 'Medicine', 'Nonfiction' and 'Professional' :P I should go order some fantasy science fiction from them to balance it out a little bit :P
Labels: Travel
Stuff.
DHS: It is extremely strange to see our school logo being plucked and placed in front of the old RJ gate. Told some white lies about GCS (or rather, the partial truth). Got invited back to talk about Hopkins (or the US in general? no idea) next year. Not too bad.
Textbooks: Everything bought and nicely wrapped :)
Attachment: Completed. Done wth presentation, done with appraisal, had a nice farewell lunch with my lab, and the climax was the very nice barbecue with wine and pecan pie served by hotel chefs at the poolside of some condo on Grange Road after the IMB symposium.
Chek Jawa: Rained again, and I estimated the tide wrongly. It was fun nevertheless, despite my zero accident record being broken :( Photos will follow; check out my photo blog in about a week.
Books: Too many of them. I have been trying my best to finish reading them, but, being me, I continue to keep buying them as long as I enter a bookstore (which I have been entering too frequently recently). As a result, I am going to bring some of them back to the states... Argh. Can't bear leaving them in Singapore to collect dust.
Hong Kong: Eating a bit too much. Basically these few days my sole purpose of existence is eating and entertaining both close and not-at-all-close relatives. Though it would be better tomorrow because will be going to Sai Kung to eat seafood with GCS. I have been trying to make up for it by walking up to MacDonnell Road from either Central or Admirlty every night :P
Shenzhen: It is actually quite nice, surprisingly. Nicer than HK. And Bilin is a great host! :D Of course, bought more books and CDs. Argh.
Labels: Life, Random, Travel
實情
實情 - 廖碧兒
迷戀往事 想千遍 那管無意義
追蹤百萬次 分析微細意思
尋找千里 卻別離 情理歪曲真諷刺
行近看明白當初不過無知
如望著塵埃 穿灰塵望向外 矇矇地尋找所愛
疲累沒離開 心僅存著意外 其實舊情已不再
＊沉溺往事 幾千次 悔心無意義
花光氣力試 終枉然欠意思
如光影照 正面時 常理般推測不智
行近了 能讓親手敲破 無知
迷路在人海 玻璃層疊意外 無奈實情透不過
無話別離開 不甘 在眼內 期望拾回往昔愛
就是這樣。
It's a lovely song anyway, even if you don't understand it/me. Theme song of a great TVB serial... when I am free I will spend another night watching it :P
Labels: Sharing
Songs.
I like these two songs pretty much... and haha after some years I finally bothered to go and find their MTVs on YouTube.
They are both very sweet. And both are by Joey Yung.
Joey Yung is not bad... better than Twins definitely. She has the kind of fondness in her that makes people like her. She and Hacken Lee make a great partnership :)
This one is sung to the tune of Amazing Grace, and the MTV has cute kids:
(I have posted the lyrics before actually.)
明日恩典
This one is a song dedicated to all mothers... and the MTV has cute kids too!
世上只有Hope you'll like them too :)
Labels: Sharing
State Quarters.
As you can see, I am really free... to the extent that I can blog in the lab. Though tomorrow I will have to come back at 8:30 to prepare for an experiment...
One thing to add for the previous blog: My main point is that the government doesn't have to care whether Singaporeans bother to learn Chinese. When reality sets in, they will force themselves to learn, just like the Hongkongers. If Singaporeans can survive with the current general attitude, then there is nothing to worry about. If there needs to be a transition period, there are some people who can keep the boat afloat for at least a while, e.g. I have seen my father translating Chinese documents to English and vice versa - he shouldn't be doing it but what if there is no one else to do it?
However, if Singaporeans decide to run when reality sinks in, then so be it. Haha I guess that is more likely to be the case though, because that is already happening (people sending their children to Australia to evade learning Chinese?). If that happens I guess there is nothing MM Lee can do anyway :P
Hence the main point of the whole blog is the sentence 'MM Lee can relax' :D
___________________________________________
Ok state quarters.
Figured out 2 things:
1. No wonder it is so hard to get some of the quarters! They are minted at different quantities! Some are minted at less than half the quantity of the more plentiful ones (like Maine vs. Connecticut)...
2. Some are not even out yet! They include the newer states e.g. Arizona, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii. No wonder I have not even seen those quarters before.
Haha check it out over
here. This is the coolest set of coins I have ever seen, and it is the only set of coins that I bother to collect. Now my collection has ~35 different states and I hope to complete it by the time I am done with my bachelors - given that the last coin will only be out late 2008 I guess it is going to take some time...
Labels: Random
Chinese!
MM Lee just said something about the importance and inadequacy of our Chinese education again. He seems to be on this topic really often these days.
Haha something crossed my mind though. What is the most effective way to get Singaporeans to learn Chinese properly?
Remember how the generation before us picked up English when the Chinese streams were wiped off the education system? I guess the same thing should work: reality.
So if we were to get Singaporeans to learn Chinese, we can use the threat of marginalisation. For example, for a Chinese to get a job in the government/MNC etc. he needs to have a certain level of mastery (like get him to read some economics article in Chinese aloud and answer comprehension questions on the spot orally - Lehman Brothers got my friend to translate a paragraph of economics news into Chinese when he applied for a position there). Of course we can extend it to other races (Malay for Malays, Tamil for Indians, hmms, Others for Others) too.
When that is in place, people
will learn. They will
face it and not evade. Hahahaha and we will then be able to laugh at those cocky people who insist that they won't bother about Chinese because English is enough.
But can we do that? Hmms no. The MOE is doing the
exact opposite when they introduced those Chinese B nonsense - to our dismay.
- We will just chase these people to the West: because in Singapore it is the English-speaking people who hold most of the resources.
- Since they hold most of our resources, do you think such a suggestion is politically feasible? The resistance would be
really strong. Cannot do anything about that.
- The government won't be able to find enough people to join it, because that is simply asking for too much, judging by the current situation.
The analogy cannot work out: simply because in the 1970s the students in the Chinese streams belonged to the lower classes. Morever, it is politically correct then to stay away from anything Chinese.
So how? Haha we know we are better; that's all I care. I don't think anything outside is up to me. As long as people realise that not having both strong Chinese and English backgrounds will put them at a severe disadvantage, they will automatically start learning. Like Hongkongers and Mandarin - there is a tremendous improvement over the last few years because if they can't speak Mandarin, they can't get a job or can't do business with the PRC tourists. This works
wonders.
Haha MM Lee can relax... if Singapore is being put at a strong disadvantage because of this intrinsic problem, there are people like us who can at least arrest the cell cycle and repair the DNA before apoptosis (programmed cell death) sets in. Of course, no one can risk the cell cycle stopping so come on, if you love this country, get yourself some books in Chinese and start reading them! :D
Labels: Policy and Politics
中文!
我終於懂得怎樣用視窗的中文輸入功能輸入繁體中文字了! 謝謝爸爸!
今天破例用中文來寫部落格。我從來不用中文主要是因為中文輸入法不方便, 而且不少朋友看不太懂中文, 所以這裡的中文通常只限歌詞之類的東西。今天破例就當慶祝自己發現了一項新功能吧! 當然, 這樣就不必管那些讀不懂中文的人了!
過去幾個星期出門去玩的有一點太多了, 搞到現在蠻累的... 現在我儘量每個星期不出門超過三次; 雖說如此, 從現在到我回美國去的那幾個週末我都已經排滿了節目了。我還沒開始收拾東西! 我看我從香港回來後的那幾天必定忙得要死 :P
實驗室裡要我這個星期二做一個總結報告。本來我以為可以什麼都不用做的, 結果還是要做 :( 星期五我已經花了一個下午準備好了我能夠獨力完成的部分, 星期一才能和我的小老闆總結他交給我的工作, 然後看他要我報告些什麼。哈哈所以昨天我可以看無線劇集看到早上五點多, 下午跑到中央醫院捐血, 明天還會和一堆朋友環島追甜品去。或許等一下寫完了我會去讀一點有建設性的東西? :P
我已經在我的腦裡構思好了一篇有關獎學金的文章; 我現在在決定我應該把它寫成英文投到海峽時報還是應該把它寫成中文投到聯合早報。問題是, 那篇東西應該會相當的具爭議性... 或許用中文寫我會安全一些吧, 至少那些自認的精英是不會主動去看中文報的...
明天晚上才寫吧!
Labels: Random
GST: Edit.
Haha please note. Don't believe what I have said in the previous entry without checking or asking around.
Apparently GST works on a concept which prevents cascading, i.e. the tax is only bourned by the end consumer. The party who needs to pay GST as part of his cost in order to provide the goods and services which are taxable are eligible for tax credits that is supposed to offset that part of the cost. So 2% is 2%.
I forgot to at least check Wikipedia before wasting my time last night looking through my mum's calculations :P
Labels: Policy and Politics
GST.
My mum wrote an article and wanted me to edit it for her as usual. It is about GST.
She is trying to make the point that the GST increase is not limited to the 2% written on paper. Which is true. And I come to realise how scary it is actually.
The 2% is 2% only if you buy stuff from the very primary producer who hunts wild boars using stones he picked up from Sungei Buloh. From then on, the increase is defintely more than 2%.
Let's consider a loaf of Sunshine bread from NTUC. The prices are arbitrary.
In order to produce and distribute the bread, Sunshine needs to:
1. Buy flour, oil, salt, sugar
2. Maintain its equipment
3. Pay rental for factory space
4. Pay its employees
5. Pay ultilities
6. Package its bread
7. Send the bread out to NTUC.
Let me keep it simple by considering only the
flour chain.
Where does the flour come from? Alright, it is imported.
So, importer pays $100 for the flour (for 1 loaf of bread).
In order to make a profit (importer also has to pay rent, transport, ultilities, employees, equipment, income tax, CPF, and whatever nonsense there is), let's say he needs to sell the flour to Sunshine at a rate which is 20% more than what he pays.
So Sunshine pays $120 for the flour.
Then based on the same principle, NTUC pays $144 for the bread (probably more, because Sunshine is complicated, but let's keep it simple).
And the consumer pays
$172.80 for the bread.
After the GST increase:
Importer pays $100 x 1.02 = $102 for the flour.
Sunshine pays $102 x 1.20 x 1.02 = $124.85 for the flour.
NTUC pays $124.85 x 1.20 x 1.02 = $152.82 for the bread.
So, I pay $152.82 x 1.20 x 1.02 =
$187.05 for the bread.
As a result, the increase in GST, when it reaches me, is actually
8.25%.What the heck. When you bring in the additional factors (like packaging, transport), each factor has its own set of layers (the producer - distributor - retailer - consumer sequence). Because the GST hike increases the cost of the layer above, the price he sets will be inevitably higher. In addition you are paying more GST. You may only be taxing the bread once, but the flour, the sugar, the milk, the petrol, the machine oil, the plastic bag, all have its own set of layers which are seperately taxable. And it all adds up.
Well, now I am screaming. A meal in a restaurant is already more expensive
and when I looked at the 17% extra I just basically died. It's worse than Maryland. Maryland's GST is 5% and well, although the house rule says that you have to give at least 15% tips but we don't really care. And restaurants there don't charge extra for bread, napkins, peanuts, water, and goodness knows what.
(Don't convert and say Singapore is cheap: Singapore is only cheap for expats. And people who just came back from Europe and the US.)
Argh I am spending my
own money, not my parents'. I
feel it! That's why the noise. Remember the calculations for the offset packages? It doesn't take the layers into account. The calculations are based on the net 2% increase. The offset packages won't last. The GST absorption by the retailers won't last either. With another bus/MRT fare hike, sigh, I have to move funds back to Singapore from the US already. So that I can sustain another summer...
(Scary thing is, ST just said that the salaries for people like our janitors actually decreased to $650 from $800+ in the past few years... this place is heading into serious trouble if our social services do not improve. Don't give me the economics explanations because I will write another entry soon saying why I intrinsically don't like economic theorists. Now it's sleeping time :P)
Labels: Policy and Politics
Lies.
From Hogfather (Terry Prachett), as how I remember it:
Humans need fantasy to be human... you need to learn to believe in little lies (e.g. The Tooth Fairy) so that you can learn to believe in the big ones. Justice, duty, mercy, etc.Even more cool (er definitely not the exact words):
If the Hogfather doesn't return, the sun will not rise. No it will not. Instead a flaming ball of gas will rise from the horizon. There are more of those big lies. Democracy. Meritocracy. Human rights. Freedom of speech. Love. Humanity. Goodness in people. Terry Prachatt put gods/fairies into the 'small' category but I guess it is just because he doesn't dare to touch the big one.
I do believe in these things. For sure I didn't start with the Tooth Fairy (simply because I didn't know that there is such a thing until pretty recently), and I had never believed in Santa (also simply because there is no such thing as a chimney in my house), but that doesn't matter.
I realised that it is dangerous to be completely disillusioned. When one only believes in things which are material he becomes someone with no soul. He becomes an opportunist, someone who spends his whole life chasing after material wealth and status and power and comfort; nothing else means anything. He becomes the centre of his own world.
Though fact is, we live in a world filled with other people. Because people change, external circumstances will change; places change, the market change, often at a remarkable speed, and even more often unpredictably. This is the material world.
If one doesn't believe in anything not material, he has to cope with the changes or he gets crushed. By the similarly unfeeling material world. Because he has nowhere to fall back on.
So, if one chooses not to believe in any of the lies, then he has to be prepared to face the world all by himself. Inside him there will not be anything to support him when he cannot cope with the changes anymore. He will choose not to be supported by people around him because he will dismiss those people's 'lies'. He won't be able to help himself, neither can he be helped by people. So he better makes sure that he is good enough to deal with the world and not fail.
Someone asked me before: 'what's wrong with being opportunistic'. Well, there has never been a positive connotation to the word, and the idea I get is that opportunistic people have nothing in their eyes and minds other than everything material. Like
candida albicans which is a common cause of opportunistic infections when our immune systems are down.
I acknowledge and respect different ways of intepreting the world, but I have my own ways. I won't go for pre-marital sex but I won't judge those who pursue it. I won't break my bond but I won't say that those who do are immoral. Breaking bond is not the point:
The point is, one has to believe in some lies. Ideals. God(s). To help him tackle the world. To help him stand up again after he falls. To help thim believe. In himself.
Labels: Philosophy and Religion, Values
August 2.
Haha today is kind of 'special' because exactly 13 years ago we took an I-forgot-what flight and landed in Singapore.
Cannot imagine how different my life would be if that event didn't occur. Speculations include i) I could be studying medicine in (or rather going to graduate from) HKU or CU ii) I could have graduated from a UK university iii) my English and Mandarin could be only half my standard now iv) we could have all become Christians (based on my family's relationship with the church that my school is affiliated to...?).
Anyway I am happy with what I am doing now so oh well.
Lab is getting pretty interesting. We are making interesting discoveries. Later in the morning I am supposed to set up another RT-PCR; soon we will be doing more experiments to confirm our hypotheses. Haha and yeah I have things to do now (quite a bit in fact...); though I can still have time to sleep and surf Facebook sometimes :P
Oh by the way, go and add this application called Traveller's IQ Challenge on Facebook. I couldn't send invitations (I don't know why) so haha you can add it via my profile. That is the most fun Facebook application I have ever seen (alright okay considering I am a nut don't blame me if you hate it).
You can also add 'Cities I Have Visited'. I think that is the best travel-related application Facebook has...
Labels: Life
Guess what. All Hong Kong! On the same island some more!
