From a practical point of view, the extinction of dialects might do us some good. Life is less confusing when you only have to handle 2 languages. Hell, too many Singaporeans can't even handle two, causing too many conversations I've overheard in public to be a mix of both languages. They can't even keep a whole sentence in one language!
Reminds me of what I was told about my paternal grandfather. Apparently he knew a few languages and as he grew older, he began to mix all the languages he knew whenever he talked. That included Mandarin and Hokkien at least. Other languages he knew were Bahasa Indonesia, Latin and probably English. Bahasa Indonesia because he was an Indonesian-born Chinese. Latin because he had a Western university education and was a pharmacist before the Cultural Revolution overthrew all "intellectuals" and either killed them or forced them into becoming mere farmers. This is one of the reasons why I do not believe that my life sucks. In fact my life is absolutely fabulous; it's my future I'm worrying about :P
This is also one reason why I do not like to see fellow Singaporeans whining about their lives. Is it really that bad? Are they even close to the point where they see sweet potatoes as a delicacy, a rare treat? Because that's exactly how my father lived when he was around my age! What did you think the Red Guards did? Fight in wars? No, they helped farmers with their farms. My father used to say all he did was collect buffalo dung for the farmers and occasionally steal some sweet potatoes.
Anyway, why does it take a frickin degree to keep a person's sentences... pure? Is it really that hard to maintain a decently sized vocabulary in at least one language? And sometimes, even uni grads can't do it, but that's much rarer.
As for myself, I do that only if I have a long and serious conversation in Cantonese. My Cantonese vocabulary is terrible because I only use it at home and I rarely have conversations with anyone in my family. Probably just once or twice a week. A lot of times I have to use Mandarin and hope the other person can understand it.
My first external hard disk is dying. I guess it's about time. This Prezmate 3.5" 250GB external HDD had come with my original laptop, which was replaced by my current laptop a year or so after. That makes it older than this blog.
But how old is this blog anyway?
Since 2007. Hmm.. So I guess the HDD is about 5 years old now.
The symptoms it's showing are:
- had trouble being recognized by the computer when switched on
- had trouble reading data, long pauses at times
- power LED went off, HDD couldn't be read but according to the computer it's still attached.
I should probably try and copy the stuff over when I'm free. Not sure if that can be done though.
The last class I attended were mainly on essays that were written post-May-Fouth-Movement. These were modern essays that discussed people. One (not in chronological order), entitled <<杨柳>> by 鲁迅, was about the virtues of the working class. Another, <<合理与不合理>> by 杏影, was about people who can't differentiate between the good and the bad and would agree with either. The third was <<雷锋塔的倒塌>> also by 鲁迅.
None of these essays were directly discussing what they were really talking about, which is why they were special enough to be studied by students.
First, <<杨柳>> was, on the surface, wholly about the title subject, the willow tree. It compares the willow with other plants that were highly regarded in ancient Chinese literature, like the 牡丹 or tree peony, which require expensive things to grow well and return little to the grower. To explain "expensive things" I'll need a new paragraph for it.
In ancient Chinese culture, horticulture was rather different from its Western counterpart. Since ancient times, they have believed that many plants require human food to grow. For example, in the essay it was mentioned that the peonies require pork belly soup while grapevines require pork soup. These are not jokes, but actual "wisdom" passed down by generations of trials and error. However, most modern Chinese treat them as merely part of our history.
Now you know why the First Emperor was not completely wrong to burn books. Too bad he didn't do as good a job he thought he did.
Back to the story, these plants were compared with the willow, which required nothing and yet grew everywhere. Hence it was labelled "贱" or "cheap" by the people. According to him, it was not right to be given a bad name just because it was a tough survivor, while all the expensive plants did was to look good.
This essay was wholly about praising the willow only if you didn't understand the background of this ballsy guy who lived in the early Communist China which was highly oppressive, pretty similar to the USSR and its KGB. But if you understand what he's talking about, it's hard to deny that this guy had more balls than Chuck Norris, mostly because he wrote lots of such essays despite the very real risks while Chuck Norris was a fictional character.
Same with the other essay <<雷锋塔的倒塌>> written by him that we went through in class. On the surface, it was talking about the Legend of the White Snake, but in fact was a one-page-long statement that the people cannot be oppressed forever. In other words, POWER TO THE PEOPLE! In this essay, the Leifeng Pagoda, under which the White Snake was supposedly trapped, had collapsed. The collapse was real and this essay was written in response to the news when it was still news.
However, if his background is taken into account, it becomes obvious that the White Snake was actually a metaphor for the general population, the people. Fa Hai, on the other hand, represents the oppressive authorities. In the conclusion, the people were freed but Fa Hai was still trapped. The last was because if you follow his instructions on how to open a crab and stuff, you'll see a monk's head inside, symbolising Fa Hai who is still trapped in the crabs till the end of time.
In the last essay <<合理与不合理>> by 杏影, it talks about how unreasonable things become reasonable in the eyes of people who see it often enough. That's true enough. If you keep seeing bullshit happen all the time, it stops being "bullshit" after a while and becomes the norm.
For most of the essay, it seems to be defending people who would support anyone however they act. It was until the final paragraph that it could be seen that he was really criticising them, when he said how these people could sometimes be awaken by dreams of bad things. This is his way of saying that they do know what is good and what isn't, but that they're suppressing these thoughts.
According to the lecturer, this guy's essays are deep, suitable for scholars writing a Master's thesis but not for PhD. That was what his mentor told him anyway.
Finally beat Rebuild on Harder difficulty. Probably because I was lucky. Playing that game reminds me of Minesweeper. Most of the time in both games, the mental work is simple and routine... up to a point. Then suddenly it's all about luck. In Rebuild, it's when the first few hordes arrive. In Minesweeper, it's when all the obvious mines have been flagged and the rest are, at best, 50-50.
If there's anything I've learnt, it's that I cannot keep sending 3 guys to be trained all the time. In early game, I have to send only 1 while using the rest for other jobs. Also, it's fine to have useless tiles. In early game, these can help reduce the chance of essential buildings from being taken by the hordes. Finally, it's not absolutely necessary to keep the base squarish when there are police stations and malls ready to be reclaimed.
I wonder if I can ever beat the game on Nightmare.
After reading this news about Singaporean men disagreeing that local women are the best marriage partners, all I can think of is: unnecessary shitstorm incoming!
Is this like some kind of government ploy to distract the people from the 2011 budget?
So guys who give head to the ladies have a higher risk of getting oral cancer.
Researchers have found a 225-percent increase in oral cancer cases in the United States from 1974 to 2007, mainly among white men, said Maura Gillison of Ohio State University.
Oh yes, they should probably have titled it "Vaginas Linked to Oral Cancer Risk" but didn't want to piss off the feminists. Also,
In the United States, oral cancer due to HPV infection is now more common than oral cancer from tobacco use, which remains the leading cause of such cancers in the rest of the world.
It's confirmed - American pussies are more dangerous than cigarettes.
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