Rant 756 / D.O.

So it's strange. In cases where a sentence mentions a cause and an effect, I've never noticed that the English language prefers to place the effect first and the cause second, using conjunctions like "because" and "as" to connect the two.

I asked the lecturer why "so" doesn't seem to be taken into account here, because this word could be used to place the cause first (John was injured, so he couldn't run). That's why I remember this so clearly. Asking helps the learning process.

"So" is more frequently used to connect compound sentences, apparently. In the cause and effect case, the sentences are complex ones.

Just to give a brief recap: a compound sentence has 2 independent clauses, like your mother and father; a complex sentence has one clause that is dependent on the other, like you and your mother; a complex-compound sentence has 2 independent clauses and at least one dependent one, like you, your mother and your stepfather.

According to her, "so" implies a much vaguer link between the two clauses and doesn't always clearly express the cause-and-effect relation, ie quoting her, "looser".

I never noticed it, but she knew that somehow because she also explained that this was caused by a lot of intermixing of Chinese and English sentence structures by Singaporeans, a symptom of an incomplete education in the two languages.

This, in turn, is because in Chinese, the cause is almost always stated first before the effect (因为，所以；因此). Occasionally flipping them over is fine, but if there are too many of these in an essay, the writer can be regarded as having a poor command of written Chinese and the essay may end up being confusing to readers.

But all these do not affect my frequent usage of "so" because I'm usually not using it to express such a relation, as shown in the first sentence of this rant.








The 3D Sex and Zen film is going to be shown here with 18mins less "Sex" here. Are they going to compensate with 18mins of "Zen"?

I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be interested in appreciating the principles of Zen Buddhism while having an erection.








I think Pastamania has become my bro's favourite delivery service because that's what he ordered the last two times.

Can't say much about the pizzas. By the time I got home they were cold, and all cold pizzas taste the same.

The spaghetti, on the other hand, was much better.

This was the Chicken Cheese Salsiccla spaghetti, non-spicy. It was still quite warm when I got back roughly 2-2.5 hours after it was delivered, unlike the pizzas and the paninis. It was basically a tomato-based sauce with chicken cheese sausages slightly larger than a thumb, though they were all invisible because the sauce covered them.

The sauce was too sour, but other than that, it was alright.

As for the paninis, never leave them overnight. The hashbrown inside will never get better unless drastic measures are taken, like re-frying it. Merely reheating the panini in an oven does not improve the taste of the hashbrown that was left in the fridge overnight

And that's my set up when I eat - waste paper ( in this case, a KFC flyer and a Readers' Digest lottery letter) to cover the keyboard, a small towel/handkerchief for emergencies and the big yellow cover from a MCD Big Breakfast now being reused as my coaster (damage reduction measure during spills).









Why are they complaining about the change to paperless tickets? I think that's a great idea for people who want to pay decent prices to concerts and other events. This is a strong measure to prevent scalping, which is the practice of reselling tickets at higher prices for profit.

The only people who should be unhappy about it are those who resell tickets to make money. For the real consumers, it's just an inconvenience.

In short, the article is pointless.









One of the most under-appreciated joys in life has to be the feel of relieving an exploding bladder under a hot shower.

Yes, I'm a guy.

Another is probably the taste of your favourite food when you're starving.








I'm pretty sure a crow or two has set up a home on the floor either above or below mine. I keep seeing crows flying up and down my window like 5-6 times a day and it's probably the same bird. No little birds are heard yet but they may be trying to make some.