A.Word.A.Day - The Magic of Words

I subscribed to A.Word.A.Day newsletter since July 27, 2010. I did a mock GRE during Academic Writing (one of my Master's courses) and scored pretty low in vocabulary. Got a bit disappointed with myself - I need to improve my English vocabulary!

So I googled for relevant website and found A.Word.A.Day. Every weekday (U.S time zone) you'll receive an email containing a word, its pronunciation, etymology (the origin of word), and usage (for examples, sentence from a news article, book, poem etc). All the words are based on a weekly theme (this week it's about nouns that have been transformed into verbs). You'll receive a collection of selected comments from around the world on the sixth day. The best one will win a prize (usually T-shirts).

One of my favorite theme was words based on Biblical characters that also start with the alphabet J: jonah, jezebel, jehu, judah, jorum (May 2-7, 2010). In fact, they provide a very convenient way to describe people. For example, you just need one word, jezebel, for an extremely wicked, cruel, greedy, and immoral woman. The Bible has exerted a very strong influence in the English language. Whether you believe in the Book or not, once in a while you'll stumble upon words/phrases/sayings originated from it.

Another thing that I really like is the thought of the day at the end of the newsletter. There were quotations from scientists, poets, writers, composers, comedians - people of various occupations. Some are witty, others, sarcastic.

Some thought-provoking ones...

My wife and I were happy for 20 years. Then we met. -Rodney Dangerfield, comedian (1921-2004)

Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand with a grip that kills it. -Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel Prize in literature (1861-1941)

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)

Morality is the custom of one's country and the current feeling of one's peers. Cannibalism is moral in a cannibal country. -Samuel Butler, writer (1835-1902)

In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong. -John Kenneth Galbraith, economist (1908-2006)

[Just recently I took another mock GRE and I was able to answer most of the vocabulary questions!]

Humorous Church Signs

Got these recently in an forwarded email. Shouldn't we make one such sign for our church? :-)

The B.C.E Virus

Saw this poster while passing by a cinema...

B.C.E Virus = Bad Cinema Etiquette Virus

And the symptoms are...

1. Uncontrollable leg shaking in the cinema, caused by Jane Tremor
2. Your mobile devices ring annoyingly, caused by Terrorbyte
3. Inability to stop talking while movie is playing, caused by Dr. Arthur Utter

The last time I watched a movie in the cinema was many many years ago. However, I still remember how annoying it was when any of the above symptoms showed up around me (especially when the ma behind was shaking his legs while they were pressing against my seat!). No matter how nice was the movie, all these bad etiquettes were really a turnoff.

Actually this infection can be "treated" easily - you just need to pay a little bit more attention to your behavior and be mindful of others' feeling. Just taking a little time to switch off or turn your mobile phone into silent mode will make lots of difference. Don't forget to switch off your mouth too. And remember, cinema is not a place for working out - you can shake any part of the body as hard as you want in the gym!

Another year...

Another year has gone by... Today I'm a year older, and also a year closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ!

Received so many birthday wishes in FB, took me quite a while to read and LIKE all of them. And lots of SMS's too.

Thanks a lot friends & students!

May God bless you too!

:-)

Typewritter artist - Keira Rathbone

Typewriter is getting obsolete... for years I haven't seen anyone using it! Even I don't. The last time I used it was more than 10 years ago. I still remembered how typing on a typewriter hurt my weak little fingers. My professors used to tell us back then when there was no computer, they had to "plan" the all the pages of their research paper accordingly to include footnotes and page number before typing. If there's one mistake, the whole page's gone. You have to type all over again. Nowadays with computer editing a document is so much more easier. Very few people are still using typewriter.

Then a person found a novel way to use a typewriter. Instead of typing a document, Keira Rathbone, is typing art! During college she wanted to be a writer. But then it turned out that she's much better in art. She discovered that the old typewrite she got from a flea market actually is a great tool for "drawing."

Keira Rathbone & her typewriter

Some works by Keira Rathbone...

To find out more about Keira Rathbone's works, visit her blog. 

Yummy Char Kuey

Char Kuey 炒糕 - "fried cake" in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect. What "cake" is this? It's made from flour. Before cooking, they look like little white bricks and are tasteless. However, after frying them in hot wok with dark soy sauce, bean sprouts, egg, chives & chile sauce, they'd turn into a delicious dish (drooling...), as if by magic. Char Kuey has always been one of my favorite Malaysian food.

My favorite Char Kuey stall at the Chinese Pasar Malam (night market in Malay) in Ipoh. 

Yummy! One thing that I really look forward to whenever I went to Pasar Malam.  

Hot weather... and a dog is hiding!

As usual, during Sabbath, Blackie would be kept under a tree next to the gate. However, recently it's quite hot in Ipoh. After staying under the tree for a few hours, once he was tied back to the front porch, immediately he crawled into his usual hiding. He also squeezed towards the tyre as much as possible. The metal parts at the bottom of the car must be very cooling!

On-time wall clock

From http://9gag.com/gag/143812/

With this on-time clock, you'll always be 3 minutes earlier. However, if it's to be used in Malaysia (and Thailand and most parts of Asia), the hour hand should be bent forward for at least 1 hour! :-P

[Who hasn't experienced this - a wedding reception/party/dinner etc. that starts at least an hour later than that indicated in the invitation?]

Dictionary & Thesaurus

As a blogger, besides a camera or a camera phone, the two little volumes above are indispensable. My dad bought them for me when I was about to go to secondary school. My English was quite poor at that time so I rarely used the Little Oxford Dictionary, which only provides English definition. Instead, I used the other bulkier English-Chinese dictionary. Only started to use it frequently when I was in college. My textbooks were already very thick, so it's easier to carry the much smaller dictionary around.

As for the thesaurus, I went through my secondary and high schools without even flipping it. My English was so poor that I don't even know what's a thesaurus :-P. I thought it's just another dictionary. Again, it was only until college that I started to use it.

Before I went to college, I casually packed the yellow little volume together with the dictionary into my luggage. Little did I know that it'd be so helpful later. I took English composition during freshman year, and the professor recommended us to get a thesaurus. He's quite strict on our writings; we had to put in extra effort to polish every sentence & paragraph. One of the principles of writing, according to him, was this - As much as possible, never repeat the same words in the next sentence. Sometimes it's quite difficult to think of a new vocabulary without using a thesaurus. At the beginning it took me hours just to write a page of essay because I needed to refer to the dictionary and thesaurus. But then it became easier as my vocabulary was building up gradually. (I got an A- for English composition!)

Since then that I make it a habit to flip through the thesaurus whenever I'm writing. Discovering new words with the same definitions is indeed a pleasure! And I also make it a habit to look up in the dictionary whenever I encounter a new vocabulary. I'd feel lost if I don't find out its definition.

I love words!

爸爸的背 The Back of Dad - Happy Fathers' Day!

[Recently I was decluttering my hard drive and discovered this little devotion I wrote years back when I was still studying at college. I remembered giving it during a Chinese group worship. There were non-Chinese attending, so I translated the devotion into English. There were some grammatical mistakes too, both in English and Chinese. :-P Just wanna share this because today is Fathers' Day.]

小的时候爸爸只有一辆很旧的本田摩托车。无论我们去哪里，我们都用那辆摩托车。
When I was small, my dad had a very old Honda motorbike. No matter where we went, we always use that old bike

大概是三四岁以前吧，当我们骑摩托的时候，我都是坐在我爸的前面。如果路上没什么车，他就会让我控制加速器。每次我都会转到最尽，因为我喜欢快的感觉。我小的时候就ð50;经有疯狂的迹象了。
Before I was about three of four years old, when we were riding on the bike, I used to sit in front of my dad. When we were riding on a traffic-free road, he would let me take control of the accelerator. Every time I would turn it until the end, because I like the feeling of speed. Even though I was still small, there was already some craziness in my mind

后来长大一点了，手脚够长了，我就坐在他的后面。我不能再控制加速器了。我爸的背后没长眼睛，所以他每次都对我说：“抱紧一点！不要掉下去！”我当然抱的很紧，所以我从来都不曾从摩托车上掉下来。
Later on when I grew a little, and my arms and legs were a little longer, I began to sit at his back. I can't control the accelerator anymore. There were no eyes behind my dad's back. So, every time he would tell me, "Hold tightly! Don't fall from the bike!" Sure I hold his waist tightly, and I had never fallen from the bike

我爸爸的腰不是很大。我爸很怕被骚痒。如果有人碰到他的腰，就算是那么一点点，他就会把身体弯下，然后大笑。我想那时当我抱着他的时候，他一定是不断地在忍着笑，而且得很小心地驾摩托车吧。
My dad's waist line was not very big. He was afraid of tickling. When somebody touched his waist, even though it's just a tiny little touch, he would bend his body and laugh loudly. So, I suppose that when I was hugging his waist on the bike, he was trying his best not to laugh, and at the same time, riding the motorbike carefully

马来西亚只有两种天气——旱季和雨季。旱季的时候总是很热，好像泰国的夏天。阳光好像刀一样地割你的皮肤。可是这总比雨季好。下雨的时候骑摩托是很难受的，因为当雨打在你身上的那种感觉也好像刀割你的皮肤。当你想快点回家而把速度加快时，那些雨就打得更猛了，皮肤也更痛。
In Malaysia there are only two seasons – rainy and dry. During the dry season, it is always hot, just like the summer now. Sunlight is like a knife that cut through your skin. However, dry season is always better than the rainy one. It's very uncomfortable to ride a motorbike in the rain. When the rain hit your skin, there are like thousands knife that cut through your skin. When you ride faster so that you could reach home as soon as possible, the rain hit you with greater intensity, and it's more painful

我都是坐在爸爸的后面。他的身体很大。他为我挡了大部分的阳光和雨。所以，只有我的手臂和脚会被阳光和雨攻击。我爸爸必定很疼吧，可是他从来都不说。他只是默默地为我忍受了这一切。我们的耶苏不也是这样一来吗？
However, I was always sitting behind my father. His body was big, and he blocked most of the sunlight and rain. Only my arms and legs would be strike by the sunlight and rain. My dad must feel very painful, but he had never told me about this. He endured it silently

很多年以后当我回想这些事的时候，我发现上帝在我还未认识祂以前已经透过我的爸爸将自己显露了出来。耶苏不就像我爸爸那样，一直都在我们的前面，为我们挡阳光，挡风吗？
After many years when I think back about all these, I realized that God had made Himself known to me, even though I was still a small innocent girl. Didn’t Jesus do the same like what my father had done? He is always in front of us, block the sunlight, block the rain

在我们的生活当中必定有许许多多的困难，许许多多的痛，许许多多的眼泪。可是耶苏一直都在我们的前面为我们挡了大部分的阳光和雨。当我们加快速度，想快点回家时，那些雨也打得更猛了。同样的，当我们陷在罪里越深的时候，耶苏所承受的也更痛。
In our lives, there must be a lot of difficulties, a lot of pains, a lot of tears. But Jesus is always in front of us, and blocks most of the sunlight and rain. When we increase our speed, so that we could reach home faster, the rain hit us stronger. When we are sinking deeper and deeper in our sin, the pain on Jesus is keener and keener

而那些割我们手臂和脚的阳光和雨，是一种磨练，也是一个提醒，为的是要我们记着，耶苏明白我们的感受，因为祂也曾经经历过比这更强烈的痛。我们要记得，无论我们的手臂和脚有多痛，只要我们抱紧一点，我们永远都不会掉下来。
The rest of the sunlight and rain that cut our arms and legs are to train us, and remind us that Jesus understands how we feel. He had undergone pain, and this pain is much stronger than ours. However, we must remember that, no matter how painful are our arms and legs, as long as we hold tightly, we would never fall.

Happy Fathers' Day!

上妻宏光 Hiromitsu Agatsuma

Discovered Hiromitsu Agatsuma by chance while surfing the Internet.. He plays the shamisen, a traditional Japanese 3-stringed instrument (sha = 3). Not an easy one to play, because the pick is huge and the strings are very close to each other!

Hiromitsu Agatsuma started out as a traditional shamisen player in 2001. However, these few years he also tried fusing the sound of shamisen with that of modern/traditional instruments around the world.

A traditional piece...




When the East meets the West...




This is just music...

Thai time vs. Malaysian time

Malaysia is 1 hour ahead of Thailand, even though they have the similar longitudes.

After moving back to this country for almost 4 years, I'm still not used to Malaysian time. Usually I wake up at 6.30a.m. In Thailand, at this the sun is already rising, and I'd be awakened by the light. However, in Malaysia, at 6.30a.m. it's still very dark. Even if I had had 8 hours of sleep, I still felt drowsy. At 6.30p.m. in Thailand, it's almost dark. But then in Malaysia it's still quite bright, and I don't feel like going home for a rest yet.

It feels so weird - Thailand and Malaysia are neighbors but they are one hour apart. You have to adjust your watch right after you've crossed the border. During that 6 years in Thailand, whenever I flew to Malaysia, I felt like I'd lost an hour of life, which was regained when I went back. In college, during the Malaysian Independent Day party, we started our countdown at 10.59p.m. (because in Malaysia it's already 11.59p.m.).

There's an article in Wikipedia about the history of time change in Malaysia. A long long time ago, it was +06:46:48 GMT in West Malaysia. Then it was changed to +7 GMT in 1905, then +8 GMT in 1981, so that the time in West Malaysia will be the same as that in East Malaysia, which falls in the +8 GMT time zone. As a result, Singapore also followed suit. It'd be so awkward if it's still +7 GMT - if you traveled by train from Thailand to Singapore, you'd have to adjust your watch twice!

I guess I'll need more time to learn to be a Malaysian again...

Are you awesome?

Took these photos a few months ago. Rediscovered them while decluttering my hard drive.

This was on the side of a Sunkist orange juice box. The competition was already over a few months ago (you're supposed to send a picture that depicts your awesomeness). What caught my attention was the question. What makes a person awesome? Is it possible to capture that awesomeness in just one photo?

I googled the question and found this - http://www.areyouawesome.com/ - a one page website with just 1 question - Are you you? If you are, then you are AWESOME!

So to be awesome is to be yourself? What do you think?

If somebody asked you that question, will this be your answer?

Childhood memory - Ligo raisins

Took me a while to find these in Ipoh. The more common Ligo raisins are the black ones, but I don't prefer them. I like the golden Ligo. When I was still a kid, my dad bought me these raisins as a substitute for sweets. These are the best raisins I've ever had!

I tried to look for them in the hypermarkets. They were not there. And one day I found the last 2 packs in Shell petrol station. Bought all of them. Went back again later and there's no more. Then a few days afterward I discovered them in an old and gloomy grocery store while paying for my loaf. I was delighted and bought a few packs. Will be going there again and refill my stock of Ligo soon.

It seems like the hypermarkets still can't replace grocery stores yet...

Reading can cause "inattention deafness"

From MailOnline

While reading, I'd be so absorbed that I am totally oblivious to the surrounding sound & movement. No matter how noisy it is, once I'm into a book, I hear nothing else. I become deaf temporarily. This phenomenon is being scientifically studied and it was found that the brain has limited capacity in processing visual and auditory information at the same time [read more here]. This has serious implication - for example, if you are reading a book while crossing the road, you might end up getting knocked by a car because you can't hear its horn.

Actually this is the skill that I prize the most. Human body is built in a way that we can close our mouth if we don't wanna talk; our eyes if we don't wanna see; our nose if we don't wanna smell. However, we can't close our ears, which are open 24/7. The only escape from a noisy environment, besides bombarding your ears with loud music through earphones, is to open a book and be engrossed in it. It's difficult to find a quiet place nowadays (sometimes even a house could be noisy, luckily mine is not), especially when you are living in a city. Therefore, reading is probably the cheapest way to seek internal quietness. You don't have to travel to the outskirt to look for mountains, streams, chirps, breeze, you could find them in a book.

Just remember this - put down your book while crossing the road!

David Garrett - The fastest violinist

One of my favorite violinists. He played Flight of the Bumblebee in 1 min 5.26 sec and set a new Guinness World Record on 20 December 2008, in Germany.




David Garrett playing Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. Simply amazing!




"He's a Pirate" - Pirates of the Carribean

From the NYT: Rock-Paper-Scissors - You vs. the Computer

Rock-paper-scissors - a simple game that we play since we were kids. This time we can play against the computer here. In this game, you can choose your opponent - novice (computer with no experience) or veteran (computer with many experiences from thousands of rounds). Even though the game is simple, it involves intricate analysis by the brain. When playing it, unconsciously we are guessing the pattern of our opponent and have to decide how to beat him/her at the next round. The computer can also mimic this analysis - an illustration of simple artificial intelligence.

After playing for 5 rounds, you can click to see what the computer is thinking and how it is analyzing your trend. For us this type of evaluation occurs effortlessly in the brain. However, if you want a computer to do this, you'd need to compile thousands of data before writing a complicated program that contains many pages of codes. And it's just for one type of analysis!

Human brain is just amazing...

Superhero Grandma!

A project by Sacha Goldberger to keep his 91-year-old grandma Frederika happy. He called it the "Superhero Grandma Therapy." He had his grandma dressed up as a superhero and took her photos.

Grandma Frederika is indeed a superhero. During WWII, she saved 10 Jews by hiding them at various places everyday. She was forced to move from Hungary, her homeland, to Frace, to escape execution by the Communist government.

Some of the picture in the 1st series...

In the 2nd series, superhero grandma has a boyfriend - Mr. Papika!

The next series will include a dog, Dark Papouka. Really looking forward to that!

When I get old, I wanna be a superhero grandma too! :-D

Lynas rare earth refinery in my hometown!!!

from the NYTimes

Recently my hometown, Kuantan, located at the east coast of West Malaysia, is receiving much attention, especially among the locals (and those like me who are not staying there but are still concerned). There's even an article in the NY Times about this issue - the construction of rare earth refinery at Gebeng by Lynas Corp. Ltd, an Australian rare earth mining company. In fact that's the only news about Kuantan in the NY Times - it feels so surreal to read about it in a foreign newspaper. FYI, Kuantan is the capital city of Pahang state, which also happens to be the home state of our Prime Minister, Najib Razak.

The refinery is almost done. Since its construction, property value around the area has dropped. What worries the locals the most is the tremendous amount of radioactive waste that will be released by the refinery once it started operation. Lynas company claims that it'll comply to all the environmental and safety requirements, and the risk is minimal - should we believe it?

Petitions have been signed and submitted, protests were organized, politicians have been met and talked - everything that could possibly be done has been done, and yet the construction is still going on and almost complete.

The almost complete refinery, from the NYT.

Kuantan is a small and beautiful city (one of the cleanest in Malaysia), where I spent most of my first 18 years of life. I really hope it'll stay that way forever. When I visit my hometown again, I really really hope I won't find a place heavily polluted and mostly abandoned.

[Join "Pahang Don't Need Hazardous Project" to support the Stop Lynas Movement!]

Will ask my dad to get one of those T-shirts and car sticker for me! 

Bookfessions

Discovered a wonderful book blog in tumblr - Bookfessions. It's a collection of confessions made by booklovers. You can also send yours to the author and she'll make it into a nice little poster. Currently there are 572 confessions and it's still increasing rapidly!

Some of my favorites...

This is what I enjoy doing! I love looking at my bookshelf!

I'm addicted to the smell of book, old and new alike...

The fact that the Holy Bible is still being read gives me hope for the human race.

I wish I could have a floor-brary!

Me too... Hopefully my glasses will stop getting thicker