It's past midnight, and I should be focusing on my work: editing a piece of article on reforestation so that I could go to sleep but me being me......... I spent the last 15 minutes researching and putting together this description of my current craving, one that I developed over the past few days but have yet to satiate:
thin crispy crust base, slightly burnt but soft inside covered with a layer of zesty tomato sauce with hints of basil, oregano and garlic, and topped with mushroom, spicy pepperoni, sizzling Italian sausage & ground beef and a generous amount of rocket leaves, and just oozing with mozarella and parmesan!
yea, me hankering for a slice of that heaven now. :(
I don't know if this was a frivolous buy, I don't know what I would do with them, I don't know how I would fare in this medium. I don't know a lot of things but of this I'm sure, that just on their own, they cause such giddiness in my heart! ^_^ Oh soo pwetty.
“Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? No. Just as one can never learn how to paint.”
― Pablo Picasso
I was lying on the living room floor watching an anime on my laptop when my eyes caught something blurry running passed the couch to my right. For some reason I thought it was a cat, but I dismissed it quickly as that didn't seem plausible. There was a cat in the show so I thought I was imagining things.. and continued watching my show.
Suddenly, there was the movement again, and lo and behold, it was a kitten! In my house! I must have been as surprised as it was. It surveyed me for a few seconds and made a sudden run out to my porch and underneath my car. Like Alice, I went after the White Rabbit but because I didn't want to startle it further, I just sat at my doorstep and meowed softly trying to mimic it.
It didn't seem scared, and was running around my car, occasionally clawing at the tyre as it would a scratching post. It kept eyeing me with those big eyes, cautiously perhaps, but didn't make any attempt to run away. In fact, it would come very close each time I held out my hand, and it'd stop short and take a step back. We danced around like this for a while, so I think it was just being playful.
I thought it might be hungry so I went looking for something it could nibble on. It hungrily nom-ed what I gave it so I went a few times back into the kitchen to find whatever scraps of food I could feed it with. Too bad I didn't have much.
Anyway, after a while, I had to leave the house for dinner and when I got home, it was no longer there. I wonder if it would come back. If it does, I wonder if it would be mine. Ah, thanks kitty for warming my heart. :)
Friday, August 23, 2013
"How utterly ignorant!" she chastised herself. "You're all over the place, jack of all trades, master of none!"
She looked out of the rain-stained windows of the moving bus as it cruised down the highway.
"Look at those trees and shrubs. What do you know about them? Nothing. Not their names, not their species, not the climate they thrive in. What have you got to say for yourself? Look at your colleague, he's busy with work, taking the same diploma course as you, and he wants to embark on a master's course, while balancing his family life, and is even active in sports. And you?"
The sky wasn't very pretty that day. The usually brilliant blue looked dusty as it was lightly covered by the white. The weather was great though. The sun was casting no shadows, and there was no indication of rain. Just quiet.
Well, it wasn't really quiet. Her favourite Chinese singers were taking turns singing in her ears, dictated by the recently created playlist. One and a half year after she found someone she could be inexplicably yet immensely interested in, she still couldn't fully grasp what it meant to be a fan of Chinese pop. She wondered if her interest in a subset of C-pop amount for anything. She wondered if she should even wonder about such topic, which she does on a regular basis.
She glanced over to her best friend who was totally engrossed in reading, and decided she should get back to her book too.
I created my first Wikipedia page today w00t! ^__^
On a whim, I joined Wiki yesterday, and dabbled by editing a couple of entries (specifically, the last sentence here and this). I had actually wanted to edit Leehom's entry to add that bit about his Oxford Union speech (how he was the first Chinese pop singer to speak there), but apparently his page is semi-protected (because he's really popular = prone to vandalism)(inaccessible to me because I'm newly registered), so I went to potter about in the bios of the next two famous people I know something about: Brendan and David.
Today, I thought I'd go a step further, sooo.. ta-dah! I created a page for David's new album here:
I would like to add more things to the page, but erm, I can't find much more news about the album in English, so the page is pretty sparse. Still, it was a good practice for me. :)
btw, a trivia bit: as you know, I'm a huge fan and user of Wikipedia (who isn't?) and Quora, and what does these two sites have in common? Jimmy Wales! Jimmy is of course the founder of Wiki and also an advisor and small time (his words) investor in Quora.
update 26-Jul: yay, I finally got access to add in that line in Leehom's profile. *beams*
update 2-Aug: I've been making more edits to Leehom's profile. Check them out on this revision history page, for amendments done under my handle sillellis ;)
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
- Aldous Huxley (via David Crowder)
I've had quite a bit of the latter here lately, which is naturally pretty awesome, but I'm taking a quick break to pursue the former. I'll leave you with this, Khalil Fong's wonderful cover of Faye Wong's 紅豆 Red Bean.
LH's said in the video that this John Lennon song is his all-time favorite, and he ended the performance remarking he wished he'd written it. well, i can't agree with half the words of the song but i can appreciate its sentiment about removing borders that divide mankind. (i know it's a hugely popular song, but it's not "up there" for me la.. well, even Lennon had admitted that "Imagine — an absolute equality created by the dissolution of governments, borders, organized religion and economic class — was "virtually the Communist Manifesto.""[via] so yeah, erm, not my favorite ideology)
perhaps there's a little envy in me that LH's not lost his idealistic outlook, because I certainly have! let's face it, the world will not get better. the Bible said that "in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power." I don't need imagination to know that this is true.
/random rant/ anddd this just in, what do you know, the US Senate blocked gun control reform. seriously, i don't get what's wrong with these people. the Senate is a stupid (i know, what a "mature" choice of word right) joke and a failed system. "the world's greatest deliberative body" my @$$. /end rant/
so, the world's not getting better. BUT it's not all bleak. we've seen beauty in ashes. we are still at war, inside and out. for every battle lost, there'll be one won. we will celebrate every small victory. there's hope. and in the end, everything will be made right.
___ in my youth I was an optimistic idealist, now older I have become a pragmatic realist.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
i am handing in my assignment tomorrow, and i can't help feeling like this.
did you know that 65% of the internet is cat videos and photos? so i made that up. but cats are probably the second most popular subject on the www (no prize for guessing what the first is). i think. and this i'm sure: Maru is has been an internet superstar (here, read this). he should be. and i just want to flood my page with some photos of his royal cuteness. because i can. sigh i'm in love! enjoy! ok back to work! :P
here's an introductory video to this fluffy huggable darlin' of a creature:
Monday, January 28, 2013
what is a gift? for me today it was waking up from a three-hour nap on a sunday evening, and then realising that the next day, a monday, is a public holiday. oh JOY!
2012 for me was also about chinese songs. i don't think i've ever heard that many chinese songs in the span of 9 months. granted, 90% of the time i was listening to one particular singer who doesn't need to be named but i shall, just because. hello, leehom :) along the way, i revisited david tao, and took some interest in the songs from mayday, sodagreen and khalil fong. i kinda realised that i would never be able to fully get the whole chinese pop music scene. not that i want to: the thought of another sappy ballad makes me bleh.
i am aware that i've not set any goals for my spiritual life for 2013. it's not that i have not been thinking about it. perhaps i'm afraid of all the resos i could make, that i would not be able to keep these. i don't think it's any different from other resos, but not achieving the ones in this category is like breaking a promise to God, which i have done often enough. maybe it's all in my head. but perhaps it's to do with my not wanting to commit to this form of sp discipline.
tentative travel plans for this year: Taiwan (yes, again :) and maybe Bali and hopefully Singapore w00t! i had hopes to visit Beijing, not now but one day when the air quality becomes better (right now it's off the charts bad!)... and maybe Wuhan next year and someday LA! :D and New York! and Lapland! and Tokyo and London! when oh when is money gonna pour down from my sky? hehehe
i am halfway attempting to translate this song from Khalil Fong that i've been looping the entire evening, but i feel like i'm falling short. i think it's a simple but poetic piece, and my direct translation is just killing it. but because i'm halfway done, i'm pushing forward with it. forgive me, 大同! so here's 春風吹 Spring Wind..
吹紅了桃花 吹綠了柳樹
你在路上總會安慰誰
吹醒了青蛙 吹來了燕子
我在城裡剛好缺了誰
你縱然帶來地下的玫瑰
能否收回地上的滋味 有人唱胡不歸
the wind blows and makes the peach blossom red and the willow tree green
who will you be comforting on this journey?
the wind blows and wakes up the frog, and brings the swallow
in the city, i just missed someone out
you brought with you roses from the undergrounds
could you take back the taste of the ground
someone's singing recklessly and not returning
春風一吹想起誰
有所謂 無所謂 只要不後悔
春風一吹忘了誰
我上一次流淚又幾歲
when the spring wind blows, who are you thinking of?
does it matter? it doesn't matter as long as there is no regrets
when the spring wind blows, who have you forgotten?
the last time i cried and how old was i?
你會退 我想追 會不會 對不對
也難怪我有點累
洞裡蛇 冬日睡 原上草 春風吹
到夏天我變了誰
you will retreat, and i want to follow after you
would i? am i right? no wonder i'm tired
the snake in the hole, hibernating in winter
grass in the meadow, the spring wind blows
when summer comes, i have become someone else
吹過玉門關 吹過南泥灣
你在北方註定拋棄誰
吹皺了河水 吹散了雲堆
我在世界不巧背著誰
你可以慫恿三月的悶雷
能否保證十年的約會 有人放生烏龜
the wind blows past the Jade Gate and past the Southern Muddy Bay
from where you are at the north, who have you decided to abandon?
the wind blows and creases the river and scatters the clouds
here on earth, i have had to carry the burdens for someone
could you instigate the melancholic thunders of March?
could you ensure our date on the tenth year
someone's releasing a turtle to its freedom
皺/皱 zhòu - to wrinkle / wrinkled / to crease
堆 duī - to pile up / to heap up / a mass / pile / heap
慫恿/怂恿 sǒngyǒng - to instigate / to incite / to egg sb on
for whatever reason, more than half of the people who come to this blog are from... Russia. am I a joke there or something? i hope not! actually, other than Malaysia or Singapore, I can't imagine anyone I know being from the other countries listed below. maybe i have something that they were looking for something for (i can't imagine what). but hello, i spent the whole of last year talking about leehom and yet, NONE of the queries about him were directed to my page, but some obscure detail in my blog are showing up all over Russian search results? oh Internet, you will never cease to confound me.
this is an entry about my brief and closest direct brush with a celebrity. in case you didn't know, Janet Hsieh is the fun-loving hyperactive host of Fun Taiwan, a Discovery channel travel show. she posted a note on FB last week asking who would be her 7,000th follower on Twitter. i would have liked that to be me, but i read her msg a little too late, hence what i wrote. and she replied to my tweet almost immediately. thought this was quite cool. :)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
life is chock-a-block of paradoxes. sometimes they are amusing, sometimes maddening, often inscrutable, rarely rational. what purpose do they serve? i don't pay them much attention these days for the sake of my well-being, but of course they don't really go away. sometimes i feel like they make fun of my denseness, my deer-in-headlights gaze, so i just pretend this is all normal, and they would fade into the background. i don't know why i brought this up. there's really nothing there. maybe it's because i feel like i owe you a blog post and have nothing to offer except for this piece of fairly nonsensical and vague thought.
mm maybe i should tell you the other things on my mind: how i can't wait for leehom's new music (and movies) coming out soon, or how i've been trying to figure out why and how david tao actually moves me deeper, and how that's perplexing given that i relate more to leehom, and with that how i also wonder about the dynamics of the single-direction virtual relationships i have with these two men, how frustrating it could be "talking" to them, one voice among thousands others, and what does any of the communication actually mean, and how sheepish i am knowing that you are reading this and you're wondering why i don't have better things to think about. *blush* well, i also think about the relationship (also virtual but thankfully two-way) i have with my one friend on weibo. and i also think about real-life relationships which i'm not good at growing, but which i suppose i should work on. i have also been thinking about my prayer life, but really, i just need to do rather than think. so many things to think about. let me sleep on them. good night folks.
david tao :: highways (instrumental)
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
despite the rumours, i somehow have never believed that lee hom is gay, because i don't have any reasons to buy into them. so when he publicly locked lips with the venerable jackie chan (reports here, here and here), i... i... just don't get it. why can't they just high five? or bear hug? (oh, they did that.) or just go with the timeless handshake? i know they are super close buddies from their Little Big Soldier 大兵小將 days, and they tend to sing praises about each other in interviews, but this... is... what? why?
anyway, i googled for 'why do heterosexual men kiss' and there are actually articles about it (read this and this). one of the article says that: 'Heterosexual men kissing each other in friendship is an offshoot of what happens when homophobia is reduced. At these universities, overt homophobia has reduced to near extinction, permitting those men to engage in behaviour that was once taboo. Men are kissing each other in university clubs and pubs, in front of their peers, and for many it serves as an occasional, exuberant greeting or banter when partying. The kiss is a sign of affection in student social spaces, a sign of victory on the pitch, or celebration at a nightclub but it does not have a sexual connotation in any of these spaces. It seems generally younger people are becoming more and more open minded with each generation.'
erm okayy. i'm somewhat assuaged, but still i find this unorthodox approach to greeting a friend (of any gender) rather erm.. peculiar. maybe i'm not as liberal as i think i am hahaha..
you get a song so stuck in your head, you'd worry that you will forever be hearing it in your mind but you don't really want it gone right now because you're totally hooked by it, until it reaches a point where you start to think that it's time for some other song to have its share in the limelight, and yet you just can't and still don't want to stop the flow and you wonder and you hum and you wonder and you sing the chorus over and over and over again.. and then one day while reading something totally irrelevant on the computer, you suddenly realize you have not have heard that song in a while and you wondered what happened there.
the flavour of this week is Maroon 5's Payphone.. it's just sooo catchy i sing it (the chorus :P) alll the time, in my carrrr. but i do hate the explicit lyrics, esp that rap stanza by Wiz Khalifa yang tidak bertempat.. i.e. it makes no sense, and adds NOTHING to the song. the collaboration was uncalled for(maybe they had a quota to meet -_-) but whatever, i can't help but to sing along to this song and am happy there are clean versions of the song all over the tube, and one even without Wiz. yay! can I complain about how the bank heist music video doesn't make sense? no? okay.. *meekly surrenders.. to myself?*
LOL of the day: what do you get when you mash the attention-seeking Kim K and the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard? this twitter account: twitter.com/KimKierkegaard. hehehe.. it's hilarious!
as i was writing this, i just got a call from a lady whose IC i picked up a couple of months ago. it was really terrible of me to sit on it for so long because i couldn't find her contact online (no FB, no nothing).. so as last resort, i wrote a snail mail to her.. which i only sent out a few weeks later because.. hahaha.. because I'm awful like that... but she sounded really grateful, and she told me that she has just collected her new IC today. the government is more efficient than me, take that. hahaha..
i've been having the sniffles for the past 4 days. i had unwittingly chugged down two doses of coffee when i was in Miri (once in the morning to get me going, and once at the airport while waiting for my flight), and naturally, i was kept awake until 4am when i got back, and i woke up early to go for breakfast with the sibs who came back over the weekend. boo hoo.
so what else have been new in the time i was away from here? mm..
i took part in my maiden treasure hunt contest (the NST Motor Hunt). chongy had a place in her car when her friend pulled out, so i got the pleasure of participating. it was really fun! it was tiring too, esp the prize giving ceremony that went on and on and on... and while we only got two errors, we were placed 16th out of 200 cars (one of the errors was a 6-mark treasure question, so it really set us back quite a bit). i was rather disappointed but it was really for the best *cryptic* hahaha..
that's about it, for now. on to today's song...
i saw this music video as a nominal lee hom fan, because i follow wongfu production on youtube.. i rber seeing the video and kinda liked it, but that was that. the music video is pretty okay EXCEPT for the last scene: that awkward reunion between lee hom and his on-screen girlfriend has always bugged me. and after a while, i kinda disliked the song for its overt simplicity. then i came across this comment from one of his fans, a Swedish university lecturer based in Shanghai (I do like how lee hom's fan base cuts across so many nationality):
Karin: The singing along [at Lee Hom's concert] feeling reminds me of the Swedish pop group ABBA, who wrote simple but original songs that are easy to remember and sing along with. In Sweden they were sometimes criticized for writing too simple music, but it turned out the songs are universal and very long-lasting favourites. And the songs make people sing! The musical Mama Mia with ABBA music has reached tremendous successes all over the globe, both as movie and stage shows. Everywhere people stand up in the end and sing along. The songs and the musical are also well-known in China and have been translated to Chinese.
i guess simplicity has its appeal... i can't decide if it's a good thing.. let me think.. yeah, don't we always lament about the complexity of life? don't i often berate those who has a knack for making mountains out of molehills.. and how i get confused with doublespeak and when things are not what they appear to be? google "simplicity quotes" and we could see hundreds of lines touting its virtues..
ooh this is good, and i think it's true: said by one E.F. Schumacker – Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.) fine, simple is better. mm i'm not sure if i'm comparing apple to apple here. but yeah, it explains the diversity of Lee Hom's hordes of fans. am i trying to justify his works? perhaps. but why not, right?
ok, i might not make sense cos right now i am under the influence of drug -- just popped in my flu pill that causes drowsiness. can't wait to doze off. as for the song, i think the "you" in it refers more to his music career than any girl. haha..
一閃一閃亮晶晶 留下歲月的痕跡
我的世界的中心 依然還是你
一年一年又一年 飛逝僅在一轉眼
唯一永遠不改變 是不停地改變
twinkle twinkle little star (lit. flashing bright sparkle, but the words
一閃一閃亮晶晶 are the same as the first line of the eponymous nursery rhyme so i've decided to use that here)
leaving behind traces of time gone by
you remain to be the centre of my world
year after year, time goes by in the blink of an eye
and the only constant in life is that of change
我不像從前的自己 你也有點不像你
但在我眼中你的笑 依然的美麗
日子只能往前走 一個方向順時鐘
不知道還有多久 所以要讓你懂
you and i are not the same people we were
but your smile in my eyes remains as beautiful as ever
the days would only move forward like the hands of the clock
i don't know how long this would last, so i want you to understand (that)
我依然愛你 就是 唯一的退路
我依然珍惜 時時刻刻的幸福
你每個呼吸 每個動作 每個表情
到最後 一定會 依然愛你
i still love you, there's no two way about it
i still cherish every moment of happiness we shared
and your every breath, every move, every expression
i will always love you till the very end
我依然愛你 或許是 命中注定
多年之後 任何人都無法代替
那些時光 是我這一輩子最美好的
那些回憶 依然無法忘記
i still love you, maybe that's always meant to be
so many years have passed, no one could ever replace you
those moments were the most beautiful in my life
there's no forgetting the memories
at a chap fun lunch with my colleagues yesterday, we got to talking about some of the Chinese singers we liked back in the 90s.. in particular Hong Kong's Four Heavenly Kings (Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau and Leon Lai) and their Taiwanese equivalent (Jimmy Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Nicky Wu and Tommy Su). it turned out that one of the guys at lunch was also into Jimmy Lin! that was an exciting discovery and soon we were singing some of his old songs right there and then at the lunch table.. that wasn't something i'd expected! :D
anyway, when we were talking about Aaron Kwok, which the same colleague was also a fan of, i suddenly remembered that i liked this song by Aaron but had completely forgot what it was like -- I had no idea if it was in Canto or Mandarin, what it was about, how the tune went. the only thing I knew was that it was a sad Aaron Kwok song from one of his movies back in the early 90s. with those measly clues, we obviously couldn't to figure out which song it was..
after lunch, i came back to my place and decided to give it a try and looked it up. i started with AK's wiki page but nothing rang any bell there. my friend looked up the Chinese version of the wiki page, but also nothing. we prodded about aimlessly. then i suddenly remembered there was a beggar in the show (turned out to be AK himself haha).. so i googled "aaron kwok beggar" and a few links later, I'm listening to the song.. ladies and gentlemen, if you do not know this already: the internet is an crazily amazing place.
it's the theme song from his 1993 movie, The Barefooted Kid. i've no idea what the storyline is already but i rbered that it has a tragic ending. and it is a sad song. not planning to translate it, but you can try checking back in the future. i just might.
this is my default google.com.my screen. instead of the boring white screen, you can set your preferred background image by clicking on "Change background image" on the bottom left of the screen. there are thousands and thousands of images to choose from. go crazy!
The sky wasn't very pretty that day. The usually brilliant blue looked dusty as it was lightly covered by the white. The weather was great though. The sun was casting no shadows, and there was no indication of rain. Just quiet.
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