Archive for December, 2007

Meme

Published on 7 December 2007 in meme. 3 Comments

Cool. A meme.

1. Are you dating the last person you kissed?
Well, no. I’m married to him. That’s not dating, is it?

2. Pretend you’ve had 10 beers. What you would be doing right now?
Either having the spins or chundering. Or both.

3. What do you want?
A black Pelikan M200, with F nib. Plus X-F, M, B, and oblique nibs I can swap when I feel like it.

4. Who was the last person you shared a bed with?
M. (see 1, above.)

5. Do you talk to yourself?
No. Unless you count blogging as talking to yourself.

6. Do you drink milk straight from the carton?
Don’t drink the stuff.

7. Who knows the latest secret about you?
If someone knows, then it’s not really a secret, is it?

8. How long is your hair?
Not very. After all those years of bum-length hair, I’m glad I decided to have it cut!

9. Do you like Batman?
Meh. Superheroes, I just can’t relate, you know?

10. Who was the last person who told you they loved you?
M.

13. Do you like anyone now?
Of course. Except that strange guy at the Oats St station in the mornings who enjoys spitting. While we wait for the bus, he just stands there and spits. I kid you not. Makes me feel like smacking him and telling him to stop it. And I don’t believe in smacking, so you see how much I dislike the guy??

14. When was the last time you lied?
Never. [snicker]

16. Is your birthday on a holiday?
Nope. Except that I usually make sure I take the day off, so it is a holiday for me anyway. Decadent huh.

17. What instant messaging service do you use?
I wish my answer could be as clever as this.

18.Last thing you cooked today?
Don’t cook until dinner time. (Had pawpaw, mango, kiwi fruit and orange for breakfast.)

19. Did you have a nap today?
I don’t nap until after lunch. (It’s 5:42am.)

20. Whose house did you go to last?
M’s aunt’s place.

21. What do you wear more, jeans or sweats?
Jeans. Like Pavlov’s Cat, I hate the term sweats. And no, I don’t own any.

22. Why is the sky blue?
Why is the grass green?

23. Do you like green beans?
Yes. And cannelloni beans, black-eyed beans, kidney beans, soy beans…

24. Do you swear a lot?
Not really. The theory is, when I do swear, I am really really really annoyed.

25. Where did you get the shirt you’re wearing?
Good Sammy’s.

27. Do you use an alarm clock?
Yes. But I always wake up 1 minute before it goes off.

28. Where was your default MySpace picture taken?
No idea.

29. Do you ever snort when you laugh?
Nope.

30. Whats the first thing you notice on the opposite sex?
Their hands. Their size, cleanliness, what they’re doing with them.

31. Is cheating ever okay?
When? On your partner - no. In management sims - yes.

32. Do you want someone you can’t have?
No. (actually I don’t get this question.)

34. Do you wear underwear?
What sort of question is this???

35. Do you wear a bra?
See Ampersand Duck’s answer.

36. What Size?
See 35, above.

37. Are you a social or an antisocial person?
It’s relative.
[The numbering goes all skewif from here onwards.]

39. Do you have a tan?
Yes, I have Birkenstock tan lines on my feet.

45. Are you afraid of the dark?
Not when I have my brave chihuahua to protect me!

47. Do you miss someone today?
Not until I thought of this question. Then I missed Baubles the Cat, my grandmother, and my friend B.

49. Do you still have pictures of you & your exs?
I think so, buried at the bottom of a box somewhere…

50. Who’s always there for you no matter what?
M. (And he does put up with a lot!)

Reading in the original

Published on 6 December 2007 in language and reading. 1 Comment

Still thinking about reading. I am very grateful to the accident of birth that means that I can read the literatures of two (or three) languages.

Why two or three languages? Why aren’t I more definite, you ask? Well, two of the languages I am referring to are Malaysian (Bahasa Malaysia) and Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). Malaysian and Indonesian are very very similar. If I was to compare, I’d say the differences between them are like the differences between the English spoken in Scotland and the English spoken in Australia. There are historical differences (helped along by having different colonisers), cultural differences, and large and very noticeable differences in accent/pronunication. There are vocabulary differences, too. Most speakers of English would still be able to identify both Scottish English and Australian English as English, even if some of us might have difficulties understanding either variety. The same goes for a speaker of Malay (for that is the language that Malaysian and Indonesian are based on) - they would recognise Malaysian and Indonesian as being very similar but different. And would have difficulties understanding some varieties of the two - I love listening to Terengganu Malaysian but don’t always get it, and Jakartan Indonesian is sometimes quite unintelligible to me. But the standard varieties of the two - standard, as in what is taught in school, and how news readers sound - are perfectly understandable, and most modern literature is perfectly readable.

Over the years I’ve actually read more Indonesian lit than Malaysian, as the library system here seems to have more Indonesian stuff than Malaysian. (Favourite Indonesian authors: Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Nh. Dini, S Mara Gd, Rendra. But I will read most things I find.) Even in Malaysia, Malay language lit is difficult to get - the bookshops seem to have lots of romances but not much else.

As for literature in Chinese, I still classify myself as a struggling learner who finds it quite a slog to read novels in Chinese. I enjoy the challenge, though, and am trying to improve by reading vaguely literary magazines like ???? Qingnian Wenzhai “Youth Digest” and ?? Duzhe “Reader”, and short stories by writers like ??? Zhang Ailing.

Chinese literature often seems rather stilted (to me) when translated into English, and is far better in the original. I don’t know why this is so. Perhaps the cultural and linguistic differences don’t translate well. I feel very lucky to be able to read these literatures in their original languages.

A Year in Reading: Prelude

Published on 5 December 2007 in 2007, reading and books. 1 Comment

I do like looking back over the year and considering the books I’ve read. This year’s list is not yet complete, so I’m going to wait a little while before I write my version of A Year in Reading. It’s a nice exercise in which you think back about what you read and loved this year.

C. Max Magee makes a good point:

But books, unlike most forms of media, are consumed in a different way. The tyranny of the new does not hold as much sway with these oldest of old media. New books are not forced upon us quite so strenuously as are new music and new movies. The reading choices available to us are almost too broad to fathom. And so we pick here and there from the shelves, reading a book from centuries ago and then one that came out ten years ago.

Very true. I usually borrow popular works from the library, which means I have to wait until the frenzy has died down and the book is actually available. That’s assuming I bother to read them at all. There’s so much to read that just because everyone’s talking about a book, doesn’t mean I will read it. Even if the marketing for a book is relentless, and I succumb and get myself a copy, there’s still no guarantee I will read it. So many books, so little time…

C. Max Magee also says:

A lucky reader is one surrounded by many other readers.

Thank goodness for the Net, which allows that a non-joiner like me my own little space to ruminate about what I enjoy, without having to submit myself to joining a bookclub. Thanks to all of you readers for deigning to share your opinions with me over these last couple of years!

(Thanks to Languagehat for the tip.)