eh ya hey ya eh yo

gained in mistranslation

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:39:00 +0800

kalamata olives. named after a greek city. but in indonesian, kala is the beast that eats the sun and the moon, a metaphor for time itself, and mata means the eye.

i’m gonna eat the eyes of time right now. yummeh.

"ต้นร้ายปลายดี"

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:04:16 +0800

“ต้นร้ายปลายดี”

- dtohn raai bplaai dee. all’s well that ends well.

white swan, black swan

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:33:13 +0800

the rational person acts based on what he knows. he is unimaginative and, in many ways, he pays for it. it is not enough to be rational. one must know that he sees but little, and thus in his plans must he consider all those things that he cannot and does not see.

it is tragic that the unimaginative rational is so arrogant in his own intelligence that he cannot understand the ideas of him who understands the nature and the flaws of rationality.

"After perusing a few pages, it became clear that this was a Chinese government propaganda piece, and..."

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:19:03 +0800

“After perusing a few pages, it became clear that this was a Chinese government propaganda piece, and it seemed out of place with the bookstore’s very mainstream wares. I asked the owner why he had decided to carry such a biased book and whether he had any that presented other sides of the Tibet issue. After looking at the book he replied that he had not ordered it. He then went to his computer and checked past book orders, and concluded that neither he nor any of his employees had ordered it, and that the store did not even do business with the book’s distributor… I later found that other bookstores in the area had unordered copies of this and other Chinese government-produced books on their shelves, apparently surreptitiously placed there by Chinese officials hoping that these cheaply priced volumes would be purchased by Australian readers, who would be converted to the Chinese position regarding Tibet.”

- History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People’s Republic of China, by John Powers. Amazon link here.

"ความสุข!"

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:17:11 +0800

“ความสุข!”

- khwaam sook. happiness! phom mii khwaam sook. i am happy!

Nothing But The Truth (2008)

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:38:00 +0800

Alan: A man can live a good life, be honorable, give to charity, but in the end, the number of people who come to his funeral is generally dependent on the weather.

Rachel: What? I'm sorry. I'm not following.

Alan: The weather has changed, Rachel. I'm sorry, but it has. That's the truth. In the old days, this would have been a lot easier to fight. The public would have called you a hero. But I don't know, somewhere along the line, the press... the press stopped being the white knight, and started being the dragon. That's the way people see it. You want to know why no paper in this country, including your own, has continued covering your story?

Rachel: Why don't you tell me?

Alan: Because your 48-hour news cycle dried up months ago. I mean, look at you, Rachel. You look like shit. Your kid is growing up without you-

Rachel: Don't bring Timmy into this. It's not fair. Okay? I'm a good mother.

Alan: Fair? Fuck fair! Look, you may not want to bring your son into this, but I do. You want to know why?

Rachel: Why?

Alan: Because I'm defending Rachel Armstrong, not a principle.

Rachel: A man leaves his family to go to jail to protect a principle, and they name a holiday after him. A man leaves his children to go fight in a war, and they erect a monument to him. A woman does the same thing, and she's a monster. If we back down, what are we saying, Albert? "Trust reporters as long as they're not mothers, because they'll crack." The truth is, if I had known that writing this fucking story would have separated me from Timmy, then maybe I wouldn't have done it. But here we are. The story's been published, and the path has been chosen, and there's no way back, and in the end, my son will be fine. You know, Ray is a great father, and Timmy's gonna be okay, but that will not be the case with my source. My source will be publicly saddled with the death of Erica Van Doren, and that, I promise you, will mean the destruction of the person we're talking about, and that, Alan, that is not fair.

Alan: Why? I mean, your source knew full well the ramifications of speaking to you.

Rachel: My source didn't know what they were doing when I got the information.

possible theses

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:48:00 +0800

What is History: Life, the Universe and Everything

What is History: Nationing and Unnationing the Nation

Dragon: The Lee Kuan Yew Story (he knows kungfu)

To Catch a Tartar II: On the Indefinability of the Nation

The Tartar Apprehended: On the Definability of the Nation

Fashion, Make-up and Magazines: Womanity in Singapore

The Vegetarian Agenda: Environmentalism vs. the Body Politic

Witches and Bitches: Radical Religion and the Hijacking of the State (haha)

Indonesia and Singapore: Best Friends Forever (dunno why this is here)

Money, Sand and War: Popular Perceptions of Burmese Relations with Singapore

Thaksin Shinawatra: An Account of the Swashbuckling Adventures of a Travelling Politician in Southeast Asia (i like this best, i think)

Highlanders: The Assam Region and Why Southeast Asia Does Not Exist

From Babies to Crazies: Why Our Political Leaders Are Completely Off Their F*ing Rockers (where i trace the childhoods of politicians who amuse me)

no thanks to a super popular tv series some time ago, this guy...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:11:55 +0800

no thanks to a super popular tv series some time ago, this guy is now popularly perceived as the most bullied deity of all time

"当局者迷，旁观者清"

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:45:44 +0800

“当局者迷，旁观者清”

- dang ju zhe mi, pang guan zhe qing. those involved are in a fog, the on-lookers are clear. almost literal translation. you get the gist.

"นอนหลับฝันดี"

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:25:58 +0800

“นอนหลับฝันดี”

- non lap fan di. “Good night and sweet dreams!”

my mind is clogged. it is completely obsessed with the idea of the one-sided story as told by the...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:24:45 +0800

my mind is clogged. it is completely obsessed with the idea of the one-sided story as told by the image. i should probably exorcise it by writing it out.

on facebook photos

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:52:00 +0800

looking through the photos of friends on facebook, i noticed a fundamental difference between the activities of young singaporeans and those of young vietnamese in singapore. of course, there are similarities, such as the fact that both types do go clubbing and that both enjoy eating out with their friends. however, the differences stand out:

1. singaporeans tend to dress noticeably simpler, perhaps to the extent of looking a tad shabby. the expatriate and student vietnamese community, on the other hand, dress much better. very saliently, the girls conform to a global, magazine-type image (accessories, dresses, make-up). the guys, not so much. by comparison, both singaporean males and females look like urban peasants (t-shirt, bermudas, sandals/slippers, cheap bag).

2. singaporeans tend to get into sports more, like cycling at night and running in marathons. there is also a significantly larger number of photos of food. vietnamese photos centre around meals at home and outside rather than sports and many of the photos focus on the people involved, many more than one would count in singaporean photos.

while one must note that these are impressions gained from facebook photos, which are probably carefully picked by their uploaders to suggest types of images and identities, the differences raise interesting questions. do these differences point to different sociopolitical realities? do singaporeans dress simpler because the city is almost an extension of their bedrooms? do the vietnamese dress better here because they feel they have to for some reason? does the lack of photos of political events and the huge number of photos of a largely consumerist lifestyle show that the vietnamese do not feel as though they should interfere much in this country? contrasted to singaporean photos, do they then suggest that despite the comfort of their own homeland, singaporeans are also not comfortable contributing to societal dialogues occurring in their own country?

on "lor"

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:12:00 +0800

this is so difficult to describe. “lor” comes in two tones, and i can’t capture them in language. it’s more accurately pronounced “law”, but we tend to spell it “lor”. anyway, before 2001, people used “lor” in a relaxed way, almost to denote an acceptance of things, usually the mundane and the everyday. “since have to do it, then do it lor”. it’s usually a little bit drawn out, like “loor”.

then around 2001, something strange happened. it acquired another tone, one pitched higher and usually drawn out significantly, like, “looor”. in this case, it denotes irritation or an intention to contest something, usually something bad (as in my previous post on how singaporeans seem to enjoy showing off that they suffer more than each other). “my boyfriend is more stupid than your boyfriend looor!”

this new tone was more often used by girls, and after some of the annoying conversation has passed, there would sometimes come a roll of the eyes and then a culmination of a “whatEVER” or a “whatever looor!”. in recent years, it’s been taken up by more and more males.

perhaps significantly, these same males tend to be conscious about looks and fashion and both males and females who affect this new “lor” tone come from middle-middle-upper-class families. they also tend to have attended junior college and a local university.

zomg this is how cute a ghost that’s pissed off

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:00:00 +0800

zomg this is how cute a ghost that’s pissed off

"all these quack ah tiong lecturers"

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:40:29 +0800

“all these quack ah tiong lecturers”

- so funny, so true

"kalau sesuatu terjadi padaku ada sesuatu saya mau anda lihat itu foto seorang yang saya tahu sudah..."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:09:46 +0800

“kalau sesuatu terjadi padaku
ada sesuatu saya mau anda lihat
itu foto seorang yang saya tahu
sudah lihat istriku, mas jones?”

- bee gees

"luuk, i am your father!"

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:54:58 +0800

“luuk, i am your father!”

- somehow, it doesn’t sound as exciting in thai.

pin do. bian du. 边度。where. literally, “degrees to the side”. cantonese people think...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:20:00 +0800

pin do. bian du. 边度。where. literally, “degrees to the side”. cantonese people think trigonometrically!

"klap pow"

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:23:00 +0800

“klap pow”

- fave thai word. cos it sounds like a bloomin’ eksplotion. it means “bag”.

brinjal: deliciousest vegetable evah

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:07:00 +0800

english: like to eat brinjal

cantonese: ngor hai sek ai gwa

indonesian: suka makan terung

mandarin: 喜欢吃切子

teochew: hee hua jiak kior

thai: chop kin ma khuer