Ideographic Myth

from the book The Chinese Language, Fact and Fantasy by John DeFrancis. Ideographic Myth
I wouldn't say i agree with the argument, but i think some of it is valuably true. But i still think that the chinese language is to some extent logographic with some phonetic function. the problem is that all these languages have been around for so long and we learn them when we were very very young. so we can no longer differentiate the cognitive process of thinking of the sound and that of thinking of the idea, the two of which prob occur a split second apart from each other. since we cannot separate the processes, we don't have the experimental means to prove whether chinese writing gives us the sound or the idea frist, and thus came the argument. however, i think we should look at the writing on it's own right, i.e. what is the writing itself representing. i think ideas, but in a phonetic pattern, that is necessarily needed in simplification and convenience of usage purpose. it's an evolution over time maybe converging with the phonetic languages, but certainly the logic behind the chinese writing is innately different from that behind the western language.

Dedicated to all the researchers

my mentor was so lame. he said that this following song is dedicated to all the researchers out there.

LINKIN PARK

In The End

[It starts with]
One thing I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time
All I know
time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on but didn't even know
Wasted it all just to
Watch you go
I kept everything inside and even though I tried it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when I tried so hard
One thing I don't know why
Doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time
I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so [far]
Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me
In the end
You kept everything inside and even though I tried it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when I I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
And lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
And for all this
There's only one thing you should know

back for 2 days

ah, i've been back for 2 days. i need to watch a concert.

Random Thoughts on flight

i was writing down as i thought, on the back cover of the De Profundis that i printed out.

Whitacre. He sounds so much like nature itself.
I watch the clouds move by endlessly,
while Cloudburst is playing to my lonely ears.
and let the melody fly,
and the harmony
resonate with the layers of memories.
whiteness outside the window.

lluvia! in all its metallic sounds.
brings life and hope.
and a song like a spring
lluvia.

this music, must be recited by young voices. for its life, for its vibrancy, for its very existence.

a poet's heart
an artist's eyes
a musician's ears.
i don't t have those.

I hide myself within my flower,
That wearing on your breast,
You, unsuspecting, wear me too—
And angels know the rest

I hide myself within my flower,
That, fading from your vase,
You, unsuspecting, feel for me
Almost a loneliness.



i hide myself,
i hide myself...

sketches

i found some sketches i made some time back out of time magazine pictures or my own imagination. looks like i was much better at representataion that time, or i was much more patient.


yeah it's satine. don't scold me for not doing justice to her beauty and character.


actually inspired by turando.

i liked her attitude. what makes the sketch come alive. to me.



yeah, to me, each skech is so precious cos i thought the person in there really has a life. it'll be a cruel thing to tear any of them up. so i didn't. no matter how bad some of my sketches looked. haha.

sad cat story

was thinking of writing something about the cat i met outside my place. when i came home the day before yesterday, a cat brushed against my legs near the entrance to our neighbourhood. it was a stray cat with brown and yellow fur, very thin and limping. the guard told us that she had lost her kittens, and had been looking for them for days around the area. after i reached home, i thought about the cat for hours, feeling really sorry for her and imagining the pain that the mother is going through looking for the lost child. today, my mom went downstairs to send off my aunt who came to visit, and came back telling me news about the cat. when she went passed the area where the mother cat was looking for the kitten, she saw the cat with her ears standing up, apparently alert of something. my mom guessed that she heard the kitten. when my mom came back from the bus-stop, she saw the kitten dead in the road with blood around it. the guard told my mom that shortly before that, the mother cat had found the kitten in bush and dug it out, before a car suddenly appearing and flattened the kitten. shocked and really affected, my mom stood there watching the silent mother cat lick the blood stain on the floor for quite a while. how extremely saddening is that.

Devil's Dictionary

i didn't know that devil's dictionary started so early as in the 19th century and it was actually started in America. not until i browsed through it, among my other ebooks. i've only read the chinese version in humour master(《幽默大师》)when i was much younger.

there's one entry that i saw yesterday:
FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

think it's not completely ridiculous.