September 12th, 2006 | 6 Comments »

[/giggles]

My lamentations about being a Chem major honours student seem to be starting earlier than usual this year. Oh well. I should hopefully be embarking on a good non-school work term soon–inasmuch as one can actually get away from “school” when one is embarking on a chemistry co-op work term…. but I hate hate hate hate cover letters.

WordPress hates me, though. I couldn’t properly import the database–it choked every time Asian characters showed up. In the end, I gave up, so if you poke through some of the older posts, you’ll see some odd gibberish (and if you don’t, that’s because I spent a long, long time fixing it.)

Oh yes, I have moved hosts, so I’m on a pay-as-you-go hosting plan. It’s an interesting idea, but it does mean that I will try not to host bandwidth-intensive sites here. Well, unless I move to another host, anyway.

I like this Chinese drama, Yummy Yummy. It is not the cake one that several of you are familiar with. Rather, it’s about a Singaporean boy who goes to Hong Kong to chase his (former?) girlfriend Jane. Yes, that’s right. JANE. Does this ring any bells for anyone out there? Anyway, I like it despite this because this Singaporean boy speaks an odd mélange of Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. (No, his name is not Jason. It’s Terry.)

Speaking of Ja(y)ne–I love Firefly. Watching episodes with commentary is even more fun!

Disclaimer: I am not clever. In fact, one of my favourite songs from Ping Pung’s CD, Love&Hate, which I now own legally (:D) is a song whose title I like to translate as “Not Clever.”

Posted in ramblings
September 6th, 2006 | 1 Comment »

I am having a grand old time with my new domain, except for one thing: The server does not send email. This means I receive no comment notification, among other things.

I can’t even use Enthusiast for my fanlistings!

This situation will have to change soon. I think I’ll jump to a paid hosting plan on the weekend.

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Posted in snippet
August 29th, 2006 | 2 Comments »

Testing the new blog?

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Posted in snippet
August 26th, 2006 | 2 Comments »

I like to punctuate my statements, what can I say?

Anyway, this blog will be moving soon (again!) so keep your eyes peeled for that. Until then, all posting activity is suspended. 🙂 If you want to know, my life in a nutshell is:

WORK SUCKS.

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Posted in snippet
August 21st, 2006 | 1 Comment »

My offline friends know I’m a language fiend. I’m not particulary good at most of them, but I like to collect them. 😀 And books about them. 😀

So I’m keeping this post to remind myself of exactly what language-learning books I have and to show them off 😀

French

  • Le bon usage, a giant French grammar of everything and anything you could possibly need to know (okay, I’m exagerrating, but this is one huge book. It’s bigger than my dictionary.)
  • Grammaire pratique du français d’aujourd’hui, another grammar book, but written in French for non-Francophones.
  • Grammaire complète, a grammar I bought in Québec. Now that I have it I’m not too sure I need it anymore. It uses odd capitalization (le Subjonctif; le Conditionnel) but it has really cute pictures XD
  • French Prose Composition, it’s an exercise book for English to French translation. There are no answers though, just a very interesting preface. XD
  • Ensuite, a random French textbook I bought at a library book sale. I don’t know where this went, actually.
  • C’est la vie, ditto.
  • Collins-Robert Pocket French Dictionary, still going strong after many years of service!
  • La petite Larousse, 197x, I can’t remember when exactly it was published, but it’s old. It has pictures though, helpful for when you can’t figure out what kind of tree an ‘epinette’ is (it’s a pine, I think.)
  • Le micro Robert, dictionnaire linguistique que j’ai acheté au Québec. It’s awesome.
  • Mettre de l’ordre dans ses idées, a book all about connecteurs! 😀 Cost me an arm and a leg but given the emphasis my prof in Québec put on them, I think it’s well worth the cost.
  • Larousse: Difficultés Grammaticales, a small little reference book for those little details of French grammar. Surprisingly cheap, too 😀
  • Plus a whackload of literary works (Voltaire, Ionesco, etc.)

Japanese

  • French-Japanese dictionary, it is t3h awesome. Case closed. I can’t really use it, but still…
  • Japanese for Busy People, Vol I (kana edition), a cute find, but unfortunately I am already familiar with 90% of the lessons presented here (not that I recall them exactly: I never liked numbers in Japanese.)
  • Japanese for Busy People, Vol II.
  • 250 Kanji Essential for Everyday Use, Vol II (or some such title). Haven’t even looked at this.
  • Conversational Japanese: the Cortina method, this book is so old it comes with an offer for a free record. XD

(I am getting tired of these comments, and in any case, they are only interesting for the French ones, anyway.)

German

  • Pocket Oxford German Dictionary
  • Berlitz German Grammar handbook
  • Teach Yourself German
  • Teach Yourself German Grammar
  • Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik

Chinese (Mandarin)

  • Chinese: an essential grammar
  • Chinese in 10 Minutes a Day, ‘gift’ when I was, oh, 5, and HOW IT SHOWS.

Chinese (Cantonese)

  • Elementary Cantonese, Vol I, currently on loan to someone somewhere.

Spanish

  • Collins Spanish Dictionary
  • Teach Yourself Spanish

Vietnamese

  • Essential Vietnamese Phrases

Russian

  • The Penguin Russian Course
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Posted in quotidian
August 8th, 2006 | 1 Comment »

The key for this is not-secret-at-all-sigh. Go here to recover the cipher text, and then here to decrypt the cipher text.

Packsack braw dissuade arousal snarks mater gigging? Induing dodgem,
curb ersatzes salicin, mums. Smoggy purses, armoire foams, banjo
grouty, meekest. Hipness couteaux, laughs paleal duple, muddily.
Fumelike grandma engrain, cessions saggers annul. Exigency, poorish,
overfish aphagia campier diarists. Allured aniline sinewy dildoe
farouche. Monogeny oversews adipous pa kyrie cakey. Bipedal patties
overlies, monodic loreal apothems cozey! Kickups eupeptic hyetal,
glinted.

Claque pagod dulcimer fanners. Eurythmy kathodal meatless dawdles
deeded, bilsted, frocked. Dormie abashed infests misplead adoze!
Spavined bemuse phytane sialic linga kabars, diabasic nowt. Psilocin,
poinding sannops lambkins bootlick amir contras carafes. Deleaved
mambas outgnawn bawsunt! Chromas, footbath anemia. Affinal buckayro
revealer bannocks cutes ripping. Diesel goopiest releves. Sarapes
hajes piquancy blackfly keynote azotemic.

Readies, sampled mugs alyssums belaying. Corymbs pung, shipping kebab
curriers ataxia jacana. Haverel entraps echinus dummkopf brook,
landman. Races collapse cockle bedunce. Coterie silexes indulins
hireling. Satchel lowballs becrowd frenches fending familial. Bowlines
hydragog posteens chute sardius spinnies medfly. Cocobolo mynheers
penuckle demeanor! Equites outloves jiujutsu, bedchair bomber blite
petalody rarebits.

Halve, earthier, noosed botchy rachitic. Acetic, liquor, shrike
grumbles. Recopied axonal romances bewraps defacers beetle rodent.
Alkalify jukes cider clubhand. Birler bewailer kippers patellae.
Markkas rutting rowan curricle gurgling. Bootjack lastly meltable
brig. Lithic manner briars misbills perfect. Fray kultur smoochy.

Catenoid bimorph mismake spirant clerkish, notes? Pasture quatre
someway cedarn. Meowed roads, calfskin calotte. Handloom jagg immixing
doxology heathers salmons. Bipod hoards hustings bitten beaky poof
regauges appetent. Merits impreses jarinas predicts. Cobalts cloggier
reverted mopier cetanes alkalize punctate signify helipads. Heroized
kotows, omit begonias.

Ratchets opticist nihils beastie enthrall shader indulge nascence.
Shlocks, compos idyll anele grecized nilgau ruthful.

Hoptoads snooked priestly braiding bestuds mezereum outshot dupes,
lockable. Rabat laetrile phi, roupy loves pit. Airers salacity
parables sigh sipes galliass laboured!

Cliched bignonia, sleeked rookiest airship. Apposite firemen setulose
ferule cineoles, ericoid compend. Askos enthrals goatee, entail keister
rut. Ficoes, pitchman lippers sharable, omicron, dormin. Necktie
mayhem knapped, crocein. Readding aggrieve payers response. Icy,
catlings punkier snuggled effete balsams sards discord. Bakemeat,
chuddars, snidely leash. Caboodle outstand eelier distract ewes.
Prefer coulter heeded haunting, faenas.

Doums issuing hodden gib limiter. Auricled fallows, murid quartet
bezels gelidity. Buttals diplont, cleaving intitule avarice spondees
shirr preens. Purloin echinoid rippler, schedule, deticker outbound
booze! Jerks spiels, bailiff mounted biding, pecks. Outkill boffola
seer botryose doornail. Sinology retinae messaged blackout. Arterial
arching maya alary coccus mortises basks repump flatten decibel.
Arsenide, devested pretax. Rebored carryons mumped fulgid.

Sensa nonvocal honied bureaus, leadsmen. Hepatoma lathing forebays
bedizen kabaka foxier. Adhere cunners godchild reliques drunk rubbed
slurp furcular! Sloper gummites religion sapajou doven iodizers.
Rumplier, secretin gassiest purls jambes lungis chirped. Avoset cess
buzzy ovation slums overholy depolish, lopper.

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Posted in quotidian
August 4th, 2006 | 1 Comment »

On nous a enfin permis de parler anglais!

Malheureusement que ça veut aussi dire que c’est la fin du programme. 🙁 Je voudrais rester–je me sens enfin à l’aise ici, mais non–c’est comme ça depuis toujours: lorsque je me sens à l’aise, c’est la fin. Blah.

Ben mes amis, je vais vous voir dans quelques jours! Karaoké!! J’ai hâte de chanter karaoké!

Posted in quotidian
August 3rd, 2006 | Comments Off on ARRRRGH

Mes colocs, pour la plupart, sont géniales mais il y en a une… que je n’aime pas. Heurusement que c’est presque la fin! Je suis quelqu’un qui n’exige pas beaucoup (selon moi, en tout cas), mais je vous laisse la decision:

– elle a emprunté ma fourchette et mon bol sans me l’avoir demandé, et de plus mon bol a maintenant des ébréchures
– elle a cassé mon assiette (j’ai emprunté l’assiette, le bol, etc du caféteria pour un dépôt de 5$)
– elle est desordonnée, elle ne ramasse pas ses affaires
– elle ne fait pas ce qu’elle dit
– elle est très combative, très gauchiste: si vous dites quelque chose qui ne lui plaît pas… préparez-vous pour une lecture

Au fond: je ne l’aime pas. ARRRGH.

Posted in quotidian
July 16th, 2006 | 1 Comment »

Hier, je suis allée à Québec (la ville). *_* C’était vraiment beau, je l’adore. De plus, je me sentais plus à l’aise dans la ville. C’était simplement merveilleux!! Et j’ai finalement trouvé un disque de KYO (mais malheureusement pas Calogero).

Ben, à plus tard. Il me reste 21 jours seulement, mais à vrai dire je me tiens à retourner. Vraiment. Mes amis, nous avons la chance d’habiter dans la plus belle ville du monde. Je me suis rendu compte à quel point le communauté ici est homogène: au super-marché, j’ai achété une carte d’appel, et le cassier m’a dit: «Tu peux regarder le taux pour ton pays.» Moi: « …. (je viens du Canada….) …. C’est beau.»

Posted in quotidian
July 9th, 2006 | Comments Off on Au Québec !

Bonjour, j’écris cette entrée de la salle des ordinateurs dans le centre social (c’est comme notre ”Student Union Building.” Un peu.)

En tout cas, le campus ici est très petit! Il n’y a que six résidences pour les étudiants. Chaque résidence a huit appartements, dans lesquelles se trouvent quatre chambres. Ben. Moi, j’habite avec trois autres filles. Une d’eux vient de ma ville! Peut-être que tu penses que ça c’est une bonne chose, mais moi, je ne l’aime pas. En fait, je regrette de ne pas avoir choisi de vivre dans une famille. Même si la cuisine est mauvaise, même si ma mère d’acceuil est méchante, je pense que ça aurait été meilleur. *le sigh* En tout cas, j’ai fait ma décision.

!!! De plus, nous avons eu un examen écrit et puis un examen oral. Moi, je suis dans la classe la plus avancée!!! Le prof qui m’a interviewée, lui, enseigne cette classe, donc… j’espère qu’il sait ce qu’il a fait. 🙁 Je lui ai parlé déjà , et il m’a dit simplement que j’ai déjà suivi les cours de grammaire et ça serait meilleur si je suis un cours non-traditionnel.

Eh ben. D’ailleurs, j’ai fait le connaissance de quelques gens ici qui sont très sympas. Quand il ne s’agit pas du cours ou de mes camarades de chambre, je suis très heureuse et contente ici.

Pour ceux qui veulent une carte postale: SVP de me fournir votre addresse par COURRIEL. Malheureusement je ne les ai pas mémorisées.

Posted in quotidian