Inside jokes - The French Crow

The French Crow was written because i wanted to change my msn nick from "je m'en fous. je ne veux que chier." to "I'm bored because I'm hard to pleased", and I wanted to write a story to incorporate the french that I had learnt from a friend, so that I won't forget it.

I had wanted to write a simple situation to contextualise the french words, but I was meaning to write a story about how mynahs - as i've noticed nowadays - were flying around in pairs. Like some kind of neighbourhood watch programme. Anyway, my mind and thoughts twitched around and then I chose to write on crow instead. Somehow, in my subconscious, there was also a lady in a red dress in the background. But she wasn't addressed and perhaps, it'll be explored in the mynah story that I might one day write.

Anyway, I think "The french crow" sounds nicer than "the french mynah". The french crow, sounds like something, the french knot, the french horn, the french man? I don't know. The mynah should be malay. The malay mynah - like the malay minah you know? I don't mean to offend. I would also write a story on the chinese pigs. Oh, in fact, I might have already. My pig stories: Sus, and Uncle Hock were both based on chinese characters in my head. Though I concede that is not obvious in the stories. Fine, i'll write one someday.

The first part of the story, waking up to be frightened by a crow - was based on a nightmare I had some years ago. I dreamt that I woke up, and there was a claymation kind of crow scaring the shit wits out of me. So, recalling that, I decided to write the story with that beginning, and see how it goes.

"Je m'en fous. Je ne veux que chier." (pronounced "jer mong foo. jer ner ver ker shi-eh.") means, "I don't care. I only want to shit." I decided to leave most people wondering what that means as it was not so important to translate it in the story, and will be funnier left as an insider joke, and rewarding for people who are reading sneak... so there you have it. It's funny also because that's what the crows do, on trees, they just don't care and just shit on the cars below. It's also a marvel how being on a tree full of crows, they don't shit on each other. I mean, the chances are there right?

Anyway, thanks to laysuan (also my kusudama friend) for teaching me, abeit reluctantly, the coolest bit of french that I know. Enculé (pronounced "on cue leh") is just too vulgar to spout all the time.

Crow in French is "corneille", according to the google translator. So happens, with a dictionary search that Corneille is also Pierre Corneille who is one of the great seventeenth century french playwright. So, I just named the crow "Pierre" (pronouced "Pee-air") which is a variant of the name "Peter". Peter the crow, a black bird, reminded me of the rhyme:

"2 little black birds sitting on a wall,
One named peter, the other named paul.
Fly away peter, fly away paul.
Come back peter, come back paul."

So, the left middle finger, we decided to name paul. It's cute like that.

The rest of the story was constructed on the go. I like it because it's spontaneous, and the story developed in a way that I didn't anticipate, so I was also surprised as I was writing it.

One of my accomplishments of the week is to name my middle fingers. What have you done, huh?

Wind series - The champedek tree

The champedek tree is one of three stories that I wrote about flying in a single day. I've been moved by the winds lately.

As you may know, I've been looking for jobs and all that lately. My biggest sianness, I think, at the end of both interviews I went for, is that, the weather on that day was nice, but I was unable to enjoy the wind earlier because i was ganjionging about the interviews.

I hope that I can have the good fortune and calmness to appreciate the weather. And I hope that you have that too. Take a bit of time, to notice how the mid-day winds are blowing trees upside-down, and chasing clouds so fast across the sky. it's not like that all the time. it's a very rare thing. Notice how the clouds are wispy looking because of the wind.

Notice too, when the moon is round, and when it's waxing and waning. That it's milky/dusty/yellowy earlier in the night, but as it rises higher into the sky, it's bright white. A few nights ago, I noticed that the moon was so bright white that even when some clouds were blew to cover it, it didn't get covered but shone right true. That defies logic.

Who isn't busy and pre-occupied nowadays? Don't I have better things to do? I do! I need to look for a job. Prepare for interviews. Apply. I need to sell my book. I need to read, I need to blog, I need to eat and watch tv.

But how can you be a human and live life, if you don't spend some time to look at the moon. The moon! the moon allows us to look (not point). THe sun you can't really look, but the moon! find the rabbit. Rather than going jogging and worry about your adrenaline or your heart muscle, look at the moon! look at the stars, the clouds at night. and put up paper butterflies at your window, and romance yourself a little.

I've met a girl who was about 20 years old, when I walked past her in hall, she was starring at the moon. and i asked her, wassup. and she said, "you can see the moon, i didn't know we can see the mood". i said, "what do you mean, as in, you didn't know we can see the moon in this direction?" "no," she said, "I didn't know we can see the moon, without telescope." or something like that. I shit you not. SO, if you have kids, teach them not math, nor the dreaded spelling or mental sums. teach them to appreciate the MOON. the winds, the paper butterflies you put up at their windows.

I wanted to keep all these as little secrets to impress you next time we meet. But I don't think it's a secret to keep, but something to share. Look at the moon, and sing "somewhere out there, beneath the pale moon light, someone's thinking of... me, and loving me tonight". And be happy that we're not Seng Han Thong, or Palestinians watching the sky raining bombs or Isrealis, fighting a war, fending off protestors around the world.

Read somewhere lately, that world peace lies with the individual. Only when every individual believes in the concept and values "world peace", then will world peace be lived.

Current affairs, personal opinions - The Elephants' Tusks

The Elephants' Tusks was based on:

1) The warring in the middle east. And how a way of supremacy of the religion is exemplified by the tolerance of the people. I have many thoughts about tolerance and it being an underrated virtue.
Maybe the westernised world would emphasis a lot about go-getting and not getting yourself bullied, and very individualistic ideals. But tolerance would bring about graciousness. I personally think believe that instead of campaigns promoting graciousness and Stomp being the society's not-so-secret police, they promote tolerance instead, then we'll all be more gracious. It's not gracious to kaopei about others not being gracious. But when one tolerates another ungraciousness, as opposed to being self-righteous, then one would be inclined not to act in the same way. and... so on. Anyway, that's another theory for another time.

The warring in the middle east. I wanted to write a story where in an alternate world, there's peace in the middle east.

2) And that even if there's peace, there will be disorder again. Peace and disorder, will play and interject each other. The rise and fall of civilisations. blah blah. it's something that will continue to happen, whether obama or mccain become president. Current affairs - are current and not perpetual. Learning it to have conversations at the water cooler is like watching korean drama to have conversations about korean drama. Or joining facebook, to talk about what's happening on facebook. That's what I always feel about current affairs, and will be pekchek when people ask me to brush up on my current affairs, because it really doesn't interest me what, except juicy details like, why mccain go and choose palin - which is as entertaining to wonder about as watching Yes Man by jim carrey.

Anyway, whether the snail/slugs die out or not, it's a passing matter, in the very macrospect. Like how the wiping out of an ant hill is very trivial, when we're kids on an ant massacre. Or it could be very big deal - to an ant.

3) Read a story from zhuang zi, on nations being on snail's antennae, which I quote, violating copyright laws, from here:

(King) Yung of Wei made a treaty with the marquis Thien Mâu (of Khî), which the latter violated. The king was enraged, and intended to send a man to assassinate him...

Hui-tsze...introduced to the king Tâi Tsin-zan, who said, 'There is the creature called a snail; does your majesty know it?' 'I do.' 'On the left horn of the snail there is a kingdom which is called Provocation, and on the right horn another which is called Stupidity. These two kingdoms are continually striving about their territories and fighting. The corpses that lie on the ground amount to several myriads. The army of one may be defeated and put to flight, but in fifteen days it will return.' The king said, 'Pooh! that is empty talk!' The other rejoined, 'Your servant begs to show your majesty its real significance. When your majesty thinks of space-- east, west, north, and south, above and beneath-- can you set any limit to it?' 'It is illimitable,' said the king; and his visitor went on, 'Your majesty knows how to let your mind thus travel through the illimitable, and yet (as compared with this) does it not seem insignificant whether the kingdoms that communicate one with another exist or not?' The king replies, 'It does so;' and Tâi Tsin-zan said, finally, 'Among those kingdoms, stretching one after another, there is this Wei; in Wei there is this (city of) Liang; and in Liang there is your majesty. Can you make any distinction between yourself, and (the king of that kingdom of) Stupidity?' To this the king answered, 'There is no distinction,' and his visitor went out, while the king remained disconcerted and seemed to have lost himself.

I thought about saying that that slug/snails are peace-loving because their antennae housed warring nations. but the story just didnt' turn out liek that.

Now, talking about the elephants tusks doesn't seem that original as compared to a snail's antennae right? I think about changing the elephants back to snails and snails to somethign else, but the story won't flow anymore. The snails don't have trunks. and they won't need to feed each other. so... i suppose my story took a different direction already.

4) Watched man in black on tv again, and the idea of universes being as small as a marble on a cat's collar made me feel that there can be universes with elephants and little animals living on them, and so on. Where is the world of little elephants? maybe in the dirt in my toe nail.
Relevant to the big-small thing as in point 2.

Happy new year to all~.