Culture and Life

. . .Had to recite my Confusian quote today in class. I got the longest one too! And I was the last to go, so I had to top everybody! ahaha.. well, no, but I couldn't afford to look bad, cuz the best had already gone. Utilizing my newly learned form of reading, I recited and got full marks! :D
. . .At this point, only REALLY Chinese people would understand what I'm talking about here. Basically, there's the normal of reading -- synonymous to the way one would speak. Then there's the poetic way of reading Chinese literature, where the high notes go higher and the low notes go lower. One's supposed to sway one's head to convey the full emotion and meaning in the literature. And there's no set rule either. Because it's older Chinese that's being read, something that's a descending tone in modern Mandarin very often is an ascending tone in its original form. Which makes it doubly hard to understand what's being recited if one doesn't already have prior knowledge of the piece being recited.
. . .skipped breakfast today; alarm clock didn't go off. Or it did and I subconciously turned it off. My dreams have been getting really interesting. I'm thinking of writing a story based on one of my dreams, and titling it "the grasslands". Sounds kinda boring but I promise you, the dream was interesting. ^_^
. . .Speaking of writing, I need to write more. I'm horribly behind with my other writing too. At least I half-finished my essay for this week. I gave it to my teacher to edit for me so that I can rewrite it, hopefully in time for Friday. ^___^
. . .What I really need is a computer at night; that's when I can be most productive/creative. 'Cause it's impossible to force creativity in a working environment, such as my uncle-in-law's office. I can't even stretch my legs at this desk because the underneath is piled with crap. *fumes*
. . .Haven't really drawn in a while either...
. . .After reading what my American friend Alex said about me in his 10.19th entry, my heart rate must have doubled and I'm sure I'm blushing. Ah, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop... *takes a looong gulp of ice-cold water* k, stopped blushing. All I can say is awww~~~ love ya, Alex! ^^;
. . .It's great because although we don't share a lot of common interests, I feel that we're learning lots from each other -- learning things from a perspective so totally different and almost skewed from our own. (ahh.. there's that word again. "skewed". must... fustigate...) He said that I had an amazingly expansive vocabulary (paraphrased), but I can't possibly imagine from what he's gleaning this impression. According to some IQ/English vocab. test I took a few years ago, I ranked dangerously low against the Canadian population... (my ranked percentile was 93 or 87.... something REALLY low...)
. . .Didn't really appreciate being labeled a 'republican' (or was it 'democrat'?), mainly because I'm not an American, and also because I don't really have any strong political views. But if that's what helps give someone a framework from which to understand me, I guess I can live with it... ...though I fear I may be breaking convention again. (whee...)
. . .All in all, though, I must say that Alex is a great guy. Always in good humour with just a touch of cynicism, he's not too sweet nor too sour. =P