daronloo

I don't need to wander all the way to BKK for some fun fun fun.  Muak Lek has its own entertainment to offer. We don't get road rage Bangkokians are subjected to!  We get moo-moo-cows putting up a show! The black one in front totally the BULL leader. Two of them actually bumped into the car and folded-in my side mirrors.  Now, this is my own version of Engrish . For some reason they forgot to mix in the salt with whatever makes the chips sour.  Hmm.  Claypot made out of crab? This is the best!  After using this fabric softener, you will want to make love to your own clothes! I totally need this if I'm gonna party-rock-anthem Muak Lek! Blinged to the max shufflin'

So many! Going Bananas Don't worry I ain't eating them bananas on my own.  I share the smaller ones with the birds.  There's a dead smallish tree in the backyard and we decorate it like a Christmas tree--Christmas Banana Tree?  And the birds will drop by and consume this tropical delicacy. 

Fridays are bad days for my semantics students.  The reason being the amount of time spent with me--four hours! The discussion this morning and afternoon was about Felicity Conditions, in relation to our discussion on Direct Speech Acts.  In brief FC looks at conditions which must transpire for the the DSA to be appropriately executed. It is somewhat similar to Truth Conditions, but FC only looks at what conditions have Truth Values. In the middle of my lecture, I candidly mentioned, "Our parents should all attend this lecture." Why? Because some of the things they say are infelicitous. For something to have FC, e.g., the speaker must know that the hearer has already performed the action.  But this is not the case for some older parents.  They repeatedly ask for confirmation for tasks which have long been completed.  Such as, "Have you made your bed?"  "Have you (you may fill in the blanks with whatever is appropriate).  In other words, the...

I was hurrying along the winding pathway past the Thai Sala.  Fallen leaves are strewn about, and the grass has browned, except for the bougainvillea. "Pat, pat, patter patter patter." Little black discs began spinning out of the ground, accompanied by the hiss of water.  "The sprinklers are out! I'm only halfway to the parking lot." I was at a safe distance where the beads of water could not reach.  I examined the direction of each sprinkler.  There were three right at the end of the pathway, the first two sprinkling counter-clockwise while the last one clockwise.  "I can manage this," I thought.  Careful calculation brought me right behind the first sprinkler.  I obediently trailed the horizontal jet of water.  I was beaming when I maneuvered past the first two, a smile plastered on my face.  Just then, I noticed the third sprinkler's stream of water coming to me.  The pace faster than the second hand of an analog clock....

Many perceive living in a multilingual society as exotic, while some view it as a privilege or even a luxury.  An article published by the New York Times mentions how bilinguals are perhaps better at analytic tasks.  Would this imply that those who are trilingual or polyglots are smarter?   How do bilinguals/multilingual/polyglots cope?  If the notion of universal grammar were true, there would be a lot of principles and parameters to be set to accommodate the different languages spoken.  What more the ability and the spontaneity to code-switch in different linguistic domains!  Could these be the bases for the assumption that bilinguals are better at analyzing?  Like a chameleon sensitive to the color of the environment--perhaps this is what bilinguals are good at.   Setting those aside, growing up multilingual is not all happy and gay.  It is rather strenuous to be constantly conscious of how one should be, pragmatically speakin...

But I thought?!  Everything is relative, or is there such thing as universalism?  Beats me.  Also, something that you've had, and still have, bugs you to write you a post on your blog.  Something that you have been with.  Something that you have worked with, for example.  You expect to know what is expected when dealing with that something.  You know how that something reacts but still you do counter-intuitively.  Silly, but true?  It's like someone asking you in an angrily contorted face with voice close to a snake's hisses.  You respond in bewilderment and a tint of angry confusion.  Then the other person asks you why you are angry?  Do you get that?  If you do, how do you react? Bleh. 

I never had to bring one.  But I might on Thursday. We know the gym attracts different types of people.  Trust me, not all of them are there for fitness' sake.  I've been frequenting the campus gym for over a year now, and I've had my fair share of encounters with other gym enthusiasts.  Take note that I'm not referring them as "health" or "fitness" junkies.  Why do I go to the gym?  I'm scrawny and skinny, but I have managed to add some muscly padding to my rubbery dark and tanned skin.  So far, I have two categories of dudes who go to the gym. 1.  The ones who perspire after 10 minutes of intense workout, then takes off their shirt and leaves the sweat-drenched shirt hanging on one of the machines--the machine selected is normally one that is most used by everyone else.  Mind you, their upper body is not the only part that is secreting wetness, the lower half works just the same.  So if it's a press down machine they were on, y...

Prima facie, post facto are some fancy Latin terms I have come across in my readings. Bitchener, Boring, Csikszentmihalyi are some fancy? names I have come across in my readings. Stuff to Read. I have never read so much academic papers within a short span of time.  Every week there are close to ten papers I need to read through, and whose information I need to remember.  Who wrote what?  Who said what?  What instrument was used?  What was problematic about this paper?  I write them down, but of course in an unsystematic way.  I write notes on the margin of the paper.  But they are so concise that I forget what they actually are. I'm still lost.  I don't know what my research topic would be.  It's about ASEAN, definitely.  Why?  I am interested in SEA, and I'm interested in prospective employment.  Hey, you've got to do something practical and worthwhile. It's funny.  I was preparing for my semantics class to...

Even photocopying machines have bad days :(

We're Sexy and We're making lunch.

I got to march this Graduation!  I've never marched down the aisle with the rest of the faculty because I'd normally be providing the march music for them.  Then our new music teacher came along and I get to skip down and smile and wave with the rest :P It was a memorable yet tiring event.  Memorable because I messed up a hymn badly (I did play the piano for Saturday's graduation).  Everyone was looking at each other.  I looked at the violinist, the violinist looked at me, the chorister looked at me, and the congregation was split-they didn't know who to look at. It's nice to have my friends graduating.  At least now I don't have to worry about having friends who were my classmates back when I was a student eons ago. Daniel Kopp! My Mom, Dr. Surapee and Aunty Chrisana We got tired of smiling so we thought a serious face would be nice :) Suai Mak Mak! You've got to rock the grad with fun socks Dawood rocked his exist as he di...

Song in a loop in my head, Pink Martini's But Now I'm Back . I really do appreciate Program Music because they are more meaningful. Not sure if songs which convey a story should be called Program Music, but I think they are on the same line. This week has been quite hectic. Graduation here at AIU normally gets into the way of a lot of the things I'm supposed to do. Like my course outline and whatnot. A new course I'm teaching this summer, Semantics. Looking forward to it - Probably the first sentence I'll talk about is: colorless green ideas sleep furiously . Was at the music room early this morning. Practiced for a full hour while the sun rose, its reflection on the mahogany yamaha, interrupted by the consistent squeak of the sustain pedal which needs much oiling. Pleasantly bumped into Ivonne! I want to play piano like this every morning!