You've probably heard by now of the internet slang created mostly by youths chatting online or computer hackers/programmers. But most of those stories was about English slang.

I saw an interesting program about Chinese (HK) slang on the internet, or rather Cantonese (HK). Cantonese, if you know, is already quite vernacular and has quickly evolving slangwords.

There was 1 interesting example:

"十 卜" means support as in my friends support me.

How?

 "十"  is the word for "Ten", but is pronounced "SUP" in Cantonese ("Shi" in mandarin).

"卜" is the word for prognosticate, but has the sound "bok" presumably to imitate the cracking/popping sound of a bone cracking during the prognostication ritual.

So, Sup + Bok becomes "Support"

"米" 變成 becomes "我 "(I assume it's easier to type it out).

interesting.

I saw this movie sometime ago on Netflix. It's become one of my favorite Japanese period pieces.
But what's amazing about it is not just the compelling story, the great acting, the realistic dialogue (ok subtitles...), but the very surprising theme of honour (or rather the lack of it).

It's a period of peace in the Tokugawa period, and samurai are becoming ronin in a time of peace, but also of politics and intrigue.

One such samurai must endure shame in being a pauper-warrior and forego the honour of ritual suicide (seppeku or harikiri) in order to carry out his oath of raising his friend's son as well as to raise his own daughter by himself.

Instead of your usual slash and kill samurai period pieces (though there are some spectacular fight scenes here especially the 1 on 1 duels), this movie focuses on what it means to be a samurai, the importance of honour versus the appearance of honour as well as touches on themes of class, family, etc.

It's a long story, perhaps a bit slow in emphasizing his downward fall into poverty, etc., but that's what makes the ending so great and tragic.... when he realizes his sword was not worth the life of his child and grandchild.

Harikiri starring the great actor Tatsuya Nakadai (who is also in the incredible trilogy "The Human Condition" about a pacifist in WWII-Japan)

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

Quotation:  After all, this thing we call samurai honor is ultimately nothing but a facade.

1. Swimming: So like I said, I'm swimming a lot more now; doing a lot of sprints breast stroke and freestyle - trying to work on my form. I'm way faster than I ever used to be mostly because of my improved technique (thanks to Eva).

So in a previous blog, I mentioned the old lady who tried to steal my lane.... turns out everyone does this - I think I understand now, it's a game of chicken. Whoever perseveres, gets the lane, and I'm in it to win it. So after several encounters and 2 swipes and a kick (at 5% power mind you), I got to keep my lane. I guess they don't like to make it a contact sport, but. Seriously, these people could not miss seeing me, but they conveniently pretend I'm not there. Mind you, these are only the HK Chinese people; the expats, even the HK local Indians are perfectly polite about lane use.

2. Weight Training - They say muscle has memory. I believe it; using supersets and pyramids, I've been able to jumpstart my training and now I'm back to my former weight level in certain exercises. I've incorporated other exercises to work out large muscle groups (deadlift and shoulder lockout) as well as trying different positions to get a better workout (e.g. leaning on the bench at 80 degrees to isolate the rear delt or leaning on the free weight rack for a lat dumbbell pull). My cardio needs the most work, but I will focus on that more after.

3. Food: As I said, I've moved my diet a little, dropped the carbs/calories, stopped eating after 9pm (that is tough), sleeping earlier, and cut back, way back on alcohol.

I think the hardest part so far is cutting the sugar, not because I like sugar, but because I find they put sugar in many, many drinks. So unless I'm drinking tea or water, it's not that easy to find a good tasting drink from 7-11. My waistline is slimming, and my energy level is up.

It's June 11th at 6:11pm!

Time to leave!

I came across this on an episode of the Colbert Report (feat. Stephen Colbert ("t" is silent on Colbert and Report... and all other words ending in "rt" like "Sport")

Imagine you're a doctor in the 50s in America with a wife and kid. You have a good job, a home in middle-class america. One way, you sell everything, you pack your family into a camper, and you drive. and keep on driving to create your utopia.

And you raise your family (which eventually grows to 9 kids) on beaches and surfing. And you use your medical skills to provide free medical help to those in need. And your kids never go to school; they learn everything on the road.

This is what the movie Surfwise apparently is about: the story of Dr. Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz and his family.

http://magpictures.com/profile.aspx?id=d2fc80a7-5c8f-4eb2-8a72-810208462713

Here's a not-so-flattering review from movies.com:

The Basics: Documentary about Damien Paskowitz M.D. and his decision to ditch normal family life in the 1960s to live as a nomadic, raw-foods-consuming, extreme-voluntary-poverty-loving hippie surfer. That he and his wife raised nine surfer children in a 24-foot-long RV (no school, no money, no boundaries, no outside-world socialization) only made it weirder. They were seen as examples of bohemian freedom at the time, but as the now-grown children explain, it wasn't exactly as groovy as it might seem to the outside world.

What's the Deal? While not nearly as freaked out and horrifying as Capturing the Friedmans, this movie isn't afraid to show you the dark side of "freedom," especially when it comes to raising children. Paskowitz is seen as a man in his mid eighties with few apparent regrets about the cult-like, sometimes physically abusive surf-dictatorship he ran in the never-not-rolling (or rocking — more on that in a second) RV. According to one of the adult children, they weren't so much raised by wolves as "raised as wolves."

About That Rocking: Doc, it turns out, was — and maybe still is — a really horny guy. Early in the movie, he discusses how he went on a sex-education quest as a strapping young surfer, doing it with as many women as possible and devising a score for each one. When he found one who scored a "93" on his chart, he married her. And they had loud sex every night in that RV, no matter that the kids were trying to sleep nearby, often in the same bed.

Results: Nine adults with no education or social skills, estranged from their parents and often from each other but for the most part now living functional and reasonably happy lives, give or take some moments of seemingly seething rage.

Verdict: It's not so much that the movie lets Doc off the hook as it is just too fascinated by him to judge him harshly for his weird, destructive family experiment. Somehow even the huggy ending doesn't feel wrong.

http://movies.com/surfwise/r936611/documentary