Just The Wei I Am

Web 2.0 is not just a social and technological revolution, it's a linguistic one too!!

Can't find something? Google for it.
Like a page so much? Digg it!
Or you can spurl it for future reference..
What a del.icio.us page, full of flickring photos!

Last.fm is really cool, btw, but erm.. it's a noun, so it's part of speech is pretty fixed =/
Good Web 2.0 names should be usable as verbs and adjectives!

btw, my PIII is alive! After the prev entry, I asked my father, and it turned out that it was "dead" cos he cannibalised it for parts a while back. And well, erm.. there's no RAM left inside. I looked in, and oh oops, I didn't notice the first time round.. no RAM.. hmmm

Anyway, couple of days ago he put some RAM in, so yesh, it's alive and kicking.. booted it up and felt nostalgic seeing the windows 98 startup .. there's an 8GB harddisk, not too bad .. well, when i'm free, i shall get down to installing ubuntu and see if i can have a personal networked jukebox (see Jinzora).. heehee..

Cast all my cares on Him
For He cares for me
He is my peace
He is my peace

Just saw a virtual Ipod - basically a website that lets you search for and play tracks, and create playlists, and with a mock Ipod interface. Better than last.fm in the sense that you play exactly which track you want. It has been described as the Web2.0 version of Napster. Hmm..

However it's legality is still in doubt, and it remains to be seen if it will be pulled off the net. Partly why I'm not posting a link. *shrug*

Just had a sudden inspiration to blog about .. year one PGP days..

For 3 years I stayed in PGP, and those were memorable times, and especially the first year. The guys from Blk 17, B2 circa 2002 were a fantastic bunch. We always felt we were one in a million. (Nearly) everyone knew everyone else, and really, in PGP, that's hard to find. We didn't just know one another, we did things together. And I'm not talking about the occasional "cluster outing" I know some clusters (try to) have. We really lived together. Somehow in that PGP basement, we had the so-called hall life, perhaps even better. hmm.. yeah.

I came to Hope in 1999. At that time I had believed in Jesus for half a year but was not attending church. Thank God the believers in my class had formed a little prayer group that met weekly, that my budding faith was preserved till I was properly part of a local church family. I believe God had it all arranged for me to be here in Hope, from Chiyen's conversion, to Meini meeting him, to him telling us about the MovieWorld event.

I got to know the JC unit, and before long I was attending services and caregroup. Service was at Kreta Ayer People Theatre, affectionately abbreviated as KAPT. During the exam period, we would go to YIH to study after service. We often had caregroup in NUS, in AS1 in fact. We had Unit 242 often, at places like AS7 and Archi. There was a memorable Rhema gathering of the whole University group, and it was on the Central Library rooftop.

My first CL was Jieyun, and followupper was David Chan. I remember there were times when he met all of us together. It was tough for him at that time, I think, having to take care of so many of us whilst juggling his university studies. Our caregoup was JCC2. It was the beginning of 7 years in this church.

There are many memories to write down, some good, some bad. But through it all, I just feel such a deep sense of family. Many times, I feel that I've not been a good member, but even so I am still part of the family. The acceptance and commitment that I have received from brothers and sisters, is something hard to come by outside. Perhaps only in our natural families. And sometimes, some might not be able to experience that in their own families.

Some people avoid church because it doesn't fit their lifestyle and/or they feel that church will take away their time and energy, afraid of commitment. It's silly. I think being part of a church has given me more than I could have given in return. I like the tagline on one of the videos last Saturday. "Hope - It's my life."

Happy 15th Anniversary.

=)

History Maker, originally uploaded by weizhuu.

It was such fun! I felt so proud that we could pull off such a great show as a church. Many people put in a lot of effort to create the spectacular. Man! Was it spectacular! The videos, the lights, the band, the choir, the interpreter, the songs, the lyrics display, the confetti, the balloons, the people.

It was nice travelling down memory lane too, with the "time tunnel". Me, Huichun and Jitsy wished Ps Dinah happy anniversary, and it was fun telling her that we came to church in '99, '01 and '03 respectively. We were taking photos with our years' posters.

btw, imho, I think that's a great photo taken with a great camera.. =P

They're so kind!, originally uploaded by weizhuu.

That's Ubuntu on my Thinkpad, and on my old Pentium 3!

That Ubuntu CD flew all the way from the Netherlands (check out the postmark) to me, for free! They are so nice!

btw, for those who are confused by me now: Ubuntu is the name of a modern operating system. An OS is the basic software that runs on any computer to make it usable to you. eg. Windows XP is an OS.

But Ubuntu is free, powerful, modern, etc, etc.

For the record, I still think OSX is great, but well, it costs money.. So it's Ubuntu for me now!! yay!

This year's Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) irks me particularly. It's all those posters and such with the mock English lessons. e.g.

Now what time? (big cross)
Do you know what time is it now? (big tick)

This year's approach is brazenly prescriptivist. I don't see why Singlish should be demonised like this. The official stance towards the issue has always been that Singlish is alright, but so-called 'good English' is necessary for Singaporeans to communicate effectively with the world. That's really good reasoning, and I believe it. I mean, which foreigner will understand really chim Singlish like "Gostan some more"?

We should definitely strive to ensure that our proficiency in the so-called 'good English' is maintained, but not at the cost of our heart language. Language brings identity, and I believe Singlish really plays a huge part, especially for us heartlanders.

By the way, it's interesting to note that on the SGEM website, "'good English'" comes with quotation marks whereas "Singlish" does not. To be fair, I think it is because they are answering the question "What is 'good English'?". However, it does have the effect of suggesting that Singlish is somewhat more real than 'good English'. I would like to agree!

I'm proud of Singlish. It's untrue that Singlish is "ungrammatical" or that words are "used wrongly". Incidentally, Singlish does have a grammar which is extensively studied by linguists. I shall not elaborate but instead just direct you towards this rather comprehensive bibliography.

Alright, to end off, let's talk about the Singlish word [gostan] which means "to move backwards". It's a word that I've used for years without giving a thought to it. It was only today that I found out about its etymology: it's possibly derived from the English "Go astern"! Fascinating, is it not?

Here's an example sentence:

Il avait dépassé le croisement et a dû gostan le long de la route.

That was kindly brought to us by the Singapore Tourism Board's Uniquely Singapore website. The French Singlish Dictionary is here!

There is a really impressive Singlish dictionary, compiled in the style of the venerable Oxford one. It wasn't written as entertainment, and is a bona fide dictionary. You simply have to take a look.