AA制, AB制, and AO制

Remember the AA post previously?

Apparently it's also used in China to mean going Dutch. They call it "AA制" or "AA treat", where "AA" means "Algebraic Average".

From this comes another one: "AB制", or "AB treat".

This has become a fad among young people, where males would choose to pay a bigger slice of the bill, and the remainder would be paid by the females dining with them.

What about the male paying all for the female?

Yup, that would be the "AO制". The "O" here stands for zero, because the female basically paid zero cents.

床前没有光

上个礼拜的某一天, 经过睡觉前好多, 好多分钟和隔天约莫半天的细心教导、解释、甚至画画! 外加不少的软磨硬泡，哄骗的给了他多五分钟的iPad时间后，终于，终于! 教侄儿背了《静夜思》。。。的第一句。

汗颜。

但当他举一反三地把 "床前明月光" 故意说成 "床前没有光" 时，我是欣慰的，因为这证明他是了解那句的意思的。

今天已经教了他第三句。

可是他在学校不知怎么学了这句： “你妈妈没有毛，你爸爸没有毛”，而在念诗时，总是把这句有毛没毛的加进去。

哎哟，好头痛。

Kids these days

The Nephew called the Dad the other day and reported his overall exam results. Apparently it was better than expected (the Dad heard from the Bro some days before about the test results). Dad, although very happy, couldn't fathom how that could happen, and called up the Bro.

A few minutes after the Dad hung up the call with the Bro, the Bro called back.

Because the Bro was surprised, cos 1, the Nephew didn't tell HIM, and 2, there was no school that day, so how would the Nephew suddenly know his results? - he called the Nephew up.

And what did the Nephew say when the Bro asked how he knew?

"I guessed one."

*facepalm

We were all stupefied how the Nephew can just call and reported his exam results without really knowing, and not mentioning that he only actually guessed the results.

The kids these days.

*thumbs up

2 quotes from Dean Koontz's Odd Interlude #1

Was tidying up one of my hard drives and saw 2 quotes that I jolted down last time from Dean Koontz's Odd Interlude #1.

Quote 1:
Because I so love this wondrous world, I am by nature optimistic and of good humor. My friend and mentor Ozzie Boone says buoyancy is one of my better qualities. However, as though to warn that excess buoyancy might lead to carelessness, he sometimes reminds me that shit, too, floats.

Quote 2:
The gun once belonged to the wife of a minister in Magic Beach. Her husband, the reverend, had shot her to death before she could shoot him. In their particular denomination of Christianity, the faithful are evidently too impatient to wait for prayer to solve their problems.


Hurhur. There's always more than one way to view things, isn't there.

Time to go to...

You know that cliché where it is claimed that there are 50 Eskimo words for snow, leading to the argument that "language embodies different local concerns in different areas of the world"?

In Chinese, there are many different ways of saying "going to the toilet", like:

上厕所 - shàng cè suǒ
去方便 - qù fāng biàn
如厕 - rú cè
更衣 - gēng yī
解手 - jiě shǒu
出恭 - chū gōng
净手 - jìng shǒu
撇条 - piě tiáo
解溲 - jiě sōu

Does that embody some particular concern for going to the toilet for this culture?

Just saying. :p

Levi's ad translation

Saw this person asking how to say this in English in HiNative - a Levi's ad that's in Chinese.

Using I-should-try-to-help as an excuse for procrastination, below's my attempt at translating it, after revisions.

The world is changing.
Are you the one who will change the world?
Have you ever decided which path the ship of destiny will go?
Straight on, or just go with the flow?
From the first moment to the last,
has the world ever changed because of you?
You yourself, with your backpack,
you already have everything you need going forward.
You shall write your own motto.
You shall create your own legend.
This era is ours.

Craving Ice

Do you crave for ice? Until you can be termed an ice addict?

I used to love to eat ice. The home and office fridge was also stocked up with ice. I was kinda the official ice lady in office. With the nickname "ice ice baby". It can even be said most of my water intake came from eating ice cos whenever I felt thirsty, I went for ice first.

Not all ice are equal. Notice how some ice are transparent all the way (pure ice), while some are cloudy (ice with trapped impurities and minerals) - those cloudy ones taste the best. Like ice kacang ice. Very shiok.

People have told me eating so much ice isn't good. Especially for the teeth. But I've got no fillings, no decaying teeth - I even thought eating ice helped in maintaining the no dental fillings situation. People have their likes and dislikes, right? Like how some love to eat cake. I love to eat ice. Nothing wrong what. At least ice's kinda healthier than cake... XD

Until I read online that it might be a form of pica, where one has an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive, such as ice, soil, or chalk.

So when I went for a body checkup couple of years ago, I mentioned my ice craving to the doc. She then recommended me to take a ferritin blood test, which measures the amount of stored iron in the body. So I did, and waited to collect the results one week later.

Before the week was up, the doc called. She told me to go get some iron pills immediately and start eating them. She said the iron in my body was very low. I didn't know how low until I went to see her for the body checkup results.

Apparently my ferritin level was 2, resulting in low blood count - a 7.9. Doc said if the blood count reaches 7, it's time for blood transfusion. She's amazed I'm not always dizzy or something, and remarked maybe I've gotten used to it all these years.

So I started eating iron pills. Sangobion. Didn't cause constipation, heng ah. People have remarked I have more color in my face and lips. And what about ice?

I stopped craving them. I kinda miss the shiokness in eating them, though. I've tried to eat some once in a while, but that shiokness isn't there anymore.

And now if I see my friends who crave ice to the point of being addicted, I will ask them to go see a doc and maybe do some blood test.

The difference between 王室 and 皇室

王室 and 皇室 both mean the royal family, so what's the difference?

If the monarch is the king/queen kind - the more western type - use 王室. Cos 国王.

If the monarch is the emperor kind - the more eastern type - use 皇室. Cos 皇帝.

Word of the day - 外挂

Learned a new word in HiNative.com.

Someone asked, "What does 外挂 mean?"

The chrome extension dictionary explained the word as
1) attached externally (eg, fuel tank)
2) plug-in
3) add-on
4) special software used to cheat in an online game

Both answers given in HiNative were (4). Which I guess when without context, 外挂 is more popularly known as something that people use to cheat when playing online games.

One helpful person further went on to give an example sentence “像开了外挂一样” - which was explained as when describing someone using this sentence, means that person's life and etc is very smooth sailing, so smooth sailing to the point that it's easy to make other people jealous.

Which translation are you more inclined towards?

Came upon this sentence during class, "He that makes himself a sheep shall be eaten by the wolf."

Translation of the above would depend on how one interprets the meaning.

How would you translate it to be? Of the two translations below, which are you more inclined towards?

(1) 扮猪吃老虎的人会被狼吃。
(2) 不努力把自己变强的人会被吞没。