Comments | crispy47: A can of beer and a sleeve of crackers

crispy47

A can of beer and a sleeve of crackers

May 22, 2006 20:37

My apartment building has this special characteristic: During the winter, it expels all heat; during the summer, it traps all heat. In all cases, it is a giant concrete humidifier, which perhaps accounts for these other characteristics. It's hard to tell. I can't think very critically in my current humidifiedly sweltered condition. Of course, in ( Read more... )

Comments 20

spiritsong22 May 22 2006, 15:01:56 UTC

i liked this entry.

crispy47 May 22 2006, 15:23:16 UTC

Thanks. I like the phrase "a sleeve of crackers," because I just learned it a few months ago.

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crispy47 May 22 2006, 16:23:24 UTC

For one, I doubt I speak Chinese better than you do. For the year or so I was at the TT, my Chinese probably got worse. Not that I'm insecure about it or anything. I guess I'm pretty comfortable with where I'm at Chinese-wise, or at least I can accept it as the consequence of choices that I don't regret ( ... )

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crispy47 May 23 2006, 01:06:59 UTC

I guess I haven't really had your pissing-contest experience since college. My class now is super noncompetitive. I really experience it mostly in survival-related stuff-in terms of being able to make yourself understood and to be understood, to be able to watch the news, to be able to order food, to be able to carry on academic conversations, etc. I notice it when there's a huge difference in proficiency levels-like where one person could hold a conversation that the other person couldn't understand at all, or one person's accent is clearly way better ( ... )

Thread 6

bessieintw May 23 2006, 03:59:58 UTC

This entry is ... erm...I was trying to figure out a suitable adjective, but I think "this entry makes me 感觸良多" is closer to what I try to say. The weather here at this sort of time of a year does make people feel kind of dizzy and exhausted. The hot, windless, humid air in Taipei Basin compels people to stay indoors and rely increasingly on air-conditioners...

Everyone knows that Chinese language is VERY different to English. It is really difficult and takes lots of energy for a person to gain the ability to sit in and understand everything in a chinese meeting or to read chinese newspapers/magzines casually. You simply need time and practice.

I lost one heartbeat (in case there's no such an expression in English or you don't understand my Englsih, I mean "我的心跳漏了一拍") when I read about your past with that 'someone', because that reminded me my own experience, and I know he has/had the same thoughts or similar reaction as you do/did...

I learned 'a sleeve of crackers' from your entry, never heard of it before. Thank you.

crispy47 May 23 2006, 09:09:48 UTC

1. My heart 跳漏了一拍 (in English we say "my heart skipped a beat") when I read your response, because for a second I wondered if you might be the "someone" from my entry, since after all I don't know you real name or what you look like. But I mention my name all the time and have my picture, so of course you would know if you really were that person.

2. I don't know why I think the phrase sleeve of crackers is so cool. I learned it from a friend who used to work at Starbucks, where they had sleeves of cups.

3. What does 感觸良多 mean?

bessieintw May 23 2006, 10:15:59 UTC

"My heart skipped a beat"...thanks! I learned 2 new phrases today! Don't worry, I'm de...de...defintely not the someone from YOUR entry. Besides, the "he" in my story is in the UK, and he doesn't know a word in chinese. I didn't know you at all until I substantially revised my LJ profile and added NTU (National Taiwan University) into my school list. And I added you as a friend simply because I wanted to make new friends here. I guess I was a bit surprised and shocked by the coincidence, and I thought of him at the same time...That's why 'my heart skipped a beat'. You can find out my name very easily, because I'm in Taiwan(=tw ( ... )

crispy47 May 23 2006, 15:17:44 UTC

Well, I didn't really think you were the same person. Actually, I think my situation is probably more like yours than the British guy's, if that makes sense. It's pretty complicated.

So is 感觸良多 just kind of like 很感動?

Thread 5

Keeping my interest sanlu May 26 2006, 16:32:07 UTC

Hot or cold but always too humid. Crazy guy on the bus. Chinese language progress. Childhood memories of a watch. Nature of competition. To eat or not to eat. Geometric perspective as a metaphor. Past love. Dinner. I wouldn't have thought such disparate topics could be woven so smoothly into a single, absorbing vignette. Nicely done.

Re: Keeping my interest crispy47 May 27 2006, 02:09:55 UTC

Thanks. I'm sort of amazed that you got an lj account.

Re: Keeping my interest sanlu May 28 2006, 01:56:01 UTC

Lorie and I felt we were there. J.D. Salinger and Thomas Wolfe had better watch their back. When you can pull your audience into a scene, you've arrived.

llary June 24 2006, 11:15:46 UTC

I should have started reading your journal much sooner.

crispy47 June 24 2006, 13:01:36 UTC

Thanks. I always feel a little guilty when I leave an artsy-fartsy entry at the top of my blog for a long time. It feels like false advertising. More than one person has stumbled into the old lj at such a time and been crushingly disillusioned down the road.

So here's the disclaimer. When the pace of life gets going a bit quicker, I tend to have long dry spells (like this last month), often followed by equally long what-I-had-for-lunch-today spells, omg-listen-to-how-busy-I-am spells, and you-have-got-to-see-this-YourTube-video spells. If you can suffer through that, then welcome aboard.