@liztai@hachyderm.io
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liztai

@liztai@hachyderm.io

Malaysian tech writer. Works in tech. Former journalist but always a writer. Autodidact.

If you follow me I promise that I'm absolutely random.

Toots #IndieWeb #Obsidian #Malaysia #TootSEA #Books #TV #Writing #CDrama #KDrama #Urbanism #Cats #Dogs #Tech and very occasional #GeoPolitics

Occasionally talks in Manglish.

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liztai, to languagelearning
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Cantonese use one word to make everything sound like a cuss.

For real my favourite Canto words at one time was "sei pat poh" cos I watched way too much TVB and Stephen Chow movies then 😆

#Cantonese #Languages #Chinese

https://youtube.com/shorts/NimrwWK4QEM?si=NVNDKddPT5XpUv9_

liztai,
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@voyager puk gai is my second fav lol

liztai, to random
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As a writer, despite the outcome and political craziness that this sentence caused, I can't help but admire the words, "reduce the Ruble to rubble."

liztai, to chinese
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I can now read this. It's only HSK 1 level, but the joy of being able to read Chinese when I couldn't last year is 😭
One step at a time!

liztai,
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@mattb it's a website called Mandarin Bean. You can turn pinyin off and on. Usually I turn it off, and I can click on characters I don't know to get the pinyin. I use the website like a textbook

liztai,
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@langtales I got one of their readers! Yea me too. Very gratifying.

liztai,
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@thepoliticalcat Hrrmm, not from one place, but I used a number of techniques and used a few tools. I basically went through a frequency list and memorized them. But I also know most of the words already, so I don't have the extra load of learning new vocab. So I basically matched words to characters which is infinitely easier.

liztai,
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@thepoliticalcat haha writing is hard!! I never understood the stroke order, always got it wrong. In the end, it's just much easier to learn characters via typing. I don't think you'd have much difficulty remembering what you learned - try Tofu Learn and download the frequent chinese words deck. And revise, you should be able to spur that memory!

liztai, to movies
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Yolo more than a story about an overweight girl becoming a boxer . It's a character study of a woman who decides to believe in herself by doing something seemingly impossible.

#CDrama #CDramas #Movies

https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/2024/05/25/yolo-movie-review/

Sollenbum, to random
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Just finishing episode 5 of “Joy of Life” 🌸 The drama feels very different from more standard Cdramas. Difficult to pinpoint exactly why. Perhaps it is because it allows its characters to be flawed?

Wang Yang as the assassin with a backstory who turns into a helper has great charisma. Nice to see actors who are not extremely young, being given meaty roles to play.

liztai,
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@Sollenbum @JillsJoy So many reasons why it's so unique!
For one, it's a fantasy historical drama not dominated by idols for once, but are run by pros in their field. So we get A-standard writers and actors. (Can't say the same for the cinematography tho lol).
Also, every side character is unique and memorable. Every character is in shades of grey. The plot doesn't overexplain itself, the writer trusts the audience's intelligence, so there's no unnecessary info dumps. It also has a killer twist!

liztai, to random
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yay my fancy motorised stand up table will arrive this Monday!

liztai, to television
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Watching From now on, showtime! to balance out the heaviness of . I would watch anything with this actor. He's that good! So far, liking it 😁

liztai, to chinese
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Hey Chinese-language friends!

So I wrote a funny sentence the other day:

我找红线 。可是我有黑线。不好啊！

Apparently 黑线 (black thread) is a colloquial expression that means "a feeling of speechlessness or frustration" and when I looked up Pleco, it says that it has something to do with the Cultural Revolution. Man, I went to deep places with that sentence lol.

Asking Chinese Mastodon - does black thread really mean this in the Chinese context?

1/2

#Chinese #Mandarin #LanguageLearning

liztai,
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But anyway, my sentence started out very basic, but has lots of cultural elements.
Red thread = signifies bonded by fate, black thread = frustration.
So, in a way, I basically said that "I wanted a red thread (someone who is fated to love me) but got black thread (ostrasization) instead. So deep lol

liztai,
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FYI for those who are interested:
我找红线。
Wǒ zhǎo hóngxiàn.
I am looking for a red thread.

可是我有黑线。
Kěshì wǒ yǒu hēixiàn.
But I have a black thread.

不好啊！
Bù hǎo a!
Not good!

liztai, to random
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Sometimes I get frustrated. The world is running out of oil, the climate is topsy turvy, and we're doing our best to prevent mass-adoption of green tech because, capitalism (or some shit like that). Meanwhile, let's wage war against one another because there are elections to be won/territories and wealth to grab. URGH.

Can humanity evolve out of our caveman instincts or something?

liztai, to random
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I am a very light sleeper. I wake up at the slightest sound. It is both fortunate and unfortunate.

I once woke up to the soft plop of a cockroach landing on my pillow.

Still not sure if that is classified under "fortunate" or "unfortunate".

liztai, to random
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Honestly, most of the time I just tolerate the hair on the men in wuxia dramas, but Fan Xian's wavy hair is chef's 💋

As a member of the semi-rare tribe of Chinese people with naturally wavy hair, I feel represented 😆

liztai,
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@Sollenbum And we wavy haired girls wished we had hair that is easier to take care of lol.
When I grow my hair out, I appreciate the fact that I don't have to pay for any perming, because it just naturally cascades down into long waves. And since my hair always looks like I just got out of bed, I just let it run with it lol.

liztai, to random
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The cutest boyband ever! If only they weren't trying so hard to kill each other 😆

PS: Found this on Twitter. Couldn't get this out of my mind cos they look so cute in this clip! I am taking my time with . Only at episode 2 and this is because I rewatched the episodes twice haha. JOL has such intricately written plots you really need to pay attention!

Video of 5 men

liztai,
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@AnnaAnthro is it me or are the men more gorgeous this season 😍

LianaBrooks, to random
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Rewatching #JoyOfLife counts as research, right?

liztai,
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@LianaBrooks Absolutely! lol

Sollenbum, to random
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Just beginning to watch season 1 of “Joy of Life” 🌸 It is still laying the foundations of the drama but there is already a sense of foreboding. Zhang Ruoyun has a very charismatic presence - slightly goofy but clever.

Ting Meishi has a brooding, underplayed aspect that complements Zhang Ruoyun’s more mercurial character.

liztai,
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@AnnaAnthro @Sollenbum Uncle Wu is my no.1 fav character in Joy of Life. I later saw the actor in other dramas and didn't realise it was him lol.

liztai,
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@AnnaAnthro @Sollenbum I think I know what arc he will appear, and it will not be very soon alas

liztai,
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@Sollenbum @AnnaAnthro yup confirmed. I know what ep in s2 he reappears. As awesome as ever haha

liztai,
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@AnnaAnthro @Sollenbum lol either ep 27 or 28

liztai, to tech
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When Iived in Australia, I realised that we Malaysians had access to more advanced tech. Our laptops, smartphones etc were more advanced.
When I was a journalist who would travel overseas to interview people - Asian journalists always had the slickest voice recorders. We were using MP3 recorders while the Western journos were still using tape.
I don't think it's because we r smarter; I think we dare to copy & improve while co's in the West are more protective & possessive of their #tech. 1/2

liztai,
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@lety Yeah, makes sense! I'm not surprised that Japan and Korea are so strict with IPs as they're influenced by the US a lot :P

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