User Comments - Tal

Posted on: Jewish Holiday

Judaism...is the only religion that's based upon national revelation between G-d and a people, which occured at Mt. Sinai; every other major religion is based upon an individual who had a revelation from G-d.

Err... I'm not a believer (in any kind of deity), but I'm slightly puzzled by the above. I thought the Bible legend had Moses up on the top of the mountain communing with 'the Lord', while all the people had to wait at the bottom to receive 'the word'. What's the difference between that and any other kind of intercession via 'an individual?'

Posted on: Is China Scary?

@laojia1 - 看样子你没有看过都我写的，也许有什么地方你看不懂。反正，你那个我什么地方的人的问题不相干的，我只是给有意义的回答对这个课程问题。我就告诉你，我住在中国，在这里工作所以我有看法。

Posted on: Farewell, Sweet Pete

Pete, I am gutted and actually can't trust myself to say much here.

I'd better just keep it simple.

Thank you. Good luck. I'll miss you.

Posted on: Don't Litter

Um... no, you can't. There are other ways to say that in Chinese. For example:

别瞎说  Bié xiāshuō.  Don't talk nonsense. (Literally: Don't talk blindly.)

or

你在说废话   Nǐ zài shuō fèihuà。You are talking nonsense.

Posted on: 都......了Already

I have not previously heard 干妈 (gānmā) for godmother. I thought godmother was 教母 (jiàomǔ).

Actually I thought 干妈 (gānmā) meant adoptive mother. (Adoptive father interestingly seems to be 乾爹 - gāndiē.)

Godfather (哈哈！just like the famous movie) I presume would be 教父。(This is where I'm sure pete would do a stunning Marlon Brando 马龙·白兰度 impersonation!)

Posted on: City Series: Bali

漂 has the 氵 water radical of course . (氵is known as 三点水.)

It has the general meaning of float, drift. e.g. 树叶在水上漂着。Leaves were floating on the water.

Apart from 漂白 (to bleach, for example cloth, a process involving water of course), this character can be found in:
漂浮 - to float
漂泊 - to drift aimlessly
漂荡 - to drift on water, to lead a wanderer's life. (This is now usually written 飘荡 though.)

漂亮 does have the meaning of beautiful or pretty and is quite common in Chinese. Perhaps some kind of 'floating light' mnemonic for 'beauty' could be invented - lol.

Posted on: City Series: Bali

@shenyajin - that cat is an authentic Bali coffee poop cat! 一只正宗的巴厘岛咖啡屎猫！

Posted on: City Series: Bali

$65 a cup according to this Youtube clip (not viewable in China). "The British Royal Family and Oprah Winfrey buy large amounts of Kopi Luwak!"

How about feeding coffee beans to your pet cat, sorting through the poop, then making your own? Not only save money, but really enjoy watching unwelcome visitors savour the taste?

Glad I don't like coffee! 我可不敢喝！

Posted on: The Pen and Paper Mystery

'yīxià' here does not equate to "it down" in the English translation of the sentence.

It's function is only (as you suggest) the 'usual softening effect'.

Posted on: Star Trek

The original series was 'special in many ways', but the chief way was quite simply that it was perhaps one of the first TV series to catch the 1960s 'spirit of Apollo' (by which I mean deep fascination with the idea of space travel and space exploration), blend it with some great storytelling and also of course Gene Roddenberry's idealistic vision of humanity becoming noble and technology being used to make life glorious.

There were some truly great episodes, for example the classic City on the Edge of Forever written (and infamously rewritten!) by Sci-Fi giant Harlan Ellison.

There were also some episodes which were so silly and embarrassing that I would have to be very drunk to ever want to see them again, for example I, Mudd, written by... err... I don't know and don't care.

We Trekkers will always love and remember the original series, and cherish the characters and stories, but I think it's fair to say that the later series of Star Trek took the concept much further than Kirk and co could.