Friday, January 27, 2006

Happy Birthday!

Happy 250th birthday to...

*takes a deep breath*

Johannes Chrisostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart Sigismundus!

Thanks for your charming oboe concerto and no thanks for making it so difficult!




Trivia about Mozart's name

Names as used were in many ways a matter of style in those days. For example, prior to the French revolution, when it was stylish to seem Italian, Ludwig van Beethoven used to sign his first name as "Luigi." Subsequent to the French revolution, when it was hip to seem French, he used "Louis." In the Renaissance, when Italianate musical styles were popluar, Composers of all nationalities used Italian translations of their names, such as the Flemish composer Orlando di Lasso (Roland Delattre) and the English Orlando Gibbons (Roland Gibbons). Also, composers who worked for the church would often Latinize their names. One example is the German late-renaissance composer Michael Praetorius. "Praetorius" is Latin for guard or protector, which, translated into German, gives us his real name, Michael Schultz.

Mozart's name was similarly subject to change. His birth record reads Johannes Chrisostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. The word theophilus is greek for "God's love," which in German (Mozart's native language), translates to Gottlieb, the name actually used in place of Theophilus throughout Mozart's childhood. In his maturity, he often used Latin translation of God's Love, Amadeus, but he often signed letters with the French Amadé.

By the way, actual first names were not commonly used in normal parlance at the time. Johann Sebastian Bach, for instance, went by Sebastian.

As was customary at confiration at the time, Mozart took the name of the person who presented him for confirmation. This was his father's partoon, Prince Archbishop Sigismund of Salzburg.


From www.answerbag.com
fjozn at 9:23 PM

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Blogs and Resolutions

I think blogs can be scary at times. You never know who could be reading your blog and what people will do about it.

Just look at the latest catfight between Xiaxue and Xialanxue. It seems that both are out to get each other's throat! It's interesting nonetheless, to see another side of XX. Haha!

A while ago, my friend actually interviewed me for his school project.

He described my blog as "having a little following". I'm flattered by that! People actually follow what I write despite not having any sexual references or photos of naked women on my blog!

Sadly, instead of fans holding cards to show their support, I only have Sue Anne screaming for updates.

And here it is!

Right, I know it's pretty late in January already and it's pretty late for resolutions, but I shall nevertheless list a few resolutions that I will try to keep.

1. I will try to be nicer to Hua Chi aka Jiahui aka Stephanie aka Da N** **, I will try not to make some much fun of you.
2. I will try to go swimming twice a week, depending on the weather.
3. I will try to lose 5 kgs this year.
4. I will drink less Kambing soup in order not to offend the Great oboe-violin-piano-playing Goat who-get-lost-in-a-MacDonald's-restaurant.
5. I will not play 3 players mahjong.
6. I will try to blog more so that Sue Anne will not bug me to update.
7. I will not include photos of scantily dressed women in my blog in order to raise my readership.
8. I will try not to put photos of 2 certain ladies on my dartboard if I get one.
9. I will try not to disturb/scare/mock my neighbour's gutless cat everytime I see it.
10. I will try not to bitch some people.

As you all know, resolutions are pretty hard to keep. How good would it be if we all could make resolutions like this?

1. I will make fun of Jiahui daily.
2. I will slack at home more.
3. I will try to eat more.
4. I will da bao kambing soup to MacDonald's and watch a certain goat run in circles.
5. I will run after my neighbour's cat every time I see it. It needs some exercise anyway.

I shall review all these in 2007!
fjozn at 11:15 AM

Monday, January 02, 2006

Chronicles of LY: the New Year, the Dead Pixel and the Rude Auntie

Happy New Year everyone!

How did you spend your countdown? Sleeping? Outside? At home?

I was at Marina for the fireworks. I seriously haven't seen any decent live fireworks for a while! No. Not even NDP. (No, I don't get to see it. I'm always on the way back to camp when that happens)

Sometimes I don't quite understand why people like to watch fireworks. It's essentially money being burnt right in front of your eyes.

Like how you eat your food only to shit it out a few hours later. I don't understand human and life at times.

Anyway, it was really spectacular. Well worth squeezing there with so many people. Speaking of crowds, I actually quite pity the policemen controlling the crowd. They were there shouting at people to keep off the road but to no avail. One was so frustrated that he said something like: "Eh, don't like that lah" to some laughter from the crowd.

*

Digress a bit.

I just discovered a dead pixel on my new phone's camera CCD!

!@$!$%!%%!

Damn. I hope they will change it for me. I'm not really keen to have a white spot in all my photos for the next year or so.

Moral of the story: When you buy a new phone, check it up, down, left, right, upside down for dead pixels. Better still, turn on the camera and put it on the table. Any bright (dead) pixel will show up as bright spots against the dark background. (Learnt this too late.)

*

There are apparently still some very rude people around.

On New Year's Eve, at a crowded Macdonald's at Bugis, an auntie asked if her kids could take the 2 empty seats at my table. I said yes and she left her kids there while she went to look for other available seats. Upon finding one next to my table, she called her kids over and PUT THE TRAY FROM THE OTHER TABLE (WITH A FINISHED DRINK AND DISCARDED WRAPPERS ON IT) ONTO MY TABLE!

I was taken aback by this display of discourtesy.

Hello? We let your kids sit at my table and you dump your rubbish onto mine?

I was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to do or say.

By the time I felt that I should give her a piece of my mind, a couple of minutes had passed and I decided not to take it any further. Doesn't help right? I can only hope her kids would receive proper upbringing from her. If ten years down the road, a teenager does the same thing to me, we all know why.

WARNING: The next person to repeat this crime in front of me will be given a big scolding and directions to the nearest rubbish bin to throw your rubbish and to stick your head in.
fjozn at 11:20 AM