Portmanteau

Coining portmanteau happens ever so often in our daily lives. Usually resulting from a slip of the tongue, you combine two words into one. My favourite self-coined word is “stummy”: a combination of stomach and tummy, and refers to the vague abdominal area (which anatomically speaking should include the stomach and intestines).

Written by Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky is an interesting piece of writing, filled with numerous instances of portmanteau. In line 1, “slithy” refers to a combination of slimy and lithe. Line 7 mentions the “Jubjub bird”; the repetition of sounds reminds me of the blue-footed boobies.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Resemblance

Wenky, you should definitely watch this video clip. Doesn’t the presenter remind you of a different version of khy?

Sarah Palin on SNL

The real Sarah Palin on SNL – it’s a hoot!

Link to video clip on NBC.com.

Classic boo-boos

At a round of Taboo:

A: “In America, we say ‘gas’ and in Singapore what do we say?”

B: “We say ‘Yah’!”

I misheard ‘gas’ as ‘yes’. And why ever did I think Singaporeans use ‘yah’ instead of ‘yes’?

Clearly, the correct response was ‘petrol’.

Which Simpson character are you?

Take theSimpsons personality test. I did.

Clearly, I’m a bit obsessed with the Simpsons. And also, trying to justify my absence from working.

Red Bull

I meant to post this, nearly forgot about it after the lengthy post below.

Jurong Region LRT

My first attempt at mapping on Google Maps. With the re-development of Jurong, it is timely to think about the concept of a LRT line that serves the housing estates of the area. I think a LRT (maybe MRT) line is on the cards, perhaps by 2025. Hence, i made a diagrammatic representation of what the line might look like, and where potential stations may be located.

The line would link Jurong East MRT station and Boon Lay MRT station, given the huge passenger volumes these 2 stations experience, as integrated transport hubs. The line would serve the Toh Guan Industrial Park/IMM, then move towards the Toh Guan estate. It will then move westwards to serve the Jurong East dwellers at the junction with Jurong Town Hall Rd, and where the Jurong Canal is. It will continue towards Jurong West, where the 500+ blocks are, and another station in the Boon Lay Shopping Centre area. Next, it will have a station at the Jalan Bahar junction, which could serve as a future interchange with another line that will snake up towards the Tengah / Lim Chu Kang area. 2 stations in the Jurong West extension area – one near Gek Poh SC and one near Boon Lay Sec Sch completes the loop.

There could also be a southern loop, serving the Taman Jurong area together with the leisure developments around Jurong Lake. Any thoughts?

View Larger Map

Saturday Night Live – The Suze Orman Show

This is a spoof of the Suze Orman show on SNL. Hilarious, considering if you watch the Suze Orman show on CNBC.

SNL – Suze Orman Show
Uploaded by stephen2417

叶姓古老家族 源出河南叶县

　　现在河南省南阳县的附近，濒临沙河的南岸，有一个叫作叶县的县份，这个地方，名如其实，正是叶氏家族的发源地。

　　叶县，从两千多年以前开始，便一直是以“叶”为名的。《左传》上有一段文字说：“宣三年，郑公子士，及叶而死”，指的就是这个地方。后来，汉高祖统一天下，把该地定名为叶县，自此沿用到了今天。

　　根据考证，在春秋时代，叶县是一个属于楚国的采邑。当时，有一位大夫沈伊戊的后代被封食采于此，所以才以邑为氏而姓了叶。

　　关于叶氏的来龙去脉，《通志氏族略》记述得最为清楚：叶氏，旧音摄，后世与木叶之叶同音。《风俗通》：“楚沈伊戊生诸梁，食采于叶，因氏焉。”宋朝为著姓。此外，《名贤氏族言行类稿》和《姓氏考略》等古籍，对于叶氏的来源，也持同样的说法。

　　由此可见，叶姓人的祖先，是两三千年前称霸诸侯的楚国人。他们的老家，就在河南的叶县，是发源于中原地区的古老家族之一。

　　依照《姓氏考略》的记载，在古代的所谓南蛮之中，也有以叶为姓的。换言之，叶氏家族的组成分子除了来自河南叶县的一支外，另外还有一支是南蛮之族的后裔；虽然在血缘上有所不同，但是，后来经过历史上两次著名的民族大迁徙——五胡乱华和五代十国，一向繁衍于中原地区的汉人纷纷往南播迁，各姓各氏逐渐出现于南方各地，再经过长时间与当地土著的融合，在各方面都早已混然一体，再也分不出谁是汉人，谁是蛮人。

　　《通志氏族略》上特别指出：“叶氏，宋朝为著姓”，可真是一点儿都不错。因为，当时在各方面出人头地的叶姓杰出人物，实在是太多了。

　　宋代以后，整个叶氏家族表现得更加的神采飞扬，这种例子，也是不胜枚举。

GreenPrint – Saving Money Today

I chanced upon this rather neat software, that should be useful when printing off webpages. Webpages usually come with pesky little headers and footers that make you print unnecessarily. This little software will identify those runts, and reduce your print load.