Word du jour: emacity

I've always wondered why this word is extremely similar with emaciated, which represents the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Here's the lexicon.

Of course everyone knows that the word emaciated means extremely weakened or thin, which probably stemmed from not spending money. Yeah, English is kinda weird.

This is a belated blog post, which was supposed to be published yesterday. Unfortunately, I was out camping. Yeah summah.

Haiku #2: "Autumn"

So guys, here's the plaintext.

This is the second haiku in this blog. I made it while watching the leaves fall outside during our oh-so-boring Archaeology class. Nothing much interesting today, just some leaves. And more leaves.

leaves are falling
the wind blows them to my face
holy shit.

Writer's Block

So guys, here's the plaintext.

Me in front of the PC

It's my school. I have to submit a "university-level" essay about the analysis of some short story. And guess what. I have fucking nothing to write about. Absolutely nothing.

Don't you just hate it when writer's block hits you at just the right time; that is, when you definitely need some written output? I don't hate it, I loathe it. Every bit of it. I don't know what caused this block, maybe it's because I actually only made a "university-level" paper during my high school days (with all those MLA citations and shit) to make what my high school teachers call a mock thesis, with the presupposed objective of preparing us for college.

It did not help because what we just did was to insert parenthetical remarks here and there with a random author's name inside it. Also, we were not graded with justice; they just marked it and didn't even provide specific pointers if we did it right or wrong. I don't even know if they checked our Works Cited list; we got away with random book names by random authors. We even cited Wikipedia as a source.

The mock thesis we had in high school was horrible. Citing Wikipedia, inserting parentheses here and there (Lagasca 2010), and messing around with complex words for simple ideas are not good things to do in a university-level essay. No. That shit's not going down.

So here I am with the oh-so-common scene of staring at a blinking cursor on a blank screen. Maybe tomorrow, when I get to the library's carrels, some research writing spirit will come to me and make me finish my essay in one go. Oh and before I close, pardon my vulgarities in this blogpost: I'm practicing my colloquial English. Shit.

Break the barrier

So guys, here's the plaintext.

It's not me. It's my awkward way with words, the way I handle the spoken language, that sets me apart from these people.

I just arrived from my job, and today's bunch was extremely different. What was a group of people in their mid-20s to 30s on the weekends I worked was replaced by a group of guys (and girls) in the 10th or 11th grade. I was like, "WHOAH, BUDDY!"

So, there I was, sitting next to these high schoolers who were 3, maybe 5 months more tenured than me. There were 7 people from somewhere in the Middle East I guess and brothers from I have no idea where (surname's Nguyen, and their names are Western, so I'm not that sure), who I reckon grew up here, the way they spoke English without inflections or accents. Maybe my inference that they grew up here could be extended to the prediction that they were actually born here, given their Western first names.

It struck me hard. I'm surrounded by people who speak English naturally, and yet it's not their lingua franca. I tried speaking to them but most of the time I end up repeating myself, which I hate. So I'll try to act like the college guy who speaks on occasion.

But no. That's not me. I've got a lot of stories to tell and hell would I tell them if I could. Right now I'm just disappointed that unlike how I shine in English class a while ago (I was the constant arm-raiser, but maybe it's just my classmates are still too shy), I suck at speaking the language. So bad. Makes me wonder though how my British friend manages to understand every word I'm saying. Maybe it's a perception thing. Maybe my speech patterns lean more towards the British accent (Funny story: On the voice chat feature of an online game, I was actually asked if I was a "12-year-old Australian kid or something" when they heard me speak. I don't know if I should be flattered or annoyed by that.)? I don't know.

I decide I need more practice. I could not just get perfect spoken English overnight; I need to suffer a few days (years?) of being misunderstood. Just like in DDR where I had to suck before I could rock.

I sip my apple cider one last time and go to sleep.