Asian slicker (လူလည်အာရှသား)
I like this funny Burmese song by Ayoe (အရိုး). I have no idea who he is. But his song is definitely funny. Listen.
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Emmanuel Jal
Emmanuel Ja is a former war child from Sudan. He was saved by a British aid worker, Emma McCume, who died in a car accident in Nairobi. Here he is telling (and rapping) his life story. The clip is rightly titled "The music of a war child." It literally made me shed a few tears.
Aung San Suu Kyi: the unseen photo album
The Guardian has published some of her unseen photos. The photos show her as a wife and mother.
There is one that I like, her photo from her Burmese passport. I have to like this caption from the Guardian because I am also carrying Burmese passport only (this might change in the future, I have to admit).
Aung San Suu Kyi's Burmese passport, issued in New York on 9 December 1970. She refused to get a British passport - though she was entitled to one, being married to the British academic Michael Aris.
And this is another one I like:
Having a barbecue on a family holiday to the Norfolk Broads in the early 1980s
Have a look at the Guardian site.
There is one that I like, her photo from her Burmese passport. I have to like this caption from the Guardian because I am also carrying Burmese passport only (this might change in the future, I have to admit).
Aung San Suu Kyi's Burmese passport, issued in New York on 9 December 1970. She refused to get a British passport - though she was entitled to one, being married to the British academic Michael Aris.
And this is another one I like:
Having a barbecue on a family holiday to the Norfolk Broads in the early 1980s
Have a look at the Guardian site.
Wavin' Flag
Somalia-born, Canadian-based singer K'Naan's FIFA World Cup 2010 theme song:
When I get older I will be stronger They'll call me freedom Just like a wavin' flag And then it goes back
When I get older I will be stronger They'll call me freedom Just like a wavin' flag And then it goes back
Malaika
I was watching FIFA World Cup Kick-Off celebration Concert in South Africa at ESPN web site. I really liked this song "Malaika". A quick Google search told me that Kenyan musician Fadhili Williams wrote the song. And this web site gave me the following lyrics with English translation.
MalaikaAngelMalaika, nakupenda Malaika.Angel, I love you Angel.Malaika, nakupenda Malaika.Angel, I love you Angel.Nami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio,And I, your young lover, what can I do.Nashindwa na mali sina, we,Was I not defeated by the lack of fortune,Ningekuoa Malaika.I would marry you Angel.Nashindwa na mali sina, we,Was I not defeated by the lack of fortune,Ningekuoa Malaika.I would marry you Angel.Pesa zasumbua roho yanguMoney is troubling my soulPesa zasumbua roho yanguMoney is troubling my soulNami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio,And I, your young lover, what can I do,Ningekuoa Malaika.I would marry you angel.Nashindwa na mali sina, we,Was I not defeated by the lack of fortune,Ningekuoa Malaik…
MalaikaAngelMalaika, nakupenda Malaika.Angel, I love you Angel.Malaika, nakupenda Malaika.Angel, I love you Angel.Nami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio,And I, your young lover, what can I do.Nashindwa na mali sina, we,Was I not defeated by the lack of fortune,Ningekuoa Malaika.I would marry you Angel.Nashindwa na mali sina, we,Was I not defeated by the lack of fortune,Ningekuoa Malaika.I would marry you Angel.Pesa zasumbua roho yanguMoney is troubling my soulPesa zasumbua roho yanguMoney is troubling my soulNami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio,And I, your young lover, what can I do,Ningekuoa Malaika.I would marry you angel.Nashindwa na mali sina, we,Was I not defeated by the lack of fortune,Ningekuoa Malaik…
On Writing Well
Image via Wikipedia I went to Barnes and Noble near my apartment after lunch. I read "On Writing Well, The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction" by William Zinsser for the second time.
It was, in my opinion, a very good book for people who wanted to write. In part I, Zinsser told us to write simply and remove clutter from our writing. For example, he said that we could remove "personal" from "his personal feeling." "personal" in the example did not serve any purpose and should be eliminated. He explained that by writing simply and removing clutter, we learned how to nail hammers. Only then, we would learn to build beautiful houses by finding our own "style" of writing.
In part II, he talked about methods. He discussed the unity of pronouns and tense. For example, if we used first person narrative in past tense, we should stick with that to the end. He also talked about the lead and the ending. We had to write a good lead so that readers w…
It was, in my opinion, a very good book for people who wanted to write. In part I, Zinsser told us to write simply and remove clutter from our writing. For example, he said that we could remove "personal" from "his personal feeling." "personal" in the example did not serve any purpose and should be eliminated. He explained that by writing simply and removing clutter, we learned how to nail hammers. Only then, we would learn to build beautiful houses by finding our own "style" of writing.
In part II, he talked about methods. He discussed the unity of pronouns and tense. For example, if we used first person narrative in past tense, we should stick with that to the end. He also talked about the lead and the ending. We had to write a good lead so that readers w…
Firefox add-on to convert Zawgyi to Unicode
I installed Firefox add-on to convert Zawgyi encoding to Unicode 5.1. It was written by Keith Stribley of thanlwinsoft.org. It worked well. Therefore, I decided to remove Zawgyi font from my computer. I am now totally Unicode-compliant. (Disclaimer: the add-on might have some bugs; in my case, if I am typing a blog entry with movable type blogging software, using backspace key seems to remove some text. I sent an email to Keith about this issue.)
In addition to the add-on, I have also been using this Unicode keyboard by Keith Stribley. It is really easy compared to old Burmese keyboards where you have to remember Alt keys to type in stacked consonants. An example of stacked consonants would be တ္တ. Now all I have to do to type တ္တ in words like သတ္တဝါ /θaʔ tawa/ is use "`" key to stack တ /t/ below တ /t/. I typed in တ /t/ first and then type တ /t/ again. Then I just type in ` to stack it below the first တ /t/. No more memorizing of Alt keys combinations. Besides, I can also …
In addition to the add-on, I have also been using this Unicode keyboard by Keith Stribley. It is really easy compared to old Burmese keyboards where you have to remember Alt keys to type in stacked consonants. An example of stacked consonants would be တ္တ. Now all I have to do to type တ္တ in words like သတ္တဝါ /θaʔ tawa/ is use "`" key to stack တ /t/ below တ /t/. I typed in တ /t/ first and then type တ /t/ again. Then I just type in ` to stack it below the first တ /t/. No more memorizing of Alt keys combinations. Besides, I can also …