I've always had this indescribable idea somewhere in the back of my mind, but lately everything is falling into place to confirm it and help articulate it.
The idea: The entire social system is rigged to make sure the vast majority of you are deprived of the capacity for overthrowing the government.
From the moment you are born you are conditioned into accepting that there is an endless list of obligatory hurdles to overcome as you grow up: enrolling in schools, exam upon exam, interview upon interview, getting qualified for jobs, getting jobs, paying off your bills, getting a 20-year mortgage to pay an exorbitant sum of money for that tiny dwelling, paying off the 20-year mortgage, having a kid, having another kid, seeing your kid off into that enrol-in-school-exam-upon-exam cycle again...
You don't have time to think. No spare capacity. No resource. No other option. It's just part of being responsible. It's only normal. Anything else would be heresy.
And who set things up to be that way? The government.
So even though you feel some vague anger towards whatever is going down in LegCo and how those government officials talk and act like they can pass whatever bill they want (... which in fact they can), you're too busy to do anything substantial about it.
How do you break away from a rigged system like this?
自從 SMS 流行以後，人們開始慣性使用一些縮寫，以便輸入，例如把 because 縮成 'coz 等。我個人會避免使用這些縮寫，也不太喜歡見到別人使用。
但又是因為蕭 Sir 的緣故，在日常生活裏開始留意外國人用英文的習慣，竟然又從中看出了一點條理 -- 縮寫用甚麼字母組成，往往直接反映以英語為母語的人怎樣發音。
就以 because 為例，在討論區裏面通常會看到的縮寫有： becoz, becuz, b'coz, b'cuz, 'coz, 'cuz, coz, cuz。
由此可以得出三點觀察：
再查查朗文字典，發現讀音為 /bɪ'kɒz/ 或 /bɪ'kəz/。除了 "be-" 可能被省略的口語習慣外，嘩！全中。
我們同學對於很多發音方面的問題 -- 例如甚麼時候用 s 或 z 發音 -- 都感到有點困惑。除了死記硬背之外，看看 native speakers 在平常生活裏怎樣把英文變來變去，也可能提供一點點的線索。
There is stress in presenting the unembellished truth to your boss. There is stress in bending the truth to your boss's liking. However, the degree of the former is far smaller than that of the latter.
Once I figured that out, it felt as if an anvil chained to my neck just disappeared.
In other words, the Good triumphs over the Evil this time round. And the forces of nature are in the Good's favour. Lucky break, I say.
Today, something slipped from my hand but I was able to catch it. Usually my attempt to grasp at the thing would only make matters worse by knocking it (and probably other things) out of sight.
從失落的邊緣把事情挽回的感覺真好，縱使挽回的只是一支飲管。