Friday, January 03, 2014

The Origin of "Tarma"

A: tarma

B: that means it's her and her mother

C: Tarma is Cantonese. It comes from the phrase "tar ma shiong", which means add one more on top.
it's what I was told by a friend so if I'm mistaken I'd be glad to know the real meaning/origin.

D: Idk, in cantonese "add" is "kah/kar". "Ma" is "double". So it should be "kah/kar ma shiong/seong".

Unless of course it's actually supposed to be "tar mah jeong", 打麻将, lol

C: I think it is 打 and the last word is 上, but not sure of the middle. It's like 'hit me with one more on top' or something.

Thursday, January 02, 2014

"The next best thing... is, after being born, to die as quickly as possible"

"Reason therefore requires that men of understanding should be neither indifferent in such calamities nor extravagantly affected; for the one course is unfeeling and brutal, the other lax and effeminate. Sensible is he who keeps within appropriate bounds and is able to bear judiciously both the agreeable and the grievous in his lot...

Among the felicitous utterances the following piece of advice is to the point:

Let no success be so unusual
That it excite in you too great a pride,
Nor abject be in turn, if ill betide;
But ever be the same; preserve unchanged
Your nature, like to gold when tried by fire

It is the mark of educated and disciplined men to keep the same habit of mind toward seeming prosperity, and nobly to maintain a becoming attitude toward adversity. For it is the take of rational prudence, either to be on guard against evil as it approaches, or, if it have already happened, to rectify it or to minimize it or to provide oneself with a virile and noble patience to endure it...

Reason is the best remedy for the cure of grief, reason and the preparedness through reason for all the changes of life. For one ought to realize that, not merely that he himself is mortal by nature, but also that he is allotted to a life that is mortal and to conditions which readily reverse themselves. For men's bodies are indeed mortal, lasting but a day, and mortal is all they experience and suffer, and, in a word, everything in life; and all this

May not be escaped nor avoided by mortals
at all, but
The depths of unseen Tartarus hold you fast by hard-forged necessities

... elsewhere Pindar says:

Somebody? Nobody? Which is which?
A dream of a shadow is man.

... While Theramenes, who afterwards became one of the Thirty Tyrants at Athens, was dining with several others, the house, in which they were, collapsed, and he was the only one to escape death; but as he was being congratulated by everybody, he raised his voice and exclaimed in a loud tone, "O Fortune, for what occasion are you reserving me?" And not long afterward he came to his end by torture at the hands of his fellow tyrants...

Aeschylus seems admirably to rebuke those who think that death is an evil. He says:

Men are not right in hating Death, which is
The greatest succour from our many ills.

In imitation of Aeschylus some one else has said:

DO Death, healing physician, come.

For it is indeed true that

A harbour from all distress is Hades.

For it is a magnificent thing to be able to say with undaunted conviction:

What man who recks not death can be a slave?

and

With Hades' help shadows I do not fear.

For what is there cruel or so very distressing in being dead? It may be that the phenomenon of death, from being too familiar and natural to us, seems somehow, under changed circumstances, to be painful, though I know not why. For what wonder if the separable be separated, if the combustible be consumed, and the corruptible be corrupted? EFor at what time is death not existent in our very selves?...

Observe too the painfulness of life, and the exhaustion caused by many cares; if we should wish to enumerate all these, we should to readily condemn life, and we should confirm the opinion which now prevails in the minds of some that it is better to be dead than to live. Simonides41 at any rate says:

Petty indeed is men's strength;
All their strivings are vain;
Toil upon toil in a life of no length.
Death hovers over them all,
Death which is foreordained,
Equal the share by the brave is attained
In death with the base.

... not inelegantly did the man seem to put the case who called "sleep the Lesser Mysteries of death"; for sleep is really a preparatory rite for death...

If death indeed resembles a journey, even so it is not an evil. On the contrary, it may even be a good. For to pass one's time unenslaved by the flesh and its emotions, by which the mind is distracted and tainted with human folly, would be a blessed piece of good fortune...

in reality

No suffering affects the dead,

since

Not to be born I count the same as death

For the condition after the end of life is the same as that before birth. But do you imagine that there is a difference between not being born at all, and being born and then passing away? Surely not, unless you assume also that there is a difference in a house or a garment of ours after its destruction, as compared with the time when it had not yet been fashioned... As a matter of fact, many people, because of their utter fatuity and their false opinion regarding death, die in their effort to keep from dying...

In general everyone ought to hold the conviction, if he seriously reviews the facts both by himself and in the company of another, that not the longest life is the best, but the most efficient. For it is not the man who has played the lyre the most, or made the most speeches, or piloted the most ships, who is commended, but he who has done these things excellently. Excellence is not to be ascribed to length of time, but to worth and timely fitness. For these have come to be regarded as tokens of good fortune and of divine favour. It is for this reason, at any rate, that the poets have traditionally represented those of the heroes who were pre-eminent and sprung from the gods as quitting this life before old age...

Affection and love for the departed does not consist in distressing ourselves, but in benefiting the beloved one; and a benefit for those who have been taken away is Dthe honour paid to them through keeping their memory green. For no good man, after he is dead, is deserving of lamentations, but of hymns and songs of joy; not of mourning, but of an honourable memory; not of sorrowing tears, but of offerings of sacrifice...

Not merely now, but long ago, as Crantor says, the lot of man has been bewailed by many wise men, who have felt that life is a punishment and that for man to be born at all is the greatest calamity. Aristotle says that Silenus when he was captured declared this to Midas. It is better to quote the very words of the philosopher. He says, in the work which is entitled Eudemus, or Of the Soul, the following:

" 'Wherefore, O best and blessedest of all, in addition to believing that those who have ended this life are blessed and happy, we also think that to say anything false or slanderous against them is impious, from our feeling that it is directed against those who have already become our betters and superiors. And this is such an old and ancient belief with us that no one knows at all either the beginning of the time or the name of the person who first promulgated it, but it continues to be a fixed belief for all time. And in addition to this you observe how the saying, which is on the lips of all men, has been passed from mouth to mouth for many years.' 'What is this?' said he. And the other, again taking up the discourse, said: 'That not to be born is the best of all, and that to be dead is better than to live. And the proof that this is so has been given to many men by the deity. So, for example, they say that Silenus, after the hunt in which Midas of yore had captured him, when Midas questioned and inquired of him what is the best thing for mankind and what is the most preferable of all things, was at first unwilling to tell, but maintained a stubborn silence. But when at last, by employing every device, Midas induced him to say something to him, Silenus, forced to speak, said: "Ephemeral offspring of a travailing genius and of harsh fortune, why do you force me to speak what it were better for you men not to know? For a life spent in ignorance of one's own woes is most free from grief. But for men it is utterly impossible that they should obtain the best thing of all, or even have any share in its nature (for the best thing for all men and women is not to be born); however, the next best thing to this, and the first of those to which man can attain, but nevertheless only the second best, is, after being born, to die as quickly as possible." It is evident, therefore, that he made this declaration with the conviction that existence after death is better than that in life.' "


[Ed: emphasis mine]

One might cite thousands and thousands of examples under this same head, but there is no need to be prolix...

We therefore resemble men who have forgotten, not merely, as Euripides says, that

Mortals are not the owners of their wealth,

but also that they do not own a single one of human possessions. Wherefore we must say in regard to all things that

We keep and care for that which is the gods',
And when they will they take it back again.

... There are two of the inscriptions at Delphi which are most indispensable to living. These are: "Know thyself" and "Avoid extremes," for on these two commandments hang all the rest...

That which has been so well said by Menander:

Whom the gods love dies young.
"

Consolatio ad Apollonium / Plutarch (Loeb Classical Library edition)

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Links - 1st January 2014

Do You Know What I Got For Christmas? | WeKnowMemes

'Vaginal Knitting' Is Here To Make Everyone Afraid Of Performance Art Once Again (NSFW)

Crack intro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "A crack intro, also known as a cracktro, loader, or just intro, is a small introduction sequence added to cracked software, designed to inform the user of which "cracking crew" or individual cracker was responsible for removing the software's copy protection and distributing the crack"

Women Use Facebook To Be Callous and Vindictive To Each Other, Sky Also Found To Be Blue - "25% of women purposefully post “unflattering photos” of their friends in bikinis to Facebook and other social media sites. And most of the women who admitted to doing this said they did it after a “falling out,” and 1/3 of them cited “revenge” as a motivator. On top of that 40% of the women surveyed copped to posting photos of their female friends without makeup. 20% went on to say that they have refused to take down these pictures, even when asked to do so"

Top 3 exercises we follow in life - The People's Funny Pictures Blog - Quora

Big Liars Are Truthful about Lying: Scientific American Podcast - "the big cheaters were the liars who admitted that they fibbed. Their honesty suggests they feel little remorse about lying. Which jibes with tests that find that liars tend to get higher scores for psychopathic traits"

Does Christina Hendricks have a body women should aspire to? - "Her hips are probably the most hypnotic on television, and now Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan Harris (nee Holloway), and is reportedly a size 14, has had her body officially endorsed by the British government. "Christina Hendricks is absolutely fabulous," says Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, who held up Hendricks' outline as an ideal shape for women... That figure is reportedly in possession of dimensions around 36-32-36 - although some reports suggest 38-32-38 - and her breasts variously described as a C or D cup. That kind of body requires a lot of exercise and healthy eating to maintain, says Deanne Jade, a psychologist at the National Centre for Eating Disorders. "Usually in the real world, the bigger breast goes along with a bigger tummy, wider waist or protruding abdomen. "So it's unusual to have someone with these curves. Therefore to get a figure like that, you would have to work hard or be naturally well-endowed"... "There is a possibility of getting this body by exercise and being careful what you eat - some people have ideal bodies without having surgery - but it requires a big investment in time and money. It's a full-time job in itself.""

Tan yii Yann's answer to Crime: How do you feel about anti-rape clothing? - Quora - "Most women are not stupid. Most men are not rapists. However, the opposites of the two seem to find each other much too often... Frankly, ladies, it makes us all look like a spoilt bunch of brats when we don't take basic measures, yet complain. There are loads of us that argue, "this is a basic tenet of feminism". No, it is not. We are trying to get equal rights. We are not trying to get the right to do whatever we want and blame everyone else but us."

Sexual assault and drinking: Teach women the connection. - "A common denominator in these cases is alcohol, often copious amounts, enough to render the young woman incapacitated. But a misplaced fear of blaming the victim has made it somehow unacceptable to warn inexperienced young women that when they get wasted, they are putting themselves in potential peril... more than 80 percent of campus sexual assaults involve alcohol... we are failing to let women know that when they render themselves defenseless, terrible things can be done to them. Young women are getting a distorted message that their right to match men drink for drink is a feminist issue. The real feminist message should be that when you lose the ability to be responsible for yourself, you drastically increase the chances that you will attract the kinds of people who, shall we say, don’t have your best interest at heart. That’s not blaming the victim; that’s trying to prevent more victims. Experts I spoke to who wanted young women to get this information said they were aware of how loaded it has become to give warnings to women about their behavior. “I’m always feeling defensive that my main advice is: ‘Protect yourself. Don’t make yourself vulnerable to the point of losing your cognitive faculties,’ ” says Anne Coughlin, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, who has written on rape and teaches feminist jurisprudence. She adds that by not telling them the truth—that they are responsible for keeping their wits about them—she worries that we are “infantilizing women.” The “Campus Sexual Assault Study” of 2007, undertaken for the Department of Justice, found that the popular belief that many young rape victims have been slipped “date rape” drugs is false. “Most sexual assaults occur after voluntary consumption of alcohol by the victim and assailant,” the report states. But the researchers noted that this crucial point is not being articulated to young and naïve women: “Despite the link between substance abuse and sexual assault it appears that few sexual assault and/or risk reduction programs address the relationship between substance use and sexual assault... nothing is going to be as effective at preventing alcohol-facilitated assaults as a reduction in alcohol consumption. The 2009 campus sexual assault study, co-authored by Krebs, found campus alcohol education programs “seldom emphasize the important link” between women’s voluntary alcohol and drug use “and becoming a victim of sexual assault”... Lake says that it is unrealistic to expect colleges will ever be great at catching and punishing sexual predators; that’s simply not their core mission. Colleges are supposed to be places where young people learn to be responsible for themselves. Lake says, “The biggest change in going to college is that you have to understand safety begins with you. For better or worse, fair or not, just or not, the consequences will fall on your head.””
Feminist rape myths myths culture - leading to more rapes

Christian BA employee to take legal action over suspension for wearing cross - "The airline's uniform code states that staff must not wear visible jewellery or other 'adornments' while on duty without permission from management. It makes exceptions for Muslim and Sikh minorities by allowing them to wear hijabs and turbans"

Ankit Sethi's answer to Culture (social science): Are female breasts overrated? - Quora - "In only 13 of those 190 cultures were breasts found to have any role in sexual attraction whatsoever. To split hairs even further, the study also revealed that in only 13 out of 190 cultures did breasts play a role in sexual activity (touching/fondling, as part of sexual intercourse). In the rest, breasts played no role at all."

You may be cool, but you’ll never be Liam Neeson getting his shoes tied up by Olivia Wilde cool

Reading on the beach - The People's Funny Pictures Blog - Quora

Good news ... now you can have webcam sex for charity - "Benedivz debuted its site today where live webcam entertainers broadcast to viewers who buy “helping-handz credits” to see live performances and “requested” activities. Performers donate a percentage of proceeds to a charity of their choice. Benevidz will match 50 percent of their earnings and donate that amount to their selected cause. The company is currently raising $15,000 on crowdfunding site Rockethub for this noble endeavor."

Why a woman's wiggle while she walks, like that of Jennifer Lopez, shows she is ready for love - "women at the peak of their fertility cycles walk more slowly and seductively than those who are not."

Japan’s First “Cuddle Cafe” Lets You Sleep With a Stranger for $80/hr

Jackie Samuel, Professional Snuggler, Will Snuggle You For $60 An Hour (VIDEO)

Opinion: Young men, get 'yes' a text before sex - "I've been worried that I left out one important piece of advice that is a must-do today: Never have sex with a girl unless she's sent you a text that proves the sexual relationship is consensual beforehand. And it's a good idea to even follow up any sexual encounter with a tasteful text message saying how you both enjoyed being with one another -- even if you never plan on hooking up again. Crazy, I know, but I've actually been encouraging my son and his friends to use sexting -- minus the lewd photos -- to protect themselves from being wrongly accused of rape. Because just as damning text messages and Facebook posts helped convict the high-schoolers in Steubenville of rape, technology can also be used to prove innocence. How to protect yourself from false rape allegations is a constant conversation among professional athletes... though the public may scoff at stories of athletes who frequent strip clubs or solicit prostitutes, many athletes say they do this to avoid unwarranted sex assault charges."
A text won't help, since consent can be withdrawn at any time

Myspace Tom Twitter Zinger Shames Critic Into Deleting Account
Comment: "Its funny how its acceptable to slam a rich person but when they push back then everyone is up in arms"

A handy prank - The People's Funny Pictures Blog - Quora

VMAs 2013: Guess What? Miley Cyrus Ain't Even Twerking | YourTango - "The movements of many of the women in those old (and newer) videos showed twerking at a level that Miley Cyrus didn't approach with her VMA performance, in which she bent all the way over and swung her little butt from side to side. As Urban Dictionary puts it, twerking is "the rhythmic gyrating of the lower fleshy extremities in a lascivious manner with the intent to elicit sexual arousal or laughter in ones intended audience." Twerking is a combination of twisting your hips and bouncing your butt at work. Who twists their hips and bounces their butts at work? Strippers, of course."

Lady looks like a dude: Female model goes male to get more jobs - "[Elliott] Sailors, a stunning blonde who for years worked steadily as a Ford Agency model, decided to switch things up once she found the offers were drying up. She cut off her hair, ditched the makeup and made use of her strong jawline to become a "male" model. And guess what. It's worked. Sailors told the Post that in the modeling world "men don’t need to look as young as possible, so I have a lot of time"... she often walks around town dressed like a man because it's easier (no heels, no makeup). On the negative side, she has noticed that nobody holds the door for her anymore."

'Power Rangers' Turns 20! Where Are They Now?

Emma Thompson's sex 'handbook' for daughter of 13 to help her cope with online pressures - "Discussing the ‘birds and bees’ with a child can be an awkward moment for parents. But Emma Thompson was so enthusiastic about her maternal rite of passage that she went a step further than a simple chat. She created a sex handbook for her 13-year-old daughter, Gaia, to try to help her cope with the online pressures that confront today’s young people."

Sunday, December 29, 2013

What drugs?

A policeman searched me in a public toilet last night and found a small bag of class A drugs.

“It’s not my fault,” I said, “Every time I try flushing them down the toilet they magically appear back in my pocket again.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that?” he laughed.

I said, “I’ll prove it to you if you want me to!”

“Go on then.” he smiled, handing me the bag.

After flushing them, he looked at me and said,

“Well, show me your pocket then.”

“What for?” I asked.

He said, “The drugs.”

I said, “What drugs?”