Notices by Chunshek :HomestarRunning: (chunshek@prettyaweso.me)

@skinnylatte
At one of my previous jobs, after having been employed for years and promoted, HR asked me to produce my university transcripts and diplomas.

I was like: why did you not ask for them when I was being recruited or promoted?

Sometimes they just need to check the boxes. Why were those boxes there in the first place? Nobody knows.

Who's running the year factory? Why do the new years keep getting worse all the time? Is QA out to lunch?

You know what? I'm done with new years! Getting new years all the time is so wasteful, when there were nice second-hand years that can be relived after some tidying up. Does anybody remember whether 1996 was a good year?

@skinnylatte
I could hear this picture! (More specifically, that earworm of a soundtrack in the background.)

@skinnylatte @stevegis_ssg
Hong Kong gets to about 10°C (50°F) in its winter months.

I kept telling my friends who moved there how it would somehow "feel colder" than the subzero winters they were used to.

Few believed me at first. But after the first winter there, they understood why: the walls are not insulated; there is no indoor heating anywhere. It's 10°C even at home.

It's not cold outside during Hong Kong winters. It's cold inside. (Not sure if it's the same for Tasmania.)

Want to get a Christmas tree, but don't have enough space at home? Consider the Half Christmas Tree from Japanese furniture chain Nitori! Just put it against the wall and save half the space.

Pro-tip: Put it against a mirror, and voilà, a "full" Christmas tree!

It comes in 3 sizes: 120/150/180cm (4/5/6′) and are priced at ¥3990/4990/5990 (US$25.82/32.29/38.76) (€22.23/27.80/33.37) (£19.59/24.50/29.41).

@skinnylatte
大排檔 (dai pai dong) food is great: hearty and down-to-earth!

A favorite dai pai dong dish among Hongkongers is 乾炒牛河 (stir-fried flat noodles with beef), a dish that tests a Cantonese chef's mettle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSGfF3WK7S4

(Sadly not filmed at a dai pai dong…)

@ai6yr
It feels that we've been hearing about bear attacks in Japan like twice or even 3 times a week this summer.

Earlier today I told a friend from Tokyo about Japanese artists who made full-length English albums (apart from Hikaru Utada 宇多田ヒカル whom everyone already knew about):

• Kaze Fujii 藤井風
• Mari Hamada 浜田麻里
• Seiko Matsuda 松田聖子
• Toshinobu Kubota 久保田利伸

She was surprised that (a) Japanese artists did English albums, (b) they would be known outside of Japan. (But c'mon, everyone of my generation in Asia knew Seiko Matsuda!)

Makes me wonder how their English music was perceived back home.

@skinnylatte
Let's see how much you understand from 澳牛的黃昏 then. :NeofoxLaughTears:

(CW: written entirely in Cantonese grammar and vocabulary, tons of swearwords, very vulgar, but very relatable to those of us who grew up there.)

https://web.archive.org/web/20150516153811/http://www.hkoriginals.hk/theduskofaustdairy/

@skinnylatte
That used to be the best thing to get at any eatery in Kowloon! And the steamed milk pudding there too!

(For the uninitiated, "Australia Dairy Company" is the name of a local diner in Hong Kong. It has nothing to do with Australia, very little to do with dairy.)

Have you read the viral Cantonese article about that place?

One of my coworkers will spend an extended weekend in Hong Kong.

So of course I told him about how Central turns into "Little Manila" on Sunday. And how Causeway Bay turns into "Little Jakarta".

Also told him to go get fried chicken at Jollibee. (There's currently no Jollibee in Taiwan.)

I don't think most tourism guides to Hong Kong would mention those.

@skinnylatte
Actual business names in Taiwan:
• ラーメンライダー 拉麵來打 (ramen restaurant, with the mask of Kamen Rider adorning the shop banner)
• 越來越南喝 (beverage stand)
• 白日衣衫淨 (laundromat)

@SunnJax @ai6yr @HumToTable
Laugh all you want. The Swedes are trying to commercialize flat pack cars.
(Because who else but the Swedes?)

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/two-seater-swedish-concept-flat-pack-ev

@ai6yr
Given how wonky all my self-built IKEA furniture had turned out, I wouldn't trust a car that I assembled by myself either. 😅

@SunnJax @HumToTable

@skinnylatte
Speaking of Asian potato chips, Wise Cottage Fries (Tomato Ketchup flavor) are a classic! They are my favorite since childhood, and the tomato powder is chock full of glutamate–the umami that you crave.

@skinnylatte
Spherical, triangular, or tubular… wrapped in lotus leaves, grape leaves, shiso leaves or seaweed… soggy, steamed, greasy, or crunchy… sweet, savory, or spicy… rice can be so nice in so many different shapes and forms.

@ccshan @skinnylatte
I have only ever heard of the term being used in the sense of (literally) sexual harassment, or more often (figuratively) taking advantage of someone else.

I have never heard of it referring to consensual touching or groping.

@skinnylatte
I think most of us who grew up in a "city state" don't think about it. Infrastructure is always there and always maintained because a city state simply cannot exist without it.

It's only after you move out of the city when you realize that even a little missing piece or a little disrepair in infrastructure can be hugely inconvenient.

@skinnylatte
Growing up in Hong Kong, I never understood the meaning of the Cantonese word 貴刁 – what's so 貴 (expensive) or 刁 (obstinate) about cheap-and-cheerful rice noodles?

It wasn't until I moved to Taiwan when I realized that word was just a phonetic approximation of the Hokkien/Teochew 粿條 (kué-tiâu)!

@skinnylatte
While there may not be much written literature in Teochew, there was plenty of written Hokkien, an adjacent language to Teochew, in the form of Pe̍h-ōe-jī (白話字).

@revndm
You might find it particularly interesting, since Pe̍h-ōe-jī was developed by Western missionaries in the 19th century to promote literacy in Southeast Asia. Taiwan's first newspaper, "Tâi-oân-hú-siâⁿ Kàu-hōe-pò" (Taiwan Prefecture City Church News), was published in Pe̍h-ōe-jī.