"On the Origin of 'Dog' in Modern Conversation"

"'Sup Dog?" ...it's a greeting that has become ingrained into our society's vocabulary. And while it is evident to the most casual observer (heh, inside joke) that "'sup" developed out of "what's up" due to it's relative ease in pronunciation, I would like to delve into the mysterious origins of the latter half of that modern phrase: the "dog." Not exactly the kind of mystery that keeps you up at night, but I have ruminated many a time over the possible significance of the title "dog" in pop culture. Perhaps it was due to the canine reputation for loyalty, and to be called a dog was to siginify a loyal bond between friends. Perhaps it was a gradual twisting of an originally condescending term, much like how African Americans often call each other [the N-word] in a good way. There were numerous possibilities indeed.

Well, I was reading Reader's Digest today and I came upon that long outdated Bugs Bunny line: "What's up, Doc?" It was then that it dawned on me: could "dog" be an etymological deviation from the word "doc?" Now, I don't know if etymologists get to announce their findings like anthropologists do, but I would like to propose my theory that the currently used "dog" gradually evolved out of the original word "doc" and eventually overtook its predecessor. Note the striking similarity in their usage: they are used in conversationally identical situations- both preceded by an inquiry into the recent events experienced by the questionee. Also note the resemblance in their structure: "dog" still bears distinct marks from its ancestral lineage in its first two letters.

But it is my belief that the last letter remains in a mostly vestigial purpose. Observe the gradual lightening in emphasis on the closing sound from doc to dog and eventually to "dau" (amid the popularization of Fob culture). Call it a form of conversational natural selection, if you will. And as the epitome of vocal convenience while maintaining meaning, "dau" appears to be dominant. It is my professional (heheh) opinion that we will ultimately see the extinction of the phrase "dog," as we did with "doc," and see a concurrent rise in the popularity of "dau" in conversational speech. So next time a Fob greets you, "'Sup Dau?" think not of the immigrant's conversational deficiencies but instead the proud lineage of that phrase in its roots of "What's up, Doc?"

I went shopping for random college stuff with my dad today. I didn't get nearly as much stuff as I anticipated. According to my brother, freshmen tend to think that they need all this crazy stuff when they first go off to college, and when they actually get there they never use half of it. Yea, so, I guess I'll just hafta wait to see if he saved me money or screwed me over, hahaha.

*I also got a new wallet. My dad told me to get one cuz my old one was getting kinda ratty. But I liked the old one. It was my dad's a long time ago; he gave it to me after he had worn it out. I've had it since I was like 8 years old, and it's got like sentimental value to it. It also had some stickers on there with memories behind them. Maaaaaan, graaaggggh, I didn't even want a new wallet... =(

I watched Amelie today with Nien and Jane. I thought it was a really good movie, despite it's odd quirks and the whole subtitle thing. Yea, I just blame all the weirdness on the fact that it's French, heheheh. Before I saw it, I thought the movie would be spooky or something cuz the main character has a really freaky facial expression on the poster, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's one of the better movies I've watched recently; I highly recommend it. I liked how they kinda characterized Amelie as being the obscure girl with a cup in Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party." Hmmm, I wonder who I'd be if I were someone in a famous painting. I think I'd probably be the guy sitting off to himself in Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks," (my favorite painting ever).

After the movie, we went to Burger King and then to Dunkin' Donuts. We got Burger King hats too (the crowns), haha, that's classic.

After a string of [unsavoury] comments on recent entries, I have decided to remove the commenting feature from my blog. Whether this change is temporary or permanent has yet to be decided...

Although I am usually against the censorship of speech, this kind of libel and defamation of character will not be tolerated. I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience and sorry that a few among us had to ruin it for everyone else. You all will just need to find another way to give me feedback.

*In the meantime, I have installed a counter to monitor site traffic.

The Austin Trip. I just got back from a week down at Austin. So much to write about...

Monday. I got up early in the morning, only having gotten maybe 2 or 3 hours of sleep. And I had planned to drive myself, but my dad suggested that he drive instead- which actually worked out for the best, cuz I'm pretty sure I woulda fallen asleep on the road- being as sleep deprived as I was. We got down there in 3 hours, which was a lot faster than I anticipated, but then again my dad drives really fast. So we get there and go through registration and everything, and I room with Han for the week. There were a lot of boring required activities and some optional events here and there. During the optional part, I went and visited Kevin (H.) in his summer dorm at Kinsolving and just chilled. Then we went to a barbecue for orientees, but Kevin weaseled his way in by making a counterfeit orientation badge, hahaha.

That night there was a program about diversity on campus; I thought it was really informative- I learned a lot. But also, the program made me do some thinking: maybe the fight against racism is comparable to our "war on terrorism." We're associating a point of view with a certain group of people, but what we may or may not realize is that the views of a few outspoken radicals do NOT represent the views of the whole. In the case of racism, (I'd like to think that) bigots are actually the minority in our population. And so it would seem that all the protests and marches and whatnot are working to bring awareness to a group that is already aware- "preaching to the converted," if you will. Hmmm... thoughts to ponder...

But yea, anyways, after the diversity program, there was a tour of the campus where they told us some of the crazy pranks and stuff they used to do in the "old days." Quite interesting.

Not much happened on Tuesday, just got a bunch of information. A pretty boring day. There was an comedy event at night where they basically boosted UT school spirit by slamming A&M... a LOT. Haha, but it was funny.

On Wednesday, I went to a program about the library's online services. Then I set up my university e-mail address (which I don't really intend to use) and took care of some other computer stuff. After that, I talked with an adviser (2 actually) about my schedule for this first semester. This really helped a lot, cuz I really had no idea what kinds of classes I wanted to take. Well, after talking with the adviser(s) I sat down with a course catalog for like 2 hours figuring out a schedule without conflicting times and everything- what a pain in the butt. At night, there was another comedy event- also quite amusing. There were several parties that night too, but I didn't end up going to any of them. =/

Thursday was basically a day for actual registration. They assigned times by last name, and they told us to show up early to beat the lines. But I arrived about an hour early, and the line was already wrapped all the way around the building. That sucked... it was really hot outside. Well, having a last name towards the end of the alphabet, I didn't get to register for a long time. So by the time I was signing up for classes, a lot of 'em were already full, and I couldn't get into the ones I wanted. That sucked thoroughly, but the helpers there assured me that I could fix things up during the add/drop period. And after that, we checked out, and that was the end of actual orientation.

Well, I was rather peeved about getting stinky classes, so I called the adviser for the aerospace engineering honors kids. She had said she'd hook me up if I couldn't get into my classes. So I went and talked with her, and she got me into one of the aerospace classes, but that was it. Her "powers" only work within the engineering department, so she sent me to see the heads of other departments to try and fix my other problems. First I went to talk with a counselor in the philosophy department and found out that the class I was trying to get into was restricted to a certain honors program- so that was a lost cause. Then I went to a counselor in the math department to talk about several things. Disappointingly, there was a sign on the door that read something like: "We don't put people into full classes, so don't even ask!" Other than that, I asked about the possibility of a double major in math- seems like it'd take forever, uggghhh... need to find an easy thing to double major in. Yea, anyways, on the way out of the math building, I ran into Kevin (L.)'s sister; we didn't really talk much or anything, but it was rather surprising to actually see a familiar face down there.

After that I went and chilled at Kevin (H.)'s place again. Since my brother was going down to Austin for the weekend, my dad told me just to hang out with him for the weekend and go home together so as to save a cartrip down to Austin. While waiting for my brother to show up, Kevin and I went and got dinner at WingZone; pretty good, very filling. We also stopped off at Momoko's for pearl tea; it was really expensive, but it was worth it cuz they fresh brew the tea. And Momoko's is connected to a Japanese gift shop that has some pretty interesting stuff. Afterwards we watched Pearl Harbor back in Kevin's dorm.

When my brother showed up, we went with his friends to Club Nix & Nox (aka Paradise)- a karoake bar, but mainly just a bar. Afterwards we were gonna go clubbing, but that didn't really work out. First we stopped by Paradox (which is supposed to be the local Asian club), but it was empty. So we went to Subzero, but their doors were closed (it was 2:00AM by then). So we decided to go swimming at an apartment complex nearby. Then we left and went to my brother's friends' place, where we stayed for the weekend.

I woke up around noon on Friday and had pho for lunch (can't remember the name of the place)- they had good pearls there too. Then we went next door to CoCo's Cafe for chinese style shaved ice. After that, we went to the mall because my brother's group had managed to get a bunch of coupons for free underwear from the GAP. While there, I got a pair of "low and loose" jeans, and realized that after having worn JNCO's for years, no regular brand's "loose" jeans will ever feel loose again. =/

For dinner, my brother took me to Player's, a burger joint-ish place that does good fried mushrooms. Then we went to a pool hall and played for a couple hours. Man, I was shooting horridly but was having amazing luck. When the pool hall closed, we went to a karaoke place; I didn't sing.

On Saturday, we went to Schlitterbahn, a waterpark in New Braunfels that supposedly uses natural water from rivers for some of its rides. Well, since the New Braunfels area has been hit by some serious flooding recently, I was worried about water quality, but apparently, the park got its water from a different river and was out of harm's way. The lines were really long, so we didn't go on many rides. The only ride that was really worth it was one called the Master Blaster- it uses high speed water to propel you uphill. Man, going uphill on a waterslide has got to be one of the weirdest feelings ever.

On the way home, we ate at Outback Steakhouse. That was actually my first time in one; it was a lot better than I expected. At night, we decided to go clubbing again. We went to EndUp, but we got hassled cuz we didn't meet the dress code. So we paid off the bouncers, and they let us in, but the manager saw us, and kicked half of us out (including me). We managed to get refunds (and money back from the bouncers), but it still sucked that we weren't in the club. So I went back home and played Text Twist- my brother's friends love the game, but I really suck at it.

I woke up around noon again on Sunday and ate at Chipotle. After that, we went canoeing at Zilker Park. It was my first time canoeing in years. Well, I didn't have any problems until the boat was already half on shore and I was trying to get out of the boat. Well, my brother's friend was supposed to be steadying the boat, but something went wrong obviously, and the boat tipped over, sending me into the water. Haha, well, it was fun- nice to cool off after baking in the scorching sun all day. Not much happened after that. My brother drove the way home with some of his friends.

Random Stuff. It was a really informative trip, I'd have to say- I learned a lot. I learned what a pain in the butt it is to have to walk from building to building or across campus, especially in the sweltering heat. And I learned that getting your schedule together isn't exactly a piece of cake. But in actuality, I probably learned more about actual college life from my brother and his friends than from orientation. Heh, it was a good experience- extremely tiring though. It's good to be home.

temp. 3d chip, scruffy beard

After Taiji Legacy, there was a "friendship banquet" for the international competitors. You know, it's weird, at the kung fu school, they always told us how the World ChinWoo competitions always brought together people from the various ChinWoo schools, and people made friends and stuff- but I wasn't really feeling that vibe. I just didn't feel like there was a whole lot of bonding going on. =/ Not a very memorable experience in general.

There was some gift exchanging among the schools, and then there was a very disturbing bit of "entertainment." During the dinner, I had to chaffeur one of the Australian competitors back to their hotel, and I got some nifty keychains out of it. Afterwards, I started talking with this guy from Venezuela, and for part of it, I had to speak in Spanish... I was rather amazed that I could still pull it off. Then we went and visited a site in Carrollton where our new school is gonna be. Then I came home and got to bed around 3:00.

Kevin (L.) came "back" from Virginia (he moved away 2 years ago) this week for Taiji Legacy. He stayed over at Michael's place, but since Michael has to work, I took Kevin out most of the time.

On Wednesday, we went to lunch at Todai and then roved the Willow Bend mall for a bit. After that, we met up with Liz, Nancy, and Han and went to Java. We played spoons and jenga; the girls got mad at me for intentionally screwing up the stack while removing jenga blocks. Haha, it's strategy! *wink wink* Later on, I went to kung fu and brought Kevin along (he used to train with us). They had us do some slave work to help prepare for the tournament after class. Blehhhh.

On Thursday, I thought I'd hafta help do tournament setup stuff again, but I didn't. Kevin and I met up with Liz, Nancy, and Han again then proceeded to argue over where to go to lunch- we ultimately ended up at Subway. After that, we went to Main Event. We played laser tag against a bunch of little kids; surprisingly though, they weren't half bad. Well, I got the high score again, and my our team won despite the 7 vs. 11 odds. Afterwards, I overheard 2 of the older kids from the opposing team talking, and they were like, "Yea, that guy on the other team was a monster!" ("monster" or "master," I can't remember, but it's a compliment either way, haha.) Then we shot pool for a bit; Kevin was the only one who was any good.

We had to get up bright and early on Friday to drive down to Arlington for the kugngfu tournament. Friday was actually the ChinWoo competition, so there weren't as many people. We basically just competed 4 forms: Jeet Kune, BaQua Sabre, Shepherd Pole, and 5 Tiger Spear. I did about as good as my peers, but we did poorly as a whole. The judging was rather blatantly biased, even some of the international comptetitors who have no knowledge of the local rivalries pointed it out. That night was the Master's Demo. We did lion dance, dragon dance, and kungfu for the show. (I really don't know why we have to perform kung fu. It's not like we're really masters or anything. It feels kinda funny just being out there for the sake of representing our school.) Well, the show was pretty good, we got to see He JingDe, arguably the best wushu athlete in the US, doing his thing- it was amazing. Afterwards we had to clean up, it was a massive pain in the butt- everyone was already all tired out. Then basically everyone from our school stayed at the Country Inn. It wasn't a particularly high class establishment, and we were packing absurd numbers of people into each room.

On Saturday, we had to wake up early to help set up again. Things ran late, as they do every year, so the events of the Taiji Legacy tournament started probably somewhere around noon. We did a massive 15 lion dance; it was really hectic. Then there was a public taichi exercise demonstrating the 5 major styles; I did a little thing during the Wu(Hao) segment. Then all the ChinWoo schools did a massive tantui (basic form) demonstration, blehhh. Then we did dragon dance again, set up, and probably started the actual competition around 2:00ish. Well, by then, everyone from my school was all tired out, so none of us did very well in competition- we all just wanted to go home. I withdrew from about 3 events. And some of the events, I just walked away after competing, without bothering to stay to find out the results. The only notable thing I won was gold in the BaJi division. I didn't even deserve it really; only one of the five judges knew what to look for, and he (not so coincidentally) gave me the lowest possible score. Afterwards, I talked with him and got some pointers. (Note to self: BaJi spirit requires explosive power in each move; cannot be confused with Northern longfist style)

At night was the Sanshou (full contact fighting) competition. I was assigned to the staging area to help fighters put on and take off their gear. The most memorable part of the night was when Malcolm (the only Sanshou fighter from our school) picked up his opponent and dropped him on his arm. The elbow bent against the joint- it was sooooo nasty. After the matches, we had to help clean up again, blehhh. We had to sleep packed in the hotel again, and so I opted to just sleep in my car. Man, I had the windows rolled down, and the mosquitoes really did a number on me, acck!

On Sunday, all I competed was KungLi Kune. Normally, KungLi Kune is one of my best events cuz it emphasizes more strength and less finesse, but I panicked and sucked it up. =(

*In other news, I got my housing info from UT. I'll be staying at Andrews (honors dorms) with Nien.

Ok, recapping things that I've done in the last couple weeks that I failed to mention:

I watched about 60 episodes of Rurouni Kenshin. I finally finished The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide (a compilation including The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and all the books of that series)- absolutely hilarious. I started & finished Ender's Game- very good. I tried to read Frankenstein, but got bored out of my mind after about 5 pages... man, I don't know how all the kids did it. I watched Minority Report- very well made. I went and watched fireworks with Stephen (L.), Allison, Tony, Peggy, Edward, and Kevin (Hwang); then we went to Main Event for a bit, then ate at Denny's in the wee hours of the morning.

*I seem to have the curse of red lights. While driving, I always seem to encounter an unusually high ratio of red lights to green lights. I've got no idea how the light switching works, but I figure they kind of just go by how much traffic a certain location gets. Well, I've thought a lot of times that there must be some way to implement a nationwide computer controlled traffic light control system. And you could program it so that the lights were synchronized in such a way that a car driving at the suggested speed starting from a red light would reach the next red light just in time for it to turn green. Ummm yea, hard to explain, but it makes sense in my head...
And when an accident or special event occurs, the info could be fed into the computer system, and changes in light durations could be made accordingly.

Another thing that I always thought would be cool to have in cars is GPS systems that not only show roads, but also show all the cars on those roads. That way you could see where there are traffic jams, before you get stuck in them.

I went with my dad and opened a savings/checkings account today. Man, none of this makes any sense to me... uggghhh, money confuses me, hahaha.

Basically, these days I've just been training up for the kung fu tournament(s) this weekend: the Taiji Legacy, and the World ChinWoo Championships. And also, since my school is hosting both of these, we're performing in the opening ceremony, so we have to train for that too. We've got a new dragon dance routine this year that's actually quite impressive. I'm really not too fond of dragon dance at all- for the reason that, if anyone messes up, everyone gets yelled at. In fact, it was one of the main contributing factors to my leaving the school (albeit temporarily) last year. But this time, I was off in Taiwan while they were getting the basic routine figured out- so presumably, I missed out on all the screaming and yelling from the sifu, heheheh. Yea, so I'm not as bitter about doing it this year. =P

Ummm, my face has been breaking out really badly since about halfway through my Taiwan trip. I don't feel very healthy in general these days. I don't sleep well; I try to sleep normal hours, but then I wake up in 3 hours, with no hope of getting back to sleep. Then I end up napping later in the day. So on average, I have two 3-hour naps a day, and that's what I'm trying to sustain myself on. I'm not sure if it's related to the sleep or not, but I get tired and sore a lot more quickly in exercise these days. =/ Plus, I'm seeing a noticeable decrease in muscle mass these days. I think it's cuz I don't wake up in time for breakfast, so I'm sustaining myself on 2 meals a day. Probably not taking in enough protein these days, I suppose.

But also, I'm lacking a certain clarity of thought these days. I just don't feel quite as... mentally [sharp] as I normally do (, which also might be attributed to sleep deprivation). There's this general discomfort when I try to think too hard. And also, my thoughts are coming up all twisted and jumbled- for instance, my word order when speaking (or even writing) is messed up- kinda like Yoda. Like, I'm putting prepositional phrases in the wrong spots in the sentence, etc. At least when I'm typing, I sometimes see my errors and correct them, but I figure I probably don't make much sense when I talk these days, haha.

dang it, I thought I had this jetlag thing basically beaten, but now I seem to be regressing. arrrrggghhh

I've really been blog slacking recently. I just don't feel as motivated to write, or even to get online, for that matter. I think being away from the internet so long in Taiwan might have served to break the addiction... at least partially.

*Oh, and I checked my AP scores off of the UT website. I was rather pleasantly surprised. =)

Can Dragonball Z be viewed as Nazi propaganda? It's a thought that's occurred to me many a time, but it came to mind again tonight when I was chatting with Johnny about DBZ. Is it coincidence that when they transform to Super Saiyans, they change to have blonde hair and blue(-ish green) eyes- coinciding with the ideal Aryan image? And also, the whole thing about becoming immensely powerful super-warriors- it all fits in a little too well with that Ubermensch idea, no? Haha, oh well, I still love DBZ anyway. =P This kind of reminds me of that Communist Smurf thing I saw a couple years ago, hahaha.

I've been talking a lot in my sleep recently. It's really quite disconcerting. I mean, for the most part, I think that my superego maintains a pretty good deal of control on my actions in dreams, but what if I say something that could be taken out of context? That'd be horrible... and probably most embarassing. It's happens to me when I wake up while I'm in mid-dialogue during the dream, and the last phrase I'm saying ends up coming out for real. I think it started while I was in Taiwan, or at least that's when it started happening frequently enough for me to take notice. (It had happened before, but very rarely.) The reason I bring this topic up is because I awoke this morning to find myself saying, "I don't make sense when I'm half-asleep." Hahaha, I thought that was an extremely ironic thing to be saying in a dream and then actually vocalize.

I was talking with some friends, and we got on the topic of odd clothing garments. Well, I recalled how in Taiwan, I had seen this lady on tv wearing one of those shirts with only one sleeve- like long-sleeve shirt spliced together with a tube top. Anyways, I remember how at the time, I thought it would be absolutely HILARIOUS if some designer were to come along and sew on another (unused) "sleeve" under the bare arm. It'd kinda look like you were just using one sleeve of an otherwise perfectly normal shirt. Well, after thinking about it some more, I thought hey, you know, that'd be kinda sexy actually...wow! It'd be kinda kinky in that "I forgot how to put on a shirt properly" sorta way, I guess, hahaha, I dunno.

But also, we talked about the idea of briefs with pockets. Now, this was actually an idea born out of necessity. Cuz I mean, when you're wearing pants without pockets, you still wanna have some place to put your cash, right? The solution: briefs with pockets! Haha, I think this idea actually shows some promise... I wonder if it's been done before. I doubt if it'll ever have any commercial success, but at least this one's not as out-there as the dangling-sleeve shirt idea of mine. You know, it would be soooo ironic if someone actually used that idea and it became a trend. Then I'd be kicking myself in the head, like Dang it! I coulda been a breakthrough fashion designer and made millions!