如果有一件事是重要的



曲倒是还好,我喜欢的是陈姗妮写的词...
针对自己说
“搞政治的人还是少搞,搞心计的人还是少参”

恩,是时候真正学学去搞政治,玩心计了...
“诚”好像有点out了,也好像不是很受欢迎...

斗不完的派斗

鹿竟然死在老蔡的手,
就在看一场和老廖之间AB派的派斗,
一场续林良实时代的派斗,
一场续黄家定时代的派斗,
一场续翁蔡两家的派斗,
一场一直会有下去的派斗,
续马华内斗不完的派斗。

冥冥

很多东西冥冥中有安排的,就好像:
1. 有两个人本来是没有lalang的,就因为一个这样的意外,那两个人现在可以是那么好。
2. 这两个人要一起吃过苦,然后又一起“幸福”?好,不要引号,是幸福。希望这两个人都有各自的幸福。
3. 被一个first attempted的mont-blanc-to-be custard-gateaux打坏了名声,又被一个极简单,也可以说是自己最拿手的作品,也听闻是胜过secret recipe的chocolate mousse cake挽回了名声。呵呵...
4. 还有冥冥中家维我要继续《单》下去...
我爱上这家人
所以才进这家门
其实是人的风景好
比那家门更迷人

谁不想过得轻松一点?

谁不想过得轻松一点?
无处无芳草,
时时想嚼草,
草边有毒药,
胃胀不得了,
吃了一株,吃不了第二株,
吃下第二株,才发现自己已病入膏肓,
病的是身体,慌的是心情。
吃草为了忘记树上石榴的余味,
吃草为了实行自己设下的骗局,
每个人都会留恋,
每个人都有谎言,
所以继续鼓励我青草一株吃完又一株,
就算吃到我胃有问题,
就是要吃到我自己彻底厌倦为止。
我也会厌倦的,
谁不想过得轻松一点?

Update下大家

Ok, here's the plan.
我暑假会回国,不过不是一放假就马上回,
我大概是七月二十一号这样回,
因为chicago有个conference,
嗯,对,我们的product进了national finals...

ok,22号这样回到家了,
26号又下pj要开工了,
是GAB,
Guinness Anchor Berhad,
对,就是那间brewing co.,
那边intern根本就是醉生梦死阿...

ok,intern到9月17号,
然后要赶回kulim了,
为什么呢?
因为22号开课了嘛,
所以20号这样又要飞回来了。

所以,
那些要catch up的,
先让你们有个心理准备。

对唱

只有一个人会和我对唱《半生熟》,此人不在...
还有一个人会唱很多对唱情歌,此人也不在...
有一个人平时很想唱歌,不过喉咙实在不舒服,form也不在,
此人也不在...

LALA仔星期二先入为主

星期二是先入为主、断章取义天,
所以....
我想说的是...

Kepercayaan kepada Allah?
我说回教党主席阿,
不要再生事了,
下届大选还是要靠非穆斯林的选票阿...

新学生等同于新目标?
所以说,
不是我个人存偏见,
可是我有时候就是看不过眼。

后天星期四...
今天星期二...
嗯...写不下去...不写...

黑白

黑白,汝能分清?是非,汝能明辨?是故,黑中有白,白里带黑。因此,何谓黑?何谓白?为君弑臣者为忠,但自古忠义两难全,忠者白者矣?为子救子者,此谓虎毒不食儿,不食儿者黑者矣?

吾愿非黑非白,置身事外,但吾今为亦黑亦白,岂能安抚?

你们、你和你们

“我有话说”
回头想一想,这句话有必要说吗?没有。
万物有分类,人更加要分类,
我们要一视同仁,
但我们绝对可以选择人。

马兄不管有否含沙射影,
即使没有的话,
在他乱箭之下我中了两箭。
“口说ok但脸上是说不ok的。”
不就是我吗?
所以说以免下次有乱箭的情况再受伤,
我这个问题得改。

有了你们、你和你们,不就够了吗?

拒绝很久的事实

苏辩和觉辩
全然不同的感觉
苏辩和觉辩的元老
全然不同的一群人
很奇怪的是
我在这种时候
竟然喜欢上苏辩

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From a scale of 1 to 4, how good do you think is my paper?

Masculinity and Capitalism in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: The Struggle of the American Middle Class

It was America’s darkest moments in history. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 which consequently leading to the Great Depression caused extraordinary unemployment in America’s total workforce population. With the heavy industry such as mining and manufacturing hit hard, in addition of the newly-elect President Franklin Roosevelt’s policy to cut farm’s production, America for sure had drastically changed its economic mode even post World War II. Death of a Salesman, written by playwright Arthur Miller in Post Great Depression cum World War II 1949, revolves around the lives of the Lomans in this period of economic transition. This evolution of the economy through time altered class relations, precipitating a crisis of masculinity of American middle class workers (Rough). As a result, the men of Lomans representing the American middle class, in doubt of their identities in the modern capitalist world, struggle to search for their lost senses of masculinity.

Using his play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller depicts capitalism as a the culprit who is stripping the sense of masculinity off the American middle class workers represented by Willy, Biff and Happy Loman. These men face a crisis of identity, self-doubting due to their inability to utilize their masculinity in the modern, feminine capitalist society. These claims are not made merely based on surmises, but the emergence of every character and objects, and the symbols and significances they bear weave together to tell the audience that these men fails to achieve their dreams at that period of history.

The transition of the two very different modes of economy is presented in Death of a Salesman as the chronological background of the play. The era of Willy’s brother, Ben and their father represents a masculine, manufacture-based economy requiring hard labor work. On the other hand, Willy’s selling career which he deems to require oneself to possess personal attractiveness “because the man who creates personal in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (33), seems to be the embodiment of femininity. As elucidated in an article written by Stephan Desrochers entitled “What Types of Men Are Most Attractive and Most Repulsive to Women?”, women in contemporary American society prefer men who portrays feminine personalities and traits. When Willy asked if he is picked, the woman confirms him by saying that Willy is “so sweet. And such a kidder” (39). Therefore, he utilizes this perception and “feminizes” himself in order to with “a buyer” who “buys for J. H. Simmons” (120).

As we can see from the play, Willy’s incapability to cope with the switch of economic orientation over the years causes his failure as a salesman. The service-based occupation of a salesman eats away his confidence day by day when he no longer can gain profits and bring money into his household. To make things worse, he even resort to asking help from Charley, his neighbor financially whenever he is in need of money. Furthermore, the representation of masculinity and femininity by the economic evolution exhibited through the juxtaposition of the occupations of Willy and his father, further portrays Willy’s struggle in the capitalist world.

Willy’s father, very like Willy is a travelling salesman. However, his father does more than just selling. He manufactures his goods. Ben once explains to Willy that
“Father was a very great and a very wild-hearted man. We would start in Boston, and he’d toss the whole family into the wagon, and then he’d drive the team right across the country; through Ohio, and Indiana, Michigan, Illlinois, and all the Western states. And we’d stop in the towns and sell the flutes that he’d made on the way. Great inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime” (Death of a Salesman, 49).
In response to Ben’s satire, Willy confesses that he raised Biff and Happy to be rugged just like their father. In this case, Willy’s identity crisis further expands and confuses him when he admires his “masculine flute-manufacturing” father but at the same time being a “feminine service-providing” salesman himself.
Frankly we can see from the play that Willy actually yearns towards a masculine self like his father and brother. He desires to be successful by manly means, in this case, to explore Alaska and to mine diamonds in Africa. Disgruntled by his life, Willy always expresses his regrets for not following his brother’s footsteps mining diamonds in Africa. His value towards his own construction work also shows that Willy actually thirsts for a sense of masculinity.

“Maybe we could buy a ranch. Raise cattle, use our muscles. Men built like we are should be working out in the open” (23).
These are the words Biff utters to Happy up in their bedroom. From the conversation, we can obviously know that Biff true potential lies in the far West where he can work on farms, with his bare hands, out in the open. The American West provides Biff with an opportunity to earn a living with hard labor work, and to pursue his masculine American Dream. In “Rough Work and Rugged Man: The Social Construction of Masculinity in Working-Class History”, Steven Maynard again believes that “masculinity is bound up with the labor process, the notion of skill, and the experience of work.” When Biff says that he is going to see Bill Oliver for an opportunity to get into business, Willy suggests to him that he can go into sporting goods because he knows about it very well. The fact that Biff once works as a labor in the West and his knowledge about sporting goods and not other things else, tells us that Biff embodies the traits of masculinity, as resonated both in Messner’s and Maynard’s work. Besides the Wild West and sporting goods, the name “Biff” further implies who Biff really is. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word Biff means a blow using the knuckle. Again, the definition of Biff’s name is not mere confidence but rather is the playwright’s intention to show Biff’s innate masculine nature.

Sport, especially football also bears a significant symbolism in Death of a Salesman. As a football player which allows “the social construction of masculinity” as termed by Michael A. Messner in “Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity”, insert a masculine image into during his high school years. Furthermore, being the captain of his football team and victor of the Ebbets Field championship game, the teenage Biff becomes the pride and the only source of comfort and compensation for Willy Loman’s emasculative job as a salesman.

Charley, who is the neighbor of the Lomans happens to be a salesman too. However, Charley achieves great success in business and in family life unlike Willy who fails simultaneously at both aspects. In the play, Willy regards Charley as “not a man” because he simply cannot handle tools to construct a ceiling (44). When comparing Charley with Will whom he thinks of himself as a great builder, the truth that Charley is actually at the shorter end does not disaffirm his prevail over Willy in the capitalist world. Another person who sails through the capitalist world unhindered is Charley’s son, Bernard. In the scene where Bernard comes in and reminds Biff to study for the Regents, Willy calls him a “pest” and an “anemic” (33). He also states that Bernard can never be as successful as his two boys in the business world with his good grades in school. These deteriorative remarks about Bernard sum up Willy’s perception of Bernard being only an unmanly bookworm. Similar to his father, Bernard still proves to be a successful lawyer even though he is not masculine enough by Willy’s standard. In a nutshell, the portrayal of Charley and Bernard as more effeminate men and yet gained success shows the playwright’s attempts to make a crucial point to the audience that capitalism is a feminine system.

To some extent, we can hold that the reason capitalism strips the sense of masculinity off the characters, is due to the oppression of their superiors. Regardless of the context of this matter, either the narrative or in reality, the domination of the superiors over their employees is inevitable and as a matter of fact, it is one of the distinguishing features of capitalism. Subsequently we can draw assumption that these oppressed men counteract against the superiors in order to redeem their senses of masculinity. Death of a Salesman exhibits this phenomenon and explains itself through the roles of Willy and Happy. Aware of his predicament, Willy’s boss, Howard fires Willy without giving him a second chance. Willy’s attempted compromises by willingly to receive less pay, and even resort to continue as a travelling salesman fail to court Howard’s sympathy and changing his mind. Willy be shamed into anger, in turn yells back at Howard. As another instance, Happy complains to Biff, “…and I have to take orders from those common, petty sons-of-bitches till I can’t stand it anymore” (24). His father’s reaction towards Howard made insignificant in comparison to Happy’s behaviors. Happy says that “sometimes I want to just rip my clothes off in the middle of the store and outbox that goddam merchandise manager” (24). We can see that he attempts to release his oppressed masculinity represented by his desire to rip off his shirt, and pay back at the capitalism by outbox his manager. Moreover, Happy seemingly sleeps with his superiors’ women. He confesses that,
“I don’t know what gets into me, maybe I just have an overdeveloped sense of competition or something, but I went and ruined her, and furthermore I can’t get rid of her. And he’s the third executive I’ve done that to” (25).
Willy and Happy’s “revenges” signify a form of redemption of their so-called pride and masculinity long lost to their superiors in the capitalist system.

Coming back to the central question: Is it necessarily true that man’s success and his sense of masculinity be mutually exclusive of each other? Or should the query be that the pursuit of wealth is not the sole thing in a man’s life? “No man only needs a little salary”, Death of a Salesman summarizes itself with the quote, and undoubtedly intends to present the flaw of this economic model named capitalism in play in reality (137). However, giving it a second thought, we can still see that men like Donald Trump can be successful and wealthy in life, and yet be masculine to fire celebrities in the boardroom. Therefore, the capitalist system may not be posing any burdens to these American middle class men after all. In fact, the fact that they subconsciously position themselves as the “emasculated capitalist workers” can be resolved, given that these men fully realize that the question of masculinity and femininity all lies within perceptions towards life. The identity crises in American middle class men as shown in Death of a Salesman in a way is self-imposition as a result of their lack of adapting to the capitalist world. Hence, if Donald Trump can be masculine and wealthy at the same time, why can’t a salesman?


Reference

Dietrick, Jon. "“The Jungle Is Dark and Full of Diamonds”: Natural Value and the Logic of Naturalism in
Death of a Salesman." Web. 4 Mar. 2010.

Jacobson, Irving. "Family Dreams in Death of a Salesman." 47.2 (1975): 247-58. Duke University Press.
Web. 4 Mar. 2010.

Maynard, Steven. "Rough Work and Rugged Men: The Social Construction of Masculinity in Working-
Class History." Labour / Le Travail 23 (1989): 159-69. Canadian Committee on Labour History and Athabasca University Press. Web. 4 Mar. 2010.

Messner, Michael A. Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity. Boston: Boston : Beacon,
1992. Web. 4 Mar. 2010.

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Penguin Group, 1949. Print.

"SparkNotes: Death of a Salesman: Themes, Motifs & Symbols." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study
Guides. Web. 4 Mar. 2010. .

Sterling, Eric J. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. New York, 2008. Print.

Spring Break Resolution

突然Spring Break想做很多东西
1. 看完Angels in America,然后仔细分析。(电影版真的很好看,尤其是那坟场的画面,壮观到...)
2. 为我那两首词谱上曲子。不过在这以前得先买把吉他...
3. 计划辩论队计划Spring Quarter的事情。有想过:
a. 继续苦求中文系,让我们附属于中文系
b. 找学会。觉得UCSO应该是不会收留我们的,可以考虑跳槽CCCS。虽然我也不是很喜欢CCCS,不过至少它们有的是效率,而这是UCSO没有的。
c. 咱们自立门户。这是与其拖拖拉拉,不如趁早注册。
d. 是该和郭姐姐找李老师谈谈了,世辩有没有得去还是谁去都还是未知数。
4. 读physics, spring跟他EM掉
5. $50EM中文..hehe...搞不好就是一个Chinese minor...
后来加上:
6. Prepare CV
7. Update Resume
8. Internship-现在把目标放在GAB和Nestle

后记:本来在筹谋一件事,不过现在决定不做这件事了。Plan terminated.
有人搞政治会被政治搞回,
马华总会长究竟花落谁家,
拭目以待!!

一巴Ham落去hor你Len啊!

如题,
现在想Ham几个人,
第一个是居林-万达巴鲁区国会议员
希望Ham了他就会醒过来
要么就悬崖勒马
要么就放下屠刀,再来补选
不过我真想相信这些都是公正党在盘算的东西

如果有补选的话
真可惜我不再居林
就算能cast postal vote
我也还没注册啦!!
不然我21岁就能投票了啦!!

再来
还想Ham多一个人
这个人...就是这个人

老翁,祝你好运

真的是小看老蔡了,
还以为这个过渡期他已经干不了什么,
所以就索性放下屠刀,
和老翁一人让一步。

怎知现在又突然辞职,
还一次过和7个中央代表一起辞职。
这样一来连同老廖那一班,真的已经有充足理由来一个新党选。

在想,老蔡到底什么葫芦里面卖什么药,
这株墙头草到底还有什么议程?

好,就假设真的有新党选,
谁会去竞选党主席?蔡细历还是廖中莱?真的要放长双眼...
谁搞的鬼?你知我知啦...
最后真衷心祝老翁好运...

48Random

Walao吓倒我啊
还是Z
还以为是陈哲豪
一个message pop出来就是wei wei
吴家慧还appear offline
一个Z就以为是他
越讲就越奇怪
讲这么久还没有什么疑心
只是觉得很random和很geli
可能是在drake读书读到有点blur blur了
讲到FB status
才怀疑点
我哪里有他的Facebook喔
真的是啊
看到人跟他点头他眼尾都不扫你一个
现在这么Random跟你msn?
讲来讲去,goh zia huey la!!!

再用类比法

先Disclaim一下:
以下的comment不代表事实的全部,
甚至很多东西都是fiction,
我只是想用刚刚发生的事去类比我心里现在想说的话...


今天再用类比法

Nibong Tebal, Bayan Baru, Bagan Serai...
一垒一垒打出界
不管几个臭皮匠给多么大的打击
就算安华他说他人多根本不鸟
吉祥还是对他不离不弃
哪怕是courtesy还是出自于真心

安华感谢吉祥的支持
吉祥还是很捧安华的场
不管安华到底有没有鸡奸Saiful
现在是同一条船的人
不管公正和行动的议程多不同
不管安华以前当副首相的时侯怎样吊过吉祥
也不管吉祥以前当反对党领袖怎样炸过安华
他们都不会介意
更不会恨对方

为什么?因为现在民联已经不能再失去任何一个,
见安华如见吉祥,见吉祥如见安华,
他们不是Siamese twins,
只不过他们已经是一体的。
切记。

简单地说

简单地说
一个要打 一个要愿挨
被打的时候还要很High

Pokemon有Level,人也有Level
Level越高,1 hit KO的机会就越大
我是Level低学人家高Level招数的Ditto

世辩,真的他妈的引诱,
很想回去演唱居林一家亲...

君子之交淡如水啊~~~

Since summer break

Met Chris at SEL
Harassed him
Felt good...XD

It'd been such a long time
Since summer break
Oh how I miss the days with the 414s