在这牛年里，希望你能够：
In this "niu" (ox) year, I hope that you can:
穿“牛”衣、
Wear "niu" clothes,
买“牛”鞋、
Buy "niu" shoes,
驾“牛”车、
Drive a "niu" car,
做“牛”人、
Be a "niu" person,
住“牛”屋。。。
Live in a "niu" house...
最重要的是， 小心别踏上牛“金”！
Most importantly, careful not to step on bull shit!
The last time I tried to guess the identity of Cloud was an unmitigated disaster. Not only did I wrongfully implicated that person, but because of this our friendship was put to test. Luckily it all ended well. Since then all the leads that I had were exhausted, so I have nothing else to do except to stow away my CSI hat; it seems that Cloud is destined to remain anonymous until he decides to reveal his identity.
Not that I'm desperate to know his identity, but something happened this morning that made me want to put that hat on again. While browsing through blogs by fellow Nottingham University Foundation students, I stumbled upon a blog with the following URL: http://cloudcws.blogspot.com/. Now since the blog owner is the only person from Nottingham University Foundation using the pseudonym "Cloud", there is a high chance that the Cloud person commenting here is the same person as Cloud the blogger.
To prove this connection means finding out whether Cloud the blogger is someone I know (or rather, someone who knows me). The "cws" in his blog URL seems pretty much like the person's initials. As there are hundreds of students in Foundation, recalling someone's name based on his initials is a somewhat difficult task. Truly enough, CWS did not ring a bell to me. Still, there is an whole mine of information I can glean from his blog. I found out that he is [EDIT: Cloud has requested that his identity be preserved]. Case closed.
To Cloud a.k.a. CWS: Good job! I'm surprised that you managed to evade the radar screens of mine and others guessing your identity all this while...
P.S.: If I'm wrong again then I'm going to retire from this CSI business - permanently.
I know that English is THE language that all my blog readers would understand, but sometimes using another language in my blog posts is inevitable... especially when I was tagged by someone using Chinese.
Although this will probably alienate some of my blog readers, I take this as a chance to halt the decay of my Chinese proficiency (now inching towards its half-life). As a matter of fact, the last time I wrote a paragraph in Chinese was during my SPM a year ago. Who knows, this might be the start of the "Chinification" of this blog... (Just kidding!)
For your information, there's a great tool out there called Google Translate that can convert web pages between dozens of language pairs, including between English and Chinese. Just be aware that the translations might be inaccurate, so don't sue me if the translator spewed out something that I didn't mean to say.
Click here to translate this post into English. (UPDATE: The translation sucks.)
Things I look forward to this year:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
For my Moral Studies this semester, my group was required to prepare a presentation on the topic "Homosexuality". Our group decided to create a video depicting the life of a gay - and how it ended in tragedy.
To most of my course-mates in Nottingham University, this might be something you'd seen before, but bear with me because I finally managed to upload this video on YouTube. Hopefully this quality production from us would be worth watching again... and again...
The Video
A word of advice before watching: Due to the lack of narration during the movie, you might not understand what is going on. Feel free to pause the movie and check out the synopsis in the section below before continuing.
Drew (Kelvin Hiu) was not an ordinary guy. You've guessed it - he was a gay. He even has a boyfriend (Roderick). The story starts with Drew's boyfriend singing in front of his grave, reminiscing the events that led to his death.
Drew's boyfriend is so in love with Drew that he rejected the advances of others, including girls interested in him. Not long after rejecting a girl (Esdelyn), he went to find Drew in his bedroom to have some fun together. Unfortunately, their act was discovered by Drew's father (me).
Drew's parents were concerned about this and went to talk to him in his bedroom, but he was more interested in throwing a tantrum. Over tea, his mother (Sang Huey) asked him whether he is gay. When he didn't answer, his parents decided to bring him to see a priest in a local church.
The pastor (Wei Ping) talked to him and gave him some advice, but this only increases his frustration towards the people around him. The final straw came when he was beaten up by a duo (Sze Wei and Hon Xing) for being gay. He then decided to end his life. Before jumping off a building, he sent a message to his boyfriend, didn't wait for him to arrive.
The story ends with friends and family members visiting Drew's grave. His father hugs Drew's boyfriend, together mourning the death of someone they both love.
Behind the Scenes
Below is another video showing behind-the-scenes footage and the bestowing of self-created awards.
Overall, we had a great time making this movie. It would have been better if I wasn't smiling throughout the video... and my voice seem to be drowned by background noise.
As for my opinion on the main issue being discussed, I think homosexuals have the right to live their own private lives. However, they should be mindful of their acts in public as people may find their behavior offensive.
What Others Say
These are blog posts by others involved in the production of this video:
A mysterious person has been commenting in my Shoutbox under the pseudonym 'Cloud' for quite some time. All the while I was wondering about his (might be her) true identity when the name Cloud appeared.Cloud I am new to here.I heard other people talked about your blog and so paid a visit. (2008-08-29 2:24 AM)
Cloud Ah ha.Cloud will pass by.See when I will reveal myself.Haha.Just kidding.Maybe some time I will tell you. (2008-09-01 1:14 PM)
Cloud Yaya.You haven't been updating for a long time.. (2008-12-01 11:50 PM)
Cloud Still haven't reach the time yet.By the way,chatting with a person you seem not to know.Doesn't it feels better?Though I know a little bit about you, (2008-12-02 5:10 PM)
Cloud I enjoy talking like this to you.Haha.Close yet far.. (2008-12-02 5:10 PM)
Cloud haha.i also dunno..jz enjoy lo.not bad ma like this.. (2008-12-06 4:51 PM)
This guy really got me burning with curiosity. A la CSI, I found out that this guy is definitely from Nottingham University. Also, I assumed that this person has not commented on my blog using his real name before. And based on the way he speaks, I seriously considered him to be a girl. This got me racking my brains: Which girl in Nottingham reads my blog but never commented using her real name before? The result: Too many possibilities. I can't know each and everyone who visits my blog.
Then on Wednesday Sze Wei asked me via MSN whether I would like to know who is Cloud. 'Sure,' I said. She gave me two suspects; both of them seem absurd at first, as I haven't considered them before. Then she mentioned that the second person had done the same thing on her blog before. This got me down working. Based on the multiple visits of Cloud to my blog, the pattern corresponds exactly to that person!
