today's programme has been brought to you by lynnie loo (吕), njstar communicator, and a mug.

吕*

传说中国上古时期共工有一个侄孙名叫伯夷。他曾辅佐尧掌管四岳，后来有协助大禹治水立了大功，尧帝就任命他为视官，制订出一套维护尊卑的视法制度伯夷因功而封于 「吕」这个地方，他的子孙世代为诸侯，历经、虞、夏、商、周前近二千年，到春秋时，吕国被楚国所灭吕国的工族为代就以国名姓，形成了最早的吕氏。周武王征伐朝时的主帅姜子牙，就是吕国工族子孙。

历史上著名的吕氏名人有三国名将吕布。「三英战吕布」的故事至今仍为津津乐道。

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and now in english. if there are errors it'd be good if someone corrected me =P as i said before my mandarin is quite appalling.

“ Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a man named Bo Yi (pronounced buo-yee), who once assisted in governing Si Yue (Four Mountains?). Later on he did a smashing job in assisting King Yu in regulating waterways and was conferred the title of minister and given the title to a placed called “Lu”. His descendants were feudal lords of this land for almost 2000 years until the spring-autumn period (i’m guessing this is some kind of historical reference), when Lu Country was invaded and destroyed by Chu Country. This was when the people of Lu Country took on the surname “Lu”, and became the first Lu Clan. Jiang ZiYa is a famous Lu descendant.

Another historically famous Lu descendant is Lu Bu, whose story still thrills and brings joy to people. ”

* in pinyin this is pronounced as Lǚ

it's been a few weeks now since i seriously started listening to some chinese music, and i'm struck by how everything is so pop. either they're very obscure and i'm not looking hard enough, or no such thing exists. but then i've never heard of chinese indie music. the only proper chinese band i know of so far is 五月天, which is really sad. so anyway, i've decided i should try to fill that niche. together with dear stoo and whoever else decides to volunteer, i'm going to try and create a chinese indie/rock band.

of course, first i have really improve my mandarin. at the moment i find it difficult to string together proper sentences let alone compose a song or something. but baby steps !! learning to crawl before walking and running etcetc.

i refuse to believe that chinese music listeners are so devoid of taste that they only ever want to listen to the rainie yangs and ... whoever else it is that people listen to.

also, i refuse to believe that chinese songs can only be about
我爱你，
你爱她，
回来吧，
我为何振扎?
这个感觉到多么可怕*

anyway this whole getting in touch with your roots thing has gotten me really curious about my family. stoo and i always joke about having a family crest whenever we see that shop in the city (the one that creates a family crest for you based on your surname. applicable to caucasians only), so i decided to find out the origins of my own family name.

dad has this mug with a big 吕 on it, along with the origin of the surname in 繁体字, which i can't really read. so anyway i'll type it up here some other time (tomorrow perhaps) with a translation. from what i gather, we were some type of royalty!

for now though, it's off to bed!

* original composition by me. although i'm pretty sure there exists a song out there with all those lyrics in different permutations.

this is kindof an air-headed post but anyway ...

lately many guy friends have been bemoaning the lack of suitable female companionship. maybe it's because the nature of our uni life is such that we really are reclusive and don't get out much to meet new people. or maybe they're introverted. but still, asking someone out is something that guys are expected to do all the time. even if it's for coffee or just talking or something, guys are always expected to make the first move, and it's not very fair!

maybe girls think that if they ask a guy out the guy's ego will be so inflated he won't fit in his chair anymore. but i don't think that's the case! i think your average nice-guy generally lacks the little testiclé required to make the first move, and if the female of the species put their best foot forward and talked to someone that she thought looked interesting, the boys would be much happier.

not trying to defend or put down one or the other. it's just an observation and i'm just saying.

CRIKEY!

steve irwin was punctured by a stingray ?! that's too unfortunate .. and more than a little shocking. i mean the guy pretty much hurled himself at crocodiles and came out unscathed. and this time he just swims around a bit and he's dead? and so young too .. not just age-wise but with young kids and everything.

oh dear .. this is pretty sad. but at the same time it's kind of apt. he's the type of person you can't imagine dying of old age.

anyway it's late and i'm a-ramblin'. the point of this is that i just wanted to say R.I.P. you crazy ocker man.

you have 1 hour and 15 mins of fathers day to do something nice for your dad.

okgo!