Monday, July 17, 2006
The Origins of ly4444
Many people often wonder how the heck did I come to begin using 'ly4444', especially when my name, Yin Zhen Yao, is unique enough to be incorporated in e-mail addresses. In order to save the effort of having to repeat a long story (or truncate said long story into a summarised mess) hundreds of times, I am going to set the record straight by explaining the origins in this here blog... Both long and short versions included!LONG VERSION (for short one scroll further down):
A long, long time ago, back in 2000, I used the nickname LANSIMAN!!! (this name also deserves a story of its own...) in CounterStrike games at the local cybercafe. Eventually, I decided that LANSIMAN!!! sounded too kiddie and inappropriate for CounterStrike, so I came up with another name: 4444_UNLUCKY. The reason for the four '4's? Because they sounded like 'die' in many oriental languages and dialects, Chinese included. The 'UNLUCKY' there represented my (lack of) skill in the game back then; whenever I lost, I could jokingly blame it on luck.
From CounterStrike, I moved on to web-based online games. In one of them, I was required to produce a 6-lettered codename for the character I was playing. Thus, after the compulsory "4444", I put the letters "ly" that represented my English name (which did not appear in my birth certificate), Louie Yin (my parents chose "Louie" after the 1970s Hong Kong singer and actor Louie Castro aka Ka Si Lok).
Then again, 4444ly didn't look nice, so I changed it to ly4444 instead, and have been using it since 2001.
So there! The real story is actually slightly longer than that, but too much detail will most definitely bore you.
SHORT VERSION:
The four '4's are supposed to mean "diediediedie" in Chinese; I used to play a lot of online games. ly, on the other hand, is because my name is Louie (only my parents, relatives, and certain friends call me this, as it isn't in my birth certificate) Yin.
Now you know!
Zhen was here at 12:25 pm,
2 comment(s)
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Friends
No, I won't be talking about some deep, intellectually stimulating (or conversely, excessively whiny) anecdote about friendship, but rather, the hit TV phenomenon known to youths around the world as Friends.Yup, the Friends that most of you reading this entry have grown to love, the one with the spectacularly sarcastic Chandler, who incidentally, is my favourite lead character among the six. But before I go on, I would prefer that none of you out there draw conclusions regarding my sexual orientation based on my Chandler-adulation. Matthew Perry is funny, and that is all there is to it. In the same vein, Jennifer Aniston is kinda hot, but personally, I think Maggie Wheeler (who plays Janice... Oh... my... God!) takes the cake, nasally Brooklyn accent and freakishly frightening laugh aside.
*Ahem*
Actually, the reason why I'm posting here is just to announce my satisfaction that, as of two weeks ago, I've officially seen all 10 seasons/236 episodes/5600 minutes/90 hours/4 days of Friends. I know that it's not anything to shout about, but for some strange inexplicable reason my life now feels more complete. As though I am now able to achieve... anything my mind desires.
Today, Friends! Tomorrow, Rhodes scholar!
*Cough*