Why Keen?

He's So Tiny

I’m wondering if anyone actually reads this blog! Haha…

No matter, if it acts as a simple log of my thoughts and my family life, so be it! It’s been a mad, mad year. I haven’t been posting much mainly because I am super busy with editing, and my head is on countless chopping blocks for the delays in delivering DVDs, but also partially because I had a faulty WordPress plug-in and I could not access my blog in a long time.

Just a quick update, we have a new addition to the family, Lockeman. He’s named after John Locke who was known as the Father of Liberalism. His Chinese name loosely translates to “Happy To Ask”. I wish for him to have a sharp, questioning mind.

We have employed a domestic helper, Milaluna, who left us despite our best efforts to treat her well and with respect. She left at a time when we needed the most help goes to show that Murphy is alive and well. But we managed.

In that time, I have also found a spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle, who wrote the book “the Power of Now”.

So I guess I will have quite a bit to say about the above matters, if I have the time to write, of course! And if my head doesn’t get chopped before I do so!

About the origin of Harkman’s name, and the speculation of whether it is related to Ip Man, let me explain. Our criteria for his name is for it to be meaningful for a boy, be a unique name that sounds good in Chinese, Cantonese, and English!

I really liked how my name, when read as “Why Keen” is easy to read, and has meaning in it’s English form too, but find it a pain when people read it as “Wei Keen”. So it was a tough job in the first place.

A lot of words in Cantonese sound funny in English, for example Gay. Imagine if Harkman was Gayman, you get the point. So I was already compiling a list of words that sounded ok, when the movie was released, the word Man was shortlisted.

Hark is a nice, masculine sounding word, and the English word Hark is quite meaningful too, to listen; to hearken. So Harkman, means a guy who listens. Hopefully that implies that he has the wisdom to listen, to see, and to think before acting.

Now down to the Chinese characters. Hark Man in chinese is Ke Wen. Ke for Ke Fu, solve, or overcome. Wen for Wen Ti, problems. So Ke Wen is a solver of problems.

So despite the very obvious inspiration from Ip Man, a lot of thought had gone into thinking about the meaning and vocalization of Harkman’s name. Of course, if he can be half of the man Ip Man was, it would have been pretty cool too. I am also a huge fan of comics, and Harkman sounds like some superhero, that contributes to his name too, I guess.

Uh … pardon me for the very graphic description. Well, poo does not actually smell good, but being able to smell poo is a good thing… does that even make sense?

Anyway, it’s because Harkman is having a little bit of a constipation issue, so having any sign that he is passing motion normally is a good sign. Hey, but the title of this post isn’t that far from the truth, it’s the context that affects the outcome.

Be thankful I don’t have any pictures to illustrate as I usually do, haha.

Our little boy has learnt to use his smile to interact with people. Why Keen had commented that Little Harkman’s smiles’ will melt people’s heart. He had once used his sweet smile to charm his Granny to give him more milk.

Harkman seems to smile more readily to ladies than guys (Why Keen feels more assured that Harkman behaves this way! ).

Looking at Harkman’s sweet smile lets me forget his screams and cries. .

Here’s a warm welcome to my partner, Hwei Min to this blog. (Partner sounds very gay doesn’t it? But wife sounds so passé though.)

I had intended the very first incarnation of this blog, tweak-me, to be about both of us, that must have been 2-3 years ago now, but never actually got her to contribute even a single line to this blog, I am glad she is finally going to contribute!

We’ve just watched an excellent Pixar movie, UP, and I guess we were both pretty inspired by the film. I had to use our dear boy Harkman as a leverage to finally get her to take action by telling her that this blog would serve as a journal about him growing up.

Do catch the movie, watch it with or without 3D, but please do watch! As usual, Pixar is unrivalled when it comes to solid storytelling with a universal message, this is another gem that would last for many years to come.