Ocean's Thirteen 感想

大牌演員齊聚一堂還是很歡樂.
Matt Damon 從少年ㄟ演到當爸爸，胖了一點.
整個計畫很複雜要看到後面才比較懂.
這次派幾個後勤到前線偽裝.
Matt Damon 後面那一招被我猜到，因為上一集已經用過了.
我猜很多觀眾都跟我一樣很想去找戲中會讓女性軟腳的費洛蒙吧.
居然還會演到墨西哥勞工薪資低的問題,有趣.
某些部分是refer到前兩集，像是 Matt Damon 的那一招，出錢鑽洞的金主，和搶鑽石的人，也挺有趣的.
據說Clooney和Pitt最後對對方說的話是雙關語，戲裡戲外都 make sense.
I guess, 如果 12 都看得下去的話，這部 13 就沒問題.
Enjoy 程度: 4 stars

Casino Royale 感想

發覺隨意簡短寫我才比較會動手寫，所以再試一篇.
是個打鬥很多的 Bond. 覺得 Bond movie 怎麼有點像 Bourne movie. 查了一下發現原來導演是紐西蘭人.
這個 Bond 會受傷會犯錯ㄟ. 比以前的好看多了. 上一部 "雷射光切冰塊是韓國人發明的" Bond 電影實在很難看，只有橘色泳衣可以看. 這次有在著墨於 Bond 的優缺點和 emotion.
Daniel Craig 出水鏡頭不會比預告多，但是還滿常露肌肉。那, Halle Berry 和橘色泳衣勒?
玩 poker 的那一段只是讓我看爽的嗎？我看得懂是滿爽的啦，第一局是到最後一張牌才撈到好牌我也發現. 第三局 Bond 致勝的牌我也差不多猜到了. 可是，對看不懂得觀眾應該沒什麼意義吧? 我覺得是不是只是 poker 這幾年很熱門才加這一段的?
I guess, 如果前一部 bond 都能看得下去的話，這一部應該是沒問題.
Enjoy 程度: 4 stars

Die Hard 4.0 的感想

看完 Die Hard 4.0 的感想: 電腦專家 sidekick 貢獻很多又搶戲. 光頭大叔打不動的時候就用飛車. Maggie Q 紅顏薄命. 我以為警察這次會幫到忙結果還是太慢. 壞人老大總讓我覺得像在拍牙膏廣告. 露整齊白牙,穿有格調的襯衫,why? 遠端操縱時穿拖鞋就可以了.

喔! 還有一個很重要的感想: 工程師好可憐，都會被殺光.

Enjoy 程度: 4 stars
其實只有 3 stars, 只是 Justin Long 長的像我以前的同事所以又多一分有趣.

Rangitoto Island

Note: this took place a few weeks ago, not on the day I wrote this.

We went to Rangitoto Island for a day trip. Only Andy and Alice and I went there. Not so many people want to walk. We stayed on the Island for about 6 hours. It was a very sunny day. There were few clouds in the sky. It was quite hot on the island. After arriving on the island, we followed the main track to the summit. There was a father with two young kids. For the first half hour, the kids ran fast and waited their dad to catch up to them. Half an hour later, the kids got tired and lagged behind their dad. One kid wanted to rest and the smaller kid wanted his dad to carry him. Simultaneously, Andy talked a lot during the first half hour. He said the long walk ahead wouldn't be a problem. He saw the unusual volcanic rocks on the sides of the track and kept saying that they look unnatural so they must having been turned by giant earthworms like the ones you seen in sci-fi movies. Half an hour later, Andy became quiet and tired.

We walked a different path on the way down. We headed west to the edge of the island. We stopped at a small beach called McKenzie Bay and ate our lunch. I swam near the shore a bit. There were some boats near the shore. I joked that I should swim over there and buy some sandwiches or ice cream from them. There were two people with bikes that appeared on the beach. There was another older man who was angry and told them that bikes are not allowed on the island. He said he was going to call DOC (Department of Conservation). A while later, the older man was on the phone talking to somebody. Whereas the two bikers took their bikes to the beach and took them up on a boat and left.

After we left McKenzie Bay, we headed for the wharf to catch the last ferry of the day. There was no sign on the track to indicate how far we were from the wharf. So we walked quite fast and rested little on the this last part of the track. Alice got sore legs after that. As for me, I found the hours of walking to be quite easy. Maybe it was because it was much easier compared with the 20 hours of walking in 2 days that I had in Taiwan. Also I walk around and run around so I'm relatively used to walking. 我覺得我們滿能走的，Andy後面走的比前面順，Alice 也可能把台北都市女孩半年份的走路量都走完了吧。

現在比較懶，又比較有時間急迫的感覺，blog 就隨便寫隨便結尾。

日劇：不能結婚的男人

有好幾年很少看日劇，直到這兩年又開始看一點，這兩年才看完三部吧。剛剛看完「不能結婚的男人」(或「熟男不結婚」) ，斷斷續續看了4個月終於看完了。我覺得這是一部很輕鬆有趣的戲。

故事的主題就是阿部寬演的性格孤僻的40歲的建築師，讓旁人都覺得他這種個性一定結不了婚。嗯，沒了。就是這麼簡單的主題，故事也很簡單平凡。但是就是輕鬆順暢，有很多好笑的對話和情景。我就是喜歡阿部寬把這角色演得很自然的不自然，固執、龜毛、不理人際關係、自得其樂、博學多識但是對人說不出好話。我喜歡這種不是很用力的演法，沒有一群熱血年輕人用誇張的表情在七嘴八舌，甚至有人被一把抓起來丟飛出去。這部戲很多時候就靜靜的利用動作、表情和鏡頭技巧在敘述故事，沒講一句話，畫面就把故事交代出來了。尤其有一集阿部寬跟哈巴狗對戲，根本沒什麼台詞。

By the way, 那一隻哈巴狗 Ken 實在太可愛了吧！加上鏡頭剪接，實在很可愛又很有靈性的配合劇情，常常有他的鏡頭我都會笑出來！oh man~ 讓我想起某個大男生 *cough* Jack *cough* 在士林都會叢林看著櫥窗裡的小狗小貓還會撲嗤笑出來，giggle 勒。

另一個喜歡這部戲的理由就是，再把我描述主角的特色看一次：固執、龜毛、不理人際關係、自得其樂、博學多識但是對人說不出好話。嗯，好像「有朋友」也是這個樣子，所以看主角一堆有的沒的固執的時候也滿有同感的。

剛看完最後一集，覺得完結篇滿好看的！嗯，有一點被主角媽媽跟主角說的話打到。
桑野媽： 你是不會了解真的孤單的滋味的
桑野： 可我總是孤單一人啊
桑野媽： 可是不管怎麼說，你的近處總是有人的對吧

後面桑野媽還說了相關、很重要的詞，請你自己看的時候去體會吧！

最後，我來自己評個自訂的enjoy 指數，我看這部日劇的 enjoy 程度是：5顆星!

很法國的慶生會

太久沒寫記事，文筆要重新鍛鍊。

OK，就先補記Jesu和我的聯合慶生會吧。先要謝謝Jesu這次幫忙安排，我一整週在寫報告和準備考試，沒時間找地點找人，都是Jesu幫忙安排的，當然成功男人背後的那一位應該也有幫忙。

這次史無前例地在Parnell的一家法國餐廳吃晚餐，主餐的羊排我覺得並不特別，但是那類似 apple pie 的甜點我覺得超好吃的呀！我吃到說沒有信心吃下一份甜點，因為怕會跟 apple pie 落差太大。

果然，法國餐廳很貴，所以史無前例嘛，這一餐可以抵過我上學一週的午餐，oh well，就當作是兩個人生日所以預算也雙倍吧。嗯，好像真的是去年的雙倍。

之後勒，去Peter家像遊樂場一樣，有人打PSP，其他人在玩Hari遠端送來給我們的禮物，a board game, Carcassonne. (Carcassone 是個法國地名). Andy, Alice 玩過很多次，我玩過一次，其他人在開始玩之後才慢慢了解規則。第一場4個人玩，大家滿多合作的，蓋了很多城，有十幾座吧，最後是以農夫就賺了二十幾分贏了(我忘了是誰)。

第二場5個人玩，合作就沒那麼多，好像一開始城都被Jesu抽到拿去自己蓋，不過 Lydia 還刻意起一個城在 Ray 的城旁邊，就說好要合蓋一個城，最後兩人還真的用了四片合力拼成一個愛心形的城。這一場比較多人佔草地

，可是大部分的報酬都滿差，有幾個只有連到一個完整的城市，有的沒連到。最好笑的是Ray放了一個隨從佔領一條路的內側之後，連續幾個人都抽到彎路，把他的隨從框起來了。在一輪之內就被困住了，Ray根本沒機會抽牌來救他。

有人說這是跑馬場。

不過勒，最後Ray還是用農夫贏了，他自己在邊緣蓋了三個小城，都是用兩三片就蓋好，在放了兩個農夫，佔的地都不大，但是連到他自己蓋的那幾個城市所以算到分，而且農夫在城市不相連的不同側，所以同一個城還算到兩次分，效益超過其他人佔了大片草地卻沒有完成的城市。原本Andy也滿有可能贏的，因為他抽了至少4張修道院，每個都賺個7分以上的話就靠宗教吸金就能贏了，可惜他有放了兩個效益低的農夫，最後隨從不夠，佔不了修道院。

出門之前我有跟Ray說把在香港、Melbourne 長假的照片帶來，玩完 Carcassonne 之後就在 Peter 的大電腦螢幕上放映。不過一開始先放了好幾年前的照片，舞會時的照片，生日的聚會，朋友出國前的聚餐，大家驚呼聲不斷。接著看香港照片，Ray照得不多，不過還是可以看看像爸爸的 Kenny 和西裝有 pinstripe 的 Hari. 也可以看看誹聞對象。嗯，對我是沒差啦，碰不到面都不會有什麼印象。

很愉快的一晚，感謝Jesu的晚餐安排，謝謝Peter讓我們都塞進他的房間裡，還有謝謝遠在澳洲的 Hari 大力贊助，讓我們有個好玩的遊戲。

明天過後

我在做啥？要準備考試呀。

明天過後，又要找個重心。今天，專注拼分數。

被raise就得call

這幾個月還是被課業塞滿了，至少這學期比上學期多睡了一些。

如果仔細檢視的話可能最近生活實在沒什麼意義，可是我盡量不去理會，因為我已經在賭局之內，不再繼續投入的話前面的投入的心血也就沒了。

也許哪天真的會fold，但是現在我想撐完river card，所以繼續call.

小小的安慰是一群聰明的人(比我聰明)大家也都拼了命才留在賽局裡，所以不只是我的問題。

其實如果清楚知道是我的問題也好，我就可以安心的退場。

知道大家都在掙扎也沒太多好處，被 raise 了還是得 call. 不過長期來說也許值得參考，考慮是否金盆洗手。

不過暫時視野沒那麼廣，目前只想撐過river card.

Presentation 五分鐘前聊什麼

忽然想到這件事，來記錄一下這奇怪的情境。
一堂早上十點的課，十點鐘，同學陸續進教室，我和assignment partner等著課堂一開始我們就要做 presentation. 有個華人同學走進教室，手裡握著一個畫咖啡圖案的紙杯，蓋著有洞口讓你對著嘴喝的那種杯蓋。一頭灰髮的巴西裔女老師問他說那是什麼咖啡。我開玩笑說也許那是豆漿不是咖啡 (我們是華人嘛)。沒想到同學既然說對呀，那真的是豆漿，是在大學 food court 的中餐攤位買的。老師就開始說她在家喝咖啡都加 soy milk，對身體比較好，尤其是對更年期的女人。

Sort Of Dunno Nothin'

Sort Of Dunno Nothin' - Peter Denahy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_veIGGP1Uh4

A funny song that portrays a typical aimless teenager. Always answering yep, no, nothing, dunno etc. I'm sure I did that when I was a teenager. I think I still do that sometimes. :P Some friends do that too.

It's written and sung by an Australian country music (?) singer Peter Denahy

Micro-blogging

I recently learned there's something called micro-blogging. Basically you can post short messages about what you're doing now, and your friends can see. Here's a 2 and half minute video by Common Craft Show explaining one of the most popular micro-blogging service, Twitter:
Twitter in Plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o&feature=user

By the way, Common Craft Show has a number of “in plain English” videos that explain new web tools and services such as Twitter, blog, RSS etc. Have a look on http://www.commoncraft.com/ when you hear about some new web stuffs and you want a simple explanation.

Back to the topic of micro-blogging. So, basically, it lets your friends see your 碎碎念. It's kind of like people writing a short message besides their nicknames in instant messengers. I'm skeptical about the concept, though. My initial thoughts are, wouldn't it be a nuisance to keep writing about what you're doing every moment? And do you want other people to know what you're doing all the time. Also, wouldn't it be annoying to get notifications about what people are doing all the time?

But then I thought it'd be useful in some cases. I think it would be suitable for people who have close relationships and are interested in each other's daily lives and don't mind letting the other person know their own lives. It'd useful for partners or friends living in different countries as they may be harder to keep getting updates about each other. I think it's because micro-blogging is of different time, different location; whereas instant messaging is same time, different location. It would require both people to be online at the same time (for online messages) to use MSN. Sometimes it's not so convenient for people in different countries with time differences.

Twitter and Plurk are the 2 popular micro-blogging services I've heard about. Plurk looks kind of cool with the timeline interface. There are some example Plurks on its home page, such as this example, have a look if you're interested. When you see the timeline, you can click the button on the bottom right that says “only blahblah's plurks”, and select “blahblah and his friends plurks”, to get a better idea what it would be like when many people leave messages.

I wonder if any of my friends is micro-blogging? I guess probably not. Otherwise one of them might have asked me to start micro-blogging too. I guess if I micro-blog. I might write too much for the first 3 days, and find it takes too much time, then abandon it. I'm just guessing though.

Another thing, you can also let other people know what you do in your day by sharing Google Calendars. That wasn't the main intention of Google Calendars, but you can use it that way too.

I'm thinking... I have no idea what Hari does everyday, if he uses this, it'd be cool. But I wonder if I'm willing to publish what I do daily, though. :P
Another possible usage is for my 2 video gaming enthusiasts friends. They leave messages about game stuffs on a message board, maybe they can use this to give updates to each other. Ha.

Think Before You Post

最近跟朋友提到了放上網的東西是沒辦法刪除的，所以放上網的東西是要假設任何人都有可能看見。
就像是這個影片想表達的

Everyone Knows Your Name
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOwpGF1SOQM

網路上的搜尋網站的 web crawlers 都很勤勞，放上網路的東西沒多久就會被索引起來了，所以搜尋網站已經可以找到了，而且像 Google 還會 cache 存起來，所以一直會存在網路上呀，你刪了自己網站上的檔案，網路上還有別的copy.
而且每個路過的人也都可以拿一份下來，大家都有一份 copy.
就像是這一篇影片一樣

Think Before You Post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvp-kZeoWW0


YouTube 上面還有一些影片是說雇主會查看 candidate's Facebook ，有些就因此不 hire 了，我之前沒想過有這種情形ㄟ！真的是誰都有可能來看。

Assignment partner - the slackest

It's about time I put up something original. I want to write this one for quite a while. I've finished all assignments recently. It's also a good time to write about them because they have all finished.
I'm going to talk about my assignment partners. I guess I'm not honourable enough, otherwise I wouldn't be talking about them behind their backs here. However, some of the things they did really shocked me so they deserve to be mentioned here. In particular, I believe one of them was THE slackest postgraduate computer science student.

I had 4 projects/assignments that were group assignments. All 4 of them were in pairs. The first one was the biggest one that took about 8 weeks in the semester. The lecturer asked who weren't paired up and there were 4 computer science students that had not paired up, three Chinese faces and one European face. To cut the story short, I wanted to work in English, because I thought I had already worked in Chinese for 2 year! So I emailed that European guy and said I wanted to pair up with him. But he didn't get that email until later, and when we needed to get into pairs in the next lecture, only 'R' and I turned up. So we formed a group. And yeah, from the second day on, we worked in Chinese, sigh.

So 'R' became my project partner, and I soon noticed some signs. He ALWAYS entered the lecture room more than 15 minutes late. When he starts talking, he talks on and on and listeners might not understand what he says.

When we started working together more, it got worse. He was really slack. That's the main thing that annoyed me. The attitude. He had NEVER turned up to a meeting on time, unless it was right after the lecture. I mean NEVER, over the 8 weeks. The earliest time he turned up was 15 minutes late. The latest was about 1 and half hours late. That was an exception, but he could have contacted me sooner and rescheduled or something.

The lectures for that class are from 11am to 12. So we would eat lunch then started working afterwards. Then what happened was he often would say that he's sleepy after lunch. So he wanted to end working after an hour or so. Yeah, of course he was sleepy. During lunch, he just told me that he watched some American TV show until 4am. I thought, dude, you're taking only 2 courses this semester, and you don't have a job or any other commitments. I'm doing 4 courses, that's already busier than you as a student. I also have the lab demonstrating job, and the radio show. I probably have more rights to yawn and say I'm sleepy, but I just focused on the task at hand.

When we work together, one thing annoyed me. No, let me rephrase that, one of the main things that annoyed me was that he didn't focus on the tasks. We sat next to each other and divided the tasks. I worked on mine. After a while, when I turned to him, I'd see him reading some other web pages, news, stories, whatever. When he worked, he would switch between work and other web pages all the time. I told him to focus on the tasks for a number of times. He still did that. I felt that I was supervising a primary school kid to do his homework or something.

He always leaves his work to the last minute. Basically I couldn't get him to do much before that. There was one week that I had lots to do for other courses so I asked him to work on this project by himself that week and I'll catch up later. He said OK. After that week, I finished my other assignments and ready to continue working on this. Well, he did nothing. OK... so I asked him to set a time so we can work on this together, and he told me that he's busy with his other paper's assignment. What the?! You have only 2 courses! If you didn't work on this project last week, shouldn't you work on your other assignment then? He did nothing and left both assignments to that week.

Another event that shocked me was that 2 weeks before the project due date, I kept telling him that we had to work on this project as it was due soon. We didn't have much time, especially we had to divide our time to all the courses (well, 4+ for me. 2 for him). What he said was, it's not urgent, we still have plenty of time. This project will definitely get extension.
What?! Instead of working on it now, you want to leave it later and count on the lecturer giving you extension?! What the!!!
Try that in the workplace. You're supposed to deliver the product in 2 weeks. Your company probably has a contract with the client. If you don't deliver on time, your company will pay some penalty. The product is not complete yet and your boss asks you to work on it. You say, no worries, the client will give us extension.
Dude, you're so fired! I'd fire you without a doubt if I were your boss.

I was going to write about all 4 assignment partners. But 'R' has already taken up so many paragraphs, and I haven't finished with him yet!

OK. I've stressed the main thing, he has really bad work ethics. He's really slack. Let me try to quickly mention other things I want to say about him. The other things might not be related to work ethics but they still annoyed me.
When he talks, he talks non-stop and dumps all things he wanted to say. When I talk, he might not pay as much attention to listen. When he asked me something and interrupted my work, I answered him and opened the discussion or asked him a question in return. He sometimes told me to wait and he went on to do whatever he wanted to do.
He doesn't do what he promises. We assigned the tasks and he said he'd do them. But he usually didn't deliver.
He just focused on what he wanted to do. He didn't care too much overall plan. He considered some tasks to be trivial and didn't spend time on them. Which means they were either left to the last minute, or I had to take care of them.
Bad hygiene, he picks his nose in public, during the lecture or when we work in the lab. And he goes on to use the keyboard and mouse after he picks his nose! Get away from me! Don't touch me!
He chewed on my pen when he borrowed it.
Just in general, attitudes that I don't like. He sleeps when working on the project. He puts his feet up on the desk. He extends his legs to my seat when we sit. He barged in the lecturer's office and started asking questions without checking whether it was a good time for the lecturer or not. In general, I feel that he just cares about himself and doesn't consider for other people much.

Wow, I've just written a lot about somebody I don't like. Well, I guess it's kind of a special experience anyway. Because when I worked in my previous company, I didn't find anybody to be particularly slack. People all wanted to get things done. I guess it's also because if you're slack, you'll get fired! This is the first time I've worked with somebody who's really really slack. I guess, that's a experience I couldn't get from my previous workplace. It's not pleasant, though. Sigh.

Hit the road Jack

Here's another post about a song. I heard this song on the bus and thought, hey, I should dedicate the song to our Jack who's leaving NZ and probably won't return.
It's because the song repeats these lines:

Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no
More.
Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more.

I first noticed the song when I watched Ray with Ray. I mean the movie, Ray, about Ray Charles. (雷之心靈傳奇)

And of course it's on YouTube, here is the original version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Tiz6INF7I

Here is the version in the movie Ray, played by Jamie Foxx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpHDwvxrcXk

Ken Lee

One day, when a student did a presentation and introduced himself as Ken Lee. My classmate who sat besides me laughed. Later, I asked him what's so funny about his name. He told me that Ken Lee is the title of a song that's gaining popularity. He showed me that video on YouTube, and I couldn't get it out of my head for a few days. So, be warned! If you choose to listen to it, you might have it playing in your head all the time. :P

Here is the link to the song Ken Lee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RgL2MKfWTo

Wikipedia has a page about this song!

Google Calendar

Yes, I'm still busy. Ray and Andy have failed to get me out in the recent weeks. Hopefully it'll be better After the assignments end on Saturday.

Just thought I should come up and leave a short message or something. Just thought of Google Calendar. I've used it for two weeks after one of my assignment partner told me to use it. Yeah, I think it's quite useful for me to plan what's coming in the future. It's also useful to keep a record of what I did. For example, it showed that I worked more than 60 hours last week, so I guess if I still fail, I've at least given it a good shot.

I think the advantage of using a web based calendar is that it's flexible. It's quite easy to change the events. It also lets you share calendars with other people, which is how my assignment partner and I plan for meetings. The disadvantage is that you must be online, you can't take it anywhere. Although you can argue that if you have a mobile device with Internet, then you can use it anywhere. (e.g. how Andy used his 3G phone stuff in Taiwan.)

Oh, a feature I just started using yesterday is that it can send you reminders via SMS messages. I don't know how they can offer that without charge, but it does.

Anyway, have a look on Google if you're interested. If you start using it, I might share with you my calendar with more public plans (which has nearly no plans). Or I might even show you my primary calendar that shows time durations with events but the details are hidden. And you might wonder why I had something until 2:30am Saturday. You'd be wrong if you guess I was anywhere near Margarita.

ESPN 帶賽

這邊的 ESPN 是不是很帶賽? 目前好像轉播過三場王建民的比賽，通通都沒有勝投，昨天那場又失了 7 分，慘。
啊，何時會看到一場王建民的勝投呢？

阿扁下台

我討厭陳水扁。
現在太忙了，切入主題要快點，別考慮太多禮貌。所以，直接說：
我討厭陳水扁。
我只講他個人，無關他的政黨、親戚等等。
我覺得他當總統沒有總統應有的氣度，時常說一些不該是國家元首所說的話。
而且常常說話變來變去，我不喜歡言而無信的人，不喜歡欺騙別人的人。
2004總統選舉時他又挑起族群，並且不必要的讓兩岸關係緊張。
那次選舉他喊著"2006年制憲"，我也不懂那是什麼，只懷疑真的會做到嗎？果然到了2008我還是在問：「豬頭，我的新憲法咧？」 (Dude, where's my new constitution?) 他沒遵守他對選民的承諾。
2005台中市長選舉以總統身分站台，說要做哪些建設，居然說之前講的選錯人都不算。難道市長不是同一個黨的話就不准建設了？
他不遵守對支持者的承諾，對立場不同的人民也說出：「太平洋沒加蓋」的一番話。難道總統只需要照顧支持他的國民？
我等他下台等了很久。今天終於等到了。
It's probably foolish to write something of political nature in the blog. But 阿扁下台只有一次，就在此時唾棄他吧。
我討厭陳水扁。
阿扁，下台吧，不要再上來。

恭喜你，畢業了 (我沒說終於)

週五，Science 和 Engineering 的 graduation day，看著其他年輕同學們跑進跑出去參加別人或自己的典禮和照相，自己想說這麼老了，以前那些同學們早就畢業了。
沒想到，下午4點鐘你打電話給我，說你在 Clock Tower，你找我去拍照，我才想，對喔，還有你，而且，你也終於畢業了。
腦中閃過一個念頭，想用你的話回答你："No la, maybe next week." ，最近四個月來我們大家跟你聯絡時，你大概都是回的簡訊都是這一句。
但是沒空跟你瞎扯，耗了好幾年你才畢業，盼了好幾月你才出現，雖然最近隆哥很忙，我還是快快停下我的工作趕了過去。
啊，你也穿了那學士服，也有個藍色的hood。
你還是一樣那麼天真率直，你媽也還是以自我為中心。
我和Ray有和你媽聊到一些紐西蘭和我們自己的狀況，不過，我不覺得會改變你媽的觀點。我覺得，只能靠你自己，在接下來的幾個月證明自己。
接下來，你可能會發現事情不是原先想的那麼容易，你可能會發現責任變大了，所有的事情都要自己負責，不是再付一次學費就能重來。
希望你接下來這一段時間你會更了解自己也更了解世界。
恭喜你，畢業了。

黑iPod白iPod的寓言

有一天，我在 undergraduate computer lab 裡教大一學生寫 stack 和 sorted list，忽然，有學生交給我一台白色大台的 iPod，我仔細一看，單色螢幕，20GB，看來是舊版的iPod，我心裡想：「這不是我的隨身聽，我的隨身聽是MSI的128MB的 MP3 player。」於是，我把白iPod收好，暫時保管。
快要下班的時候，有一個學生交給我一台黑色的 iPod nano，1GB，我心裡想：「這不是我的隨身聽，我的隨身聽是用了四年的微星的 128MB MSI Megastick.」於是，我把黑iPod收好，暫時保管。
第二天早晨，我帶著黑iPod白iPod去 computer science reception，忽然出現一位女神，她對我說：「你是一個誠實的人，黑iPod、白iPod、MSI Megastick 全部都送給你。」
當然，那並沒有發生，真正發生的是 computer science reception 就出現了一位小姐，把黑iPod白iPod收去了。我問她常收到 iPod 嗎，她說不常，但是有很多 USB disks，和一些 mobile phones。

這個故事告訴我們：
- 忙著做作業容易掉東西，那天是有些作業的 due date.
- 不要在你的 iPod 裡放"不雅照"，哪天你掉了iPod搞不好會被奇怪的 demonstrator 叔叔看到. Think 陳冠希. Well, There wasn't dirty photos. I saw photos of an Asian girl, though. Probably from Hong Kong. She was probably the owner but could be his girlfriend.
- 微星的MP3還滿耐的，雖然不有名。

取捨

拼了，大概會這樣忙到六月底，不過還是想來記錄點什麼。
想寫的很多，可是沒什麼時間了，就先簡單寫一寫吧。
也許簡單寫也就夠了。
我現在真的很被我的課業 challenge 到，到一種真的要把自己整理好，不然就過不了的程度。
為什麼我說整理好呢？因為我覺得我有一些心理障礙讓我做不好事，明明還算聰明，為何事情有時就做不好呢？
嗯，原因很多，上班後有發現一些也逐步在改，現在更是課業重，又發覺一些。
我目前主要的一點要訓練的應該是"取捨"，我的個性是會花很多時間在一件事情上，把那件事情做得很好，會一直覺得還不夠好。所以一直以來都比別人做得事情做得少。現在我事情多到不可能每件事都做得好，能不能每件事都做到低標都不一定，所以不能用同樣的style做下去，必須取捨。
也許可以說是 prioritize ，不過現在比較常碰到的是取捨，因為沒有多餘時間了，沒辦法想著我有空或週末的時候做，已經全滿了，做這就沒那。這跟我個性相逆，所以還要練習。
嗯，現在也比較常掃描而不是細讀資料了，細讀大概一直以來花了我很多時間吧。
這樣下去成績可能進不了第二年的 master thesis，不過就像 diploma advisor 跟我講的，先想辦法 pass 全部吧。
不管有沒有 pass，去除心理障礙比較重要，因為那是要跟著一輩子的。

對了，Ray 說 Hari 讀 postgrad 時也每天打球什麼的，我的回答，嗯，Ray也猜到了，"因為他讀的是商學院" :P

Phil's here

I had a glimpse of something exciting this morning. I was on the bus and it was going up Victoria Street to the university. I turned and looked at Queen Street and saw there were two people on the corner. They had backpacks on their back. One of them was holding a gnome and it had a small yellow and red flag. A camera man was filming them.
So, I think that TV show I watch... They were here today! I just had a 5-second look, though. Sigh. I couldn't jump out of the bus then.
I told Ray about it and I wondered why the show has come to NZ for so many times. Ray said maybe Phil wants to come home. Haha. Good answer.

紅衫軍

上週看到了兩組紅衫軍。
一次是難得路過學校中庭時，看到那一群又來啦，沒錯，從古早工程系時期到現在，Drinking club 每學期還是要熱鬧一下！不過現在的好像不太一樣了，看到一群人穿著紅色T-shirt，出發向Albert Park 方向走去，anyway, don't care.
另一次是星期天"加班"時拿了麵包去公園散步吃，聽到 Queen Street 那邊一直有汽車喇叭的聲音，覺得很奇怪，就走下去看一看，看到的是一堆中國人開了車，把中華人民共和國的五星旗伸出來揮舞，沒事就按喇叭，大多都穿著紅衣服，路邊也有一些穿紅衣拿著五星旗的人在揮舞吶喊，有些也有拿著有關北京奧運的旗幟。
我搞不清楚是這群紅衫軍是怎麼回事，雖然有點想喊"阿扁下台"但是好像不是時機。我只是覺得，這是中國留學生自發性的來快閃一下嗎？如果是的話好像怪怪的。
晚上回家看了新聞才知道是在 Aotea Square 有中國人辦了要表達支持北京奧運的一個活動，鼓勵大家穿紅色來參加。
Well, 我從來就不喜歡"愛國"的活動，一方面是覺得國界本來就是人為加上的界線，另外也覺得，喊一喊好像對於國家的進步好像沒太大影響。
反正大家高興就好。Peace.
不過最近國際上抗議中國奧運的這些情勢，對我這個在這裡的台灣學生也滿特別的，現在在紐西蘭的華人很多是中國大陸來的，尤其我的同學很多都是，我感覺跟大陸人文化背景上是相近的，至少我的爺爺是中國人而不是英國人，可是我也在這裡混夠久了，紐西蘭的民意可能又另一種看法，所以同時有著支持奧運和解放西藏這兩種聲音。
Anyway, 反正我也沒真的在管，我覺得只有真的在事件所在地才能最清楚情況吧，我們在南太平洋上可能也弄不清楚，說什麼都沒什麼差。
喔，為了返回標題的紅衫軍主題，這邊只好用這句來結尾: "阿扁，下台"

Tongue-in-cheek

tongue-in-cheek 這個詞偶而會讀到，但是我從來都不太懂是什麼意思。
查查 Wikipedia 說的，大致上意思是，用正經的口吻來講諷刺、並非字面意思的話。
中文的話... 假正經？冷面笑匠？ 好像都有點差別。
反正就將就著點用吧。

公車上的宮保雞丁

平常除了坐瑞奇斯客運的"北方特快車"之外，幾乎沒有公車司機會開收音機，我也不希望有開，我想自己聽自己音樂或安靜一點。今天晚上回家的公車上司機放著收音機，華人司機就給他放著華語電台，居然還聽到陶喆的歌"宮保雞丁"。嗯，會不會影響到乘客呀，有收音機就已經會吵了，還放聽不懂的。
另外，快到家的前幾站，有個華人下車，下車是從後門向司機喊"謝謝"，是，就是用中文。

看來溫斯頓‧彼特斯說的是對的，我們華人就是要來侵略紐西蘭呀！之前台灣選舉前講的也是對的，一中市場會讓大陸上千萬的失業人口全部衝進來呀！
(紐西蘭和中國最近簽了自由貿易協定，要有一中市場了？)
(是第一個已開發國家和中國簽自由貿易協定)
嗯，華人會統治紐西蘭的，讓黃徐毓芳二零一二年當總理。今天唱陶喆的宮保雞丁，明天唱王力宏的華人萬歲。

好吧，寫一下好了，這篇像比較傳統的文章，英文數字都用中文寫，最後還怕你誤會，在這裡很明白的告訴你，以上言論都是"舌頭在臉頰"的方式在講的。

Radio - 機車的一集

OK. I'm still very busy. (My friends in Auckland all know that now :P). But I really want to note this down. :)

The topic of the radio show today was "motorcyclists". I had significant involvement in this one.

At the beginning of the show I suggested a small quiz to introduce the topic, by saying this subject we are talking about today, 蔡依林和孫燕姿都有代言過，Shania Twain 和 Crazy Frog 的 music video 都有出現過. Then Jeffrey did a really good imitation of Crazy Frog sound, brilliant.

I wrote the short play for this one. As it was about 摩托車/機車, I thought the 短劇 should be "機車". :P So I wrote the script that is more fictional than the previous plays we had. With a part that tries to imitate romantic stories and another part that somewhat resembles a 武俠 story. Very tongue-in-cheek. Oh, and I used Ray's name in this play, just for the obscure pun of "雷禪". I guess the vast majority of the audience wouldn't get that 雷禪/雷殘 is the Taiwanese phrase that means 犁田, and is used by young people to describe 騎摩托車摔車.
Jeffrey sang 2 lines of that "滄海笑，滔滔兩岸潮" song in this play. That wasn't in the original script. He sang it just because he thought it suits the tone of the play, and Tessie edited it in. Cool!

Another editing that surprised me was there was a part that I said 喝酒不騎車, Tessie 插進來補充說宿醉後第二天早上酒精濃度可能還是很高，這時開車還是很危險。那時錄音時麥克風還給我的之後我想說這段就這樣結束，故意接說，"謝謝Tessie，我相信這是很有力的補充，因為Tessie是酒鬼"，大家就笑出來，Tessie就喊說要我重講，我說反正你之後 edit的時候就把它剪掉就好了，又拿麥克風說: "Tessie 雖然愛喝酒，但是從來沒有開酒喝... 我在說什麼呀，開車不喝酒，喝酒不開車。" 沒想到，Tessie 真的把這段剪進去，只剪掉我說會剪掉的那一句。
Tessie: "... 宿醉後第二天早上酒精濃度可能還是很高，這時開車還是很危險"
LC: "謝謝Tessie，我相信這是很有力的補充，因為Tessie是酒鬼"
(背景有笑聲)
(Tessie 在背景(就是聽起來比較小聲) 的喊：重講！)
LC: "Tessie 雖然愛喝酒，但是從來沒有開酒喝... 我在說什麼呀 (笑聲)，開車不喝酒，喝酒不開車。"
(Tessie 在背景說: 我是好榜樣)

Tessie 你為了這個 show 真是犧牲奉獻呀!
至少這一集比較 lively，沒那麼嚴肅。

Still haven't watched Wang

Although I'm supposed to on the one-week mid-semester break, I've been doing my overwhelmingly time-consuming assignments in university with other classmates. So when ESPN finally broadcast a Yankees game when Wang's pitching, I could only record it.
Then, it was NOT the game that he pitched the whole 9 innings and allowed only two hits. It was the game he lost 8 runs in less than 5 innings.
So, I didn't watch the tape. sigh.

Rain in New York made me blue

Every Yankees game is broadcast in Taiwan. They are often rerun a few times. It was easy to watch Chien-Ming Wang on TV in Taiwan.
It's very different in NZ. One game is broadcast every few days. The game could be between any teams. When it does broadcast a Yankees game, Chien-Ming Wang might not be pitching (only 1-in-5 chance he's pitching).

I was excited when I found that ESPN was going to broadcast Yankees' opening game, and Wang was going to pitch. So I turned on the TV at 7am, expected to see Wang pitching the 3rd or 4th inning. Instead, I saw an empty Yankee Stadium with rain. The game was rescheduled. I was disappointed. :(
I didn't know raining in New York would affect my mood in NZ.

And the rescheduled game wasn't broadcast in NZ. :(
So I could only check the scoreboard on MLB web site while the game was playing. I also found it funny because my friends did this kind of score checking when NBA games were on but I never did. Now I'm doing the same thing.

I hope I can watch Wang pitch on TV some time this YEAR. and I don't mean when I visit Taipei. :P

What's LC been doing? March/April

I have kept off MSN for quite some time and I've not contacted some friends for a few months. I guess I should fill you in about what I've been doing.
I'm lazy... so I'm basing this post on an email I sent to my friend. :P
Here it goes.

Nope, I still don't have a job. At least not a full time job that pays. I'm studying a postgraduate diploma in Computer Science in my old school, University of Auckland. So I guess I could say my occupation is a postgraduate student now.

In addition, I have a part-time job in the university computer lab as a "demonstrator". The main task is to answer students questions about the computers, help them with assignments and so on. I also have to tell people to be quiet and don't eat food in the lab.

My third "job" is a project which I do with a few Taiwanese youths here (old youths? :P)
. It's a Chinese radio show to promote road safety. (not exciting eh.) It is broadcast on the Mandarin radio channel here every Saturday. We cover a different topic each week and it'll run for about 5 months.

Yup. That's a short summary of what I've been up to. During the summer I also played badminton, jogged, went to the beach, played Wii, played texas hold'em. I guess that's most of it.

I haven't read novels. Too busy too finish my Harry (Hari?!) Potter and Order of the Phoenix.
I have kept off MSN. I find it's too much distraction. I think it's a nuisance to use it at uni anyway. But I'm starting to work on group assignments. You'll probably see me back online soon. I guess I should keep in touch with my overseas friends too. hm.. should I just tell them to check the blog so I don't have to type multiple times? :P
Hm, what else. Well, I guess my overseas friends will ask why I decided to study. Hm, maybe I should write about that. But I guess it doesn't matter much. I'm doing it anyway.

別讓菸蒂糟蹋你那整容的臉

某天晚上在公車站等公車，有兩個等車的亞洲女大學生，打扮花俏，臉也很漂亮，雙眼皮，綁馬尾。公車來的時候，其中一人把手上的香菸直接往地上丟，還吐了一口口水想要澆熄，不準，只讓地上多了一小灘。
糟蹋呀！Such a turn off. 據說抽菸的男人會不容易硬起來，原來女人抽菸也會讓男人硬不起來。
很想跟她說，有點公德心，別讓菸蒂糟蹋你那整容的臉。

Blog 與保齡球計分螢幕廣告

保齡球場的計分螢幕上，如果沒在計分，會播一些廣告，大部分都滿 local 的廣告。可是有點矛盾，假如球館生意好，所有的球道一直都有人在打的話，那這些廣告不就根本不會播出了嗎？如果生意差，廣告一直播，可是又沒人看到。
也許最好是三分之二滿吧？球道有人，旁邊又有空的球道在播廣告。

寫 blog 好像也是矛盾，閒的時候沒事好寫，真的有想寫的事情的時候又太忙沒空寫。三月以前沒事寫，三月以後太多事沒空寫。也許生活也是要三分之二滿才會有題材也有空閒寫 blog。
現在，球道全滿。Well, it's an exception at this very moment :P

頭昏 開頭 新年快樂

2008的開頭居然是在客廳醒來，回房間看到手機有一堆 missed call，是 Hari 從遲兩個小時的新年打來的電話。
結果我有睏意頭昏昏地打過去，接的是喝醉頭痛痛的 Hari.
嗯，該來個擁抱，可惜分隔了 Tasman Sea.
We miss you Hari.
Happy New Year.
該睡了. 整個累. 雖然想回顧2007，等睡醒再說吧.