Working on my report

Working on my report this week. Busy. I probably won't write much here until April.

黑白中一抹紅，乳溝讓世界更美好

週三晚上六點上班，所以五點就去學校附近的台灣餐廳吃飯，沒什麼人，但是有一桌坐著兩位(媒體是亂源說某個朋友喜歡的)金髮白人女生，其中一個穿著粉紅色短袖胸口很低的棉質休閒衣服，露出豐滿雙峰間的乳溝。

這位美女整體給人的感覺是有氣質而不低俗(註1)，頓時我覺得這平庸的地方有她的點綴而變的美麗有色彩。我心中的畫面是像那種黑白相片中有一抹紅色的那種感覺，像是水泥牆上有著一朵紅花，讓人一眼就注意到，也跟平凡甚至醜陋的背景成對比。(註2)

這一朵紅花讓旁人很難忽略，兩位美女離開後我聽到店員也短短談論了一下，「穿粉紅色的比較辣。」我聽到某個女店員這麼說。

我忽然希望世界上有多一些這樣的氣質美女露乳溝，讓乏味的畫面加入更多顏色，這樣世界會更美麗、更美好。

後記：後來上班時有個亞洲女學生也穿了滿低胸的衣服，嗯，感覺沒那麼美好。不糟糕，只是沒有一抹紅的吸引力。既然我已經 wish for 更多乳溝，so 我心裡就頒了她一個最佳勇氣獎，想說，yes, this should be encouraged.

註1: 我想像如果有台灣鄉土歐巴桑看到這位露胸的金髮美女的話，可能會說"沒見笑"，然後再稱讚她像芭比娃娃一樣。

註2： 我講的畫面有點類似這種感覺，不過背景要更都市或更工業的感覺。

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44254071@N00/138345490/

(我給連結而不直接嵌圖進頁面，因為覺得這樣比較尊重照片的作者)

Round the Bays

In a sudden turn of events. I actually ran Round the Bays on Sunday. When I met Joseph on Thursday. Just before we parted, he mentioned that he was going to run Round the Bays on Sunday. I've always wanted to run at a road running event. This time I had a friend who was in it. So yeah I registered just days before the event.

By the way, I also realized that I actually walked for 7.5 km a few weeks ago, so the 8.4 km run of Round the Bays shouldn't be a problem. So yup, let's do this.

Actually I kind of warmed up before the race on Sunday morning. I missed the bus that is nearest to my home. So I had to walk further to catch the bus on another route. They were the express buses. Many people in athletic gears all tried to get on the bus. I got on and took one of the few remaining seats. Then at the next stop, there were like 40 people waiting to get on the bus, it took like 8 minutes to board passengers at that stop. Some people were left behind because the bus was full. The bus was full people going to run and I saw people in team t-shirts. There were Tower at the back of the bus, NZI in the middle and Sovereign at the front. Why were all these insurance companies squashed on the same bus? Luckily it wasn't a day for hostility. And even better, nobody tried to sell me any insurance product. :P

Joseph and I said we'd meet at 9.10am but his friend was late for driving him there. The starting line on Quay Street got really crowded so we couldn't meet before the run started. Oh, while I was waiting for Joseph at the start line. I met somebody else. Tony Wang! He was there with his family. He said he had run at this event for the past few years.

Luckily Joseph and his friend waited at Mobil near the start of the route and we met up. It delayed us and kind of put us at the back of the crowd, though. At the beginning part of the run, it was crowded and difficult to actually run. The event organizer said walkers on the left and runners on the right. However, I encountered a few walking people every few seconds when I tried to run on the right edge of the road. I couldn't run in a straight line and had to change direction and pace all the time. Soon, I was separated from Joseph and his friends. We agreed to make our own ways there and meet at the finish line.

I got to the first water station. Cool. I get to grab a cup of water, drink it, and throw it on the road just like those marathon runners I saw on TV. There was also a person who held a hose to spary water over the air so people could run through it to cool if they wanted to. Hey, isn't that Tony? Ha, somehow I met Tony again. We just exchanged a few words and we started running again. They weather was perfect. It was sunny but not too hot. It didn't feel humid. It was very comfortable to run.

After a while, the road became less crowded. People were more spread out. I could run more easily. I kept my pace slow and steady so I didn't burn out. After running past Mission and other beaches, I finally crossed the finish line at St Heliers Bay. woohoo~ That wasn't too hard. ha :P

I met up with Joseph in a few minutes and we found a place where you can print out your time. My time was, 72 minutes and 4 seconds. Joseph was a few minutes slower. Hey that was quite good. I checked other people's 2008 results on the web site before the race and found the average was about 80 something minutes. So, 72 minutes was quite good, and we were probably faster because we were delayed at the starting line for a few minutes.

沒圖沒真相... 這邊先留空，之後跟Joseph拿了照片再貼圖。

Hey, you don't believe me, you can go to Round the Bays web site and check people's results. You can also check if people you know were in the race :P

Next year, if I practise before the event and go to the front of the starting line, I'll aim to finish under 60 minutes. I think I can.  :) 

距離時差小失落

今晚找兩個在不同時區的朋友找不到，感覺有點失落。

距離時差是事實，也不能怎樣。只是在很想找人問問時，發覺只有自己，有點失落。

Busy Thursday

There were a few things that took place on Thursday. I didn't get much work done that day because I went to different events from noon onward.

At noon, I met up with Joseph to have lunch together. Joseph's in NZ for a month to do intern(?) at Auckland Hospital. We went to Occidental and ate a pot of mussels each. :)  The bad thing was, somehow I feel so much fatigue this week, I was so sleepy in the darker lighting.

Then, not long after I got back to my office, I went to the demonstrator workshop. This is for my part time job in the computer lab in uni. The workshop was to let the demonstrators discuss the possible issues that happen on the job and how we can better assist students. Even though I've done this for two semesters. Some issues surprised me. One was there was a couple who made out in the computer lab. Hm... right... why would you want to do that in a computer lab?... That doesn't sound romantic. Although another person mentioned that there was a couple who sit on one seat and watched a movie. He said the only thing missing was the popcorn! Movies. Maybe that's why.

Another issue that surprised me was that we're required to declare it to our boss if we're dating the student who comes to the lab. Furthermore, the demonstrators of the labs for particular stage 1 classes are forbidden to date their students. I didn't know these rules. Not that I've got those issues.

Soon after the workshop, the next event I went to was the IT student's club event. It's a new club that just started this year. This event was "poker night". There were pizzas too, of course. So I played poker in a table of six players for about an hour. My somewhat cautious approach got me to third place at this table. A few sponsers spoke during the game. I don't know if they got their messages across. ha.

Okinawa Massage Therapist

Just random silly stuffs. It's my silly words, right? I've been thinking about changing the name of the blog, though. Perhaps it'll include the word "thesis"? :P

I probably didn't sleep enough this week. So I felt really slow and sleepy in the morning. I hope a lunch would solve it. It didn't. So I went to the library to find a spot to take a nap. To my surprised, there many people on level 1 and level M. It proves that uni student do study, just like Jack when his mum was in NZ. Certainly, there are many other business students who don't.

It was an unusual thing, though. I don't go to the library much and I don't remember having a nap there. ha. I did feel better after the nap.

On another topic. Last time I was chatting with a friend who lives in a relatively cold city. He said he likes somewhere hot. After some thought, I suggested Okinawa. It's hot and you get Japanese girls as company. It's a paradise. :P

But really, which cities do you think are good places to live (and you haven't lived there)? Sydney and Singapore have long been on my list. People have different opinions and perceptions, though. One friend thought Sydney might be racist and another friend thought Singapore was communist. (Note 1)

I read a news article about a massage therapist talking about her job. I thought hey, my friend J could do that. It's somewhat similar to physiotherapy which he's interested in. And he might get some female clients to request for extra services. :P That's unprofessional but who says he is. :P

Note: Communism might not necessarily be a bad thing. It's an economic ideology. When that friend and I chat. He actually leans towards socialism and I'm towards capitalism. But our actions seem to be the other way around?? But that's another topic.

My Favourite YouTube Videos

I felt it was a negative thing to just leave the previous post about Internet phenomena there without some positive forces to show that the world is still bright. It looked as if I only liked mindless stuff. Actually I've been wanting to write this post for quite some time.

So this time I'm writing about the YouTube videos I have bookmarked. I've already mentioned some of them in previous posts. 反正唱片公司也會出新歌加精選嘛 :P They are good enough to be brought up twice.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)
(Click HD at the bottom right of the video in YouTube to watch the high definition version)
I first saw this from Peter and I loved it. Dancing with people around the world. It's so peaceful and happy. The music fits with the video perfectly. I really like it and I've watched it many times.
Did Matt dance in your city or your hometown? Watch the video to find out.

Related links:

The 2008 video is actually Matt's 3rd video.

The original video posted in 2005

The second video in 2006

Official web site

Wikipedia article about Matt Harding

Sort Of Dunno Nothin' - Peter Denahy
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.

Diet Coke + Mentos

Mentos + diet coke = eruption should be common knowledge by now. You haven't heard of it? Well, watch this video to see how mentos and diet coke can be used to make an interesting display.

Related links:

The official web site has another mentos experiment that relies on chain reaction - The Domino Effect

Ken Lee

Be warned! If you choose to listen to this song, you might have it playing in your head all the time. (at least for a while) :P

She makes this song her own. This song is now called Ken Lee and people sing "Ken lee... tulibu dibu douchoo"

Actually, I haven't written about the two channels that I subscribe to. I'll talk about them next time.

Walk to the beach

I haven't run for a couple of weeks. I guess I'd struggle if I run Round the Bays next week. "No la, maybe next year."

The weather is more unstable than the previous summer months. I went jogging this afternoon as the weather was sunny. Well, I mostly walked because I'd been inactive and got fatter. Nevertheless, I walked to the beach on the east coast and back. Google Map says that round trip is 7.5km. It took about 80 minutes.

It looks to me it's really nice to live near the beaches. It'd be convenient during the summer months. Just walk a few minutes to the beach. So nice. But I don't live that close to the beaches. It takes at least half an hour to reach the beach on foot. I guess it's already really convenient, though, if I drive. But that's still different. Say if I live just 10 minute walk / 5 min run away from the beach, I can just walk there whenever I want, whenever I have a bit of spare time. Someday, someday.

Anyway, I'm just babbling. And I just want to try this quote function:

我家不靠 Bay

Does that look like a quote in magazine? hm, it doesn't look like it with the current style of my blog.

無意義的網路流行

本篇無意義。

Hari 隨興了寫下「大哥是對的！」這個留言，說是看了投名狀之後就有衝動想講這句話。我懂我懂，之前我已經遇過別人隨機說出「大哥是對的」，這好像是看完投名狀之後的症狀。

我沒看過投名狀，但是我自己也會隨興喊出一些無意義的詞，「藍藍路」、「丁丁是個人才」、「殺很大」，還有會隨時唱起 Never Gonna Give You Up。網路上還有其他人也是這樣，這都是一些無意義的網路流行呀。

「藍藍路」

依順序擺三個手勢，一邊說「藍藍路」。源自日本麥當勞的電視廣告。無意義。

簡單的介紹： 四小折's 繪本日誌 - 藍藍路～

「丁丁是個人才」

大致上是諷刺某人跟天線寶寶一樣腦殘。

介紹：重灌狂人 - 名詞解釋：「丁丁是個人才！」

名詞的最初來源：焱的繪圖小站 - 炫耀文!!!PS3入手!!!

「殺很大」

這之前我寫了一篇提過，是一個線上遊戲無意義的電視廣告的台詞。

前天在Peter家，Peter放這個廣告給大家看，現在Andy, Jess 偶而沒事也會講殺很大。

一般朋友連這篇看廣告影片: 重灌狂人 - 殺很大… 看完真的很想扁人！

H... 呃，某友人請連這邊看圖片: osaki's Blog - 殺很大、插很大(+瑤瑤寫真性感精選35P)

最後，這個是我硬塞進這一篇的 (因為塞很大塞不用錢)

"Rickrolling"

情人節的時候我寫了這一篇說我要給大家禮物，自己表演盒中鳥。可是像Hari 就說沒看到我在影片裡呀！因為我放的連結是 Never Gonna Give You Up 這首歌的音樂影片。其實我是要Rickroll 大家呀，我又沒伴又不喜歡這種商人用來賺錢的"節日"，我比較可能去參加去死去死團，沒那麼好心要送禮給大家，只想惡搞一下。

Rickroll 是假裝提供一個很有趣的連結，結果真正放的是 Rick Astley 的 Never Gonna Give You Up 這首歌的 music video. 只是耍人一下，無意義。

例如給 Andy, Peter: 新版 PS3 Lite 搶先看!!

例如給某友人：網路內衣節 - 內衣公主比賽

不過這首歌還滿好聽的啦，所以我也沒事聽一下。也滿 catchy，所以會隨興唱一下。

Rickroll 之後有改編的歐巴馬的 Barack Roll，再來還有歐巴馬踢館版。

Rickrolling 在 Wikipedia 有詳細的解釋

Write More and Read Less

I try to write more and perhaps read less.

I often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information. I read emails, site feeds, plurks (note 1). Some of them then point to blog articles, videos etc. Information overload! Some days I find that I do nothing all day except consuming information.

So I started feeling all this input doesn't do very much. It only has some kind of results if I output something. So I thought I should also produce, not just consume.

Also, It took me a LONG time to write my summer project report. I realized that was something I could improve on. It motivated me to practise writing, especially in English.

I used to be too busy reading and didn't get around to write.
I came across this article, Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction. It suggests writing for a short time consistently, daily. That's what I'm trying.

So you see that I've written more posts recently. Even if a lot of them are worth little, it's a practice for me. Hopefully I sharpen myself. Hopefully this continues. I hope things don't get busy and I stop writing. Fingers crossed.


Related Links:
Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction
中文版 - [productivity] 持續寫作這件事 – keep writing

note 1: I don't check Facebook because that's just too messy. Way too many notifications, invitations, whatever. The broadcasting is annoying. I just don't bother unless somebody can show me a simple way to manage the messages I broadcast and receive. And, Lydia and Alice show no intention of introducing me to their female friends listed in Facebook.

自己嚇自己

原本這一篇應該是恐怖故事，結果嚇到自己，不敢寫了。

今天晚上在做管理電腦教室的工作，結果到九點時所有人都走光了。想說可以提早下班，卻發覺正好趕不上公車，只好再等半個小時。自己就在那想說，這種無人的場景，應該可以編鬼故事吧。想說可以想像一下寫一篇，結果想一想就嚇到自己了。而且又想說，其實寫出來給別人讀，可能不熟悉環境的人可能也不會覺得可怕，所以嚇不到別人，只是自己嚇自己。還好我後來有想了惡搞版 ending ，心情有比較緩和，只是回家路上有任何聲響我還是很警戒。

丟東西，刪檔案

我在台灣住了兩年之後，特別愛整理東西，總覺得把空間清出來很重要。剛回來紐西蘭就收到 Ray 把 Kenny 遺留的衣服交給我，這讓我變得喜歡丟東西。

一開始收到兩大箱 Kenny 的衣服，裡面有很多 Ray 講的"潮牌"的衣服，我自己本身不會花那麼多錢買，我忽然有了兩條我想說這輩子都不會有的 Diesel 牛仔褲，我說 "It's like Christmas." 感受到對一個人沒用的東西，可能對另一個人是禮物。

後來這兩箱衣服我一件件試，我最後把大部分的衣服丟去舊衣回收，我只要覺得不合身或我不太會穿的衣服我就丟了 (有好幾件肩膀好寬的polo衫還有超長的外套)，因為就像我覺得是收到禮物一樣，應該也有別人會覺得這是禮物，與其讓他留在我衣櫃裡沒被利用，不如讓別人好好使用他。

我以前幾乎保存所有的東西，只要任何東西還有價值，我就留著；現在我的想法變成考慮我還會不會用到這東西，不會用到的話對我其實沒價值，也許別人還覺得有價值。以前是想：「這東西還能不能用？能用就留著。」；現在是想：「這東西我還會不會用到？不會的話就丟出去。」現在覺得留著沒用到的東西不但佔空間，更煩人的是下次整理時又要對同樣的東西再考慮一次。

週日在整理舊文件，也翻了一下舊電腦裡的檔案，我以前很用心地把檔案都留下，就算換了新硬碟也會抄過去，反正硬碟越來越大，舊檔案其實佔得很小。好幾年前的檔案都還在，所以工程系四年的檔案都在，挖深一點的話應該也找得到 "raymath"，一個高中時教 Ray 做數學作業開的檔案夾。最早ICQ的訊息記錄我也存了好多年，到後來發覺真的不太會去看我才沒有那麼勤勞保存紀錄和在每次出新版時轉檔。

對，就是「會不會用到？」這個衡量標準。這次整理時我也想著會不會用到？發覺這一大堆舊檔案後來也從來沒使用過。翻了一下，還翻到好幾年前自己在試著整理自己情感時寫下的一些文字，現在已經脫離那種情緒很久了，讀了只覺得有點尷尬，最好沒有人會看到這些。我第一次覺得這些過去是種累贅，忽然有股衝動想把這一大堆數年來的檔案全部刪掉。的確，不用再用到了，刪掉了也不會再喚起回憶，也銷毀了證據。

我並沒有真的立刻刪光，我遲疑了一下，這些檔案大概只對我有價值吧，刪了也不會對誰有好處。雖然現在的心情不想回想起過去，也許哪天卻會想追溯過去某個時間的自己。最後，我決定讓它靜靜存在硬碟上一個角落，我發現我算是救了它們，就想到這一句：多想兩分鐘，你其實可以不必刪檔。

BBQ at Cornwall Park

Hm, so I often write about the events a week later. Starlight Symphony was last Saturday. We went to Cornwall Park to have a BBQ last Sunday.

Again, we were worried about the weather. It was raining around 11am. Luckily, the rain had stopped by the time we met at 12.30. Andy and Alice got most of the food. However, Jesu and Lydia had the foil so we couldn't start until they bring the foil. They were half an hour late. People, you better to be punctual. Your friends might document your lateness in the blogs. :P It's on the record as long as Google lives. :P

Anyway, the food was nice. Most of the meat was marinated meat from the supermarket. It was an easy way and it did ensure that it tasted good. The sweet corns Lydia and Jesu brought were delicious too. I felt the food we had in this BBQ was much better than the BBQs we had in the old days. We had some hard to cook stuffs like chicken wings and drumsticks. Sometimes they weren't marinated well. Most of the time they weren't cooked well because somebody would grab it before it was perfectly cooked.

There was a Korean family waiting for our barbeque grill. Perhaps they thought we were about to finish. But we kept taking out new food from the bags.

Steaks, kumeras, capsicums, sausages, sweetcorns, kebabs. They were all tasty.

After the satisfying BBQ, we listened to the Jazz music performance in the park. Then we played catch (baseball) on a large area of grass. Then we bought a 2-litre pack ice cream and ate it at Peter's place. In retrospect, why did we do that?! ha. That was a lot of ice cream.

Ha. just keeping a record of what we did. 

Thank Alice and Andy for preparing the food. Andy did a lot of the cooking too. Lydia and Jesu's sweetcorns were wonderful too. Peter was all-round utility guy, provided the baseball gear and the common room. He cooked too!

I think I'm supposed to put photos in this kind of articles. I only took a few photos at the beginning of the BBQ, though. Alice probably has better photos in her camera. These are the best I can do. 

Preparation

Start cooking

No photo of yummy cooked food :'(