當你年紀已經比完治大

今天中午吃拉麵時，聽到店家放的歌是那超老超熟悉的東京愛情故事主題曲，這首歌真的從小聽到大呀，聽到現在自己的年紀都比劇中的完治的年紀要大了。

最早看完治和莉香的時候，我是高中生？不，是小學生，當初好像沒看完整也沒看懂。後來不知道是在高中還大學初的時候又看，印象中偽19歲青年Hari當年是真teenager的時候覺得結局很悲，我卻覺得完治承受不了莉香那種逼得很緊讓人窒息的愛法，兩個人還是不要勉強在一起可能對彼此都好。

Anyway, 那時應該是看著完治這樣剛進社會工作前幾年的年輕上班族，努力打拼又有如此的精彩的愛情糾葛，想像將來自己25歲會有怎樣的際遇？會往了什麼目標努力？會遇到怎樣的莉香？

下午跟同學聊天時，揭露了自己的過去，先讀工程系再 computer science 再上班又回來讀書，現在26歲，硬是比他們兩個去年剛念完 Bachelor of Engineering 的大上 4+ 歲。他們都說看起來不像26歲，我開玩笑說 Because I'm Asian. :P 其中一人原本以為我24歲。

之前在公司同事是驚訝我年紀那麼小，通常以為我比實際年齡大幾歲，HR 有一次還特別跟我說原來我年紀這麼小啊，他整理員工資料才發現我是公司第二小的。三年過後，我現在反過來是在用年紀大來嚇人的。(add a mandatory comment here: 唉，歲月不饒人啊！)

寫到這裡懶得寫了，太晚了，要睡覺，而且也沒什麼好說的，只是要 point out, especially to the my fake 19 year-old friend, that we have reached the age we dreamed about (He probably dreamed more than I did :P). Things might not have come true. But hey, we don't live in 12 one-hour episodes.

(標題本來聳動、誇大、又有濫用的流行用語，但是被編輯刪掉了)

機會是給準備好的人，最近有這樣的想法。週一去了學校的 Careers Fair，主要是看看有哪些公司有相關的工作。也提醒我應該更新履歷表，準備申請一些工作。

另外一方面也覺得自己習慣獨來獨往，懶得整理自己，尤其經過去年之後，就覺得很多都不care了，自己高興就好。可是我最近就想啊，嗯，哪天正好遇到了，那時，準備好了沒？而且不知最近怎麼的，轉運了還是怎樣，居然跟女生講話的機會多了起來，這兩天有跟至少五個女生聊天吧，這跟去年比可能成長了十倍吧？我的 department 的人口比例和路上看到的實在差很多。我的 department，尤其是 postgrad 程度，絕大部分是男生，而且幾乎都是在海外出生，所以另外一件在我 department 難做到的事是，跟紐西蘭本地出生的白人講到話。

扯遠了，反正呢，沒看到職缺也最好先把履歷準備好，看到招人的廣告的時候才能快快投過去；那自己是不是在個人的想呈現的部分準備好，遇到了才可立即表達。我實在很工程師，我想到的 analogy 是軟體要包好 stable 的版本，這樣客戶來訂的時候才能隨時可以出貨。另外一個 analogy 是今年聽到幾次的 "elevator pitch"，就是說你有個 research project / business plan etc. ， 當你偶然跟一個重要的相關人物一起搭電梯時，重要人物說: "So, what do you do?" 你只有一趟電梯大概一分鐘的時間可以 sell your ideas，你要如何介紹而讓他能盡量對你的計畫有興趣呢？當然，如果事先沒有準備的話，當場才整理說詞，機會可能就流去了。

By the way, 跳 tone 一下，之前跟我 (hopefully 是開玩笑) 說要我在 lab 上班時碰學生握滑鼠的手的朋友們，two words, "sexual harrassment"！應該沒什麼進展就先被開除了吧！

喔，被刪除的標題是

窮學生宅男大改造

我希望尊重 ND 和仔他們熱衷 ACG 的人，所以不跟著誤用「宅」。那「大改造」呢，也會是誇大，我還是會照樣隨心所欲，只是要有準備好的狀況。(為何我現在想到的怪例子是，不會有捲髮的道具還嵌在頭髮上就出門去？...) 原本想放「大改造」只是希望朋友們能多多給意見. So, now you know. Welcome to comment.

好像這篇有些部分寫得滿抽象? 但是我想應該 *右手握拳敲左胸/肩兩下，再食指指向你* 

Simon & Garfunkel

I've been writing "the making of" Jesu's proposal. It's long a it's taking a long time. In the mean time, I'll just put up another "trivia" article. These things are not really trivial. They are actually well known to certain groups of people. They're just less known to my friends, I guess. For today's topic, I don't know them either.

I first heard of Simon & Garfunkel when communitychannel mentioned it in her video. She's got to the ticket to their concert. Last week, I browsed http://www.aucklandnz.com/ to see the events in Auckland. I saw that they're coming to NZ too, and my dad recognizes the duo. Yesterday, my mum mentioned that her bosses tried to buy tickets to their concert. When I got home today, my mum is playing their concert DVD, which she just bought today. So, somehow, their names have been popping up in the recent weeks.

But I have absolutely no idea who they are. I don't know what they're famous for. According to Wikipedia, they were an American singer-songwriter duo that was famous in the 1960s. They broke up and they reunited for a couple of years in the early 80s. I think my parents might know them from that time. Then they broke up again. It seems like they've broken up several times. Anyway, now they're touring around the world. My mum said that Auckland concert was sold out in less than 20 minutes after they start selling the tickets. So I guess there are still many people who want to see they perform.

The odd thing is, as I listened to a few songs in the concert DVD, I couldn't recognize the songs. If they've been so popular, howcome there aren't many songs that are played on Classic Hits or other radio channels that play old songs? By the way, I don't find their songs interesting...

So, my friends, leave comments if you know what they are famous for, what their most memorable songs are. Also, if you're going to their concert, let me know why.

Bump into engineering classmates. 3 times!

I bumped into my old engineering classmates 3 times yesterday. What a coincidence!

I went to the general & science careers fair in uni. Michael was there too. He recently graduated from his PhD. I bumped into him on the graduation day a couple of weeks ago too.

Then I saw Brian in the shared postgraduate computer workspace in the computer science department. I've seen him a few times there. He came back this semester to study a postgrad paper. It's funny how we end up studying in the same place at the same time after so many years.

After I finished my lab demonstrating job around 10pm, I ran downhill to try to catch a bus that leaves soon. Then somebody else was running too. He called me. I turned my head and saw it was Willy. So I chose to take the same bus as him and transfer at a trasnport centre. Willy is still working on his PhD. Interestingly, it sounded like he had worked on something that was related to what I did in a project when I studied engineering. It brought back the memory. Mostly bad memories. But it's alright now because that's far away. I've matured a bit to realize why things weren't how I imagined it to be, and what we could have done differently. Anyway, PhD really takes a huge amount of work. All the PhD students I've met all feel it's hard to finish at the end. I hope Willy will work through it without much trouble.

搬離無名小站

這一篇只跟有網誌在無名小站的人有關。我只是在轉寄資訊。

無名小站要在2009年5月26日終止一些服務，其中包括網誌備份XML下載這個功能，所以一堆用戶現在在備份放在無名的網誌，準備搬家。擔心以後沒有備份功能，放在無名的文章就只能留在無名搬不走了。

所以你也想趁還能搬家時搬走的話，可以參考這個文章和工具來搬家：

如何從「無名小站」搬家到PIXNET痞客邦 ？ （含搬家公告） by 重灌狂人

我自己沒有無名小站的帳號。多年前想用網路相簿時差點申請了，申請無名到某一步驟要我填身分證號碼，我就不爽，放棄它，後來找了Flickr來用. Good choice! 個人覺得使用介面和板面比無名的相簿整潔多了。也沒有奇怪的廣告圖片夾在前後圖片的 thumbernail 中間或是什麼煩人的位置。

後來聽說無名小站經營的一些 dodgy 事情，更是被我打進我看不順眼、希望它倒的名單上。dodgy 事情像是它最早是偷偷利用交通大學的學術網路，卻拿來營利；轉成商業公司時招募白金會員卻沒依照原本的承諾；速度慢卻只怪Hinet，還叫用戶打電話去中華電信抱怨；無名小站與交大的回饋金的問題；商業化後也有人發現還有偷用交大學術資源 etc.

Anyway, I haven't put my stuff on their services and I won't use it in the future either. I simply watch it losing its dominance over time.

Related Links:

[公告] 無名部分服務退役，終止服務 by 無名小站

如何從「無名小站」搬家到PIXNET痞客邦 ？ （含搬家公告） by 重灌狂人

丁丁大站到底幹了哪些好事? by MMDays

「有名」Q&A by XDite

Happy with your quality of life?

Kiwis happy despite lack of wealth - OECD

The news article says a survey shows New Zealanders are satisfied with their lives even though we have lower income in OECD countries.

It also mentions how we spend our time. We spend the least time watching TV. We spend 2 hours a day to eat and drink. That's the second longest, just behind France. That's great because I eat slowly. I'm in NZ and people spend lots of time eating anyway. :P

Then the newspaper asks the readers for opinions.

"Are you happy with your quality of life?"

Yes. That's what I would say, given it's a yes-no question.

We've got clean water and good sanitation systems. There's still a significant portion of the world population without those basic needs. We should be grateful for what we have. OK. Even if we don't think in such a large scale, just the cities of developed countries, Auckland is still pretty good in my opinion.

Of course, different people with different situations probably feel differently about their quality of life. I'm just fortunate enough to have a life I'm happy with.

I've lived in Taipei and I've lived in Auckland. I think it's no use to dwell on things that you don't have at the place you are at. For example, if I keep complaining that Auckland doesn't have 7-11, 捷運 and 燒仙草, it doesn't help me. It just makes me miserable. So, do what's available here. Walk some tracks. Enjoy the beach. Eat some pies. Perhaps, develop patience while waiting and taking the slow buses. Hey, at least I get to sit in the bus. I almost always stand in the MRT in Taipei.

If you ask me the same question when I was in Taipei, I would answer "yes", too. There are things to enjoy in Taipei. The convenience, the food, the events and performances. For Hari, the girls too, from a distance. :P

So. If you really don't like your city, you should move. Otherwise, just enjoy the city you're in. Appreciate what you've got.

I guess I'll make an exception for people living in 高雄, though. You have the right to be miserable. :P I'm joking. I've never lived there so I don't really know.

川貝枇杷露

最近天氣多變化，一堆人感冒了。我今天晚上工作結束在關lab的時候居然看到有人留下這瓶：

我已經不知道有多少年沒喝這種東西了，連看都很少看到。現在回想，最接近的應該是喝 Vicks 吧，不過那也是很多年前。

By the way, 在台灣比較有名的是另一家川貝枇杷膏，照片裡這個好像是香港的。

Spongebob 撿到死亡筆記本

無意間看到這個影片，我忍不住想記下來，分享一下。

海绵宝宝版死亡笔记

真不知道作者怎麼有這個構想的？完全意想不到，把Spongebob 的畫面套在死亡筆記本的聲音上，而且配合得真好，對嘴很自然，畫面又符合聲音描述的劇情。

不過，可能要知道死亡筆記本和喜歡 Spongebob 的人才會覺得有趣吧？如果你沒聽過，死亡筆記本的故事是說主角夜神月撿到死神的筆記本，把人的名字寫進筆記本就能殺死那個人，他決定要把全天下的壞人殺光，主宰新世界。

南北分割成兩國的島

有一個島上，有兩個族群的人，他們的祖先在歷史上不同的時代來到這個海島。其中一群人想要和祖先來自的國家統一，另一邊反對，結果發生了衝突與政變。最後這個島南北分割，一個族群佔領北邊，一個族群住在南邊，各自宣稱自己成立的國家。

你覺得我講的是一個虛擬的故事？在想像福爾摩沙/台灣這個島上未來的情形？

並不是，我講的是賽普勒斯 Cyprus 這個島的真實情況。這只是我對 Cyprus 粗淺的了解，都是 Wikipedia 看來的。我在讀它的描述的時候的確聯想到台灣的情形。當然，情形一定是不同的，Cyprus 有種族上的差異，希臘和土耳其這兩個「祖國」似乎也一直有干涉島上的事務。只是我開頭講的那些部分會引起聯想。

有興趣可以讀讀有關 Cyprus 的描述，像是 Wikipedia 上的 Cyprus 的條目。