2009/02/15

雜感 -090214

據說今天,也就是台灣的昨天,是西洋情人節。

其實情人節和我是沒有關係的啦。套句小笨的暱稱,真高興全球的情人節都將結束了。希望大家情人節都很快樂。

昨天和實驗室的一位偽中國人––中國血統,但骨子裡完全是美國人––去學校的體育館(我們都叫它RSF)打籃球。體育館簡直就像超大型的健身房一樣(這句話好像是廢話),裡頭有各種球類場地及一堆跑步機健身器材。不過我覺得最特別的是它制度的設計,學生還要另外繳10塊錢申請RSF的會員。之後就可以刷學生證進去隨便用裡頭的各種設施,除了提供場地,各種球具和球都有得借,雖然籃球還不賴,但聽說羽球拍之類的球具就很糟。

不知道是不是因為裡頭有太多種運動器材了,或者是美國人比較不喜歡打籃球,籃球場的人並沒有很多,二個全場而已。或者是因為星期五晚上又適逢情情人節前夕美國人不打球? 總之人很多,亞洲人面孔還占了半數以上(不過Berkeley這裡本來很多亞洲人就是了。

打起來的大同小異。不過一開始搞不太懂他們打全場的規格是怎樣,出界球有時丟進來就開始了,有時又要洗球(他們叫check ball)。打了一場之後比較聽懂他們在叫什麼鬼了,就還蠻有趣的,可惜我本來就不算是很會打,穿的那雙鞋在室內場又頗滑,然後也完全不記得上次打籃球是08還是07年了。總之我打的普普。

打到一半差點因為動作太大二邊的人差一點打起來。不過還好來這裡沒有遇到那種180以上的黑人,所以中間有人插入化解二個人也就算了。

之後有空應該多到RSF運動的,但是一來在它在學校南邊,從那裡走回家要近三十多分鐘,我又還沒有腳踏車,想到就懶啊。

2009/02/09

海角七號 - 舊文(Oct 13. 2008)

這篇文章去年就寫在我ptt2的個版了。但是好像沒貼在這邊。剛一個朋友問才知道。補一下
==

上周五晚上,也就是美西時間的國慶日,十來個台灣同學會的同學,在會長家用實驗室借來的投影機一起看了已經熱了很久的海角七號。雖然底下會有雷,不過我想對大家來說大概也不是雷了。

片子還蠻長的,不過我覺得大家都很融入劇情(至少我是)。看完之後我其實有一絲絲遺憾或者說是無奈。當然看的時候是很開心的,因為整片就像多了愛情的鄉土劇,尤其那個代表會主席,那種講髒話的感覺讓我聯想到我爸,而且導演很巧妙的用了二條線,從一開始

讓我覺得無奈(或遺憾)的,是片中,幾乎沒有那種標準的家庭(這就是我為什麼會轉上一篇畢恆達老師的文章),那種草根人物也都是努力堅強的生活著的那種味道,讓我帶點遺憾。那種味道,讓我想到六呎風雲裡頭的家庭(不過我是連完整的一季都沒看完的),像是從破碎殘敗中走向融合美好的感覺。

像是代表會主席洪國榮,在家門前蹲下來幫阿嘉擦機車試圖化解二人的心結,最後講了一句「我話說到這裡,希望你能體諒」,那段就非常有這樣的味道。還有勞馬被小女孩(大大)親吻額頭之後就爆點的那段也是。

如果有機會會想再看一次,感受那種無奈,和片中的歡愉氣氛。

2009/02/07

The Little Prince - the fox and taming (小王子)

I just saw a post on 老闆娘's blog. It is about The Little Prince, which is really a good novel. Except this part i posted below, i totally can't remember other parts. Anyway, post chapter 21 as below.

最近看到老闆娘的blog,有一篇提到小王子。真的是很棒(雖然以前看過了但除了這篇很多篇都完全沒印象)。貼上來分享(中文在最後)。

From http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/framechapter21.html
(Here is the whole book: http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/ )

* * English version * *

It was then that the fox appeared.

"Good morning," said the fox.

"Good morning," the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.

"I am right here," the voice said, "under the apple tree."


"Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty to look at."

"I am a fox," the fox said.

"Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. "I am so unhappy."

"I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed."

"Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.

But, after some thought, he added:

"What does that mean--'tame'?"

"You do not live here," said the fox. "What is it that you are looking for?"

"I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What does that mean--'tame'?"

"Men," said the fox. "They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?"

"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does that mean--'tame'?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties."

"'To establish ties'?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."

"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower . . . I think that she has tamed me . . ."

"It is possible," said the fox. "On the Earth one sees all sorts of things."

"Oh, but this is not on the Earth!" said the little prince.

The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious.

"On another planet?"

"Yes."

"Are there hunters on that planet?"

"No."

"Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?"

"No."

"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox.

But he came back to his idea.

"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . ."

The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.


"Please--tame me!" he said.

"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."

"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."

"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.

"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."

The next day the little prince came back.

"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you . . . One must observe the proper rites . . ."

"What is a rite?" asked the little prince.

"Those also are actions too often neglected," said the fox. "They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all."


So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--

"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."

"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"Then it has done you no good at all!"

"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added:

"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."


The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.

"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."

And the roses were very much embarassed.

"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.


And he went back to meet the fox.

"Goodbye," he said.

"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."

"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . ."

"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

* *中文對照 * *

就在那個時候出現了一隻狐狸。

「你好!」狐狸說。

「你好!」小王子很有禮貌地回答。他回過頭來,但什麼也沒有看到。

「我在這裡。」那聲音說:「在蘋果樹底下。」

「你是誰啊?」小王子問:「你很好看......」

「我是狐狸。」狐狸說。

「來跟我玩吧!」小王子向他建議道:「我很悲傷。」

狐狸說:「我不能跟你玩,我還沒被馴養。」

「啊,對不起!」小王子說。

但想了一會兒後,他接下去說:

「什麼叫『馴養』?」

狐狸說:「你不是這裡的人。你在找什麼?」

「我在找人。」小王子說:「什麼叫『馴養』?」

狐狸說:「那些人嗎,他們有槍,他們打獵,這很討厭。但他們也養雞,這 是他們唯一的好處。你在找雞嗎?」

小王子說:「不,我在找朋友。什麼叫『馴養』?」

「這是很被遺忘的事。」狐狸說:「馴養就是『建立關係.....』」

「建立關係?」

狐狸說:「不錯。對我來說,你只不過是個小孩,跟其他成千成萬的小孩沒 有分別,我不需要你,你也一樣不需要我。我對於你也只不過是一隻狐狸, 跟成千成萬其他的狐狸一模一樣。但是,假如你馴養我,我們就彼此互相需 要。你對於我將是世界上唯一的,我對於你也將是世界上唯一的......」

「我開始懂了。」小王子說:「有一朵花......我相信她馴養了我......」

狐狸說:「這是可能的。在地球上我們看到各種各樣的東西......」

「哦!她不在地球上。」小王子說。

狐狸顯得異常疑惑,問道:

「在另外一顆星球上面?」

「沒有。」

「再好不過了!」狐狸嘆道。

但是狐狸又回到原來的話題:

「我的生活很單調。我獵取雞,獵人獵取我。所有的雞都是一樣的,所有的人也是一樣。於是我感到有些不耐煩。但是,假如你馴養我,我的生活將如充滿了陽光般。我將認識一種腳步聲,它將與其他所有的腳步聲不同。其他的腳步聲使我更深地躲進洞裡,你的腳步聲像音樂一樣把我從洞裡叫出來。再說,看吧,你看見那邊的麥田嗎?我並不吃麵包,麥子對我一樣也沒有用處。那些麥田並不會使我想起什麼。這倒有點傷心。但是你有金色的頭髮。於是當你馴養了我,這將是很好的一件事!那些金色的黃小麥,將使我想起你。而我將喜歡聽吹過麥田的風聲......」

狐狸不說話了,牠看了小王子很久,說:

「請你馴養我吧!」

「我很願意。」小王子回答說:「但是我的時間不太多,我要找朋友,我有很多的事要認識。」

「一個人只要認識他馴養的東西就好。」狐狸說:「很多人不再有時間去認識東西。他們在商人那裡買現成的東西,但是因為商人並不賣朋友,所以很多人沒有朋友。假如你想得到一位朋友,那麼就馴養我吧!」

「我該怎麼做?」小王子問。

狐狸回答說:「你該很有耐心。你先坐得離我遠一點,像這樣,坐在草地上。我就拿眼角看你,你不要說話。語言是誤會的泉源。但是,每天你可以坐近我一點......」

第二天小王子又來了。

狐狸對他說:「最好請你同一時間來。比方說,假如你下午四點鐘來,從三點鐘開始我覺得幸福。時間愈接近,我愈覺得幸福。四點鐘一到,我早已坐立不安!我將發覺幸福的代價!但是如果你不管什麼時候來,我將不曉得什麼時候做心理準備......我們應該有節日。」

「什麼節日?」小王子問。

狐狸說:「但也是一件被人忘得一乾二淨的事。這就是說有個日子跟其他的日子不同,有個小時跟其他的鐘點不同。比方說,我的獵人們有個節日。每個禮拜四他們和村裡的姑娘們去跳舞。於是禮拜四是個佳節!我可以一直散步道葡萄園去。假如獵人們不管什麼時候都跳舞,所有的日子將是一樣,而我也將沒有假期了。」

就這樣小王子馴養了那隻狐狸。當分離的時刻接近時:

「啊!我想哭。」狐狸說。

「這是你的錯。」小王子說:「我並不希望你難過,是你要我馴養你的。」

「不錯。」狐狸。

「但是你想哭。」小王子說。

「不錯。」狐狸說。

「這樣說來,你一點好處也沒有得到!」

「我得到了。」狐狸說:「因為那些小麥的顏色。」

然後牠加上去說:

「你再去看看那些玫瑰花。你將知道你的玫瑰花是世界上唯一的。你再回來向我道別,我將告訴你一個祕密,作為臨別贈言。」

小王子跑去看些玫瑰花。

他對她們說:「妳們一點也不像我那朵玫瑰花,妳們什麼也不是。沒有人馴養妳們而妳們也沒有馴養過任何人。妳們就像以前我那隻狐狸,當時牠只不過像其他成千成萬的狐狸一樣。但是我們成了朋友,現在牠對於我是世界唯一的了。」

那些玫瑰花很難過。

他又對她們說:「妳們都很美麗,但是妳們都很空虛,沒有人會為妳們死。當然了,我的玫瑰花,一位平常的路人會相信她跟妳們一模一樣。但是她一朵花比妳們全部對我重要。因為我澆的是她;因為把她放在玻璃罩下的是我;因為我給她一個屏風擋風;因為我為了她殺死許多蛹(只剩下兩三隻留作蝴蝶);因為我聽過她抱怨,我聽過她吹牛;甚至於有些時候,我看她默不作聲;因為她是我的玫瑰花。」

於是他又重新回到狐狸那裡。

「再見!」他說。

「再見!」狐狸說:「這就是我的祕密。它很簡單:只有用心靈,一個人才能看得很清楚。真正的東西不是用眼睛可以看得到的。」

「真正的東西不適用眼睛可以看得到的。」

小王子重複的說,以便牢牢記在心裡。

「你為你的玫瑰花所花費的時間使你的玫瑰花變得那麼重要。」

「我為我的玫瑰花所花費的時間...... 」小王子重覆的說, 以便牢牢記在心
裡。

狐狸說:「一般人忘記了這個真理。但是你不應該把它忘掉。你永久對你所馴養的負責,你對你的玫瑰花有責任......」

「我對我的玫瑰花有責任......」小王子重複地說,以便牢牢記在心裡。



雜感 090204

有些時候,事情總是在莫名其妙的地方聯結在一起。

每到一個新的地方,認識新朋友,有時總是會有那麼一、二個人讓我覺得,"啊,他/她給我的感覺有像哪位舊朋友",然後在熟悉的過程(如果有的話),就會想想之前那位朋友會是怎麼反應,"啊,原來他/她也有這樣的個性,難怪我會覺得有像"。有時這樣好像反而會比較了解這二位朋友。

但也有時候,會突然遇到那種,那種在第一眼看到時不知道為什麼但是就是覺得很像以前的某位朋友的。但仔細想,卻找不出任何關聯性,既不是長相、身材這類外觀的特質,行為動作好像也找不出什麼關聯。但是看到那個人就是會不自主的聯想到另一位朋友。很莫名其妙,也很可怕。

前幾天,因實驗室一位同學找而跑去聽本校設計學院(BiD)的二個小時講座。二位主講人中,就有一位給我這樣的感覺。到現在我還是想不透是什麼地方連結在一起了。我現在想到唯一的關係只有…只是女性(這應該不是原因吧 XD)

2009/02/05

Machine shop training 工廠實習


最近我參加了這裡機械工廠的教學課程。


和台大不一樣的地方是,這裡只要上五個小時的課程(包含加工完一個工件)就行了。不太清楚不是台大是怎樣的,但是和我大學時整整二個學期的工廠實習相比,我實在不知道五個小時能幹嘛。

先簡介一下這裡機械工廠的樣子好了。它分成學生用和老師用(Student- and faculty- machine shop)。全都在一樓(其實是地下室,因為機械系大樓在山坡上),是的,簡單說就是密閉空間啦。習慣了台大機械工廠那種高大(但不通風)的鐵皮屋,還不太習慣在地下室玩車床,總覺得好像哪裡不安全。哈。然後空間很小很小,我附的圖片就是啦。裡頭真的是完全塞滿了機台,車、洗、刨、鑽、折,各種都有。完完全全的空間利用。我一直很好奇,這樣鐵屑不是會亂飛又很難清嘛? 不過既然工廠待在這裡這麼久了,相信有它一套方法。

今天上的是車床。九台車床有六台是數位儀表的! 真是太高級了。不過話說回來,他們在介紹的時候,提及那些沒有數位顯示的大概都是爸媽出生的年代製造的,照這樣想的話,台大的那些,歷史應該也非常悠久吧。不過另一項台灣奇蹟是––我看到車床好幾台是台灣製造的! 說真的看到Made in Taiwan那幾個字時,心裡真的非常高興。這才是台灣政府應該彰顯表揚的嘛。

這二次上課,一開始覺得很害怕,怕的不是機台(好歹也常玩),怕的是用到的英文啊,車床就算了,鐵屑要怎麼講? 三爪夾具要怎麼講? 游標卡尺呢? 鑽頭呢? 中心衝呢? 攻牙鑽呢? 啊娘喂~~想到就要命。不過今天很神奇的,聽他講解時那些字很自然的就反應出它的意思了,可能是因為邊解講邊做動作吧(不過當然現在要我再講我還是都不會)。

有點期待下次上課啦。