urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak duncan mak duncan mak 2007-02-09T04:46:42Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:24789 2007-02-09T02:29:33Z 2007-02-09T04:46:42Z <p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2007/02/08/uhm-i-think-you-forgot-the-vodka/">ZHONG GUO REN</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2007/02/08/uhm-i-think-you-forgot-the-vodka/#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p><p>So I&#8217;m back in Hong Kong.</p> <p>I haven&#8217;t been doing much - other than playing Wii tennis, I have mostly been staying at home. Yesterday, I decided to venture out to the bigger world that is Central, Hong Kong.</p> <p>I went to the new shiny mall in town, the IFC (giant penis-shaped building by the waterfront) and strolled around. Everything in that mall seemed über expensive. I didn&#8217;t feel comfortable at all walking into one of the stores wearing my ratty cardigan from American Apparel and a tote bag that says &#8216;ILLEGAL DRUGS&#8217;.</p> <p>To escape it all, I ended up sitting around at a McDonalds.</p> <p>Afterwards, I met up with my mom at <a href="http://www.citysuper.com.hk/">c!ty&#8217;super</a>, the local Whole Foods-like supermarket. While waiting in line, I saw this caucasian woman in her late 20s holding a shopping basket with a box of DeCecco pasta and other groceries on one hand, and a hastily printed copy of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachael_Ray">Rachael Ray&#8217;s</a><em> </em><a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_19792,00.html"><em>You won&#8217;t be Single for Long</em> vodka cream pasta</a> from the Food Network on her other hand.</p> <p>I think I&#8217;m the only one in the checkout line who noticed it. If she were in the US, I think she probably wouldn&#8217;t dare to put her new recipe in such proud display.</p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:24106 2006-07-17T22:00:09Z 2006-07-17T22:00:09Z <p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2006/07/17/uniqlo-typography/">ZHONG GUO REN</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2006/07/17/uniqlo-typography/#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p><p></p> <div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanmak/192078423/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/64/192078423_7e0b853f95.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a> <br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanmak/192078423/">UNIQLO typography</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/duncanmak/">Duncan Mak</a>.</span> </div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> From PEN magazine. </p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:23879 2006-07-09T06:42:22Z 2006-07-09T16:03:45Z <p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2006/07/08/two-three/">ZHONG GUO REN</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2006/07/08/two-three/#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p><p></p> <div class="flickr-frame"><a title="photo sharing" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanmak/185280353/"><img class="flickr-photo" src="http://static.flickr.com/70/185280353_d2d3728a72.jpg" /></a></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment">I turned 23 years old today. More <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/duncanmak/sets/72157594192458098/">photos on Flickr</a>.</p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:23637 2006-06-30T19:59:56Z 2006-06-30T20:08:15Z <p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2006/06/30/new-books-from-amazon/">ZHONG GUO REN</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2006/06/30/new-books-from-amazon/#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p><p></p> <div class="flickr-frame"><a title="photo sharing" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanmak/178563372/"><img class="flickr-photo" src="http://static.flickr.com/63/178563372_e2fea5c9cf.jpg" /></a> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanmak/178563372/"></span></div> <div class="flickr-frame"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanmak/178563372/">New books from Amazon</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/duncanmak/">Duncan Mak</a>.</div> <div class="flickr-frame"><span class="flickr-caption"> <p class="flickr-yourcomment">Beautiful Evidence, by Edward Tufte.</p> <p class="flickr-yourcomment">The Early History of Printing, by George Parker Winship.</p> </span></div></a> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:23428 2006-06-27T13:49:46Z 2006-06-27T13:53:33Z <p style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;"><b>Originally published at <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2006/06/27/translation/">ZHONG GUO REN</a>. Please leave any <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2006/06/27/translation/#comments">comments</a> there.</b></p><p>自幾個月前，開始讀了舒國治的兩本書以後，一直都有把其中一些作品翻為英文的念頭，但遲遲都沒有實現。</p> <p>今天開始，希望能每天寫一點點，看看能撐多久。</p> <p>I started reading two of Shu Guozhi&#8217;s travelogues and essays a few months ago, and had the thought of translating some of his essays into English, as an exercise for myself. Now that summer is upon us, I guess it&#8217;s time for me try this out.</p> <p>I&#8217;m starting with the first essay in his collection <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/an-ideal-afternoon/">An Ideal Afternoon</a>.</p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:18468 2005-12-18T17:29:37Z 2005-12-18T17:30:18Z Today, I'll be meeting my friend Viet Ha from Northeastern at 2. He is Vietnamese but studied for a year in Japan before attending Tokyo University as a undergrad in Computer Science. He then came to Northeastern for the Phd program, and we met as tutors for an Introduction to Computer Science class. He has since finished his required coursework for his program and found a job in Japan, and that's the reason why he's here now. I think he's still active in the Phd program, and will return to Boston once he's ready to defend his thesis. <br /> <br />After that, I'll be meeting <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/reihime/">Reihime </a>and <a href="http://no-sword.jp/blog/">Matt </a>in Shibuya this afternoon. It should be activity-filled day.<br /><p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/12/18/tokyo-day-2-morning/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:18202 2005-12-18T16:43:18Z 2005-12-18T17:33:30Z I got out of the airport at 5 and called Mrs. Nitta immediately from a phone box. I took the Keisei line to Nippori and then Yamanote to Shinjuku. It was an uneventful ride and around 7 I finally got to the hotel. I met with Atsushi briefly and he left me with his spare cell phone. After a quick change of clothes (nothing much, really, as I didn't have my bags at the time), I called Nitta again and followed her instructions to take the Chuo line to Ochanomizu. We then went to a yakitori place by the YWCA in Ochanomizu. <br /> <br />There were many people, up to 20 or so, at the gathering. They were all there to celebrate Nitta's retirement (that's as much as I understood). All of them were once collegues or students of Mrs. Nitta and they exchanged Christmas gifts at the party, etc etc. <br /> <br />Afterwards, we walked to the station and some of them had to leave. The rest of us, including Mrs. Nitta, went to a coffee shop and talked for a bit. I think one of the women works as a social worker at a Children's Home, while another teaches as some private school. There were 6 of us in total. I brought my camera along and took photos. <br /> <br />We finished at around 10:30. One of the women was going to Takadanobaba, so the two of us took the Chuo line together to Shinjuku.<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/12/17/tokyo-day-1-part-2/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:18089 2005-12-18T16:35:42Z 2005-12-18T16:35:43Z I'm in Tokyo now, I got the hotel safely and had dinner with Mrs. Nitta and her friends. I took photos as well.<br /> <br />I've been lucky ever since this morning -- I got really good seats on the plane and it wasn't too crowded. However, my luck ended when I got to Narita. <br /> <br />My luggage didn't come with me to Tokyo on the same flight.<br /> <br />I had 2 bags, a stroller and a backpack. The stroller (with all my clothes) came on the next flight, so United sent it out here to the hotel at 10, and it's already in my room. The other bag, the backpack, will hopefully come tomorrow night. <p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/?p=86">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:17300 2005-12-11T14:40:14Z 2005-12-12T04:36:47Z 下星期我要回到香港去了。這幾個月過得很快，好像什麼都沒發生過似的。<br /><br />在回港前的那個周末，我會在東京。在那四天裏，我住在新宿的Sunlite Hotel. 新宿３丁目。<br /><br />昨天晚上和日本朋友去吃飯。她問我，在東京打算做什麼？我並沒有好好地回答。看看朋友，逛逛街，到書店找村上春樹的新書以外，其實也沒有特別想做的事。<br /><br />嗯，我想吃真的天婦羅，也想到[拉麵二郎](<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1604880">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1604880</a> "Ramen Jiro")試一試。<br /><br />為了這一次的旅行，我突然很想買個[新的相機](<a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz5">http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz5</a> "Lumix FZ5")。舊的那個還是放在抽屜裡，也都舖滿塵了。新的在電腦螢幕上看起來閃閃發亮。雖然價錢並不貴，但總覺得有點浪費。其實，重要的是要培養把相機常常戴着的習慣：相機不用的話，新的舊的,下場都一樣。旅行時，戴着相機到處拍照當然不難，但是回到平日的生活，就往往會忘記。<br /><br />看見街上的日本觀光客，每一個好像都拿着[Head Porter](<a href="http://www.headporter.org/)的[包包](http://superfuture.com/city/reviews/review.cfm?ID=583)。看着看着，自己也好像變得想要擁有一個。我和日本朋友抱怨說，為什麼賣得那麼貴呢？">http://www.headporter.org/)的[包包](http://superfuture.com/city/reviews/review.cfm?ID=583)。看着看着，自己也好像變得想要擁有一個。我和日本朋友抱怨說，為什麼賣得那麼貴呢？</a> 「才不貴呢，我的已用了七年，樣子到現在還沒變，是個非常耐用的包包。」為了七年不變，十年不變的一個包，花一萬円究竟值得嗎？<br /><br />有時候講日本話，說對了說錯了，自己也不知道。但求聽的人聽懂了就算了。這樣下去雖然很難有進步，但是要別人把我說錯的每一句都改好也太過分了。雖然有人稱讚過我的日文發音，但是有時候我也能聽得出自己的話戴着不純的腔調。這一次到東京去，也可以算是個考驗。<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/12/11/shinjuku-3-chome/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:16364 2005-12-02T11:02:48Z 2005-12-02T11:05:51Z I was uploading something just now, and things were really slow, then I had this idea. I figured I'll write it down here.<br /><br />The inspiration was this: I tried to use nautilus to drag-n-drop my files to an remote mount that uses the SSH gnome-vfs back-end. It didn't work because it was too slow, so I went back to the command line. That got me thinking: in a remote Smalltalk system, the only way to talk to the image is via some sort of VNC connection. That's really cool, but I bet it'll be really unbearable on a slow connection.<br /><br />Here comes the brilliant idea: why not implement a VFS backend for a Squeak image? That way, on a remote machine, you can use something less bandwidth-hungry to do your editing.<br /><br />I envision something like this:<br /><br /><pre>$ mount -t squeakfs Squeak.image /mnt/image $ ls /mnt/image/MyClass myMethod1: myMethod2:with: ...</pre><br /><br />I mean, this could be useful even in a non-remote situation.<br /><br />Am I on crack?<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/12/02/vfs-for-squeak-image/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:15892 2005-11-28T08:43:38Z 2005-11-28T09:10:04Z わたしも元気です！ - これは名句だな〜<br /><br />昔、岩井俊二の映画を観たと彼の作品を全部観たくなったから、DVD box setをeBayで買っちゃった。けど、少し観たと、すぐに置き忘れた。<br /><br />最近、香港のラヂオをネットで聞き始めたで、岩井のLove Letterは香港に再公演していること聞いた。 休日だから、数日前あのDVDを本棚から出して、夜に家で観ました。<br /><br />岩井監督の作品はずっと気に入ったけど、今までLove Letterを観たことがない。でも他の作品は、例えば、<a href="http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/2001/dy002720.htm">リリィ・シュシュのすべて</a>と<a href="http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/2004/eb000790.htm">花とアリス</a>も観たことがあります。<br /><br />ラヂオのDJの話は通りです：雪原で、中山美穂は「お元気ですか？」と呼ぶシーンを観ている時、本当に泣きたくなっちゃった。とても感動。<br /><br />中山美穂は僕のタイプじゃないけど、豊川悦司の関西弁は面白い。その調子は気に入らないけど、聞いたら少しそのように喋れたい気があった。<br /><br />お元気ですか？<br /><br />追加：このサイトを見付かった、<a href="http://ranadasgupta.com/">Rana Dasgupta</a>、<a href="http://ranadasgupta.com/notes.asp">彼の本</a>は面白そう、読みたい。<br /><p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/11/28/genki/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:15743 2005-10-14T06:16:29Z 2005-10-14T06:58:38Z So, I was home tonight and I got my little script working in Squeak this evening.<br /><br />Two things: <ol><br /> <li>I didn't need to do authentication. I misread the API docs. Also, an MD5 class is available in the Cryptography package</li><br /> <li><a href="http://www.markbaker.ca/2002/09/Blog/2005/10/13#deliciousdistobj.ZHONG_GUO_REN__...ither">Mark Baker is right</a>, the Flickr API could be improved. In particular, it would be a lot simpler if <tt>flickr.photoset.getPhotos</tt> returns the URLs to the photos, instead of a PhotoID.</li></ol><br /><br />The reason why an intermediate PhotoID step is required is because each photo can be in many different sizes. So a subsequent call to <tt>flickr.photo.getSizes</tt> is needed to get the URLs. I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to add an optional argument to <tt>photoset.getPhotos</tt> to specify the desired photo size. That way, I only need to do 1 call instead of n + 1 calls, which takes quite a long time to run.<br /><br />One thing that is really nice when working with Squeak is the automatic object persistence. As I was running my script, my home network had a hiccup and somehow the script stopped. Instead of restarting the download scratch, I was able to inspect the state of the download and add a new method to resume it.<br /><br />The code is pretty crufty right now, but I might spend a little time to clean it up. Ideally, I'll be aiming for an API like this:<br /><blockquote><tt><b>FlickrClient</b> new <br /><br /> &nbsp; downloadSet: <em>setID</em><br /><br /> &nbsp; key: <em>apiKey</em><br /><br /> &nbsp; to: <em>directoryName</em>.</tt></blockquote><p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/10/14/mission-accomplished/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:15375 2005-10-13T08:48:20Z 2005-10-13T11:24:15Z This afternoon, I was browsing through some photosets on <a href="http://www.flickr.com">Flickr</a>, but the photos weren't loading quickly. I thought to myself, <i>why don't I download them now and go through them later?</i>, but I couldn't find a link to download a photoset.<br /><br />I remembered that Flickr has an <a href="http://www.flickr.com/services/api">API</a>, so I can write something myself to do it. It shouldn't take long, maybe an hour, max. From their services page, I saw Ruby implementations. Even better, I thought, I'll use that.<br /><br />I started with <a href="http://redgreenblu.com/flickr/">flickr.rb</a>, but immediately I hit my first setback.<br /><br />It offered me a <b>gems</b> file. Flipping through my <a href="http://www.whytheluckystiff.net/ruby/pickaxe">Pickaxe book</a>, I see that <a href="http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?RubyGems">RubyGems</a> is the preferred way for installing Ruby modules. Sounds good, but Ubuntu doesn't come with RubyGems, probably because it "clashes" with apt. After 10 minutes of looking around, I gave up on using Gems and downloaded the source directly. <br /><br />I went back to my book to make sure I was including the library correctly and hit another setback. Flickr.rb requires <a href="http://www.maik-schmidt.de/pf/xml-simple.html">xmlsimple</a>, something akin to Perl's XML::Simple module. I searched Ubuntu's repos, but they don't have it. I downloaded the tarball, built and installed it. That took another 10 minutes.<br /><br />Let's start cooking. But before that, I needed to get an API key to use the service. Ten minutes later, I got the magic key.<br /><br />I got back into emacs and started reading the included samples. It looks pretty easy. I wrote something simple to test it:<br /><br /><blockquote><code>f = Flickr.new<br />user = f.users('some user')<br />user.photos.each do |photo| <br /> puts photo.url<br />end</code></blockquote><br /><br />It was slow and the URL is wrong, but I got something back. I wrote more code for going filtering through the photos from a user's photoset. I ran it again, but I got nothing. I added some more lines for debugging and saw that it wasn't returning any of the photos at all. In fact, the binding to <tt>flickr.photosets.getPhotos</tt> is actually marked as incomplete. Sigh. I tried to see if I can implement it myself. I tried to switch to the other Ruby implementation but the docs are even thinner. I took a brief look at the Python ones and they didn't seem so hot either.<br /><br />However, the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/services/api/explore/?method=flickr.photosets.getPhotos">API Explorer</a> did work and the URL requests really are quite simple. So I decided to write my own implementation in <a href="http://www.squeak.org">Squeak</a>, because I know Smalltalk better than I do Python or Ruby. I defined a class and started writing methods. I noticed I need to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/services/api/misc.userauth.html">authenticate</a> before I can make any calls. I followed the instructions and began to write a method to handle it.<br /><br />Except I couldn't find a method for doing MD5 sums. I asked on the IRC channel, they (basically) told me to file a bug.<br /><br />By now, I was pretty pissed off. What was supposed to take 30 mins ended up taking an afternoon, and I still didn't have anything usable. I really didn't care much about the photos at this point.<br /><br />Lately, I have been going back to the SOAP and WS-* specs and re-reading them. The last time I read WS-Addressing was before it got accepted into the W3c. Of course, SOAP is complicated and the discussions on EndpointReferences vs. URIs go on endlessly, but I just can't help but think that grabbing a WSDL of a service and pumping it through ASP.NET Web Services (or better yet, Indigo) is easier than what I had (not) achieved this afternoon in trying to use the Flickr API.<br /><br />Someone told me there's a Flickr.NET. I'll try it when I feel less pissed off about this whole thing. Heck, it might even work.<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/10/13/rest-is-not-so-easy-either/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:15220 2005-10-07T18:42:43Z 2005-10-13T11:52:07Z 今天早上，意外地收到了<a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/07/06/lost-language-instinct/#comment-782">一封不是junkmail的留言</a>。一位叫Jessamine的讀者（讀者？）留言問我，在上一篇的中文記事裏所提到的「瓊瑤式的口吻」，究竟是什麼意思。<br /><br />仔细地解釋這個想法並不容易，因為那只是一個個人的感覺。和香港人相比，我一直覺得台灣人是文皺皺的。幾年前到台北旅行時，有好幾次看到了一些夷非所思的中國字，也聽到了一些從未聽過的四字成語。台灣人的用詞一般都很文雅，在日常生活裡，四字成語也用得多。當然，台灣社會裏也有着各種不同的口吻：本省人跟外省人之間有分別，南部人和北部人有分別，會講台語的和不會講的也當然有分別。<br /><br />大陸的文字寫得短，感覺上很簡樸；香港的文字卻是最實在的，文意直接了當而對我來說也是最親切的；而台灣的文字就很長，但它確實是華麗的。<br /><br />撇開滿口閩南腔的「台灣國語」不說,台北人的中文水平應該不錯。上一年的冬天在香港，因為王家衛將要把它拍成電影，有一個晚上我讀了王文華的「蛋白質的女孩」。這種數小時內可以看完的流行愛情小說沒什麼了不起，但總比香港叫深雪之類的作家寫得好。擁有24小時營業的誠品書店，台北人的文學水平比香港人的高。<br /><br />最近有空，從網上下載台灣的「康熙來了」節目，從此對台灣的文化有了進一步的了解。在台灣，作家們紛紛都跑去當電視主持人。王文華也配上了當紅的綜藝一姐陶晶瑩在主持節目，但我不覺得他們有什麼看頭。反而，同樣是作家出身的「康熙來了」主持人蔡康永就有趣的多了。我找到了他<a href="http://140.115.95.60/%7Efuture/speaker01.htm">在台灣中央大學的一篇演講</a>的錄音，挺有意思。<br /><br />王文華最近放假，從他訪問蔡康永的節目裡，我隱約明白他離開的心情。他自己也說，幾年來，一直在吃老本，<a href="http://www.readingtimes.com.tw/authors/tomwang/works/my_hic_jacet.htm">還是靠「蛋白質」來找妹妹</a>，受夠了。<br /><br />台灣媒體沉迷着王文華的性向。嘉賓上他的節目，那也變了一個必問的問題。我對他的性向不感興趣，但他的文筆總給我有一種膩膩的味道。他隨後的其他作品，有一些我也讀了。和「蛋白質」一樣，初讀時還是有一點新鮮，但很快就變得有點做作了。王文華的文筆和瓊瑤的當然不一樣，但那種粘粘的筆風卻是同出一撇的。<br /><br />那種粘粘膩膩的感覺，就是我所說的<strong>瓊瑤式的口吻</strong>。<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/10/07/taiwanese-writing/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:14932 2005-10-07T15:53:51Z 2005-10-07T20:19:26Z 昨日の夜7時、<a href="http://web.mit.edu/humanistic/www/writersseries/harukimurakami.shtml">村上春樹さんの講演</a>を聞きに行った。３０分前に着いたんだけど、満員だから、講演室に入れなかった。そうして、「講演の後で春樹と絶対会える！」の信念を持っていて、扉の外に座って待っていた。僕だけではなく、<a href="http://www.marcoscarvalho.com/">Marcos</a>と呼ぶブラジル人グラフィックデザイナー、名古屋出身のErikoとTomoko、中国系アメリカ人Lorraineさんと、5人一緒に待っていた。<br /><br />待ちながら、もともと中国語の訳本で読んだ村上の散文集「辺境、近境」を、日本語の原語版をErikoさんから借りて、少し読んでいた。覚えていたように「讃岐のディープなうどん紀行」の部分は最高。機会があれば、「中村うどん」に食べに行きたい。<br /><br />ErikoとTomokoは、村上さんのこと、ずっと「ハルキ」と呼びました。その呼び方はなれなれし過ぎるかな？僕はそう思った。ちょっとショッキング。<br /><br />結局、2時間弱待っていたんだけど、会えなかった。せっかく日本版の「海辺のカフカ」を持ってきたんだけど、サインも無かった。MITの主入り口でご本人に会ったかもしれないけど、確認できなかったから、挨拶しなかった、残念。<br /><br />最近、おふくろはこのブログを読むことを発見した。だから、中国語で書かずに日本語もっと書くかもしれない ;-)<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/10/07/not-meeting-haruki/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:14844 2005-07-07T01:56:44Z 2005-07-07T02:26:52Z 上星期開始，我每天都到MIT上語言學的課。最近都是上有關中文漢語的課，所以中文也比平日說得的多。<br /><br />在班上中國人很多。國內來的，台灣來的，香港來的都有。可能是最近在美國接觸到的都是國內的學生的緣故，跟國內的同學談得最舒服流暢。和從台灣來的人說話，雖然會有一定的親切感，但是同時，台灣人那種如瓊謠小說中的角色一般的口吻，卻會令我很不自然。<br /><br />最令我不可相信的，是香港來的人說我的廣東話講得像在外國長大的孩子一樣，說話時有口音。有好幾次，雖然只是正常地在說話，他們都以為我為了要講廣東話，講得非常辛苦。<br /><br />這不好受。<br /><br />在語言上變了無家可歸的這個發現，也有影響到我今天上課。在課上，我對自己的語言直覺和判斷力都變得沒有信心，沒把握。句子是對是錯也不敢說出來了，全都分不清了。<br /><br />希望明天會好一點。<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/07/06/lost-language-instinct/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:14570 2005-07-05T16:53:57Z 2005-10-07T18:51:08Z 昨日，アメリカの独立の日なんです。夜の時，<a href="http://web.mit.edu/lsa2005">言語学の友だち</a>と 一緒にCharles Riverの川岸から毎年一回の花火を見ました。<br /><br />家に帰ったら，もう11時半です。新しい月9ドラマをダウンロードすること終わったばっかりので，あれも見ました。<br /><br /><strong>スローダンス</strong>は，先年オレンジデースの妻夫木聡といつでも可愛いの広末涼子と共演する月9ドラマです。<br /><br />見ている時，ひとつ発見しました。妻夫木役の男の大学恩師の名前は「増田慈五郎」。僕一番大好きな番組サクサクに出演する人形の名前は「増田ジゴロウ」。これは偶然わけないんでしょう？<br /><br />起きたら，atsushiからのAIM message:<br /><br /><blockquote><br />(07:40:52) 榎本温: heh<br /><br />(07:40:53) 榎本温: <a href="http://luckypines.blogspot.com/2005/07/blog-post_112048157866126972.html">http://luckypines.blogspot.com/2005/07/blog-post_112048157866126972.html</a><br /></blockquote><br /><br />Fumiaki Yoshimatsuさんも同じ事を考えたそうです。<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/07/05/zigoro-and-slow-dance/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:14092 2005-07-05T06:34:36Z 2005-07-05T06:55:52Z This <a href="http://www.datingdiversions.com">Dating Profile</a> thing seems to be pretty popular lately, here are my results:<br /><br /><table width="400" cellspacing="10"><tr valign="top"><td><b>Your dating personality profile:</b><br /><br /><b>Liberal</b> - Politics matters to you, and you aren't afraid to share your left-leaning views. You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate.<br /><b>Sensual</b> - You are not particularly shy when it comes to your sexuality. You know what you like and do not feel inhibited.<br /><b>Romantic</b> - You know exactly how to melt your date's heart. Romance comes naturally to you and is an important component of any relationship you have.</td><td><b>Your date match profile:</b><br /><br /><b>Practical</b> - You are drawn to people who are sensible and smart. Flashy, materialistic people turn you off. You appreciate the simpler side of living.<br /><b>Intellectual</b> - You seek out intelligence. Idle chit-chat is not what you are after. You prefer your date who can stimulate your mind.<br /><b>Romantic</b> - You need someone with a traditional understanding of romance. A true romantic is a must-have in any potential date.</td></tr><tr><td><div style="color: black; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; width: 220px; padding: 5px;"><b><u>Your Top Ten Traits</u></b><br /><br /><b>1. Liberal</b><br /><b>2. Sensual</b><br /><b>3. Romantic</b><br />4. Big-Hearted<br />5. Adventurous<br />6. Wealthy/Ambitious<br />7. Intellectual<br />8. Outgoing<br />9. Practical<br />10. Traditional<br /></div></td><td width="300"><div style="color: black; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; width: 220px; padding: 5px;"><b><u>Your Top Ten Match Traits</u></b><br /><br /><b>1. Practical</b><br /><b>2. Intellectual</b><br /><b>3. Romantic</b><br />4. Sensual<br />5. Adventurous<br />6. Outgoing<br />7. Conservative<br />8. Traditional<br />9. Athletic<br />10. Big-Hearted<br /></div></td></tr></table><br />Take the Online <a href="http://www.datingdiversions.com/">Dating Profile</a> Quiz at <a href="http://www.datingdiversions.com/">Dating Diversions</a><p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/07/05/70/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:13857 2005-06-04T22:41:44Z 2005-06-04T22:44:31Z 最近都不想一個獨自在家。有空的時候，想打電話找人出來陪我，但是往往都約不到人。<br /><br />電影中的角色是不會約不到人的。<br /><br />在中學和高中的那幾年，我常常獨個兒的出去，覺得這樣很逍遊自在。年紀大了，反而想找個伴兒（這樣說，有點兒土，像個老頭兒）。<br /><br />找人的時候，常常碰上了最壞的時間。接電話的人都回答說，不行啊，剛剛要出門了。下一次吧！<br /><br />希望這不是個有禮貌的拒絕，而是真正的搭不上時間。不然的話，這就是說沒有人要跟我出去了。<br /><br />這樣的想法會令人很失落的。是能殺死人的。我不能這樣想。要生存下去，必竟要樂觀。<br /><br />前一陣子，在網上看到了一篇文章，說要是在一個像波士頓的城市裏，還是單身一個的話，這個人可能有點問題。在這個多元的社會裏，從千千萬萬的人群中，也找不到伴侶，這個人一定有些令人抗拒的地方。<br /><br />想起這個，我有點怕。朋友安慰我說，也不一定啊，在這樣的城市裏，大家都這麼忙，找人也不容易。她介紹我用網上的交友服務。她現在的男友也是這樣找回來的，兩個人很甜蜜似的。<br /><br />就算很想找人陪我，也有不甘心去打電話的時候。要是找人的理由不是想去見他，只是想找一個人，任何人，來陪我，用這種心情來找人，我覺得有點自私。<br /><br />重看了泰國的<strong>Last Life in the Universe</strong>, 日文名字是<strong>地球で最後のふたり</strong>，翻成為中文是<strong>地球的最後兩個人</strong>。比起賣得很好的Lost in Translation, 我覺的這部電影好得多了。Lost in Translation 總給我一點種族歧視的感覺。<br /><br />我期待着夏天的亞洲影片，比起今年美國的暑假檔期的戲，看起來有趣多了。<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/06/04/home-alone/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:13793 2005-05-21T22:05:53Z 2005-10-07T18:51:06Z 前幾天，<a href="http://d.hatena.ne.jp/atsushieno/">東京的同事</a>叫我去讀一下叫<a href="http://d.hatena.ne.jp/TRiCKFiSH/">TRICK FISH blog</a>的網站裏的文章，最先讀完的是<a href="http://d.hatena.ne.jp/TRiCKFiSH/20050302/p1">「私」と「僕」と「俺」、そして「ボク女」</a>。要是直譯為中文，是<strong>「我」和「我」和「我」，還有「我女」</strong>，毫無意思。<br /><br />跟中文不一樣，日文有很多不同的第一身代名詞，而在每一個選擇裏都暗示着微妙的區別。男人通用的有三個：<ul><br /><li><strong>私</strong>：工作時或有禮貌時用的敬語</li><br /><li><strong>僕</strong>：工作時或私時用的敬語</li><br /><li><strong>俺</strong>：私人，或罵人的時候用</li></ul><br /><br />這篇文章也就是討論着這個話題。文章的重點在第一身代名詞在女性上的新用：最近，女孩子用上了傳統上男性用的代名詞「僕」、這些女孩被統稱為「ボク女」（僕女）。<br /><br />筆者說，特地用這個代名詞的女孩子不是沒有動機的。有女權分子用「要男女平等，就得共用一樣的代名詞」來解釋這個現象，但這只是個很弱的答案，因為共用的代名詞以經存在，那就是「私」。因此一個更合理的說法一定要考慮各種不同社會元素。<br /><br />筆者提起了許多引起這社會現象的原因，包括時下的少女漫畫，現代女性的自我形象及其他男女之間的性別政治等等。雖然這種字面上的語言現象並沒可能在華語社會裏出現，但是裏內的各種問題是實在的，在華人社會裏又會引起怎樣的現象呢？<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/05/21/boku-onna/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:13487 2005-05-21T20:14:47Z 2005-05-21T20:52:33Z 最近，從網上下載了一些香港的流行音樂。一向不多聽中文歌的我，突然地對這個感起了興趣。<br /><br />一直都很喜歡黃偉文寫的歌詞。小時候在香港的時候，晚上常聽他深夜的電台節目。特別覺得他對社會的觀察很敏銳，說的話好玩，也有意思。<br /><br />最近聽的是薛凱琪最新大碟，最喜歡的是黃偉文寫的這幾句：<a href="http://lyric.boxup.com/big5/music/lyric/2005/4/5573/88983.htm"><blockquote>寒流來何以你先擁抱他，<br />回頭時才替我遮擋雪花，<br />是從甜蜜裡 ，分我甜蜜嗎？</blockquote></a><br /><br />不知是不是字韻的原故，但覺得寫得特別好。<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/05/21/lyrics/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:13149 2005-05-14T12:55:35Z 2005-05-21T20:24:30Z 睡不着、跟在東京的<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/reihime/">玲姬</a>用MSN聊天，在她吃晚餐前短談日本大學生的「転向」。前幾天，從<a href="http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/000529.html">neomarxisme</a>學會了這個日本字，意思是長大後「變乖」投入社會工作。玲姬說，大部分人也都會乖乖地穿上西裝上班去。西裝外衣已買了，真的找到工作的話，身在東京的她無奈地說，不願意的也可能會被逼轉向。<br /><br />再讀<a href="http://littleoslo.com/cnt/home/index.htm">小奥私陸</a>的文章，找到很多令我回想的字句。他說<a href="http://littleoslo.com/cnt/words/words01.htm">喜歡比較不同地方麥當勞的價錢</a>，我有同感。記得12歲的時候和家人去歐洲旅行，在Geneva，酒店旁吃下一個港幣20元的漢堡。到一個新的地方，第一想知道的是一罐可樂的價錢，因那是感受新的對換率最好的方法。<br /><br />終於累了，希望這次能熟睡。<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/05/14/more-scribbles/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:12836 2005-05-14T09:45:11Z 2005-06-04T22:44:45Z 晚上跟Miguel和其他人到Legal Seafoods吃飯，因為住在德洲的Paco因公幹來了波士頓看我們。自從上一年，我已没見過他，所以决定今晚一定要見面。他那當軍的兒子在兩個月前於伊拉克殉職，那發生以後，我一直都有點担心他。不過今晚看過他後，看來他已經没事了。對於過世了的兒子，他今晚並沒說很多。<br /><br />吃晚餐時，Miguel，Paco和其他人都在講西班牙文。我雖然聽得懂一大半，但此终難於起齒。話說不出來，只好獨個兒坐着，细心聽別人的話。坐旁邊的Ben更慘，一句都聽不懂，也好好地坐着聽。我聽得懂的時候，感覺就像中了獎的一樣。<br /><br />自小已對語言感興趣。長大了，發現可能是起發於小時候到國際學校裏讀書時，對是混血兒的同學特别感興趣的缘故，所以特別愛上了學語言。因為那就是我唯一能變得像那些來自異地的同學的辦法吧。<br /><br />到了現在，我以學會了5個國家的語言。在美國，一般人都會以為我是本地人了吧。講中文的時候，無論是普通話或廣東話甚至於閩南話，也當然很輕鬆。說法文，雖不能像本地人的一樣，但應該能流暢地談話吧。日文雖然還是新學，但算得是開始能談得上了。<br /><br />但是，究竟有用嗎？我真的能用這個能力而變得更國際化嗎？住了在外國多年的我，是否已變成了一個兩頭不到岸，無處能成家的人呢？<br /><br />西班牙文我也學過了一點，懂了法文後學西班牙文並不困難。但是今晚他們說的是關於拉丁美洲的音樂的話。他們談拉丁美洲的人和事，我就算是把字都聽懂了，意思還是不明白。<br /><br />回家後，我去了下載現在<a href="http://www.harbourcity.com.hk/mitc/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=79&amp;Itemid=136">香港</a>的<a href="http://www.kikoshop.idv.tw/CG/410/1.HTM">流行曲</a>。<br /><br />今天晚上在家裏找到了一個家在挪威的香港人的blog。慢慢地看他的照片，從<a href="http://littleoslo.com/feature/05/page16.html">香港的小吃</a>到<a href="http://littleoslo.com/feature/05/page35.html">台北的夜市</a>，一邊看，一邊懷念着老地方和熟識的味道。<br /><br />來了美國這麼多年了，自己的生活反而覺得有點平凡，悶。認識的店子來來去去的只有幾家，比起那些照片裏的故事，没趣多了。何况，我對香港的事也再知不多了。<br /><br />還有一年我就快畢業了，因為這兒已有工作，還會多留幾年吧。到了那時候，25歲的我，要回香港嗎？還是到别的地方去呢？那時我還可以能為一個有品味的國際嘻皮士嗎？<br /><br />成為一個有品味的國際嘻皮士，那就是我目前的只標。<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/05/14/a-legal-meal/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:12675 2005-05-09T14:46:43Z 2005-05-14T13:04:29Z I finally fixed my Visual Studio Beta-2 installation this morning.<br /><br />The steps are easy:<ul><br /><li>Install the <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=47065">auto uninstall tool</a> linked from <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2005/05/09/415608.aspx">BradA's site</a>.</li><br /><li>Follow <a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/04/19/fix-my-vs-install/">Roberto Garza's instructions</a> for resetting existing VS settings.</li></ul><br /><br />That's it!<br /><br /><p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/05/09/vs-install-fixed/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:duncanmak:12465 2005-05-08T04:11:48Z 2005-05-21T20:24:37Z 有時候，會突然心血來潮想寫中文。總覺得有時候，有一些情绪用中文來表達的話，會比用別的語言更貼切，更富情感。<br /><br />上星期自星期三開始，一直都留在家裏，足不出戶地病了好幾天。一個人在家裏，本來以為可以好好地讀一讀書，但最後也只是讀了那短短的幾頁。家裏堆滿了Amazon.com買來的書，有永遠都不会看完的感覺。<br /><br />對現在的我來說，寫中文有着一定的困難。由於不太會用拼音，再加上没有一套完整的繁体輸入法，到了現在還是不能軽易地把口裏能說出來的字寫下來。有時候，我寧可用日文輸入法來寫漢字，以為要我用漢語拼音來寫的話實在太慢了。要是我能抛開對繁体字的執着，我可以舒服地繼續地寫，但這自小培養的執着是改不了的。<br /><br />今天下午，找到的一個<a href="http://car.blogspirit.com/">香港人的網頁</a>，我很羡慕她能用中文來寫下自己每天的思想。<br /><br />最近，跟幾個不同的朋友分别地談了一下作為中國人的定義。我並沒有受過深厚的愛國教育，但我對自己是中國人的身份一直都沒有懷疑。來到了美國，告訴別人我是個來自香港的中國人是理所當然的。香港人和台灣人两個名詞，跟北京人和上海人並沒有分别，只是用來表明自己的出身地。香港和台灣，两岸三地雖然有着不同的語言和文化上的差别，但是基本上都是共同和互同的。<br /><br />今天太累了，明天再寫。<p><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.a-chinaman.com/2005/05/08/writing-in-chinese/">View this post on my blog</a></font></p>