多事之年

今年真是多事，希望赶快过去。

我的岳父

“做人要心胸宽大，与人相处哪有不起冲突？事事计较，日子还过不过？一家人，不容易，是缘分，要珍惜。好了，去吃饭去。“ 在我岳父去世后，每当我想念他时， 这话就在我耳边响起， 仿佛岳父还在世，还在向我说话。 而我常常想起这句话。

那是几年前的事了， 安白刚出生。那天，我为了一些现在也想不起来的事，和我同样脾气鲜明的岳母杠上，我独自正躺在床上生闷气，岳父迈进来，同我说了那些话。

Metaverse

It is quite exciting to surf on the waves of computing revolution. A wave after another wave brought us different ways of exploiting computing technologies. Keeping updates would be a problem, but not mine. I like to learn, anyway.

Virtual collaboration or virtual society is getting real. In early 1990s, there was a sci-fi novel, Snow Crash. In the novel, a metaverse is depicted. Metaverse is not a game, but a society in which people interact one another not physically, but virtually. The point is that everything in the metaverse is represented in 3D as objects in our real world. Now, a system, Second Life, is made based on the concept of metaverse in Snow Crash. Dr. Dobbs, a programming magazine, plans to have a 'hall' or a booth in the Second Life. Like we read the magazine to learn, avatars in the Second Life go there to gain programming knowledge. By the way, avatar is the representation of a user in the Second Life. You, as a user in real, are incarnated as an avatar in the Second Life. Hard to understand? Read Snow Crash or play Second Life.

Focaccia

I made focaccia bread today. The result is shown below in the photo. Unfortunately, I can't record its taste into the photo. However, you shall be able to imagine how tasty it is if a critic, as picky as Wenlei, said "it tastes so good."

艋舺龍山寺 不變台灣情

我好吃，重吃，享受吃， 无日不想吃。记下此篇，以飨自己。来日访台，按图索骥。
艋舺龍山寺 不變台灣情

余秋雨与冯骥才

刚刚看完杨澜访问余秋雨和冯骥才，在二者中，我厌恶余，而欣赏冯。两人高下立判，差距如此大，使我讶异。 我对他们的作品，也是维持冯高余低的印象。（我没有读过余的“文化苦旅”，可能“文化苦旅”
还不错。）

在访问中，余秋雨始终给我一种防卫的态度， 这或许是因为他的脸庞些许上扬的缘故。主持人问他是否快乐，他皱着眉回答"越来越快乐“，也让我为之一乐。访问中，“文化”是出现最频繁的词， 但也是最定义不清。闹半天，我还是没明白，文化到底是啥东西，可能是俺没文化之故。

访问冯骥才时，没问他是否快乐，只听他讲如何冒生命危险， 为文革里的小人物立传；如何藏那些传记纸片； 如何纪录民间艺术； 如何卖画挽救周庄； 如何为天津城立传留纪录； 如何为构思一小说的细节而感到兴奋。我明显感到他乐在其中。虽然不提文化一词，我倒是好像有些明白“文化“了。

余秋雨是个卖“文化”的商人；冯骥才是个行“文化”的文人。

梅雪争春

殷正洋在今天的“殷媛小聚“中演唱一首艺术歌曲”梅雪争春“。曲听着耳熟，词瞧着眼熟。但实在想不起来何故。只从词义中了解这是民初的作品，很像是徐志摩风格。

歌词全文如下：

南方新年裡有一天下大雪
我到靈峰去探春梅的消息
殘落的梅萼　瓣瓣在雪裡掩
我笑說這顏色還欠三分豔

命運說你趕花朝節前回京
我替你備下真鮮豔的春景
白的還是那　冷翩翩的飛雪
淡梅花是十三齡童的熱血

南方新年裡有一天下大雪
我到靈峰去探春梅的消息
殘落的梅萼　瓣瓣在雪裡掩
我笑說這顏色還欠三分豔

命運說你趕花朝節前回京
我替你備下真鮮豔的春景
白的還是那　冷翩翩的飛雪
淡梅花是十三齡童的熱血

我感到整首词主题并非梅花与雪景，而是那字里行间无可奈何的悲愤。 殷正洋在介绍蒋安的花卉工笔之后演唱， 我感到突兀。

我好奇是谁写的词，为何而写。作词者很容易找，正是徐大诗人。Google“梅雪争春”，答案自然浮现。为何而写，可能难找些。十三龄童不是京剧名角吗？“十三龄童的热血”从何而来？ 查找“十三龄童”，也没有头绪，只有他的生平简介--十三龄童生于1933，是绍剧名角。（原来不是京剧) 。可是徐志摩死于1931。可见此十三龄童非彼十三龄童。既有悲愤，就有对象。 民初动荡，惨案连连，莫非与此有关？把”惨案“加入”梅雪争春“一同查找，果然有些头绪--此诗与三一八惨案有关！此诗发表于《诗镌》的“纪念三一八”专号上。再查找“纪念三一八”，一段文字提供了解答--1926年3月18日，段祺瑞枪杀请愿群众，死伤二百余人，连十三岁儿童也惨遭杀戮。诗人悲愤，化而为诗！

我的直觉是对的，这歌的确不适合在花卉工笔的介绍后演唱。

Story telling

What can my sons inherit from me? Perhaps lots of stories.

I am glad to see that Anbo developed a habit of making up stories from the toys he played with. He did not just make up stories, but he would make sense out from his stories. For example, if you ask him why the airplane he assembled has a big belly, he would answer that it is a garbage airplane, which collects garbage. It needs a big space for that purpose. If you keep asking: however, would not that big belly affect how the airplane flies? He answered that the airplane is propelled, so it is OK to have a big belly. He would further point out that the airplane features with night-lights, wheels, wings and guns. It is very interesting to see such a little guy reasons.

Not only does he make up stories, but also he seeks for stories from me anytime, anywhere. Sometime, I am out of materials. Nonetheless, I feel telling stories is the best way to implant anything I wish him to learn. I don't care if he can comprehend or not. As long as the stories are interesting, he would remember them. One day, he would comprehend.

Now, I want to systematically perform this story-telling task. The first thing I would like to implant is the Greek and Rome mythology. The stories will come from Edith Hamilton's classic "Mythology". These stories would give a clear picture of what the people were like from whom comes a major part of our spiritual and intellectual inheritance. Since my sons will be raised up in the western society, this is applied to them, too. I will inject the Chinese part into their blood later.

Amadeus

Finally, I watched Amadeus, the movie I have been waiting for since my high school. Both Wenlei and I enjoyed it. I particularly like Salieri's expressive and slightly exaggerating performance.

It is hard to believe that the movie was made in 1984. After two decades, the charm of the film does not fade at all, and the radiant quality of the movie is still dazzling. This movie marks the apex of film art.

Chinese trains | Bullet time | Economist.com

Chinese trains | Bullet time | Economist.com

Just read the article in the toilet. The last paragraph, albeit telling the truth, does not make me fell good.

练习曲

前阵子，大爱台“殷媛小聚“介绍电影“练习曲”。文蕾对于练习曲中的台湾风光，非常有兴趣， 常常向我提起。直到今天，我才在网上得知“练习曲”的梗概。

练习曲让文蕾好奇台湾风光；它却让我想起在交大骑脚踏车的日子。

在交大四年，一共换了四辆车子。每一次都是始于喜滋滋的从新竹市区车店买了自认为划算的靓旧车， 而终于收假回来，在清大车棚遍寻伊车不着，最后只好自认晦气。但是我与每辆爱车短暂肌肤相亲的日子中，有着我俩一同追逐风，追逐太阳的痛快和豪迈： 我时常骑车去南寮鱼港看海； 我闯荡新竹乡间，山中。竹东，關西，新豐，新埔，寶山，新埔 都有我和铁马的身影。有时和三五好友骑， 更多时候是自己孤独的骑。最远骑到桃园石门水库。可惜，我没有骑回板桥家中，也没有环岛， 深引为憾。

我喜欢在地图上选定目标，或是小瀑布；或是一座桥，然后我和我的马子(铁马)一同征服它。理由是没有的，要的只是一个爽。我喜欢从交清小径一溜而下，穿过清华，一路滑行回到博爱校区， 享受穿梭在风中的感觉。 但我最爱逆游而上，死命踩踏板， 与公车比快。 到达光复校区时，酸胀的双腿是我心中唐吉珂德式的骄傲。

难忘我的马子们和与她们在一起的日子--我的脚踏车岁月。

Subject-Object dualism

Back to some paragraphs in ZAMM I read in toilet. It examines subject-object relationship.

I think the basic fault that underlies the problem of stuckness is traditional rationality's insistence upon "objectivity," a doctrine that there is a divided reality of subject and object. For true science to take place these must be rigidly separate from each other. "You are the mechanic. There is the motorcycle. You are forever apart from one another. You do this to it. You do that to it. These will be the results."

These eternally dualistic subject-object way of approaching the motorcycle sounds right to us because we are used to it. But it is not right. It has always been an artificial interpretation superimposed on reality. It has never been reality itself. When this duality is completely accepted , a certain non-individual relationship between the mechanic and motorcycle, a craftsman-life feeling for the work, is destroyed. When traditional rationality divides the world into subjects and objects it shuts out Quality, and when are you really stuck, it is Quality, not any subjects or objects, that tells you where you ought to go.

Develop a feeling about the work you are working on. Inject emotions upon it if you could. Love it or hate it. Gradually and slowly, a bud of Quality grows out from the work you work on. Lot of examples, PERL is one.

Kaiser Rolls

Today, I made Kaiser Rolls, and the result was successful. Wenlei immediately finished one and gave me a warm kiss afterwards. No word is needed.









Here is the recipe:

• Bread Profile:Enriched, standard dough; indirect method; commercial yeast.
• Days to Make: 2
• Day 1: 1 1/4 hours for pate fermentee
• Day 2: 1 hour to de-chill pate fermentee; 10 to 15 minutes kneading; 3 1/2 to 4 hours fermentation, shaping, and proofing; 15 to 30 minutes baking.
• Commentary: I use knotting roll design, direct dough without malt syrup. It turns out to be just fine. Indirect dough could be more tasty.
  

The distinguishing characteristic of a kaiser roll is the start pattern on the top and a thin, slightly crisp crust that yields to the first bite and crumbles deliciously in the mouth around whatever sandwich filling it holds.

Ingredients : for making 6 large rolls or 9 small rolls

• Pate fermentee: 1 1/2 cups
• Bread flour: 2 1/4 coups
• Salt: 3/4 teaspoon
• Malt syrup: 1 1/2 teaspoons
• Instant yeast: 1 teaspoon
• Egg: 1 large
• Oil: 1 1/2 tablespoon
• Water (lukewarm): 3/4 cup

Steps:

1. Take the pate fermentee out of the refrigerator 1 hour before making the dough. Cut it up into about 10 small pieces. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour to take off the chill.
   
2. Stir together the flour, salt, malt, and yeast in a bowl. Add the pate fermentee, egg, oil and water. Stir for 1 minute, or until the ingredient form a ball. Add water if there is still loose flour.
   
3. Lightly dust the counter with flour, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading. Knead for about 10 minute, adding flour, if needed, to make a dough that is soft and supple, tacky but not sticky. The dough should pass the windowpane test. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
   
4. Ferment at room temperature for 2 hours, or until the dough double in size. If the dough double in size before 2 hours have elapsed, remove it, knead it slightly to degas it, and return it to the bowl to continue fermenting until doubled from original size or until 2 hours have elapsed.
   
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 6 or 9 rolls. Mist the rounds lightly with spray oil, cover with a towel or plastic wrap, and let the dough relax for 10 minutes.
   
6. Prepare the individual rolls by the knotting technique.
   
7. Proof the rolls for 45 minutes at room temperature, then flip them upside-down. Mist again with spray oil, cover the pan, and continue proof for another 30 to 45 minutes, or until the rolls are double their original size.
   
8. Preheat the oven to 425F with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Uncover the rolls and prepare them for baking. Mist rolls with water and sprinkle sesame seeds over the top.
   
9. Place the pan in the oven, spray the oven walls with water, and close the door. After 10 minutes, rotate the pan for even baking and lower the oven temperature to 400F. Continue baking until the rolls are a medium golden brown. This will take 15 to 30 minutes for large rolls, or less for smaller rolls.
   
10. Remove the rolls from the pan, and cool them down for at least 30 minutes.
    

Steam Injection and Crust

The breads I made are rustic and their crust is thick. I think it is due to the baking time.
The longer I baked, the thicker the crust became. However, if I paint the dough with water just before baking it, the water may form a coat of steam around the dough. The steam may help lower down the temperature, therefore the crust could be thin even though the baking time is the same.

I learned that professional ovens come with mist injection devices in order to make good quality crust. I think it is based on the same principle. Home-oven does not have the luxury of steam injection. I hope water painting skill I imagine could do the same effect. I will try it out next time I make breads.

Dullness and Quality

I am now re-reading Robert Pirsig's ZAMM without any specific order whenever I am in toilet. Here are some paragraphs I read this morning. ( Very strange, I read best when I am in toilet. This is a habit since my youth. )

"Or if he take whatever dull jobs he is stuck with--and they are all, sooner or later, dull--and, just to keep himself amused, starts to look for options of Quality, and secretly pursues these options, just for their own sake, thus making an art out of what he is doing, he is likely to discover that he becomes a much more interesting person and much less of an object to the people around him because his Quality decisions change him too. And not only the job and him, but others too because Quality tends to fan out like waves. The Quality job he did not think anyone was going to see is seen, and the person who sees it feels a little better because of it, and is likely to pass that feeling on to others, and in that way the Quality tends to keep on going."

Indeed, from my personal experience, Quality usually grows out from Dullness. Dullness frees up our minds, hence our brains could think of Quality when they are free from forms. That is why meditation is done in such a way. I particularly like the phrase ".. and they are all, sooner or later..", which is very true in this world. The question is that when it becomes dull, what can you do about it? The way you handle it determines your Quality.

What is good; what is bad? Hard to tell !

The title concludes my thoughts regarding the film, Quills. It also represents my attitude towards this world.

The movie, Quills, was inspired by the stories of Marquis de Sade, who was an atheist, an extreme freedom philosopher and a very controversial erotic writer. The English word, sadism, is derived from his name.

The brief plot of the movie goes on like this:

Marquis was prisoned in a madmen asylum overseen by a liberal Abbe. To cure Marquis, the Abbe encouraged him to write. With helps from a chambermaid, Madeleine, Marquis's stories leaked out and got published. His erotic stories became popular among people and the infamous popularity soon called for misfortunes. Emperor Napolean banned Marquis's stories and dispatched Dr. Royer Collard to tighten the administration of the asylum. That is where the movie begins its own story. With each of Marquis's fightings to write, the policy was further tightened and more misfortunes happened. The movie ends with the death of Madeleine, Simone's turn into a prostitute from an innocent angel, the Abbe's self-destruction into madness and Marquis's final relief.

In the story, there are several contrast characters -- Dr. Royer Collard and Marquis; Madeleine and Dr's young, superficially virginal wife, Simone. The Abbe himself also contrasts to Marquis, who does not believe in God.

Dr. Collad and Marquis stand on the two ends of spectrum in moral, at least, on the surface. Marquis never pretends to be a Saint. He is not shamed of being a libertine and an atheist. He is whom he claims to be. Dr. Collad, on the contrary, is a beast with a human-being's form, an evil with moral's outfit. He is a cruel old man who has no pity with other people. It was he that cruelly locked the cell's door while he knew that Madeleine was in danger inside. Marquis , in another cell, bursted in tears for being unable to save her. Who is moral in front of God, if there is one?

Madeleine assisted Marquis to spread his stories. She helped other patients in the asylum. She secretly loves the Abbe. She likes marquis's erotic stories. She said that "I imagined to play a part in those dirty stories so I could be a good girl in this real world". And, she died as a virgin. Madeleine is like a virginal lotus out from a dirty pond.

Unlike Madeleine, Simone was raised up in a church and received good education. She did not know of any earthly thing before marrying to Dr. Collad. She reads Marquis's stories, and before long, she seduced other man and indulged in lust.

Both Madeleine and Simone read same stories and why did they behave so differently? Who should be blamed, the reader Simone or the author Marquis? Why does looking-good thing turn bad and looking-bad thing good? After all, Marquis said that he only 'records' what truly happened. Why are people so weak in oppose to the truth? Otherwise, how can we explain the Abbe's final madness? Perhaps that is why Marquis chose to be an atheist since he has seen the hell.

Indeed, it is so difficult to tell what is good and what is bad in this world.

Example of Economic Hit Man

This is a contemporary example of Economic Hit Man.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9642196

--
--peter
http://lishihwei.googlepages.com/home

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut passed away last night. This was the news being broadcasted on NPR when the radio alarm waked me at 7:30 AM. I knew Vonnegut, but I thought he was dead long time ago. I did not realize he was a living icon until he now is surely dead.

To be precise, I don't know Vonnegut himself, but his masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five. To be more precise, I forget about the content of the novel, but keep all memories associated with it. They happened in that hot and humid summer in 1992; they happened when I liked one girl very much. In 1992, during the summer, I stayed at school and took Japanese 101 in the neighboring QingHua U. since that girl also took the class. To see her is my only motivation to take the course. I thought that I may have a chance to chat with her after the class on the way back to Chiao-Tung U.

Days in and days out. My Japanese and other things (I took other classes, too) improved a lot except my relationship with her. She was still like a dove which always kept a safe distance from me, and I was just too shy to say anything beyond "Hello. It is so hot today." A dumb conversation easily choked a budding love affair. I was troubled by this situation very much, but just did not know how to fix it.

To attend Japanese 101, I had to pass by a big white building in Qing-Hua U., and I was very curious about that building. One day, in order to expel my sorrow, I decided to visit it. It was the main library. Comparing to the one in Chiao-Tung, this library contains much more novels--the fine, contemporary but classical ones. Slaughterhouse-Five is among them. For the rest of the vacation, I constantly visited the library during weekends. I picked up a looking-good novel, took a table close to the window, dived into the novel and forgot about the girl.

I now can't fully recall what Slaughterhouse-Five is about, but all memories associated with the book in that hot summer in 1992 come back to me as vivid as they just happened yesterday.

秋游波城

秋游波城 2001文蕾作

深秋枫正红，携家波城游。
久闻哈佛名，直奔剑桥头。
红叶映新骄，旧舍叙史悠。
踊摸铜像足，愿得子孙优。
又行查理河，垂柳拂岸秀。
两校依水立，严谨数麻工。
漫步自由道，细述自由说。
兴尽披霞归，友人烧烤候。
美酒伴佳肴，喜极展歌喉。
畅谈陈年趣，不知夜已旧。
当即许好友，它日再来游。

Homemade Bread

Recently, I developed my own philosophy of craftsmanship and I decided to apply it. Artisan bread is one of things I can contribute to.

The result is quite successful. The bread tastes great under the cherry blossoms. Here is my secret for its quality:

• 3 1/3 cups of flour, 1 1/2+ cup of warm water, 2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of instant active yeast.
• Mix all of them together, roughly kneading into a shaggy ball.
• Rest the ball for 10-15 minutes.
• Kneading the ball for another 10-15 minutes until it becomes smooth.
• Pre-heat the oven to 'warm' level. Put the mass into a big mix bowl covered with a wet sheet of paper-tower. Put the bowl in the oven for rising.
  
• Leave it in the oven for 8 hours.
• On a well-floured surface, roll the flour mass and cut it into four balls. Each of balls can be stuffed with minced garlic.
  
• Pre-heat the oven for 420 F.
• Put the balls into the oven for 40 minutes.
  

The reason why resting the mass for 10-15 minutes is to let the fabric of flour reorganize themselves. This is what I learned from the book. It speeds up the whole process, then reduces the number of kneading, then reduces the exposed surface to oxygen, and therefore, increases the flavor of the bread. Raising in the oven is my idea. Oven is a perfect place for raising since it is a closed environment with controllable temperature setting. The ideal temperature is 70-80F and that is why I preheat the oven with 'warm' setting. Holes in bread is a key to a successful bread. The more holes the bread has; the softer the bread is. The number of holes depends on the degree of raising. That is why I chose to use instant yeast and 8-hour duration for raising. Moisture also directly contributes to the softness of bread. More water during the mixing stage makes softer bread. Bake the bread in high temperature first, and the hardened surface of the bread encapsulates water inside.