And so I blog.

I guess many bloggers (former or current) have gone through a dry patch where there is just no new insights to write about. Maybe I have just emerged from that dry patch, maybe I haven't; but just a few more potential readers was enough to give me new impetus to continue blogging.

The reason for blogging can be manifold; some blog for fun, some blog for venting their anger or frustration, for expressing joy or sorrow, for keeping a record in the best of times and in the worst of times.

And I am on the road to discovery.

And on a ski slope.





And so I blog.

寫．掃．上

1. 可能有錯別字，可能是「掃瞄」不是「掃描」。
2. 字體真的不行。掃瞄後好像變得更差似的。
3. 掃瞄後看不見間線、紙張真正顏色，和那26個洞，可惜。

讀書

《明報》早幾天報道說，牛津和劍橋大學兩所大學為報讀某些學系的學生設立入學能力傾向測試，試題包含多個學科的知識；香港的一些學生做過，說難以掌握，有位文科生說，試題著重考邏輯，文科生一般數學較弱，考文學院也要答數學題，好像不公平云云。

這樣一說，就露了底。學科本來不是自成一角的封閉系統，學科互動本來就非常常見；讀文科就不用懂數學邏輯之類，是香港多年文理分科造成的「錯覺」。如果你讀哲學卻不懂邏輯，準會碰釘子。

說到底，如果我們還（天真地？）相信讀書是為了增加知識和培養自己的修養的話，讀幾個給香港的文理分家制度「評」為不太相關的科目，反而更好。不過，我們經常聽到的還是「讀書為搵錢」論，難道我們還活在香港人「只是」經濟動物的七十年代？

很多人說讀歷史沒有用，其實就算我們對老師說的老掉牙的「以史為鑑」不以為然，其實歷史的論述早已在塑造我們的價值觀（所以歷史教科書從來是政治角力場）；不過，到我們察覺這點的時候，可能已經過了在中學讀歷史的年代了。

可惜，我們的人生沒有control experiment，不可以過一個「讀書版」又過一個「不讀書版」的人生，否則或許我們會更清楚知道讀書對我們有甚麼好處。

如果有年青的朋友問我：「究竟在學校讀歷史、讀數學、讀化學，有甚麼用？」我會先告訴朋友：「別相信那些『讀這些學科沒有實際用處，但考試成績好就能保證他日找到好工作』之類的說話。」

Free Burma!

Late but it has to be said. Bloggers across the world share the concern for humanity and dignity of human lives.

最近我好像那些在網誌上寫食評的博客一樣，愛拍美味的食物，尤其愛勁zoom諸如壽司或finger sandwiches之類的小型食物，自己以為構圖還算不錯。對啊，哪天在哪裡吃過甚麼，都是日常到不得了的小事，很快就會忘記。就如現在忘記了過去的很多，只餘以大事構築的框架，造個「人生大事年表」大概不會遇上甚麼問題，但框架內的flesh大多已消失於記憶的黑洞深海。

究竟文字有沒有記下細節，照片中從缺的細節又是否已永久消失於記憶中，我不知道。

路

《明報》「星期日生活」－－周日話題：少年C的路
作者：健吾

http://ol.mingpao.com/cfm/style5.cfm?File=20070812/sta13/vzf1h.txt

讀完這篇，雖和健吾深有同感，但我又問自己，堅持的究竟是甚麼的標準，哀歎的是甚麼。當「理財顧問」者不一定是早早和現實妥協之徒；十多歲時的夢想不堅持到底，可以是因為心態改變，或找到更適合自己的出路，為甚麼一定是沒有骨氣的表現？我的結論始終是，要搵錢，無不可（畢竟各有前因），但要坦白，不要把搵錢的目標故意包裝得很高尚。健吾的這個學生，總算坦白老實，25歲前要有一百萬，就全力抓錢，毫不矯揉造作。至此，我們又如何置喙？

當然，我仍然會像健吾一樣問「為什麼我們社會只會這樣子」，仍會希望大部分人都可以實踐他們選擇自己真正喜歡的路的權利。但當質疑主流somehow成了我的標記，也就同時成了陳腔濫調。而陳腔濫調，是會令人煩厭的。

Let's tell a story, together

燈火通明，富麗堂皇，財源廣進，地球折壽

有些人認為二十四小時亮起所有電燈，非常浪費；但有些人因為風水之類的理由，指定要一些燈長期開著。如果是私人地方的燈飾，無人可以管束；但說到屋苑大堂之類的公眾地方，由於住客和住客之間不常溝通，對管理處很可能有不同的要求。甲住客批評「太浪費了」要管理處關燈、乙住客「關了燈風水不好」要管理處亮燈、丙住客抱怨「燈亮著，太熱了」又要求關燈、丁住客投訴「付出了管理費當然要二十四小時燈火通明，既安全又堂皇」之類的情況，相信並不罕有。

雖然不知道電梯大堂或屋苑大堂的燈每天少亮幾小時，長遠來說，是否真的可以令地球多活一點，但環保從來是見不到最終成效的工程。我們只能相信，今天我們少用點水、少耗點電、多回收幾個塑膠瓶、少用幾隻即棄餐具，對下一代，或下一代的下一代，或北極熊，或馬爾代夫的人民，會好一點。勿以善小而不為。

給後人的legacy （如果「遺產」太大吉利是的話），除了現金股票房地產外，還有更多。懂得管理資產，也得好好管理天然資源；會財政開源，還須節約能源。We may well be remembered, as a generation, by subsequent generations, in terms of the state of the environment we left them in.

又說了一堆老生常談。

寫blog要申報身分？

久未更新，想探討一個可能沒有多少人有興趣探討的問題：

究竟在自己的blog寫意見，有沒有需要「申報身分」？

例如，如果某人的近親是地鐵員工，某人在blog表示，對今天地鐵公司公布的加薪幅度相當不滿，他／她有沒有義務告訴讀者，他是地鐵員工的家人？

表明身分，的確有助讀者衡量作者的意見，但另一個因素是究竟blog是否私人地方。如果電台節目主持人，也是A公司的僱員，利用大氣電波為A公司說好話，那可以算是公器私用。但是，在此情況，如果主持人事先聲明自己是A公司的僱員，好讓聽眾可以將這列入衡量意見的考慮因素，那還是可以接受的。

如果blog是私人地方，不是「公器」，blog主發表的意見又沒有觸犯法律，那麼就算有甚麼所謂「身分衝突」之類的問題也不用刻意「申報」甚麼（但「申報」了又有益無害──如果文首例子中那人事先聲明自己是地鐵員工的家人，而有讀者因此而不理其言論的理據就判定他／她認為地鐵加薪太少是帶有私心的評語，並因而貶抑此言論，那就是讀者有問題）。總之，可申報可不申報，申報了未必代表讀者對作者的言論的評語會更公正，不申報也不代表作者的言論一定有偏頗。說話出了口，就要有給人曲解和誤解的心理準備。不是說甚麼人蓄意對作者不公平，只是作者應該有這樣的心理準備而已。

不過，話說回來，blog是公是私，其實還有排抝。Blog是公物，因為人人可達（被GFW的除外，憾）；blog是私物，因為作者對blog的內容有獨家增刪、修訂權，甚至可以選擇是否和讀者互動。
Blog不是公開議事園，但在blog主允許下，又可以是公開議事園。各方好友如果有探討blog公私問題的好文章連結，請告知。現在時間已晚，得早休息，不好花時間搜尋了。

We remember

At home and travelling at the same time

We are not islands and don’t live in islands. The occasional sense of solitude arose from the difficulty of gauging our distance with the world, the near being far and the far being near.

In the subway, surrounded by commuters going to work by the same subway line as we do, we couldn’t wait for a decent social distance to be restored between us. With the crowded rush-hour train refusing to grant us our wish, we could only stay indifferent, a.k.a. courteous when being among total strangers, while protecting the final piece of tiny flimsy private space. But hey, we weren’t complaining, considering what those commuters pushed into the train by the platform stewards had to go through.

The mobile communication devices that follow us here and there all the time did the job again, splitting the indifferent crowd and opened a way that took us to the neighbours a little bit further. I’ll arrive in 20 minutes, sorry to keep you waiting. Sports news from America, the reality show hoax of the Netherlands, and the latest whereabouts of state leaders, all at our fingertips. Somehow the headlines rushed into our short-term memory, while fellow travellers 20cm from us were silent all the way through, until the terminus parted us.

It was still not the end of the story. We did travel with them for a little longer, this time on a conveyor belt moving at constant speed. You look familiar, have we met before? Oh yeah, you were the guy in a suit that was standing next to me when I chopped onions and carrots on Cooking Mama. I did have a glimpse of you (or, rather, your newspaper) and was as familiar with the latest plots of our favourite soap as you were. See ya, Mr Won’t-see-you-again.

Yes, we are living in an information-overloaded city, but we still choose to overload ourselves with the world thousands and hundreds of kilometres away on our PDA, or an imaginary world somewhere in our NDS. Otherwise we run out of talking points and imaginations.

We never know the names of our “near neighbours” near our homes, on the train or on the bus. The solidarity demonstrated by true “communities” in the older areas can only be envied. Hey, don’t we all aim to move to a bigger house, just like everyone else (or so we believe)? Then neighbours and fellow travellers are just that, travellers, travellers that come and go. And are you not, am I not, travellers, at home and travelling at the same time?

故鄉旅行

你我不是孤島，也不活在孤島中；偶然出現的孤寂，源於與世界的距離難以測度；近的遠，遠的近。在地鐵被乘坐同一條地鐵線列車上班的人群圍繞，你我恨不得他們跟你保持社交距離；無奈車廂太擁擠，我們逃不了，只好保持陌生人之間應有的冷漠，並守護著僅有的一片細小得可憐的私人領土。和東京地鐵火車裡給月台職員推進車廂的乘客相比，你我也該無怨了。

你我隨身帶備的通訊器材，劃破了這群正常地冷淡的陌路人，把你我帶到稍遠處的近鄰。還有二十分鐘就到了，你等等我。美國的體育消息，荷蘭的真人騷風波，中國領導人到哪裡去跟哪國的首長會談，你我都大致知道了，二十厘米以外的「同路人」仍然不吭一聲，直至總站把你我他她分開。

接下來你我他她還在一條定速移動的輸送帶呆了好一陣子，或許大家都覺得大家很面善，啊，原來就是我和我的cooking Mama在切著洋蔥甘筍時站在旁邊那西裝友。我有瞄過你（手中的讀物）一眼，對最後五集《溏心風暴》的劇情，跟你同樣清楚。再見了，不會再相遇的人。

城市不是有太多的資訊，太多令人目眩的刺激嗎？你我卻像反射動作般啟動PDA和NDS，尋找數千數萬公里以外的世界或一個大概不算存在的地方，給你話題，給我想像。

你我和居所附近、交通工具上的「近鄰」從來不相往來，對著看來相當團結的老區居民，只有羨慕的份兒。畢竟「細屋搬大屋」價值當道，鄰人和地鐵「同路人」一樣，只是過客。而你，而我，又何嘗不是？所以，就讓你我繼續在故鄉旅行吧。

rose-tinted travel

I have been reading several blogs by Westerners living in Japan. Reminds me of that alternately frosty and stuffy year in that backwater town of Wakuya up in the Tohoku region.

It is without question that I always wear my designer rose-tinted glasses (UV 100) to look back at those days, including the following episodes:

• that day wandering around in Shinjuku and seeing the smallest lap-top I had ever seen (I was pretty low-tech, and still am);
• that boiling 5-hour bus trip up north;
• the first time I entered town and got lost in a road that was later to beone of the roads that on which I travelled every day;
• the first sniff of tatami mats, which reminded me of one of those preserved veggies in Chinese cuisine (the kind you would steam with fresh fish or minced pork);
• the first (and only) time I went to a local church in the nearby town of Tajiri, where I became the youngest in a congregation of about 10;
• the trip to Morioka, Tazawako (Lake Tazawa) and Akita, during which, when arrived at Tazawako JR station, I went to a phone booth and called the YH and asked for a room and a lift to the place (I had no mobile phone in the first 4 months in Japan);
• the spontaneous trip to Matsushima (one of the “three scenic spots” in Japan, famous for its islands (shima) on which pine trees (matsu) grow in bulk), after which I walked 7-8 km out of not wanting to wait for an hour for the next train;
• the trip to Tokyo, less than one week from the first Matsushima trip aforementioned, during which I met with my good ol’ mate, wrote a song (after I did my first bit here) and enjoyed the onigiri(s) he brought from the combini where he did his arupaito;
• all those bangs on my front door by the neighbour downstairs after I stupidly did something noisy (like walking around on the thin wooden floor on bare feet, or doing my laundry at 10pm);
• all those lessons where I enjoyed good responses from the kids, and those where they were dismally (and understandably?) unattentive;
• when I asked students “what is your name” for about the 138^th time;
• when I suddenly became animated in class and got no response from students despite my nearly acting like a clown;
• when I practised my 10-K run by the main road where trucks passed by with considerable turbulence, and then missed the school 10-K “marathon” (that’s what it was called) due to flu;
• when I travelled to Towadako and Oirase with the mate I visited earlier (see above) just one day after the 10-K “marathon”, seeing the koyo (autumn leaves), more of which in yellow rather than red.

And, of course, a lot of mundane, routine and quiet, often boring, days.

And the above only covered the first 3 months of my year in Japan. More later, if you would bear with my unimpressive reminiscence. There’s really no laughing-the-guts-out kind of funny story to tell, but I can post a few picts here to make it more tasty.

How to manage the blog travelhome.blogspot.com

1. Stop treating your blog as a stepping stone to bigger and better things
   

You should start realizing the blood running in you is no more special than anyone else’s, and your brain is very probably not more sophisticated than that of an ordinary human being. Your writing is not particularly impressive, your vocabulary is dwindling, and your exposure as little as ever. So there is no reason to expect what you write will catch the eye of a discerning editor looking for fresh columnists or anything of the like.


2. Stop trying to emulate the success of popular blogs
   
   Never compromise what you write with what is popular, especially when you have no readership pressure and no profit level to chase. Popular bloggers are popular not just because they write about popular topics; their style may well be unique; they may have established strong links with fellow bloggers who, in all likelihood, read blogs often and like to leave comments. Popular blogs have much to be learnt from, but blogs are meant to be personalised so stick to your own style and content, i.e. continue to talk to yourself.


3. Set up a site meter
   
   So that you have some stats on which you can judge the real popularity of your blog.


4. Do not blog for the sake of blogging
   
   If you don’t eat for the sake of eating, and you don’t sleep for the sake of sleeping, I can’t see why you should blog for the sake of blogging. Blogging is a pastime, an outlet, and playground, a coliseum, even a revolution, but blogging is not a fashion icon to be flashed in front of those who question your trendiness (if there is such a word). Blogging is not private but can be subtle nonetheless.
   
   If you have nothing to say, don’t. If you have run out of things to write, pause. If you are too desperate to produce a masterpiece for everyone to marvel on, you are likely to fail.
   
   Blog when you feel like it. Blog when you can enjoy the process. Blog when you have something to tell the imaginary audience (or at least an audience you cannot see, hear or touch when you speak). Blog when you have just come back from somewhere out of town and want to share your travel tales. Blog when you have just come back from somewhere out of town and decide to write anything but your travel tales.
   
   Blog to create a series of articles. Blog to disrupt your troubling chain of thought. Blog to reveal the randomness of your life. Blog to share your structured routines. But don’t blog for the sake of being there, doing that.


5. Continue blogging
   
   How else?
   

灣仔

灣仔不是我的社區。說真的，對我來說，也沒有甚麼所謂「我的社區」；住過北角、太古城，但都不覺得那是自己的老家。有段時間經常出沒銅鑼灣，但留下大量腳毛後，感受還是不深。

不過，最近會在灣仔買菜。未至於成為風雨不改那種牢固的習慣，但開始重複在固定的店子買菜和買肉了。珍視灣仔道、太和街上的雜貨店和蔬果店。跑到一站式的超市，的確容易兼「就腳」，但我總覺得對這些小小雜貨店、新鮮食品店有一種「義務」。（注意，不是感情，而是義務。我不是灣仔人。）

遺憾，走在利東街的日子，來得太遲。或許應該說，自己的醒覺來得太遲。店都關了，早上九時左右總有警車停泊，並常有貨車從利東街和皇后大道東交界的地盤走出來，在利東街鐵閘陣前吼叫，為那無奈的蕭條和蒼涼更添愁雲。春園街也有地盤，並有垃圾收集站（所以有垃圾車出入）路面很混亂；從電車路往南走，選利東街比春園街安全和安靜，但這樣的安靜，代價沉重。

橫行的貨車又在嘲笑這個不屬於灣仔的人。算啦，司機大佬都係搵食啫。

因為沒有自己的社區，所以不能書寫自己的社區。個人歷史和香港歷史的交匯，就此給掏空一大片。剩下的可能只是零碎的「可動產」，movable items。