荒謬世界香港篇之「尊貴」議員歧視病人

建制派議員失言，在今日香港已經不算新鮮事，皆因金句王鍾Treegun久不久就會發功，為市民帶來不少歡樂，也有點功勞。不過今次蔣元秋因為泛民對抗網絡23條之惡法拉布而發牢騷，提到精神病人，明顯帶歧視成份，不單只精神料醫學院發聲明指責，連她黨友精神科醫生也要求道歉，她這次比鍾議員失言更令人反感！ 講開又講，其實鍾議員花名Treegun固然來自其本名，但更和黐根這個罵人精神病的俗語諧音有關，似乎也有點歧視性，我想以後不如用根樹做花名，反而更反映其說話特色呢。

IT經驗

不知不覺從事這一行已廿年，算是老古董了，現在新一代的熱門科技公司似乎喜歡請剛畢業的新人，可能因為有衝勁有新思維而且便宜一點。作為老古董的我當然要為老古董發聲：今年公司軟件出現了一個問題，我就覺得處理得好全因那一位人兄經驗夠豐富。話說公司有一個軟件自動根據來自其他系統的資料更新，主要是地區性資料，包括時區；今天有一部份和亞利桑那州Flagstaff市相關的更新失敗，因為系統沒有America/Arizona這個特別的時區：該時區基本上和US/Mountain一樣，只是不用夏令時間而已。那位人兄用了最快的方法暫時解決問題：就是把資料暫時改成US/Mountain！反正現在並非夏令時間生效期。（BTW，有朋友剛搬到Flagstaff，祝他們生活愉快！）

Some jazz guitar music

I am listening to the track "What Goes Around" from the album "The Mystery of Life" by jazz guitarist Karen Segal and her trio right now. The first time I listen to it was during my drive to SF earlier this morning on the radio. It caught my attention immediately. Why? It sounds very similar to the style of jazz played by Alex Skolnick Trio (In case you don't know. Skolnick is the guitarist of the legendary metal band Testament) including the tones of the guitar, the arrangement and even the "middle-east" modes used! I googled and this is probably the first time anyone linked them together :P I shouldn't be too surprised by her rock tendency though 'coz she mentioned she would be a rock musician if she isn't a jazz musician in her interview from 2009.

Another album I would like to write about is "The Test of Time" by Ken Navarro. (The Cool Jazz countdown podcast played his latest album in the 12/4 episode, BTW) His music is classified as smooth jazz. Gotta admit I was attracted by the album cover that showed him holding a Godin MultiAc Nylon guitar (yeah, no wonder there's this term guitar-porn) Surprisingly (or maybe I shouldn't), the whole album is all acoustic solo guitar music. Better yet, it features several pop cover as well as some standards, including Imagine, Police's Message in a bottle and another Beatles' medley. I have been attempting to play some pop covers these days (mostly on sax) and appreciate the difficulty in making them sound interesting musically. Navarro didn't play much lengthy improvised solo but instead rely on harmonically-rich arrangement.   

How It's Made

It was one of those woke-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-nothing-better-to-do night so I watched the recorded shows on my DVR (not a lot yet 'coz I set it up just one week ago) After finished watching the exciting 2015 Tournament of Champions (of women 9-ball pool. Ga-Young Kim defeated the "veteran" Allison Fisher. Can't believe I have been watching her playing for 20 years! And she's 47 now), the TV showed the end of "How It's Made" from the Science channel, which caught my attention and I rewinded and ended up watching for ~1 hr of how the following products were made:
- wafer rolls: from raw materials like flour, sugar and chocolate to finish packaging in cans
- championship rings: from the metal mold cut with computer based on 3D design, to the molded wax, and then the plaster mold enclosing the wax model, melted metal poured in, mold dissolved and finally polishing the finished product.
- packaged cooked chicken and turkey
- wood pellet: from wood chips to pellets that could be burnt for heating
- NASCAR engine

The channel has some videos online too. Like this one for making champagne: