集字作品

早一陣子有朋友問起甚麼是集字作品，我新買的禮器碑集字帖有很詳盡的剖析：集字作品中的字有以下來源：

• 直接從原作取字
• 原作無該字，利用已知的邊旁寫法拼合而成
• 原作無該字亦無邊旁可參考，則從原作筆劃結構和筆意推論

以下是我最近臨的一些集字作品：

• 集趙之謙魏碑：唐詩1，2
• 集司馬顯姿魏碑：唐詩，宋詩
• 集史晨碑：古詩
• 蘇東坡行書集字：古詩
• 王羲之聖教序集字：古詩
• 褚遂良雁塔聖教序：唐詩
• 瘦金體：宋詞
• 甲骨文：對聯

比較同一首詩用不同字體寫出來，味道各有不同，實是樂事！

Signal Desktop on Arch Linux

As I mentioned earlier I am using Manjaro Linux on my old laptop, and the repo of the distro it based on, Arch Linux, actually has Signal Desktop. However, it is not up-to-date, which is understandable because it is not "officially" released by Signal. Well, there is always the option to compile from source. I saw the package.json and I know it gotta be using npm. Did a npm install but apparently I also need to install yarn first. Then I just followed the steps in this post:

npm install yarn
yarn install
yarn generate
./release/linux-unpacked/signal-desktop

東坡和盼盼

 今早一時興起搜尋一下永遇樂這個詞牌的名作，最有名的自然是辛棄疾的《京口北固亭懷古》（千古江山），李清照的《落日熔金》寫元宵亦是佳品，對我來說，back story最有趣的自然是東坡的《彭城夜宿燕子樓》，燕子樓曾是唐朝名歌妓關盼盼的居所，是關的情人、大官張愔為她所建。張愔死後，關盼盼一直獨居燕子樓，可見兩人感情之深。張的友人張仲素寫了以下的這首詩描述關對張愔思念之情：

 樓上殘燈伴曉霜，獨眠人起合歡床。 相思一夜情多少，地角天涯未是長。

白居易則作此詩唱和：

 滿床明月滿簾霜，被冷燈殘拂臥床。 燕子樓中霜月夜，秋來只為一人長。

（又有傳說指關盼盼後來自盡，皆因為讀了白居易此詩《感故張僕射諸妓》：

黃金不惜買蛾眉，揀得如花三四枝。歌舞教成心力盡，一朝身去不相隨。

不過已有不少學者網民為白平反，因為張僕射指的是張愔之父，詳情請參閱此文，有空會寫寫此故事）

蘇東坡作為一代文學宗匠，也是風流才子，留宿燕子樓自然夢到盼盼，醒後有感而發，作詞一首《永遇樂》（節錄）：

 天涯倦客，山中歸路，望斷故園心眼。燕子樓空，佳人何在，空鎖樓中燕。古今如夢，何曾夢覺，但有舊歡新怨。異時對，黃樓夜景，為余浩嘆。

感嘆世人在俗世浮沉，迷失於紅塵中，其實最終要認識到人生無常，一切只是過眼雲煙；蘇東坡時人會在燕子樓為關盼盼感嘆，而後人又會在黃樓為蘇東坡感嘆吧！

傳聞蘇東坡本人也有一位名盼盼的心愛歌妓，此女姓馬不姓關，坊間也流傳一個馬盼盼和黃樓的故事！話說蘇東坡被派往徐州做官，解決了洪水之災，為紀念此事及以「土尅水」，建了一座黃樓（此文有圖），其弟蘇轍作了一篇《黃樓賦》（原文）由也是大書法家的蘇東坡書寫後刻碑，東坡寫到一半走開了，頑皮的馬盼盼接著寫了「山川開闔」四字，原來她一直練習蘇體，寫得似模似樣，之後也被保留下來。

究竟那四字寫成怎樣？在網上完全找不到圖片，而原碑早已被毀，據報導政府在1988年重修，碑文也根據拓片重刻，希望有心的網友有機會看到拍張照片上傳過來吧。

中環佩搖

今日翻書偶然看到一首元曲《憑欄人.客有吳郎吹洞簫》，曲詞最後四字為本帖題目，令我聯想起的竟然是火炭麗琪（FYI，有一位YouTuber好認真的分析該曲歌詞，值得一看）

言歸正傳，全曲如下：

客有吳郎吹洞簫,明月沈江春霧曉。湘靈不可招, 水雲中環佩搖。

（由書法字典集字而成）

是著名畫家倪瓚贈友人吳國良之作，吳郎既擅長製墨，又精於吹簫，本曲用江月春霧的美景讚他的演奏餘音繚繞。湘靈的典故是指傳說中舜的妃子娥皇、女英, 她們死後成為了湘水女神；吳的簫聲雖然未能令她們現身，但水雲交織的迷濛中隱約可聽到她們飾物搖動之聲。詞簡淺得來意境高，我十分欣賞。

此外，我也在網上找到有作曲家為此曲譜了曲（元代的版本應該失傳了吧？），有機會的話吹給大家聽聽。

One Note Samba

If you came here for the song, please go to YouTube.  This is my one note for fixing my SAMBA-related issue on my Manjaro box. Basically gio mount gave me the following error:

Failed to mount Windows share: Software caused connection abort

Fortunately I found this post, in my case, I created a new smb.conf file as root and added the global protocol line to it. 

Manjaro

三個月前的今天剛裝了Elementary OS，可是陳年60GB HD那個partition已極速爆滿，是時候換新SSD，今次買的240GB比當年那個60GB還要便宜！

 因為新鮮感已失，加上日本語輸入法使用甚不方便，所以打算「從新出發」，在新SSD上裝一個未用過的Linux Distro, 讀了好幾篇關於Linux Distro的文章，決定先試以前曾有不俗經驗的Arch Linux, 見有一個甚獲好評名為EndeavourOS的新Arch Linux-based Distro, 於是下載了ISO, 用dd抄了去USB手指，boot時到BIOS指定用USB即成，在Live env試了一會就裝，由於HD是全新，所以安裝沒有甚麼特別選擇，完成後reboot，循例update了所有packages, 然後再reboot就只有白紅藍全營幕輪流出現！再重裝一次又是如此。 

為確定不是HD問題，於是用dd把舊HD複製到新HD，保留了原本所有boot records/partitions/OS, 可進入原來的Elementary OS了，再下一步是玩玩GParted: 複製後新HD有180GB左右的Unallocated space, 有甚麼方法加到Elementary OS那個爆滿的Partition呢？首先，我消滅了兩者之間的小小swap partition,原來還要把這個Unallocated space「撥入」Elementary OS那個Partition的parent才可以resize, reboot時GRUB就找不到Boot record了，看了此文，估計名字變動了，即管試試set prefix，果然全中！於是update-grub and grub-install. 有了可用的installation，又再心癢試新事物，今次是另一個Arch Linux based Distro: Manjaro, 難題是要和Elementary OS的Partition共存，所以徵用那個已廢的Ubuntu partition，不過Installer認為無free space而安裝失敗，於是我再用GParted把那個partition recreated, 今次Manjaro installer沒問題了。 

裝好Manjaro之後，為證明比Elementary OS優勝，「試題」是再裝倉頡日本語一較高下。「解題」用了四個小時，不過「答案」的確更好。閒話少講，關鍵是跟此君要用pamac安裝ibus, ibus-table-chinese, ibus-mozc(這個需要在機上build, 失敗了三次才成功，浪費了不少時間）然後setup IBUS加Japanese-MOZC, Chinese-Cangjie3 最後一步是找個file to force autostart, 又找了好一會，答案是：

cat .xprofile 
export GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
export XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
export QT_IM_MODULE=ibus

ibus-daemon -drx

各位網友晚安！ 

後記：分享一個師兄教路在Xfce "Dock"加App的方法（其實是他舉出Xfce如何難用的例子）

PDF to Image solution

I wrote about using Mac OS X Automator for converting a PDF to images. How about Linux? I found this solution: At command line,  execute 

pdftoppm -jpeg <pdf file name> <prefix of jpg files to be created>

It might be already installed in your Linux box. If not, it is part of poppler-util. 

Linux screen recording for Mac

The title mentions both Linux and Mac and that's not a typo: I have a requirement to record my screen on my Linux box and then put that video into iMovie on Mac for editing. (Yes, I could have used a Linux video editor but that's a different story)

I installed a simple screencasting tool called Kazam on my Linux box, record and save the movie in H264 format, which is the same encoding as QuickTime (Mac)

However, QuickTime refused to open my file! It turns out the pixel format is the culprit:

ffmpeg -i 'Screencast 2020-09-03 13:59:50.mp4' -pix_fmt yuv420p -f mov output.mov

I have to convert from "Planar 4:4:4 YUV" to yuv420p for QuickTime. 

Bonus: Next I needed to record the screen from my Mac, which I could use QuickTime. However, I have too many icons on my desktop and it'd look better if I hide them. Turns out it's easy in command line:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false
killall Finder

And if you need to show them again, revert it: 

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true
killall Finder

Mac OS的Automator

 昨天和老同學討論Mac vs Windows, 當然火花十足，事實上我也算不上蘋果忠粉，用的日子也不長，所以至今天才發現Automator這個「新」功能，今天要和各位網友分享。

話說我製作蘇子曰YouTube頻道的錄像時，在資料搜集期間，用Google Slides最為方便，不過錄影時如果要同時控制Presentation的話難免分心，所以會在錄影完畢後，在iMovies的Main track逐張Slide的圖像加上去，再在Main Track之上加上有「 人頭」的部份作Picture-in-picture.

問題來了：在Google Slides入面只能逐個Slide「手動」Export為圖像檔！如果多Slides的話頗費時。其他可Export的格式包括PowerPoint及PDF等，而這些格式又能否「一次過」轉為多張圖像呢？答案是可以的！特別鳴謝兩位網友（Link1, Link2)

我在此簡單描述一下步驟：

1. (在Spotlight)打開Automator
2. File->New->Choose "Application"
3. 在左邊Library選PDFs，把Render PDF Pages as images拖到右邊。
4. 再在左邊Library選Files & Folders，把Move Finder Items拖到右邊。（不然會找不到之前一步的檔案）
5. Save（為此Automator Application改個易記的名字）
6. 在Finder把PDF拖到這個新Application即可把它轉為多張圖像

不知Windows有沒有對應的內置功能？

Free web hosting and free SSL cert

Back in the days most of us (with some tech backgrounds) have played with creating a personal website by writing our own HTML that has our bio and some pictures embedded. And most of us used free web hosting (why pay for it anyway? :P) Then FB got popular and the rest is history. Fast forward 2 decades and the most popular free "site builders" like Wix and Google don't serve raw HTML page you write anymore, which is understandable because it's harder to secure things they don't control. Long story short, I needed to serve a page, and using the HTTPS protocol. And InfinityFree came to rescue!

I created a new (free) account and provided it a domain name I purchased from GoDaddy years ago (for fun and good luck mainly :P) By doing so I needed to change the namesever records to point to the ones used by InfinityFree/Epizy. Then I clicked on the "Free SSL certificates tab" which listed 4 steps:

1. Add CNAME records (which is done on the InfinityFree/Epizy side because of the nameserver change) This took a few hours to become effective. 

2. Request a new (free) SSL cert. Not sure how long it took between request and issue.

3. Install the new cert. This is done via copy-and-paste the key and the cert under the SSL/TLS in cPanel. 

4. Check for validity of your cert. You can use SSLShopper.com and simply type in your www.<domain name>

Any html you want it to serve can be uploaded via FTP or File Manager under the htdocs dir. For those who used Apache back in the days of course knows about htdocs. Nginx use the same dir too. The good thing is InfinityFree/Epizy created a new user for such purpose that is separated from your InfinityFree logon.  

The only downside of free SSL cert is that it usually expires soon. I setup reminder on the InfinityFree side for renewal. Let's see if that works. Anyway, I think it has done a good job already for such free services.

My Clojure experience

 As I mentioned in this post, I found that Cursive IDE is the recommended way to go and that's what I tried. To be honest, the whole process is not exactly what I would call intuitive. I think the guides I mentioned in my previous post did a pretty good job. Let me summarize a few key features:

1) CursiveIDE is based on IntelliJ so the latter is the one you start. The type of project to add is Clojure->Leiningen (FYI, Leiningen is a build automation tool. I think the name comes from the short story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" Of course, ant refers to the "other" famous tool)

The project name must be all lowercase.

The IDE automatically creates a bunch of files for you. The most important one is probably project.clj. If your code requires importing external modules, you specify the dependency in this file. I found that the REPL that is already running would not "take in" the new dependency so the safest thing to do is to kill the existing REPL and start a new one.

2) The Right-click menu of project.clj has a choice to start your REPL. By default the namespace is <your project name>.core. In fact, Cursive also automatically creates a core.clj file for you.

3) If you want to have code in another <file name>.clj file, you add New Clojure Namespace with <file name>, the namespace would be <project name>.<file name>

4) You can load your current .clj file into the REPL using the right-click menu and then REPL.

5) However, Cursive does not switch namespace automatically. Use the same menu to switch. 

6) You can send a statement in your .clj file to the REPL for execution. Alternatively you can type the statement in the lower REPL window and hit ENTER after the closing ')' (or hit CTRL-ENTER)

BTW, this is the fun project I worked on: calculation of hours of sunlight based on the coordinates of the city and the date. 

停雲、陶淵明、辛棄疾

最近在玩師兄介紹的Elementary OS，他亦推薦其中一張寫著中文書法「停雲館」的Wallpaper，引發了一場關於「停雲」的討論。

首先找到的是辛棄疾詞《賀新郎·甚矣吾衰矣》，其中有一句：

一尊搔首東窗里。想淵明《停雲》詩就，此時風味。

詞中更出名那一句是：

我見青山多嫵媚，料青山見我應如是。

照字面解作詞人顯得相當有自信，其實根據上文下理自嘲成份較重。全詞充滿抗金壯志未能酬，志同道合之士日少的感慨。根據詞序，辛棄疾作詞時正獨坐於一個叫「停雲」的堂館，而停雲也是陶淵明一首詩的名稱，以下摘自網上文章：

《停雲》是晉宋之際詩人陶淵明的作品。此詩分四章，其主旨正如序中所言，“思親友也。”詩中運用比興的手法和覆沓的章法，通過對自然環境的烘托描寫，和不能與好友飲酒暢談的感慨，充分抒发了詩人對好友的深切思念之情。同時，詩中“八表同昏”“平路伊阻”“平陸成江”等詩句也暗含了作者對時世的擔憂。

可見情感和辛棄疾想表達的相當類似。之後辛棄疾亦諷刺當時想在酒中求名的文人（蘇東坡乎？）辛認為酒的真正「功能」是解愁罷了。

想對這兩首作品有更深入認識的朋友，建議參考文1,2,3。

Elementary OS Cangjie input

作為電腦玩家，最興奮的事莫過於有新電腦用；不過換腦是數年一度的「盛事」，退而求其次就是拿舊電腦翻新。幾天前電腦界師兄推薦Elementary OS, 我的實驗用Linux box又剛好boot不起，正是裝新OS的好機會了。

玩了一會才有需要打中文，記得使用Ubuntu的話，這只是在System settings(-> Language -> Input Method加倉頡**)就可以攪定的簡單動作，不過在Elementary OS就試了大半小時也無功而還！結果找到這篇教裝FCITX的帖文 。不同的是我要裝倉頡Version 3：

sudo apt install fcitx-table-cangjie3 im-config

Reboot後還有一步（參考此帖文):

fcitx-configtool 

在此工具內加入Cangjie3，之後Ctrl-Space即可toggle英文和倉頡。（用慣Mac OS X的CapsLock作toggle會很不慣，但也沒辦法了，留意CapsLock時即使已選倉頡也打不到中文的）

註**：

以上方法是使用FCITX，另一個「老字號」系統是IBus，其實只改System settings的話，只差這一步就能用IBus的倉頡：

im-config

由default改為IBus

自古紅顏多薄命

標題這一句相信大家都聽過，但出處到底是那裏？首先提供一個錯的答案：蘇東坡有一首名為「薄命佳人」的詩：

雙頰凝酥發抹漆，眼光入簾珠的皪。 

故將白練作仙衣，不許紅膏汙天質。 

吳音嬌軟帶兒癡，無限閑愁總未知。 

自古佳人多命薄，閉門春盡楊花落。

根據這本《蘇東坡新傳》，此詩是描寫風塵界的美女，好景總是短暫。（至於我第一次見到此詩，是來自一本《蘇東坡》小說，當中虛構情節有東坡為其已出家為尼之情人寫下此詩）其實即使良家婦女，美貌又何嘗能長久保持呢？

標題那一句其實出自吳承恩名著，無人不識的小說《西遊記》，正正是孫悟空見到朱紫國皇后金聖娘娘後的感想：

自古紅顏多薄命，懨懨無語對東風

意思是自古以來美女的命運總是充滿不幸，令人唏噓感概。

Video editing and Animation

You don't have to try too hard if what you want to do all day long is watching videos on the web. Yes, we just take it for granted but it does take some skills to put together a presentable video! Editing home video is one of my hobbies started before the days of YouTube. I bought a copy of Adobe Creative Suite with my student discount when I was taking Graphic design classes. Adobe Premiere Pro is still one of the top choice for this task. Of course, 17 years have gone by one would think there must be lots of free/open source alternatives to Adobe Premiere. For those using Mac, PCWorld recommends iMovie 10. And there are many choices for Open Source cross-platform (i.e. Linux too!) software, for example, the UI of OpenShot would look familiar if you have used iMovie before.

Similar to video, animation is everywhere. You would remember Adobe Flash if you did animation "back in the days" In fact, some scammers still try to trick people to download malware disguised as Flash installer now that Adobe doesn't even call their animation tool Flash anymore. The company has adapted to the current HTML5-based standard (instead of needing a proprietary browser plug-in) and calling their tool simply Adobe Animation. If you cannot afford a license or just want to use other freeware, check out this video:

潮汕說唱

早前看網上直播有潮汕女主播在rap潮州話，方知有潮汕說唱的文化，除了女主播當日翻唱的Tizzy T，重要人物還有AFinger壹指團體（那是潮州版大懶堂了），以下是一條介紹潮汕hiphop的紀錄片：

葉子說到潮汕人祖先去馬來西亞謀生那段特別有feel, 我也從中認識了汕頭這個感覺上很親切但從未去過的地方。

祇·祗·衹·袛

近幾年一直學習草書，有幾個字是比較欠缺標準，亦對名家寫法難以理解，其中一個是孫過庭書的：

在我收藏的集于右任字書唐詩有這個「底」字：

讀了劉東芹《草書字法解析》才明白以上兩字的寫法：

寫法明白之後，才再考究一下字義:p

孫過庭寫那個應該是「祇」，而草書的「衹」也是同樣寫法（要看上文下理）, 知道「只是」有人有時會寫成「祇是」（示部那個），亦有「神祇」這個詞語。我以前見過有底下一畫的「祗」，原來也有「袛」這個字！

到底這四個字各有甚麼意思？請看咬文嚼字的博客的祇·祗·衹·袛一文。

The coolest museums in USA

This website has been sending junk mails to me for a few weeks but I finally found one articles I read there that is worthy of sharing. It introduces one cool museum per state in US. For a country with people who in general supports museums in their community (at least that is my impression), I can imagine there is gotta be one cool museum in each state. Still, it is a big task to know all of them! I haven't been to all 50 states myself. And for the states I visited, there are still lots of interesting museums that I am unaware of. For example, who would know there is a musical instrument museum in Phoenix? Speaking of musical instrument, I did have fond memories playing with some at the EMP museums in Seattle (of course not the Kurt Cobain guitars on display there) Now it has been renamed to the Museum of Pop Culture. Another music related museum on the list that I have been to is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. 

When your cleat came loose from your bike shoe

... and it is clipped to the pedal, it would be a challenge to get it out. And it happened to me last week! Thanks to the video in this link, I was able to take it out, though not as easy as the dude in the video. Lesson learned: even after tightening your screws on the cleats multiple time and it still comes loose, it’s time to get a new cleat (and maybe shoes) In fact, I do have a pair of bike shoe with cleats that I have worn only a few times that I bought for my Big Island trip years ago. I was just too lazy to take them out of the box :p

爨寶子碑

作為書法愛好者，見到爨寶子碑如此奇特的字，當然會有興趣認識此碑，這位網友指出該碑有三大奇處：首先，文中提及大亨四年，其實晉安帝這個年號只用了三年！作者認為原因是爨將軍居於雲南離京城太遠，消息不靈通。其次，由曹魏至當時東晉，朝廷一直禁止立碑，爨家可能山高皇帝遠，所以無視禁令。最後，字體反映隸書「過渡到」楷書的演化，既非如隸書般扁形，卻又保留隸書的磔筆，實在罕見。有趣的是，此碑被發現後，學者才驚覺書聖王羲之的年代原來隸書才是主流，甚至開始懷疑古往今來第一行書蘭亭序是假的！

Nat King Cole的South of the Border

《國境之南，太陽之西》算是村上春樹最不奇幻的小說之一，當愛情小說讀也可以，書名前半是指South of the Border這首美國歌曲，很多著名歌手都唱過，不過書中提到的Nat King Cole版卻從未有過錄音，雖然Google有一個搜尋結果是YouTube 片，不過那是「造」出來的，那就不連結了, 另一位爵士歌手Fats Domino倒真是有錄音傳世，而純器樂版本我推薦Benny Goodman Big Band的。其實我一直誤會書名是指East of the Sun (and west of the moon) 這首我更喜歡的Jazz standard!

集專名元曲

閱讀《慢讀元曲》一書時，讀到作家王仲元的介紹，說有兩首運用「集專名」技巧創作的曲，不過就沒有解釋技巧的細節，Google一下「王仲元 集專名」頭十幾條結果都是一模一樣不具細節的網頁！後來才見隋樹森先生《元人散曲概論》之六是分析元人散曲的藝術性，文中提到「集專名」是甚麼一回事：

元人散曲中，還有集各種專名者。如孫季昌的《端正好》套集雜劇名詠情，王仲元的《粉蝶兒》套集曲調名題秋怨，孫叔順的《粉蝶兒》套集藥名等即是。這其中，有時也頗有巧思，應當算是一種藝術，有時候在文藝之外，也還能起到一些意外想不到的作用。如日本青木正兒的《元人雜劇序說》，就曾利用孫季昌那首集雜劇名的散套，考證某些雜劇的時代。日本人寫的《宋元科技史》，也曾引用到孫叔順的集藥名散曲。

以《粉蝶兒》之五《石榴花》為例：

常記得《賞花時》節《看花回》，《上京馬》《醉扶歸》。《歸來》窗半《月兒低》，真個《醉矣》。《柳青娘》《虞美人》扶只，困騰騰《上馬嬌》無力，《步步嬌》弄影兒行遲。似《鳳鸞》交配答《雙鴛鴦》對，人都道《端正好》夫妻。

在雙引號內的都是曲調名，真的相當有趣；令我想起小時候也會用不同流行曲詞串起來寫一些遊戲文章，難度當然小巫見大巫了。

Canon MX880 Scanner ADF 黑線問題已解決

這部Printer/Scanner已用了很多年，今天有一疊樂譜要掃描備份，從document feeder放進，發覺掃描出來的文件有一條黑色直線，但用Flatbed去掃描則無此問題！原來兩者分別用兩塊不同的「玻璃」。後者是大那塊，前者則是左方那狹窄長條；我用抹眼鏡布（輕微弄濕）了狂抹那長條及四邊接著膠片的位置，第一次清潔後發現黑線變幼，再清潔一次就解決了問題，希望此帖對其他用家有所幫助。

珍貴的唐詩

早一陣子香港命理學大師李居明對抗疫提出一些建議，包括抄寫經文讓心境平靜，而無宗教一士則可抄唐詩三百首云云，成為一時「佳話」。很多人都聽過俗語有云：「熟讀《唐詩三百首》，不會吟詩也會吟。」（其實我一直覺得吟字出現兩次是敗筆，有說第一個吟字是作字，也有說第二個吟字是偷字，總之意思不難理解）感覺上有《唐詩三百首》一書是理所當然的事，讀了此文方知唐代詩人作品失傳了很多，流傳下來是因為後世文人的努力，包括明代胡震亨、降清的錢謙益及為錢氏接力的季振宜，胡的《唐音統簽》和錢季兩位的《唐詩》就成為康熙下詔修的《全唐詩》的原材料，後者收錄了接近五萬首作品。

Tribute to Harold Mabern

I was listening to this album the other day, performed by a quartet featuring the late great jazz pianist at PizzaExpress in SOHO London. I vaguely recalled I considered going there or Ronnie Scott's for jazz during my 1998 visit. Not 100% sure which one I went as I didn't write about this in my old post. I suspect I chose the latter since I would have found it too weird for a pizza place to be a jazz club as well. And I just realized this is the brand that our family (oh well, one of the member) like in Hong Kong. In fact, my buddy ordered to-go from it earlier in the year for the party at his place. Of course, the PizzaExpress restaurants in Hong Kong do not feature live jazz.

靉靆

今天讀到兩個不識的中文字，當然上網查查，找到一篇講靉靆是中國古代對眼鏡的稱呼，明末張自烈於《正字通》載：「靉靆即眼鏡。」不過我讀到的靉靆是指昏暗多雲的天色，出自一首日本能因法師詩歌的中文翻譯本：
猶憶出京日
靉靆霞相隨
今過白河關
蕭蕭秋風吹

原文是：
都をば 霞とともに 立ちしかど 秋風ぞ吹く白河の関

地球上最大的生物

見到標題相信不少人第一時間想到鯨魚吧，那的確是動物界中第一巨無霸，不過生物不只包括動物，又或者植物，地球上最大這個名銜屬於非動非植的蘑菇！那是一隻在美國俄勒岡州「居住」的蜜糖菌，全長2.4英里，年齡估計介乎1900至8650歲，當然也是地球上最老的生物！

講起地球上最大，讀到這篇文章介紹最大的兩棲類動物原來在南中國，正式名稱是中國大鯢，俗稱娃娃魚，相信就是金庸小說射鵰入面瑛姑要捉那條。

孟德爾頌與德詩

本地的圖書館有個二手CD架，賣得相當便宜，去年我發現了這張孟德爾頌藝術歌曲的唱片只售$2，決定搏一搏，原來孟德爾頌的藝術歌曲水準和其他此道高手比起來未算突出，本碟可算是靠歌唱家的功力搭救，我也因此碟而接觸了一些德文詩，詩人當中名氣最大的當然是歌德，但我想介紹一首出自Emanuel von Geibel的詩，我翻譯如下：

我的心有如暗黑的夜
當樹頂沙沙作響
月亮平靜地從雲中升起大放光芒，看看！
樹林靜了下來聆聽 

你是月亮，閃閃生光的月亮
你用滿滿愛意
向我拋個媚眼
當中滿載天堂般的平安感，看看！
我如暴風雨的心已被安撫

非州無老虎，中國無獅子

早一陣子提起有一位有學問的名人（台北市長）說非州有老虎，原來是錯的；而喜歡舞獅的中國人國內亦沒有獅子！其實亞洲僅有的獅子也是在印度吉爾獅子保護區（Gir Lion Sanctuary）「苟延殘喘」，歷史上的亞洲獅有分印度亞種和波斯亞種，前者已消失，後者是印度政府由伊朗引入，薩桑吉爾（Sasan Gir）人由當初8隻養到今天的523隻，功勞不少，值得表揚。而一隻本土沒有的動物能夠成為常見的形像（例如香港滙豐銀行的石獅子），皆因獅子在佛經中是守護神是力量的化身。

Grammy and Jazz 2020

The entertainment industry likes to give out awards for sure. I realized I missed the Grammys after I came back from my trip. So I googled who were the winners in the jazz category and found the list from Jazziz, which has actually embedded videos from the winners. Nice! To me, it's always a good opportunity to find out who has released what in the previous years since my other limited sources to learn about new releases were Spotify, jazz magazines that I read occasionally and podcasts. One thing that annoyed me a lot this year is the nominated albums have LOTS of vocals. Isn't there a separate category for vocal already? Anyway, there are still many that I enjoyed. Check out my new playlist:

Of course I excluded all the pieces with vocal, to the best of my knowledge :P
I did include several big band albums, which traditionally I don't care for. I guess it have to do with the modern arrangements, pioneered by the likes of Maria Schneider. Modern big band jazz is no longer "a lot of instruments playing together" but music showcasing a wide varieties of "colors painted by different instruments"

衢州雜談

朋友分享了一則關於衢州市柯城區九華鄉為防疫打壓村民聚集打麻雀而沒收600多隻一索（統一保管，疫情結束後再發還），我覺得衢州這兩字似曾相識，以為是和讀過的詩詞有關，先找到這一首唐朝劉禹錫《衢州徐員外使君遺以縞紵兼竹書箱因成一篇用答佳貺》

爛柯山下舊仙郎，列宿來添婺女光。遠放歌聲分白紵，知傳家學與青箱。
水朝滄海何時去，蘭在幽林亦自芳。聞說天台有遺愛，人將琪樹比甘棠。

讀完不知所云，幸好找到一位網友解讀：

衢州徐員外使君(未知此人是誰,當是劉禹錫的朋友吧)將縞紵和一箱竹書贈與我故而寫此篇用作回贈 （佳貺:好的贈品）
爛柯山下住著您這位如神仙一般的世外高人,就連天上的星宿也要為你來增添光彩.你豪邁奔放縱聲高歌那衣袖也要起舞翩翩,你的學識留在這書箱之內流傳後世.世俗紅塵就讓他們隨波逐流慢慢遠去吧,如果自己品德高尚在什麼時候都會放光.聽說在天台治理有方,很受百姓愛戴,你辛勤王事,竟然不把仙界的玉樹當一回事,只在樹下辛勞理政

於是知道原來爛柯山就在衢州，中國圍棋友都應該聽過和爛柯山有關的神仙下棋典故吧！這位網友去過拍了很多照片。我也想起金庸小說《碧血劍》應該有提過衢州，那是主角袁承志「仇家/親家」（溫青青五位公公和母親）棋仙派所在地（去年寫過相關的帖）

說回唐詩，前年衢州日報推出 《重走衢州詩詞文化帶·唐詩之路》專欄，值得一讀；介紹了好幾首相關唐詩，例如這首寫適逢黃巢之亂和朋友道別不知能否再見：

衢州江上別李秀才
【唐】韋莊
千山紅樹萬山雲，
把酒相看日又曛。
一曲離歌兩行淚，
更知何地再逢君。

上月本人離開家鄉，正值武肺肆虐，心情相類。

最後想提，除了棋和詩，衢州還有一樣和我們頗有關係的事物，就是寫書法用的紙！這則新聞講衢州有一所研究製作技藝已中斷百年的「開化紙」工作室，該種紙是明清皇室御用紙，相當名貴。

Followups

I followed up my Starbucks cappuccino and Gesha coffee posts last week. This time I am following up some other old posts:
- the one about X-Men: First Class. I found a better clip of Moira and Frost.
- the one about the Fyre festival. It has been 3 years since the fiasco happened but the media keeps the stories going. Netflix (and Hulu too!) released documentary about the "founder" Billy McFarland and the fraud last year. Then more news at the end of the year: McFarland was writing an autobiography (that no one wants to publish except himself) and planning a Fyre Festival 2.0 while he is serving his 6-year sentence in prison.

Cappuccino at Starbucks

I wrote about its "disappearance" 4 years ago. I just re-read that post (yes, I do enjoy my own writings a lot :P) and decided to revisit the topic. I am pretty sure cappuccino is on the menu again these days. However, I just found out the best "version" to order is the "short" size, which makes it the same amount of espresso and milk as the "standard", i.e., what other "good coffee shops" would do. I will try it next time as I always find Statbucks cappuccino tastes too much like milk than coffee.

Side note: I also re-read my post about gesha coffee. I have finally tried it in Taipei last year (it costed less than US$8) and surprisingly enjoyed it. As other reviews mentioned, it doesn't have much bitterness and sourness.

世間那有揚州鶴

「寧可食無肉，不可居無竹。」這兩句相信大家都聽過，可能也知出自蘇東坡，該作品名為《於潛僧綠筠軒》，全詩可看此文（包括詳細解釋），最後一句「世間那有揚州鶴」值得講講，「揚州鶴」的典故是講一個想富貴又升仙的貪心人，指的是十全十美得世間不可能存在的事物，在本詩是指既要風雅（竹）又要物慾的滿足（食肉），世間是沒有的；所以我還是選擇後者。

機上娛樂-過年篇

來回港美共廿幾小時的航程又是看電影的好機會，最近幾年多了看香港和亞洲電影，可能心底的本土情感被召喚上面了（當然美國英雄片也看過太多遍了）以下是今次由頭看到尾的三套電影（有一兩套中途棄了）

作家的謊言：筆忠誘罪 這是又一套從向西村上春樹小說改編的電影，去年初看了《西謊極落之太爆太子太空艙》已十分欣賞，雨僑演一樓一鳳姐相當出色；今次的主角是一位搞外情的作家，女主角由何佩瑜（Jeana Ho）飾演，沙律也有客串兩個鏡頭，算是蕭定一/HMV/Viu TV這個「主流」以外的班底吧。出自向西村上春樹的故事情節當然有一定水準，本土值得支持。

首相失憶了 這是同學前幾天在聚會介紹的日本電影，講一個相當不受歡迎兼行為卑劣（似曾相識？）的日本首相因遇襲失憶「從新做人」的故事，當然有不少超現實的情節，好笑得來也令人看得心頭暖暖。

信用欺詐師JP：香港浪漫篇 又是日本電影，女主角是「聽過個名唔知乜樣」的長澤正美，講一班「老千」鬥智的故事，原來是一個日劇系列的「番外篇」，頗多戲份在香港拍攝，當然看得有感情；而很少看日劇的本人，不太會估劇情，所以整體上也很有娛樂性。

Functional programming with Clojure

I took a course on Scala for Data Science. It is a very cool language with lots of non-trivial features. And you can do functional programming with it, which reminded me of another cool language, my old friend LISP! Of course, their popularity these days are not comparable. Even after Scala dropped out of Top 20 (see this article for details), it is still way ahead of LISP. However, one "dialect" of LISP, Clojure, is still getting quite a bit of attentions. Here is a guide on basic web dev with Clojure. And I found some pointers to hosting such app on the web (with low cost.) The IDE I use is Cursive (user guide) and this csv library is an example of the code that the community has contributed. Check out this post about a pet project done with ClojureScript on front end and Clojure on back end! 

2019年尾三張新唱片

近年認識新唱片有三個渠道，本帖介紹三張分別來自這三個渠道的唱片：

• Binker Golding: Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers 這是Spotify介紹的新唱片，主角是英國爵士色士風手Binker Golding, 其實2017年我的Top 5爵士推介有他和鼓手Moses Boyd合作以Binker and Moses名義發表的作品。碟評說本碟靈感源自英國六七十年代爵士樂壇，大家不妨聽聽有沒有那味道？我對那可說無甚認識。
• Nicholas Payton: Relaxin' with Nick 這是爵士雜誌Downbeat內廣告介紹的新唱片，Nicholas Payton在我印象中是比較傳統派的小號手，皆因他算是New Orleans同鄉Wynton Marsalis的「弟子」，不過聽了本碟Stablemates一曲後我就改觀了，另外原來Payton除了吹小號也彈鋼琴及電子琴(Fender Rhodes)。美中不足是本碟夾雜了不少我無興趣的vocal.
• Cecilia Bartoli: Farinelli 這是音響雜誌Stereophile碟評介紹的新作，Cecilia這位Mezzo soprano我可算是追隨多年，她九十年代至今多張作品我都有聽，本碟全部曲目都是巴羅克時代著名閹人歌手Farinelli的拿手好戲，今時今日當然沒有男歌手唱得到，曲目也不如當年受歡迎，作曲家Porpora我就從來未聽過，Bartoli演譯他的詠嘆調"Alto Giove"令我 聽得好感動。

後記：Googled了一下Nicholas Payton和Marsalis方知原來早幾年Payton和Marsalis家族另一位「老大哥」Branford有過筆戰：辯論關於黑人音樂和爵士；長文慎入。

電腦中文字體

我想我也算是早期中文電腦使用者，中學年代用過DOS上的「外掛」系統，大學時代會在Unix裝中文字體，用瀏覽器看中文網站，那時要手動選character encoding呢，今時今日大家看我這個中文帖無需任何額外設定，和當年差太遠了。接觸過中文字體的朋友，相信都會聽過所謂宋體和明體，後者又以細明體（MingLiu）最有代表性。直到今天讀了此文才明白宋體明體的由來：中港台稱為宋體的字其實源自明朝，明代刻書工匠就是用這種字體，他們以為自己的字體源自宋朝，但其實宋朝刻書字體是學歐顏柳的楷書，康熙一錘定音稱之為宋體，日本人則正名為明體；後人仿「真宋朝」造出的字體就是所謂「仿宋體」了。

在這幾套「主流」字體之外，設計師會選擇的字體更多姿多彩了，早一陣子朋友派對菜單就用了「凌慧體」，範例：

這是一套手寫出來的字體，相信大家也會覺得很接近。

在搜尋此字體來歷時發現此文，雖然讀完也不知名字中那位凌慧其實是那一位，但就喜歡了文中提到的「囍宴體」，範例：