Pitchers named Chen in MLB

Can you believe we have two of them starting two days in a row? Chen Wei-Yin 陳偉殷 started for the Baltimore Orioles yesterday (he gave up his first HR in his first pitch to Derek Jeter, the future Hall of Famer) Bruce Chen 陳用彩 will start for the Kansas City Royals today against the Oakland A's. The only other last name that shared the same honor was Garcia (Freddie Garcia for the Yankees yesterday and Jaime Garcia for the Cardinals today)

Wisdom of Pablo Casals

Found this quote of the great cellist Casals in the book I'm reading, "The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece" by Eric Siblin:

The more worn a string,
the better it sounds.
And do you know when it sounds best of all?
Just before it's about to break.

It's a bit sad, isn't it? Strings are even more fragile and delicate than relationships.

時代正確的電視節目

香港的電視劇錯誤多籮籮，現今的事物及用語出現在古代，已是司空見慣。其實類似的錯誤在外國電視劇也有出現，就像近期常被報導、頗受媒體重視的Mad men，其中一集用了在該集發生時代之後才推出的歌曲，製作人在接獲批評（應該是試映會的視評人吧？）後即重新剪輯該集換掉該曲，確保正式出街版本不會犯同樣錯誤。如果是香港電視台，慳吝的老闆願意再花人力去更正嗎？相信置之不理居多。

Music of the day

本地爵士台KCSM成朝播黃金年代作品

Wynton Kelly: I Want A Little Girl

Milt Jackson: Ruby
Miles Davis: Just Squeeze Me
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Along Came Betty
Bobby Hutcherson: Bouquet
John Coltrane: I Want To Talk About You


好多ballad，正呀！

Spring Break Trip

This has become a yearly tradition, like it or not. Babysitting the kids at home because they have no school is no fun (which I'm doing right now) That's why we try to take a trip during the break. We downsized from going to HK for a week in 09 and 00 to So Cal for 4 days in 01. This year we further downsized to Central Cal for 2 days. We almost had to cancel it because Maddy had a low fever in the few days prior but she seemed to be up for the trip and it turned out to be a fun and relaxing trip (and Maddy recovered during the trip!)

The first stop was Monterey. We had a seafood lunch at the Old Fishermen's Wharf. I haven't been to Monterey in years (I did go to the nearby Laguna Seca for the world's top motorcycle race MotoGP last year) and forgot whether I have been to its Fishermen's Wharf (old or new) before. (BTW, our minivan reached 66666 miles two days after our other car reached 33333. Of course I drove 66 mph for that mile :)

Next we visited Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Lots of old memory to share with the kids. The most interesting one: a scoop of ice cream at Thrifty costed only $0.39 during our college days (well, according to an elder alum, it was even less: $0.25 at his time!) Now it costs $1.69 thanks to inflation (and the need to maximize profit for shareholders?) And the drug store was brought by Rite Aid. Then we headed to the Splash cafe in Pismo Beach for seafood again! We couldn't have enough clam chowder :D And we spent our night there.

The kids woke up even earlier than the days they went to school! So we checked out early and drove to Solvang, the most Danish place outside of Denmark, an hour away. It's perfect time for breakfast when we arrived at the famous Paula's Pancake House (and it filled up a while after we were there) We loved the Danish pancakes, which were thinner and tasted less filling than the traditional (American?) buttermilk pancakes. Of course, we gotta have some Danish pastries! Fortunately it was a "walking-friendly" city so we spent most of our time walking around the few blocks of downtown, including the Hans Christian Andersen Museum. Andersen was the author of The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Mermaid and The Princess and the Pea. We even rented a surrey bike (the two-frontwheel-two-backwheel type popular in Hong Kong) for an hour (costed US$25. I bet it's much cheaper in HK) and burned off some of the calories from the pastries :D Solvang was a really cozy little town and worthwhile to visit. We left after lunch and slowly drove back home.

Link to pictures

And just like last Spring Break, I spent some time on road biking. This time I did a 73 mile loop to Pacific coast in preparation for the Sea Otter Gran Fondo, a 96 mile ride, at the end of this month. Man, what a ride: long, windy and steep. It's a few miles longer than the longest I've ever riden (I did 65 miles for Levi Leipheimer's Gran Fondo last October) and it's also the toughest: 2 long climbs and a few shorter ones. I started by going up Page Mill to Skyline, the 1st long climb, then went down West Alpine to Pescadero Creek Road, which had a short climb before a long downhill and then flat to Pescadero. From there I took Stage Road, which had a few short climbs to Highway 1. It's a short but scary downhill because the wind blew so hard and I felt the bike wobbly. Not to mention cars drove by really fast. (BTW, it's the third time I was on Hwy 1 and saw the Pacific Ocean this week) Finally, it's the ultimate long climb: Tunitas Creek Road. The whole road was ~9 mile long and became steep 3 mile into it. The next 3 miles was especially hard. It just seemed never ending and my leg muscle gave it all it had. Finally I reached Skyline but there's still ~2 miles until the summit. Then it's the familiar La Honda downhill ride to Woodside and Palo Alto. I could barely walk when I'm home. The bottom was sore too. To be honest: it's not that fun but it's not for nothing though: I think I'm ready for Sea Otter.

祖兒 @ Peppermill

認識我的朋友可能有點奇怪，我竟然會去看流行歌手演唱會。其實雖然我很少玩流行音樂，卻是幾個歌手及組合（呼之欲出！）的fans（暗地𥚃也練了不少Beatles），十幾年前看過周慧敏在美生堂的演唱會，及早幾年在牛宮看Twins，都記憶猶新。事實上，爵士樂手吸收當代流行曲原素幾近指定動作，舊的jazz standards大都是那時的流行曲不在話下，十幾年前Herbie Hancock就有一張全改編流行曲的New Standards，近期我常聽Stanley Jordan玩Katy Perry的I Kiss A Girl 雖然如此，我對香港樂壇還是十分脫節，容祖兒的CD在家中勉強找到三隻，但她及Twins之後紅起來的歌手我是完全陌生。這次她在Reno的Peppermill賭場開演唱會，是我第一次看她。除了演唱會外，今次Reno之旅也有很多其他第一次:由Bay area至Reno大約三四小時車程，我並不常去，對上一次起碼是十五六年前的事。沿途經過的Lake Tahoe也去得不多，只是去年特地去過滑雪，但路況極佳，全無積雪阻道。今次在Auburn附近看到貨車雪鍊檢查站的告示，再加上電話地圖指原應尚餘二小時的路程還有五小時才能完成，心知不妙（並極期望是地圖軟件有bug）除了數年前在Toronto，今次是我自UWisc畢業後少有的雪地行車經歷，而要在車軚上雪鍊則是首次（記得多年前和姐姐打算出trip時買過一次，卻沒有用上，現在已經不知放在何處）幸好以前有朋友教路：現在雪鍊可以臨時在路邊買，加上安裝費，合共$80。上了雪鍊只能以30mph慢駛，那還是best case scenario，有一段是介乎完全停頓及5mph之間，亦有些路段因為黑暗加上雪不停打在擋風玻璃導致能見度甚低，兼且路面濕滑，很多車即使可以行得更快也沒有，我算比較大膽，在此情況爬了幾次頭。我們的xB就此度過33333這個里程碑，當時速度為33mph，成個dashboard都是3。過了Truckee之後下山一段，雪鍊令解除，可能因為太晚，路邊已沒有拆鍊服務員。駛了一會我們見有一個highway exit，路肩頗寬兼有强猛街燈照射，當機立斷駛到街燈之下自行拆鍊。我們全無拆鍊經驗，唯有刨刨說明書，還原裝鍊的步驟後，再駛前駛後扭左扭右，拉拉扯扯了幾次才「符碌」把雪鍊拆下，居然完整無缺。拆鍊後全速前進，合計用了八個小時才到Peppermill，路上除了聽了三十幾首祖兒的歌，還聽過七十幾首其他中文歌，十幾首中樂，也算是一項紀錄！原定在演唱會開始前兩小時到達，足夠吃晚餐有餘，變成比開場遲了一個半小時才到（據代客泊車說，主辦單位有鑑於路況已特別推遲半小時才開場）入場時應是勁歌熱舞環節尾聲，但也聽到四首歌；然後是「encore」，祖兒唱了大概六七首歌，

包括一首自己彈結他伴奏（那支Taylor結他當然是好東西，她的open chord也彈得有板有眼），也有我至愛的「逃避你」

逃避你　卻又期待我可跟你做情人
而用情的心可天昏地暗
逃避你　愛是遙又遠得很
而我始終不敢靠近
還是不相信能和你合襯

如共你從沒開始　不會有終結
誰人在意　情在我心的深處不可以停止

還以為太舊的歌她不會唱。雖然遲了，我們也看了一個小時她的演出，十分欣賞祖兒演出認真投入及高水準的演唱，絕對不是交行貨唱夠鐘走人那種。

最後想提的是演出場地所在的Peppermill賭場，老實說，如果不是祖兒在那裡開演唱會，很難想像會踏足該處（祖兒為它帶來不少客人！）因為地點不是Reno最旺地帶，我以前從未聽過此酒店。不過房間以至餐廳食物(早上九點去等buffet開始:)質素不俗，而且比起LV便宜不少，也算相當滿意。我去poker room玩兩手，竟然也贏了一個pot，算是交得最少學費的一次。

總括來說，雖然miss了一小時祖兒的演唱會，有點遺憾；這次過雪山也算是畢生難忘的奇妙經歷（當然，這個和唐唐在梳化的奇妙一刻完全是兩回事）

Android Apk Downloader

幾經辛苦，終於下載到香港討論區個apk(Android app installer)，全靠一個Chrome Extension: Apk Downloader(via呢個帖)

棒球季

因為工作地點關係，常常踩單車經過巨人隊的主場AT&T Park。數個月的offseason感覺相當漫長，昨天卻瞥見場內修剪整齊綠油油的草地，彷彿特地擦得光亮的食檔招牌，自自然然意識到regular season即將來臨。事實上，鄰居的Oakland A's明天凌晨將為今季揭幕：遠渡日本戰Seattle Mariners。

「假鷹爪」與「豬籠草」

香港濕地公園的「春日賞花」活動甚為政治正確，既有花瓣外形貌似鷹爪的「假鷹爪」，又有常見於沼澤濕地的「豬籠草」。

With or Without You

剛才車中收音機聽了U2首With or Without You，本來隻碟剛出時我麻麻地鍾意這首歌，直至Friends這集用了，以後聽親都勁好feel，特別是落雨時，好像現在。

曖昧

FM92.3原來日頭都鍾意播王菲首「曖昧」：

茶沒有喝光早變酸　從來未熱戀已相戀 陪著你天天在兜圈　那纏繞怎麼可算短

在公司茶杯常常剩下沒有喝光的茶，唔止變酸，直情發霉。有時鄰坐同事見到會忍唔住幫我倒左去。

The real drama

As much as I like watching good-looking sexy mid-age ladies on TV, I never really get into "Desperate Housewives." However, a recent story about the drama that happened in real-life, or the court room to be specific, has caught my attention: The set construction coordinator for the show testified he received an e-mail that suggested a "conspiracy to cover up" information regarding actress Nicollette Sheridan's lawsuit against ABC and the TV show's producers. Sheridan accuses series creator Marc Cherry of killing her character and ending her employment in revenge for her complaints against him for a slapping incident during a rehearsal. Definitely more interesting than TV :P

太極千字文

大家可能都知韓國人擅於吸收中日文化元素再加以改良（比日本人用中國文化似乎更勝一籌）在亞洲大行其道的韓國電視劇韓國音樂大家不會陌生；以前地位不及日本的韓國圍棋，也早已青出於藍。韓國卡通我倒是今天無意中發現，channel surfing看了這套Tai Chi Chaser。那些憑著法寶對打的場面相信參考自日本的Pokemon, 爆丸，爆旋陀螺等等。我最欣賞的倒是他們的法寶：那是一千個漢字，每字代表一種神通力量，例如水、球、亂、刺等等。我要向韓國人寫的只有一個字：服！

下雨天

很久沒有在星期五返SF辦公，今天為了拿替補壞掉的公事用電腦而破例，正值下雨天; 連續下了幾天雨，據聞還陸續有來，似乎也是替補反常地在冬季沒有怎樣來過的雨季。大家都不太介意吧，踩單車經過Ferry building/Embarcadero 時，特別有feel, 不自禁哼起這首那些年很喜歡的歌:

作曲：黃良升
作詞：小美
編曲：Blue Jeans
又獨行舊地 遇著攔路雨灑遍地
路靜人寂寞 這痛哭的雨途人懶去作躲避
這雨中失意空間 點點雨似滲出眼淚
我置身失意空間 盼雨水沖去徬徨愁懷愁思心碎滋味
對昨天心已死 只想不記起
遺忘眼裡暗帶著希冀

在某雨夜我心愛別離 置身雨中哭泣作逃避
仍然情深我未淡忘 看見雨點假想她在旁
風急雨下假裝上路忙 那知我心沒法可釋放
仍懷念你一再往後看

愛已碰灰 雨也變灰
深宵雨裡陌路徘徊 孤單的心開著舞會
這個雨天 無言流了淚
急風送陌路人 雨中歸去
夜雨催促歸去

一唱就記起Blue Jeans, 林憶蓮反而想了一會才記起。這麼多年前的歌，到剛剛Google 才知那句不太啱音的歌詞是說攔路雨，而失意空間連續出現兩次，也有點敗筆，有負小美填詞界之大名; 旋律倒是歷久常新。

Music of the day: 打雀英雄傳

今日開車聽收音機，竟然聽到爵士版「月兒彎彎照九州」（英文名為Moon Over the World）！到底是誰這樣別出心裁？那是來自鼓手Akira Tana的同名唱片，鋼琴手則是香港的Ted Lo。記得上月友人問我香港有甚麼出名爵士樂手，我即時答他的就是國際級高手包以正及Ted Lo。來自同一大碟的還有「打雀英雄傳」（英文名是Condor Man）應該買來聽聽，開枱時更好氣氛。

遲來的表揚

昨晚一家人吃飯，談起多年前女兒只得四歲幾時發生的一件事:記得有一次我們準備全家去旅行，等到小朋友就寢，好不容易才把大件小件行李裝好車上，終於可以回客廳休息，誰知車房竟然不知何故被鎖上，我們進不回屋裡，雖知正門也已鎖，小朋友小的太小，大的那個（女兒）也從來沒有應門的經驗，而且可能都已熟睡，不過我們還是過去按按門鐘碰碰運氣。幸虧女兒醒瞓，對媽媽的聲音又特別熟悉，膽子也不太小，竟然走來應門，我們隔門教她如何幫忙解困，平時手無搏雞之力的她，不知從何生出一股力氣，把那個不算易解的鎖打開了！事隔多年想起還是一額冷汗。阿女抵讚！

政治不正確的謎語

最近學了這個謎語（猜一字）：
一个日本人，拿了一把刀，杀了一口人，流了四点血。

似乎是來自內地，而且相當政治不正確。 

我教我兒子這個經我sanitized的版本:
太陽熱辣辣，一刀切個瓜，快快咬一口，跌出四粒核。 

殺人變做切瓜，雖然謎底沒有「瓜」，不過本來也沒有「人」呢。

拍拖鳥

一直不為意家門外有一棵生滿小小白花的樹，直至今早踩車，回家時見一對不知名小鳥（麻雀大小但身白頭淺綠）拍拖來開餐，我不想破壞這對情侶的氣氛，想跟它們說樹是阿公種的，我不介意它們慢慢食，無奈不是Dr. Dolittle，一行近準備入屋就嚇走了它們，希望它們之後繼續浪漫吧。

Collegiate Gymnastics

Most of you know that I'm a huge college football fan. Rooting for my Longhorns and Badgers every season. Well, I actually enjoy watching a lot of college sports other than football, like baseball, hockey, lacrosse but the only game I have watch was the Texas Longhorns vs Rutgers Scarlet Knights football game in New Jersey, until this Sunday: the whole family went to the Pac-12 Women Gymnastics competition between Stanford, Arizona and Cal. I could see the appeal to the family. For one thing, it's easier to appreciate than football with all those rules. The girls were young and pretty. Nothing to complain about that! The best thing though is that even the most loyal fans to one school did not root against other teams. No boo-ing when anyone made a mistake. That's definitely more kid-friendly. (Even though they will change for sure when they grow up.)

Live at the Village Vanguard

This is sort-of a follow-up to yesterday's topic of music podcast: I found that NPR is streaming some Live concert at Village Vanguard online, e.g. Fabian Almazan Trio With String Quartet In Concert Interesting!