le me, positively haunting

picture time~~~

First, pictures of Tigress and Yutou taken this morning:
Tigress, the incredibly friendly (if not somewhat cloying) female calico kind of grimaced at me because I didn't give her any canned food, only dry food. Her favorite is "Chicken of the Sea", the kind we eat, but I only give her that very sparingly, human food in general are not good for cats. She loves canned food for cats too.

She loves rubbing against people she knows well, and is very easy to get along with. She does scowl if the food is not to her liking.

This is Yutou (芋頭). I believe Yutou is a he. Yutou is sweet tempered and shy, I somehow have the hunch that he is the most intelligent of the lot. He has grown up so much since last summer. He loves to lap up icy cold milk. I was hesitant about giving him milk at first because many cats are not lactose tolerant, but Yutou definitely does not have that problem. He sometimes lingers on after finishing his daily canned and dry food, this is his cue that he wants some milk -- his comfort drink. Yutou has become more relaxed around me lately, he lets me scratch his ears and back and message his furry and soft limbs with both hands now. He meows loudly when I approach him with food in my hands.

Now, as mentioned a long long time ago, I said I would post some of my sketches. At this point, I am not capable of drawing (tolerably well) from memory or imagination alone, so all the sketches I did are from photographs (not taken by me). I will try to find the original links to them.
The one to the left is a quick sketch of an Eskimo mother with her baby and a puppy. The original photograph can be found here. (scroll down)

This is actually a failed attempt, because the Eskimo woman in my sketch ends up looking like the baby's grandmother, instead of his mother (=.=). But I decided to post this piece because this was my first experience using Derwent's sketching set.
This is the same Eskimo woman with her son, now sleeping soundly. The original link is the same as the one above. This little sketch was completed on impulse. I wasn't planning to sketch that day, but somehow I saw this photograph and I felt like giving it a try. I used normal printing paper and a very average green color pencil. I think I was in the right drawing mood, it turned out a lot better than I expected.

This is my most recent sketch. I used Derwent's Drawing Pencils for coloring, and Derwent's Sketching set for outline. I absolutely love Derwent's Drawing Pencils. The colors are solid, somewhat subdued, and generally have an earthy tone (in other words, the colors are not too loud or cartoonish). This sketch took about 2 weeks to finish. The old guy's hat took some special effort, it was a pain in the neck to create those crease and folds, shadings and lighter areas. I messed up his mouth actually, in the original photo, the man has a bigger mouth. The original post where I found the photograph is here. The photograph is on one of the pages, but I really don't know which page anymore. The post, by the way, has fantastic photographs and the writing is simply heartrending.

This little caricature of a sketch is for you to laugh at and for my amusement. I am not really a fan of 黑豹(black panther), but I do like their debut album. As you can see, I sketched it from the cassette tape cover. I was sorting my old cassettes the other day, I thought it is about time I get rid of them. But I got into such a nostalgic mood that I ended up keeping most of my old cassettes. I am not even sure this cassette by Black Panther belongs to me. But anyways, I just can't find it in me to throw away BP's debut album.

My drawing tools. I hoarded lots of drawing tools, especially color pencils, ever since I started having this thing for color pencil drawings, and ever since I first set foot in Blick art store. Its a shame I have completed very few sketches but my drawing tools will last probably 50 years. But anyways, this is the 12-piece Derwent's Sketching set, the ones I use the most are HB/2B/4B graphite sketching pencils. The gray play-doh-like eraser is an excellent artist's eraser, you can knead it into any convenient shape of your choice. It erases tough marks. The white pencil-like things are paper stumps used for blending colors. They are INDISPENSABLE, especially if you need to create shading/gradation effects. And of course, you need sandpaper.

This is Derwent's Drawing Pencils. I can't say enough good things about them. They are some of the best drawing pencils you can get.

久違的夏日照片

折騰了好久，終于有照片了。這些都是這個夏天的回憶~~~

“家貓”Onyx -- 一臉睡眼惺忪的大爺樣，這是最熱的那段時間

Onyx 2010年夏天最美的照片

“家貓”肥二 - 肥二是個十足的小霸王，稍不稱心如意就揮起爪子給個耳光，不過肥二最近和灰白出雙入對起來了 ^.^

　

這盆“爛草”總算不負苦心，也好歹開了幾朵小花，仔細看其實還是挺精細的花

海棠花自從放到院子裏，充分沐浴在陽光裏之後，就瘋狂地開花

下過雨後，平時貌不驚人的草竟然開出這麽清麗脫俗的鈴鐺花

太漂亮了，再放一張

院子裏種了瓜類植物，所以黃顔色的花很多，但還是這朵最嬌嫩

院子雖然很一般，但還是有玫瑰的，可是只有一朵（=.=）

久違了的藍色小蜻蜓，這麽説來，好多年沒有見過蜻蜓了，蜻蜓果然喜歡在尖尖的東西上停留

這兩天下雨了，已經是秋雨的味道，風亦似秋風，風中聽見了冬天的腳步聲~~~

阿加莎克里斯蒂女爵士，科技

（blogger增加了背景設計，多了很多選擇，很開心，但反而很難選擇了）

愛讀偵探小説，又怎麽能夠錯過阿加莎克里斯蒂女爵士。

接觸她的作品比我意識到的要早得多。還在中國時，就在電視上看過譯製片尼羅河慘案，但是因爲當時年齡小，所以已經沒有什麽印象了。後來在初中階段，下午放學後，經常和朋友到學校附近的圖書館去看書，那時候英文還不怎麽好，學習英文的熱情也不強，仍然對中文書有濃厚的興趣。那個圖書館有相當多的中文圖書，其中有一套世界各地名推理小説系列，大概有十幾、二十本的樣子，分散在書架各處，我和朋友都很喜歡讀推理小説，就以尋找這套系列叢書中尚未讀過的單本小説為樂，一旦找到了就津津有味地讀，然後交流感想。現在回想一下，當時讀過的那些推理小説中，印象最深的是一本玫瑰紅色封面的小説。由於是好多年前讀的，因此書名、偵探的名字、案情細節都記不清了，但之所以印象最深，是因爲最後兇手被揭發時的那種震撼感依然能夠記得。讀偵探小説的樂趣之一就是猜兇手，而那本書的兇手是完全出乎我的意料的。那種寫偵探小説的手法也是第一次體驗。後來一問那位朋友，她也記得那個偵探故事，但也忘記了書名、作者等詳情。

後來開始接觸阿加莎克里斯蒂的偵探小説之後，偶然間發現，原來多年前讀過的那本精彩的小説，正是“The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”（儸傑疑案）。這恐怕是阿加莎的推理故事中相當具爭議性的一本。另一本也很具爭議性的是“Crooked House”（畸屋），前不久剛剛讀完。在接近尾聲之前，其實心裏已經依稀猜到兇手，畢竟只有他/她是兇手，才能起到爭議性的效果。但畸屋的寫作手法依然有其新穎之處，非常值得推薦。阿加莎是十分多產的作家，創作的推理作品超過80部，到目前讀過的還十分有限。這當中很多故事都改編成了電視，由David Suchet飾演阿加莎筆下最著名的偵探 - Hercule Poirot。一個地地道道的英國演員，卻把一個神經質般注意細節、對自己的“灰細胞”異常自信、一口法語口音的比利時名偵探給演活了。David Suchet已經等於Poirot的化身，其他任何人都很難代替。

人生若有三千年

那就做個三千年的書蠹。


唯一能讓我失去理智的店恐怕就是書店，房子裏沒有書，家的附近沒有圖書館，居住的城市沒有幾間像樣的書店，真是令人心慌。埋在書堆裏，尤其是老書堆裏，如果更有老家具環繞，咖啡或清茶繚繞，那就是神仙日子了。


本地的書店當然都是以英語書為主，這當然也非常好，小説類/懸疑類/藝術類是我經常逗留的角落。不過有時候，真希望能夠瞬時回到中國的老書屋，尤其是古籍類書屋去，好好消磨幾個下午。


所幸這裡的華人衆多，華人聚集地也有幾家不大不小的書店。兩家是臺灣書店，是我經常光顧的地方，雖然價錢有些貴，不過書本大多製作精美，文學類/國學類書籍也經常是有的。


後來又開了一家新華書店，是内地開的，價錢相對便宜很多，但是多以暢銷書為主：股市金融類，健康養生類，收藏尋寳類，暢銷小説類，書的品質參差不齊，不仔細挑挑是不行的。上兩個星期去看到一套人民文學出版社重印的三國演義，當時一個猶豫沒有買，後來再去就杳如黃鶴了，真是後悔。家裏那套的脊梁骨都斷了，正好重置一套。看來只能再等機會。另外有一套“鴻篇鉅制”的“家藏四庫”，囊括了相當一部分叫的出名字的四書五經和古典小説，價錢算是相當便宜，品質如何尚不敢斷言，權且當個樂子，買了兩本回家讀讀，肯定也能長不少見識。

旅行 － 雲南

中国の雲南に行ったことがあります。雲南は中国の南にあって、チベットの隣にあります。漢字はこの二つで、“雲”（くも）と“南”（みなみ）です。雲南の意味は“雲の南にある所”です。

二千一年の夏、友達と一緒に雲南に行きました。友達の親戚（しんせき）は雲南に住んでいますから、親戚は私たちに雲南を案内しました。

雲南は夏は暑くないし、冬は暖かい場所です。一年中、気温は気持ちのよいです。いろいろな自然的な景色があります。高度（こうど）は高いですから、雪の多い山があるし、川、湖（みずうみ）、温泉、野生動物（やせいどうぶつ）、珍しい植物（しょくぶつ）もあります。しかも、雲南は民族的（みんぞくてき）で、文化的（ぶんかてき）な場所です。雲南には、２６民族があって、たくさん伝統的（でんとうてき）で、古い町があります。

私たちは雲南に三週間ぐらいいました。その間、山を登ったり、船で観光したり、民俗音楽を聴いたり、いろいろなオリジナルの雲南料理を食べてみたりしました。そして、初めて馬（うま）に乗ったり、ヤクも乗ったりしました。うまは人に馴れた（なれた）が、ヤクはちょっとワイルドでした、びっくりしました。

雲南の景色はチベットのと似ています。しかし、高度は雲南のほうがチベットよりひくい（低い）ので、チベットの旅行するより雲南の旅行するほうがやさしいです。

入秋

     搬家真是苦事，希望以後再也不要搬了。這幾天還沒有住習慣，總覺得還沒有家的親切感，但是老地方已經空空如也，也沒有家的感覺了。我的窗外現在有賞心悅目的秋景，我把書桌放在窗前，我想以後一年四季，我會在這裡度過很多時間，可能常常就是對著發呆，也可能自然的顔色能帶給我靈感。

  今天在想奢侈品的問題。這真是一種奇妙的東西，是我不太能夠理解的。頂級高雅的奢侈品是與藝術和某种精神與理念挂鈎的，藝術是人對於美的終極詮釋，人生於世是不能沒有美的，沒有美的人生十分可怕。但是當人們在趨之若鶩地爭搶全身印著奢侈品牌，相當於數月薪水的奢侈品時，心中想到的難道是要讓生活更美好嗎？這是我無論如何想不通的。

  亞洲人似乎更加瘋狂地迷信奢侈品。幾年前，我在網站上看到了某G化妝品大牌推出了當年聖誕節的特別款眼影盒，立刻眼前一亮，淡紫色的光滑外盒刻著精美的蝴蝶，裏面以紫色為主色系的四色眼影正是我喜歡的色彩，眼影上也刻著一只蝴蝶。我想一見鍾情就是這種感覺。後來對這只眼影盒念念不忘，到聖誕節前夕，小費一番周折終于把它買了下來。果然，使用的感覺十分美好，拿在手裏的感覺，粉的細膩，以及近看也毫不粗糙的精美包裝，使這只眼影盒立刻成爲我的最愛。我想，如果是出於真正的喜愛之情，在經濟可以承受的前提下，購買奢侈品也沒有什麽不可以。但是如果僅僅是因爲它是名牌而購買，或者日後可以升值而購買，那似乎就有些費解了。

  特別是當生活水平完全沒有達到輕鬆購買奢侈品的程度時，節衣縮食地購買，則是庸人自擾了。

傾國傾城

當初聼到熊汝霖和阿寳的合唱，就已經驚為天人，尤其當看的是小哇的納蘭MV。
後來聽見費玉清的版本，簡~直~了！唱出了完全不同的旖旎悱惻的韻味，但是這樣的感覺，恐怕今日歌壇，除了費玉清，不知道還有誰能做到。

下附傾國傾城歌詞：

詞、曲小柯


雨过白鹭洲
留连铜雀楼
斜阳染幽草
几度飞红
摇曳了江上远帆

回望灯如花
未语人先羞
心事轻梳弄
浅握双手
任发丝缠绕双眸

所以鲜花满天幸福在流传
流传往日悲欢眷恋
所以倾国倾城不变的容颜
容颜瞬间已成永远

此刻鲜花满天幸福在身边
身边两侧万水千山
此刻倾国倾城相守着永远
永远静夜如歌般委婉

回望灯如花
未语人先羞
心事轻梳弄
浅握双手
任发丝缠绕双眸

所以鲜花满天幸福在流传
流传往日悲欢眷恋
所以倾国倾城不变的容颜
容颜瞬间已成永远

此刻鲜花满天幸福在身边
身边两侧万水千山
此刻倾国倾城相守着永远
永远静夜如歌般委婉
此刻倾国倾城相守着永远
 
另外，附上這幾年我見過/聼過的中國風之中，個人認爲作詞最好的一首，當然，曲調也很好聽：

I'm currently reading...

As usual, I have too many items on my plate. I am always trying to finish ten books at a time and end up finishing none. But old habits die hard, so I guess I will just have to live with it.
As I've already mentioned in a previous entry, Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale is a wonderfully resourceful book for aspiring writers/struggling translators. Its not exactly an easy read though especially with my embarrassingly limited vocabulary.
Jane Austin mystery series by Stephanie Barron are a new set of mystery novels I'm trying to pick up. I've only gone through three pages and already, I love her writing!
Gameinformer, yes, I am a big RPG fan. Though I don't play as hecticly as I used to back in college, I still like to spend an hour or two on my DS once in a while. Besides, game language is a genre all by itself.
Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer...haha, you have no idea how fun it is to read their flyers. Its got that antique touch to it, which I absolutely love.
Last but NOT LEAST, one of my favorite mystery series, the Judge Dee Mysteries by Robert Van Gulik. This one is Phantom of the Temple. I recommend them anywhere, anytime on anyday.

Being Moody is a Scary Thing

You think scary thoughts about the people closest to you
But then again, brain is a very convenient tool at times like this
You can curse the world and damn it to hell in your head
Then face a whole new day like a newborn
Everybody has down times when images of horror flash through
Just make sure to keep them in your head

究竟怎樣才算把一門語言學好呢

在今天，會個兩三門語言實在不是什麽值得炫耀的事情。
語言這種東西，學到一般程度其實不算什麽難事，
大部分人只要有適當的環境，智力中等，幾個月至幾年之後，基本都可以做到
可是母語和後天掌握的語言之間永遠都有本質性的距離
這個距離隨著時間和努力會不斷縮小，但是是否會完全消失，
這個我不敢說 （大腦真是奇妙的東西）

我很喜歡精讀東西，可是時間太有限
尤其是優美的文字，一個字一個字推敲地讀的那種感覺，
猶如在亮晶晶的白沙子裏篩出金閃閃的小寶物
把這些小珠子、小寶石一般的詞彙細心地記錄在細心購買的厚重結實的本子裏
（不要怕使用不同種顔色的筆和不同種的語言來註解，甚至畫一些小圖畫）
這纔是我喜歡的小資裝B式的學外語方法（可其實並不是在裝啊）

例如精讀高儸佩的狄仁傑探案，就非常地享受啊
那種透著古樸但又秀氣十足的英語，讀起來非常的舒服
還有David Hawkes翻譯的“石頭記”
這輩子能把英語寫成老頭子那樣，此生無憾了（老頭子前不久升天了啊）

Translating, translating translating

Coughing like crazy, but relishing in the little jewels of words I learned
in my current translation project.
Ahh, I love working on literary pieces...
Do you know how many ways you can run?
Why not try these alternatives: amble, canter, gallop, scurry, scamper and trot.
Do you know how many varieties of "walking" are there?
Are you familiar with all the different ways birds can chirp, tweet, warble and trill?
Ahhhh...more dainty entries for my leather-bound vocabulary journal...

"China Road" by Rob Gifford

Still feeling under the weather...ahh, I absolutely hate coughing.
I hope I don't cough my way through my presentation tonight, my
first Japanese speech on Miyashita Sensei's class.

Anyways, China Road is such a fun and thought provoking read.
I want to write a longer book report on this book someday, but
I always have trouble gathering my thoughts quickly, need lengthy
organization and deliberation before I can say anything sensible.

So expect the book report sometime (indefinitely) in the future. ^.^

Three days after contracting seasonal flu

Working with head swirling, vision murky.

Reading "Sin and Syntax" by Constance Hale

If I have all the time in the world
I'd wrestle with every word til the perfect one comes along
But the real world is urgent
So perfection remains a myth
and every piece is scarred
with its own imperfect lessons and charms

陷入日语语法地狱

不知不觉，已经到了第10级，敬语是座大山啊！