griffinn's Quotable Blog

We are all part of a slowly-progressing nightmare inside the mind of a sleeping god. The moment the god is awakened, we'll be gone.

I suspect someone somewhere already holds a patent on this. As soon as I try to turn this into a book or a movie or a belief system, lawsuits will start flying.

But if I were a tribal leader of 20 people in an isolated jungle, I'd totally turn that into a myth and create a religion around it. And the job of believers is to cause enough terror inside this nightmare to jolt the god awake.

I guess that makes my religion a doomsday cult. Specifically, an activist doomsday cult.

Erik Satie's instructions for his Gymnopédie No. 1 is "lent et douloureux" (slow and sorrowful / painful). So how slow is painfully slow? I just have to find out for myself.

Setup of the experiment:

After studying the score and test-playing a few times, I settled upon my own definition of "slow and painful". Appropriate annotations are added:

Good measurements are key to a successful experiment (especially when you are down to 30 beats per minute), so here's my instrument:

The result was recorded into an MP3 (duration: 7m51s) and can be downloaded for your listening pleasure / pain. Enjoy / Squirm.

電腦科技，可以善用也可以濫用。不知怎地，任何科技到了香港人的手上，其濫用的潛能就會給發揮到極致。以我比較常用的兩種科技產品為例：

• MSN 的主畫面有個廣告窗口，在美國、英國、澳洲等地的用戶通常只會看到一些簡單的圖像或動畫，最擾人的都不過是一些幼稚的 Flash 效果，有時候反而會收起廣告，插播一些即時新聞，讓廣告框更有用。但香港的用戶呢，沒有新聞不用說，一不小心把鼠標游移到廣告框架上，更會有聲色俱備的大幅 Flash 動畫廣告突然彈出，非要俘虜到你的眼球（和耳朵）不可。
• Facebook 有個 tagging 的功能，原意是讓你標示你的相片裏面有某人出現或你的文章有提及某人。最近流傳一種 chain notes 遊戲，叫做「25 random things about me」，玩法是：首先發表一篇 notes ，內容是 25 種關於自己的事情，然後就用 notes 的 tag 功能去把遊戲散播給你的朋友，當作是邀請他們也來寫 25 種自己的事。落到香港人手上，卻把它演變成 photo tagging 遊戲，方法是首先上載一幅圖像，上面有 25 個卡通人物，每個算是代表一種個人特徵或性格等，然後把 25 個 Facebook 朋友跟這些卡通人物逐一配對。（最後當然要記得要求這 25 位朋友再 tag 其他朋友，把這遊戲延續下去。）Note tagging 本來是無傷大雅的潮流玩意，甚至可以算是鼓勵寫作、讓朋友更認識自己等，還算有點意義；但給香港人這樣一搞，變成 photo tagging 後，大家不用寫甚麼了，只管把你的朋友 pigeon-hole 到各種 stereotype 去。（之後可能引發「甚麼意思？我是這樣的人嗎...？」等爭論。）遊戲更容易玩更容易散播，卻連本來那一丁點的意義都給殺掉。

結論： Hong Kong is the ghetto of the Internet.

人有很多必須要做的事情。從一般社會眼光來看，要安排到一件接著一件、滿滿的直到永遠、充滿前瞻性，才是正常的人生。

放假與躲懶，好像變成了消極的抗議、正常的反面。

但是，不可以看作是積極脫離社會主流期望，為心靈預留空間，找自己的路嗎？

Just overheard the following from a business-type loud cell phone talker in a Starbucks:

• Execute our potential
• Low-hanging fruit
• Making in-roads
• The white face in KL and Singapore
• The educator of educators
• It's gonna change our message
• Get our names on the marketplace
• We see us as a team
• We start having strategies

I was going to have lunch but now I feel nauseous.

If euthanasia is ever legalized and there's a neighbourhood ESP store 'round every other corner, I have a slogan for them:

You only die once in a lifetime. Die right! Die your way! At your own time!

(Thus ends my special Chinese New Year blog post.)

摘錄自香港電台即時新聞：

近兩成半受訪兒童不開心扮作無事發生

[...]

註冊社工說，兒童處理不開心的方法，包括裝作無事、看電視或玩遊戲機，令家長難以察覺，未能疏導子女的情緒。

So... are they saying that "trying to get over it" is no longer a valid way for a kid to deal with life? Kids nowadays are pampered and spoiled to death.

If your camera has facial recognition technology, would it recognize this as a face?

If the answer is "yes", here's a bonus question: would you rather it doesn't?

Every time Microsoft Update does its thing after a Patch Tuesday, the same damned conversation would go through my mind:

Q: Windows is malicious. Why won't the Malicious Software Removal Tool remove Windows?

A: The Malicious Software Removal Tool is also malicious.

倒霉加上倒霉，可以說是喜劇的必勝方程式。以下情節，隨時有可能發生：

某香港旅行團到泰國旅行，遇上示威，被逼滯留。幾經辛苦，終於聯絡上特區政府，被安排搭乘保安局包機回港。正慶幸與家人團聚，大夥兒歡天喜地的回家之際，不料卻遇上的士司機堵塞機場，被逼滯留在北大嶼山公路...