Tuesday 26 February 2008

Oops, I saw wrong 哎呀, 看錯了

I will be working on my birthday, after all, on the night shift. At least Mom's nice enough to take me to lunch before work.

生日那天還是要上班,
而且還小夜班。
至少Mom說上班前帶我去吃飯。

Today was one of those days filled with dead ends, u-turns, pot holes and near break-downs with assignments and MORE TAIWANESE. So glad it's over.

Monday 25 February 2008

What a day! 有夠忙的一天!

Woke up at 6h30 to have wanton breakfast.
Looked through the four major papers.
Raining, so took taxi to work, was late.
Reported to assigner what was going on in education and health this morning.
Went to Cathay Hospital to interview ENT doctor.
Picked up bicycle on the way back to station (rain had stopped).
Filed noon story on baby with HPV infection.
Ate apple (that was way too big) for lunch.
Asked around for event lighting companies for A-chan, found two.
Called both companies to ask for availability of particular equipment.
Called NTU professor to confirm filming permission, venue and time for evening story about a super popular music class at NTU.
Assignment fell apart, left with nothing to do.
Assigner said to get tape from another station and file story about Ministry of Education's website being hacked by porn site.
Called buddy at another station and got a promise for the tape.
Keyed into system upcoming PC's and events while waiting for tape.
Blogged on anchoring in Taiwanese while waiting for tape.
Did favors for two other stations by lending them tape for story from yesterday about a couple donating all wedding gift money (TWD 1 mln or USD 32.000) to charity.
Chief editor said to update noon story with new footage and sound bites on baby HPV case Southern bureau microwaved in.
Got MOE website tape from a different buddy in a swap and quickly wrote one story and updated the other.
Asked to do HPV story in Taiwanese with little time before deadline.
Figured out all the Taiwanese, but while waiting for video editing room, Dad called and said to watch ERA TV.
On ERA TV, saw file footage of Mama with headlines saying something like "Exclusive: Judy Ongg rerecords 祈禱 for KMT's Ma and Hsiao presidential campaign, opening showing support" and had cold chill run down my spine.
Called Mama to let her know.
Voiced over (more like stumbled through) Taiwanese script.
Got handed rising scrap metal/paper prices script written by someone else to voice over in Taiwanese last minute.
Almost pulled out my hair trying to figure out the Taiwanese to the story.
Voiced it over.
Had stomach ache.
Finished transcribing sound bites for HPV and website porn stories from earlier.
Helped familiarize Abby with anchoring at FTV and what to watch out for when anchoring in Taiwanese.
Said hi to new coworker.
Went to ATM and paid credit card bill and membership fee for TFCC.
Complained to Ju Percussion Group publicist over the phone about not notifying me about last week's press conference.
Rode my bicycle home.
Had cottage cheese and flax seeds for dinner.

What a day. I'm still wired. Must calm down and get to bed. Three more days to go before I leave the land of the living for land of the vampires... It's one day off Friday and then I'm on the night shift for 7 days. Then there's another 10-day shift somewhere in the middle for the presidential elections. You can be sure there will be plenty of drama and parades and protests. March is the month of hell. But least I'm getting my birthday off.

六點起床吃雲吞早餐,看四大報,
因為下雨,所以搭小黃去上班,還遲到,
報教育稿,帶班報醫療稿,
到國泰醫院採訪醫生,
回公司,順路到家裡拿腳踏車(與停了),
發嬰兒感染HPV新聞,
中午吃了顆大蘋果,
幫A-chan找大型活動燈光公司,找到兩家,
打電話問燈光公司有沒有A-chan要的器材,
打電話給台大教授確認超人氣社團音樂課拍攝許可,時間和地點。
題目貢龜,手上已經沒題目了。
召集人要我跟別台考色情網站侵入教育部的帶子。
打電話給台視的好朋友,他答應晚點幫我借帶子。
Key記者會和活動行程,等帶子。
寫台語播報部落格,等帶子。
做公關,考了兩塊昨天新人捐一百萬婚宴禮金給弱勢團體的帶子給別台。
主任說南部傳了新畫面上來,要update早上的HPV新聞。
跟別台好朋友交換帶子,拿到教育部網站淫照帶,快速改稿,寫稿。
編輯跑來要我過HPV的台語帶,幾乎沒多少時間可以做。
台語搞定,等剪接室過音。
接到Dad電話,說趕快看年代。
看到年代打了獨家,說翁倩玉專程為馬蕭廣告重錄祈禱,公開挺馬蕭。
冒了冷汗,打給Mama。
過完(滾完)台語帶。
編輯又拿著另一條稿子跑過來,說要我趕快過。
把稿子快速順成台語,差點沒胃出血。
過完台語,肚子痛。
補完HPV和教育部淫照新聞的口白。
跟Abby解說民視播新聞一些流程,播台語要注意什麼。
跟新同學打招呼。
到ATM付信用卡帳單,繳TFCC會員費。
跟朱宗慶打擊樂公關抱怨為什麼上禮拜的記者會沒通知我。
騎我的孔明車回家。
晚上吃鄉村乳酪和亞麻籽。

好忙碌的一天。
現在還是很緊繃。
要紓解一下,準備睡覺。
在三天就要去當吸血鬼了。
星期五休息一天,然後進入七天的小夜班,
之後還有一個十天的大選禁修期。
一定又是一堆人演戲,抗議,遊行。
三月真的是地獄月。
哎,至少生日那天有休到假。

這是年代那條新聞。
其實很荒謬,所以就enjoy吧。

Here's the ERA TV story. It's ridiculous, so enjoy the silliness. ;)

"看看你們家記者寫的啥鬼文" (take a look at what the hell your reporters are writing)

A complaint email a viewer sent to FTV:
有一天一名觀眾寄email到民視抱怨:

Subject: 看看你們家記者寫的啥鬼文
Text body:
蘆竹成衣廠大火 四人喪火窟
底桃園管,蘆竹地區,今天透早 一嗉廠,起大火,工廠頭家ㄟ三ㄟ女兒,押溝有,一類員剛,呼大火燒死,四ㄟ人不ㄏㄧㄥ3死亡
凌晨街頭警笛聲大作, 因為桃園蘆竹鄉中興路上的一家成衣工廠發生火警, 火勢相當猛烈,現場還不時傳出爆炸聲消防人員趕到趕緊滅火, 還派出雲梯車從空中灑水, 甚至以工程車頂開鐵捲門, 然而火勢真的太大, 深怕被波及的隔壁鄰居,在一旁不時催促消防人員救火這場火警, 除了隔壁四棟房子受到波及, 更令人遺憾的是工廠老闆的三位女兒和一位員工, 通通喪生火場, 據了解,女兒分別為林育求,林沛瑩和林子靖, 而男員工為項進 林姓老闆夫妻都在中國經商, 在接獲親人電話告知這項噩耗之後, 已經盡速趕回台灣,至於起火原因和地點, 仍有待警方鑑識


民視的網路新聞問題不少,
包括經常沒有分段、
沒有標點符號、
沒有訪問內容的文字。
不過這裡好玩的是,
第一段是被台語主播改過主播稿,
不曉得為什麼會流到網路新聞上。
不過這樣大家就有機會看看,
對一些人(像我!)來說,播台語新聞有多困難。

There are a number of problems with FTV's Internet news, including missing paragraph breaks, missing punctuation marks and missing soundbites. But the funny thing about this script is that it's actually a script edited by an anchor for Minnan news, and it somehow made its way onto the Internet news. But you can see from this how difficult anchoring in Minnan is for some people (LIKE ME).

Everyone has different ways of helping them read Minnan scripts, and sometimes those ways may seem really strange. Once I was co-anchoring with Xiaofen, and the director apparently got mixed up and all of a sudden, I had to read Xiaofen's script and Xiaofen had to read my script, and neither of us could read any of it. We improvised, and later I heard it was like watching two foreigners very seriously speaking really bad Chinese nd acting like that's how Chinese was supposed to be spoken.

每個人都有自己讀台語稿的方式,
有時候這方式只有當事人看得懂。
有一次我跟筱芬雙主播,
導播好像順序稿混了,
瞬間變成我要念她的稿,
然後她要念我的稿,
最後兩個人什麼都看不懂,
只好隨機應變,亂講一通。
聽說看起來像兩個外國人在講很爛的中文,
但是講的很正經,
好像中文就應該是要那樣講的。



I often get asked how I anchor in Mandarin and Taiwanese when I don't read or speak either very well. Aside from getting lots of help from coworkers and giving myself a ton of stress, I use other languages to help me out. What other languages? Whatever that gets me through.

常常被問,
我明明國語和台語不好,
那怎麼播新聞?
除了同事很多很多的幫忙,
還有給自己很多很多的壓力,
我會用其他的語言來幫助自己讀稿。
什麼其他的語言?
隨便,只要看得懂就好了。

舉幾個例子,
這是星期六播國語新聞時,
讀稿機顯示的稿頭:

Here's what I had on my teleprompter when I anchored the Mandarin news this past Saturday:

-軍人世家 麥坎曾被俘虜遭虐-
美國[共和黨-jiao3zhu2角逐]總統寶座的熱門人選John McCain麥坎,被報紙踢爆[陳年緋聞],之所以引起側目。除了爆料的媒體並非市井小報,另外一個原因就是軍人出身的麥坎[性格-jujin拘謹],常以[高道德-標準-自居],很難扯上桃花八卦。究竟麥坎是怎樣的一個人,帶您來了解這位人生[頗為曲折]的[將門子弟]。

First, I try to reword things so they're easier for me to read, or make more sense. Then I'll add brackets (which I learned from Shengchuan) and hyphens (which I learned from Zhaoyang) to remind me to slow down there because it's where I'll tumble. And finally, if still I need more help, I'll add English or pinyin to aid pronunciation.

我會先把稿子順得讓我好念一些,
或者改成我覺得比較好的樣子,
然後我會加框框(從盛傳學來的)
和槓(從朝陽學來的)來跟我說,
這邊小心一點,要吃螺絲了!
如果這還不夠,
我會用參一些英文和漢語拼音來協助發音。

Well, what about Minnan? Because it uses different grammar and ways of saying things and even different vocabulary sometimes, it takes much more work and many more "aids."

那閩南語呢?
因為閩南語的文法和用詞不太一樣,
所以工程比較浩大,
因此需要的輔助工具更多。

Here are a few lead-ins from my Minnan segment Saturday:

-馬三優點 謝:英文.經歷.外表-
總統候選人謝長廷和馬英九明天就要辯論啊,昨晚他們兩個參加51間大校[giban舉辦]的
[tzodam座談]活動。學生什麼款的問題都問,有人要謝長廷說出馬英九三個優點,還有人想知道,馬英九皮包啊裡有放什麼。

-謝馬周日辯論 雙方積極準備-
這兩天謝長庭和馬英九的行程咖少了,原因是電視辯論在明天就要舉辦。現在兩個候選人都積極在準備。馬英九講,因為他口才不好,找人[banen扮演]謝長廷來跟他練習。另外,謝長廷[anseng按算]要在[singsing誠信]和經濟的[gide議題]方面,好好啊發揮。

-顧立雄變身名模 性感亮相-
昨晚,總統的律師〔顧立雄〕和他太太,[智慧財產局]的局長[王美花],參加一個活動,做model、走秀,我們現在就作伙來看麥。

-蒟蒻充當海參 賣場主管列被告-
最近有業者把[konnyaku蒟蒻]做成[haisim海蔘],用很貴的價消賣給消費者,刑事局昨針對這個案件,約談六個人。這六個人,其中三個是大賣場的主管,移送[北檢]了後,[dongding當庭]把他們[改列為-被告]。業者騙消費者是海蔘的konnyaku,雖然吃落去巴肚裡,對身體沒問題,但是,因為欺騙消費者,遭到警方的調查。

-假顧客真竊賊 3秒金鍊藏袖口-
一個賊啊,來到台中市一家金阿店,他講要買金鍊啊,想不到,是要偷拿米件。他[tan趁
]頭家娘不注意的時陣,把一條金鍊啊藏進去[手嗯],而且看起來真定陣。

-單親童課輔 3分變及格邊緣-
為了學生的[gongko功課],全台灣有三千多間的國中、小學,在下課了後都會[hudo輔導]學生。台南[後甲]國中的[yiting怡婷],因為是單親家庭,本來[singjik成績]不啥好,但是他去上輔導的課程了後,已經有真大的進步。

-澎湖寒害 漁業署提供救助金-
澎湖的[haiyok海域],因為[hanhai寒害],造成1億8千萬的漁業[sunsit損失]。漁業署的救助辦法,就是提供[yangsitho養殖戶]25至50萬的救助金;另外還有提供1.5pa的[daikuan貸款],來幫助漁民。

-冰販耍特技 遊樂園新賣點-
在遊樂園,有真多點心,其實都很好吃;親像台中后里有一間遊樂園裡面,一個賣
ice-cream的攤阿,每天生理攏真好。但是,納錢了後,沒一定就吃得就喔,到底是安納,
現在帶大家來去看麥。

-交易騙局!大聯盟菜鳥被惡整-
在大聯盟的[春訓],[費城人]隊出現一個真好笑的帶誌,就是球團加上媒體和[ginggijin經紀人],作伙騙一個新投手。大家跟他講他被賣去日本的[巨人隊],還舉辦簽約的記者會;這個新人是被騙得[gonggongase團團轉],球隊的人實在是有夠壞。

Almost all of it, I say in Minnan, but when I don't know how to say it or forget, I use Mandarin. And if that doesn't work, I use Japanese. When everything starts falling apart, English starts coming out of my mouth.

幾乎都是用台語念,
但是忘記的時候就參雜國語,
那國語也不行的話就用日語,
然後看來要完蛋的時候,
英文不知不覺的就跑出來了。

I try not to change the original script written in Mandarin as much as possible, because I'm trying to get used to reading Mandarin and speaking Taiwanese at the same time, in the event that one day I'll have to anchor those segments (like 12h00 or 19h00) that don't give you time to prepare, or an emergency happens and they give me a script for a breaking story. However, some people make it a point to change as much as possible to make sure they don't get anything wrong. So if you see an incomprehensible script like that one someone complained about on the Internet next time, you'll k now what happened.

我能夠不改國語的時候就不改,
因為強迫自己練習同時看國語,說台語。
萬一哪一天要我播那種沒時間順稿的時段
(像是午間或晚間新聞)
或是臨時發生了意外,
來一條新稿子,
這樣就可以應變得比較好。
不過有些人為了避免念錯,
習慣能改的就改。
所以下次看到像那觀眾寫來抱怨的新聞,
你就知道為什麼了。

What does space smell like? 外太空什麼味道?

According to a NASA astronaut:

Each time, when I repressed the airlock, opened the hatch and welcomed two tired workers inside, a peculiar odor tickled my olfactory senses. At first I couldn't quite place it. It must have come from the air ducts that re-pressed the compartment. Then I noticed that this smell was on their suit, helmet, gloves, and tools. It was more pronounced on fabrics than on metal or plastic surfaces. It is hard to describe this smell; it is definitely not the olfactory equivalent to describing the palette sensations of some new food as "tastes like chicken." The best description I can come up with is metallic; a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation. It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small logging outfit. It reminded me of pleasant sweet smelling welding fumes. That is the smell of space.

(via Boing Boing)

Sunday 24 February 2008

Great lines from work

Recently, I noticed that some of my coworkers' MSN Messenger handles are great and would make great headlines for op-ed pieces. Some are satirical, some are especially funny, and some just plain powerful. This one talks about Hong Kong entertainer Edison Chen's sex photo scandal.

"你如果是李安 拍A片也是名片 你是小歌星 拍親密照 就叫淫照"
Translation: If you're Ang Lee and you make an adult movie (referring to Lust, Caution), your movie's called "a masterpiece." But if you're just a B-list singer and you take intimate photos, those pictures are called "pornography."

最近發現有些同事的MSN暱稱真的很讚,當作社論標題有多棒啊!
有的很諷刺,有的很好笑,有的就是特別貼切,特別強。
這是今天看到的,講陳冠希的"慾照"事件。

"你如果是李安 拍A片也是名片 你是小歌星 拍親密照 就叫淫照"

-------------------------------------------------

This one refers to KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's sister, Ma Yi-nan, admitting to having sat in for someone else's college entrance exams when she was young, and DPP candidate Frank Hsieh attacking Ma on this with full force.

"一號謝長廷,二號馬英九,三號馬以南,到底誰在選台灣總統啊?"
Translated: Ballot #1 for Frank Hsieh, ballot #2 for Ma Ying-jeou and ballot #3 for Ma Yi-nan. Who exactly are the ones running for Taiwan president?

Grandma's garden 阿媽的花園


Something Grandma in Izu would love. Oh, better not give her ideas...

伊豆的阿媽一定會很喜歡。
或許還是別亂出主意好了。。。

(via Apartment Therapy)

Consolation to a rainy day 下雨天的安慰



Having flowers and an porcelain figurines to keep one company during depressing rainy days is such a consolation!

沈悶的下雨天有花和小陶瓷雕像陪伴真是種安慰!

(via Flickr Blog)

Thursday 21 February 2008

BBC: 'Chaos' of China's music industry



From the BBC website:

She made about $2000 (£1,000) a month from music royalties and live shows with her band Mika Bomb when she lived in London.

But in China, her band Long Kuan Jiu Duan can almost double that by singing just one song at a commercial gig.


The rest of the article here.

Note to self: make money providing by providing experience-based service.

(via BBC)

Designs that attack the senses 襲擊觀感的設計


Oh, dizzy... Reminds me of how things look when I'm sick. I do appreciate the effort on taking everyday architecture and making it different though.

喔,頭暈。
好像生病時看到的世界。
不過能夠把很一般的建築變得很不一樣也真厲害。

Some modern minimalist interior designs, like white furniture and white furnishings in a white room seem to serve more as sensory deprivation than a style that inspires or makes your life in it better.

有些當代室內設計,
像是白色的房間裡擺著白色的傢具,白色的陳設裝飾,
讓人覺得觀感被剝奪了。
設計不是應該讓人的生活更好,更有靈感嗎?

Designed by 武井 誠 and 鍋島 千恵.

(via NOTCOT.org)

How shoe boxes ought to be 鞋盒應該的長相




This is what shoe boxes ought to look like, perhaps with a window on the toe side instead, since space is a rare resource these days.

For those of us that keep our shoes in shoe boxes, we always have to play the memory game when it comes to getting that pair of shoes that goes with this outfit, or have to spend time taking, printing and sticking pictures of the shoes on the box when they come home.

(via style files)

Soda, anyone? 有沒有人要喝汽水?



Beer, anyone? Soda would be nice, too. Just so we have an excuse to buy one of these.



來罐啤酒?汽水也好。
這樣就有理由買這個開瓶器。

Alessi POP-UP bottle cap remover.

(via NOTCOT.COM)

Wednesday 20 February 2008

Words of wisdom 真有道理

Don't make promise when you are in joy.
Don't reply when you are sad.
Don't take decision when you are angry.

Author unknown.

Thanks, William!

Simple way to solve a serious and complicated problem



(via How to Change the World)

Tough job 辛苦的工作


From Japundit:

Who cleans up those fetid pools of strange-colored liquid and piles of half-digested noodles deposited here and there in Tokyo’s train stations by people who literally can’t hold their booze?

Whose job it is to clean up after someone decides to check out of this cruel world by taking a swan dive off of a train platform?


Answer is here.

Tuesday 19 February 2008

Disappearing car door 車門不見了!



(I forgot where I saw this)

Subterranean farms of Tokyo 東京地下農場







(via Japundit)

Women's hair as economic indicator

From Nikkei:

Friday, February 15, 2008
Women’s Locks Hold Key To Forecasting Economic Outlook
TOKYO (Nikkei)—Women tend to wear their hair long when the nation’s economy is up and short when it is down, a survey conducted over the past two decades by consumer goods manufacturer Kao Corp. shows. As concern grows about a possible economic downturn, will this hairstyle trend repeat itself, or will something new happen?

The rest of the article is here.

(via Mutant Frog)

Monday 18 February 2008

Sleepover party!




Some happy pictures for a change. These were taken last week. When they all sleep over at the same time, I usually end up falling off the bed. You can see why.

輕鬆一下,看看好玩的照片。
上星期拍的。
他們全部一起來跟我睡的時候,我通常睡到一半都會摔到床下。
看得出原因吧?




Sunday 17 February 2008

Eye aye aye! 我的眼睛呀!

Expectedly, I was at the ER at 4h00 Saturday morning. The opthamologist on call's diagnosis was allergy-induced eye infection. They prescribed some anti-histamine eye drops and off I went to work. Eye aye aye. The producer didn't let me go on with my glasses because they were too loud, so I stuck in my contact lenses and gave the make-up lady quite a task. Without using tape or fake eyelashes (I'm officially allergic to them, thank goodness), they successfully made my right and left eyes look normal and decent enough to show on TV. My morning segments did not go well. My eye was not feeling well and apparently, so wasn't my brain. These days, I have a hard time remembering the names of my coworkers. It's quite a scary experience to not be able to say the name of the person you work with. I better start exercising again and getting some oxygen into my brain. Maybe that will help with insomnia too. I'm really falling apart.

凌晨四點,我果然到急診室報到。
醫生說是過敏性結膜炎。
編輯說我的眼鏡太搶了,所以不能帶上去播。
沒辦法,只能帶上隱形眼鏡,讓化妝師頭痛。
結果她真的很厲害,不用眼皮貼,不用假睫毛,
把兩個眼睛畫得看起來一樣,讓我上得了台。
但是眼睛不舒服,腦袋也連著不舒服。
前面兩節播的真是2266。
還好朝陽有事,要我幫他播6h00國語,
然後他播我的7h00台語,要不然真的死定了。
最近連同事的名字都計不起來,
那種感覺真的滿恐怖的,
明明每天一起工作,要叫名字的時候,
忽然發現名字忘了!
看來要開始運動了,給頭腦一些氧氣。
或許這樣也可以讓失眠好一點。
整個人要崩潰了。

Friday 15 February 2008

Unbelievable 不可思議



Just now this happened. I don't know why. I have to anchor the 6h00 morning news tomorrow. Augh!
剛剛才變這樣的。
不曉得原因。
而且明天一大早要播新聞!!


Right eye.



Left eye.



Hopefully it's temporary. If it's still there by the time I get up at three, I'll go to the ER before going to FTV. If nothing can be done, I'll just wear glasses for distraction. Unbelievable.
希望只是暫時的。
明天三點起床還這樣的話,進公司前我先去掛急診。
如果沒辦法讓它消腫,看來就要帶眼鏡播,遮掩一下。
不可思議!

What day is it? 今天星期幾了?

雖然心情愉快,但是上班有點上到頭昏了。
或許也是因為一月選舉,二月春節班表大變動的關係。
最近常常在問,今天星期幾?
接下來什麼時候休假?
哪一天小夜班?
哪一天要凌晨三點起床,準備播新聞?
昨天買了蜆精,補一補看看有沒有效。
至少現在一個人播台語新聞不會那麼緊張了,
因為過年前才被排兩天早上六點國語接一個人的七點台語。
現在知道什麼是恐怖,而且臉皮和胃膜也都又長厚一些了。
不過這星期還是我自己播早上七點台語,
天恩老師,救命啊!

Although in good spirits, I think I’m losing grip with the world again. Perhaps it has to do with the schedule changes that were made to accommodate the elections in January and Lunar New Year holiday in February. Lately, I’ve frequently been asking, “what day of the week is it? When am I off again next? When am I on the night shift? When do I have to get up at three in the morning to present?” I bought essence of clam yesterday. I hope it’ll help. After having to present news in Mandarin and Taiwanese by myself back to back for two days before the holidays, at least I won’t freak out as much about presenting in Minnan all by myself anymore, now that I know what scary is and now that both my skin and stomach linings have grown thicker. But this week, I’ll still have to present the Minnan news at seven by myself. Help! Save me, Tim!

My Valentine’s Day 我的情人節

On Valentine’s Day this year, I enjoyed a Starbucks café, received flowers, was treated to dinner, and attended a show in the evening. Sounds nice and romantic, doesn’t it? Oh, I missed some details. Let me try that again.

今年情人節,我享用了一杯咖啡、收到花、被請吃飯、晚上還看了一場秀。
聽起來很浪漫嗎?
喔,忘了一些細節,再來一次。

On Valentine’s Day this year, I enjoyed a Starbucks café from Shengchuan, as a thank-you for pulling a 17-hour shift for her yesterday (she is days away from giving birth to her son so I offered to help). I received a plum blossom plant from Mom because she knew that I was probably not going to get flowers from anyone. Dinner was take-out oden (Japanese braised turnip, fishcake and konniyaku) from Mom who bought it from Takashimaya department store because I was back on the night shift and she felt sorry that I was probably going to eat instant noodles in front of my computer by myself while waiting for a fire alarm to go off. After eating my oden in front of my computer with pictures of candles on the screen, I went to a show of a very young and charming Indonesian pastor preaching like a rock star to more than five thousand Taiwanese people jam packed in the National Taiwan University sports arena about how worshipping their ancestors is wrong and how worshipping Jesus Christ is right. I watched people who said they were immobile get up out of their wheelchair and dance on stage with the pastor, a person who had throat cancer and could not talk start to sing on stage with the pastor and plenty of people fainting into the arms of event staff at the touch of the pastor.

At the end of the show, I even got an exclusive interview - because no other station showed up.

Thank you Shengchuan, Mom and FTV for a memorable Valentine’s Day. ;)

今年情人節,我享用了一杯聖傳姊請我的咖啡,
因為昨天我幫她值17小時的超人班。
她的寶寶已經快出生了,看她好辛苦,
所以我主動問她要不要幫她值班。
我收到媽媽的長壽梅盆栽,
因為她知道今年大概沒人會送我花。
晚餐也是媽媽請的,
是高島屋百貨公司地下室的”黑輪”。
媽媽知道我今晚值小夜班,
所以應該是在電腦前邊吃泡麵邊等火警,
很可憐。
吃完我的黑輪,就到台大小體育管採訪秀。
什麼秀?
一名有著搖滾明星般魅力的印尼牧師的醫治佈道秀。
超過五千人擠滿了體育管,
聽牧師說崇拜祖先是錯的,
崇拜耶穌才是對的。
我看到一些人說自己行動不方便,
最後在台上和牧師跳舞。
我看到一個人說得了喉癌,不能講話,
最後在台上和牧師唱卡拉OK。
我看到一群人一被牧師碰到,
就昏倒在地。
就是這麼一場秀。

秀結束,我還撈到個獨家專訪,
因為其他台都不要,沒來。

謝謝聖傳姊、媽媽還有民視給我這麼一個難忘的情人節。;)

Sunday 10 February 2008

Snapshots from work



That's not me. Just a 45 year old look-alike.
我的45歲分身。



One of my favorite program directors who's given me so much support and advice.
給了我好多好多的支持和建議的坤冠導播。




Reporting on college entrance exams.
採訪學測。





Reporting on a prepared food business getting ready to serve up 710 tables for the homeless in Taipei.
採訪呷七碗準備請710桌遊民吃尾牙。









Roy's birthday spent on the night shift.



A "hello and ganbatte" postcard from sweet Jack (Yuang) who was in Paris on business. I've taped it into my notebook that I bring everywhere for work and everything else.
好朋友Jack Yuan出差到法國時寄來的加油明信片。
我把它黏在我隨身攜帶的筆記本裡面。



A new year's greeting from Jeff and Shizuko, and a "cheer up" picture from Auntie Linda and Mijung on my desk.
桌上還有來自Jeff和Shizuko的賀年卡
以及Auntie Linda和Mijung的打氣照片。

Prada using animation Prada用動畫


There's a story behind each design and concept, and unfortunately, the end consumer usually never gets to know and appreciate it.

Here, Prada hired some animation artists and told their story, called "Trembled Blossoms."

每個設計和概念的背後都有個故事,
但很慚愧的,消費者通常都不知道,也因此無法珍惜。
在這裡,Prada請了一些動畫家把故事講出來,
這個故事叫做"Trembled Blossoms."

(via NOTCOT)

Danish lobster chair 丹麥龍蝦椅


Made by Danish designer LUND & PAARMANN.

From the V website:
The shell is laminated, bend wood with a walnut veneer at the back. Inside the shell we have used Pantera foam, as it is very durable and probably the least damaging foam regarding our environment.

The swivel base is chrome-plated steel. The fabrics and the leather we are using for Lobster are of the very best quality.

----------------
More colors and information here.

(via NOTCOT)

Dinner at Uncle James' 到Uncle James家吃晚餐

Mom and Dad were totally spent from partying the previous night that they decided to skip the lunch party and go for a massage instead. After a nice Italian lunch with my new French friend Michel, listening to him talk about everything from molecular gastronomy to excavated Greek sculptures of Buddhism figures to Russian miracle cosmetics made from sturgeon DNA, I caught up with Mom and Dad. We each had a foot and body massage, and it was quite nice. It's a place Mom found on Longjiang Street. It's well-lit and clean, which are such important but often overlooked details.

#151 Longjiang Street
Taipei
Masseuse #66 worked on me. I like her.

爸爸和媽媽昨天在家請客,玩得太累,
今天決定去按摩,晚上再到Uncle James家。
我中午跟一個新的法國朋友Michel吃義大利菜,
聽了好多好有趣的資訊和知識,
從分子美食到希臘佛像到採用鱘魚基因的奇蹟保養品,
什麼都有。
吃完飯跟爸媽碰面,
到媽媽找的一家在龍江街上的腳底按摩店,
按腳按身體。
乾淨又明亮,感覺不錯。

台北市龍江街151號
66號老師幫我按的,我覺得不錯。

Afterwards, we headed to Uncle James' house. As soon as I walked in, Uncle James came up to me, shook my hand, said "happy new year," but wouldn't let go of my hand. Taking my hand hostage, he brought me into his kitchen and said, "you have to eat my mifen (米粉). I just made it." For a man whose reputation is that of a workaholic and probably doesn't even know where the broom in his house is kept, making mifen was quite a feat. And he was so proud of it. Buddy will tell you.



之後,我們到Uncle James家吃晚餐。
我一走進門,Uncle James很熱情的跑來握我的手說,
"新年快樂“。
說完了,手既然不還我,把它綁架,連人帶到廚房去。
Uncle James說,“妳一定要吃我的米粉,剛剛炒好的。"
以一個可能連自己家的掃把都不曉得放在哪裡的工作狂Uncle James來說,
炒一鍋米粉可是不得了的事。
他真的以他那鍋米粉為榮。
Buddy可以作證。



He opened the cabinet and asked, "which bowl would you like? How about this one? Here, take the big one. Here are the chopsticks." He gave me a soup bowl. As I helped myself to already a big serving, he took my chopsticks and bowl and said, "have more," and continued to pile in more mifen until it looked like a mifen mountain about to have a mudslide.



他打開放碗盤的櫃子,問我說,
"妳要哪個碗?這個好嗎?這個大的給妳。來,筷子。"
他既然拿了湯碗給我。
我開始盛米粉,已經盛了很多,
沒想到Uncle James把我的碗和筷子拿過去,幫我盛。
他說"多吃一點",然後繼續盛,
盛到我的米粉幾乎堆成快土石流的米粉山。

Uncle James, it was tasty! You should cook more often.

Uncle James,很好吃!你應該常一點做菜!

Oreo likes warm baths Oreo喜歡熱水澡



When I was in the bath tonight, Oreo whined and whined and whined. It took a while, but I figured out why - she wanted in! So I let her in, and she had a good soak herself. By the time I took the video, she was whining again and wanted out.


今天晚上泡澡時,Oreo一直whine一直whine,
我發現,原來她也想泡澡喔!
我就讓她進來,讓她泡一泡。
拍影片的時候,她又開始whine,想要出來了。




After everyone had their bedtime cookies and I crawled into bed, she whined and whined and whined again - she wanted to get in my bed too. So I let her jump up, curl up and she was dreaming and twitching her toes within seconds. She must have been dreaming good things. Funny little girl. Now she's snoring. Not so funny anymore.


泡完了,大家吃完餅乾,到了睡覺時間,
她又開始whine。
我發現,原來她也想睡我的床。
我讓她上來沒有幾秒鐘,
她就入眠開始做夢,
四隻腳動動動,應該夢得很開心。
好好玩的小朋友。
哇,現在開始打呼了。
這就不好玩了。



The only dog I knew who liked baths is my Noriko Oneesan's dog Katie. Here she is.

我知道的唯一另外一隻喜歡喜熱水澡的是我典子姊姊的狗Katie.


Saturday 9 February 2008

Car ride to Grandma Lin's 外婆家的路上











More pictures here.

One of those mornings 有時候就是有這樣的任務



One evening two weeks ago an education reporter at Sanli TV couldn’t think of a story to pitch to her boss for the following morning but had to, so decided that going to the Ministry of Education at 7h30 was what she was going to do, even though there was nothing to do except to try to catch a media-hating minister going into work in the event that he doesn’t decide to use the back or side doors to avoid the reporters. I told my boss that she was going and he said, “then you go too, just in case they get something that we don’t.”

In the video clip, I asked my colleague at CTI TV what we were doing at the MOE, and she said, “waiting for the minister and wasting our life away.”

In the end, he snuck up to his office via one of the other entrances as we waited by the front door. I hate having to wake up at 6h00 for assignments like these, but I guess it gives me more stupid stories to tell.



上上星期某個晚上,三立的教育同業想不出隔天的稿單,
但是因為非開不可,決定早上七點半到教育部堵部長。
這個討厭媒體的部長會當著記者的面從大門走進去才怪,
但是以防萬一人家拍到什麼,長官還是派了我早車去。
沒東西問,沒關係,不要漏就好了。

最後,部長就是從別的門溜進去,沒有人拍到。
很不喜歡為了這種任務早上六點起床,但是沒法度啦,
至少有這種令人覺得好笑的故事可以說。



Feasting on expensive shoes from inside a presidential suite 總統套房裡吃皮鞋


This is from a story on a Chinese New Year’s presidential suite crocodile hot pot deal at the City Crowne Hotel. The crocodile was not tasty. My cameraman Roy wrote about it in his blog and said he felt like he was “eating an expensive ladies’ purse inside a presidential suite.” I thought it was more like “eating an expensive shoe inside a presidential suite.” The chef demonstrated for us in the hotel room how he would prepare the dish in the kitchen, and while it may have looked good on TV, it sure didn’t taste what it should have. He let us eat what he made in the hotel room, and all I tasted was burnt, fishy, chewy flesh with a thick layer of rubber that was supposed to be collagen-rich skin.

這是台北皇冠飯店推出過年總統套房鱷魚砂鍋餐的報導。
那鱷魚不太好吃。
我的攝影政諺說,他感覺像在”總統套房裡吃皮包”。
我覺得比較像在總統套房裡吃皮鞋。
廚師為了給我們拍畫面,
所以在套房裡做幾個動作給我們拍,
但沒想到最後他真的把那鍋給我們吃。
或許在電視上看起來很好吃,
但是我吃到的是燒焦,腥味重,老老的肉,
然後號稱充滿膠原蛋白的皮,吃起來像真相橡膠。
加上我平常就不太喜歡吃肉,那鱷魚真是不好吃。

The presidential suite there was once the private room of a man named Wang Youzeng (王又曾), reported to be wanted by the Taiwanese government for embezzling tens of billions of Taiwan Dollars (hundreds of millions to billions of US Dollars) and fleeing the country, leaving his children in Taiwan to do jail time for him. He used to own the hotel but it was sold off after the crisis broke out. Now the hotel is trying to capitalize on the fact that he used to own it and treated there heads of state (including former KMT party chairman Lien Chan 連戰 and former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui 李登輝) and conducted there all kinds of business killings. The room is usually open only to screened guests, but the hotel’s promotion was that if you paid for a TWD65.000 (USD2.000) 12-person Chinese New Year’s dinner, the meal will be served in that room and you also get to stay there that one night. Imagine getting to sleep in the bed that one of who could be Taiwan’s most successful crooks slept in. I don’t know if I could.

媒體報導力霸百億掏空案爆發之後,王又曾逃離台灣,
留下了他小孩在台灣坐牢,收拾他的爛攤子,
力霸飯店是其中之一。
力霸飯店被賣掉,變成台北皇家大飯店,
通常總統套房只對篩選過的客戶開放,
飯店在過年期間開放給一般民眾,
只要在過年期間訂一桌十到十二人份六萬五的鱷魚餐宴,
就可以在王又曾以前的專屬總統套房請客,住宿。
想想,可以在以前王又曾宴像是連戰,李登輝等國家領袖,
談大生意的私人總統套房請客,
睡在或許是台灣最大的經濟犯的床上,
哇,那種感覺又是怎麼樣?
我想我會睡不著。

More pictures at Roy’s blog.
搭當那邊有更多的照片

Friday 8 February 2008

PS I love you PS 我愛你



I snuck away to see this while everyone was so engrossed in majong, smoking, drinking and making a ruckus at Uncle Cody’s. Hee hee hee.

PS I Love You” is a chick flick that made me laugh and cry at the same time the whole way through. A great movie to exercise the emotions we sometimes we forget we have. If one day I find out when I’m going to die, I hope to remember to do the same for my loved ones as the character did for his in the movie. The storyline was touching, the cast (Hillary Swank, Gerard Butler, Kathy Bates & co) was great – I give it two thumbs up and I may even go buy this movie!

趁著大家在Uncle Cody家打麻將,
抽煙,喝酒,大吵大鬧,我溜去看電影。
嘻嘻嘻。

PS 我愛你”是一部讓我又哭又笑的chick flick。
也許可以說是一部感情運動片,
因為它會使你把一些被暫時遺忘的emotions給拿出來動一動。
如果有一天我知道我即將要離開這世界,
我希望我會記得要像電影裡的主角這樣做。
劇情好,演員讚,真的很好看,說不定還會去買呢!

(image via Allposters.com)

New year's treats 過年好康

Rawhide chewies!





More pictures here.

Miffy was fastest in finishing hers - she had two thin strips and finished in a matter of minutes. Whereas Oreo must have been only licking her rawhide bone, because we gave them the treats when we had lunch, and when we came home after Uncle Cody's after midnight, Oreo was waiting for us by the lift with a chunk of her chewie still in her mouth.

Miffy最快,她兩條細的幾分鐘就解決了。
但是Oreo我看是用舔的,
因為我們是吃中飯的時候給他們一人一隻,
然後半夜從Uncle Cody家回來,
Oreo在電梯口等著,嘴巴還有一大塊,
還在慢慢的吃。