部錄銅鑼灣

推薦一個網站：My Causeway Bay (http://www.mycausewaybay.com/)

網站的作者拿起相機，以部錄形式記述他/她眼中銅鑼灣的「兩極」、「平衡」和「善變」（見About Me）。每篇的資料都很詳盡，文筆清順，角度也很新鮮，更難得嘅係一幅幅實地拍的相片；好玩的是以地鐵站出口來分類文章。香港變得好快，用這種方記錄可以從側面看到它的發展。唔，如果全港十八區區區都有一個這樣的部錄就好了。

再次誤信「聯合國於2008年廢止繁體中文」

今天一位好友電郵傳來這封請願書：
Say NO to United Nations' abolishment of Traditional Chinese in 2008/向聯合國於2008年廢止繁體中文說「不」

我想也沒想便簽了，還留言如下：

Traditional Chinese is part of the world's rich heritage. Preserving traditional Chinese gives citizens of the world access to the wealth of past Chinese literature, which in turn keeps us all connected to the traditional Chinese culture.

There's a possible error in the above petition: the explanation of the traditional Chinese word "麵=麥+面 (wheat + surface)" could be debated, for the second component '面' hints at the word's phonetics. So by reading the word '麵' (noodle), we not only know that it's a product of wheat, we get its pronunciation too.

真傻。好在過後做了點考證，才記起是假的（參看：聯合國廢止繁體中文真相）。對，不是發現是記起。我聽過這傳聞了，可能當時已經簽過這請願書。

為甚麼我會一而再的誤信這個傳聞呢？我能想到的原因有三：

1. 網上的資訊過多，而我的記性太壞。
2. 「三人成虎」/"The Internet says so"——隱隱覺得好像聽過這件事，所以可信。也可能我太盲目相信網絡了，尤其非牟利團體的網上消息，覺得「佢無必要呃我呀」。我錯了。
3. 我太愛繁體中文。我對繁體中文的熱愛，淹過了我的理性...

從小習慣讀寫傳統的繁體中文，每逢看簡體字書，讀著一排排（於我來看）取音捨義、缺漏不全的字，就像吃力解讀一副不完整的拼圖——一方面嘗試感受文章的義理和意境，一方面在腦裡開著一部內置詞霸，翻譯並補充文中的簡體字——這對於以簡筆為主的人大概不容易想象吧？事實是我很榮幸能看繁體的《紅樓夢》，興幸能一字一句讀出曹雪芹當年寫的原文，讓我感到更接近作者的時代和思想狀態。我聽過有個台藉的上海後生用上海話讀張愛玲的《桂花蒸 呀小悲秋》。他說：張愛玲本來就是用上海思維寫的，當然是這樣讀呀。我聽罷非常羨慕。我把《桂花蒸》當白話文看已甚享受小說生動的地方語言色彩，用上海話讀的話更原汁原味吧？

我喜歡中國語言的千變萬化、多姿多采。現在中國人大致都能用白話文普通話溝通，我希望習慣簡體的人能繼續讀寫簡體，習慣繁體的人能繼續讀寫繁體，上海人繼續以吳濃軟語讀海上花看張愛玲，北京人繼續用京片子讀王蒙王朔王小波；廣東人用廣東話睇周星馳、念古詩（粵語留不少古音古調）。然後，喜歡的話，廣東人也可學學溫柔的吳濃語，到上海洋場邂逅俊秀的滬男女；上海人可以學習北方官話，晉身官場；北方人可繼「頂你個肺」之後，融入更多廣東俚語，豐富北方豪邁粗的語言。文字語言生生不息，那才好玩。

伸延閱讀：

• '麵'的字源
• 官话 - 维基百科

Star Wars according to a 3 year old.

Full transcript: (I tried my best; feel free to send in corrections.)

“Well. Well. OK. The sand people have the robots and try (drive?) and sell them in raw sail boat, kindda like raw sail boat except they're selling robots. And no one is going to buy R2 and the signy (shiny?) guy. The signy guy oh he's worried - Luke's gonna buy those. Obi-Kenobi is kindda of a teacher. He's... he's saying "Luke!" how to learn... how to do his little light-up sword to try to block the little pokie ball. He tried to do it without seeing. Obi-Kenobi sometimes move things around. Sometimes he disappears. Princess Leia got out of jail and out in the spaceship? And they got the big thing that blow up stuff... We blow it up together. It blowed up Princess Leia' planet! But don't talk back to Darth Vader. He'll getcha! ...It's an exciting movie.

• It's amazing how much a 3-year old can comprehend. This is a complex story involving a world not directly concerning hers. She was able to follow the plot line, internalize it and retell the story in her own way. Incredible!
• I like how she used metaphors to help herself and her listeners understand unfamiliar concepts.... Reminds us that this is how we deal with this world of enormous complexity and overwhelming information -- we re-interpret something new by connecting it to something we already know: it's just like that thing, except a little different.
  
• When she had to explain things she can't compare to, she invented new terms to refer to them: the signy guy, the pokie ball, the light-up sword, and "trying to do it without seeing".. What a creative mind! Naming things is one of the human being's special skills. She's demonstrating this skill beautifully.
  
• And of course, while making connections and creating new ways to say things are fun, she well understood that there were rules to follow. Perhaps that's why we adults all seem to fall for the punchline: "But don't talk back to Darth Vader. He'll getcha!"

二月二十、二十一，月蝕

從Facebook看到Total Eclipse of of the Moon聯想到Total Eclipse of the Heart聯想到Old School裏在婚禮的浪漫歌聲中爆粗的樂隊，原來叫The Dan Band，可在親愛的YouTube找到：

Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I'm fucking falling apart...

我們依然是這麼無聊。

Happy Valentine's y'all! ^o^

好冧呀！

留意獨白。