自耕．酪梨

This is by far the most brilliantly-designed Blog I've ever seen.

It's titled "Terminal Island." And it's definitely a must-see! You'll need to type in the commands as requested.

Pity that the blogger had stopped updating like five years ago. (Somehow I fully understand... kinda like me I suppose)

packed -
with a bit more than just flesh-and-bone,
heading towards the unknown realm of this hazy world;
uncertain of what is lying ahead,
but somehow all set -
to molt
into a ready pen
seven years after the virgin millennium.

Meiling - just as many others of my colleagues, Dad, and probably more among my acquaintances have all gone down south for the major event, whilst I, alone, having my usual bowl of oatmeal for brunch, dressing sloppy and feeling sluggish.

So much for a tomb sweeping day...

The last time as I recalled to have gone to an occasion alike traced at least 15 years back. Jiayi (where my folks rooted) used to be my cognitive tiny world's only perceivable end/paradise. The north-to-south journey took up a hell of 3.5 hours drive to finish (small trunk vs. big world). After the hard trudge (though the whole time I did not even leave the back seat to P) I sobered up at the sight of a familiar interchange (yes this is IT!) singing 「I'm In Heaven.」 (Yes of course I did not know the song at such an early stage of my life, but trust me on this that I WOULD have sung it if I had known it.) And the vacation began thereafter.

Out the windowpane through my binocular (yes I enjoy peeping) seen a mountain of people (again, this is an expression; I mean there are people, dotting here and there) over the slope covered with oriental-styled tombs. Year after another the 5th of April remains the day always possessing an invisible power to beckon descendants of the buried ones to come back, wherever they reside. Smoke curls upwards into the air, some veiling the gravestones, scenting the hillside with an ambiance of something far-gone and would never return. This burial ground will soon be replaced by a product of modern civilisation of the Taipei metropolis, probably a compound of a sports ground and a park. I doubt if I would miss the old cemetery.

*The occident way of tombstone making would have the upper-class letters "R.I.P." carved across. Although commonly known as the abbreviation for "Rest In Peace," they are from Latin, "Requiescat/Requiescant In Pace," to be accurate.

*A supernatural occurrence on a festival for the supernatural:
I keep my Collins Cobuild Edition at the foot of my bookcase these days for easy access. I would leave it open at the page I look up the last vocabulary. A minute before starting this blog entry, I flipped the dictionary to double-check another word that I now cannot think of what. The first word flashed in sight was R.I.P. I tried several times repeating the shut-and-open process around the R section of the dictionary. Apparently it does not work for a second time.

I should invite friends over more often, so as to help clear out this terrible yet intimate little private chaotic space of mine.

This a-bit-belated review of my producitve Hokkaido trip is previously detained by the limited upload quota of msn space. I wasn't prepared to have my photos published before done with subtiling description.

I was back in Taipei three weeks ago, 21 days to be exact. I planned the entire itinerary all on my own (and still feel like bragging about it even the trip's already over) and it took me a solid 30, 40 days or so to make sure everything was about on track before leaving. The trip itself is ever so gratifying and we truly enjoyed and favored the Japanese way of dealing with things, such as setting a train schedule as narrow as an arrival and departure time of 07:53 (and those trains indeed perfected my impression by meeting with this accuracy) or dressing up their bungalows with adorable toy figures and lovely flowers and plants of all varieties without being regulated to do so. Well, Taiwan is way behind, in most aspects as a matter of fact. I'm quite ashamed to admit that.

I need time to sort out my disorganized digital albums from this six-day trip so that I could share some of my favorites with you people. We took about 700 pictures this time and the number should have at least doubled, but the transmission line of one of our cameras was left behind by accident, which left us with finite storage for pictures. Pity.

More on my subtitles after the first of August. Not only because it's an exceptional day of importance, but the space has locked my free entry until a new month begins.

Should I take it?
Can I help it?
Must I stand it?
Do I have to put up with it?
Would I change it?
Will I flare up?
Need I grumble?
Dare I speak for myself?

We're just a poor bunch of underdogs working our heads off and paying taxes for a bunch of government exploiters.

(My afterthought over the tax season, and the ceaseless bombardment from a partial mass media reporting stories of our imperial family.)

We teachers don't get many chances to have rests like this, and Labor Day certainly falls way beyond us. The only bit of benefit we gain from all these drudging days is two major vacations that are coming short. I came home on leave today with the help of my dreadful cold. I supposed I've used up my antibodies quota last week by having insufficient sleep for just about a fortnight. Once it started, it all came straight down to this tragical end in sight. I shouldn't have afflicted my flesh for my wicked soul. This does go against my philosophy of staying healthy and living long.

Need change.

One forty-something net-user's been organizing low-carb diets and sharing her recipes online for some time. This suddenly-slimmer Linda worked her plan both on herself and her obese husband, transforming two puffy marshmallow candies into bony/crunchy-but-healthy, fat-free pretzels. It was my intention starting-off to become a pretzel since I began my own dieting project last Oct - not just to rid of superfluous grease, also to avoid any possible illness and on top of everything else, to come off sound and slender. The thought obsessed me as though skeleton-like looks is the classic and one and only worthful vogue of the time. Gradually yet some realization sank in, that a living fresh-and-blood could never dry off living, and most importantly, do so without steamed buns, biscuits, pastries, granary bread, bagels, baguettes, cheese, donuts, scones, and the list goes on and on and on (and still onward going even while you're asleep). And thus Linda's Low Carb recipes now's a total FYI appendix to my middle-high level carb daily diets. Veggies and fruits are still keys to the peak experience of getting healthy and svelte. So friends, count your calories on a daily basis, and make sure you live long, like I will.

I bet 10 grand you must be thinking of one by now. Technically speaking, this is a tricky demand. But what I'm trying to point out here is that sometimes you just can't avoid certain stuff happening to your life. The harder you try to leave it the faster it catches up.

Never try to forget anything. It'll grasp tighter like there's no tomorrow.

Took a really hot bath and now 29°C is just like a 19° cooling breeze.

The word BLOG had come a long time before I even knew what it was. Guessing its meaning by sound and word origin, I half-supposed it must have been a combination somewhere between B-lah-OG, where you babble on a daily basis and which eventually become a personal log.

One particular part of my skin is gradually taking more heat than I could bear...

I used to be a lot more confident in writings using English. For one thing, writing has never been too much of a task for me in Chinese. I seemed to know my way around playing with words. For anther, that's the best and clearest way to explain the weirdness exuding top-to-toe from me.

BTW, I have no plan on talking much for the day. That'll make the rest articles short.

Anyways, all I'm trying to say here is that, English is both a scary and brilliant language. Brilliant, but scary.

Hopefully I'll regain my once powerful use of it in little time.