Season's Greetings

Dear NTUEE64 Classmates,



Wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!



AJ reminded recently me that our next class reunion is supposed to be about a year from now at Les Vegas. It is about time for us to think more about it and to propose further detail plan.



Best regards,



Paul Chen

Foof & Wine - Chinese Style

A long while back I was shopping at a liquor store (in Minnesota, we get liquor and wine at liquor store, not grocery store) when the manager, who was our neighbor and was helping a yuppie type couple pick a wine, asked me what wine would pair well with Peiking duck. To help my neighbor, I thought hard for awhile and told them, dark BEER. You could see the dejection shown on the young couple's faces.

Really, I didn't know how to pair a certain type of western or Chinese wine with a particular Chinese food or dish. To this day, it continues to be an intriguing subject for me. Since we have such a vast collective knowledge among our classmates, I would like to throw a brick and hopefully draw in some jades.

A disclaimer. I am not a connoisseur of food or wine of any kind; whether Chinese, French, Italian or Japanese, or Thai for that matter. Heck, I cannot even claimed to have had a dish prepared by a Chinese royal chef or any French or Italian dish by a 5-star chef from New York, Chicago, Milan or Paris. As for wine, I can hardly distinguish among the different wines produced in Napa or Sonoma alone, not to mention those outrageous varieties from Italy, France or Spain.

The Italian and French are known for their arts of food and wine pairng, where one compliments the other. I know no such arts in any Chinese cuisine. For one thing, the Chinese wines are fundamentally different from European wines both in ingredients and processes. And as far as I know (I might be utterly ignorant), Chinese drink liquor or wine simply to get intoxicated or loosened up so the brain becomes less inhibited (we have way too much taboo along with our rich culture) that the genius of beautiful poems, paintings and calligraphies can spout out freely; or, like in the martial art novels, that the welled up energy can be maximally released. It seems to me, the enhencement of food with wine or wine with food is the least of our concern or interest. Either the food is great or the wine is great, but never a praise of the combination of food AND wine.

In a way, I wonder if it really makes sense to try to pair western wines with Chinese food, since China is not a grapes growing land. If we had grapes in China, with our ancesters' unmatched cleverness, I would bet we would have had the most wonderful wines to go with any of the countless wonderful regional dishes.

So, where are we? Again, in today's global competition for food prestige, if Chinese wants to claim a seat at the head table, we have to come up with some wines that compliment the food. And the wines may become significant national revenue. A good idea, don't you think? Sorry, I got carried away again, as usual.

Please share your experience or opinion, so we can all learn something in food and wine - Chinese style. I am itching to try any recommendation.

美式足球

美式足球

昨天佛羅里達大學橄欖球隊用以３１比 ２０戰勝阿拉巴馬大學 。 成為「東南聯盟」的冠軍 。 再加一場比賽，它可能成為全國冠軍。 全校一片沸騰。 近年來，佛大橄欖球打得非常好 。 每個週末，整個大學校園像是開嘉華年會 。有人聲稱這是各州立大學的一個「陰謀」 。州立大學依法必須招收許多不太合格的學生。他們對讀書不感興趣，特別在週末。「小人不可久處約」。閒著可能引起麻煩。有了球賽，從星期五的晚會，到星期六的比賽，到星期日的狂歡或沮喪，週末就過去了，而且學校也趁機賺了大錢。想想， 足球教練的薪水是校長的10倍。 我的汽車也幾次因此被拖。因為很多停車場為了校友看球過夜停放旅行車， 在星期五6點半之後，教授就不能停車了。 有時忘記時間，我的汽車被拖，還得付罰款。又被學校賺了。

我剛到美國的時候，總覺得橄欖球是以蠻力取勝。在我看來，不論是帶球短衝還是投球長跑，帶球者老是會被對方絆倒在地，混打成一團。而且，那誇張的護肩和頭盔，試把一個人退化成猩猩。學校的高年學長告訴我這是典型的美國文化，重力不重智。特別那時越戰打的美國人灰頭灰臉。一味以火力蠻幹。正是橄欖球文化的投影。 後來，我漸漸發現橄欖球並不只是以蠻力取勝。需要智勇雙全。並且智慧比體力更為重要。在所有集體運動中，我覺得橄欖球用的智力最多。

中國在今年奧運會上贏得最多的金牌。幾乎都來自個人項目。在大的集體運動中，如籃球，足球，或棒球。中國什麼也沒有。個人項目取決於個人。中國人可不會輸，但集體運動需要合作。中國人缺點就出來了。當然桌球和羽球的雙打也要合作，但他們的合作只有兩個人。棒球需要的合作較少，籃球和足球較多，但他們都比不過美國的橄欖球。因此美國中學和大學用橄欖球作為主要運動項目是有理由的。或許這是美國人能合作得更好的原因吧？

我們從童年起就知道中國人像一盤散沙。最近我多次看見，「台灣人沒路用」這句話。說這話的人不意味著台灣個人沒用。他感嘆的是台灣人不能合作。柏楊曾經說中國人不合作不是我們不知道合作的好處。 中國人能寫一本甚至一火車有關合作好處的書，但是就是不能合作。柏老這次看走了眼。怎麼可能聰明的中國人知道合作的好處而不合作？其實合作有一個壞處，它可以遮蓋所有的好處。合作也意味著犧牲，搞不好會吃虧上當。聰明的中國人當然知道，只是不說出來而已。

合作之難，可以從生物的演化史上看到。從化石的見證，單細胞生物大約在３０億年前開始出現。猜猜看，從單細胞演化到第一個多細胞生物化了多少年？化了大約３０億中三分之二的時間（注１）。多細胞生物在十億多年前才出現的。為什麼？合作真難。細胞我為什麼為了細胞你就犧牲復製？人體裡有兆個以上的細胞。他們都為卵或精細胞犧牲他們自己分裂權力 (除癌細胞之外，他們拒絕再犧牲)。他們也都是歷經了至少35億年的艱苦歲月，不曾停止過奮鬥的。但是今天，他們決定為那些卵或精細胞犧牲了。多麼大的犧牲﹗「為有犧牲多壯志，敢教日月換新天」。 如果沒有這麼多細胞的犧牲，我們仍會停留在單細胞生物的過程。由此觀之，人類社會再往前進，就要看那一個制度最能推動社會成員的合作。美國之所以為美國，有她的道理。

我的高中在屏東高雄，那時就知道北部有個建國中學。如雷貫耳。到達台北以後，我意識到建中有一個橄欖球隊。這可能是台灣唯一的中學橄欖球隊。現在看起來，建中不僅聯考第一。他們在體育上也有遠見。建中之所以為建中，是有她的道理（注２）。
楊照崑

注１︰ 可在 google上查到。地球約在４６億年前形成。單細胞生物約在３８億到２０億年前已經存在，多細胞生物在８億年前開始出現。魚類在5億年前開始大量出現，恐龍在２億到７千萬年前統治地球。開始慢，後來快。不久的將來，新的物種几天就可以用生物工程製造出來。

注２︰要瞭解建中請看幸峰兄寫的 All Kinds of Everything Remind me of ...
幸峰談到當年在建中班上來了一個漂亮年輕的英文女老師，〞Everybody treated her like a sister”可見建中是比我們南部文明多了。如果我們有這種好運，心裡想的就像街上唱的一樣，「給我一個吻，可以不可以」（見維龍兄的 comment）。那裡會去煩惱 Seven Lonely Days 是什麼意思。

寒山寺

I passed by 蘇州 last month & had a chance to see 寒山寺. This temple is not that famous comparing to 金山寺 or 普陀寺. However, it became well known after 張繼 composed the poem "楓橋夜泊":

月落烏啼霜滿天，江楓漁火對愁眠。
姑蘇城外寒山寺，夜半鐘聲到客船。

The gate of the temple is very humble. There are only three green characters 寒山寺(white base) on a brown wall. It looks very spartan & gives you a cool feeling. Inside the temple, it is spacious & nice, 給你一种佛道温暖的感覺. Several buildings spread around the temple: 大雄宝殿, 寒拾殿, 罗漢堂, 天王殿, 楓江楼 etc. The most notable one is 普明宝塔, it is high & can be seen from far away. 鐘楼 itself is a little two level pagoda with a bell in the second level. There were a lot of visitors inside the temple. I noticed a group of Japanese high school kids with uniform. They said they learned "楓橋夜泊" in the class. Apparently 寒山寺 is well known in Japan. As far as I can remember, we didn't have this poem in our high school textbook, though it is included in 唐詩三百首. Later I learned that some Japanese have a tradition to come here on New Years' eve to 敲鐘. By doing that they believe it can shave 10 years from their age, .ie. make them younger. It is kind of odd that Chinese never really get serious about 寒山寺. Perhaps, 遠來的和尚會念經. In Tang dynasty, Two monks 寒山& 拾得 were in charge of this temple. To Japanese, 寒山& 拾得 were the monks from afar, they have got to be superior. The bell 張繼 heard is not in the temple now. It is said that the bell was carried to Japan when 拾得 visited there. Japanese couldn't locate the original bell since then. 伊藤博文 recasted a new one & sent to 寒山寺 in 明治38 年四月(around AD 1906).

Mark Yang mentioned 李香蘭 & 中國之夜 some time ago. There is one song related to it is 苏州夜曲. I checked the lyrics, the last sentence is something like "鐘が鳴ります寒山寺（かんざんじ） <寒山寺的钟声在繞樑回蕩>". However, in the Chinese version of 苏州夜曲, it becomes "水鄉苏州,花落春去,相思長堤,細柳依依." It sounds nice, but it just repeats the first section, omits the third section of the lyrics & rids of 寒山寺completely.

The temple is well kept & its surroundings are beautiful & romantic. 張繼 may not be that famous as we think, but "楓橋夜泊" sure puts 寒山寺on the romantic map of the world. Nowadays, everytime I read "楓橋夜泊", it reminds me of 寒山寺, 楓橋, water way, sunset & especially its haunting bell.

百思買

I was in Shanghai last month. As I strolled around 徐家滙 shopping area, I saw a big familiar store. It is “Best Buy” with three Chinese characters imprinted on the wall outside the building. It is 百思買. These 3 characters pronounce like Best Buy. However, in Mandarin, it means "Think 100 times before you buy". Personally, I think the translation is cute but it is a bad idea to use a store name like this. If a guy has to think twice, the probability of buying it is around 50%. If I have to think 100 times, I am sure I won't buy it as the probability of buying it is almost 0. When two cultures meet, all kinds of idiosyncrasies occur. This leads to that good old translation problem most Chinese encounter. 牛頓 or 牛敦? 詹森 or 強生? 聖地亞哥 or 聖地戈? 春田城 or 泉地市? 新奧而良 or 紐堮連斯? There is no standard way of name translation, it is a complete chaos. Japanese use kata kana for foreign names & they get by nicely. As to language improvement, Japanese is ahead of China about 1,600 years. Chinese always think Japanese learned the language from them & so it must be inferior. It is hard to swallow the pride to admit that now they have to follow the similar path to simplify characters & some others. I think it is hard to overcome 1,600 years of language evolution. Chinese need a quantum jump. One way to do this is just to get rid of the translation. Instead, make English as the mandatory second language everyone needs to learn from the primary school. So for all the foreign names or whatever foreign, we have the option to use English directly. This shifts the translation to the English instead of Chinese. Nowadays, all Chinese middle schools teach English, so just extends this to all primary schools & within 20 years, all the problems about foreign name disappear.

As a matter of fact, the way we communicate now (this writing) is writing English & insert Chinese word as we need it. The reverse of this is to write Chinese & insert English word as we need it. As long as every Chinese understand English as a second language, this method solves the problem. We will also find eventually that the language advantage of India & Singapore over Chinese will diminish. In a larger sense, this is very beneficial when it comes to 与世界接軌.

All Kinds of Everything Remind me of …

In our life, we go through a lot of routines. But we don’t remember them much & actually fade away when time goes by. Something comes once in a while that is out of ordinary, however, will stick to our memory. Love songs are common & everywhere. There are numerous classical love songs or arias. But most people are more interested in popular music. Personally, I like classical love songs more, perhaps because of the versatility of the orchestra & instruments. However, once in a while, I encountered some love songs from the pop side that is so out of the routines & influenced me much.

It was the time of 1956 when we were in our junior high. It was the time of growing up, we looked at everything fresh & new. Suddenly, one song popped up & we heard “Seven Lonely Days” everyday & almost everywhere. Of course, we didn’t know much about the lyrics & meaning of the song. But it was there everyday that we couldn’t ignore. Here came the English teacher, fresh out of the college, looked clean, nice & lively. She treated us like a group of uncivilized kids. She was about 8 years older than us. But she looked so cute & young that we treated her just like our sisters. One day, I asked her about “Seven Lonely Days” & what the lyrics really mean. She spent about 15 minutes explaining the whole thing, very impressive. Strange enough, I became very interested in English after this. Since then, every time I hear this song, it reminds me of my English teacher. The singer is Georgia Gibbs, a Russian Jewish descent. She had a nice, strong & lyric style voice. You can hear her voice far away. She passed away two years ago at the age of 87. Strictly speaking, “Seven Lonely Days “ is not a love song, but it is love related. You can listen to the song with the following youTube site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcNU2Dr5c5M

The lyrics:
Seven lonely days make one lonely week
Seven lonely nights make one lonely me
Ever since the time you told me we were through
Seven lonely days I cried and cried for you
(Oh, my darlin' you're cryin', boo-hoo-hoo-hoo)
(There's no use in denyin' I cried for you)
(It was your favorite pastime making me blue
(Last week was the last time I cried for you)
(Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo)
Seven hankies blue I filled with my tears
Seven letters too I filled with my fears
Guess it never pays to make your lover blue
Seven lonely days I cried and cried for you
(And cried for you)
(Oh, my darling you're crying) Seven lonely days
(Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo) Make one lonely week
(There's no use in denying) Seven lonely nights
(I cried for you) Make one lonely me
(It was your favorite pastime) Ever since the time
(Making me blue) You told me we were through
(Last week was the last time) Seven lonely days
(I cried for you) I cried and cried for you
(Oh, my darling I) Cried and cried for you
(Oh, my darling I) Cried and cried for you

Time went by, we entered senior high & the pop music was dominated by Elvis, the King. Time went by again, we entered college & the pop music was dominated by Beetles. Since they are all male singers, we boy though like the music but not the type that you will jump, scream & faint in their concert. That sort of thing belongs to girls. Not until 1965, while we just finished military service & ready to study abroad, one song hit me with a bang. The first time I heard the song, I felt this woman was sincere & serious. The title of the song is “The Wedding”. After hearing the song, I decided to look for someone that I can marry someday later. If someone put the emotion on line & sings the song from the bottom of the heart, she can’t be ignored. Nowadays, every time I think about the college graduation & military service, it reminds me of this song. Recently I found the original performance of Julie Rogers on youTube. It really enhances my original feeling about this song: sincere, earnest & emotional. Julie Rogers is an English pop star, born in 1943 & still around these days. The following is the youTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvo8vlSi8zE

Time went by again, it was the time of 1970. In the distance, I heard something “All Kinds of Everything”, a distinctive voice of a loving girl. This was the time we just finishes our Ph.D. dissertation & ready for the world. Now this song sounded so pure, sincere & real that I forgot the Ph.D. & decided to get married right away. How can you refuse a love call like this. Dana Rosemary Scallon is an Irish singer who won the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest with this title song “All Kinds of Everything”. You can see her original performance in the following youTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awhQjT14cdA

After I watched this video clip, it sure enhances my original feeling. My heart is almost melted when she utters the last word of the song. Nowadays, every time I think about Ph.D. degree, it reminds me of this “All Kinds of Everything”.

The lyrics:
Snowdrops and daffodils
butterflies and bees
sailboats and fishermen
things of the sea
wishing-wells
wedding bells
early morning dew
all kinds of everything remind me of you

Seagulls and aeroplanes
things of the sky
winds that go howlin'
breezes that sigh
city sights
neon lights
grey skies or blue
all kinds of everything remind me of you

Summertime
wintertime
spring and autumn too
Monday
Tuesday every day
I think of you.
Dances
romances
things of the night
sunshine and holidays
postcards to write
Budding trees
autumn leaves
a snowflake or two
all kinds of everything remind me of you.

Summertime
wintertime
spring and autumn too
seasons will never change
the way that I love you.

Dances
romances
things of the night
sunshine and holidays
postcards to write
Budding trees
autumn leaves
a snowflake or two
all kinds of everything remind me of you.
All kinds of everything remind me of you.

November's Greetings

Hi, All,

After almost 2 months (June and July) of checking without any new posting, I thought our blog had been abandoned. So, I was surprised to see the good stuffs posted by Mark Lin and Mark Yang.

Mark Lin's posting about "the last rose of summer" really struck the core in me. I happen to consider this song the most beautiful folk song of them all. I have collected quite a few recordings. The best (again in my opinion) was sung by Leontyne Price in Flotow's version. Two years ago, in a Dublin pub, with Guinness of course, I asked our tour guide to sing it, but he declined. Then, when we were at a B&B in a small Irish town, the 75 years old keeper did granted my request and sang it wonderfully. She used to a choir singer in younger days. A few years back, my family was celebrating my birthday at a restaurant where there were a keyboard player and a fiddler performing. Right after we finished our entrees, the fiddler came to our table and played this song for me. Needless to say, I was quite moved. It turned out my daughter had asked them to. I have listened to so many recordings and performances from profesionals down to school kids, and I have not heard a single bad one. I guess the song is so good that no matter how you sing or play it, it just comes out nice. As far as I know, Flotow was the only composer adapting the whole folk song into his work, unlike Puccini and others. Some critics had said that "The last rose of summer" made the opera Martha, not the opera made the song. I think there are more people who know this song than people who know Flotow and Martha. By the way, I don't think Puccini did a good job with oriental materials; both Turandot and Madam Butterfly are not that great except the two famous arias that are more Italian. Actually, I feel Puccini demeaned Chinese and Japanese in those operas.

Other follow up coming.

HP-12C & New Numbers

Have you ever found any high tech gadgets last more than 25 years (1/4 of a century) on the market & still produced and supported by manufacturers.  It is indeed very hard to find one with average product cycle around 3 years in Silicon Valley. Believe it or not, I did find one that meet the honor. It is HP-12C Calculator.  I purchased one in 1983 which I still use these days.  I was in Walgreen last week, a drug store around the corner, looking for BeneFiber.  I passed by one aisle and see the familiar HP-12C calculator, priced at $69.  Although there is a platinum model that cost more, the original one is still there. This is a finance calculator for interest, mortgage, amortization, etc.  I heard that some big financial company bought this calculator for each employee & used for company's work.  This may be the reason why it is still around these days. But why they pick HP-12C?  I think the reasons is the pocket size, easy to use & its long-lasting batteries. As far as I can remember, I only changed batteries once in 25 years. HP-12C is truly a classic product in itself, amazing.

Related to calculator, it is the number---unit of number, the way we do the counting.   In most calculators, the number is displayed three digits in a group with comma.  In other words, it is easy to read it in thousand, million, billion etc. But this creates problems for 万& 億.  I am sure most of us have the same experience.  When someone said 700 billion dollars to bail out the financial mess.  What, 700 B, oh, it is 七千億.  It takes about 4 or 6 seconds to get the conversion.  How about 八拾七萬?  Oh, it is 870 thousand. This time it takes about 4 sec to get the conversion.  How about 四万万七千万? Oh, it is the same as 四億七千万, and it is 470 million.  It takes more than 10 sec to do the conversion. I found it rather amusing whenever Chinese people in America try to quote the big number & everybody sort of sucks into some confusion.  The inconsistency comes from the way Chinese count---4 zeros a group instead of 3 zeros a group. 百, 千, 万(4 zeros) then 億(8 zeros), 兆(12 zeros).  But the western way is thousand (3 zeros), million (6 zeros), billion (9 zeros) then trillion (12 zeros). I think it will be a good idea that Chinese create two new units of number: ＃米 and ＃比.  They are equivalent to million & billion. We might as well get used to these two numbers and save us a lot of trouble.  So 470 million is just 470 ＃米 & 700 billion is just 700 ＃比.  And 140 thousand can just be 140千, simple as it is.  So from now on, we all live in peace & happily ever after.

PS1: You may be upset that why we have to confirm to the western way of counting.  Well, it started long time ago when our ancesters wanted 西学為用.   This does not mean that we abandon the counting of 万& 億, we simply add two more units of number to facilitate easy counting & communication. Take a look at Periodic Table, Uranium (鈾), Plutonium (鈽), Americium (鋂), Curium (鋸), Einsteinium (鑀), Fermiun (鐨), Mendelevium (鍆), Lawrencium (鐒), Berkelium (鉑), Californium (鉲) etc.  So we already named a lot of items per western words and pronunciation. By the way, the United States fares very well in the periodic table: Americium, Californium, Berkelium. Berkeley & California are the only university & state to be named in the periodic table. Also Lawrence (Lawrencium, atomic #103) & Seaborg (Seaborgium, atomic #106) are the scientists from Berkeley.

PS2: It is funny to see Trillion & 兆 all end up with 12 zeros.  The reason is simple: 12 is divisible by both 3 & 4.  No wonder ancient Babylonian used 12 進位 instead of 10. 12 has factor 2,3,4 & 6. But 10 has only 2 & 5 factors. At least for division, 12 based # is twice efficient as 10 based #.

求學孫子

前言

我在台灣讀書的時候，就知道有 [孫子兵法] 這本書，但從來沒有在書局中看到過。軍訓教官也只提到書名，不提內容。好像是武林密集，不輕易傳人。現在想起來，可能與 [孫子兵法] 開宗明義的一句話有關。 孫子曰，兵者，詭道也。與當時宣傳的國軍乃仁義之師，相去太遠。最近回台灣，看到一本叫 [商戰孫子] 的書，其目的是教導如何用 [孫子兵法] 經商。雖然有一些見解，但牽強附會太多，連 [行軍]，[地形]，[九地]，[火攻] 諸篇，都配上商業用途，有風馬牛不相及之感。但我第一次看到了 [孫子兵法] 全文。愛不忍釋。想不到我們的祖先能寫這麼好的文章。這樣的 realistic。開門見山，水清見底。兵者，詭道也。打仗使用陰謀詭計不丟人，連逃跑也不丟人，只有打敗仗才是丟人。 [孫子兵法] 不但內容精闢，而且文筆之流暢，用來作為高中的國文教材，比 [古文觀止] 上絕大多數的文章讀起來要舒暢得太多了。請看 [兵勢] 篇中的一段，
凡戰者，以正合，以奇勝。故善出奇者，無窮如天地，不竭如江河。終而復始，日月是也，死而復生，四時是也。聲不過五，五聲之變，不可勝聽也。色不過五，五色之變，不可勝觀也。味不過五，五味之變，不可勝嘗也。戰勝，不過奇正，奇正之變，不可勝窮也。奇正相生，如循環之無端，熟能窮之哉？
顯然孫子認為文學修養對一個將軍非常重要。不然他不會把這些與作戰無關的東西寫在兵法裡。
現在有人認為 [孫子兵法] 的原則到處可用。除了戰場，商場之外，情場，官場，選舉都用得上。我一輩子讀書，看看求學能不能也套上 [孫子兵法]。

始計第一

求學者，人生之大事，終生心血，舉家甘苦，不可不察也。
故經之以五事，校之以計，而索其情。一曰道，二曰時，三曰地，四曰師，五曰己。
道者，最終之目標也，題目當與天地同壽，日月同庚，朝聞之，夕可死也。披星載月，不畏難也。時者，天時也，知所先後，則近道矣。時未至而先攻者，徒勞而無所獲。地者，學校，設備，環境也。查無書，且問無友，事倍而功半。師者，智，信，名，錢，點也。己者，能力，興趣，背景也。
凡此五事，學者當聞，知之者成，不知之者敗。故曰，校之以計，而其索情。曰 道孰能申，師孰能啟，己孰能耐，錢孰能久。吾人以此知勝負矣。
學者，慎道也。知之為知之，不知為不知。近而慮之遠，遠而慮之近。不求小利，不貪近功。得之不驕，敗之不餒，思人之未見，攻人之不察。故學者之勝，不可先傳也。
夫未起步而廟算勝者，得算多也。未起步而廟算不勝者，得算少也。多算勝，少算不勝，而況無算呼？吾人以此觀之，成敗見矣。

後語

孫子有一個有名的故事，所謂 [孫武子演陣斬美姬]，也是成語 [三令五申] 的來歷。最近在網上有一部關於孫子的歷史小說，中間有一段，作者希望還原這段悲慘的事件。為什麼孫武會帶宮女練兵，殺死了吳王的愛妃之後，為什麼吳王沒有為愛妃報仇？想像得合情合理，也許您有興趣一看。
http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/catalog.php?book=48636

楊照崑

Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 9/14 this year. Traditionally this is a big holiday most Chinese people rush to their family for reunion. No other holiday except Spring Festival is more important than 中秋節. There are a lot of poems related to the moon & the mid-autumn festival. But there are not many nice songs composed for the occasion. Some like 中秋怨 does not have universal appeal. Rather, it is for persons with broken family. Perhaps most people choose to 吟詩 instead of 唱歌. The most famous poem for the occasion is 水調歌頭 by 苏軾. There are some songs composed for this poem. One of them is "但願人長久". In western world, since there is no such festival, you don’t find any music composed for this occasion. However, there is some music either dedicated to the moon or related to the moon. Doris Day sang “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”. It is a very lovely song except that she sang for the Thanksgiving holiday, a very late autumn event. For something classical, the most famous one is Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, the other is DeBussy’s Clair de Lune (月光曲). I happen to remember the 2nd movement of Eine Kline Nacht Musik (by Mozart) has been adapted as moon related song (Meditation under the Moon) used in some elementary school. As to the aria of opera, there is one dedicated to the moon & well known. It is "Lied An Den Mond (Song to the Moon)" in Rusalka by Dvorak. Rusalka is a water spirit who sings this aria to plea to the moon for help in finding her prince. In 2001, Masterpiece Theatre released a movie “The Song of the Lark” featuring this song as the main theme. I think it is proper and fitting to sing this song under the moon on mid-autumn festival if you are a woman in love. For a man in love, he should play Moonlight Sonata, the 1st movement, very romantic. For the rest, just try Clair de Lune (play by piano) or the 2nd movement of Mozart’s Eine Kline Nacht Musik (小夜曲).

但願人長久

鄧麗君

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASfyDIZLgY8

By the Light of the Silvery Moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td7lCCO9aaQ

Lied An Den Mond

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwuNqcKUxto&feature=related

2nd movement of Mozart’s Eine Kline Nacht Musik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGK3zsbPj5Q

Moonlight Sonata, the 1st movement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFSRs7iqAv8

Clair de Lune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LXl4y6D-QI

PS: Moonlight Sonata was not named by Beethoven. It was added in 1832 by a music critic, Ludwig Rellstab, who said the 1st movement reminded him of moonlight over Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. I am sure some of you have visited Switzerland & seen this lake. It is one of the most beautiful lakes in Europe. If you have a chance to cruise the lake, you will see a nice building along the shore. It happens to be a museum of Richard Wagner, Tribschen. I visited the place in 1984. It is worth visiting if you are fit & can walk a mile to see it.

The Last Rose of Summer

The autumn starts on 9/22 this year. This is the definition from astronomy. Traditionally & meteorologically it starts roughly around September 1 or Labor Day in Canada & US. So 8/31 is the last day of summer. This reminds me a lovely song “The Last Rose of Summer”. Although the last rose of summer does not necessary falls on the last day of summer, it conveys the same message that the

summer will soon be over & the last rose will wither & fade away---sad emotion. The song is from an old Irish air “The Groves of Blarney”. John Stevenson adapted this tune on “The Last Rose of Summer”, a poem by Thomas Moore. Since then this song becomes very popular. In fact, Flotow used this song in his opera Martha & appears several times in different acts. Martha is a comic opera, a love story of two boring ladies & two farmers who hire them as servants. When farmer, Lionel fell in love with the leading lady Harriet, she gave the rose she wore to him & sang the Last Rose of Summer. After that, the two ladies fled & returned to the court. Lionel was so distressed, he sang a famous aria “Ach! So fromm” (恍如夢中). The opera is not very long & generally considered to be a light opera. The ending is a happy one --- they marry & live happily ever after (有情人终成眷屬). Just before the curtain falls, they sing once again “The Last Rose of Summer”.

Though there are many arias in Martha, only the above two are really famous. The opera is very unique in some way, as Germans consider it a German opera, French consider it a French opera, Italians consider it an Italian opera. Of course English think it is an English opera with setting in Scotland with Irish Last Rose of Summer. Flotow is a German receiving music training in France. He composed Martha in German, but the original script is in French. The opera was translated into Italian with high quality that most Italians think it is from Donnizetti. Especially, the aria “Ach! So fromm” is translated into Italian “M’appari tutt’amor”. It is this title aria made Martha well known in the opera world. I think European Union (EU) needs a lot of people like Flotow to unite the Europe. Something similar happens to Dvorak’s symphony #9, “From the New World”, 2nd movement. American people think it is very American. But most people from Czech & Slovakia have no doubt about it. It sounds so Bohemian that they become home sick immediately. I haven’t found anything like this among China, Korea & Japan. The one close to it are the songs we all familiar with, 送別 & 憶兒時. 送別 becomes “旅愁”in Japan. 憶兒時 becomes 故鄉の老家. Japanese think they are Japanese songs. Most Chinese have no doubt that they are Chinese songs. But the truth is that both of them are American folk songs. 送別 was composed by John P. Ordway (1824-1880) with title “Dreaming of Home & Mother. 憶兒時 was composed by W.S. Hays (1837-1907) with title "My Dear Old Sunny Home”. The peculiar thing is that not many American people know Ordway & Hays, let alone these two songs.

The following are some YouTube links that you can listen to the songs I mentioned above:

The Last Rose of Summer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nc55QYn970

Ach! So Fromm, sing in German by Wunderlich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEyG3xG3rOM

M’appari tutt’amor, sing in Italian by Pavarotti and Lanza

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypDQoiryv1Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yvC7A2YoMs&feature=related

Dreaming of Home & Mother

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWSP0dD8gnM&feature=related

My Dear Old Sunny Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l9wA_Ho-v0

The above link switches authors of music (tune) & lyrics.

http://www.pdmusic.org/hays.html;

Move the screen to 1871 and click My Dear Old Sunny Home

Dvorak's Going Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiEuoE9sViA

Some photos from Hubble Space are spectacular. You almost think our home is in the deep space of our cosmos. But at the last moment, the distintive blue marble shows up from the corner & it is our Earth, an almost ocean sphere. The Earth is truly our home.

Slide Rules

I just cleaned the garage & found a good old slide rule I used to use in our Taida’s day. It is a Hemmi 153 for EE. After so many years, I can barely remember the scales & functions. Most of you use Hemmi 255, also for EE.

For some reason, I seldom used it in my graduate classes in the US, although I was still an EE major. The discipline of EE consists of many fields such as communication, power, control system, computer & logic, circuit & network, electronics, solid state physics, etc. Most of these fields stress on theory & application. The numerical calculation is minimal. In other words, due to lack of case study or field application, the calculation is fairly limited & so the use of slide rule is rare. Compare to law & MBA programs, our EE seems less exciting & lack of colorful or hot discussion. I spent half day to review my good old slide rule & would like to share some of my finding. Of course, most of us knew these long time ago. Here are the scales I found in Hemmi 153:

L: Logarithm

K: Cube

A: Square

A,B: Multiply, Divide

C,D,CI: Multiply, Divide, Proportion

T: Tangent

GTheta: Gudermanian Angle for Sinh on T scale & Tanh on P scale

Theta: Angle of Trigonometry, 360 degrees in a circle

RTheta: Radian Angle of Theta, 2 pi in a circle

P,Q,Q’: Sin, Cos & Hypotenuse of Right Triangle

LL3, LL2, LL1: log log scale for exponential functions

The operation of the slide rule is by sliding center bar and finding the answer using various scales. So the operation is basically Addition & Subtraction in nature. However, if the scale is calibrated in a logarithmic fashion, then the multiplication becomes addition & division becomes subtraction. That is exactly what scale A,B,C,D & CI do. In fact, the scale L is calibrated from 0 to 10 in equal spacing. As to the calculation of exponential functions, it takes one more log to convert exponent to multiply. In LL3, LL2 & LL1, the scale is calibrated in log log fashion, so the calculations of exponent is converted to addition, a slide rule operation. GTheta is Gudermanian Angle for finding Sinh on T scale & Tanh on P scale. It is not obvious why hyperbolic functions have anything to do with Tangent & Square functions. I think the key is how GTheta is defined. Most electrical engineers are not really interested in the definition of GTheta. All we care is getting Sinh from T scale & Tanh from P scale. As a matter of fact, the graph of Sinh looks like Tan & Tanh looks like Sin in the range of principal values.

Nowadays we don’t see slide rules except the places like museums. This is one example that technology changes the way we calculate, and so the way we live. You might ask why. In 1972, HP introduced HP-35 Electronic Calculator. It has 35 buttons (so called HP-35) with four functions, trigonometric, logarithmic functions, square root & exponential functions. The accuracy of the calculation is 10 significant digits. Since it can perform all the functions of the slide rules & do them more accurately (10 significant vs 3 or 4 digits in slide rules) and efficiently (much faster), it sent the slide rules into oblivion. From then on, slide rules faded away like old soldiers & books of math tables disappeared in no time. In 1972, I worked for Mostek, a spin out of Texas Instrument. Mostek supplied three ROMs for HP-35. I had the chance to see the complete binary code of the algorithms & its architecture. The processor operates fetch, store, branch, add & shift with four registers. Each register has 56 bits, organized as 14x4, ie 14 digits in BCD. The internal register calculations are 14 digits and the accuracy is 10 digits. It is a very primitive but compact processor dedicated just for scientific calculations. The four functions are calculated with add & shift. Logarithm is calculated using Sequential Table Lookup (log 2, log 1.1, log 1.01 & log 1.001). For example, log 30 is converted to a series of numbers as follows:

Log 10*3 = log 10* 2*1.5 = log 10*2*1.1*1.36

= log 10*2*1.1*1.1*1.1*1.01*1.01

= Log 10 +log 2 + 3*log1.1 + 2*log 1.01.

Since log10=1, log 2, log 1.1, log 1.01 are the constants store in ROM, you just look them up & add to get the correct answer. The method seems cumbersome. But the processor is fast enough to get the most results within 3 seconds.

Trigonometric functions are calculated by Rotation Method (CORDIC) with Sequential Table Lookup (arctan 1, arctan 0.1, arctan 0.01, arctan 0.001 and arctan 0.0001). The angles correspond to 45°, 5.71°, 0.57°, 0.06° and 0.01°. For example, Tan 52° is converted to Tan (45+5.71+ 0.57 + 0.57 + 0.06 + 0.06 + 0.01 + 0.01 + 0.01). For each rotation, use the formula we learned from Analytic Geometry:

X’ = xcosA - ysinA

Y’ = xsinA + ycosA

The values of sin & cos of the angles 45° to 0.01° are stored in ROM.

The final result Tan 52° = X’/Y’. Sin52° = Y’/SQRT(X’²+Y’²) & Cos52° = X’/SQRT(X’²+Y’²).

Exponential function exp(x) can be obtained similar to logarithmic function. Convert x to m0*c0 + m1*c1 + m2*c2 + m3* c3 + m4*c4. The constants in ROM c0, c1, c2, c3, & c4 are the values of ln10, ln 2, ln 1.1, ln 1.01, ln 1.001, ln 1.0001. So exp(x)= exp(m0*c0 + m1*c1 + m2*c2 + m3* c3 + m4*c4) = 10^m0 * 2^m1 * 1.1^m2 * 1.01^m3 * 1.001^m4, can be calculated by add & shift operations.

Some of us might have chance to take a course called Numerical Analysis in graduate school. It is considered part of the computer science curriculum. Alas, it didn’t mention anything that I found in HP-35. One thing I did know at that time why HP didn’t use Infinite Series, it is the speed of the convergence. It is hard to find infinite series converges fast enough for the slow processor in 1972.

作文與命運

Sometime ago in our classmate email communication, we talked about the composition in our joint entrance examination & how important it was to our future. Here is another example. I read a book “小脚與西服” several years ago. It was written by Natasha Chang who is the grandniece of 張幼儀, the first wife of 徐志摩. This is a very interesting book which describes the whole thing from the interviews she conducted with 張幼儀. Several years ago, Taiwan produced a TV Show--人間四月天--, a very good show that traces the love affair of 徐志摩. In小脚與西服, it mentioned 張嘉璈, the brother of 張幼儀, went to 杭州第一中学 to see the condition of the school. While he examined the work of the students, he was so impressed by 徐志摩's composition, he made a decision to arrange the marriage between 徐志摩 & his sister 張幼儀. After this, we all know the rest of the story: unhappy marriage, divorce, can’t marry 林徽因 as she refrained, found another lover 陸小曼, financial difficulty, … , airplane accident to end his life. This is the hindsight: If it were 林長民 (father of 林徽因) instead of 張嘉璈who read the composition, the future & fate of 徐志摩 would have been completely different. It would have been a perfect marriage 徐志摩+林徽因 & the Chinese literature might have been added one brilliant chapter. Anyway, this is just another example of the importance of composition to one’s future.

PS1: 林長民 was well known, literally & politically and became a very good friend of 徐志摩. While 林長民 stayed in London, his daughter 林徽因 lived with him & attended college in London. 徐志摩 went to Cambridge & had chances to meet her. And so the love affair flourished. 張幼儀 moved to Cambridge but couldn’t salvage the marriage as 徐志摩 divorced her in no time. She later moved to Germany & eventually returned to China.

Ps2: The title of TV series “人間四月天“ is from a poem by 林徽因: “你是人間四月天”. She majored in architecture and well verse in literature. Her father-in-law is 梁啓超. Her father is 林長民, the cousin of 林覺民, one of 黄花崗七＋二烈士.

Gleaners

I bought an old book recently in a book sale of local library. It is Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets (Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1954). I read Giselle & Swan Lake. Somehow it reminded me that I read the same text somewhere before. I happened to have a copy of “笆蕾舞與樂曲的故事", published in 1958 by 拾穗雜誌. It dawns on me that the latter is the translation from the Balanchine’s book. Anyway I am sure most of us knew 拾穗雜誌 when we were in high school & college. It was a pretty high quality monthly magazine. Beside this book, 拾穗雜誌 also published “西洋歌剧的故事”and “交响樂的故事”around 1956. After 1957, 吳心柳 founded “音樂雜誌 and published it for several years. These two monthly magazines were fairly influential in the last five years of 1950’s. 吳心柳, also known as 張继高, wrote some other books like 樂府春秋 and 從精緻到完美 etc. I learned a lot from these two magazines when I was in school. Time goes fast, they are all gone & passed away. It is quite nostalgic when I reread some of these books. After 1960, 文星雜誌 & 皇冠雜誌 entered the center stage. That was the time of 李敖 & 瓊瑤. Somehow 李敖 didn’t like 瓊瑤 & attacked her novel ”窗外”. Anyway, that is another story. Go back to 拾穗雜誌, its cover is the famous painting by Jean Francois Millet, a French impressionist. Millet was a painter fond of the peasant scene. His paintings show the relations between nature & human being. They give you a feeling of hardworking peasants toiling their labors & still find harmony with the nature. Usually the background is the golden sunset or blue sky with patchy clouds couple with a remote chapel with its steeple. It has a profound effect to the viewers. I heard that his several paintings are now on display in Taipei, including his two most famous paintings: The Gleaners (拾穗) & The Angelus (晚祷). I saw these two original paintings at Musee d’Orsay in Paris in 1986. The museum was used to be a railway station. It was just converted to a museum at that time. Several years later, I purchased the reproduction copies in Palo Alto downtown at $16 apiece. I hang them in my family room since then. The Gleaner has three women in the foreground, one looks like mother in the center, the one on the left looks like her daughter and the woman on the right looks a little bit older and can’t bent comfortably. The background is a field with harvest activities and golden sky. The golden field extends remotely to the sky and forms a uniform color---穗野共長天一色.. You watch this painting & realize there are still some poor people live on the grains left by the harvest. Perhaps they have some children to feed at home & so they have to work hard to get by. You feel very sorry for them and hope their children will eventually get good education & get out of the situation. I remember during 1970’s, there was an engineering weekly magazine in Silicon Valley ran a contest matching famous painting with engineering activities. The Gleaner won the contest with title: “Boy, if those guys in Texas Instruments find out this is the way we grow semiconductor chips, ……”

The Angelus is even more famous than the Gleaners. This painting shows a peasant couple takes time off in the field to say prayers before going home. It is after sunset, it is getting dark but the sky is still glowing with golden color. The most prominent & moving scene is the remote church steeple. It gives you the ambient of bell ringing & you seem to hear it. At this moment, you really feel & understand---勞動神聖. Long time ago (1936), 開明書店 published a book by夏丏尊, title 平屋雜文. In this book, there is one article “米萊的晚鐘”. 夏丏尊 said “信仰, 勞動, 恋愛, 這三者融和一致的生活才是我們的理想生活. He then extended the argument that the women need to labor physically or mentally in order to gain economic-independent status in the society. I wouldn’t go that far but I like his imagination. This painting gives me a feeling of peace, harmony & assurance of the future. It is interesting 夏丏尊 used 晚鐘 instead of 晚祷. That means he focused more on the church steeple than the prayer.

Ps: 夏丏尊 also translated the well-known book 愛的教育 (by Edmondo Amicis). There are several versions of translation published after him. However, I think his version is the best. 夏丏尊 was a teacher & educator & I always found passions in his work & writing.

Midsummer Night's Dream

This is the midsummer time, time for vacation & relax. It is also a time for dream, a midsummer night's dream. Shakespeare wrote a lot of tragedies, but they are too heavy for most people. It is this Midsummer Night's Dream makes him a great playwright of comedy. Since its first performance in 1596, it continues to capture people's imagination & attention. The plot of the play is a mixture of mytholody, fairly tale, romance, jealousy, mischief, etc. After all, it is like a dream. It does show that our love affairs tend to go astray, go blind pursuit & wake up to the reality eventually. It may be the most popular play of Shakespeare. They are numerous music, opera & ballet performed every year based on this play. The most popular one is Mendelssohn's Incidental music of Midsummer Night's Dream. He composed the overture of it when he was 17 years old. He eventually finished the other part of the music 16 years later by the request of German Kaiser. The most famous pieces are the following:

1. Overture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1MGAlkqno&feature=related

2. Scherzo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dLhSZLIpvA&feature=related

3. Nocturne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QElxEypehc&feature=related

4. Wedding March

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVjyLbTItmw&feature=related

Wedding March is traditionally played in a wedding ceremony after the couple make the vow & parade down the aisle. It was started by Queen Victoria in 1858 by marrying her eldest daughter. From then on, it becomes a tradition.

Mendelssohn was a German with Jewish blood. However, he converted to a Lutheran christian. Even with this conversion, he was still shuned by people like Wagner & Hitler's Nazis. Most of the discrimination occurred after his death. He is generally considered the most fortunate composer in history. He came from a rich jewish family, have happy family & marriage. He was a child prodigy & a good painter, got acquantance with Gothe, Humboldt, Liszt, Chopin, German Kaiser and Queen Victoria etc. All in all, he lead a very happy life. No wonder his music is gay, lively & merry with romantic mood. If you listen to his Violin Concerto & Italian Symphony, you will surely appreciate his romantic quality. He also selflessly revived the music of Bach & Schubert to a new height.

He was very close to his sister Fanny. He died due to heart-broken one month after her death . His another sister Rebecca married Dirichlet, a great German mathematician. Most of us are familiar with Dirichlet, a person credited with modern definition of Function. It is interesting to know that Dirichlet's doctoral advisors were Simeon Poisson & Joseph Fourier, two heavy weights in electromagnetics.

Poisson's equation with no charge is Laplace's equation. We all know that they can be deduced from Maxwell's equations. But in history, it was the reverse procedure. Maxwell got to know all these equations & summed up with his great four equations. Fourier developed Fourier series & integral via his study on heat transfer. He worked under Napoleon on the expedition to Egypt. It was a failure campaign with some valuable bonus to the history. It was during this expedition that French army discovered Rosetta Stone. It is displayed in British Museum these days. The Rosetta Stone is a piece of rock that contains the same text with three different languages: hieroglyphic, Demotic (ancient Egyptian) & Greek. It is surely an open-sesame to understand Egyptian hieroglyphics which was undecidered at that time. It was a breakthrough event in history. I was in the British Museum several years ago & touched the stone to feel the history, a unique experience. Napoleon was graduated from the French academy of artillary. He was an expert of gun warfare. Fourier at that time was solving heat problems of French guns in the field of Egypt. He developed the famous Fourier series & the concept of representing any non periodic function with Fourier series. His work increased the efficiency of guns, influenced the campaign & the mathematics. As we all know, Napoleon was defeated in Egypt not by British army, but by British navy, lord Nelson in Battle of the Nile. Nowaday we go to Trafalgal square in London, a statue high up in the column is (you guess it right) Nelson. French army shouldn't feel bad on Egyptian expedition & Fourier certainly must be proud of his work. He also discovered in 1824 the so-called GreenHouse Effect which becomes a very important subject these days.

40 year after graduation reunion

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35 years after graduation reunion

Photos for 2007 Norwegian Cruise

This is the first try. It may not work.

Spring

Spring is here already. When you don't have to get up early and fight traffic, you really appreciate the poem: 春眠不覺曉, 處處聞啼鳥. Around 5am, the mockingbirds are calling, & then the doves follow. I got awaken, but I know I don't have to get up, so I fall asleep again. But mockingbirds are tenacious. They arm with at least 10 different calls & easily make good music. Spring is such a nice season, full of life & energy. The followings are some things I remember related to spring while we were in school.

春, by 朱自清,

盼望著, 盼望著, 東風來了, 春天的脚步近了. ....春天像小姑娘,花枝招展的,笑着,走著 ....

康橋, by 徐志摩

春,這勝利的晴空彷佛在你的耳边私語. 春,你那快活的靈魂也彷彿在那裡回响.

四時田家苦樂歌, by 鄭夑

細雨輕雷驚蟄後, 和風動土, ....漸茅簷日暖,小姑衣薄.

Longing for Spring, by Mozart

This is a little piece of song longing for spring, especially delightful sung by Vienna Choir Boys.

Concerto Spring, by Antonio Vivaldi

This is the first concerto from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. You can sense all the spring environment in the first movement.

Spring Symphony, by Robert Schumann

Schumann composed this symphony right after he married Clara, one of the best time in his life. You can hear all the high spirit of spring season. Especially the first movement with title: Visiting of Spring.

Voice of Spring, by Johann Strauss

Everyone knows this delightful waltz. It sounds as if the dance occurs right at the mid-spring with everything in full bloom. I happened to watch a new year program two years ago. It featured this Voice of Spring with Ballet dancer from London Royal Ballet. You will always remember that performance if you watch it.

Rite of Spring, by Stravinsky

This is a heart-pounding music used in that famous movie Fantasia. You can exercise a much wider area of imagination in painting music. The movie shows all volcano erupting, the earth shaking & sends all dinosaurs into extinction. It is a very powerful portrayal.

Spring Song, by Mendelssohn

This is a short piece of gem, a song without word. It fits the mood of late spring. Although the melody is sweet & light, you just feel that you miss or lose something at the end of the song: 淡淡哀愁,若有所失.

Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson

This book is the forerunner of the current Green Movement. It is the warning of using pesticides uncontrollably in our environment. Carson also wrote that famous bestselling book: The Sea Around Us. There is a Chinese translation by 夏道平: 海的故事.

論語, by 孔子

莫春者,春服既成,冠者五六人,童子六七人,浴乎沂,風乎舞雩,詠而歸.

This sounds as if everyday is a holiday, what a good life. Our life should be like this, especially in spring. By the way, this text gives the hint that Confucius really had 72 disciples, 30 (5*6)adults & 42 (6*7) boys. Don't get serious, this is just for fun.

Hi, All

This blog has been very quiet. I wonder how many of our classmates really read it or even know about it. You feel as if you are doing some monologue when you write something here. Life should be a many splendored things. Don't just work all the time, enjoy life should be a higher priority.

Taiwan just finished the presidential election & all of you already know the result. One week before the election, I took a walk in a nearby park with some of my friends. It was a beautiful day, I raised my head & see some cirrus hanging in the blue sky. Cirrus is a kind of clouds formed in very high altitude, about 5,000 ft. I have seen this before in autumn of Taipei during our college days. Suddenly, I have an urge to make a poem out of it. I said "藍天馬尾雲", I asked my friends to finish the sentence .ie. 对联 or 对句. We had some interesting combinations. I invite our classmates to do the same if you are interested to supply the inputs.

Engineering Drawing

Some time ago, I hang around a local library's book sale. I encountered a book: Engineering Drawing by French (French is the author, not language), 1960. This is the text book we used in our sophmore year. I don't know how many of you still remember the class by 凌霄. My memory is fading fast, so I think it is worthwhile to write something about him & his class. 凌霄 was unique because he always complained something in the class. For instance, 你看那些窗子, 都不是垂直的. 工程館是怎広盖出耒的? 一包水泥八包沙! Apparently, he was not a happy man at that time. I heard that he was running some kind of bufferfly business in southern Taiwan. Life must be tough at that time as a professor. I just hope those poor butterflies don't get perished or extinguished. I browsed this text book, it reminds me a lot of interesting stuff. After we finished the drawing assignment, we needed to have the drawing checked by him. Nine out of ten, we got problem and had to redraw. It was very frustrating and really a pain in the neck. I am not sure this class have anything to do with my future career. Anyway, the same holds true for 投影几何, 工程材料 & 三民主義, totally a waste of time. I did remember a person who did the best in 凌霄's class, 黃中平. Since I left NTU, I have never heard of him & the classlist has no information or data of him. Anybody knows where he is?

Life can be boring sometime. We always remember something unusual & forget all the boring routine stuff. For instance, when it comes to 翁通楹, it is "Tighto Sido", 李举賢, it is "你這是 shami-isu", 白光弘, it is Reading the text book Antenna in the class. How about 楊進順, it is "楊都美". She reminds me of him instead of the other way around. I actually forgot the title of his class & I am not sure I learn anything from him. One thing I did remember what he said, "我一碰到 delta 和 epsilon 就頭痛". He probably hates calculus. Next, how about 馬雲龍? His 电机机械 is another pain in the neck, too many assignments. I remember we had to spend those precious weekend just toiling along with slide rule for his assignment. If we had electronic calculators, it might save us some time. But slide rule, it is killing. We all found out that we might as well wait a little while until Apo finished his work & shared some of his secret.

I am sure some of you have good memory & stories. Please blog & share them before we all forget those good old days.

A Wise Old Man

Remember the slide show sent by AJ? I wonder about the following.

1. The guy has no human companion. A dog won't disagree with him, and if it did, he certainly will have the upper hand.
2. The picture of the guy with his dog at the beach looks good. Would it look as nice if the background is changed to something else, say, a busy street in Taipei?

Get On Board

Dear EE64 Classmates,

Thank Wei Chen for setting this blogger up for us. I am happy to be the first one to try this out. I hope to see many postings about nostalgic old days or interesting new things from all of you.

Since my retirement from National Space Orgination in Hsin-Chu last summer, I moved to live with my 100 year old (Chinese way of counting) father in Taipei. The NTU campus is among my favorite places in Taipei for taking a walk. It has many more buildings extending all the way back now, but the section near entrance remains pretty much the same as the old days. The old library has been converted to the university museum now. The azalea starts blooming already though it will be another month before it gets most spectacular. I know some of you are coming back to Taiwan in March or April. I will be glad to take you for a campus stroll if you like.

Paul (Cheng-I) Chen

Greetings

Dear Classmates,



A.J. Chen, Mark Yang, Cheng-I Chen and I have chosen NTUEE64 as the name of our class blog. Let's use it and have some fun.



Wei-Long