We have a foosball table at work in the gaming room, it is one of the attraction during lunch hour and after five. There is a crowd of keen foosball player come and play everyday. Technically speaking, foosball is a team sport. Each side has two players, one take care of the defense and the other take care of offense. In a foosball tournament, since the partner of a team is fixed, it is easy to tell who is stronger and who is weaker. However at work, people come and go to the gaming room. There are no fix teams, we just pair up with whoever in waiting in the room. The out come of the game depends not only on how good you are, but also on who you happen to pair up with. Now, determining the rank of each player becomes a bit tricky. Today, finally I came up with a way to rank how the player relative to each other. I named it the Ivy foosball scale (IFS). Ivy is the only female foosball player among the usual gang and probably the least skillful one. Don’t get me wrong, although she is not as strong as the others, but she is considerably much better anyone else not a usual foosball player. We can measure the strength of other players in relative term to Ivy. The method to use is pairing up the subject with Ivy as a team. The strength of the subject is then measured by the number of goals he can scored playing against the others. The scale is from 0 to 10. It is zero if the subject score nothing, it is ten if the other team score nothing. It is quite an though up hill battle, so most of us taking the challenge lose most of the time. If we are fortunate enough to win the game, it would always be a close call of 4-4 shot out.
Yearly Archives: 2007
兩種道德
綜觀這次中大學生報的情色事件﹐香港社會上大部份人其實不清楚把道德二字是什麼意思。道德其實有分兩個層面﹕描述道德(descriptive ethics)和規範道德(normative ethics)。前者是只描述某一社會團體的道德觀念﹐例如香港社會普遍認為亂倫不道德﹐回教社會普遍認為女人不帶頭紗是不道德等。後者則是從理性的角度 去探討為什麼某一行為是道德或是不道德。
除非閣下是道德相對主義者﹐完全否認人可以分辨道德對錯﹐又或者閣下根本不會獨立思考﹐ 跟著大隊人云亦云地接受道德的對錯﹐否則不可能無視規範道德的存在。若閣下是道德相對主義者﹐道德相對主義的內在矛盾我也不用多說了。若果閣下是道德民萃主義者﹐那你該慶幸自己出生於民智尚算開明的香港﹐而非塔里班統治下的阿富汗了。
不論傳媒報紙﹐保守派或開明派﹐絕大部份的評論只是在說描 述道德。妨忽亂倫和獸交早已給蓋棺定論為不道德行為。可是為什麼沒有傳媒夠膽從規範道德的層面﹐去探討亂倫和獸交是否真的不道德呢﹖ 各大傳媒在批評中大學生不道德之餘﹐至少也有應有個格仔說說相反意見﹐講講某外國學者說為什麼亂倫和獸交是合乎道德的意見嘛。(香港應該找不到學者來解話 ﹐就算有也不夠膽企出來﹐公然說支持亂倫獸交。) 好了﹐我當香港傳媒的學識品味低俗﹐沒有記者懂得這麼學術性的問題。那為什麼全香港沒有一份報紙﹐列出亂倫在法國是合法﹐人獸交在西歐多國﹐德國﹐荷蘭﹐ 端典﹐俄國﹐丹麥等是合法的這兩項簡單的事實﹐讓讀者觀眾去自行思考這個道德問題。上次廣管局才說要傳媒要公正持平﹐不知今次廣管局又受不受理呢﹖
注﹕為免給人誤會我係變態﹐每次說這個題目時我也要重申立場。我反對亂倫和獸交﹐但我不反對齋說亂倫或獸交。正如我反對死刑﹐但不反對討論死刑是否合理。
Being practical
Engineers are rational being and their every decisions are made with practical and only practical considerations. When the girlfriends of two engineers come together, somehow they always bash their engineer boyfriend being too practical. Tonight I met up with a friend coming back to Vancouver with Pat. She is an engineer herself but she also got an engineer boyfriend. In the dinner, Pat start making comments about me with the typical mind set of engineer, somehow that rings a bell to my friend and they two start poking fun of engineers. Pat complains I keep wearing the same model of Nike hiking boots for 10 years.
My friend nodded in agreement and complain her boyfriend has a full closet of black clothes. My friend comments that the guys at work can wear company T-shirt everyday and everyone is doing so. They said it is too boring, but I can’t see what’s wrong with this picture. How often do you look down and see what clothes are you wearing today? Rarely. The primary function of clothings is to keep you warm and comfortable and the company T-shirt meets this requirement just fine. The secondary function of clothings is to attract opposite sex, like the peacock’s tail. Unless you are going after some girls at work, why bother to dress up? It is unfortunate that there ain’t that many girls in engineering firm, so no one really cares what you wear as long as it doesn’t smell. Isn’t having to pick which clothes to wear every morning is even more boring than simply wearing the company T-shirt?
The Firm – John Grisham
廣東俗語有句說話﹕邊有咁大隻蛤乸隨街跳。接受超出合理水平的條件前﹐先要讀清楚每一行細字﹐因為這些優厚的條件背後﹐極有可能暗藏殺機。一個有三數份華爾街紐約著名律師行聘書在手的法律系異業生﹐接到美國南部一間小律師樓的面試。開出超越常理的優厚條件﹐底薪高出外面二成﹐入職送寶馬名車免費房屋貸款﹐大慨任誰也扺受不了這個誘惑。可是平靚的海面低下卻急流暗湧﹐小律師上班才第一天﹐就律師行兩位律師給人謀殺。他才發現這間四十人的律師行﹐竟然在過去五年間有五名律師死亡﹐工作死亡率比當油井礦工還差。他還被聯邦調查局的探員釘上了﹐家中辨公室車子給不知何方神勝裝上了竊聽器﹐生活受到二十四小時的嚴密監控。工作上要求他每星期上班八十小時﹐他因冷落妻子家令庭關係同樣陷入危機。到底他踏進了什麼危險地方﹐如何可以保住小命逃出這個「糖衣陷阱」呢﹖
「糖衣陷阱」是John Grisham的第二本小說也是他的成名作﹐讓他坐上了法律驚險小說的第一把交椅﹐成為全美國唯一兩個初版銷量過百萬本的其中一人(另一個初版銷過百萬本的作家是寫侏羅紀公園的Michael Crichton)。任何暢銷名著也逃不出給荷里活改篇的命運﹐ 「糖衣陷阱」的電影版由湯告魯斯主演。當年的他還是很靚仔有型﹐不像是今天信了邪教變得行為怪異。我印象中好像多年前看這套電影﹐不過細節差不多全忘記了。我以前一向不閱讀這類律師小說﹐不是特別抗拒也不是不喜歡﹐只是科幻小說看起來比較吸引﹐時間有效只好作出取捨。今次我只是在朋友家等吃飯時看見﹐記起湯告魯斯那套電影﹐隨手起來掀了幾頁﹐結果一發不可收捨﹐非要把小說拿回家讀完結局不可。我大慨知道這類小說的公式﹐主角身邊必定有個大險謀等著他。主角因為好奇比想把律師行的秘密查過水落石出而身陷險境﹐讀者也是因為好奇心不停追讀下去﹐看看主角如何化險為夷。小說的作者曾當律師﹐描寫律師生涯的筆觸十分傳神﹐娓娓道出初入行律師的辛酸﹐以及法律界光輝背後的陰暗面。
我用了一星期時間把小說看完﹐頭兩天馬不停蹄先看了半本﹐剩下的半部則攤長來看。後半部雖然依然寫得精彩﹐可能 是我隱約記得結局﹐沒有追看的迫切性﹐才放慢了閱讀的步划。反正也是例牌大團圓結局﹐好人沒事財色兼收﹐壞人則難逃法網。故事的主線是主角那間律師行其實是黑手黨名下的生意﹐表面上看似在替合法公司投資避稅﹐實際上是黑手黨的專業洗錢機器。律師行聘請身無分文的窮畢業生﹐指定要聘請已結婚的人﹐提供經濟誘因鼓勵他們落地生根開枝散葉﹐讓他們不能輕易離職脫身。新入職的律師最初只處理合法生意﹐到了時機成熟就會向他們招手加入犯罪集團。一方面用優厚的薪金吸引他們幹非法勾當﹐另一方面用妻兒子女的安全防止他們產生異心。過去幾個慘遭不幸的律師﹐就是因為想向警方告密而遭殺人滅口。今次我們的主角憑著機智和膽色﹐在律師行搜集犯罪證據﹐交給警察將犯人繩之於法。小說中的主角看似是身不由己﹐聯邦調查局迫他當二五仔﹐黑手黨因為他背叛而下追殺令﹐最後他才要夾著巨款逃亡海外。但想深一層這驚險橋段有點夾硬造作﹐其實主角的大可以光明正大的洗手不幹。他才剛剛入職沒有接觸過非法交易﹐清清白白不怕聯邦調查局告。他亦沒有任何內幕資料﹐辭職不幹也不會受到追殺﹐反正黑手黨也打算精簡人手﹐炒掉其他不知情的新律師。殺人不是一件便宜的事﹐根本不值得花錢在對黑手黨有任何威脅的人身上。不知主角太過好奇踩到了別人的禁忌﹐還是他太過貪心不捨得高薪厚職﹐才是讓他一步步泥足深陷﹐最後弄至要狼狽逃忘的田地呢﹖
Garage Sales
Today Pat is having a garage sales, a real garage sales that the stuffs is displayed inside a garage. We have been preparing it for the whole week, unpacking the stuffs, cleaning the items and placing them neatly. There are two garages full of stuffs Pat has to get rid of after she moved. We placed classifies on the local newspaper. I am surprised by the number of people come and buy stuff today. We were busy for the whole morning. Some people even come as early as 8a.m., try to get some good deals so that they can resell the goodies later at flea market. You can never imagine what people will buy. Something that you think is a piece of junk can sold for a few bucks. There was a fat middle age man the scoop the old super Nintendo machine with all the games with joy. If he want to play good games, why don’t he go out and get a Wii instead? If he want to play the old games, he can download them for free from the internet and play it using an emulator.
Like in the supermarket, the placement of the items are very important in the garage sales. When people first came in, they will take a glance of everything. If they spot something they like, only then they will proceed to look a little bit closer. Things sitting at the back of the garage having no one interested for 2 hours and it is gone the moment I move it outside to be displayed under sun. There is also a different kind of buyers, there was a pair of old folks treasure hunt from the piles for almost an hour.
At the end they bought quite some stuff. I get bargain stuffs and chatting with people in garage sales enlightened their Saturday morning. We have sold over half of the stuffs today. Hopefully, the other half will go away tomorrow, so it saves me time from taking the junk to the dump. People come over and pay you money to take away the junks for you. Garage sales is truly wonderful.