I really miss BBQ goose from HK. Since I moved to Canada, I couldn’t find any restaurant serves BBQ goose. I thought goose is protected birds in Canada, so it is illegal to eat goose and that’s why I couldn’t find BBQ goose anywhere. Today, I tried a new place for lunch in Coquitlam and out of my surprise that restaurant has BBQ goose on their menu. Too bad that they only serve BBQ goose on Friday to Sunday, and you have make reserve one in advance. I made up my mind going back to that place on weekend to try out their BBQ goose. We were discussing the difference between BBQ duck and BBQ goose during lunch. From my memory, BBQ goose is more oily and taste better than BBQ duck, other than that and the size, I really could not tell the difference these two. That restaurant carries the same name as the one in Richmond underneath Superstores on No.3 road. I heard the cook in one restaurant is the teacher of the other, just I don’t who is the teacher and who’s the student. BBQ pork and roast pig from Richmond taste better than the one in Coquitlam, the one I have today is a little bit dry. I am a little bit disappointed that the restaurant does not have sweet sauce for the roast pig. Anyways, this place is much better than our default restaurant. Too bad that it is quite far away and the restaurant only have a few seats, or I will go there for lunch every week.
Yearly Archives: 2007
The Third 蒼之曈的少女
拿著長劍的少女在日本動畫中是常見的設定﹐以此為題材的動畫數目之多﹐足以獨立歸類為一動畫類別﹐零六年上映二十六話的「蒼之曈的少女 」正好是這類作品。但這套動畫並非一般的長劍少女動畫﹐沒有著校服裝可愛賣萌的女主角﹐只有一個著軍服的男仔頭女主角﹐在動畫中她連裙也沒有著過一次﹐相信令不少長劍少女迷大失所望。這套作品改篇自原野亮的輕小說﹐動功細緻動作場面流暢精彩﹐主題曲「砂上的夢」十分悅耳動聽﹐很有在大漠滄桑流浪的味道。鏡頭運用和配樂也很出色﹐在技術層面這套動畫無懈可擊。故事是暢銷小說改篇應該沒有問題﹐配樂與畫面也是一流水準。不過看完之後﹐總覺得這套動畫差了點什麼。細想才下發現原因是期望與現實出了誤差。初看這套動畫的設定﹐長劍少女加人工智能坦克﹐在世界大戰後沙漠化的大地上流浪﹐心想這套必定是結構宏偉的科幻大作﹐倒頭來發現原來自己看錯劇類﹐大跌眼鏡難免會有點兒失望。不過若能調整好欣賞的心情﹐「蒼之曈的少女 」是一套帶少許刺激﹐但主要是輕鬆感人的溫情小品。
這動畫的世界設定很宏大﹐講述地球在世界大戰後變成荒蕪的沙漠﹐擁有戰前高科技文明的三眼族統治世界。人類要依靠三眼族的提供的科技生存﹐但三眼族制定科技禁忌法﹐不許人類私下擁有高科技﹐以免次引發世界大戰。主角火乃香本來也是三眼族﹐不過她的第三隻眼睛是藍色﹐而非可以操控戰前科技的紅色眼睛﹐成為被三眼族遺棄的不良品。她的藍眼睛蘊藏擁不可知的力量﹐除著劇情發展力量亦漸漸蘇醒。她小時候跟隨世外高人習武﹐練得一手功夫蓋世的好劍法﹐在沙漠有舞劍者的美名。她的拍檔是台師傅留下來的的人工智能坦克﹐一人一車成為大漠上城市獵人﹐接下除了殺人外的任何工作。雖然這動畫的舞台十分廣闊﹐但故事只是集中在火乃香與身邊眾人的關係上﹐不論是朋友和敵人﹐最終都給火乃香的真誠率性影響而改變生命。劇情以火乃香一環緊接一環的冒險為主幹﹐她從來不是一個想主動去改變世界的人﹐大慨她亦沒有思考過自己要為世界做什麼﹐她只想是安份閒地坐在坦克車上唸詩﹐走遍世界見識大自然的奇景。被動的她看不到身邊以外的事情﹐所有事件也是通過工作中的意外找上門。就算她在接工作以外獨立行動﹐動機也只是很單純的幫朋友。故事卻考妙地安排她每次也成為救世英雄﹐然而她自己只當那是工作一件﹐收到酬勞可以升級武器修理坦克車就好了。每套長劍少女動畫也有個文弱男主角﹐這套也不例外。不過男主角的身份有點特別﹐是來觀察地球的外星人﹐給火乃香意外的拾回來。他的作用基本上可有可無﹐天下無敵但因身份關係不能出手﹐通常只是在火乃香身旁行行企企﹐最多有時當解話交代背景﹐偶爾說些發人深省的對白﹐講下生命講下人與自然的關係。觀眾一直不知他來地球幹什麼﹐沒有什麼伏線有跡可尋﹐直至最後一話他才忽然想起來地球應該要做的事﹐男主角的設定可說是這套動畫的一大敗筆。
請不要搞錯﹐「蒼之曈的少女 」不是動作亦不是劇場片。雖然有很多揮舞長劍的打鬥﹐也有人形飛行裝甲對決﹐超經典的坦克車決戰反坦克直升機﹐但故事很時候講多過打﹐只是藉著火乃香的經歷去說出一些人生道理。可能是改篇自長出長有的小說的關係﹐幾集組成的一段獨立故事﹐但每段故事沒有太大連接性﹐只是主角相同與配角重覆客串出場。任務完成後一切反回最初點﹐等待下個故事大同小異的開場。雖然故事間中透露沙漠世界或火乃香的秘密﹐但那些資料沒有編織出一條主線﹐甚至火乃香自己對這些秘密也沒有刻意探究﹐大慨只是用作為主角身世的點綴。若每篇故事分開獨立來看﹐倒是不錯的RPG式的故事結構﹐有可觀的打鬥亦有幽默的笑位﹐每個冒險任務最後總帶出一個有意義的訊息。正如所有RPG一樣﹐每個故事間最顯著的分別﹐就是主角的武功日益精進。故事中大部份時間火乃香的戰鬥力循序潮進地提升﹐先獲得人形飛行裝甲不用赤手空拳﹐再開啟第三隻眼看穿敵人的氣﹐用第三集眼的精神力提高攻擊力﹐ 一步步升級也也很合情合理。但最後一集火乃香的威力以幾何級數上升﹐凌空一劍就吹飛全數擊毀三眼族的機械人大軍﹐未免跨張得過份。若出OVA或電影延繼故事﹐火乃香豈不是可以一劍劈開地球﹐變成了超級撒亞人了嗎﹖
The murdered bride
Pat told me this story she watched from TV, and got me interested so I researched a bit more on the internet. It is a case about an Indian girl murdered by her wealth family for marrying a poor guy in order to preserve the honor of the family. This kind of things happen in India almost everyday, it should not be news worthy except as a drop of water in the sea of statistics. The interesting thing about this case is the poor girl is Canadian and her family is living in BC. The family hire killers in India to murder their own daughter. The Indian police has pretty good evidence of this murder case, however because of international law, the Canadian police cannot do anything about them. Instead of going to jail, the murder are simpily walk free. This case exploit a serious loop hole in our legal system. It is definitely illegal to hire a Canadian killer to murder someone in Canada. However, if the murder is take place outside of Canada and the killer is hired there locally, you cannot be convicted. What a perfect murder! This case also exploit the failure in Canada’s multi-culturalism policy. Killing disgracful daughter is acceptable in some Indian culture, which is morally wrong. Immoral acts should not be tolerated in the name of repsecting cultural or religion difference. Canada should change its policy from multi-culturalism to meta-culturalism. Immgrants are only allow to maintian the parts in their culture that is compatiable with the meta-cultural of Canada. Through education and legistrations, the cultural aspects, such as killing dishonour daughter, carrying knifes around, wearing viel, not eating pork, etc, that are incompatiable with secular liberal world view should be gradually eliminated.
Why praise the Lord?
Why praise the Lord, this question has been puzzling me for many years. I went to church since I was a kid, but I never understand why man should praise the Lord. Of course I know the model answers given to me from the church. There are two typical responses. The first response is something like thou shalt praise God because it is written so in the Bible, thou shalt glorify him, honor him as a good Christian. The second response is as mundane as superstitious beliefs in Africa, you have to praise God, so that God will bless you, reward you with good fortune and protect you from evil spirit. These two responses didn’t really answer my question. Is it like asking why I should buy this product, the sales answer me because it is on sales. The church never tell me the reason and the meaning of praising the Lord. If God is omni potent and omni scenes, he won’t get angry or lose any of his glory even if we don’t praise him. If God is justice and omni benevolent God, he won’t favor those who praise him, he will treat and love everyone equally. In short, there is no need to praise God.
Today in the mass, when I was waiting to have the communion and hearing the choir singing, “I will always praise you, I will always praise you…”, suddenly I have an insight why should I praise the Lord. One should treat God just like anyone else, you should praise him if he done something good, criticize him if he done something wrong. God did many good deeds to us, so we should praise him. Praise is neither a duty nor a mean to exchange for something. Praise is just a praise. It is that simple. The church and Bible’s teaching has confused me all these years.
Friday lunch
Every friday, I go out to have lunch with my friends at work to take a break from the office. Yesterday when we were heading out, one of my friend complains that how come we always go to the same resturant every week. Indeed, we have been going to the same resturant for so long that I can’t remember when we start going there. In the past, we used to have to decide where to have lunch in the parkage. Nowadays, no one even bother to ask the same question. We just hop into the car, drive to the same resturant like robots programmed to follow with the same route. I have come up with a few theory trying to explain our repetitive and boring behaviour. 1. We are boring engineers who can go to the same resturant weeks after weeks. 2. We are lazy engineers who don’t even bother to think about where to eat. 3. We are getting old, so we become more conservative and reluctant to try new things. 4. The group used to have an authoritative figure who like to try out new resturants, so we just follow her commands. After she is married and moved down to the States, our choice for lunch shrink continuously until it finally narrowed down to the one and one only default resturant. 5. The group has an annoying figure who complains loudly everytime we try something new or go to some other resturants. Since most of us don’t really care where to eat, we just let him take over the lunch decision. 6. All of the above. There are many resturants around the office, why do we have to go to the same resturant every week? That is my question for the week.