The current copyright is leaning too much to the media companies and stifle the spread of knowledge. Do they really deserve to earn that much money for being merely fat middle men?
RX-78-2 Gundam
RX-78-2 Gundam
VF-22S Sturmvogel II – Max
VF-22S Sturmvogel II – Max
行運超人 – 蒲生洋
很久以前我便聽過「行運超人」這套另類經典漫畫﹐剛好最近影大寫了兩篇介紹[1][2]﹐讓我心思思上網找來下載看。雖然此漫畫畫功差劣﹐只有小學生的級數﹐可是無損其爆笑程度﹐故事出奇不意完全估不到﹐玩轉熱血少年漫畫的王道傳統﹐保證讓讀者開懷大笑。
曾經和朋友研究過這個問題﹐在古今中外日本眾多超級英雄中﹐最厲害的是那一個。經過長時間討論後﹐恐怕不找到能夠勝過幸運超人的超級英雄。其他超級英雄又好﹐超級壞蛋又好﹐總是有幾招必殺技傍身。而只要有招式可尋﹐自然會有破解之道﹐最多只是生生相剋﹐變成一物治一物之局。論武功幸運超人軟弱無力﹐論機智他更是不合格﹐但他絕招無敵運氣﹐不論敵人如何強大﹐他總會逢凶化吉﹐很低能兼碰巧地給與敵人至命一擊。在其他的打鬥漫畫若有類同情節﹐讀者必定咒罵作者劇本爛胡亂超展開﹐這套漫畫卻開宗明義﹐說明運氣勝過一切﹐任憑你天生異凜還是努力練功﹐在少年漫畫的主角定律前面﹐全皆徒然。
漫畫開頭幾話的故事大同小異﹐均是騎呢外星人襲地球﹐黑仔少年變身幸運超人出戰。不論敵人能力如何高強﹐幸運超人總能好彩獲勝﹐致勝關鍵出人意表。例如外星人死光槍電線不夠長﹐開槍時用力一拉把槍嘴倒轉射中自己﹐又例如幸運超人死光射不中外星人﹐打偏了射中外星飛船掉下來壓死外星人﹐總之很低能很無聊但很爆笑。漫畫的兩大女主角﹐天生美麗子和豬木笨子﹐一美一魂與黑仔常常出現表錯情的少夫戀愛笑料﹐更為讀者增添不少歡樂。
這套漫畫真正開始好玩的地方﹐是各式不同的超人陸續出場﹐曲線地諷刺其他的傳統超級英雄。最先出場是努力超人和天皇巨星超人。努力超人人與其名﹐靠無比的毅力和根性取戰﹐每戰也打得很辛苦﹐與不勞而獲的幸運超人成很大對比。天皇巨星超人有姿勢冇實際﹐毫無戰鬥力卻最愛出風頭邀功﹐偏偏他的超能力卻是不死身﹐現實生活中特別在職場上﹐也遇到不少這種的攝石人。少年熱血漫畫的公式﹐是努力+友情=勝利。努力超人的大哥便是為求勝利不擇手段的勝利超人﹐二哥則是專搵朋友著數的友情超人﹐三兄弟合體後會變身成為三條柱超人。天才超人聰明過人﹐卻掉失了張英雄證書﹐讓幸運超人拾了無端端做了英雄。水手超人抄巧美少女戰士﹐她女扮男裝參加超級英雄大賽﹐藉些質疑為何漫畫的英雄總是男人。滿腦子男人的浪漫的浪漫超人﹐印銀紙當武器的二世祖超人﹐咸濕阿伯的英雄協會會長﹐等等其他數之不盡的超人也很扺死過癮。
故事模仿少年漫畫的王道劇情﹐不是武林大會便是逐級上打大佬﹐接著敵人化為朋友又聯手打新的敵人﹐一層一層像玩遊戲過關般打上去﹐從地球打宇宙﹐再從宇宙打到內宇宙﹐然後又與十六個小宇宙決鬥﹐爭奪大宇宙的統治權﹐打到最後竟然還有大內宇宙。不過大內宇宙的敵人未開始進攻﹐便已經被幸運超人誤打誤撞一招了結。幸運超人單靠行運打贏玩得多有點膩﹐但其他超人的戰鬥也花樣百出﹐甚至比主角更精彩好看。作者善用每個超人的特性﹐戰局搞笑之餘亦合情合理﹐不禁佩服作者想像力之豐富。
「行運超人」雖然跨張搞笑﹐但故事中不同的超人反映現實中不同的人﹐看他們打鬥時的性格和態度﹐再對把現實中認識的人對號入座﹐漫畫中不乏現實生活的影子。當然現實與漫畫也是一樣﹐不論你多聰明多努力﹐到最後運氣卻是取勝的最重要因素。
Work-life balance
When I talked to my friends who are working in HK, they often complain they don’t have any work-life balance. HK people probably has the highest average working hour in the world. It is not uncommon that people comes to work on 9am and work till 8pm to 10pm. No wonder when I ask them what they do outside of work, they pretty much does not much other than sleep or mundane brainless activities like watching TV, movies or shopping. It is because their have totally drained their energy at work.
Recently I feel like I am working in HK. The project is approaching the deadline, although my own tasks are in relative good shape, unfortunately an Indian team is on fire and I am parachuted to help them out. It’s not fun being in the hot seat﹐ especially when the upper management pays close attention on the schedule, you have to work with a team of Indian contractors who are not your direct report and some of them have the tendency of running on their own.
I tried to employ the chief programmer development model to speed up the development, but there is a major draw of this approach. The chief programmer has to keep up and stay on top of the team in order to have full control. If the team is located in the same physical location, it is much easier to communicate and direct the work. My team is 12 time zones from me, so I only have one chance to interact with them per day. Giving instruction via email is very inefficient because I have to make sure everything is very clear, if they got stuck they will have to wait another day for my response. I set up office hour every night to answer their questions, combined with early morning meeting and working late to keep up with their work, it really cut into my person time in the evening. I am so exhausted that I don’t even have energy to update my blog. I rather shut off my brain and watch some TV on the hour I manage to squeeze between dinner, wife-time and work. Now I understand why the life of my HK friends are so dull, because there is no work-life balance.
When my boss asked me to fly over to India fix thing up over there. I weight the lesser evils between travel to Bangalore a couple of weeks get things back on track or have conference call every night until project ends. I rather suffer a short period of time than drag on in a prolong period of pain. Well, think about the good side, I have 12 hours transfer in HK on my way to India, I can visit my grandma and go for some brief shopping.