萬馬犇馳啟盛局

億年勤修成正果

Happy Horses!

The gun lobby is doing a wonderful job! In the United States every year, ten thousand children and adolescents are killed or injured by guns every year. Over 7,000 are treated or die in hospitals from gun wounds, and another 3,000 die before they make it to the hospital. Think of the profit! The NRA must be so proud!

The mortality rate from firearms in the U.S. is nearly 10 times higher than the rates in other wealthy nations. In the first 14 school days of 2014 alone, there were at least seven school shootings. See what a good job the gun lobby is doing?

Keep pretending that guns can protect freedom in a digital age, and keep the profits rolling in for the people who sell guns and ammunition. A child’s freedom to live cannot compare with the industry’s need for profit.

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「衣服要新，朋友要舊。」鋸木時，有人喊門：大驚喜！我老友軋輅吩咐娜魯灣幫我與撒毖做兩件達彥的衣服。穿新衣過新年！ㄇ懷西木把賴！！A wonderful surprise today: Naluwan and Qosun came with Tayal tops for us, at the behest of my old friend Qalux ~ he chose the fabric and his wife Naluwan sewed them. A great start for the coming new year! Mhway simu balay!!

本週一、二到桃園少輔院舉行成長營，主要工作是家族系統排列。院生幾乎都是問題家庭的產兒，所以非常需要理清很多事，但也是因為問題嚴重，所以防衛很完備。他們很努力，也有收穫，也可真把我們累的像十萬公里的輪胎：回家倒下去睡了十一小時。

The blogosphere has been clearer for the last several days: we were very busy preparing for a two day workshop at the Reformatory, the 20^th and 21^st. This workshop involved Family Systemic Constellation. I wouldn’t say that all of the boys in the Reformatory come from troubled homes, only about 99.9%, so working on the family is of first importance. But because their families are so (if you don’t mind my slipping into technical jargon) messed up, they have very strong defense mechanisms, and progress was necessarily slow. But they did try, they did learn, and a good time was had by all.

Working with these boys is fulfilling but exhausting; once we got home I slept for eleven hours.

現代科技真的很進步，連電扶梯的扶手都能講話。我們坐高鐵到新竹，高鐵站裏的電扶梯的扶手一再安慰我們說，「本扶手已經消毒。」沒想到一個扶手會這樣體貼！

PS:旅遊可以增廣見識。現在才知道扶手是母的。至少，那個親切的扶手的聲音是女的。

西伯利亞環境酷寒，熊狼之地，Eveny族在這裏靠馴鹿過生活。年輕Eveny人說不想住村子：「村子好無聊，甚麼都不能做，只能呆著看電視。」

The Eveny live in harsh Siberia, home of wolves and bears. A young Eveny herder expressed his distaste for settling down in a village: “It’s boring in the village. There’s nothing to do but sit around and watch television.” 

based on Vitebsky, The Reindeer People  

早上兩點多，Tlahuy開始吠，跟著Byajing也吠了，當然Yumin就衝出去吠號號乎乎嗷嗚嗚嗚！細雨濛濛，空氣很冷，被窩暖暖，睡意猶重，不想理。Tlahuy、Byajing已經不吠，但Yumin一直吠，只好拿手電筒照，甚麼也沒看見。或許是山豬，也可能是野狗，要不然孤魂野鬼，但也許是…不知道。不知道Yumin看到甚麼。

不知道狗兒看到甚麼。他們能講話告訴我們，多好。

Yumin說，「雅爸，好可怕，一個妖怪，比你們汽車還大，十八個眼睛，眼中有火光，十個獠牙，長如雅爸的拉烙，殺氣騰騰，可是本皮狗一點也不怕，我很勇敢地衝出去，妖怪知道厲害，就逃跑了，我還很勇敢地追到外面去了，確定妖怪不敢再來！我是一個很勇敢的皮狗！」

Byajing說，「雅爸，我沒看到甚麼，可是兩個哥哥吠，我當然要助陣！」

Tlahuy說，「雅爸，不好意思，我夢到我年輕時來擾的那四隻野狗，夢中一吠，把全家都吠醒了，不好意思，沒事。」

2 AM, Tlahuy started barking, and Byajing followed suit. In a moment, Yumin charged out barking at top volume. It was drizzling and cold, the blankets were dry and warm, I really didn’t want to pay them any attention. But Yumin kept barking, so I finally got a flashlight to investigate. Nothing. It could have been a boar, or a stray dog, maybe a wandering ghost, or whatever. I wonder what Yumin saw.

I wonder what the dogs saw. If only they could talk.

Yumin: “Yaba, it was terrible, a horrid monster with eighteen eyes blazing in the night, with ten fangs, each one longer and sharper than your laraw, but I wasn’t afraid! I gallantly rushed forward, and the monster knew it had met its match, so it ran away, but I bravely chased after it to make sure it would never come back! What a brave beagle am I!”

Byajing: “Yaba, I didn’t see anything, but my brothers barked, so of course I had to join in." 
Tlahuy: "Yaba, sorry, I dreamed about those four strays that threatened us when I was young. I barked in my sleep, and I was so loud I woke everybody up. Sorry, everything's okay."

A self-respecting person who holds his head high is not going to become an alcoholic or doper, is not going to make trouble or break laws, and is most likely to be a productive, useful citizen.

In other words, promoting tribal languages benefits the whole society.

Link: 

陳水扁唯恐天下不亂，但膽子、謀略、視野不足以亂天下，只能亂臺灣。

若他有手腕，當年應遊說上海、福州、廈門市長：「閣下處境與臺灣相似，卻不同內地。與其聽北京指示，不如建立滬閩臺聯盟。」

時機已錯過，已經沒有那種形勢，但如果那樣的話，就很有看頭。

IMHO, this is reasonable. In 1938, average annual income was US$1731, a new house US$3,900, a new car $860, and a year tuition at Harvard US$420. In other words, a new house cost about two years and three month’s pay. A new car cost roughly six month’s pay, and a year at Harvard only about three month’s pay.

Nowadays, the average annual income per household in the US is about $50,000. A new house costs roughly $800,000, A new car costs an average of $31,252, and a year tuition at Harvard $32557; if you include room and board, because it’s nice to eat when you go to college, the figure is $47100.

So now a new house costs 16 years’ pay, a new car about six month’s pay, and a year tuition at Harvard a little more than six month’s pay.

臺灣算平均年薪三十七萬元。平均房價是二十三萬元一坪，三十坪就要七百萬左右，所以買房子要吃掉十八年半的薪水。(臺北市平均房價是六十五萬五千一坪，三十坪一千九百六十五萬，只要工作五十三年，把所有薪水交給建商，就有自己一棟房子，真窩心。)一台Toyota Camry約八十五萬臺幣，Altis要六十五萬，算兩年薪水吧。唸哈佛一年要百萬上下。還好我們家三個小朋友追貓咪不必念大學。

happy new year to all.