This morning I was awakened by incessant barking, and darn if it didn't sound like a beagle. It sounded like the neighbor's Andy was chiming in, too. Not a distressed barking, more like they had something treed, but I sure couldn't get back to sleep. Faithful Tlahuy was prancing by the back door. I followed the barking up a very steep slope. Sure enough, Yumin and Andy. A feral cat was holding a defensive position on a tree trunk, but it was a fallen tree, and what with the angle of the slope, it was just a few handspans out of paw-reach. I tried to call the dogs off, but I knew how much good that would do. I began edging toward the confrontation, with the idea of holding the dogs while the cat made its escape, but I am heavier than a dog, and the slope crumbled under me. Then clever Yumin got an idea: he started inching out along the branches of the tree, which still had enough twigs and dry branches to hold him. The first several twigs did, anyway. Suddenly he plummeted out of sight: thunk. Then scritch scritch scritch Yumin pulled himself up the slope: I would estimate it at about 70 degrees. With a look of grim determination on his face, he gradually pulled himself back up to his original position, mostly by the strength of his front legs, like someone doing pullups. Yumin is as cute as all getout, but he's also a very headstrong doggie, not to mention just plain strong. The cat watched him approach with resignation. Tlahuy and Andy kept barking, just for good measure. Finally, Yumin clambered back up. He decided, if a cat can do it, I can do it, so gingerly he started moving out along the trunk. The cat arched its back, but it didn't look good, so I hacked off a length of bamboo and used that to smack the trunk between cat and dog; Yumin hesitated, but the cat didn't. It flung itself off the trunk and down the slope. Tlahuy was after it in a moment, but a moment too slow, and the cat made good its escape.

Rather than go back down that slope, I continued upward and circled home. Sure enough, about an hour after I got home I keeled over for a nice makeup nap.

Yeah, I know you've seen it before, but I never tire of the view.
This is a sequence of photos I took one afternoon last month.

Some photos I took one day last month. There was something wrong with the blog, so I couldn't post them then.

The US is an amazing country. It has produced both Walt Disney, who made wild animals all cutsie-wootsie, and Hugh Hefner, who made nudity boring.

申時春雷

我來臺灣時，對中國語言、文學一無所知，但被國字吸引，這麼迷人的字，我一定要學會，所以就來了。學中文半年，開始讀文言文，從此不再想看語體文；沒味道。好茶喝了，開水就顯沒滋味。文言才好看，沒標點更好。(本篇屬論時事小品，故以白話譔)

如果看懂國字，看文言不難，但要用頭腦；作者把讀者當聰明人。讀文言與讀白話不同，要慢慢看，慢慢思攷，用心尋字意句旨。其它語言若干結構詞(如英文冠詞之類)，文言不須要，所以非常精簡；全世界語言，中國文言最適合寫詩，因為只有意境詞，不須文法結構詞。我最愛左傳：簡明扼要，整本書無一字可刪。

當然，審美觀是主觀的。文言一個最好的特質是經古不易，換朝改代，文言依然。Shakespeare才四百年前，現在幾乎看不懂，因為是白話；十三世紀的Chaucer也寫白話，現代人只能猜一兩個字，Beowulf連一個字也不用猜。英文是我的母語，教英文三十年了，可是對我來說，讀四書、竹林七賢、韓愈、戰國策比讀Shakespeare輕鬆，就是因為文言不隨時代變遷。

班固、孟子、Shakespeare死了那麼久，看他們作品有甚麼好處？(其實，會問這種問題的人極端缺乏深度，將近無藥救的情形)幾千年來的人都是笨蛋嗎？只有現代人的話才有參攷價值嗎？現代西洋科學觀不是萬能的，任何一種學術有其極限；多讀古人書，了解他們的觀點，學習他們的理路，集思廣益，有助于突破現代思想的窠臼。誠如賴明德老師所說，現代學術越走越狹隘：博士的頭銜應該改為「精士」。

否定文言，對于一個從事文學創作的人，有它的魅力在：如果屬于華夏五千年的文學傳承，作品義必與左丘明、韓非、王弼、柳宗元、歐陽脩、張岱他們比一比，這的確是十分令人洩氣的事。如果否定這個傳統，另起爐灶，有利于孤芳自賞，很爽。

浩瀚文獻，垂手可得；若置之不理，對于我們社會的思攷、討論、處事，是莫大損失。照理說，一個開放、自由民主社會，應該鼓勵國民多方採取不同觀點，讓我們從更多角度看問題，有更多法子處理事情，有更多意見參與討論；除非教育政策存心愚民。

說也奇怪。今天全世界爭先恐後要學中文，而臺灣教育部想封殺國民中文能力。不止是奇怪的政策，實在也很可惜。會認國字不讀文言，好比來臺灣專吃麥當勞；真正好的、有特色的、有深度的，全沒嘗到滋味，太可惜。入寶山，空手歸。

我的床前面的月亮光芒好亮喔。你覺得這樣比較好嗎？

Springtime in Wulai.
Ini mita ali.

if you look carefully, you can see a beagle tail in the background.

竹花了
發瘋了

This afternoon I heard a thump. A mkuang had flown into a window on the second floor. I know only the Tayal name, mkuang ~~ it's a kind of pigeon, bright green. I was afraid Tlahuy and Yumin would tear it apart, as they are avid hunters, and go after everything that moves. To my surprise, Tlahuy carefully picked it up and deposited it at the front door. Yumin was excited, but did not approach the bird. I swear they knew it was wounded in an accident, and not fair game. I sat with them for a while, and told some mantras for the bird. Then I put my finger behind its feet. It perched on my index finger, and I placed it on the branch of a tree in the ravine out front.
About an hour later, I went out to see how it was doing. When it saw me coming, it flapped its wings and flew away: see, I'm ok!

::I looked it up, 綠鳩, sphenerus sieboldi, Green Pigeon.

你比較欣賞誰，曹操或者劉備？

劉備、關公、張飛、諸葛亮雖然終告失敗，但在華人心目中，永遠是英雄。曹操勝利，可是視為有才華的姦詐梟雄。中國人欣賞悲壯、耿介之士。

說不定，百年後，蔣中正是萬民景仰的英雄。

Yesterday just at dawn, the bamboo frame I hang drying clothes on came crashing down. Well, it's been nine years, I should have thought to replace the bamboo earlier. I had class, so I didn't have time to fix it yesterday.

This afternoon I took my headhunting knife and saw and selected several nice bamboo poles. The crossbar is as thick as my forearm. When I had cleaned the bamboo and stacked it on my front gate, I suddenly got a whim to take off uphill across the jungle in a straight line. I had my knife in case I had to chop through anything, but that would be only a last resort; I try not to mar the jungle. Walking barefoot does not spook snakes, so I figured it would be fun. I wasn't going any great distance, just a couple hundred meters, but it was rough going. I waded through a thick sludge of mud and climbed up a little waterfall. I move cautiously in the mountains, because when I go rambling, nobody knows where I am, so if I were hurt, nobody would ever find me. I'm not in any hurry anyway. As I reached the top of the waterfall, delicately placing my toes on the loose rocks, suddenly Tlahuy came charging up through my legs, and almost launched us both off.

As I expected, I came out near Singang's hut. His brother, Abus, and father-in-law were there. "Yugan, why are you so muddy?”

"Just having fun." I chatted with them a while, but sniffing the wind, took my leave. Minutes after I dragged my bamboo onto the back porch, it started pouring. When I had finished my repair job, I came in and made some fine tea to drink as I listened to the rain.

FYI: carrying a long bamboo pole is like riding a raft in choppy water.

Steph informed me of this:
On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning,
the time and date will be

01:02:03 04/05/06.

That won't happen again for a hundred years!

You may now return to your normal stuff

人生
年輕，享受
中年，想瘦
老年，想壽

Overheard on the bus
從烏來坐車下臺北，一個女的帶著一個八九歲的小男生；看樣子可能她是姑姑、嬸嬸之類的。
>烏來他們跟我們臺北不一樣，他們是原住民。
<甚麼是原住民？
>跟我們不一樣，他們很久很久以前來臺灣，比我們早，所以叫做原住民。
<我們不是原住民？
>不是。烏來他們是原住民，他們是阿美族的。
<甚麼是阿美族？
>烏來他們就是阿美族，原住民還有很多族，有阿美族，還有…還有……還有排灣族…有泰雅族…還有……還有邵族……鹿族…哇，你看你看，這邊有一家餐廳，這個餐廳好大好大，你看這個餐廳真的很大，一定很多人來吃，才這麼大。我們等一下到新店可以坐捷運，你喜不喜歡坐捷運？

=可惜她把話題扭開了，我正想幫忙：鹿族之外，還有兔族、鱷魚族、螃蟹族，而且不要忘記客家族！

Coming home one night last week, I spotted a pile of bricks by the road in New Store.
Hey, Chang, look, bricks.
Mm.
Let's stop.
You need bricks?
They look lonely there, you know. It's been raining a lot, they look abandoned, like nobody really cares about them.
You need bricks?
I've got some pots I want to fire on a bonfire, and some bricks to hold the fire would be an improvement.
You need bricks.
They look forlorn here, all by themselves.
How many do you need?
I can't just take them, but how sad, there's nobody around to ask permission.
Are you kidding? It's almost midnight.
Good, nobody will see us then.
How many do you need?
A dozen will do.
Put them in the trunk.
If the weather holds, maybe I can fire my pots on Sunday.

Who needs April Fools' when we've got Bush in the White House and President Bean here?

The ROC VP shoots her mouth off at minorities and the disadvantaged. The US VP shoots defenseless animals and lawyers. It's difficult to say who inflicts more pain.

Happy April, fools.