I feel very fortunate to live in Wulai where I can enjoy the beautiful scenery. But it goes beyond that. I have time to get out and ramble; I don't have to worry about bombs, landmines, or bandits; I have the stamina to romp over hill and stream.

This afternoon I walked up Silogan and down the other side, coming back from Rahaw.

I can show you the view, but you can't hear the eagles above, the birds in the trees, the waterfall, or the stream, and you can't smell the blossoms, trees, soil, or grass.

Written March 29, 1971, in Saigon:
Two Koreans were driving by in a pickup as we got home. I heard a terrific whine, and turned around in time to see the driver stall it in the middle of Ng. M. Chieu (the street we lived on, Nguyen Minh Chieu in Phu Nhuan, Saigon). In the front of the facing column was a truck of MPs. The K started to rev it up, but he killed it. He got out of the car and started complaining in English about "You say, 'Korean go home.'...." The other Korean melted away. This man locked his car. The MP stopped him. MP took him to the side, K started crying dry, stagger, MP walks to jeep. K calls MP out. MP outweighs K by 125#, guns, and clubs. K walks away, leaving locked car in the middle of the street with parking lights on. We (soldiers and I) push car back out of way, lifting to get around lamppost. Saigon Police and QC come. K comes back, more sober. Where's my car? Over there. How'd it get there? We carried it over. Demolition team comes. No bomb. Korean gets in. Everybody scatters for cover. K peals down the street, narrowly missing lampposts and pedestrians.

Early this morning a water buffalo charged down Ng. M. Chieu pursued by a jeep. Soldiers in BEQ (a US military post on the street) ducked inside their gate for cover, locking comrade out.

The ARVN Defense Institute tour of Indonesia, five VN delegates stayed on in Indonesia for another two days, but neglected to see 3 star General and twenty other officers off at the Indonesian airport. *** General was so mad he couldn't eat. When the late five returned to Saigon, the *** ordered that the whole staff of the Defense Institute go to Tan Son Nhut airport to welcome them. A girl clerk was to present them with a bouquet of flowers. So this morning, thirty jeeps and bus roar up Cach Mang street to TSN to welcome the late officers.

Yesterday I posted a photo of some marvelous creature racing across my living room. Firefly/黃麗螢 was the first to identify it as 蚰蜒 Scutigeromorpha, a house centipede:
http://www.ngensis.com/myriapod.htm
you can read more about it here:
http://godofinsects.com/museum/display.php?sid=1690
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/cent.html
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/b1088-w.html
Hey, it eats cockroaches! Fortunately, I am far enough removed from other residences that I don't have those. But it's nice to know I've got a bodyguard just in case.

The little critter was making very good time across the floor. In The Variety of Life, Colin Tudge says, "a cheetah with the same ratio of speed to body length would break the sound barrier." Go gobble up those roaches, little buddy!

Thanks to Firefly, Tim, Angela, and Elliot for identification. And thanks to Francy for the suggestion that it is the offspring of a cockroach and a centipede.

PS: 蚰蜒，一ㄡ一ㄢboth二聲，又名蠼螋ㄐㄩㄝ二ㄙㄡ一，俗名錢龍、錢串子。Nice to meet you.

Most Americans probably know the children's joke:
A: What's red and black and has 14 pairs of legs?
B: I don't know, what?
A: I don't know either, but there's one crawling down your back.

I have no idea what this is, but it was crawling across my living room. It's red and black, has 14 pairs of legs, and measures about ten centimeters from front to back.

Can anyone identify it?

Abdul Rahman of Afghanistan is being prosecuted for converting to Christianity 16 years ago. He was arrested last month after his family, including his former wife and two teenage daughters, reported him to the police, who discovered him with a Bible.

Islamic comments are bizarre. "The Prophet Muhammad has said several times that those who convert from Islam should be killed if they refuse to come back," says Ansarullah Mawlafizada, the trial judge. "Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance, kindness, and integrity." This could go in the dictionary as a definition of doublethink.

Here's a runner-up: "We will not let anyone interfere with our religious practices," declared cleric Inayatullah at Kabul's Pulakasthy mosque, one of the city's largest. "What Rahman has done is wrong and he must be punished." If it is not permissible to interfere with religious practices, why are they interfering with his religious practices? It is permissible to convert to Islam, but not permissible to convert from Islam. The Aljazeera website carried a convoluted explanation that it is not permissible to convert from Islam because Islam is right and everybody else is wrong. That's the gist of it. I practically strained my brain reading that one.

"What is wrong with Islam that he should want to convert?" asks an agitated Abdul Zahid Payman. "The courts should punish him and he should be put to death." A model of clarity and logic. Not to speak of compassion.

"Regardless of the court decision [whether or not he is hanged], there is unanimous agreement by all religious scholars from the north to the south, the east to the west of Afghanistan, that Abdul Rahman should be executed," Engineer Ahmad Shah Ahmad Zai told Asia Times Online on telephone from Kabul.

"We will not allow God to be humiliated," Abdul Raoulf, a member of the Ulama Council, Afghanistan's main clerical organization, told Associated Press. "We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there's nothing left." IMHO, a god who is not humiliated by followers calling for the death of converts is not worthy of being called a god.

Days like this make me especially happy to be Buddhist. Amitabha!

當年毛主席想砸孔老二的店，現在是毛主席的子孫踴躍走資本主義路線，儒者慢慢又起頭。論語是挖不完的寶藏，但是要用心讀。夫子頭腦靈活的不得了，不要被高中課本的死板形象束縛了。故宮前的孔子象應該銷熔，順便把塑象的人吊起來打：污衊前賢。

污衊前賢，方法很多。在書店看到一本論語中英對照，還註明是2004年最新翻譯。著書的方法很特殊。編者好像把Legge十九世紀的便秘翻譯拿來強迫國中生背，然後叫他們默寫：憑半知半解的印象，配上初級英文，慘不忍睹。要出版英文書的話，最起碼應該了解英文的基礎文法，這樣要求不算太過分吧。

不過也有精彩文句。第一篇「學而」怎麼翻？Hoe Urh. 很特別吧。我家附近有時候可以聽到野豬的叫聲，我現在才明白，原來它們在朗誦2004年最新翻譯的論語篇名：Hoe urh, hoe urh, hoe urh!

越大未必越好。

聽說誠品在信義區開了分店，忍了很久。我進書店，好比酒鬼進酒巴：欲罷不能。唯一可救藥是，我愛看的是冷門書(超弦啦、婦好墓啦、岩畫啦、西伯利亞馴鹿族啦)，很難買到，一般書局沒有。我知道我不缺書，我知道我書架上很多書還沒看，可是…可是…進了書店就很難克制。總有好書…

終于進了巨大誠品。信不信由你，我逛了一個小時，連一本也沒買。問題在哪？雜而不精。他們甚麼都要賣，變成沒用心選書上架。例如，音樂部門賣樂譜；點子特別，一般書店不賣樂譜。結果賣的是一些基本Bach、Beethoven、Brahms鋼琴曲、電影主題曲、流行曲。所有樂器、所有種類，一兩百個譜。想買譜的人，這種早已有了，想買新的，在此沒有。中國文學部門不賣重要的工具書，也不賣專門的重要文獻：沒看到經籍篡詁，找不到三代吉金文存。

逛了一個小時，只覺得疲勞眼花。誠品大概要跟101的Page One打對臺。坦白說，我認為Page One只是大、貴，以地點取勝。

懷念大亞百貨四樓的站前誠品。那時很少空手歸。

I will now present you with scientific proof of the infallibility of democratic elections; that the election process winnows out the inept and selects the best and the brightest.

On the stock market, a fund manager who can beat the market by 3% is considered a star. However, on the average, US Senators beat the market by 12%. Remember that professional fund managers dedicate all their time and energies to the markets, and Senators have little time to spend on the market. This proves their superior powers.

This is a genuinely authentic scientific conclusion, reached by Georgia State University researchers. Makes you proud, doesn't it?

This is something I wrote when I was 17, about a month after I had arrived in Viet Nam. My duty was to help deliver pizzas to US bases around the Viet Nam war zone. I'll explain that some other day. I should explain that driving through the rubber plantations was an eerie sensation, because they were so black within the rows, and because everybody knew the North Viet Namese Army regulars were in there. Here is what I wrote:
Yesterday I went out to Phuoc Vinh, a couple hours drive out of Saigon. It was kind of weird driving. You'd get into the country, and it'd be like you were on the lip of a huge saucer. It'd be flat to the horizon in all directions. Most of the time there wouldn't be a car in sight. Just shrubs on the horizon. These shrubs would eventually turn into villages, full of people (not crowds, really, but after the plains they seemed to be masses) then you’d hit the end of the village and suddenly you're on the lip of another saucer, and so on. We were riding along and I noticed a truck, US Army, on the edge of the road, looking rather sad, and a tank full of GIs over there by the road. Hi boys. Then some 15 minutes later, I saw that the lane about a kilometer in front of us had some barrels in it. By now, we were getting into the rubber plantation area – off a ways from the road, huge groves of rubber trees. As we neared the hole, it showed to be about 12 or 15 feet across, and circular. There were only a couple of feet on the side of undamaged road. We slipped by. The asphalt was all broken.
What's that? I asked the driver.
VC.
O really.
Yes. American (motion of cutting throat)
When was it?
Huh?
When?
Huh?
Khi nao?
O, long time ago – before, beaucoup VC – long time.
How long before VC go blooey there?
So the driver meticulously inscribes on his palm: 10-3-71.
Great, two weeks ago. Not a car in sight. Nothing but the rubber trees, the road, and the hole.

社會的潮流、流行，可真好玩。換個角度講，消費者很好騙。比酷，做你自己，買我們的產品你就可以跟三十二萬個人一模一樣做你自己！

寧願盲目效法美國流氓幾年前退流行的樣子，千萬不許有自己的風格。

法國人喝葡萄酒，眾所週知；他們喝葡萄酒的原因是，歐洲的水源污染太嚴重。幾百年前，他們發現喝水斃命，因此他們從小就喝葡萄酒。現在歐洲污染比以前嚴重多了，水更不能喝。

每次看到臺北人手上的法國礦泉水，就想到這個問題。我要買礦泉水的話，寧買埔里的，縱不純也比歐洲的好很多。

可是喂！喂！沒看到瓶子標籤嗎？這可是法國來的，是進口的，多氣派！多時髦！我們越喊「愛臺灣」，越要買進口貨。

Today Wulai was swallowed by thick fog that seemed to hold innumerable secrets. The birds and bugs were all silent, Tlahuy and Yumin spent the day sleeping in the doghouse, and wonder of wonders, the spa (泰雅達利) refrained from polluting the atmosphere with their vile junk music.

::the fog turned to rain at sundown, then the sky cleared to show a thousand bright stars. Then it rained again. I just love island weather!

前不久的全球商用英文能力檢定，日本最後一名，臺灣略高些。日本的英文本來是笑話(www.engrish.com)，但這裡有問題值得商榷：英文能力排在日本前面的國家，有幾個經濟比日本強？科技？藝術？

臺灣也是如此。英文沒有日本爛，但經濟、科技、藝術程度，未必輸給英文佼佼者。不免質疑，目前臺灣投下這麼多人力學英文，有多大的必要？

我當然感謝大家學英文，讓我添飽肚子，但目前學英文的風氣，像無頭蒼蠅，不知是指使國民最有效的策略，或者障眼法、轉移注意力。

The other day I saw a really spiffy hat. It was a Tayal man's hat, tightly coiled rattan, with mountain goat (serow) horns on the front.

Now that is a hat! A hat with style and personality, culture and history. Each one is handmade from scratch, and there are not many who retain the ancient skills. A hat with flair, for sure.

In the city, some parents intentionally put their kiddies' caps on askew in a bumbling attempt at cuteness. Cuteness should be spontaneous, not a meticulously planned do-or-die saccharine overdose.

Personally, I don't care for baseball caps. A forage cap, fine; a baseball cap, ugh. For some reason, in recent days everywhere I go I have come across adolescent boys wearing baseball caps at a carefully adjusted angle. Didn't that sort of thing go out of style in the last century? Perhaps they are attempting to define the uniqueness of their personalities, if they can be said to have such. I wasn't carrying a protractor, but I would bet that each of these youths had his hat at almost exactly the same angle, with the bill centered over the outside edge of the right eyebrow. Blindly conforming to out-of-date styles, they may be hoping to show the world that they are Cool and Being Themselves, sort of the way aging American yuppies ride identical Harley hogs to show that they Did It My Way and do not follow the beaten path.

How can something as common as a baseball cap possibly suggest individuality?

picture from Lpgan Ke' na Tayal. Mhway!

Perhaps the most outrageous event in America of recent years is the protests Christians hold at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. The Christians gather to insult the bereaved family, shouting that they celebrate every time an American is killed in Iraq and that the dead soldiers go straight to hell, because god hates homosexuals. If that is not warped, is that is not sickening, then I do not know what is warped or sickening.

Suppose Christ really died on the cross for others' sins; suppose that these young Americans really died in Iraq for others' sins; that makes them at least as holy as Jesus Christ.

I am waiting for mainstream American churches to voice their outrage at these sick people dragging the bible through filth.

I hear nothing.

When it was discovered that many of the terrorists on September 11 had lived in the US, Americans asked, If they know us, why don't they love us?

For narrow minded bigots, familiarity breeds contempt. Furthermore, in the US, they may have seen the world's richest society frittering life away on television, cars, and malls while much of the world goes hungry; the adoration of drugs, sex, and violence; the mindless materialism in the world's most wasteful society.

Certainly nobody reading this will imagine this is meant to condone terrorism or say that that is all there is to America. But the United States is a society dedicated to the inflation of the ego, and we have to understand that we are not idolized by everybody, and why.

qabu ru gbubu
Traditionally Tayal men wore hats made out of tightly coiled rattan. The hats leaked, so in October and November, they collected the fruit of the qabu tree (野柿, wild persimmon) before it was fully ripe. They mashed the fruit and let it ferment (rot, if you prefer). After a few weeks, they worked the goo into the hat, waterproofing it and producing a beautiful reddish brown color.

When the men were home, they left their hats on the rack over the cooking fire to smoke. When they went to the plains to deal with the Chinese, buying rice, salt, and other necessities, the hat was their measure.

清溪遇暴雨，水便混淆，岸土沖入水流，下面的久腐淤土翻上，增益生命力。若要清溪永遠清澈，鋪水泥；縱使水流，缺乏生命力。

心識也是如此。