One can watch the entire Blackadder series (all four seasons) on YouTube here.  If you like British humour and convoluted similes that reward deciphering like a drink of iced tea rewards a parched throat, you’ll like this.  I especially enjoyed the fourth season :)

P/S.  Oh, I should probably mention that the series features early Rowan Atkinson (who’s unquestionably better in Blackadder than he is in Mr Bean; I do think Mr Bean’s sort of humour is appreciated by a larger audience though) and Hugh Laurie (I am one of many many many who enjoy him in House) and Stephen Fry (whose name used to be as inseparable from Laurie’s as sugar, coffee powder and milk powder that have been thoroughly blended in warm water), though I tend to think the writing, rather than the acting, is the part that makes Blackadder most worth straining your eyeballs.

Well, so a colleague very kindly introduced me to Aimee Mann just this evening.  When I mentioned that I liked Sarah McLachlan, she said that I might like Rachael Yamagata’s “I Wish You Love”.  So I searched for “Rachael Yamagata” on YouTube, and I saw that she sang “River”.

At first I was entranced by the singing, but then I got the sense that she was yawning while she was singing, or otherwise trying to sound a little different, and while the effect wasn’t half-bad I thought it too pretentious.  So I decided to search for another “River” that I remembered sounding a little different too, which led me to Robert Downey Jr’s.  The cello’s deadly sad.

Then I saw a link I had to click, given that I’d just realised how talented Mr Downey is.

And then I saw another one.  And I cried a bit watching it.

P/S.  I so totally enjoyed watching Ally McBeal and listening to Vonda Shepard and the Christmas songs – especially the Christmas songs :)

usually refers to a stylised knife (said to be Nepalese in origin), but in this case it refers to an extremely smart-looking snake – around 10-12cm long – that paid a visit to my house yesterday.  Here’s a picture of it all essed up, set to strike.

Kukri snakes are really handsome snakes, with bright lengthwise stripes that converge on their heads in a nice pattern, and a brilliant underside.  Here’s the kukri showing that off :)

as in a journey’s way-point.  This haunting half-narrated, half-sung gem is in Chinese, and I’ve attempted my usual clumsy translation of its lyrics below.  Do check out the YouTube video after the lyrics.

驛 (Read by 黃舒駿; sung by 林慧萍)

火車站的候車室　(In the waiting room in the train station)
時常坐著一位打扮整齊的中年婦人 (Would sit a tidily arranged middle-aged woman)
手裡抱著一個老式皮箱　(Hugging an old-style leather suitcase)
游目張望　似乎在期待什麼 (Her restless eyes would wander, as if she was awaiting something)

第一次見到婦人是他高中的時候　(The first time he saw the woman, he was in high school)
每天夜裡從桃園通車到台北補習 (Every night he would travel from Taoyuan to Taipei for tuition)
深夜十一點回到桃園　(When he returned to Taoyuan late in the night at 11pm)
婦人總是準時地坐在候車室的木椅上 (The woman would always punctually be sitting on the wooden bench in the waiting room)
等待著的姿勢　不安的眼神 端整的打扮　好像在等待著某一個約好的人 (Anxious, waiting, dressed well, like she was waiting for someone she had arranged to meet)

起先他沒有特別留意她　可是時間一久　(At first he didn’t pay any special attention to her, but as time went by)
尤其是沒有旅客的時候 (Particularly when there were no tourists)
婦人就格外顯的孤寂　(The woman would seem especially lonely)
有一天他終於下定決心　(One day he finally decided)
在候車室等待那婦人離去 (To wait in the waiting room for the woman to leave)
一直到深夜落　一直到凌晨一點　(Night fell, and it was 1am in the morning)
婦人才站了起來 (When the woman finally stood up)
走到候車室的黑板前用粉筆寫著 (And walked to the blackboard at the back of the waiting room and wrote with a piece of chalk)
「水, 等你沒等到, 我先走了.　英　留」 (“Shui, waited for you in vain, I’ll leave first.  Ying”)

那時他才知道 (Only then did he realise)
原來候車室長久以來的這則留言是出自那婦人 (That those words in the waiting room that he’d seen all this while were written by the woman)
後來車站的老人告訴他 (Later, the old people at the station told him)
婦人已經在候車室坐了二十幾年了 (The woman had been sitting in the waiting room for twenty-some years)
有人說她瘋了　有人說曾看見她打開皮箱 (Some said she had gone mad.  Some said they had seen her open the suitcase)
箱裡裝的是少女時代的衣服 (In it were clothes from when she was young)
大部分的人都說　在二十幾年前那個夜晚 (Most said, on that night twenty-some years ago)
英和她的水約好在車站碰面 (Ying and her Shui had arranged to meet at the station)
要私奔到某一個不知名的地方 (To elope to some nameless place)
可是叫水的那個男人卻缺席了 (But the man named Shui had not come)

有一天他回家的時候　不再看到英的影子 (One day, he did not see Ying at all on his way home)
問了車站許多人都不知道為什麼 (He asked many people at the station but still did not know why)
這風雨無阻的婦人那一天沒有來　第二天的清晨 (This woman, who came everyday rain or shine, did not come that day.  In the morning the next day)
英殘缺的身體被發現在鐵道上 (Ying’s broken body was discovered on the tracks)
皮箱滾到很遠的地方 (The suitcase had rolled far far away)
旅客留言板上有她的字跡　只改了幾個字 (On the travellers’ bulletin board were her writing, only some words were changed)
「水, 等你三十年,　我先走了.　英　留」 (“Shui, waited thirty years for you, I’ll leave first. Ying”)

就這樣　斷了線　就真這樣　不再相見 (Just like this, the line breaks; just like this, we’ll never see each other again)
飛出了時間　飛出天邊　飛到另外一個　沒有我的天 (Flying out of time, out of the sky, to another sky without me)
經過許多年　所有的眷戀　飄浮在時空裡　沒有終點 (After many years, all the longing floats along in time and space, without destination)
人生是一張　泛黃的相片　而我站在車站靜止的畫面 (Life is a faded photograph, and I stand at the station, where the scene stops)

that I had wanted to post when I read them, but was too lazy to :p

I believe stories are key to the way we persuade, and I enjoy the fit and sense of completeness when someone makes a pertinent point with an appropriate story.  Here are some excellent examples :)

The panhandler’s secret [Seth's Blog] – Couldn’t come up with a better moral for the story than Seth’s own: Interact first, sell second.

The disappointed Coca Cola salesman [~synthesis~] – Again, the moral is supplied by the writer: The audience matters most.  I find that this rule – drummed into me during university while I was doing communication studies – serves one well whenever and whatever we communicate.

Heaven and hell with long-handled spoons [Harga-Blog] – A very nice way to make the point that our mindset – and in this case we are using the word quite precisely, referring to the mind’s being set on something, reluctant to change its shape – determines whether we live happily or not.

Two minutes into this heartfelt, inspiring performance someone I respect sent to me, I realised that the woman dancer did not have a right arm.

About 10 days ago, I was having a very enjoyable meal at Sushi Tei (try the ikura (salmon roe) chawanmushi) with a long-legged friend and we were talking about ambition and priorities.  And she had me do this interesting exercise.  She tore up the folded piece of paper that the wooden chopsticks came in into eight bits and told me to write down the eight things most important to me, one on each bit of paper.

I wrote:

• Comfort
• Family
• Doing well at work
• Being knowledgeable
• Writing well
• My bolster
• Reading good books
• Food

And then she asked me, if you had to take away two of these important things, which would they be?  Not too difficult.  I took away my bolster and reading good books.  So six were left.

• Comfort
• Family
• Doing well at work
• Writing well
• Being knowledgeable
• Food

And then she told me, take away two more.  And I took away food and writing well.  (This is as best as I remember it.  I could have removed comfort… but anyway, here’s what I think I took away.)  And so, four were left.

• Comfort
• Family
• Doing well at work
• Being knowledgeable

And then my long-legged friend told me to remove two more.  And I took away comfort and being knowledgeable.  And two were left.

• Family
• Doing well at work

And so it seemed, to me, the most important things in the world are my family and doing well at work.  And then my friend asked, are you spending enough time on the most important thing in the world to you?  And my answer had to be that I was, at work, and I was not sure I was, with my family.

And I thought, it was good to be made to think in this way.  I shall do this exercise again, but seriously, and by seriously I mean in a state of mind that would not involve my bolster – significant part of my life though it is – as one of the eight most important things in my life :)

P/S.  Today at about 3.45pm I was on a high after doing a presentation to an important person who was very enthused about her work.  Then at 4.00pm I reminded someone to do a very important thing.  And at about 5.55pm I thought I saw someone dab at tears on his/her face, because of a very important thing, of course, for otherwise why would he/she shed tears?

Came across a few very enjoyable pieces of entertainment the last few days, so I thought I’d collect them all in a post and title it with a quote from a great piece of entertainment from a sadly bygone era :)

I saw YouTube clips of Penn & Teller on The Late Show with David Letterman, doing a macabre trick to promote their video cassette release in 1989 (I remember that one actually had to rewind these ‘video cassette’ things…) and a nice coins-and-goldfish trick on Halloween in 2007.

I read Lawrence Block’s When the Sacred Ginmill Closes yesterday.  I’ve come to enjoy Lawrence Block, who writes immensely readable crime stories where most of the action is in the dialogue and the choices of the protagonist.  I have books about Keller, the amoral yet conscientious hitman.  Keller is always fun – how many times do you get into the head of someone who’s killed so often that he’s come up with a foolproof way of distancing himself from his job and who’s well-adjusted enough to teach that method to his best friend after she had to kill their boss?  I have many starring Bernie Rhodenbarr, the unreformed burglar with a knack for coming across bodies during his illegal excursions and then solving them to save his hide.  The Rhodenbarr books are formulaic but rollickingly good reads – Bernie’s tempted to burgle, he tries not to but does it anyway, he finds a body in the house he burgles or a murder occurs at exactly the same time and he’s a suspect and he can’t of course use his burgling as an alibi, he solves the murder after a roundabout romp and at the classic gathering of suspects.  The Ginmill book was my first about Matthew Scudder, the ex-alcoholic whose melancholic remembrances overflow with bourbon and the fragile brotherhood of drunks.  If it’s any indication, then I’ve missed his best series… until now.  Time to catch up.

I saw this fine and funny reminder that all is well in this world, except for our expectations and impatience :)

I also saw this horrific picture (snicker snicker): the last thing Sparkly saw…

In the comments section of my last post, I wrote that I liked Tanya Chua’s version of “The Blower’s Daughter”, which I had heard first, better than Damien Rice’s (below).  Then I went to listen to the latter again.  And got struck by the sadness of the cello chords.

Shall watch “Closer” when I can.

• Yes, Minister is British satirical humour at its best – smart, precise and hilarious. Watch it or read it! (It’s been my bedtime reading the past few nights.)

• Listened to this on repeat for half an hour during one productive stretch of work today, then realised I could be missing important snatches of office corridor talk and snatched out my ear-buds, reluctantly.

• Am struck by iPhone envy. But learning to re-love my nifty E71, where I’m drafting this post :)

• Shall finally write about the enjoyable 天冷就回来 soon.