14 September 2006

三字经

Full credits to this post attributed to the fantastic Gutenburg Project (Traditional Chinese B5 encoding) and here (simplified Chinese GB2312 encoding).

As with everything else, there's a bit of revision history going on there. This thing was originally written ages ago, with versions littering throughout the ages. My personal chuckle (cool!) moment came when I read this (which apparently isn't in the 宋 version)

辽于金,皆称帝。太祖兴,国大明。号洪武,都金陵。迨成祖,迁燕京。十六世,至崇祯。阉乱后,寇内讧。闯逆变,神器终。清顺治,据神京。至十传,宣统逊。举总统,共和成。复汉土,民国兴。

What? okay, so we want to add in 明 dynasty history. Okay. but why are we using 十六世? And this 复汉土... does it refer to the end of the Second World War? It has to be, because it refers to the People's Republic, 民国. The previous part about proclaiming the President, that links in with the Republic, 共和.

This is the beauty of the Chinese language. One can parse history, people, nature, literature, everything, in three-word phrases. Ah. Beauty.

09 September 2006

Remember, Remember the 8th of September....

Remember Remember the Eighth of September
The Enterprise, phasers, and Spock
I know of no reason that Star Trek's first season
Should ever be forgot

:)

01 September 2006

Star Trek turns 40

Star Trek is the first thing I found when I grew up. Or was it I grew up when I found Star Trek? At any rate, my eyes were opened to the new world of possibilities and wonders, and simultaneously blinded to the dangers of staying up to watch tv at 1am (hail broadcasters). Star Trek (pro-fic) novels taught me English, furthered my interest in Science and its exploration and its appllication in exploration. It placed Klingon heat against Vulcan cold, exposed the nobility and travesty of the human condition. It is good.

As a 80's child, Picard, Riker, Data and crew are closer to me than Kirk, Spock, Bones and crew. Archer, Trip and crew are new, so I can't say just yet.

Official word from Star Trek.com

Someone else's commentary. Commentary from Wired

And yes, Paramount will be remastering TOS with enhanced FX and music.

Memory Alpha is a fantastic ST collective-intelligence (borg?!) information site.

Yet not all are satisfied by canon alone. New Voyages: ST:TOS season 4, as it should be. The upcoming episode is written by DC Fontana and stars Walter Koenig, no less! I just finished watching the first episode "In Harm's Way", and it is good. What an interesting philosophy: to view Kirk and Spock and McCoy are contemporary cultural icons that can and should be portrayed by many actors to bring the characters to their full potential. Just like Prospero, or Hamlet, or James Bond. We wait for the episode to be released.