突然想吃红烧海参了，周末去买几根上好海参来做一做（如果买不到干参，只好搞点水发的来）。《随园食单.海鲜单》中记有“海参三法”：“海参无味之物，沙多气腥，最难讨好。然天性浓重，断不可以清汤煨也。须检小刺参，先泡去沙泥，用肉汤滚泡三次，然后以鸡、肉两汁红煨极烂。辅佐则用香蕈、木耳，以其色黑相似也。大抵明日请客，则先一日要煨，海参才烂。尝见钱观察家，夏日用芥未、鸡汁拌冷海参丝甚佳。或切小碎丁，用笋丁、香蕈丁入鸡汤煨作羹。蒋侍郎家用豆腐皮、鸡腿、蘑菇煨海参亦佳。”袁枚时海参做为食材刚刚开始，所以做法并不馋人。川菜海鲜本不在行，不过一翻川菜事典，以海参为材料的菜还不少。其中家常海参一味是名菜。可惜搞不到大乌参，不然做“一品海参”一定也不错。俱都没有吃过，只有试做，以后回国有机会再一辩真伪了。上一回吃
海参，可能还是在自己的婚宴上，一晃六年多，我这个在外漂泊的，由老妈封为“饮食菩萨”的人，不知欠下了多少吃喝债。

翻了翻菜谱，发现我还想吃黑鱼。看来不绝不能在半衣三更看食谱。

猪猪猪抓起西芹就往嘴里塞，被严厉制止后，就当大棒耍起来了。让我想起了王绍洪的“大棒政策”，也让我想起了老孙的棒棒，故名：“猪八斤耍金箍棒”。

今天看了Sebastian Lemm的一组照片《schattenseite》，很有意思。用Google语言工具翻译了一下，schattenseite是shadow的意思。题目到是很明确。

图片链接：
http://www.sebastianlemm.com/files/untitled1.html

Didn't like him, so I even skipped the seminar in the afternoon. He told us that he actually tried to avoid being a fly geneticist because his father was one but finally got a job (through his father's connection) in a fly lab. Well, I hope he is not doing science for living (an he is a pretty good one, if he really is).

特别想送宝宝去的Day Care Center没有排到位置，只好到另一家，条件没有原来那家好，而且6点前就要接人。好处是一个月便宜300块钱。

有了猪儿后，我们好象对花钱已经麻木了。对动不动就是千元的信用卡帐单习以为常。上周花100多块补了两颗牙（保险后的co-pay），我还在偷笑便宜。学生时代本来就是月光一族，现在还是月光族，至少是维持了身份，没有负债经营。

我也来发发牢骚。最近实验忙，却总不顺，本来是该出成果的时候，实验结果总不理想（技术上的问题），所以干得很累，却很不爽。希望到3月份开会前能出点东西。不然干脆就回家买红薯算了（我开烤红薯店大家要来捧场啊）。

晚上，光线不好。用了四盏普通照明灯，一个自制反光板，光还是不足，光比还是太大。减2/3档曝光，用PS调色温和色阶，结果一般。

今天是黄聃100天。按成都人的传统可以开荤。开荤的意思就是要开始品尝酸甜苦辣，人生百味了。于是在晚餐桌前我们给黄聃娃准备了位置。外公准备了一节葱一头蒜（没有合适的蒜苗，用蒜代替）。用葱、蒜开荤，取聪明能算之意。黄聃爸爸用葱节和蒜头沾了桌上某盘带油荤的菜汤，送到黄聃嘴里。他有滋有味的尝了起来。接着又沾了醋，糖等，小孩子都一一尝过了。刚开始吃醋，他还叫了两声，后来吃出滋味，咂巴咂巴嘴作出很享受的样子。一百天尝百味，长大了不挑食。

时间过得真快，30年前我100天的时候，也是黄聃娃儿这个样子。一定也要人抱，要人诓，要人喂，要和人玩。

猪猪猪今天九十九天！小伙子已经很有力了。放在床上可以自己趴起来。虽然力量还小，耐力不足，不过算是长足进步了。呵呵，呵呵。

If you visit iTune stores often, you probably know that iTune stores offers two to three free MP3 downloads every week. You cannot choose which songs to download, but they're free and some of them are quite nice. The point is, iTune is luring you to purchase the entire album if you like that one track. For me, I'd rather buy a hard copy CD instead. Here is a list of tracks that I think worth noting (Sorted by added time from Jan 2007 to Dec 2007.):

1. Cold War Kids/Robbers & Cowards: Hang Me Up to Dry (Alternative)
2. Spring Awakening: The Bitch of Living (Soundtrack)
3. Irving/Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers: The Gentle Preservation of Children's Minds (Pop)
4. Stefano Bollani/Piano Solo: Antonia (Jazz, Instrumental)
5. Joshua James/The Sun Is Always Brighter: FM Radio (Alternative)
6. Brandi Carlile/The Story: The Story (Rock)
7. Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra/Voices and Choices: Kiss the Sky (Electronic)
8. The Cinematics/A Strange Education: A Strange Education (Rock)
9. Vega4/You and Others: Life is Beautiful (Alternative)
10. Kate Walsh/Tim's House: Tonight (Folk)
11. Hector Buitrago/The Chicas Project Soundtrack: Altisimo (Latino)
12. Chrisette Michele: Your Joy (R&B/Soul)
13. Sara Bareilles/Little Voice: Love Song (Alternative Folk)
14. Die Mannequin/How to Kill: Autumn Cannibalist (Alternative)
15. Colbie Caillat/Bubbly: Bubbly (Pop)
16. Pastilla/A Marte: A Marte (Alternativo)
17. Ceci Bastida/Front BC-EP: Ya Me Voy (Alternativo)
18. Halfway to Hazard/Halfway to Hazard: Daisy (Country)
19. Kenna/Make Sure They See My Face: Out of Control (State of Emotion)
20. The Last Goodnight/Poison Kiss: Pictures of You (Pop)
21. Meiko/Meiko: How Lucky We Are (Folk)
22. The Black Ghosts/Any Way You Choose To Give It-EP: Tears from a Gun (Dance)

The Story
Song my Brandi Carlile

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true...I was made for you

I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules
But baby I broke them all for you
Because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
Yeah you do and I was made for you

You see the smile that's on my mouth
Is hiding the words that don't come out
And all of my friends who think that I'm blessed
They don't know my head is a mess
No, they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what I've been through but you do
And I was made for you...

Hope this is not too late: From January 13 to April 6, 2008 PBS is playing all of the film/tv adaptations of the Jane Austen novels, plus a bonus movie (Check airing schedule for PBS Masterpiece Theaters at your local PBS station):

Jan 13: Persuasion Jan 20: Northanger Abbey Jan 27: Mansfield Park
Feb 3: Miss Austen Regrets (Stories of Jane Austen's final years)
Feb 10, 17, 24: Pride and Prejudice
Mar 23: Emma March 30, April 6: Sense and Sensibility

I happened to watch this BBS mini seires of Pride and Prejudice. The Corlin Firth version of Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) is unbeatable. A truly masterpiece. (I think I wrote about it before in my blog, when the new film version of Pride and Prejudice was release in the US).

从门口走到实验室的路上，大前天下的雪早已干得没有痕迹，老墨工人们却在一把一把的仔细撒"盐"。去道路冰雪的盐，其实是盐和泥沙的混合物，有的看上去如黄砂，有的如黑土，还有白色的小圆粒，如加工泡沫的原料一般。如果与熔化了的冰雪混在一起，邋邋遢遢，搞得到处都脏兮兮的。所以雪景固然美丽，那是在无人惊动的时候。真奇怪象人这样的物种，生于自然，却最善于破坏自然。

原先在俄亥俄，冬天下雪惯了，人们对大雪的准备充分，扫雪的机械，工具、人员和试剂俱全，雪刚过就出动，不到1小时，于日常行动已经没有影响。华盛顿地区相对暖和，一到雪天就手足无措，下大雪便要停工或者延时上班。人行道上的雪经久无人处理（"经久"可以久到1月以上）。一大国的首都尚且如此，难怪美国人应对紧急情况的能力之差呢。

既然工人在撒盐，说明预报了还会下雪。一月份在冬天正中央，离开春还远。只希望不要有去年那样的大雪，又把我的车给埋住，连年货都没有办法采购。

给黄八斤买了一顶鸭舌帽。戴上让我想起了《上海滩》里的丁力。

第一次学到Kick the Bucket这个词组是在中学时。没想到在电影院里又听到了。我和老婆去电影院里去看Jack Nicholson和Morgan Freeman,主演的the Bucket list。观看的原因，也正是他们。影片讲述两位晚期癌症病友的故事。剧情一般。但是两位老演员的确是已经修炼成精。这部电影也非他们两位不能成就。

梁实秋写文章还可以，可是他对饮食文化的理解，我却不敢恭维。所以对《雅舍谈吃》读读文章可以，内容嘛，看过便忘掉最好。

袁阿姨从北京给黄八斤寄来好多漂漂的新衣服。有背背裤，有外套，正好在冬天穿。这几天华盛顿地区很冷。猪猪猪穿上衣服很可爱的样子。

Be it romantic, scary, mysterious, abusive, tragic ... all of the love stories are in the same film, happening in the same city - Paris. The film itself is an interesting project. Famous directors all over the world contributing one short film with different casts. When put together, they unite as a coherent whole, reflecting the diversity of the city itself. It's a film that I believe most people would like.

2007年诺贝尔医学奖获得者Oliver Smithies到NIH讲座。我去晚了，结果反而被安排到第二排的保留座位，正好坐在Dr. Smithies和NIH Director后面。Dr. Smithies的穿着，行为和说话的语调都是典型的美国老头的样子。

讲座的内容经及幻灯片几乎同他的诺贝尔讲座一模一样：主要由他的实验原始记
录组成，一页又一页的手写的笔记，从1954年到2007年。（nobelprize.org可在观看录像，下载幻灯片）

"You have to work on the first of Janurary." -- Dr. Smithies的第一张幻灯片是一页1954年1月1日的实验记录。第二张是某个星期六的笔记。

"Tell them all our data; give them our hypothesis; tell them we've done the experiments, and we don't believe the result."..."And I go home and invent a new method."

"My 58th birthday. OK, guys, you've got lots of time!" -- 1983年的6月23日的一页笔记。实验没有成功。

"Never save money by making new equipment, but [do it] to save time." -- 展示他自己组装的电转仪和PCR仪。

"What's on the next page." "I don't know." "But that's what makes science exciting!"

花了两夜时间，读完了余华的小说《兄弟》。还不错。特别是上部的后半段，写得很感人。下部的中段初看上去很没有意思。看完全本后明白是结构上的需要。以余华的风格来看，写得虚了一些。故事挺简单，讲一个重组家庭的两兄弟，从丧父/母，到有了新家，到丧后父/后母，到成年后的生活。作者欲写出四十年中国乡镇的变化。虽然不够深入，却有那么一点味道。写出了人性的疯狂，无聊，固执，自私的一面，也写出了真挚，诚实，知恩的一面。人物“好”和“坏”的界线模糊之后，更贴近生活。我想这也许是余华小说的魅力之一吧。

光了两月时间，读完了“天下成都丛书”的《锦官城遗事》和《古蜀国旁白》。前者是讲老成都市井文化，后都是借神话和古代遗址讲古蜀国历史。各有各的意义。我就从来不知道大慈寺有位叫“满天星”的算命人，见面就问人家“你郎个还没死喃？”的。两本书的文字都颇有意思，可惜配图显幼稚，而且图片的布置往往同文本关系不大，该有的没有，有的却无关紧要。但是总的来说，作为成都人，读他们还是挺好。