User Comments - WillBuckingham

Posted on: Computer Problems and Tech Support

Here' s a handy help-sheet for all those people who find themselves offering unofficial tech support...

XKCD Helpdesk Flowchart

Posted on: Celebrating the New Year with Visitors

Woo! Threaded comments!I've not yet looked at Yellowbridge's 三字经 pages yet, but I will do so today and practice it until I can chant it like a 6-year old.I'd love more lessons exploring traditional culture, although Advanced may be a bit beyond me at the moment.Will

Posted on: Celebrating the New Year with Visitors

Great interview - sounds as if they were all a lot of fun - and those were some seriously impressive kids (even if hearing them made me want to sob bitter tears into my Chinese dictionary at my own progress...)

Baba, as far as I understand it the story on the Confucian side is a bit more complicated. So Mencius (Méngzǐ / 孟子) for one claims that human nature (rénxìng 人性) is good, but our nature is good only in the same way that an acorn's nature is to grow into an oak tree. For us to actually become good, there need to be all kinds of supporting conditions - and a fair amount of cultivation - in the same way that for a plant to actually become fully grown, it also needs cultivation.

There's a nice little video in Chinese over here about this kind of moral cultivation - the story comes from Mencius.

Posted on: New Year's Wishes

It's the terror of recursion, Orangina... On a similar theme, did you know that if you type "Google" into Google, 你可以打破因特网？ Better not to try...

Kimiik, I also hear something that's not "你疯了吧?" in the dialogue.

Posted on: Going to Wudang Mountain

Pedantry alert! There's a small typo in the dialogue translation and PDF, with 之首 translated as "principle" instead of "principal".

Posted on: The Dragonfly Experience

Nice to see the Jenny Zhu show back in action. Will tune in later today.

Will

Posted on: A Thanksgiving Phone Call

White sauce, I think I'd call it. A roux is the flour and butter base before you put the milk/cream in.

Posted on: Playing Wii

我最喜欢吃豆小精灵 - that little bean-eating spirit gets me every time. This, of course, shows how behind-the-times I am.

The closest I get to video games these days is semi-compulsive Skrittering.

Posted on: Finding a Seat at the Movies

On a side note on 2012 movie, one dispiriting thing about 2012 is that for some reason in the science section (the science section, I ask you!) of my local bookshop, there were three books about 2012, the Mayan calendar and impending doom.

The major 2012 disaster that I predict for the UK (looking into my crystal ball, which has been blessed by Mayan priests etc. etc.) is the 2012 奥林匹克...

Posted on: Dinner with Friends

By chance, last night I was out at a Chinese restaurant here in the UK with a few friends from my Chinese class, and on the restaurant menu there was 家常豆腐 - although what I liked best was the translation：　"Daily trivia tofu..."