今天既然写了就多写一篇。

 

晚上健身回来决定抽时间把刚买来的宝儿2007演唱会看完，124分钟，我很满意。

 

开始听这个小女生唱歌之前每次填各种表格、同学录之类的东西时都有一栏比较让我头疼。“你最喜欢的艺人是谁？”那时候还没有追过星的偶对于这道题总是犹豫再三，说没有吧，觉得太没创造力，可我又创造不出一个有意思的答案，随便写一个吧，又觉得说了假话心有不安。直到03年开始认真听BOA的歌以后这道历史难题才有了终极解决方案。在我买下宝儿全部专辑CD，大部分单曲CD和全部演场会DVD，以及30G各类下载的表演视频和周边产品后，我着实地成为了一个“追星权益维护者”。

 

因为宝儿06年没有新曲专辑发行，这次的演唱会整整等了两年。加之05年演唱会她意外受伤所以表演效果大打折扣，偶对本次演唱会的希望还是颇高，希望能找回04年演唱会的精彩，我没有失望。

 

（以下包含部分技术讨论，对技术反感者请略过）

 

音效：和EC住久了凡是和音乐有关的都要先谈这个。这张DVD用了5.1声道的回放，可惜家里没有音响系统不能测试，所以整个听音过程都是使用新买的Shure E2C耳机。EC一直说Shure的音染很重，但是我听着却觉得恰到好处。低频的表现虽然没有KOSS Porta Pro那么强劲，但对于小耳塞来说也算是可圈可点，当然前提是要挑选好合适的sleeves让耳塞能够完全贴合耳道，否则低音部分损失会很严重。E2C的中频人声和高频乐器的表现异常清脆，应该算是我自己有的耳机中最顶极的表现，当然这也可能是EC说的音染比较重的部分，因为听上去有时会略微觉得过于清晰而有点“假”，或者说难以置信。但是这个特点却刚好非常合适听BOA的演唱会，因为JPOP通常都不像欧美音乐用极强的鼓点，而我最钟爱的宝儿人声的中音部分在E2C身上表现得精彩绝仑。整个演唱会录音的效果相当出色，即使用E2C这样全范围的细节表现优异的耳机在曲间都不会出现丝毫的杂音，让我都有些惊讶。宝儿自己声音的表现在整场演唱会中大部分时间都很完美，尤其是在几首唱跳结合的舞曲中表现了良好的控制，反而是在个别首的慢歌处理上有极细小的不稳定，但比较她近两年来在现场演唱中糟糕的声线表现，这次的演唱会的声音效果让我非常满意。

 

视觉：完美。整场演场会沿袭了BOA一贯的风格，除了采用了网格更大，透明度更好的大屏幕外，其它从舞台结构、乐队站位、伴舞走位、镜头位置、灯光计划都和以前的演场会如出一辙。在光线的处理上用了更多的快节奏变化，让演唱会显得更加紧凑。有几首歌的服装稍微有些过于funky，但是基本上表现了made in twenty向lady转变的主题。短发的造型非常清爽，虽然个人有点不太习惯，但看久了觉得对BOA也不失为一个不错的选择。DVD导演在剪辑中也加入了更多的镜头切换和cross-dissolve transition，让看碟的观众感受到更多的场景变换而不至于感到单调。双层数据盘片和16：9的宽屏设计让整个视频文件的质量和观影效果都达到了相当好的水平，给10分。

 

莫名的为一张DVD写了这么多，可见我真的很开心，呵呵。追星也要有坚持：）大家晚安。

嗯，应各方要求，写一点写一点，算个小结。

 

回了美国之后就又过上习惯的日子，唯一的不同是这个学期比起以前来又要忙了那么一点点，倒不是工作时间加长，但是Multiple-Task的确需要自己十分精确地计划和协调时间。每个礼拜10小时的助教，10小时的兼职，不确定时间的qualitative data analysis，还要读500页左右的专业课论文（其中有大量类似于“西方社会民主概念和制度发展进程与南非和肯尼亚的国家民主公民教育”或者“美国郡政府人才招聘模型的历史演变和创新”的文章……），当然还少不了每周这样那样的projects，quizzes和presentations。幸运的是现在还算是paid very well，所以苦点累点也算有点奔头。更重要的是发现自己很变态地喜欢看这些很理论的文章，所以阅读竟然也令人吃惊地没有落下。嗯，一切习惯就好，努力起来还是蛮开心的。

 

虽然周一到周五在学习和工作中疲于奔命，周末也总还是会抽出时间小小放松一下。一个月前和一群朋友去北部靠近加拿大的一个一万人口的小市镇当一个展会的志愿者。展会的主要内容是展览和销售从北欧来的手工艺人制作的木工艺品，材料从树干到树枝到树叶到树根到树皮一应俱全，也算是小开了眼界。晚上大伙住在朋友自己的湖畔小木屋，点着一人高的篝火喝酒跳舞到凌晨。接着又疯狂地体验了一番据说是很地道的斯堪的那维亚传统——先在桑拿房里蒸到全身发热，然后裸奔着跳到湖里冬泳一分钟，然后再返回桑拿房，如此往返多次，听说是有利血液循环。几个亚洲人刚开始还有些犹豫，但后来想想机会难得便也加入了大部队的行列。整个过程的感觉出乎意料地美妙，滚烫的身体猛地浸入冰冷的湖水中（当时当地已经下雪了），再刷地从水下钻出来，抬头看着头顶一整片的星空，北斗星分明地挂在屋旁的树杈上，灵魂都像被大自然拥抱着一般自在。

 

终于去了过山车乐园，本来是和朋友约好开车去芝加哥的6th Flat，结果计划当周周末6th Flat关门，只好退而求其次地去明州的ValleyFair。虽然大家都说6th Flat is WAY BETTER than the ValleyFair，但留下一个念想也不一定是坏事。去VF的当天Minneapolis突然下起了雷雨，幸运的是VF所在的城市却是清风和煦，坐过山车的绝好天气。大概是因为其它地方天气的影响，来VF的人当天异常地少，导致我们坐任何的游艺机都不用排队。虽然省下了等待之苦，但连续不断地从不同种类的过山车坐到跳楼机坐到各类翻转机器和弹射椅……五个小时下来大家都精疲力尽。下一次要去还是得去Disneyland，在公园里住上一周，有休息有刺激还有米老鼠，嗯，不错。

 

上周晚从酒吧回来，带一位亚洲女生过家里拿点东西，室友见到我们后小聊了两句就屁癫屁癫地跑了出去。我睡到凌晨三点的时候，他醉醺醺地把我推醒，问：“Where is the she？”以下是对话全文：

"She?"

"The XXX(country name) girl you took back tonight."

"She's back home."

"Why isn't she here?"

"Why should she be here?"

"Bill! I thought you were going to fuck her, so I left as soon as possible!"

"Damn, why did you think I would fuck her. I tell you, I don't fuck girl from XXX."

"I cannot believe this! I thought that was a sealed deal!"

"Dude...Why the hell I come all the way to America to fuck a girl from XXX? It's next door to China. I could have done it much easier there. Why the hell I come here!"

"HAHAHAAHAHAHAHA... You're the coolest guy in the world! That's a good one! HAHAHAHAHA..."

"Man, how much did you drink? I gotta go to sleep."

"No, I didn't drink. I'm 100% sober."

"Are you kidding me? I can smell that..."

"Smell what?"

"Alcohol."

"Well, sorry, I am drunk...Sorry to wake you up. Have a good night! It's sooooo fun!"

"Good night..."

这就是和本科生住的后果。

 

以上算是比较有意思的事的小结。其它的生活都在正常的范围之内，无非是现在有了一个砂锅可以自己经常煲汤，因此得到了Chef Bill的称号；在小欣同学和Ayumi同学的帮助下给朋友做了千羽鹤（Senbazuru）；吃到了小欣同学亲手做的Cheesecake；在卖掉自己的iPod nano和iRiver之后又买了一个Sony的Mp3 player和一个iPod Video，加上了6个G的古典音乐collection，然后为了看宝儿的2007 Made in Twenty Arena Tour - Osaka的DVD专门买来了觊觎已久的Shure E2C的耳机；看了《黄真伊》和《色.戒》……生活听起来还是丰富多彩，可惜我现在刚在图书馆看完三篇论文，一会儿又要回去做饭……真实的日子总是比BLOG更单调，但又更神奇，to some extent，right?

 

 

估计到这周末才有时间原创更新，先放一篇在学校看到的有意思的文章上来。关心自己身体健康的朋友，特别是女性朋友们不妨读读。原文在http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/A_drink_a_day_may_bring_the_doctor_your_way.html，以下是粘贴的正文：

 

A drink a day may bring the doctor your way

U researchers comment on a recent study linking alcohol to breast cancer

By Deane Morrison

October 1, 2007

The headlines Friday (Sept. 28, 2007) bore bad news for women who drink: A large study by Kaiser Permanente doctors showed that a single daily alcoholic drink of any kind raised the risk of breast cancer by 10 percent, and three or more drinks jacked it up to 30 percent. Yet alcohol, according to other studies, may help lower the risk of heart attack. So what's a woman to do?

With this question in mind, we asked University cancer epidemiologist Kristin Anderson and cardiologist Daniel Duprez to sort out the science behind the scoop.

A major finding of the study was that whether a woman drinks beer, wine, or spirits, alcohol raises her breast cancer risk the same. This came as no surprise to Anderson, a Distinguished University Teaching Professor in the School of Public Health.

"There have been more than 100 studies on alcohol and breast cancer," she says. "This is consistent with past data. I was in a collaborative study by Oxford University that came out in 2002 in the British Journal of Cancer. That was a much larger study, analyzing results from 53 previous studies of 58,515 women with cancer and 95,067 without. We got similar results." The Kaiser Permanente study was based on 70,000 patients.

"About 4 percent of breast cancer in developed countries is attributable to alcohol," Anderson says. "It's important to note that that is a small proportion of the disease."

Stories in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and the New York Times (online) all reported the 10 percent and 30 percent increases in risk, but none reported the baseline risk. According to the American Cancer Society, U.S. women overall run one chance in eight, or 12.5 percent, of developing breast cancer and one in 34, or 2.9 percent, of dying from it.

Suppose for simplicity's sake that a nondrinking woman has few risk factors and a 10 percent chance of developing breast cancer. On average, such a woman who began quaffing a drink a day would raise her risk by 10 percent over the baseline, to 11 percent. If she added three drinks a day, her risk would rise from 10 to 13 percent.

The Star Tribune article quoted Yan Li, co-author of the Kaiser study, as saying that one possible mechanism by which alcohol could raise the risk of breast cancer is by changing the metabolism of estrogen, which promotes the growth of some breast cancers. Though not disputing that, Anderson says other factors may also play a role.

"Alcohol consumption has a negative impact on the absorption, utilization, and excretion of folate, a vitamin necessary for maintaining the integrity of DNA," she states. Also, alcohol may increase the activity of enzymes that activate carcinogens. And, she adds, some breakdown products of alcohol, notably a chemical called acetaldehyde, have been labelled carcinogenic.

According to the 2002 study Anderson took part in, "about four percent of breast cancer in developed countries is attributable to alcohol," she says. "It's important to note that that is a small proportion of the disease. If you live in a society that has no drinking, no cases will be attributable to alcohol."

The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2007 there will be approximately 178,480 new cases of breast cancer in the United States, she adds.

As for alcohol's role in lowering heart disease risk, Duprez says there is evidence to support it, but many questions remain. For instance, he says it is well known that alcohol increases levels of HDL--the "good cholesterol"--but nobody knows whether that is the mechanism behind the correlation between alcohol and lowered risk. Red wine has been seen as especially "protective," but it could be high levels of antioxidants in red wine or some substance in grapes that does the trick.

"The key is this: A maximum of one glass of alcoholic beverage a day for women and two for men is associated with cardioprotection, but this has never been shown in a randomized trial," says Duprez, an assistant professor of cardiology. "Alcohol should not be universaly prescribed for health enhancement. There is a complete lack of randomized data" with respect to exactly how it might protect the heart.

For Anderson, the Kaiser Permanente story is an opportunity for women to think about how they live their lives.

"People should use this data to reflect on their lifestyle and decide if it would be prudent to change their habits," she says. "There are other risks associated with drinking more than three drinks per day. You have to look at the weight of evidence and at other studies, if possible.

"Most risk is at higher intakes [of alcohol]. An increase of 10 percent isn't much, but it's a real risk because it's been seen in many other studies."