The Outcast -- 27 Glasses of Wine

Read all chapters by blog label: The Outcast Posts Label.

Twenty-Seven Glasses of Wine is a poem that appeared many times in Maoni's book, The Outcast. Here's the translation:

Twenty-Seven Glasses of Wine

With the 1st glass of wine, shining with the sun high in the skies. Ivy vines outside of the window crept into my eyes.

With the 2nd glass of wine, rippling in the spring breeze. Gently kissing my brows were the leaves from the trees.

With the 3rd glass of wine, birds chirped Mozart, Just like love nibbling my heart.

With the 4th glass of wine, shadows climbed the windowpane. Couldn’t remember who I am I tried in vain.

With the 5th glass of wine, the lad rises up and glides, Over troves of trees waving like green tides.

With the 6th glass of wine, following a winding path I descend. Will a girl be waiting at the end?

……

With the 11th glass of wine, among the green mountains steep, Resting by a rock the tipsy graybeard fell asleep.

With the 12th glass of wine, I looked over the cliff-brink, Thousands of years had gone by within a blink.

With the 13th glass of wine, on top of a snail’s feeler, The world there was as weary as the world here.

With the 14th glass of wine, the world blurred as eyelids grew heavier, People around the bonfire were getting sleepier.

……

With the 25th glass of wine, memories of father sprang to mind, As raindrops rolled down the window and made me blind.

With the 26th glass of wine, when busy flies finally stayed, Like us hiding under leaves watching the autumn rain fade.

With the 27th glass of wine, let tears stream, I set down the empty glass together with my dream.

Here's the original poem in Chinese:

二十七杯酒

第一杯酒，阳光明媚，窗外的青藤爬进了我的眼。 第二杯酒，春风轻漾，叶梢轻拂着我的眉。 第三杯酒，鸟儿鸣叫，轻啄着我的心。 第四杯酒，影上窗楣，让我忘了我是谁。 第五杯酒，少年将飞，穿越层林叠翠。 第六杯酒，石径弯弯，尽头有位姑娘。 …… 十一杯酒，群山苍翠，有个老翁枕石而醉。 十二杯酒，临渊而窥，山崖还给年岁。 十三杯酒，蜗牛有角，彼世界如此世界一般疲惫。 十四杯酒，迷眼渐累，火堆旁的人们渐要沉睡。 …… 二十五杯酒，想起父亲，窗外的雨点坠了下来。 二十六杯酒，乌蝇不飞，若心悸的你我躲在叶下看秋雨渐衰。 二十七杯酒，弹几点泪，轻轻放下酒杯。

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Video of the Day:

Both my daughter and I are in this video about the ping pong club.

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://blog.lannyland.com

The Outcast -- Teaser

Read all chapters by blog label: The Outcast Posts Label.

The Outcast is a book written by Maoni, a renowned author in China. Many of his works are well received by readers have been adapted to TV series. Out of all the books he wrote, The Outcast is undoubtedly my favorite one. In fact, I liked it so much that I named my house after one of the characters in the book. 😄

The Outcast was named first place in the 20 Top Internet Novels in the Last 20 Years by the China Writers Association (the most authoritative body of writers in China).

I have never met Maoni in person. We only communicated in writings from time to time. Maybe because we were born in the same era in China (we were referred to as the 70s generation), we share many common backgrounds and interests. That made it easier for me to pick out the many hidden gems (references) in his writing.

Maoni, Author of The Outcast

Maoni has very kindly authorized me to translate his book The Outcast to English and post them on my blog and my website. This is a Dang Long book with TOO many chapters. But it is also a Dang Good story. I dream that one day I can finish and publish this translation, so the story can compete for the Nebula Awards and the Hugo Awards. Maybe the book can even be considered for a film adaptation and one day be put on the big screens to reach even more audiences.

I am getting up at 5:30 am every day to dedicate time to my translation (of this book and also the Smiling Proud Wanderer book). In the distant past, I had translated a few chapters of the book. Now equipped with better tools and stronger dedication, I hope to go much further much longer.

I will be posting the latest translation drafts on this blog first:
Address: http://lanny.lannyland.com or http://blog.lannyland.com
Label: The Outcast

After further editing, I will also post the finished translation on my website:
Address: http://www.lannyland.com/translations.shtml

Enough said. Now check out the teaser remarks the author wrote for each volume of the book.

The Outcast

Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the sacred

moral principles within us, and the starry grandeur above our head. 

  -- Kant

Volume 1 Eastwood is All Boulders

One should have character as unyielding as a boulder, and a heart as broad as the ocean, the unattainable virtue I will always yearn for.

Volume 2 Bell Tolls at Upperwood

For whom the bell tolls? It tolls for those who heed.

Volume 3 Journey to Westwood

Our journey is not toward the ocean of stars, but to Westwood, the place of death and rebirth.

Volume 4 Stars and the Fleeting Years

Aren’t we all characters in a play where life always revolves between joy and sorrow? The world changes day by day, but the stars and memories linger…. The stars, the memories, and the fleeting years.

I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do!

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Support translator Lanny by leaving comments below and also spreading the word about this great story!

Better late than never! 







BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://blog.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: How to Change Default App for Different Files Types (PDF) on a Mac in macOS

In Windows, if you want to change the default application to open a certain file type, you just have to right-click on the file and then select Choose another app. 

For macOS, it is a completely different story. What you have to do is to open Finder first, and then locate the file you want to change default app. Right-click on it and then select Get Info.

Next in the Get Info screen, look in the middle of the window and find Open With. Click on that to open a dropdown menu where you can select the default application you want to use to open this type of files.

Then make sure you click the Change All button (I made the mistake of not clicking this and had to do the entire thing again) to apply to all files of this type, and click Continue to save it.

That's it. Leave a comment if you find my blogs useful. You can also follow me on Twitter for more useful tips and tutorials!

Video of the Day:

Be creative! Make friends of ducttape, paper clip, super glue, and W-40!!

There's always a way! Love this kind of hacks!🤣 https://t.co/myV5P5GMMt

— Lanny Lin😷🧢 (@lannyland) April 9, 2021

Problem solving is a fun brain exercise. 







BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is blog.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: Avoid Clicking the Wrong Button (Add to Tasks) in Google Gmail

Google really wanted to promote their Google Task app, so they added a button called Add to Tasks to the Gmail inbox user interface. And they intentionally put it right next to the Move to button (which I use frequently), so people will accidentally click the wrong button and then get sent to the Google Tasks user interface.

THIS IS JUST DRIVING ME NUTS!!!

And guess what, there's NO WAY to remove that button from the menu. Absolutely NO WAY.

Well, since Google removed the "Don't Be Evil" clause from their corporate code of conduct in 2018, this does not surprise me a bit.

Google is in some kind of a hot seat with the recent news of Google firing prominent AI Ethics researchers, and Samy Bengio resigns as a form of protest. So I don't think they'll care too much about my ranting here.

Google UI Sucks!!

And they just forced me to move my Google WiFi into Google Home, and now the UI Sucks Big Time!!

Anyway, back to the main point of this blog. I finally figured out a way to deal with this inconvenience of clicking Add to Tasks by mistake (and then requires multiple clicks to correct it). And I hope for others who feel just as frustrated as me, this can be of some help!

BTW: I tried changing buttons from text to icon. Not really helpful. I still click the wrong icon. But you can still give that a try. Here's what I recommend:

Solution:

The solution is to use customized keyboard shortcuts!

If you click the gear icon on the top right corner of Gmail to go into the Settings screen, find a button on the menu called Advanced and click that. Then find the entry called Custom keyboard shortcuts and enable it. Don't forget to save.

Now if you go back into the Settings screen, you'll see a new button in the menu called Keyboard Shortcuts. Click that to see your current keyboard shortcuts. You can also create your own. I am just happy with the default one, so I can just click the key V to open the Move to dropdown menu and avoid clicking the stupid Add to Tasks button.

Leave a comment if you find my blogs useful. You can also follow me on Twitter for more useful tips and tutorials!

Video of the Day:

30 Days Timelapse from a Cargo Ship

Corporations are just evil. So don't expect them to Do No Evil. 







BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is blog.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: How to Reboot Windows Through Remote Desktop Connection

If you have multiple computers and need to remotely control one or more Windows computer(s) (even from a Mac or your phone), Remote Desktop is a great tool you can use to achieve that.

If your Remote Desktop is not enabled, you can follow this link to enable it:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/clients/remote-desktop-allow-access

However, you'll find that through a Remote Desktop Connection, you can't really restart your computer remotely. This is designed to prevent remote users to do damage to your computer. But for someone who knows what he is doing, and actually wanted to reboot the computer, this can be super annoying.

But lucky for you, here's a small hack that will let you reboot your computer at will!!!

Solution:

There's a command line tool you can use called shutdown.
Just open a Command Prompt (click Start Icon and then type CMD), and then type:
shutdown -r -f -t 0
-r means reboot, -f means forcing apps to quit, and -t 0 means do it right now! Just hit Enter to reboot!

 The shutdown command is built in with your Windows Operating System. You can also use this command for other purposes, such as just shutting the computer down or reboot another computer on the same network (I can't use this cause I am on a Mac). Just type shutdown and hit Enter will show you all the available options. I'll list them here for your convenience.

C:\Users\Lanny>shutdown

Usage: shutdown [/i | /l | /s | /r | /g | /a | /p | /h | /e | /o] [/hybrid] [/f]

    [/m \\computer][/t xxx][/d [p|u:]xx:yy [/c "comment"]]

    No args    Display help. This is the same as typing /?.

    /?         Display help. This is the same as not typing any options.

    /i         Display the graphical user interface (GUI).

               This must be the first option.

    /l         Log off. This cannot be used with /m or /d options.

    /s         Shutdown the computer.

    /r         Full shutdown and restart the computer.

    /g         Full shutdown and restart the computer. After the system is

               rebooted, restart any registered applications.

    /a         Abort a system shutdown.

               This can only be used during the time-out period.

    /p         Turn off the local computer with no time-out or warning.

               Can be used with /d and /f options.

    /h         Hibernate the local computer.

               Can be used with the /f option.

    /hybrid    Performs a shutdown of the computer and prepares it for fast startup.

               Must be used with /s option.

    /e         Document the reason for an unexpected shutdown of a computer.

    /o         Go to the advanced boot options menu and restart the computer.

               Must be used with /r option.

    /m \\computer Specify the target computer.

    /t xxx     Set the time-out period before shutdown to xxx seconds.

               The valid range is 0-315360000 (10 years), with a default of 30.

               If the timeout period is greater than 0, the /f parameter is

               implied.

    /c "comment" Comment on the reason for the restart or shutdown.

               Maximum of 512 characters allowed.

    /f         Force running applications to close without forewarning users.

               The /f parameter is implied when a value greater than 0 is

               specified for the /t parameter.

    /d [p|u:]xx:yy  Provide the reason for the restart or shutdown.

               p indicates that the restart or shutdown is planned.

               u indicates that the reason is user defined.

               If neither p nor u is specified the restart or shutdown is

               unplanned.

               xx is the major reason number (positive integer less than 256).

               yy is the minor reason number (positive integer less than 65536).

Leave a comment if you find my blogs useful. You can also follow me on Twitter for more useful tips and tutorials!

Video of the Day:

Kindness doesn’t always work! 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/4Ih2cg8QkE

— Figen.. (@_TheFigen) April 7, 2021

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is blog.lannyland.com