在 Google Maps 上，有一個「新增停靠點」功能，可以讓使用者在規劃路線時，在起始地與最終目的地之間加入幾個¹中繼站點，方便使用者找出一條途經多個指定地點的路線。這個功能從 2016 年開始便已存在。

舉個例子，若在一場聚會後，想要在駕車回自己住處之前順便接送幾個朋友回到他們各自的住所，便可以使用此功能：只需一鍵按下 Add destination（新增目的地）——或是在手機的話就是 Edit stops（編輯停靠站）——即可。

另一個例子：我想要搭列車前往某個知名地標，但也許是出於轉乘次數較少、步行路線較順暢等因素，我想在某個特定的週邊車站下車（而非 Google 建議的），並從該車站走路到目的地。這時候，我可以使用這個「新增停靠點」功能，將該車站設定爲中繼站點之一⋯⋯

咦？怎麼回事？那個最重要的按鍵呢？

哦，原來是 Google Maps 壓根就不支援在公共交通模式中使用「新增停靠點」功能啊。

哇嗚，Google 在這方面真的彷彿是在跟（對解決塞車問題作出極大貢獻的）大衆運輸使用者說一句 Fuck you 呢。

延伸閱讀：

• 一些來自 Reddit 鄉民的相同抱怨（1、2）

https://keepandroidopen.org/

如下圖所示，它是在今年 8 月（也就是兩個月前）被自動安裝進我的手機裡頭的，完全沒有通知。

https://keepandroidopen.org/

在一個由馬來西亞漫畫出版社 Gempak Starz（平方集團）¹舉辦的某路跑活動的某宣傳單上，印有一句我之前見也沒見過、令我摸不着頭腦的馬來語用詞。

Kipas風扇-susah困難-mati死?「風扇困難死」？「很難死的風扇」？這什麼鬼？

然後我思索了一陣子後，赫然茅塞頓開：「等一下，kipas 的英文是 fan，susah 的英文是 hard，mati 的英文是 die⋯⋯

⋯⋯所以 kipas-susah-mati 其實是英文短語『diehard fan』（死忠粉絲）的字面直譯？！」

⋯⋯哈？？？？？？XDDD

順手再上網爬了其他文章發現，原來這個馬來文俚語/流行語，Gempak Starz 本身早在 2005 年​就已經有在用了？！據說它甚至就是由 Gempak Starz 自己帶紅（到馬來西亞的馬來語圈）的？！

哈？？！？？！🤣🤣🤣

可真是 baru tahu（現在才知道/長見識了）啊。

順帶一提，我也找到了一篇（古早）馬來文 blog 文章，也是在講同樣的東西。啊，所以我在這方面並不孤單啊 LOL。Bukan saya saja yang ada kekeliruan ini, OK?

I’ve recently made a donation to an online artist via Ko-fi, which is a fundraising and content subscription service that is fairly popular within the artist community and known for its relatively low percentage rate (0-5%) of platform fees.

I don’t have a Ko-fi account, but fortunately, I am allowed to make the donation without having to create one. I can do that as a guest by entering my email address and payment method information.

After donating, I then received two emails from Ko-fi. One of them was the payment receipt, but the other one looked so peculiar to me that I was motivated to write this article.

Before I clicked into the email, its preview displayed a line of text that contained an inconsistent combination of promotional (marketing email sounding) and cautionary (security email sounding) tones.

When I opened the email to read its body text, I then found myself looking at a series of statements, with some of them seemingly contradicting each other (tone-wise, or in one example, literally), at least that’s what I think.

Besides a puzzling mix of marketing-email-like (‘you’re missing out’, ‘it’s not loo late’, etc.) and security-email-like (‘Confirm your guest tip’, ‘Click here to confirm it was you’) phrases, I think it’s a bit sinister that the more urgent-sounding security-email-styled phrases are featured the most prominently in the email body, with ‘Confirm your guest tip’ being the heading, and the ‘ominous’ ‘Click here to confirm it was you’ button being the hardest-to-ignore element inside the email.

The lack of an unsubscribe button is also really weird, because this is usually a feature of security emails that tells the recipient that they should (reasonably) pay more attention to the email, but this particular email is basically marketing in nature: it’s trying to promote a feature offered by the platform with almost no stakes involved on the end user’s side, as illustrated by the screenshot below, which shows the webpage that launches after clicking that big black button in that email.

Unless… it’s trying to trick users into thinking that it’s a security email that deserves immediate attention, which is categorically not what’s actually happening here (or it’s simply one of those kinds of irritating marketing emails that cannot be easily opted out).

In my opinion, as a crowdfunding platform, Ko-fi’s business practice is already more consumer- and creator-friendly compared to its competitors, especially considering their low platform fee rates.

Still, I’d appreciate it if they were more direct, honest and transparent in communicating their intent of persuading people to sign up for an account in their platform, instead of employing trick wording in what looks like an attempt to disguise essentially a marketing message so that it resembles a security warning, thereby attracting an unwarranted amount of urgency.

Also, I’m pretty sure that when people make donations without an account, in most cases they’re consciously making this decision, i.e. they actively choose not to sign into or create an account. Thus, receiving an email afterwards that basically ‘reminds’ them to do the exact opposite of their preference, without even having the option to unsubscribe from it, is really annoying.

Alas, I expected better from you, Ko-fi.

When you try to minimise conflicts and/or the number of people you’re gonna offend…

When you try your best to find merits in both of the opposing sides in a (potentially controversial) discussion…

When you find things you agree with in both sides of the argument…

you can end up losing the ability to form opinions at all.

Isn’t that scary?

One day when I went for my usual grocery shopping, I stumbled upon a child behind me when I was queuing up at a payment counter.

The little kid, who looked to be of Chinese ethnicity and about two to three years old, was riding a fairly small-size bicycle which was obtained from the supermarket and wasn’t yet paid for. And then for some reason, he repeatedly attempted to ride over me while (lightly) hitting one of my calves.

Slightly startled and annoyed by this laughable behaviour, I turned my head back and looked towards the child, who was still riding on the bicycle. To my surprise, he seemed to be even more annoyed than I was, and started to complain to his mother using words that vaguely sounded like English, while staring back at me.

To his mother’s credit, she did try to stop him and verbally reprimanded him using Mandarin. However, he didn’t show a sign of conceding and kept saying something like a complaint and looking at me angrily, while I continued to stare at him with a poker face.

Fortunately this didn’t last long. It was my turn to pay shortly after that, so I shifted my attention to making the payment, while the kid was stopped by his mother.

Well, this whole incident didn’t really bother me a lot, but what intrigued me the most was the child’s manner of speech when he was complaining. I could clearly register that his talking resembled English with a very noticeable American accent, yet other than the easily recognisable ‘mommy, mommy’, whatever else he said was essentially plain old gibberish.

I know I shouldn’t be too hard on a toddler, but this encounter reminds me of certain Malaysian parents who deliberately teach their children only English, even though it isn’t necessarily their mother tongue, and it has to be in American or British accent for some reason (mostly American though).

Granted, there is nothing wrong with the act of teaching a language or an accent itself; what rubs me the wrong way is their motivation behind this kind of parenting decision: they perceive this to be the ‘higher-class’ way of educating their children, for the sole reason of them… speaking English in a Caucasian-sounding accent.

Anyways, I digress. What did I learn from this incident then? Well, it’s that accents ultimately don’t mean a lot¹, especially when it comes to one’s attitude and upbringing.

問：人的最可貴之處是什麼？

答：會讓我們感嘆「終究還是人啊」的東西。

至於會讓我們說出「終究還是人啊」的事物或行爲是什麼？這真是個值得我們捫心自問的問題呢。

I’ve come across this blog post written by luke.zip, talking about the increasing ubiquity of (obviously) AI-generated signages around where he lives.

Oh gosh, I can relate to this so much, as it’s the exact same thing that’s been happening around the streets in Malaysia as well!

I have a fairly similar reaction to luke.zip’s one whenever I encounter them: my mind either instantly shuts down, or stops treating it seriously.

There’s a saying that goes, “You are what you eat.” I highly agree with this statement, so I’d consciously manage the kind of information that I take in online.

However, how am I supposed to stay true to this motto when most of the publicity materials that I encounter in real life are soulless slops?

So much for the cultivation of even at least a decent aesthetic taste, which ironically is the exact so-called ‘human advantage’ that the pro-AI advocates keep trumpeting about.

（怎麼無端端跑出一個「撿便宜」連載系列了？🤣）

（不過不保證還會有下一篇）

幾天前在外頭吃完午餐後，偶然望見了連鎖飲料店 tealive 正在進行一個新品上市優惠：一杯 regular size（500 ml）的 Orange Americano（橙子美式咖啡）僅需四令吉（RM4）。

我心想：「哇，比一些 kopitiam 賣的飲料還便宜？」然後我就嚐鮮地買了一杯試試看了。

很少買手搖飲與精品咖啡的我，一開始對它味道的預想是「應該會是糖精一般的死甜配上苦瓜一般的死苦」吧。對，就是這麼低。

結果我喝了一口後，覺得它味道比我預想的好欸：橙汁的部分還是能嚐到橙子本身的果香味，至於美式咖啡的部分則是雖然咖啡豆香氣很淡，但至少不會太苦口¹。

不過當它回到原價後，我應該還是不會回頭去買，但這主要是我的個人喜好問題啦。

同場加映：過後呢，該說是巧合嗎？我偶然看到強者我學弟發了一個 WhatsApp 限動，說他去買了另一家連鎖飲料店 ZUS Coffee 售賣的相同飲品（也叫作 Orange Americano），並說它意外地不錯喝，還順便抱怨他之前喝的 tealive 版難喝到他想嘔？！

呃⋯⋯所以我也順便去某家 ZUS Coffee 分店買一杯試試看了（相同份量；付的是原價 RM8.90）。

我的感想呢？ZUS Coffee 的版本的確是比較好喝：整體口味比 tealive 版的甜一些（不過是清甜多於死甜）、橙子的果香味比較重²、咖啡的烘烤香氣也稍爲濃郁一些。但要說 tealive 版的超級難喝嗎？我又覺得沒有到這樣的程度。

也許是我對手搖飲要求很低、很容易被滿足吧 LOL。

我在寫那篇題爲〈關於那所謂的「亞洲英語腔」〉的文章時，提到了這部由動畫師 Plolt 製作、抱怨中國教育現象的英語影片。

在該影片中（約 40 秒處），Plolt 本人講到他雖然從 12 歲起便開始學英文，但他是直到今年才學會講英語，而他說這是因爲英語口說從來都不是他在學校讀書時的考試必考範圍，所以他就沒有練過口說。

這讓我聯想起，我在高三考馬來西亞獨中統考（UEC）的高中英文科考卷時，在試卷一的寫作題中遇到了一道對我而言耐人尋味的考題。

以下截圖取自 2020 年高中統考英文科試卷一 Section B，即五選一作文題：

1. There are increasing cases of scams reported in Malaysia. What are the possible causes that make people fall into these traps despite numerous cases reported in the media?
2. There are four language skills in mastering the English language, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. Currently, listening and speaking skills are not tested in the UEC exam. Should listening and speaking skills be included in the UEC examination? Give your reasons.
3. “Opportunities come to those who are prepared.” Discuss how true this quote is.
4. Imagine what would happen if there were no boundaries between countries.
5. How do we educate Malaysians to be considerate road users?

其中，有注意到第二題嗎？它是一道 argumentative essay（議論文）類型的考題，而主題恰恰就是讓考生對「該不該讓統考英文科包含聽解與口說」提出讚成與/或反對論點。

我仍清楚記得當時的我不多作猶豫地就選了這第二道題來寫。這是因爲當時的我對這個議題剛好特～別有意見（現在亦然），所以我對此比較有寫作的靈感。

可惜的是，由於那時候的我是正式考生之一，所以我是在考場第一次看到題目的情況下就得開始提筆作答，並且沒有機會將我當時寫下的作文保存下來。因此，當時的我作了怎樣的開頭與結尾、寫了什麼有趣的單字，抑或是使用了什麼樣的句型，我也無從追溯了。

不過，我倒是大略地記得自己當時寫下了三個讚成論點，如下所示：

• Enable the holistic and well-rounded mastery of the English language among students（促進學生全面的英文掌握能力）
• Align with the international examination standards（與國際英文考試標準接軌）
• Cultivate an interactive learning environment that focuses on oral communication（培養一個重視口語溝通的互動性學習環境）

當然，由於當時的我寫的可是一篇大考作文，所以我的用詞必須得儘可能地正式、有禮且工整。不過，要是換作現在，要我在這個隨性 blog 網站上回答這道問題的話，我（那比較不給面子的）的答案會是：

這還有辯論的空間嗎？當然是舉雙手雙腳讚成啦！他們早該這麼做了！

不將聽解與口說部分納入英文的考試範圍，除非學校有特別另外教，或是學生自己開竅自學，不然他們（很大機率）只會落入像 Plolt 那樣的窘境裡頭啊！

反觀那馬來西亞公立中學學生必考的 SPM，以及作爲公立大學英文能力考試的 MUET，它們的英文科可是都有將聽解與口說納入考試範圍裡頭。其中，SPM 英文科會從 2021 年開始納入聽解與口說部分（以前沒有聽解部分），是爲了配合國際的 CEFR 標準。

如今，距離該考題在統考上出現已經過了整整六年的時間，目前的統考英文科有考聽解與口說嗎？

呃⋯⋯仍然沒有。

順帶一提，一個 fun fact：雖然沙巴獨中學生（例如我）經歷的課程是 UEC 和 SPM 課綱並行（強制性雙軌制；學生也可以在高二考完 SPM 後選擇不修讀高三或應考 UEC），但許多西馬獨中是只走 UEC 課綱卻不強制學生報考 SPM（單軌制或選擇性雙軌制）。這類單軌制或選擇性雙軌制的獨中學生們，在只考慮純單軌班並且在語文課中僅修讀基本必修部分的前提下，是可以不需要（或很少）接受英文聽解與口說的訓練的，就和 Plolt 的處境類似 🤷‍♂️。