你知道乐高积木吗?虽然是一种玩具,但却不单是孩子的专利。丹麦是乐高积木的起源地,这个深受孩子和成人喜爱的玩具至今也有60多年的历史了。
乐高积木一头有凸粒,另一头有可嵌入凹粒的孔。玩乐高,可以使孩子锻炼动手能力,按照自己的想象做出不同的造型;对于成人来说,乐高使他们找回孩子般的童真,也无限地扩展了自己的想象力。
本期的Lifestyle Code,我们一起来分享一位乐高发烧友玩乐高的经历。他是如何开始玩乐高,如何迷乐高的呢?看完之后,或许你也会手痒痒的。
发音：美式发音
语速：160词/分钟
使用方法：泛听+复述
Started out with my then four-year-old. “Oh, should buy the kid some Lego. That stuff's cool.” Walked in the Lego store. Bought him this. It's totally appropriate for a four-year-old. I think the box says “8 to 12” on it. Turned to my wife and said, “Who are we buying this for?” She's like, “Oh, us.” I'm like, “Okay. All right. That's cool.”
就拿我来说吧,我儿子四岁的时候,(我说:)“是时候给他玩乐高积木了。那个挺好玩的。”我就到乐高专卖店去,给他买了这个。这看起来倒真像是给四岁的孩子玩的。我想盒子上写的是,“8至12岁”。我问我太太:“我们这是给谁买的啊?”她回答:“哦,给我们自己吧。”我说:“也成,好吧。那也挺好的。”
Pretty soon it got a little bit out of control. You walk there and it hurts. So we took a room downstairs in the basement that had been used as sort of an 【注】Abu Ghraib 1)annex. 2)Torture, very funny. Wow, you guys are great. And we put down those little floor 3)tiles. And then I went onto eBay and bought 150 pounds of Lego—which is insane. My daughter—the day we got it, I was tucking her in—and I said, “Honey, you're my treasure.” And she said, “No, the Lego is the treasure.” And then she said, “Dad, we're Lego rich.” I was like, “Yeah. I suppose we are.” So then once you do that you're like, “Oh, crap. Where am I going to put all this?” So you go to the container store and spend an enormous amount of money. And then you start this crazy sorting process that never—it's just nuts. Whatever.
没多久事情就变得有些失控了。你走进去(饭厅),脚都得弄疼了。所以,我们就启用了地下室的一个房间,以前是用来虐待人的。(我说我在家)虐待(人),(你们却觉得)好笑。哇,你们这帮听众真酷。然后我们就换了地砖。接着我在易趣网上买了150磅重的乐高积木——这实在是太疯狂了。我女儿——在这些乐高积木到手的那天,临睡前我给她盖好被子——我说:“亲爱的,你是我的宝贝。”她说:“才不是,乐高才是宝贝。”接着她又说:“爸爸,我们发乐高财了。”我说:“是的,我想我们的确发乐高财了。”当你做了这么疯狂的事,你就会觉得“噢,坏了。我把它们搁哪儿啊?”你就会去卖整理箱的地方,花大把的钱(买好多的整理箱)。然后你就分门别类地收拾,毫无头绪——简直是发疯一样。这无所谓了。
So and then you realize there are these conventions. And you go to one of these conventions, and some 4)dude built the Titanic. And you're like, “Holy shit! He had to come in like a truck, a 5)semi, with this thing.” And then someone built this—this is the Smith Tower in Seattle. Just beautiful. And there's a dude selling these aftermarket, like weapons for Lego, 'cause Lego—the Danish—no, they're not into guns. But the Americans? Oh, we'll make some guns for Lego, no problem. And at a certain point you look around, you're like, “Wow, this is a really nerdy crowd.” And I mean like this is a 6)nerdy crowd, but that's like a couple of levels above furries. And you say to yourself at some point, “Well, am I, am I part of this group? Like, am I into this?” And I was just like, “Yeah, I guess I am. I'm…I'm coming out. I'm kind of into this stuff, and I'm going to stop being embarrassed.”
接着你就开始注意到这些集会。你去到一个这样的集会,看到别人竟然堆了个泰坦尼克号出来。你会说:“老天呀!他得用卡车,或者双轮拖车来装这个玩意儿。”接着有人做了这个——西雅图的史密斯塔。美极了。还有人卖这个,给乐高补充的武器装备,因为乐高——这些丹麦人——他们并不迷恋武器。但是美国佬呢?噢,我们当然会给乐高添上武器了,不在话下。后来到一定的程度,你左右环顾一下,你会说:“哇,这可真是一群疯子。”我是说比一般的疯子要疯上好几倍的疯子。然后你对自己说:“我,我也是他们的一份子吗?我要加入他们吗?”又自问自答道:“对啊,我想我也是。我,我应该告诉大家。我喜欢乐高,我不应该觉得尴尬。”
Then you really get into it. And you're like, “Well, the Lego people in Denmark, they've got all this software to let you build your own virtually.” And so this is like this CAD program where you build it, and then whatever you design virtually you click the button and it shows up at your doorstep a week later. And then some of the designs that people do they actually sell in the store. The Lego guys don't give you any royalties, strangely. But some user made this and then it sold. And it's pretty amazing actually.
之后你就彻底陷进去了。你会说:“好了,丹麦的乐高公司,他们有电脑软件可以让你自己设计乐高。”就比如这个电脑辅助设计的软件。你可以设计一个,点击采购所有的零件,一周后就送货上门了。有些好的设计他们还真在专卖店里卖。这些卖乐高的人也不会给你什么专利,够奇怪的。但是有人用软件做了这么个东西,后来还出售了。这真是特别神。
Then you notice, that if that Lego-provided CAD program isn't enough, there's an entire open-source, third-party, independent Lego CAD program that lets you do 3D modeling and 3D rendering and make, in fact, movies out of Lego, 3D films of which there are thousands on YouTube. And some of them sort of 7)mimicking famous films. And some totally original content. Just beautiful. And people recreating all sorts of things.
接下来你又发现,如果乐高公司的电脑软件还不够,还有别的人,独立于乐高公司的资源共享的那种电脑软件商。你可以用他们的软件做立体模型,立体表演,还可以做出乐高电影来。立体的电影。YouTube上有成千上万这样的电影。有些模仿已成名的电影片段,有些是原创的。美极了。他们还重现了一些东西。
There's a whole programming language and robotics tool. So if you want to teach someone how to program, kid, adult, whatever it is. And the guy that made this, he made a 8)slot machine out of Lego. And I don't mean he made Lego that looked like a slot machine. I mean he made a slot machine out of Lego. The insides were Lego.
我们有整个的编码语言,还有机器人技术。如果你想教人编程,孩子或是成人都行。做这个的人,他拿乐高做了个自动投币售货机。不是说他用乐高搭了一个像自动投币售货机一样的东西,我是说他真的用乐高做出了一个自动投币售货机。里面的部分全是乐高。
There's people getting drunk building Lego. And you've got to finish the thing before you puke. There's a whole gray market for Lego, thousands of home-based businesses. And some people will fund their entire Lego habit by selling the little guys. But then you have no guys in your ships.
有的人边做乐高边喝酒,你可得在吐得一塌糊涂前做完才行。乐高也有地下市场,成千上万的家庭式工厂。有人为了能挣钱玩乐高,还卖这些东西。只是船上没人罢了。
【注】 Abu Ghraib(巴格达)阿布格莱布监狱。这是萨达姆统治时期用来关押和虐杀伊拉克平民的监狱。文中把地下室的房间调侃地比作为虐待人的监狱。