Monday, November 22, 2004
Boomtown Rats Style
Anoint me again as one of the slavering masses. Allow me to add my voice to the clamouring cacophonic cry of "I hate Mondays!" One minute, you are warm and comfortable, lying in bed - before you know it, you are once again planted in front of your desk harbouring resentment for the middle management.
On the plus side, my weekend was a good one - if somewhat quiet. Really, the only event worthy of a mention was the (rather lengthy) spell spent at Torihide (my local yakitori bar). Many people claim that alcohol improves your foreign language ability - to a point. Let it be known that I agree with them. Let the records show that my threshold is about 5 beers. By the time I was into my sixth, I noticed my ability to converse in Japanese regressing - my comprehension didn't suffer greatly, I just lost the ability to give much a reply. I was still perfectly capable of making it to the video store and renting Shrek 2, however.
I am not sure it if was the alcohol, or the fact that it was an enjoyable movie - but I did enjoy watching Shrek 2. To the point where there is now a slightly less-than-legal copy sitting atop my small pile of less-than-legally copied DVDs. One thing I thoroughly enjoyed about the film, (similarly to the original Shrek movie) was the soundtrack. It is pretty well-known that I am a bit of an Eels fanboy, and the musical genious of Mr. E (aka Mark Oliver Everett) has featured in both films. However, what really won me over was the addition of Tom Waits. Sure, he might sound like he has been gargling gravel every morning for the past twenty years, but I just can't help but enjoy his music. His cameo as the pianist in the seedy bar (The Poison Apple, from memory) was utterly tops.
Let it also be said that Cameron Diaz is a far less annoying actress when heard and not seen.
I am also going to use this relatively public forum to unleash my frustration with translating companies. Invariably, whenver we produce something in-house in Japanese (text for annual reports/operating manuals and the like), we outsource the translation for some exorbitant amount - which is fine. My translating skills aren't good enough that I could do it, and there are few in the company who, I belive, could. The problem I have is when these 'professionally translated' documents come back and I have to proof read them. What irks me even more is the fact that I have to correct puncutation/grammar/sentence structure every second fucking line. For the amount we are paying, our translations should come back written with such aptitude that even the most pedantic person would have trouble finding fault - yet here I am, once again, correcting the mistakes of people paid far more than me. Just quietly, that shits me. Shits me right off.
I read Engrish for fun, I don't expect to have to deal with it at work.
On the plus side, my weekend was a good one - if somewhat quiet. Really, the only event worthy of a mention was the (rather lengthy) spell spent at Torihide (my local yakitori bar). Many people claim that alcohol improves your foreign language ability - to a point. Let it be known that I agree with them. Let the records show that my threshold is about 5 beers. By the time I was into my sixth, I noticed my ability to converse in Japanese regressing - my comprehension didn't suffer greatly, I just lost the ability to give much a reply. I was still perfectly capable of making it to the video store and renting Shrek 2, however.
I am not sure it if was the alcohol, or the fact that it was an enjoyable movie - but I did enjoy watching Shrek 2. To the point where there is now a slightly less-than-legal copy sitting atop my small pile of less-than-legally copied DVDs. One thing I thoroughly enjoyed about the film, (similarly to the original Shrek movie) was the soundtrack. It is pretty well-known that I am a bit of an Eels fanboy, and the musical genious of Mr. E (aka Mark Oliver Everett) has featured in both films. However, what really won me over was the addition of Tom Waits. Sure, he might sound like he has been gargling gravel every morning for the past twenty years, but I just can't help but enjoy his music. His cameo as the pianist in the seedy bar (The Poison Apple, from memory) was utterly tops.
Let it also be said that Cameron Diaz is a far less annoying actress when heard and not seen.
I am also going to use this relatively public forum to unleash my frustration with translating companies. Invariably, whenver we produce something in-house in Japanese (text for annual reports/operating manuals and the like), we outsource the translation for some exorbitant amount - which is fine. My translating skills aren't good enough that I could do it, and there are few in the company who, I belive, could. The problem I have is when these 'professionally translated' documents come back and I have to proof read them. What irks me even more is the fact that I have to correct puncutation/grammar/sentence structure every second fucking line. For the amount we are paying, our translations should come back written with such aptitude that even the most pedantic person would have trouble finding fault - yet here I am, once again, correcting the mistakes of people paid far more than me. Just quietly, that shits me. Shits me right off.
I read Engrish for fun, I don't expect to have to deal with it at work.
# posted by Nils @ 9:26 AM 
