Habbie ordered a charging pack for two WiiMotes for me at DealExtreme, a very decent webshop with nice stuff at good prices, no shipping costs. The charger is great, because the batteries do very well and charging goes fast. However, the packaging was as Engrish as it gets. The writer must have thought that adding periods to make readable sentences is for wussies. I couldn’t keep this to myself so here’s the user manual (click for the large version).
If you just took the time to read all of it, you’ve likely noticed the use of the word ‘glisten’ and its nounification ‘glister’. While ‘glisten’ means something more like ‘sparkle’ or ‘glitter’ and is definitely not a common word for the light on a charger, I have to admit they’re right…
My WiiMote charger glistens so much, I can’t sleep at night. It keeps my whole room brightly illuminated. True story: I added a multiple socket outlet with a switch, just so I can turn off the Wii and the charger easily. So one has to wonder how (un)intentional some Engrish really is… ^_^
Last year my friend and me set loads of sparklers on fire. Of course we needed to top that last fire, so we decided to attach the sparklers to something this year. The thing turned out to be a toy police car, mostly because it was only 2 euros. Afterwards we figured it did look like a ‘fuck the system’ kind of move. Here is what happened when we lit the sparkler on the top…
And of course, here is the BEFORE:
And AFTER:
Nothing makes a new year as good as a nice, warm, fun fire ;)
Today I quite unexpectedly heard that tomorrow is the last day I will be working at IBM. I was supposed to have a spot there until February, but the work coming in has dramatically decreased, forcing them to keep only a few freelance translators, and I’m not among them. There are three options. Number one, TechText places me at their office or possibly elsewhere for the duration of the lack of work at IBM (expectations are work will be coming in faster after February, but in translation one can never see ahead). Number two, I find myself another job, possibly even another kind of job, just to cover my expenses while I get my life back on track. Number three, options one and two fail and I become a welfare girl. I don’t intend on letting that happen but with the current lack of money anywhere it might be inevitable.
I really hope I can keep my job, I’m going to hear more about that on Thursday. Wishful thinking never got me anywhere, though. In the mean time I have a job to finish well and I need some more sleep…
A number of things have happened the last days, so I thought I should recap.
I turned in my OV-jaarkaart (free traveling for students) because I had no more right to it (you can get it for 7 years, mine are over). I hate having to pay for the train now, but since I am already I bought a first class ticket today. I have to say, other than being able to sit at any time instead of having trouble finding a spot at busy times, I don’t really care for it much.
I’m no longer a student ICT and Translation, at least it won’t say that on my degree anymore. The study has been canceled and I get to finish it under another name, so my degree will say ‘Master Cultuur- en Informatiewetenschappen’, with as major the name ‘ICT en Vertalen’ (that part will be mentioned in the supplement). I think it’s a shame because this was the best translation study out there.
Speaking of my education, I went to see my tutor at the department on Friday. I was quite surprised to see him cycling along the hallway of the 11th floor, wearing a silly hat and equipped with a box of wine on the luggage carrier. On my remark ‘I hadn’t quite expected this’ he answered ‘no, me neither’ ;)
I found out on Saturday that the guy who left me a few months back (I didn’t mention that here so some people might not know) was already with another girl just weeks after we broke up, while he said he loved me so extremely much and only the distance was an issue. That would make everything he said to me a lie. Even though I have to say I don’t care as much as I thought I would, I’m vindictive enough to hope she messes him up before he gets the chance to do it to her. Me? I’ll find someone more worthy of my time :)
Also on Saturday, Jean-Paul was standing in the living room. He’s the only guy from my childhood I still wanted to meet, since I have fond memories of him. He owned a PC and I had a Nintendo, so we played videogames a lot while we pretended I was helping him with his homework (that was a requirement his mom made). I’ll probably see him again soon, so it’s nice to catch up.
Yesterday at Holiday on Ice I saw elves, trees and butterflies prancing about on ice. The show was actually very nice, I admired the excellent skating and perfect choreography. The part I liked the most is where they did Alice in Wonderland, jazz-style. Yet I think this is something I only needed to see once.
In the train this morning I took out my brand new iPod, since I needed a good dose of metal to wake up with. There was this really cute guy sitting across from me, who kept looking at it. As I usually do when people stare at me (it happens, although it’s probably all in my head), I thought ‘what’s he looking at’ and turned away. Then he asked me if my iPod was the newest version, and he explained how he wanted one of those since he had an old one, and that he also wanted an inscription (mine says ‘Willow’ on the back). We ended up chatting for a little while, until the lights in the train went out, with the train still moving at full speed. Damn those trains.
Next time I think I’ll take out my Macbook and see what happens. Perhaps I’ll find myself a pretty cute iGuy someday ;)
Sinds ik op Hyves actief ben (en ook eigenlijk daarvoor al een beetje) heb ik hier last van: mailtjes van vrienden/familie waarin gevraagd wordt dingen door te sturen aan zoveel mogelijk mensen die je kent. Vandaag had ik weer een nieuwe, dit was de aloude Hallmark Hoax, al in alle talen over de hele wereld lang actief. Ik ben deze al vaker tegengekomen.
Ik mis twee dingen aan het internet…
1) postzegels en enveloppen die moeite en geld kosten.
2) de mogelijkheid mensen met een hamer knock-out te slaan.
Sometimes my friends can be rather weird. My friend Sim has dedicated her time to positioning her kid’s male Barbie dolls in the YMCA-positions and taking a picture of that. I wonder what other strange hobbies she has ;)
Sinds kort mag ik mijzelf columniste noemen voor de website stotteren.nl, zie hier voor mijn eerste column. Gewoon doorlezen is natuurlijk ook een optie.
Komt een vrouw bij de logopedist
Er is een aantal dingen die ik als stotteraar mis. Er een woord tussen krijgen als er een verhitte discussie aan de gang is, bijvoorbeeld. Of het kunnen spreken voor een grote groep zonder drie kwartier te doen over mijn presentatie van een half uur. Ik heb mijn stotteren inmiddels prima onder controle, maar bij moppen vertellen is dat nog niet het geval.
Soms, als de mop erg kort is of in het Engels, gaat het prima. Langere moppen worden voor mij echter een probleem. Ik kan de mop prima vertellen en de clou op het juiste moment brengen, maar het stotteren leidt af. Er wordt dan nog wel gelachen, maar niet zo hard als ik lachte toen ik de mop hoorde. Niet alleen bij mij blijft er dan een schaamtegevoel over, maar de pijnlijke blikken van de luisteraars spreken ook boekdelen. Ze kan het niet, ze is niet grappig, en het komt doordat ze stottert.
En toch blijf ik het proberen. Stug vertel ik hier en daar een mop, gewoon om te zien of ik het nou echt niet kan. En wonder boven wonder, laatst vertelde ik er een die lekker liep en heel grappig gevonden werd. Als het lukt voelt het heerlijk, want ik maak andere mensen blij en ik heb zelf veel aan de wetenschap dat ik het toch goed kan vertellen. Misschien zou ik een carrière in cabaret kunnen overwegen, hoewel ik denk dat ik dat beter over kan laten aan de echte spraakwatervallen. Maar als ik het denkbeeldige stotterknopje uit kan zetten, ben ik een zeer geslaagd moppentapper. Komt een vrouw bij de logopedist… nee wacht…
Sometimes a woman has to stop and realise ‘my god, I bought way too much stuff’. On a sidenote, this trait is no longer only characteristic for women. However, my sin isn’t shoes or make-up, but hardware and gadgets. Because I started getting an income in April and my geek side has been browsing for gadgets since the dawn of the internets, I kept thinking ‘well I have the money’ so I bought lots of stuff.
Let’s recap. I started off this year with a Wii, which is the most awesome console around in my opinion. For that Wii I bought five games in total. Then I laid low for a couple of months, after which I got me a PC (the old one was quite dead). I bought another game, Age of Conan, an mmorpg which I wasn’t going to play for long since it’s not very good. I bought a big Samsung flatscreen for my PC, since the old screen (an Acer) was dying on me – it burned in everywhere and it got dead pixels.
So I thought, enough should be enough. No more buying stuff now. Really really. Then I had a financial break of around 500 euros, and I thought of that Nintendo DS I really wanted for my long train trips. I bought it that next Monday, and I got 5 games for that as well by now. In the mean time I got Wii-points for all of those games and both consoles, so I got me Mario 3, Zelda and Megaman 9 for my Wii as well. I have thirteen games for these two consoles now and they all need finishing.
Then, Apple released a new series of macbooks. Really, I wasn’t going to spend anything anymore, honest, but I’ve been drooling over the sight of the Apple store for a couple of years at least, and the introduction of NVIDIA made it irresistible for me to become a switcher. Also, my Acer Aspire 17″ widescreen notebook (which isn’t handy for carrying around anyway) is dying on me as well – the screen is half dead, the power button needs a slight touch to make it turn off and the keyboard has always been utter crap (no, this year was not my year for Acer). So now I’m getting a macbook 13″ (2,0GHz), and a free iPod nano to boot. They arrive in November.
