The Meme
It’s been too crazy to post (which is one of the pleasures of having a blogmate as perpetually outraged as Stageleft). But I can never resist a good meme, and since we’ve been triple tagged, the onus is upon us.
The challenge: reveal six unimportant things about yourself.
a) I obsess about words in instructions. The word “unimportant” in this meme has cost me about a day’s thought. (In the grand scheme of things, everything about me is unimportant, but of course that would be true of everyone, so they must mean “relatively”, but what fact about myself can truly be said NOT to have any significance…etc., ad nauseam). I unwittingly killed a conversation game at our last company dinner: the topic was “what one book have you read that EVERYONE should read”, and I found the question impossible to answer – “Do you mean “our favourite book”, or “the book that has benefited us most”, or “a book, however good or bad, that everyone should know exists”, or… You see the problem? Do I mean “problem”, per se? Or am I really trying to say…
b) Given my druthers, I sit on the floor.
c) I don’t understand the idea of sports on television. I’ve never watched a Grey Cup, Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, Wimbledon Tennis or Olympic competition in my life, except when I was directing local hockey coverage thirty years ago. I just don’t get it.
d) The only province or territory in Canada where I have never worked is PEI (although I’ve camped there.) Nothing against PEI, just that nobody ever asked me to.
e) I like to cook alone. Everyone MUST leave kitchen. Just me, the food, and music.
f) I fingerspell fluently, and my ASL’s not bad.
Keeping with tradition, I tag Stageleft, Treehugger, Lily, Max, and the Pehlivan People’s Oil Wrestlers, and Arwen.
Hmm…. I was hoping to avoid this meme.
Anyway here goes:
1) I love the winter – cold, snow, ice etc. – bring it on.
2) Despite being quite a social type, I often fantasize about living alone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere off of the land and free of all societal obligations.
3) I find all and every video, board and card game tedious and a complete waste of my time. Puzzles make me want to puke.
4) I enjoy reading but will not finish a book if I find it poorly written or if my “bullshit meter” goes off when digesting the topic.
5) I think my dog is smarter than a lot of people I know
6) I like to cook, a lot
7) Socks should be folded neatly in the drawer, never combined by inserting the elastic end into the other and forming a ball. Underwear should be tossed into the drawer without folding.
1) 我有九紋身花刺主席毛, 沒有可看見。
2) 我的喜愛聲調是”我們的展示必須全部認真地努力實現主席毛想法的精神, 嬰孩”, 從”採取老虎山由Storm” 。
3) 我認為同志Treehugger 是公正太逗人喜愛的為詞。好事他無法讀國語。
4) 我的父母實際上想說出我名字馬克思, 但打字機在註冊處有一個斷路鍵。
5) 的喜愛中國作者(在了不起的舵手以後, 當然) 是莎士比亞、Goethe 和J.K. Rowling.
6) 我不參加這种帝國主義時間浪費。
“3) 我認為同志Treehugger 是公正太逗人喜愛的為詞。好事他無法讀國語。”
Max, you make no sense – “I think Comrade Treehugger is fair too teases to like is the word. The good deed he is unable to read the national language.”
If you are to affect revolution in your homeland we really need to work on your ability to communicate.
Ah, the hilarious limitations of BabelFish. If you’ll permit me, Comrade: a more idiomatically correct translation of Comrade Max’s message is: “I think Comrade Treehugger is too cute for words – it’s a good thing he can’t read Mandarin.”
謝謝讓貓在袋子, 同志外面balbulican 。
Babelfish is FUN, and I begin to realize why translated instructions are so obtuse.
“1) I have nine 紋身 flowers to puncture president the wool, has not been possible to see. 2) my affection intonation is “our demonstration must completely earnestly diligently realize president the wool idea spirit, the baby”, from “adopts the old Hushan by Storm”. ”
Also plus, I keep getting 3) as saying Treehugger is a tease. A MALE tease, it’s quite explicit.
I think 2) is song lyric for a love song, and I want to know what it is.
(Although it’s quite clear that Marx Cheung’s parents had a problem with the technology in the birth registration office. Funny what translates perfectly.)
Holy crap. No wonder our arms supplier has quietly asked us to have someone besides Max place the orders.
If I might once again apply my own rudimentary skills to Max’s original, I believe a more sensitive translation would be:
“1) I have nine tattoos of beloved Chairman Mao concealed about my person, none visible.
2) My Favourite Song is “Diligently and Earnestly Sing the Praises of the Great Helmsman, Baby”, from “The Third Women’s Brigade Takes Tiger Mountain By Storm”. ”
So it IS a love song, of sorts.
And don’t forget you’ve been tagged.
I won’t forget. I think I have one… Although I must say, from this perspective of meme-taggery, my blog appears to be a container ship filled with unimportant things about me.
1) my feet are ticklish
2) I listen to Viking Death Metal on Sunday mornings – loud
3) I watch B&W movies on ShoutCast
4) I do cardio workouts with an inflatable punching bag – it’s red
5) If I had my way I’d go barefoot
6) I have a laptop in my bedroom (I probably shouldn’t have admitted that)
What the heck is “Viking Death Metal”? Heh!
You know that noise we hear from Stageleft’s quarters before coffee every morning? Sounds like the audio from the collapse of the World Trade Centre, but louder, and less melodious?
My favorite VDM group is Amon Amarth… if you visit the site make sure you get in on the “Metal Kids: With Oden on their side…” thing – makes a great present for the little tyke in your life.
Here’s a ‘wee sample “Cry of the Black Birds”
Drive safe getting to the audio store
SL – that’s terrible.
I know there’s no accounting for taste. But that’s terrible.
And on Sundays?