Coded green.

Wednesday 13 June 2001

Young trees

Pic of the day: These too are sure growing rabidly.

Rabid salad

I was at the marketplace in town today, looking at the fresh fruit and flowers and people. (Many of these were tourists and rather fat, by the way.) Anyway, I suddenly noticed one sign proudly claiming: "Rabid salat".

Salat is Norwegian for salad, and for some reason we have adopted the name "rapid salat" for one such edible greenery, presumably because it grows rather rapidly. But English is not the easiest of languages to spell. And so there was a tiny difference in spelling, but a very large difference when visualized. Heh.

***

Not much later, I stopped at a small store to buy a chocolate. The young Asian lady who worked there wore a T-shirt with the text "Porn star". It may be that she was, there is no accounting for tastes so maybe there is a market for skinny Asian girl porn. Not in my home there isn't. But it strengthened my resolve to never wear any T-shirt with Japanese script. Nuances may be lost in translation.

Nuances are certainly lost on Babelfish. I was intrigued to see that this computer-driven translation service now translated between Japanese and English. I brought this to a test when I found a Japanese site for embroidery and needlework, which featured a small kit with a pattern for fluffy decorations and the text "I (heart) ewe". Somewhat to my disappointment, it turned out that the Japanese actually understood the pun. But the translation was still hilarious. If you have read the lyrics beginning with "All your base are belong to us" you will know what I mean. (If not, congratulations.)

If my entries are shorter than usual for a while, it might be because I have spent the afternoon reading Japanese websites on Babelfish. I think this will offer a fascinating insight in Japanese culture ... :)

***

In rather unrelated news, I consider spending my money on Cassie, my handheld computer. She could need a 1-GB hard disk, which is ca $450 + sales tax here in Norway. (I might probably get it cheaper from abroad. Then again, I might lose every cent.) A keyboard would be nice too. Writing with a stylus on a small screen is not conductive to great literary exertions. Then again, the description of the keyboard is somewhat vague on whether it can be used without direct current ... it seems to be more like a docking station or cradle, rather than a very portable keyboard for a very portable computer.

But, no longer a total idiot, I'll sleep a night or several on this issue, and pay all the bills I can find, whether they are anything near due or not. The more money I seem to have, the more wild ideas will crop up to use it, that's a given.


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