Filler

[muckefuck]

Can't I think of anything to say that isn't hopeless recondite or just petty bitching? Consider this a test.

• Last meal at the nearest Japanese restaurant to work, I think. I don't know that I could quite roll better sushi myself, but I know enough to demand that, at those prices, someone should be. Small portions, insipid flavours, intrusive service--goddamn did it make me wish I worked within striking distance of Oysy. People in the Loop! You owe yourselves a special lunch there. I know you don't have all damn afternoon to walk down to 900 S. Boul Mich so splurge for a cab. Their lunch specials are an absolute steal and, if my Monday-afternoon trip was any indication, they're not at all crowded after about 1:30 p.m.
• Following in our long tradition of being on the trailing edge of hot technology, monshu has finally procured for me an iPod Mini. So far, I'm liking it a lot although a few design decisions puzzle me:
  1. You can only charge it through a computer? How convenient is that? Very, if you carry around a laptop or return home every night; not so much if, say, you're on vacation for a week (which is when I suspect I'll be making the most use of mine).
  2. I need to return to the top-level menu to turn on the backlight? What gives! The reason I'm turning on the backlight is so I can navigate the menus in the first place.
• My other new acquisitions--with the notable exception of that Chinese music CD--have chiefly been books. In particular, monshu found an abridged bilingual edition of 西游記--with pictures! The English text is brief and colourless compared to the Chinese, so I've plenty of incentive to read the latter, but I can always fall back on the former (not to mention my own knowledge of the story) for the gist. The language is a curious mix of Modern Standard and Literary Chinese, with archaicisms like 道 for "say" (something I've only seen in Classical works) sidling up next to 那兒, which is so 北京話 it hurts my ears!

Comments

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

Following in our long tradition of being on the trailing edge of hot technology, monshu has finally procured for me an iPod Mini.

Cool -- now you can get a bunch of foreign language tunes off of me. ^_-

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

You know, I've listened to most of the mp3s you've put up recently and, as a whole, they've failed to grab me. If, however, you happen to have some 艾敬 handy, I'd love to hear it!

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

they've failed to grab me

Well! Hrmph~~

(at least you're honest 'bout it ^^;;;)

If, however, you happen to have some 艾敬 handy

Well I doubt I have anything you don't already -- did you get the single of "My1997", or did you actually get 艾敬's self-titled album? Outside of that, I only have a few songs here and there ("New York New York", "水牛66"...)

[mistress-elaine.livejournal.com]

Heh. Ner4. It took me exactly one day in Taipei to stop saying that, along with yi1dianr3, yi1huir4, xiang4pianr4 and phrases like that.

The funniest thing about Beijinghua is that the locals will even add an R to English words if you give them half a chance. I've come across several cab drivers who greeted me with "Helloor" when I got into their taxis.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I have dispensation from my Taiwanese teacher to pronounce 那兒 as na3li when reading aloud. I really dislike the sound of 兒話!

"Helloor" reminds me of German "Hallöchen!", which is somehow to precious for words.

[mistress-elaine.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Hallöchen. Brilliant.

We were taught Beijinghua at my university. It was actually kind of weird; we used Taiwanese textbooks and were taught fan2ti3zi4 long before we were even introduced to the concept of jian3ti3zi4, but we had to speak with a Beijing accent. Of course, those of us who went to Taiwan for our year abroad got rid of the R straight away, along with the retroflexes. I can’t for the life of me pronounce shen2me shi2hou the way I was taught any more; my retroflexes have become completely Taiwanised (Taiwanisised?).

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Taiwanated?

I'm doing my best to hang on to my retroflexes, despite my Taiwanese teacher's spotty use of them, which really confuses some of my classmates. (There have been a few awkward moments where I've whispered something like "Zheng"! across the table to a student who couldn't make heads or tails of Laoshi's zeng.)

[mistress-elaine.livejournal.com]

I didn't really plan to lose my retroflexes, either; unlike the R, which I ditched instantly, they disappeared gradually, without my noticing it. It wasn't until I went to China and had people guessing that I had studied in Taiwan within half a minute of my opening my mouth that I realised how, er, Taiwanated my Chinese had become. I mean, dropping words such as yi1huir4 and yi1dianr3 in favour of yi1xia4 and yi1dian3dian3 was a conscious choice, but losing my retroflexes was not.

We never had any Zheng/Zeng problems at my university, but our history teacher had some trouble distinguishing between -ing and -in at the end of words. There were times when we all believed he was talking about the Qin Dynasty when he was in fact discussing the Qing Dynasty. That was pretty confusing sometimes. And then there are of course people in Southern China who can't distinguish between N and L, or between F and H, but you quickly get used to those.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Liu laoshi has a bit of the n/N confusion, too. During dictation this Monday, she baffled me with yong4ping3 until she glossed it as "useful things" and I realised she was saying 用品.

I think the 西安人 I met two weekends ago might've had some l/n confusion, but I had such a hard time comprehending them in general that I'm really not sure.

[mistress-elaine.livejournal.com]

Yes, Xi'anren might have a bit of the N/L thing going on, but as you said, they're so hard to comprehend in general that it's hard to tell. I had a hard time understanding the locals when I was in Xi'an. If you want clear examples of the N/L confusion, without much other confusion going on, go to Jiangsu. The people of Nanjing notoriously call their own city Lanjing.

The F/H confusion seems to be a Yunnan thing, mostly restricted to the Lijiang area. I was rather baffled the first time a hotel receptionist asked me for my fu4zhao4 rather than my hu4zhao4, but I quickly got used to it.

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

Your iPod should have come with its very own charger that plugs into the wall. I have two such chargers: one for home, one for my desk at work.

The top menu, under "settings", has a "backlight timer" option that permits you to program the backlight timer to come on whenever you touch the wheel, for as long as you like.

We should go out for dinner and I'll show you how to manipulate your new baby.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I'll be sitting by the phone, Mini in hand, waiting for your invitation!

[lhn.livejournal.com]

In particular, [info]monshu found an abridged bilingual edition of 西游記--with pictures!

Assuming I parsed those characters right, I've been reading the English side of a bilingual edition translated by W.J.F. Jenner. (It's five volumes, so if it's abridged I'm not sure I want to see the unabridged version.) I wouldn't call its English colorless, but of course I have nothing to compare it to.

I veritably raced through the backstory involving the Monkey King, which struck me as reminiscent of Silver Age comic books and Warner Brothers cartoons in its headlong power escalation ("And that's how Sun Wukong became double super extra immortal, even more than the last five times"), devotion to fights on a ridiculous scale, and kitchen sink crossovers ("So Laozi, Guanyin, Confucius and the Jade Emperor walk into a bar-- er, a banquet..." I especially like the bit where the Bodhisattva of Compassion offers to drop a vase on Monkey's head.) But I seem to have bogged down once the actual Journey to the West gets going in earnest; Sanzang doesn't strike me as so compelling a character and the confrontations seem to get repetitive. I may pick it up again and see if I just hit a bad patch.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

AFAIK, all English versions except for Anthony Yu's (in four fat volumes) are abridged. At the very least, they omit the poems found in each chapter (for the very understandable reason that they only recapitulate the action and the poetry is lost in translation). I read Waley's abridgement and found it quite readable; it's the Canfonian translation by "C.C. Low and Associates" that is particularly dull, with none of the rhetorical sparkle or descriptive excess of the original.

And I'm afraid I don't have much comfort to offer you about the body of the work. It is rather repetitive and Sanzang/Tripitaka is a rather uninteresting protagonist. A lot of it makes more sense when read as Buddhist allegory, but that still doesn't make it tremendously more absorbing IMHO. When I get that far, I'll probably only read selected episodes.

All in all, I think you'd get more enjoyment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, if you haven't read it already.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

1. You can only charge it through a computer? How convenient is that? Very, if you carry around a laptop or return home every night; not so much if, say, you're on vacation for a week (which is when I suspect I'll be making the most use of mine).

There are adapters for converting electrical outlets (and car cigarette lighters) to USB power ports. I think your iPod should have come with one, but I believe they run $10-$20 if you're not wedded to the Apple look-and-feel, somewhat more if you are.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

No, I am totally down with the idea of being iPod accessories on the cheap at Radio Shack rather than paying through the nose at the Apple Store. I mean, who's going to see my charger?

All I can say is, if there was one in the box, it was disguised pretty darn well. The minimalist documentation doesn't exactly make things clear either.

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Mine is a large white square, with a detachable cord, so it's hard to miss. It came in the box, and I'm told by a friend with a mini that it came in his. It's especially useful because if the ipod is almost out of charge it won't charge off the computer; you have to use a charger.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

IIRC, prilicla's is the white square, but the plug part just folds down into the body rather than there being a cord. (You can see pictures here.) If it wasn't in the box, it might be worth going back to the Apple Store (or calling Apple) and asking about it.

[bunj.livejournal.com]

The plug folds down into the body, but the cord that connects the body with the ipod can be detached, leaving you with a smooth white square and a separate cord suitable for hanging mice (or whatever). It's that swell Apple production design coming through.

Speaking of which, try looking in the bottom of the box. My ipod came in a cube, with the ipod in the center. If you remove the center section, I think the charger's underneath.

Ah! Mystery solved!

[monshu.livejournal.com]

Indeed the charger is in the box--shows you how dazzled some people are by that sleek Apple design and minimalist packaging. Hope and faith are restored--for the nonce.

Re: Ah! Mystery solved!

[bunj.livejournal.com]

It looks like my job here is done. I'm off to help others with their packaging. Hi-ya!