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. ^_-

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.