had a crazy crazy day yesterday... so crazy that i can't even believe how 'calm' i really was... in spite of all the trauma... yes computer-induced trauma...
always is.
i've been working all week and weekend on my seminar presentation on one of the classic motor-papers of the century and stayed up all night till the early dawn of yesterday and before i left it, i hibernated my laptop, then napped a little... by the time to got to the lab to finish up the powerpoint... my laptop had decided that it couldn't detect the hard-drive at all... if it could just spin a wee bit i could retrieve the powerpoint and that would be it... but it won't wake up.
it's happened before... and came back alive again... but it was pointless fighting.
so i had to piece together a talk from scratch in 4 hours... had bits in my flash-stick (which i should never have removed... or to which i should have backed-up before i fell asleep! arrgh!!!)... i suppose it could have been worse... it was yet another boring talk i gave... boring for me... coz i could do with the sleep... but probably boring for others because the paper was so dense and full of words... but full of very fascinating ideas for the 1870s... ideas that we are still struggling with today... i mean, we haven't quite progressed in foresight but have somewhat been stalled by the very imaging-technology boom that ought to have given us more leaps into the future... oh well. i did okay despite the mishap... and was able to answer all the questions... even if in a round-about-way... afterall, i had only 3-4hrs of sleep!
anyways... after the wretched talk, i thought i'd give my laptop another try... and IT WOKE UP! ARRRRGGGGHHH... i could just whaaammm that cranky thing! i could... but i didn't. backed up everthing i could instead... computers ARE evil.
but then as much as i would like to, i couldn't sleep all night despite the ratty day being over... c'est la vie... sometimes, you just can't win at all.
oh well, thank goodness for blogs! i certainly think this is a great space for, well, catharsis... and a spring-board and space to bounce my silly thoughts here and there and maybe everywhere...
and so, as a wee 'tribute' to the day this silly blog came into being... i'd like to quote Anne Frank... just because. and also because i just bought a German copy of her diary, which appears to be a new edition, and having read it nearly 10 years ago in English, i'd like to try to brush up my pathetic grasp of the german language by doing some amateurish translation, once in a while... although to be fair, i really ought to do this excercise for my very rusty Mandarin too... it's amazing how much 'refinement' of my crude skills i still have to do... during this life time! ach! =CS
anyways...
12. Juni 1942
Ich werde, hoffe ich, dir alles anvertrauen können, wie ich es noch bei niemandem gekonnt habe, und ich hoffe, du wirst mir eine große Stüze sein.
[Anne Frank]
12. June 1942
I would like, I hope, to be able to confide everything in you, how I could yet with nobody do so, and I hope, you will be my great bearer.
[written shortly after her 13th birthday -- the diary was a birthday gift]
28. September 1942 (Nachtrag)
Ich habe bis jetze eine große Stüze an dir gehabt. Auch an Kitty, der ich jetzt regelmäßig schreibe. Diese Art, Tagebuch zu schreiben, finde ich viel schöner, und ich kann die Stunde fast nicht abwarten, wenn ich Zeit habe, in dich zu schreiben.
Ich bin, oh, so froh, dass ich dich mitgenommen habe!
[Anne Frank]
28. September 1942 (Addendum)
I have for all this while found a great bearer in you. Also in Kitty, to whom I have now regularly written. This form, of diary-writing, is to me more pleasurable, and i can hardly wait for the moment, when I have the opportunity, to log something down in you.
I am, oh, so glad, that I have brought you along!
[written as an after-thought to the above diary entry, while in hiding only 3 months later]
--- italic quotes from Anne Frank Tagebuch © 2004 Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Fischer Schatzinsel
this is what gmail added in my german reply to sabine on the side:
"Sponsored Links (feedback)
Arbeiten im Ausland
z.B. Australia, USA, NZ, UK Flug, visa, versicherung usw
www.ccusa.com
Insider-Tips Australien
Reisezeit, Sehensw?rdigkeiten, Routen, Land und Leute.
www.aktuelles-lexikon.de
About these links"
i really hope it is just a key-word search algorithm... and not that they care to eavesdrop?! hmm.... naughty naughty.
anyways, isn't "Sehensw?rdigkeiten" ein wunderbares Wort??!? i think it's awesome! it literally means... "seeing-worthy".
i met an old uni friend of mine yesterday to say hello and goodbye. he's going away again into the troubled lands of Africa, this time with M?dicins Sans Fronti?res. he's a rather nice chap but everytime we meet, unhappy memories are rekindled... as with the reassertion of the feelings i can't seem to requite in return which unwittingly strains this friendship.... and then i remember encountering this little poem by Erich Fried which is quite consoling... so i'll share it with you..
Erinnern
das ist
vielliecht
die qualvollste Art
des Vergessens
und vielliecht
die freundlichste Art
der Linderung
dieser Qual
Remembering
this is
perhaps
the most excruciating way
of forgetting
and perhaps
the kindest way
of easing
this pain
Am Freitag hatten wir unsere letzte Deutschstunde. Aber wir hatten keinen Deutsch-Unterricht mehr, sondern ein Mittags-Picnic-Treffen. Es war wirklich toll. Das ist das erste mal dass ich einen kurs so genossen habe. Jeder ist nicht nur meine mit-student... wir haben einander ein bisschen kennen gelernt, und das ist wahnsinnig sch?n.
Ich glaube, dass ich jetzt mehr Deutsch kann und verstehe als ich in T?bingen war. ? ja ein bisschen ironisch! Nat?rlich gibts es mehr das man lernen kann .... das ist immer so.
Aber.... schau!
Hier, ich habe eine kleine Geschichte im Kurs geschrieben.... das h?tte ich vorher nicht gekonnt!
Es war sehr dunkel bevor jemand die Sonne gefunden hatte. Wir haben sie einmal verloren. Aber wie, ist eine Frage die niemand wirklich wei?. Aber egal. Was wichtig ist, sie kommt jetzt jeden Tag und die interessante Frage ist, wer sie gefunden hatte und wie.
Dieser Jemand ist eigentlich die kleine Ente vom Silbersee. Einmal schwamm sie in der Dunkelheit ganz weit weg von zu Hause und sie f?hlte sich etwas hei? im Wasser. Wenn sie ihren Kopf ins Wasser tauchte, sah sie etwas gro?es und graues und es weinte. Die kleine Ente fragte ihn, was passiert war, wer es war.... Es war unsere Sonne! Sie war neugierig gewessen und wollte ins Wasser schwimmen gehen, aber fiel runter und kam nie wieder zur?ck.
Dann sprach die kleine Ente mit dem kalten Wasser und bat es zu helfen. Zum Gl?ck hatte das ganze Wasser sich versammelt und sie brachten die Sonne zur?ck in den Himmel. Jetzt haben wir unsere Sonne jeden Tag!
if you want to know what i have written here's a translation...
we had our last German class together on Friday. but we didn't learn more German grammar. instead, we had an indoor lunchtime picnic (because the weather was much too cold and ambivalent)... it was truly lovely. this is actually the first time that i have enjoyed a class so much... everyone isn't just my classmate, we actually got to know abit about each other during our course.... which is really remarkable.
i believe that i know and understand a little more German than i did when i was in T?bingen; yes a little ironic. naturally, there's more that one could learn.... that's often the case.
but... look!!!
here is a wee story i wrote in my course.... i couldn't have done it before.
it was truly dark and dim before someone had found the Sun. we had lost her once. but how, is a question to which no body really knows nor have an answer. but nevermind. what is important is, she now appears every day and the interesting question is, who had found her, and how. (in German, the Sun is considered to be Feminine)
this someone is actually the little duckie from Silver lake. once, in the darkness, she swam really far out and away from home and she felt something hot in the water. when she dived her head into the water, she saw something huge, greyish which appeared to be sobbing. the wee duckie asked the something what had happened and who it might be.... it turned out to be our Sun! she had been extremely curious and wanted to go swimming in the water, but when she did try to get in, she fell right in and couldn't get out again.
wee little duckie felt she had to do something. she then talked to the cold water and persuaded it to help. with some luck, the water, collected itself from all other sources and brought the Sun back into the sky. and so, we have our sun every day!
yes... it is rather silly... my first attempt in fictional kiddy nonsense.... perhaps i'll tell it to my kid(s) one day at bed time.
it was a beautiful day outside... glorious if it must be said....yet i woke up this morning feeling hay-feverish ill. eyes itchy, nose hypersensitive.... i tried to finish some German homework. it was a struggle. somehow all that craziness calmed down after some time... yet it was not easy for me to focus.
nonetheless i did manage to carry myself to the German oral session and i am glad i did... i had fun.....we were asked to list down in a table a few colours, noise/sounds, smells/scents, animals, and food/meals which we like and dislike... and then to come up with poem-like sentences based on a template..... here's my wee version in German (with translation):
Jemand, den ich mag
Wenn er eine Farbe w?re, w?re er turkisblau wie das Meer.
Wenn er ein Ger?usch w?re, w?re er der Klang des Violoncello.
Wenn er ein Geruch w?re,w?re er der Duft des Fr?hlings.
Wenn er ein Tier w?re, w?re er ein flinkes Ferd.
Und wenn er eine Speise w?re, w?re er Blaubeeren mit vanille Ice.
Jemand, den ich nicht ausstehen kann
Wenn er eine Farbe w?re, w?re er schmutziges Grau.
Wenn er ein Ger?usch w?re, w?re er das Quietschen der Bremsen.
Wenn er ein Geruch w?re,w?re er verfaulte Eier.
Wenn er ein Tier w?re, w?re er eine Schnecke.
Und wenn er eine Speise w?re, w?re er Saureg?rken.
translation----
someone, whom i like
if he were a colour, he would be turquoise like the sea.
if he were a sound, he would be the (sonorous) voice of a cello.
if he were a scent, he would be the smell of Spring.
if he were a creature, he would be a swift horse.
and if he were a meal, he would be blueberries with vanilla ice-cream.
someone, whom i cannot stand
if he were a colour, he would be dirty grey.
if he were a sound, he would be the sound of screeching tyres.
if he were a scent, he would smell of rotten eggs.
if he were a creature, he would be a slug.
and if he were something edible, he would be bitter gourd.
..... i love these silly but fun excercises.... it's so fun learning another language!
afterthat i tried to do some work and did get some bits of exploratory programming done... still have to work out a little algorithm... but my attention span was not optimal and i kept sneezing.... but when i finally decided to continue a bit more at the loft, ruthbuth rang to say that she's at the nearby PearTree pub and if i'd like to join her and her flatmate Katie for a bit. .... i went to meet her and Katie, had a hot-chocolate when everyone else was having a pint of something alchoholic! oh well. ... they then dragged me back to their flat with them to make and have dinner together... sitr-fry veggies with rice (for ruthbuth and me) and noodles (for Katie and her boyfriend)... it was simple and yummy...
got back and practiced the cello for a bit... before completing all the backlog of German homework i haven't yet done, wheezing now and then....but now i am ready for a bit of lying-in-bed-reading to fall asleep.... zzzz nighty night peeps.
this was written for an exercise which i had to use adjectives and describe a place i have been .... now in its corrected (thanks to s.rolle and f.j?kel) and slightly modified version:
Es ist sehr toll, dass ich von zeit zu zeit Onkel Alberts und Tante Helenas Heim in S?d-Australien besuchen (und dort wohnen) kann. Dort ist ihr selbstgebautes Haus nur 100m von dem blauen Meer und im Sommer kann man ganz herrlich in dem k?hlen frischen Wasser schwimmen gehen. Ich liebe ihr Haus und das Studio wo ich jedes mal gewohnt habe. Durch die Glassw?nde kann man die sch?nen Pflanzen und die typischen australischen B?ume sehen und oft kommen die kleinen V?gel, Igel, oder Eichh?rnchen zu Besuch. In der Nacht, wenn es keine Wolken gibt, sieht man den ganzen Himmel voller Sterne und man ist fast in einer anderen Welt!
(a rough translation of what i had expressed/written in German and some additional ideas/details are in parentheses)
it is really lovely that i could, from time to time, visit and stay with auntie Helena and uncle Albert in South-Australia. there, they live in their (absolutely fun and environmentally sound) abode which they have built themselves (quite literally) and are only about 100 m away from the (beautiful turquoise) blue sea, wherein summer, one can happily swim in the cool fresh water! i love their house and the studio in which i have always stayed. through their glass walls, one has a view of the beautiful plants and the typical Australian trees (which they have planted) and you could often witness the visits paid by the little birds, the hedgehogs, or squirrels?. in the night, when it is cloudless (and blue), you could see the sky full of stars ? and one is almost in another world!
** y'know, even though i thought about most of it in English... i think the German version is much nicer.... weird isn't it? ...translating the ideas back into English somehow modified the 'flow'....i wonder what it would sound like in French... anyone out there fluent in French?!
this is a poem by Bertolt Brecht (1898--1956) which we read in our German class on Friday.... written during WWII when he was in exile in Scandinavia, the poem is a powerful illustration of the turmoils of living and growing up during the turbulent years.
Mein junger Sohn fragt mich: Soll ich
Mathematik lernen?
Wozu, m?chte ich sagen. Dass zwei
St?ck Brot mehr ist als eines
Das wirst du auch so merken.
Mein junger Sohn fragt mich: Soll
ich Franz?sisch lernen?
Wozu, m?chte ich sagen. Dieses Reich
geht unter. Und
Reibe du nur mit der Hand den Bauch
und st?hne
Und man wird dich schon verstehen.
Mein junger Sohn fragt mich: Soll
ich Geshichte lernen?
Wozu, m?chte ich sagen. Lerne du nur
deinen Kopf in die Erde stecken
Da wirst du vielleicht ?brig bleiben.
Ja, lerne Mathematik, sage ich
Lerne Franz?sisch, lerne Geschichte!
(my amateurish translation for those who are not yet acquainted with German;
only that the rhyme is lost in the process
--- this is partly due to the rhyming infinitives idiosyncratic to the German Language
...apologies)
My young son asks me: Should I
learn Mathematics?
What for, I wished to say. These two
pieces of bread is more than a single one
That will you notice anyway.
My young son asks me: Should
I learn French?
What for, I wished to say. This empire
will collapse anyway. And
you only have to rub your belly
and groan
And people will soon understand.
My young son asks me: Should
I learn History?
What for, I wished to say. Learn to
hide your head in the earth
That way, perhaps you might survive.
Yes, learn Mathematics, I say
Learn French, learn History!
Brecht's use of 3-voices (the young son's questioning/ the father's inner thoughts/ his final advise) is both creative and achieves a wonderful portrayal of the dilemmas that we sometimes face. moreover, the simple words he used (simple because a beginner like me could still comprehend most of the words he chose) are very powerful in conjuring up huge images, and in sparking important issues. why did he tell his son to learn all that anyways? to be positive? to give him hope? perhaps in hope that the younger generation might be able to learn from our mistakes... what are your thoughts on this?
i've decided to add a category of the German writings (wortspiele) i had to do for or in class or simply "nur so" (ie just because)... with some translation when time permits.... hope it will be fun for you too!