Stolen from barush. How to do this meme: Using only EPISODE names from ONE TV SHOW, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat an episode title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My life according to (show)".

Describe yourself: "Facets"
How do you feel: "Broken Link"
Describe where you currently live: "Far Beyond the Stars"
If you could go anywhere where would you go: "Past Tense"
Your favorite form of transportation: "Through the Looking Glass"
Your best friend is: "Distant Voices"
What's the weather like: "Statistical Probabilities"
Favorite time of day: "In the Pale Moonlight"
If your life was a TV show, it would be called: "Crossover"
What is life to you: "The Darkness and the Light"
Your fear: "Invasive Procedures"
What is the best advice you have to give: "Favor the Bold"
Thought for the Day: "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"
How I would like to die: "Blaze of Glory"
My soul's present condition: "Shadows and Symbols"
My motto: "It's Only a Paper Moon"

Current Mood: amused

Finally saw the infamous "Inglourious Basterds". I had the file for ages but in such a lousy quality that I had considered waiting for the DVD, until I get really bored or something.

So, after all the hype, it left me entirely unimpressed - and I don't think it's the quality of the video which had spoiled it. The plot is boring, the characters are boring, you don't care what happens with any of them either way (with one exception, see below), it's neither shocking nor depressing nor amusing nor atmospheric.

The alleged blood & gore (e.g. scalping) is shown very briefly and is too obviously fake. I had expected to see more of Basterds' action, as a proof why they are supposed to be so fearsome - but most of the movie is talking talking talking. Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) looks and acts like a clown with a funny moustache. Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger) is just hanging around looking bored (although I do appreciate the 4 seconds of the whipping scene :)

The only redeeming quality of this movie is the character of Col. Hans Landa - he is intelligent, devious, charming, subtle and dangerous - everything one wants to see in the movie character! The bargaining bit at the end spoils it a little, but I suppose it was a followup to the intro, when he mentions that he knows how to think like a Jew. And the scene when he uncovers the disguise of the pseudo-Italians in the movie theater had totally cracked me up!

A couple more scenes worth watching:

- The capture and murder of Sgt. Werner Rachtman (a German soldier who chose death over betrayal, that was at least touching)

- the torture scene of Bridget von Hammersmark (not much to see but heck, with 2.5 hours of trash, you gotta be grateful for every bit of amusement you've got)

Also, I've learned a new bar game :)

Current Mood: bored

I was reading a Wikipedia article today on the Mayurakshi River, which flows through West Bengal. Here's the clip from the article that I'm curious about:

Mayurakshi literally means the eye of a peacock (mayur/mor=peacock, akshi=eye).

That's cool, but it doesn't mention which language the translation comes from. Is it Bengali? I tried to use the Google detect-language option, but that told me it was English, so...fail language detection is fail. =P Does anyone here know?

Does anyone here attend a congregation in Portland, Oregon? I'm considering moving there and I see there are 6 medium/large congregations with full-time ministers in the area. The three that look most appealing to me are West Hills, Vancouver (formerly Michael Servetus), and Washington County, but I would want to check out all of them (the other 3 are Eastrose, First Unitarian, and Atkinson, did I miss any?). We would probably be living in Beaverton at first. I'm married, no kids, but my husband desperately wishes he could find a liberal Episcopalian church to attend instead so it would probably just be me unless and until we have kids.

Does anyone have any experience with any of the UU churches in Portland? Do any of them have Young Adults (18-35) groups?

cross-posted to uuyoungadults

Current Location: United States, New Mexico, Albuquerque
Current Mood: hopeful

Is there any appreciation for the American accent in other languages? I love to listen to non-native speakers speak English and I'm wondering if anyone loves hearing native American English speakers speak other languages. I hope I wrote that clearly.

I always feel pressure to mimic a language and try to have no influence whatsoever from my American accent. It's to the point that I become more focused on sounding "right" than actually speaking.

I'm trying to add newpost to my journal using curl,

curl -d"mode=postevent&.....&event=

Tags: *unanswered, client, client: flat, client: posting

David Edwards from Datblygu has written an autobiography in Welsh. It's only available on the UK amazon or from the publishers, but amazon lets you order internationally anyway. If you're not familiar with David R. Edwards, he's the singer and lyricist of the Welsh language post-punk band Datblygu. They were one of John Peel's favourites, and known for their experimental sounds and clever literary lyrics filled with bilingual Welsh-English wordplay and complete scorn for patriotic nonsense. Dave Edwards worked as a school Welsh teacher and for the tourist board, had a few nervous breakdowns, became an alcoholic and recovered and all kinds of turmoil, so it looks like an interesting book.

Tags: books, welsh
Current Music: Dymuniadau Da- Datblygu

Here's a cropped still from a Bones episode:



This is definitely not French. Is it some other Romance language or should it go to FailBlog? :)

UPD: Middle French. Thanks everyone.

Two passages from Samuel Beckett's Dante... Bruno. Vico.. Joyce, 1929:

1. Vico

Giambattista Vico was a practical roundheaded Neapolitan. It pleases Croce to consider him a mystic, essentially speculative, 'disdegnoso dell' empirismo'. It is a surprising interpretation, seeing that more than three-fifths of his Scienza Nuova is concerned with empirical investigation. Croce opposes him to the reformative materialistic school of Ugo Grozio, and absolves him from the utilitarian preoccupations of Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Bayle and Machiavelli. All this cannot be swallowed without protest. Vico defines Providence as: 'una mente spesso diversa ed alle volte tutta contraria e sempre superiore ad essi fini particolari che essi uomini si avevano proposti; dei quali fini ristretti fatti mezzi per servire a fini più ampi, gli ha sempre adoperati per conservare l'umana generazione in questa terra'. What could be more definitely utilitarianism? His treatment of the origin and functions of poetry, language and myth, as will appear later, is as far removed from the mystical as it is possible to imagine.

[I can guess that "disdegnoso dell' empirismo" means that Vico (according to Croce) disdained empirism, but I cannot divine the meaning of the bolded lines in the same way. Help?]

2. Dante

I find two well made caps in the 'Convivio', one to fit the collective noodle of the monodialectical arcadians whose fury is precipitated by a failure to discover "innocefree" in the Concise Oxford Dictionary and who qualify as the 'ravings of a Bedlamite' the formal structure raised by Mr. Joyce after years of patient and inspired labour: 'Questi sono da chiamare pecore e non uomini; chè se una pecora si gittasse da una ripa di mille passi, tutte l'altre le andrebbono dietro: e se una pecora per alcuna cagione al passare d'una strada salta, tutte le altre saltano, eziando nulla veggendo da saltare. E io ne vidi già molte in un pozzo saltare, per una che dentro vi salto, forse credendo di saltare un muro'. And the other for Mr. Joyce, biologist in words: 'Questo (formal innovation) sarà luce nuova, sole nuovo, il quale sorgerà ore l'usato tramonterà e darà luce a coloro che sono in tenebre e in oscurità per lo usato sole che a loro non luce.' And, lest he should pull it down over his eyes and laugh behind the peak, I translate 'in tenebre e in oscurità' by 'bored to extinction.'

Thanks in advance!

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