November 24th, 2008
Meaning: We redefine "interesting" every day around these here parts.
And while we're quoting Serenity with its Mandarin expressions, consider the apocryphal "Chinese curse", "May you live in interesting times". The closest attested Mandarin proverb that means remotely the same thing is 寧為太平犬，不做亂世人 (níng wéi tàipíng quǎn, bù zuò luànshì rén, "It is preferable to be a dog in peace than a man in an age of chaos").
This is part of the David E. Kelley School of Advising series.
--
Banazir
- Mood:
amused - Music:Stereophonics - Maybe Tomorrow (Live 8)
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18
Do you read my posts with Chinese language in them?
Do you click on the links to Chinese characters?
Never
9 (56.2%)
Only the ones for whole idioms or proverbs 1 (6.2%)
Only the ones that show how a Chinese character (hanzi/kanji/hanju) is pronounced and written, or gives its etymology 0 (0.0%)
Always 6 (37.5%)
Do you know any written Chinese?
None 9 (50.0%)
I can barely read and write a few characters in Chinese 3 (16.7%)
I can muddle through some written Chinese sentences 4 (22.2%)
I have a functional reading knowledge of Chinese 0 (0.0%)
I am fluent in written Chinese 0 (0.0%)
I can barely read and write a few characters another language that uses Chinese characters 2 (11.1%)
I can muddle through another language that uses Chinese characters 0 (0.0%)
I have a functional reading knowledge of another language that uses Chinese characters 0 (0.0%)
I am fluent in another language that uses Chinese characters 0 (0.0%)
Do you know any spoken Chinese?
None 9 (50.0%)
Only bad words 1 (5.6%)
I can speak a few phrases of Chinese 2 (11.1%)
I can muddle through a conversation in Chinese (could ask directions to a bathroom, discuss the weather, etc.) 3 (16.7%)
I have a functional knowledge of spoken Chinese (could ask directions on the street, translate for someone who can't speak at all, etc.) 1 (5.6%)
I am fluent in spoken Chinese (a native speaker, or could be mistaken for one) 2 (11.1%)
--
Banazir
- Mood:
tired - Music:Intwine - Cruel Man
- Mood:
intrigued
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28
What is your strongest spoken language, besides English?
Chinese 4 (14.3%)
Hindi 0 (0.0%)
Spanish 6 (21.4%)
Arabic 0 (0.0%)
Portugese 0 (0.0%)
Russian 1 (3.6%)
Japanese 0 (0.0%)
German 2 (7.1%)
French 7 (25.0%)
Italian 0 (0.0%)
Swahili 0 (0.0%)
Other Slavic language (Polish, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, etc.) 4 (14.3%)
Other Indo-European language (Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, etc.) 0 (0.0%)
Other Asian language (Wu, Javanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Telugu, Tamil, etc.) 0 (0.0%)
Other 4 (14.3%)
Which of the following, besides English, do you speak?
Chinese 5 (18.5%)
Hindi 0 (0.0%)
Spanish 12 (44.4%)
Arabic 0 (0.0%)
Portugese 1 (3.7%)
Russian 3 (11.1%)
Japanese 1 (3.7%)
German 7 (25.9%)
French 13 (48.1%)
Italian 1 (3.7%)
Swahili 1 (3.7%)
Other Slavic language (Polish, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, etc.) 7 (25.9%)
Other Indo-European language (Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, etc.) 2 (7.4%)
Other Asian language (Wu, Javanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Telugu, Tamil, etc.) 1 (3.7%)
Other 7 (25.9%)
Which of the following, besides English, can you read and write?
Chinese 3 (11.1%)
Hindi 0 (0.0%)
Spanish 9 (33.3%)
Arabic 0 (0.0%)
Portugese 0 (0.0%)
Russian 3 (11.1%)
Japanese 1 (3.7%)
German 6 (22.2%)
French 14 (51.9%)
Italian 1 (3.7%)
Swahili 1 (3.7%)
Other Slavic language (Polish, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, etc.) 5 (18.5%)
Other Indo-European language (Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, etc.) 3 (11.1%)
Other Asian language (Wu, Javanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Telugu, Tamil, etc.) 1 (3.7%)
Other 8 (29.6%)
Now, please comment and write something in a non-English language that you know.
Are you going to tell us what it means?
This was an incredibly difficult poll to write, as LJ only allows 15 slots per question. Eventually it became one of those "can't please everybody, might as well offend everybody" questions. I aim to (dis)please!
( People I may have offended with this poll )
Is there no one else I've offended? Is there no one else?!
--
Banazir
- Mood:
rushed
determinedMeaning: Put up, or shut up.
(One of
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
zengeneral and masaga's roommates in their undergrad days was Jason Lamm, the third student who worked for me as a sysadmin. After I bought the four 1GHz Athlon XP Thunderbird systems that became known as the "New Elves" from a Russian distributor in 2001, Jason and I used to quote the over-the-top accent that Malkovich's Russian gangster speaks with. 2:22 - 2:41: "Yif ywuh steel dwohn't hef owull mai mahnee, thyin ywu are mayn!")This is part of the David E. Kelley School of Advising series.
--
Banazir
- Mood: amused
This week's bugbears have been mainly browser-related:
- Google settings reverting spontaneously. Does anyone else have a problem when Google SafeSearch turns itself back on without your doing anything? I keep turning it off on Osse, and it keeps reverting. I can't imagine that this is due to any kind of campus or departmental policy, but it keeps reverting. For that matter, the number of hits to display on a page reverts along with SafeSearch.
- Firefox tabs in WinXP Home SP3 freezing when backgrounded. Do you ever Ctrl-Tab away from a tab, or switch context (say, to Remote Desktop) and have a playing YouTube (say, a song) just stop?
- Auto-completion failure. What makes form auto-completion stop working in Firefox? Sometimes I'll type and it will just not autocomplete any more, when it did just a day before. For example, it normally completes my "Tags" field in LJ, but right now it's not doing it. Is this a GDI resource thing? (I'm always out, or on the brink of running out, because I have so many Explorer and app windows open.)
Thanks to you all, as always.
--
Banazir
- Mood:
frustrated
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