23:49

Claudiuccia

6 small containers of glitters were used in one week. Then it was a turn of some Play-Dogh, then - of her own hair. She had tried to do something on her dolls, and I noticed that "dolls' hair is not like yours, it will not grow out again". You can imagine the consequences. She wondered, why didn't her hair grow out again right after she had cut it.

In a childrens Eyewitness (R) book on Midieval life she saw a 15th century guilded Flemish shield with the "Princess" (the Beautif Lady), Knight and "Bones" (Death) depicted on it. In this book, there is also a fragment of The Dance of Death. Questions: "Is Princess afraid of the bones?" (she ment a sceleton) etc, etc... All normal questions: I remember myself in her age, discovering Bosch&Co. Perhaps my father's explanations were better than the words I choose to speak to Claudiuccia, but I accepted his explanations as "monosemantic" :) and was not scared by the threatening messages on those canvasses. And I was less talkative. I can't make out, is that Aque's own idea, or she was influenced by the kids in her kindrgarten in Kiev - lots of them were watching programs that were not appropriate for their age - anyway, she is convinced that skulls... roar. I've borrowed a book on skin, muscles and bones and tried to explain something on the layers of tissue in our bodies, but she still asks me: "Why does he [a skull] show us his teeth?" :hang: "The lips are made of muscles and covered with skin, here you see only bones, the scull has no muscles to cover the teeth because all other things were removed to show you the bones." I still can't understand if she understands me. :)

Some time ago I was so upset that my child didn't want to talk... :D



If I could return to that "some time ago". And not to Neuchatel, but to Luzern, to say...



What a tough task to find an age-appropriate toy for a theoretician. Well, he needs some perfume, because he has spent the last drops to wash the keyboard of his office PC - the previous colleague left "fingerprints", resistent to all solvents, except to Paco Rabanne (or how is it called?).

I am also thinking of something more sophisticated, like this plush toy

http://www.scienceline.net/product_...products_id/861 There are models of bacteria, viruses and fungus causing TB, common cold plague, athlets foot, African sleeping disease and so on, a cute beige louse about 15 cm long. However I'd find a good T-shirt for him.

Yesterday I saw a guy wearing a nice T-shirt, the only problem for a guy was that he must underestimate the people's attention to the mouth of a person who wears the T-shirt and the questions in their eyes. He seemed unhappy about his own trick. On the T-shirt there was a simple smiley with a grey cat's tail sticking out of the smiley's mouth. The insсriрtion said, "I eat pussy".


Well, there are nice things in this life. A CD of Hungarian music I am listening now. Vivid, full of life sounds!

Yesterday I had a lesson with a private trainer. Baobeir was astonished by the price of it and suggested me that instead of learning Chinese I had to become a fitness trainer. Anyway, I was very satisfied! Now only some chest muscles are "sore". Legs, back and belly appear to be better trained before. My trainer has a 2 year old daughter and plans for a second child in a while, and our bodies recemble each other in many points.

Observing people in the gym, I've also mentioned that the trainers and clients are matched "by their faces": my universal love to people :) would not help me to achieve anything under a control of some other trainers, while other individuals, I think, would be left desperate without those trainers that made me recall Soviet school teachers of "physical training".

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1424471.html?menu=



Berlusconi's fat becomes soap



A bar of soap reportedly made from fat pumped from Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has gone on display.



Artist Gianni Motti claims he made the soap made from fat from Berlusconi's liposuction operation.



It is part of an art exhibition in Basel, Switzerland, where anyone wishing to wash their hands with Berlusconi can buy it for Ј10,000.



The artist who put the soap on display, Gianni Motti, 47, claims to have acquired the fat from an employee of an elite plastic surgery clinic in Lugano in Switzerland.



Motti said: "Berlusconi had face lifting and liposuction operations in a clinic in Lugano, where I have good connections that provided me with some of the fat. It was jelly-like and it stunk horribly, like butter gone off or old chip pan oil."



According to Motti, the artwork called Mani Pulite (Clean Hands) expresses opposition to corruption and mafia structures in Italy, as well as his personal opinion of Berlusconi's policies.



He said: "I came up with the idea because soap is made of pig fat, and I thought how much more appropriate it would be if people washed their hands using a piece of Berlusconi."

19:20

charities-2

BTW, the newsletter from the charity project was marked "for internal use only". If I were going to pay for that membership, I'd ask them what information in it was so secret.

The membership fee is higher than the sum my father and I tried to send to a boy with a palsy, congenital heart disease and other horrible health problems. I learned about him from a Russian site for parents: a young lady who wrote about him goes for vacations to a village in the Central Ukraine where the boy lives, and decided to help his parents to buy drugs and other necessary things for him.

When I was back to Kiev, my father gave some money he had got for an article on the Great Famine in Ukraine in 1932-33 (he said he could not spent them for his own needs and first wanted me just to give them to the church where we baptized Klavka), I added something and we made a transfer. We did not get any reply, although I didn't feel like I had to control that money after they had been sent.

A week ago I learn out (from the same site) that the boy had been operated for his heart disease (nobody wanted money, we were just asked "to pray for him";), and finally I decided to ask about our money. To my greatest surprise, the girl says that others help too, so by now she didn't need that money, "we had bought all necessary things", now the money must "hang" somewhere inside our unpredictable banking system - the transfer was more like a "Western Union", not on the girls' bank account.

I am trying to convince the girl to claim for that money now, because it is really not a big sum, and why don't they buy some "unnecessary" things for a boy like some clothes, books or toys.

It seems that my work should make me numb to all those issues, but I still wonder how some people are able to collect money for a domain and so on, and so on to start their charity activity "in the nearest future", while the others think an extra toy will be a squandering of money.

03:29

charities...

In December there was a thread at ProZ: somebody had seen a report on sick orphans in one Russian hospital, kids were drawing and writing something, so the person seeing kids on TV got an idea to do some charities for them, like, hm, translate their works, sell the books of translations (hope the kids are still alive when this dream comes true) and give the kids the money received for books. There were no shorter way to give money to those in need. However I decided to participate in that charity project, in March or April this year - "kids were still alive" - I filled in their questionnary. A few days ago I've got a message that the charity project has created a slogan&mission statement (so indistinct, that not every translator can create the same indistinct text in a target language), found a sponsor for a domain and ask for a... membership fee.



to be continued

James Street Baptist Church, a big white poster with a picture of a cartoon-like lion and zebra says,



DAY CAMP

Where kids are wild about God

07:13

Dress-code

What I like about my new fitness club is a good ventilation - it doesn't smell sweat, rubber and metal like many gyms. And nobody asked me private questions. However one of the trainers told me to change an open sportive top for a T-shirt. I'd felt like I had impressive tits, but, to my frustration, the rule appears to be universal: the guy pointed at a poster explaining and depicting their (now our) dress-code: don't show your armpits or belly, no matter what gender you are. Surprisingly, there were no restrictions to the length of shorts. Or perhaps I haven't seen all the posters.

As to the mortal shell of my soul, it seems that for its age it has an excellent weight, but it is badly hydrated - no matter how diligent I was supplying liquids to it 12 hours before the evaluation; it has 5 to 6 kg of fat to be turned into a lean flesh - that was exactly I was thinking of, while going to the fitness centre, however I could not predict that much and still question the number of unwanted pounds of fat. Well, we'll see. It is ready for heavy-duty tasks much better than I've predicted, but is less flexible than I've thought - these are the discoveries I trust.

I've paid an extra nice money for a trainer once a month for a year. The first lesson is scheduled for tomorrow, 11 a.m.. I hope to have time for it.

02:41

socialism

The humankind have invented efficient birthcontrol methods much earlier than they can at least talk politely about the family planning issues - see below. Luckily, people started riding animals much earlier, and, although the more sophisticated transport kills them sometimes, they have made themselves much more comfortable with it and invented many funny rules about it. To say, bringing Klavka to a play group I can claim for two bus tickets. I have to (!) stay at the club for at least an hour :wow2: to get them. Baobeir is "excited" about the real socialism, however he doesn't mind to receive these tickets from me to use them when we go to shopping malls and other cultural monuments of the Steel City.

I am often asked if Claudiuccia is my first and only child, and are we planning to have more children. Sometimes I think I have to refuse to answer these questions, but then decide that, since my work is with people, I have to know what is on their minds. Once at the play group I've spoke with a girl from XXXX. The same question. I reply telling one of a few reasons to have more children later, "My health conditions don't allow me to have a healthy child right now, but when my health improves, we'll have a child in a few years." My minor provocation worked 100, no, 1000 %. "What does your husband say about that?" ;) The words behind that were like, "did he already advertise a job opening, calling for female candidates bringing in their medical files instead of resumes?"

An exchange of questions:

- What would you think he says? ;)

- What does he think? (The previous question is rephrased as if I hadn't get it)

- He says nothing. That's not a problem. We are still young.

The dialog stopped at this point. Recalling it I was astonished by such a simple fact that we are young indeed, and I still have about 17 (!) years of fertility. How many decisions can be made in these 17 years!

When I was asked the same question by the other lady and told her that I still can wait, she said: "But Claudia will grow up, kids won't have fun playing together..." I wanted to ask her if I have to buy Klavka a Baby Born TM?

Luckily, in 5 months I didn't hear comments on a "right" age for becoming a mother, thanks for that. Or perhaps I look older?! :weep2:

From letters to Dan Savage:



"What do you think of new pronouns for transgender people such as 'zim' or 'hir'? A transgender friend has asked that we start reffering to zim by such pronouns. I don't want to hurt to hurt hir feelings, but I question the efficacy of the strategy. Aren't we supposed to be moving toward eliminating gender from pronouns? And isn't simplicity the point of pronouns?

- Ambivalent Straight Supportive

"Dan's reply: "I think they are ztupid".



And I wonder how can one eliminate gender from pronouns?! :D :D :D

Pre-evaluation instructions:

* Have a light snack 2 hours prior to your appointment - fruit or fruit juice.

* Do not have: coffee, tea or cigarettes for 2 hours prior to your evaluation.

* Do not have alcohol for 24 hours prior to your evaluation.

* Drink a minimum of 8 - 12 glasses of water 24 hours prior to your evaluation to ensure healthy hydration.

* Please do not excersise for 12 hours before your appointment...



I have an appointment for 9 a.m. on Saturday, the evaluation procedure will take an hour. By that time I have to cure my little toe I've smashed at the corner of our kitchen today in the morning - I was too drawsy. The bone stays intact, but stepping on it hurts, I have a posture of a pithecanthropus to the "delight" :puke: of all men from 18 to 81 - I've always knew the society to be very welcoming to disabilities, but now even my stubborn nature felt somehow affected. God saves from beeing "cheered by the big auditorium" the same way for the whole life. :fury:

@настроение: ...

I've met Pearl at a drop-in group. The Agency is looking for an experienced Cantonese interpreter, so I've gave Pearl the number just in case she may know somebody fit for this job. Then we spoke "about life".

Pearl has a "very English" last name - her husband's. She was born in Canada, her family came to Vancouver from Hunan province in the end of forties - in fifties. Her grandparents came first, having no money at all - everything was spent on a plane ticket. They even were not aware that they had to take a bus from an airport to the city... That time, there was a quota for bringing in one male and one female child, so Pearl's mother who already had had 4 children, stayed in Hong Kong for 5 to 6 years waiting for a permission to immigrate to Canada. I don't know how many siblings altogether has Pearl, but having at least 5 children made her mother work day and night, so Pearl was risen by her maternal grandmother. She spoke "veh-ery o-oold, almost ancient Tanze dialect", and her language was "very coarse, rustic, with lots of swearings like, 'hit you to death'" This is Pearl's mother tangue. She doesn't want her daughter (3 years) to speak the same language, but she states that her Cantonese (her mother's amd her community language) is not excellent, so she's quite reluctant about the second language she should teach her daughter.

Josй Luis Villanueva-Senchuk

(Argentina

English<>Spanish&more)

Jun 3



I like to go for 100% translation. (long but funny)

I interpret everything. I do use the 10% rule cited above. Nevertheless, if the sphere of action gives room for full translation, I go for it. I understand one must adjust at times, but I like/prefer to go for full transfer.



Scenarios from real life:



1. A psychiatric symposium (world participants) in Argentina a month ago: the speaker says «[..] yeah... what do you do when the guys in the “ 'hood wanna 'moke some weed. You cannot tell those clients "f..k off."” We see this in the clinic all the time, we, as caregivers must provide...»

I did apply the 10% rule and everyone was happy. I used street slang for the audience to get the meaning but “coloured” the f..k off a bit. I conveyed the meaning.



2. Same venue/event: “there is nothing to do in the state I come from: you eat cheese all day or you get f.. (he ate the word but left the f sound floating) wasted” I had to say "te gusta el queso o te pones en reverendo pedo (Argentina slang), I had no option.



3. An olive oil world meeting in Catalonia: presiding table with Spanish ministers, local government officials, VIP guests from Germany (they were starting a bio-fuel plant in Catalunya). A country man, short-built-sundried skin (a piece of work and a TRUE worker) with a beret included, looks at the panel and starts: “Claro, vosotros porque soy teutones cuadrados, joder. Si os meten la mano en el bolsillo, sн ese h de p que estб al lado vuestro, el de Hacienda, y os toca las pelas y los co..nes, a ver si vais a estar felices... Me cago en la p.. madre que os pariу..." The French and the English said the whole thing (Right, you Teutons say it because you are squared headed. F..k!! they stick their hand into your pocket, yes – the guy next to you from the IRS, he fiddles with the "dough” (money) and your balls…I'd like to see if you are happy. Damn! F...k your mamma!), with proper tone (we are the voice of the speaker)... the German interpreter froze for a second. The German crew turned around towards the booths. The German interpreter said "the asker has said rude comments." The other DE interpreter saw the faces of the Deutsche groups and went full throttle. They came to the booth afterwards and thanked him, and told her she should have said it all.



4. Last and not least. I was in the SpanishEnglish booth working for Tony Robbins at his mega event in Kona, Hawaii. One the guest speakers, Dr. John Gray (Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.) To make it short: he is on stage and grabs a banana and looks at the audience: “Ladies, we have been speaking about pleasure and ….. and .... Now is the turn to give the guys something back. I will tell you about what we like. You have a banana in your care package, let us practice on how to give a good blow job..." He went on for over 30 minutes, used colorful language, mimics, signs, movements, etc. There was NO way but to convey the meaning by using the same level of words and register. What was I going to say: "the speaker will now demonstrate one of the facets of oral sex ..." C'mon....







03:17

eyes

The weather turned from April into July in 3 days. Steaming hot yesterday, strong dry wind today. It seems that many people in the city ary influenced by the atmosphere.

And many seem to be influenced by hangover. Today in the morning, after leaving Aque at the caregiver's place, I've been crossing a street on a "walk" sign. I've noticed a car moving fast down the street perpendicular to the one I've been crossing, but I could not (but had to) predict it to appear from a blindspot behind a van prepared to turn, waiting for me to cross. That time I was lucky to be alone and walking slowly.

Perhaps the thirst of revenge led me to prepare for a driving course. I went to an eye clinic where I had an eye test and was asked, if I see any spots or flashes [then, imps and elves etc.] because of some strange things the doctor saw somewhere very-very deep in my left eye (somewhere, where my super-ego, nightmares and utopian ideas share the same zone discovered by the famous doctors Lingvishchenko and Giustizieri). However the doctor at the eye clinic cheered me that with the perfect sight of the right eye I can drive without glasses - it is even allowed to drive having only one eye. Well, today I've seen how perfect can be two natural eyes, both popped out of fear to smash someone with a car. She suggested me to wear them mostly to relax my eyes after working on PC.

Signing an impressive bill I was powdering my hair with ashes, that before getting all the money reimbursed I would not be able to pay for any fitness. However being back home I have discovered a card from a fitness centre - 3 months free membership. I'm saved.

Never drive faster than your angels can fly. Baisers!

- Where are you going now? - asks my colleague (a father of 5 kids; excellent command and "feeling" of his native colonial French :hlop: )

- To the west.

- And I'm to the east. - he says that with a little bit squeamish grimace.

I didn't expect these contradictions arise on a personal level. I do know that living in "West village" we pay about 100 bucks more than an average renting fee in the city, but having no car and paying 65 for a monthly bus pass for me and saving the same amount for Baobeir who walks to his office, we only save. And almost every day we take a walk in a forest a few blocks from our house!

I often leave at home that field guide to the local vegetation, but somehow I'm able to show Klavka anemones, ferns and horse tails. She knows that it's prohibited to collect flowers and just caresses them.

Klavka wants to have an anemone at home. So I ask one of the "teachers" in a drop-in group, if they can suggest a place to buy anemones and trilliums officially. They suggest to address big garden centres ("because they have everything";), but "you also may dig one out and plant at home". :conf3: I am not a professional gardener. What if a plant dies? And if it survives, should I bother myself about cultivating 5 more plants to return them into nature?

Friday (3 June), on a campus.

Baobeir met face to face with a bird of pray. It swooped on a lawn in the central, always crowded, part of the campus. For a minute they were exchanging looks. The bird held a squirrel in its claws and was looking at Sergei as if it was going to abandon its pray and attack a human. Baobeir reached for a phone and tried to make a photo, but an extra step towards the bird scared it, so the predator left, carrying the squirrel away. The bird must be a hawk. Now Sergei wonders if the bird came already holding the squirrel, or the hawk had just caught the squirrel a second before Sergei noticed its arrival. The pray did not move, but that could happen because of a shock, I think.

Sergei was astonished by the malice and intellect in an animal look. And how bold the bird was appearing right in the middle of a human crowd.

A handful of iron-enriched petals onto your on-line mandala!