Archives: 2007 September

30

Sep

2007

Ug.

That was tough, yo.

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30

Sep

2007

The Most Untranslatable Words

Scholars and professional translators have determined that “ilunga” — a word in the Bantu language of Tshiluba for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time; to tolerate it a second time; but never a third time — is the “most untranslatable word in the world. “Shlimazl”, a Yiddish word for a chronically unlucky person, and “radioukacz”, a Polish word for a person who worked as a telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain, ran a close second and third. The most untranslatable word in the English language was voted to be “plenipotentiary”, which means a special ambassador or envoy, invested with full powers.

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30

Sep

2007

Router went out on Friday. There’s been enough going on that I didn’t actually miss it all that much. I don’t know which I found more amusing: that we couldn’t live more than 2 days without one (Steph and the Old Man picked it up today), or that once I logged back in, nothing of interest appeared to have happened anywhere the entire two days.

Perhaps the world is slowing down.

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28

Sep

2007

Whether You Acknowledge it or Not…

Yes, you take it with you.

Being top of the pile means that whites are peculiarly and uniquely insensitive to race and racism, and the power relations this involves. We are invariably the beneficiaries, never the victims. Even when well-meaning, we remain strangely ignorant. The clout enjoyed by whites does not reside simply in an abstraction – western societies – but in the skin of each and every one of us. Whether we like it or not, in every corner of the planet we enjoy an extraordinary personal power bestowed by our colour. It is something we are largely oblivious of, and consequently take for granted, irrespective of whether we are liberal or reactionary, backpackers, tourists or expatriate businessmen.

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28

Sep

2007

I Really Should Get Back to Writing…

Really, really.

I need to find some angst to funnel. I know it’s there. I’ve just been too good at distracting myself to deal with it.

I’ve got to review my writing schedule for the year, too. Black Desert isn’t going to get done all by itself, and right now I open it up every day and it just sits there and stares at me. It’s like that world is a thousand miles and three lifetimes away.

Maybe I should distract myself with some other writing project.

I feel sort of adrift, writing-wise, these days. Been that way since mid-August, which may not sound like a long time for some of you, but not writing, for me, is really tough. I’m usually a much saner, clear-headed person when the words come.

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28

Sep

2007