dear systran: you suck

Go to Google Translate and translate "For your information" into any language other than Japanese or Chinese.  You'll see the same results on Babelfish.  I find this a rather baffling error.

dear systran: you suck

Go to Google Translate and translate "For your information" into any language other than Japanese or Chinese.  You'll see the same results on Babelfish.  I find this a rather baffling error.

e&tg 28

I got angry.  "Do you see this?"  I pointed at my didjeridoo.  "This is a reminder of who i really am.  That girl who “beat me up” today?  That was me, lustrums past.  And at one point, i decided i'd walk away from it while i was still alive, still whole.  I took up a neighbor's proposition to busk, me on my didjeridoo, him on his djembe.  The first night, we split our money and there was a star left over.  He wanted to keep it, since it was his idea to play music in the streets.  I did not agree.  Our disagreement escalated and i broke his arm.  Over a damned copper coin."  I clenched my right hand.  "It was not an accident.  I very deliberately sought out to cripple his means of subsistence.  I could have broken his drum, but my thought then was to make him unable to work and to harm him.  It was an act of malice."  I opened my hand and let it fall on the bar.  "I am a malicious and violent man.  If i could not change then, when i was young, why should i change now?  How could i change now?"

Gialarçi looked at me sadly.  She put her hand in mine and said, "Mwaele, you already have changed.  Stop looking at who you used to be, at who you think you are, and look at what you're doing now, what you have now."

I pulled my hand back.  "I'm doing nothing but drinking beer i can't afford, abusing the good will of a friend, and feeling sorry for myself because i can't work anymore.  What do i have now?  Nothing."

She pressed her lips together, said a word and waved her hand at me.  Suddenly, light exploded before my eyes.  I reared back reflexively and fell off my stool.  "What the hell, Giali!" i yelled.  "I can't see!"

"Oh, i knew that."  I could hear her sneering.  "It seems to me that if you don't want to see, you might as well not bother seeing at all."

I stumbled as i got up and tried to find my seat.  After what seemed like minutes, i laid my hand on it, but it was pulled away.  Then something hit me in the back of the knees and i hit the floor again.  I felt someone kneel on my chest and i heard her voice in my ear.  "Now look what you've done," she whispered, "you've gone and made me lose my temper in my own beerhouse, in front of all my customers.  I do hope you haven't cost me any more business, Mwaele dear."

e&tg 28

I got angry.  "Do you see this?"  I pointed at my didjeridoo.  "This is a reminder of who i really am.  That girl who “beat me up” today?  That was me, lustrums past.  And at one point, i decided i'd walk away from it while i was still alive, still whole.  I took up a neighbor's proposition to busk, me on my didjeridoo, him on his djembe.  The first night, we split our money and there was a star left over.  He wanted to keep it, since it was his idea to play music in the streets.  I did not agree.  Our disagreement escalated and i broke his arm.  Over a damned copper coin."  I clenched my right hand.  "It was not an accident.  I very deliberately sought out to cripple his means of subsistence.  I could have broken his drum, but my thought then was to make him unable to work and to harm him.  It was an act of malice."  I opened my hand and let it fall on the bar.  "I am a malicious and violent man.  If i could not change then, when i was young, why should i change now?  How could i change now?"

Gialarçi looked at me sadly.  She put her hand in mine and said, "Mwaele, you already have changed.  Stop looking at who you used to be, at who you think you are, and look at what you're doing now, what you have now."

I pulled my hand back.  "I'm doing nothing but drinking beer i can't afford, abusing the good will of a friend, and feeling sorry for myself because i can't work anymore.  What do i have now?  Nothing."

She pressed her lips together, said a word and waved her hand at me.  Suddenly, light exploded before my eyes.  I reared back reflexively and fell off my stool.  "What the hell, Giali!" i yelled.  "I can't see!"

"Oh, i knew that."  I could hear her sneering.  "It seems to me that if you don't want to see, you might as well not bother seeing at all."

I stumbled as i got up and tried to find my seat.  After what seemed like minutes, i laid my hand on it, but it was pulled away.  Then something hit me in the back of the knees and i hit the floor again.  I felt someone kneel on my chest and i heard her voice in my ear.  "Now look what you've done," she whispered, "you've gone and made me lose my temper in my own beerhouse, in front of all my customers.  I do hope you haven't cost me any more business, Mwaele dear."

a time for wine

ikkyu2 asked me if i could say something on the subject of wine; "your philosophy of wine, what you look for, what you try to avoid, what you particularly like about certain grapes or particular wineries or particular bottles of wine."  He also said i was "good at writing about wine," but that's too kind.  I like wine, and when i write about it, that enjoyment comes through; on a technical basis, however, i consider myself a hack at best because my wine vocabulary is still developing, and i have a very hard time finding words that can describe what i smell and taste in wine.

I should start out by saying that i didn't care for wine for a long time.  I'd had some wine (probably all from Chile) when i was in Ecuador, and i didn't dislike it, but i wasn't in a position to appreciate it, either.  When i came to the States, i mostly drank wretched mass-produced beer (and no wine that i can recall) until i turned 21.  Afterwards, i'd occasionally have wine when i was eating out with my family, but all i'd find was big, tannic cabernet sauvignons and buttery chardonnays.  So i shrugged and decided that wine wasn't for me.

Fast-forward to the time when i was dating Kim and she took me to Napa for the first time.  That was quite an eye opener.  After that, i became a pinot noir aficionado, i think because it's a lighter-bodied red wine that's low in tannins.  I also enjoyed Mondavi's Fumé Blanc, which is their fancy name for sauvignon blanc.

Later i developed an aversion to zinfandels because every zinfandel i had tasted like raisins.  Bonny Doon's Cardinal Zin broke the streak and soon i found that the most common wine in my rack was zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon.  Wait, when did i start liking cabernet sauvignon?  Well, i started finding some wineries that had CS that wasn't a punch in the mouth with every sip.

The first chardonnay i found that i liked was Thomas Fogerty's.  It's still rare for me to find a chardonnay i like, although the Santa Cruz Mountains wineries tend to make chardonnays in the style i prefer, with little-to-no oak and secondary malolactic fermentation (which yields that buttery taste).

If i were to have a philosophy on wine, it would be to seek out something different, like single-grape wines of varietals that usually end up in blends, such as Justin's petit verdot, which was excellent.  I also seek out rare grapes, such as valdiguié, charbono, blaufränkisch, and négrette.  Lastly, i'm a dessert wine slut.  Your average muscat is fun, but a great dessert wine is indescribably good; it makes all your endorphin flash bulbs pop in your head.

More later.

a time for wine

ikkyu2 asked me if i could say something on the subject of wine; "your philosophy of wine, what you look for, what you try to avoid, what you particularly like about certain grapes or particular wineries or particular bottles of wine."  He also said i was "good at writing about wine," but that's too kind.  I like wine, and when i write about it, that enjoyment comes through; on a technical basis, however, i consider myself a hack at best because my wine vocabulary is still developing, and i have a very hard time finding words that can describe what i smell and taste in wine.

I should start out by saying that i didn't care for wine for a long time.  I'd had some wine (probably all from Chile) when i was in Ecuador, and i didn't dislike it, but i wasn't in a position to appreciate it, either.  When i came to the States, i mostly drank wretched mass-produced beer (and no wine that i can recall) until i turned 21.  Afterwards, i'd occasionally have wine when i was eating out with my family, but all i'd find was big, tannic cabernet sauvignons and buttery chardonnays.  So i shrugged and decided that wine wasn't for me.

Fast-forward to the time when i was dating Kim and she took me to Napa for the first time.  That was quite an eye opener.  After that, i became a pinot noir aficionado, i think because it's a lighter-bodied red wine that's low in tannins.  I also enjoyed Mondavi's Fumé Blanc, which is their fancy name for sauvignon blanc.

Later i developed an aversion to zinfandels because every zinfandel i had tasted like raisins.  Bonny Doon's Cardinal Zin broke the streak and soon i found that the most common wine in my rack was zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon.  Wait, when did i start liking cabernet sauvignon?  Well, i started finding some wineries that had CS that wasn't a punch in the mouth with every sip.

The first chardonnay i found that i liked was Thomas Fogerty's.  It's still rare for me to find a chardonnay i like, although the Santa Cruz Mountains wineries tend to make chardonnays in the style i prefer, with little-to-no oak and secondary malolactic fermentation (which yields that buttery taste).

If i were to have a philosophy on wine, it would be to seek out something different, like single-grape wines of varietals that usually end up in blends, such as Justin's petit verdot, which was excellent.  I also seek out rare grapes, such as valdiguié, charbono, blaufränkisch, and négrette.  Lastly, i'm a dessert wine slut.  Your average muscat is fun, but a great dessert wine is indescribably good; it makes all your endorphin flash bulbs pop in your head.

More later.