The Lonely Cookie

In this season of feasts and lavish banquets, I have no choice but to recall the lonely cookie. Yes, for all those times when a potato is left on the tray, a piece of pumpkin pie lays on the plate or a saddened feelerless prawn sits there, looking at you with tender eyes for you to take it out of its misery. There's always somebody who says, 'C'mon, it's just one'. And you look at him, after dinning for 3 hours straight, with the pain reflected on your face and yet sad for that little saved prawn, that crumbled cookie or that smashed piece of pumpkin pie.
I don't think it's very normal of us to shove that amount of food in such little time in the same space in which we normally put a third of that amount of food. Even though Christmas is Christmas and it's sacred, I appeal to your solidarity with that little cookie, all alone in its plate, with no company other than crumbles left by what once were its sisters before we engulfed them in an attack of Christmas spirit... don't you people have a heart?

La perrunilla solitaria

En esta época de festines y comilonas, no me queda más remedio que evocar a la perrunilla solitaria. Sí, sí, por todas esas veces que se queda un polvorón en la bandeja, un trozo de turrón en el plato o un triste langostino sin bigotes en la mesa, mirándote con ojitos tiernos para que le saques ya de su sufrimiento. Siempre hay alguien que te dice, "Venga, que sólo queda uno", y tú le miras, después de llevar 3 horas cenando, con el dolor reflejado en la cara y aun así, la pena por ese triste langostino afeitado, ese turrón desmigajado o ese polvoroncillo aplastado.
No es demasiado normal que nos metamos semejante cantidad de comida en tan poco tiempo en el mismo espacio en el que normalmente metemos menos de un tercio de esa cantidad. Aunque las fiestas son las fiestas y son sagradas, yo apelo a la solidaridad con esa pequeña perrunilla, solita en el plato, sin más compañía que las migas de las que fueron sus hermanas antes de que nosotros las engullésemos en un ataque de espíritu navideño... ¿es que no tenéis corazón?

Quick

Quick! I gotta go for dinner...

Happy holidays to all. Enjoy this time we spend with our families, to some THE ONLY time they spend with them, and I hope that the New Year's resolution is to be good ALL year around, not only in Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Rápido

Rápido, me tengo que ir a cenar...

Felices fiestas a todos. Disfrutad mucho de esta época que pasamos con la familia, algunos la ÚNICA que pasan con ellos, y que la resolución para el año nuevo sea que seáis todos buenos TODO el año, no sólo en Navidad.

¡¡FELIZ NAVIDAD Y FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!

Documentaries

I know I'm not supposed to talk about the documentaries I translate, it is all confidential and all, but lately I've been translating a series of documentaries I really like.
They're called "Explorations powered by Duracell" and they're short documentaries about technology, human body and science in general.
I like them because they are short and about curious stuff. Even though I've always been an arts person, I am very keen on science. So with these documentaries I'm discovering all things I've learned as a hobby are coming very handy.Last month I translated three of these documentaries and they've made me think a lot. The first one was "Tomorrow's Ear" and it was about people that are deaf from birth and the new coclear implants they're inventing to overcome that. The second one was "Storm front" and it was about the climate change. Anf the third one was "First Impressions" and it was about the chemical reactions that triggers the body when we encounter a pretty person, how our genes are designed to be appealed by pretty people cause they seem healthier.I only talk about this cause I love having a job in which I learn at least one new thing every day and, though everybody says I'm a host of useless knowledge, everything I learn it's fascinating to me.
Due to these documentaries I'm sure all we've always called "fate" is our genes. They define how we'll be, which diseases we'll be prone to, to whom we'll feel appealed, and a whole list of things. And now we're starting to change that fate. Through the latest discovering about our genome, researchers know now how to change all those genes we think are "faulty" or that may be a problem to the future person.
There is a huge ethical debate about this and, although there are some things I do not think are correct, there are some others that don't seem so bad and that don't go forward often because of the double moral that reigns in our western societies.
I really think it's a pity to know that, on the one hand, the human race is capable of researching and discovering things that could save us from diseases or even make us live longer; and on the other hand, it can use those discoverings to destroy life on Earth. We are making the planet to rise up against us and, even though, we are so arrogant we think we can change the natural course of things.
In a book I'm reading now, it's said the human race won't evolve anymore because the natural selection law says only the strongest of each species evolve and the human race, as soon as it reaches a minimum technological power, helps the weak and needy. This is a statement that I think reveals a lot of us as a species and it's intriguing, at least. I say this because we've proved that even though we haven't evolved in thousands of years, we haven't disappeared, which means man can get to an "evolutionary stagnation" and still keep going technologically. Instead of removing the "faulty" portion of population, that is exactly what makes us improve the species, trying to help those that otherwise wouldn't survive. The ability to feel compassion for another being is what makes us human. It is ironical, in some way.
Well, there I launch this little shuttle for you to think about the world we live in and about the importance of small things. I recommend you read that book I talked about. Although, as I've been said, every time you read a science-fiction book, check up the date in which it was written. You will be surprised...

Checking the status of your Japanese knowledge

I've received a link to a page where you can check if you know your Japanese kana, both hiragana and katakana. I got a 100% in hiragana, although I haven't tried with katakana yet.
I recommend you check the page cause it has a lot of curious things, such as finding out how to write your birth date in Mayan glyphs.

Pics & Dreams

I dreamt the other day that my friend Andrea lived in Canada instead of in Asturias, in the north of Spain. Suddenly, as in all dreams, the fact that she lived in Canada seemed perfectly logical and normal. Even the fact that her parents had an northern accent while living in Vancouver was totally normal.

In my dream she had finished studying all she's studying and she was looking for a job. As she now lived in Canada it looked like a good chance to me to tell her that there's a lot of translation jobs in Canada and that we should start a business there. She agreed and in order to do all the paperwork, I moved to her place.
Here's where the wonder of dreams comes in place...
I took a bus and got to her house in a few hours (!!!). When I got there, I greeted everyone and, as she spoke on the phone, I looked out the window and saw (!!!!!!) part of the ski runs that they have in Van north, as if there was a chroma. It was like a very regular sight. Me, in a fourth floor of an northern Spanish home, looking out the window and seeing the snowy trees and perfectly shaped ski runs of Vancouver, more than 5,000 miles away from there.
The best part was when, in the middle of the dream, something made me remember she doesn't live in Canada but in Asturias, and everything came back to normal, except for the tiny detail that I still could see Vancouver out the window.
Andrea, do you have a poster of Canada sticked outside your window back home?
As you can see, even in my dreams I do think we have a professional future...
I have pretty weird dreams lately and the truth is that I'm spooked cause it's been a while since they were SO weird.
The last I remember waking up thinking "Wow!" was one in which I was a cashier in a big market and there was only weird people going to my checkout. Nature freaks like tattooed children, dismembered dads and moms victims of some nuclear holocaust. Now that I think about it, it reminds me of a song...
I know lots of people think dreams are the reflect of what we really think of the world but I hope it doesn't apply to my case, cause it may mean I should be locked up. Opinions aside, I hope it's not the case.
The year I lived in Canada I was often asked in what language I thought and, even though it might sound odd, I thought both in Spanish and English. Whenever I though of things about my parents or Spain, I thought in Spanish. But when it was something that had happened in Canada, I always thought in English. Well, it's the same with dreams, although sometimes there's weird stuff. My dreams sometimes have a lot to do with languages, I guess because of my affinity to them. Sometimes, mostly with nightmares, I don't understand anybody and they don't understand me either. Some other times, even when I'm in a country I don't even know what they speak, I speak and they understand. That's cool.
Lately, when I dream of snowboarding, I dream in English. Sometimes I dream I talk to my parents in English and they, poor them, don't understand a word that comes out of my mouth and I get very frustrated cause it's so obvious what I'm telling them (!!!).
Anyways, I invite you to share the linguistic curiosities of your dreams or your dreams themselves. I'll always be conforted by the idea of not being the only person with the dreams of a creep. Hehe.

Fotos y sueños

El otro día soñé que mi amiga Andrea vivía en Canadá en vez de en Asturias. De pronto, como en todos los sueños, el hecho de que ella viviera en Canadá parecía completamente lógico y normal. Hasta el hecho de que sus padres tuvieran acento asturiano viviendo en Vancouver era lo más normal del mundo.

En el sueño ella ya había acabado todas las cosas que está estudiando y estaba buscando trabajo. Como de pronto vivía en Canadá, a mí me pareció una oportunidad para comentarle que en Canadá hay mucho trabajo de traducción y que deberíamos abrir una empresa allí. A ella le pareció una buena idea y para prepararlo todo en condiciones, me mudé a su casa.

Aquí es donde la maravilla de los sueños entra en juego...
Yo me cogía un autobús y me presentaba en su casa en apenas unas horas (!!!). Al llegar saludaba a todos y, mientras ella hablaba por teléfono, yo miraba por la ventana y veía (!!!!!!) parte de las pistas de esquí que hay al norte de Vancouver, como si de un croma se tratara. Era una estampa de lo más normal. Yo, en el cuarto piso de un edificio de Avilés viendo por la ventana los abetos nevados y las curvas perfectas de una pista de esquí de Vancouver, a más de 9.000 kilómetros de allí.

Lo mejor de todo fue cuando, a mitad del sueño, algo me hizo recordar que ella no vive en Canadá sino en Asturias, y todo volvió a la realidad, excepto por el pequeño detalle de que seguía viendo Vancouver por la ventana.

Andrea, ¿tienes un póster de Canadá pegado por fuera de la ventana de tu habitación en Avilés?
Como ves, hasta en sueños pienso que tenemos un futuro profesional...

Últimamente tengo algunos sueños un poco extraños, y la verdad es que me alarma porque hacía tiempo que mis sueños no eran TAN raros. El último que recuerdo que me levantara pensando "¡Guau!" fue en el que yo era cajera en una gran superficie y por mi caja sólo pasaba gente rara, freaks de la naturaleza, con niños tatuados, padres desmembrados y madres víctimas de algún holocausto nuclear. La verdad es que ahora que lo pienso me recuerda a una canción de La cabra mecánica...

Sé que mucha gente piensa que los sueños son el reflejo de lo que realmente pensamos del mundo, pero yo espero que eso no sea así en mi caso, porque quizá quiera decir que estoy para que me encierren. Opiniones del público aparte, espero que no sea así.

El año que viví en Canadá a menudo me preguntaban que en qué idioma pensaba y, por raro que parezca, tenía pensamientos en español y en inglés. Cuando pensaba con cosas que tenían que ver con mis padres o con España, lo hacía en español. Pero cuando el pensamiento era sobre cosas que me habían pasado en Canadá, siempre lo hacía en inglés. Pues bien, con los sueños me pasa lo mismo, aunque a veces pasan cosas raras. Mis sueños muchas veces tienen que ver con los idiomas, supongo que por mi afinidad con ellos. Muchas veces, sobre todo cuando son pesadillas, no me entiendo con nadie y nadie me entiende a mí. Otras veces, aunque esté en un país en el que ni siquiera sé en qué hablan, yo hablo y todos me entienden. Eso mola. Últimamente, cuando sueño con hacer snowboard, sueño en inglés. A veces sueño que les hablo a mis padres en inglés y ellos, claro, pobriños, no me entienden y yo me frustro mucho porque está clarísimo lo que les estoy diciendo (!!!!).

En fin, que os invito a que compartáis las curiosidades lingüísticas de vuestros sueños o vuestros mismos sueños, que siempre me consolará pensar que no soy la única con sueños de creep. Jeje.