Monday is upon us and by the calculations done by scientists from Cardiff it was the most depressing day of the year. See the article here, but at least for my part it did not feel anything like the worst day in my book. Apart from the fact that I spent my day at work alone, retyping a voice-interview and calculated that for a minute of speech I use ten minutes to write it down properly, it was and it is an ordinary day. Monday like any other.
OK, not exactly since David and I began to seriously investigate the possibility of doing a “Si.blogs” award in the style of Bloggies. If you feel up to the challenge, drop by his site and feel free to comment. As of this moment the whole thing is seriously under construction but we are hoping for something permanent (and of course a partial jury so that I will get every reward possible… mwahahaha! Ahem). Will tell more when more is known. Right now we are stil short of one graphic designer for a si.blog award sticker, and the whole thing needs to be spreaded around. So readers…go and spread. The knowledge, that is.
We are also a week away from THE exam, and I am getting into the phase where I am not sure as to what to study. Not that I will not do reruns of the things I already studied (by the way, if you see a guy walking down the street, mumbling something about functional and social genres of languages that`s probably me) I guess I just need to see the teacher on thursday and check up on the old exams (considering the times I said this you`d expect that the old exams were like an ancient scroll, containing every possible aspect of knowledge known to mankind. In fact, the only reason to go to those consultations is to remind the professor that you care. Making an appearance is very important).
The title for the today`s post comes from a Yann Tiersen song. If you would kindly explain to me what it means, I would be very happy (and also relieved that it does not mean something silly, dumb or plain offensive). You probably heard his music in Goodbye Lenin! or in Le fabuleux destin d’Amlie Poulain. It`s very recognizable, especially with his string section and the piano pieces included in between. I would consider it a happy music, although it can get a bit repetitive from time to time. Still, it carries enough charge that you don`t get bored by it and you find yourself humming it days after you heard it (Goes double for the Amelie soundtrack).
Another political comment concerning our current political position. I was very disappointed today where premier Janez Jana was answering questions from the opposition. When asked about the taxation and indexation he replied “Well, you see, you should know those things better than me since you were running this country before I came to power” and to me that shows his total incompetence when it comes to dealing with questions and showing some intiative. Or at least not trying to look like a big baby, pointing fingers. The thing is that we had the same government for the last twelve years and now that the opposition finally won and reversed the seating order, everybody is expecting some major change. But it`s not gonna happen if the current position will only come up with the answers as the upper one. Another fashion tip…I found out that the Media Watch site, a society which deals with intelectuall criticism and offers downloads of books, related to the subject of media, sexual cultures and others aspects of society. Since the books are usually written by the experts in the field, they are worth a look.
And since we are (or at least I am) studying linguistics, let me point out another thing that bothers me. The word INTERNET and its usage in slovenian language. Check out this article. You will notice that the title says “O rabi medmreja” which translates into “The usage of the internet” but then lower and throughout the whole text, the author uses the original, english word Internet and it even writes it with a small letter “i”, although the last time I checked, the word “Internet” is a name and should be written with a capital “I”. Medmreje is a word, coined from the term INTERNET, where INTER means “med” or in english “in between” and “net” means “mrea”. The problem with so-called “computer language” is that the slovene linguists did not bother to translate it promptly but instead waited for god knows what. And all of the sudden they realised that “hey, there`s like thousand words of computer language that we dont have the slovene equivalent for…we have to think of something…and think fast!” And so they did. These are the kind of problems the slovenian language is facing and until a unilateral agreement will be reached and the theory, written by the linguist scholars will have support from the people who actually use the language (namely the journalists and the media), there will be no “real” slovene language and all we will have is more and more english, german and serbocroatian words penetrating the slovene language and making it inrecognizable (maybe I should not rant too loud since this blog is in english, but still…I think we all get the point). Thus ends my linguistic rant for today.
I am also announcing the third photo wishlist.The rules are well-known, but for those who are new, please read this. And the Gmails invites are still open. Don`t be shy. And feel loved.