It's Not Been a Very Nice Night and Day

It was a bad night’s sleep. Still unable to sleep, about two hours after I turned out the bedside light, I turned it on again for some more reading. And at around 5 am, I waked up to a mechanical noise and thought that an early morning cabling work had started. But realising it was too early for that, I went to the window and found a bus driver crossing from the other side of Neil Road to his Malaysia-looking bus parked in front of this apartment. Apparently he was coming back from an outdoor urination session. The bus was empty and it seemed he had decided to stay and possibly sleep there with the engine running. I couldn’t stand the engine sound and went out in my pajamas to tell him to fuck off.

Back in bed, I was woken up this time with my own snoring right when I was falling into sleep. It happened a few times and, at the same time I was feeling a bit sick with a sore throat and irritation in the nasal passage.

I knew that it was not that “bad infection” I’m very familiar with. Regardless, I wanted to crush this ominously growing sickness preemptively. With little sleep and though there is some distance from here to his clinic, I decided to go see Dr. G who should know my condition very well. I didn’t have to give my name, the nurse remembered me. It’s been almost a decade since I first visited there. I hope I will feel much better tomorrow.

Damaged "Gurrelieder" CDs & Pig's Legs up Your Cunt

I found another damaged 2-CD set, “Gurrelieder,” last night. I bought it in Kyoto who knows when. The set, an import from West Germany, was priced at ¥8,000. Back then, a CD cost ¥4,200. After my first attempt, I have no trust in the repair kit.

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Steven Pinker mentions this Japanese imprecation in page 354 of “The Stuff of Thought”: I’ll stick a pig’s leg up your cunt until your back teeth rattle. I’ve never heard of it. I should know the original Japanese version of it.

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The Tanjong Pagar station of the Malay Railway (KTM) is to be moved to Woodlands by July next year though the station itself will be preserved as a historic site. This is a big removal of the presence of Malaysia from Singapore.

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ラッシャー木村が亡くなった。

Prime Ministrial Cul de Sac

米軍の普天間飛行場移設問題は、60年安保改定を巡る大騒動のように発展するかもしれない。結末も同じに。首相は、アメリカとの交渉で何とか仕上げた案を国内の圧倒的反対を押し切って実現させた後、辞職するというものだ。しかし、この移設はどのような法的手続きが必要なのだろうか。安保条約には、基地の設置場所まで具体的に規定しているのだろうか。そうだとすると、外国と結んでいる条約の内容を変更するには、新たな批准が必要なのだろうか。

それにしても、日本国の国民感情は60年安保当時と変わっていないようだ。米軍を歓迎するのは米兵相手の売春婦ぐらいで、基地受け入れに前向きな都道府県はひとつもない。そしてそのことをアメリカに言えない政府。アメリカが納得して全基地を撤去したら、浮かれている場合じゃないのに、自衛隊増強などの代替を背負う覚悟のない国民。日本版「NIMBY」か。

「Pidgin English」を「Pigeon English」だと思って、「鳩の英語だな」などと、ときどきおかしなことを言う東京都知事が指摘するように、米軍だって日本のどこでもいいから駐留したいわけではない。北東アジアの軍事的安定とアメリカの世界戦略にとって、沖縄が今でも極めて重要であることに変わりない。首相は強行突破するのか、それとも不可能とわかっていながら、説得するふりをして時間だけを経過させるのか。

Chomsky Denied Entry to West Bank

It is an unbelievable PR blunder of Israel to stop a person, none other than Noam Chomsky, at its West Bank checkpoint that borders with Jordan. The following reports are from Al Jazeera and the BBC.

Israel stops US academic at border (Al Jazeera)
Noam Chomsky, a renowned Jewish-American scholar and political activist, has been barred from entering the West Bank.
Chomsky was denied entry by Israeli immigration officials as he attempted to cross the Allenby Bridge from Jordan on Sunday.
The linguistics professor, who frequently speaks out against Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories, had been scheduled to give a lecture at Birzeit University in the West Bank.
"I entered with my daughter and two friends who we met in Amman the day before," he told Al Jazeera.
"After several hours of waiting and multiple interrogations our two friends were permitted entry and my daughter and I were informed that we were denied entry after much discussion indirectly with the interior ministry."

Chomsky said the border officials were "very polite" as they "transmitted inquiries from the [Israeli] ministry of the interior".

He said that he believed he was denied entry was for two reasons.

"The government does not like the kind of things I say which puts them into the category of every other government in the world," he said.
"The second was that they seemed upset about the fact that I was taking an invitation from Birzeit and I had no plans of speaking to any Israeli universities as I've done many times in the past, but not this time."

'Misunderstanding'

However, a spokeswoman at the Israeli interior ministry, which controls the country's borders, said Chomsky had not been allowed to cross the border due to misunderstanding.

She said officials were trying to get clearance from the Israeli military, which controls access to the West Bank to allow Chomsky to enter.
"We are trying to contact the military to clear things up and if they have no objection we see no reason why he should not be allowed in," Sabine Hadad told the Reuters news agency.
Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian MP who had invited Chomsky to speak at the university's philosophy department, said the scholar had been detained at the border for five hours.
"This act shows the nature of the Israeli government that is against freedom of speech, particularly from such a noted international figure like Chomsky," Barghouti said.
Chomsky, 81, is a professor of linguistics at the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has frequently spoken out against Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

Israel denies US academic Chomsky West Bank entry (BBC)
Renowned US scholar Noam Chomsky has been denied entry to the West Bank by Israeli immigration officials.
Prof Chomsky, renowned for his work on linguistics and philosophy, was planning to deliver a lecture at Birzeit University.
Prof Chomsky, 82, had been trying to enter from Jordan.
An Israeli interior ministry spokeswoman said it was to trying to clear the matter up and allow Prof Chomsky to enter.
Prof Chomsky said the officials were very polite but he was denied entry because "the government did not like the kinds of things I say and they did not like that I was only talking at Birzeit and not at an Israeli university too."
He added: "I asked them if they could find any government in the world that likes the things I say."
Prof Chomsky's Palestinian host for the visit, Mustafa al-Barghouti, told Reuters: "This decision is a fascist action, amounting to suppression of freedom of expression."
The interior ministry spokeswoman, Sabine Hadad, said: "We are trying to contact the military to clear things up and if they have no objection we see no reason why he should not be allowed in."
Prof Chomsky has frequently spoken out against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

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Some days ago, I found myself in another uncomfortable state. The reason was the same that distressed me a few months ago. He was boastful vacuously about something that clearly belongs to my own field, when it is broadly defined. Apparently, he was trying to present himself as someone that is larger than who he actually is. He may have a success in doing so with people who have only a scant background of the subject as he may have with the people who were also there, but not with me. That he brought up the topic again when I was with him, who should be aware of my occupational knowledge, seems that he tries to compete with me at my own game. No chance and so cheap, man. Is this a reflection of his inferior complex?

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There must be something wrong with online connection. I see “Problem loading Page: Server not found” repeatedly and when pages can be loaded, it takes so long. I have searched many sites, when they could be accessed, but I still cannot figure out if this happens because of the computer, the provider or the browser.

1973 Lions!

西武ライオンズが復刻ユニフォームを正式発表した。太平洋クラブの初代ユニフォーム４種のうちのひとつで、最も使用機会が少なかったモデル！先日の報道では「ワインレッド」などと書いていたので、実際には濃いピンクだったのに「ワインレッド」と形容された昭和51年モデルだと思った。ただ、会見でヒガシオさんは「当時は山賊打線」と言われていたと語っているが、「山賊打線」は江藤監督になった昭和50年の話。ヒガシオさんもはっきり覚えていない昔となってしまったのか。

This Tough Feeling & Those Impossible People

This should have been a happy day for me with a new client introduced and only a small document to finish. Then I received two calls tonight, third and fourth counting from the one on 28th last month, which compelled me to feel like quitting... The first call of today was incredible as it seemed to display the deterioration of her mental capacity. When I corrected her, she was incredulous, deeply confused believing her memories were going. I asked her to check her dairy to see what she had written on the day. After about an hour, the second call came. She did check her dairy and found in an entry exactly what she had believed and told me, wrongly. She blamed the tranquilizer tablets her doc has been prescribing for this hallucinating episode. Nobody can be sure of anything at this moment, but when I imagine the kind of feeling someone close to me should have realizing her mind is not functioning, it’s tough. And my own feeling is one of confusion and fondness.

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This afternoon, I was looking for my letters a local paper had published some years ago, not to show my views on anything but somehow to prove how I write, because some pieces of my work were requested. I learned that the paper’s archive keeps its articles only for 30 days. And it ridiculously calls it an archive. Filing is the better word. But I managed to find a letter in whole and a part of another. The other two seem to be forever gone. I found a message board for homosexuals in Singapore that reprinted the whole letter, which was about what I saw at the old Ford Factory. A few people submitted their comments and all of them were rich in an anti-Japanese tone. I can reply in kind. One of the people mentioned that he (she?) would never set foot in any Japanese restaurant. Very fine. Many of those establishments are under non-Japanese management. So you are not avoiding something really Japanese but damaging your country’s business. Very fine, if you want to have absolutely nothing even remotely connected to Japanese in any sense. Do not use water for whatever reason that is recycled using any kind of purifying technology originated in Japan. Do not use any appliance or machinery that contains any part designed and/or manufactured by a Japanese company.Do not believe in your military forces that may include someone who went through training with the SDFJ. Do not go to Takashimaya. Do not feel victorious at Japan’s defeat. Singapore was a COLONY that was still occupied by Japan at the end of the war. What’s happening with the history education HERE?

Another Working Day & Seibu Revives Taiheiyo Club Jersey

今日の仕事もつらかった～。

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西武ライオンズ。今年の復刻ユニフォームは太平洋クラブ時代最後のものらしい。まさか腹番号はやらんだろうが、期待したい。

A Big Task Done & Bitchy Interpreters

I finished a big task yesterday. I may receive a notice soon for another document to submit. But with no good reason, I don’t think it will be required. It takes some weeks to see if the road ahead is clear or blocked.

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I was reviewing the talk I had last Wednesday, which reinforced my ideas about those “I feel so good because I can speak English better than you” interpreters. They don’t care about the type of work the situations call for. I still believe that so-called simultaneous interpretation is not appropriate where the interpreter, the speaker and the listeners are present in the same room without any barrier of sound. It only annoys the listeners and maybe the speaker too. Just imagine a situation where two different languages are being spoken almost at the same time and how your head processes the information. I found that an interpreter said No to the request not to do simultaneous word-by-word as it was irritating the listener. Which means she was not meeting the need of the client. And interpreters like her, almost all female, don’t care because they can speak English better than you. Bitches, I don’t want to share the same plane with you.

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Slow online connection is causing inconveniences.

Still Tired

日本から人を迎えて、昨日久しぶりに酒宴。深酒してしまって、帰宅の記憶がない。今日は夕方まで気力なし。もっと食べればよかったなどとも思っている。

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いつだったか、先日見た夢のことをもう少し思い出した。マリさんは、ヨーロッパの通信社（AFP？）から講演の依頼を受けていて、６～７センチほどに重ねられた講演資料を抱えていた。自分は「片面印刷だろうな」と思っていた。

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昨夜の酒のせいだけではなく、最近どうも疲れがとれない。体がだるいというのか、痛いというのか、すっきりしない。暴れていた歯の痛みは消えたが、来週半ばまで仕事が落ち着かない。

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それから、これもいつだったか、CNAにいた「Richard Lui」がCNNでメキシコ湾の原油流出事故をレポートしているのを見つけた。

Painfully Tired

水曜日から昨日にかけてのひどい気分はかなり改善した。ただ、この翻訳メモリーを使う仕事に納期までの時間の余裕がなくて、昨日の夜、今日と急いだ結果、またもや首と肩が痛い。痛みだけではなく、首の角度によっては背中の下まで神経に触れるような感じ。「休め」という指令だろう。

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けさの夢にマリさんが登場した。何の話をしていたのか記憶にないが、なぜか親しい間柄で、表面上は元気そうなマリさんの深刻な病状を、同一人物であるはずの別のマリさんに伝えて、ふたりで肩を抱き合うようにして泣いていた。

EXHAUSTION

イライラの激しい、怒りに近い１日だった。元文の内容と言語があまりに稚拙で気分が悪く、また別件には忌み嫌う翻訳メモリーソフトの使用が求められ、おまけにファイルを開くのに手間取るという始末。こういう気分の時は……何をすればいいのだろう。今日がいつなのかもはっきりわからないほどで、午前チェックした産経新聞のウェブサイトが４月30日と示していたので余計に混乱した。

A Wasteful Journey to HMV + A Crap

I tried the disk repair kit I got some weeks ago and it didn’t work. It only created new problems by grinding the disk surface. Before I tried the kit, I had found the same CD at HMV with a different jacket design, which I didn’t want. The original is the best almost always. But given the performance of the kit, I went to the store again today. HMV didn’t have it.

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A translation job came in this late afternoon. The original PowerPoint material seems to have been done by a large Japanese ad agency. Crap.

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I think that is a real crap… I feel I’m losing interest in most of the surroundings. They just don’t click. I try to go somewhere and do something to thicken myself, avoiding stuff that I know will bore me to death. If this goes on, I will find myself a deep recluse. Now trying to see all these things in a positive way, not as a way back to Big D.