He cannot measure up to Albert but he looks cool (detail).
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Every time you dance, God kills a dictator
It's 0:55 AM and I'm leaving for a long disco (house) night. While I'll be dancing, Saddam Hussein will probably be executed. This makes me think about meaning of life. Or not.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
You are not beautiful unique snowflake
Several days ago, I finished subtitle translation of Fight Club for Czech TV. Of course, I wanted to base this translation on the subtitles I translated for Czech theatrical release 7 years ago. Originally, I just wanted to adjust my old subitles a little bit because I always assumed Fight Club translation was one of my "masterpieces".
I was rather surprised at how many mistakes I found in my old translation!
Not "godawful mistakes that completely prevent you from understanding the movie" like there are in the video dubbing of Fight Club, but serious oversights nevertheless. For example, I originally thought that "ground zero" refers to the time of explosion or that "I was hugging the walls" means that the hero actually embraced the walls. In Fight Club, there are isolated sentences that don't make much sense themselves and you have to put them in the context of what characters think and believe. Only then you can try to translate them. And, by the way, I still think Fight Club is very good movie, but for slightly different reasons than 7 years ago...
This reminded me of the horrors I experienced when I recently read my first movie reviews in the Cinema magazine (from 1993!). At that time I thought "How fucking cool I am, I write for Cinema, beat that!" Now I see that the editor maybe saw some glimmer of promise in my writing and published even the shitty stuff I wrote at that time (I had no prior experience with writing reviews, much less any education in this field).
Remember. No matter how good you think you are, you can be better (at least if you are younger than 60 or 70, probably). The fact that 60% or 99% of other people are worse than you doesn't change a thing about it.
BTW, this post's title is a quote from Fight Club.
I was rather surprised at how many mistakes I found in my old translation!
Not "godawful mistakes that completely prevent you from understanding the movie" like there are in the video dubbing of Fight Club, but serious oversights nevertheless. For example, I originally thought that "ground zero" refers to the time of explosion or that "I was hugging the walls" means that the hero actually embraced the walls. In Fight Club, there are isolated sentences that don't make much sense themselves and you have to put them in the context of what characters think and believe. Only then you can try to translate them. And, by the way, I still think Fight Club is very good movie, but for slightly different reasons than 7 years ago...
This reminded me of the horrors I experienced when I recently read my first movie reviews in the Cinema magazine (from 1993!). At that time I thought "How fucking cool I am, I write for Cinema, beat that!" Now I see that the editor maybe saw some glimmer of promise in my writing and published even the shitty stuff I wrote at that time (I had no prior experience with writing reviews, much less any education in this field).
Remember. No matter how good you think you are, you can be better (at least if you are younger than 60 or 70, probably). The fact that 60% or 99% of other people are worse than you doesn't change a thing about it.
BTW, this post's title is a quote from Fight Club.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Hello There, Hello Kitty
Today, I discovered that the single most important post-Communist shop has finally opened in our country, in the Letnany mall.
Their selection is rather good. It closes on December 31 and should reappear somewhere near the center of Prague in January or February.
Their selection is rather good. It closes on December 31 and should reappear somewhere near the center of Prague in January or February.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Merry Actual Christmas
I spent the actual Christmas Day walking around Prague, taking photographs of this bleak, sad day.
Bonus: I never knew my grandfather was such a sexy mofo. As was my father, of course.
Bonus: I never knew my grandfather was such a sexy mofo. As was my father, of course.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Merry Pre-Christmas
As bizarre as it may sound, I celebrated Christmas with Karolina and her family one day in advance - the same as last year. As bizarre as it may sound, I actually got more presents that when Karolina was my girlfriend. As bizarre as it may sound, Karolina enjoyed this T-shirt she got from me (oops, I mean "from Mr. Jesus"):
Now, what shall I do today and tomorrow? I guess it's finally time to play that new Zelda.
Now, what shall I do today and tomorrow? I guess it's finally time to play that new Zelda.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Fun with Wet Foam
(Or, "The Intricacies of Single Life, Part 2")
Since Karolina left, there was a fresh unexpected complication with the dogs: They started urinating at home, in places where they never should have urinated, including the bed! Of course, Karolina is sure it's because other girls now (occassionally!) sleep in that bed and the dogs are marking their territory.
That means I have to be extra careful about where in the flat the dogs can go and I have to often put covers / sheets / pillows in the washing machine, often several times a week. I tried several methods how to make the dogs stop this, with no success at all. In the end, the "best solution" seems to be to leave a small pillow on the floor in the hall, specifically to be urinated upon.
But back to the funny stuff.
I also had to clean the bed mattress (foam in fabric cover) which is too big to fit into the washing machine. That meant putting the mattress in the bathtub and washing it there, manually. During this process, I banged my head on the soap holder four times and had to make sure the blood from my head doesn't drip on the mattress.
Afterward, when I drained the bathtub, it was necessary to take the wet (and thus very heavy) mattress out to the terrace to let it dry there. Of course, the mattress was dripping water at alarming rate. I planned to pick it up and run with it as fast as possible to the terrace. However, I underestimated the mattress. When I started running from bathroom to the hall, I slipped on the floor tiles (made wet just a fraction of second before thanks to the dripping water) and fell on the ground very painfully, the mattress falling on me and making the whole hall really wet.
Wait, that's not all.
After I left the mattress on the terrace for two days, it seemed dry and I put it back into the bed. "Seemed" is the key word here because I greatly underestimated the capacity of the foam mattress to retain water.
When I awoke the next day, my back hurt like hell (in addition to other parts of my body hurting from banging my head and falling in the hall) and it seemed the dogs urinated right in the middle of the bed. Wrong. It was water that got squished from the mattress on which I slept the whole night.
Additionally to the back-ache, I got nasty cold the same day. I couldn't swallow anything for the next three days and I had interesting hallucinations. And my bedroom smelled like decaying wet rags.
Since Karolina left, there was a fresh unexpected complication with the dogs: They started urinating at home, in places where they never should have urinated, including the bed! Of course, Karolina is sure it's because other girls now (occassionally!) sleep in that bed and the dogs are marking their territory.
That means I have to be extra careful about where in the flat the dogs can go and I have to often put covers / sheets / pillows in the washing machine, often several times a week. I tried several methods how to make the dogs stop this, with no success at all. In the end, the "best solution" seems to be to leave a small pillow on the floor in the hall, specifically to be urinated upon.
But back to the funny stuff.
I also had to clean the bed mattress (foam in fabric cover) which is too big to fit into the washing machine. That meant putting the mattress in the bathtub and washing it there, manually. During this process, I banged my head on the soap holder four times and had to make sure the blood from my head doesn't drip on the mattress.
Afterward, when I drained the bathtub, it was necessary to take the wet (and thus very heavy) mattress out to the terrace to let it dry there. Of course, the mattress was dripping water at alarming rate. I planned to pick it up and run with it as fast as possible to the terrace. However, I underestimated the mattress. When I started running from bathroom to the hall, I slipped on the floor tiles (made wet just a fraction of second before thanks to the dripping water) and fell on the ground very painfully, the mattress falling on me and making the whole hall really wet.
Wait, that's not all.
After I left the mattress on the terrace for two days, it seemed dry and I put it back into the bed. "Seemed" is the key word here because I greatly underestimated the capacity of the foam mattress to retain water.
When I awoke the next day, my back hurt like hell (in addition to other parts of my body hurting from banging my head and falling in the hall) and it seemed the dogs urinated right in the middle of the bed. Wrong. It was water that got squished from the mattress on which I slept the whole night.
Additionally to the back-ache, I got nasty cold the same day. I couldn't swallow anything for the next three days and I had interesting hallucinations. And my bedroom smelled like decaying wet rags.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Patriot Act
I took my dogs to the old military monument on the Vitkov hill. During their journey to the gigantic tomb and Jan Zizka equestrian statue (the biggest in the world!), they watched the beautiful 100-spired city of Prague below them and gradually discovered their true patriotic selves.
They are the original Czech Dogs. Prazsky Krysarik and Giant Chihuahua. And they are proud of their nation, protecting it from any aggressors, terrestrial or extra-terrestrial!
(Click here for dramatic slideshow.)
They are the original Czech Dogs. Prazsky Krysarik and Giant Chihuahua. And they are proud of their nation, protecting it from any aggressors, terrestrial or extra-terrestrial!
(Click here for dramatic slideshow.)
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Wii Would Like to Connect24
As a proud owner of Nintendo Wii, I was dismayed that 2 days after the official Europen launch, I was still unable to use ANY online features except firmware update. The Wii connected to the server but then told me that "WiiConnect24 and Wii Shop are currently not operational". The solution was to change my country from Czech Republic to United Kingdom!
They probably cannot start the online service for the Czech Republic until they can offer you an agreement in Czech language you can click through...
They probably cannot start the online service for the Czech Republic until they can offer you an agreement in Czech language you can click through...
Thursday, December 07, 2006
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