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As I said...
Jun. 20th, 2001 10:40 pmToday, the text dealing with embroidery stopped, and I began to translate a chapter on the "forgotten language of the ancients."
I'm not quite sure when the author is going to actually start talking about language, but so far, the text has gotten me into paganism, something called "Caucasian Albania," the rise of Islam in Dagestan, and the influence of Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism on Dagestan art.
I found a reference to Kufi calligraphy, the fortress at Itsar (festooned with ancient Aryan swastikas, spirals and broken lines to ward off evil spirits), as well as to a dude named Abu Hamid Mohammed ibn Abd ar-Rakhim al-Garnati, who traveled in Dagestan in the 12th century observing the locals ("...when a person dies, a ritual is performed to separate the meat from the bones of the deceased, and the meat is then fed to wild animals and birds...")
Business kept interfering with business today, so I still have three pages left of this job. Then I get to review a translation that has something to do with nuclear disarmament.
I am not complaining, BTW.
Yesterday, Zach spoke a bit about how the words we use really have a subjective meaning for each of us. He specifically used, as an example, the term "culture shock" in the context of a kid striking out from a place like Pagosa Springs to make his or her way in Hollyweird. Even though the kid may have heard the term and has some understanding of what it means, that understanding will be woefully inadequate to deal with the real McCoy.
What makes subjectivity doubly the case is that we have a habit of endowing words with new, unintended meanings. What's a "galleon moon"? What is "the biology of war"? And just what, exactly, might "the tao of HTML" be?
This all connects to a book I found recently and which, at odd moments, I am reading (like I have the time!). The reason I return to the book is that it's making me rethink the concept of "listening skills."
It is traditionally said that listening skills are very important. Everyone involved in sales is repeatedly told to listen to their customers and prospects. However, most folks, when they are "listening" to the other party in a conversation, are really paying more attention to what they are going to say next than listening to what's being said. (That ever happen to you? It's happened to me...)
But like the kid in Zach's example, although most of us understand the importance of "listening," very few really know how to listen. It's all a matter of how deeply you choose to get into what is being said.
More another time... gotta go to sleep. Another big day tomorrow.
Cheers...
P.S. I swapped the network and video cards this morning. Alice went a little crazy reinstalling stuff (it wasn't where it was supposed to be, natch), and for a little while again, the network worked. Then an LED began to flash on the hub, corresponding to some problem on Alice's leg of the network. I checked the cable yesterday, so it has to be the network card. I have to find the time to call LinkSys tech support tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe their system won't randomly disconnect me like it did the other day.
I'm not quite sure when the author is going to actually start talking about language, but so far, the text has gotten me into paganism, something called "Caucasian Albania," the rise of Islam in Dagestan, and the influence of Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism on Dagestan art.
I found a reference to Kufi calligraphy, the fortress at Itsar (festooned with ancient Aryan swastikas, spirals and broken lines to ward off evil spirits), as well as to a dude named Abu Hamid Mohammed ibn Abd ar-Rakhim al-Garnati, who traveled in Dagestan in the 12th century observing the locals ("...when a person dies, a ritual is performed to separate the meat from the bones of the deceased, and the meat is then fed to wild animals and birds...")
Business kept interfering with business today, so I still have three pages left of this job. Then I get to review a translation that has something to do with nuclear disarmament.
I am not complaining, BTW.
Yesterday, Zach spoke a bit about how the words we use really have a subjective meaning for each of us. He specifically used, as an example, the term "culture shock" in the context of a kid striking out from a place like Pagosa Springs to make his or her way in Hollyweird. Even though the kid may have heard the term and has some understanding of what it means, that understanding will be woefully inadequate to deal with the real McCoy.
What makes subjectivity doubly the case is that we have a habit of endowing words with new, unintended meanings. What's a "galleon moon"? What is "the biology of war"? And just what, exactly, might "the tao of HTML" be?
This all connects to a book I found recently and which, at odd moments, I am reading (like I have the time!). The reason I return to the book is that it's making me rethink the concept of "listening skills."
It is traditionally said that listening skills are very important. Everyone involved in sales is repeatedly told to listen to their customers and prospects. However, most folks, when they are "listening" to the other party in a conversation, are really paying more attention to what they are going to say next than listening to what's being said. (That ever happen to you? It's happened to me...)
But like the kid in Zach's example, although most of us understand the importance of "listening," very few really know how to listen. It's all a matter of how deeply you choose to get into what is being said.
More another time... gotta go to sleep. Another big day tomorrow.
Cheers...
P.S. I swapped the network and video cards this morning. Alice went a little crazy reinstalling stuff (it wasn't where it was supposed to be, natch), and for a little while again, the network worked. Then an LED began to flash on the hub, corresponding to some problem on Alice's leg of the network. I checked the cable yesterday, so it has to be the network card. I have to find the time to call LinkSys tech support tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe their system won't randomly disconnect me like it did the other day.
