This language is very annoying at times.

All arabs claim that their language is lyrical and poetic, that it is a tongue of subtlety and eloquence. This may, in fact, be true*. Some of them also claim that it is a direct and concise language, which is a bald-faced lie. Many is the time when I've had to translate a several page document, only to find that the actual information contained in it can easily be condensed into two paragraphs. These are the documents where the writers are _trying_ to be brief, the ones where they're writing to impress are much, much worse. To top it all off, I'm not allowed to cut out the useless 'fluff'; I have to translate word for word, and I'm never 100% sure that I'm not playing the "Deputy Dan has no friends" game. Kudos to anyone who catches the reference. :-P


*"True" for Classical Arabic, that is. The Iraqi dialect is gutteral, harsh, and clipped to the point of incomprehensibility for one trained on the dialects of Egypt and Lebenon, which are actually nice to listen to. Ironically, my first Arabic teacher was an Iraqi, but he had no trace of an accent, for which I am eternally grateful.

More stuff I want.

A long time ago, in the ancient era of 1992, the Heathen French decided to adapt Phillip K Dick's novel "Confession of a Crap Artist" into a movie. The translated title was "Confession d'un Barjo", or just "Barjo". And that's all I know. Never released in the US, I can't find it on any english language website, and I desperately want to see it, if only to see how bad they screwed it up. Anyone who helps me attain this goal shall recieve one (1) of my Legions of Terror, complete with spiky armor and clear plexiglass face shields.