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| Saturday, May 27, 2006 |
| GenAm |
Today Ata spent most of the day learning to talk American. General American, to be precise. In Ata's case, that really wasn't very precise at all. How do you fit all those r's in? And yet NOT put them in in phrases like, "I have an idea about that"? It's haarrrrrd. Harrd. Rrd. Nevermind saying 'ee' without pulling your lips back. That's just wrong.
Anyway. Ata was worse than the best but better than the worst in the group. So that's a start. Mediocrity, that's where I want to be.
Sounds like a song.
Medioooooooocrity!
That's where I waaaaanna be!
Not achieve so high, or sink so low
Just plain averaaaaage.
Sigh. If anyone happens to know the song 'Majesty' (which you may not, it's a chorus we used to sing in church. I don't think I've sung it for ages, now that I come to consider it. My church seems to delight in springing new songs on us every time we go, leaving me in a permanent state of squinting at the overheads. Mind you, the tunes are fairly predictable, so once you've got the common ryhmes down pat it's not too hard to keep up. But I digress), I guarantee you'll never hear it again without thinking 'Mediooooocrityyyy'. Another perfectly good song ruined. Like when I realised that the one that goes 'give praise unto your maker' sounds rather a lot like 'give praise unto Jamaica'. I haven't been able to sing that with a straight face since.
Where was I? That's right. Not so good, not so bad. I demonstrated my newfound talent to Mr Ata. After two sentences, he said, "That's going to really annoy me." So now I have another weapon in my arsenal of irritation. Given that babytalk no longer bugs him. The 'why' game is still good, too, as is the 'whatever' game.
It was very very cold here this week. On Thursday there was ice on the car windscreen. I have never had to deal with Ice before. I got in the car and flicked the windscreen wipers on - and they didn't help! I was very surprised. Then I realised it was ice, not dew. I tried to squirt it with water from the water-squirters, but they didn't work at all! Very very surprised. After running the wipers and windscreen heater for a while, I came to the conclusion that if I relied on this approach, I was going to be Terribly Late for my bizarre job. While they don't mind me being late, I don't think it looks Professional. And I do like to appear Professional. So I got out and scrubbed my fingertips through the ice. I had wooly gloves on. The ice froze on my wooly glove-tips, but the wipers could wipe away the broken ice now so that was an improvement. It was very very cold. Turns out I did leave my MP3 player at work, and my supervisor put it in her drawer when I called to check that it was there, so that was all good. But then I didn't want to listen to it at work again in case I left it behind. Plus I swapped earphones with Mr Ata because mine were too big and they made my ears hurt, but the wires on Mr Ata's are really stiff and sticky-out and I don't like that.
And I have now finished the create a file-check the name-drag a file-do it again job I was working on. Supposedly I am now to test some instructions my supervisor is writing as part of a Trim training document. Next week I am working Tuesday and Friday instead of Thursday and Friday.
I sat next to a woman on the bus on Friday and talked about how her two sons still live at home. The 27-yr-old moved out for a couple of years but then moved back in because his lease was up and his friends were messy. She wishes the 23-yr-old would move out for a while at least because he takes stuff for granted. She doesn't think he has a good grip on the real world. We agreed that it's easier for boys to live at home for longer than girls, because girls like their independance more. Or something like that. Do you know what I like about travelling on buses? I like the way everyone holds the doors open for each other so the bus driver won't drive off before everyone's finished getting off. It's like an unspoken agreement, each person holds it open for the next person, and everyone checks to see if there's anyone else getting off before they let it swing shut so the driver can leave. When I was a teenager, there was a couple of deaths because people got caught in the bus door and the driver didn't realise and drove off with their leg caught in the door. Well, at least one person died. I think another one just got injured. So I always feel good about getting off the bus when someone holds the door open. I remember at the time there was talk about putting a mechanism in place that meant the driver couldn't drive off until the door was closed, I don't know if that happened or not.
We still don't know about Mr Ata's work. He thinks he'll get a redundancy, and I think that Korea looks the most financially viable option for us. But we haven't heard anything much. So for the time being we are still in Adelaide.
Anyway, now, despite not having posted for days and days, you are pretty much caught up on the Life of Ata. |
posted by Ata @ 8:17 pm  |
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| 4 Comments: |
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So you spent time trying to figure out how to deal with ice on your windscreeen, did you?
Winter is coming!
Myo spent part of yesterday standing out in the pouring rain trying to sponge 5 years of bird poop and dirt off her car. T'was reasonably successful too!
The car was happy, even though myo got drenched.
Later that day, myo drove home in bright sunshine, with the heater on to try to dry her soggy clothing, and the window open to get a cool breeze, and her sunnies on cos the sun was so bright on her now shiny-ish car.
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Ugh. Thank you for getting 'Majesty' stuck in my head. I'd completely forgotten that song even existed. It was never one of my favourites at the best of times.
And may I ask why, exactly, you are learning to speak with an American accent?
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Myo: Good work on waiting until it was raining to clean your car. It's the approach I prefer myself. Shame about having to wait five years between downpours... :)
Sky: My pleasure re the song :P. And why not re the accent?
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I listened to an audiobook once that was read by an Irish actress. One of the characters was American, and in doing an American accents she made all the r's hard. It ended up sounding like a European trying to sound American; kind of like I sound when I speak in an Australian or English accent I imagine (but in reverse, of course).
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So you spent time trying to figure out how to deal with ice on your windscreeen, did you?
Winter is coming!
Myo spent part of yesterday standing out in the pouring rain trying to sponge 5 years of bird poop and dirt off her car. T'was reasonably successful too!
The car was happy, even though myo got drenched.
Later that day, myo drove home in bright sunshine, with the heater on to try to dry her soggy clothing, and the window open to get a cool breeze, and her sunnies on cos the sun was so bright on her now shiny-ish car.