The article I'm translating right now is so dull! It's about an algorithm for solving some insoluble problem and a supporting data structure. Interesting in theory, yes, but somehow in the execution . What's keeping me going aside from the prospect of payment? The next article may be more interesting. In favor of this article: it's like a review and extension of that last computer science class I took.
But, the dullness! I resort to eavesdropping to find something to write about.
Last night at dinner, I listened to the group of boys sitting behind me. First a discussion about what shape pizza to order. Boy A delivers a treatise on how the sixteen inch square pizza is a better deal because "it's got more area than the round pizza. Plus it's got these central pieces without crust which have more topping flavor because the crust isn't there diluting it." He didn't pull out a calculator and start calculating dollars per square inch, but I think he should have. (Oz and I do this regularly, though we've never discussed the effects of crust dilution.)
Somehow I miss the segue and suddenly they're talking in fake English accents about Nancy Boys. Or at least two of them are, Boy C doesn't know what Nancy Boy means and demands an explanation. Boy A again has all the answers. He begins, "A Nancy Boy is an effete intellectual."
Boy C cuts him off. "Effete? 'Effete' is not a word."
"Yes, it is!" Boy A has a definition at the ready. I knew he would.
261 words | January 13, 2006 07:27 PM | Lost in translation