Lots going on - but life's looking up :)

[imbecamiel]

Well, we got our Christmas tree today, which is much fun. And then the tree stand broke when the guys were trying to put it up, which is not so fun. They were trying to fix it, but we finally had to get a new one - it was that or have our tree standing undecorated in a beat-up five gallon bucket in the family room when our family comes over tomorrow :P But anyway, we got quite a bit of Christmas baking and other decorating done today regardless.

And since our van is now officially totaled, and insurance is going to quit paying for a rental in less than a week, we need to buy a new car within the next few days. Which was... not exactly planned for this year, much less the middle of December. And makes me very sad, because even though I maybe should be excited about getting a new van... our other one may have been getting old, but I liked it. And even though they're nice, I haven't really liked the new ones we've rented for trips or most of the ones we've looked at recently. But ah well, God's provided the means to get a new one, even on such short notice, and even though it was an "accident" nothing happens without His planning, so I'm sure He's got something good for us. So, all that means that we spent a lot of the afternoon/evening looking at cars today, but with no real decisions made yet... We shall see.

And randomly, a funny link my mom got sent this morning. Hilarious video. Anyone who's been homeschooled will definitely get a kick out of it. *g*

We went to a Chinese restaurant  the other day, and I yet again got a good laugh out of the chopsticks' packaging. Now I must first clarify that this is not some small, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant. No, it is a comparatively up-scale, prosperous business, part of a large chain of restaurants. Also, these packages have not been around for simply a few weeks (that could certainly be understandable - one doesn't throw out a bunch of chopsticks simply because the packages are ridiculous, after all), nor have they been around for a few months (certainly explainable, they could have ordered a large supply of them), no, they have been around for a number of years. And not just at this restaurant, but others in the chain. The package? I will quote exactly what's written on them.

The front:

"Welcome to Chinese Restaurant.
Please try your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticks
the traditional and typical of Chinese glonous history
and cultual.

BAMBOO CHOPSTICKS
PRODUCT OF CHINA"

The back, interspersed with pictures illustrating how to correctly hold chopsticks:

"Learn how to use your chopsticks

Tuk under        tnurnb
and held firmly

Add second chocostick
hold it as you hold
a pencil

Hold tirst chopstick
in originai position
move the second
one up and down
Now you can pick
up anything:



PRODUCTOF
CHINA "

Yes, aside from the quotation marks (and the fact that on the package it's horizontal, rather than vertical as it is here) that is exactly what it says, spacing, spelling, and punctuation included. Now I understand that this was almost certainly written by a non-native English speaker. And I don't delude myself into thinking I could do any better were I to attempt to write something in Chinese. Still. If you're going to print off thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of copies of something to be sold and distributed in a foreign country... wouldn't you think you could get someone who knew the language to at least give it a brief glance-over to make sure it's not ridiculous? Or at least use a computer with a basic spell-checker?

*sighs* Yes, I get entirely to obsessed and worked up about such things. :P

Seems I'm quite random today. But happily random. :) And now off to write some more comments on certain stories. Seems t'was a bit optimistic to hope to get something sizable done on it today, but ah well - I'm working on it, at any rate. And very, very happy to be back to it - I've been missing it very much. :)

Comments

[imbecamiel.livejournal.com]

Hehe... isn't it, though? I mean, honestly, I'm really not an arrogant American who thinks we've got the right to demand everyone else learn our language because we're so powerful and big and all. But really, if you want to sell something to someone in a foreign country... you can do better than that. C'mon, I met some Chinese college students while we were in Beijing - I'm sure almost any of them could have immensely improved on that package with little effort. :P