After four attempts, I've discovered how to install Windows XP without hassle or crashes. Just take out all the peripheral cards first, go through the installation, then install the cards and their drivers one by one, switching off the machine after each one.
And remember, this is for the top-of-the-line, Professional VLK (whatever that stands for) edition, which even boasts that it has the quickest and easiest installation process ever. And so it may have, provided your computer has empty PCI slots.
Then there's just the simple matter of a two hour defrag and general cleanup before you can install any software.
Derek Thompson (Hoodlum Priest) has written back - just a short thankyou note, with news that hopefully there'll be a brand spanking new album online by early next year.
I'll be spending Tuesday afternoon in a basement, with a tape measure and a cute Italian marathon runner.
Strict Machines have finally agreed to record a live album for their fans - though considering they have 45+ songs and keep writing more, it may be a tripple album.
The cute Italian guy is Fabio the drummer, and he really does run marathons, when not getting a degree in graphic design. We like to say he's the glamour element. The basement is his, and I reckon I can set up a reasonable semi-permanant recording studio, using all the old tape machines and microphones I don't use anymore.
They'll be playing a quick gig in a school hall later, and C says he'll be there if he's feeling up to it.
His doctor says he might (just possibly might) have colitis. Which in any of it's forms is not good news.
This post was going to be half in Esperanto. And there was a perfectly good reason for it. But, not having used it extensively for several years, I need to check a few words of the vocabulary, and some grammatical points. So...the next post should be Esperantista.
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I see... You want to shut us all off. I'm not Fabio, you know. I just cannot run the Esperanto learning marathon in 2 1/2 hours...
ReplyDeleteBut I did find the book though.
Quite a challange indeed!
Couldn't you be just a little bit merciful and post only a paragraph in the middle of the text? That would give us the context...
Never mind! Go ahead then!
I can only hope I'll enjoy it!...
Okay, here's a piece of Esperanto. I have followed the convention of using the letter X to indicate a circumflex ('hat' symbol) over the preceeding letter, except for after a "U", where it indicates a breve (shallow curve).
ReplyDeleteMia nomo estas Kapitano, kaj mi logxas en la sudo de Anglio. Mi havas amorulon, nomata "C", kiu havas tridek du (32) jarojn. Li ankaux havas grandan, amikeman hundon, kun blanka kaj bruna haro. "C" deziras ke ni vojagxos en ferio - al Uzbekistano! Mi ne certas.
Eble mi pretendus rajton esti regxa! Sed, mi havas socialistajn kredojn, kaj ne deziras grandan domon.
Some things which might help you...
*Verbs end in a vowel+S.
*Mi, Li and Ni are pronouns. "Kiu" is the relative pronoun "who"
* Nouns end in "o", plus "j" if they're plural, plus "n" if they're the object of a sentence.
* Adjectives end in "a", plus the "j" and/or "n" if necessary.
* If you speak Greek, you'll know what "kaj" means.
* "ul" and "em" are suffixes.
* Reading words out loud often makes them easier to translate.
The text is quite difficult for a beginner, but I think you'll understand the gist. I'll post a translation tomorrow.
Actually, re-reading the paragraphs, it might be too difficult. I'll be impressed if you do understand it.
ReplyDeleteIt's strangely difficult to write very simple sentences.
No, no!!! Leave it just as it is! For someone who is fool enough to learn Finnish, Esperanto, due to its latin and germanic roots, is a piece of cake, I'd say... Only in comparison. Each language is a whole universe per se, and even quite similar languages as, say, Portuguese and Spanish, vary quite a lot. I always have a good laugh when friends of mine go to Spain with no linguistic material whatsoever. When they return they always have the most frustrating episodes to tell about. We do use the same words, but the meaning is quite different...
ReplyDeleteAnd now, the translation!
Thanks!
Here it goes: (lol!)
ReplyDeleteEsperanto -
Mia nomo estas Kapitano, kaj mi loĝas en la sudo de Anglio. Mi havas amorulon, nomata "C", kiu havas tridek du jarojn. Li ankaŭ havas grandan, amikeman hundon, kun blanka kaj bruna haro. "C" deziras ke ni vojaĝos en ferio – al Uzbekistano! Mi ne certas.
Eble mi pretendus rajton esti reĝa! Sed, mi havas socialistajn kredojn, kaj ne deziras grandan domon.
English -
My name is Kapitano, and I live in the South of England. I have a little love called «C», who is thirty two years old. He has also a big, friendly dog, with white and brown hair. «C» wishes that we travel on holiday – to Uzbekistan! I'm not sure.
Possibly I would want… to be…! But I have socialist believes, and don't wish for a big house.
Português -
O meu nome é Kapitano e vivo no Sul da Inglaterra. Tenho um amorzinho chamado «C» que tem trinta e dois anos. Ele também tem um cão grande e mansinho, de pêlo branco e castanho. «C» deseja que viajemos nas férias – para o Uzbequistão! Não estou certo.
Possivelmente eu quereria que… estivesse/fosse…! Mas eu tenho crenças socialistas e não desejo uma casa grande.
Two words short! Alas, I have no dictionary...
I give you the Portuguese translation so you can see the differences and similarities. Thank you!
Tre interesa.
ReplyDelete"Eble mi pretendus rajton esti reĝa" translates "Possibly I could claim the right to be royal".
"Pretendi" is to claim to be something or have something - it's cognate in English, "Pretend", originally held this meaning, which shifted to "claim falsely" and then to "Behave as though something you know to be false were true".
"Reĝa" is cognate with "Rex" and "Regina". "Reĝo" is "King". Actually, there probably is a word which more accurately translates "Royal", but I don't know what it is.
Usually I can guess the meaning of written Spanish and French through their similarities to Esperanto, but Portugese is much more difficult.
These words I could read instantly: nome, é, vivo, da, inglaterra, que, dois, anos, grande, de, branco, ferias, certo, possivelmente, estivesse, socialistas, casa.
These took more effort: meu, sul, tenho (Esperanto has "teni" - "to hold"), amorzinho, trinta, pêlo, desija, viajemos.
Mi volas ke mi havus pli tempon por tiu lingva lernado kaj comparado, sed mi havas obligon al fiziko kaj matematiko je la nun. Estas interesa afero, kaj mi posxtos kiam mi povos.
(I wish I had more time for this language learning and comparison, but I'm committed to physics and mathematics at the moment. It's interesting stuff, and I'll post more when I can.)
In order to update and upgrade my list of foreign languages according to an example, I wish you could tell me please which is correct:
ReplyDeletei) viroj / homoj belaj;
ii) belaj viroj / homoj.
Thanks, Captain! (lol!)
Both are correct, and both mean the same thing. The adjective(s) can go before or after the noun.
ReplyDeleteThese are all equivalent:
* Alta bela viro
* Bela alta viro
* Viro alta bela
* Alta viro bela
I have never seen an example of the last form - adjective noun adjective, but it is perfectly legal (tute tauga) in Esperanto, though it's not conventional (ne kutima).
Unlike in French, ajectives never change their meaning simply by changing their position in a sentence. "Granda patro" and "Patro granda" both mean "Big father"
Perhaps because of the worldwide influence of English, most of the texts that I've seen put adjectives before nouns - which means when adjectives come after nouns, they are slighly emphasised.
"Mi deziras fortan viron" - "I need a stong man"
"Mi deziras viron fortan" - "I need a man who is strong"
Likewise, when sentences don't follow the Subject-Verb-Object pattern, the out-of-place clause is signalled as important.
"Viran fortan mi deziras" - "A strong man is what I need"
This point shouldn't be overemphasised. Some people just put words in a particular order because that's the way their native language does it, or because it sounds more pleasing to them.
Marvellous linguistic lecture! Fine details on pragmatics and semantics! Congratulations! And thanks a lot!
ReplyDeleteJust a few notes on those less evident words:
o meu - my (masc.); a minha (fem.).
sul - sud (French and Italian, though not so common as «mezzogiorno» and French «midi»); sur (Spanish).
tenho - 1.st person singular, indicative mood, present tense; from Latin «tenere».
amorzinho - amor + diminutive «zinho», quite common in Southern Neolatin languages. There's only a Germanic language with a similar, quite productive system of diminutives – Dutch. German has «-chen» and «-lein», but they're somewhat recessive now and were never very productive anyway.
trinta - from Latin «tri(gi)nta».
pêlo/cabelo - both mean hair; if it's human and on the head it's always «cabelo(s)»; all other uses are translated by «pêlo, pelos».
deseja - «j» always sounds like the «s» in «pleasure».
viajemos - 1.st person plural, subjunctive mood, present tense.