Posts

My Instructor Saw A.I. Coming

In early 2002, I took an English literature course. The instructor chose to focus on horror as a genre. For the final exam, we had to write an essay about two of the stories we had read. The theme was the dangers of overdependence on technology. I think she foresaw the rollout of ChatGPT and the A.I. boom it would unleash coming from a mile away. Below is the essay I wrote: Warning: Technology May Be Hazardous to Your Health  Authors Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison use their respective stories entitled “The Veldt” and “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” to address excessive reliance on advanced technology. They each show how an automated world can lead to conflict pitting man against man as well as man against machine, a theme re-examined in later motion pictures such as The Terminator and The Matrix. Both short stories essentially begin with individuals or entire communities who have become addicted to some form of technology. The subsequent withdrawal symptoms when the high tech and
Post a Comment
Read more

Learn Another Preposition, PLEASE!

     The word “around” is not the only preposition in the English language. Yet, I keep hearing it increasingly used by people who ought to know better: journalists and their interviewees. It’s bad enough when a local news station has a reporter who does not appear to have gotten past a pre-school level of enunciation, but commentators with nationwide coverage who don’t seem to have taken any serious English classes are really disturbing.        Let’s go back to junior high, a.k.a. “middle school” for you whippersnappers who actually think you are getting a different form of education. A preposition is a word or combination of words indicating the relationship between two other elements of an expression. Remember that list of over 50 prepositions you had to learn for Mrs. Little’s 8th-grade Language Arts class? They have now come back to haunt you. Examples include the following: about, across, behind, between, from, in, on, outside, upon, and without.      The book is about a mad s
Post a Comment
Read more

A Utilitarian Approach to World Peace: Political Assassination

  The average person in most Western countries will have heard of the Ten Commandments listed in the Christian Bible and would be able to name at least half of them. People on the street would probably recite “Thou shalt not steal” or “Thou shalt not lie.” Another one of those categorical rules that is often easy to remember is “Thou shalt not kill.” Few people would generally disagree that killing another human is wrong. The exception, however, appears to be when the state is doing it to a criminal convicted of murder. This is the government’s attempt to prove that murder is wrong. The justification for capital punishment is allegedly another Biblical principle: an eye for an eye (lex talionis). If the United States of America truly believed in the Sixth Commandment, it would not hesitate to devote all the resources necessary, including U.S. troops, to the country of Ukraine to put an end to the atrocities being committed there by Russian forces since February 24, 2022. Furthermore, i
Post a Comment
Read more

The Case for American Involvement in Ukraine

This article was intended for publication not long after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. When Russia began amassing troops on its border with Ukraine, the U.S. did precious little to discourage Vladimir Putin from sending more and more forces to surround its neighbor on three sides. This should have come as no surprise, considering how he basically waltzed into Crimea and encouraged separatists in the eastern part of the country in 2014 and suffered no major repercussions for his blatant disrespect for international law. Ever since Rootin’ Tootin’ Vladi Putin was handed the reins of power in 1999, he has been trying to reconstitute the Soviet Union, paving the road to that goal with decimated countries and dead bodies. For over 20 years, he has gotten away with countless murders and is hell-bent on committing more. From Chechnya to Georgia and now Ukraine, no territory that has ever been part of the Soviet empire is safe from Russian aggression. Since the fall of the USSR in 19
Post a Comment
Read more

Murderer in the Family

My nephew has become a statistic, but this may not be the last statistic he becomes. His name is Michael. He has been arrested for murder and will most likely wind up in prison. I am pretty confident that is where he will die—either by his own hand, at the hand of a fellow inmate, or at the hands of the state. It will be the culmination of a long history of sad events, with plenty of blame to go around. Everybody in the family has basically known for decades that this would happen. For most of Michael’s adult life, it seems that he has had a violent temper. None of us are surprised that he wound up killing one man and almost killing another. So, why should this turn of events cause me to lose sleep? I have not seen Michael since February of 2006, when my mother died. I was still living in Germany at the time but had flown home to attend her funeral. Michael and I were at her apartment, helping to clear out her things. When he attempted to make a joke about how I kept dropping things,
Post a Comment
Read more

Eurozone Translations

Image
A long time ago, I stumbled across a website that expressed my exact translation philosophy and attitude towards customers of language service providers. I copied and pasted the few pages of text to a Word file for keeps. Once I restarted my blog, I decided to check that website. It still existed as of early 2021. I contacted the e-mail address on the site and asked if the current website owner also produced the content I had originally found so delightful. It turned out that he did, and he had reasons for taking down the pages. Since I found that to be such a shame, I asked for permission to repost them here. I have respectfully not included one of the pages, which was about the translation industry in India. The sentiments about non-native speakers producing translations of poor quality using children and/or working conditions akin to slave labor were not the original author’s personal experience at a later time. So, I will reduce the message of that page with a personal anecdote of
Post a Comment
Read more

Master of the Sword, Not the English

 Sueyoshi Akeshi: Jo, Bokken, Sword DVD He’s the quickest draw in the East or the West. Sueyoshi Akeshi struggles with his English, but his point is clear: No one has faster iaido techniques. If he were in a duel with a Japanese samurai, Akeshi would unsheathe his katana, dispatch his opponent, and have time for a coffee break before his foe even touched the hilt of his sword. Akeshi, a Buddhist monk and baseball fan, packs the 60-minute “Jo – Bokken – Sword” Masterclass Samurai Arts DVD full of information, so he does not spend a lot of time on each lesson. You’ll miss the chapter on footwork if you blink. Sensei Akeshi obviously assumes you know how to move forward in zenkutsu dachi from previous martial arts practice, yet his style is unique: Just keep both feet at a 45-degree angle and lean forward. Akeshi wisely demonstrates techniques with a jo (short staff) before moving on to iaido practice with a live blade. Don’t be fooled, though, even these “basic” techniques can caus
Post a Comment
Read more

Loss of Shakespeare

Image
In early 2011, a litter of a dozen or so mixed pit bull puppies was found in box next to a dumpster. The finder surrendered them to the Amarillo Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which sent out a call for people to foster them until they were ready for adoption. My wife and I had recently lost another dog of ours named Jake and decided to lend a hand. We took home a girl and a boy and named them Lady and Shakespeare. We had no idea of the journey that awaited us. They soon came down with kennel cough and ringworm. When the SPCA suggested we bring them back, it was like being punched in the gut. We could not give them up. We had never owned pit bulls before, but they had won us over within a week’s time. We wound up adopting them ourselves. Shakespeare was goofy and a bit klutzy—perhaps because he was bow-legged—and he bumped his head into the wall more than once. He loved his belly rubs, rides in the car, and going to the park. He had a gentle spirit and loving heart.
Post a Comment
Read more

Lady and Shakespeare

June 6, 2011 My wife, Julia, and I had wanted another dog ever since our 10-year-old golden retriever died suddenly in October 2010. When the SPCA took in a large litter of pit bull puppies and called on volunteers to provide foster homes, we couldn’t say no. We had never considered getting a pit bull to replace our beloved Jake, but fostering one seemed OK. After all, it would just be temporary, right? When we got a look at the puppies, we could hardly believe how small they were. By holding a couple, we also quickly discovered how affectionate they can be. They weren’t ready to be taken home yet, so we had to go back a couple of weeks later. We wanted two—a male and a female—so they could keep one another company. With about ten excited puppies nipping at our feet, it was hard to choose, especially since they almost all looked alike. Fortunately, two of the pups seemed to choose us. Could they be the same ones we had held before? The pups had grown and were very lively, but they stil
Post a Comment
Read more

Eat, Play, Love

The sudden death of my dog, Jake, on October 9, 2010, was quite a blow. I had only known him for a little more than 2 years. He had been “mine” full time for merely a year and a half, and I am grateful for every minute of that. My employment from home enabled me to spend more time with Jake than most people get to with their pets. I got to take him for frequent walks. The first time I put a leash on him, he basically dragged me down the street. With time and this year’s protracted summer weather, the walks became less frequent. The heat wore him out more easily, and he simply couldn’t walk as far as he could a year ago. On the final stretch of our last few walks, I nearly had to drag him home. He was the first dog I was allowed to call mine since the 8 th grade. Between Jake and the three cats in our household, Julia and I had our hands full. The dog, however, was my chief responsibility. I fed him every morning. When opportunity allowed, I took him for a ride in the car. (Jake love
Post a Comment
Read more