就是忙死了

[nnozomi]

Thanks to a cascade of deadlines, I got a-Pei to teach me some useful Chinese words for “super busy”, 瞎忙 (blind busy) and 忙到晕头转向, (along the lines of “so busy my head is spinning). Sadly they don’t have the Japanese 忙殺 (murdered by busy-ness).

I’ve been trying to catch up on DW comments, but I think there are some older posts I meant to comment on that have vanished into the ether… oh well.

Thinking of sending my New Year’s postcards out soon. If I’ve sent you a card before and your address/etc. has changed (or you’d rather not get one), please let me know; likewise, if I haven’t sent you a card before but you’d like one, please send me an address and preferred name!

A couple of little things that tickled me. There is/was a Japanese law officially called the Omnibus Decentralization Act; it just means “decentralizing a bunch of things,” but it sounds like privatizing the bus system.
Also, a small joke that requires a lot of explanation. Most of the students at the nighttime junior high school nearby are middle-aged to elderly ladies of Korean background, quite a few native Korean speakers who are also fluent (if not necessarily fully literate) in Japanese. The English teacher at the nighttime junior high was, God knows why, teaching them the English Zodiac words; when he got to “Gemini” and its phonetic pronunciation, one or two of the ladies cracked up, and eventually managed to explain to him why it was funny. In Korean the word for “uninteresting” is 재미 없어 chaemi-opso, where the “opso” part is the “un” negative. “chaemi” sounds like the first half of “Gemini” in English, and if you translate “opso” into Japanese, you get ない nai, which sounds like the second half. So for a bilingual speaker of Korean and Japanese, “Gemini” sounds like “boring”… I was tickled by the pun, and also by the code-switching skills required to make it in the first place; the ladies may not have their junior high school diplomas but they know a lot more than many.

My Yuletide fic is finished and posted, phew; I have a couple of treats in mind which I really want to write, except I’m not sure I can actually pull them off at the length they want to be in the time remaining. Ten days should be enough to write 10 to 15K, right? oh dear.

Photos: An assortment from the last month, mostly autumn leaves, a two-colored morning-glory (brunch-glory?), and a cat at night.

Be safe and well.

Comments

[laireshi]

LOL I love that pun!

[nnozomi]

Isn't it great? ;)

[chestnut_pod]

Oh, look at those leaves! Glorious.

That is a good joke! Those two women sound like they'd be a fun time :)

[nnozomi]

They are a lot of fun! Some day I'm going to get off my butt and try to do some proper oral history around there.

[clevermanka]

Oh my gosh those leaaaaaaaaaaaavessssssss 😍🍁🍂🧡

[nnozomi]

<3 <3 <3

[grayswandir]

I love the leaves!

Sadly they don’t have the Japanese 忙殺 (murdered by busy-ness).

That does seem like a useful term, hah. I feel like you could probably say 忙死/忙死人, busy to death/to busy someone to death (like 气死人, 笑死人)?

[nnozomi]

Yeah, I think the variations on 忙死 work, but ~死了 is common enough that it doesn't have as much punch for me ;)

[china_shop]

So for a bilingual speaker of Korean and Japanese, “Gemini” sounds like “boring”

Ha, that's awesome! So cool that they get to share that joke between them, too.

Congrats on finishing your Yuletide, yay you!! *encouraging pompoms for the treats*

Ohhhhhh, the colours in the photos! So pretty! ♥___♥

[nnozomi]

thank you for encouragement <3 <3 <3 and glad you liked the photos. As you say, getting to share the joke is the best part!

[nineveh_uk]

More praise of those gorgeous acer leaves!

Good luck with the Yuletide treats.

[nnozomi]

Thank you! Acer, okay, I didn't know that name for them.

[nineveh_uk]

I always think of the Japanese ones as that - they're very much specimen trees in the UK, as we only have one native maple, which doesn't go such spectacular colours. For some reason, I think of the North American colourful ones as maples, but the Japanese as acers! Or possibly this is just down to the latter being what one buys in garden centres and grows in pots.

[nnozomi]

Oh, that's interesting! I never know any of the botanical names, so in English I sometimes think of the Japanese ones as star maples, on account of the smaller leaves look star-shaped sometimes :) 🍁

[salamandras]

That bilingual pun is wonderful! I love stuff like that, thanks for sharing (and explaining) it. And your fall photos so vibrant. I also love the perspective of the ceiling in the bottom center one.

[nnozomi]

Glad you liked it! I can never resist a good bilingual pun; and I'm glad you liked the weirder of the photos also <3

[umadoshi]

The foliage...! So gorgeous. *^^*

[nnozomi]

<3 <3 <3 (lovely icon!)

[passingbuzzards]

Your catchup comments make me think I should make more of an effort to go back to stuff I missed commenting on too, I always appreciate them <3 (And I would love a New Year’s card! I’ll PM you?)

A couple of little things that tickled me. There is/was a Japanese law officially called the Omnibus Decentralization Act; it just means “decentralizing a bunch of things,” but it sounds like privatizing the bus system.

My first thought was about omnibus book collections, possibly making for an even more confusing initial take…

I was tickled by the pun, and also by the code-switching skills required to make it in the first place; the ladies may not have their junior high school diplomas but they know a lot more than many.

Seriously! I love that such a linguistically complex bit of humor can be so spontaneous. (Definitely one of those things that makes me think about how the level of linguistic processing the human brain is capable of just can’t be matched by anything humanity can build.)

And absolutely beautiful colors in those photos! I love the berries especially.

[nnozomi]

Yes, do PM me with address etc. when you have a chance!

omnibus book collections lol, I didn't even think of that.

I love that such a linguistically complex bit of humor can be so spontaneous.
Yes! I love how languages are sort of braided together in the brain, code-switching isn't just a matter of turning on A and turning off B.

<3 <3 <3

[trobadora]

Sorry about the busyness, but thank you for the busyness vocabulary! ♥

So for a bilingual speaker of Korean and Japanese, “Gemini” sounds like “boring”…

Oooh, a trilingual pun! Delightful. :D

Congrats on finishing your Yuletide fic!

Ten days should be enough to write 10 to 15K, right? oh dear.

Oh, absolutely! If you have nothing else to do ... :p

[nnozomi]

Always good to have more Chinese words useful for complaining ;)

Ten days should be enough to write 10 to 15K, right? oh dear.
Oh, absolutely! If you have nothing else to do ... :p
lol oh dear, don't come for me that way. Want to know how many deadlines I have in the next ten days... (Actually, I can write up to 3-4K in a day if I know exactly what I want to write, it's figuring out what actually happens that takes time, oh dear oh dear.)

[trobadora]

100% agreed on figuring out what actually happens being the most time-consuming part!

I once had a day when I wrote 11k words in one go, but that one was a miracle and is not likely to occur again.

[nnozomi]

I once had a day when I wrote 11k words in one go, but that one was a miracle
WOW. Nice. (Probably just as well that doesn't happen to any of us too often, in terms of, like, stopping to eat and rest and so on!)

[sakana17]

Good luck with Yuletide treats! There's plenty of time. :)

I love the multilingual pun!

Gorgeous autumn leaves. I'm obsessed with the colors in the first pic. The cat is appropriately shadowy. Great silhouette.

[nnozomi]

There's plenty of time. :)
I'll take your word for it!

Glad you liked the photos <3 (perfect icon!)

[superborb]

Beautiful leaves! I hadn't realized it would still be autumnal there this time of year.

[nnozomi]

Yes! I'm far enough south/west that winter proper doesn't really start until December some time. (Cold enough now though by our standards, brr ;) ) <3

[tinny]

wow i love the colors of the autumn leaves! <3<3<3

and the bilingual pun is awesome! i love stuff like that.

[nnozomi]

so glad you enjoyed the leaves!
and yeah, bilingual puns are among my favorite things :)