Tom's Journey

I used to check wenxuecity's 私房小菜 a lot, but recently found a new one called 草堂-吃喝篇, it usually has better pictures, better explanations, and more importantly, it seems to be run by people in NA, so it fits our condition pretty well

It's very interesting that I was talking with my coworker Tony about back in the old days, a good domain name could grab big bucks, like Compaq paid $3.3 million for "altavista.com", and we joked about Whitehouse.com being a famous pornography site, and all of sudden, I just realized the literal translation of "White House" into Chinese "白房子" was a jargon for brothel, referring 老舍's famous novel "骆驼祥子".

And I told him about another example of careful translation, that the name "Bush" was translated "布什" (which doesn't carry real meanings, or something like 'spreading stuff', instead of "不实" (not honest).

Interesting, here are some other examples of 'interesting translations':
1, Mercedes Benz, in Chinese, depending on where you go, in China it's 奔驰 'ben1 chi2, meaning runs fast), in Taiwan, it's 宾士 ('bin1 shi4', sort of suggesting it's a gentleman), but the sounds benz, sounds more like 奔死 'ben1 si3' meaning 'run to death', or 笨死 'ben4 si3', meaning 'stupid to death', I guess not many people would buy a car with that name anymore.

2, Morman, phonetically translated in to Chinese as '摩门' 'mo2 men2' (doesn't have much meaning, except a typical foreign name to Chinese people), however, the word 'mo2' sounds the same as '魔', another much more popular character, which means 'devil', and '魔门', would mean "devil's gate". No doubt, the name itself has become a huge barrier for the popular religion in the US to spread itself to any mandarin speaking population.

I have been playing badminton as my main exercise for years, but finally injured my heel a few years ago, that I had to quit. I have decided to buy a bike as my birthday present, took me a while to decide what bike to buy, what model to buy, finally went for a road bike, Trek 1500.

this morning when I turn on my computer, and turn to the usual pages that I usually rely on, here are the headlines I got from CNN:
"Kidnapped U.S. contractor found safe in Iraq" with a picture of the US contractor and the kidnapper with a gun.
and
MORE TOP STORIES
• Israel launches Gaza airstrike after 5 killed | Video
• Toddlers' bodies found in Texas floods
• Saudis: Oil workers kill 6 | Video
• Cancer patient's parents get 10 years for neglect
• Man killed in roller coaster fall
• Gun safety teacher shoots himself in class
• SI.com: Kentucky Derby win triggers $5M bonus
(note: the bold font was modified by me hope to make the points clearer, :-)

I have no idea what this 'trusted' media is trying to tell its readers, so I turned to another site that I often visit for news, msnbc.com and here are their top choices for what's going on in the world now:
"In Good Health" to report the same story about the safety of the US contractor Thomas Hamill, then:
• 6 U.S. soldiers killed in mortar attack
• Myers: Prison abuse not widespread
• Newsweek exclusive: Inside scandal
and
MORE TOP STORIES
• Israel strikes Gaza after settlers killed
• Oil firm to pull foreign staff after Saudi attack
• Newsweek: Kerry takes on Bush over security
• At least 25 killed in Afghan gas blast

I guess that IS what's happening today, killing everywhere, nothing more important to report?

Then it all of sudden interested me, and I extended my search to one of the main media in China, People's Daily, here are their top stories (translated from Chinese):
• Wen Jiabao arrived in Munich to start the official visit to Germany
• 2 new railway lines start in production, President Hu Jintao attended the opening ceremony
• Huang Ju (member of the politbureau) stressed to implement Macro adjustment messurements,

Well, that's the picture, are those the only important things happened in China?

In a way, I guess they are kind of similar, haha

Conclusions, read less news, watch the NBA finals.