The Quiet Picture

Käännöskirjallisuutta lukiessa mikään ei ärsytä niin paljon kuin käännöksen paistaminen läpi. Huono käännös harmittaa jo maallikkoakin, mutta itse kääntäämistää opiskelleet ja/tai tehneet huomaavat jo pienetkin virheet. Kaunokirjallisuudessa vaatimukset kasvavat entisestään, kun kyse ei ole vain tekstin merkityksen kääntämisestä vaan pitää myös huomioida kirjailijan tyyli. Itse havaitsin jo varhaisessa vaiheessa että sovellun paljon paremmin asiatekstien kääntämiseen kuin kaunokirjallisuuteen, joten en voi muuta kuin ihailla kääntäjiä jotka osaavat luovia kieltä niin hienosti että käännöstä lukee yhtä mielellään kuin alkuperäistä.

Ongelma on vain että taitavia kääntäjiä ei arvosteta tarpeeksi. Ihan kuin minkä tahansa tekstin kääntäminen on vain ylimääräinen kulu joka pitää saada mahdollisemman halvalla, ilman mitään käsitystä mitä kielen kääntäminen itse asiassa on. Turhaa ne kääntäjät viisi vuotta siellä yliopistossa opiskelee? Onhan niitä tosin luonnonlahjakkuuksiakin jotka osaavat ilman virallista koulutusta, mutta pointti on se että kääntäjien kuuluu saada oikeudenmukainen korvaus työstään, ihan sama mikä siinä on koulutus alla.

Siinämielessä on hieman ikävää lukea että kääntäjien työtä on arvostetaan aina vain vähemmin. Luulin että se oli jo silloin opiskeluaikanani 90-luvulla melkein pohjamudissa.

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Siinä se tuli sitten se ensimmäinen suomeksi kirjoitettu blogi-viesti! Ja taisi olla viimeinen… kyllä vääntyy vaikeasti nyt, vaikka tosin helpompaa oli kuin kuvittelin. 15 vuotta ulkomailla asumista tulee tänä vuonna täyteen, siitä on näemmä seurauksia.

Yesterday was a windy day, so although we got a little bit of new snow the windblown debris was spoiling the landscape. Today however, it was snowing even more and the wind had quieted down enough so the landscape was looking a whole lot better. I did a snowshoe hike to the Älgsjön lake which is one of my favourite routes, there’s always something interesting along the way and then the marshland leading to the lake itself is sure to look nice. That is, unless the snowmobiles have left the trail and driven loops around the marsh, so I was a bit disappointed to hear that familiar roar of engine behind me, thinking that it’s one of these morons with no respect for the law or good manners. Or common sense, for that matter. Well, he did drive irresponsibly but at least he stayed on the trail, so I got my unspoiled marsh but no pictures because the wind had kept the trees free of snow in these open places.

Every time the trail crosses a lake, there’s a sign warning the snowmobilers about the risk of weak ice. I’ve been meaning to take a picture of one of these signs for ages now, but never gotten around to it until now. So there I was, trying to figure out the best way of including the trail and the signs in the frame, when I heard another snowmobile closing in. The timing couldn’t have been better – I didn’t even have to change my composition to get the approaching snowmobile in a perfect position. Sometimes it’s more luck than skill… I think I saw only four snowmobiles in total, so having one of them arrive right at that moment was a bit of fluke. Oh and I’m happy to say that he was one of the responsible drivers as well, not tearing up the engine or the trail!

The linguist in me just loves articles like this. Be sure to read the comments to the previous article as well, I got many a good laugh reading the discussion going back and forth in defence of the English spelling. And don’t miss the reference to Finnish – although the thing about not having any spelling tests in Finland is not true (unless they’ve changed the education system since the 70′s and 80′s when I went to school).

My pet peeve with the apostrophe is that many people use the acute accent instead of the real apostrophe (Nit-picking? Oh absolutely, guilty as charged!). It makes a big difference – just compare it´s and it’s. In my eyes that extra space around the acute accent is a disruption to the natural flow of the language, it feels like a hiccup. In the English and Swedish and many other Western keyboard layouts, the apostrophe is even easier to reach than the accent. So why reach for the accent at all when the real thing is much closer?

P.S. In my defence, I’ve spent 6 years of my life studying languages at university and even a small mistake in spelling was a make or break deal. You have no idea how many times I proof-read these blog entries before I post them…! The word you’re looking for is “pilkunviilaus”.

P.P.S. No I don’t grade anyone else’s spellings. I was a student, not a teacher!

Nånting att fundera på: Bilavgaser förstör blommors doft

Or Skiing, Shopping and Sightseeing

Some weekend. I had two days off because my family (my parents, sis and her two kids) came to Sweden to celebrate my Dad’s 70th birthday.

My mini-vacation started with a great day of skiing. New snow, suitably cold weather and sunshine – can winter get any better?

Then I had to change the pristine winter scenery to the hustle and bustle of Stockholm. It was strange being in a big city again… and I discovered that I can live without them. Big cities smell weird, there’s a lot of people, and the city folks keep even their trees fenced in. I prefer mine wild and untamed, thank you very much.

(Yes, the picture above right is just about the worst I’ve ever published in this blog. I didn’t have the time or the inclination to do anything better either – just wanted something for illustration purposes!)

We even managed to squeeze in a visit at the Vasa Museum. The lighting is very low in the museum, so I had to push my camera and lens to the limit – 24mm, lean on the railing, ISO 1600, f4 and IS – and I got away with handheld shots at 1/8 sec!

Overall I must say that it was a great weekend. I didn’t have a single fight with my parents, I didn’t even get irritated (other than mildly, once, but no one’s perfect). You want to eat lunch at McDonalds? Sure, who would want to eat real food anyway in one of the many restaurants all over the city! We ended up on the wrong floor at the department store because you didn’t check the store guide? No worries, I love the escalators! Oh and I’m sorry I didn’t remember that —gården doesn’t always mean —puutarha in Finnish. My bad, for living abroad for 12 years!

But that’s just me being hyper-sarcastic. I can do that, now that I’m alone again. Otherwise, I have come to realise that the older we get, the better we get along. Deep down, I think I miss my family more than I’m willing to admit. Happy 70th, Dad!

Just paid a visit to a Finnish photo forum. Have to investigate it further… but I just got so excited on reading their forum guidelines (quick translation mine):- this has been your hobby for a while and you have gotten over the first rush of owning a new camera
- you want to develop in your hobby
- you want to have feedback
- you understand that a numerical evaluation represents opinion
- you understand your style and subjects will not appeal to everyone

It’s the fourth point that bugs me. It’s the same on fotosidan.se actually, you can set points to photos, but you can select to turn off this option when you post an image. I have never liked that. I always turn it off for my posts and I have never given points to anyone. I believe in verbal communication instead. A number does not equal valuable feedback in my mind. If I don’t like the image at all, I just skip it. If I like it, the least I can do is to say so.

But otherwise, I genuinely think that fotosidan would benefit from similar guidelines. If not for all forums, then at least for the Image Critique forum. It’s unbelievable what crap gets posted in the critique forum – and that’s not an opinion, it’s the absolute truth!

Anyway, I have get back to browsing the Finnish forum. The Swedes are too nice, and the Finns are… well, brutally honest!

Every time you go walking outside here you can hear dogs yapping and howling incessantly. Hunting is popular in Sweden but around here it’s holy, so many people have elk and bear dogs and most of them are kept outside, where they naturally have to mark their territory by yapping as soon as you get within sight or hearing distance from their house. Jolly good I don’t have any of these dogs as a neighbour or I’d go crazy, just can’t understand how the people can put up with the constant barking.I guess it’s a bit ironic that I have ended up in a place filled with hunt worshippers. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t have anything against hunting as such. I’m a meat eater for sure so it would only be double standards to accept killing in a slaughterhouse but not in the forest. My problem with hunting stems from the insanely stupid arguments for defending the blood sport. It seems like there is not enough game for the human hunters and their animal counterparts – mainly wolves. As long as the hunters are concerned, the fewer the wolves, the better. Now that they can’t argue that wolves decimate the elk numbers (there was a recent article on the increase in elk), they argue that the wolves eat up their hunting dogs.

Personally, I think that is as good an argument for having more wolves as any! *

One thing I fail to understand no matter how many time it’s repeated to me, is that hunting is needed to keep the elk numbers in check. I’m sorry, but wasn’t that the job of the wolves? The wolves are guaranteed to be much better hunters than humans anyway. Wolves only kill the weakest animals, allowing the species as a whole to stay strong. Humans on the other hand, the bigger the bull, the better. Think about the lions in some parts of Africa. You won’t see a male lion with a big mane anymore… because the males with big manes were killed off first. So human activity forced survival of the fittest, that being a male lion with a small mane. But whatever, with the current predator numbers, hunting is genuinely needed in order to prevent the elk numbers to get too big. Since we have driven off the natural enemies of the elk, it is now left to us to hold the unnatural balance in nature. But then again, man stopped being part of the nature the moment he built his first city.

Instead of fighting over the number of wolves and bears we should have, why not try to concentrate the energy on finding out ways how to live in peace with the predators? I think that this is the measure of our ingenuity – are we able to share the world with the creatures that inhabited it before us, or are we going to exterminate every species that can compete with us?

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* Let’s get this straight – I do like dogs in general. I just don’t like the barely domesticated ones kept outside 365 days a year, barking 24/7! Although… There are no problem dogs, there are only problem owners…[end of rant]

The Julbocken in Gävle was burned today. That was fast…The Julbocken (Christmas goat) is a giant straw goat that is put on display in Gävle every December. Then the bets are on – when will it be burned down? Naturally, it’s not really supposed to go up in flames but it should stand firm until Christmas. Apparently, this has actually happened a few times but not while I have been here (just a co-incidence!).

As usual, I’m slightly confused. If the tradition is not to burn it down but the pyromaniacs always get to it anyway, why not stop with the thing altogether? No straw goat, no bonfire.

But then again, I’m not Swedish. I don’t get the straw goat to start with. Oh and I also hate Christmas.

I just got a book called “Is it just me, or is everything shit?”. Sometimes I get a feeling that everything, really, is shit. Take radio for example. I listen to Rix FM in the car. The signal fades away often but that’s ok with me, I like the silence. The occasional good song makes it worth keeping it on. I just can’t believe how much crap I have to suffer to get to the good part.

• Bon Jovi – “Welcome to Wherever You Are”: You used to be tough, 80′s style. Now you sound like Robbie Williams.
• Robbie Williams – “Tripping”: Robbie seems to be under the illusion that blending three songs into one is genius. The opinion seems to be shared by his fans. Newsflash – three bad don’t make one good. If anything positive has to be said, the hook is catchy (ergo, I turn off the radio – and then forget to turn it on again until the next day).
• Robbie Williams – “Advertising Space”: So bad that it doesn’t even have a hook. If anything good has to be said, it’s that I don’t have to turn off the radio.
• Backstreet Boys comeback: It was enough the first time around.
• September – “Satellites”: Miss September probably thinks the lyrics are clever. They are not. I can forgive simple lyrics but pure nonsense wrapped in a Euro-disco beat is a criminal offense. This is a worst case example of non-native English speaker trying to make use of three syllable words.
• Mauro Scocco – “Kall stjärna”: Kent just called. They want their sound back.
• Daniel Powter – “Bad Day”: Apparently, Mr Powter had trouble getting a record contract. I regret to hear that some company finally did sign him.
• Nickelback – “Photograph”: Sorry, I thought you were a serious band.
• Westend Girls – “Domino Dancing”: Pet Shop Boys should sue you. Failing that, everyone not completely tone deaf should do it.
• James Blunt – “You’re Beautiful”: Can you say “one hit wonder”?

And what could possibly be worth all the shite? Well, maybe something like “Hung Up” by Madonna. I have never been a real Madonna fan, but now I am forever grateful that she went through all the trouble to get the permission to sample Abba. The greatest pop icon of our time sampling the all-time greatest pop band is an historical event of a magnitude never imagined before. It’s almost worth listening through a Robbie Williams song.

Went for a walk in the forest yesterday. There are trails all over the place in Los but hardly any of them marked on the Green Map (1:50000) so I’m mostly just walking around and learning to know them. They come in all sizes – from wide trails cleared for snow mobiles to small paths that can suddenly disappear in the undergrowth. It’s just about impossible to get genuinely lost so as long as your feet carry you, it’s just a matter of exploring where the trail takes you. But I’m one of those people who like maps. Even if I can learn all the trails, I would still want to see them on a map so I got to thinking that maybe I should invest in a GPS unit. I don’t have a genuine need for it because I’m never deep in the wilderness and I hardly ever venture outside the trails in unknown environments, but the thought of being able to keep track of myself is appealing. It’s Christmas soon…

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They seem to have done some maintenance on the skiing track. Every lamp post has received a shiny new number tag, so if I find one of the lamps broken, it will be easy to tell the people which one it is. I found this rather optimistic though… because a skiing track without snow just doesn’t quite feel right. Sure, people use it currently for promenades. But a skiing track, by definition, is best for skiing. Duh.

So we got some snow this morning. It was gone by the afternoon. Maybe we will get some snow again tomorrow morning. Maybe it will not be gone right away. I’m losing faith in winter.

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And just in case you’re not totally bored out of your head yet reading this, I found a notice announcing that they will soon start cutting the forest nearby. Earlier I had admired the majestic pines and planned for some images, but naturally, as soon as a pine reaches majestic proportions, it is liable for being cut. It looks like the forest behind my house will soon be a little less forest-y.