I'm not ignoring you...
I've been incredibly busy with the paying work (technical translation) this year, and after getting the blog back up, it has literally been wall-to-wall translation ever since. I have some nice ideas for little apps, but absolutely no time at all to implement them; very frustrating.
I really do expect this to change relatively soon, but how long have I been saying that?
Anyway, I was noodling around with some Markov chain code I wrote a year or so ago on a lark, and decided it would be funny to autopost a blog, because I've always thought the output (which is based on statistical analysis of my Toonbots cartoon blurbs, the discussion forum there, and the CNN and Yahoo headlines for the day) is at times hilarious, and if you've ever looked at Markov-chain output, it's really surreal at times. It's like Dutch, it almost makes sense...
Anyway, if you're in the mood for random textual weirdness (and hey, who isn't?) cast your eyes over at Toonbotting. You ... well, I won't say you won't be sorry you did, because you might not be cool enough, and who could blame you?
posted by Michael @ 7:28 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
"It's like Dutch, it almost makes sense"
I've always wondered what dutch sounds like to foreign ears. I can't objectively tell you about english because I can fairly understand the language. Do you mean you catch phrases and words but the context never gets clear?
Ha! See, my native tongue is (American) English and I make my living translating German and French into English. As a result, I can *read* Dutch -- in fact, have even translated a very little of it, enough to know that if I had a larger amount of it to translate, I'd learn to read it fine in a month or two.
But *hearing* Dutch is like falling through into a parallel universe -- a similar thing to any of the Low German dialects, which would fade imperceptibly into English if the Channel weren't there to draw a strict line in the sand.
When I actually go to Holland or Belgium, and hear Dutch on the radio, I can actually feel my brain twisting through another dimension trying to tune into that parallel universe, you see. It hovers on the verge of lucidity -- yes, the odd word or phrase leaps out into (seeming) understanding, or sometimes 75% understanding or some stranger (60 + 50i)% complex number.
Lately I get a lot of this feeling, since I live in Puerto Rico but my Spanish is not up to speed. The difference is that I read Spanish fluently -- it's just my ear that's trying to catch up -- and so when I *do* manage to nail a phrase down, I can map it onto something I already know. With Dutch, I don't have that option. It just tries to map onto whatever it finds, and sometimes that's almost like some sort of chemical psychedelic in terms of its effects on my psyche.
took some time between each program :P
You *are* ignoring us!
you abandoned us.
it's been 2 years.
yeah, come back :S
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