You may not feel outstandingly robust...

[beboots]

"You may not feel oustandingly robust, but if you are an average-sized adult you will contain within your modest frame no less than 7 x 10¹⁸ joules of potential energy - enough to explode with the force of thirty very large hyrdogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point."
-Bill Bryson, on the meaning of E=mc², A Short History of Nearly Everything

(one of the most interesting paragraphs I've read today)

Mysterious Plant by ~Beboots on deviantART

So... what have I been up to?

Mainly working and doing errands. But as you can see from my previous post, work = lulz. :) I've been reading the abovementioned book, which has the distinction of being the only media that has made me actually interested in science in any capacity since Bill Nye the Science Guy. (For the unitiated, here is an example episode of a show that consumed my childhood along with the Magic School Bus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ag6rcM9V-U ) Everyone my age who grew up in North America can sing the theme song, or at least recognize it, I swear.

In any case... yesterday, on my first day off, I went out to Fabricland with Ashley on a whim, and we bought patterns and fabric and have half-finished floor-length cloaks on our hands. With lining. <3

I've also jumped through hoops to get my passport renewed. I swear, Passport Canada should really make passports expire every ten years, like the rest of the world, and not put us through such trials and tribulations every five. D:

I've also discovered that I really like Canadian government buildings, especially ones built to be impressive like Canada Place in Edmonton. (Does every large Canadian city have a Canada Place?) I feel comfortable around the familiar bilingual signs - it made me feel at home, even when visiting the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo a few years ago. :) It makes me feel calm and patriotic. Maybe they put something in the air...? ;)

I'm also planning on posting a long Temeraire fic idea soon. It's probably not going to get written out in full, but it's essentially the plan for a novel-length fanfic. I wrote it over the course of three hours or so, after ruminating on it for a week.

This post came out much less enthusiastic than I wanted to, but that's probably because I'm wilting from the heat. D: It's been like above 20C every day this week, and when you're working out in the sun, running hand-cranked rides or even just talking with people... it saps your energy.

Comments

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

Just to make you feel better about your passport situation: our passports are also only valid for five years, and that's not only for Argentina.... it's the same in the entire Mercosur (which comprises most South-American countries).

...actually, now that I think about it, my passport expired about four years ago, and I've never even used it once... maybe I should go jump through some hoops and have it renewed, myself. :P

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, I've been trying to learn the Canadian National Anthem. I've got the scores and a few mp3s, now it's just a matter of memorizing the lyrics (the English ones; my French would be pitiful). Why? ...dunno. I just like it. ^^U
Though I'm not sure if I shouldn't change all "our" and "we" for "their" and "they", since it's hardly my homeland I'm singing about. XD
(I'm the kind of person to sing patriotic songs from her own country and others in the shower and while knitting... and you wonder why people say I'm weird? ^^U)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

You're learning the Canadian national anthem? Rock on! :D That will uber-impress any canadians you meet. Seriously.

And if you want any pointers for the French version, feel free to ask. <3

Apparently there's also an official version of the anthem in Inukituk as well, though I've never heard it.

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

Pity you don't often find Canadians lurking this side of the Ecuator. We only seem to get people from Europe as tourists, for some reason... ;)

My dad beats me, though: he knows how to play docens of national anthems on the clarinet. He was on the army band during the last Fifa World Cup that was hosted in Argentina (1978), and they had to play the national anthems of the visiting countries before each match. Yes, back then there was a band playing the national anthems live, instead of using a recording. According to my dad, the Brazilian national anthem was the most fun to play.

Your national anthem is beautiful, even the full version, with all three stanzas... ours is pretty violent, even in its short, two-stanza official version (the original nine stanzas were practically dripping blood and were, unsurprisingly, used to promote our rugby team during the last rugby tournament). Most people never have the chance to tell, because it's so long (in its short version it's about six minutes long) that they never play it fully at international competitions. What they end up playing is the introduction only, and it ends just before we'd start singing. In the last World Cup, the Argentinean crowd ended up singing the instrumental part. It sounded pretty funny if you knew that part wasn't supposed to be sung. XD

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I know that many national anthems are pretty long - surprisingly long. :) You don't speak French, right? Look up a translation of the French lyrics to our national anthem - they're actually completely different than the official English version. The French version came first, and there were several English versions before we hit on this one.

Before "Oh, Canada", it was "Maple Leaf Forever", I believe, and before that it was the standard "God Save the King/Queen".

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

I looked up the translation, and yes, was surprised at how different they are. I wonder if that was on purpose, or they just didn't know how to fit the translation into the music, so they created a new one from scratch?

I only speak about five words in French, most of which I can't pronounce properly. My few attempts at singing "Michelle" were atrocious enough to cause bloodlust in any French-speaking person that had the misfortune of listening. ^^U

Our national anthem has been one and the same since the beginning, but it had to be shortened when the music was composed, because otherwise we'd be singing for half an hour every time (apparently they recited all nine stanzas before it had music). It had to be toned down a bit, too, because it was heavily anti-Spain (when the lyrics were written we'd very recently declared independence and were still recovering from the independence war) and the composer of the music was Spaniard by birth. ^^U

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Your anthem sounds badass. Like the original French nation anthem - revolutionary, with blood splattered banners and killing people and stuff. The Canadian one is pretty tame in comparison, although the French one makes mention of "ton bras sais porter l'épée" - your arm knows how to handle a sword. :3

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

Badass, it is. A rough translation of the chorus would be:

May the laurels be eternal
the ones we managed to win. (repeat x2)
Let us live crowned in glory...
or let us swear to die gloriously! (repeat, x4)

So you see, we're basically swearing in our national anthem that we'd rather die gloriously than let ourselves be controlled by another nation again... badass, huh? :)

And the original was bloody indeed... It included jewels such as:

"Don't you see them (the Spaniards) over Mexico and Quito
throwing themselves with tenacious viciousness?
And how they cry, bathed in blood,
Potosí, Cochabamba and La Paz?
(all sites of incredible bloodshed in the independence wars; Potosí in particular was a very rich silver mine which had claimed hundreds of deaths every year among the workers... Spain hadn't cared much for the well-being of the aborigens that they forced to work in their mines)
Don't you see them over sad Caracas
spreading mourning and weeping and death?
Don't you see them devouring as wild animals
all people who surrender to them?"

And that's just a sample. After this there is a call for "the valiant Argentine to arms", to stop all this bloodshed and come out victorious (and humiliate Spain while at it). No wonder it had to be toned down. ^^UUU

I still like your anthem better. You can feel the love of Canadian people for their country. :3

In case you're curious, here is my favourite version of the Argentinean national anthem (incidentally, the guy who sings it has every woman over forty in my country madly in love with him. He apparently has a gorgeous smile that makes mature ladies swoon. XD), this is an instrumental version that has a great video, which shows awesome images of my country and our people (including some of the people that have made us proud in the past, like Jorge Luis Borges), and here is a version that has English subtitles and sign language. I don't much like the singer of this last version, but she performs the sign language flawlessly (I know a bit), so I guess some credit should go to her for that.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking that I definitely have to take a Central/South American history class at some point. You guys have all this interesting history that I only vaguely know about - I mean, Spanish/Portuguese colonization, some interesting stuff going on with Portugal/Brazil (didn't the royal family live in the New World for a while?), lots of revolutions and stuff... Yeah.

Oh, and we don't often say "aborigens" (unless it's pronounced "ab-or-ige-an-eez"), but "aboriginals" or "natives". (At least up here in North America). I think that the word "aboriginals" refers to other countries' native peoples and not our own North American ones (Cree, Blackfoot, Iroquois, Salish, etc.,etc.), but I'm not sure. I'm quite interested in the topic of native studies, though. I should take a class or two on that as well...

I'll have to check those videos out! I'm heading off to work in like fifteen minutes, so... yeah. :) But I look forward to looking at them when I get back! :D

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

Our history is pretty interesting, but be warned that it will sound pretty darn bloody and unfair... at least if you check the right sources. History is always told from the side that won the wars, so much of what is easily available has been prettied, but the history of South and Central America can be summarized as:

White people came.
White people saw.
White people liked.
White people killed previous owners.
White people took.
White people settled.
White people fought among each other.
White people declared indepence.
(not always in this order)

In our case, "white people" were the people sent from Spain, and what exactly it was that they saw and desired changed from region to region, but it all eventually ended the same way: they massacred the natives, took their riches and colonized. Those who survived were stripped of their identity and dignity and forced to work for the Spaniards.

Then there is the individual history of each country when Spain got caught up in the Napoleonic wars and couldn't sustain the colonies any longer (Spain basically lost all respect from their colonies when Napoleon's brother took the throne of Spain), which involves yet more blood and pain, and eventually independence and the formation of a new identity (which involved a lot of in-fighting, too, of course).

Oh, thanks. I have trouble with politically correct terminology, since it's compeltely different in English than in Spanish, and it keeps changing. ^^U

Did you get a chance to look at them? ^^

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I... am looking at them now! :D I'll comment later. I'm running on like four hours of sleep (which isn't a lot, for me). ;) Gimme a minute to wake up. I have to have my tea first.

Oh, and out of curiosity (don't feel like you have to answer this question if you don't want to) - are you descended from one of these white people, or are you one of the oppressed natives?

Just for reference - I'm kind of a mutt, like many Canadians and Americans are. My mum is British (my parents actually met in Paris on separate vacations), but her family was from a line of oppressed British Catholics, you know? Anyway, so I have British citizenship through her, which is sweet (yay European Union!). My dad is from a Polish family - his grandparents came over in the early 1900s, which is why we have the long Polish last name - Markewicz. (I'm told it means "Son of Mark") His mum, though, was a Dutch war bride - his dad went over and fought in the Second World War, and they met when he was helping to liberate Holland. :)

I also may or may not have had a Spanish great-great-something in there, because we kind of look Spanish in our looks. And we tan a lot. ;)

So yeah. Mostly European.

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

are you descended from one of these white people, or are you one of the oppressed natives?

Both (actually, most people from South America are).

My greatgrandfather on my father's side was Lule, one of the people that lived in Argentinian territory long before Spain declared it for themselves, though unfortunately we don't know much about them because much was already lost by the time of my greatgrandfather and he didn't talk much, either. He married a Dutch woman, who had actually already been married to a much older man in the ship over from Europe when she was nine, but fled before the marriage was supposed to be consumated, at thirteen. She was no pushover (hurray for my greatgrandma!). She became a nurse and met my greatgrandfather, who was a TB patient. I would have loved to hear the rest of that story, but so many generations back there isn't much chance. They apparently fell in love, married, and had several children before my greatgrandfather finally died (TB was always fatal back then). I saw their picture (him sitting down and his family standing around him, as was the usual); it was very funny how contrasting their looks were. I can't tell for sure since he was sitting down, but my greatgrandmother was apparently much taller than my greatgrandfather. XD
On my mother's side we have a lot of Italians and a few Germans; most of them came for the promise of land and work... which they got, but at a heavy price. One of my greatgrandfathers (the Italian one) had been apparently pretty loaded when he came, with the intention of buying a big strip of land and setting up a huge plantation, but he was swindled out of his money at port by some guy that offered to exchange his money for the local currency and ended up giving him paper covered by a few real notes. He had to start from zero then. He was eventually able to buy a bit of land, but nothing as grand as he had originally intended.

Their children ended up marrying some Spaniard and Dutch-descendant people, plus some Italians... it's hard to tell now, nobody really keeps track over here. We don't place much stock on ancestry, over here, thus we are nicknamed "the melting pot of races", since most of us have such a mix of races. We have an "open doors" policy when it comes to immigration, so discrimination based on race is practically non-existent. We've never had it, and it would be very stupid to start now, considering we'd have to discriminate against ourselves, because most of us have such an unbelievable mix. :)

So we're both mutts. XD

My mother is actually trying to get Italian citizenship because of her greatgrandfather, and I'd get it from her then; it's just a matter of the papers getting through now. :3
(many European countries are trying to get the people that fled during the wars back now, since the birth rates have dropped alarmingly; they have been granting citizenship to the descendants for a while now, all you have to do is prove that your parents, grandparents or greatgrandparents really did come from their country - which is a bit hairy considering it requires birth certificates and whatnot. We actually had to ask someone from Europe to look for the church my greatgrandfather was baptized in and ask for a copy of the registry).

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Yay for European passports! :D Italian is a beautiful language - do you think that you'll start learning it, too?

Also, your great-grandmother sounds really awesome.

I have a few interesting relatives - a great-uncle of my father was in the First World War and lost a leg. Apparently someone threw a grenade into his trench and it was between him stomping on the grenade to absorb some of the explosion or them all dying.

Also, my dad's grandfather died (or dissappeared) mysteriously around the birth of my dad's dad, way back in the early 1900s. Dad's grandma didn't speak very good English (they were newly arrived from Poland) so they couldn't do much investigating. It's an unsolved mystery.

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

Probably, though not in the near future. Two of my sisters are studying it, though.

Yeah, she was... particularly considering the time she lived in. Back then it wasn't such a common thing to go against your family and flee just because you didn't want to sleep with the old guy they picked for your husband. She must have had it rough faring on her own at such a young age...

My mum's mother was pretty awesome, too. Her mother died young, so she had to bring up her younger brothers and take care of things at the house. This took up all her time, so she never went to school... but she taught herself how to read and write by listening to her brothers reciting their lessons aloud while she cleaned. She also learned to add and substract in this manner, and she was the one to balance her own family's budget in her time.
She was also engaged to marry a guy she didn't love, and like my great-grandma, she didn't stay put, either (she already had a guy she liked in mind, and apparently she was the one to make the first move). She went by herself and told the guy she was not going to marry him, even though she knew the consequences would be dire (you didn't just go against your father's wishes lightly). She was estranged from her family, but she never let that bring her down. She had eight children, and she worked hard her entire life to send all but one of them to college (which is cheaper here than in other countries but still requires extra living expenses they didn't have). She was a tough lady that knew what she wanted and how to get it, and if it wasn't for this I wouldn't have been born: at age 45, she wanted another daugther (she'd only had two) but my grandfather didn't want another kid, so she tricked him: she told him she was already pregnant. By the time he realized she had been lying, she was really pregnant, and she had my mother a few months later. XD

Oh, that sounds awesome. One of my dad's friends has a WWI helmet with a very clear bullet mark hung on a wall... I asked him once about it, and he told me that helmet was the only reason he was born. It had belonged to his grandfather while he was on the war, and the bullet-shaped dent was acquired while he was still wearing it... that helmet saved his life, so he could go back home and get married and eventually have a son, who would became my dad's friend's dad in time. That's one cool heirloom, I gotta say. :)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

That is pretty darn awesome, I have to say. :D My dad likes collecting some war memorabillia as well - mostly actual firearms. He does do a lot of hunting and shooting competitions and things, so he has quite a (working) collection. He only has a couple bayonets, but has several rifles from the First and Second World Wars (mostly American firearms).

My favourite is an Australian hunting rifle (designed for killing rabbits) from the early 1900s - it has a kangaroo engraved on the barrel. :D

Anyway... I can't think of any more super-duper amazing relative stories to tell you. I don't know my extended family very well, more's the pity. :(

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

That sounds pretty cool... but dangerous. I mean, bayonets can be pretty dangerous even when not charged...

Still, that's awesome. The Australian hunting rifle sounds particularly great. My dad used to have an antique rifle for hunting rabbits, too, but it was damaged and wouldn't fire anymore. Apparently one of his uncles used to charge it with cartridges emptied and refilled with salt... he says it was one very effective way to keep trespassers out of his property. Getting a shot of salt won't hurt you (much), but it will sting pretty darn bad...

I know a lot of stories about my extended family (though I can't recall exact names or dates) ...Italian descended, remember? "the family together" is the root of all Italian beliefs, and that implies gossiping with gusto about everyone that shares your blood. My late grandma would always have a particularly juicy repertoire. Whether all of it was true is highly debatable, but she never let that stop her. XD

[kuiskata]

Bill Nye! <3 Oh, my childhood. :) (lol, I actually watched an episode of the Magic School Bus before I left. XD)

Everyone my age who grew up in North America can sing the theme song, or at least recognize it, I swear.

Too true.

Long Temeraire fic = win. I will want to read it, if you ever do write it.

Ugh, the weather here. It was 12 degrees and drizzling when I left Helsinki, and I get here and it's 24 degrees and sunny. Not fun. :/ (Of course, I was so tired I pretty much crashed when I got home...)

Also, totally random, but I went to Turku last Sunday, and went to a few museums, including the Finnish equivalent of Fort Ed. :D I have pics that I will have to show you.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

OMG GLEE. I want to go to Finland just for that. For serious.

Also... when shall we meet? :DD

[kuiskata]

I don't know, but sometime in the next week, maybe? It depends when you're working. I'm only scheduled Saturdays and Tuesdays so far, and I don't know how many more hours Jenny will be able to give me. (She said she probably won't be able to give me all that many hours, unfortunately, but that won't be so bad after my LING 204 class starts.)

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

whyyy is Bill Bryson so awesome? :)

I still haven't read Temeraire yet. Oddly enough, lately I've been tending to poetry and nonfiction essays, with a side of Terry Pratchett. hmm.

Sorry to hear about the heat. I can imagine how awful it is... *thinks of heat in China DDD:*

<3!