The Llama Butchers unearthed a fun game at Impenetrable Prose and Poesy.

1. Take the lyrics to a favorite song.
2. Go to Babelfish, translate the lyrics into German, then from German to French, and finally from French back into English.
3. Post the results verbatim.
4. Invite friends to guess the song based on the interesting new lyrics.

Here goes:

There is unrest in the forest,
There is disorder with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight lamp
And the oaks is unaware of to their pleas.

The disturbs with the maples,
(And they' Re quite convinced they' Re right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
Drank the oaks can' T help to their feelings
If they like the way they' Re made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can' T Be happy in their shade.

There is disorder in the forest,
And the creatures all cuts fled,
Have the maples scream "Oppression!"
And the oaks just shake to their heads
So the maples formed has union
And demanded equal rights.

"The oaks are just too greedy;
Give We will make them custom light."
Now there' S No more oak oppression,
For they passed has noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axis, and saw.

Answer (and original lyrics) below the fold:
more...

Posted by: JohnL at 11:35 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I've been doing a lot of these lately, just to keep some sort of writing flowing here. Rhianna tagged me with this one:

1) Total number of films I own on DVD/video:

We currently own 55 DVD titles (give or take). I am counting multiple-DVD sets as a single title (so the Special Edition of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King counts as only 1 "title" rather than 4, for example). I won't count our aging VHS collection, which would add quite a bit more. We subscribe to Netflix, so I usually only buy titles that I want to watch more than once.

2) The last film I bought:

The original Battlestar Galactica series.

3) The last film I watched:

The last "film" I watched was Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The last "movie" I watched -- on DVD -- was Racing Stripes, tonight.

4) Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):

When Harry Met Sally (sappy and silly, but very similar to the story of my wife and me: old friends who became lovers and got married)

It's A Wonderful Life (we watch it every Christmas season, along with the original Miracle on 34th Street and the George C. Scott Christmas Carol)

Star Wars (I would love to watch the untainted original version, but even the "special" edition that Lucas monkeyed with in the late 90s retains a fair amount of the original's charm)

Silverado (one of my favorite Westerns of all time, and one of the best ensemble comedy-dramas I can think of)

Toy Story (Pixar at its innocent best; a movie that takes me right back to my eldest child's toddlerhood)

5) Tag 5 people and have them put this in their journal:

I'll take volunteers instead of conscripts this time.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:41 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 My version is up.

Posted by: owlish at May 29, 2005 10:15 AM (sBj9U)

2 I won't need a cattle prod to get a version up; just let me get rid of, er, out of my office after paying retainer, some clients

Posted by: Lysander at May 31, 2005 10:12 AM (ShW/G)

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Rob tagged me with a book meme that is very similar to one I did a couple of months ago. Some of the answers have changed over time, so here are the questions:

1. Total Number of Books I've Owned. Hundreds; likely more than a thousand.

2. Last Book I Bought: An unabridged (and heavily annotated but untranslated) version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

3. Last Book I Read: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I started reading it out loud to my second son (first son listens in more than half the time, too), but got to a really good part and read it straight through to the end. J.K. Rowling could really use some vigorous editing, but she knows how to tell a compelling story despite the florid prose. I've also been enjoying quite a bit of short-form SF while plowing my way through a several-month backlog of Analog magazines. Does the Victoria's Secret catalog count? I just leafed through the latest one while taking out the recycling...

4. Five Books That Mean A lot to Me: I won't cheat on this one. Five books that made a remarkable imprint on my thinking - five key mileposts in my intellectual and moral development, if you will (in order of first reading):

1. The Bible
(It makes its way onto a lot of these kinds of lists; it is usually one of the first great works of literature that kids in the West are introduced to - even if it's not usually taught as literature).

2. Cosmos by Carl Sagan (which first began to loosen my mind from the shackles of fundamentalism)
   
3. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (could just as easily be Anthem or Atlas Shrugged, since I read all three in the same two-month period during the summer after ninth grade)


4. Job: A Comedy of Justice by Heinlein. (I had read many other of his books, but this one really matched my personal spiritual journey - a major part of my coming-of-age)


5. Goedel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter (difficult to describe, but made me look at music, math, logic, and language in an entirely new way; as I did in the earlier meme I heartily encourage Rob to add this to his "short list" of books to read.)

5. Tag five people and have them do this on their blog. I usually don't tag others, but I would be interested in seeing the answers of:

Eric
Gunner
Lysander (this should help him get a new post up for the month of May)
Owlish
Timothy Sandefur

Enjoy!

Posted by: JohnL at 10:55 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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So Gunner tagged me with a meme thing. Here's the deal:

List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you canÂ’t really understand the fuss over.

1. Reality TV. I've never watched it. The ads alone depress my IQ by about 20 points.

2. Opera. I'm classically-trained, and am well-educated in all kinds of music. But I've never gotten opera. The overtures are fine, but as soon as they start singing, I feel my hackles rise just like with Country and Western or Rap. The only opera I can stand is Bugs Bunny (What's Opera Doc, found here) or Queen's A Night at the Opera.

3. Blackberries. Most lawyers I know have now decided to put an electronic collar around their necks so that their owners (er, clients) can yank their leash and reach them anywhere and anytime. I loathe these things. The connected world is really groovy, but I like clear boundaries, and I set them. I end up making less than high-powered law-firm partners, but I have a life.

4. Disney. Apart from Fantasia, Alice in Wonderland, and anything Pixar, I just can't get the charm of Disney. It's like a creepy cult or something.

5. Golf. I'm OK at the game, but just don't get the big deal.

I won't tag anyone, but please trackback if you choose to play along.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:54 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Do you know anyone who really enjoys opera? And I agree on golf, I knew people in med school who would enjoy watching golf on TV.

Posted by: owlish at May 22, 2005 10:04 PM (sBj9U)

2 I work in TV, and broadcast far too much reality TV. At night I pray for the sweet release of death... Opera is aestetically vile, and ranks in my mind as one of Western Culture's greatest failings. Blackberries. Don't really know what they are. Disney gave us the Tommorowland episodes of Man in Space, On The Moon, and Mars and beyond. These episodes were piloted by Von Braun and Ward Kimball, and are works of art. I concur with Fantasia and Pixar. Modern Disney has co-opted and ruined everything it touches. The corpses of Pooh, Roger Rabbit, the Muppets, and Simba lie strewn in its wake. Golf. Just plain stupid.

Posted by: Jeff at May 23, 2005 06:29 AM (Gn4oO)

3 Could not be more with you regarding reality TV. Same goes for Opera. Love the music, but the singing reminds me of how we were taught NOT to sing when I was in choir. (sigh) The Dark Side of the Blackberry is calling. I'd go to Disneyworld, if it weren't for all the &*^% Kids... Man, I love golf. Wish I had time to play. I hate to say it, but I don't get NASCAR- though many of my friends are fans.

Posted by: Jack Grey at May 23, 2005 03:56 PM (Jq8H8)

4 I dont watch reality tv either, inane waste of time. I have no idea what blackberries are. dont they grow in forest? Disney is for kiddies and golf is for big kiddies - (furthermore, golf is just one part of a whole group of activities called "sport" which I really dont get at all.) But I really love operas, not all of course, I cant stand Puccini for example, but I do love Wagner. Yeah, thats how vile I am.

Posted by: Lemuel Kolkava at May 23, 2005 04:55 PM (aOCIX)

5 I left a link to the Blackberry website for a reason. They're a wireless PDA with a little thumb-keyboard for sending and receiving emails. They are all the rage among the legal set right now.

Posted by: JohnL at May 23, 2005 09:59 PM (gplif)

6 By the way, I have to disagree, at least partially, on reality tv. The original Real World's concept was a soap opera without a script, and the first Survivor is the best illustration I've seen of "Evil succeeds if good men do nothiing." And given how evil it is to wear a pager 24/7, I would think it would be worse to wear a Blackberry.

Posted by: owlish at May 24, 2005 01:09 PM (sBj9U)

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Here's some mindless fun: a variety of name generators to translate your name (or alias) into something else.

Posted by: JohnL at 11:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No surprises here:

Via the Llamabutchers.

(Rob, were you really an English major? I'd ask for my money back if I were you ;-)

Posted by: JohnL at 07:54 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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