I haven't posted anything here or anywhere for the past month or so because I've been busy translating a new book.  I think I can safely say that this is the end of my translating career, for I intensely hate it.  I sat here for about 15 seconds, thinking of various words - loathe, livid, abhor, detest, revulsion, et cetera, but yeah, I like intensely hate for whatever reason. 

But I had two realizations as I was translating this book - a Christian book - which is interesting, because I no longer classify myself as Christian.

1.  In the introductory part of the book, there were bunch of "letters of recommendations" by pastors.  Nearly all of them were absolutely horrid.  Not just bad, but devoid of any useful meaning and overstuffed with pretentiousness.  I hate it.  I fucking hate it when a writing lacks substance and is deduced into an array of fancy words to impress.  Do they have no taste?  I mean, it's like eating shit and not knowing how bad it is.  If they had re-read what they had written, it should've been painfully clear that they vomited on paper.  If not, then I pity them, because they have no taste buds in their brain to differentiate between a shitty writing and an acceptable one.

It's not like I'm some wunderkind, but pastors?  It's their job to write sermons everyday.  Do your fucking job.  If you've taken it seriously, your writing can't possibly suck this much.  I now know why most sermons are so damn bad.  Because the writing is horrendous to begin with. 

2.  I have this wonderful speech - a farewell toast actually - in my head.  I typically write short speeches in my head from start to beginning, and I almost cried thinking about it.  I'm dying to transcribe it onto paper, because I'm so curious how it will sound.  But I couldn't do it because translating took up all my time and now, I have to write some letters of recommendations.  I suppose I could've written a little bit instead of writing this blog post, but no.  The speech will be about the same length, but it will take hours and hours to write and rewrite and edit, while this blog, which has taken about 20 minutes of my time, probably will take another 5-10 minutes to complete.  I have to finish the letters of recommendation first or else I'll feel guilty. 

I guess that's the difference between obligatory and voluntary writing - torture and heaven.  This is why I hated English so much throughout school, yet I've came to love it after graduation. 

The secret to cooking

I have discovered a secret to cooking; you add msg and salt until it becomes edible - or like pho.