I knew those doves were evil.

HOLY CRAP!!!
(sorry this is going to be a break in the iPod week entries)
Anyway, my family has been really worried lately that my sister has lung cancer, or something very severe as such. Today we all breathed a sigh of relief that she doesn't.

Guess what she really has? Of all things? I just find it so ironic, even funny, but yet not at all. She has hypersensitivity pneumonitis or "pigeon breeder disease." Now here's the thing. My brother-in-law loves his doves that they have in a cage in their house. All summer I joked about how I was going to break their little necks (because the coo-ed all the time). And here they were making my sister develop some kind of awful slow impossible-to-diagnose disease. Tony feels sooo bad because you know, these were his babies for 2 and a half years; he gave them showers and let them fly around, but if she was exposed to them much longer she could have died. That would weigh heavily on one's conscience even though he couldn't have known. I feel bad for him. And her, but luckily the negative effects are reversible so that is an answer to prayer. I just can't get over how ironic it is that she has this rare allergy to, of all things, those stupid doves that lived in her house.

Apple Advertising

Perhaps one of the greatest advertising campaigns in history hit the world by storm: black silhouettes dancing against fluorescent backgrounds. What do these faceless figures have in common? Their bright white ipod. Apple labs hit a goldmine when they chose their catchy iPod marketing. Distinguishing. Dynamic. Sexy. Visually Appealing. What kid doesn't point to the tv or billboard and scream "I want one!" If I should find myself in the advertising/marketing business in a few years, I could only hope as to think of such a good idea. What can I say, they are inspirational. *tear*

iPod Love

I've decided to do theme weeks until I get sick of this idea, or until I feel like posting something else. This week's theme? iPods

Who just got herself the hottest new 4.8 ounces of immaculate technology? Yes, I did. I have joined the iPod nation. I love my recent purchase. I went to Circuit City in Hagerstown just to pick up my new baby of Apple genius. After agonizingly searching for exactly what I wanted, I the new generation 30Gb video capable iPod. Since this whole week I'll be discussing iPods/Mac/Apple and so forth, I'll leaving you with one phrase: iPod Love

Survivor Cook Islands: The Race Issue

There continues to be buzz about how the new teams on Survivor are divided by race. I think the idea is catchy and interesting. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the survivors don't seem to like the arrangement. And even better, the one team is very upset with the one idiot in their tribe that makes racist jokes about them. I hate that too. Just because someone belongs to the race they are making racial slurs against, doesn't make it ok. You are only perpetuating that foolishness and really making yourself look like a moron. Another thing that ticks me off is reverse racism. Pride in your heritage is one thing, but being paranoid to the point where you begin to discriminate against others is outrageous. If a white person was caught saying the things that some minorities say, we'd get politically massacred. I'm all for equal rights of all races, not reparation for past ignorance, not for seperation, not for affirmative action, but a merit/intrinsical value based society.

Pretty Gourds

Ok, so I've been busy, I still love you blog, don't worry. Posting everyday does take a chunk of time that sometimes I have to use to do stuff that I've already procrastinated enough to not do.

Oh, and I need to stop being such a people pleaser, but that's another story.
A quick post: Pretty gourds from my pappy.

The End.

Translations gone bad

As someone who did some translating over the summer, these are every translator's worst nightmare... Oh those idioms.

Coors translated its slogan, Turn it loose, into Spanish, where it was read as Suffer from diarrhea.

In Chinese, the translation of the Pepsi slogan:
Come alive with the Pepsi Generation
turned out: Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the grave.

Frank Perdue's slogan It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken sounds much more interesting in Spanish. A photo of Perdue with one of his chickens appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption that explained:
It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused

When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, the ads were supposed to say It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you. However, the company mistakenly thought the Spanish word embarazar meant embarrass.
Instead the ads said: It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.

Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.

When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery,
Fly in leather, it came out in Spanish as Fly naked.

The Microsoft ad slogan, as translated into Japanese:
If you don't know where you want to go, we'll make sure you get taken.

When Chevrolet developed the Chevy Nova, they decided to market it heavily in Mexico. No va means it doesn't go in Spanish. The car was later renamed Caribe.

Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for tiny male genitals. Ford pried all the nameplates off and substituted Corcel, which means horse.

The Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan finger-lickin' good came out in KFC’s first Chinese campaign as eat your fingers off.

An American tee-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market, promoting the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired I saw the Pope! (el Papa) Thousands of shirts proudly proclaimed in Spanish I saw the Potato! (la Papa).

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.

When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the beautiful baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside, since many people can't read English.

Thanks to Innocent Englishfor these translations gone bad.

Pizza Counter Guy: Pending Lawsuit

While I stayed in Dallas with my sister and her husband we ordered pizza twice. Both times it was from Papa Johns, this little place that you either get your pizza delivered or go in and pick it up. The first time while we were eating I looked at the box and laughed.

The little sticker with the price on it said "orange shirt guy" Ha ha. That's the what the pizza boy wrote (on the box that he gives to the actual customer) to remember who ordered which pizza. That was funny ha ha. Tony must have been wearing an orange shirt.

The second time we got pizza there I went with Tony to pick it up. Only it wasn't ready on time so we had to wait. Since it was raining outside, we just stood in the little building.

*20 minutes later
We are at home eating some yummy pizza and lo and behold I remembered to look at the little sticker to see what funny little line it would be this time. It read "couple" Just one word. One single word, "couple."

What? Tony and I were not acting like a couple! That guy is going to have a lawsuit. He can't just write whatever he wants on those boxes that are actually going to be sitting on the table when you take it home. Here his wife (my sister) is sitting there thinking what on earth? Why does the pizza box say my sister and my husband are a couple? That is upsetting.

I suppose we should be glad the stupid pizza boy didn't write something like socks with sandals guy and ugly girl; I suppose that would have been worse... but come on. You can't write stuff about customers that later they are going to find plastered to their pizza box.

Beach Hopping

For probably the last warm day of the year here in Pennsylvania, on Saturday Emily and I went "beach hopping" as we coined it. Actually, against my will, we went from Fuller lake to Laurel lake and then back to Fuller Lake because the other one was closed. The park ranger came and yelled at people in the water despite the large "NO SWIMMING" signs. Luckily he didn't see us earlier. Anyway, calling it beach hopping sounds a lot cooler. Regardless, we did have fun.