Refraction

I seem to be taking breaks from studying by translating French things.

Anyway, this is a lovely song which I heard on the radio in Québec; I’ve since bought the CD (it was on sale at Future Shop. Yes, they have Future Shop in Québec.)

Je grille une cigarette
Je suis du bois d’allumette
Qui se consume et je présume
Que tout chemin se termine
Autant pour prince que pour vermine
La vie est ainsi faite

I smoke a cigarette
I’m a matchstick
that burns up, and I’d guess
that every road ends
for the prince as it does for the bums
Such is life

Or que tout est bête
Tout est vain et inutile
Lorsqu’épuisé, fatigué
Le corps n’est plus qu’un autre projectile
Propulsé depuis matin
Jusqu’au soir en bus, en train
Je sais qu’un coeur peut s’arrêter pour moins

But, everything’s so stupid
Everything’s done in vain, useless
When you’re exhausted, tired
Your body’s just another projectile
That’s been going since morning
Until night on the bus, on the train
I know that hearts have stopped for less

Imparfait
Le monde est imparfait
Imparfait

Imperfect
The world’s imperfect
Imperfect

Le vent est si tendre sur midi
Tu es septembre sur Paris
Je pense à toi, ça fait du bien
Toi dans ta ville et moi transsibérien
Qui t’aime et qui t’adore
Puis qui se hait d’aimer si fort
L’amour est comme je le redoutais

The wind’s so gentle at noon
You’re September in Paris
I think of you, it does me good
You in your city, and me, trans-siberian (???)
Who loves you, who adores you
Then hates herself for loving you so much
Love is what I feared it would be

Imparfait
L’amour est imparfait
Imparfait

Imperfect
Love is imperfect
Imperfect

Imparfait
Le monde est imparfait
Imparfait
L’amour est imparfait
Imparfait
Le monde est imparfait
Imparfait

Imperfect
The world’s imperfect
Imperfect
Love is imperfect
Imperfect
The world’s imperfect
Imperfect

Okay, so here from the depths of Harry Potter fandom… (and JKR’s official site)

At least that’s one test I know I did well on ;D

This is going to be a long, rambly thinking-out-loud post filled with self-pity and teenage angst. 😛

There’s an expression in Cantonese which I think describes my mental state very well; I only wish I knew how to write it properly. I don’t, so I’m just going to take a stab at it here: 心散. I’ve always taken this (and remember, I only know things phonetically, if that) into its component pieces: 心: heart; 散: scattered, in pieces. I’m trying to find a proper definition for it, but I understand it to mean distracted and not really giving 100% to whatever you’re doing.

I don’t know if I’m really passionate about science–I really don’t. I don’t know that I’m passionate about anything.

Sometimes I think I can salvage by BSc and become a technical writer instead; in fact, this is a notion I’ve been considering ever since I heard of the technical writing profession. But when I look on scientific writing sites, they all seem to demand a BA in English for some odd reason. No offense to all my English major friends, but I’d rather read a scientific text from a Chemistry major than an English major. Heck, maybe I’ll take a BA after I get my BSc.

Sometimes I think my situation is un-salvagable and that I am really in the wrong major–which is probably a slap in the face to all those people I scored higher than (I’m not trying to boast, but getting a Trek scholarship does ensure that you scored higher than someone somewhere.)

I wonder what I would do if I weren’t studying chemistry. Were I to stay in science, I’d probably become a biochem major. Or possibly genetics. All I know is that I need to get as far away from physics as possible. If I switched to Arts? French is the obvious choice (I have the most credits towards the program), with Linguistics and English Language not coming far behind.

I was walking around the career fair today and realized more than ever that a BSc does not mean guranteed employment any more than a BA does. Seriously. The companies weren’t really interested unless you happened to be an engineer. I know people a lot smarter than I am who are looking into accounting programs after graduation. Why? The money’s better.

On the other hand, I’m fairly used to things coming easily; it means that I don’t always try as hard as I should. Plus, I’m a procrastinator to boot.

Heavens. I’m tired.

Je veux que ça soit fini. Enfin, on n’y peut rien.

I really prefer the French expression “ça ne vaut pas la peine” instead of the English equivalent “it’s not worth it.” For an anglophone like me, “la peine” is what sticks out in that phrase, car il y a certainement des choses qui nous font mal, et je pense qu’il faut reconnaître cette peine.

Don’t you love doing things yourself?

*insert emo-angsty-self-pitying blog entry here*

Actually, I suppose it’s more self-pity and less emo and angsty.

I’m so tired. It’s barely a month into school, and I’m already behind and feeling overwhelmed. Add the fact that I keep getting turned down for interviews, and you have a very unhappy Catherine. Plus, due to my insane schedule, I haven’t been able to keep up with my co-op commitments, and I’m really feeling the pressure right now.

I just want this to END.

(That’s a programming NOT operator for those of you who, like me, are programming-illiterate.)

Anyway, cover letters suck. Especially when you’re responding to a job posting that tells you nothing about what you’re actually doing besides “implementing experiments” and “preparing test materials.” Um, that’s great, Ms. HR director… now run that by me again?

The other requirements are equally banal. “Must have attention to detail and good record-keeping skills.” “Must be able to follow instructions.” Who ISN’T able to follow instructions? Seriously!

On the other hand, French class was cancelled today and I spent some time discussing my academic future with one of my Chemistry classmates, who tried to convince me that third year is the hardest one (I have to admit, I think he’s right–I won’t be taking quantum OR physical in fourth) and that sticking in Honours might not be such a bad idea.

Oh well. At worst, if I’m unlucky, the decision won’t be in my hands at all.

Meh, so now you see what I do when I come from from work. YTV has recently started airing Bleach after Fullmetal Alchemist. I don’t like it nearly as much, but when I found out that one of the character’s theme song is in French… well. I actually am not too fond of the song itself–it’s kind of boring, but translations are fun!

“T’en va pas” – Orihime Inoue’s image song

T’en va pas
si tu m’aimes t’en va pas
papa si tu l’aimes dis lui
qu’elle est la femme de ta vie vie vie
papa ne t’en va pas
on veut pas vivre sans toi
t’en va pas au bout de la nuit

Don’t leave me
If you love me, don’t go
Papa, if you love her, tell her
that she is the love of your life life life [1]
Papa, don’t leave
We don’t want to live without you
Don’t go at the end of the night

{Refrain:}
Nuit tu me fais peur
nuit tu n’en finis pas
comme un voleur
il est parti sans moi
on ira plus au ciné tous les trois

{Chorus:}
Night, you frighten me
Night, you’ll never stop doing that
Like a thief
He left without me
Us three won’t go to the movies anymore

Nuit tu me fais peur
nuit tu n’en finis pas
comme un voleur
il est parti sans moi
papa si tu pensais un peu à moi

Night, you frighten me
Night, you’ll never stop doing that
Like a thief
He stole away without me
Papa, if you thought of me for a moment…

Où tu vas quand tu t’en va d’ici
j’arrive pas à vivre sans toi
avec la femme de ta vie vie vie
papa fais pas d’connerie
quand on s’aime on s’en va pas
on ne part pas en pleine nuit

Where will you go when you leave this place? [2]
I can’t live without you
with the love of your life life life
Papa, don’t screw up
When people love each other, they don’t leave
They don’t leave in the dead of the night

Nuit tu me fais peur
nuit tu n’en finis pas
comme un voleur
il est parti sans moi
tu m’emmènera jamais aux USA

Night, you frighten me
Night, you’ll never stop doing that
Like a thief
He stole away without me
You’ll never take me to the States

Nuit tu me fais peur
nuit tu n’en finis pas
comme un voleur
il est parti sans moi
papa j’tassure arrête ton cinéma

Night, you frighten me
Night, you’ll never stop doing that
Like a thief
He left without me
Papa, I assure you–stop being dramatic [3]

Nuit …. sans moi
papa j’tassure qu’un jour tu reviendras

Night … without me
Papa, I assure you, you’ll come back one day

Nuit … sans moi
papa j’tassure arrête ton cinéma

Night … without me
Papa, I assure you, stop being dramatic

Nuit … sans moi
papa j’suis sure qu’un jour tu reviendras (2x)

Night … without me
Papa, I’m sure you’ll come back one day

Nuit … sans moi
papa si tu pensais un peu
si tu pensais un peu à moi

Night … without me
Papa, if you thought a bit
If you thought a bit about me

Nuit … sans moi
tu m’emmeneras jamais aux USA

Night … without me
You’ll never take me to the States

Nuit … sans moi
papa j’suis sur qu’un jour tu reviendras

Night … without me
Papa, I’m sure you’ll come back one day

[1]: Of course, “love of your life” doesn’t show up. I’m using translator’s license here. A more literal one would be “woman of your life,” but that just sounds weird.

[2]: This sentence is not explicitly in future tense, but …

[3]: This sentence just makes no sense. Maybe if I knew more about the character I’d be able to translate this thing …

Actually, in conclusion, I really don’t like this song. My translation makes no sense because the orginal’s a bit weird. And reading her character history on Wikipedia doesn’t help.

Update: Apparently the character songs in Bleach aren’t written specifically for the characters. That might explain something.

Okay, so in a desperate attempt to keep myself from falling into depression as a result of physical and organic chem, I’ve been reading stuff to remind myself about why I like chemistry.

I just found another reason. Apparently, there is a molecule named “Catherine,” (note the C!) and this is its structure:

Plus, if you have the CHIME plugin installed, you can look at a 3D rendering, as well.

And if you just want to learn about other molecules with weird names: http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols.htm

I have just adopted the Domo-kun fanlisting from Jen and Birgit. 🙂 I’ve wanted the Domo-kun fanlisting for a while, but never did I think that it’d actually go up for adoption! I do love this fuzzy brown critter 😀

And now, back to chemistry problem sets!

I just thought this was kawaii. (I hear that word so often at work that I’m allowed to use it, even if I don’t speak the language. :P)

So I surf over to RateMyProfs.ca to see how bad my physical chem prof REALLY is–and I am greeted by a page of 1 ratings. For everything. And a bunch of sad blue faces. And people saying that the only way they passed was by using another prof’s notes.

I am going to die in this class.