All I really want to do

[austin_dern]

I accomplished my only specific goal for the week back home, in that I got to the barber's and got my hair cut, or as my mother put it with just a bit of suggesting, got my hair shorn. I do tend to let myself get pretty shaggy, partly from the sense of loyalty that I have the one guy who cuts my hair, partly from the sense that it doesn't much matter how I look as long as my hair isn't actively falling into my food. And since about a month ago when I trimmed the hair which was actually covering my face, that hasn't been a problem, so there you go.

Trimming my hair was, pardon me, an eye-opening experience, since I didn't have any particular planning or forethought going into it. I just took scissors and a comb and discovered that the comb was actually better at providing leverage holding the hair in place than providing a horizontal line to cut across. My self-trimmed hair ended up at a slight angle, but it was only obvious to me and my barber.

I think that he understood, although it's hard to have a conversation with him since he's a great talker. Fun guy, mind you, but while I will normally go in with a stockpile of four or five things to talk about, I never need them, since he's happy to start conversations and carry them out, particularly, in carrying out conversations about me with whoever happens to be in the barber shop at the time. From this he's got the impression that I'm a great conversationalist, though I serve the role more of a conversation piece.

And things were more chatty than usual, since this time we had World Cup Soccer on. For some reason my Italian barber chose to watch the game on a Spanish station. He couldn't actually follow the commentary more than a couple words at a time, but the enthusiasm of the commentators made up for the gap. It helped that there were something like two goals in one minute and another two goal shots right after that. He's a hockey fan, and it certainly seems like ice hockey and soccer should be reasonably compatible sports enthusiasms, although I wasn't able to get more than half a sentence of the question out before he was on about something else. It's fun making someone else happy; it gets me cheery too, just by induction.

Trivia: The contract for Samuel Johnson's dictionary specified for him to be paid 1,575 pounds, in installments. Source: The Story of English, Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil, William Cran.

Currently Reading: The Ice Finders: How a Poet, A Professor, and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age, Edmund Blair Bolles.

Comments

[xolo.livejournal.com]

He couldn't actually follow the commentary more than a couple words at a time, but the enthusiasm of the commentators made up for the gap.

I'll sometimes watch Univision for that very reason. The announcers simply go berserk.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

He couldn't actually follow the commentary more than a couple words at a time, but the enthusiasm of the commentators made up for the gap.

If you're not actually intent on following a sports game on a fannish level.. that is, knowing who the players are, their strengths and weakness, strategies and all.. it's best to just go with passionate announcement over analytical announcement. Reglardless of language.

--Chiaroscuro

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Indeed. That's what's good about Univision. It's like sitting in a stadium with excited people around you yelling about the match.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It was fun enough watching, though the sport isn't really my speed. Of course, I've watched Wheel of Fortune and The $_ Pyramid in languages I don't speak; there, I know the rules well enough to follow the game flow anyway.