This girl'll give you nightmares... and a good quote

You may know by now that I'm a sucker for a good quote. I especially love the ones that have a bit of a postmodern feel to them, comments that question things that are so indisputable to some. Such as History. Science. Religion.

Enter the world of Anna Dressed in Blood, a two-book series written by Kendare Blake, to whom the title of this post actually alludes. The books aren't for the super squeamish, but they are a delight to read for those with a fondness of the paranormal.

So, without much further ado, here's today's quote - I just came across it while translating, a task that I will resume immediately after pressing 'publish' and making sure it all looks okay. Enjoy, and go buy the books!

“Every doctrine has its own theory,” he says. “Maybe they’re all right. Maybe none are. Whatever, I’m no philosopher.”

Kendare Blake – Girl of Nightmares

Favourite Quote: Science, Schrödinger and his cat

Image: found on www.npr.org

Time for another quote I came across while reading this wonderfully twisted novel Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. There are many delicious sentences in this book, but as this is a blog and I might sometimes lack time or inspiration, I'm going to make you wait for the others.

Without much more ado and all that, the quote:

“That’s part of the trouble with science. It doesn’t always help. I don’t find it useful to know that particles may appear in different places without having travelled the distance in between. I don’t find it enlightening that the only truthful way of thinking of Herr Schrödinger’s cat is as being simultaneously alive and dead. In fact, I don’t believe it is the only truthful way of thinking of it. It may be the only logical way of thinking of it, but that’s a different matter, isn’t it? The real problem, though, is that I don’t recall asking after the welfare of his cat in the first place.”

Sebastian Faulks - Engleby

It kind of reminds me of why I hate it when people just throw around Statistics to prove their point, as if a mere statistic (a percentage, a number, one result in one study) proves anything without proper context. And besides, who asked for numbers anyway?

'Can you make this into something more academic, please?'

Image Calvin & Hobbes cartoon,
found on http://www.rivedon.co.uk/

Last week I received an e-mail I can only describe as very vague. The first sentence (of only a handful) was: "I saw your ad." Ah, I thought. Have you, really? Where? (I do have one banner on a website of some friends and ex-collegues, but the writer of this e-mail didn't mention where she'd seen my ad exactly.)

And then she explained, very briefly, (and I'm paraphrasing only slightly): "Look, I got a bad grade for this paper, they said it contained too many grammatical errors and that it wasn't academic enough. I've had some people read it, but was wondering if you can look at it and how much that would cost."

That was pretty much the entire e-mail's worth of information. I quickly saw in the attached document that she was definitely right about both grammar and spelling mistakes. The heading of this so-called 'academic paper' (all of 800 words) seemed only loosely connected to the subject matter or conclusion, if you could even call it that.

It was, indeed, poorly written. It was also on a topic that I know nothing about. So, I decided to go for honestly, as always. I confirmed the presence of several syntactical, grammatical and stylistical errors and said that I would also be very capable of providing her with feedback on different aspects of structure, but that I couldn't possibly comment on the depth (read: lack thereof) of the article itself nor on its contents, as that wasn't my field of expertise. (Although the article didn't exactly suggest that it was her field of expertise either.) Plus, I would need to know more about the demands her school had for texts of an academic nature, of course. (Without spoiling the fact that it looked even worse than a hastily written press release.)

I said that for the amount of XYZ (plus VAT) I could return a document filled with suggestions, feedback and corrections of grammar and spelling errors, but that she would then need to work on that feedback herself.

So, what do you think? Did I ever hear from her again? Of course not. Not sure if my honesty or the price scared her off, or both. Although I'm inclined to think she just wanted someone to rewrite the whole thing so she'd get a passing grade the second time around. In which case: sorry, kid, you got the wrong ad. I don't do other people's homework. Not even if they paid me.

Mag het een half uurtje meer zijn?

Image: Runners' club.ro

Eerst even snel een blogje tikken, voordat deze ervaringen rondom het huis kopen-verbouwen-verhuizen (in willekeurige volgorde, blijkt nu) alweer achterhaald zijn.

Volgens mij vertelde ik vorige keer al wat een verpletterende eerste indruk Aannemer A maakte. Door niet alleen veel te laat te komen voor de afspraak, maar die eigenlijk gewoon glad vergeten te zijn. Het is dat we van hem een mobiel nummer hadden en we hem na pakweg een half uur belden met de beleefde versie van "Komt er nog wat van?"

Nou ja, twee dagen later was het de beurt aan Verhuizer B. Nummer een was in de tussenliggende dag langsgekomen, had een zeer nette indruk gemaakt, alles netjes opgestuurd en een mooie presentatiemap vol documentatie achtergelaten. Verhuizer B wist echter op een heel andere manier de doorslag te geven voor zijn kandidaatschap.

Hij kwam niet opdagen.

De volgende dag vroegen we ons af of we nog zouden bellen of mailen om te vragen waar het precies was misgegaan. Want, zo zei ik, straks hebben zij het over een andere woensdag en staan ze opeens voor de deur zonder dat we ze verwachten. Het probleem is alleen dat zodra ik contact opneem, dat bedrijf meteen een nieuwe afspraak zal willen maken, en de vraag was of wij dat nog wel wilden. Want mijn man dacht meteen: nou, graag of niet, dat is er dan weer eentje minder om op te wachten.

Maar goed, toch even gebeld. En terwijl mijn man het telefoonnummer van Verhuizer B opzoekt (ze hadden geen mobiel nummer, anders hadden we ook bij hen diezelfde avond nog gezegd: "Komt er nog wat van?") stuit hij op een forum van Vara's Kassa of iets dergelijks. Met klachten. Over Verhuizer B. In verband met het afhandelen van opgelopen schade aan eigendommen.

Dus mijn man had meteen geen enkele twijfel meer. Hij belde ze en kreeg inderdaad te horen dat het bedrijf de afspraak voor de woensdag erna in de agenda had staan (en er werd mooi in het midden gelaten bij wie de interpretatiefout dan lag). Hij vertelde hen beleefd dat ze die afspraak wel konden verwijderen. Wij een verhuizer minder om uit te kiezen, maar dat geeft niet, want volgens mij hebben we er zeven benaderd of zoiets. Nog een handjevol te gaan, dus. Eerst maar eens opruimen en dingen weggooien. Zei ze heel eenvoudig, wetende dat de eerstvolgende deadline zwaarder weegt.