OT: WTF-ing F?

[skipclone 1]

I`m not even sure hot to categorize this, or whether I should be discussing it here but it`s just so weird that-well...

Okay, I have this friend. She is probably about 20 or so, a nice Japanese girl whom I met at a club sometime last year. We have hung out in Tokyo a few times, she has met one or two of my friends. I wouldn`t say we are super close, but close acquaintances. She doesn`t speak much English but when we do text messaging she does her best which I really appreciate. A few days ago she said hello, I wished her a happy Chinese new year, and let`s get together sometime soon, she said yeah good idea etc. Then the next day I started getting these messages from her, all in Japanese. As much as I could figure out it involved something to do with the country singer Taylor Swift, the Grammies and also mentioned Beyonce. And something about something being `stolen`

Well naturally enough I thought she was referring to that incident where Kanye West hijacked her microphone and said something like, Beyonce should be getting this award-whatever. I sent a few messages back saying

that I didn`t think anyone took that talk seriously, she shouldn`t have been treated like that, I like some of her music etc. and that she didn`t `steal anything from Beyonce. but I kept getting the messages

and they were starting to bring in all kinds of apparently unrelated stuff that I couldn`t make sense of. Not only that but she seemed to be getting more and more agitated every time she sent a message. Finally I was sitting on the bed with a dictionary last night and I said, that`s it-I`m going to find someone to translate this. So I set a beer down in front of a Japanese friend and said, help! what the heck is going on here? Well it turns out that I had totally misinterpreted her meaning.

Here I was defending Taylor Swift, and this friend of mine is somehow

convinced-absolutely convinced-that Taylor Swift has stolen one of her original songs. Moreover she has already admitted as much to Universal Music, and as part of the deal she was given the Grammy award without protest. Oh it gets better, my friend went on to lay out a-I don`t know another word-conspiracy, involving Ms. Swift, her family, president Obama and the Democratic party, and a Japanese senator. Moreover she said that if I don`t agree with what she`s saying fine, but kiss off, I hate Taylor Swift and I don`t want to see you again. At least that`s what I think. The grammar is disjointed, even my buddy had a hard time with it. I have sent her messages in English and Japanese saying I misunderstood her meaning, we should speak in person. Now, we have hung out. She has seen me play live. She never mentioned anything to me about writing songs. Even if that`s true how on earth would Ms. Swift hear her music? does she have a CD out and didn`t tell me about that either?

WTF-ing F?

I REALLY wish I didn`t have to wake up sometimes. that`s when things start going wrong.

 

[Call Me Bob]

Moreover she said that if I don`t agree with what she`s saying fine, but kiss off...and I don`t want to see you again. At least that`s what I think.

 

Run for your life.

[skipclone 1]

That`s what my buddy said-I should take the `don`t want to see you` thing as a promise and hope it sticks. I`m not so sure, I would really like to find out what on earth all this is about. I mean, if the girl`s gone straight off her tree, fine. She`s obviously upset about something but, what she`s telling me is pretty unlikely.

[super combinator]

Skip,

 

As a fellow gaijin I can understand what yr going through there! Well perhaps I wud suggest you try to have another Japanese read the texts for you because as you no doubt know Japanese can be very vague.

 

Not sure how long you have been here but I suspect a while. The ladies in Jpn are great but a fair percentage can fly off their rockers for something totally unseen & blind side you. I have been married now for 15yrs & my wife has had a few of these & when it happens I just try to step back give her space & she will cool down usually by the next day.

 

I find this can happen when you are criticizing Jpn, my wife will be in TOTAL agreement with me but then turn around & get ticked thinking I am attacking Jpn, so over the years I have become better at spotting these & try to change the topic when something starts to take off.

 

Again, have someone else read the texts, maybe a female friend cud put a diff spin on this.

 

Worse case just walk away so to speak if it come to that, hopefully she doesnt know where you live as there are lots of stalkers here male & female, watch yrself

[Gifthorse]

Skip, that is weird. Could she have delusions of grandeur?

 

Sounds like it, unless of course she is telling the truth an Taylor Swift conspired to steal her music and all of the stuff she said is true.

 

Sounds a bit far fetched to me because songs are simply not that big a deal nowadays. I mean they don't NEED good songs, they can manufacture them readily.

[skipclone 1]

I have showed the texts to several other people, the consesus seems to be that she is either drunk or nuts. It`s not just the

unlikelihood-not total impossibility but certainly extreme unlikelihood-of any of this being true, but the text style has confused the hell out of everyone who has read it, it`s like five kidnappers accidentally posted different ransom instructions in the same letter-and it was originally a restaurant menu. Then yeah-how on earth would Taylor Swift get hold of her song? then there`s the why-this is what industry people have told me in the past when I bring up concern over song piracy. Why would an industry suit risk an overpaid, cushy job

grooming starlets (er...this advice was a while ago), even for a million selling single, assuming it was that certain?

SC, this has no connection to criticizing anything, this started the day after we wished each other happy new year and said we should meet soon. I don`t think she knows where I live but man, a couple of her last comments were a little scary.

You know, what really gets me about this is, it`s the third time in less than a year that someone I know has either started some inane argument that escalated, blown up over some stupid petty issue that isn`t even their concern, or just gone mental. I still haven`t spoken to the other two since. Are people leaving polycarbonate plastic in the microwave too long or something?

is there like, an innoculation for this stuff? I really don`t want to have to carry a tranquilizer gun everywhere I go.

[Gifthorse]

Tranquilizer gun, it sounds like you need a tazer!! LOL

 

Well, maybe when she sobers up--if thats why she was wierding out-- she will offer an explanation.

[Call Me Bob]

I haven't listened to a whole lot of Taylor Swift's music (just lucky, I guess), but I get the impression it's probably not all that sophisticated. It's possible (not likely, not probable, but possible) that there's a mild coincidence there, and that one of Taylor's songs sounds a little bit too much like that of your acquaintance. That actually happened to me once, but I also knew at the time that it was 100% entirely IMPOSSIBLE that REO Speedwagon "stole" my song.

 

That said, it's possible that your acquaintance is simply mistaken, but that she still truly believes she's correct. Only she would be able to explain how TS may have gotten a hold of her song in the first place, or why and how she believes that could have happened.

 

Considering her 'if you don't agree with me then take a hike' attitude, I don't think I'd personally stick around to find out. Over time, that'll just become a standard response.

 

Crazy people are everywhere--everywhere--and unless maybe they're buying me drinks, I generally try to avoid them.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Marry her, Skip. She's fated to be Mrs. Skipclone. It's her density.

[super combinator]

Skip,

 

I wud not reply & let it go, if you cross paths one day & she is civil, fine. Tokyo is an incredible place I love it but I also hate it and for many in the big smoke they are under lots & lots of stress & more and more are snapping these days as you have experienced.

 

I have experienced many things & heard lots more over the years, lots of people both Japanese & foreign experience severe emotional problems. Back in my 1st year in the olden times I had an older American woman as a room mate(actually I am about her age no..) anyway she can into my room one morning scared to go outside becasue the media was outside waiting.........a few days later we got her on aplane home because she suffered a breakdown.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Seriously, all joking aside, I know you're a good person, Skip- but you aren't necessarily obligated to be a suffering Saint!

 

Play this by ear, follow your gut instincts- I'm sure you'd be a good friend to someone in need, but you don't have to bear the weight of anyone and everyone who crosses your path, and you have your own needs to address in life already.

 

I've met a lot of people over the years with "issues"; some I've been close friends with, some just came and went in my life; sometimes I could help, even if just a little by being a friend; and sometimes I had to choose to actively stay out of some of their "issues" or even just stay away altogether, for both their good and mine. The worst cases are when you'll get (unintentionally, on your part) drawn in as an enabler and prop supporting their cyclical behavioral problems if you remain involved- not good.

[Scott Fraser]

It's her density.

 

I sure hope this was an intentional bit of wordplay, because I will be so disappointed if it was an accidental typo. Simply brilliant wordsmithing, a verbal coup de grace.

 

Scott Fraser

[Caevan O’Shite]

I stole that, paraphrased, from a line of Lea Thompson's in Back To The Future...

 

 

[Scott Fraser]

I stole that, paraphrased, from a line of Lea Thompson's in Back To The Future...

 

I had a theater director friend who was always coming up with similar verbal malapropisms, often truly brilliant, yet completely unknowingly, just as a result of not being clued into the actual meaning of the colloquial phrases he was incorrectly utilizing. I've always loved that kind of subtle intentional misapplication of phraseology.

 

Scott Fraser

[Caevan O’Shite]

(Sorry for the tangential side-tracking of your thread here, Skip!)

 

I stole that, paraphrased, from a line of Lea Thompson's in Back To The Future...

 

I had a theater director friend who was always coming up with similar verbal malapropisms, often truly brilliant, yet completely unknowingly, just as a result of not being clued into the actual meaning of the colloquial phrases he was incorrectly utilizing. I've always loved that kind of subtle intentional misapplication of phraseology.

 

Scott Fraser

 

I used to work with this guy who was famous for mistakenly saying one word that he thought was another- on the phone at work one day, he was overheard as saying "sorry about that oversight, we've been busier than normal, things've been highly erotic around here"; or, farting by the owner's daughter, he apologized for his "botchulation". He became known as "The Botchulator", and we razzed him about getting erotic with the boss's paperwork... He was a good guy, and took it all in stride.

[skipclone 1]

No worries Caevan-I`m definitely a fan of fun with wordplay.

Here`s a short poem I write a long time ago:

 

Mass and density

have a propensity

to create shapes

and if this escapes

the mind of the masses

right by them it passes

it`s just a propensity

for too much density

 

Well anyway, to put the best-case scenario on the whole mess, if you

don`t count the part about everyone but space aliens getting involved in stealing her song, some of it is plausible. It is certainly possible that she heard something by Taylor Swift and thought, HEY! that`s MY song! then she got really upset and fired off a bunch of hastily composed messages-only to find me unwittingly undermining her cause.

I`ve already sent messages saying it was a misunderstanding but maybe she`s just really fuming. I think intoxication as the only explanation is highly unlikely. I`ve never seen her go overboard with alcohol. Besides, she`s barely old enough to drink fer Pete`s sake. That would have to be one hell of a binge.

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

"...everyone but space aliens..."

Shhh! THEY'LL HEEER YOOU!!

Shhh! THEY'LL HEEER YOOU!!

 

 

Cool poem.

[Tennessee]

The lyrics of that poem...I think that was a Taylor Swift song!! I know it!!!!

[picker]

I stole that, paraphrased, from a line of Lea Thompson's in Back To The Future...

 

Wasn't that actually what Cripin Glover said to Lea Thompson, meaning to say "destiny"?

[Caevan O’Shite]

Maybe; I think we're both right- I think the line got used with both characters.

[Eric Iverson]

As a translator, I can relate to linguistic misunderstandings. Most of my work is pretty routine, but it's tricky at times even then! Thank God for good proofreaders and native speakers in the office.

 

When you are reading stuff obviously written by a non-native, sometimes the problem is their lack of knowledge, not ours. Or sometimes things are just badly written, period, even if the writer is a native or knows the language well.

 

Re: Taylor Swift: did she ever have the opportunity to actually HEAR this girl's song?

[skipclone 1]

As a translator, I can relate to linguistic misunderstandings. Most of my work is pretty routine, but it's tricky at times even then! Thank God for good proofreaders and native speakers in the office.

 

When you are reading stuff obviously written by a non-native, sometimes the problem is their lack of knowledge, not ours. Or sometimes things are just badly written, period, even if the writer is a native or knows the language well.

 

 

 

 

Re: Taylor Swift: did she ever have the opportunity to actually HEAR this girl's song?

 

Not that I`m aware of, and if there`s a reason that I would not be aware of it I don`t know what it could be. Someone negotiating with a big label and not wanting to spill the beans before it was a sure thing? I don`t know, aside from the emotional reaction which may be understandable, most of it sounds like good reasons why you should always check which mushrooms you`re putting in your salad at a party. A friend who has lived here a while said maybe it`s a way to break off contact. Okay, fair enough-why start with `I miss you` and agreeing we should get together soon? whatever-he also said best to just let it go, which I agree with.

[Griffinator]

As fascinating as this tale of psychotic Japanese women is, Skip, your thread title hearkens me back to my middle school years, when a preppie with a big mouth and a decided lack of height or girth got into an argument with a friend of mine who was a decidedly better fighter and a decidedly better wordsmith, proven by the preppie's frustrated response at one point, when he decided intimidation would somehow serve him better than wit:

 

"DO YOU WANNA F***ING F***?!"

 

:D :D

[skipclone 1]

lol, how terribly unpreppie-like .

[JenningsMusic]

Is this Dear Abby or what?

[skipclone 1]

See where it says OT? that means Off Topic, so it`s not necessary to mention strings or picks.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Hey, man, get an OT/OT room for this OT argument going OT from the original OT T, OK, OK? :smirk:

 

LOL! Jus' razzin' ya!

[skipclone 1]

Hey, man, get an OT/OT room for this OT argument going OT from the original OT T, OK, OK? :smirk:

 

LOL! Jus' razzin' ya!

 

U.R.K.G.!