[OKAY ...] Orange County Seeks Klingon Interpreter

Oregon County Seeks Klingon Interpreter
Oregon County Seeks Klingon Interpreter for Mental Health Patients

The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. May 10 —
Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in Klingon.

The language created for the "Star Trek" TV series and movies is one of about 55 needed by the office that treats mental health patients in metropolitan Multnomah County.

"We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients.

Although created for works of fiction, Klingon was designed to have a consistent grammar, syntax and vocabulary.

And now Multnomah County research has found that many people and not just fans consider it a complete language.

"There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would speak," said the county's purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway.

County officials said that obligates them to respond with a Klingon-English interpreter, putting the language of starship Enterprise officer Worf and other Klingon characters on a par with common languages such as Russian and Vietnamese, and less common tongues including Dari and Tongan.

Convocation et al

Convocation went quickly enough. I got to see people again, which was nice after my prolonged stay. Mary Walsh--recipient of an honourary degree--was hilariously funny as always; Scott Flemming's valedictorian speech didn't really deserve that title, unfortunately, unlike Caolan Moore's excellent speech last year.. And now, my undergraduate career is complete--BA with Honours, English.

It's unfortunate, I think, that I'm not particularly excited me this. I'm not feeling particularly overjoyed; I'm not feeling any sense of relief. I'm not feeling much of anything at present, apart from a desire to finish episode 2 of Cosmos and perhaps watch GoldenEye. Ah, as T.S. Eliot wrote in The Wasteland,

[a]nd indeed there will be time
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"
Time to turn back and descend the stair
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--
(They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the pin
My necktie rich and modest but asserted by a simple pin--
(They will say: But how his arms and legs are thin!")
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Hopefully this will change. Ah well.

Later, a celebratory family dinner was held at the International Restaurant, after which we went to the local blockbuster to pick up movies. I picked GoldenEye and Gosford Park on one-week loans. Saw Brian there, which was nice; I also got a card, to get the more discounts.