Too many notes

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(Bonus points for getting the movie reference) I recently sent out an update to my European user base at work, detailing all the progress we've made over the alst 120 days since I moved over. To ensure it reached the full audience, I asked members of my team to translate it into German and Italian (our other two principal languages at Chiron). One of my translators sent back the translation along with a comment: "In German, we would not use so many words." That was the most polite "you talk too much" I've ever heard.
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Growing Vocabulary

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Last night, while carving jack o' lanterns in fine American tradition (Halloween's not nearly as popular here as in the States), I slipped with the knife, cutting something I didn't mean to (not flesh, fortunately). Frustrated, I said "shit!" before carrying on. Not five minutes later, Giuia dropped something in the other room, provoking her to use the same word. Our precocious not-quite two and a half year old walked around the rest of the night giggling and yelling "Shit!" at random times. Oh that's going to go over really well with her teachers at school tomorrow... I'm going to let my bride explain this one to the grandmother next time they see her.
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Mmm... Bacon-y

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Went to lunch today at the pub with the team (to celebrate hiring a new guy - not the point of the story, but there you have it). Guy sitting across from me ordered the 'gammon' and chips. I figured this was one of the British things I wasn't familiar with. So I asked, 'Gammon? What's that?' 'Basically it's a bacon steak.' Bacon steak. Holy crap. That's bloody brilliant. Why on earth has this never caught on in the States? Can you imagine? Has there ever been something more designed to appeal to the masses of fried-cheese-eating, super-sized, deep-fried American males? It just sets my mouth watering simply by saying it out loud. "Bacon steak" The more I say it, the more I like it. Bacon steak. Bacon steak. Bacon steak. I'm writing my congressman. I demand bacon steaks.
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