Sabotage
Here’s a double-tap to close out the week. I’ll be back posting on Wednesday, since I’ll be out of town over the long weekend, which I’ve artificially extended using a bit of leave. Anyway, I learned an interesting thing. Apparently, the Japanese verb サボる comes from the katakana version of the word “sabotage.” That is cool. Here are my dictionary’s definitions for both.
サボる
（仕事を）loaf 《on the job》; go slow; (学校を) play truant 《from school》; skip 《school》; cut 《classes》例文：仕事をサボっているところを見つかって首になった。 He was fired because he was caught loafing on the job.
*****sabotage
noun, verb
- noun [U]
the act of doing deliberate damage to equipment, transport, machines, etc. to prevent an enemy from using them or to protest about something:
- verb [VN]
1) to damage, destroy or spoil something deliberately to prevent an enemy from using it or to protest about something:
2) to make something no longer possible or successful
That’s an intriguing way to link words. After all, if you skip school you make a full class no longer possible. If you skip work or goof off, you make success for your company or business a lot harder. It’s a fascinating way to imply responsibility to the group.
Speaking of sabotage (I feel like I’ve been sabotaged, afterall), I thought I’d pass on another anecdote to continue the craptastical Applecare in rural Japan experience. I called Apple’s support line this week and to my astonishment the ineptitude escalated another ten levels. Apple’s support line can’t do jack. They can’t tell me anything that I couldn’t find out on the website – which is really lousy, too. Not only could the man not tell me what was wrong with my computer or an estimated ship date, he asked me what “service request” meant and did not know what Apple’s website URL was. Hello. HELLO. Apple? When I have to walk your tech support people through getting onto your own website to see the screen that I see when I check my repair status, something is horribly wrong. Doesn’t matter anyway, since he couldn’t give me any information other than “the repair is in progress.” So, let me tell you – don’t bother calling them. Just don’t. It’ll only make you really sad inside.
