Baseball gets a little lost in automated translation
Like a lot of fatalistic Red Sox fans, I could see it coming a mile away.
As soon as I heard that Seattle Mariners rookie pitching phenom Felix Hernandez was scheduled to pitch against Daisuke Matsuzaka in Dice-K's Fenway debut Wednesday night, I knew that the Sox bats would go as quiet as my two daughters after I ask: "Who put Barbie in the toilet again?"
And they did. Hernandez pitched a one-hitter. I was so depressed I had to turn the game off after the sixth inning. To make myself feel better, I did what I sometimes do, which was to turn to the automated English translation of Daigo Fujiwara's Watertown-based Japanese-language Red Sox blog (japaneseballplayers.com/en). (Columnist's note: No getting on my case for cultural insensitivity here; Fujiwara, a graphic designer for the Globe, advertises the translation as "for good laughs.")
Among the more intelligible automatic translations of Fujiwara's in-game blog was this entry: "Seven o'clock exactly. National anthem singing in unison. And calling the play ball. Already the ball park almost full the seat. The seat which has been less crowded is part truly."
This one was a puzzle: "Reverse side. Just result: Lami less pitcher direct bomb hit 1? 5? 3. Dollar --, it overlooks and three swings (the hand does not appear in the curve). Low l, 5? 3. Hell nun death it is good!"
Hell nun death. My sentiments about the game exactly.
The blogger explains that Manila, which allowed users a lot of freedom to design their own home pages but was not particularly secure, was finally overwhelmed by blog spammers, and has been replaced by WordPress.
"Unfortunately, in WordPress we are not allowed to fiddle with the template code . . . We must choose one of the standard, preloaded templates," Dowbrigade wrote in a recent post. "As a result the Dowbrigade News will look considerably different. No longer will it feature that attractive plaid stripe, the title-strip photo of the trees along Memorial Drive, or the portrait of our cat, Chiqui. Some readers will applaud."
Over in Framingham, the Planning Liv able Communities blog (pedestrianfriendly.com) had the scoop on a new art gallery in a post on Wednesday.
"I heard there was some sort of art gallery at Framed in Time, the frame shop in one of the old mill buildings in Saxonville," the blogger wrote. "I met the gallery's curator, Olga Shmuylovich, last night, and she made it clear that the community is invited to come see the art exhibits there. (She) wants to help showcase the work of community artists, and bring together artists, people who enjoy viewing art, and the community at large. "Sonja and Jessica," featuring art by Sonja Holzwarth Maneri and her granddaughter opens Monday, April 16 and runs through Saturday, May 5."
Finally, from the interesting picture files, check out "Pi pie" at the Newton-based Waiting for the Muse blog (sandeedee.blogspot.com) . Also worth a look are the Easter-themed nature photos of blogger/photographer Paula over at the Waltham-based Paula's House of Toast blog (paulashouseoftoast.blogspot.com) .
Cyberscenes is a biweekly look at blogs written by people in the western suburbs. Ralph Ranalli is a staff reporter and Web producer for Globe West. He can be reached at rranalli@globe.com. 
