Weird characters in Permissions/Ownership

[Wayne Swingle]

On my Ti-book 667, when I command-I on a file to change its 
owner/permissions, the current user does not show my login short name. 
Instead, it shows random characters from some asian font, followed by 
(Me).  The characters change each time I open the get info window.  How 
can i get rid of this?  Please don't tell me I have to reinstall the OS 
from scratch. Everything else appears to work on the machine.  Thanks!!