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Another day...another drachma...
Dec. 18th, 2000 10:04 pmMondays are nice in this business, if for no other reason than there are hardly any telecons to service on Monday. I suppose that's a heck of a thing to say, seeing as how I get paid to do telecons, but they are not my most favorite activity in the world.
Your basic telecon consists of a room full of Americans and a phone line to a room full of Russians. Since there is a 9-hour difference between Houston and Moscow, the basic telecon will start at 7 am or 8 am Houston time, and last for an hour or two.
Invariably, the Russian side is equipped with a speakerphone that has been manufactured - and not in Russia, in case you think I'm in a Russia-bashing mood - using speakers that desecrate the memory of Alexander Graham Bell. Combine that with participants who mumble into that phone from across a 50-foot wide conference room filled with hard, reflecting surfaces, and it takes everything you'be got to make out what's being said, much less understand what it means.
But the thing that makes telecons so murderous is that the people participating in them are generally loathe to supply you with any kind of material that might give you a fighting chance to brush up on some terminology. As a result, you end up walking blindly into what, on the one hand, may be a simple discussion regarding the dispatch and receipt of documents by e-mail, or on the other, may be a line-by-line, in-depth discussion of a ten-page table that is so rife with arcane terms and acronyms as to make any sane person of good will sicken.
In short, the interpreter is expected to be able to show up and talk about anything, with no advance notice.
But I see that I am beginning to whine, again, so let's turn to more pleasant things.
...like throwing out books.
I have gone through two shelves of books and have divided them into two groups: the keepers and the others. I suspect I'll probably go through the keepers one more time as I box them up and weed out some titles that slipped through the initial screening on the basis of me being a sentimental sap.
...like working on my Web site.
I made one additional tweak to the color scheme today during some dead time in the day, and I think what I have will fly. The only challenge I see now is that there are no graphics on the site, anywhere, which makes for a pretty "dry" looking page. On the other hand, I can't think of any subjects, offhand, that go well with the theme of translation and interpretation.
I've considered something along the lines of a shot of St. Basil's cathedral at night (a nice shot I took way back when), but wonder if it makes any sense at all, because I'm not in Russia, I'm not a Russian, St. Basil's has nothing to do with what I do, etc. OTOH, a shot of me sitting at a computer seems kind of dumb; ditto on a shot of me (or anyone) sitting at a console or in a meeting, looking as if they are interpreting.
But that's a problem for the future. For now, I've got my CV out there, along with a mail/feedback page and a fledgling "news" page that, if I decide to really do (so that people bookmark it), I'm going to really have to do (so that people don't come back to find nothing new).
At any rate, time to go to bed. Wouldn't you know...I have a telecon tomorrow...about something called ODS.
Cheers...
Your basic telecon consists of a room full of Americans and a phone line to a room full of Russians. Since there is a 9-hour difference between Houston and Moscow, the basic telecon will start at 7 am or 8 am Houston time, and last for an hour or two.
Invariably, the Russian side is equipped with a speakerphone that has been manufactured - and not in Russia, in case you think I'm in a Russia-bashing mood - using speakers that desecrate the memory of Alexander Graham Bell. Combine that with participants who mumble into that phone from across a 50-foot wide conference room filled with hard, reflecting surfaces, and it takes everything you'be got to make out what's being said, much less understand what it means.
But the thing that makes telecons so murderous is that the people participating in them are generally loathe to supply you with any kind of material that might give you a fighting chance to brush up on some terminology. As a result, you end up walking blindly into what, on the one hand, may be a simple discussion regarding the dispatch and receipt of documents by e-mail, or on the other, may be a line-by-line, in-depth discussion of a ten-page table that is so rife with arcane terms and acronyms as to make any sane person of good will sicken.
In short, the interpreter is expected to be able to show up and talk about anything, with no advance notice.
But I see that I am beginning to whine, again, so let's turn to more pleasant things.
...like throwing out books.
I have gone through two shelves of books and have divided them into two groups: the keepers and the others. I suspect I'll probably go through the keepers one more time as I box them up and weed out some titles that slipped through the initial screening on the basis of me being a sentimental sap.
...like working on my Web site.
I made one additional tweak to the color scheme today during some dead time in the day, and I think what I have will fly. The only challenge I see now is that there are no graphics on the site, anywhere, which makes for a pretty "dry" looking page. On the other hand, I can't think of any subjects, offhand, that go well with the theme of translation and interpretation.
I've considered something along the lines of a shot of St. Basil's cathedral at night (a nice shot I took way back when), but wonder if it makes any sense at all, because I'm not in Russia, I'm not a Russian, St. Basil's has nothing to do with what I do, etc. OTOH, a shot of me sitting at a computer seems kind of dumb; ditto on a shot of me (or anyone) sitting at a console or in a meeting, looking as if they are interpreting.
But that's a problem for the future. For now, I've got my CV out there, along with a mail/feedback page and a fledgling "news" page that, if I decide to really do (so that people bookmark it), I'm going to really have to do (so that people don't come back to find nothing new).
At any rate, time to go to bed. Wouldn't you know...I have a telecon tomorrow...about something called ODS.
Cheers...
