The criminal element around here...

Have there ever been two more dissimilar rapscallions? To tell the truth, though, I love these two refugees from the dog pound.

Ming came into our life back in '96. He was wandering around the Houston apartment complex I was living in, looking up at the world, fully expecting his master or mistress to call him home. (Of course, when you're a Peke, the only place you can look is up, really.) I took him in and, well... the rest is history. He made ready friends with our stalwart, Max, who came to into our life in '85 or so... very definitely a refugee from some kind of abuse. Max has been gone, now, for the past couple-three years or so, and when I get to thinking about him, I miss him and my eyes tear up... he was such a gentle dog with the breeds so, just so mixed in him...

Sasha was different. She's a pedigreed Golden Lab and a gift to Lee from her boyfriend's parents. Unfortunately, Lee's not in a real good position right now to care for a pet, so we're just boarding her here until... later.

The two of them get along well together. In fact, I cannot ever recall owning a dog that wasn't friendly with the other animals in the house (that includes the humans).

Cheers...

A numbers game...

Translators prosper - or not - based on word count, at least here in the U.S. In other countries (Germany comes to mind here), translators charge by the character. Overall, it's a terrible way to figure out how much to get paid for your services, especially if you hold yourself out to be a professional. Can you imagine any other professional charging essentially piece-work rates?

On the other hand, the word count works as a measure of how much work you've done... at least on a macro level. And trying to inflate one's payment with prolixity doesn't work, at least not if you want to have repeat customers.

The important thing is that today, I translated more words in my current project than I did yesterday. Both days were chock full of interruptions, including longish stints at the store (openings and visits during the day) and a couple of trips here and there and downtown to finally do things that could not be put off any longer.

I took advantage of the library's downtown location to drop in. I was surprised to find not one of the Jane's references in its inventory. And the one reference they did have on military aircraft was, um, rather deficient in its scope. Frankly, I've done much better doing research for my project on the Internet. On the other hand, they had a nice selection of paperbacks for sale, so I'm set for airplane reading.

Tomorrow will undoubtedly be killed largely by an effort to get ready to go to Houston, so I don't expect to get much translation done. If my ears do not deceive me, the washing machine (formerly of Houston) is churning away as I type, cleaning the clothes I will wear in the next few days. I need to pack this computer, a couple of dictionaries (for once, my disk-based dictionaries are falling short), and the usual stuff (camera, pens, badge, headset, etc.)

I didn't start today's stint on the project until almost 4 pm this afternoon, and took a couple of hours off for dinner and other activities, so I've been at it for about 4 hours. It makes me think that, if I'd applied myself these past two days, I'd be more than halfway though. Then again, that's a joke... much of the 'other' stuff I had to do, I had to do! I'll be putting this particular nose to that particular grindstone again on Sunday, and for more than 4 hours, I hope. After that, I'll have to fit the rest of the project into whatever time I have outside of my air-to-ground simo assignment.

I'm most certainly babbling. I need rest. Up and at 'em again, tomorrow morning.

Cheers...