The following generalizes well...

A man saw a homeless girl on the street, cold and shivering in a thin dress on a cold night.

The man got angry, and shouted at God: "Why do you permit this? Why do you allow an innocent girl to suffer? Why don't you do something about this?"

God was silent for a while.

Then he responded: "I certainly did do something about it. I made you."

Cheers...

Getting (back) to normal...

ProZ is a site that is directed at both those offering language services (such as freelancers and agencies) and those with a need for those services. I really hadn't paid much attention to them prior to the L.A. conference.

I noticed the ProZ booth in the so-called "exhibit hall" of the ATA conference, stopped to chat, and ended up signing up for a year's "Platinum Membership," which included - besides a discount - both an opportunity to be certified as a native English and Russian speaker, and some free software.

I figure if I get one job through this avenue, it will more than pay back my modest investment.

The certification process for becoming a ProZ native speaker consisted of answering questions that were recorded for later review by a panel of four graders. I don't doubt I'll be graded as a native English speaker, but I wonder about the Russian end of it. Though my spoken Russian is good (and my accent only improves with age, it seems), the fact that I have been accused of "forgetting my native language" and of "having lived too in the U.S. for too long" still points out that I do make errors when I speak. Whether the ProZ graders give me a thumbs up or down depends on how strict they are in their rather fuzzy criteria (assuming even such criteria exist).

In any event, the ProZ site makes it shamelessly easy to set up one's "home" page on the site, complete with photo, contact information, working languages, software skills, translation experience, and a few other items. I appear to be up and running, at least.

Nothing beats looking for a job more than actually getting one, and I just got a call a few minutes ago that appears to have determined what I am going to be doing for the next few days. My client tells me the files will start flowing in my direction tomorrow.

I've also received some paperwork from my D.C. client, which tells me that it's going to be some time before I actually get paid for my work, but I am confident I will get paid.

I spent some time at the store, too. We sent out our monthly statements, and I finagled a way to save a client $20 now (i.e., reduce the cash in our till by $20 today) in the hope that my effort will be fruitful in the future (i.e., we get lots more business from this client in the future).

Talking about the store... it's time for me to go help Galina close the shop. I plan to take a rest from computers tonight and go watch Enemy at the Gates with the kids on DVD.

Cheers...