Slogging along...

The telecon this morning went well. I had a better connection to the Russians at GCTC outside of Moscow than to the Americans in Houston. It turned out that my client's interpretation manager audited my performance (implementing the auditing methodology I developed when I used to work there, not that there's any reason to complain anyway...), and the results of the audit were fully positive, according to the after-action phone call.

Telecons have a way of taking it out of you, though. First, there is the pressure Not To Oversleep. Thus, my brain kept waking me up about every hour last night. Second, there is the pressure To Perform. Though I reviewed some basic communications and tracking terms last night and this morning, there is never any telling when a telecon will suddenly become tedious, or antagonistic, or so highly technical that even the participants don't understand what's going on. (Meanwhile, we interpreters are supposed to perform as if we do this all day long... which we do, from time to time.)

Then it was back to those marvelous, uplifting, forward-looking Excel files that describe every little niggling aspect of railcar procurement and fabrication. Y-a-w-n. I haven't looked at my progress... I just keep calling up the next cell and trying to remember to adjust my work style to prevent the source text from disappearing as soon as I start typing the translation.

* * *Yesterday, by the time I hit the sack, I'd proposed five solutions to ProZ queries. Of these, I've received a flock of "peer grades" (a feature that helps askers decide on which answer is the best), all but one of which have been "agree." The one "disagree" was in regard to how one says "thank you" in Bosnian, where I had provided the answer I found on a Web site (and its URL). Interestingly enough, other folks have graded my suggestion with "agree" responses.

Of the five, only one - regarding the name of the pressure unit 'bar' in Spanish - has been chosen as most helpful, so it may be that either some folks are slow to decide which answer was most helpful, or they don't decide at all (at least, not online).

On that note, unless something really interesting occurs in the ProZ sphere, I'll stop writing about it, as I think I've beaten that stake well into the ground.

* * *It's getting cold in Colorado, to the point where it's no longer comfortable to walk around the house in stocking feet and a shirt (footwear and sweater, please!). Too, the view out the window shows some kind of precipitation on the Divide and the scudding of lead-colored clouds overhead, which suggests snow, but there is no snow as of yet. It would not be terribly unseasonable to see snow about now, after all.

Time to relax a little and leave some Excel fun for tomorrow. Ciao.

Cheers...