Upsetting the apple cart of wired-in conceptions...

Datum: Today is a Federal Holiday (M.L. King's Birthday). The post office is closed today, so Drew need not (can not) pick up mail.

Datum: Since the store's "post office" does not operate today, we can close once UPS makes its pickup, at 4 pm.

Datum: Today, I am not going to push trying to go home in the middle of the day to translate, as there are still things to do around the store. We'll also see how far I can get translating "after hours" (albeit after a short day at the store).

* * *I got to thinking about why I am so all-fired intent on going into Durango to get glasses, considering that one of the store's customers is a local optometrist/eyeglass shop that seems to do a fairly good business. The more I think about it, patronizing a local business not only makes good business sense, but any premium I pay will likely be offset by the time required to go to and from Durango (especially if I need to consult with the doc for any problems with the prescription).

So, I have an appointment for tomorrow at 2 pm to get an eye exam, just around the corner. (I'm going to ask a lot of questions about progressive contact lenses, while I'm at it.)

Cheers...

Notes and asides...

From The Register, a footnote to a story about the prospect of AOL acquiring Red Hat:

"A November 19 report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that the network news shows spent 33 per cent of their air time selling something; on average 20 per cent of the stories were for books, TV shows, music or products their company produced" - "The Wages of Synergy" by Janine Jaquet in The Nation, Jan 7-14 2002 issue (p20).

...and then there's this, from a story on CD copy protection (emphasis added):

Netherlands giant Philips Electronics has lobbed a grenade into the audio copy protection arena by insisting that that CDs including anti-copying technology should bear what is effectively a plague warning. They should in Philips' view clearly inform users that they are copy-protected, and they shouldn't use the "Compact Disc" logo because they are not, in Philips' considered view, proper compact discs at all.

[...]

In a Reuters interview Gerry Wirtz, general manager of Philips' copyright office, said that the company would be building CD burners that can read and burn copy protected CDs. He argues that the protection system is not a protection system as such, but simply a mechanism for stopping the playback of music. This interesting claim allows him to contend that the protection systems are not covered by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act [...]

A position guaranteed to upset some entertainment industry bigwigs, I'm sure.

* * *So far, an inordinately large number of people have missed the two signs on the front door and the large sign at the counter that informs customers of today's holiday and our inability to sell stamps. It's a lose-lose proposition for us, whichever way you look at it.

Cheers...

A model sentence...

This is the kind of stuff from that standard that's kicking my butt:

The content and scope of investigations should be established in the investigation program, taking account of the types (designations) of buildings and structures (routes), their level of criticality, the complexity of the engineering-geological conditions, the availability of data from investigations performed earlier, the need to assure final identification of engineering-geological elements and establish normative and design values for them (based on laboratory and/or field method definitions of physical, strength, deformation, filtration, and other subsoil property characteristics), the refinement of hydrogeological parameters of water-bearing formations and the quantitative characteristics of the dynamics of geological processes, the receipt of other data for the design of footings, foundations, and frameworks of buildings and structures, the substantiation of their engineering protection, as well as the resolution of individual issues that occur in the course of development, concurrence, and approval of the project.

...and I am not at all sure I've got it right, nor do I really have the time to reflect on this, other than to note that it's one sentence.

BTW, the client e-mailed earlier today and wants me to drop what I'm doing and work on section 8 of the document first, at the end client's request.

Now I know what's meant when one is working on an early "Section 8."

Ba-da-BOOM!

Cheers...

Calling it a night...

"HEY! You're a night!"

As is evident to all but the terminally brain-dead (or Congresscritters), whatever excuse I ever had for a sense of humor has taken a hike and left me to my own devices.

The day at the store was slow. This was good news as far as translation was concerned (I got home feeling more or less human, which is a notch or six above how I feel right now), and bad news as far as the store was concerned.

C'est - as they say, I guess - la vie!

I resumed translating around 4:30 or so, and up to the time, a few minutes ago, when I decided to salvage some semblance of my consciousness and stop for the night, I was able to do about five and a quarter pages of incredibly turgid text that has had me building up calluses on my dictionary fingers and tearing down my brain trying to parse sentences impossibly strewn with commas, semicolons, dashes, and way, way too many words.

That puts me just a little ahead of the game, overall, though I should also probably mention that two and a half pages are left to translate in Section 8.

Farblegarg.

I failed to keep in mind that Shannon is leaving for California (and a wedding) on Thursday. This will increase my time at the store on that day, as well as Friday and Saturday. This also means it will be essential for me to put in as much time as possible on the translation both tomorrow and Wednesday (not to mention that Saturday and Sunday will be booked solid).

Time is a-wastin'. Gotta go to sleep.

Cheers...