Home stretch...

...but a long home stretch.

I've pretty much completed incorporating edits into 28 of the 30 files. I'm now working on the two "big" edits that consist largely of huge chunks of new material. There is really no time to get familiar with terminology already in use in the documents, so I'm going to have to rely on my skill, charm, and amazingly good looks to muddle my way through.

I shall have to cease work on this by 1 pm local time, which will give me about 20 minutes to get ready to leave for the MCC. Today, if I am not mistaken, I shall be interpreting for the capcom and glavnyi. I shall resume work when I get back home, which should be around 8 pm tonight.

Feht called a few minutes ago to find out a phone number. In the course of our conversation, he notes that he is feeling a bit unwanted, as he has had no substantial work assignments since returning from vacation. We also discussed the status of payments for the client I am - as it turns out - doing work for right now. I believe the client is 60 days past due on one item, and better than 30 days past due on one or two more.

...anyway, back to work!

Cheers...

In between exchanges...

I finished file 29 before having to drop it all and go do this sim. So far, it's been pretty slow, and there are about two hours left.

My client is apparently going after some SABIT work (government program that encourages business exchanges with Russia to train Russian managers in Western management practices). Consequently they asked me to put together a response to address the interpreter criteria called for in the tender. I raided my latest-greatest curriculum vitae for suitable response material and then freewheeled a bit. What's crazy is that I'm not at all sure I'll be available to do the work, not that having my information in the bid means anything, anyway.

In other news, I did a little digging and - unless the check and me crossed in the mail and on the road - there appears to be a small question, related to a sum in the mid-high four figures, that has remained unanswered for over 30 days with one of my local (Houston) clients. A phone call brought an apology and the assurance of payment next week. We shall see.

Anyway, I'm currently listening to two loops, covering for the Flight Director-SRP interpreter while she is taking a short break. Gotta go pay attention there...

Cheers...

A bit on the 'gang aft agley' side, I'm afraid.

I got the distinct impression that the sim got off to a slow start today. Just how slow didn't dawn on me until 7 pm rolled around, and it became clear that there were 45 minutes or so of the timeline left to simulate to the end of the exercise.

Thus, I got home around 8:25 pm, ate a quickly prepared dinner (thank goodness for udon noodles!!), and then sat down to wrestle the last of 30 files into the ground. I figured that the worst-case scenario would find me crawling off to bed at between midnight and one.

Well, if the sim running late shifted my "best laid plans" in one direction, an unexpected berserker frenzy of translation shifted them in the other. I put away about 1300 words in about 90 minutes, and have only a couple of minor nits to pick before sending the whole mess back to the client.

I've decided to triage the files into the following groups:

(a) files that, after all was said and done, required no changes (a few of these, for which I will charge, as it took some effort to determine that they required no changes);

(b) files that required some small number of changes (a flat charge, to eliminate the need to do word counts and other nonsense, especially as some words from the original text were deleted in the process of incorporating edits);

(c) the two files that required massive new translation, to be charged at my going rate, with comparative word counts (and here I may want to count deleted words).

Anyway, I've got a few things to take care of, and then I can go get a good night's sleep.

Cheers...