Why I hate editing...

An essential aspect to accepting an editing job is that you're buying a pig in a poke. Unless you have prior experience with a particular translator (recall my memoir about MDF at Plenum), you have no way of knowing whether the work is done competently, requiring a minimum of changes, or whether the job in question is the Translation From Hell, replete with omissions and riddled with pidgin phrases throughout.

Most clients want to pay for editing by the hour. What they offer is typically much less than what you can earn doing straight translation.

The part that grates the most is how most clients assume that, regardless of the price they want to pay you to edit on an hourly basis, both the quality and the speed of editing must remain the same on your end. This goes directly to the question (which I'm not sure I'll answer in this post) of: "What is a client buying when the job in question is an editing job?"

I suppose an argument can be made for maintaining quality, at least to the extent where things translated wrong are fixed, no argument. On the other hand, I think it can be argued that it the degree to which one goes the extra mile can (should) vary with the rate paid. (You charge more to, e.g., do research to find the "better" term even if the term at hand does the job, or tweak every phrase so that it sounds, dead on, as if it had been written by a native even if the existing words convey the message.) So, within those limits, "quality" can vary with the price paid to do the editing: the more you pay, the more "improvements" (as opposed to "corrections") the client can expect.

What about speed? If I propose to edit for Y dollars an hour, processing Z words in each of those hours, can a client legitimately expect the same Z words per hour if the offered rate is, say, one-third of Y?

I think the same argument (or variation thereof) holds. At my premium rate, I can push myself to work fast. At a lesser rate, I can work at a less frantic rate. How less frantic? I haven't figured that out. Certainly not the reciprocal (half the rate doesn't imply double the time, else quality is a dead letter).

But I have freewheeled enough. It is late. I would like to get through page 75 of the assignment by the end of the day tomorrow.

Cheers...

Hard choices...

I got a call this morning, from client T in Houston. They'd like to have me come down and do some things, including maybe work a meeting, starting next Monday, preferably for two weeks.

Huntur's 1st birthday will be celebrated (unofficially) on the 23rd. If I go for one week, then I have a better than fighting chance to be here in Pagosa on that day, regardless of whether I fly or drive.

I decided that, unless I stop and make my stand here, and just flat out do with it takes to be here on the 23rd, then I may as well not pay lip service to the importance of being there for birthdays, etc. Understand, I never have gone out of my way to be absent at milestone events, but over the course of my life, I've allowed business to sway me to miss birthdays, etc., and in retrospect, I think the swaying was all too easy.

So, when I called back, and told them the lay of the land, I was told things were up in the air. It'd be more cost-effective to have me come for two weeks, and the urgency of their requirements has gone down (a meeting got postponed). I am promised an answer tomorrow morning.

This led to the second issue: that of whether I fly or drive.

Flying is preferable, especially since there is a direct flight via American Airlines from Durango to Houston (Bush International, I think; it'd be too perfect for the flight to go to Hobby). But if I fly, the amount of stuff I can carry is limited. If I drive, I can also bring back a passenger (to wit: Lee). In that regard, I had a rather strained AIM "conversation" with her on the subject of leaving Texas and coming to Colorado.

As I understand it, she is not against the idea, but it never seems to be the right time. As some of my decisions hinge on her decisions, I consequently have allowed some things to hang in limbo for a while. Too long a while, methinks. For my part, I shall have to declare whether to "fish or cut bait" if client T calls tomorrow to say "Come on down!"

* * *I am currently on page 74 of 100 of "The Boilerplate Shuffle," as I have begun to call it. I think I have translated a total of about a dozen new, original sentences. As for the rest, I am shuffling boilerplate around like a madman, and then reviewing it and making changes in some of the details (the horsepower of the engine in this iteration is x, whereas it was y last time... incredibly stultifying work).

I am thus one page away from my stated goal for the day, which was to get to page 75. Of course, if I can go beyond page 75 (and maybe finish the job), I will be one happy camper. I still have two days to deliver the document.

Cheers...

(no subject)

For a telephone company, Southwestern Bell has to have the worst automated customer "service" in the world. Lee had told me that someone from SWB had called to ask for payment (that she had not made). So, I pick up the phone...

On trial one, after going through an endless session of pressing buttons to tell 'em my phone number, the last four digits, etc., upon selecting "talk to a representative" I get the response: "We're closed now. Bye. <click>"

On trial two, after going through the same baloney, upon attempting to pay by credit card, entering the wrong amount and then not pressing the star button gets the response: "I didn't get the number. Bye. <click>"

On trial three, same stuff, but apparently, there is no way to pay even first thing tomorrow. You get two tries at this, after which, you guessed it... "We're closed now. Bye. <click>"

Idiots.


Cheers...

Going cross-eyed...

...or maybe there already! I've done 87 pages, and that's all I'm a-fixin' to do tonight. The rest can wait until tomorrow, and then I'll have to do a review to make sure I got the obvious details (there are so many transitions between portrait and landscape, I have to make sure I get all the headers and footers right).

Blah, blah, blah. All I can talk about is work, it seems.

I think I will go upstairs and watch a little Shtirlitz. Or something.

Cheers...

When did I play this?

I found the following score on the back of an old, old business card. The players are identified only as "J.S." and me. It's a Latvian Gambit, I won it, but White played sloppily. His 12th is a disaster.

[Date "??"]
[White "J.S."]
[Black "AlexPGP"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.exf5 e4 4.Nd4 Nf6 5.d3 d5 6.g4 c5 7.g5?

{White is giving the pawn back, along with the initiative, in my opinion.}

7... cxd4 8.gxf6 Qxf6 9.dxe4 Bb4+ 10.c3

{I think Bd2 is better, as it helps take the starch out of the position.}

10... dxc3 11.Qa4+?

{It's strange, but if 11.Bb5+, the game is still playable. The text loses big time, since after Black parries the check, White still has got to do something about the Black pawn sitting on c3, or get creamed even worse. With the Queen out and about, the Rook on a1 is stripped of protection, e.g., 11.Bb5+ Nc6 12.Nxc3 Bxc3 13.bxc3 Qxc3 14.Bd2 and the Queen covers the Rook (if you replace 11.Bb5+ with the text, the same variation leads to 14... Qxa1).}

11... Nc6 12.Qb3?? cxb2+ (0-1)

{Black threatens 13... bxa1=Q.}

Cheers...