A rocky start to the day...

I went to the ham breakfast and eventually had to leave to open the store just as my portion of food was being served. I went to get a to-go carton and got both a carton and the news that the breakfast was on the house.

I should have left the food there.

The eggs tasted of fish. The hash browns were swimming in grease (I could have used them to lubricate industrial machinery, I think). Only the Canadian bacon was edible.

That's all to the good anyway, it turns out I forgot my wallet at home this morning.

Cheers...

Cautiously, cautiously...

Client U called again with a boatload of work... with a catch.

It seems they are using some kind of Translation Memory program to pre-translate electronic files. The deal is that I get full freight for material that's not been pre-translated, but only 1/3 of my rate for "editing" the rest.

I talked it over with Feht; he says he would not touch it. I accepted it, because there's nothing else on the horizon right now, and this will give me an opportunity to come face to face with The Beast. Who knows? Maybe this kind of scheme is workable.

For sure, I won't benefit by getting haughty and burying my head in the sand at the same time.

* * *I cleaned my desk using the simple expedient of shoving everything that was not a computer or phone onto the floor.

I feel much better, now.

* * *I've been putting things on eBay for the past couple of hours. I get the feeling I'm wasting my time (actually, I'm certain of it, given that I have a hot translation on deck), but I just felt compelled to do so tonight. I also put up a half dozen more books on Amazon, in about one-tenth the time (or less).

As background, I listened to a Kiyosaki tape. While Galina finds him boring and repetitive, I find him pretty easy to listen to, and what is more: what he is saying requires constant repitition (at least, if you think the man has a point to make). A perhaps unkind analogy can be drawn with Marine boot camp: the reason most people succeed in getting through the training is because the drill instructors stand over everyone's soul every waking minute of the day, reinforcing "the message."

* * *I downloaded some Linux software that lets you mount and create Macintosh disks. The configure, make, and install steps went well on 'onegin', but some anomaly prevents just about any floppy from getting mounted, so I'll have to try the process again with 'ellroy' (the eSlate).

My strategy is this: once I have a couple of Mac-format disks, I can download some appropriate network-aware software onto my Linux box, copy the files onto the disks, and then sneakernet them onto the Mac. From there, I can bootstrap my way anywhere I want to.

But I have got to get some rest. We told Brady we didn't need him today (Fridays are generally slow), but when Galina took off for Durango to buy a tire to replace the one that's been going soft about every day, it seemed to be a signal for the local population to descend, en masse, upon the store. Poor Drew and (poor) I barely survived the day.

Cheers...