Honor redeemed...

Sort of.

Some time ago, the editor in charge of dictionary reviews for the ATA Chronicle asked if I'd be kind enough to review the R/E Elsevier's Dictionary of Nuclear Engineering. I said yes, and then missed my deadline, which is not like me at all, but that's not the point of what I'm trying to say.

Yesterday, after finishing the translations due this morning (and there's a tale there, too), I bit the bullet and wrote the review, using months-old notes.

Part of the delay in writing the review was based on my wanting to like the book, but the book not cooperating. Another part, which was confirmed yesterday, is that when you come down to it, reviewing dictionaries is not all that easy, even if you read a bunch of dictionary reviews to give yourself an idea of what's expected.

In the end, I was guided by the aphorism attributed to Voltaire, that "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien," ("The best is the enemy of the good"), which BTW is discussed at length in this WikiWikiWeb article.) My desire to write an excellent review (erudite, literate, incisive, etc.) had up until yesterday kept me from actually writing the thing, which was not such a great side effect.

I must admit I'm not entirely satisfied with my review, but the thing says basically what I intended to say and has been sent, which right now is the important thing. I feel as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

* * *While I'm on streak of self-deprecation, I may as well mention that I got sloppy yesterday and translated article X using Wordfast and neglected to save the result under a new name (e.g., Y). Thus blissfully ignorant, later in the day I grabbed a copy en passant from my Web mail account and saved it... as X, not realizing that by doing so I was overwriting my work.

This became apparent to me only this morning, when no amount of searching revealed the translated file, only the original that I had saved yesterday. I must admit, I did experience a moment or two of that feeling where your heart sinks way down and tries to get chummy with your appendix. Not only was my work lost, but my deadline was literally minutes away... until I was struck by an idea.

It turns out that by opening the original and pointing Wordfast at it, I was able to recover the translation in very short order (Wordfast has a feature where it does its thing without interruption until it hits something new... since everything in the file was in translation memory file, the process basically went from start to finish with minimal input from me.)

In the end, the only work I lost were some highlights that I'd embedded during the first go-through to mark questionable areas and some italic formatting. Having to restore these items were a small price to pay for getting back the other 99% of my effort in (literally) seconds.

It's going to be a busy day. My to-do list resembles a small phone directory. I'm off to slay some dragons.

Cheers...

My ATA abstract...

In taking care of this to-do, I notice I am not "in under the wire" as I had thought, but flat out late (the deadline was 3/12, not today). I have faith, however, that the following might be of interest:

The original WikiWikiWeb was implemented in 1995 to collaborate on software patterns. Since then, numerous Wiki variants have been developed, sharing features that include the ability to easily create and edit Web content dynamically. Today, Wiki is emerging as a technology highly suited for collaboration.

This presentation will concentrate on how translators can use Wikis to share translation knowledge, insights, and data and how they can be used to coordinate “team translation” activities. In addition, the presentation will demonstrate how a Wiki can be used to securely compartmentalize interactions – including file deliveries – with multiple clients.

Back into the fray!

Cheers...

If you translate for a living, you've probably heard this...

From a client e-mail, received a few minutes prior to COB one day (from a printout on its way to the shredder):

Attached is a RUSH translation request, along with the document to be translated. I have noted on the request that the document be translated with extreme accuracy. Although the deadline we've requested is tight, the translator needs to take the time he/she needs to make this accurate.

The requested deadline would have made the Roadrunner™ blush. E-mails such as this are almost as good as stand-up comedy.

Cheers...

It doesn't do much for tinnitus, but...

In anticipation of various plane rides, I had long given some serious thought to getting a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones (which can also be used to listen to audio, with ambient noise suppressed), but the $300 price tag was a little too rich for my blood.

Instead, a few weeks ago, I decided to cash in a whole lotta American Express reward points in exchange for one of these headphones. The package arrived today (way ahead of the 6-8 weeks the Amex site warned me it might take).

I haven't done too much with the unit except give it a whirl in front of my computers (whereupon the fan racket ebbed noticeably). I think I might go upstairs shortly and see about listening to some music.

* * *Workwise, I am currently on track with the stack of so-called "Hazard Reports" that must be reworked to incorporate changes from the Russian versions of the reports into the English versions. The kicker here is that in addition to incorporating the changes marked in revision mode, I've been charged with the task of eyeballing the rest of the text to make sure no non-revision-mode changes have crept in (and to resolve differences, natch).

Three down; nine to go.

* * *We here in Pagosa Springs are in an unusual situation, address-wise. The USPS does not deliver to street addresses out here, which doesn't cut much ice with various entities who insist on getting your street address (instead of, say, a Post Office box, which the USPS does deliver to), and who then can't understand why the mail they send to us never arrives.

The latest casualty on this front was mail from our new mortgage company, which never arrived despite our having asked them to use our POB as our mailing address.

I am toying with the idea of having a lawyer draw up a document that, in effect, would serve notice on such dolts that should they insist on using our street address as a mailing address instead of our POB, that they will relieve us from any penalties or other bad things they'd normally do to us if we don't do the things they ask us to do in said communications, because they're using the wrong bloody address!

I'm sure, however, that my idea will fly as well as a gilded brick.

* * *Ah, but it's been a glorious day! I'm looking forward to tomorrow already!

More to the point, I'm looking forward to getting away from this computer. Ciao.

Cheers...