The importance of moderation...

Looking at the subject, it occurs to me that I'm about the last person in the world to be holding forth on the subject, but I digress... (I'm good at that!)

One's eyes can easily outperform one's stomach when it comes to deciding how much to put on your plate, and that's equally true for work as it is for food. And while the payday resulting from a long spell of 10-hour days spent translating can be pretty nice, the prospect of all that work in front of you can be pretty daunting and draining.

I am nowhere near that point right now, by the way.

In fact, I was able to "slipstream" a little over 1000 words for my aerospace client this morning, which is good from both the point of view of the bottom line and from that of retaining customers. As I've noted before, getting a job that takes up 100% of your time for more than a few days is dangerous to your client base, for although it's okay to be "not available" once or twice, on occasion, the more often you refuse work, the more likely it is that your clients will find someone else to rely upon.

(As an aside, that's what I could never understand about clients who want to engage you on a 100% basis for months at a time, and who also want you to cut your rate to boot! You end up losing your other clients and work harder for less money!)

* * *All issues with jobs coming from the East Coast have been resolved, so now I can concentrate on finishing about 12,000 words over the next three days.

No time like the present to start!

Cheers...

And now, to rest a bit...

I sort of forgot that I'd started the day with an 1000-word "warmup" before settling down to some serious contract translation. The current opus has a definition list as long as some phone directories, and the frequent use of Capital Letters in Sentences to denote the use of Official Terms is making the Text of the Contract look like it's written in German, if you know what I mean.

OTOH, I did manage to translate about 4,000 source words, leaving 4300 source words to be done by Friday afternoon, which ought to be a piece of cake.

The wind howled again last night, bringing icy snow with it. When I woke, I could not see the snow on the ground (less than an inch, I reckon) because of the snow that had been plastered against the window panes. I drove to the store to open it for Drew, who had forgotten his keys inside yesterday, and it started snowing again as I started for home a little while later. All through the day, whenever I'd look outside, I could see sunshine, but if I looked out at the horizon in any direction, all I could see was snow in the distance. We're supposed to have snow on-again, off-again for the rest of the week. Every little bit on the mountain will help.

I think I am going to go watch some of Outland before going to sleep.

Cheers...