Hmmm...

I may be imagining things, but it occurs to me that the one program that's always running whenever I get a BSOD is Microsoft Word.

Of course, that may just be post hoc reasoning on my part, because there's a bunch of other programs that likely also always run.

But those other programs don't also hang from time to time, display the "We're sorry..." dialog and try to recover from the error.

And I notice that one file that Word keeps trying to recover is not the one I'm working on, but the Trados template.

I think I'm going to move that file out of harm's way, and only invoke it when I need it.

* * *In other news, I've gotten a list of participants for next week's gig and... I'm not on it, which better mean I am one of the TBD's on the list.

Cheers...

Progress...

I have about 10 pages left to check in the robotics text. I figure I'll finish it tonight and then do a spot check tomorrow morning, as I've felt myself slack off on the line-by-line review.

I've also been so single-minded about completing this translation, that I've entered precious few other things on my pre-departure to-do list, so I am going to have to devote some time this evening to filling it out (not with things for the sake of doing them, obviously).

I got a response to this morning's email about my absence from the list of participants in the El Paso gig, even though I mentioned that no response was necessary (unless there was truly a problem). Everything is in a state of flux that probably won't settle down until after the event starts, said the reply, so just relax.

I plan to, although the name of the lead interpreter is vaguely familiar from my Houston days, and if there is one thing I learned from my stint as a manager down there, it's that people will remember you for the strangest reasons! Most of the other names on the list of interpreters are not familiar to me, though apparently Maya is going to be there and I'm familiar with the names of one or two others. What's really unusual about this gig is that the Russian side is bringing its own interpreters to the party, which I suppose lends a certain air of formality to the proceedings.

There are other interesting aspects to the job, but I'm afraid they'll simply have to be classified under the tag "further deponent sayeth not."

Cheers...

Finance trivia...

At the start of this year, accounting departments at nearly all my clients let it be known that they wanted invoices sent promptly, meaning I shouldn't allow work to lie around uninvoiced. And while there are good reasons for not delaying one's invoices, in my opinion, there are also good reasons for not rushing to invoice every last item individually, almost before the bits in the delivered product have had a chance to slide out the wire on their way to the client.

For one thing, individual invoices are more work to generate, not to mention they get paid in groups (one check may cover multiple invoices), so there's a modicum of extra work in checking off what invoices have been paid. Normally, I've run somewhere just under 100 invoices ever since returning to Colorado as a freelancer; this year, it's not yet the end of April, and I've sent over 50 invoices.

Hey! I'm not exactly complaining, okay?

But there's another downside to splitting invoices among multiple documents: more invoices mean - ahem - more opportunities for nonpayment.

Now, understand that I'm not casting aspersions at anyone, nor do I think anyone is out to get me, but I've been staring at this year's deposits for several hours and however I slice it (and it's mostly guesswork because my "banker" doesn't believe in telling me whose checks are being deposited), I'm missing a good half dozen payments from a variety of people.

Writing them about the status quo will very definitely be on my list, albeit probably to be done one evening early next week. I shall have to be very, um, neutral in my approach, as - I say again - most of this is based on guesswork.

Cheers...