Moving along smoothly...

The translation pipeline seems to be picking up speed. I got a request to do a short item earlier today, the assignment received yesterday has turned out nicely (all that remains is a review, tomorrow morning), and another assignment has come in, due Monday. It's still short of being a tsunami of work, but also short of being a drought.

Last night was the first time it was cool enough outside at night to open a window instead of running the air conditioner. That's the good news. The bad news is that the bedroom window has no screen, so there's no telling what flying insects satiated their need for human blood while Galina and I were sleeping. (I realize such critters gotta eat, too, but it's the stuff they might leave behind that worries me.)

Scrubbing of the tabletop continued today, with more stuff being thrown out. I'm finding it hard to develop the requisite level of ruthlessness when it comes to deciding what goes and what stays, but I'm getting better.

I managed to get my Motorola Bluetooth earpiece to work with the Blackberry, so now I have a wireless hands-free device for my new phone. (My reaction? Two words: Whoo. Pee. I'm honestly not too impressed with the capability, though I suppose it's nice to have if you're going to converse while driving.)

My passport and visa application ought to be in processing right now, and I suppose as soon as they come back from the embassy, I'll get a green light to procure my airline ticket. More immediately, tomorrow, I need to check and make sure this month's payments all got to where they needed to go.

I tell you, there's never a dull moment around here.

Cheers...

Elements of truth...

An interesting piece by Kir Bulychev, titled Столпотворение, which is a word that apparently means both Babel and Pandemonium in English. My partial translation is immediately below, followed by the corresponding Russian (under the cut). This is a work in progress...

The fates of the world are not decided when, or where, or by whom it is commonly believed. Alexander the Great announced the conquest of the universe, but his army's return was decided by soldiers unknown to us. The commander could do nothing but curse impotently.

The mighty of this world should keep this in mind.

An excellent example of this was the pandemonium in Babylon, that is, the construction of the Tower of Babel (and not its destruction, as many so commonly think).

This prestigious, grandiose project was undertaken in order to show the entire world the superiority of the Babylonian religion over other ideological systems.

Specialists were brought and prisoners were driven from all corners of civilization to Babylon. In order for the system to function normally, three hundred interpreters were procured as well.

On the six hundred eighth day of work, at the end of a dusty summer, in the temporary clay hut of the governor of District 17 of the Babylon Tower Authority, a morning tagup meeting was under way (though in those days this meeting went under a different name). The governor himself sat on pillows in front of a low marble table, and was chewing out his subordinates.

"As you know," said the governor, "we ordered iron braces from the Punjabis, measuring a half cubit by one and one-ninths cubits. And what did we receive in the most recent caravan?"

He made a sign and a black slave brought a brace out from under the table and showed it to the assembly. The brace measured 0.76 cubit by 0.87 cubit.

Measuring the brace against various elbow-lengths, the specialists expressed strong feelings in twenty-three languages. The interpreters communicated these feelings into ancient Babylonian.

"So, since someone must pay with their head for this error, I propose that we, in keeping with the established convention, designate an interpreter as the guilty party."

The constructors voted quickly, and the interpreters obediently translated the results of the vote into ancient Babylonian. They then said their goodbyes to their colleague Aram Singh, who was then led off to the executioner.

( The Russian original lies under this cut )

I wouldn't have called attention to it if there weren't just some grains of truth mixed in, there, y'know?

Cheers...