Tooling along...

There's a Canon combination copier/printer/scanner here at the office that can be used to scan directly to one's computer, so I brought about 20 pounds of photocopied, Soviet-era dictionaries that had been lying around my office at home for goodness knows how long, and am slowly feeding them through the machine. Checking the OCR will be an issue, down the road, but at least now I can discard the photocopies, I think.

I'm currently in the office, having translated about a half dozen certificates from English into Russian (which sounds a lot more impressive than what I actually did, which was to find the analogous certificates from the previous campaign and modify them for this one) and supported several interactions between our team and our Russian hosts. I plan to go back to the hotel area in about 10 or 20 minutes, eat lunch, and then exercise while the laundry is getting done.

I'm worrying way too much about what is happening (or not) back home, as far as making ends meet is concerned, and trying to make peace with the fact that there's only so much I can do from half a world away.

Talking about half a world away, it occurs to me that I am fortunate to live in an era where I can receive a photograph of a new grandchild within a matter of hours of the birth, despite the fact that twelve time zones separate me and my son's family.

I should probably start getting myself together for the 12:30 pm bus.

Cheers...

Frustration running high...

The post office finally sent back our letter of credit, which in effect bonded our accountability under the postal contract, but now there seems to be some kind of problem returning it to the bank and releasing their hold on a certificate of deposit that, in effect, was collateral for the letter.

That's frustrating by itself, and all the more so when the phone lines out of here are, as usual, jammed. What makes it even more frustrating is that whereas before, any failed attempt to phone out would be signaled as such after 10 seconds or so, now the system simply sits quietly until you hang up. (Then again, maybe the call enters a queue, but if that's the case, nobody's make that fact apparent.)

The exercise program continues, with about 6 km walked today: one loop while doing laundry, and two more after dinner.

Now, back to our program of trying to dial out of here. The bank first, and then Galina.

Cheers...

Letter to an ATA official...

I just got an email to the effect that during its upcoming conference in New Orleans, the American Translators Association will be considering a resolution condemning torture. As I will miss attending this event, I sent the following note to an acquaintance who happens to be a member of the association's board:

I am writing to you from the steppes of Kazakhstan, where I will be until mid-November. This will unavoidably entail my absence at this year's conference in New Orleans, but it's hard to argue against the offered payday.

I feel like starting out by asking "Do you know of any good organizations in the United States that promote the translation industry?" because I am rapidly beginning to lose faith in the ATA.

As you know, the continuing education requirement is an issue that pushes my buttons, especially in the way it has been implemented. Attending conferences is by far the easiest route to satisfying that requirement, followed only by attendance at seminars that purport to teach people how to use overpriced software (while those of us unfortunate enough to have figured out how to use it on our own are, well, apparently out of luck as far as CE points are concerned).

But this recently announced torture resolution really makes the CE issue pale by comparison.

To me, it seems an obvious attempt to steer the ATA into the political arena, with a very specific agenda. Should translators oppose torture? Sure. But there are other evils in the world: murder (including the televised murder of bound hostages), suppression of the free expression of ideas, pollution of the environment, embezzlement, and so on. I oppose all such acts, but I don't think (or expect) a professional organization to adopt resolutions condemning them.

To be frank, I've given serious thought as to whether it makes sense for me to continue as a member of the ATA should I fail to rack up the requisite CE points by the deadline, thus reverting to being an "ordinary" member with no certification and no voting rights. (For one thing, the amount of front-line, honest-to-goodness translation and interpretation that I do would prevent me from jumping through the requisite hoops to regain the certification, assuming that I could do so at all, given the new criteria, but I digress...)

Should this resolution pass, my decision-making process will be considerably simplified.

Speaking of which, I do not recall getting any mail from the ATA before I left for Kazakhstan. How might I participate in the voting, do you think?

It pains me that I only seem to think of you when I have something to complain about. I'll do my best to stay in touch more often in the future, and will keep things on a lighter note, I promise. I'll be thinking of you and the gang while you all are in The Big Easy (and I'm out here helping shepherd a launch campaign with ILS); please pass along my best regards.

Cheers...

Almost midnight...

I'm beginning to think that there's something broken in the phone system, because earlier this evening, all of the ILS folks were off visiting a local school, and since the largest consumers of the lines out of here are these same folks, it would follow that the lines ought to have been available.

Skype doesn't work very well over dial-up, at least not from here. I can hear incoming voice-over-IP fairly well, but Drew described my voice as sounding as if I was in a tunnel and drunk, with a lag of unendurable length. So we used the Skype chat feature to communicate and I sent him an email outlining what I wanted to accomplish with the bank, but I've received no response (which doesn't mean he didn't get it). I will try calling one more time after I kill the dial-up connection, and then go to sleep.

Maybe I'll set the alarm for early in the morning; maybe I won't.

Cheers...