Random musings...

It would appear that providing cruddy suggested translations in pre-segmented text is not the exclusive province of one agency client of mine. The disease - assuming it is such - has spread to a second client.

Someone with a lot more skill than I have ought to develop a utility that will take original and source files and compare only the segments for which translations were suggested, and provide a report of what kind of work was required to whip things into shape. Here, the idea would be to identify segments that required (essentially) retranslation and which should, therefore, be paid for as translation and not as editing.

My productivity since last Friday has been abysmal. I attribute it to a combination of factors, including (a) the situation with my dad and (b) having to use DV 2-column files, which requires me to have the original document open on a second monitor if I am to have any hope of figuring out what the (not particularly literate) originator of said document had in mind. I am about 2/3 of the way through part 3 of 10 approximately same-sized sections, and I'm painfully aware of every moment spent translating.

I need to update my project manager, but here's a wrinkle: The actual deadline is late next week, and I had hoped to finish by next Monday, since the rest of the week is supposed to be spent interpreting in Houston and in Louisiana. But the client for the interpretation gig hasn't called to confirm next week's gig, and if it turns out the gig doesn't materialize, I can probably finish this translation. My only clear course is to call the interpretation client, "demand" that they fish or cut bait, and go from there.

I really need to see if I can get one of these 3500-word sections down today. If not, then it's possible I won't be able to digest the whole job even if given all available time.

Cheers...

Bait has been cut...

In a bid to simplify my life, I called the interpretation client to ask about the pending gig, and was told that there was no news from the end client, and that if I had an opportunity to work at something else, to jump at it.

This makes my life just a bit easier to manage, and it may have had an effect on my perceived work load, as I proceeded to finish the rest of section 3 of The Horror in fairly straightforward fashion.

In related news, it turns out my tag copying and pasting macros has some objectively identifiable superiorities to the "placeable" navigation and copy feature in Wordfast. Copying a placeable via the established mechanism requires a minimum of 4 keystrokes (a two-key chord + an arrow key to select the first placeable + down arrow to copy it).

My macro requires Ctrl+8 to copy up to 20 tags, and Ctrl+9 to paste each one sequentially, which means I save at least 4 keystrokes for each tag past the first one in a cell. That may not sound like much, but my fingers are beginning to tell the difference.

Be that as it may and whatever I may do, my fingers will be taking a forced vacation tonight, as my charger has been left at home. Rats.

* * *I found a great podcast from CanineCampus.com which seems to make more sense than most of the stuff I've heard/read so far (especially as concerns mouthing and nipping, which is my major complaint with Shiloh at the moment). The "zero tolerance" school that involves grabbing the puppy by the hair between the shoulder blades to mimic a canine mother's behavior just isn't working, and I've begun to suspect it's because Shiloh is still a puppy (i.e., along the same lines, you may as well expect a 18-month old human baby to be reading and writing).

Back to work.

Cheers...