Sometimes, it's like playing chess...

The document I was sent yesterday was one of those products that only its originator could love. Unfortunately, such items are becoming more common as time goes by.

Figuring out how to deal with them is almost like trying to solve a chess problem, because there are two factors in play: writing the translation in the most effective way possible and figuring out how to charge for it.

The document in question (call it NR) is a revision of a portion of a larger document. Fortunately, I have both the Russian and English version of the previous document at hand, so after editing these previous documents down to include only the revised sections (call 'em OR and OE, respectively), I ran a document comparison between OR and NR. The comparison showed four major "chunks" of entirely new text, along with scattered changes throughout the rest of the revised document.

Saving old English file (OE) as a new English file (NE, the one I will eventually send back to the client), I have so far incorporated the scattered changes. (Disk space is cheap. If something goes wrong with NE, I still have OE to fall back on.)

After cutting and pasting the new chunks from the comparison into a single document, I find I have just a hair under 4,000 new words to translate. Once I finish that - and I better get to it soon if I want to send the document back today - I'll cut and paste the translations back where they belong in NE, at which point the heavy lifting will be complete and I can proceed with despeckling.

Figuring these steps out feels as if I've solved a mate in three.

(If you've actually read this far, I'd be interested in learning if what I've explained makes any sense. <grin>)

Cheers...

Why you can't rely on spell-checkers...

In an otherwise dry description of a test procedure, my fingers slip, and I write:

The XYZ equipment and the onboard harnesses shall be tested in accordance with the scope of XYZ component-level testes.

Ouch! That's the kind of typo that can really hurt!

(Glad I caught it.)

Cheers...

Marketing my presentation...

I don't know if things have changed in the Slavic Languages Division of the ATA since the time I was the group administrator, but back in the day, it was often quite a chore to find enough participants willing to do (and submit a proposal for) a conference presentation.

So I'm hoping the title of my proposed session,

Launch Campaign! Developing and Using Rocket and Space Terminology

will catch the eye of whoever is making decisions these days.

Ever positive in outlook, I've already blocked out the session, and I'm thinking my principal problem will be to keep it all down to the 60-minute time slot typically allotted.

Cheers...

So there we were, dead in the water, ten miles off Shanghai...

I was within 1000 words of the goal when Feht called to say he was coming into town, and should he stop by and pick me up on the way to the store? I said no, thank you, but I'd be tickled to have him stop by on the way back and we'd have some tea and shoot the breeze for a while.

After I hung up, I realized that the upstairs had not been properly tidied for guests, so after finding out that tomorrow was a perfectly sensible submittal date, I put away the translation and proceeded to do a mini-field-day upstairs.

It turns out I could have saved myself the trouble - <just kidding> - as upon arrival, Feht suggested we go out to some place where folks wait on you so we could be free to discuss life, the universe, business, and everything.

I needed no second invitation, so we ended up at a place called "JJs" where we both had a somewhat indifferent meal (though mine cost less, so it doesn't hurt as much). Be that as it may, the chow was better than anything I could rustle up on short notice (the fridge is dying, and I've drafted two mini-fridges into service, which limits the raw stock on hand), and likely better than anything else in town.

Besides the small amount left over from today, there is a 3,000-word job on the plate for Monday, which ought to keep me comfortably busy for some part of (probably) Sunday.

In other news, I have learned that the person at the American Translators Association who is in charge of vetting "continuing education" points has reviewed and approved the report I submitted last week. (Be still, oh throbbing spirit!)

I think I'll put in some additional cleanup time (seeing as how my activities of earlier today have put me in the mood, so to speak) and then hit the sack. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, between finishing today's translation and finishing my read of the week's LJ Idol entries.

Cheers...