Among other exercises...

I deliberately let the deadline for submitting ATA conference presentation proposals slip yesterday, mostly because I'm not at all sure I want to go to Chicago in early November. On the other hand, in the event I do decide to go, there's really nothing to stop me from creating a "stealth" presentation that I can do, should the occasion arise. Or not, but that bridge is still a long way off.

I noticed this phenomenon—of presentations materializing, seemingly out of thin air, to fill in for cancellations—last year in San Antonio, and it makes sense to me. In fact, it's long overdue (or it's been going on for a while and I just haven't noticed it).

I've always reserved a modicum of wonder about making a commitment months in advance where I stand a good chance of having to forego income (and sometimes significant income) to meet. Back in 1995, while literally about to walk out the door to the car to drive to the airport, I recall having a conversation with a client in which I had to decline what would have been a nice payday, but given that I had already paid for the conference, the airline ticket, the hotel room, and was going to do my first presentation, there really was no choice. It was then that I realized how events such as conferences put quite a bit of pressure on translators who deal with The Real World™,

* * *I took my first baby steps in figuring out how to "scrape" information from a web page. Interesting stuff.

* * *My local Raspberry Pi web server has slowed down considerably, and I cannot seem to figure out why, and Google has been of limited aid.

* * *Indiegogo had a problem a while back that required a massive password reset, so when I finally got mine reset today, I paused to review the campaigns I had supported last year, and found one missing. Hopefully, this is the result of a standard Mark-One screwup of some sort, and not something more sinister.

* * *Tai chi has been going well. Progress was made yesterday in becoming familiar with the broadsword form. Today, the class was mostly back to basics (the short form, done "on both sides," followed by a lot of push-hands).

Wow, look at the time! Good night!