A few lively moments...
Mar. 15th, 2002 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpIn what must be a first since returning to Pagosa, I attended two ham radio breakfasts in a row. I learned of something called I-link, the description of which sounds like amateur-radio-over-the-Internet. I've downloaded the software, but haven't done anything with it yet.
I opened the store after the breakfast, and was soon joined by Galina and Drew. It was a good thing, too, because my cell phone began to ring and before the day was out, I'd gone through almost two batteries on the unit (I'm getting pretty good at the out-in battery replacement maneuver; it's been a while since I've lost a call while doing it).
It was a good thing I was intent on saying no to translation clients today (there are things that need doing at the store, and maybe it's time I took a day off... I mean, it's March, right?). I say that because I ended up with only three new assignments, and it is said without sarcasm, because I know that somewhere down the line, I'll be sitting on tenterhooks, all jittery (a little like Feht now), wondering why nobody is calling with work.
Anyway, one of the documents was due by 3 pm my time today, so I did part of it at the store and then went over to the coffee shop to finish as much as I could of the rest. I returned to the store to resolve a few issues with several Web queries (and to staff the counter for a while to allow Drew to go get a haircut), and in the end, I sent it off just in time.
It was the first time I'd done an assignment at the store, and I feel pretty good about its quality, despite the fact I was distracted more times than I could count. Then again, I probably spent way more time than I should have on a paltry 573 words.
(Which reminds me... I have a heck of an invoicing backlog for this past week!)
Another person with the same client (but a different office) called and wanted to know if I could do two documents, a 17-pager and a 6-pager. I accepted the 6-pager (and a short editing job), due Monday.
Another client called and wanted to know if I could do 22,000 words by close of business Tuesday (I said no, but offered to do the first 6,000 words in that time). Since I haven't heard from them, I assume the job has been placed elsewhere... and I'm not heartbroken.
Another client called late in the day and strongly encouraged (read: begged) me to do 7 pages for Monday, and I took the job.
So, my plate is somewhat full again, but I don't feel as if there's all that much pressure.
On other fronts, my ProZ membership hasn't resulted in my getting any jobs, but I've recently received two emails from Europe asking about my rates and offering to collaborate on a couple of projects. I suspect I have my "page" at ProZ to thank/blame.
One of the inquiries looked promising, but the fellow who asked if I was interested came back to say it had been hauled back in house. I've not heard anything from the other outfit.
I don't know how realistic it is to expect work to come from Europe, but if it does, I suppose I should investigate the prospect of opening an account somewhere (Switzerland? Hey,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tamaraland, can you shed some light on this?), and probably in Euros.
* * * In related translation news, I submitted two abstracts for presentations at this year's ATA Conference in Atlanta. I did the deed online, and followed up this morning with an email asking if my submittals made it okay, as the submittal deadline is today. I got no answer to my e-mail, which doesn't really mean anything (which is to say, I'm not going to worry about it for now).
I also touched base with Jim W., a heck of a nice fellow (and Russian-English translator) who hails from Georgia. I'd hoped that maybe his availability would be such as to allow us to split the 22,000 word job I mentioned above.
No such luck. He's as busy as I am. In talking to him, though, I was struck with an idea of an Internet app that would allow small groups of translators to send instant messages to the group - along the lines of AIM, ICQ, Jabber, etc. - but also to post glossary entries into a common pool of terminology that would be visible to all participants. I need to research this, and that's all I have to say about translation for the day.
* * * All in all, it was not a bad day at the store. Galina bought a couple of $50 tickets to some sort of casino night being organized by the local Rotary, and the shindig is tomorrow. The ticket says something along the lines of "black tie encouraged." I have no problem with the black tie - I have one - unfortunately, it's the rest of the getup that goes with that black tie that I'm missing. (Never had, actually.)
* * * The dogs were taken in by a neighbor, relatively speaking (we don't know them, but if I stood at the bottom of my driveway and the wind was right, I could probably chuck a rock onto their property). They called us at the store, and in short order, I drove by this morning and retrieved them.
* * * Galina and I watched Dark Angel, after watching a rerun of her favorite series, Alias. I'm not much of a watcher of either series (or of much television at all, nowadays... I've not seen The X Files in weeks), but both seemed entertaining.
* * * During commercial breaks, while Galina surfed the home decorating channels, I ran across the hall to see what it would take to install a hard drive and CD-ROM drive in the ThinkPad docking station. Having SmallLinux on the ThinkPad is okay, but I'd really rather have a "real" distro on the machine, and maybe even connect it to my home network.
The only problem is that ribbon cable harnesses in the docking unit are "wider" than what is accepted by any of the several spare hard disks I have in the house (and which I cannibalized from the IBM I bought in Houston some months back). I've just gone to the IBM site to download the user manual for the docking station, to see what I'm facing.
The ThinkPad has a 1-GB hard drive and a slot for either a floppy disk or a CD-ROM drive. With a floppy installed in the ThinkPad and a CD drive in the docking station, I could do an install with relatively little problem. In an either/or situation, I'm not sure whether the following will work:
1) With the floppy drive installed in the ThinkPad, boot the machine into SmallLinux from its hard drive.
2) Mount the installation disk in the floppy.
3) Copy files from the installation disk onto the hard drive.
4) Muck with LILO so that the unit boots off the hard drive using files copied from the installation disk.
5) Shut the unit down. Remove the floppy drive and replace it with the CD drive.
6) Turn on the unit.
If I'm reasoning this correctly, the unit will boot off the hard drive into installation mode, and (hopefully) find the installation CD in the CD drive, and from then on, it's a done deal.
But it's late right now, and I do need my beauty sleep.
Cheers...
I opened the store after the breakfast, and was soon joined by Galina and Drew. It was a good thing, too, because my cell phone began to ring and before the day was out, I'd gone through almost two batteries on the unit (I'm getting pretty good at the out-in battery replacement maneuver; it's been a while since I've lost a call while doing it).
It was a good thing I was intent on saying no to translation clients today (there are things that need doing at the store, and maybe it's time I took a day off... I mean, it's March, right?). I say that because I ended up with only three new assignments, and it is said without sarcasm, because I know that somewhere down the line, I'll be sitting on tenterhooks, all jittery (a little like Feht now), wondering why nobody is calling with work.
Anyway, one of the documents was due by 3 pm my time today, so I did part of it at the store and then went over to the coffee shop to finish as much as I could of the rest. I returned to the store to resolve a few issues with several Web queries (and to staff the counter for a while to allow Drew to go get a haircut), and in the end, I sent it off just in time.
It was the first time I'd done an assignment at the store, and I feel pretty good about its quality, despite the fact I was distracted more times than I could count. Then again, I probably spent way more time than I should have on a paltry 573 words.
(Which reminds me... I have a heck of an invoicing backlog for this past week!)
Another person with the same client (but a different office) called and wanted to know if I could do two documents, a 17-pager and a 6-pager. I accepted the 6-pager (and a short editing job), due Monday.
Another client called and wanted to know if I could do 22,000 words by close of business Tuesday (I said no, but offered to do the first 6,000 words in that time). Since I haven't heard from them, I assume the job has been placed elsewhere... and I'm not heartbroken.
Another client called late in the day and strongly encouraged (read: begged) me to do 7 pages for Monday, and I took the job.
So, my plate is somewhat full again, but I don't feel as if there's all that much pressure.
On other fronts, my ProZ membership hasn't resulted in my getting any jobs, but I've recently received two emails from Europe asking about my rates and offering to collaborate on a couple of projects. I suspect I have my "page" at ProZ to thank/blame.
One of the inquiries looked promising, but the fellow who asked if I was interested came back to say it had been hauled back in house. I've not heard anything from the other outfit.
I don't know how realistic it is to expect work to come from Europe, but if it does, I suppose I should investigate the prospect of opening an account somewhere (Switzerland? Hey,
tamaraland, can you shed some light on this?), and probably in Euros. I also touched base with Jim W., a heck of a nice fellow (and Russian-English translator) who hails from Georgia. I'd hoped that maybe his availability would be such as to allow us to split the 22,000 word job I mentioned above.
No such luck. He's as busy as I am. In talking to him, though, I was struck with an idea of an Internet app that would allow small groups of translators to send instant messages to the group - along the lines of AIM, ICQ, Jabber, etc. - but also to post glossary entries into a common pool of terminology that would be visible to all participants. I need to research this, and that's all I have to say about translation for the day.
The only problem is that ribbon cable harnesses in the docking unit are "wider" than what is accepted by any of the several spare hard disks I have in the house (and which I cannibalized from the IBM I bought in Houston some months back). I've just gone to the IBM site to download the user manual for the docking station, to see what I'm facing.
The ThinkPad has a 1-GB hard drive and a slot for either a floppy disk or a CD-ROM drive. With a floppy installed in the ThinkPad and a CD drive in the docking station, I could do an install with relatively little problem. In an either/or situation, I'm not sure whether the following will work:
1) With the floppy drive installed in the ThinkPad, boot the machine into SmallLinux from its hard drive.
2) Mount the installation disk in the floppy.
3) Copy files from the installation disk onto the hard drive.
4) Muck with LILO so that the unit boots off the hard drive using files copied from the installation disk.
5) Shut the unit down. Remove the floppy drive and replace it with the CD drive.
6) Turn on the unit.
If I'm reasoning this correctly, the unit will boot off the hard drive into installation mode, and (hopefully) find the installation CD in the CD drive, and from then on, it's a done deal.
But it's late right now, and I do need my beauty sleep.
Cheers...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Banking
Date: 2002-03-16 03:23 am (UTC)The other issue of course is simply being able to open an account. I can't speak for the rest of Europe, but in Switzerland, it's not like in the movies, that is for sure. If you do not have a residency permit, a contract at a company that will secure one for you, or more than 150K USD to start the account off, it's going to be a battle. I say 150K because that's the smallest amount with which I opened an account here no questions asked.
Most businesses here don't really care where the money is sent, as long as they have the right numbers to send it to.