Stray thoughts, tamed.
Sources of Joy - Day 64 The overriding thought today was about the nature of space. I have cleared space in my normal schedule to deal with many things, including the moving of what together constitutes our home from one place to another. I have kept work to the bare minimum - about 20% of... Continue Reading →
Sources of Joy - Days 36 and 37 Note: All graphic material on this page is the sole copyright of Toni Le Busque, who so engagingly illustrated my brief but informative memoirs in Scatterling. Seeing as she had so much fun drawing them, I am, as far as I know, the only one who is... Continue Reading →
A regular client (agency) sent me 160 words for urgent translation this morning. I opened the document to discover that it was already in English. I sent a quick reply and let her know that even with the best will in the world, translating that short piece into decent German would be impossible for me.... Continue Reading →
I was checking online whether my translation from Portuguese into English of a Chinese proverb matched the commonly accepted rendition in English. As one does. I should mention that I do not normally take the answers found at wiki.answers.com as Gospel for obvious reasons, but have occasionally found some useful leads there by way of... Continue Reading →
Bitstrip is a new Facebook app which is quite fun to use - provided your good friends also create their own Bitstrip avatar. It proved so popular within the first few days that the program crashed. The app writers were a little ambitious, and have now removed a few of the flexibility features which made... Continue Reading →
This is a very ordinary story with no particular punchline. It started seven weeks ago when I made an appointment to see the doctor. I saw the doctor last week at our local health clinic. I live in Portugal and have finally got to the point when I understand most of what I hear, and... Continue Reading →
The cadence of one of my translated sentences yesterday reminded me about the fate of old golfers, and I could not remember whether real men eat quiche or not. If the truth be told, I was not entirely sure if Kisch was involved. That advice about sounding out the word in your head in order... Continue Reading →
Of course, "flum" does not mean anything, but quite a few of us have been "Moxed". The purpose of this post is to get as many people Moxed as possible. The next mass Moxing will occur at the forthcoming TriKonf 2013 in Freiburg, Germany, 18-20 Ocober 2013, where in addition to attending some excellent workshops,... Continue Reading →
The other day, the poll on a translator forum asked how long we worked before taking a break. You will note that the question was not how often we take breaks. That would imply that most freelance translators stick to a rigid timetable. I, for one, cannot imagine that there are too many translators who... Continue Reading →
Do you think that outrage is adequately expressed by a frowny face emoticon?
That elusive pair of jeans 