Post about Common good and Sex with Strangers

It is actually about the revamped web site, but I will start from afar.

January is a strange month for L10N crowd. December is traditionally hyperactive — every translation buyer and reseller is eager to make it by Christmas no matter what, getting rid of all the loose ends, accumulated for the whole year of indolence. And all the tin soldiers, including yours truly, are expected to run the extra mile for the common good, so that GPM, and the team could go on holiday with an easy mind, and considerable bonus.

But we don't mind, more work means more cash, and annual December tsunami of crash jobs transforms our pupils to dollar signs, when it comes to invoicing.

But then suddenly it's all over. Christmas and New Year holidays are followed by [relatively] lethargic January, but we are still in high-throttle mode. Bored, and agitated, we are desperately looking for occupation to channel all that energy. Computer games, blogging, moving furniture, sex with strangers, extreme sports... You name it.

For me January 2013 was a month of web tinkering. I completely reworked visual part of my site, and made some major changes in its content. It was fun, though not nearly as much fun as sex with strangers would be. Here's how it looked before:

Look around and compare. B&W rules, is it not?

On content side there's a Dashboard (hit Googies button on the left, for now it includes Acronym Finder and Multitran scripts, as well as a couple of interesting links), Freelance L10N Quote of the Day page, and snippet (more on that later), various dynamic elements across the site, and modified messaging. Yes, that was a marcom speech.

Note that it's still WIP, so expect minor hicups. Suggestions, and bug reports are welcome. Did I say that black and white rules? I guess I did...

Comeback... sort of

I am posting this after a really long break, caused by a couple of local crunch periods, as well as one major flood, which once again changed my idea of peak, and sustained productivity. Besides, there was Mass Effect 3 (Shepard... Noooooo!), which has also taken its toll on my time. Anyway, I'm back, and willing to invest some more time in this blog, whether anyone reads it, or not.

Today I will publish a very special reference that will allow a peaky, sore, or simply bored reviewer to soundly fail any Russian translation in technical domain. No kidding!

I am also poring over a couple of big posts, that will most likely make their way here:

The 1st one is about stepping above, and beyond the limits of freelance career. Our means to evolve are quite limited... Or are they? Think about it. I know one thing: when I am fourty, there should be no crunches, or floods in my life.

The 2nd one is based on several online discussions I followed, or took part in. Quite a lot of people are upset about low rates, unfair agency practices, competetion... and they seem to think that translation market can, and should be regulated to solve these problems — mandatory translator accreditations, forced rates, more demanding unions... What a bunch of pinkos. Nyet, Molotov! Not a chance!

Stay tuned!

Oh, one more thing. According to successful bloggers, one should engage their audience into discussion to become established. Soooooooo... How do you like Mass Effect 3 ending?