When my translation inbox is empty, I try not to worry about financial disaster and instead make a list of things to do, so I'll be too busy to worry. Often translation work will pop up and then I won't get chores done, but, hey, the bills will get paid.
I've developed a superstitious belief that making a to do list compels translation work to arrive. The longer the list, the larger the amount of work. The more pressing the chores, the tighter the deadline. Or at least that's how it seems. That's how superstition works. When I have a list of chores and no translation comes in, then I just do the chores or goof off and don't attribute the situation to some supernatural hiccup in the universal gullet. If, under the same conditions, a load of translation arrives, then it's the universe belching.
But today I had a big list and really needed to run to the grocery store and the bank. First thing this morning, a client emails me with 13,000 words to be done by next Wednesday. (For me, this is a tight deadline for that amount of work.)
Coincidence? Dark forces?
I need to start keeping records to see if I can quantify this phenomenon (I don't think I'm imagining things) and twist it to serve my ends. I also need to get to the grocery store.
232 words | July 21, 2005 08:51 PM | Lost in translation