Total Eclipse of the Sun April 9, 2024
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.add a comment
I got to enjoy totality in my own front yard yesterday! I live just to the right of the dot indicating Cleveland (about 10-15 minutes from downtown Cleveland). It was awesome! It was my fourth eclipse I’ve experienced, but it was extra special just walking down my front steps and sitting on the lawn chatting with my neighbors. If you want to hear a little bit about my past experiences in Salzburg, Reykjavik and Charleston, I was interviewed by the local morning news a couple of weeks ago. Click here to watch on YouTube.
Workaround for Trados? February 17, 2024
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Tech tips.add a comment
There’s nothing like working for hours on a file in Trados and going to save it as Target – only to get an error message saying “<ErrorMessage>Failed to save target content: Extra tag ‘<bookmarkstart id=”91″ name=”lt_pId098″>’ found after segment ‘869’.</ErrorMessage>” and being unable to save the file. I’m aligning files for a client (beggars can’t be choosers – you do what you have to do to pay the rent) and running them through Trados to identify the new text. I’m sure there is a better way, but I use what I have. It was 4 in the morning, and I was panicking. A little Googling found a Trados forum that gave me a couple of ideas. I updated the translation memories with the file I had (German and all – the heck with the continuity of the TM, I’ll just trash it later) and pretranslated the source file again. It still wouldn’t save. I ran it through again, same problem. At this point I was panicking. Then I got the bright idea to save the file as an RTF and run it through. It worked like a charm because it stripped out the end client’s corrupted tag and formatting that was causing the problem. I let the middleman who is doing the updated translation know. It’s up to him whether to use the RTF file or copy and paste over the original source. So the problem is solved on my end after hours of stress and frustration. I’m putting this out there to see if one of you has a better solution in case someone else runs into this error message. Surely there is a more elegant solution. If you have one, please share it in the comments for future readers. Thanks!
Relief from that feeling of panic… December 27, 2023
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings, Tech tips.add a comment
You know the feeling… when you’ve spent a few hours working on a file and you have been saving the file, but you try to open it before delivering and can’t find it anywhere? Well, that happened to me today. I am a pretty savvy computer user. I have a document system that works for me (even though it has gotten a little out of control in the last few years). Unfortunately, I pulled an all-nighter last night to deliver the first file to my client, and my brain isn’t working as effectively as normal today on just 5 hours of sleep (I went to bed at 7:30 a.m.). When I opened Word to check my latest file before delivering it, it was nowhere to be found. I couldn’t find the file in the Most Recent list and a search of my hard drive came up empty. I knew it had to be there (or at least a .tmp file), because I am fanatical about saving my files as I work. I had even used “Save as” and added an addendum to the filename. Queue the panic.
Luckily I have a friend and colleague who I can call up out of the blue in a panic. I knew he would be able to find it for me and find it quickly! And he did. He used his remote computer support tool to open Total Commander and locate the file since I had worked on it within the last hour. He was able to copy the temp file into my designated Documents folder. It turns out I was saving the file back into the Zip file instead of in the folder where I have all of the unzipped files saved.
I know we have all experienced this at least once in our careers. If this happens to you, I cannot recommend the services of Roland Grefer enough! You can reach him at http://www.globalsupportinc.com/. He offers computer support and troubleshooting, Internet security, virus assistance as well as system installation and configuration. He’s also one of our own and is a English <=> German Translator. He is also an excellent editor and proofreader with an eagle eye who does his research to back his suggestions up. So if you are faced with a computer problem you can’t solve, save yourself the grief and reach out to him. He’ll save your bacon quickly and efficiently!
Buddies and Newbies October 11, 2023
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in ATA, Random musings.add a comment
The ATA conference (ATA64) is in a couple weeks, from October 25-28, 2023, in Miami, Florida. I keep getting emails advertising various events, even though I’m not attending this year. Today’s email was all about Networking, and one of the events is Buddies and Newbies. I used to offer a session on tips for first-time attendees every year, which got replaced by Buddies and Newbies. It really is a great opportunity for first-time attendees to pair up with a seasoned conference attendee and get some tips and meet some people so they aren’t overwhelmed walking into the Welcome Event. Newbies and Buddies go to one session and one meal together so that Newbies can ask questions and Buddies can offer personalized advice. Newbies receive extra support as they navigate the sessions and events, while Buddies are rewarded knowing they made someone feel welcome at their first conference. Who knows, you might even make a life-long friend like I did. I attended my newbie’s wedding in Minneapolis two weekends ago. I met Joe 10 years ago at ATA54 in San Antonio, and we became fast friends. He was one of my lifelines during the pandemic, playing online games and attending my virtual cocktail hours. So if you are attending the conference for the first time—or even the 11th time—be sure to attend the Buddies and Newbies event right before the Welcome Event. You never know who you might meet.
Musings from an Underemployed Translator July 29, 2023
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Uncategorized.3 comments
I’m thinking about renaming this blog Musings from an Underemployed Translator. Machine translation, artificial intelligence, and T&I industry mergers and acquisitions have left me with no work. The rose-colored predictions forecasted highly specialized translators would not be affected, but I am not the only translator at the top of my specialization who has noticed a huge drop in work. Two experts who have actually written dictionaries in their field are also reporting an alarming drop in work. Can it be blamed entirely on MT and AI? Has COVID played a role – or the weak German economy? It’s hard to say. But the fact remains that I am revising my resume and looking for work. I will not be attending the ATA conference this year, because I haven’t had any income in three months.
I have been fighting this for as long as I can. I have marketed my butt off for several years. I started pushing my specialization (medical translation). I thought medical would be a good choice because of data privacy and HIPAA. Turns out many clients don’t care. I started a “second job” as a Zoom producer, but there aren’t a lot of classes offered in the summer months. I picked up a new skill this year when I attended a two-week course to learn old German script at the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in June. I can now read and transcribe the fancy Kurrent and Gothic writing from the 1700s and 1800s. The course was a blast, and I went from not even knowing if the document I brought with me was written in German to being able to sight read it toward the end of the second week. And I transcribed 44 lines of text in 45 minutes with only a few mistakes for our “final.” I sent out an email to my clients informing them of my new skill and got a one-off, 1-page job from one of them. But then, once again, crickets…
The fact remains that I need to earn money to pay rent and bills and buy food for my cat and me. If you are or know of an agency or direct client who could use my services, please send me an email. If you have ever learned or benefited from this blog, feel free to Buy Me a Coffee as a thank you. In the meantime, I will continue to look for a job and if it isn’t in the T&I industry, this blog will go away. It’s been a good run!
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday May 4, 2022
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.1 comment so far
Sign language interpreters and Gov. Mike DeWine April 30, 2020
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, Random musings.3 comments
My state’s governor, Mike DeWine, has been doing a stellar job governing Ohio during the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn’t vote for him. His politics are not my politics. But I and many others are very impressed with the work he is doing and how decisive he has been. He relies on his Director of Health for the Ohio Department of Health, Dr. Amy Acton, when making his decisions. It’s so nice to have science-based decisions being made. Their daily afternoon briefings have become must-see television with many Ohioans (creating “Wine with DeWine” at 2 p.m.). One of my friend’s brothers has made a cartoon about “DeWine and Amy” that has gone viral and is a total hoot to watch.
Governor DeWine was one of the first governors to issue strict stay at home/shelter in place orders and quickly shut down all non-essential businesses. When criticized by his fellow Republicans he has continued to stay the course. As a result, Ohio has had a much flatter curve, with 17,000 confirmed cases and almost 1,000 deaths. He has allowed restaurants to operate with take-out services and then–just as I was missing having a drink with dinner–he announced restaurants could sell cocktails in to go containers. The peak appears to have been on April 27th, and the infection rate has been declining. A tentative reopening date has been set for tomorrow, although masks are a must and we are being urged to stay home if we can.
He surrounds himself with good, qualified people. He has a great team of sign language interpreters during his briefings, and he has a history of relying on trained interpreters. One interpreter, Marla Berkowitz, is the the only certified deaf interpreter in Ohio and has had a location front and center during the briefings. She has even stood out enough to have articles written about her. I assume she does some lip reading, but there is also someone signing to her, which she interprets and relays back in a very easy to understand and logical ASL and emotive facial expressions.
A little holiday spirit December 16, 2018
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.add a comment
I just had to share this little story with you all. One of my best friends from high school is in Thailand to teach English at an orphanage for a month. She bought a large suitcase and organized a toy drive among her friends on Facebook. Lots of stuffed animals and games, and someone even bought the parachute game we used to play in grade school. She is on her way there today and had this status update this morning:
To paraphrase a common quote in English, “Be the good you want to see in the world!” Have a good week.
Musings from an overworked translator 