Getting things into perspective
I've been feeling a bit bad today. You see, I sent off that translation I did, and almost by return of e-mail, the client pointed out a mistake, that was simply an extra word I had left in. The other client, whom I wrote the bill for, wasn't altogether happy with my work either, and said she had to correct some punctuation errors and small things like that. I can only hope that her corrections are correct, since Swedish isn't her first language, and she obviously has problems with grammar (I know that because I did the proof-reading). So, I got two complaints from clients in two days. There's a saying in my line of work, "No news is good news", because if the translation is excellent, clients often don't notice it. It's only when there are errors, that they give any feedback. I'm ok with getting feedback, even when it's negative, because then I know that someone at least took the trouble to glance at the translation before publishing it. But it makes me feel bad, because I know I can do better, and I was simply in too much of a hurry to get those jobs done, to pay attention to details. I think I'm sometimes overconfident in my chosen work, thinking I do a very good job in the sense that I translate fluently into idiomatic Swedish or Finnish. But sometimes I obviously neglect the details. I'm going to try my hardest after this, and scrutinize every text I translate or proof-read. I can at least try to learn from my mistakes, and not to be put out when they are pointed out to me.
I found Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose online today,
and I read almost all of it. It has no business being online, and I was searching for something else, so it was a surprise to find it. It's an interesting book, written in a style he owns completely, and the contents are humorous and frightening, and sad to the point of heart-breaking. It's hard to see how the bullied boy and lost young man he was ever became the confident and authoritative sort of person he is now. And yet, in another way, it's hard to see how else he could have turned out. If your life sucks for twenty years, you get addicted to almost all illegal substances, and have a hard time finding work and love, I guess you will either fail miserably or really make something of yourself. And if you manage to get clean and sober, and make something of yourself, it can't help but boost your confidence. I don't wonder Craig has a short fuse for people, who think they have all the answers. And I don't wonder, either, that he seems years older than he is. He has crammed about 75 years of experience into the 50 he has lived. His story puts me in mind of Frank McCourt's, who wrote Angela's Ashes, one of my favourite books.
Reading about the troubles people went through, and about how they became stronger in the end, puts gloomy days riddled by self-doubt in some kind of perspective. I don't know about you, but I often have problems with putting things in their proper perspective. It's not so much that I think the world revolves around my little troubles, but I easily get dragged down by the most minute things, and fail to see that there are bigger issues right in front of me, that I ought to deal with. That reminds me of when I discussed Patricia Cornwell's Jack the Ripper - case closed with my therapist. It's not the type of book I usually read, and I only knew the barest facts about the case (prostitutes, Whitechapel, unsolved mystery). To get some background, I googled Jack the Ripper, and found to my astonishment something called "ripperology", which is what the obsession with solving these cases is called. There are people who take this thing very seriously, to the point of meeting and discussing the evidence and theories after all this time. Though I'm something of a history buff myself, I voiced the opinion that ripperologists seem out of their minds. My therapist said that in many cases, people develop a consuming interest in things beyond their power to influence, because they lack the courage to face problems closer to home. I think she may have a point there...
I finished the new pair of socks today, and I haven't started my next project yet. I have to think about what I really need to knit, so I don't end up knitting yet another shawl... See you tomorrow!
I found Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose online today,
and I read almost all of it. It has no business being online, and I was searching for something else, so it was a surprise to find it. It's an interesting book, written in a style he owns completely, and the contents are humorous and frightening, and sad to the point of heart-breaking. It's hard to see how the bullied boy and lost young man he was ever became the confident and authoritative sort of person he is now. And yet, in another way, it's hard to see how else he could have turned out. If your life sucks for twenty years, you get addicted to almost all illegal substances, and have a hard time finding work and love, I guess you will either fail miserably or really make something of yourself. And if you manage to get clean and sober, and make something of yourself, it can't help but boost your confidence. I don't wonder Craig has a short fuse for people, who think they have all the answers. And I don't wonder, either, that he seems years older than he is. He has crammed about 75 years of experience into the 50 he has lived. His story puts me in mind of Frank McCourt's, who wrote Angela's Ashes, one of my favourite books.
Reading about the troubles people went through, and about how they became stronger in the end, puts gloomy days riddled by self-doubt in some kind of perspective. I don't know about you, but I often have problems with putting things in their proper perspective. It's not so much that I think the world revolves around my little troubles, but I easily get dragged down by the most minute things, and fail to see that there are bigger issues right in front of me, that I ought to deal with. That reminds me of when I discussed Patricia Cornwell's Jack the Ripper - case closed with my therapist. It's not the type of book I usually read, and I only knew the barest facts about the case (prostitutes, Whitechapel, unsolved mystery). To get some background, I googled Jack the Ripper, and found to my astonishment something called "ripperology", which is what the obsession with solving these cases is called. There are people who take this thing very seriously, to the point of meeting and discussing the evidence and theories after all this time. Though I'm something of a history buff myself, I voiced the opinion that ripperologists seem out of their minds. My therapist said that in many cases, people develop a consuming interest in things beyond their power to influence, because they lack the courage to face problems closer to home. I think she may have a point there...
I finished the new pair of socks today, and I haven't started my next project yet. I have to think about what I really need to knit, so I don't end up knitting yet another shawl... See you tomorrow!