No Launch Today

We didn’t make it in time.

clicky.

I’ve been buzzing all day, but not in a good way. I really need to go for a power walk in Holyrood Park….

My entries are going to get shorter and shorter till they’re finally down to one word – probably the name of the day

Help! Help! Help!

The UK launch of the website I’ve been translating is tomorrow so I’m buried in wrk!

Last minute stuff everywhere and also the bloody backend has ground to a halt. All programmers have left the building without fixing it! Bloody hell!

No entry today (well, apart from this one). I’m just going to stay up for ages tonight

tomorrow, the Korean woman is moving in

PhD Corrections ‘Progress’

There isn’t much progress at the moment and I really need to get new motivation from somewhere! I have lost the will to do anything. I’d much rather do something else. For example, today was a really nice and sunny day and I would have loved to go out!

It’s definitely, definitely the end of my ‘academic career’ as I’ve known it though. It’s just not fun any more. I’m still going to apply for the MA in Translation though – at least that’s more vocational and will help me finding more translation work.

Today I was also offered another wee job – to proof-read someone’s MA thesis. Great! It’s all about networking and doing a really good job, and then people will just recommend you to others. I like it that way

I won’t be taking on that job yet though – not until I’ve finished my thesis corrections. I’m giving myself another couple of weeks for that, as I’ll need to leave some time towards the end for the printer’s! I’ll be so happy when it’s

finally

all

over.

The World for Free

I consider myself politically left of centre. I was a teen punk grrl and now, in my 30s, have calmed down a lot. A lot! These days, I’m really not overtly political, unless you consider being a strong-headed, bossy, tomboyish, non-feminine WOMAN who knows what she wants political.

My BF sometimes says that I’ve become very conservative since we first started going out (over 5 years ago). I, on the other hand, would like to call it mature rather than conservative – having and embracing certain responsibilties, paying my bills, accumulating some nice things (through hard work) and wanting to protect these things, and respecting certain authoritites.

For me, politics is now primarily relegated to my private life. I don’t go to any demonstrations and I don’t fight for anyone’s rights. Great news, then, that I’ve recently become aware of a number of anti-consumerist ‘movements’ that are very easy to participate in. Anti-capitalism can be fun! We can still work on the world for free, and do good for others and the environment at the same time, while giving capitalism the middle-finger response. No need to carry banners and talk politics till the sun goes down.

I first became aware of Freecycle when a supplement called ‘Free Stuff’ fell out of my cherished favourite paper, teh Guardian, at the beginning of January. Freecycle defines itself as follows:

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns.

All you have to do is join your local Freecycle group on yahoo, and start posting offers (I just got rid of my mountain bike and some Ikea mirrors today) and reply to others’ offers (I already have a great mirror and a Motorola RZR phone, thanks to my BF – he on the other hand has his flat piled full of free stuff, including 3 iMacs, one G3, various TVs, bookshelves, etc.) . Note: you need to be FAST! Have it open on your computer, and F5 occasionally. It works on a first come – first serve basis.

There is plenty of other great stuff in the aforementioned Guardian supplement – it’s probably one of the most useful supplements ever! Here’s a link to its online version, where you can also find out more about Freecycle.

Another good destination for freebies is the freebie section of your local Gumtree. I arranged for a free haircut today, replying to an add from Edinburgh Gumtree’s freebie section. Getting it on Tuesday

Going Home Today (to 8MB)

I’m going home to Edinburgh today. Yay! While I’ve been away, BT have kindly upgraded my DSL to 8MB for free which is great

So great in fact that I’ve mentioned it in my post title…

I’m looking forward to:

• the aforementioned 8MB
• lots of mail, including 2 cheques (money money money!)
• my plants
• my superfast desktop PC with its huge screen
• having hundreds of books around me – they always have a calming influence and their presence alone induces happiness

Before I leave here (we’ll be going to the airport in about 3 hours), I’m going to continue working on the wee translation project that I’ve been doing over the last 2 weeks or so. It’s nearly done. They’ve got their internal launch (just for selected UK media people) on Monday 29th, and their official launch is on the 1st February I think. I’m going to attempt to do as much as possible today so that tomorrow I can take a day off!

Though I may have to spend my ‘day off’ on my thesis revisions

Tomorrow, I’ll be blogging from Edinburgh

Yesterday was Burns Night

oops, I totally forgot about Burns night which was yesterday (25th January). In fact, I’ve never celebrated Burns night since I’ve been in Edinburgh so it’s no surprise that I’ve missed it (again).

In any case, where would I’ve gotten my (vegetarian) haggis from? They sell it in supermarkets in Edinburgh, but I doubt they do the same down here.

Robert Burns was a poet on the scale of Shakespeare, and is one of the most prominent Scottish literary and cultural figures. One of his main contributions is probably that he wrote in the Scottish dialect, thus iterating a distinct Scottish identity.

Here’s one of his poems:

To a Mountain Daisy

 

on turning one down with the plough in April 1786

 

Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow’r,

Thou’s met me in an evil hour;

For I maun crush amang the stoure

Thy slender stem:

To spare thee now is past my pow’r,

Thou bonie gem.

 

Alas! it’s no thy neebor sweet,

The bonie lark, companion meet!

Bending thee ‘mang the dewy weet!

Wi’ spreckl’d breast,

When upward-springing, blythe, to greet

The purpling east.

 

Cauld blew the bitter-biting north

Upon thy early, humble birth;

Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth

Amid the storm,

Scarce rear’d above the Parent-earth

Thy tender form.

 

The flaunting flow’rs our gardens yield,

High shelt’ring woods and wa’s maun shield;

But thou, beneath the random bield

O’ clod or stane,

Adorns the histie stibble-field,

Unseen, alane.

 

There, in thy scanty mantle clad,

Thy snawie bosom sun-ward spread,

Thou lifts thy unassuming head

In humble guise;

But now the share uptears thy bed,

And low thou lies!

 

Such is the fate of artless Maid,

Sweet flow’ret of the rural shade!

By love’s simplicity betray’d,

And guileless trust;

Till she, like thee, all soil’d, is laid

Low i’ the dust.

 

Such is the fate of simple Bard,

On life’s rough ocean luckless starr’d!

Unskilful he to note the card

Of prudent lore,

Till billows rage, and gales blow hard,

And whelm him o’er’.

 

Such fate to suffering worth is giv’n,

Who long with wants and woes has striv’n,

By human pride or cunning driv’n,

To mis’rys brink,

Till, wrench’d of ev’ry stay but Heav’n,

He, ruin’d, sink!

 

Ev’n thou, who mourn’st the Daisy’s fate,

That fate is thine — no distant date;

Stern Ruin’s plough-share drives, elate,

Full on thy bloom,

Till crush’d beneath the furrow’s weight,

Shall be thy doom!

dict.cc is Your Friend…

… if you’re doing German/English translations. Today I finally created a user account for dict.cc, so I can start contributing something rather than just l33ching as I do

It works a bit like Wikipedia in that its content is user-generated and thus, its accuracy etc. relies on a pool of friendly and clever volunteers who are happy to submit translations and also help verify others’ translations. Just now, dict.cc’s input mode is limited, since there are too many unverified translations (around 2500 I think):

Limited Input Mode

More than 2000 translations are waiting for verification. This means you can only add a new translation if you log in and review another one first. The input form will only work from within the Contribute! section.

As a consequence, I’ve joined and started verifying some of the translations. It’s good to give something back . Nowhere near getting to the cut-off point of 2000 though…

Homesick for Scotland

I’m homesick for Scotland. I know it’s going to be fucking cold, and my car probably won’t start, and my flat is going to be lonely without my BF.

Nevertheless.

Whenever I go out, the feeling gets stronger. I’ve been coping by simply not leaving the flat – or as I put it in an email to someone the other day:

London sux but I simply never leave the flat so I wouldn’t knwo where I am, apart from the constant police sirens, shouting/shooting, gang warfare, helicopters, and fucking ‘London today’ instead of ‘Scotland today’ (TV news).

That’s it in a nutshell. I’m going home on Saturday though

Unless…

• the weather gets so bad that my flight is cancelled

• Edinburgh airport has another security alert

Hopefully neither of the above will happen. I’m looking forward to the familiar lilt of the Scottish accent, and to seeing my friends. To put it with Shakespeare: All’s Well that Ends Well

/me makes plans to get a big fat thistle tattoo

Why is no one online 24/7?

I’m online from first thing in the morning to last thing at night. I sometimes wonder why most of my IM/Skype contacts (bar one) seem to follow regular office hours. Well, the answer is obvious: they work in an office and don’t go back online once they get home!

Only I don’t. I work from home, which means that there’s no clear separation between ‘home’ (private) and ‘work’ (public). It’s a right mishmash and just at the moment, I probably work approx. 10-12 hours each day. My day is structured as follows:

• 09.30AM: Get up, turn lappy on
• 09.30AM-10AM: check emails, blogs, drink first of many cups of tea
• 10AM – 6PM: work
• 6PM-7PM: break
• 8PM-11PM: work

I don’t mind it that way though I’m kind of vegging a bit as I have the TV on in the background, as background noise. I know I shouldn’t, and TV commericals down here in London are far more paranoia-inducing than in Scotland (there are plenty more ‘benefit fraud’ ads on the TV and huge billboards all over London, alongside plenty of commercials and billboards warning of theft e.g. asking us not to flash our mobiles and gadgets). It truly is a bad place to live. I don’t mind while I’m safely in the flat though

Anyway, it would be great if there were some more people online 24/7. Not so I can chat to them – I don’t really chat that much – but simply to see some other people on continually, teleworking away.

WordPress Problems: Comment Spam

I’ve been getting a lot of comment spam in the last 2-3 days, from this IP:

89.149.195.16

I’d already changed my settings ages ago, selecting that a comment author must have a previously approved comment. The result was that spam comments don’t actually appear live but instead arrive in my moderation queue.
–

However, it’s still annoying to receive 20-30 spam comments each day in my gmail inbox which I then have to delete. Does anyone know how to deal with this? Ideally, I’d like to block the above IP from posting comments completely. I’ve now blacklisted the IP (see screenshot below). If anyone has any other ideas as to how to deal with this increasingly annoying comment spam, let me know!

Evil programmers: Any tips as to how to scare off the above IP?

Screengrab 1: Spammy moderation queue:

Screengrab 2: Blacklist