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dchenesThis is one of those days when I feel like I'm running around in circles accomplishing a whole lot of not much, because everything is tied to something else.
I'm working on the shorter article for my case study, because I wanted a break from the longer one for a while. As it happens, the shorter article is denser than the longer one, and has more terminology in it. I'm apparently supposed to have most of the terminology work done already, but I couldn't do that until I got MultiTerm lessons, and now that I've had them, I'm working on the glossary. Every term has at least ten parts: term, definition, context and citations for definition and context in French and English. Multiply that by 45 terms, and this turns into a major project. It'll turn into a major data entry project when I have enough sources for contexts and definitions. Without carrying about 35 lb of books around with me, I can do term, context and context citation in French. The trick is getting MultiTerm to remember all the entries you've put in already; it's got a nasty habit of forgetting to list everything in the alphabet before the term you worked on last. If I'm working on a term that begins with T, nothing that begins with any letter before T will show up until I do a search for it. So I have to keep a separate list, either on paper or in a spreadsheet, of every term I enter, and use that list to keep track of how many of the ten necessary parts of each entry I've already done.
Looking for French context is easy; it comes from the original articles, and since I have those in RTF form, all I have to do is cut and paste. The problem is that while I'm looking for context for one term, I invariably run across another term I have to remember to put in. And if I don't do it right then, I'll forget it. So filling in entries gets mixed up with populating the glossary, which means I have to put the new term in the spreadsheet, which then gets mixed up with looking for terms in the original that I verified in the course of translation, which branches off into hunting through parallel texts for a term I know I ran into somewhere and which I'm going to have to prove is right, which leads me back to looking at my translation to find exactly what I said and going Ye gods, that needs a lot more work, which makes my hair hurt to think about, which causes me to yank my thought process back into MultiTerm again, lather, rinse, repeat.
So the upshot of the afternoon's work is as follows:
- 18 terms with French and English term and French context and citation
- One presentable page of second draft of shorter article
- Four and a half pages of half-done second draft of shorter article
- Random parallel texts with random highlighted terms
On top of that, I'm supposed to be coming up with something like a work breakdown structure for the next project management meeting (after class tomorrow), and I'm supposed to be doing some editing work for my advisor this week, and I haven't even touched the CLD stuff I got on Monday yet. And I still have to get to the post office to mail my taxes, which I've been meaning to do for three weeks now.
I don't want to be this disorganized, dammit. The problem is, there doesn't seem to be anything I can really put off and not think about while I concentrate on getting something else done. It's all there clamoring to be dealt with.
I'm working on the shorter article for my case study, because I wanted a break from the longer one for a while. As it happens, the shorter article is denser than the longer one, and has more terminology in it. I'm apparently supposed to have most of the terminology work done already, but I couldn't do that until I got MultiTerm lessons, and now that I've had them, I'm working on the glossary. Every term has at least ten parts: term, definition, context and citations for definition and context in French and English. Multiply that by 45 terms, and this turns into a major project. It'll turn into a major data entry project when I have enough sources for contexts and definitions. Without carrying about 35 lb of books around with me, I can do term, context and context citation in French. The trick is getting MultiTerm to remember all the entries you've put in already; it's got a nasty habit of forgetting to list everything in the alphabet before the term you worked on last. If I'm working on a term that begins with T, nothing that begins with any letter before T will show up until I do a search for it. So I have to keep a separate list, either on paper or in a spreadsheet, of every term I enter, and use that list to keep track of how many of the ten necessary parts of each entry I've already done.
Looking for French context is easy; it comes from the original articles, and since I have those in RTF form, all I have to do is cut and paste. The problem is that while I'm looking for context for one term, I invariably run across another term I have to remember to put in. And if I don't do it right then, I'll forget it. So filling in entries gets mixed up with populating the glossary, which means I have to put the new term in the spreadsheet, which then gets mixed up with looking for terms in the original that I verified in the course of translation, which branches off into hunting through parallel texts for a term I know I ran into somewhere and which I'm going to have to prove is right, which leads me back to looking at my translation to find exactly what I said and going Ye gods, that needs a lot more work, which makes my hair hurt to think about, which causes me to yank my thought process back into MultiTerm again, lather, rinse, repeat.
So the upshot of the afternoon's work is as follows:
- 18 terms with French and English term and French context and citation
- One presentable page of second draft of shorter article
- Four and a half pages of half-done second draft of shorter article
- Random parallel texts with random highlighted terms
On top of that, I'm supposed to be coming up with something like a work breakdown structure for the next project management meeting (after class tomorrow), and I'm supposed to be doing some editing work for my advisor this week, and I haven't even touched the CLD stuff I got on Monday yet. And I still have to get to the post office to mail my taxes, which I've been meaning to do for three weeks now.
I don't want to be this disorganized, dammit. The problem is, there doesn't seem to be anything I can really put off and not think about while I concentrate on getting something else done. It's all there clamoring to be dealt with.
