Run!

I completely forgot that I'd signed up to do a charity 3.5k run (after being assured that not only could I walk it, I would probably have to as there were so many people involved). And forgot when it was, so was worried it was this Friday or weekend, when I will not be here. Unhelpfully, the reminders in work were vague in a 'less than 2 weeks to go!' way but not actually giving a date. The internet informs me that it's Wednesday, so I will trundle along with loads of others from work and go to a huge BBQ afterwards. Should be fun.

Finally finished translating feminism nationalism over the weekend. Now I just have to check what I've done (especially the last section) and try to make it into acceptable English. It's hard when I'm not sure what some of the passages are trying to say, or when I don't understand the theory behind them. But such are uni assignments, particularly when you're trying to do something vaguely advanced in a field you know little about.

Amusing factoid I found today - there is a Black Day in South Korea. Nothing racial, I stumbled upon it while looking up Baumkuchen (legitimate work-related search!), which led me to White Day, which led me to Black Day. Seen my past failure at baking pretty much anything, I am in no hurry to try a traditional Baumkuchen...

Other than that, all getting a bit existential, in a what-am-I-doing way. Some colleagues have the chance to work closely with their teams or project managers, or actually translate, and so show what they can do, which I am quite envious of (the chance rather than the people). What I'm working on at the moment is checking US English text for anything unacceptable and/or incomprehensible in UK English, which while worthy in its own way is quite boring and simple work. I'm not stretching myself in any way, there isn't much to make an impression (let alone impress) with and although the pay is excellent the work itself isn't getting me anywhere.

My self-motivation is slipping (has slipped?) and without it there's not much to keep me going. While I feel I learned the hard way that trying hard for a lost cause (aka flogging a dead horse?) just ends up driving me crazy, I'm afraid of becoming sloppy and missing a chance if it does present itself, or simply messing up at some point.

And while saying all that, I have to laugh - it's nothing that hasn't happened to pretty much everyone else, including me, and the answer is the same as it's always been. Somehow, bootstrapping.