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CommentAuthorreosarevok
- CommentTimeOct 21st 2010
@razrangel
I've translated RPG books and AAA videogames, English -> Spanish, and I still don't have a degree. So you don't actually *need* any kind of certification. On the other hand, a lot of in-house full time jobs, as taphead said, require a degree. Not necessarily a degree in translation, mind you, most seem to be OK with ANY degree and some translation experience. I've done some Spanish -> English too, but I'm not really comfortable working into a language which is not my mother tongue, even if I am quite fluent in it.
@taphead
Do you work only into Finnish, or do you go both ways?
That small-scale diet seems quite similar to what I am / should be doing. Except because I haven't left the house in 4 days, which amounts to little walking... -
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@reosarevok - Mostly into Finnish, but I have on occasion swung the other way, too. I started in software localization and slowly migrated to my current field. It's nice work, if you can get it.
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- CommentAuthorlemmycaution
- CommentTimeOct 21st 2010
I guess this is the spirit of the thread but if not sorry.
I traded in my massive brick of an ipod in for a seemingly teeny 2 gig off brand. I enjoy a lot more new music now. I found myself spending more time flipping through the ipod on shuffle than listening to music "no don;t want to hear that now" or "don;t know what that is, I need proper walking music now" and skipping around. Now before I go to bed I make a playlist and force myself to listen to it, and only it the next day. Now when I get a new album I actually listen instead of losing it in the weeds of eternal ipod storage. I don;t skip around so much knowing i have programmed almost exactly the amount of music i will be listening to in that day. -
@J0nCarp3nter - that's exactly the sort of thing I need to pull off.
@taphead & @reosarevok Very intresting to learn. I go back & forth with Spanish and English, but only really started anything that is truly translation work. I guess any career path for me is going to require freelancing, likely long term. Ugh. I'm not crazy about it, but I'm not suited to much that's corporate-ish. I'd love to work on RPG books and games. heh. }:>
Didn't pull off the hacks today. Establishing a routine seems to be something that profoundly eludes me. However little things can become habitual if I don't think about them. Hence, lifehack. Because it almost feel like I have to trick myself into improving. -
My best tip for escaping a funk of this sort is to appreciate partial victories. Maybe the worst enemy of productive achievement is the temptation to "write off" an effort, a timeslot, or a day, if it encounters serious difficulties early on. For example, if you wake up super late in the day and by the time you get ready to go it's already normal people's bedtimes, it's tempting to think, "well today was a write-off, I'll try again tomorrow". This in itself will become the 'routine' that eludes you. The 'trick' is to take whatever time you've got to do whatever you can (physically/given the time/given your state of mind). I trick myself by saying things like, "Well I'll at least empty the dishwasher — that takes just a couple of minutes", or "I'll just turn on my computer and take a look at what I have so far in that paper I have to write". Next thing I know, I've written a page or two. Small victories add up. If you can try to do just one unit of x task, it is a) better than nothing and b) maybe enough momentum to do two or three or more units of x task — which feels really good.
I'm really enjoying this thread, by the way. -
I had a lot of trouble sleeping until I started going for a walk every day. Getting some real exercise really helps level out your energy. And now I work so early in the morning I have to get up before dawn. And by 'now' I mean 'for the last year and a half'. So, ta-dah! Being asleep when it's light out feels SUPER unnatural. Seriously, I can stay up til 3 and I still pop up, wide awake, at dawn. Good times.
Also, I never once expected that at ANY point in my life I would want to buy a kitchen timer. Damn you people. -
I have over the past week (with a little inspiration from this thread) cut back dramatically on the amount of coffee I'm drinking at the office - from my morning espresso + 4 big mugs of purest black throughout the day, to just my morning espresso.
I'm trying to drink water instead during the work day. It has definitely helped me stay focussed on tasks.
Also, my girlfriend recently had the fortune to be granted an allotment from the local council, and spending a few hours at weekends digging/planting/weeding etc has been a great way to spend time, get fresh air and exercise with her. Being able to have a shared project like this is a bit of a first because while she spends a great deal of time at home due to health issues, I work long hours so am usually too shattered in the evenings to be up for a lot of activities beyond vegging on the sofa (possibly watching the films of John Landis, or streams of old wrestling...).
ETA: @Elana - as an inveterate 'writer offer of days' of old, I concur with your method of celebrating even the smallest victory. It was only doing this that I managed to get out of a funk myself, when the best achievement I could manage most days was avoiding smoking before midday. -
I have spent the last couple of years learning not to fret or feel guilty about "wasting time" when it's my day off.
For me, this requires concrete actions: when I wake up having slept until the afternoon, or when I spend hours reading, drinking tea or aimlessly surfing the net, and the guilt starts to creep in, I tell myself -aloud if necessary- to STOP IT. Sometimes I even slap myself.
It is a way of staying conscious of the maxim that spending your unscheduled time trying to turn it into a copy of your working life constitutes "wasting time", not the other way around.
It does not make me "more effective", but it does make my existence more enjoyable.
This does not come to me easily, hence the use of the inner authority.
Sounds like hippie crap, I know. Works for me, though.
edited for spelling -
@Mono
Jeez, I thought I was the only person who did that...it's not the weekends that bother me - perhaps 'cos these aren't ordinary working days for me - but if I take a day of leave from work, boy do I feel guilty about schlepping about the house. -
- CommentAuthorsacredchao
- CommentTimeOct 24th 2010 edited
My therapist keeps telling me to set goals every day as to what I'm going to get done, because people who do so tend to get more done that they want to get done. One of these days, I'll try that. -
@sacredchao I love to do lists for that reason. I'll throw on anything from an outline of a big project to simple things like "make lunch" or "go to bank". This way I can visually see what needs to be done by when & I can feel accomplished if I just do the smallest, least time-consuming tasks.
Also, sometimes when I'm writing out the list, I realize that it'd take just as long to write it down as it would be to accomplish the task and I get right on it.
I have both a pad of paper I keep next to my computer & an on-going list on a whiteboard on my wall, so I don't forget the long-term stuff. -
Borrowing an idea from work, I give my to-do list to my employer: I prepare the list, keep it up to date: add to it, remove things from it. An email at the end of each day is like, "Today I did this, that, and the other. My to-do list is now etc."
It can be nice to get a "Yeah, good work!" from someone else - if you have anyone [else], to share your to-do list/progress/accomplishments with. -
- CommentAuthorBettyBoolean
- CommentTimeOct 24th 2010
I'm having a time out until I can learn some manners.I completed the first page of pencils on something I have been thinking about for years!(literally years) yay me! now its in the computer and being inked and coloured. Never thought I would ever do it coz i think everything i do is crap and so on . . . so I'm very pleased. Now about another page . . . LOL! -
- CommentAuthorsacredchao
- CommentTimeOct 24th 2010
@glukkake - there's a definite feeling of accomplishment when you scratch something off a list as well. -
- CommentAuthorVerissimus
- CommentTimeOct 24th 2010 edited
Tell me about the little things you've done to improve yourselves. Whether it's to make your brainmeats go faster, cleverer, creativer... uh, more creatively, or just more knowledgeable. How have you gone about it? Have you changed your body around? anywhere from better fitness to grinding, what have you intentionally done to facilitate change?
I've been fighting myself to quit wasting my days for months if not a couple of years now. Without going into details (the details: NEET, a handy if embarrassing term), I don't need to get up in the morning and so most days go to bed around 4 or 5am (right about the time Warren is insulting Twitter by way of saying good morning) and rise around noon or one pm. I have an alarm - two actually - and often turn them off and crawl right back into bed without really waking up. Because that's my sleep pattern I can't fall asleep at a normal hour.
It feels like such a minor change, but losing the morning heavily impacts everything else, from sending out prompt emails to recruiters to studying for my Japanese class (the only thing I can proudly point to as Improvement) to exercising to eating reasonably. How do you get little things on track? It's the little things, after all, that require the most major habitual changes.
Well, you say you don't need a reason for getting up early, but since you're studying for Japanese class, it seems that managing to get up early would be beneficial. So I really think changing the sleep pattern would be the first step.
I know it can be quite difficult to break the habit of going to bed late. Is there any way that you can force yourself to get up early, even after a very short night? Like making appointments with people at 9 AM? That usually helps me, making sure I have very specific tasks that I need to do in the morning and that can't wait until the afternoon.
Once you have forced yourself to get up early a couple of times you may find that you're quite tired by the time night comes around, so that you may be able to go to sleep at a more "normal" time. Also getting some exercise during the day, and going easy on the caffeine at night, may make it easier to go to sleep.
Once you manage that it may be easier to fit more stuff into your daily schedule. -
I'm trying out the Pomodoro technique mentioned upthread...kinda cool so far but still an issue when I'm sitting in front of the Master Distraction Box that is the modern computer.
Also...
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About exercise: as many people, I've tried going to the gym and always ended up letting it go at one point - I was having a hard time making it a regular choice. I've tried shovelglove, which is basically a workout with a sledgehammer that you do for 14 minutes a day, from monday to friday. The 14 minutes was chosen as it does not exist as an administrative time frame, so you officially don't have excuses not to do it.
Obviously, it won't help with the cardio, and it won't turn you into a super muscular thing, which is not the point anyway. I did muscle up and I feel that my basic level of fitness has improved.
And by middle November I'll have been doing it for a full year, which is a length of time that I never achieved with gym training. I'm not as fit as I would be if I was going to the gym, but at least I'm still keeping it going, which is very good.
Edited to add: Plus you get to swing a sledgehammer everyday, which is fun, and you build up your head crunching skills in case of a Zombie apocalypse. -
I take the stairs two at a time and deliberately pack more into my backpack than I need. Thus, the walk to/from the busstop and uni gives me enough exercise that I'm not feeling like a blob.
Also, I switched from coffee to green tea. Now I'm not jittery and agitated, and I don't run the risk of caffiene overdose- (been there, done that, was not my favourite feeling). -
1. Ditching all former friends from certain regrettable time period that reminded me of certain time period. No goodbyes, no explanations, just cutting them off and not replying to anything.
I really had to do this. They were that kind of group where everyone was sleeping with everyone else and there was drama everywhere and in the two years I had known them they hadn't changed or grew as people the whole time...I needed out. And I'm happier for it. I also suggest getting rid of people who you only follow on let's say, facebook, because their life is like a horrible soap opera that you can't stop watching. You don't need those people in your life.
2. If I have to be somewhere and am not constrained by time, I walk!
limited to things within the city where I start in the city (and not my hour-long train ride). This one simple thing really helped me shed some pounds and get to know my city a lot better.
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@Oldhat: I know that feeling. I'm not ready to ditch my social circle but the drama's that have come out in the past few months have made me really rethink how and who I communicate with which I mentioned in my original post.
Its not that I mind the happy-share-love thing. But I've been made acutely aware that everyone fucking everyone means no damned privacy for those of us who aren't. Most pissed.
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