Help Me to Help You

A number of years ago, I built a house. Well, to be specific, I didn’t build the house. I had a house built for me. One of the important choices I had to make was the selection of who was going to do the work. The sheer number of different tradespeople you need...

Zen and the Art of Review Comments

Ahhh review comments. Every writer and translator knows the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat when it comes to receiving them. It’s been a while since I had to do anything but provide review comments, and I have to say that I haven’t particularly...

If Books are Going Away, Why Do I Keep Buying Them?

Today, Seth Godin’s daily blog post (which I love by the way) is called “An end of books.” Seth talks about how printed books are doomed and the entire ecosystem that surrounds them is doomed, too. For example, the bookstore is a goner because they...

Grammatical Diversity in North American English

Ever notice how different regions of the United States have their own, unique dialects? In her July 29th post, Arika Okrent of Mental Floss describes three of them: Appalachian “a-prefixing” Southern American English “liketa” African-American...

Terminology is Like Laundry

I get a great feeling of satisfaction when all of my laundry is done. The clothes are washed, pressed, folded, and put away. Of course, things are put away in my uber-organized, structured closet. It’s that feeling of being done with a task – sometimes a...

We’re All Bilingual Now

In his most recent Good Morning Geek post called Internet-Speak, Max Swisher discusses “…a new problem for modern people: We must all be bilingual and use the appropriate language depending on context. Teens in school must know how to talk online in...