solitary_summer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
solitary_summer) wrote2012-10-07 09:09 pm
solitary_summer) wrote2012-10-07 09:09 pm
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I didn't actually mean to disappear for another two months, but life has been... Hard to say, really. Partly busy, partly depressing, and partly just going through it day after day and just not feeling that any of it is particularly worth writing about.
(Or worth living, actually.)
I had a two week holiday in September that I'd been very much looking forward to, but promptly picked up some kind of stomach bug, spent one day sitting on & hanging over the toilet, two days not eating anything at all, and much of the first week recovering, because a 2-3 hrs. walk left me more exhausted than a 9 hrs. hike usually does. On the first hiking tour up the Schafsberg that I attempted at the beginning of the second week I was still fighting my body every step of the way for the last 300-400 meters in altitude. (Although it needs to be said there was also a very nice part at the end of it with a boat trip on the Wolfgangsee...) Cue a bout of depression and a lot of hysterical crying on the phone with my mother.
I was very close to just saying fuck it all, job and everything, and not come back too, but in the end I'm just too conscientious for that kind of thing.
The best news is probably that I got two (actually paid, I should perhaps add) Russian to German translation jobs from my last Russian teacher who left for a job in Germany in June. The first one was in August (part of a text about the history of the post-WW2 agricultural system in Belorussia) and the second one I've just finished and am still rather exhausted and braindead from because it took up almost all my evenings until 1 or 2 am over the last couple of weeks, 18 pages about the Russian ode and Pushkin's poem about the monument of Peter I in Petersburg, full of academic jargon, overly poetic language and extremely flowery metaphors, at least some of which I'd probably have advised the author to cut or at least tone down, if I'd been in personal contact with her, because IMO they're simply not really appropriate in the context of an academic text.
(Oddly enough it also felt very much like coming home. It was fascinating to discover how many of those stock phrases you use in papers were still stashed away in some corner of my brain without me really being aware of it. And if I'm being honest, the overly poetic language was half the fun, actually.)
It still feels horribly pretentious to actually make money with my far from perfect Russian skills, but apparently the author was extremely pleased with the translation, so...
Still not really searching for an actual new job, though, lazy slob that I am.
Watched Merlin 5.1 today, which I guess objectively speaking was nice and stylish and whatnot, and I did enjoy Gwen finally getting to do something and really be queen (as everyone already said, if she'd been in charge last season, the plot with the evil uncle would have been resolved a lot sooner...), but in the end I think it's simply been too long. The charm is gone. Either the show has changed too much or I have changed too much in that time, but after what feels like too many season of too much character non-development and too many meh episodes, and especially in the last season way to much lying and manipulation on Merlin's side for my taste, I just don't have any enthusiasm left. I'm not going to quit now, because I've stuck around for so long already, but the only thing I'm interested in any longer is to see how the long overdue reveal of Merlin's magic will play out. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised, though.
Also watched the first episode of Elementary, but while I actually made it through the whole of it, which is more than I can say for Sherlock where the title character annoyed me so much so quickly that I turned it off again after ten minutes or so, and kind of do like the characters, whodunits don't really hold my interest enough to really follow a show...
I miss having a show I can actually feel fanish about.
A few uninspired pictures from the two of the three hiking tours I actually managed during my holiday. During the second week it rained nonstop for two days, after which it looked like this higher up: (The lake is at 1154 m.)
(Or worth living, actually.)
I had a two week holiday in September that I'd been very much looking forward to, but promptly picked up some kind of stomach bug, spent one day sitting on & hanging over the toilet, two days not eating anything at all, and much of the first week recovering, because a 2-3 hrs. walk left me more exhausted than a 9 hrs. hike usually does. On the first hiking tour up the Schafsberg that I attempted at the beginning of the second week I was still fighting my body every step of the way for the last 300-400 meters in altitude. (Although it needs to be said there was also a very nice part at the end of it with a boat trip on the Wolfgangsee...) Cue a bout of depression and a lot of hysterical crying on the phone with my mother.
I was very close to just saying fuck it all, job and everything, and not come back too, but in the end I'm just too conscientious for that kind of thing.
The best news is probably that I got two (actually paid, I should perhaps add) Russian to German translation jobs from my last Russian teacher who left for a job in Germany in June. The first one was in August (part of a text about the history of the post-WW2 agricultural system in Belorussia) and the second one I've just finished and am still rather exhausted and braindead from because it took up almost all my evenings until 1 or 2 am over the last couple of weeks, 18 pages about the Russian ode and Pushkin's poem about the monument of Peter I in Petersburg, full of academic jargon, overly poetic language and extremely flowery metaphors, at least some of which I'd probably have advised the author to cut or at least tone down, if I'd been in personal contact with her, because IMO they're simply not really appropriate in the context of an academic text.
(Oddly enough it also felt very much like coming home. It was fascinating to discover how many of those stock phrases you use in papers were still stashed away in some corner of my brain without me really being aware of it. And if I'm being honest, the overly poetic language was half the fun, actually.)
It still feels horribly pretentious to actually make money with my far from perfect Russian skills, but apparently the author was extremely pleased with the translation, so...
Still not really searching for an actual new job, though, lazy slob that I am.
~*~*~
Watched Merlin 5.1 today, which I guess objectively speaking was nice and stylish and whatnot, and I did enjoy Gwen finally getting to do something and really be queen (as everyone already said, if she'd been in charge last season, the plot with the evil uncle would have been resolved a lot sooner...), but in the end I think it's simply been too long. The charm is gone. Either the show has changed too much or I have changed too much in that time, but after what feels like too many season of too much character non-development and too many meh episodes, and especially in the last season way to much lying and manipulation on Merlin's side for my taste, I just don't have any enthusiasm left. I'm not going to quit now, because I've stuck around for so long already, but the only thing I'm interested in any longer is to see how the long overdue reveal of Merlin's magic will play out. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised, though.
Also watched the first episode of Elementary, but while I actually made it through the whole of it, which is more than I can say for Sherlock where the title character annoyed me so much so quickly that I turned it off again after ten minutes or so, and kind of do like the characters, whodunits don't really hold my interest enough to really follow a show...
I miss having a show I can actually feel fanish about.
~*~*~
A few uninspired pictures from the two of the three hiking tours I actually managed during my holiday. During the second week it rained nonstop for two days, after which it looked like this higher up: (The lake is at 1154 m.)
This was a couple of days later with most of the snow already gone; near Hallstatt, up the Sarstein from Obertraun, then down to Steeg/Au and back with the train. A gorgeous day, although a bit crowded since it was a Sunday...
