FennoTrans

2011 in brief

fennotrans — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:38:36 +0000

Since January, I have taken a photo per week (except in July-August) from my window using a webcam. Then I combined these to a time lapse video that shows the changing seasons.

I like time lapse videos, because they allow you to see changes you don’t normally notice as they take weeks and months.

Vacation / Kesäloma

fennotrans — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:36:37 +0000

I will be on vacation from August 1st to 28th. / Olen kesälomalla 1.-28. elokuuta.

Birds

fennotrans — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:14:09 +0000

At this time of the year, I like to go cycling in the mornings, if the weather is nice. As I can get out of the town easily, when going north, I get to see a lot of wildlife during my rides. That is why I always keep a camera with me.

Yesterday, I managed to get a proper look at a crane:

Often my route goes past farmhouses and many of those have cats. That is how I came across this:

I knew magpies are not fond of cats, but I had not seen one get this close to a cat before.

How not to behave

fennotrans — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:48:17 +0000

After an exceptionally cold winter, the second in a row, it is finally starting to get sunnier and warmer.

Then, to the actual subject of this post. As it has gone viral by now, I’m sure many have encountered the book review the author did not take kindly to. I am not an actual writer, but translators also need to get used to criticism for the way we write. We don’t get criticized for the content, which is the source text author’s responsibility, but for grammar, accuracy, using proper style and so on. The correct response for somebody pointing out your mistakes is not an expletive (except maybe privately aimed at yourself), but checking if the criticism is valid, correcting your mistakes, and avoiding them in the future.

Many translators remain anonymous to all but the client. Users do not care who translated a manual for a certain machine, all they want is the information they need in a form they can understand. This anonymity could easily make you think that you can take shortcuts, because “nobody is going to know it was me,” but that is a slippery slope. You are going to know and although compromises are sometimes necessary as perfection belongs to the artistic realm, you should always strive to do the best you can within the premises of the given project.

Merry Christmas! / Hyvää joulua!

fennotrans — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:47:30 +0000

One of my hobbies is making miniatures. The doll in the photo is a resin BJD doll wearing a men’s folk costume of Southern Osthrobotnia (the region of Finland where I now live), which I have made myself.

I wish everybody happy holiday season, whatever the holiday is you are celebrating at this time of the year. If nothing else, here in the Northern Hemisphere just the fact that days will be getting longer again is worth celebrating.