Back from the grave

Well, I've been silent for so long that some might think I gave up on this blog. Those phantom people who actually read it :)

Anyway, the reason for the long silence is that I was really busy. I started my PhD in the University of Nebraska and was plowing through literature on the subject of my research. In the meanwhile I also did some translations.

I have to say that this period was rather satisfying. I had perfect freedom to look for anything I thought relevant, think on the subject of the project and write my thoughts down. I also had the chance to see what it takes to publish a scientific paper. On this front, I have to say, the picture isn't too pretty. Apart from several papers (out of about 60 I went through) most of the papers were somewhat superficial and left plenty of open questions. All the better for me to answer them :)

I also talked to my professor and though he narrowed the field for me somewhat, I still have a lot of latitude. I think the next years are going to be fun :)

Anyway, apart from that, our lives are going and advancing. My wife goes to conferences with the regularity of approximately once a month. The weather isn't much better than in Israel at this time of year, but could be worse.

I hope I am going to update more often from now on.

News, changes and a kitchen sink

Well, ok, there isn't really a sink... per se.
I've slightly updated the blog and created a blogroll, where I will add from time to time blogs I like to read. It isn't comprehensive, and some of the blogs don't have a direct connection to the issues of this blog, but I see it drifting into a more general direction anyway.

I hadn't written about it before, but i applied for an MFA in Writing at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. It looks like a nice program. We'll see. In any case, I needed recommendation letters, and it was a bit of a puzzle for me. The situation is different than the Engineering programs where I have plenty of people who worked with me in the past and would be able to vouch for my abilities. So, thankfully, AbsoluteWrite provided me with the opportunity to ask people I know there. Here are my deepest thanks to Celina Summers (I got a mention on the blog), to Don Platt and to my former team leader Sagi Abramovich for their recommendation letters.

There might be more to come out of my communications with Celina, but I will update if and when it happens.

Yesterday I had a pretty nasty shock in my work. I even felt emotional enough to send Sagi an e-mail on the subject. I translated a document talking about various money laundering schemes by Hamas to fund their operations. In one of the bits it talked about an arrest (several years ago) of a guy who was responsible for the Zerifin Camp hitchhikers' station. For those not familiar with the situation, there are hitchhikers' stations near every military camp in Israel, and Zerifin is one of the largest camps around. It is situated in the middle of Israel, near the town of Rishon-Le-Zion. I lived in that town for several years and served at that camp. It is mostly a training base with the addition of some other non-combat bases. During the Second Intifadah, there was a bombing on the hitchhikers' station near the base. I remember it very well, because I had spent the whole evening trying to reach the soldiers from the base to make sure they were ok. All the guys from my department were on the base at the time, but our unit was a small one, and I knew every soldier personally. This translation brought back those memories, and the two thoughts I had were, "what a small world" and "what a fucked up country we are".

Bli Panika contest

Sorry for not updating earlier. I had finished and sent off the translation to the Bli Panika translation contest. Can't say I enjoyed the book excerpt too much. Pretty heavy handed, imo. Maybe it's just this chapter. I am not going to put up this translation at my translation web site because I am currently in the process of deciding how to proceed with it. Once I do, those who are interested and actually stumble on my bog/sites would be able to read it :)

Weekend updates

A Ghost of a Man I Used to Be in its Hebrew version was rejected by Bli Panika. The comments are very similar to what I previously got for it and for the English version. I sent the English version out again. Unfortunately, I fear that my belief that the positives about the story outweigh the negatives (I am well aware of the problems) isn't shared by the editors and I would have to throw in the towel on this one (certainly on the Hebrew version, since there aren't any magazines left for me to send it to). This is sad as I still think it is a good story. All the more reason to finish the translation of Ascension and start working on turning this into a novel. Embellished and explored, the issues touched in the story should make a killer novel.

I did a translation for Simanim yesterday. The original was pretty bad and it took me much longer than expected. Then again, I was tired and it went slowly and painfully, especially considering that Eden had decided it was time for her to get up and run around (we are talking from 10pm to midnight). Anyway, phew. Sent it off. Good riddance.

I got a bite from Mera Translations for a 10k job. We'll see how it goes.

The Jack dude from London had written again. I thought that one was gone. I can't figure him out. His unwillingness to transfer money to Israel or to open a paypal account is truly puzzling. Makes me somewhat apprehensive about taking this job. The text is interesting, but I wouldn't want to waste my time translating a paper without getting paid in the end. So, I'll wait for his clarifications.

I am going to meet with Prof. Dzenis probably tomorrow. Should be interesting.

Translation Competition

The "Bli Panika" sci.fi magazine is running a translation competition. See details here (Hebrew). I am entering. Even if I don't win, I'll put my translation up on my translation site and link to it here.

Morning updates and ancient history

The morning today was relatively uneventful. I took the kids to the kindergarten, did about a 3k translation, talked to my and my wife's folks and prepared lunch.

I saw the first episode of Caprica yesterday. I have to say I am somewhat unsure what I think. Looks interesting so far, but reminds me waaay to much of Terminator. We'll have to see how it goes.

Now, that that's out of the way, to the main point of the post. Yesterday I was planning how to proceed with The Gathering Clouds. This is my first complete novel and it is near completion. It also has a very long history that I went over in my head yesterday, and that got me thinking a bit about how things had changed over time.

Ok. The basic plot of the novel was written by my brother about 23-25 years ago in Russian. It was barely a novella by standards of length. I, being the easily impressionable boy that I was, thought it was great and all. I should also note that my exposure to science fiction and especially fantasy was very limited at that point in time.

Anyway, towards the time we came to Israel I managed to type the novella on our old machine. After we came to Israel and some time had passed, I translated the novella into Hebrew as a part of my learning experience. I even managed to type it on a computer (though on different types of computer, on different fonts etc). I am pretty sure it was painful to read. I wouldn't know. The translation is long lost and I don't remember. Well, I was even arrogant enough to send it off to a publishing. I knew nothing about publishing, and was probably one of those manuscripts that annoy the crap out of editors. That was 18-19 years ago.

At that point, the manuscript gathered dust in my desk. When I went to college, I started writing myself. Imagine the shock of my folks who always considered me the technical side of the family (and rightly so). After writing some stories (that weren't bad but not good enough to be published) I translated the novella into English. I also translated the second book of the trilogy, that despite being almost as old, was a much more mature book. Together they were barely enough lengthwise to be called a novel. I strung them together with an interlude and that was that for a while.

After Eitan was born (about four years ago) I started looking more seriously at the novel. I finally realized that despite some nice ideas it was extremely undercooked. I rewrote it on a massive scale, basically turning it into what it is today (though I later added another 30k words). At that point I found AbsoluteWrite and really dug deep into the novel. Today it stands before the last round of editing and being sent out. Though there are similarities with the original, it is mostly a new book. I had kept my brother's name together with mine on the byline, though it is by all accounts my novel.

This novel is an interesting exhibit of changes I underwent in my life and how I came to be the man I am today. It is always interesting for me to add another page to that book.

Shabat Shalom

On Friday we went to a Kabalat Shabat with a family living around these parts. They are from Israel and live here for ten years. A very nice family. They also had another couple over who live here for a year. We had a lovely evening. It is a strange thing that I had to come all the way to Omaha to have a real Kabalat Shabat. Life is such a strange thing.

Anyway, Eitan and Eden also had a great time. We are going again on Friday after the next one. We did have a small hick-up. I didn't know they were religious, so I bought a box of coockies that weren't kosher. Eitan was rather disappoited when we coupldn't have them, but we did bring them back. Problem solved.

Strangely enough, I might have a translation job out of the evening. Some acquaintance of the other guest looks for somebody to translate a book.