Tuesday September 11, 8:41 a.m.
Yesterday was pretty much devoted to translation. I got a bit of a good-natured chewout from the boss for handing an admittedly half-assed assignment, but it was very difficult...all of those pharmaceutical terms. Actually, my boss didn't even jump on me but he told me matter-of-factly that the editor really had to earn her pay with my hand-in. I apologized for the work but he kindly brushed it off saying that it was a learning experience and he knew how it difficult it was. In a way, he rather reminds me of that Warner Bros. cartoon bulldog....not the aggressive one who was always chasing after Sylvester the Cat, but the one who counseled the other cat like a good buddy. Still, I've been served....I'm gonna have to be at the top of my game. Fortunately, I did hand in something yesterday that I think is a much better product, and I will be getting a pretty big payday in about a month for another large product. And there is another much smaller and hopefully easier assignment for today.
I'll be taking off for downtown on somewhat of a TIFF journey. The Toronto International Film Festival is past the halfway point, so I expect that the celeb population is starting to peter out. However, I will be taking a look at the Hot Docs Cinema near Bathurst and Bloor since that's one of the venues, although in my case, I don't think I'll be lucky enough to catch any celebs. In fact, I'm more interested in seeing what food trucks will be there for lunch. If they've pulled out, I can just head over to The Thumbs-Up Eatery for a bit of Korean. Afterwards, I will walk over to Yorkville and see if the fishing is good there.
The big chewout I'm expecting to get is from my brother. I received that new laptop from him about 10 days ago, and I managed to destroy it over the weekend due to some stupidity on my part. Suffice it to say, my wonderful palette of software is no more. I've already sent him the bad news and going hat in hand to see if there is some way to salvage any recovery.
I've gotten some good news from my former students-turned-friends back in Japan. Two of them sent me a package of Kaki-P (a snack mix of rice crackers and peanuts) that I used to engorge weekly but haven't had in 9 months since returning to Canada....I can probably buy them here, but I'm not gonna shuck out a ton of cash and take the TTC all the way to the boonies to J-Town to get them. Apparently, they'll be heading over to France next month for a vacation. Then I received word from another student that she and her family will be coming to Toronto in October for a bit of a leafwatching. So it'll be time to put on the tour guide hat once more. Too bad they couldn't come over during the TIFF.
Apparently the Kanto area has been going through some major water rationing blues because of the extreme heat and the extreme lack of rain this past couple of months. One of the major reservoirs in Gunma Prefecture currently looks like a nearly-drained bathtub at just 6% capacity. The government had called a major crisis several years ago when the reservoir had been at 30% capacity, so things are pretty dire over there. I miss Japan but the summers are one thing I have been happy to do without. It was like swimming through atmosphere.
