Toby Walters

The context for this is that I've got 7 years of experience translating in corporate settings, but my job has just been put at risk of redundancy. I've got 4 young kids and I'm the sole earner in the family, so I need to figure out if freelancing could actually be a viable option for me.

Translators of Bluesky, this is a cry for help: I'm a J-E translator who's considering setting up as a freelancer. Where do I even begin? What should my rates be? Are there any good resources for people in my position? Any input at all would be helpful. Thank you!

Unfortunately, my job is at risk of redundancy too, along with the rest of my team.

Who's picking up this beauty today?

Parallel Words: Celebrating the Translation Boom! Event Description Over the past few years, the English-language publishing market has witn...

Tokyo friends, this is happening on Saturday - please come and join us!

#translation #literarytranslation #booksky

peatix.com/event/4568298

I was interpreting on a call this morning and I misunderstood a Japanese phrase meaning "please choose who goes next after you've introduced yourself" as "please wave your hand as you introduce yourself", so that all the Japanese managers waved very sweetly as they introduced themselves.

I've updated my desk setup! Before and after.

I've discovered a new benchmark for testing the limits of AI assistants that I call "the Japanese joke test".

Copilot did not pass the test.

My life is an adventure. I just bought a new desk.

If you work from home and find that your feet get chilly around the house, I can recommend keeping one of these under your desk.

Yeah man! Between the Leeds Uni Library CD section and the Futabatosho near Fukuoka Uni, I had a great musical education at university.

YouTube video by MOSHpitRecordsXRD BEAT: Andrew Belew , Tony Levin, Steve Vai , Danny Carey / - Play King Crimson. full LIVE!

I spent most of my year abroad in Japan listening to:
- Tool
- Steve Vai
- 80s King Crimson

So hearing Steve Vai and Danny Carey play 80s King Crimson with Adrian Belew and Tony Levin is making me feel all sorts of things. youtu.be/WSJxtZwJcd4?...

Gex has joined the Amano-verse!

When you're trying to eat healthily but your wife comes home from Costco with a massive tray of chocolate hazelnut mini beignets.

Watching BBC archive footage from the 90s has quickly become one of my go-to coffee break activities.

Ben Starr really can do no wrong.

Happy Switch 2 day, everybody! What are you playing?

YouTube video by Igorrr IGORRR - BLASTBEAT FALAFEL

Babe, the new Igorrr just dropped. youtu.be/PYRdJo3cG2Q?...

Yeah, I definitely played it primarily for the flashing lights and bright colours rather than the story. The soundtrack is indeed a thing of beauty though. The gym battle theme remains one of my favourite pieces of video game music.

Aw, I love these characters! This is really interesting! Thanks for sharing.

Today, in the category of silly little things that bring me an unreasonable amount of joy: Discovering that Nintendo has added the Pokémon Sword and Shield soundtrack to the Nintendo Music app.

Today's big learning point was: don't eat a load of Reese's Pieces with your lunch if you've got an important meeting in the afternoon. My body was not ready for the ensuing sugar crash.

Today's PSA is that if you notice a fishy smell in your home with no obvious source, chances are it's an electrical appliance overheating, as I learnt the hard way. Thank God my house didn't burn down.

Also, don't buy a Beko dishwasher.

Classy choice! Similarly, I've seen a sports car in Sheffield with a sticker in the window that says 裸の写真を送る, which I'm guessing is a similarly styled back-translation of "send nudes".

It's in the Square Enix London office.

I also got to see the chocobo Steam Deck in person today!

I sometimes worry that this office doesn't have enough cool swords in it.

Today I learnt that Sleep Token is in the UK charts after one of their songs randomly came on (and totally killed the vibe) at my friend's kid's birthday party.

I'm happy about this, but seriously, how did this happen!?

Now that my bass is back in working order, the first piece that I'm committing to learning is Feels So Good by Chuck Mangione, because it really does "feel so good" to play!

Today I'm working in the garden until my laptop overheats.