I’ve been thinking about reactivating this blog for a while, starting of course with a quick update about how I’ve progressed since the last time I talked about it, and what my plans are, and … and you know what, it would be a lot of work to do even a half-assed summary. So I’m just going to do fragmentary posts for a while, dropping a random detail or two into each one, until I feel like I’ve caught up.

Today’s random detail: I’ve been noodling around the idea of measuring how many uninterrupted half-hours I spend on translation each week. Basically, I want to break myself of the habit of doing a little bit, then checking Twitter or something, and never getting much done. So for at least the next little while, and indefinitely if it seems to help things, I plan to sit down at least once a day and make sure I work for thirty continuous minutes before doing anything else. (I may make an exception for bathroom breaks or to make a cup of tea, but I’ll probably extend the thirty minutes a bit to make up for it.)

I’ve ordered a 30-minute hourglass (turns out the term to search on is “sand timer”) to help me stick to this goal.

Finally, a brief quote from today’s work: “Lukács was very concerned with his own dignity, like a turkey, but only when on the provost’s estate. In Buda a turkey is not dignified. True, in those days there were no turkeys in Buda, or in Fejérvár either, or anywhere in Europe. But Lukács was, all the same, as dignified and red-necked as a turkey.”