Oddtail @oddtail@meow.social

So, hey, I'm a translator. And I'm pretty much *always* looking for more work.

I translate to and from Polish.

Not the most in-demand language in the English-speaking world, but if you need a translation done or know someone who does, hit me up.

I'm good at what I do, I have low rates, and I can work pretty damn fast if that's what you need.

I am also pretty versatile, I've translated everything from literature to marketing to technical stuff.

#introductions

Might as well do this.

Hi! I'm a leftist, furry nerd from Poland, 32 y.o.

I'm shy/socially inept, but always vaguely hope to talk/befriend new people, esp. online (so talk to me about whatever). Both online and IRL, I default to treating everyone as a friend unless given a reason not to.

I'm a cis guy (pronouns he/him), but if you're a furry - I'm vastly more comfortable and less prone to anxiety if you assume I'm a woman (she/her) and if we interact as such online.

My best guess is that they're thinking what to say next and using punctuation to convey that because they're - again - not comfortable with communicating that way.

But "..." doesn't convey a momentary pause for breath, it sounds like stopping-and-starting sentences as if deep in thought. It's weird and kinda freaks me out sometimes.

OK, so here's my question... why do boomers and... older Gen-Xers... always write their social media posts like this...? if they talked like this... they'd sound like they have some kind of speech impediment... or were out of breath... or something...

___
Srsly, I know informal writing doesn't have to be all rigid and sh*t, but why the allergy to regular punctuation? One'd think ppl less at ease with new media, who grew up with pre-Internet communication would favour writing coherent sentences.

I'll admit, I've only read like nine books by Mercedes Lackey, but I think I'll correct that bad mistake. I love her style, I love the subject matter, and I love the shared world many of her books are set in.

And there's a lot of books to go through. Apparently she writes like 5 books a year (!), and is at 140 right now. Damn, that's prolific.

Honestly dunno why I stopped at so few books, Lackey might be in my top five fantasy authors based on what I've read already.

(1/2)

Been rereading Mercedes Lackey's "Queen's Arrows" trilogy. On account of getting in last Christmas in English, rather than the Polish translation I'd been familiar with.

Last time I read it, I was a teen, and I'd forgotten how good it is.

Can't help but kinda think of the 1st book at least as "Harry Potter, but the school's cooler, the worldbuilding makes sense, the books are warm and feminist, and the author isn't a damn terf".

I donated blood today.

You're welcome, world.

"Lupin" on Netflix is pretty damn good, if you either speak French or don't mind watching a subtitled series.

It's tense, interesting, well-paced, and has a likeable main character. Well worth a watch if you're into suspenseful thrillers.

To be fair, other nobility/knights/warriors got a similar treatment occasionally, what with Paladins going from "bodyguards of that one famous emperor" to "holy knights" to "magical dudes with swords who can heal you via inappropriate physical contact in the workplace".

But nowhere is that shift AS prominent. Paladins in popular culture at least *resemble* Charlemagne's knights in concept, a bit.

Druids, not so much.

Plus, that "turning into bears" thing? That's Norsemen, not Celts. Duh.

It's right in the name: berserkr.

It's crazy how historical Druids were basically educated noblemen with religious authority (so not THAT different from clergy/priests in other cultures), but gradually evolved in popular imagination into "hippie dudes who live in the forest and also maybe turn into magic bears".

Every step of this perception shift kinda makes sense, but the journey is wild (some pun intended).

Most of that due to a combination of the Victorian idea that "people in the past were savages" and New Age movements.

It's a bit sad that speakers of most dialects of English half-ass the "r" sound so much.

Here's a dumb question.

How popular is kefir in the United States?

I'd expect for some people in my social media bubble to be slightly to the left of me, and some to be slightly to the right.

But honestly, for the most part that's not true. I seem to respect and follow either people around me politics-wise, or considerably to the left. Seems weird.

(I *have* moved to the left a LOT in the past 5+ years, admittedly. And pretty consistently so. So maybe I'm in early stages of being radicalised by Commies or something. Doesn't feel that way, though.)

I am a very bland, milquetoast leftist, if that. I have views clearly to the left of the mainstream in my country, and possibly in much of the West. But I still don't believe anything I'd say is remotely radical (I know everyone thinks that about themselves, but I mean it).

So it's mildly freaky to me that almost all people I interact with online are considerably to the left of me. People nominally close to me on the political spectrum can be like, the worst.

My plan not to drink anything with caffeine in it other than tea is working so far!

Hopefully I can keep it up.

Also, I'm back on track with losing weight, my goal still being to reach a somewhat healthy weight by my next birthday (in September).

I'm behind schedule after a crappy December, but not so behind I can't still do it. And I've been doing a *little* better after the holiday break.

So I'm pretty excited about that.

(2/2) ...a lot of tea in the house, including pretty good stuff.

Not sure it's going well. On the one hand, I seem to be adjusting to the change. OTOH, I drink WAY TOO MUCH tea now. I'm caffeinated much more than I'm used to.

And I can't really stop, because the tea tastes great and keeps me hydrated and such. But I'm also uncomfortably jittery much of the time.

Send help?

(1/2)

So, there's a new tax on sugar and sweeteners in Poland since Jan 1st. I like the idea in principle, I have issues with the execution. Not my point.

Thing is, I used this as an excuse to stop buying/drinking so much Coke (I drink only sugar-free, but it's still not exactly healthy). I'm trying switching to tea, which works for me because it has a much lower caffeine content than, say, coffee. And I'm super-sensitive to caffeine.

Also, we have (...)

We didn't actually *play*, play. We just created characters and set up the first heist (the game is about cyberpunk mercenaries doing missions for shady employers).

But the way players interacted with what little mechanics they saw, how they planned and how they talked about characters - I actually think I might have something on my hands that can work.

Besides, char creation *is* play, kind of. It builds the game and expectations, and in my game, it's VERY relevant fiction-wise.

I just finished running the first session of a tabletop RPG that I'm actually creating from scratch. And it's based on mechanics that I think are very unusual and atypical, unlike almost anything I've ever played or read (and I've read quite a few indie titles over the years).

I'm very excited by how things turned out and I actually think that - for a raw first draft that'll get revised multiple time - the core beating heart of the mechanic actually worked *better* than anticipated!