When paperwork starts to make us a little batty,

we look for an outlet. No? Not everyone? Oh.

Okay, well, when paperwork makes *me* a little batty,

I look for an outlet, which usually means:

• reading ebooks and blogs [with music]…
• decorating and design [with music]…
• plus a two-hour dance workout with [good] music.

During today's reading, I found a cute little story about

a new public art display in a town a little north of Rome.

First of all, you might remember that a couple months ago,

an anarchist artist dropped hundreds of thousands of colorful balls

down the Spanish Steps of Rome.

Each one of the 500,000 colorful balls is supposed to represent a lie told by a politician.

To add to the long list of quirky Italian public-art projects,

now someone decided to patch the ancient walls of an old-Italian town -with legos. 

Yes, patch ancient walls with Legos.

At which point the grammar-police came forward

to point-out that it's not "Legos" but "Lego"

since "Lego" is actually the plural form of the word.

Really?  Oh-oh.   That's when it all started.

- It's "Lego", damn it!

And:

- Lego. Bloody Americans.

Which was, of course, followed by another reader's:

- LEGOS. Crazy Europeans.  

Then, how could we miss the Latin-Science fan:

- Legi.

Legi, legos, lego…. Let.go!

Either way, I had a giggle with my coffee this morning.

    Notice I said music, blogs and design?  Yup. 

I've been busy working on the extra Java code for this blog,

as you will notice from the mouseover movement over the sidebar and links.

Yup.  I've fallen in love with Java, and even learned how to make the gif animations myself. 

Since I am getting a nice camera to take pictures of Rome, I will be using my alloted blog-time to design a new background image for this blog so pictures can stand out better, but I'll leave Tess' css code intact.  Needless to say, it's a lot of work, but worth it.

I've been told that I have to incorporate a lot of white to make pictures "POP."

So, I'll figure out how to do that, and keep this blog unique, then, I'll get back to daily posts…

If the world smells blood, they'll go for the kill… because they can.

That, at least, is how it looks like from my current standpoint. During those 4 months I took off from blogging, translating and Italy, something was brewing and I was too distracted to notice. Like they say:

If you place a frog in cold water, and slowly turn up the temperature, it will boil to death and never even notice. Whereas if you take a frog from cold water to hot water, it will jump and save its life.

Had I stayed in the business, I probably wouldn’t have noticed, because I honestly thought I was at an advantage, but stepping away and coming back allowed me to better assess the temperature, and become totally freaked-out in the process.

Yes, I have heard from a lot of Europeans that a lot of work is being outsourced to the States, and I imagine that this affects the freelance industry more than others. The American Translator’s Association lists Italian as the least paid language combination, and Scandinavian languages as the highest paid. No, I’m not surprised; the Italian field tends to do that to itself, but, this time, thanks to the falling dollar, things have reached a new level.

Yes, by default, American freelancers have the advantage that their rates are now more affordable than ever to the international industry, but… oh, but, but… With the falling dollar and weak economy, international clients will not accept anything less than an excellent deal.

…one big
Garage
Sale to
the world

The problem is that the US has become one big Garage Sale to the world, and too many European clients who used to accept Euro invoices, are now demanding invoices be billed in Dollars, and they also expect freelancers to accept orders lower than the previous rates. Some freelancers accept, dropping the values throughout.

Like the current foreclosure industry which has overpowered the American housing industry. Yes, banks are selling homes at a fraction of the cost. That's not enough, buyers offer far, far less and win. Banks accept, dropping home values throughout. The ramifications stretch far and wide. As we work with European clients, I expected the US rates to go up as the Euro went up, but as freelancers bill low, in dollars, they are instead bringing the European rates down.

In Rome, and Euros, I’m at a disadvantage, which leaves me floating in the global currents, being pushed from side to side as it so pleases.

I shouldn't complain. Now that I'm back, I do have as much work as I can take, which is what I need to enjoy a life in Italy. Nevertheless, I hereby declare my Outro from the industry and my Intro, once again, into the gradschool bookworm life, in my ever constant quest for deeper roots, stability and permanence…