Did well on the interview and am moving through the system.

The interview went well, and to me it feels that as long as I live up to how I performed in the interview I should be getting the job, barring some catastrophic failure.

I got a call a few hours that they’ll be giving me a “take-home assignment” and having me talk to an employee on the other side of the world to test for things like “cultural proficiency” and just to make sure that I’m what they’re looking for. The assignment is to translate two articles, one from Chinese to English and the other from English to Chinese.

Just finished these assignments – Chinese to English is a lot easier than the other way around. It was as much an exercise in translation as it was learning about industry terms. I had to rely on Baidu Translate a lot for the English to Chinese translation, but never took the translation software’s output as gospel and made sure to double-check everything. Luckily, it’s my impression that they understand I have no formal translation experience.

Things I’m Liking

• Dwarf Fortress coming to Steam and itch.io: A formal, commercial release of Dwarf Fortress is coming. It’s been in development since 2002, and this is the first time it’s going to be released in a format you’ll have to spend $20. For the price, you get music and a fantastic graphics pack, but the original and constantly updated version is going to be free. This new version is thanks to the American Health System, which ensures that the developers need a good nest egg in case unexpected sickness wrecks their finances.
• Digitimes: The Cranes Today of IT and electronics manufacturing and supply. Primarily a Chinese language site, so it’ll be good to read this to learn some terms.
• Facebook Messenger: Back in American nobody uses Wechat, but I’m in need of some communications app that works like it. Features like location-sharing, stickers, integrated computer/phone client, and widespread usage is important to me. But of course, as soon as I start using it, there’s an outage for a few hours. Even if I start using messenger, my communications with Americans are split across Messenger, Snapchat, and SMS/MMS, and with others there’s also Wechat, Whatsapp, and a few on IRC. Relevant xkcd.
• yyyyyyy.info

Misc

Finally got to drive a car again. After a minute or two, I didn’t feel rusty at all! Feels good to be on the road.

Food and drink I’ve enjoyed: Burritos (ground beef, beans, hot sauce, tomatoes, lettuce), burger (with bacon and avocado), cheese curds, beer (Spotted Cow, Riverwest Stein, Miller High Life), berries, sausage, decent coffee.