This past year,
it’s been almost like “all work, nothing else.”
After science
textbook translation work, I had a surprise phone call in early February from a
client company that had been quiet for a few years. At this moment, this project
of a new production line became my project too, and it’s still going on and
expected to last at least a few more months.
In June, I had
a meeting with a representative of a Japanese insurance company that was
setting up its business in Singapore. And this project materialized in August with
an agreement signed and, as I believe, I started working on the first file in
the following month. For the first many weeks, I was dealing with Dr. Huebner, father
of insurance education, and his works, mainly “Life Insurance” and “The Economics
of Life Insurance.” I also encountered trouble about the 2000 speech by Csaba Sziklai,
“The Power of Advocacy.” I eventually had to obtain the original speech CD, in which
even the MC of the event couldn’t pronounce his name correctly. Huebner and
Sziklai required me to do much research. About this project, I still have two
files to finish.
And there were
a few jobs to which I had to say “No” because of these commitments.
Overall, 2017
has been a year of work, allowing me to recover some money which I lost because
of that idiot.
And this year
made me realize how little people remember me as well as how little I remember
them.
About books,
the only new book I read was “The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam” by Chester
L. Cooper. Others were those I had read once or many times before, like books
authored by Kondo Koichi, Kaiko Takeshi, Fredrik Logevall (Embers of War: The
Fall of an Empire) and David Halberstam (The Best and the Brightest), all about
the 1st/2nd Vietnam (Indochina) Wars.
Now my wish is
to visit Saigon again (and Hanoi) late January or early February because it
will be the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive.
Where are you, Lessie? I'm looking for you. Shame on you.
