…look there, I made up a word!

Hearthstoner, a person that loves to pass time idly playing Hearthstone, the best card game there is. I love playing this game when there are no translation projects pressing against my freedom to live idly around, and believe me, such days can be very few. Sometimes you end up realizing that two months have passed and you have been constantly overworking yourself every day without even noticing it.

But, there is one thing you do notice, and those are the muscle, knee and back pains from all the different slouching positions you take on your office chair typing away the day and night translating files for an important client. And then, when your 2-year old daughter asks you to pick her up, you turn into an 90-year old grandpa with a bad back.

The name Hearthstone is an interesting word, and the game is a blast. It’s a made up word, a combination of hearth, which means a fireplace or the area around the fireplace, usually referring to one’s home.

The other word is stone, and you know what stone means. It’s an unusual combination, but I imagine it as “playing magical cards beside a fire pit in a mythical-fantasy land tavern somewhere” against all kinds of opponents.

And this is where this game is amazing. It gives me such a pleasant feel, and it lures me with relaxing fantasy middle-age influenced melodies, visual effects and adrenaline action-packed quick round games. I’ve been playing it even while writing this blog post.

The best thing that I like about this game is that it makes you be tactful and cautious. You need to deliberate every move and card. You have to think forward in time.

It’s a great brain teaser when I don’t have anything better to do. I get beaten a lot, like a lot, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t learned anything. On the contrary! All of those sad losses have taught me to toughen up and start using my brain more.

The freelance translation industry can be very tiresome. The more you refuse projects, the more agencies will avoid you; the more you make yourself available to them, the more they will ask for your services. The more you work, the more you make money. The translation industry can be tough that way, so make sure you found yourself an interesting thing to do to blow of some steam.

Anyway, this is my first ever personal blog post. I never expose personally like this on the internet. However, I wanted to start something interesting and new with this website. Through posts like this, I will share my experiences and secrets that I have learned in the past 10+ years, and especially in the last 5. Maybe some younger colleagues will find some useful info here and gain inspiration. Maybe no one will bother to read these. Who knows….