Everybody is slowly losing their mind. A client sent a text for translation which I immediately recognized. Because the text is a translation I did for them. Now they want me to translate it back to the original from which I translated it before.

Another client sent 3 files with different names that contained the exact same text. I let him know. He apologized and… sent the exact same thing again. I felt like I was picking on him when I kept asking for the real files.

I’m not sure what the step ladders did to deserve all this but the video is very instructive.

This is very symbolic of what the USSR was and what its legacy is today:

Reportedly, some types of insects gradually adapted to the fire pit and now live there quite well, forming their own little hellhole world.

Here’s a very endearing video of the meeting between the newly inaugurated President of Argentina and the President of Ukraine:

“He’s giving Zelensky a candelabra!” an Argentinean commentator exclaims.

The Ukrainian thinker and politician Arestovych was always very pro-Western, very “America is the strongest, badassiest, most admirable powerhouse ever”, very “rah rah NATO”. I like him but I always found this wide-eyed stanning for America, and especially its capacity to lead, to be childish and superficial.

Well, now the dude has spent 4 months in the US, talking to politicians, visiting think tanks and speaking to a wide variety of audiences. And it changed him completely. Now he’s all in the “this is the fall of the Roman Empire all over again” mood. He says (and I agree) that Putin’s biggest regret is that he didn’t invade Lithuania instead of Ukraine. There Russia would have had its triumphant 3-day war and no NATO would interfere. Because there is no bloody NATO! And the US isn’t about to reveal its vision for the new global order because it has no vision.

My Ukrainian book isn’t really about Spanish literature at all. It’s about this. It’s about the deep philosophical problems we are experiencing in the West. I don’t think things are in the least hopeless but this is a difficult moment and it would be a mistake to deny that.

After Arestovych spends a few more months in the US, he’ll start noticing the positive stuff and acquire a more balanced view. For now, though, he’s in complete dismay of a person whose dearly held illusions were crushed.

In the meantime, Zelensky is meeting Latin American leaders in Argentina. This is absolutely fantastic. Since the Cold War, nobody but Russia paid any attention to Latin America, and the result has been terrible for the region. The idea that there is some pouty, anti-Western “Global South” was invented in Russia and spread for lack of anything better.

Latin America is not “Global South”. It’s part of the West and is proud of belonging to the Western Civilization. If the US won’t bring Latin America into the fold of civilized Western regions, it’s good that Ukraine is trying.

This mystery novel was free on this month’s Amazon Free Reads, and it caught my eye because it’s about forensic linguistics. The main character is an FBI agent who analyzes idiolects – or individual speech patterns – to identify criminals.

Idiolects are a fascinating subject, and there are some very interesting bits about speech idiosyncrasies in the novel. Also a few great insights into fake versus legitimate suicide notes. Did you know, for example, that fake suicide notes often deal in lofty, abstract concepts while real ones tend to address trivial daily stuff? That happens because suicidal people don’t know how to prioritize problems and distinguish between what matters and what doesn’t.

The plot is excellent: a serial killer, a dysfunctional family, small-town drama.

Unfortunately, Labuskes’ writing is poor. It often happens that authors who can write are incapable of coming up with an interesting story, while those who can plot are impotent, mumbly writers. Labuskes has no ear for the language, and as a result, the story doesn’t land as strongly as it could. Everything ends up kind of smudged, lost in imprecise, watered-down phrases.

But again, a great plot. Plus, forensic linguists and idiolects. Zero wokeness. Serial killers, FBI agents. These are big positives for a book.

You do gain wisdom with age, though. When I was choosing a restaurant for our office Christmas party (which I call exactly that, and screw political correctness), I purposefully chose a pizza parlor located on the first floor of a fancy new apartment building.

Whenever there was a heavy pause and I needed to make small talk, I’d say, “Can you guess how much an apartment in this building costs? $720,000! Isn’t that insane?” Then an animated conversation would ensue, and I’d be left off the hook. I did it with 3 different groups at the event, and it went great.

I’m reading a mystery novel, and, again, the incessant “they” to refer to the unknown murderer is very annoying. How did Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell and all the other brilliant mystery writers manage to create so many excellent novels without theying everything to death?

The English language somehow existed until now without this ugliness. Why do we have to torture it because of our generation’s fixation on “misgendering”?

P.S. At least, a character who is an FBI agent refers to the elusive killer as “this son of a bitch” and not “this gender-fluid child of an unsavory canine parent”. For now.

A funny thing about organizing a Christmas lunch for colleagues is that after the lunch everybody wants to call you and gossip about the other people who were present. You think you’ve done your duty by socializing during lunch but then you are regaled with more sociability.

The first round of editing on my Ukrainian book already came back, which is incredibly fast. There will be one more round, and then I’ll get proofs. I’m stunned, veritably stunned, by the effectiveness of these Ukrainian editors.

By the way, I’ll never be able to publish a book in Spain. Not for any ideological reasons but because I have no connections and know no useful people. And in Ukraine, where nobody knows me from Adam, I found two very interested publishers immediately.

In the US, the publishing process is very honest and non-corrupt, but the Hispanic world is still not catching up.