Links: for your reading pleasure

If the summer weather has you looking for some inspiration, here are some recent blog posts I’ve enjoyed reading. These are in no particular order:

• Escape from Cubicle Nation (don’t you love the title?) Get Rich Slowly linked to this blog, which has some excellent tips on entrepreneurial topics. Check out the “open source coaching” posts where readers weigh in on an entrepreneur’s dilemma.
• Various blogs have been chronicling LinkedIn’s recruitment of volunteer translators for its website. Here is a particularly interesting post from the Masked Translator on the topic.
• Jill Sommer’s excellent post on Arabic linguist Lt. Dan Choi’s dismissal from the U.S. military because of his sexual orientation. On yesterday’s installment of the public radio show The World, reporter Kate Clark interviewed Lt. Choi about his experiences, and about the fact that the U.S. military has dismissed over 300 linguists solely because they are gay, despite the fact State Department, CIA and NSA have a critical shortage of employees with foreign language skills. You can read a transcript of The World’s interview with Choi here.
• The Wealthy Freelancer on Why you should charge more. Make sure to read the part about the throat surgeon!
• Translation Times on how to market your services every time you flip open your laptop by using a customized laptop skin. I have to admit, I’m not much of a splashy marketer but I’m considering getting one of these since I often use my laptop when I’m out and about. And while we’re at it, a happy belated birthday to the proprietors of Twin Translations themselves!

Happy reading!