Woody got it right...

I'd call him a sadistic, hippophilic necrophile, but that would be beating a dead horse.
        -- Woody Allen

He must have had in mind this morning's telecon lead. What was scheduled for 1.5 hours went almost an hour overtime, largely due to the prolixity of the lead.

In the few minutes prior to being connected, I overheard explanations of why things were going so slowly with the Russian side, and despite these, I suspect that the real reason so little gets accomplished is that some folks insist on, well, beating a dead horse. And then beating it some more. And then again more.

The telecon was attended by one of the junior members of the staff of my (ex-)employer, there to "observe" the proceedings in preparation for going out on one's own. While I applaud the idea in principle, I sometimes think that "observing" does more harm than good, especially if you get sent to observe one of the more experienced members of the staff.

Not to turn this into one of those "ten-miles-each-way-barefoot-through-the-snow" stories, but my introduction to telecons came after about three days of in-house work as a freelancer, when I was asked if I wanted to interpret for one. "Sure," I answered, not fully realizing what I was letting myself in for, my mind fixed only on the extra money that was paid for the job.

I don't recall much of my first telecon, but my second was a doozie. It was actually a videocon, where people could see and hear each other over a low-bandwidth television connection. I happened to be seated next to the telecon lead and it turned out that, when the Russian side began to speak, the gentleman on my other side would begin a conversation with the lead...with me in the middle.

Although I was new to the game of telecon/videocon interpreting, I knew enough to stop the proceedings and ask the gentleman to cease and desist. He did at first, and then proceeded to backslide. In a few minutes, I stopped the proceedings again and asked again for some cooperation. When this happened a third time, it became clear to me that this...person...simply could not understand why he needed to keep quiet while the Russian side was talking; I was, after all, there to tell him what the Russians said...so he figured that as long as the Russians were talking, he was free to pursue his own side conversations. G-r-r-r.

I returned to the office after that session wrung out like a rag, and felt listless and over-tired for the rest of the day. That was my baptism of fire. No observations, no warmups. Nothing. Just drag the guy to the deep end of the pool, tie weights around his feet, and...push. Frankly, if I had been afforded the opportunity to see what the game was all about, I might not have ever started playing...claiming that I needed "just one more" observing session...it's hard to jump out of the nest.

After today's telecon, it was back to the MCC for another exciting day doing the execute package. I won't bore you with the details, except to say that I'm not kidding: it's a pretty challenging position, despite being in the "back room." I'm still waiting for The Powers That Be to grant me network access, but in the meantime, equipped with my laptop and a portable printer, I am managing to keep my head above water and everyone straight on who is planning what where and when.

One of the ambivalent aspects of being a free-lancer is holidays. On the one hand, none of the regular staff members wants to work on a holiday, which leaves the field wide open for you. Of course, that means you don't get to celebrate the holidays the same way everyone else does. (I first faced this dilemma back when I was bussing tables at a country club on Long Island...the boss, of course, expected me to show up and work on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July...while I had other plans, but that's another story.)

At any rate, I'm booked through Sunday, and I plan to take Monday through Wednesday of next week "off" and edit some documents that must be completed by December 1. My stint on the RIO console for the upcoming Shuttle flight starts Thursday (those of you who get the NASA channel via cable or dish will have a rare opportunity to see me at work in the flight control room...whoo-ee!) and extends to the end of the flight. We'll then see what happens to the rest of December. Personally, I've resigned myself to work through the New Year...heck, maybe I'll start celebrating Orthodox Christmas or something.

Cheers...