Close call...

I don't know what gets into me, sometimes.

This morning, I decided to see what the Linux for Windows package had under the hood, so after reading the installation instructions carefully, I set about installing it on my Sony laptop.

Big mistake.

The install got to the point where it had to create a "loopback" file, and failed. The install routine calmly went back to its last checkpoint, namely, asking me where I wanted to install the program.

Well, the program wouldn't install, so...how do I exit the installation program?

Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work. Ctrl-C doesn't work, nor does Ctrl-Z.

Okay, hit the BRS (which is neither big, nor red on my Sony), and the machine is off. Wait a few seconds. Turn the machine back on.

Yikes! I'm back in the install program.

What gives? Just where is this program living?

Turn the machine off again. Think for a while.

Turn it back on.

The program is still active.

Try clicking on various parts of the screen. No joy.

Do the off/on thing again. Same result.

Ye gods. The RPE comes by and tells me he's got work for me.

Whoopee. I'm sitting here with a crippled laptop where all of my dictionaries are stored, useless to me at the moment.

Try one more thing...turn the machine on...then off before anything happens...then on again.

Did I mention I have my fingers crossed as I do this?

I see the Sony logo flash on the screen, which tells me I've exorcised the install program.

I see the BSOD. All things considered, I don't feel so bad; I've been here before.

Reboot into safe mode, where the machine checks the C: drive. Restart.

I'm back in Windows...and a little wiser for the experience, and feeling lucky.

Cheers...

Out of sight...

I left my former employer in November, but it turns out I am still surprising people at NASA with the news of my departure. I suppose there is some "wow" factor in that, and it seems to me that people who used to talk to me one way when I was a manager speak to me now in another way. I may be misleading myself (or imagining things), but I like the new way better.

The day was full of radiograms for me to translate, and I did my usual stellar job on them. The key to good translation - besides selecting the right words - is to do so consistently. If it's "pump unit" on the first page, it should be "pump unit" on the last page, too, and not "pump assembly." This concept would seem self-evident, but so many translators I've seen seem blithely indifferent to it. Actually, being consistent within a document is relatively easy; taking consistency further, if you call something a "pump unit" in document A on Monday; the same device ought to be called a "pump unit" in document B on Tuesday, and so forth as you go along. (This level of consistency is more difficult to achieve, especially if different people work on the project, but it can be done...and I'm digressing badly...)

I've been invited to write a piece for the July issue of the American Translators Association's magazine, The Chronicle. Specifically, I've been asked if I wouldn't be interested in writing about my proposed talk this coming November at the annual ATA conference in Los Angeles. I am interested, but only have to have the item finished by the 7th of May. If I do write it, I suppose it will keep me off the streets. Then again, my current schedule will be more than adequate to assure that goal.

Some of my former cronies tell me I might expect a delegation of them to visit Pagosa in the early fall...just in time for mushroom season. That would be nice. Personally, the only mushrooms I've picked over the course of the past five years have been in supermarkets; it will be nice to get out into the woods to hunt the wily Boletus edulis, for example. (Of course, such a plan will require several reconnaissance missions!)

As I write this, Lee is in Pagosa and is putting the finishing touches on some reports, which she will relay to me via AIM. We've been AIMing at each other on and off for the past half hour, touching on various questions. It sure beats an open phone connection, let me tell you. I've put just over 4 hours of time on the cell in just under 3 days, though I don't think I'm in any danger of blowing the month's minute budget.

No rest for the weary. Tomorrow is just another work day. On the job at 8 am and back home at 5 pm. More radiograms. Another paycheck.

A positive note: I did not get upset/angry/frustrated once today, not even when my computer seemed to have been captured by an evil Mandrake genie (I was concerned, but not fuming).

I'm on a roll.

Cheers...