Now I've seen it all...

I (and probably a couple of million other saps) am the recipient of an e-mail whose subject is:

Get Your Bowel Movements Going!

Ye gods. As if spam offering fame, fortune, and fabulous sex weren't enough.

Well... at least it's different.

In other news, I went to the store with Galina to help her open this morning, and then had to return later in the morning to fill in for her for a while, so I'm late getting started on today's translation. Especially since I walked home from the store after helping open the place.

The translation is due tonight, and I was starting to feel itchy at the store (the later I start on the translation, the later I finish it), but I surprised myself this past hour by putting down about 800 words (and this LJ time is my self-administered reward).

Aha... my 15 minute break is up. Back to the face of the salt mine (or, more appropriately, to the borehole).

Cheers...

Waiting for the ISS...

I spoke too rashly in this morning's post. After I resumed work, I ran across the most turgid text that I've seen in a while. Not only was it technically complex, but the author just piled one clause on top of another until - I think - he ran out of paper. It took me the rest of the day (minus another 90 minute break spent with Galina - I like those) to do another 1800 words or so, and I put some considerable wear and tear on some of my dictionaries in the bargain.

So, in the final analysis, I've done about 7,000 words for this second translation, and I've learned a lot about nuclear magnetic resonance logging and gamma-ray spectroscopy. (That knowledge, along with $1.59, will buy me coffee at the WolfTracks Coffee Shop, but I digress...)

I got the preliminary proofs for my article that's scheduled for the July issue of the ATA Chronicle. The editor did a remarkable job of editing (meaning, he didn't make many changes to my original text), so I reviewed the proofs and sent them back to him after making a few minor edits.

I recalled downloading some satellite data for the ISS from the Celestrak site a while back and running it through a program called PocketSat on my "Palm computing device" (what they're supposed to be called instead of "PalmPilot"). I also recalled that the results showed there to be a series of days around now where the International Space Station would be visible from my home in Colorado.

It turns out that the best viewing is tonight in a little over half an hour from now. I went out on a limb and told some of my ham radio buddies about the opportunity tonight (and another one tomorrow night), so I hope I didn't screw up the time.

(Doubtful, as I double-checked the times using a PC program called STSPlus, getting the same result. Now, as long as I didn't make the same mistake twice... :^)

I don't know what the conditions will be for camera work, but I really don't care. It'll just be cool, standing on the veranda, sipping on something sweet, and looking at something traveling past me at about 17,000 miles per hour a couple of hundred miles up.

Afterward, I'll give the translation one last review and send it off. Then will come the fun part... writing the invoice.

Cheers...