Blowing cold and hot...

Translating documents for the so-called "Execute Package" (the collection of documents that describe just what-all the ISS crew is expected to accomplish on a given day) generally takes the form of sitting around in the morning, sipping coffee and waiting for the Russian side to send over their radiograms, and then translating them once they arrive.

Typically, it makes for a reasonable day's work.

Except for today. For some reason, most of the documents that arrived today were massive, and I only just finished the last one a few minutes ago. Oh, my aching fingers!

According to my client's internal metric, the documents I translated today should take an ordinary translator about 15 hours to complete. Freelancers cannot afford to work in an "ordinary" manner, and I completed the work in much less time than that. I do feel a trifle tuckered out, though.

Well, at least I received no call today regarding telecon support tomorrow (yay!). I don't really despise telecons, but they are a pain in the butt. First, it's because they occur at oh-dark-thirty, typically, so as to catch the Russian participants at work. Second, it's because some telecons involve a lot of stress owing to either the subject matter (obtuse, with all sorts of arcane terminology) or the tone of discussion (e.g., adversarial); this kind of telecon will give you that "tuckered out" feeling before you really start your day. Finally, it's because - believe it or not - it is not uncommon to run across telecon participants who believe their knowledge of Russian (ranging from beginner to native) is superior to yours; such people vex the soul.

Time to get out of here. I am thinking it is a good night to go grab some sushi in Kemah, at the Ichiban restaurant. I am also thinking I have a bunch of food in the fridge in Pearland.

I shall have to contemplate this conundrum as I walk to the car.

Cheers...

Unraveling the Gordian (dinner) knot...

On the way out to the car, I ruled out going to Ichiban. It's about 4 miles in the wrong direction out of JSC, and even though it's a short distance, having to retrace my route and pass by JSC again on the way home would be depressing, or at least I imagined it so.

On the other hand, I was in a sushi kind of mood, so I compromised and went to the Miyako, which lies between JSC and home and is a reasonable place to eat, even if it inhabits a section of Bay Area Boulevard infested with eateries of various kind.

To make the damage easier to take, when the check came I brought out my collection of so-called "Miyako money" (coupons given out during previous visits), which I had fortuitously secreted in my Franklin planner for just such an occasion.

Sometimes, things just work out.

Once home, I decided to follow up on my sushi snack and prepared a couple of small pork chops while I checked mail and ate a caviar sandwich washed down with some Жигули (Zhiguli) beer.

The beer, by the way, is of Lithuanian manufacture (and not, as I thought when I bought it, a Russian brew). It tastes sweet and is cloudy (there is a layer of yeast - I presume - on the bottom of the bottle, which I was very careful not to disturb as I decanted the liquid). I'm not exactly sure I like it, but I have two more bottles left in which to find out more definitively.

The NiMH batteries on my Palm died, apparently during the night. Replacing them with the pair I'd charged a few weeks ago shows that the new batteries are almost dead, too. It thus turns out that, not only do I have to carry around a spare set of rechargeables with me (along with a pair of exhausted rechargeables after any swap), but I must charge them not too long prior to using them.

This "trying to save money by using rechargeables" is getting old in a hurry.

Lee left a number of CDs around the place, and I have been listening to some of them in between the classical music that I like. I started with the resolve to listen to entire albums, but some of the music Lee thinks is cool is... um, far, far from being my cup of tea. One disc, featuring the best of Billy Idol seems to be something I could listen to, though he is undoubtedly a hopelessly passé performer (I can detect melodies in some of the songs he sings).

Don't mind me. (At least I try.)

The second of the three Lithuanian brews beckons me. Perhaps a snootful of Zhiguli, on top of some tunes from Iggy Pop or The Put-Downs, will serve to entertain me.

Cheers...