Смешно ли?

Первый талиб, второму: "Аллах ахбар!"
Ответ: "Воистине ахбар!"

I get it, and I don't. (Uninspired) translation follows:

First Talib to second: "Allah is Great!"
The response: "Truly Great!"

What I understand is this: the response is patterned after "Воистине воскресе!" ("Truly risen!"), the traditional reply to the Easter greeting "Христос, воскресе!" ("Christ is risen!").

What I don't get is: why would anyone consider this funny? Is it the sudden "gear shift" from a well-known Muslim expression template to a Christian one?

Cheers...

One hour left (give or take)...

In preparation for the arrival of a new Soyuz vehicle (the ship that would serve as a lifeboat for the ISS crew in case the Unthinkable happens), the crew is currently in the process of moving the Soyuz that's currently there (and which is nearing the end of its rated lifetime on orbit) from one port to another on the station.

All three crew members must be inside the Soyuz during the redocking operation, in case it turns out that the Soyuz cannot actually dock with the station again after it undocks. Were that to happen, not only would you want to have the entire crew in the Soyuz, you also wouldn't want to have all of the ISS systems running (e.g., water supply system, air conditioners, etc.). So, before the crew members get in the Soyuz, they spend a lot of time deactivating those systems.

Then they get in the Soyuz, close the hatches, spend about three hours doing various tests (leak checks, spacesuit checks, etc.), and then they're finally ready for the main event.

Right now, we're about 5 minutes away from the start of the redocking operation proper. Mark's and my shift is in its last hour. Afterward, I shall try to call in to the radio show co-hosted by fellow LJer gardengnome out of Kansas City, if for no other reason but that I'll probably not have an opportunity to do so again for quite some time. (But there is another reason, of course. Hosts gardengnome and richbrilliant have a manner that just makes it easy to talk with them.)

Then home to bed. It's been a l-o-n-g day.

Cheers...

Go-o-od morning!

I am wiping the sleep from my eyes as I type this, having gotten nearly 7 hours of sleep last night. I finally got smart last night (this morning) and took the melatonin that's been in the medicine cabinet for the past couple of months, and while it may be a placebo effect, I think it helped me sleep. (Melatonin was recommended to me a long time ago by several people who routinely worked in the MCC, where very few positions don't entail eventually pulling stretches of night work.)

The reason I fired up my computer as soon as I got up was coming home to find some items moved around the place. This tells me that Lee stopped by, but she generally leaves a note to say she's been by. I have no reason to think anyone else was here (nothing's missing, and it's not as if the place has been ransacked), but I'd just like to make sure, so I wanted to AIM her. However, she is not online at the moment (strange), so I guess I shall have to defer that line of inquiry.

Tomorrow is the deadline for filing the Colorado sales tax return for the third quarter. Fortunately, I have all the data I need to do the filing and I have found the appropriate return form as a PDF on the web. Hopefully, it shouldn't take me more than a couple of hours to polish off this obligation, and then I'll be free as the proverbial wildebeest for the rest of the day. I may even get to do something with Feht tonight. Lee may join us, if I can get hold of her.

This is going to be a great day!

Cheers...