Oh, fortuna!

Imperatrix mundi!

My DSL has been dropping its signal so often, it's hard to stay online for more than a minute or so at a time, so I finally bit the bullet and went outside to use the famed "process of elimination" to identify the bad line connected to the phone company's demarcation point.

It was the line to the bedroom that was connected to the new Dish Network receiver.

The one that has to stay up, else risk the wrath of Dish Network's additional $4.99 monthly fee.

The only problem is: once I disconnect the Dish Network receiver, the hum on all the extensions in the house disappears and the DSL modem - while it's only been up for a couple of minutes - has been up today for a record time of... a couple of minutes.

At least it's progress, of a sort.

* * *The next Soyuz launch is in a couple of weeks and the pace gets frenetic about this time on ISS, since this marks a crew handover. I received a call earlier today about my availability for Execute Package work. It's going to be a tough call. If I go, I'll be leaving on Saturday. The Expedition 9 crew is commanded by Gennadi Padalka, whom I've worked with only on occasion (see Virtually speaking..., from 2001), and Mike Fincke, whom I worked with quite a bit back when I lived in Houston.

There is one thing I don't understand about the Expedition 9 patch:



Patches are a discipline unto themselves at NASA. There's tons of them and they are invested with all sorts of arcane symbolism. Here's some of what is said about this patch, from the NASA web site:

At the heart of the image is the Roman numeral IX, created by the Soyuz rocket and the letter "X," which evokes the spirit of exploration at the heart of the U.S.-Russian space partnership. Research aboard the ISS is the first step toward human exploration of the moon, Mars and beyond -- seen between the rocket and the "X."

Flying across the emblem is an eagle representing the spirit of Human Space Flight, with stars on its wings honoring the astronauts and cosmonauts who gave their lives in this valiant endeavour.

Okay, if we assume the gold stars are astronauts, then the group of seven stars on the eagle's right wing can be through of as representing the Challenger crew; the three stars near the eagle's left shoulder, the Apollo 1 crew; the group of six stars on the left wing, the U.S. crewmembers of Columbia. The Star of David represents the Israeli crewmember on Columbia.

So far so good. Using this "code," one would surmise that the red stars denote cosmonauts, and there are five of those around the eagle's neck.

As far as I know, however, there have only been four cosmonaut deaths associated with space flight: Vladimir Komarov, who died on Soyuz 1, and the three-man crew of Dobrovolsky, Patsayev, and Volkov, who died on Soyuz 11.

Who is the fifth star for, I wonder?

It doesn't really matter, however. The line between dying while on a mission in space as opposed to a training accident or plain bad luck is thin enough and not much consolation to anyone, I would imagine.

* * *Talking about space, I did another shortie for my aerospace client in Houston, but the original file is another one of those strange beasts that seems to have a life of its own. As one types, fonts change size and style spontaneously and graphics move around the screen like jumping beans on methamphetamine. I finally got the 700-word or so piece finished, but it took a lot out of me this morning.

For that reason (maybe), I only got 4600 words down on phosphor today. I am ahead of schedule with the BFJ (yay!), but agreed to do 2000 more words for another client by COB Thursday (boo!... sort of, since I will be paid for it).

Wow... the DSL modem has been up for a whole five minutes without a problem. I wonder what needs to be done to the DN receiver to make it behave?

Time to call it a night.

Cheers...

One last thing before I retire...

I needed to get a quick refresher on the difference between outgassing and offgassing, neither of which is typically part of one's vocabulary unless you are in the field, so to speak. This post is an attempt to create a mnemonic to remember the difference.

Some (non-metallic) objects release chemicals into the air at "normal" or ambient temperature and pressure (that's what gives new cars that "new car smell"). This process is offgassing.

Other objects (also non-metals) release chemicals, too, but only under near-vacuum conditions (like in space). That's outgassing.

A simple attempt at a mnemonic might be to associate being "out of this world" (i.e., in space) with "outgassing." The only problem with this is the possible confusion that may occur of you recall being "off the planet" (i.e., in space) with "offgassing." (Recall the very bad, tasteless joke about "Ms. Crunt.")

On the other hand, "out of this world" is something of a cliche, so it may not be prone to this kind of mixup.

* * *Apparently, my French skills are not something to let go of quite that easily. The previous launch campaign in Kazakhstan (the one my paperwork didn't come through in time for) involved speaking French.

The good news is: the Michel Thomas French 8-CD set I picked up is a little too... elementary for me, although I am plodding through it as a review.

The bad news is: attempts to find literate French LJers to read in my friends list have met with limited success. Most promising candidates (i.e., those that post often) tend to be American students who prefer to write in English about their life in France. So far, my efforts have been rewarded with the addition of blue_cloud, who lives in an undisclosed location in France, writes French that I can understand, and... drum roll, please... shares a birthday with me!

But now, I really must go get some shuteye. It's been a long day.

Cheers...