Getting up to speed at the MSR...

I'm supporting the Houston-based Russian flight control team this week at their MCC facility. So far, things have been fairly quiet, though at almost any time I am expecting a daily status report that will need translation.

I've reviewed recent radiograms and schedules to the point where I'm fairly familiar with what's supposed to happen today (the crew will be sitting down to breakfast in just a few minutes, as I write this). According to the most recent update of the document that describes the duties and responsibilities of this position (MSR support), my next major task -- barring real-time requests to perform interpretation -- will be to listen to the daily planning conference on the space-to-ground loop, followed by interpretation on the flight director conference loop during the 7 am handover here at the MCC.

Getting up to speed with computer logins took its toll earlier in the evening. I get the feeling it would behoove me to stick around after my shift to make sure I can log in again tomorrow when I show up for work.

Cheers...

The "morning" after...

The night went by without any major hitches, though I had to call the help line to get one of my logins extended for a day (the account had expired). When I finally got into the system, it informed me that I had two days before my account expired, which made me wonder if this was a separate issue I had to take care of, or if perhaps the person on the help desk was just providing me with additional incentive to get the issue off my plate ASAP.

My replacement was late coming to work in the morning, as he had to navigate a horrendous traffic jam resulting from a Gulfstream jet falling from the sky and apparently onto the Beltway around highway 288 early this morning. By the time Mike (my replacement) got there and I had (likely) straightened out my login issue, it was very nearly 9 am, so I stopped at the B&N Starbucks on the way home and checked out No Plot? No Problem!, by the guy who spearheads the NaNoWriMo movement. (Then again, I may be wrong about that last, but that's the impression I get.)

The concept of writing 50,000 words of anything in a month -- anything that is not translation, of course -- is intriguing, although were I to become fired up about the subject, I would be late wriggling into the starting gate (indeed, the contraption would be nearly completely removed from the track, but I am pushing the metaphor beyond human endurance... and comprehension, no doubt).

By the time I got home, I had that overall bleh! feeling that you may expect to have after a night with no sleep. I didn't have much of a breakfast and soon went to sleep and -- it seemed to me -- tossed and turned for a few hours, sleeping here and there.

I feel better now than when I went to sleep, but doubtless will require some more shuteye if I am to function and not resemble a zombie tonight. Galina and I have leg of lamb in the oven right now, as we realized we have way more food on hand than mouths to eat it in any reasonable stretch of time.

Cheers...