All's quiet...

Well, some things are unfolding about the way I figured they would during this trip. For example, I find it increasingly difficult to keep track of what day it is any more, and the fact that it is currently Saturday has stuck in my consciousness only because I've worked at fixing it there.

This shift is scheduled to end at 9 am, but I've rarely known the Russian night shift to dawdle much past their usual quitting time on Saturday morning. Not to mention that the Progress launched... Thursday night (?)... is scheduled to dock with the ISS sometime after 4:30 pm this afternoon, which probably explains why my next shift starts about that time and runs until 1 am, um, tomorrow (Sunday). The good news is that I'll probably get a good night's sleep as a result of the schedule shift; the bad news is that my night shift schedule reappears starting at 11 pm... tomorrow.

I plan to stop by the Einstein bagelry on the way back to the hotel after the shift ends this morning. There is a CVS pharmacy next door to Einstein, and I plan to stop in and find out if they stock any of their "one-time use," el-cheapo video cameras (reviewed by Rainy Day Magazine, whose grade for initial impression and usability is "excellent"). In connection with what appears to be a fairly revolutionary move in the consumer world (the camera retails for under $30), there would appear to also be a nascent movement to hack the internals of the camera, thus defeating the "one-time use," um, feature. If successful, then homemade video files will likely be about as ubiquitous as mp3s (now that's a scary thought!).

Something to chew on.

Cheers...

Waiting for Progress...

Docking of the Progress cargo vehicle was a little less than half and hour away as I started writing this post, and the space-to-ground chatter was more or less continuous. The docking has actually just occurred, and everything seems to be going well.

I'm in the room that is home to the Moscow Support Group, which consists of a number of Russian flight controllers who are rotated to Houston in groups from the MCC in Korolev for tours lasting a couple of months. I'm at the interpreter's console, poised to provide support should any coordination be required with the folks in the Flight Control Room.

The arrival of the Progress dictated a seven-hour "forward" sleep shift today, which did not bode well for my sleep schedule. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep in the interval between work sessions. Additionally, there are indications from the Russian controllers here that, if all continues to go well (and there is no basis for thinking otherwise), they figure on being out of here by about 10 pm.

I don't doubt it will take me, oh, about one night to return to a conventional sleep cycle, so that going back to the hotel and going to sleep after this shift is probably not a good idea and I am contemplating what my options are to stay up past midnight, say, to about 3 am. Sitting in the hotel room isn't very attractive, especially considering that Galina will be sleeping. Maybe I should catch a late movie somewhere?

When I'm not actively working, I'm also contemplating an issue that has bitten me in the butt twice since coming to Houston, and that is: how to manage multiple flash drives? Specifically, the issue has to do with keeping track of what files are where. In one case, I left the unit with needed files in the room because I thought they were on the unit I took with me; in another, I ended up plugging and unplugging units several times looking for what I wanted.

It occurs to me, as I write this, that using multiple flash drives introduces issues the way that wearing two watches does. (A person wearing a watch knows what time it is. A person wearing two watches is never sure.) This suggests an immediate answer to the problem: get rid of all but one flash drive. If you only have one such unit, you'll never have the wrong one with you!

(If I want to cover the situation where I might want to carry around sensitive information on the unit - e.g., encryption keys, financial data - that should remain "my eyes only," perhaps I could retain a second unit for the express purpose of allowing others to plug it into their machines to copy files.)

More later. Maybe.

Cheers...

UPDATE of 10:15 pm: I need my hearing checked. It looks as if we're here until the scheduled 1 am time.

UPDATE of 11:00 pm: Looks like folks are getting ready to leave. I think we'll be out of here in 15 minutes or so.