In medias res...

I'm about halfway through a job due tomorrow morning, but I need to take a break.

What prompted the idea of needing to take a break was recalling something that happened yesterday, something that added one more item to my list of pet peeves. I'm not sure that kind of thinking is very healthy, but then again, there may be some benefit to blowing off some steam, who knows?

Yesterday, I was calmly typing away in Word when Firefox suddenly pops up a window informing me of the availablility of a latest version (1.5.0.1, if memory serves) and offering to download it for me, as in: now! Of course, this technique wouldn't be very useful unless the window grabbed the user focus from Word, which it did, causing me to continue typing into said window, with the end result being my "agreeing" to let Firefox update itself.

Grrr.

(Some may wonder what the big deal is, and why I'd not want to upgrade to the latest, greatest version of Firefox, to which I'll answer: the same deal that is beyond the comprehension of people who don't understand why someone with nothing to hide might object to curtailment of privacy, but I digress...)

* * *An attempt by ILS, et al. to place a satellite in orbit a couple of days ago didn't work out, something to do with an upper stage malfunction. This will doubtless impact the schedule for subsequent campaigns this year, so now it's anyone's guess as to when I'll be going to Kazakhstan.

Then again, that gives me all that much more time to brush up on the French!

* * *I hit the pool at the rec center again yesterday and swam 7 laps, though not all at once. My arms were not as tired afterward, I am happy to report.

In other mundane news, the snow promised a couple of days ago finally arrived Tuesday night as rain, thereby melting almost all of the snow down at our elevation. As Galina and I got home yesterday from dinner (we ate out with the Thomases), very few stars could be seen, which hinted at some snow during the night. I was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of water hitting the side of the house; by morning, the rain had turned to snow (about an inch of the stuff), which has just about all melted by now.

Clearly, I have lost whatever thread I had when I started this post. It's time to get back to translation.

Cheers...

All's quiet, again...

Well, assignments for the first two days of March seem to be propitious. I got a call late in the afternoon, after I had gone into the store to spell Galina, from a translation company in New York, looking for Russian-to-English translators for a rush job.

The conversation went much better than a similar inquiry about 10 days ago, where the first question from the caller's mouth was "How much do you charge?" The next sentence I heard after answering that question and listening to a distinct pause was, "Oh. Well, I'll have to think about that," whereupon the caller hung up the phone.

In today's conversation, the "show me the money" question came last, and it didn't seem to turn the caller off, so there is still a chance something may come of it, although the promise of being sent some forms to fill out took the edge off the prospect. As I've noted before in this journal - albeit in a private post - the probability of actually getting a job with a new agency is inversely proportional to the size and level of detail of the questionnaire they ask you to fill out up front, wanting to know all manner of minutiae (e.g., the speed of my computer's processor, as if that really matters in a word processing environment).

We'll see.

At any rate, the plate is officially empty as of about an hour ago, when I dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's with my most recent invoice. I need to wind down.

Cheers...