Off-site...

Today took the meeting participants to the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, where astronauts train to do space walks, and to Building 9, where NASA keeps all of its training mockups. All in all, it turned out to be a fairly stress-free day (although there was plenty to do). During a break in the discussions this morning, I has one of the participants snap a grip-n-grin of me in what appears to be a hardware staging and training area next to the pool.


I was going to say that tomorrow, we go back to the grind, sort of implying that there would be a lot of stress involved in the meeting. That's not really the case, at least not for the participants (for the supporting intepreters, yes, as such support involves the stress of grokking what's said and expressing it properly in the other language).

In fact, times sure have changed since the first time I supported a Technical Interchange Meeting (called, unsurprisingly, a TIM) back in 1995. In those heady days, U.S. and Russian specialists were just getting to know each other and had yet to really confront and understand fundamental differences in mindset that existed - and which to a certain extent continue to exist, with formalized agreements to disagree - between the sides. Then again, engineering is not politics (though, of course, it can get political).

* * *I called the State Department's passport office to ask about the damage Shiloh inflicted on my passport, which did not affect any of the salient aspects of my passport (all the printed words and numbers are intact, with some margin to spare at the damage location, as is the photo and so on), and was assured - albeit orally - that there should be no problem using the passport. Once I get back to New York, there will be something of a scramble to get everything done for the visa to go to Russia.

* * *I received a query from a prospective client, in France, who asked for a 250-word test, and since there is nothing terribly pressing on the plate at the moment, and since the subject is familiar to me, I decided to do the test and hit 'em with my usual rate. Given the parsimonious nature of the business as I've experienced it in Europe, I doubt I'll be in the running unless all the other candidates turn in poor tests, which is not inconceivable.

* * *I tried earlier this evening to sign up with the French Verbcast through iTunes, but without luck. There was no joy via another avenue, either. I get the feeling the series has been withdrawn from public access, which is a shame, as I've read a lot of good things about the series. In preparation for the launch campaign, I'll need to brush up my French.

Cheers...