Up and at 'em!

[alexpgp]

Probably the worst part about telecons, for me, is the night before. I sleep poorly, ever nervous that somehow, for some reason, I'll oversleep. Other interpreters I know have gone to the extent of buying multiple alarm clocks, to preclude the possibility of not showing up for a telecon.

Part of last night's pre-telecon jitters for me was a disturbing dream (or maybe I wasn't asleep, but only thinking) in which I end up old and destitute at some time in the future. The more I think of it, the more I believe I was not actually sleeping, because as some part of me - the incorrigible optimist - found ways to deal with the situation, the miserable pessimist in me would restart the story with some additional handicap added to the mix: sickness, blindness, and so on.

The fact that the local coyote chorus decided to do their version of Handel's Messiah at 4:45 am did not help.

In any event, this morning's telecon itself was a piece of cake. In the aftermath, I get the feeling that I probably could have written an interesting book on the joint space program, based simply on the many and sundry telecons I've been a part of over the years. There have been so many different kinds of telecons and many different kinds of principals involved: bureaucrats, pedants, good-old-boys, comedians, nerds, budding linguists, insensitive louts, overly sensitive puffballs (and oh, yes, ordinary janes and joes, too).

Unfortunately, I don't retain such experiences in memory for long (I have always been somewhat envious of people who write detailed memoirs that include names, dates, times, and places - one would suppose from memory, although detailed journals are probably not excluded), so anything I would come up with today would be a series of composites with little depth or real renderings of character.

Time to get ready for the rest of the day.

Cheers...

Comments

[brenk.livejournal.com]

I think the day I don't get nerves about any conference, tele or real, is when I'll probably have *really* lost it. The whole 'if I imagine all the horror scenarios, they won't happen'. I go through the works in that direction (for the minute-taking, so it's a bit different, but...)
- will the microphone fail at a crucial moment, when there are no recordings, the delegate isn't to be found to check the bit I missed (or can't remember, which also happens), and there are no spares and I have to write the report NOW... and everybody's yelling and saying 'but that's PRECISELY the bit we needed you for...'
- will I get completely the wrong end of the stick of a tricky debate, panic, and lose it (have seen many a minute-taker crack up, sadly, for just this reason)
- will I get cramp (have had cramps and pins and needles at times to the point stuff I write is barely legible). Oh, or will they turn the lights off for a slide show and don't give me a lamp or keep a dim one on for me, as I've asked. Writing in the dark is... interesting.
- will I miss the plane, train or will the car break down (I always have contingency plans)or will I get the wrong time/date.
And the thing is, people keep saying to me 'but you always look so *calm*'. If only they knew. Good thing they can't see me now, actually, as I'm having a serious case of 'I just can't do that again' after the last week.

Last miserable ramble: we had one guy who insisted on changing what he said on the report we'd done(already published) just last week. He stormed in to the head of documentation, where I happened to be at the time, and threw his arms around. My colleague, who actually did that chunk, went to check her notes, then the tape, and she was right and he was wrong. But they published a rectification anyway - the powers that be smiled at him and said *she* must have misheard. She went to her room and cried. We all been worked 16 hour days on this stuff. All the meetings overran. But we *still* got the reports out the same night, which were translated overnight and ready the next morning. Just 3 of us for up to 10 hours of meetings a day. No secretarial backup. Fortunately, only the one (unfounded) protest. But who gets public applause and thanks during the closing cermony? 'Our tireless interpreters'.

Don't take up minute-taking, Alex. Just a warning. We don't get paid as well as they do either, even though we're all multi-lingual and listen to the original wherever possible. I wish I didn't need the money so much.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Gee, that last miserable ramble sounds like a goddam nightmare, especially if what was being discussed is of any importance to anyone except fellow burblers.

Hang in there, and no, I don't think I'll go in for minute-taking. It sounds too dangerous (I'd probably go to jail for assaulting jackasses like the one you mention, or something).

Cheers...

P.S. I've sent the Petit Larousse 2003. It's now in the hands of the postal gods.