Time flies when you quit your job overseas...

...just kidding... we told that to one of my bosses back home in a text message. That got his attention. He said he could actually picture me throttling someone and just packing up and leaving. Ha ha. Don't let the foul mouth and tattoos fool you. I am a very peaceful person... unless you piss me off of course.

Anyways, we have been continuing on with the same old. Varying amounts of success for sure. I know I always say I won't bore you with job details, but today I am reading up on nuclear density gauges and need to keep my wits about me for zaftra utrum (tomorrow morning). BUT, I got a watch to use for the duration of my stay. If you thought you had a fancy watch, then ask yourself... does it have a built in digital Gamma radiation indicator? In simple terms it is a Geiger-Muller tube technology with a DER registration and indication range of 0.01 - 4000 mSv/h (0.001 - 400 mR/h) and it even tells where the sun is in the sky by means of two little pointer stick things spinning in a circle. Unfortuantely, I have to give it back. Fortunately, I have yet to hear if it has any form of warning signal to tell me to back away from the Cs-137 source...

Tomorrow, should be fun. Another day in the life of RJDK. If anyone is worried for my sake, don't be. The radiation is lower than what a lightbulb emits under normal operation. When and if it fails... I will be running away like a man trying not to radiate himself. They have these things in breweries too. Here I am only to setup the electronics portion. The Source and detector needs to be handled by somebody licensed by a nuclear authority and be willing to put their yetsa (balls) on a chopping block if something were to ever to go wrong with one. Same rules for Canada.

But, good news... we got the Profibus network back down to 1.5Mbps. Woohoo! It was so obvious why it was different than the others.

So, other than work, we spent last night having a little hallway party here at the hotel. We thought it was a great idea so nobody had to have the intrusion into their room and be left with a late night straggler or a big mess. The hotel security said "nyet" to that after we devoured our 10 pizzas and were starting in on beer and wine. Apparently some big shot was coming to the hotel and they didn't want us there or something. That was the excuse anyways. We were on the third floor and all the fancy rooms are on the other floors. (I know because my room ain't as fancy as the 5th floor President's Suite with slippers and housecoats.) So, we migrated to another room and actaully abandoned the party due to a MSN message from the boss. We talked work for a few minutes and then felt very safe with the distance to begin bashing him a little. He wasn't entirely pleased with the "Rob quit" joke. We found it amusing. After all the lightwieghts went to bed, we ventured out for beer and settled down with a little Life of Brian. We almost watched it all. Most of it with one eye open and then called it a night.

Sorry for text only too. I haven't turned my camera on in a few days. Plus, my blogger is all in Russian now. Опубликовать means publish I think. Выйти is logout maybe. Going by feel and memory here. this was saved as draft the first time. Ha ha.
I can read and pronounce the words, I just haven't a clue what they mean. But, so far my Russian is improving. I can insult fluently. Even the other day I showed my proficiency in "hello, how are you?" only to confuse the guy into thinking I understood what the hell he was going to say after that.

"Zdrast vuyt ye" I said
"Zdrast vuyt ye" he replied with a much more authentic Russian accent."Kagdyila?" He then asked expressionless.
"Kharosho" I answered questioning my pronunciation. "A u vas?"
"Normana" He replied. After a short pause... "blah blah blah nyet blah pashol nahooie blah eta blah blah sivodnya?"
"I don't fucking know what you just said man" I replied as I resorted back to native tongue and not my typical native tongue as that would have sounded more like
"Hay, anywaycse... dat sound crazy talk. Fkem-eye sposed ta-no?"

My laughter provoked assistance from the technical translator known to us as Stas.

hmmm.. Hockey I am missing.I am working on a playoff beard though. If I feel so inclined I may get up at 5:30 to stream Team 1040 and listen in on the bums. I also hear my buddy Brad is bagging some goals out east too in his playoffs. Amazing what happens when you are allowed to actually "play" hockey.

Weird news.Thankfully we didn't tour the Kremlin today...

http://www.mytelus.com/ncp_news/article.en.do?pn=world&articleID=2614747

We were there a week and a half ago throwing money around. Literally. I hope the beggars didn't get trampled. I can't say the same for the pushy junk peddlers.
"Why Nyet spasiba? Come buy Russian souvenirs?" Some of them you feel like doing a little nyet spasiba their noses flat to their faces.

So, on to reading again. I am motivated by some Lamb of God blasting into both ears. Thank god for Ipod. Some would think that this would negatively impact my thinking ability, but for some reason I am reading really fast and my head is bobbing a little. It is all good.

Talk to you all soon.

RJDK