Far South of I-10

I used to read the NYtimes every morning, then flit over to CNN or maybe the local paper to see what was happening in the world. Now, after being steadily disgusted with various newspapers and tvnews, my only remaining morning ritual reads are James Lileks and Dilbert. (ok, so I'm not well informed, shoot me.) Today, Lileks' had the funniest morning bleat I've seen in a while. He always seems to capture small activities with the perfect verbage, today, he was really spot on when he bumbed into a childhood cartoon memory, I mean we're in Proust's cookie territory: The memory had been sitting in a combination of chemicals and sparky-juice somewhere in my head, and it reactivated with surprising force. It wasn’t so much the recognition of the picture as the feeling of familiarity, as if I’d just read the book the other day. The sensation collapses on itself almost immediately, and you can feel the present rush in, almost as if it’s too dangerous to keep this up....

One of my favorite business blogs is "Big Picture, Small Office" It's almost always wise and funny, and I almost always learn something when I visit there. He recently posted his "12 rules" when someone requested that he do so after he mentioned 4 of them in a post. Pretty good advice: .......................................................... To each, I gave a parting gift: twelve things to remember when put to the test. Atop the list: The Twelve Rules, neatly scribed and laminated, begin with what I believe is the fundamental basis for success in a senior management position and that is to remember what got you there in the first place: - Be not simply good. Be good for something. - Do not wish to be anything but what you are and try to be that perfectly. -Never poke a tiger with a short stick - Have more than you show. Speak less than you know. - Do not choose to be wrong for the sake of being different. - Think like a person of action. Ac...

I finally made it home this week, I got my chance to ride in the storm tossed seas, feel the fresh cool sea breeze, and puke my guts out until I strained so hard I reached that runny-nose weeping eyes point you normally don't reach until after commenting "I've never drunk this much tequila before". I knew it was going to be a rough ride when the crane operator looked visibly nervous about being able to set us down safely on the boat in the turbulant seas. He reviewed the procedure about three times, which is about 3 times more than anyone had ever discussed the procedure for getting onto a boat via personnel basket before. We were unloaded safely on the boat as the deck rolled sharply from side to side, and it seemed pretty rough, about a "7" on the "o-shit" scale. The captain didn't make me feel any better when he announced, "I hope y'all don't have dates tonight, it's too rough to go fast, we'll take about 12 hours to ge...

Here's a picture of the waves of a very rough gulf of mexico. It doesn't look very impressive, because I'm up on the rig taking pictures from 100' above the water. The waves are about 10-15' high, which isn't bad if you're 100' up, but if you're on a boat can be pretty miserable. Strangely enough, now is the rough season for the gulf, during hurricane season, except when there are hurricanes passing through, the gulf of mexico could be a big duck pond for all the wave action. Right now, winter winds blow, waves crash, all under a blue sky, and I sit waiting, unable to work until a boat can cross the storm tossed waters. Until I work I can't go home. Prisoner of the waves.

I've walked in circles quite a bit in my life. Offshore, one of the few ways to exercise (unless you're on a nice rig with a gym) is to walk on the helipad. Since the helipad is usually only 50' across, you're walking in a fairly tight circle, around and around. I was walking last night, and I wondered how many hours I've walked in circles on heliports, and could this explain my difficulty in walking more than 50' in a straight line after drinking 10 beers, or could there be another mysterious explanation. I guessed that since 1991 I've worked about 1500 days offshore (another 500 or so on land rigs), and I probably walked about 2/3's of those days, for an average time of an hour each time. That makes 1000 hours, or round it down to 40 days! Fuck. Oh well, my circular walk was spoiled by that thought. A wasted youth. On a cheerier note the sunset was a fiery cheeseball falling into the ocean in the west, and on the other side of the rig, two freighte...

The New York times has an article today about LA governor Blanco saying she won't allow the next lease sale if LA doesn't get more federal help. NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 7 — Seeking more money from Washington for hurricane relief, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco entered uncharted legal territory with a threat on Monday to block oil and gas leases worth hundreds of millions to the federal treasury unless the state received its "fair share" of the revenues. "It's time to play hardball, as I believe that's the only game Washington understands," Ms. Blanco said Monday night as she opened the second special legislative session she has called since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.... Back in September last year I posted a similar idea, when I read that people were saying maybe it wasn't worth it to spend the money to rebuild Louisiana. Rebuilding New Orleans should be part of a comprehensive plan to restore the surrounding barrier islands and the delta, even ...

Sharon over at Domestic engineer pointed out in a post today that life is never boring, there is always something to do or watch that is interesting and something to write about. At first I thought to leap the self-pitying, "but I'm working offshore, and I'm bored" But then again she's right, people are pretty interesting if you watch them. It's always interesting offshore how people fall into stereotypes, mostly because almost all the jobs on the rig are pretty standardized, so you can call out on the PA on any rig in the world "pick up driller!" and the guy that does the drilling will pickup the phone. And he'll be pretty similar seeming to every driller on any rig in the world. Even in india, they are likely to be tobacco chewing rednecks. They just have curry for lunch instead of chicken fried steak. I've been on enough drilling rigs to have a definite groundhog day feeling (the movie, not the day). Things tend to endlessly repeat,...

So, I'm back offshore again. Here's a picture as the boat I'm on arrives at the rig after a lovely 7 hour jaunt through the wind and waves of the gulf of mexico. I didn't get sick though. My drammanine lasted until the last two hours, then I headed out for the back deck of the boat. As long as I can see the horizon and not smell the diesel/lysol/vomit smell inside the boat, I actually do ok on boat rides. Of course I'll never pay actual money for a cruise or to go fishing.

I got peeved when I saw a news article saying that the US supports muslims against the cartoonist in denmark, so I sent an email to Kay Bailey Hutchison, one of the two texas senators.: Dear Senator Hutchison, This is regarding the cartoons depicting mohammed in Denmark. Yahoo news has an article saying that the US supports muslims against the cartoonists. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060203/pl_nm/religion_cartoons_usa_dc "These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question. "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable." I don't think that the official US position should support people who are willing to threaten to kill cartoonists just because a cartoon depicts Mohammed. What else are muslims offended by? Women's rights. People...

Scott Adams is not only funny but makes a good point when he predicts that Hamas' policies will change now that they are in power: I have to think it will be difficult for Hamas to reconcile the whole “destroy Israel” platform with “We’ll all be at the Parliament building at noon talking about how to do it.”

I live near the gulf coast, so the idea of rising sea levels and hurricanes of increasing in intensity makes me think I should maybe be moving to Missouri or someplace. from PJM "Natural systems are resilient and bounce back," said Susan Cutter, a geographer with the University of South Carolina. "The problem is when we try to control nature, rather than letting her do what she does." The seas are rising, the planet is getting hotter and commercial and residential development is snowballing. Add those factors to a predicted increase in nasty hurricanes and what results is a recipe for potentially serious natural degradation, some say. "It may bring about a situation (in which) the change is so rapid, it's something that's very different from what the ecosystem experienced over the last three, four thousand years," said Kam-biu Liu, a Louisiana State University professor and hurricane paleoscientist. "We may be losing part of our beaches, we ma...

Doesn't it suck when you're super busy at work, but feeling so depressed that all I really feel like doing is sliding across the street to Big John's Icehouse across the street and tipping back about 15 beers. Instead I'll sit here trying to keep various balls juggled in the air, if too many fall and crash I'll ease on out with the walkin blues. Walking Blues I woke up this mornin' feelin' round for my shoes Know 'bout 'at I got these old walkin' blues, woke Up this mornin' feelin' round oh, for my shoes But you knoe 'bout 'at I got these old walkin; blues Lord I, feel like blowin' my woh-old lonesome home Got up this mornin', my little Ber- nice was gone, Lord I feel like blow-oon' my lonesome home Well, I got up this mornin' woh-all I had was gone Well-ah leave this morn' if I have to woh, ride the blind, ah, I've feel mistreated and I dont' mind dyin' Leavin' this morn', ah...

"It's time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don't care what people are saying in Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have it no other way." New Orleans Mayor - C. Ray Nagin

Here in Alaska the governor is discussing a PR campaign would attempt to tell the rest of the US that Alaska is not just a consumer of Federal money, and it would "tell Alaska's story": (from a column by Beth Bragg) The governor wants to "tell Alaska's story" to the Lower 48 so folks down there have a better idea of what it's like up here. The goal is to end the ridicule we've been so good at inspiring lately, what with our bridges to you-know-where and our desire to drill for oil in a wildlife refuge. The thinking goes like this: If we can educate the critics with pictures of a desolate ANWR and defuse the comedians with pictures of a serene and congenial Ted Stevens, then we can move on to our ultimate goal, which is building bridges to you-know-where and drilling for oil in a wildlife refuge. Or as the Governor actually said: "Alaska does not just take. We give, and we have the capacity to give much, much more -- if permitted to do so,...

It seems like everywhere I've gone in the past six months has had a disaster of some kind. Hurricanes in New Olreans, Houston, barbados and mexico. Bombs in London. Now I'm in Alaska and there is a volcano erupting. The Augustine volcano is down at the southern end of the Cook Inlet. I'm up at the northeastern end of the cook inlet in anchorage. Plenty far away. The best coverage seems to be at the alaska volcano observatory , with maps and a webcam. Here in Anchorage the sun is just coming up (9:40 am local time), so if any ash is visible I should be able to see it soon. Luckily the ash is moving East, and not Northeast towards anchorage, because the safety equipment our office is issuing is a dusk mask and a plastic bag. The bag goes on your computer, the mask is for your face. Or vice versa. Ashfall is the only real risk, unless the volcano collapses and makes a tsunamit that will wash away Homer (doh!).

Well. I tried my best. I really did. I attempted to drink a beer in every bar that is open on Bourbon Street. I only made it from Canal to about St. Peter, before I staggered back and put down roots and stayed in the Green Door lounge. Apparently New Orleans is coming back to life, because right now I feel like I was shot at and missed, shit at and hit. There were several really good bands playing, one at the green door, and one at a new place, formerly a nudie bar that wasn't good enough to remember the name of. The Green Door had maybe ten people in it, when pre-Katrina it was hard to get in the door, and they were running 3 for one beer specials, before they would have sold a cup of beer for 6 dollars. Really great band playing covers. The former nudie bar had a four man blues group with a fantastic lead guitarist playing BB King style blues. So the city is coming back. The suburbs are swinging busy as everyone rebuilds, all that is needed is some leadership from the C...

An economist article makes some good points about climate change, and it sounds very even handed as you'd expect from one of the few good news magazines in the world, but one troubling aspect was the chart of temperatures: It has the typical hockey stick aspect, but I knew I'd seen it before at numberwatch.co.uk, which is a fantastic site and should be required reading of anyone that discusses statistics. I saw this same graph here in numberwatch's discussion of chartmanship , (go read the whole thing) Let us take some raw data that you wish to present to the lay public, say a plot of temperature against time: Now, it is fairly clear that the graph shows two flattish periods and two rising periods. Let us also suppose, for the sake of argument, that in order to satisfy your paymasters you need to emphasise the importance of the second rise, while diminishing that of the first. There are three techniques that help. The first is to put in a base line at the most helpful leve...

One of the books I've been reading this week is "Days of Infamy" by Harry Turtledove. Harry is the "Master of If", almost all of his novels are alternate histories and he cranks out about 1000 pages of quality writing per year. "Days of Infamy" posits what would have happened if the Japanese had followed up the pearl harbor strike with an invasion. A really good book, very believable history that shows how close we came to losing our ass in the pacific, and also how brutal the Japanese were to civilians and soldiers who surrendered. While I was reading this book, I also happened to catch a show on PBS about the railroad that crossed the bridge over the river kwai, and how it was constructed by POW's, many of whom were worked to death. It really drove home that the brutality portrayed in the "Days of Infamy" was probably understated. The show also interviewed a japanese engineer who wouldn't admit that he did anything wrong, and kep...

I'm over in New Orleans today, working in a client's office while a well is drilled offshore somewhere. I didn't go into town yet, I stayed out here in the burb's and from this office it looks like every third house has a blue tarp covering the roof. This area just had normal streetflooding that results when the pumps aren't turned on due to the workmen being evacuated, not due to a levee breach. But it does look like a mild war swept through the area. All of metairie seems to be bustling, help wanted signs are everywhere and every other vehicle seems to be full of mexican roofers. On the other hand, tonight I can look out through the darkness outside this office, and through one window I can see the thin ribbon of the causeway bridge stretching out to infinity, through the other window I can see that the center of New Orleans is ominously dark. I can remember christmas' from my childhood, when the soaring towers of downtown left their lights on in the shap...

I flew back home from alaska tuesday on one of the suckiest flights where I got upgraded to first class for one leg. I got pulled from a middle seat in a packed coach section where I was speaking with a nice old lady, brought up to first class for what I thought was the whole flight. Drank my 3 bloody mary's (they're free, you gotta drink 'em) and passed out asleep. I got woken up in seatle by someone checking my ticket, she tried to throw me out of 1st because my ticket had my old seat # written on it that they had used to find me in coach. I asked her to check, and she checked her list then said I was good. I resumed passing out. A small child's screeching woke me up as the other people were boarding. "Mommy mommy he's in my seat!", "Yes, dear, there's a man in our seat, but mommy will get him out of there"...a wispered conversation behind my back with a flight attendant... which was quickly followed by the flight attendant telling me...