March 31, 2005

Temperature-63.7 C -82.5 F
Windchill-81.2 C -114.2 F
Wind 6.7 kts Grid 113
Barometer 682.1 mb (10547. ft)
Lunch: Turkey Tetrazini
Dinner: Lamb
Wow I am I ever happy I have taken care of my teeth all these years. Ever since I was a wee lad my dentist visits were very short and painless. I have had one filling and I am not totally convinced that I needed it but was the result of my drug-addicted dentist at the time needing some cash. Anyway just before station closed the program brought in their own dentist to do one last check on everyone. All of these people had been checked during the PQ process only months before but they wanted to be safe; thus the second review. Well several folks either paid their dentists off or the "program" dentist was much more conservative in his views and several folks had some major work done. One guy had 9 fillings and 4 teeth pulled and another had several fillings, some scaling done to his upper front teeth and all the front lowers taken out. They both have problems smiling these days without being self-conscious. I don’t know if I would have put myself through that much dental work before station close but these guys wanted to stay pretty badly.
One guy who has an extreme amount of saliva and every time he talks has to suck air through the recently created vacancies in his mouth to keep from drooling. We all remember the "close Talker", "the Soup Nazi" and the "Pig Man" from the Seinfeld sitcom, I often wonder how Kramer, George, Jerry and Elaine would handle "slurpy".

March 30, 2005

Temperature-59.6 C -75.3 FWindchill-80.3 C -112.5 F Wind 10.6 kts Grid 068Barometer 683.5 mb (10496. ft)
Lunch: Sloppy Joes
Dinner: Mahi Mahi

Every Wednesday we have a teleconference with Camp Centennial and Washington to discuss construction and operations site issues. No decisions are usually made and the content usually consist of us asking “is this complete” and getting “um ah um we were going to do that but”, for an answer. The meetings are typically frustrating and of little use other than to hear the voices from the outside world.

This coming weekend the northern hemisphere moves into daylight savings time and the south moves to standard time meaning we will be 18 hours ahead of Camp Centennial and 16 hours ahead of Washington. Typically the meeting time here remains at 8:00 am and the times at CC shift from 12:00 to 14:00 but today we were told that they will not be shifting but we will be moving our time to 6:00 AM. The galley hours are from 6:30 to 8:00 AM and work hours are 7:00 to 17:00 meaning if we start the meeting at 6:00 we will not be able to have breakfast and we will work an additional hour. I mentioned this and the response was “oh well”. As the response came over the speaker we all had the same vision at once of them sitting there with a big cup of Starbucks enjoying a leisurely morning talking with us at the bottom.

I realize it sounds like I am whining and I am, but with the recent revelations of the lack of vitamin “D” fortified foods, water quality problems and the wackos that were allowed to return, combined with the fact that we work 6 days a week, 9 hours a day has all of us feeling as if our sacrifice isn’t appreciated and we are expendable.

When I returned it took every bit of will power to get me on the plane and I desperately wanted to turn tail and run. Occasionally while walking back from the gym and looking around at the surroundings I occasionally ask myself “what are you doing here again?” I won’t lie it is about the money, though not great and I could earn more in the U.S. but because I don’t pay for overhead I save a significant amount of cash. Looking at my bank account and the B.S. I have seen this season I wonder “is it worth it?” I once read on another web site that life here is similar to being like “a fuzzy bear in a video game where you do what ever the person with the quarter and at the controls tells you to do.” I have taken this approach in many things I do not offering any of my experience or creativity to solve the problems but I explain the conditions of the problem and let them come up with the solutions. I find my life is easier this way because giving suggestions only makes me a target of some flame thrower. Instead I save my creativity and brain for my personal projects and when I return home.

When I was home I visited one of my projects and found that 10 minutes on that site was more rewarding than 10 years here could ever be. Sure I didn’t make the money I make here, but seeing the product of my brain go from a concept to reality was very pleasing. So for everyone who thinks working at the bottom would be a great experience, I say do it once but never twice. Instead if the work is appealing do it someplace else because there just isn’t enough to do here and the bureaucracy will only annoy the second time.

I wish there was a way I could do some consulting from here so I could get a little mental exercise, so if anyone needs some help with their projects let me know, I would be happy to feel useful.

March 28, 2005

Since I haven’t had many good things to say about the program lately I though it was time to point out the benefits. Unlike everyone in the United States we do not have television, 24/7 phone service, radio, pop culture and consumerism. Many people ask "how do you do it?" That is my question exactly "how do you do it?"

TV, I used to watch it and now I can’t stand it, after being isolated and training myself to do different things like read and write, I can’t imagine ever having it again. The TV is always pushing, trying to tell me what I should be, should have, should eat, should watch, should buy, should do, SHOULD, SHOULD, SHOULD. Without TV my life feels very much like "I want", tonight I want to read, want to spend time with my friends, want to work on my house, want to dream. It is a powerful feeling saying I want rather than should and I highly recommend it.

Phone service, we have it but not all the time. We have a satellite window that is 11 hours 45 minutes but that period occurs mostly during our sleep cycle and when combined with the time difference it is nearly impossible to make a convenient call. Meaning we have to make an effort to contact our friends and when we do, they have our full undivided attention. For me in the real world it was a rare occasion that I could give anyone my full attention and now it is very seldom that I lose focus and I am usually ecstatic to be talking. As a result I have learned what my friends mean to me and how much happiness their attention can bring.

Pop culture, they say it takes the average person about 13 times of seeing something to start visualizing how that thing can fit into their lifestyle. Without TV, radio and magazines we never get to see something enough that it becomes imprinted on our psyche so we never feel the compulsion to fit in and pop culture never catches on. Too bad I really like hip hugger jeans.

Consumerism, the lack of things to buy is one of the great benefits of being here. If I need something I learn how to make it and as a result I know how to knit, work wood, cut glass, bend sheet metal and much more. I find it fun to make things and I especially like making gifts for my friends. I find the gifts mean so much more than anything bought in a store could.

In closing I would encourage everyone to do without for awhile. I find it helps me appreciate the little things like the feel of the sun, the smell of rain, the reunion with friends and family, the taste of an avocado, the joy of a good beer and most of all peace and quiet.

March 27, 2005

Last night was the sunset party and I had a very good time. The Germans made schnitzel, strudel and homemade ice cream and all were excellent. Dinner was buffet style and line consisted of bread, pork schnitzel, chicken schnitzel, broccoli and tofu vegetable pockets. I was not going to have any of the schnitzel but after looking at it I could not resist so I had a small one combined with the tofu thing. As usual there was plenty of alcohol and I part took in more than my share and am feeling it this morning. The streaking club made a pass at the end and then we all retired to the kiwi lounge for some drinks, pool and dancing.
I felt badly for one guy who has an alcohol problem because I think after some drama on station (not the guy who pooped his pants) the management team intervened and are trying to help him. When he came into dinner he looked so scared and uncomfortable I wished we had the ability to support him better but this just isn’t the place to be dealing with emotional and chemical problems. We do have tele-medicine and if needed they could counsel him but not having a warm blooded individual who can identify what the person is going through it has to be lonely.
As usual the full on mating rituals were out at the lounge, girls with girls, boys with girls and no boys with boys yet. It makes for good people watching and reminds me of my disco hopping days.
My friend finished her Easter baskets and put them out last night, I hope everyone appreciates her efforts.
Yesterday I finished my wardrobe shelves and another person wants some similar ones so I am going to help him make them. Surprisingly they turned out pretty nice. I used some furniture grade plywood that was finished on one side that looks very much like maple. One of the carpenters helped me with some of the ideas and it was fun watching and learning from a true craftsman.
Well happy Easter to anyone reading this.

March 25, 2005

I had a whole different entry planned for today but after the events late in the day I just didn’t feel it was appropriate for how I felt. They day was rather slow and they keep getting slower, the weeks between two day weekends seem to drag by and the days off just don’t provide enough time to get all that I want to get done. This week station management decided to celebrate the sunset with a party, so we get off at 10:00 am tomorrow morning and we get to prepare for a dinner and bingo in the evening. Tonight I helped the beakers who are preparing tomorrow nights meal, pound out the pork and chicken for schnitzel. I probably will not eat any since I am kind of porked out since they cut our chicken rations and it seems they are serving some kind of pork everyday. The upside is pig fat is really high in vitamin D so I should be getting my RDA.
Tonight my friend Greg and my mom wrote making the day end on a very good note. I tend to forget there is more to the world than the 86 people and the 60,000 square feet of this place and word from the outside helps me reconnect and gain perspective. Thanks guys!!
I worked on the house today and came up with a really simple and cheap idea for a hydroponic growth system. If anyone is interested I would be happy to share it. I guess my interest in hydroponics was stimulated because I had to work in the greenhouse today. The acid injection system was not working and the PH in growth system one was getting pretty high and starting to kill the plants. I found that the elbow at the mixing block had been filled with a hard calcium substance preventing the acid from entering the system. I poked it with a stick and it broke free and the acid system was back in business. The woman who is running the system has it working pretty well and she was able to get 40lbs of lettuce in the past week. It has been nice having a salad option every night.
One of my friends is working on Easter baskets for the first floor and she is busy talking to me as I write in my blog. It is kind of driving me crazy but then again having the company is nice and I would not trade it for the world. She is planning on leaving them on the doors on Sunday night so everyone wakes up with a little Easter surprise.

March 24, 2005

Tonight was Stitch N Bitch or Arts and Alcohol as some like to call it. I finished my first sock and now I have to knit the other.
The sun is officially down and the sky is full of all the pastels that ordinarily last a few minutes in a normal sunset but the colors go on for hours and hours. As the sun gets further north the tones will become darker until twilight and then complete darkness with the occasional aurora.
Today I found a mini disc recorder so it looks like I am ready to run with a pod cast. I tried using it on a girl by asking some rather ordinary questions then asked something deeper and she busted me. I need to be more cleaver on my delivery if I am going to capture people in their true essence.
I really don’t have much else to say tonight but tomorrow I will try to write more.

March 22, 2005

Temperature-52.0 C -61.6 F
Windchill-68 C -90.40 F
Wind 7.6 kts Grid 069
Barometer 680.4 mb (10611. ft)

Tonight we had our first Pod Cast meeting. We had some really great ideas but we lack recording equipment so I guess I will need to trade, borrow or steal some things that might work. We all agreed to keep it pretty simple this first time around and make it more and more complex as we make more shows. It is pretty exciting and there seems to be a buzz around here about it. In the first episode we want to capture spontaneity where we capture people without them knowing. We also want to include some sounds from around the station. Anyway I am really excited about the potential and hope all the people who download it find it interesting.
I think I saw the sun for the last time this evening. As we were having our meeting the last sliver of sun could be seen above the horizon. It really makes me sad thinking about it going away, but I just need to keep thinking Australia, Thailand, Bali, China, Russia and Europe. With the travels and time off I think the 4 months of darkness will be worth it.
I received my first comment on my blog today, thanks Bob. It is nice to know that people actually read my page.
Now for my soapbox talk. A friend of mine has been sending out emails saying things about the program that are not what some people would consider positive. In reading them I don’t find anything wrong with them. There are a thousand websites all saying what a wonderful place this is and talking about the experience. But there are many things that those web pages don’t talk about and one of them is the loss of choice. For instance; in the "real" world I get to decide what I will have for breakfast or what water I will drink or if I will supplement my diet with fortified food but here all those choices are made for me. It is easy living but when the un-chosen choices are bad ones made by a bureaucrat that could affect your health later on in life it becomes very disturbing. How many chemical companies have ended up in litigation because they polluted the soil, air or water. Here we are forced to drink water that we learned after arriving doesn’t meet EPA rules for lead and copper. You would think with some of the greatest minds in science living here the "program" would give a hoot about what could be a considerable problem for these people’s investments (their brains) but like my friend has pointed out they don’t. She got a bunch of heat from her readers about being negative but life here isn’t about positives but about surviving and sometimes surviving means some rather unpleasant things and if we did not share those unpleasant things people could never understand the sacrifices that have to be made for sake of being here. So go easy on my friend, she is only sharing the entire experience and trusts her readers to understand the tough times along with the good.

March 21, 2005

Temperature-46.8 C -52.2 F
Windchill-65.5 C -85.8 F
Wind 12.6 kts Grid 001
Barometer 688.9 mb (10293. ft)

Until last night I thought I was a pretty open guy. But my significant other brought me a movie called Big Eden which pushed me a little beyond my comfort zone. I guess I am not ready to watch movies with gay plots. We both became uncomfortable, turned it off and watch Northern Exposure instead. I really miss the television series, with Joel the Jewish doctor from NY, Chris in the morning and Maggie (I totally thought she was hot), and all the crazy happenings in Cicily, Alaska. I guess it is kind of like this place. A small community, complete with the intellectuals/beakers, construction workers, wackos and people that manage things. We have all kinds of crazy wacky things that happen here, the difference is they become really big deals because of our isolation and the fact that we really don’t have much else going on. Last year the guy who ran the Sunday services decided to confide in a friend, telling him what a bunch of heathens we all were and how he thought out of the 75 on station 68 would be going to hell. The friend told one friend and before long we were all aware of what the person said and the next thing I knew the flavors on the ice cream machine are "Seven Go To Heaven Vanilla" and "68 In Hades Chocolate." Needless to say I had chocolate ice cream that night. Even though I agree that he should have never said anything like that, he was kind of banished from the community and never quite recovered from that mistake. This winter we have had similar "big deals" and I have elaborated on them in past posts and will continue to do so.
Today is sunset. At the beginning of the sleep cycle the sun was observed to be just above the horizon meaning the sun will set in the next 30 to 45 hours. We most likely will not get to see it because a storm blew in, warmed things up a bit but obscured our view. I was really hoping to see the sun set because it will be the last time I will see it for six months (Writing that line sent shivers up my spine). Last season I did not mind seeing the sun go down, but after one season here, looking at the boarded up windows, and seeing how mean people get I really wish the sun would stay up forever. (I know when I leave here I will find a place where the sun shines on me almost every day and I will worship its warmth and light). We will have varying degrees of light for the next month then complete darkness with auroras for 4 months then increasing light until sunrise in September. Then OUT OF HERE and on to travels.

March 20, 2005

Temperature-64.5 C -84.3 FWindchill-83.7 C -118.7 F Wind 7.8 kts Grid 081Barometer 681.5 mb (10567. ft)
Last season it was copper in the water that I later learned also included higher than EPA levels of lead. This winter it is vitamin "D." The doctor did a presentation yesterday showing some studies of submariners that were without sunlight for 60 days and how their vitamin "D" levels dropped and how no calcium was present in their urine. With a good day in the sun a "normal" adult will produce up to 20000 IU of vitamin "D" which helps that person metabolize calcium. Without vitamin "D" the body is forced even though enough calcium is present in the food, to rob the bones and the teeth of this nutrient. In the submariners, after a 60-day cruises their blood vitamin "D" levels dropped to 20IU meaning, they were no longer metabolizing calcium. We will be spending six months without the sun and we do not have any foods that are fortified with "D." Low levels of "D" have been linked to season affective disorder, colon cancer, diabetes, schizophrenia and many others. So why did Big "R" choose to buy milk, cereals and other foods that are not fortified as we commonly see in the US. I don’t know but I think it inexcusable for a program that has 49 years of history to allow the so-called medical department of a giant corporation to just slide by without an explanation. Lucky for me I was planning ahead and brought some vitamin D with me but I wish I had enough for everybody knowing the problems they could face later in life.
As for all of the people living above 30 degrees north and south latitude they probably ought to think about supplementing their diets also. Apparently, there are only a couple months at best where a person can get enough D from sunlight and the remainder of the year they rob from their stores until the reach the "bottom level" at which point they begin to lose bone mass. So go to the health food store and stalk up.
Today is our day off and as I said in my previous web log I will be working on some shelves for my wardrobe. Last night we had a showing of "The Man Who Knew Too Little" and it was very good. I was afraid it was going to be one of those really bad James Bond spoof movies but it was not and provided non stop laughs.
The race across the continent continues and surprising Glen and Jake are maintaining an astonishing pace. The have already ripped off over 100 miles in a little over a week and a half. The athletes on station keep thinking they will burn out or hurt themselves but they seem to be pushing each other along. Lets hope they can keep it up and smoke the other stations having the same race.

March 19 2005

Temperature-61.2 C -78.0 FWindchill-78.40 C -109.1 F Wind 6.8 kts Grid 119Barometer
677.7 mb (10711. ft)

031805
This web log stuff is hard to keep up with. I am really beginning to appreciate a high-speed Internet connection 24/7; instead of an 11 hour 45 minute window that shifts 4 minutes a day. Right now our connection begins before the sleep cycle and ends just before work in the morning. Needless to say updating the blog requires a loss in sleep. Soon we will be changing our time to fall back with NZ and the window will start appearing at more convenient times.
This morning the phone rang twice, once for the rents and the second for some friends. Sounds like both are doing well.
Yesterday was pretty uneventful I worked on getting some stuff left over from summer done. The turnover of personnel from winter to summer to winter just kills our ability to keep things moving efficiently, there always seems to be some loose ends that are only discovered through digging through past work. The turnover is so quick and the people are so tired and burned out that it is nearly impossible to catch everything. I don’t know of a solution.
Last night I had a date; we watched Northern Exposure and ate into the stash of chips and snacks I shipped down. It was a nice treat to relax and enjoy an evening away from the masses.
I continue to think about the pod casts my friends want me to put together but I am short of ideas about what content would be interesting to others. Maybe the others will have some ideas.
Tomorrow is Sunday, our one day off during the week. Don’t know what I will do but I think I might start some shelves for my wardrobe so I can store shoes and stuff more efficiently. Last week I built a storage shelf for my trash can/cans to make it easier to sort the trash into, burnables, bio-waste, glass/Aluminum, and non-recyclables. Turns out I have begun using the new shelves for storing my stuff instead of their intended purpose thus the idea for the wardrobe. It is really crazy they provide this giant wardrobe, without hangers, without shelves just a big block of space taken out of the room that is pretty much useless. I could see the usefulness if we had formal clothing but Carharts and cold weather gear can be folded and stuffed into dressers or shelves.
Since getting my room key I have now locked myself out twice, once when I left the room to go to the bathroom and the second when I went to work this morning. I am looking for some string to make a lanyard to keep it around my neck but until then I guess I should try to keep my key at hand.

March 17, 2005

Temperature-57.4 C -71.2 FWindchill-77 C -106.6 F Wind 10.1 kts Grid 059Barometer 680.9 mb (10591. ft)
031705
Yesterday was my first attempt at a blog but after spending an hour typing out my message to the world I checked the spelling and the system crashed and I lost everything. So I try again today.
Today the women had a meeting to discuss the policies on station and since there are more women than at any time in history here the big R decided to allow some weirdos here to help them feel safe and at home. Apparently, we have already had some drama that is scaring the women and the meeting was to address their fears and tell them what to do if they feel threatened, harassed or both.
Yesterday was the mens meeting which had a very different tone. They made it very clear that any bad behavior would not be tolerated but the problem being is "W0" (the name I call the biggest wacko) was not present to hear all this.
Tonight was St. Patrick’s day so many of us watched the "Waking of Ned Devine". Very funny and entertaining movie. I am really glad the kiwis arranged the use of the TV room for its viewing.
The sun sets in 5 days and we will not see it again until September. I suspect it will be a very long time indeed.
The race across the continent is progressing nicely, several people have already clicked off over 50 miles, biking, running (3 biking miles = 1 race mile) and rowing. It will be interesting to see if they can keep this pace for the entire 840 miles.
Not much else to say.