Nowhere To Go But Up

Last night, the same night as the opening of the new bar, the galley prepared a special dinner for us. The wanted to show us that even though we're at the south pole, we do have a few creature comforts. The meal was highlighted by crab legs, which we haven't had since Christmas. We also had several different types of pasta & sauces to choose from, freshies (they're starting to become smooshies, so we're eating them as fast as we can), and cheesecake for dessert. Judy, the head chef, even came around and handed out some finger food (I can't spell hors d'oeuvres), which were mini salmon pizzas & scallops on rye crackers. It's easy to forget where we are sometimes when we're treated like this. For anyone who forgets where we're at and what the galley staff endures to make our meals, there's a (not so) friendly reminder hanging on the wall. When anyone gets the far away notion to start dreaming of the idea of thinking about starting unconstructive criticism of the meal put forth, the the bell tolls.....


After the meal, there was a movie in the new corner of the galley set aside as a coffee lounge. One of the non-scientific tasks that I got to take part in last week was moving furniture out of the old dome into the new station. The furniture used for the lounge came from the old library/TV room. Even though the furniture isn't historical, it certainly has a history (use your imagination). It's new home is only temporary through the winter. When everyone comes back in the spring, we'll need the space for dining tables.

The official name has yet to be decided, but tonight was the official opening of the South Pole Bar. Our bar/smoker's lounge was constructed from the remains of the old gym. No funding or man-power was provided for this. It was done entirely on the gumption of the hard-working smokers & drinkers who didn't want to have to enjoy these activities in the cold this winter. The opening night included a live band (we have one band down here), free booze (margaritas & beer), and even mood lighting (you can't tell from the picture since I used a flash). There's no bathroom so you reaaaaaaalllly want to have to brave the -60F temperature on the walk to the can back at the power plant. The band played for over three hours, a buddy & I polished off a couple of six packs, and almost every female resident of the south pole passed through (10/13 ain't bad). Nobody got sick, injured themselves, or got into a fight (there was a heated political debate). All in all, a pretty good opening night for the furthest south bar in the world.

**UPDATE**
Take a look at Greg's site for more visual stimulation.

A question was asked about what we eat down here. It's a good question and the answer is just about everything. The only thing that I can think of (that I crave) that we can't get is sushi. In the winter we can't get any fresh fruit, though we do grow our own lettuce and a few tomatoes. Everything else that we eat is sitting in the old dome waiting to be brought in to the 32F (0C) freezers in the building so that they warm up enough to be prepared.


The story varies on how much food we have, but it's safe to say that we could eat pretty hearty for a couple of years before we would need fresh supplies. We would run out of fuel before we would run out of food. The dome is stocked with pallets of beans, corn, bread, rice, meat, veggies, you name it. Other than burger night (Wednesday), steak night (Friday), and pizza night (Saturday), the menu doesn't repeat more than every three weeks or so.


While I was wandering around the dome taking pictures of all of the food (I took a ton of pictures of brown boxes, but it started to feel like a really cold Sam's club), I ran across the basket for a hot air balloon (basket on the left, more brown boxes on the right above). I think a question was asked in my last posting about the strangest thing down here. The basket makes the list, but I'll keep digging around for better examples of the odd stuff that's made it's way to the south pole. I started heading down the tunnel that leads to the old Skylab (which was still locked, but I thought I would check anyway) when the urge to do a self-portrait hit me. Apparently working in Antarctica has aged me prematurely....


As a final note, a slideshow was put together by Patrick our south pole information technology (SPIT) guy. You can view a large version or a small version. It's probably nice too look at a few pictures that I didn't take, plus it has music.

We woke up this morning to find out that the last flights would be today. We have enough fuel, food, booze, and supplies to make it through the winter. The plan was to continue flying until the 24th, but the weather forecast for the next few days isn't good in McMurdo so today was the day. There were two flights scheduled early in the day, with the plan to fly everyone out that wasn't wintering over on the second flight. About mid-morning they announced that everyone was leaving on the first flight. This caused a bit of confusion as everyone assumed that there was no second flight (or if there was, it wouldn't have any passengers). The only summer people left were the cargo folks who unload the planes and a comms person. Almost the entire winter over crew came out for this first flight to see everyone off. We stood outside while everyone boarded and waved goodbye as the plane circled around and took off. There were tears of sadness and whoops of joy. One remark I heard was, "Now what do we do?" Then somebody noticed that a few of the cargo people were still here. Turns out that there was a second flight and they were getting on it.

About an hour later we all came back outside to watch the real last flight. We stood and watched the final cargo offload of the season. We stood and watched the flight crew come out and pose for pictures. We stood and watched. We stood and waited. We stood and froze our buns off. It was -80F with the windchill today. Several people sought refuge in the shack by the flight deck. Still others made their way back inside the elevated station. I was too dumb to know how long I was going to be standing there, so I continued to wait. Nearly a half hour went by while the plane was unloaded. We continued to stand there until the plane began to taxi away. So much snow is blown around that it's hard to make out what's happening. I started to make my way to the elevated station to get a better vantage of the take off. I heard over the radio that there was going to be a fly-by. I got on the balcony to get a good shot. I raised my camera as the plane looped around for the fly over. I pressed the button and nothing happened. I had stood outside for long enough that my camera has frozen. Several other people were there to snap photos, so I'll just steel on of theirs.



Tonight after everyone was finally gone, the winter-over crew settled down to a time-honored tradtion. We watched the original 50's and remake versions of "The Thing". The original version takes place near the north pole while the John Carpenter remake is in Antarctica. Both are pretty vivid descriptions of the worst-case scenarios of what can happen at polar outposts.

In a continuation of the tour of the South Pole station, we now come to the gym. The gym has just recently been open to the public (well, to the residents). Even that statement isn't completely accurate. The gym has two levels, an upper workout facility and a lower basketball/ volleyball/ aerobics area. The upper area is available for use, but the lower court is being used for bringing large cargo into the building so the floor hasn't been completely installed. Right now we just have a slick concrete flooring, which would cause a few turned ankles and broken necks if it were used for sports. Eventually, tacky (heh) panels will be placed over the concrete to allow some traction. We're probably a few weeks away from being able to use the lower level. The picture on the right is a view from the upper gym looking down into the lower court. I picked a time when the lights were off to take the picture.

Anyway, the upper workout area is open and I've been using it. This replaces the gym in summer camp and in the old dome. The new facility has a few new pieces of equipment and a few older things from the other gyms. There's nothing fancy in there; a few treadmills, exercise bikes, a rowing maching, free weights, etc. It's all of the stuff you would expect to find in a really small gym room. The upper gym overlooks the lower court, so you can watch the big game while you are working out on the eliptical machine (right now you can watch the cargo people deliver stuff through the double doors). I've heard people complain that it's too hot in the gym, but I've not noticed the few times I've gone. I'm trying to get back in running shape after putting on a couple of pounds here. I've stuck to the cardio machines more than the weights. There is a stereo in the gym for listening to whatever you want, as long as you have an MP3 player to hook up to it. Otherwise you're stuck listening to the Nirvana CD that is constantly left in there. Just below the gym is the band room, so maybe they can be heard if they're ever playing during my workout.

We moved our band room from down the hall to make space for our arts & crafts room (it's empty, or I would take a picture of it) is being used for the weekly aerobics workout area. The session is called "Butts & Guts" and is usually led by one of the station residents. We don't have a full time professional workout consultant, I'm pretty sure that's item #861 on the list of things that we need to have down here. I don't attend B&G, though I should. Eventually, I'm sure that B&G will move into the court area.

For anyone curious about the color schemes used on the interior of the elevated station (I know you were all dying to know), this posting is for you. Grey & white are favorite colors for most of the rooms in this building. White is popular so you know you're at the south pole. It reminds me of driving down I-25 in Colorado where they design the sound barrier to look like mountains. Anyway, the hallways are livened up by a festive checkerboard theme. It's really uplifting and makes every trip down the hallway a pleasant experience. Not only is the checker pattern employed, but it's pushed to the edges of conservatism by using different colors every few feet, as noted below:
The colors are helpful in telling where you are in the building, especially in an emergency. You can call for help: "I'm passed out drunk in the hallway where it's yellow, grey, and blue checkers". Of course, the exterior is still plywood and the black siding (they're about 25% complete, but no more work on it before winter).

This building is still obviously under construction, but it's so close to being completed that we're starting to solicit offers. It's a bit of a fixer-upper, but where else are you going to find a place that houses 130, can seat 90 in the dinning facility, and has it's own power plant? Don't wait until this real estate market gets any hotter....

I thought I would post a couple of pictures of the experiments that I'm responsible for at the ARO building. The experiments are looking at the night sky to measure the aurora & air glow. Of course, nothing is operating right now since it's daylight. The instruments are contained in dark rooms because they are so sensitive to light that they would be destroyed by direct sunlight or even room lights. The controls to the instruments are outside of the darkroom to allow me to access the data. Most of these experiments have been running for several years, though this is the first year in the ARO building. Most of what I have been working on is getting everything set up as close as possible to the way things were in the old Skylab building for the sake of consistent data collection. The controls are shown on the left for the University of Washington experiment. Below are Embry-Riddle's instruments. The picture is taken from the floor looking at an angle towards the ceiling, about 10ft up (I'm tall and just held the camera above my head). I guess you have to be there to appreciate it.
Everything I work on is housed in the ARO building and is poking out through the ceiling to look at the sky through domes or periscopes. Also out at the ARO building is NOAA (not to get too carried away with acronyms: ARO = Atmospheric Research Observatory, NOAA = National Oceanic & Atmosphereic Administration, which is part of the department of commerce). NOAA measures how much undesirable stuff is in there air. As you can see from this roof shot, the top of ARO is cluttered with various instruments. The funny thing is that NOAA is mostly looking at things during the day and I'm mostly looking at things during the night, but our instruments are in each other's way all of the time. Go figure. To the right in this picture you can see two blue boxes with wooden boxes on top. Those are the periscopes for the UW experiments. The boxes help keep sunlight out until the start of the winter night.

I made a promise awhile back that if any more bananas showed up here at the South Pole, I would eat one in front of the marker. Plenty of weird things have happened at the South Pole marker, but I wonder if anyone has ever eaten a banana there. Maybe I should see if this is a record for the most bananas being eaten at the southern-most point in the world. I suppose it's no different than going to the VFW and standing next to the flag pole and eating a banana. Eliza, this banana's for you.....



We had a shipment of 'freshies' today, probably our last. Freshies are anything that we can't suitably freeze, such as fruits, veggies, and most dairy products. There was an all-call over the intercom to have everyone come help unload the many boxes that arrived. Just as we did with the beer, a human conveyor belt was formed and things went relatively quickly. We have now filled up almost an entire berthing area with freshies & booze. He who controls the A4 wing, controls the station. I wonder what will happen if there's more people here some winter and they need those bedrooms.

If anybody wants me to do something else at the south pole marker, let me know. Remember that my mother reads this blog.

I've alluded a few times to the fact that we're getting close to station close. The station population has decreased down to 168 coming into today. Today there was one major outgoing flight that cut the station population down by more than a third (114 after it was over). Included on this flight was my boss Al. He was antsy to leave and start his trip through the south island of NZ....in a convertible. Most of the flights out this time of year are straight through to NZ, which means that the only stop is in McMurdo to switch to a plane with wheels instead of skis. So while the rest of us are left behind to run the show, Al is spending tonight in Christchurch.

Mark, Bob, and I gathered by the runway to see Al off. The typical flight in will land, unload it's fuel, load up any passengers, then take off. They don't cut the engines for fear of never being able to start them again. If it's really cold, they won't even stop while they unload (everything just gets pushed out the back). Below you can see the plane landing, everyone hustling onboard, then taking right back off. We waited for 20 minutes in the cool breeze, during which time a few people's eyelashes froze (see the picture of Mark at the bottom).





If anyone thinks that there's some grand plan for who is staying here this winter, guess again. There are several cases of people finding out at the last minute that they are NPQ'd (physically unfit), that they are just don't want to stay anymore, or that their services aren't needed. Of course if one person leaves, someone else must stay (well, they're asked to stay anyway). One of our galley crew found out that he was going to stay for the winter while the plane was on it's way to pick him up and take him out of here. I don't know if I could make a decision to stay on that short of notice.

There will be one more large flight out on Friday. After that, there will just be a few cargo people, the south pole manager, and a comms person left to handle the last couple of shipments that come in and they will catch the final flight out sometime next week.

It has definitely gotten darker here. The sun has dropped down out of the middle of the sky and is making it's way towards the horizon. The lights are on in the galley now, where most of the summer there was enough sunlight to brighten it up in there. Eating a meal under direct fluorescent lighting isn't a very cheery experience. Also, there's barely enough people left here to fill up the galley if we all ate at once, which we don't. Gone are the days where you have to look around for a space to sit during lunch or dinner. Now everyone fits on two rows of tables. The running joke is that during the winter we'll each have our own chair in the galley. If anyone sits in somebody else's chair, a riot might break out.

Have I mentioned that I have free time on my hands down here? This is yet another non-Antarctica posting that is just a list of life’s events (again). This time the theme is the 10 most memorable trips that I have taken. I really haven’t traveled much; most of my travels have come in the last few years. This list isn’t about the destinations exactly, but the experience I had there. Anyway, here’s the list with some comments:

10. Philippines. I went there on a business trip about 3 years ago. I flew out on a Monday and was home Friday night. I didn’t do anything touristy other than drive by a volcano inside a volcano and eat balut. I took a picture of the piano at the hotel and that was it. I had the most amazing sushi for breakfast each day (charged to the company, of course). I saw about a dozen people pee in the streets while I was there. This trip only ranks because it was so whirlwind.

9. Sandusky, Ohio. I went there twice and for the same reason both times: Cedar Point. Cedar Point is the best roller coaster park in the country. It isn’t really an amusement park in the sense that there is very little to do beside roller coasters. I eventually have gotten too tall to really enjoy most coasters, but when I fit it’s one of my favorite pastimes. I think I was 17 when I was there last, and I fell asleep at the wheel driving.

8. Durango, CO. Really, it’s a tie with all of the ski towns I’ve been to in CO. I really enjoy snowboarding and I went to Durango two years ago on a snowboarding trip. I visited Purgatory & Wolf Creek ski resorts, each with 100” base. I stopped in Pagosa Springs to enjoy the hot springs there when all of the riding was over. What a great trip.

7. Cozumel, MX. I learned how to SCUBA dive on a whim and took my certification test in Mexico. It’s a stereotypical paradise resort island near Cancun that is known for some world-class diving. I saw the most amazing things while under the sea. Probably the highlight was watching a girl in my group chum the water while we were diving. I’ve never seen vomit go up before. It made the fish happy. The only reason this trip isn’t any higher on my list is that I went alone (well, with nobody that I knew).

6. Hawaii. I went there my senior year of high school to attend my middle sister’s wedding. I was with family so my activities were limited. Still, I formed some great memories of the beaches, the USS Arizona memorial, and of my dad & I getting solicited by prostitutes.

5. Costa Rica. I went there last summer and did some amazing things: surfing for the first time, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, rain forest canopy tour, driving on some insane roads, saw some crocs, relaxed on some incredible beaches, attended a wedding, learned a little Spanish, witness a monkey pilfer bread, drank fruity drinks, took a boat ride down a river, etc. Costa Rica is an amazing place with plenty to do (didn’t get it all in), but I still managed to have an awful time there. My trip happened to correspond to the beginning of the end of my last relationship, so that took away from all of the natural fun that exists there. I’ll always remember it nonetheless.

4. Orlando, FL. I’ve been a few times here, but the first time I went as a kid was pretty special. My family took trips all of the time, but I was usually left on a farm with my aunt & uncle because I was too young. I enjoyed the heck out of Disney World and the newly built Epcot center. We also made it over to Tampa to see Busch Gardens. I was so young that all I remember are the fun things.

3. Daytona Beach, FL/Myrtle Beach, SC. I’ve actually been to both places on a couple of occasions, but I’m referring specifically to a trip I took with by best friend Mark right after graduating high school. I owned a 1986 Jaguar and it lived just long enough to get us through this trip and back home before crapping out on us. Needless to say, we traveled in style at least. I won’t bore with teenage shenanigans, but it was a memorable trip in it’s own way.

2. Grand Canyon. Actually, the actual GC was a bit of a letdown (think of National Lampoon’s Vacation). I drove down there about 4 years ago with my dad when he visited me in CO. We stopped at Mesa Verde & Four Corners also, but the real treat in my opinion was the drive itself. We saw some of the most beautiful parts of the country and found a few interesting places to eat. It helped having dad as my copilot. I got pulled over on the way home for speeding, but I didn’t get a ticket.

1b. New Orleans, LA. I was there in 2000 for Mardi Gras. Of course, it wasn’t the mess then that it became last year. Mardi Gras is starting right now actually, and I think it’s business as usual in NO. Anyway, I found the town to be one of the most culturally rich places I have ever been. The architecture, food, music, and people were all amazing. Of course, having the party going on really just was icing on the cake. I think there are so many places in the world worth seeing that it’s a waste to go back to most places I’ve been, but I would go back to New Orleans in a heartbeat.

1a. Antarctica. No real suspense there. Read the rest of this blog for details. This one is such a gimmie that I decided to just make it more of a footnote. Though I have to wonder, how many people in the world are having the time of their life right now? Even the boring moments here are memory-makers because of the uniqueness of where I am.

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There are some honorable mentions: seeing my mom & oldest sis in VA, the half day I spent in Bay City Michigan (for Will’s wedding), each and every drive back and forth from CO to IN (it’s not a fun trip, but I sure remember them all), the trips I took before getting this job (Seattle, Daytona {again}, NM), Key West & Miami, and going around Nashville TN. It’s funny, but I credit my mother for giving me my nomadic spirit (she loves to go places), but none of my top ten was with my mom. Now that I have made this list, I’ve actually traveled a bit more than I thought, but I’m not one of those people that has a map with pins in it showing everywhere I’ve been.

When I'm done doing time down here at the South Pole, I plan on doing some world traveling. New Zealand is an obvious choice since I'll be dropped off there anyway. After that, Australia, Thailand, Japan, India, Ireland/Scotland, Russia........ who knows? I'll take any suggestions from the peanut gallery. If you've been someplace, share a tale. Oh, and I'm looking for travel partners if there are any adventurous souls out there (mom, you listening?). As I alluded to before, it's usually not as much fun going it alone.

And to all of you lovers out there, Happy Valentine's Day. It has already hit at the South Pole.

It's yet another installment of 'Make Your Own Caption'. Don't read on until you've come up with your caption idea.....

Things to note about this picture: the fact that it's my 10,000th photo in front of the ceremonial South Pole marker so I decided not to stand in the back row like I usually do, I'm wearing a black bonnet cuz my ears were getting cold, Bob looks like a platypus cuz his nose gets cold, and probably most importantly I'm carrying my MAN PURSE. The original point of the picture was to show the evolution of the new station (notice the black siding going up). Al later took his hair down for the first time I've ever seen. He's been coming to the South Pole for five seasons and hasn't cut his mane since the first time here. He is getting ready to leave and wanted (yet another) photo in front of the pole.

This was a relatively busy week. It’s getting down to crunch time for a lot of little projects that need to be wrapped up before the last flight out of here. This year we’re having a ‘soft close’, meaning the date for the final flight has not been set yet. Station close will be sometime in the next week or two. I don’t think there will be any more mail/people/cargo coming from here on out, just fuel in and people out.

One of the things that I had to take care of this week was getting moved into my winter dwelling. I had originally thought, and hoped, that I would just stay in the room that I had. There was nothing special about it other than that’s where I was and I didn’t feel like moving. Having said that, my new room is much better. Somebody with more ice time than me bumped me out of my room. Though my old room had nice qualities, such as being just off of the game room & lab where I work, I didn’t realize how much I was putting up with in there until I got a new room. There was no space to walk (there was a chair sitting on the one patch of floor), I was next to an outside exit so people were always slamming the door at odd hours (there are no normal hours here), and two of the three people around me had significant others (you fill in the gaps there). My new room is the first door next to the internal exit (close to the bathroom), it’s close to the galley (midnight snacks), and it’s MUCH BIGGER. I now have space for all of my stuff in drawers rather than putting everything under my bed. I can actually get from my desk or bed to the door without climbing over my chair. My desk is bigger so I can spread out a little. My bed is the same size, but now it has shelves. There are even posters on the wall (maps of New Zealand). The only thing about the room that is undesirable is that it’s on the first floor, so it’s cooler and there are footsteps above me. I know who has the room above me though (the head chef) and she’s pretty quiet. Of course now that I have more room I feel like I need more stuff.

And here's an update on how I look these days. Shower day is wonderful. As you can see, the hair is still growing.

This posting is dedicated to the wonderful existance of beer. Specifially, it's about beer at the South Pole. Beer, as with everything else in this station, takes a lot of effort to get here. We don't have a bar, there are no taps or kegs, and homebrew isn't perfected for the conditions down here. All we have is what arrives at the store and that is rationed out at 2 six-packs per week. With the station close right around the corner, having enough beer for 8 months for 70 people is a big concern (for me anyway).




Today I got to take part in the loading of the beer into it's home for the winter. We can't keep beer outside, it would freeze and explode. We would need roughly 2 cases/month/person x 70 people x 8 months = 1120 cases of beer (check my math). I really don't know how much beer showed up, but it was probably close to that much. The beer arrived on a palate and was placed in our new gym. From there, a group of beer enthusiasts loaded the beer onto carts and pushed the carts to the unoccupied berthing wing. We then formed a human conveyor belt and unloaded the carts of beer into the empty bedrooms. Each room had it's own beer. It would be nice if we had a giant fridge to put it all in, but this setup will have to do.

Now I should point out that when I refer to beer, I mean real quality beer from a beer-making country (like Germany, Ireland, or Wisconsin). There's plenty of New Zealand 'beer' (Speights & Reineck), which has litterally been here for years. The saying about Reineck is you have to drink it in the can. If you pour it in the glass you can see the sea-monkeys swimming around in it. The beer that that I helped move today was mostly unheard of to me previously. We had Corona, Tui, San Miguel, and Kilkenny. Are these good beers? I can't wait to find out. I did get to sample the Tui (there was a 'wounded soldier' that had to be laid to rest). It was warm, but beery. I'm most intrigued by the Kilkenny so I hope it lives up to expectation.

We didn't only get beer, there was also a huge shipment of cola. For some reason they ended up in the bathroom. I guess that's what happens when beer fans are doing the unloading. There is wine and liquor down here as well, but it apparently all fits in the normal store-storage area (I have seen it and it is good). The prospect of winter here just got a little bit nicer.

I will preface this posting by saying that it's long, somewhat self-serving (isn't that what blogs are supposed to be?), has almost nothing to do with Antarctica, and there are no pictures. You have been warned, so feel free to click on this link for something lighter.

I was reading something on Bridgett's site that totally inspired me to write this posting. She wrote about celebrating a certain anniversary and it made me think, how did we get here? I know, it's a bit of a leap. I'm not talking about creationism vs. evolution or anything, but what series of events got us to where we are today. More specifically, what are the biggest events of our lives that have truly shaped who we are? I decided to make a top ten list of such events. Now, anyone who is married with six kids has 1 - 7 mapped our pretty easily. All of us who were born, graduated high school or college, lost our virginity, or have seen our favorite team win a championship (congrats to the Steelers and their fans) also have something to fill in the gaps. What I'm talking about I guess is the little decisions we've made that turn out to change the course of history (our personal history anyway), the random events that happened only to us that make us who we are, the people that change us, and the times in our lives where we developed into an individual. For me, the list looks something like this:

10. I got punched in the face by Kalley Harris. Man, that hurt. I don't remember the physical pain or anything, but I sure remember the humiliation. I had it coming, I had knocked down a neighborhood kid that was smaller than me, he told a neighborhood girl that was bigger than me, and I got whooped up on. I was confronted on the street in front of my dad's house with my friends and random other neighborhood kids looking on. She stood there and made me squirm for a bit as I desperately looked for a way out of an uncontrollable situation. She decked me and I ran off crying. I think I must have been around 13, old enough that I shouldn't cry anymore. I found out later that my dad had watched the whole thing from inside his house, making sure things didn't get out of control. It took me a long time to understand why he didn't come out and break things up. I learned about responsibility for one's actions and a little about what it's like to be a parent that day.

9. I got my first body piercing. I was 19, working at WalMart in a small Indiana town, and I had just had my first nookie. I saw a video of Faith No More's remake of Easy. The video showed a dude with an eyebrow piercing. Wow, that was one of the coolest things I had seen. I went out and got one of my own. One piercing is never enough and I went on to become a pincushion. I thought I was pretty hardcore, until I saw every pop band that came along also sporting some sort of body piercing. I decided that it was over-done and I eventually ditched all of my unnatural holes. I had a piercing of one kind or another for about six years. When you have holes in your face, you get stereotyped (or at least you did 10 years ago in rural Indiana) and easily fall into certain circles. I moved to the big city (Indianapolis), partied & experimented, and eventually went nowhere with my life for a few years. I would put this much, much higher on the list but it really led to a phase of my life rather than a permanent change.

8. I bought a motorcycle. This one is pretty hard to explain to anyone who doesn't like motorcycles. Other than saving money on gas, nothing in my life changed externally, but I really felt an internal shift when I first got out on the open road. Even though my dad had a bike when I was a kid, it wasn't really something I was ever drawn to for most of my life. A couple of years ago I was sitting around bored and I wanted to learn something new. At the mall I saw a place that taught motorcycle safety. I signed up, even though it was February, for a class the following weekend. A week after the course was over I bought a used bike. About three months later I bought the Kawasaki Vulcan that I own now. Man I miss riding.

7. My parents divorced. I really don't know where this one belongs on the list. I almost didn't put it on at all, but in some ways it should be #1. My parents split up when I was pretty young, a third grader. They have been apart for so much more of my life than they were together, that it just seems normal this way. Also, divorce is part of most children's lives these days. On the other hand, if they were still married or had split up at a different time, I'm sure my life would have turned out quite differently.

6. I finished my degree in engineering. This one also is hard to decide where it goes on the list. On the one hand, it's opened up a lot of doors for me. I got a well paying job at Atmel, which allowed me to meet some pretty cool folks, buy nice things like a house (which in itself is a pretty noteworthy life decision), and gain a deeper appreciation for Dilbert cartoons. I wouldn't be at the South Pole without a degree. It took me 7 years to finish my bachelors degree, which means it spans nearly a quarter of my life. On the other hand, it sort of ranks as one of the things that many people do. Engineering degrees aren't too common, but finishing a degree in a chosen field is something that many people accomplish. Even though my life is nearly a 180 after graduation, I just couldn't see putting this any higher than the next few.

5. I was hired at WalMart at age 16. This is noteworthy because it held me back for so long. It was supposed to be a summer job and it lasted for 5.5 years. I worked at stores in three different towns and performed almost every task that the place has to offer (except, oddly, cashier). My career *cough* there spans many of the other items on this list. I dated my coworkers from there, I was roommates with a coworker from there, and most of my friends worked there. I was making minimum wage + change the whole time I was there, but I kept the job for so long because it offered any hours I wanted and well, it was easy. My decision to quit aided in #6 greatly.

4. The move to CO. This was a decision based on the fact that I was tired of going nowhere (see #9 & #5). I thought if I'm going to go nowhere, I should do it somewhere pretty. My buddy Mark and I got in a car and drove to Denver. In my mind I was scouting out where to live and trying unsuccessfully to get Mark intrigued as well. We broke down in Denver, Mark got a sunburn, and I fell in love with the place. On a whim we decided to check out Colorado Springs. For some reason I liked it better there and I decided to move out, less than two weeks after our return home. For the first few months I lived in a crack house (I was a non-participant), was robbed, and worked at horrible Sprawlmart. Eventually I was hired at Atmel in the fab, which is probably the single biggest reason I finished my degree. I finally had a job that related to my classwork, so things just started to make sense.

3. Will. I had met Will while I was working at Sprawlmart. He was my boss and one of the coolest guys I had ever met. I eventually became his roommate in Indianapolis for two years. We were at different phases of life and were really different people, but that just meant that we kept each other in check. Being older by almost a decade, Will was sometimes like an older relative who bestowed words of wisdom. At other times, he was there to encourage some of my cruder adult behavior (he helped me discover that I like beer). When I came to the point that I was done in Indy and ready for CO, I moved out away from Will and all of my other friends. Will was one of the few people who stayed in contact and visited. He eventually met beautiful Sue and fell in love. I flew in to their wedding a couple of years later. It was a wonderful event (I got trashed and knocked on the bride & groom's door on their wedding night). I was back a year later for my friend Mark's wedding. I stopped in to see Will for lunch during his busy day. He mentioned off hand a test at the hospital, but otherwise it was mostly talk of relatives bugging him about when he was going to have kids. Two days later I got a call from Sue telling me that Will had died the night before. We found out later that he had a problem with his heart. Will was 35, a husband for a year, and my friend for a decade. I was crushed by all of this, but it also benefited me by making me realize there's no better time than the present to do what it is you want to do.

2. I flunked out of Rose. I had been a pretty good student in high school and decided on a career in engineering. I had never tried very hard academically, things just sort of came to me. Maybe it was pride or ignorance or self-conceit, but I decided that I was worthy of the best engineering school in the country. I went in and hit the ground tripping. I took an advanced summer course in calculus that was geared for the best of the best. I really shouldn't have been there at all, let alone in a fast track course. All told, I lasted 4 quarters at Rose-Hulman before being told that great amounts of my (and my father's) money was no longer needed. This probably changed my life more seriously than most things just because it happened early enough on that there is a residual effect on everything afterwards. I lost the teenage feeling of invincibility and doubted the path that I had set out on. If I had never gone to Rose, I would have had a totally different college (and eventually life) experience. If I had graduated, I would have gotten a high tech job right away. Having gone and failed altered the way I approached everything afterwards.

1. The fall of 2005. I talked about this one back here. This isn't any one event, but it's the strange series of events that brought me to the South Pole. I had so many things change in about a one to two month period, some things were out of my control and some were decisions I made. I can already tell that I'm a different person for being here than I was when I left. I've seen things I thought I would never see and I've got opportunities in front of me that I never even considered before. Without a doubt, where I end up, who I meet, and what I do when I'm done here vs. if I had never come will be totally different.

If I wrote this list last year, next week, or in six months, it would proabably be different. I wrote this post because I had a couple of hours to kill. I doubt that anyone who doesn't know me well will find much of interest, but I'll probably look back on this in a few years and think "Man, does that need editing".

There is a saying in the states (it's a bumper sticker actually) that if you have it, a trucker brought it to you. The Antarctica analogy would be if you've got it and didn't bring it with you, then it probably spent a good portion of it's life on a boat (I know, that's not as all-inclusive). Everything at the South Pole is flown in, but to get to the continent most things (fuel, non-perishables, bulk cargo) come by sea. The ocean around Antarctica doesn't always cooperate and stay in liquid form, so ice-breakers are used to make way for the goods. Even with ice breakers, the going is pretty dicey and it's not unusual for there to be long delays in shipments, such as this year. Below are some pictures that depict this exact sort of event. The zoom on my camera isn't quite good enough to give good pictures of the coast, so I borrowed these pictures from elsewhere.



The McMurdo Independant Film Festival (MIFF) has footage of the arrival, unloading, and departure of the boats. Unfortunately, the video is too large to share on here. For what it's worth, MIFF was pretty lame in comparison to SPIFF. MIFF included some of the SPIFF videos and was still only about 6 movies long. Mactown's film festival yielded half as many movies even though they have 8 times the resources. Wasteside Story was well done, I have to admit.

The totally unrelated link of the day. Man that's funny stuff.

Here at the South Pole everyone has to account for all of their working hours. I got a memo from my boss stating a change in the way we track some of the specifics.....


I just received the new proposed time card codes for use once we return back to Denver. Please take a minute or two so that you can become familiar with the new charge codes.


TO: ALL PERSONNEL
FROM: ACCOUNTING

Much to our dismay, it has recently come to our attention that many of
our employees have been turning in timesheets specifying an unusually
large amount of "Miscellaneous Unproductive Time" (Code 5309).

Within the Accounting Department, unproductive time isn't a problem.
However, what is a problem is not knowing exactly what you are doing
during this unproductive time. Based on our observations of employee
activities, our department has constructed a charge sheet detailing a
tentative extended job code list.

The list below will enable a more accurate description of employee
activities and unproductive events. Please begin using this job code
list immediately and let us know about any difficulties you may
encounter. As always, we're only here to help.

Thank you.


Attached: Extended Job Code List
Code Explanation
----------------
5316 Meeting
5317 Obstructing Communications at Meeting
5318 Trying to Sound Knowledgeable While in Meeting
5319 Waiting for Break
5320 Waiting for Lunch
5321 Waiting for End of Day
5322 Vicious Verbal Attacks Directed at Coworker
5323 Vicious Verbal Attacks Directed at Coworker While Coworker is Not Present
5393 Covering for Incompetence of Coworker Friend
5400 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who is Not Interested in Learning
5401 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who is Less than Intelligent
5402 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who Hates You
5481 Buying Snack
5482 Eating Snack
5500 Filling Out Timesheet
5501 Inventing Timesheet Entries
5502 Waiting for Something to Happen
5504 Sleeping
5510 Feeling Bored
5600 Complaining About Lousy Job
5601 Complaining About Low Pay
5602 Complaining About Long Hours
5603 Complaining About Coworker (See Codes #5322 & #5323)
5604 Complaining About Boss
5605 Complaining About Personal Problems
5640 Miscellaneous Unproductive Complaining
5701 Not Actually Present At Job
5702 Suffering From Eight-Hour Flu
6102 Ordering Out
6103 Waiting for Food Delivery to Arrive
6104 Taking It Easy While Digesting Food
6202 Making Excuses After Accidentally Destroying Company Goods
6203 Using Company Phone to Make Long-Distance Personal Calls
6206 Gossip
6207 Planning a Social Event (e.g., vacation, wedding, etc.)
6210 Feeling Sorry For Yourself
6221 Pretending to Work While Boss Is Watching
6222 Pretending to Enjoy Your Job
6223 Pretending You Like Coworker
6224 Pretending You Like Important People When in Reality They are Jerks
6350 Playing Pranks on the New Guy/Gal
6601 Running your own Side Business on Company Time (See Code #6603)
6603 Writing a Book on Company Time
6611 Staring Into Space
6612 Staring At Computer Screen
6615 Meditation
7281 Extended Visit to the Bathroom (at least 10 minutes)
7401 Talking With Plumber on Phone
7402 Talking With Dentist on Phone
7403 Talking With Doctor on Phone
7405 Talking With House Painter on Phone
7406 Talking With Psychiatrist on Phone
7419 Talking With Miscellaneous Paid Professional on Phone
8000 Watching Stock Market on CNN
8001 Watching Latest Washington Political Crisis on CNN

The South Pole never sleeps. There are shifts going round the clock through the summer. The main reason for this is so that there is never a time of day where there isn't somebody banging on the walls while somebody else is trying to sleep. The people working the night shift here have to eat, just like everyone else. To support this, our station has MidRats, which is simply a meal at midnight. Tonight I had to make another SPRESSO run, so I ended up getting in well after midnight and I was famished. MidRats was just wrapping up, but I made it in time to get a helping of flank steak, garlic mooshed potatoes, and some greenie beanies. I was halfway through the meal before I realized that I should photograph the moment for post-erity. This meal beat the heck out of the chicken-fried steak they served us during the normal dinner.

In photographing my food, I realized that this is not normal behavior. What if everyone took a picture of their food? If you had pictures of last night's dinner hanging on the fridge, what effect would that have? How about going out to eat and photographing the food and the server, maybe even some of the other patrons? It would be great to celebrate some of the simple things that we enjoy so much. Make dinner into a memory. I suppose this would be somewhat like the John Waters movie.

I have been asked what I'm doing down here on a couple of occaisions and I don't think I've ever concisely answered that question in my blog. Going off on a tangent, there is a song by the band, Jimmie's Chicken Shack entitled "Do Right" that I have a hard time not singing along to when I hear it (as to not be driving a train with no caboose, the main line in the song is "what do I do"). OK, now that I have that off of my conscious, on to what I do at the South Pole. Some of this is repeated from previous posts, but who wants to go look up old posts?

What I do is not top secret, at least nobody told me that it was. I don't work for the CIA (that I know of, I mean, we're all working for the CIA indirectly), the FBI, KGB, ACLU, FEMA, or PTA. I do work for UCB, UW, ERAU, the other UCB, IRIS, ASL, USGS, & CTBTO. I'm pretty sure that top secret operatives aren't allowed to blog about their daily lives.

I am a research associate employed by Raytheon Polar Services Company (RPSC), who is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). My job is to provide support to various researchers who are studying the atmosphere and the earth. The researchers are based at the University of California - Berkeley, University of Washington, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, University of Colorado - Boulder, Incorporated Research Institution for Seismology, Albuquerque Siesmological Laboratory, United States Geological Survey, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. You can do a web search on any of those organizations if you want to know more specifics. Essentially, I work for people interested in lights in the night sky and tremors in the ground here at the South Pole. The slang term for my job description is science tech, or sci tech for short.

There are two other science techs here for the winter, Bob & Mark. Bob is a CUSP tech, which is also studying the atmosphere and Mark is a cryo tech, which means he's here to keep things cold (Mark uses liquid helium that will freeze the air. Frozen air will break off of a pipe, fall to the ground, and start to boil in the -80F temperatures we have here). Our boss is Al, his boss is Paul. We are all pictured here, along with Jeff who is a winter-over meteorologist.


So what do I do, what are my daily activities? I said it here bluntly when I first arrived, when I was still in shock. We're moving everything out of the old Skylab building to newer facilities, so there's a lot of heavy lifting going on. At some point things will settle down enough and I will be maintaining the sensitive equipment that is used to collect the data that the researchers need. I have to analyze the data to the extent that I know the difference between "good" & "bad". I also have to be able to troubleshoot and fix any problems that arise. During the winter months I get to work in the kitchen and clean bathrooms. This is part of the community feel of the South Pole.

There is a saying that every profession that exists in the 'real' world also exists in Antarctica (the one glaring exception, depending on who you ask, is the oldest profession). At the South Pole we have carpenters, plumbers, engineers, electricians, cargo handlers, cooks, janitors, managers, communication operators, general assistants (GAs, they do grunt work and love it), information technology folks, human resources experts, drivers, scientists, and even a greenhouse attendant. Some of the part time jobs include cashier at the shop and post office employee.

Seniority here is based on 'ice time', which is simply how much time an individual has spent anywhere in Antarctica. As a fingy, I have very little ice time (~2 months now), therefore everyone here is my boss. There are several people who have spent most of the last decade 'on the ice'. Many of these folks are strange in the chicken & the egg sort of way (were they this way when the got here, or did years in Antarctica make them this way?). They all sleep in a bigger room than me.