Justins Mobile

Kingdoms of Camelot Pictish Camps level 1-10 attacking Troop count Reports.

2012-02-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

Battle for the North Building Tips and Tactics Guide

Kabam launches "Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North," on iPhone and iPad in the Canadian App Store for free.

The game looks a lot like whats on Facebook but with a new touch interface and push notifications. These features help to manage an empire on your iphone or ipad with ease. Battle for the North is in the Canadian App Store testing since this is Kabam's first move into mobile social gaming. No word when Battle for the North will be in U.S. iPhones and iPads but I would imagine it will not take long considering the game is in Version 3.0. If your in Canada you can jump into battle for FREE by downloading it at your app store.

Click Here to download Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North on the Canadian App Store Now >

Bookmark this site!

Use this information when attacking Pictish Camps, BE AWARE - of a Random Factor in the Battle Mechanics that will influence the results of your attacks.

CAMP TROOP COUNT:

Charts found on Kabam forums

Pictish Camp Level 1:

Pictish Camp Level 2:

Pictish Camp Level 3:

Pictish Camp Level 4:

Get More Tips at Battle for the North Building Tips and Tactics Guide. Click Here

Kingdoms of Camelot Wilds level 1-10 attacking Troop count Reports.

2012-02-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

Battle for the North Building Tips and Tactics Guide

Kabam launches "Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North," on iPhone and iPad in the Canadian App Store for free.

The game looks a lot like whats on Facebook but with a new touch interface and push notifications. These features help to manage an empire on your iphone or ipad with ease. Battle for the North is in the Canadian App Store testing since this is Kabam's first move into mobile social gaming. No word when Battle for the North will be in the U.S. iPhones and iPads but I would imagine it will not take long considering the game is in Version 3.0. If your in Canada you can jump into battle for FREE by downloading it at your app store.

Click Here to download Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North on the Canadian App Store Now >

Bookmark this site

FARMING WILDS:

LEVEL 1:

LEVEL 2:

LEVEL 3:

LEVEL 4:

LEVEL 5:

LEVEL 6:

LEVEL 7:

LEVEL 8:

See More - Battle for the North, Building Tips and Tactics Click Here.

Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North Tips and Tactics

2012-02-21T00:02:00.001-07:00

Kabam launches "Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North," on iPhone and iPad in the Canadian App Store for free.

The game looks a lot like whats on Facebook but with a new touch interface and push notifications. These features help to manage an empire on your iphone or ipad with ease. Battle for the North is in the Canadian App Store testing since this is Kabam's first move into mobile social gaming. No word when Battle for the North will be in the U.S. iPhones and iPads but I would imagine it will not take long considering the game is in Version 3.0. If your in Canada you can jump into battle for FREE by downloading it at your app store.

Click Here to download Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North on the Canadian App Store Now >

Bookmark this site!

Battle for the North attacking Wilds Guide. Click Here for Level 1-10 Wild attack reports.

Tips & Tactics:

Knights can gain experience by attacking Wilds, NPC (Pictish Camps) and other players. Farming NPC Pictish camps can help to level your Knights faster. Having a handful of well trained Knights can make the difference between a Win or Loss. Also you can assign your knights to help with resource production, Training Speeds and Power, Research, and construction speeds. The higher level your knight is the more over all advantage you will have in game.

Starting off it's always good to fill any empty spots you have in your City with housing and barracks. Once you get the WorkShop,BlackSmith, Stable, Embassy, Knights Hall, Alchemy Lab, Rally Point, Storage House and Watch tower Built the rest of the empty spot will be housing and barracks. I was use 14 Housing and 8 Barracks. Also I like to build at least one of each house and barracks to level 9 as soon as possible to help with reaching required research leveling.

Resource fields can be tricky depending on your play style. If you have A LOT OF TIME to farm NPC camps then you will have a lot of Food at your disposal. If this is the case you really don't need many farms at all. If you are a casual player then I suggest building 8 Lumber, 5 Stone, 7 Ore and the rest Farms. This will let you keep a decent amount of Defense without having to do as much NPC farming . Also make sure to not leave any open spaces, build resources up to at least level 3 to fill any empty spots. You can come back later to level them if you have other building priorities.

Wilds can Increase your production By a huge amount, they are very important to take as high of wilds as possible. Wilds bonus plus research and Knight bonus can gain you a resource production edge over other players. I will post Pictures of Wild army sizes below for easy reference.

As you are leveling in the game be sure to abandon lower level Wilds and work towards replacing them as your army grows stronger enough to take higher level wilds.

Having a High level Knight, High Research for resources and as hugh a level of wilds as possible can GREATLY increase your production levels.

Don't forget about the HIDE ALL TROOPS button. This button is important since you can build and level your storage house to a level that will protect most of your resources. If you are a TURTLE style of player a good strategy is to level your store house, then hide your troops when an attack comes from a player you cannot defeat. The only problem is you can not protect your GOLD. One way to avoid losing your gold if you are online is to transport it to a nearby alliance member. If you can't do that, SPEND IT!

FARMING WILDS:

Battle for the North attacking Wilds Guide. Click Here for Level 1-10 Wild attack reports.

When Pigs Fly!

2012-02-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

Working in a hog barn was a lot of dirty, stinky and very physically demanding work. This pig barn I ended up working in was around 600 sows and between 8000 to 10,000 hogs on rotation.

This was actually the first time working on such a big operation and was also the first time I was face to face with massive breeder pigs.

The first thing I noticed working here was the overwhelming smell. Pigs are extremely stinky if the facility is not fully vented. This facility used wind and open rafters to circulate the air. It was a very poor design that ended up a lot of the time keeping the barn stail and stagnant.

Another not so great part of the job was that the smell would stick on everything. I would have to go home and shower in the camp ground showers. I had a method of washing for over 20 minutes head to toe with 3 different types of soaps. I played recreational basketball in the area and found that the smell would even sweat out of my pours. I ended having to wear rubber gloves in my gloves all day every day while in the barns which ended helping a lot.

The docking process was crazy because every week you had to cut the tails off, remove the nuts , pull the teeth, and tag the ears of all the baby wiener piglets. The farrowing barns were extremely hot and each pen was separated by wood or steel bars. So basically you go from pen to pen sitting on a bucket docking these piglets.

The extremely crappy part, literally crappy part was that you had to hold these piglets between your knees to do the docking which in turn faced their bums directly at your chest. Well you can imagine the minute you squeeze this milk drinking baby porker they diarrhea all over you. Add the blood from the tail being clipped an the teeth being pulled and this is not a pleasant situation to say the least. This had to be done one time every week since the barns rotates weekly.

Next step is separating, which was done by using your eyes and a big piece of plywood with handles you used as a shield. Basically the pigs are separated by weight and size and they move through the barns. It's important to place pigs of the same size together so when they come to the market stage they are usually all the same weights. Shipping them they must be close to a certain weight to go to market.

This is the frustrating part. Hogs in general are very smart animals, but they are pack animals. If one decides not to move, then none of them
Move. Our pens had fifteen or so animals per pen. Basically you move each pen through the barns Ina weekly rotation so by the time they get to the last stage right before shipping they are in the finishing barn. Any runts are left behind and heavy weight pigs are moved ahead.

These barns were positioned beside a huge poop lagoon. So basically all the waste is washed out the end of the barns into these lagoons. On the ends of the barns are doors that open up to a 20 foot drop into nothing but feces.

So I'm moving these hogs and I put a board across the door Frame so the hogs are forced to run the opposite direct to the next barn. I hope over the rails and start to usher the pigs out of the pen into the walk. Of course one pig decides to be difficult so I'm forced to use an electric prod. I poked this pig with the prod and he takes off straight for the door. All I can do is watch this pig run straight through the board and jump out the the door ! By the time I was able to see the pig he was a foot away from doing a belly flop into this gross lagoon. Splash! Now this pig is swimming in turd.

I run and grab a puller and go out to the lagoon edge. The problem was the edges were About 20 feet high so how was I going to drag a poop covered 200 pound pig up this bank with this puller, not to mention its in the middle of the lagoon.

I waited for the hog to swim to the edge, by then it was extremely tired. One thing about pigs is they have heart attacks easily. I noticed the pig shaking from being in shock so I knew it would just be dead weight. I managed to crawl down the edge an snare the pig, then dragged it over to the lower side and out of the lagoon. I took It back in the barn and hosed it off with Water.

Working in a pig barn was a very tough job. The smell was horrible and manually docking piglets was extremely hot and physically demanding.

The good thing was I thought the piglets to be cute during the first two weeks. Other than that working in a hog barn is not for me.

Thanks for reading
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Picture Source: © United States Geological Survey, Toxic Substances Hydrology Program.

Travel and Living an Oilfield Construction Life.

2012-02-06T11:56:00.002-07:00

Growing up With a farming background I knew I would probably end up working some type of construction. I wanted to be a mechanic like I explained in Mechanic shop horror stories! but as the post explains that wasn't going to be the case in this situation. Farming was not really an option for me either so I decided that I would have to pave a new road for myself.

When I left Lloydminster I was fresh out of high school. I had an opportunity to work and live in southern Alberta at a local Country dancing resort called The Great Canadian Barn Dance!.

The resort was great to get away from my home town. I ended up taking a day job at a pig farm five days a week for a local family in the area. At night and on weekends I helped at the resort and in turn received a cheap place to sleep.

The pig farm was about a 600 sow operation. The barns had about 8000 pigs which was bigger than any barn I had worked in previously. Needless to say this job was full of stories including a When Pigs Fly event that I will talk about here.

After about a year working in southern Alberta I decided to move to a small town in central alberta.

I applied as a pipe fitters apprentice for a company that had a lot of work up north. This was a min 3 months in camp to install a couple compressor station skids.

The pipe fitter I was helping ended up being an old timer Ex lumber jack type fellow. He was very grumpy when we first met but by the end of the job he had taught me more than I could have ever expected about pipe fitting.
After the facility was completed we went back to my home town to start work on a few north star plants in the area. I was approached by the company owner and asked if I would be interested in running a pipe fitting service truck with a picker on it. At first I didn't know what to say. I explained that I was still very green at my position. The company owner explained that the pipe fitter I swamped had recommended I get my own truck.

That was the start of a 5 year traveling spree up and down the alberta highways to every random location you can think of. I was sent from the top of Alberta to the bottom on all sorts of pipeline and gas facility jobs.

The experience I gained from traveling all over, living in camps and hotels was something I know I will never experience in that context again. The Alberta oil boom was full tilt and the ride has been a roller coaster.!
I ended up running a pipe fitting truck until I was 25 and then moved into heavy equipment operating soon after. My passion is heavy equipment. The feeling I get running machines and doing close to perfect jobs gives me a sense of accomplishment in my life I had never experienced before.

The only bad thing that I will say is that Traveling that much for work was very hard on keeping and maintaining a stable relationship. Other than that though traveling Alberta as an oilfield construction worker was full of epic adventures and wild story's that you can read through out my postings.

Thanks for reading.

Mechanic shop Horror Stories!

2012-02-06T03:14:00.001-07:00

In high school I really enjoyed mechanics class. Our shop was very well set up, as well as the teacher would make rebuilding all sorts of complicated engines and rear ends fun. Because of this I had this bright idea to be a mechanic when I graduated.

I decided to take a job at a local tire repair shop as an after school being an oil changer, tire buster type of guy to gain on the job experience in the field I figured I wanted to pursue. I thought this was the best way to introduce me to the goods and bads about the mechanic
Field as a full timer.

I really did not expect to see so many funny incidents. One I can remember very well was when I was working on a vehicle and looked over at the other hoist to watch a worker drive a car off of it. Just as he starts to back up both back tires fall inward towards the wheel wells. My reaction was that I couldn't believe my eyes. The fellow had not put the brake drums back on the rear brakes before putting the tires on. The minute he touched the brakes the pads popped off and the wheels fell in. The brakes were totaled and the car was stuck half way off the hoist.

Another one was a car pulls in and I pop the hood and find the oil funnel is still sticking in the top of the engine. The worst part was the funnel had shop engravings from the shop I was working in. I looked up the vehicle history and the car hadn't been in for over 6 months. Always nice to have a bit of dirt straight into the engine.

Another was crawling under a garbage truck to change fluids and finding the whole bottom of the truck covered in maggots. It was so disgusting when the juice from inside the garbage compacter is dripping everywhere under the truck. Ugh!!!!

Things like this I used to shake my head at. My turning point was when I started to talk with the other old timer mechanics. They would complain about how their knees and backs were bad. Their hands were all knuckle busted from contorting there fingers into small areas. I analyzed this info and started to re evaluate my decision on being a mechanic.

Judgment Day was when I was asked to help remove a Chevy mini van transmission. Trying to get bolts out of this thing was more than frustrating. Then to top it all off the bolts were stripping and breaking on the housing of the transmission so I was completely lost on what to do. This job had to be done within a specific time or the mechanic would lose money.

This was my turning point, I was so frustrated with the stripped and seized bolts plus having both my hands bleeding from smashing my knuckles trying to get to the bolts. I decided having a kinked body and being covered in oil and grease all day was not for me as a full time job.

I stayed working their till I left lloydminster but I am not gonna lie I am very glad I did not choose to be a mechanic.

Just a note, if I would have been more experienced a lot of the tougher jobs would have been easier to get done. Lacking in experience was my down fall. Just want to say cheers to all the good mechanics, you have my respect.

Thanks for reading
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Opposites Attract

2012-02-04T20:10:00.005-07:00

Justin and I are a perfect example of this old, but truthful saying. Justin is a farm boy while I am a city girl. Justin fixes his truck while I fix my hair. But despite our differences, Justin and I compliment each other very well.

One common interest both Justin and I have, is utilizing social networking. I am assuming this is pretty obvious by the amount of alternate channels we use to talk about ourselves. Anyways, we have decided to embrace the differences in our relationship and have some fun with it: we are going to make videos together. I swear it's not as dirty as you're thinking.

Together Justin and I are going to create videos that "accurately" depict the differences between men and women and how each sex handles different situations. When I say women, I mainly mean myself. For those of you who know me, yes, it's exactly what you're thinking. And for the others who don't, please don't judge me too much based on these videos. They are maybe only 50-ish percent accurate. Don't listen to Justin when he says 100% is probably a more suitable answer.

We will be recording our very first video next week and look forward to you joining us on our video blogging adventure.

Australian Koala Bears ask for help!

2012-02-04T17:27:00.001-07:00

AT 120 DEGREES IN AUSTRALIA , IT WAS SO HOT FOR A WEEK THAT KOALAS

WERE ASKING PEOPLE FOR WATER. IT'S NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE.

ONE WENT TO A HOUSE TO TRY TO HIDE FROM THE HEAT AND TO GET A BIT OF SHADE AND HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE OWNER GAVE HIM SOMETHING TO DRINK. IT'S REALLY CUTE.

remains"Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul unawakened."

Thanks for reading
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Polar Bear: I come in peace....

2012-02-04T17:25:00.001-07:00

Polar Bear: I come in Peace

Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear coming upon
tethered sled dogs in the
wilds of Canada's Hudson Bay.

The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when the
polar bear wandered in.

It's hard to believe that this polar bear only needed to hug someone!

The Polar Bear
returned every night that week to play with the dogs.

May you
always have love to share,

Health to spare,

And friends that care

Thanks for reading
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Stranger Travel Adventures from Across Canada

2012-01-31T21:13:00.001-07:00

This blog is about a very strange bus trip I had to take when I was in my teens. The trip started in Lethbridge, AB and ended in Hamilton Ontario.

When I was young moving from town to town was normal for me. Growing up stability was not something I was used to in my life. I remember spending a lot of time moving and driving as child.

A few funny events I can remember was moving somewhere in BC and having to drug our cat. I remember sleeping in the back compartment of some kind of moving van and having this druggie cat with us. At first it was funny when we would stop to let it use the washroom I remember putting on the side of a hill and watching it stumble sideways down it, not being able to hold its self up. It was a very funny sight to see this cat completely wasted on travel medication.

The not so funny part was when it decided to pee all over me when I was trying to sleep in the back! Then to top it all off I had a hamster in a cage at the end of the bed by my feet soon after decided to bite off the end of my little toe, cause I happened to stick it in the cage by accident while I was sleeping. So needless to say road trips have always been interesting. Having a druggie cat pee on me then end up getting the tip of my little toe bitten off was not my idea of excitement . But anyways here is the story of a very random bus trip to Ontario.

At the time I think I was just starting into grade 7 and living in Lethbridge with my step dad at the time. My mother was in Ontario and was having a hard time.

How the story goes from my point of view is I came home one day and my step dad sits me down and says that he was contacted by a social worker and they asked him to put me on a bus to hamilton Ontario.

Now you can imagine my reaction. I was very young, had never been that far away from my family and too be honest I was just plain scared to pick up and leave. I told my step dad that I didn't want to go. He replied that the person he spoke with had said my mom had legal custody of me and that if she wanted me to go I would have no other option.

At this point in my mind I rebelled. I told my step dad that if I was put on a bus I would run away the first city I stopped in. Obviously I was so scared to go to Ontario because when I arrived in Hamilton I knew I would be living in a shelter for the first little while.

My step dad decided to contact a social worker and see of I had any rights to try and stay. The worker told us that if I didn't go or threatened to run away I would be escorted by either a worker or RCMP and would be flown on a plane. So my options were to take a bus myself or be escorted on a plane. At the time I thought well I don't want an escort so I guess I will take the bus.

The bus ride was going to be 3 to 4 days on red eye type schedule. Basically the longest wait for bus switches would be 1 hr ish but most of the trip I would be on a bus the whole 4 days.

Now for a young guy that was getting shipped to Ontario against his will you can imagine how nervous I was. Not only was I leaving Alberta and my family. But also I was going to be living in a women's shelter which was very hard to understand.

Anyways I had a couple of days to pack and say my good byes. I remember getn on the bus and thinking here we go....

The first part of the trip was nice. I ended up sitting beside a older lady that wanted to feed me mints the whole time. She was very nice to me and was Interesting to talk with.

I switched a few buses and by the start of the second day I was geting very tired. The problem was I was so nervous to miss one of my transfers that I could not sleep. Between being nervous and scared to get stuck in the middle of Canada with no money or anything made it impossible to sleep.

By the time I was in thunder bay I was exhausted. I switched buses and proceeded to the back. I took a seat about 5 seats up from the back and sat on the outside chair hoping to keep a full seat for myself. I popped in my headphones and waited for the bus to fill up.

The bus was very full. Just when I thought I was going to get my seat to myself a huge native man comes on board and starts walking up the isle. Now this fellow was at least 6'7. A very large man who was carrying a ton of mc Donald's take out. I'm thinking to myself please don't sit with me. But of course the fellow looks right at me and asks if he can sit with me. I stood up and let him in.

No problem I thought to myself. I sat down and the bus started to leave thunder bay. I could smell alcohol on the fellow and by his mannerisms he was fairly intoxicated. The fellow inhaled his food and sat next to me quietly.

Well about 25 min later buddy starts to kinda snore. I look over and he is half passed out with his extra large drink in his hand. I think to myself hmm I wonder if this guy is goin to drop this drink when he falls asleep. So now I'm watchn this dude just to see what happens. A couple times he got very close to dropping it but kept waking up just in time to save it.

Well to be expected it was not long before he was fast asleep. That extra large coke in his hand was being pulled down by gravity and bang! Coke all over the floor, ice and pop everywhere . Because it was hilly in that area the pop and ice went all the way to the back and then at least 3/4 way up to the front under everyone's seats on that side of the isle. People looked back at me and all I could do was shrug.....

This fellow did not even flinch. Not only did he not wake up but he was snoring to boot. Ugh. Sooo wtvr. About 15 minutes later I notice this guy slumped over no against the window. His feet are starting to touch mine so I lift my feet and put the up on my seat Ina ball position. The people beside me are lookin over and I'm just like I dunno.

Well I couldn't even make up this next part. This huge guy starts to slide
Down his seat and ends up laying on his side In between the seats. His head is where his feet should be and his legs are now across the isle into the next set of seats. The person in the seat on the other side of the isle had to also pick up there feet.

Soooo here I am with this guy sleeping between the seats on the floor laying in his spilled pop and ice snoring away. Well no jokes he laid there for over a half hour while people stepped over him in the isle to get to the washroom. Finally one person went and complained to the driver.

About 10 minutes later the bus pulls over. All I see is this huge ass bald white grumpy looking bus driver get up and start stomping back to our seat. I'm thinking holy frik this could get ugly why does it have To be in my seat.....anyways I get up and stand back. The bus driver comes over and starts reefing on this guys jacket telling him to get up or he's get kicked of the bus. The driver was pulling him so hard the guys head was smashn on the arm rest. All I could think of was the scene if these two heavy weights started scraping in this bus.

The sleeping fellow was so confused that he says to the driver yeah yeah I'm up I'm up, and then proceeds to try and wiggle out from between the seats. The funniest part was wen this guy stands up and starts opening and closin his hands cause they are sticky from the pop, then wipes the ice cubes off that were stuck to his face. This guy had no clue how he got covered in pop. He sits back down quietly and doesn't say a word.

The driver tells him last chance so stay awake and goes back to the front. Bus starts moving and always we go.

Now that was interesting I though. The whole scene was amusing for the most part. Back to listening to music.

Just when I think it's over I notice buddy slumped over again. Ohh no I'm thinking is this gonna happen again? Yup this frikn guy falls asleep and again falls between the seats and lays straight across the isle.

Ohh wow this bus driver is going to snap. About 10 min later the bus stops again. Driver starts to walk back to our seat again. Just before he gets to us a man stands up and offers to the bus driver to sit with this guy. I guess they had talked before They were getting off at the same plae which was an hour away. The driver says hes on his last chance. If he can't stay in his seat he's getting kicked off no questions. The guy tells the drier no worries he will look after him. Then walks over to me and asks if I would be interested in switching seats. I replied hell yeah and moved up to his seat.

That guy ended up waking up the sleeping fellow who got up and back in his seat without a problem. They talked until their stop came and that was the last I seen of him.

When I arrived in hamilton I was very sick from not sleeping for the four days of the trip. I had not eaten anything other than snacks I picked up during the switch over.

Next stop was the women's shelter where I could see my mom and get some food and sleep. Even though I was mad about being forced to be in Ontario it was nice to see that my mother was ok.

Staying in the women's shelter in hamilton for those few months was a humbling experience. I met a lot of great people and thank goodness for those type of facility's and great hearted people that run them.

Thanks for reading
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Facility Super Man

2012-01-30T21:55:00.001-07:00

My blog today is about when I ended up being stuck in the top corner of a building while a supervisor accidentally vented high pressure gas into the building.

The story starts early morning at a gas facility in northern Alberta. The job was another reclamation job to remove a few buildings from a H2S live plant.

On this particular job my swampers name was cory, he was a buddy from Stettler that used to come work with me when I was pipe fighting. Cory and I had the task of removing a few spool pieces of piping and blind flanging everything that had an open end.

Everything started off on a good foot. I decided since I was more experience that I could go up onto the electrical tray and work with the crane to remove a 24inch spool piece and then bolt on a blind flange that was very heavy and had to be lowered down in through a hole I cut in the roof.

I ask Cory to work on blind flanging all the smaller pipes that where located on the floor level of the building close to the center.

I used a ladder to get up onto the electrical cable tray and then walk around the edge of it until I was in the far corner of the building. Because of a big vessel on that side I could not get a ladder close to my position. I was using fall protection equipment and secured myself to a structure support near my working area.

Once I was all settled i started to secure the crane to the spool piece. When the crane had taken the weight off the pipe I removed the bolts and had the crane lift out the piece. The crane then lowered the blind flange Into the hole in the roof, when it was in position I four bolted it into place.

When you four bolt a big flange or pipe you can keep it aligned while you take the time to install all the rest of the bolts. On big inch pipe it can have a lot of big heavy bolts that need to be installed and torqued with a torque wrench to avoid squishing the metal gaskets.

After unhooking the crane I settled into my spot and started to bullshit with my partner for a bit. Cory was sitting in the middle of the building on some piping. He had a 4inch pipe facing his chest and he was installing a blind flange on the end of it.

As we are talking Cory stops mid sentence and says " do you hear that?". I stop, I'm talking you could hear a needle drop it was so quiet.

All of a sudden I look at the blind flange Cory was working on and he had just got the four bolts in it but it was extremely loose. I screamed at Cory run!!! Get out, get out, get out! Just then a huge roar from the pipes and boooom! Gas hit that blind that Cory was working on and the impacted knocked him backwards onto the floor.

This is when time stood still for me. It was like everything stopped around me. All I could think about was if this gas was H2S I would be 100% killed by it if I tried to make it to my ladder.

Cory managed to get up and run out the side door closest too him. Now was the time for me to decide what I'm going to do to save myself. I had two options. Option one was to try and climb out the hole in the roof and hope something was around I could hold on to, or option two would be to unhook my fall protection and super man jump to the door entrance. Well you can imagine staring at a blue looking pressure flame coming from that flange I didn't have time to think about the pros and cons.

I decided I would jump! I removed my harness clip from my tie off spot. Took a deep breath, two steps back and poooof I'm air born! With the time feeling like it had completely stopped I honestly felt like I was floating. The good thing was that the hand rails at the door entrance were on both sides so when I landed I grabbed them one with each arm. I swear I must have looked like I swan dived because when I landed my face was an inch off the ground and I used the fall to slingshot out the door.

To my surprise as I come flying out the door on the right hand side is a welder torching off the welds on the building!! Ahhh open flame, I star yelling evacuate, shut down gas!!! By the time the welder looks up and turns off his flame I am already running for the muster point cause if that sparks its over for that building since it was now full of gas.

After everyone had evacuated the plant I was very hyper from jumping from the roof of a building and somehow not breaking my legs. The safety hand and supervisor come walking over to our group with shit eating grins on their faces.

I asked " So what's the deal with the gas". Supervisor replies " Oh sorry about that guys, I Opened the wrong valve."

Thanks for reading
Follow @Justinzmobile

Running Through Life

2012-01-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

I was quite honoured when Justin asked me to write posts for his blog. Although we are fairly early in our relationship, we have really bonded over utilizing social media sites together. I have been an avid blogger and Twitter user for years so naturally I encouraged Justin to communicate via these alternative channels.

Justin's latest video blog discussing his anxiety really allowed me to get a clearer insight into the effects it has on people. Personally, I am a very outgoing person. I was always at every social event and until recently, I was continuously booking weeks in advance to spend one-on-one time with my friends. It wasn't until late last year that I knew I needed to take a step back from focusing my time on my social calendar and more on myself, and building a strong foundation in my relationship.

Although I do not have anxiety, I am a thinker. I always take the information being presented and over analyze it. This is the case with many women I know. Unlike men, who take a statement at face value, I always assume there is an underlying issue. Why? That is a question I am still figuring out.

I have found that the only way for me to clear my head is to go for a run. I used to run almost everyday. It wasn't until I stopped that I realized how much of an impact the lack of exercise has on me.

Last year my dear friend Roma convinced me to run a half marathon. At this point I had pretty much stopped running and faced many distractions in my life. When I got on the plane to San Diego (where I would be running the half marathon), I had the stress of my home town, Slave Lake, burning in the fire the month before, I had just recently broke up with someone, I was dealing with vertigo, and I was in the process of purchasing my first condo. Needless to say stress was a huge aspect of my life.

When I got to San Diego, I never thought that I would be able to finish the run. I already had it in my mind that I would quit when I was tired and I was okay with that. It wasn't until I took that first step that I knew this was something that I had to finish.

I know it sounds cliche, but running that half marathon completely changed my life. It allowed me to spend 13.1 miles alone with my thoughts and not have them consume me. Pushing myself gave me the insight I needed to realize that all of the little things in life that I allowed to consume me, were really not that significant.

After running that half marathon, I ran a second one in August. This time here in Edmonton. Because of those two experiences, I am now challenging myself to run two half marathons every year. This will allow me to focus my time on clearing my head and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

While running is not for everyone, there are many different avenues for people to explore to help with things such as over analyzing, anxiety, and even depression. I have been fortunate enough to find something to help clear my head and focus on more important areas of my life, but it's not always as easy for everyone.

Like Justin asked in his video blog, how do you cope with your anxiety and clear your head? It would be great for us to get some feedback as well as potentially give some advice on how we can get through this. Together.

Oilfield Construction adventures of Chiz and Pid: Where in the World is Pid??

2012-01-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

Chiz and Pid have a special type of Ying and Yang to them . I explained your typical Chiz in Chiz did it ! To Explain what Pid brings to this relationship it Started with a fellow named Stew(Pid). The Typical Pid can be described as a person who knows how to work, but fails to see the reasons why they should.

The Pid attitude is to make it through the day doing the least amount of work possible, including hiding in available buildings, equipment, and taking as many smoke/bathroom breaks as possible without getting caught. Pids would rather fake injuries to get out of labour work and stand around explaining how to do something instead of just doing it themselves. Pids in general have decent common sense but are masters at avoiding any type of work at all costs. Pids can come in any form and can easily be picked out by their loud mouths, lazy nature, and can usually be found surrounded by a Chiz or two.

This fellow Stew(Pid) arrived in Camp on the same rotation as Chiz, so for the first couple days we had Pid on T300 (Tracked Bobcat) duty. His job was to fork over large spool pieces and Bolt pallets that would be needed for the facility bolt up crews, if they didn't need anything then knocking down massive ruts the cranes would leave across the lease was priority number two. Stew was off to a good start getting things moved without dropping them in a timely and safe manner.

At first coffee everyone piles into the dog house to joke around and bullshit about what's going on around the facility. I overhear Pid talking to Chiz about how the mud is getting stuck in the tracks of the T300 and he wants Chiz to get a shovel after coffee and clean his machine. I think to myself why can't this guy clean his own machine. Ever since I was a young guy I have believed that the guy that gets the machine dirty should be the one cleaning the tracks. Getting help is fine but essentially an operator won't care what he drives in if he's not cleaning his own machine.

After coffee everyone starts to leave the dog house and I say to Chiz keep helping the bolt up crew hes assigned too and don't worry about shoveling Pids machine. Pid comes over and asks me what hes going to do about the hard packed mud in his tracks.

I explained to him that he could get a shovel and shovel them.
Pid responds without missing a beat " Well I have a sore back and I cant do it".
I ask Pid " How did you hurt your back? " . Pid Responds " All the bouncing when im driving across the lease is hard on my back" I replied to Pid " Why didn't you say something at coffee about how running the T300 was hard on your back? I can get you a different job on a bolt up crew if thats the case." Pids replies " Ohh no no thats fine, I will just go slower over the Bumps. "

By now I'm seeing the Pidness in this Stew guy. I explain to him that if he wants to loosen some of the hard packed mud in the rails he can drive through a near by puddle that was in the corner of the lease, then dig it our after its been soaked.

I walked back with my buddy ryan and complained to him that I had a bad feeling about this Stew(Pid) guy and explained the trying to fake a back injury to get out of shoveling his machine story. Ryan's like I will keep an eye on him from the top of the mods when im doing bolt up. Fair enough I jump back into the crane I am running and proceed to start Bolt up.

Everything seemed to be going good until I notice ryan giving me the stupid look from the top of the mods. I pop my head out the sunroof and ask him whats up? Ryan says " Hey Pids T300 is smoking over there!! " I turn around to look and here is Pid cruising across lease full speed and the tracks are smoking like crazy. I look at ryan and started laughing, Seriously how can this guy not see the tracks roasting off ! I said to ryan oh well it's almost lunch lets finish this up and I will talk to him during lunch. As ryan and I are walking across lease for lunch ryan is telling me that Pid spent most of the morning in that mud puddle over in the corner of the lease. I asked if he seen Pid shovel his tracks at all, and ryan was like no man the guy was in the puddle the whole time he wasn't ripping across lease.

Just as ryan and I get to the dog house Pid rolls up in the T300, turns it off and gets out. I look at him with my patented dumb look and say " You didn't notice all that white smoke coming from your tracks the last half hour or so Stew(Pid) ? ". Pid replies " No didn't notice.". I ask Pid " Did you even clean your tracks at all since coffee? ". Pid says to me " No I just drove through the puddle more to keep the tracks from heating up ". I looked at Pid and pointed to the smoking Rock hard chunks of mud binding on the top corner of the high drive on the machine and said " Stew(Pid), you have to shovel those hard chunks out or your going to wreck a perfectly good set of rubber tracks on this brand new machine!!! " Pid tries to explain his reasoning behind not shoveling his machine but by now I'm walking in for lunch and ignoring him.

The Tracks on that machine were shoveled after lunch but Pid still ended up in that mud puddle all afternoon. At the end of the day I had decided that it was time for move Pid off the machines before he got too lazy and forgot that he was here to help bolt up crews.

In the morning after the safety meeting I was all caught up with my bolt up crew for lowing in new pieces so just bolt tightening and flange/Gasket lineup was left. I decided to take over the T300 work and get Pid to help the boys on bolt up. Well Pid was not a happy camper as I expected. The Bolt up crews consisted of two guys with harnesses on in the Mods and one guy on the ground handing them bolts and gaskets. Pid was all over the ground guy job, and once he learned that the slackest part of it was being the guy with the torque wrench that was his new career. At lunch I asked Pid infront of all the boys, hows that torque job going Stew? Pid Replies " Nothing is going to leak, I'm the best torque guy around. Been doing this for years! ".... Everyone kinda laughed.

Making a long Story short, for about two weeks solid Pid would not do anything other than go around with this torque wrench and be the bolt torquer guy. The funny part is as a machine operator my job is to pay attention. I notice what everyones doing and were they are on lease most of the time. While Pid is being a torque master, I am watching him ninja into buildings and hide a lot more than the other guys. I start thinking to myself this is going to be ugly when we start to pre test this plant and start filling with water and find everything leaking. So I decide I am going to spend a day with ryan and we are going to go back and check a few sections with the torque wrench.

Early morning I head over to the Mods with Ryan, Pid, Chiz and two other guys. I explain on the walk over how important it is that everything is tight and tightened properly blah blah blah. The same exact rant I gave Pid just before he started helping with bolt up. We get over into the Mods and I start checking bolts. I get two flanges in and start to find a few odd things. First thing I find is that some of the four inch flanges look crooked. As I look closed Pid had Tightend one bolt up as tight as he could and then went around creating a leaver action crushing the gaskets in the process, He was told to tighten the flanges like a tire. You have to tighten them across from each other snug at first, and then tighten them even all the way around.

After inspecting a handful of flanges a number of them had to be un bolted and the gaskets replaced. I expected this to happen but when someone argues that they know what they are doing and not to worry the job will be done right you want to at least give them a chance. Pid was not happy he had to un bolt and change out all the gaskets.

The next day after the safety meeting I asked ryan if he had seen Pid around? Ryan said no but over heard him asking the boss man to borrow a truck to drive into Fort mac to get pain medication. I already had a swamper steal my truck and crash it in town on this job so the boss man was not likely to lend anymore trucks to anyone. Anyways oh well i went to work.

At lunch again no Pid so I poked the boss man from across the lunch table and was like " hey what happened to Pid? You run him off last night? " Boss Man replies " He was asking for a truck last night to go to town but I said no. Have not seen him since." Right then safety hand tunes in and says " I watched Pid get into one of your guys trucks last night and drive off!" Boss man Replies" Ahh F#$# "

Yup. Pid stole a company truck. The story goes Pid was a BC local and didn't want to take the bus back I guess. We reported the truck stolen and about a month later the police reported the truck had been found in BC.

Thats the Story on how Stew had Pid added to his name. Keep an eye out for your local Chiz's and Pid's at a work place near you!

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The adventures of Chiz and Pid: Chiz did it!!

2012-01-22T13:24:00.001-07:00

This story begins in a distant land called northern Alberta, about 2hrs north of fort Mac at a camp job for a massive steam injection facility. I can tell already you are asking yourself " who is Chiz and Pid" ? To start this off right I want you to think about your work place. Every construction work environment has a Chiz or a Pid or even both at the same time.

Explanation of a "Chiz" is a simple idiot, the type of guy that's a scrawny goofy looking 1 toothed no common sense type of guy you meet at you're morning safety meeting and think " I'm avoiding this tool at all costs". Now this nickname is not given out to just anyone. The person you call Chiz has to have already done something beyond simple stupidity. They have to be in the - Just plain not safe to work around category by the time they are called a "Chiz".

Here is the story of Chiz. Now like I said earlier I was working up north. I started this facility build and was one of a handful of people to get the project moving. The first 2 months of the job was laying out piles and shooting in for pile cut offs for the mods to sit on. After this was done I started to get bolt up crews. Since I was a senior guy on site I was lead hand and did most of the on site orientations. Anyone that was new usually tagged along with me to get the hang of bolt up on the mods. The thing about camp jobs is there is a lot of employee turn over. Guys come to camp and start crying cause either wife/gf is stressing the shit out of them cause they are needy or the guy is straight jealous that now that he's stuck in camp she's gona cheat on him. So between that and substance abuse most guys were not lasting more than a 3 week set. Sooooo coming back to my story the 3rd round of newb bold up crews arrived.

For the most part I try to give everyone a chance so I didn't mind taking this goofy looking Chaz guy to swamp my good buddy Ryan doin bolt up while I was running the crane And Ryan was in the rack bolting up the pipe and valves. Basically all this Chaz guy had to was look at the prints to get a number for the missing piece and find it stamped on either the valve or pipe. Then sling the pieces and I would pick it up with the crane and lower it in for Ryan to bolt up. For a guy that was around 40yrs old and said he had been in the oilfield all his life you would think that was simple. WRONG! Typical Chaz was showing his Chizness very early... This guy can't read prints. I can tell cause he stares at them for at least 5 minutes before looking at me in the crane and giving me a dumb look. Ugh... That's fine but I just asked him if he could read prints before I got in the crane and the guy says to me "yes" !!!

So now I gotta get out of the Crane and explain how to read this blue print. It's super easy cause it's like Lego with stamped numbers. Look for empty spot. Look on prints match up numbers Zzzzzzz... after the tutorial I'm like "do you know how to sling pipe level ?" He responds oh yea no problem... Ok then so I roll back over to my crane and settle in. Drop the hook in front of this guy and wait....... And wait...... And Wtf!!!!! Dude what's your issue hook me up. After a good 10 minutes of re adjusting 2 slings a billion times I lift it 2 feet off the ground to see if it lifts level and the damm thing almost falls out of the slings !!!!' ugh...... So I set it down , no jokes it took him 4 tries to even get it close. Ryan was like leave it I will twist it up here, since he's sitting in the rack watching this painful circus show going on below him. So again I'm waiting... Why? Because buddy thinks I can ninja this huge ass pipe into this mod with my magic invisible tag line linked to my open cab window! Put a tag line on man its at your feet !! Ahah. Jeepers.

Sooo during all this the big boss man was watching the show from the dog house. Well as I'm lowering the pipe down to ryan this Chiz guy starting tugging on the rope and spins it 180 with the wrong end going to Ryan. All I can see is Ryan shaking his head and waving his hands. I pop my head out the sun roof of the crane and yell wtf to Ryan. Ryan's likes it the wrong way I dunno what he's doing. So I bark at Chiz, hey turn it around. Anyways dude struggled and I don't even know why. How hard is it to spin the pipe the right way. Anyways I'm frustrated already and get heated in the cab of this machine. Ohh but wait here comes the big boss man. Now picture a 350 pound 6'0 foot pissed off 50 yr old red headed Forman and that this guy. He comes over and helps Chiz with the tag line. I Didnt hear what was said but by lip reading Chiz just smiled and nods.

Well, that only took 45 min for 1 spool piece..... Hope it gets better . 2nd attempt I drop my hook above the next piece, I can see what piece is needed from my crane but Chiz gets the blue prints and proceeds to waste time trying to show the boss man how he is horribly bad at fake reading prints... So the boss man already notices my hook was above the next piece so he motions for Chiz to slinger up. Well, another very painful sling jon and by the 3rd attempt at leveling the pipe the boss man starts to get visibly angry. Boss man storms over to Chiz and grabs the slings and slings it up! 1st try bang perfect. I laughed to myself. Chiz looked like a cat that just got chased out of the litter box without getting to finish its dump . So now the pipe is slung and what's next? You got it " Chiz it needs a tag line still".... So here I am in this crane watching all this like a tv show, big boss man is stand right beside Chiz . I start to lift the pipe and for some unsolved mystery type reason just as the boss man looks away he swings the pipe full circle and knocks the hard hat off the boss mans head. REALLY!

I'm sitting in this cab thinking this guy is gona get it and bang ! Boss man loses it, like I'm talking cataclysmic Rage.... Big boss man takes 1 step towards his hard hat and then proceeds to stomp it out. Honest this guy flattens out his hard hat in 1 stomp and yells at Chiz pointing to a different bolt up crew " get the f out of my sight , NOW". I was laughing so hard I had to hide behind the steering wheel of the crane. The rest of that morning the boss man swamped us. At lunch I received a new helper. So after Ryan crawled down off the mods and we went for lunch Chiz was officially the new nickname for any idiot we received in the rotation. Best part was all the original guys knew the story so when a new guy came and we would complain about a Chiz on site they would laugh! Watch out for Chiz, or Chiz did it.

So basically that's only the start, we couldn't fire him until the 3 weeks were up so I was stuck dealing with this guy till days off came. Funny part is I had to drive this guy back to central Alberta with Ryan and he knew we hated him. When we left camp I told him the minute he got out of the truck I was leaving him. Dude didn't get out 1 time from fort Mac to Stettler ! So just think do you have a Chiz working with you? Or have you ever dealt with a Chiz? Something to ponder. As for his partner Stew(pid) I will save that story for part 2 of Chiz and pids adventures. Thanks for reading.

Check Out Special Guest Chiz Video !

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H2S The silent killer

2012-01-22T09:42:00.001-07:00

Working in the oilfield has put me in situations that have changed my perspective on life. One of these situations happened when I was 21ish running a pipe fighter crew truck as a lead hand for a company out of Stettler.

The story starts in the town of Edson, AB. The job was to shut down a small plant and remove a few of the old skid buildings from the site.

At 5:30am I woke up in my hotel room like every other day, had my shower and was out the door looking for my 3 crew members to head out to the job which was about 1hr north o the town. The guys I was working with where usually decent for being on time but today, well let's just say no one showed up to the truck. As the guy driving the truck it was important I don't leave my whole crew behind so of course I went and got door keys and headed for these guys rooms to wake them up. The first room I went in both guys couldn't even talk they were so wasted. I thought to myself " ugh these clowns ".... I told them to get their asses in the truck so they could sober up for work on the drive. 1 guy got up and said " ok ok I'm commin". , the other was not responding so I left him.

I went over to the other guys room and he wasn't even In the room. I loaded up 1 of 3 pipe fighters. I decided to try an call my foreman to give him a heads up. The problem was for some reason the site had no cell service. Dammmmmit ! Well, I'm leaving anyway. Just start to head to the store to grab lunch and my truck starts shaking. Ugh really!!! Pull over and I find my inside dual tire flat. Sigh. Ok well grab lunch and hit kal tire . Kal tire opens at 7... And I can't get ahold of the boss. Great! Well, I decided I have to get the tire fixed, then go back and get them other two guys and I should be golden.

Soooooooo tires done by 8am. Cruise back and bust into the rooms both guys are around and I loaded their drunk asses in the truck. Off to work we go. 9:15am I roll into the plant. Now if you can imagine the owner of the company I worked for was a huge man. Like fat ! I'm talking 400+ pounds type huge and all up front. This clown comes running or should I say hobbling over to my truck pissed right off. He's yelling and screaming like a goof and I havnt even got out of the truck yet. Sigh. So I step out of my truck and buddy is losing it on me for being late. I tried to spit out my story but this guy didn't give a damm about why I was late. He proceeds to keep yelling and tells me to get my tools and take a blind flange off the outside of a nearby building .

I said to the guy give me a sec to put gear on and sign the safety sheets. Boss man says just get that Fing blind flange off NOW. Ok ok I said. So I grab my line up bars and wrenches and walk over to this flange. In my head I think hmmmm, I know this site is H2S live so I better be careful removing this blind. I just want to add that this clown sent me into a H2S live zone without giving me a chance to be briefed on the job. I didn't know if it had pressure behind it or anything . All I knew was that this asshole was still yelling at me to get this blind off. So I walk up to the flange that was waist height lean back just in case there is a bit of pressure and start to losses the bolts. If you loosen them slow enough you will always hear the pressure bleed before anything happens and I you loosen them evenly the first round then loosen the bottom nuts the pressure should bleed down so you dot get a face full of gas. So I do this and no pressure , wooooot.

Just at this time safety hand starts to walk over to me from 30 feet away or so to sniff the area for H2S and BANG I feel it. Omfg I think to myself and boom im dizzy. All I can think about is to stay awake and keep breathing! Within a second I lost consciousness. I open my eyes and I was 4 feet away from my location being dragged out by the safety hand.

I kept breathing heavy and felt very dizzy and sick. They hit me with some oxygen once I was outside in the muster area. The boss man didn t say anything to me until the plant was clear to go back in, then he pipes up " get to work ". ...........

The reason I told this story was because it changed my life that day. I always used to jump for management, yes sir right away sir type stuff when I was young. That day that all changed. That was the day my attitude changed to " I DECIDE ". I no longer jumped for management after that. I promised myself that after that day I would decide what and when I do things. If it's not fast enough for them too bad! I now offer a service to company's I work for, I'm no longer a bitch to be told what to do. You can ask me to do something but in the end I will decide if it gets done that way or my way ( The safe way).

It's our personal responsibility to be safe and make decisions to protect our personal best interests. If you think for a second what your management is telling you to do is not safe, don't do it. Thanks for reading.

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Justins Mobile Thoughts going into 2012.

2012-01-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

I decided to start sharing some of my personal thoughts and story's today. I'm new to blogging so this will be a bit of a learning curve on deciding what to write about.

Today is January 21, 2012. I started my day today waking up in a good mood thinking about the changes going on in my life. This year is wide open for me to decide what direction I would like to move in with my life.

Starting a new relationship has given me lots to think about, as well as the direction I would like to go with work. My relationship is stable and seems to be moving in a good direction. I'm excited to see where the relationship will go. At the moment I don't have much more to say about my love life other than its good!

Work, ugh. This topic is going to be something I will write about a lot. This subject takes up a good portion of my life at the moment. My passion is running heavy equipment, it gives me a sense of freedom and accomplishment. The problem is its hard to find year round work and even harder to find year round work I can be close to home. This causes a very real problem for me.

As a young guy I lost a good portion of my 20s focused on Construction work. Relationships and family always took 2nd place in my life. I neglected my family and friends while being away from home for months and months on end . At one point I was on the road over 2yrs with not much more than a few days off once in a while. I noticed I was starting to develop social anxiety when I would come home. I didn't understand how to live my life besides working in camps or on the road.

Eventually depression set in. This effected my relationships and the willingness to spend time with family. The good thing is I noticed the problems. I tried to be pro active and change my profession even though I loved being in a machine. The lifestyle was emotionally numbing me to the point of being a working robot. I decided to settle down when I was 27 and address my problems and work through my depression.

I started local work with construction company's and eventually settled into security position at the red deer regional hospital. I used the time and stability of the job to analyze myself and really work on getting in touch with who I really am as a person. The last few years have been an eye opener emotionally and I would like to think I'm starting to grow up and see the world In a different context.

So here I am 2012 working as security, wishing I was running machines. Big changes ahead since a few job offers have come threw the door. Will I go back to living on the road or settle into a low paying 9 to 5 job! Time will tell, all I know is I'm going to close the chapter on this security stuff very soon. Stay Tuned and thanks for reading.

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