bigblueglobe

2008 McMurdo Winterovers

2008-07-22T12:04:00.000+12:00

Now Entering Level 5

2008-07-21T12:02:00.000+12:00

This morning I received a shot in the arm. Not just any
shot, but the "Southern Hemisphere Variety" flu shot.
Supposedly this will make us less susceptible to getting
the flu from the Orange People that will be down here in
45 days. Any time I think of viruses, my mind immediately
goes to "The Andromeda Strain". This movie surprisingly
holds up well even though it was made over 35 years ago.
I kind of feel like McMurdo is the movie's version of
Wildfire which is the uber-secret sterile lab where germs
are studied. If I get the flu because of this shot I
received, I may hallucinate and think that small viruses
from other planets are out to get us. OK...maybe not
but it certainly makes getting a flu shot more interesting.

Moon River

2008-07-20T10:39:00.000+12:00

Every Sunday we listen to Der Perfesser's Eclectic Grab Bag on
Ice Radio. This is Mark's (aka Poobacca)radio show. In honor of
the 39th Anniversary of the First Landing on the Moon, he scattered
amongst his repertoire a smattering of Moon-related songs. Knowing
that I'm a fan of "Moon River" by Henry Mancini, he played quite
possibly the worst version of it being sung by Andy Williams that
I've ever heard. Not the usual A.W. version, but some jazzy
version that was awful! When Lynn heard that he was going to play
this, she woke me up and of course he said this on the radio so all
dozen or so listeners now know my Sunday sleeping habits. However,
it's not often you have a song, albeit cheesy one, dedicated to
you on an important date on the calendar. Thanks Poobacca!

Storming The Castle

2008-07-19T22:21:00.000+12:00

I'm not really sure why it was called the "Storm The
Castle" Party...maybe because Todd, who is the Supply
Supervisor is a D&D Geek...but Lynn and I went to this
cholesterol fest tonight. It was sponsored by the Supply
Department and featured of all things, Lynn doing Tarot
Card readings. She was joined by Lisa and together they
either put many minds at ease or brought up long buried
issues for many people. Lynn is actually very good at
reading so I'm told and is usually dead-on. After
everyone enjoyed various meats on a stick and artery-
clogging delacacies, several of this winter's bands
played. I went home a little early. Too much excitement...
or fried food...is not good this time of year.

Toasty Warm

2008-07-18T21:31:00.001+12:00

It's that time of year again. It happens like clockwork.
People are getting toasty. If you really want to know all
the scientific mumbo jumbo of what T3 is about, just Google
it for yourself because I am lucky to remember my own name
these days, let alone quote you the specifics from the New
England Journal of Medicine. A few years ago, I had trouble
remembering if "S" came before or after "T". There have been
additional symptoms that it is rampant on station:

At the last two meetings, notices have been given to continue
to play well with others. What might have been funny four
months ago, might not be now.

I watched people ask for salt and pepper recently without
saying a single word.

I actually thought that getting a whole case of Shrimp flavored
Ramen might be a good thing.

No sunshine, cold weather and repetition (walk up the hill, walk
down the hill, rinse, repeat) have a tendency to make one's mind
wander. What's really sad is I just spaced out for over 5 minutes
before writing this sentence...

Winter p0rn

2008-07-17T21:22:00.000+12:00

No one down here would ever look at "dirty" pictures,
but to Winterovers, after not seeing any greenery,
fresh flowers, fruits and vegetables, this is the
closest most people get to p0rn. Let's just say that
seeing pictures like these from our friends in the
Spokane Washington area makes Winterovers very happy.
A few years ago we sent some photos like this to some
friends on the Ice and used the "other" "P word" (with a
"O" instead of a "zero (0)". It got bounced by the
email filter thinking it was something of bad taste.
Little did the filter know that these photos are much
more interesting than the traditional photos with the
"O" instead of a "zero(0)".

Note: This was a really hard entry to write without using
the actual "P word". My brain is WAY too toasty to be
that imaginitive and if I used the actual "P" word, who
knows what kind of spam I'd start getting!

Too Windy to Be Outside

2008-07-16T22:07:00.000+12:00

Our friend Antz, who took this photo, informed us that
the wind reached 123 mph yesterday at Black Island. He's
out there performing some maintenance tasks to our off-
continent communications system. That's not the windiest
we've had it in the area as it exceeded 140 knots (161 mph)
in 2004, but I certainly wouldn't want to be out in it.
I think that Antz and the crew were safe and sound and
not out and about in that wind though. They're too smart
for that!

The Joys of Summer

2008-07-15T20:01:00.000+12:00

This our friend Belinda's son, Josh, having a great
day at the Water Park...ahh...summer. Maybe someday.

Dirty Laundry

2008-07-11T10:09:00.001+12:00

At the end of every summer, the Housing Department is faced
with the aftermath of the season...Dirty Laundry. How much
dirty laundry you ask? About enough to fill a 40 foot long
milvan shipping container. This is primarily sheets, pillow
cases, comforters, blankets...you get the idea. It can be
a bit daunting to say the least. Jim and Talie look exhausted
just thinking about it.

However...by this time of year, most of the laundry has been
washed, folded and bagged for the upcoming summer season.
Talie's done a great job getting things ready. Each of those
bags behind her will go on someone's bed this summer and be
waiting for them when they arrive.

My Ink

2008-07-10T20:20:00.000+12:00

I'm not much of a tattoo person. I don't have anything
against them or people that have them. It's just not
for me. But...when Ang and Todd were giving them free
at the recent party on the 4th and they were done with
ink markers and not needles...I said ok. So here's my
Tat. It was gone about 24 hours later with soap and water.
Not so easy to do when it's permanent.

Just A Little

2008-07-09T20:51:00.000+12:00

This shot was taken yesterday from Arrival Heights above
town. The light is getting closer! Looks like we have
some Nacreous Cloud action too!

Dorm Doors of B-155

2008-07-08T16:57:00.001+12:00

There was a photo exhibit of Dorm Doors of Building 155 on
the I:drive today. The one above of our friend Grump's
room is my favorite. Below are some other interesting
shots.

Jenga

2008-07-07T21:31:00.000+12:00

One of the highlights of each Independence Day Celebration
here on the Ice are the number of booths that people set up
to test one's skills, make people laugh and generally have
fun. Probably the highlight of this year's offerings was
the Human Jenga. In this version, sponsored by the SAR
(Search And Rescue) Team, the participant was placed in a
safety harness used for rock climbing and would stand on a
wooden box. They were then handed an additional box and
had to stand on that box as well, going all the way up to
10 boxes. Several people made it that far. If they fell
off, they were safely held by the climbing rope. It looked
pretty nerve racking and no, I wasn't stupid enough to try
it, but I had great admiration for those that did. Pretty
impressive!

There is NO Sanctuary

2008-07-06T08:03:00.001+12:00

In honor of our friend Sandwich's recent 30th birthday,
we hosted a two film filmfest on Sunday of Tron, followed
by Logan's Run. If you haven't seen Logan's Run, here's
the premise...Life is perfect, you have everything you
need. Only one catch. You have to die at age 30. It's
one of my favorite movies and we have a DVD copy of it that
I've practically worn out. Lynn had never seen the whole
movie before and since she's now seen the whole thing...is
not a big fan. The remaining people toward the end of the
viewing felt the same unfortunately. My only ally, Jed
left early to call his girlfriend...traitor! Anyway, I'm
sure that Sandwich was either renewed or reached Sanctuary
and she is no longer a Red-29 and is not flying around on
Carousel anymore. Me? I've been officially a "Runner" for
12 years now. No Carousel for me!

The Power of the Nap

2008-07-05T23:39:00.000+12:00

The whole station has been needing this day off. Our first
Saturday off in five weeks. You can just see the tired look
on everyone's face. People are tired of the cold, tired of
the wind, tired of being held down by "the Man". I for one
spent my time creatively napping. Getting up at 11:00 and
then taking two naps during the day is a sign that some serious
rest is needed. I'm sure I'm not the only one though. Maybe
everyone will be full of energy and pep on Monday morning.
Hmmm...probably not.

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-04T23:36:00.000+12:00

I've heard from several people today that they don't
celebrate the 4th of July. They celebrate Independence
Day. Independence from our rule by Britain. To be
honest, I didn't think most people gave it that much
thought. Apparently some do. We went to the 4th of
July...I mean Independence Day, party at the MEC and
generally had a good time. I was a chili cook-off
judge and there were some pretty good entries and one
that tasted somewhere in between excrement and excrement
on one's shoe. Not a good choice. After watching many
younger and braver (or dumber) than I, stand on up to
ten crates at a time while harnessed to the ceiling,
we watched Moose and Barb conduct the annual auction of
stuff (mostly crap). Although Lynn entered a couple of
knitted hats and they fetched $20 and $25. The money
then went to a big pot where tickets were randomly drawn
for cash prizes. Alas, we were not big winners, but it
was fun to watch. The highlight of the evening though for
me was celebrating my Independence from being Corn-Dog-Free.
The cooks made homemade corn dogs for the event and after
many months of jonesing for a corn dog...I left satisfied.
Now if they can somehow find a way to replicate a Taco Bell
Bean Burrito!

No Liquor

2008-07-03T19:53:00.000+12:00

It was announced today that hard liquor will not be sold
in the store this summer. Only in the bars in mixed drinks.
Only beer and wine will be available in both places. All
in the effort to save the program money. No word yet whether
this will affect Palmer and South Pole stations as well.
It's not a big deal to us since we're not drinkers, but
it will be a big inconvenience to a lot of the hard core
drinkers down here. It was also announced a few weeks ago
that smoking will only be allowed in two designated buildings,
instead of the current four, slowly making it a smoke-free
workplace. It certainly is going to be an interesting summer!

Feeder A

2008-07-02T19:26:00.000+12:00

It seems that our power has been going off a lot this year.
Except for once though, all of the occurances have been
planned. Over the last few years, they've been building a
new Power Plant and since it's not completely up to speed
yet, they use the Old Power Plant as well. Today they had
to bring down the New Plant engines for a 2000 hour maintenance
cycle, so for less than a minute our side of town (Feeder A)
was without power while they switched over to the Old Plant
engines. This usually turns into quite a task with the
Power Plant technicians, Linemen and Electricians all involved.
I took photos of town without lights, but since it's dark
pretty much all the time in early July, it's kind of like,
"Yep...it's dark...so what". So we'll get to do this all over
again in a couple of weeks when they switch back over to the
New Plant engines. You kind of get used to it, but if you
think about it, it's kind of scary to realize how cold it would
get here in a hurry if the power stayed out for an extended time.
Granted we don't get as cold as the Pole...it was only -19 here
this morning, but when we went without power for a couple of
hours last month, one could feel a slight chill already.
Something to keep things in perspective I suppose.

Taking the Town Photo

2008-07-01T21:07:00.000+12:00

A few days ago, 114 of the 125 of us bundled up and
had our photo taken by Antz in front of the Medical
Building. It was only the second time in our six
winters that we actually took the photo in the dark.
When final copies are posted, I will place them on
here and talk about them more. For right now, all
I have is this preliminary shot.

el Queso Grandes

2008-06-30T20:15:00.000+12:00

As a part of the Fire Department's effort to have 100%
of the station trained in Fire Extinguisher use, it was
my turn today as I was lumped into the group that was
called "el Queso Grandes" (The Big Cheeses). This was
because the NSF Station Manager, RPSC Station Manager,
FEMC Manager, Ops Manager, QA Inspector and lil ol' me
were the victims...I mean participants. After having an
hour and a half of classroom theory and training, we
donned the gear (I got to feel like a real fireman) and
we went outside to hit the pan full of ignited MOGAS.
I'd done this before, both here and on a blazing parking
lot in Phoenix (it was hot...not on fire) so I felt
pretty comfortable. I was 5th in line and after Larry,
the QA Inspector failed to put his fire out, I was still
confident that I would do well. I knew the PASS (Pull,
Aim, Squeeze and Sweep). But...I guess I shouldn't quit
my day job as I failed to put out my fire as well. I
got a second chance and put it out, but by that time my
bubble was burst. The Chief, Will, said that sometimes
if the fire is hot like it was (as opposed to a cold fire?)
it's hard for the later people to put their fires out as
easily. I think he was just trying to make Larry and I
feel better but who cares. I got to wear the cool suit,
snazzy helmet and play with fire. Now I can go back to
my parent's house in the States and burn leaves...as a
"professional" firefighter!

Too Many Chips

2008-06-29T22:00:00.000+12:00

Today was Antz's birthday so Shandra and Lisa threw a
party for him at Hut 10 and with Sean's help, made
pizza for everybody. Especially good was the chicken-
Gouda-cranberry variety. Antz is a lover of potato
chips and the Store just happened to have a number of
cans of chips available just in time for his birthday.
A number of decorative and imaginative wrapping styles
tried to disguise the chips but the end result was the
same. I told Antz that this is what happens when he
doesn't register somewhere for his birthday. Unfortun-
ately, it looks like he did register...at 7-Eleven.

6 Years Ago Today

2008-06-28T13:10:00.000+12:00

On June 28, 2002 I was walking with our friend Eileen
to of all things, a Safety Meeting. There's a bit of
a slope on the backside of B-140 between there and B-175
where the meeting was being held. All of a sudden, POW...
down I go. I still remember the falling and landing part.
There had been a light dusting of snow the night before
and this was just enough to make the hard ice below
slippery. Apparently Eileen stopped me from rolling down
the hill any farther by placing her foot in my way but I
don't remember this. More embarrassed than anything else,
I tried to get up. It's amazing how your body won't let
you do something you're not supposed to do. I could not get
up off my knees. I was in no real pain. I just couldn't
get up. Eileen went upstairs into B-140 to tell Lynn and
called the Fire Department. They came in an ambulance.
Now THAT was embarrassing. Actually it was the first time I
had ever ridden in an ambulance so that part was OK. When
I got to Medical, they couldn't tell what was wrong with me.
I know I couldn't walk correctly and they gave me a brace,
thinking I had done something wrong to my knee. Our friends
Mike P. and Ken M. saved me from falling on my face between
Medical and B-155 (even with crutches) and I settled down into
my office on Highway One for the rest of the afternoon. Lynn
brought me ice packs and I hoped for the best. What a trooper
I was though...didn't miss any work! Over the next couple of
weeks they did lots of tests including ultra sounds and a tele-
conference with the University of Texas to find out what was
wrong with me. Station Manager Tom V. and his boss and our
friend Jim S. made sure that I was going to leave at WINFLY and
Jim arranged it that Lynn would be leaving with me as my
caretaker. That was a big relief. So for the next two months
I crutched it around station with an inadequate knee brace and
really cool crutches with carbide tips (kind of like Leki poles)
There was definitely not going to be a medevac and I would
just have to wait for WINFLY to arrive. It was far from fun. When
WINFLY came, I got to leave on the third flight after I did
turnover with my replacement and I was off to Christchurch to
be repaired. Leeann, who would later become our friend, took
care of us, getting us set up at Colombo in the City Motel with
future friends Brendan and Pauline and that would be our home
for the next three months. I went to the doctor and still didn't
know what was wrong. A CRT Scan showed that I had torn my right
quadriceps tendon. The doctor didn't believe it when I told him
and until he looked at the scan was dubious. "Nobody tears their
quadriceps tendon". As you can guess, this didn't make me feel
that great. They scheduled me for surgery which hopefully would
repair it. The doctor had done work in the past for the All Blacks
rugby team so that made feel better and the day I was preparing
for surgery, they drew a big arrow on my right leg to make sure
they took care of the correct leg! What didn't make me comfortable
though was the doctor told me that only twice had he performed this
surgery before...on two Samoans, and both times were unsuccessful.
Great...right before going under the knife. So they gave me a
shot, I started counting down...and was out like a light. I
remember waking up in the recovery room in a lot of pain. Thank
goodness for morphine because I kept giving myself tons of it due
to the little button they provided me to push. That night, Lynn
had to stop me from eating because she thought I was going to
choke to death since I kept falling asleep in mid-bite! After
about three days I got to go back to the Colombo and found I
couldn't sleep in a bed while wearing a hip to ankle cast. So
I slept in a really comfortable chair that Brendan and Pauline
found me and over the next three months learned the difference
between Kiwi, Australian and British accents and the difference
between Union Rugby and League Rugby as well as viewing VERY
boring cricket matches. So much for television. Lynn and I bought a
small van so she would coax me out of my chair as frequently as
possible and when she wasn't alienating the nation of New Zealand
with her other lane driving skills, we had a good time. By
October, lots of fellow-winterovers stopped by to see us and that
certainly made the boredom disappear. Finally in December, I got
the cast off and a shiny new leg brace. As a test, we visited
Queenstown on a long weekend and the brace seemed to work well.
After a bit of physio (not nearly enough) we were ready to leave
New Zealand and head to Australia. On none of the flights between
NZ and home, including Australia, did they ever check that a leg
brace was actually making the metal detector sound off. They just
took my word for it! Sydney was great but those stairs at the
Opera House were killers on someone with a bad leg! Then we made
it home and waited for the next winter.
6 years later, I have most of my mobility back, although I'll
probably never be 100% again. I have trouble going down stairs
without a hand rail and I can't run (not that I could before).
They say that waiting the two months before having surgery is
probably the reason for this. It tried to heal on its own and
didn't heal properly. Overall though, I'm OK with my situation.
It hasn't radically changed my life and I always walked a little
funny anyway!

48 Hour Film Festival

2008-06-27T19:57:00.000+12:00

Our friend Antz is hosting this year's

Annual Antarctic Winter 48 Hour Film Making Competition

He sent an email out to a number of other Antarctic
stations but I thought I would help him out by posting
the info on my blog in case he missed anyone.

Greetings Everyone,

I am bound to have missed a lot of people with this message,
so feel free to forward it to anyone in the Antarctic community.

On the Weekend of August 2nd - 3rd, McMurdo Station and Scott
Base will be having their annual 48 hour film making competition.
We would love it if you would like to join in to make this a
continent-wide event. There is no limit to the number of entries.

How it works:
On Friday August 2nd, a list of required items to include in the
film will be distributed.
These may be specific props, a line of dialogue, sounds, or a
type of character etc. For example you may be asked to make a
film that includes an ice axe, a teaspoon, the line "What on
Earth is that?", and a sleeping person.

You then go about making a film. The only real restrictions
are to keep the length below 5 minutes, and have the film
completed by Sunday night. Films should be made in Antarctica
on the weekend, but may use one or two existing stock footage
shots if really needed.

Submissions will be electronic.
Because there are band-width restrictions on many bases, we
will have to rely on a bit of local honesty in the completion
deadline, and allow a few days to get films uploaded.

Some samples of films from the 2006 completion can be found
on line here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk3bT-_OK1w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v8_qntZ9c4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQOTDXB5LNA

The following items were required in these films:
A Bowl, A Sleeping Person, the sound of a Phone, an Ice
Cream Cone, and the line "We've lost another one".

If you are interested in participating, or would like to
see the films everyone comes up with, let me know.

---------------------------------------------------------

We are holding our local winter film festival on August 9th,
which will also include other general films made by the local
winter staff. We would love to see something from the other
Antarctic Bases to check out what life is like for you.
If you have any other films you have made, we would love to
show them, but once again, we would like the length to be kept
down to 5 minutes maximum.

A few of my clips from previous years can be found on line here...
http://www.youtube.com/Antzarctica

One of the easiest way to send files is with a free account at
www.yousendit.com You can send files up to 100Meg in size for
free, which is about ideal for a short video clip at a reasonable
quality in WMV or QuickTime format.

Cheers,
Antz.

Email Archaeology

2008-06-26T19:19:00.000+12:00

A word of advice. Don't ever have an email address for seven
years...and then decide to change it! Lynn and I finally
decided to change our "main" email to Yahoo and I've spent
the last few days going through several thousand emails in
our old Earthlink account, deciding what to transfer to the
new account and what to send to the etheral trash bin. What's
amazing is how it's like an archaeology dig into one's past.
There are some things in there that I had completely forgotten.
Fortunately there are only a few emails that my T-3-riddled
brain couldn't figure out at all. Each layer (folder) dug
deeper into the past, like a big lasagna of information.
I'll be glad when it's finally done, but now I feel a bit like
Raiders of the Lost Email...and I'm looking for that treasure-
laden email that says I'm a millionaire. Oh wait...I did get
some of those...but they were from Nigeria...I deleted them.

Pop vs. Soda vs. Coke

2008-06-25T19:19:00.000+12:00

Some of my favorite brands growing up...Canfield's
Shasta, Elf...all Pop. Not Sodas...not Cokes...Pop.
I came across this interesting web site:

The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy
http://popvssoda.com:2998/

I've always known that different people around the
country called pop different things. For the most
part, I've always lived in "pop" territory. I
thought it was strange that Southerners called it
coke...even if it was orange, root beer or even
lemon lime...it's a coke. As far as Soda goes...I
always thought it was just a snobby East Coast thing.
Apparently folks around St. Louis and Wisconsin call
it Soda too. Of course they're all crazy. It's Pop.
Why would you call it anything else?