Thank You, Come Again

Today was awesomely productive! Its an amazing feeling when something that seems very difficult or daunting is tackled! As I wrote in previous blogs, the IT guys here have no idea why the iOS4.2.1 doesn't connect to their network and until today I was unable to use my iphone or ipad! After many 10's of hours the answer was simply in having my computer be a proxy server and having my iPad send requests through my computer. Now I can get on the Internet, check my email, update Mint, and get new books! On top of all this I found a great feature to my favorite book app. (starts with a K ends with an indle) Apparently, you can unregister account 1, keep the books on account 1 and register account 2 and get all the books from that account too - for free!!! They never delete the books downloaded to the device. So if your a close friend or family expect to be badgered for users/passwords. =)

I got to see first hand today what addiction looked like. One of our operators, a new friend of mine, is crazy addicted to online poker. Granted he only plays for a few dollars, but he loves getting into these big tournaments where the payouts are in the thousands. We were all going to dinner and there he is sitting in the big comfy chairs outside the mess hall with his computer in his lap. We asked him if he wanted to come to dinner, he looked up for one second and said yea after this tournament. There were 130 people left to go. (For those of you non-poker players, that takes a LONG time.) He never made it to dinner. Now - 5 hours later - I saw him in the hall, rushing outside. I asked him, "Whats going on?" He said that he was on a 5 minute break in another tournament and had to get a smoke. LOL - I have to wonder, is that what I looked like back when I played?

I found out the hard way, just now, that if you leave water in a plastic bottle for days it starts to smell like fart. I went to go clean it with hot water, but the water was so dangerously hot that the bottle started to melt in my hands!!! It cleaned it all right - now it tastes like plastic.

The best part of today was at 5:30pm when the dining room opened with PRIME RIB! This is by far my favorite meal. Two pieces of thick rare prime is unbeatable except maybe by Mom's chicken pot pie, Chelsea's hot spaghetti, Erin's bacon green beans, or Mom-Moms crescent rolls. The puzzling thing about Tuesday (steak night) and Thursday (Prime Rib) is that they choose to put out the best salad bar and desert bar on those nights also... Wouldn't you think that if they know that everyone is going to be eating steak or prime rib, that they would save their other good cards for different days? Someone wasn't a very good Euchre player.

The last great part about today is that my company stock soared up to $43.30 from ~39 two days ago! Wooohoo.

I have been getting alot of requests for pictures, I will try to be better about taking pictures and putting them on the blog.

Theres a Gymnasium

Today we found a gym! We already knew there was a workout gym... we found an actual gym with a basketball court, indoor soccer, and badmitton. I didn't know people actually played that game but the canadians and the Scottish guys love it. We played soccer and basketball for 3 hours! I cant wait to use this new find more.

I found one of the good cooks tonight! His name is Matt. When I was going through the line I got to the spaghetti and I asked him, well is it good? He said, heck yea, I made it all from scratch. It was bomb! Maybe I should ask him for his number so I can text him asking what he made that day... =) Probably creepy.

There is a security gate at the main road and we had to drive outside for about 10 minutes. When we tried to come back in this Indian guy stopped us, made all of us come inside and yelled at us for about 5 minutes about having to keep our badges on us at all times and why we didnt have them. When we told him they were in our rooms he said, well thats where you should be too. (apply Indian accent) He went on to give us a hard time about our truck not having the correct type of pass for our work.. Meanwhile, there is another security guard that is soooo embarrassed he just kept turning around, shaking his head, and laughing at the Indian guy. Whenever he would laugh at the Indian guy, it would make me laugh at him too. I guess this Indian guy didnt like laughter when they are trying to make a point. He finally just through his hands in the air and said, get out! The whole thing was really funny - apparently hard to convey in writing. =)

On a side note, I have great news! The Internet is really good now. The IT guys seem to have ironed out the networking problems and the fiber line was upgraded so now the Internet actually works. (unless you have up-to-date software on your ipad/iphone!) I don't seem to be the only one who realizes this either. During the day there is lots of downloading and it really bogs down the Internet. Soooo, I have found success in staying up late and playing video games, YouTube, and emails to use the speed.

Tomorrow is prime rib day - Im stoked!

Im Feeling 14

The last job that I have gone on was 4 days ago! I really cant believe that they are paying us to sit in a camp and do nothing - at the moment I have the best job in the world! In the last 4 days we went down to the town close to us. It has 70,000 people, so it is mid-sized - just big enough to have a few bars, hotels, and a casino!!!

The first night we let loose and went to the bar. It wasn't a good end. We ended up getting a room in the city since we got a weekend deal.

The second and third nights we went to the casino and tore up the roulette tables!! The shear amount of red and repeat numbers was insane! One time I told my buddy, I'm feeling 14 (just joking) and everyone on the table put down 10 chips on 14 and surrounded it too. 14 hit and we each got $600!!! It was awesome!

Now Im back in the camp and we had steak dinner tonight. The meat here is really good, and to quote the taxi driver from my trip from the airport to Edmonton, "The meat here in Alberta is the best in the world! You need to go get yourself a good hamburger. Not one from MacDonald's, like Burger King or Wendys." Hahahahaha

I have been watching alot of Breaking Bad and really like it, its not for everyone though.

Warm at -15

We had a job last night and when I first went outside I was surprised at how warm the air felt. Last week it was consistantly -45 (-51F) and we had gotten so used to working in that weather so now -15 (0F) feels almost warm. Reasonably it is 50F difference, but I just never imagined calling 0F warm. Its crazy.

The last few days have been a struggle. It seems like this company decided to have all of their wells come up on the same day. In the last 48 hours we have logged 4 of their 7 rigs! (but one is down for crew change) The only good thing is that we will not have any jobs for the next 2-3 days so we can just relax maybe go to the city (2 hours away) and hang out. Maybe visit the casino. Well see.

Tonight we had baked chicken, corn, mixed veggies, and potatoes and it was actually pretty good. I asked the cook how many of them their were in each shift. Im determined to find out who the good cooks are! =) There are 4 crews of 5 chef's. So there are 20 chef's. The guy that I talked to seemed like he loved food and he was pretty big, so I think he might be one of the good ones.

We finally got a different pickup today. After driving around all last week with no heat (in -45 weather) we finally got a old-as-dirt truck with heat.

I heard from the HR mobilization girl that is handling my transfer to Iraq. She asked me about 100 questions (25 really) and had a really good FAQ section in the bottom of her email. One interesting thing is, you can only start a international assignment on the 1st of the month. This means that I will probably start on May 1st, giving me a whole month to spend with Chelsea before having to work for 35 days.

We have been here for three weeks now and its shockingly easy. Time flys since the people are fun, jobs are long, and we have a routine. Not to mention im getting WAY caught up on sleep. This is how I originally pictured working for my company. Lots of prep, wait, wait, wait, clutch delivery on the jobs, and repeat. I can definately get used to doing this for 35-35.

Everything Freezes!!!!

Another job is behind me and the problems were all together different than the first job. First off, the heat in our pickup is still broken and we have to drive for 20-25 minutes in -30 degree weather! Its crazy how fast things freeze here. I spilled a cup of water in the logger and went outside to get some paper towels and when I came back in 30 seconds later the water was already almost frozen! We continued to have problems with freezing as the sheaves, caps, connections, even the encoder wheels froze! To get them to thaw, you either have to pour ethenol on them or hit them with the steam gun. I also got to experience the worst backspool in my life. (not my fault :-) For most of you who dont know what a backspool is, imagine running your hand over a spool of wire in the opposite direction than it is spun. The wire naturally gets looser and eventually gets bigger and less organized. Well on our big spool of wire, when that happens many of the wires get crossed and causes what we call a birdcage. (The wire is not tight to the drum, or spindle) Long story short, this problem caused me to stand out in the -35 degree weather for about two hours. I was not happy.

We had steak and speghetti for dinner tonight. Definately my favorite meal here at this camp. I have changed my opinion of the food here. I believe that there are 2-3 great cooks here and all the other ones are crap! There is no way you can explain that some food is 4/5 - 5/5 good and others score in the negatives... The other bummer is, you never know whats going to be good. For lunch we had fish (crap), chicken (crap) and minestrone (AWESOME). Sometimes its the main course that is good, other times the soup is good, other times the sides are good. I need to figure out who made what then start asking, did so-n-so make that? Then make my decision. =)

An interesting fact of this camp is that everyone takes their shoes off to go inside anywhere. See the picture of all the shoes outside the cafeteria. Wierd huh?

I have somehow gotten the role of our company rep for this camp. It sounds like that would be a good things, but I have to take all the calls for the jobs, get all of the sales orders from billing, and explain why and how things went wrong. Not to mention the fact that all the geologists here are really bad! They literally have no clue whats going on. On my next job, I plan to see how far I can string one along. =)

I ran 5 miles today! I think I coud have gone longer, but my shoe was hurting me, (which is wierd because I have ran in these shoes a long time) and I get really bored. I need to get some stand up comedy or some radio shows on my iphone.

I got word this morning that my best friend Adam and his wife Erin is having a baby! I am soo excited for them! At this point they have been in labor for 30+ hours!!! Adam says, "The baby just likes where it is." I cant wait to hear what the sex is!

I found out some sad news today. A few of you may know that I would really like to start my own business and my most recent idea has already been started in Bakersfield! I was going to give home automation, high tech audio video, and networking a shot. But now I found that 4 other companies thought thats a great idea too and have already been in the market! *%&^($*@ If anyone has some good ideas let me know.

On the up side, my internet finally works in my room! YAY! So that means that I can Skype Chelsea, surf the net, and write on my blog whenever I want. =)

Thank you baby Jesus for the bunny that had to die for my life saving hat!

My room... I clean for no one =)

View from my bed, I spend alot of time in this position

The hallway, my room is the first one on the right - right by the door. GRRR

Thats not a trailer! Thats my luxury apartment! I sleep right under the PTI sign.

Many more luxury apartments.

A HUGE operation.

Take off your shoes

HEY YOU TOO!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Today is quite literally the coldest day of my life. Temperatures stooped to -30, with -45 degree wind chill. To make matters even worse, the blower on the pick-up truck (which provides the heat) failed, so we have no heat in the pickup.

We had our first job yesterday morning at 3am and it lasted until 12:30! It was really long because the rigs out here are really small. Both crews went out to the job so that we could all see and get some experience doing the first job so there were 4 operators and two engineers. We were a little cramped. The other engineer wanted to do the job to get experience so I let him and wasnt paying attention to what he was doing during the job, but realized at the end of the job - when he quit because he was really tired and asked me to finish it - that he hadnt really done very much at all. We had to stay out there for 4 more hours processing all of the data that we had logged! Anyway, we finally got it done and set a good benchmark that will allow us to do the job much more quickly on the future wells.

Today I found out that I was still "owned" by the Bakersfield camp!! It was really disheartening because I had thought that I was fully released to Canada, but it turns out that I am not. I intended to talk with the country manager in Iraq about getting a few more percent bump to come out to Iraq, but instead I signed the transfer offer and sent it back. Iraq is next, I put my estimated start date for April 15.

Whenever I talk to people about working in Iraq I always get the same mouth dropping, "Why would you want to do that" response. In my opinion, there are many places on earth that are dangerous for Americans, white people, or being employed by my company. Angola, Somalia, Kazakstan, Nigeria are just a small few of the places that would be dangerous (and several have actually had recent fatalities) that I could get transfered to. But Iraq has a US presense, overpaid body gaurds, and from what I hear the people (overall) like us too. Yea there are some crazies, but I feel like there is alot more between me and them than if I worked in the Congo or Nigeria. With all that said, I feel like I am making a safe, good decision that will be really good for my wife and I.

I finally got my phone today too! I had never realized how cut off I would feel if I was denied to luxuries - internet and cell phone. It is nice to have the internet working again (even though its slow) and have a phone that I can use whenever I want.

I will try to take more pictures and upload them here.

Easy Money!

Its been several days since I wrote my last post. The lack of internet is driving me crazy, not to mention that I haven't been able to Skype Chelsea for a week! The rigs were late again and we didn't work from the 5th to the 10th! So it was pretty easy, I was living the hard life of billiards, ping-pong, and TV while making great money! Woot!

One interesting fact about the camp that I am working at... Everyone takes off their boots after they enter a building. Since there is no mega building and if your on a mission to get something done or find someone it gets repetitive taking your shoes off and on...

Today was our first job which I am at right now. We had to wait for 7 hours to start logging on location... no fun! I cant get my head around the fact that we are driving over swamplands that have been frozen. Its actually really cool how they prepare the land. Once the weather gets to freezing they bring light duty water trucks in and build up the ice layer-by-layer. After the ice is thick enough we literally drive, walk, and live on ice!!!

You probably know that eating is one of my favorite things to do on this earth. I wish I could say that I am on cloud nine eating great food, but it is really bad. Not only is the food bad, the cafeteria is only open from 5:30-830, 12-1, and 5:30-8:30. If you don't make it in those hours, too bad, no food!!! I got burned this morning when I woke up at 10:00 and had to wait 2 hours to eat breakfast! (I hadn't eaten for 18 hours)

Today we got the satellite on our loggers fixed so we have decent reliable internet. Unfortunately it is still not fast enough to Skype! X-| Hopefully at my next camp the internet will work well.

Ive attached some pictures. The first one looks as cold as it is here. -20C that day. The second one is me miserable on the same day. The last one made me laugh, it reminded me of the cartoon characters that got frozen in ice and the icicles are off the back. -35C with lots of wind on that day!!! (I was too miserable for a picture)

Meet new people

I had to have met 30 people today! It was awesome to walk into the brand new shop and have so many people welcome me openly. I got to work around 8:30 and met an old friend from Halliburton training. There were still 6 trucks at the shop and everyone was busily working making sure the trucks were ready to go in the next two days. Essentially all the trucks will be gone by Wednesday, but I have a mandatory class (H2S training) on Thursday. So I will have to catch up with my truck and crew in a few days. In the mean time a very new engineer (2 weeks since breaking out) from Scotland will be up there with the truck. I met Matt, my boss, at around 11 and he said that he didnt have a phone or truck for me to drive so I would need to keep carpooling with Don and he would get me a phone ASAP. Also, there is no winter gear for any of us! No winter coveralls, coats, etc... So we are going to have to find them somewhere... I tried to help out the guys leaving today and tomorrow the most by printing out a checklist for everything that should be on the trucks and actually found that many things were missing - I think they appreciated it.

I went to lunch today at a place called Rosies. I got a melt with aus jue sauce and fries and it was really good. Yes, they have normal ketchup here and not the weird stuff they have in Europe. The funny thing is we kept on asking the lady to reccommend us somthing but she kept pushing the breakfast. We would say, well what do you have here that is really really good and she would say (breakfast item, breakfast item, breakfast item) then we would say, well were really in the mood for lunch and she said well you could try (more breakfast items...) then we went back and forth two more times. I guess she had a hankering for some eggs or somthing.

Im finding that this move to Canada will be hard being away from my awesome wife, but it will breathe new life into my career which I was getting burnt out. Also, from talking to people it seems like this will be amazingly easy jobs. The wells are only 900' deep, no calibrations (ever!), and no prints! So what do I have to do you ask, problem solve, click uplog/open caliper, and make a tiff/las file. The only problem that I think I am going to face is getting burnt out of being at the camp. 90 days is a long time, and its looking even longer the closer that I am actually going to have to leave civilization and be at the remote camp.

Skype, Google talk, FaceTime are officially the best websites in the world right now! (and probably the next 3 months) Chelsea and I have found it really easy to get ahold of each other and talk. Being able to see each others face on top of that is awesome! I talked with her two times yesterday and one time today for a really long time - for free!!! How can Skype be making a profit if its so easy for people to talk for free? Its awesome. Im sure that Skype will keep me alive for the next three months.

So I found out today that gambling of all sorts is legal in this city! I smell a small trip to the casino in the near future. =)

Ahoy Edmonton

I woke up early this morning to catch my 6am flight to Denver then on to Edmonton. The flight to Denver was perfect. But the flight to Edmonton was on time, then delayed 2 hours, then moved back to being on time (15 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave). I find it funny how omnipotent the airlines think they are... We ended up waiting on the tarmac for ~ 1 hour until the passengers that wondered off due to the delay returned. I cleared customs in no time, however it was disturbing to see ALL of the customs officials in heavy flack jackets. Really, who is going to shoot a customs guy that asks, do you have any fruits or food?

My Boss had not set up a plan on what to do when I arrived in Edmonton so by using iPass and Skype I was able to call him on my iPhone essentially free. (HA - Take that AT&T, you cant have my arm or my leg today!) I was surprised at how moderate the temperature was, I had gotten myself mentally prepared for knock your face off, holy crap cold, but I didnt even need a hat. However, there was snow EVERYWHERE. I had a really nice Polish taxi driver named Rock, we drove for about 30 minutes until we arrived at a Canadian version of Motel 6. I guess its close to the shop.

I met up with my friend Don for dinner then a Hockey game (since our boss couldnt go he gave us his tickets!). I was having a hard time staying calm and non-hyper, I was so excited to be at a new camp and finally released from Bakersfield I think I annoyed him a bit. I never got to know Don well while we worked in Bakersfield. He is polite, quiet, and thinks before he speaks. Aside from our comparable size, we have nothing in common. After dinner we went to a Oilers/Flames game. We met up with another engineer and an operator, they were really nice also but I cant remember their names. My stupid memory... The Oilers ended up losing and we retired after the game. I need to get some good rest for my first day at work tomorrow, from what I hear there is lots to be done!