Author: Gary

I don’t watch much TV anymore, but just on the basis of this clip I want to start watching Lost.

I didn’t get to see Serenity last night, so I’ll try to see it tonight. I ended up seeing Picnic at Theater in the Round. I’m honestly suprised that I’ve never heard of it before. The 1955 film adaptation is pretty star studded with Kim Novak, Cliff Robertson, and one of my all time favorites, William Holden. The performance was very good.

Tomorrow night is a big night in the world of professional wrestling. Monday Night RAW moves to the USA Network and they have a big 3 hour show where they appear to be pulling out all the stops. For the first time in serveral years, there is now competition on television in pro wrestling. Its a good thing. Since WCW went under and was purchased by the WWE, wrestling has slowly gotten stale and boring. As with everything, some competition should liven things up.

Another update I wrote, this time from Argentina. I wasn’t able to do much more as I didn’t have an electrical adaptor until a week after I wrote this. Also when I did have computer access, I had no way to move the files.

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September 2, 2005

Greetings from Buenos Aries!

My adventure began on Wednesday and was very nerve wracking. I was supposed to be traveling with another person from the IRM. I showed up for my flight at 12:30 which was schedules for 2:30. They told me the flight was delayed until 5:00pm, so I sat around the airport that entire time.

As the hours past, Ramon (the guy I’m traveling with) nver showed up. I had no contact from the IRM either by phone or email. I didn’t know if the trip was canceled, if he didn’t show up or what. When the flight began borading he wasn’t there so I had to take a calculated risk of getting on the plane or not. I figure he could have taken another flight or something so I risked it and hopped on the flight to Atlanta.

Once in Atlanta I had to make the big decision….do I get on a 9 hour flight to South America or not. My flight arrived just before the flight to Buenos Aries was scheduled to take off, so I had to run through the terminal. I didn’t see Ramon waiting for me so I began to panic. At this point I just figured, if they didn’t contact me then I’m going to get on the plane and if nothing else get a free trip to Argentina.

I get on the plance and lo and behold there is Ramon. He had gotten to the airport a few minutes before me and took and earlier flight to Atlanta. The airline refused to tell me anything about his flight status even though we were listed as traveling together. All that panic for nothing.

We flew through the night and landed in Buenos Aries at about 9:30 am local time. The time difference is +2 hours from CDT. The weather here was colder than I expected, although its not “cold” in any Minnesota sense of the word. Its like a late March day with temperatures in the low 50s. I may end up buying a leather jacket while I’m here becaue leather is cheap, the exchange rate makes it cheaper, and I need a jacket.

We stayed our first night at some guest rooms they had at the University of Buenos Aries Institute for Geochronology. The rooms were……spartan. I have photos I will put up eventually where you can see how spartan it is. The shower is just a space near the toilet. There is no curtain, just a sweege you use to push the water into the drain when your done. The lip of the toliet is so close to the wall you have to sit sort of sideways to use it.

Buenos Aires looks like time stopped here at about 1970. Most of the buildings look like they were all constructed between 1950 and 1970 and they haven’t built or repaired anything since.

We were met at the airport by a geology professor at UBA and her husband. Her husband is of Swiss Italian descent (just like Ramon) and currently works in Honduras running a water and waste treatment facility. A very interesting guy. I know enought of the recent history and economy of Aregentina that we were able to have a good conversation on what is happening here. He said that that business climate in Honduras is actually better than in Argentina, just becuase Argentina has all but closed its borders to trade and investment.

Argentina has picked a path 180 degrees from what the rest of the world is doing, and it shows. This is a nation who 100 years ago was one of the richest in the world. Today they are probably one of the nations you could say is going backwards

September 9th, 2005

I’ve been in Cordoba for a about a week. I am typing this at the Buenos Aires airport waiting for a flight which is now 10 hours away. Last night we were scheduled to take a flight on South Winds airlines, which is a regional carrier in Argentina. When we arrived at the airport we found that the flight was cancled because of a strike. The only people who showed up for the flight were me and Ramon, and another family who I wasn’t sure if they were Canadian, Irish, or American. They had an odd accent.

We had less than 24 hours to get from Cordoba to Buenos Aires to catch our flight back to the US. We could stay overnight and risk them having a flight for us (unlikely) or we could find alternative transportation. We opted for taking a bus.

The bus ride from Cordoba to Buenos Aires was 10 hours and cost 60 pesos per person (about $20). The buses were the nicest I have ever been on. They were double decker buses and each seat was better than a first class seat on an airplane. Leather seats, very wide, and lots of leg room. It was more like having a lay-z boy than being in a bus. We caught a bus at 10:30 pm and arrived at the bus station in Buenos Aires at 8:30am.

We decided to just go to the airport and wait the day rather than try to manuver around the city all day with loads of very heavy luggage. The samples we took are very heavy and we have two bags of it.

In fact, I have a strong feeling we will get harassed at the airport. We are flying back from south america with two new nylon cases full of small plastic bags with a brownish powder. (its paleosoil) I’ll be amazed if we dont get stopped at some point.

Here are two updates from this summer in Colorado that I wasn’t able to post to the web. I seldom had access to electricity during the 3 weeks I was there, so I wasn’t able to update much. I should probably go back and change some of this as my opinions have changed, but here it is in its original and unedited form:

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Advanced Camp Blog

July 8, 2005

I’m writing this in the far back seat of a 15 passenger van as we drive through the plains region of Colorado. Its about 10am MDT.

In my time, I’ve done a lot of driving across the US. I’ve basically driven the entire west coast from Settle to LA. From the midwest I’ve driven to the east coast, Mid Atlantic, Florida, Texas, Toronto, Winnepeg. I can say with confidence that driving through the Great Plains is fundamentally different than any other type of driving you can do.

At times I wish I could stop and take photos or video of some of the sights you see while traveling across the plains. Unlike, say, the Pacific Coast in California, there are not dramatic sights while driving through Nebraska. You see a train carrying corn or coal which extends across the horizion, grain elevators in the distance which tower over everything else in view, occasional pockets of cattle, and endless, endless flat stretches of land, a lonel truck stop in the middle of nowhere.. Even the occasional hill which is only a few feet high will casue you to take notice.

The great plains, in particular the westers parts of the plains from North Dakota down through Texas is depopulating. People are leaving, and I can’t reallyl blame them. There is nothing here other than farming. No lumber, no mining, no industry, no tourism, nothing. It is fly over space in the most literal sense of the term. To combat people leaving, the states in the Great Plains are offering incentives for people to move and stay there for a few years. Its doomed to fail. Human history is one of people moving to cities. I don’t think tax incentives by the State of North Dakota will change that.

The fact is, farming isn’t a glamorous life and we don’t need as many people to grow crops as we did 100 years ago. Demography is destiny and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. Trying to stop it is a fool’s errand. The trends are bigger than anything which can be influenced with a reduction in student loans or a tax bill.

Let the people go and let it work itself out. You will end up with very sparsely populated counties in these areas with very large farmss, most of which will eventually be automated. If areas go unfarmed, let it return back to prairie.

July 19, 2005

I’m really sick of camp. There is only a week left, but it is draging by. I have bruises all over my body. The skin on my hands and arms is so dark I’ll have to list another racial category on the census. I’m tired of sleeping on the ground every night. I have no idea what is going on in the world. What gets me the most is the hours and hours of hiking every day just to get somewhere to look at rocks. I’m not cut out to be a field geologist. No way, no how. I have no passion for sitting in a tent for six weeks by myself in the summer writing a paper on some obscure patch of rock in some remote area. Not for me.

I’ll be back a week from today and we only have 4 days in the field from now until then. Day off tomorrow and 2 travel days are also part of the mix.

Any fantasies I had about living in the mountains have been dashed. I have come to grips with the reality that I’m a creature of comfort. By that I mean I really want electricity, hot water, a soft bed, and an internet connection. If that makes me soft and a pussy, so be it. I don’t see the joy in camping for the sake of camping. I have no problem sleeping in a tent, but there is a limit to how long you can do it and staying in one spot day after day is no fun. Doing it a few days or doing it while traveling is no big deal, but three weeks with no destination will drive you mad.

This is also not a normal class. In addition to spending 24 hours a day here, there is nothing really to study. There are no books to read, there is no homework to do. All there is, is your logbook and your map. Once you got the concept of geologic mapping down, its just grunt work to do it.

The grunt work for this map includes climbing over 2500 feet every day on very steep slopes. Having grown up in the midwest, I don’t think it really dawns on you how much 2500 feet is. That 2500 feet is just the vertical. I spend 3 hours yesterday getting to our location. I was dead last in getting there.

That’s another frustrating thing. I’m the kid who’s picked last in dodgeball now. I’ve never been the one who is physically the weakest link, but here I am. It sucks. The only upside is that I’ve been eating only one meal a day, and I’m quite sure I”ve lost a great deal of weight. 8 hours a day hiking in the Rockies + limited caloric intake = weight loss. It could be the altitude which is limiting my appitite too.

I’m writing this in my tent on what I have left of battery life on my laptop. I’m wearing clothes I haven’t changed in a few days. I fell down a slope a few days ago and landed on a dead tree with branches sticking out. I thoght I was impaled, but I “only” wound up with 5 pretty big bruises around my body and 2 bad cuts.

When this is done, I’m sure I’ll be gald I did it, but right now it sucks. I’m able to see things that are only discussed in lecture which is nice, but this sort of work is not my calling. I’m a computer guy.

The last two months I’ve been through something which few people do. It has given me a great appreciation of the modern world and how good we got it. The next time I hear someone talk about how great it was 100 years ago and how things are always getting worse, I’m going to punch them in the face…..with a keyboard.

I’ll be spending most of today locked in self imposed exile in Pillsbury Hall doing homework. I will also try to get in two sessions at the Rec Center instead of just one. Assuming all goes well I will try to see Serenity this evening, which from everyone I know who has seen it so far, is very good.

Also, my friend Scott got a big write up in the Webcomics Examiner where they fawn over how great he is. Read it and discover how much people can over think something.

is that I think I’m definately a wine drinker. I’m currently drinking a bottle of Argentinean Malbec which I learned to enjoy on my trip.

I’m not a frufru wine drinker either, thank you very much. I don’t believe in spending more than $15 on a bottle, which while more than beer, is a far cry from what you could spend. I also don’t drink it in glasses with stems.

If you think there is a correlation between this post and the last one, you might be right.