it all comes down to having someone that understands us.  everyone wants to be mysterious enought to keep people interested, but we all want to be known well enought by someone who sees throught it all and knows what's going on without actually knowing what's going on.  The secret is keeping the ballance between knowing and being told.  no one wants to have to know all the time, that takes energy, focus, and concentration.  the problem is we all want to take some measure of shortcuts, to be able to assume what's going on, and jump straight to knowing.  I'm as guilty, or mores so, of that as everyone; mostly more so.  I love being so connected that I can almost instinctively "know" what's going on.  The problem that absolutely creates, is that I fall into the trap of laziness and I let assumptions take over.  Never assume, that makes an ass of you and me.

South Pole Movie Time!

Ok, so let's do another movie, 'cause that turned out way cooler than I thought it would last time. So this one is my first steps off the plane at the South Pole!



I hope you enjoy this one as much or more than the first. I learned a few things on the first one, so hopefully this one is better. Also, you can kinda see a guy in this one shuffling me off the runway, so I may have been a little fast on the turns - be warned!

More to follow, probably tomorrow - its Friday Night in Mac-Town!!!

Greetings from the Bottom of the World!

<<CIMG0411.JPG>> 21:45, 05 FEB 08: Greetings from the South Pole! As I
write this, I sit only a couple hundred feet from the actual South Pole,
90 degrees South Latitude! It's a comfortable -42 F right now, the
other day we set a record for the 2nd of February at -44.3, it was cool,
literally! ha ha ha

So my trip to the Pole is almost over, I fly "home" to McMurdo tomorrow
around lunch time. Bed space is tight and so are flights, and if it
gets much colder, the big LC-130s can't fly down here anymore. They
don't want anyone stuck here, so I'm getting sent home early. It's ok,
though, I got a taste of it and made a bunch of new friends, some of
whom I will definitely see in the future at the office or next season.

This pic is of the actual marker as surveyed by the USGS back in late
December and first of January. The winter-overs here at the Pole get to
design it every year. This one has the converging points of the compass
lines of longitude and the 90 South Marker above the Antarctic
continent, with the reflection, it looks almost like a sphere! It's
pretty cool, and I've got a lot of "hero" shots of me at the Pole and
I'll post those once I get back to McMurdo and live internet access. Oh
the comforts of home!

Coolest Night Ever?

Ok, so maybe that title is a bit dramatic, but this one will be at the top of the list for a very long time. So a few posts ago I put up my little tribute to one of my heros, Sir Ed. Tonight I got invited over to New Zealand's Scott Base, which, as I have mentioned before, is just over the hill from us here in McMurdo. The dinner was so that New Zealand's Minister of Foriegn Affairs, Rt. Hon. Winston Peters (pictured to the left) could present a plaque to be hung at Scott Base commemorating the incredible efforts on a project that I have actually worked on called ANDRILL. It was a total surprise to me that I got to go, but even with just a few minutes to get ready and go over there, this was a chance of chances!

So we got to Scott Base, met many of the ANZ and NSF higer ups, had some hors d'ouvrs (is that how you spell horse doovers?) and then heard from a few of the ANDRILL higher ups talk about the project. Then the Minister unveiled the plaque, everyone clapped and the announcement that dinner would be served immediately was made.

So during dinner, the head of Scott Base stands up and introduces some more people, and several of them gave short speeches about Sir Ed and what he meant to the program, NZ, and themselves. It was awesome! They also had pictures of Sir Ed from his last trip to the Ice just one year ago. I was secretly hoping that he'd make yet another surprise last visit to Antarctica this season and I could actually get to meet him, but that will forever remain a wish!

Regardless, it was an incredible night!

I took some pics so I'll post those as soon as I can, but all my stuff is packed as I leave for the South Pole in about 9.5 hours from now. So, I'll be out of contact for a day or so until I get settled in down there and the satellites come up. I hear they're up from about 4 am until about 8 am, so I'll be on delayed contact until I return to McMurdo, but I should still be able to to email back and forth.

Wish me luck!

Next New Cool Project!

Well, since I got my promotion, I probably will be too wrapped up in the South Pole Station to get to work on this, but if things hadn't changed, one of my next projects would have been to work on the next generation Polar Resarch Vessel. This BBC article shows some really good detail! What a cool project it would be. Oh well, mine's colder! Ha ha ha.

First Steps in Antarctica

So I know I've been promising to add a video, so here it finally is! This is the movie I shot with my new camera as I stepped off the C-17 and onto the McMurdo Ice Shelf for the first time.

It's not the greatest footage, and I don't have a video editor so you'll have to look sideways, but at least you all get to see what I saw just the way I saw it, and for the first time!!! It's kinda like baby's first steps! Only a lot colder! ha ha ha. So enjoy! More to come....

A BIG Thank You!

So all the pictures, and the movies that will be up shortly, have come from my new camera. It's a Casio Exilim EXZ1200 and I spent about 18 hours researching cameras before I came down here and this is the one that I settled on after several high recommendations from various camera shops.

It was recommended for its ability to operate in low temps, it is very compact and built for rugged durability, it has really good zoom for its size and at 12.1 MP, it was the highest resolution I can find for under $800, and this little beauty was less than half that! It has a bunch of other features that are great, but in general it was the resolution, price and apparent solid construction that sold me. If any of you are in the market, I highly reccommend this one, as you can see, it take great pics.

Now, why on earth am I going on about my camera. Well, it's to make up for the fact that I have not been able to send a thank you to my benefactor on this purchase. I'm not going to name the person as I know they value thier privacy, but I think it's only fair that they get recognition for such a fantastic gift. So Thank You very much to that person!!!