I remember what I was going to blog about now!

I learned the history of the word gringo yesterday. Apparently, the first white people to come to Mexico were soldiers who all wore green shirts. Since Mexicans didn't like them, and the only english word they knew was "green", they all said, "Green! GO!" Thus over time, gringo.

Shell has developed a new method for making light sweet west texas crude oil out of shale. What they do is drill into the shale (usually a mountainside), and insert a heating element. They crank the heat to 700 degrees Fahrenheit, and out comes the oil. They got 1500 barrels out of a test project, so they are starting to set up major operations. This is very, very interesting. Apparently they have brought in many environmentalist consultants in to evaluate the operation, and almost all of them have walked away very impressed.

I ordered a club sandwich at a restaurant today. I expected turkey, bacon, lettuce, you know the usual. Instead of turkey, they put a slice of ham on it. I think I got my pork intake for the day.

Man, some people out here are dumb. One of the guys who was supposed to be watching trains (they interfere with the data) fell asleep...ON THE TRACK. Jesus, Darwin is calling his name.

I knew this would happen. The last couple of days here I'm all in a panic because I have to go meet with a bunch of people whom I haven't seen what they do yet. Aaaaand they are the positions most relevant to what I'm actually doing. So this has held up my huge report I have to write...BAH!

I see fat people everywhere. This one guy at the diner was so huge, he had to suck in his gut just to get into the booth. So many people just waddle around because they can't even walk right. It's no wonder, because absolutely everything is deep fried and salads are just doused in ranch dressing. Also the lettuce in the salads is the white bottom parts, which has pretty much no nutrional value, not to mention all the bacon and cheese on it.

This has all been more motivation to workout when I get back to Houston. Must not get fat, must not get fat.

Points of interest:

"Dude, you're cool and all, but you're just not gangsta enough!" - told to me by one of the black guys

I saw a few turtles today. That was pretty awesome, I've never seen them in their real live habitat before. They just kind of sit their and chill, as to be expected.

I hate the hypocrisy of some of the landowners down here. There's a few of them who won't let Veritas shoot seismic or lay lines on their property, which is a big pain in the ass. Both for the field crew and me as a processor, it screws up the data and we have to relocate a bunch of points. I bet these are the same people that will bitch about gas prices. Hey stoopid! We're looking for oil! You're holdin up the show!

I never thought one of my skills I'd develop is being able to hop barbwire fences. There's something to put on the resume.

I was going to go on about a big rant of how important the oil industry is, but I'm sure I'd just be re-iterating myself. But think about it anytime you buy anything, watch tv, use a computer (right now fool!), drink water, eat groceries, anything. They all use petroleum products.

Ordered some spinach artichoke pasta last night and they forgot the pasta, it was just sauce. I mean, that's kinda the point of it.

After talking with the field crew here, I realize I lucked out. My friends in Mississippi and Texas are in swamps right now, and one guy in Utah is hiking up mountains. Prairie and some spiky vines aren't that bad in comparison.

To everyone in cowtown, I'll be back the weekend of April 6th-8th. So, the night of the 6th I'll be in the mood to party, so start thinking of things to do. I'll bring my A-game, so you guys better bring yours.

Man, I had all these great things planned to say while I was walkin the line today, and I forgot it all now. Dammit! I'll write more later

Oh man, today was so cool. I finally got to shoot some seismic. All up until now has just been everything but actually shooting. Setting up, coordinating, yadda yadda. I finally got to make the earth go BOOM today. So cool. What got really cool was when we had a blowout. You hear the shot, then like 3 seconds later, the earth just spews it's guts out of the hole like 30 feet in the air.

The first shot was pretty wild. I had no idea it was coming, and then BOOM. You see the earth explode up about a foot and a big shockwave. First one was a blowout too. Mud everywhere, I loved it. I hope I can go again tommorow.

Not too much else new to report. The guys are really chill out here, they all see me as the computer dude. I'm loadin up music to their MP3 players and whatnot. For a few of the guys who've really been helpin me, I bought a bunch of steaks and grilled them to perfection. All in all, a great day.

I hope everyone is doing well, I might be able to sneak off a video clip and upload it for everyone to see what a seismic shot looks like.

Allrighty, I promised pictures, so you'll see a few of my adventures.

Today was friggin hard. Walked a long way. I tried to calculate it given the figures I know, but it only showed up to like 2 miles. 10 hours of walking? I don't think so. We also had these 2 dogs follow us all day long, just hangin out with us. It was pretty entertaining, seeing all the trouble they got into. Running into other dogs, them chasing cattle and horses, running through the dirtiest of streams.

The next picture was of this yard we ran into, I swear it looked like the house from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Really freaky, so I naturally had to grab some pics. They had all sorts of weird junk in the yard, I couldn't even figure out what half of it was. The really weird part was that it all seemed very meticulously laid out.

What else? I found that focusing on things that I love during the day definately helps me get through it. My thoughts often fall into my family, my friends, the women I've loved (and still do!). You may all wag your fingers at me, but one thing that has really been motivation is thinking about the 1993 Mazda RX-7 I'm going to buy when I'm finally done all this training/travelling. It's going to be bright yellow and gorgeous...and fast! I think about all the tinkering and tuning I'll do, driving it around on a summer day, working on it in a garage. hahaha, I guess I'm getting into too much detail here, but let's just say I've found motivation.

So this is what a lot of Oklahoma looks like. Big and flat, more like Saskatchewan than Alberta. I can see the clouds pass through the sky when I stop and look. It's literally like in those commercials, when they pass over the sky. The warm wind caresses my body, the slight stinging pains of all those cuts on my arms, the sweat slick down my back. The world is very big, and I feel very small when I'm out there.

It's been kinda nice recently because I've managed to pull one hard day, one easy(ier) day so I'm not as bitter as I was last week.

Oh I found out why the cows chew cable! Given that the guys who are laying out cable, or just working with it, are working hard, they are sweating. Cows love the salt that gets on the cable. And given they are so damn dumb, they chew the hell out of it.

That being said, the guy I was working with today made a couple of interesting comments. Mostly how you can tell when it's going to rain when the cows all go lay down next to each other, and the best places to cross a creek are where the cows go. Not to mention, they generally find the path of least resistence around the forests, as you can tell by their worn path. Perhaps they aren't as dumb as I originally thought, or perhaps us humans gave something up when we got our intelligence.

I hope everyone is doing well. Send me e-mails, tell me how your life is. Start up your own blog! I'll read it if anything. Oh and post pictures too! I want to see how my friends look, or even just my readers.

Oh the clickity clack therapy of a blog.

Today was tough. Mexicans work friggin hard. They just keep walking. Never speeding up, or slowing down, just a constant steady pace all day long. I had to change t-shirts halfway through today, as mine was just soaked through.

So my boots are a bitch, I should've worn them in better while in Calgary. Just tearing up my achilles tendons. The worst part was stepping in this "stream" today that smelled of cow shit and piss. This was just after I had finished reading a mystery story where the main character had lost his leg to gangrene. So I had THAT running through my head all day.

Well, at least I've got this delicious pizza to keep me company. Well, it's not so delicious, but whatever. It's warm and will care for me.

Throughout the day I was all bitter because everyone around me only spoke Spanish and I had no one to talk to. I was telling myself in my head how much I hated Spanish and how much I hated Mexico, and how I'd never go there. Then something clicked and I figured, "Well maybe I should give it a shot and try to learn it a bit." So at least I have that to think about and work on during my days instead of just being bitter ol' Josh.

I'm too lazy to upload my photos right now, maybe in a post later tonight though. It's some entertaining pictures of...prairie.

I'm tired and bored. I realize that I wanted an office job for a reason. Labour bores the hell out of me, I crave mental stimulation. Even the physical aspects of my life I had approached before, like martial arts and going to the gym had very much mental aspects to them as well. The focus on form and what was to be accomplished with every action during those very much appealed to me.

My new roomate is a really nice guy, but snores so fuckin loud. I really hope that I can adapt otherwise it's going to be a long stay in Oklahoma.

I saw a penny on the ground today, shining brightly at me. I immediately thought of my mom and her sailboat fund. It both made my day better and saddened me.

Fuckin cows. I was driving around with one of the troubleshooters, fixing the recieving lines today. The biggest problem, as I've mentioned before, is cows chewing on the cables. We'd go replace or fix a cable, and what'd those dumb beasts do as soon as we were walking away? That's right, the whole damn herd would walk over to start chomping on it. Jeeeesus!

That being said, I do like chasing cattle. It's fun to see the utter terror in their eyes when I merely clap my hands at them. Don't they realize that not only does each one weigh many times what I do, but there is a whole damn herd of them? I guess that's why we eat them.

I just wish I had someone to talk to out here. I mean, more than the hey how're you doin kind of conversation. A real sit down chat about something meaningful and interesting.

I recommend to anyone interested in reading, which should be all of you dammit, the book "The Deadly Bride." It's a collection of recent critically acclaimed best short stories in mystery and crime fiction. All of the stories have been excellent, with many of them making me smile or chuckle to myself at the ingenious logic behind it.

I miss all my friends and family. I really do, having no one to talk to all day and night is starting to wear on my consciousness. More soon.

So today, I was hanging out with 4 black guys from Mississippi or Loiseiana ( I dunno how to spell it). They were admittedly pretty intimidating at first, and I think they were trying to be. But once I got to know them and know how they were, I felt really comfortable. Constantly cracking jokes and razzing each other, talking about women, cars, and usual guy stuff. It made me realize how universal people are. Sure we may talk a bit differently, and with a different perspective, but we aren't really that different. They were really cool cats, and my first true experience with Southern black folk. I'm sorry for the constant reference to race, but it does make a difference suprisingly enough.

Oh man, end of the day, we get sent out to pickup another line. As you can imagine, it's the opposite of laying out a line. So we are walking through this hellish brush, just sticky bushes everywhere, I've got scraps and pokes and all sorts of sources of blood. Not to mention crossing barb wire fences that are rusted to hell, thankfully I had my tentanus shot last year. We get to the very end, and the driver is there wondering what we're doing. He dropped us off at the wrong line to begin with, so we picked up a whole line that hadn't been shot and removed all the flags and markings as to where to put stuff. I guess I'll find out tommorow morning how that went.

Oh and blisters galore. Ain't nothing I can do to prevent those, I'll have foot problems for life...dawg.

I think I'm starting to talk like a southerner. I've picked up a few phrases, and definately slowed down my speech. hahahaha.

Man, working in a labour job definately gives you a kind of strength that you can't get at the gym. It's definately where that elusive "dad strength" comes from. I'm glad I can get the experience doing this, even if it won't really be for that long.

This all being said, I remember being stuck in a bush today, pulling out thorns from my skin, and I thought to myself, "What the hell am I doing here, I went through 5 years of intense math for this?" hahahaha, it quickly passed, but looking back I thought it was funny.

Oh snap, I have beef brisket on the way and people to phone and harass. Not to mention beer to drink with the crew, so I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope that I can talk and see you all sooner rather than later.

The Enternally Lovable Joshy Poshy

aaaah!

Click here

So, a first true day of labour for me. Interesting.

It started simply enough with a presentation (oh my, another one! ) and a drug test. ha. Afterwards, some hanging around as per usual and then into the field for more...hanging around. By around 11:30 they finally found a group of people for me to join so they drove me out with them to the line we were laying.

It goes like this, for each reciever, which is like a data collection point, there are six or more geophones. These little things are basically a spike you stomp into the ground. So the reciever is a cable with these attached to it, and at the end is an adaptor to attach it to the a collection type cable. About six recievers can connect to this cable, and this cable goes and attaches to a wireless radio with a battery. This is known simply enough as laying recievers. We laid down about 160, mostly likely more, recievers today. Each reciever is about 100-150 feet apart, and there you go. A big long day of walking and stomping stuff.

So what else can I say? I was with two Mexicans and two Guatamalans today, and I heard more Spanish than in the rest of my life. They were good people though, true "salt of the earth" types. There was this one point, while we were waiting for the helicopter to drop off more cables and recievers, we decided to have a bit of a rest/lay down. Everyone was dozing, and in the corner of my eye I saw a bunch of cows get close to the fence we were by. Don't worry, they were on the other side. But it was entertaining, napping in a field, cows next to me, sun shining brightly. I felt like I was in some Mark Twain novel or something.

I was ducking under an electrified fence today and got my ass zapped. That gets you mooo-ving.

Anywho, I'm awful tired here and I think I need to watch an episode of OZ before bed and book my flight home. I'll be back on April 6th folks, so I'll see you then.

So, I'm sittin in my little hotel room, actually not so little, getting ready for my big field assignment. Ugh. The next 20 days are going to be ugly. 13 hour days, walking 6 miles or more a day, acquiring seismic data. Well, at least I'll be able to set off some dynamite in residential and urban areas, that should be fun, in Oaklahoma no less.

The weekend was good here. We went to a few bars on Friday, as you can tell from my previous post. One was...a logical extension of Broken City, filled with jailbait and all. The other was more of a pub type atmosphere, overall good I'd say. I'm suprised overall with Texans, they are really nice hospitable people. Even moreso than Calgarians I'd say, anyone will happily have a conversation with you and just be friendly overall.

I gave into my consumerism side on Saturday at the mall. I do feel bad about it actually, just buying some stuff that I didn't really need but just wanted. I don't really like the idea of want, but it affects me nonetheless. I wonder if want is a function of what you already have, in that if you have a lot you want more based on that, and if you don't have much you don't want that much. Perhaps it's an experience thing, once you give into consumerism, it's a slippery slope. I dunno, I'm doing my best to keep it at bay though.

Missing home a little bit, wishing I could see a few people back at home. But! I'll be back in cowtown for Easter most likely, so that will be something to look forward to over the coming weeks of hard work.

Actually, I think this field assignment will be good as I'm getting a little sick of some of my group members. There are definate pluses and minuses of having such a diverse set of people. They bring new perspectives and ideas, interesting cultures, but also some agravations. Because we're so different, there are somethings we don't all value the same, so it makes planning things a little difficult. A break will be good.

Anywho, I should get to bed here, I bid you all a good night and I'll update more soon!

If the clothes fit...say that to say this

oh yes, yes yes

what the hey!

I just stroll on in, and I begin. And I say a couple of rhytmes and I begin. I'll leave with your lady! I'll leave with your lady!

I work my way into their subconsciousness

I see you slither around my ankle like I ain't gonna react

Take a big guess as to which album I took all these latryx's from...that was a big friggin clue.

I'll send whomever guesses right a cd made especially for them, along with a special gift. yeah, you heard me something really nice. And if Randee doesn't get it, I'll be very, very, very disapppointed.

C'est moi. Aren't I pretty?

Went out for beef brisket tonight, I ordered the 1lb plate but they only gave me the half. I was pretty disappointed.

We got assigned some "homework" tonight. So you can guess what happened, sitting around the lobby drinking beer, discussing what the largest minimum offset for a salvo of a 3d model was. So cool it hurts.

My buddy took a great picture of an ad for Conoco we saw at the restaurant. It was a cowboy lighting a cigarette off of a cattle brand which said Conoco. Wow, oil, tobacco and the beef industry all wrapped up in one beautiful stereotypical ad, how much better can you get?

Ok, even better. I was at the convience store and there was a guy in front of me was buying smokes. He saw the 2 for 1 deal with Marlboro Reds, so he says, "Get me them...no, no all of them." After some confusion, he meant every single double pack, which turned out to be like 8.

So what else can I say? Tommorow is Friday, and that means party...PARTY! Hopefully the yanks won't be too impressed with my super slick dancing moves, but I can't make any promises.

Ok, I've had a few beers and I'm a little cocky. hahahahaha

I've got an apartment with a couple of the other Canadians and people want to keep trading into our place. Are we really that cool? Most likely.

What I am really enjoying about this program is that cracking jokes in class is appreciated and encouraged. They want to keep a light and happy atmosphere as long as the work gets done. It totally fits with the mindset that I'm in right now.

I'm probably making this too long already, but I guess if you don't want to read no one is forcing a gun to your head. If so, I wonder what kind of sick twisted individual is doing that? Or maybe I don't, they could be a crazy stalker. Or maybe ignorance is bliss...oh logical mind games how fun are you.

Ok, ok, I'll stop. More later.

Oh yeah, I added some links to my other favourite blogs so if you're interested check 'em out. Ian's will be long winded but interesting, but hey, that's Ian. Hahahaha, I kid, I kid, he's never interesting. No but seriously, he'll push the culture harder than anyone, and you always need that voice.

Aloha all!

So, more interesting adventures in Houston, well sort of. I've been mostly tied up with work and work related events lately. That's going pretty good, I'm definately learning more about geophysics than I ever thought I would. It's quite amazing the technology that's all involved with it, wave physics goes off the deep end.

We took a bit of a drive tonight and all we saw was a shopping centre/strip mall complex every mile or so with the exact same stores. This just went on indefinately in either direction, and that's just one part of the city. And the funny thing is that there is absolutely no bars, pubs or places to just hang out.

We went to a really good Spanish restaurant tonight. Not Mexican, not tex mex, but an actual Spanish place. They had a delicious paella which apparently won awards all around the city, and I had my favourite poached pears for dessert. It was great.

I feel more and more like I'm the chatty, likeable guy of the group that gets everyone to laugh and have a good time. I suppose this is a good thing, and no, I'm not trying to brag. There's a lot of awkward silences when we're all sitting around, as everyone is really so different culturally. But that being said, French people are really cool and they have a really good sense of humour.

Don't worry, I'm going to start taking pictures here, because I've seen something interesting things. Like the biggest church I've ever seen/heard of, it was bigger than a Costco, with parking for miles. I shit you not.

But I do miss you all, as nice as it is down here. I hope that in my adventures anyone who can, will visit me. It's really nice seeing a familiar friendly face that's for sure. More later.

Huzzah! The internet is back in my life! Whew, that was a close one, I almost broke my addiction. Ha, who am I kidding?

So yeah, Houston. Whaddya want to know? It's a gigantic friggin city, everybody drives, everybody shops a lot, and I drink beer a lot. I mean...anyways, everybody is actually super friendly here, the texas accent is really endearing, and actually all of the Texans I've met seem to love me. It's really kind of funny, but we had to do a driver training course so that we could get use of the cars, and the instructors were Texans. They all seemed to latch on to me, and want to talk to me a lot, pretty entertaining. As I told everyone in Calgary, I just flash my pearly whites and people love me hahahaha. Just kidding...sort of.

What else? Beer is cheap and the food is tasty here. Also, Coors Light is really, really good; Aaron and I have been powering through a six pack a night (I know, I know), it just goes down like water. So the food, it's tasty but I can understand why people get so fat. At every restaurant, they give you bread, nachos or something to start with. Then you get your meal, and it comes with a salad to start on a pretty big plate. They are always pushing the super high fat dressings with it too, and the yanks give me a funny look when I ask for no dressing. The meals usually come with two sides, something along the lines of vegetables covered in cheese/dressing/butter/sugar/heart clogging shit. Hell, even the eggs I eat in the morning are just *soaked* in butter, it's rediculous.

So, onto my group that I am training with. There's a wide variety of people, but it's mostly us Canadians, the Frenchies, and a couple of stragglers (a Croat, Mexican, American, and a Morroccan). So far, everyone seems pretty cool, the French guys are hilarious, and they speak so eloquently. The French girls hardly speak a word to anyone but each other and anyone else who can speak French, but I'm workin on that. Nobody gets away with being the fly on the wall I say.

And training? Well, it's not bad. We just chilled like the proverbial villians today, and had like a half hour break every hour. Hey, I can dig that, but I have been running out of chit-chat conversation with people.

Anywho, more later, must go find food now.

As I leave Calgary for adventures in the US of A, I have the usual philosophical (or pseudo-philosophical) questions I ask myself.

This idea of change, of entropy, has been buzzing through my head. Everything changes, constantly and in all aspects. There is nothing constant in the physical world, the universe thrives on change. Even human constructions, the idea of Science, mathematics, any of the liberal or fine arts, are constantly changing. Nothing escapes time, and with time comes change. So, what happens when I myself change? I must be myself at all times, but if I'm not the same as who I was or who I will be, who are they? The same goes for relationships. If our past selves were friends, what are we now? Does it matter? Probably not. I suppose what I'm getting after in all this nonsense is a live for the moment mentality. Obviously, you have to think of the consequences of your actions, but taking the risk, jumping in, can be fruitful. Nothing sucks more than regret in my mind, because there's nothing worse than a "What if..." question going through your head.

The second idea is another aspect of self. How do your relationships define you? In that, how much does each person know about you and how much of it overlaps. Venn diagram style, right? If anyone has read "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk, it paints a nice example of the this problem. The main character tricks people into saving his life, and by manipulation gets them to get his money. That's his thing. In the end, these thousands of people see him in trouble and come to help, all running into each other, you could imagine what happens, all their experiences are exactly the same. Where is this going? Well, lemme tell you! What about the opposite situation, where everybody gets a completely different picture of you, as to whom you are. This is an interesting thought experiment, what does that imply about what this person is, or what does their different personalities play in their overall personhood? So, once again, sliding scale argument, you want to be somewhere in the middle, extremes produce problems. But how important is it how you are to yourself? The way I think is not the way I speak necessarily all the time, not necessarily lying, but from a different perspective. So you got that to consider as well. It's all a big jumble, but somehow it works. All these supposed metaphsical questions are either answered or not really questions in reference to reality itself. Whoa...dude.

So yup, I leave in 19 hours or so, should be a party, if not warmer anyways. My UFC predictions for 68? Well, Sylvia is going to either decision or KO Randy Couture, Hughes is going to get a ref stoppage in the 2nd with Chris Lytle, and Rich Franklin (my personal favourite fighter) going to get a 2nd Rnd TKO over Jason MacDonald, Babalu will take it by sub too. And anyone needing to see an amazing MMA event, find i.e. download PRIDE 33, because it's redonkulous. Nick Diaz is so slick but unfortunately an arm puncher, Wanderlei lost his belt to the wrong guy, and Shogun really popped Allistair Overeem.

So to everybody, please keep in touch with me. E-mail me, I'm sure you can figure it out from this site. I will be posting here as often as I can, letting you know how it goes. Party on Wayne.