I grew up sleeping on a twin sized bed wondering where my brother was...

So just got this juicy bit of gossip from the people that work in the offices. It is not a rumor so it has been confirmed. That means that it is true. Not false. Here is a picture of a bunkbed.

Typical bunkbed

McMurdo station just ordered 150 of these from New Jersey and just had them shipped here via air cargo which must have cost a fortune and a half. This is for the extreme surplus of people the NSF did not count on being here this season and once again, "good enough for government work" So after all the shipping and handling of these beds, this is what arrived instead.

Youth Bunk bed

Well the beds were a somewhat simpler in design and did not come with real life size replica super hero elmo action doll, but the same idea. They ordered 150 youth bunk beds with a weight limit not too exceed 150 lb's HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Mu'rka!

The ominous, mysterious, yet ever present McMurdo Crud...

Crud is rather an ambiguous term either meaning the stuff you dig out of the garbage disposal after you emptied all your Indian food into the sink the night before, or a explatory indicating your disgust with a certain performance. In this case it means a shitty cold. Working, eating, living, and playing together in such close quarters gives rise to a persistent bug known as "The Crud". Sadly I have been debilitated by this single celled microbe that's only intention is to piss me off. After talking to many people who have had it or have it currently, it starts off slow with a scratching of the throat, then progresses to a nasty nasal blockage incongruous to the goal that we scored on England, oh butter fingered limeys! Anyway the stage I am at now is that of constant throbbing head ache, coughing up everything but my inner organs, and complete laziness...The laziness I am blaming on the cold. I am sleeping about 12 hours a day here.
We all got the flu shot (Against my will) in New Zealand, but this bugger is  flown in from all over the world to a congregation of human hosts lacking in vitamin C. Although since I have been here I have had 1 packet of EmergenC and multi vitamins, and orange juice daily! One of those packets has 1500% of your daily vitamin C for god sakes!

In the mean time I have been coming to work kinda. I have to wash and prep about 1600 bottles. This entails making an acid bath, rinsing them out like 5 times with DI water, letting them sit for an hour, baking some in an oven. and then sitting at this computer waiting looking out over the sea ice at the TransAntarctic Mountains!
Anyway about 4 C-130's came in yesterday with a load of cargo(SALAD and Fresh food!) and about 100 people. Bringing the population here to about 1100. Gotta get out before it gets too crazy. met some people from Delaware that moved in across the hall...What the hell is in Delaware? Well I gotta get back to cleaning some bottles. Oh ya before I forget there is a huge party in the gym tonight for halloween. There is no way they are fitting that many people in that building especially with costumes. I am gonna be a christmas tree...Boring. Here is a picture from icestock, which is actually new years but I was too lazy to look for a picture of halloween. Peace!

Frolicking, Freezing, and Formations of Frivolous Frost

27th Oct 10'

My Grave

Well that was exciting! I have had harder classes, I have had more intuitive classes, and I have had more intense classes. But none as much all together as "Happy Camper". To begin, this is a 2 full day class with one overnight stay spent out on a floating glacier in the Ross Sea. We started out learning about hypothermia and frostbite and as well as how to treat certain symptoms, just like any typical day in boyscouts or outdoor class. Then we drove 30 minutes out to a glacier in the middle of the water. Here we were taught basic skills on staying warm, cooking food, melting water, constructing snow walls to shelter from the wind, and dig snow trenchs/caves/graves to protect from the elements. All the while it is below 0 degrees F. In fact that was the high for the past couple of days. Add a little wind and who knows? Its a fiesta! The instructors left us around 7pm to fend for ourselves and protect against jaguars. There were 20 of us so many hands make light work, but too many cooks... God cliches can be contradictory and used for any and all situations. Digressing once again, we built a 50 ft long wall out of blocks of extremely durable snow about 1'X1'X1.5'. Set up some tents and made dinner. Afterwards about 10 of us set out to dig snow trenches. I was the last to start and as people dug down, i meticulously carved perfectly etched rectangular blocks. Within an hour everyone else had shanties somewhat erected with bits of sleds and tents covering the sky and protruding from below. Acting as ghetto McGayver  roofs. I however being as brilliant, intuitive, and creative as I am constructed a 7' long 2' wide and 3' deep grave. Snow blocks fit like a lid on my trench, and gave me just enough room for my Tolkien liking to comfort. I filled in little seams with snow to prevent too much ventilation but left my entire face open to breathe. I took my wet socks off, crawled in, covered my eyes, and woke up 8 hours later extremely warm in my bag. I awoke to scratching feet clawing at the insides of my tympanic membrane. Some people however did not have as comfortable of a night as I and due to that fact had chose to wake me up instead of resting. I took my head out from the sleeping bag and as wrapped up like a deuce as I could be, was blinded by the light. Damn sun was lighting up the entire night. We take down camp and return to the instructors to receive more training in the snowy arts. Practiced/failed some rescue scenarios and set up hamm radios to communitcate with McMurdo and the South pole which was quite interesting to learn how to use an instrument from the Korean war. With about as much sophistication involved. We asked for the weather report from the South Pole and they said it was a balmy -38 degrees F. We then got last nights weather report of our glacier and the temp dropped to a low of 23 degrees below zero that "Night"! And my tomb led me to overheating due to expertise in the construction of insulating containers. Suck on that Trebek! Came back to my empty dorm room expecting it to be overcrowded and am now going to take a nap. Here is where we were.
For my mother...When you see a highlighted word or series of words also known as or AKA a sentence, click it and it will take you somewhere like here. or Here.

Working effectively

Working efficiently

Working epiphytically

The holiday inn...took much longer to build

Here will lie me. Dug his grave only to sleep in his grave.

Is this Wyoming or is it always windy?

Stupid tents

Stupid wall

Stupid dinner and stupider scott tents

I hate setting 7 of these up only to sleep in a trench

Some glacier action off in the distance if it wasn't so foggy.

bum bum bu bum bu bu bum bu bum bu bum...the grave music thing

Its so like perfect size for me and stuff!

frozen face

Good"night" This is about as dark as it gets...and this is super foggy...wait till the sun comes out.

This is the Holiday inn. Notice the light at 11 at night...

And I come back to a fire truck in front of my dorm...

Jam sess and meetings of people

Just had an awesome Jam sess with Harry victoria and mark. All three were the only people I have met so into music. But actually everone I have met here so far is very passionate about what they do. Many of them come from the northwest and I tell you they are much more driven as hippies in the NW then they are in Boulder. I feel not only are they extremely intelligent but instead of bitching about how bad things are, they go out and do something about it instead of doing something for themselves to make them feel better about the situation. The people here are nice but then again I am in extreme extroverted mode to meet people. God in Boulder I became so reclusive and weary to change friends that I never made new ones where as here I am trying to get everyone's story. All very interesting but I feel they are all more interested in me because unlike them, I am leaving McMurdo for the dry valleys.

McMcMcMcMurdo

23rd Oct 10 again
At McMurdo we debrief and being by myself makes the absorption of the plethora of info laid before me impossible. Between now and wednesday I have to take classes, on environmental conservation, snow moachine driving, truck driving, waste management, computers, take a 2 day and 1 night happy camper course out on sea ice and sleep in handmade snowcaves. All the while organizing everything I need to take of. It will be interesting to see how well I can get things done and "figure it out" before Josh gets here in two weeks. Till then its gonna be amazing!

Laying in bed it could be from exhaust or biological clock meltdown, but I feel I need to be asleep. Outside however it is bright as a noon summers day but cloudy. There is only 1 day and 1 night a year here with months of sunrise and sunset. The actual time...Midnight.

ICE

 23rd Oct 10'

Read it

Not our plane

Our plane and my finger!

Inside forward with cockpit behind that circle window.

Back of de plane

View out the little window!

First steps on the the ice. We are on the ocean right here.

Dorm room

dorm room

Hall

Ivan the Terra Bus

Almost 11 pm

The chalet

Mount Discovery

The airport on Ice

"OB"servation hill

McMurdo

McMurdo

some sweet van thing.

23rd Oct 10'
It is nearing 830pm and still light out. This assumes I made it from NZ to McMurdo safely. What an odd community. To begin I might as well start at the premier, debut, or stuff. We went to the antarctic center and checked all our bags etc. Got briefed on the flight and then taxied out to a jet powered C-130 or plane similar. Noisy as a vevuzala during half time, we had to wear ear plugs the whole ride. It was completely open and I sat sideways next to a giant snowcat. Boring and uncomfortable ride with an absolutely terrible lunch! 2 or 3 small pieces of chicken fat on breaded loaded with fakeonnaise. Regardless it was an experience until I looked out the window for the first glimpse of Antarctica. Frozen ocean and tall mountains looming below as we put them to our Aft. Time went by quicker now and getting to actual landing seemed to last an eternity. Landing on ice for me was quite exhilirating as I was curious as to how thick the ice below was? Well to say the least it was a bumpy land and most of all I would say the anxiety was due to not being able to look out at all because there was 1 window far in front. Eerie it was not knowing whether the ice was 5 feet or 1/2 a mile below you. No matter because when we walked down the steps from the airplane and got our 1st glimpse. My dear god. Photos on the internet simply dont do justice to the surreal feeling sinking into the back of your head. It starts physically with the cold biting air hitting your nose followed shortly by a bright flash from the albedo of the snow. There are no smells, sounds, or sights of animals. All there is is emptiness filled with everything. I am standing on frozen ocean a mile away from Ross island and McMurdo at the base of Mt Erebus a still active volcano and off further south opposite the island are the most picturesque purple mountains anyone has ever beheld. Volcanoes steaming from the top, canyons filled with 1000 foot high ice walls, and dry valleys to which my eventual destination lay.

Odd Oddenings of Great ideas!

I have an idea. So most apocalyptic movies from the 80's either involve Mel Gibson fighting cross dressing motorcycle gangs largely involved in S&M or the world taken over by machines or flooded by some natural force. A hero always evolved out of humble beginnings to destroy evil and then ride with the sunset. Originality is all but forgotten with these movies. Something new and bright however is a world in which the true future will unravel. Suppose we are at the brink of our capacity for knowledge. Anything undiscovered will remain so without the assistance of a non terrestrial species (not counting dolphins) Therefore we don't find a viable energy source besides fossil fuels. This would be what the scenes are based from. We have run dry of fuel for years now with a few supply barrels of unknown use lying around in hidden stocks. We revert back to older machines using technology developed now. Imagine Magellan sailing across the pacific from the tierra del fuego to the phillipenes, but with a solar powered GPS. The beauty of riding a horse while understanding the cause of the bubonic plague. Run with it Taylor, Run with it.

My day off around Christchurch

22nd Oct 10'
Well our flight to the ice was delayed and then grounded till tomorrow due to weather. Hopefully we fly tomorrow or else we will have to wait until tuesday with a whole bunch of other people from Delaware...EWWW... Now on my day off I am heading to the mountain Gondola and maybe Mountain bike down. The bus system is cheap, reliable, and extremely easy!

I'd say about 200 steps. Its a long way down, or up.

As I sit on Cressy bench, I am not surprised at my insurmountable stupidity when it comes to buses. As I was writing about the ease of travel on the NZ bus system, I failed to press the big red stop button to my right. I pushed it just as we were pushing away from the gondola and the next stop happend to be over two miles away through a tunnel for the majority of it to a town called lyttleton. Ha way cooler than Colorado's Littleton. So I decided from there instead of backtracking through the tunnel, to just walk uphill. Steep driveways and staris led me to a path laid with traps for some kind of TB Vector?

Uhhh.....???

Anywho I am half way to the summit now on cressy bench overlooking the beautiful Glacier colored bay and banks penninsula. Sheep abound and roosters crow here. If only there were some hairy ped'd hobbits rummaging about.

Cressy Bench

Through sheep and jungle, rock and wile. Getting 550 m to the top was quite brethless as I am at sea level. Walking to this giant sentry on top was quite dissapointing. After talking to a german living here for a while and harassing local sheep I made it to a den of finacial gain. The gondola wreaks of bad vibrations and eerie fried smells. I am now going to eat my panini and pilsner and quickly be on my way back.

Well I walked downstairs and they had a time machine! well you get on a mobile electric cart that takes you through a track from 12 million years ago. It starts off with volcanoes and quickly progresses to settlers conquering the ocean and nature to finally call this place home. No mind however to the native Maori. They are just peasants anyway. All the while being guided by an annoyingly precocious little girl with bad teeth. But by the power of God alone did her great grandparents conquer their self proclaimed home and burned down all the trees for grazing area. The vast grassy fields you see weren't always known as the Canterburry plains you know.

It just occurred to me that I forgot to mention what that German had told me. After retriring from the merchant navy travelling long stretches to reach foreign destinations he settled here in NZ. He spoke of his boredom. As if being on the ocean for months at a time isn't boring enough. At 70 years old he was very fit. But that is due to his boredom. He said he hikes from christchurch over the big hill 500 m high and steep to lyttleton then back up the hill and down to home 2-3 times a week. This hike probably takes him 2-3 hours and he stated that it doesn't near satiate his boredom. Gardening helps but there are only so many hours a week one can spend in the dirt. Maybe thats why we love our prime time TV to hinder our sub conscious boredom. Here are some pics...

Stupid Pioneering womens memorial.

Sheep Sheep everywhere

Looking past Lyttleton to Banks penninsula

Christchurch

Lyttleton

Mountain Tasty sheep