NCMR 2008

A fantastic video to watch for 40 mins... Bill Moyers addressing the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform.
...
"What does it matter? Why a media anyway? I’m going to let an old Cherokee chief answer that. I heard this story a long time ago, growing up in Choctaw County in Oklahoma before we moved to Texas, of the tribal elder who was telling his grandson about the battle the old man was waging within himself. He said, "It is between two wolves, my son. One is an evil wolf: anger, envy, sorrow, greed, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is the good wolf: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The boy took this in for a few minutes and then said to his father—to his grandfather, “Which wolf won?” The old Cherokee replied simply, “The one I feed.” Democracy is that way. The wolf that wins is the one we feed. And media provides the fodder." (great little story)
...
"The new owner of the Tribune Company, the real estate mogul Sam Zell, recently toured his new property, the Los Angeles Times newsroom, telling employees that the challenge is: how do we get somebody 126 years old to get it up? “Well,” said Zell, “I’m your Viagra.” I’m not making this up. He told his journalists that he didn’t have an editorial agenda or a perspective about newspapers’ roles as civic institutions. “I’m a businessman,” he said. “All that matters in the end is the bottom line.” Just this week, Zell told Wall Street analysts that to save money he intends to eliminate 500 pages of news a week across all of the company’s twelve papers. That can mean eliminating some eighty-two pages every week just from the Los Angeles Times. What will he use to replace reporters and editors? He says to the Wall Street analysts, “I’ll use maps, graphics, lists, rankings and stats.” Sounds to me as if Sam has confused Viagra with Lunesta."
...
"As conglomerates swallow up newspapers, magazines, publishing houses and broadcast outlets, news organizations are folded into entertainment divisions. The news hole in the print media shrinks to make room for ads, celebrities, nonsense and propaganda, and the news we need to know slips from sight."
...

Our Dilemma

So the latest book I've finished was The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. The dilemma, as Pollan puts it is simply: "What to eat?"

As always, its hard for me to put into words the message that Pollan pushes in the book. His goal through the book is to trace a few meals back to their origin point, and along the way touches on all of the sources of food in America: the CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) and factory farms, Industrial Organic like those from Whole Foods, locally produced and pastured meat, and he goes and at the ends he journeys to find a meal by using a hunter-gatherer method. The argument is that as Americans we have to culturally-enforced eating habit, and the advent of the industrial farm has further thrown us as humans out of whack with our eating and food-buying heritage. Pollan tries to convince us that we have to give up the idea that supermarket foodstuffs are OK, that we're really fooling ourselves with absurdly cheap food engineered to make us keep eating and all built on a mountain of corn and petroleum (read the book to find out more)

Pollan writes well, and he gives sufficient evidence to make you think twice about where you get your food. Definitely a book to read.

Ban Cluster Bombs!

I've just sent a message to government leaders urging a strong ban on cluster bombs. I hope you'll join me. Here's the link:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/99.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK
And here's more info from Avaaz.org:
Final negotiations are underway right now in Dublin, Ireland on a treaty to ban cluster bombs -- but its outcome is in danger.
Cluster munitions don't just kill during war--they scatter small, unexploded "bomblets" on the ground. When children pick them up, they are often maimed or killed. Most governments agree that they should be banned--but many are now trying to weaken the proposed treaty with loopholes, exemptions, and delays.
Negotiations end this Thursday. If enough of us raise our voices, we can drown out the arms manufacturers and convince our governments to do the right thing. Click below to send a message, and then forward this email to friends and family:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/99.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

Yay for the spotlight!

So the project myself and another coworker have been working on recently has been getting a ton of visibility in the O&G services sector; to top it off we're being presented with an award at the Offshore Technology Conference next Monday!

I don't usually toot my own horn, but I think this exception is worth it :o)

for more info: http://www.otcnet.org/2008/spotlight/Baker_Oil_Tools.html

'Dilbert's' 9-point financial plan worthy of economics Nobel - MarketWatch

Source

Fortunately for America's 95 million investors, Adams' secret nine-point formula was finally revealed in "Dilbert and the Way of the Weasels." Notice its simple brilliance in the exact reproduction of his formula:

1.
Make a will
2.
Pay off your credit cards
3.
Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
4.
Fund your 401k to the maximum
5.
Fund your IRA to the maximum
6.
Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
7.
Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
8.
Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement
9.
If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio

Adams boldly states that this is "everything you need to know about personal investing." In just 129 words, nine simple points, one page you have the unabridged "Unified Theory of Everything Financial." That's it. Everything!

Writing Tips

Great PDF on writing tips... print it out and keep with you or with your writing supplies
http://mikeshea.net/writing_tips.pdf

Yum.

How to pour the perfect Black and Tan:

1 Guinness Draught can of beer
1 Bass Pale Ale
2 glasses
1 large spoon (the head should be able to fit inside the glass)

Pour the Bass first... you want to fill about half the glass and make it as frothy as possible - I think the head dampens the impact of the Guinness when it's poured.
Then, place the spoon (with the convex side up) in the glass, touching the end of the spoon to the side of the glass.
Pour the Guinness SLOWLY over the top of the spoon - I tilted the spoon so that most of the Guinness rolls down the side of the glass from the spoon head.
Enjoy!

Finally!

I found a way to have your PowerPoint presentation show up on the projector (or 2nd screen/monitor) and be able to see your notes with your screen... much props to Michael Hyatt

Link

That's what she said.

Suja and I just finished watching Disc 4 of Season 3 of The Office

I had a habit (or I guess non-habit) of not getting caught up in any TV shows recently (not since I dug The Simpsons in my early college days)... but I caught a few episodes of The Office - season 2 I think - and really just laughed enough to watch as much as I could... this included catching some on Netflix' 'watch instantly' and then Suja and I got the season discs Netflix'd in... So after hours of laughter, we're all caught up... a definite recommend.

And of course it's so funny because we can relate... we've all got people, or an accumulation of traits of people we know that become Michael, Dwight, et al...

So now that we're all caught up... what's next? Not sure I want to get into Lost, Heroes, or 24 yet...

Empowered...?

So the Texas primary was yesterday, and the wife and I went to the primary and the caucus (dumb "Texas Two-Step"). I placed my vote, felt bad that I didn't know Any of the local candidates or their positions on issues, and then we went out to eat to celebrate our demonstration of civic responsibility.

As far as who I voted for, it really was a tougher decision than I thought it was going to be; once I got back from Denmark I started researching Clinton, Obama, McCain, Huckabee, Paul and Nader... after going through their stances on the different issues, I decided to vote for Obama, but it took more contemplation than I thought it would've... before I thought about it more, I was really energized by Obama's campaign and was relieved to see someone like him move the young electorate so well.

But the more I thought about it, the more I kept feeling that Obama's campaign was more emotive than anything else. He pulls a lot by using the 'outsider/non-Washington' label... and yet I can't help but think he's able to do that purely from a lack of experience in that environment.

So in reviewing candidates, I ran across Russ Feingold, the junior senator from Wisconsin... and I really wish he ran so I'd be really sure where my vote would go. He seems to be the uncompromising idealist that everyone's pining for, including myself, but he's been around since 1992.
When Feingold was running against the Republican incumbent for the in '92, he wrote the following 5 promises on his garage door:

1. I will rely on Wisconsin citizens for most of my contributions.
2. I will live in Middleton, Wisconsin. My children will go to school here and I will spend most of my time here in Wisconsin.
3. I will accept no pay raise during my six-year term in office.
4. I will hold a "Listening Session" in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties each year of my six-year term in office.
5. I will hire the majority of my Senate staff from individuals who are from Wisconsin or have Wisconsin backgrounds

Feingold has continued to have "Listening Sessions" in each county every year since then... there was a story about it on NPR last year I think... what other senator 'gets' it like that?

Feingold's also been working hard for campaign finance reform and a national health care system; especially notable is that he was the ONLY senator to vote against the Patriot Act and also led the fillibuster against the renewal of the act, and voted against the 'compromised' version of it (unlike Obama). Feingold voted against the resolution to go to war with Iraq. He started the movement to censure President Bush. (info from wikipedia)

According to the Washington Post, Hillary Clinton has missed 141 votes (29.2%) during the current Congress. Obama has missed 196 votes (40.6%). Feingold? 0... he's missed 10 votes total since he became a senator - 16 years ago
more vote-missers at http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/vote-missers/

EDIT: I should've thought more about this, but I'm sure that the reason these senators missed the number of votes that they did was because they were on the campaign trail... my mistake.

I like both of the Dems candidates, and would be overall happy if either won the general election (I guess I'd be happier with Obama), but I think my heart lies with Feingold. As my coworker Mark put it "seems like he's got an abundance of common sense".

I'm back

Back into the land of Fahrenheit, smog, and 75° winters.

Got back over the weekend and now I’m sitting here at work again, as if nothing ever changed. We were successful running the Level 5 RAM System, including the Dual Seal Module that I fully designed, at the rig. Although it took a 2nd try, this is a worldwide first installation, and I’m pretty happy with the overall results.

More to come...

All-"Dream" Post

If you grew up in Houston during the 1990s, you knew Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon... the Nigerian Nightmare brought us two NBA championships in '94 & '95... Now he gets his shot at the Hall of Fame

Also, the Rockets are planning on making a monument honoring Hakeem out in front of the Toyota Center in April. Interesting that "in keeping with the tenets of his Muslim faith, it won't include a picture or likeness of him."

Long time coming... HOF enshrinement ceremony will be September 4-6 in Springfield, Mass.

Road trip, anyone?

"If" - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Why would you not make this trade?

using the espn.com trade machine, came up with this:

Sweetness of Site Feed & Gmail

Great, now I've got it set up so I can get updates from my favorite blogs on my Gmail -

this might be old news to everyone else, but its still pretty cool to me :o)

Farrow, Spielberg Assail China on Darfur

Hear, hear:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5illYvdksqi8MYvonLsaCtJcvylOgD8UP4E7O0

ENSCO 71

Finally made it to the rig in the North Sea... ENSCO 71.

Luckily, I'm located close enough to one of the office rooms in the Accomodation Section that I'll be able to get online whenever I can. I'll try to throw some pics from the rig floor whenever I'm able.

Life here is different... because operations are going on 24-7, the living quarters are almost like being on a sub - no windows, etc so you never know exactly what time it is from the conditions outside. Once you dress up in the coveralls and PPE, you can step outside where the winds are blowing hard and cold from the west. Honestly, I can't spend too much time out there before I start feeling numb. But, being out there with the BOT-Danmark boys helps.

Another thing to add about the Romney 'suspension'... and probably the bigger thing: Romney used the same scare tactics that the Republicans used in 2006 to paint his reasoning behind stepping out of the race.

"And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror. They would retreat and declare defeat. And the consequence of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America, launched from safe havens that make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like child’s play. About this, I have no doubt."

Best strategic move by Romney I think in this whole campaign... he was able to stay in his safe graces with the 'conservatives' and yet be able to somehow lend his supporters some form of reason to back the person he had been attacking in the primaries since day 1.

"The Problems of..." Addendum

Father Schmemann actually wrote 'The Problems of Orthodoxy in America' as a 3 part series of sorts:

- The Canonical Problem
- The Liturgical Problem
- The Spiritual Problem

If able, I'll try and read through these and post my thoughts on here when the time comes...

Problems of Orthodoxy in America

The Canonical Problem

interesting read, especially for those like myself - non-OCA Orthodox Christians...
I'll include some excerpts below(with various emphases mine), but in order not to take it out of context, read the whole thing (using the link above) -

"We live in the poisoned atmosphere of anathemas and excommunications, court cases and litigations, dubious consecrations of dubious bishops, hatred, calumny, lies! But do we think about the irreparable moral damage all this inflicts to our people? How can they respect the Hierarchy and its decisions? What meaning can the very concept of canonicity have for them? Are we not encouraging them to consider all norms, all regulations, all rules as purely relative? One wonders sometimes whether our bishops realize the scandal of this situation, whether they ever think about the cynicism all this provokes and feeds in the hearts of Orthodox people. Three Russian jurisdictions, two Serbian, two Romanian, two Albanian, two Bulgarian. A split among the Syrians . . . The animosity between the Russians and the Carpatho-Russians... The Ukrainian problem! And all this at a time when Orthodoxy in America is coming of age, when truly wonderful possibilities exist for its growth, expansion, creative progress. We teach our children to be "proud" of Orthodoxy, we constantly congratulate ourselves about all kinds of historic events and achievements, our church publications distill an almost unbearable triumphalism and optimism, yet, if we were true to the spirit of our faith we ought to repent in "sackcloth and ashes," we ought to cry day and night about the sad, the tragical state of our Church. If "canonicity" is anything but a pharisaic and legalistic self-righteousness, if it has anything to do with the spirit of Christ and the tradition of His Body, the Church, we must openly proclaim that the situation in which we all live is utterly uncanonical regardless of all the justifications and sanctions that every one finds for his "position." For nothing can justify the bare fact: Our Church is divided."

"When told that all Patriarchs have agreed with the Patriarch of Constantinople that Monotheletism is an Orthodox doctrine, St. Maximus the Confessor refused to accept this argument as a decisive criterion of truth. The Church ultimately canonized St. Maximus and condemned the Patriarchs. Likewise, if tomorrow all Patriarchs agree and proclaim in a solemn "tomos" that the best solution for Orthodoxy in America is to remain divided into fourteen jurisdictions, this decision will not make our situation canonical and this, for the simple reason that it does not comply with the canonical tradition or the truth of the church."

"No Patriarch, no Synod—be it in Moscow or Belgrade or in any other place—has the infallible charisma to understand the needs and the truth of the American situation better than the Orthodox people who constitute the Church here."

Father then goes on to describe a three tiered solution involving the Church, the Diocese, and the Parish... it may take a couple of reads and a dictionary, but methinks it worth the trouble... Especially when the Indian Orthodox youth in America are in a dialogue with themselves regarding their place in the world of Orthodoxy

Fr. Schmemann is recognized as one of the most prominant Orthodox teachers of the 20th century. Also see http://www.schmemann.org/ for more information.

"Something of Value"

I saw this movie today in the hotel room... starring Rock Hudson and Sidney Poitier, its a tragic film about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya that lasted 8 years in the 1950s.

Even though the main conflict was between the English and the tribal Kenyans, there were some moments where the strifes between the Mau Mau and other Kikuyu were evident; a sort of bitter reminder of what's going on in Kenya, Rwanda, Chad and other areas of Africa...

...at the same time we're seeing solutions between ethnic groups slowly start to make their way through the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; Kosovo seems to be on track to true independence. After the fall of Soviet communism, the independent countries and peoples became... just that - independent.

It would almost seem like the same thing should happen in the African countries as well... now that the European imperialists are gone, the tribal people should have their own lands again, instead of being kept in the states that their various empires put them in... would this solve everything? no... would it solve anything? maybe

... nothing more than just a thought.

"If a man does away with his traditional way of living and throws away his good customs, he had better first make certain that he has something of value to replace them."
-Basuto Proverb

... and so too should the people that invade his lands and take away his 'way of living'. Its pretty evident that the unrest in Africa can be partly attributed to the fact that the people native to the land were immediately forced into a different way of life. Once the demand for this way of life was removed through revolution or other means, we can see that anything holding these countries as a unified state was pulled away as well

Political grumblings...

So I just saw Mitt Romney give his 'suspension' speech for his campaign...
what was pretty confusing about it was that he spent the first part of the speech talking about the American 'culture', referencing the Founding Fathers and talking about the moral dilemmas that apparently are hurting our country right now... the entire segment had a strong Christian overtone to it, something that rubbed me the wrong way. He then went on to talk about the terrorists that believe that countries should be run by a theocracy... and you can't help but feel that both of these are interrelated.

As a Christian-in-learning, there are obviously some stances that I should side with if I take my religion seriously. At the same time, as an American (and still figuring out what that means as well) I start to believe that the individual is threatened when a school of philosophy or religion dominates a country as much as Christianity has seemed to... the minority may not be given their due. Its almost as though having a religion or philosophy that you believe in burdens you as a member of a democracy. You don't want to impose your beliefs on anyone, but you do want the 'right' things to be done.... right?

Its a tough thing to figure out... or maybe its not and its just me.

"God dag" from Denmark

I'm writing this from the Baker Oil Tools office in Esbjerg, Denmark... I'll be here for the next few weeks to assist in the installation of one of the tools I designed (really the first tool I had a lot of control over). Its cold, windy and rainy here, but I'm just at the office; the rig is located in the North Sea, and its going to be colder, windier and wetter there. I'll get to fly on a helicopter out to the rig, which is another first (a lot of firsts going on in the last year and a half or so).

The people here are great... unfortunately with the weather there hasn't been a lot to take pictures of, but if I do get the chance, I'll be taking some and posting here.

Its tough being away from home for so long, but I'm liking that I get to do this traveling... this is my second trip here to Esbjerg, and hopefully with this trip and the others that I've taken in the last year, we'll have enough frequent-flier miles that Suja and I can take advantage of the miles and get a few weekend trips done by summertime...

The Best of 2007

So, here's my new blog... and what better way to start it off with a review of the year that was... 2007.

The Best... reason to jump out of an airplane:
Skydiving!

So a bunch of friends, Suja and I went to Skydive Houston in October... Suja wasn't planning on going, but after the first group went, she reversed her decision, and I'm sure she's glad she did. Skydiving is one of the most amazing experiences ever, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone even remotely considering it.

Freefalling from a few thousand feet in the air for about a minute...

The Best... of the Music
So this won't really be just about music that came out in 2007, but about the music I started checking out as well, and some nice concerts too...

Paul Simon. I saw The Graduate a few years back, so this year wasn't my first experience with Simon and his friend/enemy Art Garfunkel, but this time I immersed myself into Simon's works, both solo and as part of the 'Simon and Garfunkel' duo, and I can't stop swimming in it... Simon's chameleon-like ability to swerve from folk-duo to zydeco to South Africa to um... spacey-electronic-stuff (w/ Brian Eno on his newest album Suprise) has amazed me and made me want more...

RHCP. The Chili Peps came to town in March, and Suja, Justin, Shibu and myself went to the Toyota Center to seem them and opener Gnarls Barkley. Fast forward 3 hrs later, after a 30 minute hazy psychedelic jam session between Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith and the most we could do was just sit in our seats and stare at an empty stage for what seemed like a week. You could not ask for a more amazing concert - it had everything... great songs, incredible performers (both opener and headliner). At the end of their jam-a-thon, Frusciante got on the mic and said something close to "Thank you so much for that - for a few minutes I forgot you all existed"... Gladly, I can say that wasn't the case for us

Stevie Wonder. My mission concert-wise is to catch as many of my favorite 'legends' of music before they stop touring, and Stevie Wonder started that off... great night, even though it started off real slow, the last 45 mins was like a 'greatest hits' run of songs that brought the house down..

The Best... way to get a free ride
Worked on my second year at BOT, and things have been great... I feel really lucky to have a great group of guys to work with and it helps to feel really relaxed. I was able to take a few trips last year for work, which included Bossier City, LA (for testing at the Baker Hughes test rig there), Blacksburg, VA (for campus recruiting at Virginia Tech) and also made it all the way out to Esbjerg, Denmark, for a 2-day meeting on one of the tools I've been designing. All of the trips have been fun and educational so far, and hopefully I'll be able to go on a few more this year as well. I've already got a 2-week trip planned to go to the North Sea off of Denmark in February to see my first tool get installed on a rig out there... it'll be cold.

The Best... of the Best
Getting married!

A beautiful day to start a wonderful life...