King Kong and Nature Library

Welp, settled back in New Zealand now where i'm digging into King Kong and starting to refocus my energies on Nature Library and other new web endeavors which will be made public before too long. never a dull moment that's for sure.



i will now consider this blog closed for the time being ... that is, until i can get back to the ice for another working vacation.

The ICE has melted ... I've moved on.

yes, my time on the ice is now complete for this season. i will return at some stage of the game because the adventure in it is just too addictive. i'm moving back into the film gig for a while to lend a little help to KING KONG (www.kongisking.net).

it is at this juncture that i'll discontinue this arm of the blog and head back to the regular i8bozo blog.

bag drag twenty hundred - then gone.

welp, tomorrow is bag drag at 2000 (twenty-hundred-which i'm told is 8pm cause i've never been in the armed forces) and then it's all a memory. i'm a bit fried right now because i'm transitioning to the day shift after 5 months of living at night but during the day. just the other day i figured out how i could easily relate to my misadjusted time schedule down here. i started calling my days like i lived them...for instance, today would be the 15/16 because i would wake up on the 15th and then go to bed on the 16th. it made sense after almost 5 months of never knowing what day it was. i'm sure i have more to say but i haven't the brain power to squeeze it out just now. i suppose the biggest thing i'm feeling right now is that i'm glad, i'm glad that i'm now getting the opportunity for change as it's very much needed. i leave you with an appropriate relaxing photo. chat soon.

H O L E - the documentary

a little over a week ago i was fortunate enough to go to 'happy camper's school' where they teach you about outdoor survival techniques on the ice. it was a great time and something i'll not soon forget as i didn't sleep one wink due to a self inflicted headache.

erik, a co-worker, after having his suggestion of building a half scale version of downtown las vegas completely ignored, had suggested we build a 'HOLE' as nobody builds holes. with that brilliant idea, we all jumped up and grabbed a shovel - some of us grabbed our video cameras first - and began what was to become the inaugural HOLE event.

upon my return to mactown, i hurriedly jumped into my personal editing bay (aka: my corner of the room where i sleep) and slapped together the "HOLE documentary". congradulations and various comments of approval started to flow towards me once i released the film on the 'I-Drive' which is where we share photos, movies, or any other common information. it was nice to finally be able to contribute in a creative sense to the community down here. i was finding it hard to be a part of enything else due to my off beat night shift that i've been on since i got here.

the movie is 7 minutes and 22 seconds long. it was shot in one afternoon, jan 21st actually, which has now been reclaimed and recommemorated as "international HOLE day". one post audio recording session was required to acquire the 'hole chanting' which plays under the animated "HOLE" logo. that was recorded in one of the stairwells near my room - a place that people also use to have musical gatherings because it's got nice loud/live acoustics.

i hope you all enjoy as much as the people down here seemed to. it's my exercise in making something from nothing.

LINK TO THE FLICK

ps: again, if that link to the movie works, please post a comment and let me know one way or the other as i can't check it from down here. it'll require the quicktime plugin.

you've got mail

just went to the post office down here to send a few boxes to new zealand via guard mail. that's a service that the military offers where by we don't have to pay for postage to get things from antarctica to the (CDC - clothing distribution center) in christchurch. i was pretty blown away to find out that it would cost me nothing. that won't be the case when i send the next box that will be insured...that'll cost me but it'll be worth it.

while i was at the post office, i was informed that i had some flat mail waiting for me. i got three or four postcards from mark and mona lia from their worldly travels. one from singapore, one from japan, one from cambodia, etc. very cool and very much appreciated. i also received a book from ben. thanks ben, i'm not sure if i'll get the time to read it while i'm here as there are so many other things i'm currently working on and reading. busy boy! chances are, i'll read that on paul's balcony when i get settled in new zealand come march. some of you may know, others may not...i am headed back to new zealand to take work on KING KONG - another peter jackson film. that work will take me from the beginning of march to the beginning of october.

other news down here is that the nav-chaps (i think it stands for navy chaps) are here to assist with the offload of supplies for the upcoming season. along with that news came the additional bit of wise info to keep your door locked at all times as things are known to go missing around this time of the season. it's pretty sad when a reputation for theft and damage preceeds a group of individuals as much as this. i've already heard news of one ipod gone missing. for the damage so far inflicted on mcmurdo since their arrival, i can say someone destroyed the hanging christmas lights we had in the hallway outside our rooms - they literally broke the strand, not unplugged it or tore it down, just broke the strand so it wouldn't work. pretty messed up. so, if you know a "nav-chap", smack some sense into him for all the really cool people down here at mcmurdo that have to put up with their actions. in the coming days, alcohol drinking priviledges will be taken away. that should keep it somewhat normal around here for a week or two until they depart.

rejuvenated

so, what does it take to rejuvenate oneself down at the bottom of the planet? the answer is simple...

H O L E



we were all sitting around the communal kitchen table that trey, spence, jud and a few others errected, sipping our hot drink of choice when erik piped up "hey, let's make a sculpture...maybe a pyramid or possibly a half scale version of downtown las vegas". no response what so ever. not to be thwarted, he tried again..."how bout we dig a hole, who wants to dig a hole"? within seconds, three or four of us were up and grabbin for shovels. don't ask me why, i don't know. all i know is that it got 85% of us fired up and headed for a goal...to dig the biggest hole we could given the conditions and man power.

before you knew it i had the camera perched on a tripod ready to capture the mayhem that would ensue. before too much longer a little film project was under way; that's in the editing stage right now actually. when it's completed, i'll see if i can throw it up here to share with everyone. it really is funny to see what happens in terms of morale with the simple suggestion of simply just digging a hole. it ended up becoming this psuedo spiritual epicenter where i'm sure everyone visited at some point by themselves to experience the hole in peace and solitude. i know that one of the guys, mark, woke up early, had put his headphones on and went to get some solo hole time. jan found him walking in circles, singing inside the hole a short while later. i got some solo hole time during one of my 4 or 5 pee breaks during the evening when the wind picked up slightly and started to blow right through the fleece i had on. i ducked into the hole and voila, no more wind. i hung out for a while and marvelled at our creation.

speaking of creations, here's the ice pad i lived in for the evening. it's the "quinsy" hut all of us had built when we first arrived at the camp site. what happened was all the sleeping duffle bags were piled up and then snow was endlessly piled on top. when you compress that and then ultimately dig out the bags, you have a temporary and quite bullet proof little shelter...in this case, for two. mike and i hollowed it out a bit so it would be more accommodating. i might say he did a fine job too.

i ended up actually not getting any sleep due to a self inflicted headache. don't ask, just know i didn't sleep AT ALL that night.



here's a sign on the back door of our hagalund (sp?) vehicle. no fluff or P.C. BS here...just straight to the point directions.



for a very well thought out and nicely typed explanation of what actually goes on at happy camper snow school...i'm gonna point you to my buddy mark's website where he took the time and put the love into it.

that's right here

thanks mark!!
oh, for those that didn't know, i'm being paroled on february 18th.

happy camper school...

wahhooooeeeee!!! somebody's going to get happy real soon and it's me! they're sending me to happy camper school where we learn about cold weather injuries, radios, survival bags, shelter building and helicopter safety. this is where you get to build your own little snow cave or igloo and sleep outside, where, i've heard horror stories of getting absolutely no sleep what so ever due to not being properly prepared. this should be fun, exhausting, yet fun. pictures will soon follow.

in order to go on any of the other little fun sessions (called boondoogles), you have to participate in happy camper school first. you know what that means...this is the first step into what could possibly be a plethora of really cool experiences. well, that's me thinking positively again...who knows what'll happen.

i'm stoked for the opportunity and thanks have to go out to my supervisors, amanda and stacia and also to the kind folks at the chalet (dawn) who spearhead this whole frozen fieldtrip fiesta.

B15A status movie

mike inquired as to the status of this iceberg and whether or not it would effect us or not. the ice breaker is here now so that's not an issue any longer. what would probably happen if B15A took out the drygalski ice tongue is that it'd possibly open up the ross sea to new currents which i'm guessing would accellerate the break up of sea ice that is currently keeping mcmurdo sound frozen over.

below is a link to a quicktime movie that was created here from still satellite images. hopefully, that link will work...as again, i can't check it from down here.

B15A status

our current movie says it's only 4.5 km away from impact. interesting.

late..

new photo gallery

hola...

finally got a good story to tell from down here now. can't put it here unfortunately but i'll share with people in person when time permits. in the mean time, here's another photo gallery to peruse...

[ant_09 gallery]

everything is better with snow

it's been snowing a bit here lately, horizontal snow actually, with flakes the size of a US quarter or a NZ 2 dollar coin much to the chagrin of those who have been scheduled to leave for the past three or four days. these two photos are from the new trail that was recently opened. the trail head is just behind scott's hut on hut point and the trail runs straight up the hill across from McMurdo as you can witness in the photo below. i was surprised to stumble across these pools of emerald green water as i explored and awaited the polar star icebreaker that was fast making it's way into port. a nicely received change from the usual brown, white or blue nature eye candy i've been overly subjected to since arriving down here. i'm starting to realize why people, who are fresh off the ice, go a little nutty over simple things like grass and trees. i'm finding it fascinating to be experiencing such a phenomena like that first hand.



aside from that, work still continues to be work so nothing new there on that front. i've begun the interviews of my fellow co-workers that i was mentioning to a few of you. big thanks have to go out to marsha and the ever wise and patient terry who were kind enough to endure my stumbling foray into the concept known as 'the interview'. i've gotta run because josh is next up on the interview hot seat and his radio show just began a half an hour ago.

thanks too to everyone who sent along 'new years greetings'. they were very much appreciated and i apologize for not getting back to everyone personally. i hope you will understand that my time is V E R Y limited so as small windows of availability open up, i will try to get to everyone.