MCI

Hey there. Just a couple pics and a video today.  I already showed you my walk to lunch so I thought I'd show you the walk back today, but it crazy weather. It's pretty pretty gnarly weather the last 2 days. The snow is blowing into your face at almost 30mph and it's still -40 so it's quite the experience walking around in it. So I thought I'd take you along for the ride, well walk in this case.

I also volunteered to be part of the Mass Casualty Incident(MCI) Response Team.  The medical team here is pretty small so it wouldn't take too much to overwhelm them. So they setup an MCI team and train us for various tasks, and with any luck we'll never have to be deployed.  So I'm going to be a comms person. They'll need someone with the docs, on scene, at the firehouse, with the stretcher bearer teams, and various other places with radios keeping the communications going. So that's what I'll be doing. We had a get together today so they could just kind of tell us how it all works. Then my radio training is on Friday.  After everyone is trained up we're going to have an MCI drill with a bunch of folks pretending to be hurt. So we'll get to try it all out and see how bad we mess it up before a real event occurs hopefully.  It should be interesting so I'll let you know how that all goes.

This is just inside the door at work. There is a small crack under the door but I wouldn't have imagined that much snow could have worked its way inside overnight...

 "Ivan" looking all cold and depressed...

Like I said I showed you this walk before but who doesn't want to see me cuss out the weather, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tReh2jGbRkA&feature=youtu.be

Cool Video Series

There is a lady down here who filmed a cool video series about the place. I thought some of you would really like it. I don't know exactly when she did it but I think it was last year.  She's here again now so if I run into her I'll have to ask her when she filmed it all.

http://nbtvtoday.com/nbtv-abroad/antarctica-the-harsh-continent/

Weather update

I'm bored so I thought I'd post again before I goto bed. I checked on the weather again and it's -11 below now with a -40 winchill. We're at Condition 2 and everywhere else is Con 1 at the moment. So what do I do in -40 weather? Naturally I stepped outside in my slippers, t-shirt, and shorts just so I could say I did it. :)   Lemme tell ya, it's C.O.L.D outside.  It's a good thing I don't want to have kids cuz I'm not sure my boys are ever coming out again!  Nighty night all my hoes.

I just burped

What do you get when you add a -4 ambient temperature with a 22mph wind? You get -27 degrees, that's what.

Nothing special today really. Just an ordinary work day. Well except for the snow blowing into your face everywhere you walk. I have found that seems to make it more difficult to get around, who'da thunk it?

I thought about eating my foot today to break the boredom. Then I realized I'm too fat to get it up to my face, good news for the foot.

La de dah...blah blah blah, salad!

P.S. I just burped

P.S.

I mentioned the honey badger video before and I think I only posted it on FB. So I better post it here since I referenced it. 

honey badger dont care...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg

sex, school, and boobies

Today is my day off...woohoo! I woke up this morning and saw 4 feet hangin off the end of my roommates bed. It's almost impossible to get back to sleep when you know there is sex going on in the bed next to you. So I got up and went over and worked out, hopped in the sauna for a while, took a shower, and ate lunch. I'm feeling pretty damn good today actually! Best I have in a while really.

I think I've decided it's time for me to goto school. I'm getting tired of the computer nerd thing. I've always really loved electronics and anything electrical.  So I'm thinking electrical engineering and I think it's about time. That's a shit ton of math and it's been so long that I'm probably going to have to start with idiot math, I guess you gotta start somewhere though. I'll have to keep working so it'll probably be a part time type of deal so it's going to take forever, but the bills gotta get paid so whatcha gonna do? I sent off some emails to ASU and SCC to ask a bunch of questions so we'll see what they say. I hope I won't have to pay out of state tuition since I'm not there at the moment. I know you can register online but I hope there isn't anything I have to do in person. If I can start taking online classes from here then I'm going to start in January. We'll see I guess.

So, Last night was the Halloween party. I went as a Honey Badger(did you watch the video I posted a couple days ago?). There were crazy drunk people all over the place.  I don't remember if I mentioned our room or not. We have kind of a unique setup here. Most of the rooms open out onto the hallway and there is kind of a central lounge you can hang out in.  Well I'm in 1 of 4 rooms that all open into our own lounge, "The Tiki Lounge".  I don't know if there is anything like that in any other dorm but this is the only one in this building. So it's kinda different and people hangout sometimes and it's kind of our own little party palace. Well I took a bunch of pics of people stopping by the lounge last night in their costumes. There was a party down in the "big gym", which is pretty much an indoor basketball court. So I got a couple pics of all the people partying there last night too. There was enough bodyheat in that room to melt a whole family of penguins!

We've all had to attend a shit ton of safety trainings, and there is some OSHA rule that if something weighs more than 40lbs then you're supposed to do a "team lift" and use 2 or more people.  So 2 of the rommies and a couple other guys went as "Team Lift" and went around team lifting girls all night.  Instead of just wearing pants like normal people Team Lift turned a little bit village people. They cut off all their pants and just got way too into it, pretty funny. 

Team Lift getting ready...

 Ok, put on the shirts already...

 Take it easy, you're scaring the girl away...

 Team Lift doing their first, well, team lift of the evening...ok that's enough barely dressed dudes, I got a present for the guys at the end for putting up with it all...

 Fucking LOVE this costume...

 They named their guns...see what I mean...village people?

Operation by Milton Bradley...

 Ooohh a special delivery...

 Going as Zach Galley-Fin-Ad-Kiss from Hangover 2...

I think he looks an awful lot like him...

Went as a "beeker"(one of the scientists)...

 Ahhh, the universal sign for love...

 Over in the gym...

 Part 2...

 The present for the guys...hot boobies

should i be worried

Should I be worried that there is a firefighter dressed in all his gear and carrying a fucking AXE, walking down the hall running the back of his hand along the walls and looking in everyroom? Hmmmm

pee pee pants

Todays temp is 9 degrees + 5mph = 5 degrees. <---That 5 degrees ABOVE 0 son!

Whats up home skillets.  So tonight is the Halloween party and I'm either gonna go as Honey Badger, or DJ Scooby Snack, not sure yet. It was pretty nice outside today so that rocks.  Pretty soon we're gonna have snow melting all over this place.  I took a few pics so I thought I'd post em up.

So there are recycling cans everywhere here. Outside there are bigger dumpster type containers you can dump the smaller ones into. They're all labelled so you know what goes into each one.

For example here is a container for non-recyclable stuff...

This howverrrr is forrrr???? Ummmm..... It's a joke obviously because you'd just wash not recycle pee pee pants, but stilllll. Hahahah

 Here is McMurdo's Post Office. I sent out a few post cards today...

Video of my amazing chiseled jaw line...

it's nice

I just wanted to alert you all to the fact that even with the windchill it is 5 degrees today bitchessssss.  No real wind, no clouds anywhere, its a nice dayyyy!  Oh and it's my friday and we have a halloween party later. Seems like the makings of a pretty nice day. Now that I said that I'm sure I'll fall through a crack in the ice or something but at this moment life is pretty grand.

Skua

Damn it, damn it, damn it!  I keep forgetting the weather report, damn it!  9 degrees + 18mph wind = -9. The wind was barely there most of the day though so it was about 0 degrees so it was way nicer than the couple days before with the crazy wind.  I can't believe I'm trying to say 0 degrees was "nice", what the hell is wrong with me?! I've been here too long already apparently.

What's up suckas?!  It's a multi post kind of day I guess. I told you guys before about the crazy amount of recycling we do here. Well part of that is "skua" which is basically stuff that you don't want anymore but is still usable. So you drop it in a Skua bin and someone sorts it and takes it over to "Skua Central". Skua Central is kind of like Goodwill but everything is free.  So I went on over to see what they had.  I ended up taking a book and a scarf. <--I can't believe the Arizona boy just scrounged a freakin SCARF!  I took some pics of some of the stuff I saw that I thought was cool. 

I also took a pic of one of the vehicles that is going on the South Pole Traverse.  I haven't mentioned that before but the traverse is how they refuel the South Pole station.  They take a massive train of vehicles to get 112 fuel bladders down there. I have no real idea how much fuel they hold but they're huge, I'd guess they hold hundreds or thousands of gallons of fuel each.  So they tow all these bladders along with mobile buildings that have everything they need like a kitchen, toilet, sleeping quarters, etc.  They're on the traverse for about 30 days and travel 1,000 miles each way.  I can't even imagine sitting in a vehicle for 30 days driving. Those guys have to be a little out of their minds. I'll try to take some more pics of the stuff they're going to take on the traverse.

For the Traverse...

 Skua...

 Dude like I totally could have like gotten Waynes World dude, like dude...

 You could mix all this stuff together and make quite the creamy, mexican and herbally chicken delight...

 These are either giant knitting needles or murder sticks but I'm not sure which...

emily & erebus

First I gotta give a big fat shout out to the lovely Ms. Ambrosino. Booya, shout out!

It's 10 degrees out side right now and the wind chill is 0 degrees.

I had to go out to the freakin ice runway AGAIN today. The first couple times out there is really, really cool but that fades quickly. It's starting to become the bane to my antarctic existence.  It's ok because I got a fairly good pic of Mt. Erebus.  I did some working out again today.  We get a half hour to stretch every morning. So I've been taking that time during lunch. So I've got an hour and a half to run over to the gym and then get some lunch.  Maybe with some good sweaty work I'll be a chiseled piece of man beef when I get back, or at least not as fat, either one works for me.  Still at work but I don't see anything exciting happening so I thought I'd post now.

Peace out bitchessssss

Seal visit

There is a place people can put cool pics or videos they've taken here. I didn't take it but I found this video and it seemed like something you guys might really like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QakX1BRkiNk

C-17 landing

I went back out to the runway again today. I timed it so that I'd be there for the C-17 that was coming in. So Here are a couple videos of it landing and then joy riding around afterward. I was amazed by how quickly such a huge and heavy plane came to a stop. Riding in it, it seemed like it took a lot longer to stop than that.  Hopefully I can get some video of it taking off next time. 

Geared up and ready to face the beast...

Landing... Oh and at the end of the video I was waving to the camera but I basically just got my eye ball, doh!

Fast and Furious style joyride, pimpin the hoesss....

Blowey day

Today's weather report is 12 degrees with an 12mph(i'll try to convert it from knots from now on) wind so it's -2.

Hey everybody.  I don't have any pics for you today. I basically just went to work today and that was about it. It was a crazy blowey day today.  According to the weather page on the intranet here it was gusting to 50mph. I swear it had to be blowing harder than that though at some points. I was headed back to work from lunch and almost got my happy little ass blown onto my happy little ass.  I don't have too much to say tonight for some reason. I do have some laundry to do though so I better get all up on it.

Walk to lunch

I know this is a fairly boring video, but I thought I'd show you my walk from work to home. I live in the same building as the galley so lunch and home are in the same place.  The video is a couple minutes so it's bigger than I can upload here, so I had to send it over to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9zQj0SQ8Hw

Forgot the weather report again damn it. We popped up to Condition 3 for most of the evening but we're back to a Condition 2 now. Ambient is 3 degrees but the wind is really blowing at 27 knots and gusting to 36, so the windchill is -24.  There are several areas like the ice runway and LDBP(long duration ballon project) site are at Condition 1.  That's cold enough to make snow cones sucka.

Condition 2

So we just went to "Condition 2" for the first time since I got here.  There is an awful
lot of snow blowing around out there right now. The ambient temperature is 3 degress but
18 knot winds making it -18. Also a 1/4 - 1/2 inch of snow with blowing snow. Below is a
description of what the weather conditions mean. Below that is the video I went outside
to take and freeze my ass off for YOU, that's how much I love you all.

--During Condition 3...
Winds less than 48 knots, and
Visibility greater than or equal to 1/4 mile, and
Wind chill temperature warmer than -75°F.
Unrestricted travel and activity are allowed during condition 3.

--During Condition 2...
Winds 48 to 55 knots sustained for one minute, or
Visibility less than 1/4 mile, but greater than or equal to 100 feet sustained for one
minute, or Wind chill -75°F to -100°F sustained for one minute.
Restricted pedestrian traffic only between buildings is allowed. Vehicular travel is only
allowed in radio equipped, enclosed vehicles, and check out with the Firehouse during
condition 2.

-- During Condition 1...
Winds greater than 55 knots sustained for one minute, or
Visibility less than 100 feet sustained for one minute, or
Wind chill greater than -100°F sustained for one minute.
--Severe weather is in progress. All personnel must remain in buildings or the nearest
shelter during condition 1.

Video time...

Penguin

I keep forgetting the weather report and have to edit these babies.  Ambient is 7 degrees with a 16knot wind making it -13. Brrrr

I had to run out to the ice runway again just now. Got a cool picture of a Hercules and some door art. I also got to see my very first penguin on the way back. There aren't many around now because the ice is still frozen. We should start seeing lots more in the next month or so.

Door art...

 LC-130 Hercules...

Penguin video...sorry it's kind of shakey because I was zoomed all the way in.

Shit and Fire

Todays weather report. It was 0 degrees this morning, but currently it's 3 degrees without any wind chill. It was sunny all day and this sounds stupid coming from an AZ boy but it was pretty nice out today.

 So I went to setup a couple PC's today over in one building. I found a treat that you'll see below but that treat reminded me that I don't think I've told you about the "pee bottle".  They're way over the top here when it comes to environmental stuff. EVERYTHING that comes here goes back. The only thing that doesn't get shipped off continent is waste water. There is a water treatment plant though so even that is treated back to a level that it could be consumed before it's pumped out into the ocean. The solids get packaged and shipped back with all the other waste and garbage to the good ol' U. S. of A.  Well anyway, when you're out on a hike or something like that you have to take a "pee bottle" with you so you can bring it back and dispose of it properly, NO PEEING OUTSIDE.  Same thing goes with the #2 if you're on an extended stay away. So they have 5 gallon buckets that it can be stored in from base camps and stuff and it's brought back.  Well one of those buckets was in my way today when setting up that computer as you can see in the pic. Damn poo bucket!

We also had a bit of excitement today. There was a fire in the boiler room in one of the dorms.  The fire department rolled out and kicked its ass though. I haven't seen the damage but I heard they were trying to move the folks that lived there to other dorms. Luckily I don't think there were too many people living in that dorm. More crazy life in Antarctica I guess.

Poo Bucket!

   

The fire folks doing the deed.  This was probably 3 or 4 hours after it happened and they still had a truck out there doing their thing...

OB Tube

By the way, I had a request from Mrs. Kimbrough to tell you all what the temperature is when I post these things.  The ambient temperature is currently 1 degree with a 6 knot wind making the windchill -11.

Back to your regularly scheduled program...

After dinner we headed over to the OB Tube(Observation Tube). It's a long narrow metal tube you climb down in and there is a kind of bubble at the bottom that you end up in, kinda like an overgrown glass beaker.  Well the tube goes through the sea ice so you're basically suspended under the ice in the middle of the ocean. There are windows all the way around so you can look out and watch all the sea life as it goes by. You can see fish, krill, and all sorts of little creatures. You can also hear the seals making all kinds of sounds. Some of it sounds very electronic like a synthesizer or something, it's a really weird sound.

Here is the inside of the little shack next to the OB Tube you can use to warm up...

 The tube...

 It is seriously a lot tighter fit than it even looks. Once I got about about 3 steps down I really didn't think I was going to be able to make it...

 Once you get to the bottom there is a little crate you can sit on, this is the view looking back up the tube...

 Here is how much space there is once you're down inside. My back was against the rear wall that that's how close my knees were to the wall.  Easily the tightest space I've ever been in...

 Here is a little fishy watching me watch him...

 He decided to give me the side view to show me what he's workin with...

 It's hard to see but there is a little krill guy, pretty sure it's krill thats what someone said...

 Much better view of one of them. There were thousands and thousands of these little guys just in the immediate area that I could see...

 Here is another little krill guy and the bottom of the ice sheet. It's hard to imagine we landed in a freakin airplane one that ice. Not just an airplane but a fully loaded cargo plane.  Oh and one thing I think I forgot to mention about that, apparently the ice that the plane lands on deflects 4-6 inches when the plane lands. Comforting huh?

I sat down there for about 10 minutes just chillin. I finally made my trek back up that ridiculous tube and it's way, WAY harder to get up than down because there is a little rope ladder at the bottom and the transition from rope to metal ladder is tricky. Oh well I made it.

On the way back home I have to cross over the troll bridge. You might be wondering why it's called a troll bridge...

Because there's a fucking troll under it! Muahahaha

Here is a video from inside the tube too...

Hut Point

Hey peeps. Today is muh day off so I've just been hanging out.  Today could be 2 post day but the second post wouldn't be until pretty late AZ time.  I'm supposed to be going out to the OB Tube later, but I'll explain that when I post it.  I just took a walk over to Hut Point to take a look.  There was a an Antarctic expedition from 1901 - 1904 and they built "Discovery Hut" in 1902. There are some pics of the hut and surrounding area below.  It's over 100 years old but it looks like it's in great shape.  I guess if it's frozen all the time it holds up better or something.  There is also a cross memorializing the death of one of the explorers there.  When I got up to the cross you could see a bunch of seals just hanging out on the ice.  They weren't very active so they must know it's Sunday or something.  I also took several videos from up there too.  So this should make up for 2 days without any pics.

These are the only 2 ATM's on the continent and 1 is broken right now, hahaha...

Anyway, on with the hike shall we?

Here is Dicovery Hut...

 Some kind of gear, or something, all wrapped up and frozen solid.  I wonder how many decades that's been sitting there like that...

 Juxtaposition of old and new with the Discovery Hut off to the right and a radome up on the mountain in the background. <--- Hahaha I totally said juxtaposition, that's a school word! ...

 Discovery Hut plaque...

 My mark on the world...

 The cross...

 Plaque for the cross...

 Lonely seal...must have just had lunch, notice the big blood stain...

 Lonely seal kickin it with the homies...

 This is an "apple", it's an emergency shelter that they have sprinkled around near hiking trails mostly. It's got a phone and sleeping bags in it, might have food in it too but not sure about that...

Videosssss......