A Random Day in Seismic QC

Perhaps you'd like to hear about a random day of mine in Oman...

There are three of us in the QC office now, Atila the Turk and Nurul from Bangladesh. Today, apart from QC-ing the daily data, we spent some time planning for our next prospect. This prospect will be near to the location of our previous prospect. It will be down south where there are camels, and vegetation taller than 2 feet. No sand dunes though.

I got into a heated argument today with Atila and Nurul. We were figuring out how to go about renumbering receiver lines for this new prospect. I tried to explain why I thought the method they had planned wouldn't work, and why we need to do it a different way, but they insisted it would work. I attempted to test it and ran into about 8 million difficulties along the way, finally got them sorted out, and now the jobs are running on our computers so I just have to wait.

In the afternoon me and Nurul finally sorted out exactly where our disagreement was. He thinks attributes get created and applied to seismic traces according to the receiver line and receiver station we have in our raw data, whereas I'm almost certain they get applied according to the channel number, and only the channel number. Anyway we will find out when the jobs finish running (although chances are I'll find some thing wrong with the jobs after they finish and have to run them once or twice again).

This afternoon I took some time out to study Arabic. I'm learning different versions of the verb "to be". I've been walking around surveying people on what is the correct way to say "I was not there" or "I will not be there". So far, I've got 5 and 3 different ways to say each of those respective phrases. It’s because my sample population comes from various places in Turkey, Jordan, Oman, and Tunisia. Arabic is notorious for sounding very different in different countries.

Unfortunately I didn't get any time to continue my investigation into the cause of inflation in the American economy (that supposed to sound half sarcastic). I have a dream that I want to get economics Ph.D. one of these years so I've been spending time understanding the hell out of supply and demand curves, diagramming the cost and benefit of subsidies, and now, understanding how inflation happens.

Another thing I didn't get around to doing today was making notes for the course I'll be attending in France, after my next leave. That's right, for the first 4 weeks of my next hitch I'll be staying in a hotel just outside of Paris learning about a new processing software that our company intends to switch over to. I really want to spend some time thinking of just how we will be using this software, and know what parts I should have 100% clear. Switching our office over to new software is going to be a big job. I'm a little frightened, but also a little looking forward to the challenge.

Now that the day is over, I don’t feel like beer, so instead I’m going to go watch a cheesy movie in the mess trailer staring Vin Diesel as a muscley Special Forces officer on a mission to baby-sit 5 kids, during which he will use discipline to turn their lives around for the better. The Pacifier. Oh yeah. Then I’ll go to bed.

Okay, so there you go, a pretty typical, if slightly more interesting than usual, day as a QC on a seismic crew.

Happy New Year Updates

It has been a while. I have two overdue things to write about.

1)I finally got to see small town Oman! I visited the family of one of my co-workers, Soleman. They live in Bahla, about a half hour from Nizwa. I got tobe "that crazy foreigner". In one situation, a kid on the street saw me and proceeded to run into his house, yelling "ingleezi, ingleezi!!". Then his 3 siblings all came out to stare. I ate lots of "Kahwa" and dates. I had to try to speak Arabic. Finally a place in Oman were people don't speak much English. It's hard to find.

I was struck by how not-busy life is in rural. Other things that struck me: People don't have furniture. Everyone, babies and grandmas alike, just sit on the floor. Eating is very different too. The family just spreads some newspapers on the floor and they all eat from one big plate. They grab a handful of food, usually rice and something. They squish the food into a lump in their fist and eat that. I like it! And it certainly makes for fewer dishes.

2) For Christmas I went to Mexico to a town that takes two days of traveling to get to from El Paso, and that has cows and chickens roaming freely through the streets. The most exotic experience of this trip was purchasing meat. There isn't much fresh meat in the stores, so we got the idea in our head to buy a goat and have it slaughtered. I came down the morning we bought it and there indeed was a little cute white goat tied to a tree, happily eating grass. Then they tied it up, slit its throat, and we watched it die for the next 15 minutes. That was intense. I always wanted to see something large be killed, I feel morally obligated because I eat meat. It wasn't fun.

I got into Muscat today at 3:45am. Emirates Air just started a direct, 13 hour, Houston to Dubai flight, which makes my trip easier. Although, I spent 7 hours last night wandering around the Dubai Airport.

What's New With Me

Already 16 days done this hitch. Its gone by fast, because we've been really busy in the QC office. This is because we are collecting data from an area that is covered in sand dunes. Usually all the geophones and vibration points are laid out in a nice grid, but when there are sand dunes, things get shifted all over the place. The QC office has to keep track of that.

I'm working with a QC I haven't worked with before. His name is Atila and he's from Ankara, the capital of Turkey. He's worked seismic for many years. He just came back to work after a 4 year retirement. It was a fun coincidence that I was coming from Turkey at the beginning of this hitch. We've chatted a bit about Turkish politics, food and nargila. I showed him some of my pictures.

Atila and Jamiil, another Turkish guy on the crew will sit outside at night and drink tea from water glasses and talk. Its a very Turkish thing to do. A few of these nights I and a few others have joined them. We sit at the edge of camp, looking out at miles and miles of nothingness, and our conversation jumps from Turkish to English to Arabic and back.

In other news, we have a camp move coming up. Again, we will be picking up all 20 some trailers and moving them to a location 15 kilometers west of here. As a result our camp will be closer to some sand dunes....hopefully with in running distance!

I've been running a fair amount. Yesterday I ran along an oil pipeline that passes by our camp. A few days ago I tried to run to some industrial construct I can see off in the distance from camp. I think it’s a petroleum storage tank or something like that. I didn't make it there yesterday, but I'll try again. Instead I changed my path to visit a rusty old barrel sitting alone in the middle of nowhere. It must have been sitting there for years, and it had served as a trashcan to an occasional passer-by. I was told later that these barrels sometimes mark absolute coordinate points for differential GPS calibration...or something like that. I've also been seeing some camel tracks while running, and some fresh looking camel droppings. I've yet to see an actual camel near camp this since we moved here 4 months ago, but this gives me hope.

Flipflops Confiscated

Browsing the front page of the newspaper this morning, I read that 600 pairs of Oman flip-flops were confiscated. They had the Sultanate of Oman's flag on them and it was insulting for people to be wearing this on their feet. Islam has a thing with feet.

An article from the Oman Tribune reads...

Insulting products confiscated
By Suleiman Ambusaidi

--Citizens praise Oman Tribune and Al Watan for exposing brazen disrespect to national identity

MUSCAT The expose published in Oman Tribune and Al Watan on Wednesday on products which carry images of the Sultanate’s name and flag insultingly evoked a unanimous reaction from citizens and officials. They consider it an irresponsible deed and a shameless violation of the sanctity of our national symbols.

In phone calls received by Oman Tribune and Al Watan, a number of citizens expressed their anger and wanted the authorities to move swiftly to cleanse the markets of these products and punish those who promote them....

A Link to the Article

Oman is a strange place.

Trip Pictures and Food

Back in Oman working. One of our main computers crashed twice today, completely out of the blue. Grrrr. So, thats all I want to say about that.

On a happier note:
My favorite 25 pictures from the trip
Georgia's blog entry devoted to what we ate

Greece, Germany and Turkey

I'm back on crew after a whirlwind of a vacation. I spent time in Salalah, Athens, Santorini, Munich, and Istanbul. I ate delicious food, saw ancient buildings, swam at beautiful beaches, got lost, participated in a Turkish political rally, went shopping, saw a volcano, and more. Between me and Georgia we have over 1000 pictures. I have to stop myself from trying to include everything in this blog because that would be way too much writing.

So instead I'll just give a few highlights:

At the red sand beach in Santorini, me and Georgia goading each other into swimming in our underwear despite the fact that that required stripping down in front of several hikers and tourists. I gave in after getting my jeans completely soaked because I had convinced myself I was "just going wading". The water was clear and beautiful, full of anemonies and fish with a backdrop of red cliffs. While swimming we found a naked man sunbathing in a hidden spot between some big rocks. He was older, a local of Santorini, and had a bushy beard. He offered us his extra towel and told us to watch out for sea urchins.



Wandering around in Munich by myself on an unusually cold day. As I wandered through Odeonsplatz in old town Munich, I found a small band playing an excellent rendition of Louie Armstrong's "Mack the Knife" right in front of the beautiful baroque-style Theatinerkirche. It was weird to hear this in the middle of Bavaria, and played by older German men. But it was good-wierd. Afterwards they continued to play more bluesy jazz, which I looove. I got a cappachino and stood there listening for quite a while. It started snowing.



Matt's first day in Istanbul. Going with Seray and her boyfriend, Erim, to a nargila bar (nargila = hookah = waterpipe). Afterwards we went ate mezes (like Spanish tapas) and sipped Raki, an anise flavored alcohol which is a Turkish specialty. Matt got Seray and Erim talking about Turkish current events. We discussed the Islamic influences of the current ruling party, troubles with Kurdish separatists and whether Turkey will invade northern Iraq.

Me and Georgia dragging Carolyn to the Cemberlitas Hamami, a traditional Turkish bath house, where you have to be... NAKED!! Once we got there we were all a little nerveous, walking around in towels, not sure exactly where to go. I'll never forget my first glimpse of the main bathing room. The door creaked open and I saw what looked like a pile of large naked butts and saggy breasts covered in sudds and surrounded by steam. Intimidating. Though, after the initial shock, it was a very nice experience. The bath house was a beautiful 400 year old building. After getting sweaty in the steam room I was washed by my personal attendant. Then I moved on to a full body massage and a clay facial mask.



Me and Matt on the last day. After admiring ancient graffiti in the 1500 year old Aya Sophia, we got a delicious plate of fried anchovies and some Turkish tea from a tiny cafe that was run out of a tent. We were on the banks of a harbor right off the Bosphorous Strait, next to a fish market. The sounds of people haggling for fish in Turkish really set the mood.

Arriving at 10pm in Muscat from Istanbul. Naturally, feeling sad that my vacation was over. I had to wake up at 6am for my next flight, but before going to the hotel, I had to stop by the office to pick up a few things. However, in the office, there just happened to be three of my four Sheesha buddies who I wrote of before. I had one last night of fun with them. We went an Omani coffee shop and smoked both apple and rose sheesha. We ate delicious filafel sandwiches and drank black tea with a sprig of fresh mint in it. Add a small spoon of sugar and that is the most delicious drink I've ever tasted. Three hours of sleep was more than enough.

To Carolyn, Georgia, Randi, Selin, Seray, and Fatt: I had a wonderful time with you! Thanks for coming...or thanks for being there. I miss you already!

And a shout out to Seray: Thank you so much for letting us stay at your apartment and for feeding us and taking time off and showing us around Istanbul. It was absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to come back!

Well that is enough writing for now! I intend to have pictures posted soon. In the meantime, you can see some of Georgia's pictures.

Snowing in Munich

...is what it is doing right now. A few days ago we were sunbathing on a red sand beach in Greece. Quite a change. Flying to Istanbul tonight. I think its supposed to be raining there.

I'll write something more interesting later, but there is something special about writing a blog entry while I am actually in a location.

And I am indeed sitting on a couch in the lobby of a youth hostel just west of downtown Munich at this very second. I'm sitting in the lobby to use the wireless internet but its really cold because people keep coming in and out (and like I said, its snowing outside). Some Phil Collins song I've never heard before is on the radio.