The Quest

So this is infact the 50th post, ah well. It appears google is innumerate amongst many other things. Whilst on the subject of 50 - thats the number of touchdown passes thrown by Tom Brady, the New England Patriots Quaterback, a new season record. The Patriots infact went undefeated this season (16 games) and now head into the playoffs as sure superbowl favourites. There the only side to go undefeated since the '72 Miami Dolphins when the season was 14 games long.

Moving away from American football, im off to Peru tomorrow so he's a quite idea of what im doing and where ill be:

Monday 31st Dec - fly out of Phoenix via Miami to Lima to arrive tomorrow morning.
Tuesday 1st Jan - 4 hours in Lima airport before the short internal flight to Cusco. 6 nights in Cusco looking around the Inka Ruins and acclimatising the altitude.
Monday 7th Jan - travel by coach to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. 2 nights here at nearly 4000m altitude. Hopefully visit some of the islands on the lake.
Wednesday 9th Jan - travel again by coach to the southern city of Arequipa. 5 nights here just chilling and hopefully getting on a hike up one of the volcano's. El Misit @ 5825m or Chachani @ 6075m. Depending on weather so see how things go.
Monday 14th Jan - Late afternoon flight back to Lima then wait 12 hrs at Lima airport for return flight to Phoenix via Miami on the 15th. Back into Tucson about midnight before classes begin on the 16th.

I should have internet access so check out for some posts and maybe some photos. Should be a good trip, ill hold some awesome bragging rights for a while!

And to finish what will probably be the last post of 2007 - some news from Germany! A well endowed female passenger on a city bus was forced to step off when the driver complained she was distracting him. Apparently, everytime he looked in the mirror (which was probably quite often!) his eyes were caught by the size of this womans cleavage making driving the bus dangerous. Hmmm, a new definition of back-seat-driver!

And so it is very almost the end of 2007. Its been a great year but hopefully 2008 will be even better for everyone. 21st birthdays galore, Bejing Olympics, beginning my last year of uni/finishing uni for a lot of people, IM COMING HOME! (whoo) and no, the world is not going to end even once let alone 3 times! (Tim!) Hope everyone had a good one and see you all in 2008!

50 not out

So Christmas has come and gone for another year. It was nothing too special but hey, i did get a twin pack of gods-own Jaffa Cakes from some thoughtful person back in the UK. And atleast i didn't suffer quite like a family in Wellington, New Zealand who pulled open their crackers after their meal to reveal a dead mouse inside! Aparently the discovery curbed their appetite.

It always makes me wonder why they bother with Miss World or Miss America or Highschool Pageant type events. A few months ago we had Miss South Carolina frankly making an ass of herself when posed with a simple question live on television:

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

Well now Miss France (whose actually from Reunion Island, 6000miles away) got into a spot of bother surrounding some "suggestive" and "scampy" photos recently published in a french magazine. Bizarrely, French politicians, cabinet ministers and a bishop sprang to her defense and she still holds her crown. I'm not sure what it says about politics and the church in France when they seem to gloss over what is essentially porn.

And finally, from a news point of view atleast, a referee in Malaysia (whose day job was in the Police) found a new way of controlling players, something Chelsea may want to take note. After giving someone a red card, the usual childish behaviour from the players ensues so the ref went to his patrol car, pulled out a handgun and fired shots into the air. Police are actually investigating whether the action was justified!

So im off to Peru on Monday morning for 2 weeks of backpacking, hiking and chilling before uni starts again at full throttle on Jan 16th. I should have internet access so i will blog occasionally and upload photos if possible. Theres a pittyful amount of stuff to report this week, its been pretty boring but will defo pick up when uni starts back. Come late february/early March i'll need to book my flight home. Were already planning things to do in our last week here (some of them stupid) to celebrate our time in Arizona. Beer should be involved at some point aswell as a the usual farewell dinners and meet ups but plans are also being drawn to build a ramp and ride our mountain bikes into the swimming pool in true rockstar style. Were hoping it will form a nice end to our Arizona promo-video for uni so, don't worry, there will be plenty of videos!

S'all for now folks!

New York New York...

sweet sweet New York. If theres 10 cities around the world that i want to visit, NY is definately one of them. I'm not a big fan of going to massive built up areas for "holidays", if its on the map then im less inclined to go there, but New York (NY) is different. Ok its busy (worst than London at christmas time), the subway isnt pretty but it works and you can't move for skyscrappers. However...

Central Park is amazing - its kind of like a hilly and bigger version of hyde park in London, Times Square is a mesmorising network of lights, people and shops like no other. The UN building is oddly run down - fittingly a crappy organisation has a crappy headquarters. The Rockefeller Centre towers above almost every other building. The Rock Plaza has an icerink standing below possibly the biggest christmas tree in the world - atleast 50ft. Bryant Park is typically christmas-y - yet another Ice Rink and festive stalls. Speaking of Ice Rinks, it seemed like a good chance to try my hand at ice skating but sense got the better of me. Standing outside the rock ice rink, set below the ground level with 100's of people watching where little kids were flying around like experts and everyone else was falling over or handrailing around the edge. Worse of all, people were pointing and mocking the poor fellows who couldnt stand up let alone make it around the rink.

Anyway enough about NY.

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Simple Planning in New York

Whats better than a free music concert? A free music concert with just 150 people being filmed for broadcast! So Tuesday night i was down at the Highline Ballroom in western Manhattan to watch Simple Plan play 7 or 8 tracks + a 5 track acoustic set. There not my favourite band but it was a good performance of nice, catchy music - well worth going (it was free after all!)

The show is due to be aired on youtube on new years eve, ill put the link up nearer the time.

And as for the rest of New York; it was an awesome trip and ill blog about it later.

See ya

Its 03:23am...

and im up and ready to go to New York, well infact i didnt go to sleep - just pondered more on my 4th year project.

See ya

Santa woes

When your young and gullible, most people believe in santa, atleast until you realise you haven't got a chimney for him to fall down. Well, Canada has taken the fantasy one step further. Over 11,000 postal office workers collect and reply to children's "Dear Santa..." messages ever year. Except now, a rotten elf has entered santa's workforce. Police in Ottawa are trying to track a so called 'elf' for writing nasty replies to children. Unfortunately, they didnt include any examples so i see no harm in making some up:

"No, for the last time, you are not getting a stupid pony!"

Dear Santa... i want a ferrari, a train set, a toy chest, a puppy, a bike, a game and a BIG tin of candy! "You greedy little S.O.B"

"No!"

"Santa's NOT real! I'm being paid $5 an hour to listen to your dribble! Get out of my face!"

Dear Santa... i want to be an Astronaut! "Yeah, so? What do you want me to do about it?"

"Listen kid, good boys don't get the best presents. The one's with rich parents do! Your parents are poor, theres no presents for you. Thanks for writing!"

"Santa's dead!"

"Your 15 and you still believe in Santa!! Here's a prescription!"

How does Santa get to every place in the world in one night? "Ok, ill let you into a little secret. Santa has this friend you see, lets call him the 'Fed-ex man'."

"Dear George, thank-you for your recent and lengthy christmas wish list including English language courses, a remote control nuclear weapon 'toy', a new vice president, the extradition of one Mrs H Clinton, a proper presidential election victory, a big juicy Texan-style steak and a pony! It is with regret i have to tell you that Santa's rather busy the night of the 24th and the paperwork required for many of those things is lengthy. I do, however, include a big red button! Yours sincerely, Santa!"

Its 3:32am...

and my geochemistry report is practically finished atlast! Its not due in til the end of the week but i was getting so p****d off with it, i decided to put in a session and get it out of the way. So very nearly finished for this semester - just one take home exam to finish off over the next couple of days and then 4 weeks of well deserve break begins! Whoo!

Last week of the semester..

is upon us at last. And all i have to do is finish the Geochemistry report ive been moaning about for the last week and finish off a "take-home" exam. Then thats it! All my free time from then is open to preparing for New York, meeting up with James and driving the neighbours out with my guitaring! Actually...its not that bad! I can play the Hell song solo now which im really pleased with, and in New York im going shopping for an effects pedal so things are looking up.

The BBC news website reports today about government plans to drastically increase the number of wind turbines around the UK. The tories in general support this. Tory front bencher Alan Duncan accurately pointed out that "Britain is an Island Nation" and added "There is a lot of wind around!". And the conservatives wonder why there not in power!!!

George Bush is again featuring on this blog for another blooper at a White House Press Conference this week. Incase you dont know, the North East US is in something of a house market crisis since mortgage debt is going through the roof. He addressed the nation and directed them to a phone number of an organisation offering free help and advice. It turns out he gave the wrong number! The number he did give was for a bible bashing religious self help group in Dallas, Texas! Whoops!

Right i must go. If i don't get this Geochemistry report cracked soon, i think ill go insane.
Laters!

The wheels on the bus...

Walking home from uni today, after a long day spent pouring over this geochemistry assignment, a cyclist came past me singing at the top of his voice some crappie American country song he was listening to on his mp3 player. Other than the complete lack of self respect - i think he's got onto a new, probably un-necessary, niche in the market of rolling jukeboxes. I felt like asking for a Green Day track or Hey Jude maybe.

In other news; George Bush wrote a letter to North Korea expressing concern over their nuke plans. And who said he was iliterate? New-cle - er. A man reappeared at a London Police Station today after being missing in his Canoe in the North Sea for the last 5 years. Aparently he can't remember a thing except the £450,000 life insurance money now in an oversea's bank account. There also some silly news from Germany (as usual); a thief, ingenious a breed as they are, used a flower pot to steal a Porsche. And now for something completely different...

A photo...

More uploaded in due course.

Laters!

December 3rd

Only 22 days left to go before xmas and it really doesn't feel like it. Its still hitting low-mid 20's out here during the afternoon, a world away from the usual wet, cold and windy UK weather. Still, New York is already getting hit with lots of snow and sub-zero temperatures so ill get my fair share of winter there.

The Rolling Stone Magazine recently published a list of the 50 top songs over 7 minutes in length. Amongst others were Jesus of Suburbia by good ol' Green Day, One by Metallica, Champayne Supernova by Oasis, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands by Dylan and Hey Jude by the Beatles. If your wondering where your favourite 70's and 80's hits like Hotel California are, tough - its not quite long enough! Which is for the best really cos it isnt really that good a song! I was surprised Bat out of Hell, Master of Puppets or Stairway didn't make it though!

Up in smoke and goes the culture

Theres a not-so-great prize available for whoever can name which song that line's from! Comment suggestions.

So, from the fun and leisure last weekend of Vegas and the big GC, this week and next are so full of work it aint even funny. My Mars GPR presentation is finally out of the way as of yesterday and ive nearly finished the accompaning report. I'm half way through another report - "The Tectonic History of the Altiplano though palaeo-elevation techniques". Yes it is exactly just as interesting as the title sounds! Ive got 2 "take home" exams next week - essentially we get given the exam to do at a time convienient to us. Its a good idea but open to a lot of abuse - i know for a fact that most people in the class will cheat and look up answers. I won't! Then theres geochemistry. The lecturer has managed to loose half of the homeworks we handed in along with a midterm exam. He's aparently got the marks for the homework but will allegedly make them up for the midterm so im not sure which way thats going to go. He also sprang a surprise on us yesterday by scrapping the final for a project. Good news? No! Not when that project is "Discuss the geochemical evolution of the Earth!" It's long, its hard and we haven't got long to write it! Here come some long nights.

Well the weekend has crept around again, time is flying by its just silly. less than 3 weeks til New York and then Christmas and then Peru. Before i know it, itll be January and uni again and most importantly, countdown til i get back to the UK! Its the last in the current series of top gear on sunday (i think) and theyve got Lewis Hamilton racing The Stig around the track. Should be awesome - don't miss it!

Anyway g2g and find some papers for a friend. Cya

Las Vegas and Grand Canyon

Saturday night/Sunday morning was spent flicking between sleep and reading on a old greyhound bus from Vegas to Phoenix. 3 days before, i'd made the opposite journey and the infilling gap was full of everything Vegas legally had to offer (to a 20 yr old atleast!).



Thursday afternoon, shortly after arriving, i went on abit of a whim and did a 12000ft skydive from an air-strip just south of Vegas. What an awesome experience! I have to reccomend it to anyone, even just to do it once - the feeling of freefalling at 120mph towards the earth is indescribable. The dodgiest bit though was stepping out of the plane at 12000ft onto a 1ft square ledge beneath the wing whilst your instructor (strapped to your back) gets out of the aircraft behind you.



Friday i went on an all day trip (literally! It left at 5:50am!) to the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. It was something like 580miles round trip which i only found out once on the bus but despite that, it was worth it. The Hoover Dam was a spectacular piece of engineering especially during America's great depression, extending 750+ft in height from Lake Mead to the north and the rest of the Colorado river to the south. Another, more spectacular engineering feat is being built nearby. The tallest arch bridge in America is being built to span the gorge created by the Colorado with views of the Hoover Dam.

The Grand Canyon was simply indescribable. It left me momentarily speechless! No photos or videos (although i took quite a lot!) can portray the awesome beauty of what is essentially a big hole in the ground. The river is bearly distinguishable from the canyon rim and the geology is so well exposed, even a geographer could interpret it! I wanted to go hiking down to the bottom but we didn't have time and our bus driver was being quite strict about keeping to schedule. BTW: The big bird in the photo's is a California Condor. They circle on the thermals in the canyon and have wing spans of around 8ft. An awesome sight in itself never mind the background!

So back to everyday life and back to Tucson. This week is probably the busiest yet. Ive got a presentation tomorrow (thursday) on something i could talk for about 2 hrs on but ive got to condense it into 10 minutes. Then theres the 2 other reports and final exams to prepare for. Fun times!

Thanksgiving Travels

Just a shortish post to keep everyone sweet - ive got a lecture shortly and a bus to catch this evening to Las Vegas.

Why Vegas? some might say! We'll, its relatively close to Arizona and theres plenty to see even if i am too young to gamble and get wasted on the strip. The overnight buses there and back means ive got 3 days/2 nights in the glamour. Thursday afternoon ive got something a little special - a 3 mile high (15000ft) skydive over the Las Vegas Valley! Rest assured, plenty of photos will go on here after that one! Friday, im on an all day tour to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and Lake Mead (more awesome photo opportunities!) and Saturday ive got the day to explore vegas itself (in the daylight atleast) before my night bus home. I'm back Sunday morning (Arizona time) so watch out for photos providing i'm not too tired when crashing from my adrenaline high from the previous few days.

Have a good weekend now y'all!

Wildcats roast the Ducks

As most people should know, im the first person to lambast American football as a bunch of poncy, low IQ guys running around a field wearing pads. That part of it hasn't changed but in hindsight of watching the University of Arizona Wildcats play last night, i can certainly see the draw of the game. The atmosphere was electric - the players and fans celebrated everything from a decent tackle to someone running 3 yards up the field! (seriously!)

The stadium here at the UofA is impressive for university standards, ive seen nothing like it in the UK. With a capacity of 56000 its bigger than most premiership clubs grounds. The actual stadium though is so crap its awesome. The steps are so steep to get up towards the top, when you get there, theres nothing to stop you falling down the rows infront of you and only a 6ft high bit of concrete to stop you jumping off the back of the stand 120ft to the carpark below! We were seated near the top but could still see everything clearly enough with great views over Tucson aswell.

The game itself is played over 1 hour of "play time" however the actual result is it last much longer than this for breaks, time-outs and other pointless crap. It was actually a full 4 hours after kickoff that we left the stadium following the pitch being rushed by thousands of students! The Wildcats are having something of a weird season, not doing brilliantly but causing a few upsets and last night was no exception. We beat the #2 team in the division with some great plays which subsequently lead to long celebrations with people climbing the goal posts etc despite warnings that if they rushed the pitch, they'd be arrested. The police had other ideas and just said sod it when 10,000 fans ignored the failing voice on the loudspeaker. It had a really university sporting event feel, like nothing ive seen at a UK university. And for $15, it was a steal. I'll load up photos this weekend so check them out as and when.

In the mean time, ive got much work to do so better get on with it but just a quick bite of news from Russia. Some 30 "simple Christians" (let not get into a religious debate!) have barracaded themselves into a cave in fear of the "end-of-the-world". I kid you not! It is reported they have taken food in with them but exactly how long for is unclear. They have warned police not to storm the cave with threats of commiting suicide by blowing up a gas cylinder. The doomsday cult in Russia believes the world is going to end in May of next year. Roughly when im coming home to the UK, wonder if that has anything to do with it? COME ON PEOPLE, GET A GRIP!

Going for a Mongolian

If it swims and isn't a sumarine, if it fly's and isn't a B52 Bomber and if it run's and isn't running after you, the Mongolian's will eat it. It was perhaps therefore with some trepidation which i went to a Mongolian all-you-can-eat buffet with my housemates today. We were originally going to do to a Pizza Hut and gorge on the pasta and ice-cream but they decided not to offer it today so we went for something abit more adventurous. For $9.99 (about £4.90 or 2p at the current exchange rate), we got given a bowl and told to get stuffed. Not quite literally! The buffet available included frozen meats, vegetables, uncooked noodles and a variety of weirder produce. It took me a minute or 2 to realise that they cooked your bowlful after you had selected it.

And thus a mutual eating contest ensued. Abi consented herself with 2 bowlfuls but thats ok cos she's a girl! (its a joke! don't take it seriously!). Russ and i continued through our 4th big bowl full before i won by a noodle. Amongst the weirder things i sampled were "very hot chilli sauce" which was indeed, very hot! "Teriyaki sauce" a weird sort of Japanese import, bamboo shoots - slightly unorthodoxed but nice! No jokes about koala's please! Water coconut - nothing special and "banana peppers" - no idea what they are and i don't reccommend them!

So returning to the apartment suitably over-filled, ive spent the rest of the day watching a film and playing the guitar. Tomorrow uni starts back and the hard work continues until the end of term.

Santa Catalina Explorer

I'm now half way through a 3 day weekend and its going rather well. Yesterday was a kick back, lazy day, this morning i went biking in the Santa Catalina Mountains to the north of Tucson and tomorrow im off out to a Pizza Hut all-you-can-eat lunch with my house mates for just $5! Looking forward to the ice-cream.

The Santa Catalina bike ride was amazing though - it was about a 40mile round trip i did from our apartment travelling North East and onto the Catalina Highway which eventually windes its way up to the top of Mount Lemmon at 9500ft from the Tucson basin floor at 2400ft. I biked to the mountain base and then a couple of miles up. The scenery was amazing although its going to take me a few months to build up the fitness to do the 80 mile round trip to the top! Theres plenty of photos in the album so check them out including my new "friend" warning about the high risk of forest fires (yes, even in November!).

This coming week promises to be pretty good aswell. I need to start on my Geology of the Solar System project involving modelling the Martian North Polar region, im off to a Wildcat (The UofA team) football game on thursday evening - the final home game of the season so it should be a good atmosphere. I'm not a American Football (aka. puffy Rugby) fan but its gotta be done, especially since its the university team (who admittedly arent going particularly well this season).

And finally, the news! Spain's royal family has the right idea when it comes to politics. At a press conference he spoke sternly to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez infront of the camera's saying; "Why don't you shut up!". I guess they dont get along that well! And from western Germany. A man recently had a visit from the Police after his car was found abandoned on a petrol station forecourt. It turned out he had filled up his car with petrol, paid the cashier and proceeded to walk home! How he didn't notice his car was missing from around his body i dont know!
S'all for now folks

You've Gotta love it

Every now and then, i see something in America which quite frankly leaves me speechless and wondering if this great continent can get any more bizarre, A few weeks back it was watching the David Letterman show when he had some "invited guests" showing off some stupid stunts. One guy was able to kick himself in the head 30 times in 30 seconds, the next drank a glass of beer through his nose and the final used a blow gun and mousetrap to eat a piece of cheese! (Yeah, dont ask how he did it!). This week, however, America has surpassed herself.
Walking down University Mall, the main boulevard through campus, Axe Shower Gell Company had several lorry loads of paraphenalia set up to promote their new product under the slogan "the dirtier you are, the cleaner you can get!". With that in mind, they made people strip down to their boxers, sit in a bath and be covered in gunk-like-stuff reminiscent of Mr Blobby and Noel's House Party, and then roll down a grassy bank being sprayed with more gunk by a scantly clad blonde chav with a IQ of a goldfish. From this, they are then given a free shower using the new gel in a specially kitted out, glass walled lorry body! It was all very stupid and very pointless. They even had a cop on standby to "supervise" the place - what a day he had!

In good news today, the dollar hit another amazing low against the pound. £1 now buys $2.104 dollars and subsequently my rent and everything else i buy is getting cheaper and cheaper! Its fantastic! If it gets much higher, im gonna have to consider buying another guitar! Wouldnt that be a shame!

Ready to shoot the S.O.B

Wow - an awesome last few days - plenty of photos which ive uploaded into the online album (see top right), more to follow soon.

Friday we went on a night hike in the Tucson Mountains - still able to wear shorts and t-shirts despite it being a november evening! We didn't go all that far tbh, and it wasn't really a night hike - more of a "evening stroll in the mountains". We turned back when some American friends of ours couldn't go any further despite only being a mile or 2 from the summit of Wasson Peak which was slightly disappointing.

Saturday was even better and goes some way to explaining the title of this post. We went up to a state owned test ground between Florence and Phoenix to run a seismic survey in the middle of the desert. The lecturer taking the trip is as cool as lecturers can be - thats to say he turned up before we left Tucson with a BIG box of pastries to entertain us during the journey. The actual survey site was about 2 miles off the road on a pathetic excuse for a dirt track - interesting travelling in a minibus!
So we set up the equipment - 108 geophones, shot cables, computers and everything before starting to have some fun with sledgehammers and nail guns. After a short while, i managed to get a go with the nail gun and it turned out i did most of the shooting for the rest of the day. This is no ordinary nail gun either (you need a license for it to start off with! Whoops!). It uses mini-shotgun pellets which we use to fire a nail into a steel plate and create the source. Lets just say it was awesome fun! We had powerful walkie-talkies to communicate between the recording station and the shot "crew" - we hope to god that the military weren't spying on some of the stuff we were saying:

Shooter: "Are we ready to go?"

Recording Station: "Yep - nail the bastard"

Shooter fires the source: "Target destroyed! Well done boys!"

"Roger it!"

"Stop being a wussy - act like a man, fire it!"

"Try the O-N / O-F-F switch!"

And im sure theres many more i can't remember right not. All in all, a great day! So now its back to "office work". A geochemistry mid-term looms on tuesday and i still haven't got an email back from the lecturer about a question with the homework. Speaking of which ive got another one in on friday for solar system and a seismology poster to polish off.

New weekend is veteren's weekend - essentiall i get a 3 day weekend to do something. I'm thinking about biking up Mount Lemmon but it depends - its about a 75mile round trip and goes up to 9500ft so ive gotta be feeling good!

And to finish off with some news. Milan Baros, the ex-Liverpool now Lyon footballer got caught for speeding last week in the autoroute near Lyon. Police clocked him at 269kph (168mph!) in his Ferrari. Now, i for one know you can get away with speeding on the autoroutes in France so long as your careful but 170 is taking the piss! Singapore Airlines, who recently took delivery of the first Airbus A380 super-jumbo have issued a warning to all passengers who book a "private suite" on one of their flights. The rooms are not completely soundproof, so in the interest of other passengers, couples should not join the mile high club! (I hope no definition is needed!). In Munich, the "world's best bum" championships were won by a 19 yr old form Bulgaria. The competition saw over 100 competitors showoff their "ass-ets" to win some money and a insurance policy for their derrier! How low can you go! And finally, the USA never fails to provide news of the lowest and utter useless quality. In Washington this week, the annual "drag race" took place which basically involved a bunch of drag queens running 100m in high heals to win not very much! Stupid, pointless and embarassing but, at times, thats America for you!

Ok, where do i start! Firstly some news from the states. A man was arrested last week for commiting an 'assault by pickle'! I kid you not, the victim is pressing charges after he was involved in an argument and had 2 pickles thrown at him. I think he's just feeling abit sour. Secondly, in Madrid, a judge has sentenced a total of 21 people for various charges related to the 2003 Madrid train bombings. He got the right idea by giving them huge jail terms - 3 people each received a sentence of 40,000 years!

Next, i'd like to clarify that 'sea-quakes' are a myth (you know who you are!), hence the name 'earthquakes' - they occur inside the earth! It is somewhat unknown for water (which is impossible to shear!) to produce seismic energy. Potential man-made sources for seismic exploration include - sledgehammer, buffalo gun, air gun (for marine seismic lines), dynamite, vibro-truck, nail gun, rolling a car off a cliff, nitro-glycerine or, as the Russian's effectively demostrated in the late 1950's, underground nuclear blasts!

I was going to rant on now about Max Mosley and his shear stupidity and comments on Lewis Hamilton but my friend Tim has done it admirably so i can't be bothered to compete. Go to: http://timnutt.blogspot.com/.

And, perhaps, finally. I hope everyone saw Top Gear last weekend because it had one of the best videos ever in it! Richard Hammond raced the Bugatti Veyron (without the pot plants in the photo!) against the new Eurofighter Typhoon strike plane.

The car had to race one mile along a runway, turn around and race a mile back. The plane had to take off, accelerate a mile vertically and then straight back down and cross the start line (in the air). Obviously the plane won but not by much! The pilot absolutely gassed it aswell - putting on the afterburners whilst plummeting near vertically towards the ground! I love our RAF! Would the American's do something like that??? No, they'd probably shoot it down! Being a bunch of gun-ho plane enthusiasts!

Full Throttle For The Main Stream

Haven't blogged in a while so its about time to keep all you blogo-maniac's happy with another dose of news and irreverent mumbo jumbo from Arizona. Last week was a busy week but next week is busier. Ive got a geochemistry midterm to revise for (oh joy!), a big geochem homework assignment, a seismic modelling project, an exploration seismology homework, a geology of the solar system homework and Mars GPR project to start! Hmmm!


So aside from Uni work, not a lot went down last week. The weather was, well, sunny (again) and Liverpool lost in the Champions League (again!). Friday we went, briefly, to a Halloween party where, besides the enormous amounts of free food, not a lot happened. Yesterday i biked to the Tucson Mall about 4 miles away just to have a look around. These things are huge - kind of like the massive one's you get in England but there everywhere. I read somewhere that at some point in the 1970's, a new Mall was opening every 90 minutes somewhere in the USA! Thats ridiculous! Even in Tucson, theres 2 Fry's supermarkets within about 2 miles of each other - whats the point? If they just build one, it'll make people walk abit further and maybe get some much needed exercise. Whilst on that subject, i called in at Walmart on the way back (actually brought a pair of shorts but anyway) whilst looking on the rack for a suitable size, i came across several 48in waist one's - if people are that fat, they should make them pay more for their clothes - perhaps as an incentive to lose some weight! Whilst the old stereotype that every American is fat and unhealthy is very generalistic and doesnt apply to everyone, it certainly applies to a lot of people! And just before i finish this mini rant - some American's are indeed very very dumb! A week last Saturday i was in Wilcox for the day. When entering the gift shop there, i didn't have to try very hard to over hear a woman say: "I'm not as stupid as i look you know!" Before prompty falling over the door step! The moment was priceless!

Rant over, now i must get on with some work. Although there was some interesting geology related news this week. An auction house in New York is having a meteorite session - selling 52 pieces of space rock with estimates from a few hundred $'s to $1.3million. The pick of the bunch is the only meteorite known to have caused a fatality by direct hit! Experts say the 1kg fragment has become a collectors item since it fell in South America in 1972, killing a cow!

And finally, a comment from Mihai Ducea, my tectonics lecturer (who also strongly thinks that the University of Arizona's Geology Department is the best in the USA and possible the best in the world judging by the number of resources available!) - "I finally realised this P.O.S (piece of ...) state university is actually one of the best!"

Chilli's in the wild west

A note of warning for you all - wear protection when preparing and eating chilli's! The sort of goggles you get in high-school chemistry class will do the trick nicely because you dont want any chilli juices in your eye now- or so i found out last night.

And once it started (to quote a Ducea comment) "it was like a car crash" - once it starts, it isnt going to get any better! The first 5 minutes after, i didn't notice anything but once i sat down to eat dinner the stinging pain was unbelieveable. So i went to the bathroom and dabbed it with a damp cloth. Bad idea! Just like drinking water after a hot curry, the pain got worse and my eye became seriously bloodshot. I couldnt win! Everytime i blinked, it rubbed my eye a little bit more making the pain a little worse. The meal was delicious to eat but possibly the most painful ive ever experienced! So be-warned! Don't do it!

I might just stick to fish and chips tonight - much safer!

Not a great weekend of sport

First England lost the Rugby World Cup and the Hamilton narrowly missed out on the F1 Championship. The latter could, however, be in doubt as controvosey over illegal fuel in 3 cars ahead of Hamilton (he finished 7th but needed 5th to take the title). If those cars get disqualified, Hamilton wins the championship so its going to court! Kind of a shameful way to end what has been the best season of Formula 1 in years but if it means Hamilton wins..... im not going to object!

As to the Rugby - im content with second place. We shouldn't really have reached the quater-finals yet alone beat Australia and France to get to the final. It was still a close match and England were severely disadvantaged by a disallowed try which, replays show, clearly should have been allowed. Did the match turn on that? Perhaps but it doesnt really matter - we beat the French on their turf again - thats all that counts!

The only good thing to come out of sport last weekend was Liverpool's 2:1 victory over dirty Everton who had 2 men sent off. They now sit 4th in the table with a game in hand over Man United and Man City who sit above them although even at this early stage we'll do well to catch Arsenal at the top. Although there not playing the smooth football that left them unbeaton in the 2002/2003 season, its effective! Now for Champions league this week - Liverpool play Besiktas away from home. A game we really need to win!

And finally, the news! (Sounds abit like the 2 Ronnies!) In Canberra, a cemetery is training its gravediggers in emergency first aid and how to use defibrillators in order to ressucitate grief striken mourners at a funeral. It's a good idea but from a business point of view, seems somewhat counter-productive!

Another criminal from Berlin got arrested last week after slightly misunderstanding the term "getaway". A construction worker stole a packet of cheese from a local store before making his getaway in his cement truck. Police caught up with him when he stopped at traffic lights 200yrds down the road.

And finally from Washington DC. The pentagon made something of a recording error regarding its contract with Boeing to maintain some of its airforce fleet. The draft contract named the pricely sum of $24billion, the single largest contract the DoD (department of defence) has issued. After pointing out the error, officials confirmed it should infact be $24million - 3 orders of magnitude lower! Boeing are probably disappointed!

The longest hours of my life...

As everyone knows, England played in the Rugby World Cup Final today and everyone probably knows the result. Except me! I'm waiting til the match becomes available on the net to download (about 6 hrs in itself!) and watch.

And its a long wait!

My theory is that if i find out the result, i wont want to watch the game (kind of like reading a book having read the last chapter first!). It also means i can't log onto MSN messenger, facebook, any news website and now, after this, my blog incase some smartarse reader posts the score and ruins it all!

Here's to a long night waiting. Waiting and more waiting. I might play my guitar actually - i could do with the practice!

See ya!

Peruvian mountains and salty myres

What a week!

Nothing too special happened in the end. I didn't win the lottery, i didn't go on holiday and i certainly didn't find a lucky quarter on the side-walk (sorry footpath) this morning. But, and this is a big but; England are in the World Cup Final, France aren't, Arizona is going fantastic, i beat my best mate on that stupid "Petrolhead" application and facebook and, oh yeah, im going to Peru for 2 weeks just after christmas!

Add to that - days of confusion, courtesy of pen pushers at Leicester Uni, over whether this year in arizona would actually count towards my degree and im sure you'll agree its been somewhat out of the norm.

So the big question at the moment is: Can Jonny Wilkinson win the world cup for England again? I'm not saying anything against the other players in the side, there all very good (especially Josh Lewsey who i thinks just been awesome) but Jonny is the best player in the world without a doubt. No-one else has such an effect on a game, no-one else can produce under such pressure, no-one else can win us the world cup again. Will we? Won't we? The count down begins! The challenge remains for me to survive without seeing the score until after the match when i can watch a re-run online! God help me!

I can't wait til the christmas vacation (sorry, holiday!) - doing abit of travelling and generally planning to have a really good time. Hence the flight i booked to Peru yesterday - 2 weeks of mountains, hiking, stunning scenery and all the usual backpackers perks.

And the salty myres bit - off to a place called Wilcox (between Tucson and Lordsburg in New Mexico) tomorrow. Its reportedly a wild-west sort of place in Cochise county, built on a massive salt plain in the middle of no-where. Should be interesting!

We have a pet...

a friendly little bug appeared in one of our bathrooms on monday and has since explored the apartment, last seem crawling under the hallway carpet. Infact no, its a big sod off beetle like thing, 2-3 inches long and a fast runner. It escaped my attempts to catch it monday morning with a lunchbox and went into hiding underground (well, under-carpet). If anyone see's it, report it to me on this blog and we'll have a rematch.

We also found a massive bug in the pool last week. It was pushing 3-4 inches long and swam remarkably well. It survived all my attempts to drown it but i eventually managed to catch it and put it in the bushes. Russ reckons it was a dung beetle, working on the theory that they can survive nuke blasts so they can probably survive abit of water. I'm not so sure.

New poll up (see right).
Laters

Saguaro National Park

In the latest series of day trips around Southern Arizona; me, my housemates and a couple of Swiss friends went on an challenging bike ride to a local National Park, strewn with cacti (Saguaro's mainly). Situated some 17 miles from home, at the foot of the Rincon mountains, the national park is a haven for scrambling up rocks, wildlife, cacti and awesome vista's over the Tucson basin below. The ride there wasnt too bad despite most of it being uphill. We stopped once or twice, most convieniently outside a huge guitar shop on Broadway Boulevard where much time was spent in shear awe at the guitars, amps, effects pedals and other accessories. I could have spent thousands in that shop if it wasnt for the issue of carrying it back on the aeroplane. I will be going back at some point for a guitar strap and maybe an effects pedal before i leave.

Once there, we cycled around the park's tourist road for abit before locking up and walking up a trail towards Tanque Verde Ridge. The views from the ridge were extraodinary. Mountains rose all around the Tucson basin, some of which must have been close to the border with Mexico. On descending from our view point back to the trail, we suffered from the "attack of the cacti" with 4 out of the 5 of us getting pricked in someway. I got a giant ball of spines wedged into my left calf muscle, Abi got the same into her hand, Hannes into his ankle and Russ into his leg. Only Julien (one of our Swiss friends) survived the assault but the day wasnt out before he had his fair share of pain.

Coming back home should have been easy, it was nearly all downhill but the wind had something to say about that. Instead of rolling nicely downhill, picking up speed like in some 1940's film, we were actually slowing down! It was insanely hard and absolutely knackering. I now really don't like biking in the wind! And the incident with Julien - a crappy woman driver took out the front wheel on his bike as he was waiting to cross at a road junction. No-one injured and the bike wasnt really damaged (i dont know or care about the car) but i gather she was quite shocked by the incident.

Once home, i changed and jumped in the pool which was a mistake. Somewhat ironically, the pool is insanely cold (i swear someone puts ice into it!) so despite being hot and sweaty all day, i rushed to have a hot shower at the end of it. So that was my interesting day this week, today (Sunday) ive got homework to do and just relaxing abit.

PHOTOS are up on the blog at long long last (thanks to Tim for his help - timnutt.blogspot.com). Go to the top right of the screen and select a folder. There was a photo from yesterday of me hugging a cactus, fortunately ive not put it on here but i understand it can be found on facebook if so desired along with one of me entitled 'American Idiot'. Check them out.

Laters

There's salt in Utah!

UPDATE: More great lines from Mihai (see right)

Well der! It is the home of the famous Salt Lake (and its City) and the Bonneville Salt Flats where Richard Green made himself famous with Thrust SSC but now its also the location of my mini-research project im doing with my Exploration Seismology lecturer. Weve got some awesome data off a well known oil company so its now my task to process, analyse and interpret it ahead of the Geology Departments critically acclaimed annual Geodaze Symposium in the spring where my poster and presentation will be assessed for much coverted prizes.

Also this semester ive got a small side project with the Planetary Team, using some ground penetrating radar data from the Mars Recconnaissance Orbiter to produce a 3 dimensional model of a section of the Northern Polar Ice Cap with a view to find potentional carbon dioxide bearing rocks to help explain the presence of liquid water in Mars' ancient history. Both project involve using Promax, GIS and Kingdom software (all industry standard packages)!

So, boring stuff over (just thought it was worth a mention - im quite pleased at getting them going). Aside from that, this week's been nothing special (hence the lack of blogging!) - people don't want to read a load of crap when they could be spending their time on the internet much more effectively (Tim!).

The odd news this week involves geology (slightly!) - copper! The price of which has inflated somewhat recent thats its reported a 2p coin is worth more in copper than its face value. Anyway, a desperate thief in Germany recently tried to steal LIVE copper electrical wiring from a sub-station. He subsequently got shocked with 10,000 volts and died. Police can only identify him by his fingerprints since his hand was severed from his body during the shock. The rest of his body was completely unrecognisable! Theres a lesson to learn there - if your going to steal some copper either do it from a local DIY store or cut the power first!

Rock climbing and diamondbacks

What a weekend! Friday night i went rock climbing with SESS (the geology club here at the UA), returning Saturday evening tired, very dirty but exhilarated from hanging off the side of a massive cliff all day.

Friday night we camped out in a dry river bed mostly on a diet of flame roasted marshmellows and cookies warmed on the fire. This was followed by some late night arsing around and playing with fire (not a great idea i know, you get soot all over the place not to mention burning yourself!). The following morning we packed up camp and walked about a mile to a deep canyon locally known as "Prison Camp" (it used to be a WW2 prison when the US held the Japanese). The expert guys set up a few routes (or 'Rowts' as the American's say!) and we took to them at our leisure. Since this was my first time climbing - ever - i was quite chuffed at getting up several different climbs graded '7's whatever that means. Why can't they just have easy, medium, hard and suicidal?

On a side note, i saw my first rattlesnake in the USA. One of my American mates went reptile hunting and came across lots of lizards, frogs that can climb better than i can and a beautiful diamondback rattler.

So that was my weekend, im now left with just one piece of homework which is proving pretty hard and another week of classes out here at the UA, my 7th this semester! Unfortunately theres no funny news today, Reuters appear to give themselves the weekend off despite any big-breaking news. Besides, im still astonished that England beat the Aussie's in the Rugby World Cup - on current form, we didnt deserve to win but once again Johnny Wilkinson proves to be a thorn in Australia's game plan. Will we beat France in the semi's??? I'll be surprised and very impressed if we do!

Promax on pro-plus

Nearly, very nearly finished yet another Geochemistry homework! They come thick and fast and i understand theres another one being dished out tomorrow! Well, it'll have to wait because im going climbing in the mountains Friday night with the SESS club (Geology club at the UA). Its cheap (infact virtually free except hiring shoes and tent) and should be good fun! The place were going is called "Prison Camp" - im not sure if thats an omen but im told to expect a hard days work with painful fingers afterwards (you can probably tell i havent rally been outdoor climbing before!).

Today was fun Fun FUN! I spent all morning puzzling over geochemistry (with some success!) and all afternoon working on Promax - a seismic modelling and computation program with a prehistoric interface for modern tasks. It takes an age to process seismic shot records as their all run off a local network server so the imp in the corner checking the baseball results is slowing the progress of your "exploding interface correction run"!

BTW - ive added more great one-liners in the Ducea Randomness section. Mihai Ducea is our regional tectonics lecturer and he's uniquely class in being really quite clever but not liking teaching (he works at a university!) He tell's it like it is and has a real dislike for geophysists who "cant really tell me anything" and rarely "have a purpose in the world!"

Any how, my housemate informs me Arizona Diamondbacks (the state baseball team) are playing in the post-season something or other which i couldn't give a damn about. Tbh, ive got to finish this geochem and then play my guitar (yeah, ive got to do that!).

Incidentally, as a passing comment - following Mahmood Arhmadinnerjacketrentalshop's visit to Columbia University in New York state last week, the Iranian's have returned and invited George Bush to Tehran. I dare say he won't be accepting! Meanwhile in Bejjing, a bank is offering a tempting free gift with all loans - a 20 pack of condoms!

Water holes and reservations

FINALLY on saturday we got the internet into our apartment! A suspiciously casual workman from Cox Communications came and wired us up without me needing to sign anything. Infact, they havent even got my card details to pay for it yet - i really should sort that out. And now with the internet, i spent the latter part of the morning watching the simpson's movie and directly following episode. There absolutely class! If you haven't already, go and see them immediately!

Sunday was relatively mild at 33 - 35 celcius so i jumped at the opportunity of going hiking up a local canyon! Except the buses were all wrong so i ended up walking for 2 hrs along Oracle road just to get there! Still, it was worth it! Pima canyon trail is a classic desert path surrounded by massive cacti towering over rocky shrubland which was teaming with wildlife - lizards, scorpions and a whole lotta spiders including the red-backed 'Black Widow', the venom of which is not normally fatal but will do a lot of harm and your gonna need help! Ironically, southern Arizona has something of an abundance of black widow's!

Anyway, i really need to cut this blog short today - ive got some seismology work to finish off and geochemistry to puzzle over. I'll add something later or tomorrow maybe. I won't leave you without some amusing news, this time from London and Berlin.
London: This years entries for the turner art prize have been unveiled and i must say, the artists have outdone themselves! My vote is on the 'pickled cow' exhibit containing, well, a pickled cow! (If you don't believe me (which you probably dont!), check this out: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL0190054520071001)
Berlin: A man was arrested for trying to sell over a million stollen screws at a Berlin market! Police nailed him!

It's the American dream

"Another week has nearly come and past, the innocent will never last. Wake me up... "Ahem, anyway. Although, its not completely irrelevent, September has absolutely flown by and now we encroach on october and realise it isnt long until Christmas and the opportunity to do some much needed travelling.

Tuesday i had my first proper exam in America, thursday i got the marks back at 94.5% which i dont consider to bad. Monday and wednesday we had the last of the oil companies coming in to give some speil about why we want to work for them and how good they are. This time it was Conoco-Phillips and Exxonmobil respectively, both of whom i was pretty impressed with although the chances of getting an Internship (with Exxon atleast) are minimal. They like to hire people from the country they work in so i wont get into the USA section and the UK area is going to be tough since they like to recruit people directly from their University presentations rather than via phone or similar. Ive still got Conoco, Chevron, BP and Schlumberger plus loads more smaller oil and mining companies. Whats more, ive got loads of freebie's sitting on my desk including 2 almost identical geological timescale cards. One from Chevron and one from Exxon about 50% bigger! A little bit of inter-company competition there!

Yesterday evening we sat down and watch abit of "quality" American TV, the first ive seen since being out here. The new series of CSI Las Vegas started with a cracking episode. I dont confess to being a big fan but it wasnt too bad; except for the inumberable adverts, dumb victims of crime, lack of action, endless flaws (like someone spotting something really small through binoculars and then only running 20ft to it!) and unrealistic portrayal of FBI agents or whatever they are! This was followed by the 'Late show with David Letterman' which was actually quite amusing in sporadic surgers again with way too many adverts but did contain a funny bit about similarities/differences between President Bush and Iranian President, Mahmood Armadinnerjacket or whatever his name is.

Armadinnnerjacket: Speaks in poor, broken English

President Bush: Speaks in poor, broken English

This was followed by the Late Late Show hosted by some weird Scottish guy whose favourite pastime's seem to be welcoming people as "my favourite little naught ponies" or whispering in his guest's ear trying to "escape from his captives who make him do the show". It was crap!

And so comes forth the weekend. Rent to pay, a little homework to look at but not much, mountains to walk! Whoo! Cya

Arctic Monkey's LIVE in Tucson!

Yep, thats today's headline! Saturday night brought the Arctic Monkey's down to Tucson as part of their western USA tour, and they rocked! The support act (Foxtrot) sucked. They had technical difficulties and didnt really produce a performance that warrented having 5 band members. There was always someone doing nothing and the lead guitarist even broke one of his strings but carried on playing for several songs sounding abit crap tbh.

Anyway, everyone was there for the monkey's and what a set they put on. The Rialto Theatre is only a small venue, i reckon only 1000 or so people were there, but it came alive into raptuous "singing" and moshing all through the Arctic's set. 'I bet that you look good on the Dancefloor' was undoubtedly the best song but the band presented a variety and depth which amazed me considering they only made it big a year or 2 ago. Overall, an awesome night out!

Now, however, ive got some work to do and an exam to revise for on tuesday! Furthermore, we have 2 more oil companies coming in this week (Conoco today, Exxon Wednesday) which promises more opportunity to apply for internships and the all important free food. Laters!

Careers and constellations

Schlumberger, Chevron-Texaco, Rio Tinto, Cleveland Cliffs, Newmont and Asarco are just some of the geology related companies that have been on campus this week. The list is huge and it really puts Leicester's careers efforts to shame. They also like taking people out for dinner aswell, which is awesome! Honestly, who could refuse free food from the likes of BP, schlumberger and Chevron. Whats more, weve got Conoco and Exxon-mobil coming in monday/wednesday of next week respectively!

So its a busy time sending CV's here and there, trying to convince people that i am remotely employable and would really like to do more than perfect my coffee-making skills. Lets see what happens! I might even get so far as to tea and biscuits!

In geology related news, a "new" meteorite crater has been formed in Peru. Measuring some 30m across and 6m deep, local residents report seeing a "fireball falling from the sky" before impacting with the ground forming something of a tourist attraction. Ironically, people have falling ill due to the poisonous waters and gases which now fill the hole. But still they return!

And finally, yet another exam of America's gun crime problem. A teacher in Orogen has sued for he right to bring a gun with her into the classroom. What kind of kids does she teach???

Tucson Mountains

Just realised i havent 'blogged' in quite a while so thought id send up a brief note.





Went into the Tucson mountains last saturday on another of my "crazy" biking trips. Its only 10 - 12 miles up to the top car-park but its pretty steep, very hot and frankly incredibly hard work. It was well worth it though, the views down to Tucson and across the next valley were amazing. It took considerably less time to free-wheel back down, taking care to avoid the dead rattlesnake on the road.

Saturday night we had yet another free party courtesy of Dr Paul kapp and the SESS (Geology Society at the UA). Ironically, it was something of a traditionally English BBQ - it actually rained briefly!

Up and coming next weekend - The Arctic Monkey's are coming to town! Yes, to Tucson! I was amazed when i found out so defo going to get a ticket later today or tomorrow! There only $25 or so a pop aswell - wouldnt beat that in the UK would you!

Anyway, ive got a lecture shortly and a busy afternoon. Take care now y'all.

After BP - not just another free meal!

What a quality afternoon/evening BP provided for us yesterday! They started with an hour long discussion presenting the company and showing what they have to offer (which in itself is very impressive) before taking about 25 of us to dinner at the local Marriot Hotel.

The talk was essentially an advert for working at BP, and a good one at that! It seems theres endless possibility to expand your knowledge through training courses (which BP pays for!), capacity to move both laterally and up the career ladder as you please. Opportunity to work across the world (Aberdeen, London, Houston, Anchorage, Moscow to name a few) and the pays not bad either. Its also an encouraging sign that the CEO of BP is infact a Geologist!

The after-presentation dinner was something of a luxury treat. The Marriot hotel in Tucson is exquisit and the food was quality. BP footed the bill for everything (including the drinks i had before the BP people arrived!) and it must of cost them over $1000. But whats that for the worlds 4th largest company with revenues in the $10's billion?

Getting an Internship in the USA is going to be difficult for us Brits, not only because there only offering 35 in total but because of VISA issues. However, the chap will forward my details to the relevent people in the UK - a nice little contact there me thinks!

So thats the low-down on my latest free dinner (the best yet). I dont think the other companies coming in are being quite so generous but ive got another free party on saturday with food to go to so im not complaining.

Anyway, g2g and find out about this Rugby squad!

Petroluem de Grand Bretagne

You'll have to excuse that poor french translation. I was having a conversation with a friend about todays BP presentation and it descended into a series of ludicrous french accents and sayings.

So BP are coming into the department today, looking to recruit people and generally show off their business. I'm rather hoping to get some work experience next summer off them or similar companies who are coming in over the next month (Schlumberger, Rio Tinto, Exxon-mobile and Barrick Gold to name a few!). It should be awesome! BP are taking "interested students" out to dinner at the local Marriot aswell. I'm not sure what they mean by "interested students" but im certainly interested in a free dinner!

We had our first Regional Tectonics lecture with the actual professor yesterday (he was away the first 3 weeks so they were done remotely) and it has to be said he's a rather uniquely weird guy! So much so, he's got his own box on this blog (look down the right: "Ducea randomness"). He comes out with some class remarks which it seems are intended to keep you awake in his lectures. Anyway, check them out.

Wildcat Rugby Club (The UA squad) are recruiting and im thinking of joining. Ive been 5 years or so out of the game and have had the urge to go back for most of that period. Theres a meeting tomorrow so ill find out more. Its a multi-national squad aswell so looking forward to bashing some Aussie's about if i sign up!

S'all for now, got some more fun fun Geochemistry to conquor!

Riding out of this ol'town

on our (me and Russ) bikes yesterday was quite an experience. Firstly, the suburban metropolis area on the edge of Tucson is clearly not frequently visited for some of the signs and roads were pure comedy.

At a junction with a poorly tarmac'd road: "This road is not maintained by the city!"

You don't say!

On a busy road outside a school: "Warning! Deaf AND blind children crossing"

God help them!

On the same road adjacent to a golf course: "Warning, killer golf balls!"

Ok, so the last one might have said something slightly different but you get the jist of it. Besides the fits of laughter at various forms of bureaucractic stupidity, it was an awesome ride. We gained quite a lot of height heading into the mountains completely surrounded by Saguaro (a type of cacti unique to this area) covered desert with nothing for miles and awesome views back down to Tucson.

On friday night, the geology department decided to throw a welcome party for everyone which we dulely attended for the free food if nothing else. although i must say i under-estimated the affair. It was at the lovely setting of the Tucson Botanical Gardens with a traditional hot mexican buffet. We also had a new experience of a private performance from a Mariachis band (a type of noisy music with violins, horn things and silly little acoustic guitars). I was well impressed to start off with but soon joined the locals in considering it annoying and intrusive. You simply can't hold a conversation with that racket going on!

Kind of like this but bigger and noisier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDtJmMWbDd0

Aside from that, it was a good night. Met a local Tucsonian from the department with whom we discussed at great length Anglo-American issues and the like. You'll be glad to know he isnt George Bush's biggest fan either! He did, however, let himself down on a simple fact regarding the television drama, 'House'. It is unfortunately the case that a lot of American's don't know that Hugh Laurie is English! Well he is, so get used to it!!!

The only other thing of note from this weekend is another encounter with local wildlife. Upon leaving the Botanical Gardens quite late at night (we were the last to leave, literally!) our path was blocked by a mini-plague of enormous cockroaches (i kid you not!). They were red in colour and easily 3 - 5cm across and since i didnt really want to get one on the underside of my shoe, the normally mundane path was turned into an assault course.

A topsy turvy week

Its coming to the end of my 3rd week of classes, and what a weird week its been. Geochemistry and Geology of the Solar System problem sets are pretty darn hard but on receiving the marks for one of my Geochem one's, it proved to be mid range which isnt too bad all things considered.

Outside of academia, someone got murdered on campus on wednesday morning. Aparently, a brawl broke out between 2 women in one of the residence halls with one ending up being stabbed, the other arrested. See http://www.arizona.edu/home/news-alert.php. Obviously my condolences goes out to the family and friends of the deceased, its a tragic thing to happen in what is suppose to be a happy and enlightening university environment but it is all too common in America. Just 5 years ago, the UA had its own gun massacre. A student who failed his course took out 3 of his professors before commiting suicide. Outside of the UA, everyone remembers Columbine and, more recently, Virginia Tech.

On a lighter note, someone im sharing the apartment with won a TV the other day! (not that American TV is much to write home about) im just looking forward to watching the Simpson's on Fox and hunting around for abit of the Rugby World Cup.

And finally, to finish with some slightly odd news from Poland. Wroclaw police arrested a Polish author after it was found he commited a murder that had been described in one of his novels. I know a writer might struggle for ideas for his next best seller but doing practical experiments is taking it abit too far!

By the way, if your thinking of going to Kazakhstan for your holidays (like you do), look out for the Lion which literally just walked out of Kazakh zoo. A gate keeper accidentally left the door open so the Lion took to a little exploring.

S'all for now folks. Got work to do, people to see.

Labouring on Labor Day

Even though it was only 2 weeks into the semester, we got last monday off so American's can have a BBQ and relax etc blah blah blah. Well i decided to go for a walk!

It was another boiling hot day, with a light breeze so i thought i'd head towards the nearest mountains and just do about of scouting around. I was walking mostly on roads except for abit along a dried river bed, which was a haven for wildlife. Spiders, Lizards, Ferret like things - you name it, i saw it (except Rattler's due to the heat). I went up to the foothills (about 3000ft) and looped back round and finished with a long, boring 7 mile dead straight walk along 1st Avenue back to the apartment. It was nice but i learnt 2 things:
1. I really shuda frozen my drinks before hand. Warm, squash etc isnt nice when your thirsty.
2. Wear walking boots instead of "outdoor trainers". They make all the difference and havent got holes in the bottom either!

Aside from that, it was a great day.

It's Labour Day Weekend

Or should that be 'Labor' Day? Another conflict of English language verses Americanism's. I don't know or really care what it "commemorates", i just know its celebrated with some typical American BBQ's and the like.

We shot a video yesterday evening, the start of the Americana Olympics with the first event; "The Ice Cream Challenge". This consisted of me "eating" a gallon tub of ice-cream in record time. Infact, the tub was nearly empty when i started but the video reaches its climax with me in the grasps of asphyxiation and collapsing on the floor (rather realistically if i may say so myself!) I might try to upload the video sometime but it is rather stupid so im reluctant to do so. Naturally, footage of me making an arse of myself wouldnt be in demand anyway!

NEW PHOTO ON BLOG - my gorgious new Gibson SG and Marshall 30w Amp. It plays like a dream, really enjoying it. I'm sure a full report will follow in due course.

Liverpool are top of the Premier League with a 6 v 0 thrashing of Derby at home, further confirming their status as title contenders. Man United on the other hand aren't doing so well, with just one win in the last 6 games! My predictions for the coming season are as follows (I accept no liability for incorrect guesses! These are all guesses and of course, Liverpool are going to win everything (i wish!) but we must give our "friends" in Manchester and London some hope!)

Carling Cup - Chelsea
FA Cup - Arsenal
Premier League Champions - Liverpool
Relagation - Sunderland, Derby, Fulham
UEFA Cup - Who cares?
Champions League - Liverpool or Barcelona

All shall be revealed in due course. Naturally we can't forget the Rugby World Cup which is due to kick off next week on September 7th. England play their first game against the USA on the 8th. All ive got to do now is find some way of watching it over here! Hmmm...

The Geochemistry ommlette is quite tasty

Thats to say that my hardest module, Geochemistry is perhaps becoming slightly easier to digest. Well, until the next class when im sure it'll get a whole lot harder! I live in hope!

Some interestingly odd and slightly sick news emerged from Berlin this week where a man was awarded compensation when a hospital lost the top of his head! (i kid you not!) During brain surgery, the hospital put the piece of his skull in a fridge which subsequently broke. The man now has a plastic prosthetic bit filling the gap. Incidentally he was awarded a meagre 3000 euros in damages!

And at a Russian airshow, a wealthy oil barren tried to buy an American B52 bomber, on the spot. Reuters reports that the man, surrounded by body guards, offered to buy it from the American crew and was more than content with the potential price tag upwards of $500million. The crew came to their senses and the plane was not sold!

And finally, a geology related bite of information seems approprite. A guy called Alfred Wegener is attributed with first coming up with the idea of plate tectonics and the formation of mountain belts, continental drift and oceans etc. Blah blah blah... Anyway, i just thought the German for 'Theory of continental drift' was quite funny - "Theorie der Kontinetalverschiebung"

Anyway, ive got a class in a couple of hours and abit of reading to do before that so ttfn amigos!

More...

free food, this time courtesy of some Swiss friends we made who live 4 doors down. A great brunch with all the British trimmings! I guess the catch is we need to return the favour sometime. Any suggestions of what a traditional breakfast/brunch consists of in Switzerland would be welcome!

We had a little lizard crawl around the apartment aswell, a right bugger to catch! Its tail fell off in the process and continued to move despite being dis-associated with its owner!

Decided to get up early this morning and bike into Walmart on my slowly disappearing bike. I brought it about 2 weeks ago and in the mean time, both peddles had literally melted off! I kid you not. The guy there fixed it no problem free of charge, still it only cost me $60 in the first place! Braking can also be interesting in the hot weather. I have thick layers of black brake rubber on my wheel rims where the brakes have literally melted during braking - and im not even riding that hard! Only in Arizona!

We had a lengthly debate at the International student dinner last week about George Bush, a subject brought up by the Director of International Affairs himself who happened to be sitting on our table. I'm not sure if he was sucking up to us foreigners but he took a very liberal approach to the discussion with a less than positive view towards the commander in chief. Still, its only just over a year 'til the next presidential elections, how much more crap can come out of his mouth before then???

And finally, talking of speaking crap, a fellow UK exchange student here had a story to tell of her encounter with an American student.
"You speak very good English for someone from the UK don't you?"
"Yeah, i am from England..."
"Since English is your second language, you speak very fluently!"
"England...English...first language!"
That isn't a completely true reflection of America as a whole by the way although getting them to point to England on a map can be a challenge. Englan-abad - now thats another story!

Head Automatica...

played a free concert at the student union here last night. FREE!!! With that in mind, it was great! I didn't know any of the songs but who cared? It was loud and free! Before that we had a pool party at the apartment complex with more free food, as is increasingly becoming the norm! They were handing out free ice-cream on the Uni Mall aswell, fortunately with several different servers so i could go back for more and not get caught.

On a side topic, we had some rain yesterday/last night! Infact, the full monsoonal thunderstorm for about an hour a time. It wouldnt be so bad for the fact theres no drainage at all here. Nothing on the roads or anything. Essentially, the roads can flood if someone spills their regular 20oz "Diet" coke whilst fumbling with the rest of their nasty fast-food cholesterol chicken meal. Actually, their not all that bad. I met up with an American friend along with my apartment-mates and we found somewhere selling lunch wraps, mostly filled with salad! There had to be a catch!

Went food shopping again today (nothing too interesting about that i hear you say) but we nearly made it through without seeing the greeter guy (i shall call him Herbert until i find out his real name!). Herbert is out over-enthusiastic, always smiling 'friend' who works at Fry's (our local supermarket). We got as far as the checkouts before he strode past whilst i was packing, tapped me on the back and delivered a speech along the lines of "Hi, how you doing! Thanks for shopping at Fry's. Are you both ok? Nice to see you again! Hope to see you soon!". I'll get a photo at some point and you'll see what i mean. I think Herbert might be Mexican!

Just finished reading the new (relatively) Harry Potter book aswell and what a great book it is! I hadn't read any Potter before (seen the films though) and i was taken-a-back by the gripping readability, all-ages nature of the book. J.K Rowling has written a masterpiece which i reccommend to anyone! It finishes off the Potter era's fantastically with twists and turns, adventure and action. I'm not going to give anything of the plot away, find out how good it is for yourself!

See you guys later and keep checking back for more pointless dribble from Arizona!

Update from Arizona

Its getting near the end of the first week of classes - just another 15 to go before the christmas break!
All of them are really interesting (no schist!) but Geochemistry is definately the hardest. Those who go to the Geology Dept at Leicester will know what i mean when i compare the lecturer to Norry. He likes to talk randomly about things which have a rather vague connection to the class topic and breezes through things like there elimentary! Sound like Norry?

My other modules - Introduction to Exploration Seismology, Geology of the Solar System and Regional Tectonics look pretty good. We have NO exams in Geology of the Solar System but instead assessed entirely on "homework" assignments and a end of semester report/presentation. Regional tect should be great - Dickson's stuff from last year has prepared us well for this.

Last night we had a special recognition dinner for all the exchange students here at the UA. A pretty posh affair with an amazing meso-america buffet. They invited people to show off some skills and share various experiences with the group.

One Aussie told of how he got stuck in Mexico when stopping over in San Diego on his way to Tucson. He and 2 mates (a fellow Aussie and German i think) walked over the border one evening to go to a few pubs etc but, with the exception of the German guy, were refused entry back into the USA. This is because he didnt have a travel signature on his Visa which basically says you can come back into the US on that Visa as often as you want until it expires (you get them easily enough off the Uni). They tried once to cross the border and failed. A local Irish pub down the road heard of their issues and the barman lent one guy his shirt and crossed the border with him - no problems. 1 Aussie through, another got refused again and threatened that if he tried again, he'd be deported back to Australia! Thus the Irish guy came back to Mexico, lent the remaining Aussie his shirt, dyed his hair with Sprite (aparently it can be done!) and through shear luck he got through, despite walking past the guy who had refused him twice before!

Other entertainment highlights that evening included the Aussie contingent singing Waltzing Matilda, a solitary Kiwi performing the Hacker (upmost respect for him) and some people from Munich wearing the traditional Bavarian Lederhosen! It was a class evening! Other lively debate started surrounding the Rugby World Cup with Wade (the Kiwi) adament that they were going to reclaim the trophy after 20 years of hardship! Let me just remind them who won it last time! (With little chance of retaining it - i admit!)

Anyway, ive got to find a Geochemistry book and try to unscramble the ommlette of equations floating around my head into a bite size chunks shortly followed by meeting someone for lunch.

Take care now y'all!

And there off...

the classes that it. First one today, the rest kick off tomorrow. Today we had 'Introduction to exploration seismology' (not as boring as it sounds!) with a pretty neat lecturer, he even knew where we came from - Lie-chester - as he put it! Class! We forgave him, after all he's the one with the accent (an American's words, not mine! lol)

The hard work starts in earnest tomorrow with 3 new modules starting. Should be good fun though. The assessment over here is somewhat different. We of course have the end of semester finals (before Christmas rather than after in the UK) but unlike the UK, these generally count as only ~30% of the final grade, the rest being assessed coursework, quizzes, mid-semester exams etc. Sounds good? Well, theres a sting in there. The grades transfer back to the UK against our favour. To get an A in the US, we have to score 90% or more, B = 80% etc. When converting to UK scores, an A works out at something like 74% ish. Put simply, top marks in the US are scraping 1st marks in the UK! Weird!

Anyway, my nice new Gibson SG is supposedly arriving sometime today along with a beautiful Marshall amp.

Laters!

The guidebook said...

that "Tucson is a boring place with not much to do and even if there was, its too hot to do it. You can't stay outside for more than 10-15 minutes at a time."

The guidebook's wrong on 2 accounts!

Firstly, I just spent all afternoon playing Basketball (typically American i know) and Volleyball having already cycled downtown this morning. I'm subsequently sitting in the air-conditioned library writing this - quite thirsty and fairly knackered. A pint of something and a swimming pool is calling when i get back to the apartment.

Secondly, Tucson is awesomeness squared! I can't think of anything not to do in Tucson (except maybe go to the beach or dance in the rain). Ok, the heat can limit things - its currently around 40 celcius with 75-80% humidity! - but im not moaning about the free tan. Ironically, down the road from us, a new tanning shop has opened - seems like the biggest waste of money in Arizona if you ask me.

Last night was another free meal from the International office or someone - we've got another one next wednesday aswell! Its great!

Anyway, g2g guys. Getting too thirsty for comfort!

Madness

On leaving the apartment this morning, i thought it was quite cool whilst temperatures were still around 30 celcius at 9am! Arizona is officially messing with my body thermostat! If you see me walking around Leicestershire wearing a ski jacket and thermal trousers, have some sympathy!

News emerged from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in France today that the area surrounding Chernobyl "is not a wild-life haven'! I wonder if that has anything to do with the Nuclear reactor blast in April 1986 sending radioactive particles into every country in the Northern Hemisphere and severely contaminating the region surrounding the plant. The only wildlife to be found there are 3 eyed fish, mutant bears and bilingual birds! Come-on, stop wasting money on pointless research!

In more slightly odd news, a man in Australia was stuck up a tree for 8 days! when he "accidentally" stumbled into a crocodile infested swamp. He sought refuge when confronted with a croc. Talk about being caught between a croc and hard place!

And finally, dachshunds, the original 'Sausage dog' from Germany are in decline. This news comes at a time when sales of the popular Frankfurter sausages are on the increase. Coincidence?

Cya

7 Remotely Interesting Facts about Tucson and Arizona

1. Its hot!
2. Speedway Boulevard in Tucson (just north of uni) is thus named because it used to host Horse and Cart drag racing events! Blink and you'll miss it!
3. The hills to the west and east of Tucson are the only places in the world you'll find Saguaro Cacti growing in the wild! You can even give one a cuddle on campus if you so like.
4. Yuma, Arizona is the driest city in the USA. Las Vegas is 2nd and Pheonix is 4th. Tucson is the 4th sunniest city in the USA.
5. The river bed of the Colorado River flowing through the grand-canyon is thought to be at the same altitude as it was millions of years ago despite the obvious canyon it has eroded. Scientists estimate that the rate of isostatic rebound (ground uplift) is similar to erosion.
6. In 2002, a new glass look-out plaza was opened in Grand Canyon village complete with "canyon view" restaurant and shops. From no point in the complex can you see the canyon!
7. The University of Arizona is the first university in the world to manage a Mars Mission. The University of Leicester of course had high involvement in the failed Beagle landers. The Phoenix Mars explorer blasted off from Florida a week ago on its 10 month journey to the red planet. Upon arrival, undergraduate students at the UA will play an active role in exploring and analysing the northern ice cap for signs of previous habitation.

Tucson 1st Week

Its hard to believe but today is now our 7th away from the UK, and has it rained??? Nope! Well, i tell a small lie. Its rained over night but every-day has been beautifully clear and sunny at about 40+ celcius. Awesome!

The apartment is simple but great for our needs. Also has a pool (the challenge is to avoid the dead crickets and hornets) which is invaluable. I'll try to load up a few photos sometime. We live about 6 blocks (1/2 mile) from the uni, 1/2 mile from the nearest decent supermarket and 3 1/2 miles from a Wal-mart where we ventured today to buy bikes. Tucson is completely surrounded by mountains, the most impressive being the Santa Catalina's to the North East some 10 miles from our apartment which will definately be visited at some point. Tombstone looks good aswell, some 50 miles away (its where Wyatt Earp fought his battle at the real OK Coral! They even have daily gunfights! Only in America!!!).

The first time we ventured into uni (last wednesday morning), somewhat ironically, there was a bomb scare so we were diverted elsewhere but weve since been in for orientation and met loads of people from around the world. Honestly, its remarkably the number of nationalities here. Guana, Iceland, Vietnam, Uraquay and Columbia to name some of the weirder places. Met quite a few Aussies aswell who, for some reason, are more than happy to talk about cricket and the Ashes! I just remind them of the Rugby! The uni is everything ive rattled on about it being....and more. Palm tree lined boulevards, drenched in sunshine, lovely buildings etc. From the outside, it puts Leicester (and any others ive seen in the UK) to shame! I havent been in the Geology Department yet though so ill reserve judgement on that front.

Hope all is alright back in Leicester and elsewhere in the UK. Drop a comment if youve got a sec.
Paul

Arrival in Tucson

Hey everyone,

Well, were here, we made it! Tucson is now officially our home for the next 10 months! Whoo!
The journey was not without its little interesting moments though.

Getting to Dublin was easy enough but the challenge of finding our B&B near the airport was a typical student kerfaffle. We got a tram which would take us to Malahide (a town about a mile from the accommodation) but half way there we had to change to a bus transfer as the line was closed. Getting out of the station was hard enough let alone lug all or stuff on and off the bus. (We rode up and down a lift a few times at Connelly Station just for the fun of it! hmm!!) We were exactly travelling light either! Still, we got there in the end. Had a quality meal in Dublin though having walked about 1 1/2 mile to the nearest pub dodging the ridiculous number of slugs on the footpath (no joke!). There was still much more to come!!!

We arrived at the airport 3 hours ahead of departure as advised but then the Dublin-Chicago flight was delayed causing us to miss our flight to Tucson but we just made the later one as standby passengers having waited for 5 hours in Chicago O'Hare which, by the way, is HUGE! I kid you not, its the size of reasonable town - Rugby for comparison!

The Tucson flight was in a smaller plane so much more scenic. Flying over Illinois and the Mississippi was awesome. Its just completely flat crisscrossed by prefectly square tracks separating 1/2 mile fields for as far as the eye can see. It then went dark so we flew over the rockies, Albuquerque and Phoenix. The city lights from the air was just awesome! I sat next to some American guy who clearly hadnt done a lot of flying before and was abit scared. He kept saying how awesome the view looked (of clouds!). Its was 21:30 local time when we arrived in Tucson. Thats 05:30 UK time (bear in mind we woke at 6am in Dublin!).

Anyway, thats s'all for now.
Take care
Paul