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!