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!
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