Grand Canyon Weekend

Friday afternoon we travelled up to the GC for a weekend of hiking and relaxing combined with camping and drinking around an awesome camp fire. It was dark when we arrived but never mind, a short walk into the woods and I came back with a 12ft dead tree trunk and started a fire (primitive I know!). Alcohol came in the way of American beer, Nick's home brew, cheap wine and the optional rum and coke. Saturday we went on a leisurely hike into the canyon down the Kaibab Trail, about 4 miles and 2000ft ascent to a nice lunch spot half-way to the river. Nice except for the singular cacti bush which, of course, I had to have a disagreement with. Unfortunately the bush won and I end up with several 2 inch cacti needles about 3/4in into my knee. One hit the bone and the other went under the knee cap and pricked a tendant, the latter being the most painful. Still, in my usual enduring way, I got up and hiked back out of the canyon, and everything the following day with little fuss but did have some problems performing simple tasks like bending it to get in the car! As Andy said, "It's going to take more than a couple of little pricks to stop him (me)". Well, he's probably right but man, what an annoying little prick!

Saturday night we out-did ourselves with the fire, this time a 14ft tree trunk (broken into bits of course!) that really pumped out some heat. The beer was finished and a good laugh had by all. Sunday we went hiking around the rim to different vantage points and got some awesome photos, some from slightly dangerous but not completely reckless locations (like one with a 1000ft drop on 3 sides around me and Andy). Travelling back wasn't particularly boring either (except for that drab music just south of Flagstaff when I fell asleep!). I discovered Andy likes Sum 41 which suits me nicely and combined with the awesome stereo in our university Chevrolet Suburban (all of 12.9mpg!) made for an interesting journey. Amongst some random things we saw was a helicopter on a lorry on I10, 3 kids in the open back of a pickup travelling 75mph on I17 and 'that sign' at a service station in Flagstaff. All in all, great weekend, great scenery, great company!

Now its under 3 weeks til home time and things are getting interesting and keeping reasonably busy. In that time I need to fathom some cross-sections through our Utah map - made harder by the lack of knowledge of bed thickness, fault displacement and strike/dips - 3 somewhat crucial components.

S'all for now folks!
Laters

Living for the Weekend

Boy it's been a busy week. It all started Sunday night when I was up til 5am working and trying to sort things out for the F1 in Primary Schools competition. Everyday since has been busy with work but it's paying off and starting to ease up. I got an A in the second of my Active Tectonics papers, this one entitled "A structural and seismological study into the 2003 Bam boxing day earthquake and implications for Tehran". It was more interesting that the title lets on! I also got back my structural geology paper with a 100% best-in-class grade - which with no disrespects, it should be since I know most of the material and like tectonics/structural geology. Tomorrow is my big plateaus presentation - "Collision to Collapse in the Caledonides - Can we see orogenic plateaus in the geological record?". A 1 hour presentation/lecture to a group of talented and very knowledgeable individuals in what is essentially a graduate level class. Hence a lot of prep work has gone into that and I'm confident it will go well.

After a busy week which followed a busy semester and a busy life in general, I'm off to the Grand Canyon this weekend for one last hurrah before flying home in 3 weeks. It promises abit of hiking, relaxing, eating by the campfire and of course, one of the biggest hole-in-the-ground in the world. They'll be plenty of photos which i'll upload when I'm back. Hopefully someone will bring some beer for me!

I also realised this week that I have sub-conciously learned to touch-type, and damn'd quickly too! Reality is I've probably been doing it for ages but noticed it today when I was typing one thing and reading another at the same time.

S'all for now folks, Laters!

"Just fiddling around with rocks"

An article in the Daily Telegraph a few weeks ago caught the eye of my family back home and subsequently got posted out. It's only a small piece and goes as follows:

"Is it a bird, is it a crane... no, but it's possibly a geologist. The students who used to be teased at my school for 'just fidding around with rocks' are the new superheroes of the American job market. It's no longer just oil - soaring prices for copper, silver and gold have made geologists as valuable as, well, gold dust. Geology graduates in the United States are now receiving higher average starting salaries than people with Harvard MBA's. And immigration experts report that is there is any other occupation more guaranteed to speed your entry into America, they have yet to hear of it!"

We are clearly a worthwhile and highly regarded breed. The article didn't elaborate on which occupation's are least likely to guarantee entry in the the US but rumours suggest it may be dietrition or environmental studies.

Lots of work and great ideas

Such are the times when you have quite a lot of work to do but the ideas for new projects and developments are flowing thus adding to the work load. This is one of those times! 4 weeks from home and I thought this would be a nice wind-down time but there's only a few times I can recall being this busy during the course of the last year. However, that's not a bad thing! This week I have a 1 hr lecture to deliver on the Caledonian Orogeny and a orogenic plateau that doesn't really exist any more (that's Friday), I have a presentation on the Hurricane Fault to finalise, Seismic Data Processing hmwk to finish/start along with the class project. Then there's F1 in Primary Schools! Something's invigorated me this week to start thinking seriously about that again after my 8 month sabatical with very little news. During those months, the challenge pops into my head and I note down a few ideas - the list and possibilities have now become quite extensive - least of all rejuvenating the website with Tim, producing a proper demo CD and organising the race-day this June. These are exciting times for the competition and it's encouraging to have the enthusiastic support of a select group of friends back in the UK to carry on developing our brain-child. I'll be setting up this week, guys, an informal email network between us all so we can communicate efficiently as a group.

So indeed it is only 4 weeks 'til i arrive back in the UK. It's corny but there's a countdown timer at the top of my blog. Meh, why not!

And finally, some news from Austria. A thief broke into the headquaters of a leading political party and stole a number of laptops by crawling through a mail-flap! In reporting to the police, a spokesman said the thief must have been pretty small to fit through the 35cm x 35cm hole. That certainly rules out most Americans then! Ha ha, perhaps that's a little unfair - it was quite a small hole! Also briefly some news from Japan. A inter-school baseball match turned into a cricket score farce as one team concede 66 runs in 2 innings! For all those not familiar with baseball, conceeding more than 2 per-innings is considered pretty bad professionally. The coach of the losing team pleaded for the game to be abandoned and eventually the winners were awarded a more respectable 9-0 scoreline.

Laters!

Black out Tucson

Today most of western Tucson suffered a series of power cuts spanning much of the morning and early afternoon. 25,000 homes were cut off (including ours) aswell as the university, frying computer servers, networks and delicate connection nodes across the campus. IT technicians we're literally in tears watching their beloved systems being abused in this way. And the culprit? The usual incompetent digger operator working on the nearby freeway! He'll be sure to get a tongue lashing from his boss!

In other news, scientists in Florida have reconstructed voices of Neanderthal humans from the fossil records! It's true! Aparently they spoke differently to us without some of the basic vowels sounds that make up modern language allowing us, for example, to tell the difference between "beat" and "bit". And from South Africa, 2 19th century Rhino horns stolen from a museum have been deemed "life threateningly dangerous". Museum workers say they thieves have put themselves in a greater danger than that of arrest since the horns are coated in poison! I like this sort of counter-productive assault on criminals. "I've got your Rhino horn!", "You've got arsenic poisoning!"

Now Tucson has seemingly recovered from the black-outs, it's back to working. It's amazing how much you rely on your computer for work and internet for communication, especially when you haven't got it. It was a chance to chill by the pool and read a book though - getting a sun tan at the same time in this glorious weather us Arizonan's are enjoying. Anyway, it's back to work.
Laters!

Poll

Ok, it's been ages since i've put a poll up on my blog - not since I was trying to decide where to go during the Christmas vacation when I completely ignored the overwhelming 2 person vote and went to Peru instead of Alaska. This time it's a very non-serious question about where I should study for my PhD after i graduate next year. Answer honestly but equally, you don't seriously think I'm going to make the choice merely on what you lot think do you?!?!?
You can vote more than once so if you think you've really got a great piece of rock in your back garden then keep voting for it!

Laters!

35 Celsius in April

Not that it's cold now but, next week it's going to warm up abit! Mid 30's all week down here in Tucson hopefully.

Some interesting news came out of London this week. The new sport of Chessboxing - alternating rounds of chess and boxing - is attracting quite a crowd. I guess if you can't beat someone at chess you can just, well, beat them!

Not too much news this end this week. The internet is finally working back in the apartment (someone had just bluntly disconnected us!), the pool is tempting as ever and it's really just countdown time 'til home in 5 weeks. I'm starting to prepare myself for the higher prices back in the UK after 9 months of cheapness. Especially annoying is the fuel prices - over £1 a litre takes the micky. Hence my new car (hopefully a Ford Focus) will probably be converted to LPG or at the very least a diesel. We shall see.

In the mean time, hiking idea's for the summer - I need some! Of course it depends on how much time i've got but trans-Pyrenee's way would be awesome or LEJOG but both are quite long to say the least. Idea's are welcome.

What a boring blog this week! Laters!

Highs and Lows

It's been a funny few days. Yesterday I found out that my GSA research proposal wasn't going to be granted for my work on Mars (although they commented that the project was of interest and the chances of success were high). Such is the process of applying for research money. On the up side, I brought tickets to see Metallica play in Tucson on Friday 16th May, the day before I leave to go home. A chance for some mindless violence that is 'moshing' along with awesome music from one of the greatest live bands.

Speaking of coming home, I've also booked my flight back home since it is only 5 1/2 weeks away. Tucson to London Heathrow via Dallas leaving May 17th arriving May 18th so if your at any of those airports on that weekend, be sure to say hi and help me carry all of my luggage.

Today I've got my fault paper to hand in for structural geology - 7 slightly tedious pages on the Hurricane Fault of south-west Utah. It really is as interesting as it sounds! Any how, it should be a good week. Laters everyone!

Geodaze

So thursday, friday, saturday of last week was the annual Geodaze symposium here at the UofA. The event is organised and ran by graduate students and is seen as a change for all geology students to present their research to win prizes (up to $1000 for best talk!). There's also a party and fieldtrip for good gesture and best of all, its free! So i was there watching the talks, eating and drinking the free refreshments at the party and rocking on the fieldtrip (excuse the pun). This weekend infact has been all in the field. Saturday was the geodaze trip up in the Catalina Mountains with George Davis - good trip, interesting rock, very hot weather. Sunday was the last structural geology fieldtrip towards the Tanque Verde area in a canyon. The scenery was great, great rocks, plenty of climbing to do - all in all a good couple of trips. This week, however, is back to work at uni! 6 weeks til home!

And finally, a story from the US state of Georgia. A classroom full of 9 yr olds are being investigated by police for plotting to tie up and hurt their teacher. The children had brough in a steak knife, handcuffs and electrical tape with a plot to tie up and repeatedly hit the teacher over the head with a paperweight. Aparently the knife was just their to cut the tape!

Laters!