Oakland Drilling

This week I'm drilling in Oakland. We're doing 90 holes in five days.

We're working with two teams of geologists, so each group is needing to make about 9 holes a day.

Right now, we're a little behind the pace, but we've had some refusals (places where we could not reach depth), and so that may help us.

We made some good time today after lunch with a new procedure, and so we think we'll be back on track by the end of the day tomorrow.

Trying Again

All right, I'm going to try to get back in the habit of blogging. I've fallen off recently from working to finish a 1,000-page book.

The book was The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, and I have to admit that I was a bit reluctant to start a new epic fantasy series with the first volume just crossing 4 digits.

Jennifer said that I should give it a chance, and so I did. The Prologue was interesting, and then the Introduction was truly intriguing with a tease at the new magic system Sanderson has created. And from then on I was hooked. Aside from the humans and one small region, the world is almost like evolution moved on with crustaceans and corals. The magic system is based on gems that catch the power of storm that travel east to west.

Sanderson has obviously been influenced from his writing of the Wheel of Time conclusion, but mostly in the magic-technology lost to antiquity and the epic feel of things. The story is all his own. I look forward to his future volumes in this world of the Stormlight Archives.

To Sum Up

Jennifer and I had a full weekend with her dad visiting.

We ate at Cafe Gratitude on Thursday, saw "Red" and ate in North Beach on Friday, hit the Pleasant Hill farmers' market Saturday morning, and then ate at Fellini Sunday morning before he flew home.

Then last night we got the last pieces for our costumes, and carved Jack o'Lanterns.

Pictures are up on Facebook, but I'll put up some here when I get home.

I'm Not the Only One

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that one night on the road I was seeing Lanterns everywhere.

Today, from a strip called Loldwell I learned I'm not the only one who has ever seen things like that.

Hemoglobin! Hemoglobin! We Want Blood!

This morning I had blood taken for work for the first time at since I've been at this company. It also the first blood I've had taken since I started getting tattoos.

Since we're going to be doing sampling for heavy metals for one of our clients, I've been asking that we be medically monitored for metals in our annual physicals. I've been asking for this for over a year. And since I'll be going in the field at the end of the month for this sampling, I began to ask a little more often and a little more strongly.

This was finally granted Monday, and so I went in today.

The woman that did the work was very nice, and I didn't jump when she put the needle in.

I can however still feel the pain from the needle in my arm and the occasional tingle all the way down to my fingers while I type.

Finally Mounted

I have, over the past few months, discovered the usefulness of magnets for sword hanging. Some of the swords I have are in their sheathes, and so I can use a large tool-hanging magnet from the hardware store. But for a few, I either have no sheath, or the sheaths are lame, so I'm hanging them with naked blades.

Now I used to have one sword hanging up on the wall by itself, but I got a companion blade for it, and so I needed to move it over. It took a few tries, and some patching and re-painting, but the swords are hung as you can see below.

I'm very happy with the look.

I'm Peeling

This most recent work on my tattoo is healing more quickly than before, and kind of differently.

Most of the previous session have involved color oozing out of the skin into shirts, and just being overall sticky for sheets and clothing.

But I haven't oozed at all this time, and I'm peeling a few days sooner. Of course that could just mean that I'll peel twice on some of them, but we'll see.

As for the work itself, Phil started work on the facets of the exploding planet. His blending is very impressive, and also gives a sense of motion to the pieces.



I continue to be very excited for the project.

More Than a Week

So what have I been doing?

Not a whole hell of a lot.

I keep think there should be something to post, but there hasn't been anything new online I'd like to talk about.

I've just been reading through the Discworld series. And then I got some books at the library, and once I'm done with Mort, I'll move on to those, and then get back to Pratchett.