Fusion

I was always told to keep your audience waiting....

2009-08-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, long time no blog. It's not that I haven't started writing once or twice, I even got about 4 pages deep once, but it was all about work and that wasn't very interesting when I read it back. But here comes a different type of blog. An emotional tale of my last say 6 months… maybe a little longer and the future as I see it.
So the background, I hated working in Scotland, living there was ok, but work consumed my life and in turn sucked me down. I got out and moved into a different type of work life balance, one I thought I would actually enjoy. Since November 2008 I have been working in the Algerian Sahara still with Schlumberger. I am supposed to be working 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off. This happens sometimes, but what ever the ratio, I get to leave 4-5 times a year and not think about work for several weeks at a time. This is what I asked for, and at the time I had huge plans. Well plans fall through, sometimes for lots of reasons, sometimes for a few. My plans fell through because I realized that I don't like being alone. I might have known that for sometime, but this new posting really set that in stone.
So how do I combat this issue, well I make sure I spend as much time as possible with people, friends. Seeing the majority of my best friends live in Calgary, I have been visiting there a lot. I haven't officially made Calgary my home yet (Happening in October I think) but it may as well be. So with that settled and a place to go 4-5 times a year, I should be happy. But …….. I'm not.
I do have a pretty amazing life if you only care about how much money you have in the bank. I do care about that, well, I care more what that money can buy me, but still not happy. I think I figured out that seeing my friends 4-5 times a year is not enough to make me happy. It’s a little sad that I am not happy hanging out with myself alone, but I guess that’s just the way it is.
So what do I do? How to I solve the problem? I think it is at the point where I have to make a major life change, and I don't know if I have totally figured out what that is yet. I think one thing that will make me happy is to have a serious relationship. I'm not sure if I have really had a serious relationship in quite a long time (ever???), but I think I am ready for it. The problem is, I can't start a relationship with someone only being around for 3 or 4 weeks at a time. Any girl that would be fine with this is not a girl I am interested in, so right now my life excludes this from happening. I think it is important enough that I will have to change my life to accommodate dating, and hopefully finding someone to settle down with and make a life with. It's not like I haven't dated. I was dating a girl for almost 4 months, I saw her for a total of 12 days, not exactly what I (or she) was looking for. I have done the online dating thing, and actually met 3 people outside of the computer. What I learned is:
1) People never look better in real life
2) Anyone that went to school for anything starting with Psych is a crazy bitch and I should stay away
3) When I meet people that I like and want to see again, I need to figure out how to see them again. (Getting on a plane and flying to Algeria is not a good way to accomplish this)
4) Online dating can be really fun and occupy hours of your time, but I am not looking for a pen pal.

In the goal of keeping this brief I will stop there as I can already tell this is completely uninteresting and need to wrap it up. However, maybe an online dating blog should follow because I have learned quite a bit on the subject
Anyway, here is the plan. The way forward if you will. I am trying to open up some options. I know where I want to live, that part is simple, now I just need to figure out how to live there. Because I'm not Canadian I have 4 options that I can figure out.
Get transferred to Calgary (very unlikely given my recent transfer to Algeria and the current layoffs in Canada). Apply for jobs with other companies in Calgary where they would sponsor me for a work permit. Apply on my own for a Canadian work permit then apply for any job in my field. Go to the U of C and get my Masters.
I think working in Calgary would suit me more than going to school there, however I also think it will be near impossible to get a job there right now. Oil prices are picking up, but Gas prices are staying depressed and that is a major factor in hiring right now. So U of C looks like a pretty good option if I can get in. That is a pretty big if, I applied 5 years ago (and if I had gone my life would have been very different and I don't even know if I would have passed my first semester there) and did not get in. Now all I have is an extra 5 years of work experience, a little less hair and a somewhat subdued ego. Will this be enough, I guess I will have to wait and see.
The other benefit of going to University is the dating pool is opened up. When I did my undergrad I went on a couple of dates, but again nothing serious. But 90% or my friends met there long term partner in university so by those odds I am sure to find my future wife at the U of C. I guess I could always just go and sit on a bench there and read an interesting book and wait for girls to approach me, but I'm not sure if it will work out as well as actually attending classes and study sessions etc.
So I think that is the plan for now. Apply for the non existent jobs in Calgary and apply for the existent, but already rejected once, masters program at the U of C. Plans after that are in the air, but at least in the short term I have a exit strategy, which is more than American's can say in a few other places in the world right now.
Sorry for boring everyone, but I needed to get proverbial pen to paper to actually mentally get the ball rolling. Too many euphemisms, well tough, I didn't make you read it!

O yea,

2008-08-10T15:27:00.001-07:00

This (Kristiansund) Is the furthest North I have ever been outside of a plane!!!

Rick's in Norway, but on his way somewhere much more remote

2008-08-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, so no postss in a while. Sorry loyal readers, but I have a feeling I was hanging out with most of you so that makes it ok right?
Anyway, here the update. I took 6 weeks off from work in aberdeen to head to calgary. It was awsome, loads of canoeing, hiking, campling. Picked up an ultimate frisbee MVP award, and learned how to make beer. Thats the short unemotional update and all I feel like writing for now, cause I miss not working.

I went swiftly from that to.... well not working. I arrived in Aberdeen after a helish flight with a kid kicking my chair and his father next to him having no idea how to be a parent, just in time to get to sleep. Straight to work in the morning and I got some news. "Hey Rick, your going to Norway" I thaught this was my transfer and I started to loose it, but then I was told it was just 1 job and should be fast and easy and not to worry. SO that some day I was on a plane and heading East. Found my hotel and again went to sleep. Woke up the next day for offshore survival with Matt (My flat mate from Aberdeen). Apparently they wanted the entire dream team over here. After that I wne tto the base, then went binge drinking from Friday night until 3 am Sunday monring.
First impressions, Norway girls are amazing to look at, but are kept in glass jars. You cannot touch them or talk to them unless you are from here, and you can't break the glass, no matter how much you want to and how hard you try.
So Monday in the base, checked some tools. I talked to my boss and he told me to call him later, I went to the hotel and fell asleep. I woke up to a phone call saying "Your transfer is in and you are going to In Salah, Algeria."
Amazingly enough one of my oldest SLB friends works in Algeria, In Sallah to be exact, so I emailed her and got the inside scoup. I also looked it up on google maps and this is what it looks like.

May not look like much, but its worth a visit to Google maps to see for yourself. Its at least a 1000 miles fromt he middle of nowhere, and at least 2000 from somewhere. Its going to be great. I really am excited about it, only reading things like ( http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/08/10/algeria.bombs.ap/index.html ) worry me a bit. But who is going to drive a car 2000 miles to blow me up.

So there will be lots of time to talk about that, now to talk about Norway.
I was in Bergin, and like I said some good place to drink, some great place to eat, and luckily I was on expences the whole time ( I think/hope) A beer here is about $18. Yea you read that right. I pint of Beer $18.... crazy.
So after some time in Bergin doing nothing but reading about some big sand dune invading my future home on line I was sent North to Kristiansund.
We were supposed to get up here Saturday and leave Sunday, but now we are delayed til tomorrow (Monday)
So we took today to do a little sightseeing. We went to this little fishing village called Grip. It was amazing. It was about a 45 min boat ride out into the Norweigean Sea and we found this little Island. There are about 30 buildings.

Apparently they are Redskins fans (Go Skins Go)

They had a church built in the 1400's

Apparently all of the Churchs here have ships and the beginning and end of the Isle and its called the ship not the isle. I thaught that was interesting.

The landscape here is also quite amazing. All the rocks are Granite and its Islands everywhere.

Ok thats all for me. I wont be heading off to Alferia for a little while due to the excessive time it takes to get a visa, so after this job it will be back to Aberdeen for packing up and a few goodbye parties.

O ans sorry about the sideways pics, i don't know how to fix that

Goodnight all!

if u don't like Calgary, then i probably don't like you.

2008-07-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

It's also means you're likely a moron and have bad taste in tunes.

Thats all for now!

Long time no blog.... plus Nats Game update

2008-04-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

So first a quick update on life since my last blog. Work, move to a different job in schlumberger Aberdeen that is basically my old job plus some new stuff :-( Work Work, 10 days at home for New years, Work, Work, Big Promotion from Senior Field Engineer to General Field Engineer (Which while it sounds like demotion is actually a pretty huge promotion and now puts me at the highest level of Field Engineer Schlumberger has). Then I worked for 8 more weeks and now, finally I am on my 2 weeks off that I was promised back in November.
So now that you are up to date with my life lets start up this blog thing again.
Alright, if you don't know Washington DC has a baseball team. They are the old Expos and they still are not very good. But if you don't have a good team you may as well draw a crowd by having them play in the middle of the wrong part of DC. Wait a minute, that sounds crazy..... but its working. and the reason why you ask????? New Stadium. That's right folks the Nats have a new stadium and the city is energized. The team does also have a lot to live up to because Washington's other big 3 pro teams were all int he playoffs this past year, and while the Skins were 1 and out, the Wiz will collapse as always and the Caps are down 2-0 in game 2 of the series as I am writing this, they all made it. Will the Nats..... after yesterdays performance my prediction is No.
Anyway as for my day yesterday, it was awesome. I don't think i have ever had a bad day when i got to watch baseball live, especially in a new stadium. We had awesome seats and got to see quite an offencive explosion. The Braves put up 4 int he top of the 4th and the crowd was going nuts. i guess part of not having a team for 30 years means that lots of people start rooting for other teams. and if you started rooting for teams int he 90's the braves were a pretty good choice. Quick side note. 95% of the girls at the park wearing Braves jerseys were smokin hot, and because of this I decided my next girlfriend will be getting a Braves jersey to wear around, actually it may not have to be a Braves jerseys, I'd even say that an average girl in a Baseball Jersey moves up a point on a 10 point scale just by having the Jersey on.
Back to the Blog. so Yea the Nats got shelled, but it was a fun day at the ballpark.

John Smoltz pitched for the Braves and did very well. As you can see. We had pretty awesome seats. Half way between 3rd base and the foul pole about 12 rows back. I missed 3 foul balls by about 12 seats each and even better I got on the Jumbotron for the first time ever in my sports watching life. And what a jombotron it is. Its the Biggest HD TV in the world. I don't know the exact size, but as you can see.

It is huge. What did I learn by seeing myself in HD and that big. Well other than the fact that I was the best looking person in our section, possibly the whole stadium, HDTV isn't good for guys with short hair. It makes them look like they are going bald.

One last thing to note, in between innings these guys come onto the field to make sure people won't do anything stupid. First off, i think i could outrun this guy,

second, I thought Tiger was shooting a 68 at the masters but clearly he was stopping the drunk guy in the first row from spending a night in SE jail. Which by the way is all anyone needs to know to act proper at Nats games as all the White people from the burbs love going to a game in SE, talking about how nice it will be one day and how the stadium will bring up the area, but non of us EVER want to go the the jail in SE because of being stupid at the baseball game 'cause that same jail houses people that live in SE and we spend our whole lives staying away said people not trying to get into an 8X6 with them.

that's it for now folks, Will try and update again soon.

STOP, collaborate and Listen

2007-10-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, So this will be long, and impossible to believe, but I have
pictures to back it up. It is true and it is amazing. First off I will
give an analogies of what happened. Monday night was the equivalent of
going to a Chicago Bulls game in 1993 and after the game havingMJ come
up to you, ask to play you in HORSE and you winning by dunking from the
3-point line, Impossible you say that’s what I would have thought
before last night.
It all started on Friday when we went out
to watch the Rugby at a pub. At half time they moved a band in and we
decided to move out. We knew there was a place that would be playing
the game as they advertised to play every minute of the World Cup so we
went on to Tiger Tiger. After 15 minutes of them not playing the game
they finally turned it on. I went to the bathroom where the next minute
would permanently change my life. As I exited the bathroom I saw a
small sign and on it, it said, “Ice Ice Baby is playing Tiger Tiger on
Monday Night” I instantly went outside and went straight to the bar to
buy tickets. “What do you mean your not selling tickets?” “Not that
big” “Just a normal Student night?. Those were the things that the
bartender told me. I was unconvinced so I spoke to the bouncer,
manager, and some other people. Apparently it was the truth. On the way
out we met 5 girls promoting student night at the club. I figured they
would be as excited as me and my 6 friends were. They actually were
promoting the following weeks show. DJ Jazzy Jeff. Are you serious,
this place could be Aberdeen’s goldmine! Anyway for the rest of Friday
we told everyone that we saw that Vanilla Ice was playing on Monday
night, and were met with indifference or the common “I thought he was
dead”. He is not, in fact, he is very much alive.
So after taking the weekend off I sent out this email on Monday morning
to the 2,000 Schlumberger people that work in Aberdeen.
Hi All,
I know this is very hard to imagine but the Ice man himself (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_ice) is playing our hometown
tonight at Tiger Tiger. The publicity is rather low, but I was told by
members of the Tiger Tiger staff that he is guaranteed to play "Ice Ice
Baby". It is not possible to make reservations or buy tickets ahead of
time but cover at the door will be 4.50 the slightly higher than the
Monday night rate but far from a ripoff.. Doors open at 8 PM, and he
will play at some point after midnight. Some of us fromWireline are
planning to go showing up at around 9:30 PM after dinner. This is a
once in a lifetime experience where you will see a major
recordingartiest
in a small venue. We can only hope that in addition to Ice Ice Baby
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp-is6S_b_g&mode=related&search=)
he will play classics such as the Ninja song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFLGRidfFo4 . I hope everyone seriously
considers coming as this will be a life changing event for some if not
all of us.
Just thought the SLB world should know about this unique opportunity
I instantly got 2 responses they were
'Hi all' should have been replaced with 'STOP, collaborate and Listen'
and
That's
AWESOME. Unfortunately, home with super sore throat so will not be able
to attend. Try to get some video on your mobile or camera!! If you
seeXXXXX, remind her as she knows all the words to ICE ICE BABY!!
The second one was from my personal manager; XXXXXX is a person who is
about 3 levels above me. I told her, and she came and was almost as
excited as me.
Brenton and I were extremely pumped about the event, we plastered the
base with posters and spent the day reading wikedpedia, and watching
Ice Ice baby and The Ninja song on Youtube. The Ninja song on Youtube
has the most hilarious moment ever where they are interviewing Ice
after the video shoot and he explains that “The director told him to
put some Ice on it…. So he did” It was a productive daySLB shares
dropped about $1.32.
We decided that while the club told us to show up before 11 to get in
we were not willing to take a chance so we planned dinner for 8 pm then
were going to head to the club around 10 pm. We hit the door and the
bouncer that I talked to on Friday remembered me. By the way I was
wearing black pants, a white shirt withcuff links , and a silver vest.
I was dressed just like Vanilla Ice in the Ice Ice video. So we get in
and claim the couch right by the stairs to go downstairs to the club.
Its like a restaurant upstairs on street level and a basement club
below. Not opening the downstairs til after 11. No problem, we need a
little pick me up anyway. We start pounding VodkaRedbulls by the
pitcher. What an awesome drunk!
So when they finally do open the stairs down we rush down with everyone
else. We head to the stage……. Everyone else heads to the bar. And when
I say we, I mean the 20 people fromSLB that came. I did that, and I
told everyone I was quitting to become a concert promoter. However the
20 people I brought were nothing compared to student night. I forgot
how amazing student night is. It was basically like Kingston at the bar
down by the water, just a skin fest, it was great.
Anyway so continue the Redbull
and Vodkas for a long long time, listen to some great old school jams,
bust out a few dance moves for the people there which include my
immediate manager, theaffor mentioned high up manager, and 30 something
sales engineer, and 4 people from the interpretation team..
Ice goes on stage at 12:30 Am and kills it. Before he comes out I start
a “Go Ninja Go Ninja Go” chant. It caught on with everyone (maybe 100
people around the stage) He does a few songs and then in a slight lull
in the performance I start another “Go Ninja” chant. Ice says “Wow, I
can’t believe you guys remember that” then busts out with the Metal
Rock version of the Ninja song. 1 of the 2 songs I wanted to hear was
played, and he is defiantly singing the other one so I am happy. A few
songs later here comes, “Yo VIP, Let’s kick it” Place goes insane. Well
at least the first 3 rows, possibly the only 3 rows cause when I looked
behind me there were 2 rows of people pushing, then open space on the
dance floor. I knew half the people on the floor cause I brought them.
Anyway, he again does a Metal remix of Ice Ice Baby and kills it. What
an awesome night. All of my goals for the show were completed. I was so
happy. After some more comedy during the show including Vanilla coming
out with a song directed at the girls he dragged on stage “Show me the
titties” In which he just said “Show me the titties” over and over
again. It was over. Amazing, so mush fun so drunk, and so much energy
from theRedbull . It started to get very dark in the club section
downstairs after the show so we headed upstairs to talk about how
awesome the show was. I find a hot girl and start talking to her. She
does not want to hook up with me so I leave her. Brenton goes outside
for a smoke and then calls cause he can’t come back in cause it almost
last call. I go talk to the bouncer and it is my buddy who loves the
outfit and the excitement I have. Brenton is allowed back in.
Apparently I have say there.
So one last drink and we head to the
place where everyone knows your name; the International Casino. Take
out 100 pounds and with the 50 in my pocket start playing blackjack.
Brenton takes 50 and looses at Roulette, comes over and acts as my
adviser. I needed no advise as I was doing well. Craig, the pit boss
comes over and says, “hey guys he’s here”. We were confused and asked
who is here. He said, “Vanilla Ice is here” I’m impressed shocked and
happy all at once and run to the door to see if I can sign him in as my
guest. He already has a membership card that he just got, but I give
him a man 1 arm handshake hug and say great show. We then start playing
Roulette. And Vanilla Ice sits down next to me. ……………………………….
That’s
a pause for effect because of what I just said. Yes, Vanilla Ice just
sat next to me. The Vanilla ICE!!!!!!!!! We start playing, I’m betting
huge to try to impress him. We start talking, I start winning. Brenton
is advising me to make some 25 pound 5 number bets, and we hit. 175
pound pay day. We hit again. Things are looking up. We play for about
3
hours while just shooting the shit with Ice. We tell him that we are
just some Texas boys like him, at which point he shows us the state of
Texas outline Tattoo on his leg. I show him my tattoo. We talk about
his tour, we talk about his family. Talk about our lives here. Talk
about what he does, his investments. He is actually a really cool guy,
but whowouldn ’t say that when they meet someone as influential has
him. He actually hung out with the 2 of us more then his 2 friends that
he brought.
The highlight of the game was when a girl tried to get
in-between me and Ice and he tells her to move somewhere else. Then
turns to me and says “I’m sorry dude, did I justcockblock you?” Vanilla
Ice just asked if he cockblocked me. Awesome
! At this point I should mention that I love all celebrities and if
your famous its for a reason and I respect that. I would like to be
that, but it will never happen, but I will celebrate the people who did
make it.
Anyway, there was this girl in a red dress that followed
him to the casino hoping to hook up with him. He is married with 2 kids
and does not hook up with groupies, but shedidn’t know that because she
hadn
’t been talking to him all night like some people. I see her sitting at
the blackjack table and decide to go talk to her as I am walking that
way anyway. We have been drinking a lot of beers at the casino and are
still on the red bull high crazy drunk level. It was one of the
drunkest nights I had while not getting insane, it was perfect and I
think theRedbul had a lot to do with that. Also the fact that student
means more than just hot skimpy dressed girls it also means cheep
drinks, and I make too much money no tot take advantage of that. Plus,
for some reason,al the 20 people that came wanted to buy me drinks.
What can I say, I’m a popular guy.
Back to the girl, I ask her if I can kiss her cause I’m really good.
She says yes. I give her a small kiss, and then throw my tongue down
her throat. She was pretty hot from what I remember and I think her
name was Jessica, but I can’t remember if she told me before or after.
Anyway, what was I doing, I had a seat next to Vanilla Ice with a pile
of chips that Brenton was loosing so I had to go back and salvage what
was going on.
Back at the roulette table there is more chilling
with Vanilla, who refused our offer to buy him a drink about 100 times.
At 4:30 am he looked at his watch and realized he had to wake up in 4
hours to head to his next show so he went to cash out. He cashed out
for 120 pounds. I cashed out for 350. I won! While cashing out I asked
if I could take a picture with me and him. He agreed and just then
Brenton returned from the bathroom with his camera phone to take the
picture of me and Vanilla Ice. I apparently had my real camera in my
pocket, but I had forgotten 
Brenton was very upset that I cashed out as he wasn’t
finished loosing my money so we lost about 100 pounds and took a cab
home, tipping the door bouncer 20 pounds on the way out, cause Ididn’t
get thrown out.
What an amazing night. Like I said, playing HORSE with MJ is the only
comparison I can come up with. It was truly amazing, that’s the only
word I can think of to use.
I
woke up at 9 am like I was shot out of a Cannon, I might have slept for
about 3 hours and I was wide awake and still steaming drunk. I’m
already late for work, which my manager should have expected as he saw
me the night before. I shower then get in the car and head to work. I
stop for gas and almost puke. Get to work and walk right into the back
room where I am now writing this. I will not accomplish much today
either, hope the stock pricedoesen’t notice.
O and yea, I got this email from the high up manager today.
Rick and Brenton,
Thank
you for arranging a surreal but very entertaining night out. Had a
great time. Thank you for inviting me. I am looking forward to Rick's
dancing onYouTube
While the dancing won’t be on youtube. I’m
going to try and post some of the video of the performance. Its pretty
dark, but you can hear the music and I actually like it a lot, but
then
again he did sell 20 million albums, so he must have talent.
Anyway,
that was my Monday night, what a start to the week. Next weeks edition
DJ Jazzy Jeff brings Summertime to Aberdeen in winter???? Who knows,
I’m just going to keep walking around with a smile n my face for
another couple of days.
By the way, coming off a Redbull and Vodka drunk sucks. It happened at
lunch in about 20 minutes from being drunk to being ill and exhausted.
I think I’m over it now and might be able to drive home. But I do have
a little work to do first.

me and Vanilla Ice at the casino, yes it really did happen

Ice at the Casino in the background with Brenton in front

Random girl that didn't want to hook up with me

The Man at work

Me and Brenton before the show in antisapation of the grateness that would be Monday night

I figured this was how Vanilla would sit in a big chair

Rick hits 52 week high

2007-09-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=RICK

A coworker showed me this today. With a name like that how can they loose. Follow me as I go to the top!

I'm not a nice person

2007-09-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, I promise this one will be much shorter. O and thanks for all the responses to the last post…… did anyone read it?
Anyway…..Hiking in Scotland is awesome, but will it last? Mel is leaving in 2 weeks and I am working for the next 2 weeks so will I get another trip in before winter? Is it winter already? These are the questions that only time will answer. I did have a great time I have to thank Andrew and Ali for the book that got it all started. P.S. When Lonely Planet say difficult, you will be in pain the next day!!!

Part 2. Ok, don't read this if you are easily offended, but I think this need sto be shared. I recently found out about this thing called Craig’s list. It is the most hilarious thing I have ever read. First off, the posts about looking for someone to come screw them are amazing. Like http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/w4m/424082728.html I mean seriously if your not going to sell us with your picture at least sell us with the writing. Or is this good enough??? Or what about this one http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/w4m/422431285.html a car, job, and a country song are all you need to have a chance, damn, that’s like half the country. http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/w4m/420230839.html would be pure confusion. How do I know is the shoe will even fit? The whole cindreli thing online doesen’t really work.

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/w4m/424681611.html This one did make me feel a little better because I had come to the conclusion that a girl could pull anytime she went out no matter what. But this makes me think maybe they can’t!
Only nice men welcome http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/w4m/424156819.html well of course. Dressed like that and carrying your luggage you wouldn’t want to move in with a mean guy!

Ok, enough being mean. Do I think maybe I could find a girl on craigslist that I would like to go out with? Sure http://calgary.craigslist.org/w4m/390254652.html there’s one. But I know nothing about you. What do you like? What do you hate? What if you hate, great looking, smart intelligent guys, who are great natural athletes and amazing people in general that save babies on there days off. If you hate guys like that I should just save both of us the time.
I’, thinking of putting an ad up, maybe in a few different cities and seeing what comes back my way for the pure comedy aspect of course. Anyway, hope that didn’t offend anyone, not like anyone reads this but yea, just thought that was something that needed to be shared.

Longest blog ever

2007-09-04T21:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, so 9 months in Aberdeen and this kid is not a happy camper. Why not, well there are many reasons. Some I know, some are a mystery even to me, but these are not important, what is important is what am I going to do about it!
This plan was not hatched in 1 day and I am sure it will not be final either (actually, I’m writing this so its not a lot of random thoughts in my head but an actual plan) So first I need a place. Thinking logically I have lived in 4 places that I remember. Washington D.C, Kingson, Ontario, Liberty, Texas and Aberdeen Scotland. While I liked all of them at times I also disliked all of them at times for different reasons. In order to move forwards with an effective future I think the past needs to be analyzed to make the best future possible.
So let’s go in order.
Why did I live in Washington. Well that’s easy, I was 10, and mom lived there and I lived with Mom…
What did I like about it? Lots to do (Museums, restaurants, bars, pubs) some really good friends from high school. Lots of Family (extended family). The Townhouse is awesome. Like the hardwood floors. Like my big shower and big bedroom. Safe place to live. Gym at the corner. Pool for swimming of lazing around during the summer.

What did I not like? Bad water pressure (Ok so this is apparently going to get detailed, but that’s the best way to ensure a better tomorrow right?) 45 mins drive to School. Lived in a neighborhood just too far away to walk anywhere. Was the only person my age in neighborhood.

Ok On to Kingston
What did I like?
Great friends. House was always busy with someone doing something. Did not get bored. Walked everywhere. Places to go out when I wanted to and people to go out with. Intramurals.

What did I not like?
Walked everywhere in bad weather (Cold snow and rain)

Liberty
What I liked? Big apartment. ShinerBach beer. Had my truck and my operators and my my tools (Its called a cell system if your in Schlumberger) No traffic. Airports close by with direct flights everywhere. Houston has everything you could want. (Baseball, football, huge mall, beach, great food) . Great Winter weather. Loved the convertible!

What I didn’t like? Had to drive everywhere. Stopped being challenged at work. Thought being only a USLand engineer would make me less well rounded. To humid in summer.

Aberdeen
What I like?
$$$ most I have ever made, Great downtown with food bars, pubs etc. Lots of people to work with makes sure that I get along very well with at least some of them. Always people to go out with.. Always see the sun in Summer. Gas Stove

What I don’t like?
Apartment is small with too many doors. Never see the sun in Winter. Carpet has no padding. People talk weird. Girls dress stupidly. I work too much. I drink too much. I gamble too much. I have a lifetime ban from my casino (Is that a good thing?)

So now we come to the important thing. What am I looking for in my future to make me happy.

First, a little analysis. Good things over all. Friends are important, not a boring place, able to walk around, places to go out for a meal or a drink, big enough place to live with soft carpet and hardwood floors in a city with a major airport and some kind of local sports team to back and a good “local” brew and the ability to play sports myself.

So this list other than the first statement is not difficult to find. San Diego has all of this and great weather. I’ve heard great things about San Antonio and Denver. But If I found a city that has all of the above with my best friends there, wouldn’t that be better? Yes it would….. I think.. So not all my best friends live in 1 place. But 2 of them do!
Now here is the rub on that. (And I am talking about Calgary if anyone hasn’t figured that out yet) Would it be as good as I think it would be? It would not be like Queens for many reasons, the simplest being all my friends that were “single” at Queens are not single anymore.

***** Ok I wrote this whole thing yesterday and am board of reading now So I amgoing to post the whole thing without reading the rest. It may suck. This is your warning*****

Now this is both a good thing and a bad thing. Luckily the people they are not single with are fun people so I quickly double the number of people I know, but it does mean I have to share and I am an only child for all intensive purposes and am not very good at sharing. I have also not really experienced a Canadian Winter in 3 years, and while Aberdeen does have sucky winter weather I was offshore for most of it, and we do our best to stay inside away from the wind and the cold, but more importantly it doesn’t snow more than 1 inch offshore. And what I hated most about the snow was how it got the bottom of your pants wet when you walked in it. Calgary would have that problem.
So if I did move to Calgary where would I live to satisfy all my desires. Well while writing this I spent several hours looking at Calgary real-estate and there is tons out there. What really caught my eye were the Luxury condo’s downtown. They have hardwood floors, Granite Kitchens, Gas stoves, and from the looks of it soft carpet  They also have huge price tags.
This may be a good place to discuss the possible ways of moving to Calgary. They way I see it there are 3 ways. Quit Schlumberger and get a job with a company in Calgary. Is this possible? I am pretty sure I am hirable with most majors, and I do interview very well. Plus 3 years of looking at logs would make me a half decent petrophysisit, but would I enjoy that? Who knows, maybe a topic for a future blog, and it would be a pretty serious pay cut I am sure. How much would this affect my ability to buy a luxury condo, again I’m not sure but research will have to be done. Second, I could stay with Schlumberger and ask for a transfer to Calgary. Now there are basically 3 things I can do with big Blue in Calgary. Sales or DCS in downtown, or instructor at Airdre. Again all of these would be drastic pay cuts, but again for a normal life is it worth it. While Sales or DCS would take me out of operations and therefore management in the short term and maybe forever, instructor is often a stepping stone to FSM or Ops manager positions and doesn’t everyone want to be a manager, I mean you don’t actually work anymore. Your job is to get other people to work and isn’t that the American dream. (Interesting that this American is thinking of moving to be happy in a country that is not America, again another blog??) Anyway, back to this blog. Third and this is an option that makes sense on so many levels except the common sense one. Go work in a Schlumberger SHL (Shit hole location) Now these SHLs have special rules like work 6 weeks here and we will let you go take 3 weeks off anywhere you want and still let you make good money. Or work in a slightly bigger SHL for 4 weeks and go take 4 weeks of anywhere you want for less, but still good money. So while I would not be living full time in Calgary I would have a home base there and with that I would be able to come back to a home. Also, and this is where I will need some help from the local community, but If I had a 2 bedroom nice apartment downtown living there only 3 out of every 9 weeks isn’t in conceivable that someone would wan to live there too. Like having a roommate that could pay half the bills and half the mortgage. Not a bad plan, at least in the short term.
So I guess that about sums up this blog. I think it has left me with more questions than answers. One question being how did I manage to be 25 with such poor writing skills? Others like what would it be like living in Calgary full time. It would not be like a vacation. Where are the good parts of downtown to live? Do I really want to live downtown? Do I need a stupidly overpriced apartment to live in? (I do remember buying a sweet car and every time I drove it I had a smile on my face and maybe a sweet apartment would do the same thing which would be good)
It has also answered some things for me, and answers are always good. If this is the right thing to do it shows me that I will have to start preparing now my doing a better job of saving. I will start this by setting some goals, first of which is establishing a budget and living by it. Apparently this is normal for people, but I have never done this in my life. Even when I had no money and was driving around the Midwest with a Jeep full of food and enough money for gas I just lived on what I had. Now I have more and I live on more. So budget here I come. If anyone has any kind of excel budget sheet that they find helpful, or even better if someone has some free time and wants to make me up a budget please do it.
I also need to figure out how much money I need in the bank when/if I come to Calgary. This would be a goal or as I like to think of it a challenge, and I think everyone knows how competitive I am when it come to challenges. I think the other thing that really nees to happen is to test the job waters in Calgary. Now I have done this before with some success, but actually committing and not talking to friends Dad’s who know people up there may be a better way to go. So I can do this both inside and outside of SLB. Inside is defiantly easier with my next (and final) field promotion coming up before the end of the year (I really need to start working on this). I get a carrier Orientation Review where I can say what I want to do and where I want to go in the future. (Again, I will need to figure that out before then, but I really do think writing this has helped that).
So there I am. Some questions worked out, many more found but I have some goal like things to reach for in the next little while and it only took 1,898 words!

Please Please comment on this. Is this a terrible idea that will ruin my life. I need to know other people’s thoughts.

Wow, I feel so bad for my fans for not having anything to read!!

2007-07-29T08:26:00.001-07:00

But seriously sorry if anyone actually does read this. I'll asume that the only people that read this are in calgary seeing as they have the biggest red dot on the map, and the other big one is in Aberdeen where I think I am the only one who reads it. But yea, Calgary... lots of time spent with awsome frends and having good times... although not as much drinking as I would have liked. SLB school got int he way for the middle week, but all in all an effective holiday.

Anyway, after that the intresting stuff that no one knows about happened. On my flight back it took a little longer than anticipated because England was in a storm of the century when i landed. Our plane got struck by lightning 3 times while we were circling waiting to land(Which the Pilot kept saying was normal but was worrying me a lot) After that we sat on the runway for 2 hours because there was no where to park because no flights were leaving. So we finally got a parking space and my flight to Aberdeen was cancled and I was supposed to wait in a crazy long line to talk to someone about it but basically I would have to sleep in the airport. SO instead I took a bus to my aunt's house and stayed with her until Sunday when things had calmed down. Too bad my luggage didn't arrive till yesterday and all my clothes were wet :-( Lots of laundry to do now.
On Thursday I went to Paris for the day for a meeting (I arived at 10:30 am and left at 2:30 pm so to say it was a fast trip would be an understatement). Anyway, I got what I needed to done (Lots of listing and me saying yes sir) and got back to Aberdeen in time to get some work done too :-)
Ok, thats all my fun for now. Loading out a job for west of the Shetland Islands now and should be there around the end of the week so I have a 3.5 hour chopper ride to lookforwards too.... and I already have a broken tail bone :-(

Wow, what a booring life. I'll try and do something more exciting soon and write about it.
Later
Ricky

I’ve been to the mother fucking mountain top…….

2007-06-06T00:23:00.000-07:00

So its been awhile since I’ve done any serious blogging. Honestly I’m not sure why. My life hasen’t been very interesting, but that never stopped me before. Well I actually do have a little bit of excitement to talk about so here goes…… and as for the title goes, well its just a song that’s been stuck in my head for a while now, not sure why but I am open to suggestions.

So to start with I should have written this about a week ago, or maybe longer. On the work front the big huge “Most important job in Aberdeen this year” and therefore the most important Wireline job for Schlumberger this year was completed on May 25 my your truly. Everything defiantly did not go according to plan, but I think overall we (John a fellow American was the other engineer) we did a good job, actually we did a great job. We had some failures(Not our fault), but we were on the limits with everything and for the most part dealt with the stress of the weight of the Wireline world on our shoulders, and half the SLB world literally looking over our shoulders well. I can’t really say anymore about the job because it’s a tight hole (ha ha ha, yea I laugh every time I say it too). Now its just back to do all the final paperwork and get this “HUGE” check that everyone keeps talking about.

O yea just to keep everyone updates I was offshore from May 2-18, than back on land for the 19-20, then back out from the 21-25, so a total of 20 days offshore in a month, new record for me!

Ok so now for the fun stuff on Friday the 25^th when the job was finally over we had Chinese for dinner. We being John, another Texan and myself. All three of us drank quite a few beers ad decided that the best place to spend the rest of the night was the Casino. This was not a surprise because all 3 of us do enjoy the gambling, although 1 of us (not me) usually walks away up a lot of money. SO anyway on our way to the International casino we pass the new casino that opened upstairs from the club I mentioned earlier that is in an old church. The Casino is owned by the same people (No not God) but as the club is called Soul it is called Soul Casino. So we decide that we have walked far enough and we will stop to deposit out money into the hole at the end of the roulette table here. We sign up and as the place has only been open for 2 weeks they decide to give us the grand tour. Doesn’t hurt that when they ask if we are members at any other casinos we all pull out multiple black membership cards. So we head up the elevator and it opens into the most impressive room I have seen in Aberdeen. Later in the night 9after many many drinks it was described as what Vegas tries to be) It has huge cathedral ceilings with exposed wood, stained glass on every wall. A 70 seat restaurant, a bar.longe area, and really cool bathrooms upstairs. Not to mention a huge floor with slots around the outside and tables in the middle. Poker room to come too I was told J

So anyway we start playing roulette and this is where I start to do amazing things. Not not just o he won in a casino amazing, but like, oh my god this cannot happen in the physical universe amazing.

So for starters I buy in for 20 $. O and for record $ means pounds and all the money I talk about should be doubled to convert to US dollars.

Ok her goes with what I remember. I was playing 0.25$ chips and covering the board, basically playing the middle numbers and making a flower around 26. I was staying about even when I decided to change my bet and just bet a few numbers. When I was betteing I put 8 chips down on 15 and 3 on 3. My only 2 bets on the table, what hits …… 15, that’s 8X35 chips, that’s a lot. I go nutz. I make a neighbors bet. (Bet 25$ on a number that splits down to 5$ on 5 numbers in a slice of the wheel and pays ut 175$ if you win. I hit it. I let the bet spin again, it hit again, I had over 500 in my hand. The 3^rd of the group who is normally taking money from casinos is loosing, I do feel slightly better but he maxed out his card and I gave him a loan.

I then walked over to the blackjack table and start to play. 5$ hand, won to 10, 10 goes to 20. make the bet 100, and I won. At this point the other guy on the table is just laughing nearly as much as me. I bet the table maximum of 200$ and wouldn’t you know it, I hit blackjack for 300$. I go back to the roulette table with all green $100 chips and ask John what will hit. He is a student of the numbers tonight for some reason, but he doing well so no harm, and he says it will be a low one. I put 200$ on the first 12, it lands on 6. I make 400$, if you know the order of a wheel you know that 6 is surrounded on both sides by high numbers for at least 5 in each direction, there is no way it should land on 6, but it does and I peak for the night at 1200$, that’s 2400 real $, that’s like 2 weeks work almost all this and it might be 10 pm. Everyone tells me to cash out, I go to play blackjack. I make 5 consecutive 200$ bets and loose them all, I am back down to 200$. I am sad. I demand the free sand wedges that we were promised on entry. Before they get there I am down to 50$. I am upset.

I work the wheel again all the way back to 800$. I can do no wrong. The third guy borrows money again, make almost all he owes back to me and runs home. mE and John continue until 3 am. He ha 25$ from a big round number and says here bet this while I cash out. I make another neighbors bet. It hits. I yell “John… then give the big thumbs up. We turn that 25$ into another 450 in about 4 spins. We walk outside. Because its daylight here at 3 am ( It is really frustrating by the way) we are running around town trying to get a cab. We can’t so we each walk home. I decide to throw all the money on the bed and sleep in it. When I wake up in the morning I collect it and smile. What an amazing night.

So the next day I buy 100$ worth of wine and Scotch, Scotch for a guy that helped out a lot on the job, 1 nice bottle of whine for my Aunt that I went to visit and the rest to stock up. Then went to work. Went back to the casino the next night after a night of bar hopping and watching Pirates 3, which really sucks. And lost 300$ back but I was still up.

Mom came on Sunday to visit which was great, will write about that later, but I took her on Tuesday and made another 200$. So bottom line. Looks like I found a new ATM machine when the money doesen’t come from my account, brilliant.

On Wednesday I went down with Mom to my Aunt and we had a family reunion with 2 new family members (2 new babies, 1 cousin and 1 great cousin (I know that doesen’t exist but its my Cousin’s baby and I don’t know what to call it) Again will write more about that later.

Anyway only 3 weeks of work until my vacation J Hopefully it will go fast. Will write more soon now that life is a little more slow.

Bye

Ricky

My Life is booring

2007-04-21T03:51:00.000-07:00

Hi All,
I am not disregarding my loyal readers but I just have nothing interesting to write about and I will not more you with mindless details. Basically my life the last 3 weeks has boiled down to preparing "The most important job in Schlumberger this year." If any of the tools fail we will lose a worldwide contract and many people will loose their jobs. (No one has said I will be one of those people..... but I think if things go wrong I may be looking for another job). Hopefully it all goes right but the job is at the limit of most of the tools so we shall see.
I am going down to a testing facility this weekend to test the tools but it is a pretty superficial test. It is down in Edinburgh which if you may remember was a lot of fun last time I went. It will be a much lower key visit with work stuff to do, but still should have a little excitement.
Goodnight and good luck
Ricky

My List

2007-03-10T05:50:00.000-08:00

So a while ago I promised a list of my 25 gratest accomplishments so far and the 75 to come in the next 75 years. I am still working on the list but I seem to have hit a wall and I need help. This is my list so far. Remember these are 25 things fromt he first 25 years of my life, and 75 things to do before I reach 60, cause as we all know after 60 life will be nothing but living in an old folks home and pissing in depends. So here is the list so far, please send comments on what I am missing, or if you hav any ideas on how/when to accomplish these things.

To do in future::
1) Do so well in an activity that I can drape the American flag over me when I am finished like in Rocky 4
2) Enter a free style battle like in 8 mile
3) Have sex with a stripper/prostitute or a girl that has sex like strippers do.
4) Bungee jump
5) Jump out of a plane with a parachute

6) Drink so much Hypnotic that I get hallucinations.
7) Get drunk on 5 different continents. ( So far North America and Europe, possibilities are South America, Africa, Australia and Asia)
8) Spend new years in 2 different places in the same year by flying backwards.
9) Go to an open casting call and try and get a part in a movie.
10) Sleep with an American Girl
11) Own hummer H3 and a Sports car at the same time
12) Get married
13) Have at least 2 children, 1 boy 1 girl
14) Get a dog / have a job or life that allows to me take care of a dog
15) Live at a beach for a year (Could be combined with 27)
16) Run a marathon
17) Attend a racing driver’s school
18) Go to concert at Red rocks
19) See the Northern Lights
20) World Series of Poker main event
21) Watch these 10 movies: The Queen, 49 Up, The Departed, United 93, Neil Young -- Heart of Gold, 13 Tzameti, 51 Birch Street, Half Nelson, Heart of the Game, Little Miss Sunshine
22) Read more .books, starting with books that movies are based on so I can comment that the movie is nothing like the book
23) Live out of a 1 bag for a year (Schlumberger Camp Location ???)
24) Spend an entire year outside of the US and see if my views change at all (2008 is the plan)
25) Buy an entire bar a round of drinks
26) In my apartment: install fireman’s pole in home and get female to dance
27) For 1 year live in a town with a Baseball team and get season tickets and attend every home game
28) Become so important that random people know who I am
29) 2 words… Go Fast
30) Break 90 playing golf
31) Own a Golden Tee arcade game
32) Watch a season of 24 in fewer than 24 hours
33) Own a house with one of those entrances with 2 stairways at the bottom that merge on the next floor up
18 Places to go: Goa, South Africa, Australia, Hawaii, Everest Base camp, Rain Forest, a really big waterfall that I can swim under, Yankee Game, Celtics game, Red Socks game, Rome/Vatacan City, Raft on the Colorado River, Alaska, Back to Canyon lands NP, Argentina, Space, Spain, Mauritania (SLB rig in Offshore Africa).

Things I’ve Done (Top 25 life moments?)
1) Being Born
1) saw the Rolling Stones in Concert; everything will try to live up to that for all time
2) Live in Washington DC area
3) Eagle Scout
3) In three varsity sports score a goal/point/run in my senior year
4) Scored the game winning run from first base without the ball being hit, possible the best baseball play ever seen on any level. (We were down 1-0 in the 7th to St. James, they had there #1 pitcher on the mound, we got a guy on first, made an out, then there was a ball in the dirt, then someone hit a single. Runners on 1st and 3rd. I pinch run for the guy on first and coach calls for the break early. I break and the pitcher doesn’t want to throw the ball with a runner on 3rd. I stop in between first and second and just stand there. Pitcher steps off and eventually throws the ball, I get caught in a rundown for 3 throws, guy on 3rd breaks for home, ball goes to home, throw is high, Greg slides under the catcher and ties the game, I round second and cant find the third baseman because he was involved in my earlier rundown, so I head to 3rd. Catcher sees me and throws to 3rd. I avoid ball, Left fielder is out to lunch, I round bag and score game winning run, get mobbed my team and fans…. Unfortunately there was no American flag to drape around me)
5) Hit the game winning shot.
6) Spring Break in the Dominican
7) Change my name
8) Drive across the US and most of Canada
9) Went off road driving in my Jeep by myself
10) Live out of my Jeep for 4 weeks in the desert
11) Go to Vegas, leave with more money than I came with
12) Graduate from University
13) Went Surfing, rock climbing saw a baseball game, and went to a bar all in the same day (San Diego is the best city in the world that I have been to so far)
14) Got drunk in Tijuana
15) Live in Texas
16) Mexican Resort
17) Make money at a casino
18) Drive a sports car (But I want a faster one)
19) Spring Break in South Padre

Day 2.....

2007-02-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

So day 2 begins with me on my way to meet up with Matt and Adam, but lets back track a little to mention one more funny story. When I am being given my things back I am also asked to sign a piece of paper that has 101.50 pounds at the bottom. In my still drunk mind I think O fuck, Jail is expensive. I dig through my wallet and hand the cop behind the counter my credit card. He looks at it and gives it back. I say "I don't think I have enough cash to pay this" He starts laughing and says "That's not a bill, that's how much you had when you came in here". Whoops my bad..
Ok so on my way out of jail I see a cop (Ironic huh). Actually he is walking by giving people parking tickets, but I ask him where I can get a cab as I don't know where I am. He asks how I could not know where I am and I say its a long story. He walks me to the end of the street to a corner calls on his radio and within a minute a cab appears. I tell the cabbie to take me to the grass market and I start looking through my phone calls dialed.
This is where the trouble starts because I notice that while I called Matt several times after 2 am, I also called my manager, the base number, and a secretary. Whoops, so much for a night in jail no one will know about. I get to the grass market ahead of Matt and Adam and head for a little sandwich shop. I demolish a spicy chicken sandwich with crunchy bread. Once finished I realize I am almost choking as I am dehydrated as a dead snake on a dessert road and drink a small bottle of water. My first in at least 18 hours (and last for another 18 ish). Still dressed up in a nice collared shirt, sheep skin Jacket and of cores the famous playboy chain I see Matt and Adam arrive. We head into a bar and have breakfast. Breakfast is beer and its on me because of the drama I caused last night, I figure we are all even now. I hear stories about how dumb I was and things like this. Then my phone rings....
Its the personal department head telling me that they have arranged legal council for me. She asks where I am, I say a bar. She goes silent. I explain that I was let out and have met back up with the other guys and we are having "breakfast". She accepts the excuse and hangs up. 2 seconds later my manager calls, I try to explain what happened saying that there was a "misunderstanding" between me and the cops. He asked what sort of misunderstanding can land someone in jail. I said I would explain Monday. Ok problem solved for now..... 1 minute later the secretary calls.
She wants to hear the story first hand as I left a message last night saying "Help me, the fuzz has me and they are taking me to their lair. I know what they do to Americana's here. I am too young to die. Save me. Call Tim Welling, he is American, he will help,(In a whisper) he is superman, he can help. Tell them I am not from here and I have diplomatic Immunity. O shit, there coming help me help me now. Then there was some arguing and then I hung up" I got to listen to the message on Monday and it is the funniest thing I have ever said in my life. I honestly fell over when I heard it.
So after I explain and we decide to leave the predominately Welsh pub to head next door to go to the Scottish supporters pub, and get food. Some more pints (Once again i am drunk, its amazing how fast you can get drunk on the second day of a binge). But I got some more food in me so i am in a jovial drunk state. We drink until about 2 pm, then catch a taxi to the game. We are the only ones walking into the stadium, most likely because the game has already started. A cop on the outside offers us tickets, but we say we have our own. We go in and walk around until we find our seats. Matt goes to sit down and me and Adam hang out on the outside of the stadium talking to the girls at the snack counter. After a few minutes we decide to head in and these are the seats Matt got tickets for.
Basically 50 yard line 4 rows back. These are the second greatest seats i have ever had for a sporting event I was not playing in. (KT's Redskins seats were still the highlight of my sport watching life putting 50 points on the bears was good too)
So we watch the second half of the first half, sit through all of halftime and watch the second half while I am texting the sales engineer who is at the game somewhere with some clients saying he should come hang with us, but he recognises that I am wasted and smartly stays away.
The game ends and we have a couple of post game pints at a tent. We loose Matt, but then find him again. Head back to the hotel, which is the first time, since I arrived in Edinburgh, that I spent more than 5 seconds in the room. I have a much needed shower and Matt breaks his cell phone into a million pieces. Get changed out of the "Jail" clothes and get ready for another night.
We order a taxi to take us back into town and head to the hotel bar to keep the buzz going. I regale some people with my prison story including a family I apparently was talking to after we drooped our bags at the hotel last night. They worn me to stay safe tonight and we head out.

We are all really hungry so we ask to go to a nice restaurant. The cabbie drops us of at a restaurant that is painted blue, that's all any of us remember from the outside. We go in a sit at a table by the door. We get menus and we all realize that we have to really concentrate to read. I manage to read the word Tuna and order that. We get a bottle of house red wine and keep drinking. When the food comes within a bite we all agree that this is all of our best meals ever. We are absolutely wasted and I am sure the food was good, but I have no clue if it was "the best ever" but at the time we all think it is. We are so impressed that we each one at a time head up 2 flights of stairs to the kitchen to thank the chef for suck a great meal. I ask to "shake the hand of the man the made the best tuna ever made in the history of fish" The waitress asks if we need anything else and we order another bottle of wine and dessert. I had sticky toffy pudding, which I did not read, because at this point reading was beyond me, but we just yelled different desserts until the waitress said they made that. We ate dessert finished the wine and decided that the chef needed another thanking. This time we all went up together to tell him he was a god among men. We then went back downstairs and left.
Now there is one crucial thing that we did not do at this restaurant that you always have to do. Do you know what it was........ yes that's right. We didn't pay. At the time I think we all thought someone else paid for it, but after further discussion in the morning and again on Monday when everyone checked there credit cards online none of us paid and we just walked out on our meal. O well, it prolly wasn't that good anyway ;-)
We go to some street with a lot of bars and head into one of them. Start drinking more and somehow I end up talking with the bouncers outside. (I think it was my subconscious trying to make up for last night) They are not pleased to have me hounding them, but I am on a mission and they can't get me either back inside or further outside so i just hang with them asking about how they decided who can come in and who can't. (they let me in so their standards can't be that high) After about an hour of me being super annoying they need a break and they ask me to watch the door. I decided that this is them accepting me and my apology to the bouncer community for my previous nights actions has been wiped clean. A group of 4 guys wants in, but I tell them "we are full" and they walk off, I am drunk with power, and beer. 3 girls come up (Pretty cute) and ask to come in, I say yup, just as the "real" bouncers come back. They say I did good, but I have to go inside now. I feel like I did my part so i go in and find Matt and Adam. They ask where I was, I give them the brief story as 1 of the 3 girls walks by, she is confused, but I try to explain it. I am too drunk to make it make sense to her, so I just stop talking. We have a few more then decided its time to head to a different type of club.
We decided on one of those places where girls practice to be firemen by sliding down poles. We head to the "Bermuda triangle" and place where there are 3 strip clubs on 3 corners, we go to the one in the middle. Stopping at a bank machine I take out money and give Matt 100 pounds. Matt goes in first, then I go in. I instantly loose Matt. (Later I find that he went straight upstairs found a girl gave her the hundred pounds and said 1 word "Dance") I look behind me and Adam is no where to be seen. I walk to the stage area and see one of the hottest girls ever in my life. She climbs (Literally the stage in the middle of a ton of guys and is 5 ft off the ground with no stairs so it really was a climb) onto the stage and begins "dancing" I have no clue how long I am there for but I think it was about 2 hours. I am constantly calling Matt (If you remember he broke his phone so obviously he does not pick up) I don't have Adam's number and I am starting to realize that I have no idea where the hotel is... or even what the name of it is. I'm screwed.
I head for the door and ask the bouncer if he has seen an American guy or a British guy. He points across the street and points to a random guy and says "Is that him?" and laughs This bouncer turns out to be Jesus because he points right at Adam. I say yes, and run across the road towards him. Cars screech to a halt and I make it across without being hit. Adam is wasted as am I, but he has a card from our hotel so now we know where we live. We get some food, again talk to the owenr of the place, but no "free" food this time. A few slices of pizza give us energy and we decided we need to find a taxi. We try to wave one down but no luck. We walk a little further down the street and find a taxi line that is ridiculously huge. We decide that we are way too important to wait in that line so we start walking around asking every single girl if we can go home with them or if they will take us to our hotel. They laugh because we are so far from our hotel, we don't think its funny.
Then a stroke of genius hits me. The taxi's for the line have to come from somewhere... lets go to the source. We walk down the road and start seeing empty taxi's heading to the taxi stand. I snap my fingers but nothing stops. we then start waving, but still no luck. We then get right in the middle of the road trying to get in their way. They all manage to avoid us and still not stop. We are not too big to admit when we are beaten and head back to the taxi line. We make it to the hotel at about 6 am with the sun about to come out. Go and sit in the hotel bar and this guy comes up and wants to drink. We decide not to let a guy drink alone (Cuse that's what alcoholics do) and we have a scotch with him. As soon as I smell it I remember that I have ordered some of the most expensive single malt scotch's before and I can never drink them. I dump my shot into Matt's glass and go to my room......
I don't have a key so I bang on the door, no answer. I go and get the guy at the front desk and he opens my door. I ask if there are any rooms with hot girls in that he can open instead, he says no, and I pass out in my bead with socks and ski hat on.
Matt's alarm wakes us up in the morning for breakfast. I see the family again, they are happy I didn't end up in jail again. We pack up and head back to Aberdeen, i sleep most of the way on the train, get to my apartment and go to sleep putting an end to one of the, if not the drunkest weekend of my life.

Let us all remember in this Cold and flu season...

2007-02-23T14:52:00.000-08:00

This is the beast way to prevent getting sick

How awsome is this. On my rig they have to show you how to wash your hands...... O the Joys!!!

I have a drinking problem.....

2007-02-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

Ok, so since I moved to Scotland there have been some great drunken nights...... This was not one of them.
I got a call at 6:15 Friday saying there was an extra ticket to the Scotland V. Wales Rugby game on Saturday, train was leaving in 45 minutes and they had a spare bed booked at the hotel. I quickly called my manager, got the OK and then showered, packed, drank 2 beers and ran to the train station. I made it in time, so did Matt, Adam did not. So as he was running in and the train was pulling out we were already heading to the bar. We had 2 more beers, met up with one more guy that had an early flight out of Edinburgh and made the train an hour later. The train ride down was a 2.5 hour drunken affair where I had 4 more beers, by this point I was on my way to getting quite drunk.
We get off the train, drop bags at the hotel and hit the bar at the hotel while waiting for a taxi. A few shots and a few beers and lost count.
We tried to go to 3 sister's widely known to be the best bar in town... it closes at 1 am and we got there at closeing time. That is really the only time stamp I have for this story for a while.
We ended up at a bar downtown where the real trouble started. Some of this is my memories some of this was filled in by the people around me and the people i called.
I danced with a young girl grinding on me, and when I say young she did not look a day over 17, and was prolly younger than that. I went to the bathroom and then saw my buddy Matt at the bar. I decided running up behind him and chocking him would be fun. The bouncers did not like my idea and they kicked me out of the bar. I was by this point a very aggressive American being very drunk. Bad combo!!! I let the bouncers know that the guy I was chocking was my friend..... They did not care as all 3 of us were kicked out. Words were exchanged ( I wish I knew what I said, but alas i do not) I threw a 10 p coin at the girl bouncer and said something about how she could use the money. She said she was going to call the cops. I called her bluff. She was not bluffing. Cops came and said they wanted me to leave. I told them they don't even have guns and I can do what ever I want. They said they were going to arrest me, again I tried to call their bluff, but again they were not bluffing. I got slapped with handcuffs, put in the back of the paddy wagon and taken away......
On the ride to prison I decide that I better call my manager. Very bad decision at the time. I am not so drunk that I can't talk... another problem. I tell him to get me out.... another bad decision. I get to jail still arguing with the guards there. They take all of my things, make me sign some stuff, tell me I was taken in for assault take a really bad picture of me and put me in a cell.
I look for ways to escape, finding none I start banging on the wall, there are 3 cops in my cell. They are big. I decide that I can not run past all of them and quiet down. I go to sleep on a gym mat that is in the cell on a concrete step like thing holding the small blanket I was given on top of me. There is no pillow, but I manage to go to sleep somehow
I am woken up in the morning and given a roll, tea and black pudding for breakfast. I ditch the black pudding and eat the roll and drink the tea.
I ask if the guard can flush the toilet (I pushed the one button on the inside of my cell and it is not to flush the toilet apparently) and when i can leave. I have no watch, but I am incredibly board. What seems like a few hours pass. I am released but first they take a DNA swab of my mouth, and take fingerprints on a digital machine. I walk out of the jail, ask for a cab, call Matt and Adam. They are on their way to a pub. I meet them there and quickly get right back in the swing of things.

There will be more to come on the second day of drinking. Maybe a drunker day than the first, but I slept in a hotel instead which was much nicer.

Sorry for the delay. Second installment will be coming soon

Ricky

Finally get to start :-)

2007-02-02T05:12:00.000-08:00

Well as the title says we may actually get to start today. The other logging company is in casing with their run so its about 5 hours until we get to go. Finally getting to do someting will be very exciting. Wow, I just re read that and its about the most boring thing I have ever read.
Ok I'll keep it short. far 3 people have done the survey. Some pretty good scores have been posted. Only 2 more people have to respond to get the leader board put up and correct answers shown.
Ok I'll leave it at that. Maybe the logging job will lead to some excitment
Sorry for the piss poor post, I will do better next time
Ricky

Another Drunken Night... still no fight...sort of

2007-01-27T05:54:00.000-08:00

First, as soon as 5 people fill out the survey I will reveal the answers and everyone scores. Don't copy off of Mike either!......

Alright, so my Time in Aberdeen seems to be either a plain and simple offshore world where I get fed, get my bed made every day and work much less then I did in Texas. My onshore life on the other hand is quite the dramatic difference. Days in the shop are longish sometimes, sometimes short depending on what is going on and how invisible I can make myself (A power that if you know me at all you know I am not very good at). But weekends in Aberdeen are fun.... very fun. The normal plan is get wasted Friday night, go to work hungover Saturday and sleep Saturday night. Then buy food on Sunday because I am hungry. I am trying to adapt this plan to possible spending Friday and Saturday out, but it will take lots of diligence on my part (And possibly a larger bank account as I tend to spend a lot of money when I go out... its expensive here)
So anyway back to last night. There was a guy from Turkey that was working here for about 6 weeks just on loan and last night was his last night so we all went out to celebrate (Its not like we need an excuse to drink, but it helps). So anyway, hit hit up a few places, and by we I mean 10ish guys and 0 girls (2 thumbs up, then stick your tongue out as the thumbs turn over and head for the floor... you know the motion). So we start out at this wine bar. I was the first to get there I get a bottle and 4 glasses so it doesn't look like I am going to drink the whole bottle by myself. I then drink the whole bottle myself..... Guys show up as I am buying the second bottle, good timing, they never knew. So we drink there for a while, then head up the block to a pub type place. It was pretty packed and we positioned ourselves outside the girls bathroom and I decided to be the gate keeper. this job was invented by me and therefore I made the rules. There were only 2. First hot girls go in and out, second ugly/fat/annoying girls go in and are not allowed out. I kept the job for about 4 minutes before i was asked to stop, I kept it up for another 2 minutes before I was told to fuck off, 1 more minute and then I was told to go to hell. I responded with " as long as the girls there are hotter then you it won't be so bad" i then stopped as I realized that even the hot girls were not impressed with my gate keeping, although the other guys in the bar thought it was a great idea and one even tried to get me an application to be a bouncer there. So I leave the door and head for the bar to rejoin some of the guys. We talk to a couple of girls (1 bartender was from Katy, Texas, small world huh). I talked this one girl that didn't leave for quite a while. We did have her penned in around the bar but still dialogue was good. We then left there and walked to Babalon. That's there the night got interesting.

On the walk there I saw 4 girls sitting at the bus stop. I started talking to them and quickly realized that it was only 2 girls and I was seeing double. I fixed that problem and continued the convo saying that they should come with us. Us consisted of me by that point as the other guys had kept walking on. The girls started walking with me up the road in the direction that the guys had left. We talked a little and then they asked how old I was. I looked at them and realized that they were prolly in their mid thirty's so I said I was 31. They laughed, and I quickly corrected myself saying that I was 24. Anyway they walk for a while but were walking slow so I ran off (my logic was not great last night which will become a problem). SO I ran til the street made a Y. The place we were going was close, but I didn't know where it was. I started calling people. I started with the first person in my phone, he was at his house, and couldn't understand what I was saying, must have been a bad connection or I was really drunk, most likely the latter. I try the next person on my list, they are indeed out with us and I speak very slowly as they give me directions. I walk in and go upstairs and find the guys.
Now that we are all reunited I decide that fanning out is the only way any of us are going to have any luck. I walk around and check the place out, its another old church converted club. Loud music, big bar, lost of people, I like this place. I go to the bar and ask for 2 American beers, I get 2 Buds, and pay 7 pounds, that's $14 for 2 buds. You can get a 20 pack for $14. I was intending to give one of them to the guy that is leaving, but at 7$ a piece, this Bud is NOT for you.
So I'm drinking and talking and maybe a little dancing (really not sure) but eventually I find a couple of girls that are good to talk to. Well one was fat and big, but her friend was a bar star. So I hit on the bar star while keeping the big girl in the loop, "the friends got to like you if you have any chance." Its loud so the talking consists of leaning in with yelling in the ear, first step of physical contact... things are going well. I take a couple breaks to go to the bathroom and do some walking but eventually find the girls again. I really think I have a chance of hooking up with the cute skinny one and then I stopped remembering things.

What I found out today is that we left the bar. I was with thebar star and the big friend was going to let her come home with me, I was so in, I had passed every shit test but fate would fuck me. (bar star's name was not fate, well it could have been I have no idea). Anyway, one of the guys was leaving the club with a girl hes been talking to for a week or so. Some guy stepped in the way and tried to block his exit, words were exchanged, I jumped in. Lots of pushing blah blah blah.
Memory comes back to me. I am being held by the bouncer, bar star is gone, I am trying to wrangle free to no luck. I am yelling "Why are you holding me back, I just want to get laid..... someone get this fucking guy off me" some of the guys are gone, the rest are trying to calm me down, but I think I am calm, just pissed that I am being held. I eventually calm down enough once the guy says the cops are on their way. I say I want to apologise to the owner, he walks me around the side and I tell the guy he has a great club and I am sorry for the scene and i will stay away for a while. He says its ok and he understands and I should come back tomorrow. One of the guys starts walking down the road with me towards my apartment but he lives the other way and I convince him that I will be able to get home without anymore drama and without getting lost so he lets me go alone.
I then get lost. I call every taxi company I know but no one can understand me and the random place I am yelling at them. I walk some more. I walk around a corner and see a casino. I like casinos so I go in. I need to be a member and I need to fill in a form. I fill it in somehow with big letters. I talk to the girlwhile she makes up my membership card. She can't understand me either. I walk around and find a 2 pound blackjack table. I reach in my wallet and find 40 Pounds. I get chips and start playing. I get down to about 10 pounds and reach in my pocket. i find a 5 a 10 and a bunch of coins. I put it on the table and grunt indicating that I want chips. I battle back to 50 pounds. They say the place is closing. everyone gets up. I want to keep playing and the dealer says I can play a few more hands but I have to play at least 2 spots. I play 6 at a time. I can't do that much math in my head and don't do very well, but I think I played about even for the last 3 hands. I colored up and cashed out for 40 ponds. I walk outside and I am still lost. there are still no cabs. i ask someone where my road is and they laugh and say I am a long way from home. I tell them to point me in the right direction. I left the Casino at 5:30 am. I was home by 6:30 am. I went to bed, by alarm went off at 9:30 am because I had to be at work for a 10 am meeting. I got to work at 11. whoops O well It was a fun night!!!

Ricky

Apparently I have no friends....

2007-01-25T03:29:00.000-08:00

Seriously guys fill out the damn survey....

Anyway,
I am now back in Aberdeen. All the stuff is still on the Rig and I will be going back at some point, but the company thought it would be better to send me to shore seeing there is nothing more for me to do there. I agree and am happy I get to have a fun weekend in town...... Unless I have to go on another job, but lets hope it doesn't happen

..... Your not hoping hard enough.

Later
Rick

Friendship test

2007-01-24T00:15:00.000-08:00

Friendship test

So You Think You Know Me...
(2 Points) My name:
(4 Points) My last name:
(4 Points) Who am I in love with:
(1 Points) Where did we meet:
(6 Points) Take a stab at my middle name:
(1 Points) where do i work:
(3 Points) what am i afraid of:
(2 Points) Do I smoke:
(3 Points) Do I drink:
(3 points) Do you think im a virgin:
(1 Point) Do I have any siblings:
(2 Points) How many?
(2 Points) What's one of my favorite things to do:
(1 Points) How many piercings do i have:
(4 Points) How many tattoos do i have:
(3 Points) What's my favorite type of music:
(4 Points) Am I shy or outgoing:
(3 Points) Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules:
(2 Points) whats my favorite color:
(3 Points) name something i hate:
(4 Points) name a talent i have:
(4 Points) whats my phone number:
(4 Points) what kind of sneakers do i wear:
(4 Points) do i have any pets:
(2 Points) Who am i dating/likeing right now:
(5 Points) how long have i been dating/likeing them:
(5 points) how tall am i?
(5 Points) What is my worst habit:
(3 Points) What is my insecurity?:
(5 Points on creativeness) If I were stranded on a desert island,
what would I bring:

ILL SEND YOU YOUR SCORE WHEN I GRADE IT
80-85 Points; Best Friend.
70-79 Points; Great Friend.
40-69 Points; Friend.
20-39 Points; You should hang out with me more! Ask Me when.
00-19 Points; Either you're a crappy friend or you're a new friend

My new home

2007-01-22T12:54:00.000-08:00

Hey all,
Well I just thought I'd take advantage of my illegal camera phone out here on the rig and let you all know what I get to do so here it is......That is the rig I am currently on. I like the picture of the Gorilla.
That's me in my bright orange coveralls. Apparently easier to spot if I get blown overboard.
I get the bottom bunk. I have no idea who is on the top, but I don't think he was impressed with my 5:30 am wake up call this morning. And I think I had some bad dreams where I may have woke up screaming... O well sucks to be him.
I think the bathroom in the room may challenge Justin's for most multifunctional. Its too small to take a good picture but its about 1.5 ft X 3 ft with the shower in the corner (Drain in the floor) Sink at the other end, with the shitter on the side. Its a tight fit but seems to fit the style of the rig.
All in all the rig is pretty nice. The food is good, too good actually as I am going to have to either start eating less or go to the gym.... or just get fat. Bordem is starting to set in though. We had to set up a mobile unit, which is almost all done, and we won't be logging until Saturday if at all so its lots of down time and just watching movies and such. I really need to remember to bring books next time I go offshore. Guess that's it for now. Please leave fun comments to read and update your blogs. It brings me excitement. O also all the rigs have free international calling anywhere in the world so if you want a call from the North Sea send your phone number and time difference from Grenich Mean Time and I'll see if I'm awake at a reasonable time for you.
Later

Rick XXXXXX SLb Engineer ..... (Happy Now Andrew)

New Years and beyond

2007-01-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

So on to the blog. i think I have been pretty poor on posting anything since New Years and trust me my life has been very interesting. ( For real this time)

So where do I start. First off the the title of the last 3 weeks will be called in the Journal of my life "The awakening".
New Years Eve, no frozen trees to fall from this year so I decided to have a small pre party at my place. Planing was piss poor and late as per SOP and it was a very small party, 4 people total, and we sat around and played a few drinking games. This was from 5 pm til about 9 pm. It was actually lots of fun. After that we went to the unofficial Schlumberger party and this residential hotel type place where all the new people stay when they move to Aberdeen. Someone had rented an apartment for the party and filled it with booze. As we were already buzzin front he drinking games we fell right in line with the drinking in the new venue. So we drink and drink and I start hitting on this girl (Women really as she was older than me by more than a couple of years). She defiantly wants me but we keep drinking. Anyway, to make a long story short (and I was too drunk to remember details) we drink with a bunch of people until 6 in the morning, go into 1 of the bedrooms some pretty hot making out and then we both pass out. But the fun couldn't stop there, maybe the old version of me, but not "Fusion" I wake not more than 1 hour later, roll over and have some great drunk sex. Shortly after that we head for breakfast at someones house with a few other stragglers at the party. Clean the apartment a little bit then split for a few hours. Well this started to be a more regular thing and we spend the next 2 nights together.
Then I went offshore for 6 days (I will be blogging about this separately, possibly in Compare and contrast style with the Job I am leaving for in the morning maybe even a vendiagram...)
So Get back about a week later, a few more days with this girl then the weekend hits and there is this really cute younger English girl that I wanted to hook up with and its going to be my last chance cause she is leaving. Me and the New Years girl had already talked about how we were not looking for a relationship but I liked the new discovery of casual sex. Anyway, while New Years girl was having a party of her own, I am putting forth full effort on my new target. A group of us went to dinner where the conversation turned to why guys go to strip clubs. (It was a nice Italian Restaurant and we were drinking the whine quite well so the convo was pretty loud and very animated. Ii got several looks from this older couple throughout the convo which made me feel good about myself.) High point of the Convo was when the target says to me: "Why would you pay money to see girls naked when you could do that for free, I mean your a good looking guy" My classic response "I know" (Mike that book changed my life, i think it should be mandatory reading for everyone just on the comedic value alone. Also about half the table at dinner had read the book so we talked about that too.
So back to the girl, after dinner we go out to a club, pretty low key sitting and drinking, she has some University friends in town so she is moving between 2 tables. Drinking was heavy and frequent but things I remember are her seeing the Playboy Chain and saying its always the quiet ones (I'm not quiet but whatever). So we go back to the place with the fishbowl drinks and down about 6 of them between 6 of us, 1 of which was this tall guy that was in love with this girl that I wanted. Well she didn't feel that way about him and was using me to stay between the 2 of them. My thoughts: hmmm, maybe this will work after all. All of this while one of the people that had been on the offshore job with me was being one of the best wing men ever (Girls make great wing women) So anyway, we leave, I walk the girl back to the some place where all the new people stay, this other guy, not the tall guy tries to do a little cock blocking but I swiftly send him on his way, invite myself up and the rest of the night/morning goes as planned. I'm getting good at this picking up thing :-) . I get woken up to be told that I am snoring and should go home, i am tired so I promise to stop snoring and go back to sleep. it could have been because I had the flu and was majorly sick, but I decided not to tell the girl that, I am sure she know by now, but its only a 2 day flu so its not too bad. So I wake up in the morning and she is packing for her flight, she leave, I sleep for another hour then walk home. What should have been a 7 minute walk took 40 because of 1 wrong turn. oops, o well it was still a fun night.

This is getting way to long but last nights adventure was interesting too. Dinner and a pub, a couple of bars/clubs, drank a bottle of champagne straight from the bottle (It was only 10 pounds but got me wasted) Made out with a random girl in the stairwell. I don't even know if I saw her face, she just grabbed me and started making out with me, but in the end alas I went home alone...... I guess even hall of famers strike out every now and again.

So for anyone that read all of that, get back to work
peace out
Fusion (Hmm, i'm starting to think I don't like that name, we'll see what happens)

First Post on the new blog

2007-01-20T06:14:00.000-08:00

So I've been thinking about making the jump for a while and I think this is finally the right time. I realized that it was not fair for the rest of the world to limit my readers to have to navigate through myspace or facebook to find out about my amazing life. My blog should be available for the entire world..... and now it is!
So I have not been in very good communication with very many people since I moved to Aberdeen, Scotland and while I will take some of the blame its not all my fault. things here move really slow. I couldn't get a phone until i had a bank account, I couldn't get a bank account until I had a letter from work, No letter from work until I signed a new contract.... well you get the point. Mix in with all of that stores closing at 5 during the week (Except Shopping Thursday where they are open until 8 pm ???). Anyway, still no Internet at home either but I will work on that once I come back from offshore.
Before I get too far I want to put in my blog disclaimer: If you are offended by anything I write, don't read it. No one has a gun to anyone's head forcing you to read it. I don't think, but if they do i am really honored that someone with a gun is making you read my blog. Also I strive to tell the truth here. Sometimes it may be hard to read if its about you but feel free to comment if anyone thinks I am misleading the masses who are reading this. (And by masses i mean a select few in Calgary, some board engineer's in Texas and one random person in Montana Who are you buddy???)
peace out
Fusion