If you're reading this, most likely you know my email or family (thus having a way of contacting me). However, most of you want independence and options, I can dig that, so I'm going to hit you up with some realness known as Skype.com. My username is RLWhitney87. I don't know my hours on the rig, or during my training, so I can't provide any times that I'll be on at the moment. I don't think you can find my email on this site, but if you contact me I will email you to keep in touch (facebook or a message through this site is fine, as is skype).
I would like to thank the staff of Orion for their support, humor, and a job. Had it not been for these men and woman (if you haven't figured it out yet, there was one woman in the office). There was Dave who, like Felix Jones, could not seem to stay healthy during my short tenure there. Eddie, the mild-mannered quiet guy near the end of the hall. Matt, whose constant smile and positive words regarding my work or my alma mater got me through the day. Rich (pictured right), who ran the accounting thing when he wasn't the star of Crank, Crank 2, or The Transporter
series. Alicia, the lone female of the bunch (a brave soul), managed to wrangle the employees into some form of productivity. Finally, the motley bunch was headed by the biggest bleeding-heart liberal and Nancy Pelosi enthusiast I have ever meet, Fred. Once again, thank you to all of you for the job, the learning opportunity, and your patience. Hopefully you guys don't view this as a huge f-you, and will laugh accordingly. If not, please refer to section VIII of the operations manual for appropriate responses to satire(page 19).Though this post is a mixture of my ramblings, I'm going to stick to the topics mentioned in the title. Irkutsk is a fascinating city. For those of you who did not peruse the Wikipedia link I included in my last post, I'll tell you a bit about this town then. Shortly after the death of Czar Alexander I, there was a period of controversy within the government as to who was next in line. The next oldest brother, Constantine, had supposedly surrendered his opportunity to take the helm of Russia to his younger brother Alexander -who ironically also had a son, providing security that the family would remain rulers for yet another generation. Alexander I seized control, but groups of Army officers and Aristocrats (Army officers were also of Aristocratic heritage) attempted to stage a revolt that would result in a constitutional monarchy. Alexander tried to quell this uprising peacefully, but then got bored and fired 4 cannons into a group of 30oo rebelling troups and aristocrats. Thus ended the Decemberist Revolt. The aristocrats that were not executed, were banished to the wastelands of Siberia. Irkutsk was this desolate wasteland deemed a frigid-hell capable of punishing these treasonous men. The Czar allowed them to take their families, and continued to banish people there until a hefty percentage of the town was composed of those banished by the Czar(s) (I do not know how long Czars continued to banish people to Irkutsk before or after this period).
Some may want to know about my job, which I know very little about. I can refer you to the generic Schlumberger website about Field Engineers (my title), which would tell you "Everyday is an adventure, but you have to work hard to play hard!". However, I value your time as well as the fact that you're bothering to read this blog. My job is vague to me at this point, but all I know is that I work on oil rigs in Siberia (like the one hopefully
seen to the right of this text). Paradise. All I need now is
a Corona and some lady named Svetlana in a bikini (Although
my research has not determined if Russians even have heard of
the bikini). Schlumberger will train me, in the previously mentioned town of Tyumen, in the art of directional drilling. I will not be a directional driller, as this requires years of experience in the industry, but merely and understudy and assistant called a MWD/LWD. Essentially when the company that hired Schlumberger to oversee their drilling wants the drill-bit to veer in a direction away from typical vertical drilling, I make sure we're in the general area. Sounds simple, but you should ask the guys and gal at Orion about the menial tasks I managed to turn into a ball of confusion (currently listening to The Temptations, sorry for the trite song name pun).
What I did not know is that there are Polar Bears in Russia. Polar Bears, Coca-Colar, warm and
fuzzy feelings around the holidays. These things are all common around Christmas, but this is what the Polar Bear media machine is trying to spin. Secretly, polar bears are using coca cola and the liberal media to infiltrate our homes and eat us. Granted, she was standing within the fenced area possibly taunting a half-ton wild animal. But they eat metal too. You want proof? Ever hear of the Titanic? Metallurgists will argue that the brittle hull caused by cold temperatures striking an iceberg caused the catastrophic hull failure, really it was what was on the iceberg. Polar Bears.
Guess what, thats a nuclear sub. Ever heard of the USS Honolulu? Damn right you haven't, because polar bears used their jaws to tear that thing to pieces, reactor and all. Imagine what it did to some early 20th century passenger-ship. Damn right it was ripped in half, by polar bear jaws. That is where they acquired their taste for metal, hence the fate of the Honolulu. Oil rigs are made out of metal too. Luckily Rich will show up between shootings of Crank 3 and whatever Guy Richie rip-off he's starring in to handle any feral animals near our operations.
-Russ
