T.B.D.

Are you ready for some Football!!!

2007-08-10T01:03:00.000-06:00

No not that football, but EPL football. English Premiere League Football. Tomorrow, August 11th is the first game of record for the season.

First a quote from this mornings sports reporter on CNN Europe. "Now that David Beckham cannot pick his nose without it making the news, he made his MLS debut last night." Ok it might not be word for word, but the sentence definately had "Beckham", "pick his nose", and "news" in the sentence. Which if the English teachers will check me are a subject,verb with direct object, and an indirect object. It is statements like that that really make the news worth watching over here.

Back to the post.

I found out this last trip that across the various marine crews my company has, there is a fantasy league so I signed up as along with 6 other of my crew mates. This morning the EPL was kind enough to send me an e-mail with my roster of 11 players and reserves. Unfortunately two of my starters are doubtful, one of which I knew about, but his return date is set as August. Kind of general, so I was going to leave him in, because if he didn't play my reserve midfielder would automatically be put in the line up. However, the other one is a complete surprise, and has me really gutted as I was having problems setting my defense as it was.

I am hesitant to use any names because the competition might have found the blog and I don't want to give anything away.

Now I am going to take a few minutes and explain why the EPL, or maybe the whole British system of football is superior to just about any sports system. Now I'm not talking about tactics or skill level, I am talking about the fact that the teams in the top level can be moved down. Using baseball as an analogy. Imagine the St.Paul Saints, over the course of several years getting into the majors and playing the Twins.

Professional British football has four levels, Premiere, Championship, League 1, and League 2. Baseball has the majors and then, AAA, AA, and A. Of course the analogy does break down a little in that AAA, AA, and A are affiliates of the majors, but the levels are my point. At the end of the season the top three teams from each league are promoted to the higher league and the bottom three teams are demoted to the lower level. For the Baseball fans, can you say good-by Devil Rays. Or for the die hard NFL fans, good-by Oakland. Of course there is always the FA Cup as well, which is basically a nation wide tournament, kinda like Minnesota's State Hockey Tournament before they made it a two tier system. A lowly League 2 team could win, just not very likely.

Just one more thing that has nothing to do with EPL, back to my very first ever post, here is an article from slate magazine, enjoy.
http://www.slate.com/id/2171870/?GT1=10346

Yes, I think he used my blog entry as the basis for his idea.

Jon

Food at Sea

2007-07-21T20:41:00.000-06:00

Sorry it has been awhile, but I actually have been pretty busy. Since my last entry, I have gone to Kristiansund for a small boat course and the weather was absolutely beautiful. Some friends of mine that went the week before apparently had at least half and hour of hail every day. What do you expect at 400 miles south of the Arctic Circle. I also went home for a way to short break, came back to the boat early. Then once on board pulled all of the gear in, went to Mexico, cleared customs, and then but all the gear back out.

Enough of my excuses, on to the actual post.

I have occasionally been asked what the food is like out here. It is generally the same fair everyday, and since I am on the noon to mid-night shift, I eat lunch and dinner - it is pretty close to the same thing served for both meals. Fish then either chicken, beef, or lamb. A pasta and always chips, or to us Americans, "French Fries". There are a few other choices but tend to vary some. The big occurrence is Saturday night, which is Steak night. Steak night helps us keep track of the weeks.

Have you ever seen the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day"? It's not a comedy, it's a horror movie, that I call work.

Anyway today is Saturday so we are expecting our steak at dinner, but the Steward gave us a curve ball, he served Beef Wellington instead. His version, and I say that because I don't know what is proper Beef Wellington is, was basically a steak with some mushrooms wrapped in a flaky crust, kinda like a pie crust. He also made up a mushroom sauce, think gravy, to be served with it. I really enjoyed it, and the broccoli wasn't all mushy either. As negative as I may have made the meals sound earlier, the Steward and his crew are really doing a great job this trip. Just when you are starting to dread having to select from the same menu he comes up with something special.

Jon

It's June 12th

2007-06-12T12:28:00.000-06:00

I have been waiting for this day for a couple of weeks now. It is for only one reason, today is the day of the release of "The Traveling Wilbury's" it is actually a re-release of two albums that were released in the early 90's.

You may have heard of them, but if not they are probably the most understate "super" group ever. The group consists of the 5 Wilbury brothers: Nelson, Clayton, Lefty, Lucky and Otis. Better known as George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynn, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty.

Personally, I was trying to figure out how Tom Petty got into the group, but apparently he is really good friends with Jeff Lynn and were working on an album together. I won't get into the rest of the story of how they got together, you can research that on your own. I do believe it is one of those albums that is just fun to listen to, because the musicians were really just having fun making music.

I cannot wait until I get home to listen to it.

Jon

Grilling in Norway

2007-06-09T03:39:00.000-06:00

Last night I was talking with one of my co-workers about weekend plans. We each had other things going on, but decided to go out and cook out last night. So we met up in Oslo to head to an area park and cook dinner.

On our way to the park we stopped off and picked up our groceries. We talked about a few of the differences, and he asked me what size of grills we used. I told him that what ever size was available at the park, or we brought the grill from home. He looked at me kind funny, and asked if we had the disposable kind. I returned his look.

Apparently here in Norway, the parks don't have any grills; which makes some since. No grills - no maintenance, up keep, or replacement costs.

So for about two dollars we got a 8x10 tinfoil pan, with charcoal, grill top, and a stand. I wish I would have known about this last September/October when I was here. It would have been one more option for eating, and it is pretty cheap. Something that is always a bonus in Norway.

Anyway it was fun. The park was very full and it was kind of funny to see everyone facing the same direction. Everyone was facing the sun and watching it, like some sort of deity. We finally left a little after 11 the sun had gone down, but it was still light enough you could read a news paper unassisted.

I'll definitely going to cook out a few more times while I'm here.

Jon

The coolest tool at work

2007-06-03T23:30:00.000-06:00

That is a Plasma Cutter, by far the coolest tool/toy/piece of equipment on board our boat. I mean I could spend hours just making big pieces of metal into little pieces of metal. I wish I would have gotten another video of us cutting a 4x8 sheet of stainless steel. It literally is like drawing a hot knife through butter. It is sooooooo cool.

When I was putting together my Christmas idea list 6 months ago, I added a plasma cutter onto the list, half kidding. My mother sees it and promptly asks, "Why do you want a plasma cutter?" I think the video speaks for itself. Or better yet, "Why wouldn't you want a plasma cutter?" I mean other than the $1500+.

Just for a few stats about the video, the chain was a 19mm, or 3/4 in. for those that have problems with the metric system, and the plasma jet is in the ball park of 50,000 F. I've said it once I'll say it again, It is soooooo cool.

Jon

Ya, I know I can be a geek sometimes.

And it's over

2007-05-29T21:37:00.000-06:00

The tournament ended tonight. I played my semi final against marbles this afternoon and won the series three to one. Definitely a better player than anyone I played up to that point.

Tonight I played the Welshman who beat T-gun in three straight last night. We traded the first two games before he won the third and forth. I had quite the come back going in the third game going from 4-1 to 4-4 before he put the winner away. I graped the fifth game to take it into the sixth. I proceeded to self destruct and scored three of his five goals.

I am extremely frustrated with myself right now. Tomorrow, we are going to play the Norwegian born in Iran, us two against him by himself. Just an exhibition since he is transferring to another vessel, and we cannot let him go undefeated.

Later

Jon

1 and a wake-up

2007-05-28T23:45:00.000-06:00

By the time most of you probably read this it will be Tuesday afternoon and I will be back at work officially making it one more day, then I just have to get up and get on the Helo and be on my way. All together now WOO HOO!!!!

Well today the Group play in Foosball finished up. Here are how they ended.

Group A	GP	Pts
me	4	12
the Russian	4	5
T-gun	4	5
T-nav	4	3
the other American	4	1
Group B
the Welshman in Thailand	4	12
marbles	4	9
the Egyptian	4	4
the normal one	4	3
the Nigerian	4	1

So I will play marbles tomorrow and the Welshman has to see who wins the one game play off between the Russian and T-gun. Go T-gun, hey we work in the same department, I have to back my guy.

Otherwise life continues, I am trying to get the last of the paperwork through to get a promotion, but time is getting short. If not this trip the next one will get it done. I honestly want to go into a few more things, but I need to get my gear together for leaving, I don't want a repeat of last departure again.

I had figured I had at least an hour once I had gotten up, and I took a quick shower and heard the phone ring. It was the Party Chief saying the Helo was going to be here in 15 minutes. I was still soaking wet and had all my gear to put into the bag. 20 minutes later I was ready to go, in need of another shower, and the Helo was still at least 45 minutes away. Or so it ended up taking that long for the Helo to get to the boat. I'm not doing that again. I plan on being packed and basically ready to go before shift today.

Later

Breaking news T-gun just beat the Russian and is getting ready to play the Welshman. Gotta go support my guy.

Videos and Foosball

2007-05-27T09:00:00.000-06:00

I am still having problems getting that video to play, so I will just give you the hyperlink to Youtube so you can watch it there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrX6Gkiaio8

Here is the current results table for the tourney.

Group A	GP	Pts
me	2	6
the Russian	4	5
T-nav	3	3
T-gun	2	2
the other American	3	0
Group B
the Welshman in Thailand	3	9
marbles	2	3
the Normal one	1	0
the Egyptian	1	0
the Nigerian	1	0

Believe it or not Group A is still pretty much wide open. I need one more win to secure the group. Group B just needs to get it in gear and start playing. I would like to point out that my predictions on the group winners look like they are going to pan out. However the runners-up probably won't.

Thursday I get off the boat, four and a wake up. Actually that was yesterday, today is three and a wake up!

Foosball!!!!!!!

2007-05-20T23:46:00.000-06:00

But first, just because I know you all were concerned, I figured out my language problem. Some how the language setting got changed to Norwegian. Yes I was right. Just in case it happens to you, at the bottom of the log-in page the fifthword over is language, or the word for language in what ever tongue you have been changed over too. The page you are sent to has all the languages listed, just click English, if you like you can use the UK version, and select save changes.

An additional aside for all of you who have take the S.H.A.P.E. course, I guess I can cross of Interpretation of Tongues of my list of potential Spiritual Gifts.

Now back to the topic at hand, Foosball!!!! With exactly ten days left until crew change the brackets have been set. This time we are having pool play, with the top two teams from the two pools, advancing to the semi-finals. In group A you have myself, the Russian, another American, and two Trinidadians, we'll call T-gun and T-nav. In group B there is the Welshman who lives in Thialand, the Egyptian who lives in the US, one of the Nigerians, and two Norwegians, we'll call the normal one, the other one marbles because he may be missing a few.

The Italian, didn't make it this trip because of a health issue, but is doing better, and the Iranian born Norwegian has voluntarily sat out, to allow the tournament to not have a forgone winner. Both of them really are significantly better than anyone else on board so it will be interesting.

Right now my predictions are that myself and the Welshman are going to win the groups, with maybe the normal Norwegian being the runner up. Groups A's runner up is pretty wide open and I cannot really guess right now. I will keep you informed, as I know you are anxiously awaiting results.

Finally, I was going to paste this clip in yesterday, but do to the language issue I couldn't. You may have seen this, but if not enjoy.

Jon

Languages

2007-05-19T10:00:00.000-06:00

I have a problem, actually many, but the one that is immediately staring me in the face is the fact that Blogger has started showing up in my browser in Norwegian. At least I think it is Norwegian, it could be Swedish or Danish, they do after all come from the same root language.

I wonder if my spell check will still perform its check in English? Nope, it's in Norwegian. The wierd part is only about half the words are high-lighted.

Anyway, I had planned on a rambling treatise on grace, and devising a lame excuse on why I haven't written any entries recently. I will admit I have been busy, but things have slowed down the last couple of days. I have just been watching movies instead of doing other really more important things.

I appoligize for any spelling mistakes, it wasn't my strong suit in school, but again the spell checker is working in Norwegian

Stress Test

2007-04-27T19:40:00.000-06:00

The other evening I was walking to get a little dinner and was handed a pamphlet with the title "Are You Curious About Yourself?" It ended up being something from the Scientoloigists, with an offer for one of L. Ron Hubbard's books. Later I stumbled upon their Life Improvement Center and they were advertising a free Stress Test. No point in me taking the test right now since I am under allot of stress and have not had a chance to relieve it in any way, I am working to many hours.

Today I only worked 12 hours, but yesterday it was 15, the day before 18, and 15 each of the two days before that. I get to work tomorrow too. I'll stop whining now.

I promised a review of Chevy's HHR. In one word, "Don't". It is basically the same as Dodge's PT Cruiser, which I don't care for either. The HHR's windshield is too small; it almost feels like looking through a soda straw. This is exacerbated by the very wide A-pillars. Those are the pillars between the windshield and the front door. It also has the Cruisers annoying power windows. I call them annoying because the activation switch is located between the driver and front passenger instead of on the door.

Unfortunately since I was in Florida, I didn't get to the weekend to hang out with the college buddies, but things came up and they couldn't make it either. I am still in Florida, the vessel I am assigned to is in dry dock and that has been a huge goat rope that I won't get into right now. Crew change has also occurred, but the guys in the office finagled it so I was staying in the office job until the end of dry dock, which is at least another week and a half. The upside is I get to sleep in a nice bed and continue to earn my Hilton HHoners points. I am up to 35 nights in a Hilton family hotel this year! I should be getting close to my Gold card. Woo Hoo, more free upgrades. The downside is I have to deal with a lot of logistics issues, and people from the office who have never seen one of our boats, think now is the opportune time to do it. They of course decide to come the day before they actually do so. I am finally getting on top of it, but it still feels like a long way to go until we leave.

Rumors are now flowing fast and furious. Everything from, Gulf of Mexico again, to Mexico, and even Brazil has been mentioned. I would really like Brazil, I haven't ever been to South America and would be one more continent off the list.

Later

Break is over back to the blog

2007-04-14T20:05:00.000-06:00

Well, it has been awhile, and I will admit my two weeks of break were extremely uneventful. Other than the freaky weather, that would let me go out an run. OK, it didn't stop me, I'm just a wimp when it is cold. I did run a 5K one Saturday, and I have to say that there is one phrase that if I never hear again, it will be alright. The 5K I ran was the "Get your Rear in Gear" 5K for Colon Cancer. Now I was a little late showing up, and was forced to the back of the pack. I don't mind this really and I generally wait for everyone to get out ahead of me. I have found that this allows the pack to get spread out and it is easier to work through. Besides passing people always helps when the endorphins have failed. Does this make me an over-competitive jerk? However; I wouldn't try this in a race with several thousand runners. Limit it to races with less than a thousand.

I do have a few other things I want to blog about, but will leave that until later. I will give you a few teasers though. A review of Chevy's HHR, hanging out with by college buddies, and the kinda hot weather here in Tamp FL. It was in the 90's today. :)

Jon

A few of the advantages of flying alot

2007-03-25T20:41:00.000-06:00

When I tell people about my job, a frequent response I get is, "So you travel a lot, how exciting!" Yes, I love being on an eight hour flight, shoe horned between two people who from what I can tell have the manners of homo erectus.

For my flight home last Friday, I had gone online the previous Monday to look at my seat. The airline had set me up in a middle seat of a three seat row. Personally, this is the worst seat on an airplane. Ok the middle seat in a five seat row is worse, but those are only a few airplanes. So, I moved back a couple of rows to get an exit row window seat. Now, I like the window, and in case of an emergency, the exit row window pretty much guarantees my getting out first. Ok, I really wanted the leg room.

Thursday night I went back online to do my check-in and print my boarding pass so I can make sure everything with my flight is set. I have had a few experiences where I thought things were all set and they weren't. Anyway, I find I have been bumped from my exit row seat! I was bumped to first-class. No, I really didn't mind losing the exit row. Apparently my silver status with the airline has taken effect.

This past year, I was able to earn enough miles to earn silver status from the airline. It does provide me with a few benefits, mostly I can check-in at the first-class check-in desk, and I can get the window or other premium seats free of charge. Probably the best benefit though is the complimentary upgrade to first class, if a seat is available.

There are a few advantages to flying this much.

Jon

Nomores

2007-03-16T23:50:00.000-06:00

It is very early Saturday morning and since it is Saturday we are officially into Nomores. Today is the last Saturday on board so "no more Saturdays" and it will continue for the rest of the week.

I did get some news today. I won't call it good news or bad it just is news. I am having a scheduling change so I will be coming back to MN on Friday instead of heading to the office like I had planned. I will admit I have my reasons, for this being what I would call really good news, but it is tempered by the fact that in three weeks when I do head into the office, it will be office, boat, office meaning I have an 11 week trip instead of a normal 8 week trip. I don't let realizations like that get me down it just I tend to try to keep things on an even keel, and not have a bunch of emotional mood swings. I am a T after all.

I have thought about switching my schedule to boat, break, office, but I think I will wait until July to make that switch. There is only one reason why I am waiting and that is June 16th. I am going to be running my second marathon on that day in Norway, and by not switching the schedule, I will have been in Norway for two weeks. Plenty of time to get adjusted to the time change, and get used to running at night. Not that it is dark at night in Norway at that time of year.

Anyway, by this time next week I will be home. As Homer would say, "Woo Hoo!!!!" And about the up coming 11 week trip? As Homer would also say, "I said, Woo Hoo."

Jon

It has ended again

2007-03-13T23:22:00.000-06:00

I played the Italian tonight. I offered to play Sunday, but he said he was sore from helping with the stores coming on board the day before. The stores were a good thing, the previous captain and steward did not order any food for us so we have had very little on board and the variety at meal time was lacking. The 13 pallets that we received was a little much so I said alright, even though I was fine.

So I said fine and he told me he was ready to play today, and we did. After some good games I lost 3 games to 1. The fourth game ended 5-4, our counter only goes up to five, so I almost sent it to a deciding game.

My goalie got me again, our table doesn't have the ramps in the corners, instead it has a three man back line. Which while it gives you more shooters, with new angles, it also means more things to deflect the ball. My biggest problem is forgetting the man in the corner and using my center goalie playing it to the corner and immediately moving him back to the center of the goal mouth. Well, that means the corner man plays it right back to the center goal keeper. Who proceeds to score an own goal.

Round three also seems to have gotten played tonight. The Iranian born Norwegian beat the Welshman who lives in Thailand, vice the Welshman who doesn't. The Italian beat the Canadian, and the Filipino still has to play the other Norwegian, in what ends up being a rematch from the previous round. I mentioned in a previous post that we had an odd number sign up, this is where the odd number comes in, the "best" loser from the second and third round move on to the next round. "Best" meaning they won more games in their series than any other loser won in theirs. It just so happens that they were at the bottom of the bracket and the winner of their game got the "best" loser.

Otherwise, I found out today I might be coming home a few weeks earlier than expected, but my next trip would be longer, 11 weeks instead of the normal 8. I need to look at some schedules before I make up my mind. I'll let you know.

Jon

It has begun, again

2007-03-09T10:50:00.000-06:00

Since it is coming up on the middle of March, I am sure lots of you are thinking about the up coming Annual Hope Spring Retreat, and of course the Foosball Tournament. What, that's not why you go? Anyway, I on board we try to get a tournament together every trip. Not always, but most of the time.

We are through the first round of play, and due to the international flavor of our crew it can take on a little bit of a World Cup real. In the first round I took care of the Egyptian, and next up is the Italian. I haven't seen him play, but everyone says he is pretty good. Part of me wants to ask him if I'm going to have to take one of my men off the bar half way through the game, because he'll have swung to close to one of his. If you didn't watch or hear about the atrocity that they called a World Cup match between the US and Italy last summer, you won't get that.

Even if I lose not all hope is lost the "best loser" from this round goes on to the next round. We had an odd number of people sign-up, so the bracket is a little weird.

I'll keep you informed.

Jon

Shoveling snow

2007-03-05T11:21:00.000-06:00

Watching the weather at the end of the week last week, I was experiencing some mixed feelings. At home you are getting buried in what I can gather was easily the worst storm of the year. When I was home last, it had been very cold, but no snow. Then I leave and it snows! I had wanted to get at least one good storm in this winter. Now I don't really miss the cold, I never really had the body fat to keep myself warm, but I do miss the shoveling of the drive way. Having said that I will probably get all sorts of offers to let me do theirs. I don't like shoveling the drive way either, but I do find it therapeutic. I also, find mowing the lawn therapeutic, but were in winter, talking about snow, and that's another post.

Maybe it is just the endorphins talking, but I always really feel good after shoveling a good snow fall. Not one of those little ones where you scrape it of in ten minutes, and the neighbor breaks out his $1500 snow blower because, "I paid for it, I going to use it." But, a good four inches is nice, something where you can get a little workout in.

I also enjoy the uninterrupted chance to think. Even if someone else is helping out they really don't want to be out there either so they aren't going to try and hold a conversation. OK, occasionally a conversation will be held but only on the lighter jobs or when you get to the end of the drive way and your right next to each other.

Enjoy the snow,

Jon
Gulf of Mexico where its 75 degrees, sunny, with the occasional breeze.

Not that I'm rubbing it in.

News of the world that we never hear about Pt.1

2007-02-28T19:32:00.000-06:00

In my never ending quest to find more useless information, I occasionally happen upon some really interesting news stories that we, in the US, never hear about.

My most recent find is an ongoing story on the island of Java in Indonesia. Mud has started flowing out of the ground where a well was being drilled. Now there is some debate whether the drilling caused the mud flow, or if it was an earthquake that had occurred a day or two before the flow began. In all 10-11K people have been displace, I think the report said 13 villages have been buried. One more thing it started May 29th, 2006.

Obviously, I am shocked by the catastrophe, but part of me can't help but think about, in some ways, how cool this is. What I'm getting at is can you fathom how much mud that is? Is a giant hole being created under the island/seabed? Is this what really caused the sink hole in Guatemala? Or, are we really going to use the giant cave that is formed to protect ourselves from the meteor coming to destroy the planet? Didn't hear about the sink hole? OK, the last two are a small attempt to create an Internet conspiracy theory or two.

I think one of the older stories said the flow had covered almost 1000 acres, and some of the pictures have people in it up to their waists. Of course being an island the easiest way to get rid of the mud is to direct it towards the sea and that has the environmentalists up in arms about the damage, that is creating.

They have finally come up with a plan to try an stop the flow. Basically they are planning to drop concrete balls connected to each other into the hole hoping that it will slow the flow so they can start getting it cleaned up. I am a little dubious of it working. Part of me envisions some sort of Loony Tune, Wile E. Coyote event with a mud geyser a la "Old Faithful" shooting these balls up into the air; where they fall harmlessly back to earth. In reality they probably will be popped back out of the hole, but you can always hope for the best.

As I write this I am realizing that my desire to see some humor in the situation, is that if I were in it myself, I would be shaking my head with utter disbelief, and have to crack a joke to keep my spirits up and continue on.

You can read more about the story at the BBC website. The link below is where the article is located. I am still figuring out how to do a few things. Or, you can go to the BBC and type in "mud flow in Indonesia" that will bring up the list of all the articles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6392995.stm

What to name your Blog

2007-02-26T17:00:00.000-06:00

I have been meaning to start this blog for a while now, but my major hang-up has been what to name it. I finally came to the realization that this is what coming up with a band name must be like. You have the strange names that are very esoteric.

Cool!!! I have spell check.

Sorry, there are some words that you just need it on. Esoteric is just one of them. Where was I?

The names that will be changed very soon after the band performs at some regional "battle of the bands", those that try to sound cool, but really aren't, and then there are the very simple, truely cool, almost spur of the moment band names.

So I have put off naming my blog until the moment of inspiration comes to me. Or, I can claim that I reverted to an acronym from my former life.