I LOVE flash mobs!!!

Yesterday in Montreal, the Artmistice dance company answered the worldwide flash mob call to pay tribute to Michael Jackson...




I love flash mobs!!! It's fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!! like being a real life musical!!!!!! how many times have I dreamed of that?! being in a coffee shop and suddenly everybody starts dancing and singing... with the growing popularity of those mobs, apparently I wasn't the only one wishing for it :P

MRI

I finally got the MRI for my stupid back that just wont stop hurting...

The real thing is less interesting than those in House... I didn't start convulsing or pass out :P ... I just had to lie really still for 30 minutes, 4 minutes at a time, then I could scratch my nose if I had to, but not move my legs or back at all... which was kinda painful since I have an uncooperative lower back.
It's noisy like a chopper ride, with a bad techno-industrial beat, and it gets really warm after a point...

and they should put some funny stickers on the "ceiling" because counting the holes in the lil round speaker 4 inches from your face gets old really quickly...



anyway, should have the results in a couple of day and finally know how much it's gonna cost me to fix this... if it can be fixed :S

btw, why is it called an MRI if it means Magnetic Resonance Exam... where's the I from? :/

activities overload

There is too much stuff going on!!!

Just for Laugh and Nights of Africa finish this weekend (they both are around Ste-Catherine and St-Denis so it's easy to go from one to the other) but Francofolies and Divers/Cité start next week... one at Square Berri the other at the New "Place des Spectacles" ...more shows and parades and outside/all night dance floor and music, and DJs and exhibitions... plus the movies I want to see and the friends I HAVE to hangout with... It is an overload of cool stuff and I don't want to miss any of it!!!!

I'll need to go back to work just so I can sleep and relax a bit ;)

hoooooooooooooome!!!

I've been up for 4 hours and already had 3 lattes/mochas and I'm sooo not done yet... I'll just HAVE to bring an espresso machine on that rig, it's not sane to go cold turkey for 3 weeks and then go on a binge of caffeine like that :P

Not sure what the plans are for the weekend yet... but I intend to enjoy it fully!

Especially since I've cut on vacation time here, so I could go back to my night shift on the Goodrich... :) yay!

bzzzzzzzzzz

My head is spinning a little... I got caught in the ol' hurry up and wait...

Around 9am the verdict fell, people with suit issue have to leave now as in NOW! now or it will go to Friday at the soonest.

So I rushed inside,
- packed my PPE (got told today too I'm probably not coming back to the Goodrich next time :( boooo!),
- was told I might not leave afterall, cause there might not be a spot for me on the boat, but to still packup everything just in case...
- watched the safety video
- woke up Jan because I had to get my suitcase and stuff from the room
- threw everything in the suitcase randomly in 5 minutes
- rushed to heli admin 3 floors up with the survival suit that don't fit but that I still have to carry around, the suitcase and the PPE
- was told there that there IS a spot for me so I'm going... they'll call us when it's time
- then, the departure time was pushed after the safety meeting... at 12:30

so now I'm a bit nauseous, and I'm pretty sure my shampoo is slowly leaking and seeping in all my books and clothes, but I'm ready and all is under control... for now...

yikes

change of plan again.. I'm leaving today.. otherwise I'd have to stay until at least Friday.. and that ain't good :S

good stuff

I should mention that whatever was wrong with the FPSO has been fixed!
No more big bad black smoke coming out YAY! :D


... and I smell burning toast... am I about to have a seizure or has the cook burnt sumtin in the kitchen?

spoke too soon

I might not be going anywhere any time soon...

My departure would be the day (tomorrow) we pull anchors, if there is no more delays... at the moment I'm hoping for the "accidental" drop of a sledge hammer on a crucial part or something meaning all the boats will be caught up in that and guess who's gonna stay here until they're done...

The official them of the day is : news that suck
they just keep piling up today...

kwak kwak

I'm not the only one tripping around here...
some dude keeps singing in the squwak box :S
(they're all cracking under pressure.... too much change of plans in this completion nightmare :P)

The squwak box is like an intercom system that goes through on the whole rig, but I think only the guys on the drill floor have access to the mic... and it makes them all sound like Donald Duck...

hoooooome, I'm coming hoooome again!

Looks like the boat will be here Wednesday morning... so I should get on board around noon...

and

go

HOME!!!

never mind the fog, this will be another three weeks of summer in Montreal!!! yeeeehaaaaw

in the summertime the sea is pretty flat...

but this here, is winter in the North Atlantic... the yellow railing is the rig... about 20m (60ft) above sea level... usually...

click on pic for better viewing... it's worth it :P

and that would be from the skipper's boat captain point view :

and you thought your job sucked ;)

revision 2

Apparently I was not the only one looking at the black fumes from the FPSO with an eyebrow raised... at the meeting last night it became an official topic.

So, official version, the FPSO has power problems, parts broken or missing or something, so they can't burn the stuff at high intensity like they usually do, hence the black smoke. They're supposed to get it fixed soon.

In the mean time, we enjoy dark omens flying straight over us... because blowing the candle is not an option of course...

I stick to my previous statement : c.r.e.a.m. 's the word

C.R.E.A.M.

After asking around, I must correct the previous post...

It's not natural gas that's burning out of the FPSO. That, they can pack up and sell... what's burning is all the crap not pure enough and general by-products no one wants to buy.

Of course, it's all regulated and controlled, just like carbon credits are; they have limits not to exceed and so on...

Wu still got it right though...

up in smoke

Who ever said natural gas burns clean should have a look at the column of black smoke coming out of the FPSO at the moment... it's so g*dd*mn thick it's making a deep shadow on the water below for f*** s*ke!

The FPSO is on the other side of the rig so I don't see it... all day I thought World War Three had been declared and Europe was burning ~>:( that's me fuming... I hate us... we globally suck as a specie...

hierarchy

Roger, my day-time colleague, left last night and was replaced by an Oceaneering, American, auditor. They go to every OCI workplaces to inspect everything, take pictures, make sure all runs ok, and that there is no outstanding issues like the winch is not about to fall over and stuff like that...
Then they write a report and give a "grade" to the installation, with recommendations on what to improve...

So... the day time shift is now composed of the school principal, the schoolboard director and a 4th grade student who's not allowed to play with electricity by herself...

I'm hopping up and down I'm so thrilled...

rat race

We have to fill START cards every day... they are bureaucrat induced safety reports for when we notice a safe or unsafe behavior, equipment or condition... good idea on paper, stupidly applied as it has been turned into a number's game...
Everybody has to fill one a day, point being be aware of your surroundings at all time; in reality most people just bulls*** cards so their company won't look like slackers on the detail in color and % and all graph, presented on the giant screen at each safety meeting, of who's handing out the most cards... how about a graph on the quality of those cards huh? :S

Other sign this ain't exactly rollin', rig guys fill the cards when they see something, but don't tell the person about it...
They see it as a "yay I have my card for the day!" not as "hey dude how about tying that ladder off before you plummet to your death 90ft below"

useful... really...

At least our Oceaneering cards (who have more or less the same purpose) are kept "in the family" so we do tell each other about it...

gotta love those drones...

smooch

I just found out that there's a town near Orlando, Florida, that's called Kissimmee!

KISSIMMEE!!! I'm soooo buying a house there!!!!

-Where do you live?
-Kissimme :D

wouhahahaha!

bleh

shitty day
my knee's bad again, it's wet, cold, nothing we did this afternoon worked and I'm angry at the world.

bleh >:/

news of the day IV

Apparently, when rigs start a new well they, sometimes, want to keep their location secret... to the point that they can cut all phone and internet communications for a while. Nothing coming or going... to make sure no one blabs about it to their wife and kids who, of course, happen to be spies for the Communists or other oil companies...

I'm wondering though... isn't a big massive cube of metal, with a 100m tower stuck in the middle of it, loaded with shiny bright lights blarring 24/7, floating in the middle of a flat ocean, kind of a spoiler?
Haven't they heard of Google Earth? anybody with a computer can zoom in on this place in about 2 and a half seconds... plus there are supply boats and helicopters stopping by twice a day... are they blindfolding the pilots and giving them instructions in the headset as they go?

... what I mean by this is DON'T YOU DARE TAKE MY INTERNET AWAY IF WE MOVE THIS THING SOMEWHERE ELSE, OKAY?!!! >:(

news of the day III

The fog is back, so is the rain and cold... we were lucky though, summer lasted 4 whole days this year! :P

news of the day II

The good cook is back! :D
The food here has suddenly improved by a million percent! I was really getting tired of having everything fried and half cooked... hot dogs 3 times a week? seriously?! eurk!!!
There's some jobs that you shouldn't be doing for the money, brain surgeon is one of them... cook for a captive audience is another!!! If it's not a passion for you, if you don't like to cook and have no talent and imagination for it, go be a landscaper or something, but don't make the only restaurant that the customers cannot boycott your workplace!!! ok, it's out of my system... feeling better now...

news of the day I

The ship that's coming to bring me back to St.John's is leaving port on Tuesday, so it will be here on Wednesday and I will get back to dry land on Thursday... next week that is :P

mom nature's in a good mood!

4 days in a row of bright sunshine and "warm" weather ok yesterday was cloudy and gray but still decent warm and not windy... that's enough to make you wonder what's going on here! or when the shitstorm's gonna hit to even things out :P

I've been wearing only a t-shirt under my Oceaneering shirt and coveralls
and I've replaced my tuque with a bandana...

... you'd almost believe summer has finally found its way allaway out here!
he must have google mapped it :P

I still can't fly... my suit's not ready... get me Edna E Mode!!

It's been confirmed that is, until someone changes it that there will be one boat a week for the people who can't fly because their flying suit don't fit. That boat will be on Tuesday... but I don't know if it's leaving St.John's or arriving here on Tuesday...
That means I could crew change 2 days early or not :P could also be 5 days late but that ain't gonna happen!

Good news is, no matter what, I should be home on time... no fog induced delays to prevent me from getting my time off in due time :)

make my crown a hard hat :P

My knee hurts like hell for an unknown reason... didn't fall, didn't bump it... it's just being very uncooperative in my desire to walk around doing stuff
and I just ripped off the top half of my left thumb's nail for real.. it's bleeding a river under my band-aid :S while trying to pull a door that slipped...

I'm the clumsy queen I tell ya!!

SUMMER!!!

I can't believe the day we're having!! It must be at least 24c!!!!! it's sunny, no clouds, with very little wind!!! I am not cold, I'm even a little it warm! I took off my tuque and my 3rd shirt too!!!

The guys on my shift are dying of heat... but I'm in heaven :P

acronyms from hell

MQC HFL in UTH of BOP with TT, turn CCW @ 50B

believe it or not this actually means something! ...and even more amazing, I kinda know what!

:P

multitasking

Since we're on standby, with the rov in the water, I'm finishing the DVD logs, bringing all the chapters up to date (from 2 weeks back.. gack!)... it was super busy for a while and the editing kinda went to s***, so now is the time to set everything straight, before madness starts again...

So I'm happily multitasking, keeping an eye on the sub in the water, trying to make sense of cryptic dive logs, answering phones, writing log summaries for the DVDs, drinking coffee!, dubbing chapters, finalising disks and watching funny videos (thanx to Mui) so I don't rip my head off...

Any fan of musicals will love this god bless crazy funny people! :

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Frosty the rov tech

there was a frost warning last night... this morning the wind is coming straight from Santa's hometown... *sigh* ... we are July 10th...
I am delighted to say I haven't been wearing my winter coat for the past 2 days... so that was officially summer, now we're back to normal :P

wooh!

It is SUNNY!!!!! The sky is blue, there is no fog, no wind, and it's almost warm... ok, lukewarm...

I know! I can't believe it either!!! I don't have my winter coat on today!!! WOOHOO!!! it doesn't takes much to please me :P

They say "red sun in the morning, sailor take warning"... but it was proven wrong, cause this was what sunrise looked like:


and this is what today is like:


yay! :)

day shift

My first real, complete, day shift...
it's going well...
we're busy as hell...
and I look like this :
I am NOT a day person,
though it's nice to see the sun... for the whole long 30 seconds it was out of the clouds today ;)

arrrrrrrr

astidcolissedetabarnac!Hijo de puta Tonto del culo Me cago en todo lo que se menea! Porca vacca! Madar Chod bhosdee kay Tatti Mangachinamun Schrauben Sie Hurensohn Wichser A'er b' sinsiltookh Eree b shwawokh alle Qu Ni De!qu si!!!! gniaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!

I've been switched to day shift... yuck... I finished at 6am, got a break till noon and now I'm back editing rov movies till 6pm... from now on I'll be on 6am to 6pm *puke*

it's a logistic nightmare out here, with too many people on medic leaving, or just leave, and I suffered the collateral damage...

For the next two weeks, you can call me the brainless-sleep-deprived-zombie... I CAN'T sleep at night... and waking up at 3:30am (mtl time) is just eeeevil :S

bunnies

Is it just me?
or is having pictures of half naked girls on office's walls
is kinda normal if the guy in the office is 15
but becomes kinda creepy when he's over 30?

(especially since the age of the girls in the pictures remains the same, aka around 18...)

just wondering...

I'm singing in the rain

It is pouring rain! thick curtains of wet cold water falling straight down!

Not the best timing since we had the telemetry can open :P we're troubleshooting a fault again.. the task that never ends... That can is highly allergic to water because it's full of electronic components and the tarp we put over the sub was full of holes oops but since it started raining only an hour before the end of our shift, we had time to play before the fun ended.

So the day-shift guys will have to deal with sealing everything up and make sure the fog that preceded the rain didn't bust anything in the temperamental electronics...

meanwhile, I'll switch from singing in the rain to sleeping while it rains :P

night night!

To all my American friends...

Enjoy those beers and BBQs!!! ;)

finally made it!

I finally made it to the rig! I left Wednesday night but it seems like a week ago!

The flight was late due to thunderstorms so I got in St.John's at 2am, thinking the helicopter flight was at 11:45am... but guess what, it had been switched to 6:30am! I went to the hotel for a one hour nap, then went to the heliport. That was still good, cause I could sleep all day when I got to the rig...

I had to do a fit test for the flying suit, which I failed (actually, the suit failed) cause I couldn't get a seal around my face, meaning water would go in if I ended up in the water. That meant I couldn't go to the rig by helicopter (even though I came back in one last time, now that they started this fit test procedure loads of people are being turned down and will have to have a suit custom made).

After a bit of waiting, I was allowed to go back to the hotel and sleep another 3 hours, then I went to the company who makes the suits, and they took my measurements to have one made just for me ladida!

After that, more waiting, then off to the boat for an allnighter trip to the rig. I slept in bunches a couple of hours at a time on the worst mattress in history when the mattress feels like a boxspring you know there's a problem there! I frog lifted on the rig around 1pm, emptied my suitcase and it was time to go to work... I just started and I'm already exhausted! I like the rig better to work, compared to the boat.. more flying, more people, better beds!, but the traveling to get there just sucks!!! Nothing's perfect I guess :P
but thanx to my goldfish-like short term memory, I will soon forget about this and just enjoy being here hehe

ok breaks over, let's get this thing in the water! weeeeeee :)

wow!

The 30th Montreal Jazz Festival started today... and I'm just back from the first show... Stevie Wonder... all I can say is WOW!!!

I'm so glad my flight for St.John's is late tomorrow so I could go see this!!! The man is a legend, a talented, charismatic, generous one... and he gave such a great show!... what a voice! and the harmonica!!! its sound is so unique!!! He also paid a very touching tribute to Michael Jackson...

There is no word to describe tonight's show... it was a unique experience... you had to be there...

I filmed a coupe of songs, and part of the crowd dancing and singing. Maybe it will convey some of the electricity that was hovering around the stage...
If I have time tomorrow, I'll edit some of it and put it online.. if I don't have time it'll have to wait until I'm back home, in 3 weeks, because my laptop is too crappy for this kinda job...

worth to mention too:

In a my years of attending festivals I have never seen the place so full.. tv said 100 000 people were there, I say more than this! The show was live on one stage and presented on giant screens on 3 others all around the festival's site... and the crowd was piling up for miles in front of all of them! Never EVER has the Jazz Fest been so jampacked!
Even mother nature decided to attend! It stopped raining 5 minutes before the show, and the rain resumed 30 seconds after the last song... I call that being in good term with the higher powers :P
(and may I make a point of this : it was RAINING until 5 minutes before the show... and STILL it was the biggest crowd in history... I'm just flabbergasted at the proportion this night took!)