Accidental Remediation

open season

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:33:00 +0000

On the way to the field yesterday, I noticed a few cars on the side of the highway. Then a few more. What the...?

Oh, it's hunting season. Too bad I didn't bring anything orange to wear...

I was in a posted area, so I shoudn't have had any hunters around, right? Except that I kept tripping over shells and the afternoon was punctuated by various shots in the distance. The far distance, luckily.

Sometimes you run into safety issues that the health and safety plan never anticipated.

blargh

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:56:00 +0000

I thought I was chugging along, doing ok, getting at least one post in per week. And then I realized that I posted exactly five times during the month of November. I thought I was way more neglectful earlier this year, when I had the project from hell (as alluded to here), but apparently I'm not doing terribly well in the regular-posting department. And it's not just that I was sick for a week or so.

It's so much easier to keep writing daily when you're a grad student. Also, much easier to keep writing daily when you have 2+ roomates and you can't just plop down in front of the TV. Much easier when your commute is short enough to walk. And much easier when you don't have a sweetie distracting you.

I haven't forgotten you, dear reader. I'm just working on my time management skills.

Thanksgiving fun

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:14:00 +0000

I love this holiday. It's the one non-religious (although you can certainly add as much religion as you'd like) holiday that everybody can really bond over.

This year, I spent Thanksgiving with my sweetie's family for the first time. It was a good time, with seven people and almost twice as many dishes. I saw my sweetie's grandmother for the first time in a very long while and spent most of the post-dinner slump fending off complaints that I was not providing offspring for her. They went mostly like this:

"You can do whatever you want with your relationship, dear. Don't let anybody tell you what to do...but I'm an old lady and I want great-grandchildren before I die!"

I hope my (US) readers also had an enjoyable thanksgiving. Did you also get/take off today in order to have a nice long weekend of recovery? I sure did....

more hotel amenities

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:26:00 +0000

A while ago, I mentioned the various hotel amenities that I appreciate the most.

When I was sick earlier (incidentally, I'm much better now) I was staying at a place that had a bed with a hard, lumpy mattress and a pillow that was way too thick. I was achy all over and had exquisitely sensitive skin.

I ended up spending most of the night staring at the ceiling, fantasizing that I was staying at the hotel chain that supposedly uses all high-end mattresses (Sheraton), or at least the chain that has a big variety of pillows (Holiday Inn, I think) ...maybe I'm becoming over-familiar with the various hotel chains.

Maybe next time I travel, I'll pack my own pillow, at least.

misery is...

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:58:00 +0000

...when you've got a massive respiratory bug that has you hacking/blowing out nasties continuously, plus you have two unrelated uncomfortable conditions, and you're in the field in the rain.

Luckily, I didn't have to expend much physical effort during this project. So I could scrunch under an overhang and feel sorry for myself.

The problem with fieldwork is that sometimes it takes a lot of money/coordination to get everything set up, and you may have a small window of opportunity to get everything done. It also may be impossible to get someone to cover for you. So most of the time, I just suck it up if I'm sick.

I've only stopped fieldwork because of illness once. In that case, one of the subcontractors was also fighting the same bug, so when I gave up mid-morning, the response was "yay!" and they tore out of there as if they were afraid I would change my mind.

So how much misery does it take you before you give up and go home?

super duper elite

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:12:00 +0000

It must be close to the end of the calendar year...I finally got my super duper elite travel reward status.

I travelled a fair bit in grad school, but my field site wasn't anywhere near the sort of places that had travel rewards. I spent a lot of time in a local no-tell motel. So by the time I finished, I had depleted all my rewards and lost my special status. I only started building up my points again this year.

I don't think my super-duper elite status really does anything for me. The reward program has like 7 levels, and once you get past the basic "travel once and get a card" level, the benefit appears to be just increasingly snazzy cards.

That's ok. I get enough rewards to never have to pay for a hotel room on my own, and occasionally enough to buy the odd household appliance. What else could a girl ask for?

grading fun

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Thanks to continual internet problems (gotta love travelling) I am hopelessly behind on my blog writing as well as my blog reading. But I did notice a post that reminded my of one of my grad school pet peeves: horribly messy and/or incomplete work.

I taught the laboratory portion of an upper-level required course. My students were generally at least 20 years old, were majoring in the subject, and needed to pass the course to graduate.

How did these students get this far into their college career without learning such basics as filling in all the blanks on labs or even tests? I thought they were too old for the "I can't give partial credit if you leave it blank" lecture, but I was wrong.

When the students didn't bother to answer questions, it mystified me but did make things a lot easier to grade. More aggravating were the smudgy hand-written answers on separate paper which not only were not in order, but were not labelled with a question number. I hated going on treasure hunts. They were a sure-fire way to ensure that the partial credit got a lot less generous.

male-female ratio

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:51:00 +0000

Sorry about the long silence - I've had lousy internet service during my travels. Back to your usual programming...

I've worked in areas where the male:female geologist ratio is approaching 50:50, and where the majority of environmental science/engineering students coming out of college are female. But I've also worked in areas where female geologists are still a rarity, and drillers/subcontractors can refuse to work with women and not commit career suicide. Those areas aren't nearly as far south (in the US) as one might think.

So I'm wondering: what percentage of working geologists in your area are female? Are you seeing the number of women increase over time?

I don't stay up at night worrying about exact male:female ratios, but I've worked in places where female geologists are essentially unheard of, and they've been lonely and discouraging. I don't have the personality to be a pioneer, I guess.

clothing change

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:48:00 +0000

I'm usually a little behind when the seasons change, but this week has been cold enough to convince me to switch into winter gear. The lightweight hiking pants have been put away, and I've dragged out the shapeless sweaters, the 2-layer wool long underwear, the silk long underwear, the wool hats, and the carhartts.

Taking out the carhartts reminded me of a particular winter day a couple years ago, when I was working in the middle of nowhere with a subcontractor. We were wearing the same carhartts (obviously different sizes, but same color), and when I pointed this out, he was actually sort of horrified. He never wore those pants again.

Dude! Carhartts only come in about five colors! And carhartts are worn by about 90% of field people! Seriously, if you find a photograph of a geologist, they'll most likely be wearing the distinctively orangey-brown standard carhartts. If you're offended that you end up wearing the same ones as someone else, you need to buy some fancier field pants.

office decor

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:46:00 +0000

We all tend to personalize our office. Pictures of families, hobbies, and random stuff end up taking over the odd corners of our desks. Geologists tend to collect rocks.

I'm not a big fan of rocks in general. I'm a dirt and contamination person. Sure, if I'm coring rock or I pick up something cool in the field, I'll take it along. But many times, the interesting rocks don't make it all the way to my office.

So I don't have a rock collection. What I do have is a drilling detritus graveyard.

It started when we (the driller) destroyed a roller bit (example from wikipedia below) in some particularly difficult terrain.

The driller chucked the bit in my direction and said "why don't you take it?"

So I did. I ended up as sort of a broken bit magpie. When something shears off or wears down to uselessness and can't be repaired, I'll take it back to the office as a sort of trophy of a difficult (and expensive!) day. The more mangled, the better.

The problem is that my collection makes for some heavy (and occasionally greasy) paperweights. Next time I move, maybe I'll donate my collection to the next enthusiastic newbie who chirps, "hey, what does this do?"

drilling expectations

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:16:00 +0000

I can rant about this sort of thing for days...

As my long-term readers know, I was pretty shy when I started working in consulting. It was hard for me to speak up when I wanted something done differently. So what often happened was that I would let something go for way too long, and then I'd surprise the driller in the middle of whatever and say, "we need to change/add this." This leads to a lot of aggravation.

Now, when a drilling company first arrives at a site, I make an effort to have a truly comprehensive site briefing. This is after I've called the office to make sure we're on the same page. Why are we doing this, what are we looking for, and what are the specific things that I need? Then, when we're ready to start doing whatever, I'll remind the driller again.

Most of the time, all this is overkill. But I'd rather go through everything and make sure that we have everything we need and that there are no surprises. If I've written or reviewed the drilling specification, then I know it should cover everything I need. But the probability that the guy actually doing the work has actually read the thing is fairly low.

It sounds simple. But I can't tell you how many time we've arrived at a site and the driller says "I had no idea we needed mud mats/a steam cleaner/to cut through thickets/to get water four miles away" and it turns out to be a colossal pain in the ass and we all start out cranky.

drilling respect 2

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:52:00 +0000

I got a good bunch of comments on my last post.

Just to clarify, 99% of the drillers I've worked with have been fine to work with.

I'm perhaps pickier than many geologists when I'm watching a rig, but I'm generally following a long list of procedures that were designed to prevent safety issues, collect a good sample, and/or construct a well that will "behave" as well as possible over the long term. And I haven't met a driller who did every single thing I wanted the first time.

That's fine. And I will bend on certain things, and I'm amenable to suggestions. I'm not going to make the mistake of telling the driller exactly what to do, because that gets into the whole "well, then you do it" argument.

But I have had bad experiences, with drillers who won't take any direction, who are unable to keep a lid on their racist/sexist/horrifically off-color commentary (trust me, this is more than your standard salty language), and who generally make life miserable. And whom I've been completely unable to compel to behave.

In this sort of situation, appeals to a higher authority (i.e. the drilling company management) tend to work only if you're presenting an ultimatum, i.e. get me a new driller or I'm shutting this job down. Maybe I'm just a wimp, but I've never escalated things that far.

how to chill?

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:06:00 +0000

FSP has a post today about dealing with disrespectful students. Do you respond coldly? Do you get all worked up? Appeal to a higher authority? Or do you ignore the offenders?

I had a similar problem with disrespectful drillers. When a driller says something offensive, how should I react? None of my usual reactions (calling them out on it, pointedly ignoring it) worked. My problem was, if I ignored it, they would continue. If I got angry, they knew they'd gotten a rise out of me, and they'd keep saying it. And calling in someone else wasn't going to help the underlying lack of respect.

I had more problems with mouthy drillers when I had more experience rather than less. When I first started overseeing drillers, I think it was clear that I was overwhelmed, so they tiptoed around me. With more experience, I had more control over what the drillers were actually doing, and that's when I had more problems with drillers teasing me or saying things to piss me off.

My sweetie says that my problem is that I'm "too adorable". I'd like a solution that doesn't entail waiting another 10 years in the hopes of aging into a little more gravitas.

stress dream

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:32:00 +0000

I need to be in the field the next day. It supposedly requires only a few items, but there’s a possibility we’re doing more, which will require more rental equipment. Fine, I think. I’ll just rent what I know I need now.

The car rental place and the equipment rental place are in the same town, so it’s technically possible to get everything together. I start calling around, getting my hotel reservation and the equipment and vehicle reserved, and trying to get directions. But my phone isn’t working well, and I have to run out to get stuff all across town. One of my friends from grad school is supposed to be helping, but she took off in a snit for some reason.

It’s getting close to closing time for all the businesses I need stuff from. And I can’t stay late in my office, which is in one of the facilities I used to do environmental work at. I manage to get out with my stuff, and I find that my rental car is some sort of convertible supercar with about 4 cubic inches of storage space. Also, the driver’s seat is on the right side. And the brakes work by hitting a button on the key fob.

The site is on an island, naturally, and during part of my frantic preparations earlier I got a ferry schedule. So I head out to catch the last ferry. I get there and the parking lot is 2/3 handicapped parking, so I have to park a ridiculous distance away. Also, I apparently didn’t pack any of my field gear, as the trunk (such as it is) is empty. I run up to the office and the guy tells me that the boat leaves in 10 minutes, but it’s oversold. I’ll have to come back in the morning.

…then I wake up. I hate starting the day like this.

hotel tipping?

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:30:00 +0000

It's becoming more encouraged/expected in the hospitality biz to leave a tip for housekeeping. I've seen guides that suggest $1 - $2 per day.

I generally do not tip the maid. Does this make me a bad tipper? Bad person? Cheapskate?

Here's the thing: I require zero maintenance when I'm staying at a hotel for work. More and more hotels are providing an option to not change the sheets/towels daily, and I am all for that. The only mess I make is my clothing, which ends up strewn over every available non-bed surface and which the maid (rightfully) doesn't touch. I'd actually be happier if they didn't re-make the bed, because then I wouldn't have to yank the sheets out of the sides of the mattress nightly.

If I do something that requires more effort than making the bed - spill something, clog up the toilet (hey, ladies have, um productive events too!), use up all the tissues/toilet paper - then I do leave something.

When I asked colleagues about this years ago, the response was surprise that they were actually supposed to tip housekeeping. Nobody tipped. But maybe things have changed.

If you do or have done lots of travelling for work, do you leave tips for housekeeping? If so, daily, or just at the end of the stay?

geo-engineering

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Chris Rowan recently discussed using geoengineering to mitigate climate change on a global scale. This sort of geoengineering gives me the willies; it’s likely to be subject to the law of unintended consequences on a global scale.

Why? Just look at our track record on other environmental fixeds. Use more biofuels, and watch forests get eaten up in an effort to cash in and plant more biofuel crops. Switch to nuclear energy, and then you have a spent rod disposal problem. Encourage more electric (read: battery-powered) cars, and you have a heavy metal mining/disposal problem.

Some of the geoengineering options suggested (blow particles into the atmosphere to create a global umbrella!) to fix global warming just sound like bad ideas. Some (re-injecting carbon into the ground, bio-engineering algae to take up excess atmospheric carbon) sound fairly reasonable. But far more safe and cost-effective would be to try and limit the damage we’re inflicting.

I know how politically thorny it is, but if you think the arguments between developing and post-industrial countries are bad now, wait until the US or Europe decides to “cool things down” and goes a little too far and we have massive crop die-off and famine.

meeting strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:56:00 +0000

A couple days ago, FSP posted about meeting pet peeves. Some of the comments indicated that industry meetings are somehow more productive than academic meetings. Au contraire!

As a consultant I distinctly remember meetings that were monopolized by crazy people, meetings that didn't end until the participants had fallen into a post-donut coma, and meetings dominated by "note taking" that was actually playing tetris on various devices.

So here's my advice for a productive meeting, industry, academica, or otherwise:

1. Have a single meeting coordinator/dictator to keep things moving.

2. Write out a clearly defined agenda and stick to it. It doesn't have to be extensive, but you're trying to avoid the bored "let's talk about anything except the subject of this meeting" chatter.

3. If you have a participant who just can't shut up, institute a friendly but firm time limit.

4. Save the donuts for after the meeting.

I'm back!

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:24:00 +0000

...and I don't want to talk about it.

At some point in the future, I'm sure I'll polish/anonymize various facets of the last couple months and post them. They will be almost entirely negative.

I've been totally internet free for a while, so I'll be playing catch-up on the various blogs. But now (unlike the last time I said this) I should be able to keep up with daily posting.

over encumbered

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:29:00 +0000

I’m working my way through my usual bloglist after being away from all internet activity for a while. Sciencewoman has a post here that reminded me of one of my travel/fieldwork pet peeves.

I am fairly young and able-bodied. I’m not generally travelling with a horde of small children. But at times I’m forced to lug extremely heavy and awkward stuff around in crowded places.

If you’re unencumbered and you see someone who has obviously had a long day, is limping, has several bandages on the hand she is using to grip her stuff, and is fighting with a door/trying to cross a street/trying to haul her stuff up a flight of stairs, the very least thing you can do is avoid getting in her way. I don’t usually ask for help from strangers, but I’d like to avoid getting run over by cars in crosswalks, having doors slammed in my face, and getting cut off by people going up stairs when I’m obviously struggling.

farmer tan

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:15:00 +0000

I use sunscreen all the time when I'm out in the field. I usually use 45+, and on a good day I actually reapply the stuff every couple of hours. I tell people that I'm so diligent because I'm concerned about my skin's health, but the real reason is that I detest farmer tans.

Since I wear t-shirts nonstop in the summer if I'm doing fieldwork, when I have the opportunity to not wear one, I do. So you'll usually find me in something sleeveless or with a scoop neck. I look ridiculous with a farmer tan and a frilly little camisole.

So I was outside a couple days ago, wearing a t-shirt, and I did in fact apply a lot of sunscreen. However, I apparently missed the sides of my neck and a 1-inch strip right under the edge of my sleeves (both arms). I now have the ultimate farmer tan, and I'm going to an outdoor semiformal event (think sundress) in a couple of days. Grr.

blog break explanation

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:02:00 +0000

So, I haven't spent the last couple weeks in an internet-deprived wasteland. What happened to me? Bear with me, I'm going at this one sideways...

Once when I was in high school, I came across my dad's performance review. Here's what it said in a nutshell:

"We really, really like Mr. Geologist because he cares way too much about this company and his duties. We do realize that we've put Mr. Geologist into an utterly thankless position with an absurd amount of responsibility. Our one negative criticism is that he's obviously going to work/worry himself to death over his job, and we don't actually want him to keel over because of it. Maybe he should relax a little and delegate more."

My dad waited until the offsprings' college bills were taken care of, then dramatically quit. He is now at the same age that my grandfather (same personality) died of a massive heart attack. We are all holding our breath.

I've mentioned before that we don't get along well. Certain facets of his personality drive me nuts, and I'm aware that some of the things that aggravate me the most are traits that I share. Like impatience, with myself and with other people. Like being unable to stop worrying, stop stressing out about things that are essentially out of my control.

The last month of work has been really hard. Even though I can't control what's going wrong, I can't help feeling responsible. I've been working long hours, coming home, reading garbage popcorn books to try and take my mind off work, and going to bed. Weekends, I sleep for hours and hours because I've built up a huge sleep deficit during the week. I haven't taken care of anything other than pressing bills, haven't gotten back to friends when they call.

Things are not looking up yet at work, but I've decided that I need to fight through this and not succumb to the temptation to become a hermit. Part of this is getting back into the habit of writing a post every day. We'll see how it goes...

lyme frustration

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:46:00 +0000

I posted about this in passing, but was reminded about it by this NYTimes post.

Why the hell doesn't Lyme disease get any respect? Are there actually doctors out there who don't think it exists? Why is the medical establishment so resistant to diagnosing it? In my experience, you'll get better treatment from a vet.

I know, I know, the test for it is dodgy and the symptoms aren't very exotic and it can look like a million other diseases. But it's very simple. Do you work outside on the east coast? Are you regularly in contact with grass/shrubbery/second growth areas? Then you're at risk.

My doctor had a laughably bad understanding of the disease (I panicked once when I found an embedded tick) so I thought I'd post this simple list:

1. You may or may not have a bulls-eye rash.
2. Ticks don't transmit the disease until they've been feeding for a while, so if you find one embedded and remove it later (i.e. in the shower once you get home), you're ok.
3. Ticks like warm, dark, um... furry places. Also, ticks can be really, really small. So they may not be spotted so easily.
4. Lyme disease gets harder to treat the longer you wait. Unfortunately, because the test is prone to false positives/negatives and it often seems to be the last thing a doctor will think of when you present with joint pain/neurological symptoms, you can go for years before diagnosis.

Also, lyme disease is only one of a whole bunch of diseases transmitted by ticks. The CDC sez babesiosis, crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever, southern tick-associated rash illness, tick-borne relapsing fever, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and rocky mountain spotted fever can also be spread by the buggers.

This is why I always wear pants and light-colored in the field...and take a very thorough shower afterward.

mapping preference

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:35:00 +0000

I've got a question for all you geologists out there (or whoever's left after my little blog break)...

if you have to create contours of some sort (bedrock elevations, water table, contaminant plumes), do you use software, or do you hand draw them?

I always contoured by hand, using a combination of triangulation and that elusive "professional judgement". Wherever I worked, we were too cheap to have any real contouring software, so I really didn't have much of a choice. I didn't even use simple software like surfer until I was in grad school.

At the same time, I've seen a number of astonishingly bad contours drawn by software. Here's a hint: in the real world, you tend not to have little divots and hills around all of your data points.

In the ideal world, I'd have some sort of software that would do a really basic set of contours, but that I could tweak by hand, using some sort of tablet and pen device. And the software (and peripherals would be not only cheap, but somewhat rugged.

Oh, well - a girl can dream, anyway.

blog vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:04:00 +0000

I've been running myself ragged recently and I've got a bunch of stuff to do this week, so I'm going to be taking a wee blog break. I'll be back next week.

trivial answers

noreply@blogger.com (Short Geologist) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:47:00 +0000

So here’s the trivia answers – I waited until today for late entries.

It was hard to decide because nobody said “highway x in state y” for all three. But Marciepooh had the most specific answers and did have something for all 3. Send me an e-mail and we’ll work out a way for you to get the tchochke.

What was I thinking of?

I did a lot of driving around the east coast, as you would guess from my profile. So that’s where I was thinking of.

1. I-84 in the southwest corner of Connecticut (gotta catch those New Yawkers)

2. I-81 in northern Pennsylvania (ditto)

3. I-95 south of Boston, in Massachusetts (incidentally, as a rule, try to avoid I-95. As the spine of the northeast corridor megapolis, it has horrific traffic jams pretty much along its entire northern portion.)

Of course, the east coast doesn't have a monopoly on bad road engineering, as you've shown in the comments. And we haven't even started on secondary roads, which can be mind-boggling...