Superbowl Sunday

I got Arizona. I think Warner and receivers will challenge the Steeler's secondary enough to put some points on the board. The big thing will be if Steeler''s D can get to Warner fast enough. If the Steeler's win, my guess is for Harrison to be MVP. Other things that I think hurt the Steeler's are Big Ben's reoccuring injuries and Ward's knee.

I just hope it's a good game, much like last year's. We are having a "party" at the Wind, so yay for cheap beer.

Keep an eye out for a few commercials during the Superbowl. They are not so much commercials but previews. Studios have been smart and are showing us the first teaser trailers for Transformers 2, G.I. Joe, and Land of the Lost(Will Ferrel's new movie, co-starring Danny McBride).

50 Greatest Guitar Solo's

I love Digg. I really do, it's such a fast and easy way to find good stuff around the web. Nearly every single of posts not relating to my work dialogue and Bermuda is found from Digg.


I was pretty happy to find this article from Guitar World.... 50 Greatest Guitar Solo's . Some easy reading and musical history for ya.

I know I heard requests of my own rankings for things like music. Well, I'm working on it. But I guarantee it'll be shit.

Bermuda Winter

Apparently Bermuda's winter starts...now. It's dropped about 10 degrees over the few days, prior to being absolutely perfect out mid-week. It's about high 50's during the day and drops to low 50's nighttime. Not too bad, but you definitely notice the change. As long as I'm able to wear shorts for work, I'm pleased.

However, the wind has picked up, pretty strong. Not great news, considering we have our February BATS cruise on Tuesday. We missed out on January's BATS cruise due to excessive repairs of the Atlantic Explorers tanks. I didn't realize that the ship is actually about 25 or some years old.

Typically, BATS does two cruises a month. A BATS core cruise covers all the essential nutrient sampling, which are 5 days long. Bloom cruises are about 3 days long and focuses on primary production. All of the samples I analyze are gotten during the BATS core cruises.

I'm not quite sure the status of going out with the BATS cruise each month, but in preparation for Bering Sea, I'm getting as much time on the sea as I can. And when I think of it, I have jack-shit for sea time, all I've gotten is 5 days after a few weeks in Bermuda. So, I still don't have complete efficiency with Sea Methods, but they aren't hard. With getting a firm grasp on any protocol, all it takes is repetition and your own trouble shooting, before you have a comfortable feel for whatever you're doing whether it be sampling, analysis, or lab prep work.

So, again, I'm quite excited to be going out to sea and crossing my fingers for good weather. One of the things I've gotta do before cruise is prep work, that is getting sample bottles together, cleaning, labeling crap. All really exciting stuff, but so necessary to be organized at sea.

I don't have too much more information about the Bering Sea cruise right now. I've only had a brief chat with the boss about the trip. For now, I know we will leave March 27-28th for Seattle.
From there we fly up to Dutch Harbor, Alaska. I'm not sure whether we will be loading the Healy in Seattle or in Dutch. I've heard that in Dutch Harbor, the ratio of men to female is 0 females to every 1 man. I'm excited to grow a pretty bad ass beard. And even more excited to shave it into a mustache after I return.

The actual cruise will be from April 3 to May 12. My duties will mostly be to do pigment sampling, like chlorophyll(MORE LIKE BOROPHYL), sorry. I'm assuming I'll do some other stuff, but that's all I know. I'll get to play on the ice, which will be cool. Maybe go Seal hunting on Polar Bear's back. Palin says they're not endangered so I'm sure I'll have a chance to AT LEAST ride one.

That's the news for the cruise.
Hope ya'll ain't got the blues.
Cuz it's cold and stormy with a chance of the flu.

Interscope just signed me. Above is a little of my handy work with the english language.


So besides, getting cold as hell here in Bermuda, I just got my license. It kind of looks like the McLovin' ID from Haiwai. It features my huge mop of hair that I recently cut off. I hadn't cut it since I orginally got here, so 4 months or so. I had the goal to grow it out and be all long haired like, but I realized the only thing that would happen with growing out my hair is looking more and more like Toadstool from the Mario Kingdom.

Before getting my license I had to take a riding portion test. This included riding around in a circle, stopping before a line, and weaving through cones. To complete it all I had to do was pay 135 dollars. 135 to ride basically a toy bike, that maxs out at 35 mph. Originally, I felt 35mph on a bike was fast, but after getting comfortable on a bike I'd really like to speed it up a little.

I need to get a pic of the bike up here. I'm quite confident it might be the best deal in the history of shitty bikes in Bermuda.

In other news, the Argentina Women's Field Hockey team is staying at BIOS for the next two weeks. That has, by no surprise, excited many of us here.


Hope everyone is doing well and getting through the winter depression. Save up some money to come visit Bermuda.


Cheers,

DB

Job Status

FYI, I'm not quitting the job. It's all good, just being sarcastic about leaving this one for the Australia "Best Job in the World".

Best Job in the World

I've got some good news and some bad news.

Bad news first, I'm quitting my job. After the Bering Sea cruise I'm quitting, I'm done with this. Surprising, I know. Sounds like I have a pretty good job here, with flex hours, sunny days out on the ocean, snorkeling at almost any time, plus actual scientific research.

But, I've found a new job(the good news). Australia's Queensland Department of Tourism is accepting applications from anybody(Graham, you're even qualified for this), for "The Best Job in the World."

I believe this has been in the news for two weeks, but I'm slow and my laziness of blogging as prolonged the breaking news of this fantastic offer.

Responsibilities of this job are "Feed the fish, clean the pool, and collect the mail." But in reality the Department is asking the "worker" to keep your adventures updated via blog, email, video diary, and interviews.

In return, the Caretaker will stay 6 months in Hamilton Island off the Great Barrier Reef and receive 105,000 US Dollars along while staying in a mansion.

Hamilton Island in the background.

All that the position is looking are the following things:

- Excellent interpersonal communication skills
- Good written and verbal English skills
- An adventurous attitude
- Willingness to try new things
- A passion for the outdoors
- Good swimming skills and enthusiasm for snorkelling and/or diving
- Ability to engage with others
- At least one year’s relevant experience

What the hell is one year's relevant experience?

Otherwise, I've got all the other qualifications on lock.

Excellent communication skills. I speak English, VERY well. I was even told by a Morrocan student that MY english was easier to understand that any Brit, Scot, or Australian he's ever met. Adventurous Attitute.....I applied for a job in Bermuda? Willing to try new things....just started liking mayonaise after 21 years. Passion for outdoors....got like 4 Northface shirts. I own snorkeling gear. I have and succeeded in engaging with other people before.

So all you've gotta do is apply at this website http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/home.

Make a 60 second video of why you're the right person. Apparently, they're getting 30 every second. Ridiculous. That's 2.5 million a day. Don't believe it's that much.

I also don't think the job is actually open. I think it's just a stunt for Great Barrier Reef exposure and free marketing via news coverage and they already got the guy lined up.

Either way, I've got an underwater video camera and it's getting used for an application.


P.S. I like hearing feedback, aka are any of you still following this blog? I don't want this turning into a solitary diary. If any of you are still following, please send me 60 bucks to

17 Biological Lane Apt 3G
Ferry Reach, St. George's
Bermuda GE01

That way, I'll know who's still reading.

Inauguration Picture

I never really got a chance to see the Inauguration Speech and ceremony this past Tuesday. Only got a chance during lunch and at that time all it was, was an empty Pennsylvania Avenue prepping for Mr. Prez. CNN talked a little bit about some spectacular never before seen approach at a picture combining thousands of images. Never saw it, and maybe you did, but check out the link below...pretty amazing.

http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

CLIPS!

Datysuk is good at playing hockey.




Pork and Beans - Weezer

I've rediscovered Weezer. This is their hit, from their most recent album...the Red Album.

I've learned that lots of things on youtube I can't view because of being outside the U.S. Thus, I have to link you to some really pink website.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Obama Closing Gitmo

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Barack gets pissed at Biden.

The Topic of Climate Change

I've had several friends ask me how I feel about Climate Change. I guess being involved in Scientific Research makes my opinion intelligent or something like that, but I continuously try to formulate my own thoughts on the potential of drastic climate change and the ability for our own environment to adapt to these predicting changes. While I won't go in depth, I thought this was an interesting story to post.

http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/39114

The story discusses a possible option for carbon reduction through bioengineering of crops.

I'm waiting to further weigh in the outcome of the 2009 IPCC(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on March 8-10.

While I don't doubt that climate change is occurring and most likely an impact from human activities, there is still a major question how our environment can respond to the changes. I believe that micro-evolution should not be underestimated.

Sundance 2009

Somewhat daily checking up on Firstshowing.net got me longing to go Sundance at some point to see all of Indie films the ones with little recognition.

One film caught my eye. Do you remember the skit Bro Rape done by Derrick Comedy. Well those guys have moved on from Youtube and actually done a full feature film. I got interested in it when I saw this trailer....



And apparently reviews of Firstshowing are saying its a pretty legitimate film. Donald Glover...the black guy. Writes for SNL. I don't know if that's saying much though.

Week in Review

Well, after being back from freezing Michigan to Bermuda, I gotta say it's been quite nice to not experience winter depression.

Work has been busy and will continue to increase. There is a major backlog of TDP(Total Dissolved Phosphate) samples. At least 1000. To run TDPs its about a 4 half day process, that being said it takes quite along time to prep and actually read, so I will be stuck with these guys trying to catch up.

It's nice that BIOS is starting to come back to life. More scientists and techs are returning. There's a student group from Eckerd here for about 2 weeks. Soccer has returned along with the evening daylight. Our lab has recently gotten a PhD student from Southhampton, UK for the next few months. A few new staff will be arriving in the next few weeks as well. Things are picking up. It's left little room for being bored.

It's turned out to be a weekly tradition by myself and Steve Bell the Tazmanian Devil to go golfing late Sunday Afternoon. I'll get some pictures next week. But we were able to get two more guys from the lab and had a solid 9 holes.

After golf, we grabbed some football at a pub in St. Georges. One of the most enjoyable things to do here is shoot the shit...with somebody other than an American. The English most likely being the most fun to argue with. That being said, at dinner we got into a argument because of the following quote, "The U.S. is not a sporting nation." I was with another American and we both laughed pretty good about this and asked for his reasons. They were...because we don't invite anybody to have a match with them....like Britain does with other nations such as Australians, India....basically any other country that has been a part of the British Empire i.e. takes part in the retarded game of Cricket. I will give them Rugby. It is extremely relentless sport.

I will try to go through each sport and solely determine the U.S.'s place among them.

Basketball. Global sport. U.S. dominates. Example - 2008 Gold Medal

Hockey. Relatively Global Sport(Northern Hemisphere. U.S. competes with strong Candian, Eastern European, and Scandinavian Teams.

Baseball. Global Sport. U.S. somewhat falling behind with strong teams from Central America and even Japan and Korea.

American Football. Only U.S., maybe Canada. Aparently Brits think all the padding NFL uses makes them pansies. I would take an NFL linebacker against a Rugby player, however, with light confidence.

Futbol(Soccer). Global. U.S. competitive, however, ranked 22nd in Fifa. Still, developing.
Women's futbol is very legit.

Golf. Global. U.S. wins, but not always dominates. Ryder cup victory this year was first in a few years. Plus we have Tiger.

Tennis. Global. U.S. solid, but loss of Agassia, Sampras has taken U.S. off the map. Roddick and Blake still strong players.

Cricket. British Empire. U.S. Garbage...nobody cares. Lousy sport, you don't eat Butter and Cucumber sandwiches halfway through your match.

Rugby. More than just British Empire. U.S. sucks. I'd like to see them more competitive.

Auto Racing. Not Nascar but Formula 1. I doubt there are any money-making Americans, but the Andretti's used to have there name with Indy/Formula. Were they Canadian though?

Olympic Sports. Boxing, Gynamastics, Swimming....well U.S. consistently dominates the Olympics with China getting theres too.

I think its a safe assumption to say that Americans cover the broadest range of highly skilled athletes in their respective sports.

Oh well, good to have an argument like that. I'm happy to get a chance to have them.


Another note, my bike is now no longer running. The muffler was old and scraped up and could be heard from literally hundreds of yards away. You're giving yourself a good opportunity to be pulled over. Back to borrowing bikes and taking the bus.

DINOSAURS

A few weeks ago, a major archaeological find was made. Its name is Austroraptor and was found along Patagonia in Argentina. This guy DWARFS Velociraptor, by about 10 feet(16-21ft long). Check out the story at National Geographic.

Note. T. Rex is still the king.

Joaquin Closet

This is some bizarre news. I'm not sure if many of you know Joaquin Phoenix decided a few months ago to stop acting to pursue music. However, I don't think anybody realized his pursuit of music would be along the lines of rap. Seen from the photo below is Casey Affleck, Diddy, and Joaquin, who looks like he should be placed in Geico caveman commercials.

Apparently, Casey Affleck is directing a documentary of Phoenix while he works and records his album....which is produced by Diddy. Pretty unreal.

Thanks to Firstshowing.net with the story.

24

If you haven't turned on the TV in maybe 2 weeks, you probably didn't know that Jack Bauer and his silly antics resumed Sunday for Season 7 aka Day 7. Those witty writers. I started asking myself a few questions during the build up of previews. One, should I watch? I remembered enjoying season 1. Got excited for Season 2 and was a little blown away by the outlandish plots( something that FOX does extremely well) and just missed shows due to practice/games most likely. Second, what is Jack Bauer's salary? He's got to have a wealth of overtime.

Answer to the first question is Yes, I watched it. I actually liked the first 2 hour block on Sunday. But then, FOX throws another 2hrs at you Monday night. Who the hell as that many hours to devote to 24 besides maybe this fat dog who can do nothing but move away from the TV.

So, I missed this Monday and I will further debate whether it is worth my time.

But in honor of Jack Bauer and to actually propose my single day is crazier than his...I will document my Wednesday, January 14, 2009.

These events take place between 745am to 1045pm on Wednesday, January, 14, 2009.
Location: Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. St. George's, Bermuda.

745 - Alarm goes off.

800 - Second Alarm goes off.

807 - Not yet ready to get out of bed.

813 - Still not ready.

824 - Leave Bed.

825 - Approach Toilet.

834 - Finish shower. Clothes on. Proceed to work.

----You'll have to imagine the beeping noises with each time stamp---

845 - Remove samples from Freezer. Start water bath.

935 - Pour off Samples.

1025 - Pour off Samples.

1056 - POUR OFF SAMPLES.

1132 - pouroffsamples

1245 - profsmpl

1320 - Lunch. Sandwich. Pear. Water.

1402 - Return to lab.

1403 - See someone leave my lab.

1411 - I yell after him. He turns around. Middle eastern descent, scar over left eyebrow. Raises his wrist to show a tattoo. Looks like a three hole outlet with line below the three holes, encompassed by a circle.

1412 - Start to run after. Realize that was the lab safety officer, showing me his smiley face tattoo.

1414 - Return to lab.

1419 - Find bomb planted by lab safety officer/TERRORIST.

1420 - Defuse bomb.

1421 - Call Lab Manger to discuss terrorist. No answer, go to office.

1427 - See manager dragged off by 4 armed men.

1428 - Attacked from the side by 2 men. Use karate chop. Both unconscious. Refuse to pick up their guns.

1430 - Grab bike. Pursue mysterious men off of BIOS campus.

1433 - Lose kidnappers. Reminded how slow Bike is. Return to work deciding to not worry about it.

1439 - Decide to worry about it. Steal high speed boat and take off down St. George Harbor.

1449 - Boat runs out of gas. Use phone to call for help.

1528 - Wait for help.

1613 - Wait for help.

1627 - Call again. They said they forgot, Apologized.

1701 - Help arrives.

1702 - Realize they forgot gas.

1704 - Knock out the helper. Take boat.

1714 - Realize nearly 2.5.hrs gone by without contact. Head home.

1734 - Arrive back to lab. Lab is on fire.

1736 - I am told the samples I left in the Autoclave, caught fire and burnt down most of lab.

1739 - Nearly fired. Discovered not my fault.

1759 - Decide it is time for Dinner.

1832 - Watch MTV Jams.

1901 - Start to cook.

1903 - Hear loud sirens.

1905 - Pounding at door.

1906 - Informed my cooking set off Fire Alarm. Everyone is upset.

1930 - Eat

2103 - Woke up from accidental nap.

2210 - Decide to document day.

New Crib and Cruise News

My apartment no longer smells of wetness and mildew. I made the move Monday night up two stories into apartment 3G. I now have sunlight, less ants and less noise. A note about ants, I don't think I've gone over how ruthless these things are. I now understand why they are the single most successful species on the planet. If you leave a can of coke or something on a counter for the afternoon, you will soon after find a trail of ants marching 2 by 2. Just like the song, 2 by 2. Usually the only way to deal with the ant highway extending usually a few metres outside your door is precaution, cleaniness, or some bad ass spray that will literally knock them out instantly and also cause serious poison issues to your apartment.

So this apartment is farther away from ants, but I still have faith they will find me when it's not freezing out for them.

By the way, its been 72, sunny and calm. I skipped out of work early Monday to go for a Kayak and check out the sunset. Yeah, I know, couldn't be gayer. I wanted to try out the new underwater/waterproof camera that I received over break. Worked great and have some sweet photos paddling out into the ocean. However, I deleted them accidently. Oh well.

The weather is turning a little nastier now and I don't believe that snorkeling will take place this weekend. It leaves time for fixing up the bike a little bit and then touring Bermuda and try to pick up some ladies with it. The shape/quality of the bike is comparable to a Will's '93 Corsica. Minus a sideview mirror, broken spedometer, gas gauge, and instead of starting it with a key, you have to kick a lever on the side a few times to get going. I'm pretty happy with it.


I got some pretty awesome news today. I will be going out to the Bering Sea for a Cruise in March. And April. And May. It'll be about a 42 day cruise! At the end of March, myself and the boss will be departing from Dutch Harbor, Alaska on board USCG(U.S. Coast Guard)'s Healy. A freaking 420ft Ice Breaker. Check it out USCG HEALY.

I'm very psyched. I will be finding out more details about the cruise and preparation for it next week. More cruise news is that I will be going out to sea for a few days at the end of January and another 5 days in February to get myself some more experience before heading out to the Bering Sea.

I imagine I will be very busy with work for the next few months, which will be....well...expected.

There's also one thing that came to my mind with being gone for 42 days. Besides loads of extra vacation time I will hopefully receive.

An empty apartment in Bermuda. Now, I don't want to be throwing out invitations for using the apartment, but the thought of a "time-share" came to my mind. With "renters" barely paying anything or nothing at all. But...I guess just check your schedules to see if you might want to a take a little vacation during April or May.

That is all. I will definetely keep updating what this Bering Sea cruise is gonna be like.

I will leave you with a new trailer from Broken Lizards(Super Troopers)...looks alright.

Slammin' Salmon

D. Bell


Oh and Panthers vs Ravens for superbowl.

Glad to see Umich got the come from behind victory over Indiana tonight.

Two Thousand and Nine

It's been a pretty long break from the blog.

So this one will be short, but sweet with the intentions for more frequent updates. Much like I have said each and every time while each post is getting more infrequent.

It's good to get back on the rock. Especially, because some how I get about 50 movie channels right now. This opportunity has me watching Rocky Balboa, the most recent of the Rocky's. It got turned on with about 45 minutes left. About the right time for the montage and buildup for the fight. Perfect.

I arrived about 4pm or so. Had to get up fairly early, but nothing too bad. (Rocky's arms are literally the width of his head...incredible.) I impressed myself bypassing customs by declaring about 90 dollars worth of bullshit and only having to pay 17 something for everything I was bringing in post-holidays. Which includes a fairly expensive camera, golf clubs, new clothes, and miscellaneous objects....should of been charged 200+.

Even though it was about 68 when I arrived, I did notice it was cooler since I was last here. Good temp for jeans and a jacket, but I was expecting 68 to be very warm. Guess not. It's funny, I really felt like the past 2 and half months on the island was just a prolonged October with it being a steady mid 60's in Michigan that turned into mid 70's for October, November, and most of December. Getting back to Michigan filled in the void of Winter so NOW it actually feels like the month of January even though it's 70. (Mike Tyson is calling out Mason the Line Dixon in the movie, great cameo).

I'm not sure about everybody else, but I think 2009 is going to kick ass. No basis for the assumption, besides the fact that I will be living in Bermuda for a full year. (Round 1 just saw about 50 punches land between both fighters, good intro).

I never really figured out a "resolution" for 2009. I don't need to resolve anything, no need to try to figure out an old problem. No need to reform anything, but to form. That right there is some epic personal thought. (Rocky is fucking ripping into Dixon...round 4). Shit, that reminds me. Why does every single airplane movie have to be terrible...I don't understand it....it can't be that much of a difference between movies to show over a flight. Delta played The Longshots from Atlanta to Bermuda. I watched a good part of it. Looked terrible, mediocre pop warner football team with a female QB makes it to the finals and then loses. Extremely average and this wasn't with the added intensity of dialogue. Finally at the end, the director was credited to Fred Durst. How does Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit direct a movie involving Ice Cube, an inner city football team, and a failed championship ever make it to a screen. (Rocky just got up from getting wrecked....goosebumps). I guess my point is, NW Airlines shows Bond, Delta shows nothing or the Longshots...NW promotes new approach for movie screenings(free and quality) and see how many choose NW over Delta if they're the same itinerary and relatively same price. I wouldn't underestimate the power of cinema.

On to the initial plans for 2009. Got a lot of samples to run, lots more reading to do, gotta start progress on an actual research paper. It should hopefully all include much time with snorkeling, lacrosse, and more of figuring out Bermuda.

Best of luck to everyone, stay in touch, and keep reading.

xoxo
Doug