Are you smarter than George W.???



I just did an online IQ test here
I scored 133.

Didn't know if that was good or not so I did some Googling and found George W's estimated IQ (based on SAT's and Officer exams) - 120 to 125

Al Gore took 2 IQ tests and scored 134 and 133 (just outside the top 1%)

At least I am ahead of GW

:P

Some George W. quotes:

• "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004


• "The best place for the facts to be done is by somebody who's spending time investigating it." —George W. Bush, on the probe into how CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity was leaked, Washington D.C., July 18, 2005


• "I think younger workers — first of all, younger workers have been promised benefits the government — promises that have been promised, benefits that we can't keep. That's just the way it is." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 4, 2005


• "We expect the states to show us whether or not we're achieving simple objectives — like literacy, literacy in math, the ability to read and write." —George W. Bush, on federal education requirements, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005

and finally:

• "I hope you leave here and walk out and say, 'What did he say?'" —George W. Bush, Beaverton, Oregon, Aug. 13, 2004

P.S.

If I am so smart how come I forgot a fork for my potato salad AND a spoon for my fruit salad today???

Keep your cool...

In an effort to take my mind off the heat I started looking at some pics I took yesterday, this one looks nice and cool...



But it was an accidental trick photo. I forgot to change the White-Balance setting back to daylight, it was set to Incandescent still from the Octoberfest night shots.
I like the effect it gave however and look forward to trying it out on a sunset to see what results are achieved.

I'm Melting....


Bugger. The air-con just gave out :(

It's going to be a warm 2 days until the end of this shift. Temp's expected to reach 41' c (105.8f for the non-metrically proficient) today and the forcast for tomorrow says "Hotter"... hmmm how much hotter????

Might be working in nothing but my Reg Grundy's (undies for those unfamiliar with the term) for the next few days.... I don't think any photos are necessary :)

Can't even look forward to cooling off in the car as the air-con in that gave out over a month ago and is still on the list to be fixed.

Nostradamus:

I read a sample chapter from "The Nostradamus Code: WWIII" yesterday, interesting reading but as always with Nostradamus' work this is just some "experts" interpretation. Salient points for me were:

Demise of the Catholic Church

Peace after WWIII

Feminine aspects of God revered again

More open, frequent contact with aliens

"Green" revolution, return to the land

Go here to read the chapter for youself.

Octoberfest.

Started with a nice sunset...


The bar stayed open until the usual 9pm and served a range of German beers (bottled and by the glass) $3.50 for 500ml bottles of mighty fine pils :) or $9.60 for a 600ml glass of DAB (and you get to keep the glass). Needless to say I had the pils...



...and the games commenced at 8:00pm with a reasonable crowd in attendance.


First game up was egg throwing/catching...

...but they were NOT boiled eggs :)


Followed shortly after by an obstacle race where the contestant carried a full glass on a tray around, over and under obstacles and then their partner had to carry them in a wheelbarrow around a couple more obstacles to the finish line.

Speed and spillage rate were the deciding factors in this one...

The final event invlolved rather large cucumbers and we were held in suspense for a few minutes before we found out what was to be done with them. It turned out to be a cucumber stuffing contest with the object being to stuff as many cloves into your cucumber in a given time frame. I didn't get any good pics of this so you miss out :)

More than a few arrived for breakfast with sore heads this morning and we found out that OH&S were breathalizing EVERYONE (as opposed to the usual random thing)...

BUSTED
Anthony was over, as was Pete.

But not Les, the goodie.
He is still complaining about missing services of a Sunday...

Phil wasn't busted but he looked over and I included this pic coz it was the only decent pic I have of him...


Oh well off to work we went this morning missing 2 staff members for the day.
But we were not the only mob with staff missing :)

My office has been invaded by ANTS :( Hundreds of little sugar ants, crawling over the keyboard, screen, equipment.. they are everywhere!!! I will have to get something from the BHP people to kill the little buggers before they set up a nest in the equipment somewhere.

Been out in the field for a coupla days getting the next line ready for reading hence the absence of posts (and the abundance of ants).

Hopefully we get back to the village early tonight as it is Octoberfest!! Imported beer woohoo and I did hear several people mention free beer MMmmmm beer

Festivities include Octoberfest games (whatever they are) and other stuff. Will try to get some pics if the beer doesn't get in the way...

Slow start today. I got to my remote office, started the generator, plugged in the sat cables and network cables (unplug at end of day incase of overnight storms), booted up the PC and got the network running. Did a battery level check (of the DAU's which are 200m apart running away from my office) and found they needed changing. Grabbed my spares off charge and went out to change batteries. Got back from that, got the network back up and all systems go.
Started netmeeting to see how Phil and the others were getting on out at the main line.... No response.... Tried Phil's mobile from my satphone.... No response....Tried his satphone.... No reponse....Tried Pete's mobile....turned off....Tried Anthony's mobile....Pete answered-> bad electrical storm over there and they are running around like blue arsed flies (never actually seen a fly with a blue arse but then I don't generally look at their genitalia) getting all the DAU's unplugged so they don't get hit by lighning.
I just have to sit here and wait and see if the storm passes. Also have to keep an eye on it in case it comes my way and it is my turn to do a "blue arsed fly" impression...

Waiting.....waiting....

Today's Sunrise:
A bit of rain on the way and the clouds made for a nice sunrise this morning. Two photos, a normal pic and a panorama.

Camp Life.

Just a little about the mining camp where we are staying while doing this survey.

The village is located 3 km from the mine and offices.

Accomodation: If you work directly for BHP you get a decent cabin with Double Bed, Kitchen Table, Lounge, microwave, kettle etc and an ensuite! It even has a verandah. If you don't work for BHP you get a "donger" which is a room with a cupboard, bar fridge, single bed and a desk. Lying on the bed my feet touch the cupboard, I can reach to the side and touch the desk and the fridge is between the bed and the desk located so that you cant get your legs under the desk!! Shower and toilet facilities are shared (like a caravan park).

Food: Quite good food and a decent variety. About 3 or 4 mains to choose from each night, even a vegetarian alternative for each meal. Lobster, prawns and other seafood once a month. Damn fine peppered steak too. Hot dessert every night.

Recreation: Plenty of stuff to keep you active. Swimming pool, tennis court, indoor cricket, gym, football field, basketball, mini golf, table tennis, 2 pool tables, internet cafe, big screen TV's (with pay TV), darts etc.

Mini golf and tennis court

The bar is open from 6am to 9am and 6pm to 9pm. The early opener is to cater for people doing night shift that finishes at 6am. Low and Mid strenght beers are $1.60 a can. Full strength beer and wine (by the glass) is $2.50 a can.

Aust V NZ in the footy brought a few to the bar.

Just a few pics today, nothing much else happening.

Work, work, work.
Although work have mentioned the possibility of us doing a bit of work in South Africa. Now that's cool!!
According to Tim though, most of their mineral deposits are in Game Reserves. That would be interesting... just gotta go check my cables... oh there's a Lion there... will do that later then :)

Well here's some pics:

An old steam engine used for sinking bores

BHP Airlines

The result of a roo on the runway

Steam engine (Artsy Fartsy shot)

Panoramic shot to the west

Found a groovy feature on the camera that makes panoramic shots easy. Turn on the feature and it automatically stitches 3 photos together to make a shot like the one above. After you take the first shot it overlays the edge of that shot onto the screen so you can line up the next pic!! KEWL

Not bad for a bloody mobile phone!!!

Rain.

It rained last night and into this morning. The dirt here becomes very sticky, slippery mud with only a small amount of rain. It clings to everything. After walking 10 metres I was about 5 inches taller!!!
The drive out to my office was intersting, slipping and sliding in the mud. The I had to wait for the rain to ease a bit so I could but fuel in the generator, didn't want too much water getting in there.
Started up the genny, stepped out of my 6-inch platform boots :) and into the office. Started up all my equipment and found out that the batteries were flat in the BFPS. Off I went with a charged spare to replace it, 400m up the slippery track...




Changed all the batteries and the BFPS then slid back to the office. I had grown by 9 inches by this time so figured I would clean a little of the mud off my boots, can't do much about the mud on the cruiser though...




Rain has stopped for now so we will get some work done at least.

Greetings from FNQ.

I am currently at Percole Plains, 50km east of Cannington Mine (pop 1000 or so) the worlds richest silver/lead mine and 30km west of McKinlay township (pop 17), the home of "Walkabout Creek Hotel" of Crocodile Dundee fame.

View to the north.

View to the west.



View to the south.



View to the east.

My office.

Below you will find some pics of my office.




It contains a satellite phone, laptop with 2-way satellite internet connection, UPS and some instrumentation required for my job.




Oh and the airconditioning works very good, I have to leave the door open or it gets TOO cold.




The whole office is on removable legs that can be raised so that a Toyota Ute can be driven underneath and the office lowered onto it for trasportation to the next job.

A little about me.

G'Day, I am Agrophobic or Agro for short. I am not actuall an agoraphobic but I chose a bastardisation of that term for my net name for several reasons. If you don't know what an agoraphobic is, it is a person with a fear of open spaces (like the opposite of a claustrophobic).
I modified it to Agrophobic cos it looks better and it can be shortened to Agro :D (and also coz the first time I used it I didn't know the correct spelling).

I thought the name was suitable because when I first got on the internet I kinda hibernated in my room a bit and was not going outside much.

I actually love being outside and would prefer to be alone in the middle of nowhere (so long as I have net access) than living in suburbia.

I live with my partner and 2 kids in a little community about 1 1/2 hrs drive north from Sydney NSW. We have 33 acres of bushland that is surrounded by national parks and state forests.


I recently changed jobs after travelling to Sydney every day for the last 6 1/2 yrs (well not quite every day) and what with current fuel prices, parking expenses, road tolls etc it was costing me 1/3 of my wage just to get to work not to mention the mobile phone bill of about $400 a month.

So now I am working for a Geophysical Survey team doing mineral exploration in various places around the outback. We are currently on station at Cannington Mine in north west Queensland.

We usually work 3 weeks on then get flown home for a week off then fly back out. While we are "in station" all our expenses are paid except for smokes and booze (bugger) but at least the beer here is only $1.60 each!!

I have started this blog to give me an outlet to share images and ideas about the areas I visit for work.

Hope you enjoy your visit.

Agro