bahuma: the blog

The BBC has publicised a list of 100 things that were not known this time last year. An interesting read

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2005, where has it gone? I cant find it between the couch cushions or under the fridge… 2005 has been one of the most unique years for me. I am going to take you on the journey of my 2005 so sit back and enjoy the complementary in-flight entertainment.

January

January saw me return to work after a nice 3 week vacation over the Christmas / New Years period. I spent a few weeks in Brisbane before I headed out to Western Australia for my 3rd Minex Stint. I enjoyed Minex once I got used to walking 20km a day. The lifestyle was good and there was always spare time in the afternoons to help devour a carton of beer.

February 

February saw continuing work in Western Australia. It was during this time that I informed G-tek about the job offer I recieved from ARM Group in Hershey, PA. I put in my notice and started preparing myself for relocation to the United States. I remember our last trip into Kalgoorlie and the fun we had drinking too much at the Exchange Hotel.

March

March saw me ‘Unresign’ from my position at G-tek. The Visa H1-B Visa I had applied for was unavailable as the cap of applicants had been reached leaving me unable to be employed by ARM Group. After being reaccepted into G-tek, it was arranged that I would still go over to the US but be contracted out through G-tek to ARM Group until the Visa could be properly sorted out. My first project in the US was a handheld evaluation program at Aberdeen Test Center in Maryland. I was trained by Steve on the Minelab F3 and I left for the US on March 30 with Terry (an old hand at the F3). Before leaving I packed up my stuff from my Aunt Geni’s place (when I say pack, I mean i boxed some stuff up and it is still there today waiting for me) and headed back to Tasmania for a quick visit to see my friends and family before my trip away.

April 

After safely arriving in the US, I spent a few days in Hershey where I got over my jet lag (which was not too bad as I slept a lot on the plane [thanks mum]) and to do some further training with the ARM Staff. Once the training was complete, Alex, Brian, Terry and I headed down to Aberdeen for the loving dubbed ‘Minelab Project’. We spent 3 weeks in the field Calibrating, Recording and Locating targets at the Test Center. It was a fun project and I am hoping to get back to Aberdeen next year for another project dealing with some new positioning systems.

May 

May was the month of Air-Testing and the EM-61. The air testing was conducted during the first week at the newly built ARM Air Testing tower. This is where we sat our instrument up on a platform and placed ordnance items below the sensor at varying depths and orientations. It was a tedious but interesting task. In early to mid May, I drove to Massachusetts (YES!, I can still spell it ) to work on an ordnance cleanup site for Jeff Baird’s Company, RRR. The site was pretty to look at but hard to work on. There was tree cover and hills which made the task of choosing a positioning system difficult as the preferred method of GPS was out of the question. We tried a new positioning system which sounded good in theory but did not deliver what we were looking for. Being in Massachusetts (Spelt it right again!) I wanted to see Boston. I went on one of the Tourist Tram ride things which was great and I found the Cheers Bar which was even better.

June 

I spent the first week of June continuing the work at Devens. I left the site to get ready for a Job at the Langley Air Force base in Virginia. Our task was to do a mag survey over 2 golf courses. We spent 3 weeks down there working long hours to get the job done. We were running out of people and the call went out to Australia where Kev sent Ian over to help with the mess. It was also around this time when Kev announced that he had tendered his resignation and was leaving G-tek. I did get myself a gadget in June, my Garmin 60CS GPS arrived from Amazon.com.

July 

Early July saw us wrap up the DA and processing for the Langley Job. It was a nice one to have behind us. July turned out to be a fairly quiet month work wise. There was no real amount of fieldwork and my billable hours were way down. I did attend a conference down in Maryland which was centered around Technology Transfer. It was where people could show what new technologies had been developed and how they could be applied.

August

August was a little slow at the start as well. During the second week I went back to Massachusetts to work on another job with RRR, but this time using the Geometrics Mag. It was a great little project and way to much beer was drunk at the pub across the road from the hotel. Once back from Massachusetts, I helped to complete the processing of a Job which was taking place in Columbus. This project was a bit of a mess but it was completed. We then moved on for prepping ourselves for Lowry. Lowry was meant to take place in May, it was then postponed till June, July then August when the schedule was finally firmed up for the project to take place in September.

August was also the month when G-tek closed its doors. The company was placed into the hands of administrators whom reviewed the situation and decided to wrap things up. There was uncertainty about my position but the administrators kept me on the books well in to September.

September 

September started all smiles with the ARM Golf tournament taking place in the first week along with a visit to the Pennsylvania Ren Faire. Lowry processing started and it was a little frustrating as all the data that was coming in had as many data gaps as swiss cheese. This held up our end pretty badly but was the weeks went on, the gaps reduced and we were able to push on. There is a lot I could say about Lowry but I don’t want to do it here as I have been surprised in the past about who reads my blog.

October 

October was a month of long hours and more frustration. Lowry was continuing and the data was pouring in. October did mark the time though when Ellen opened her beauty room “Sotto” down in Margate. October also saw the arrival of my second gadget purchase from Amazon – my Panasonic GS35 Video Camera!

November 

November was more of the same. Lowry was still going on and data was still coming in. I did have my first thanksgiving dinner which was nice. I can still remember the enormous lines at the stores in the Black Friday sales. Winter was also starting to approach and towards the end of the month we got our first dusting of snow for the season. I also found out in November about Andrew and Kate’s wedding plans.

December 

I mentioned in November how we got a dusting of snow, well in December, we got the mother load. I remember spinning the wheels all the way to work the day after as the snow ploughs battled to move the large amounts of snow from the roads. Lowry was still going until the 21st where DA was officially shut down for the holiday season. I got myself a less geeky gadget from Amazon in December, my Mountain Bike. It arrived the day before the large snow fall so it took a good week before I could ride it properly.

Well, that was my year. It has had its share of ups and downs but overall it was a good year I hope 2006 is a great year for everyone. I am counting down until February when I will be back down under for the Wedding of the Year

I would like to take this oppurtunity to wish everyone, especially my friends and family, a happy and safe Christmas.

This year has been a strange one for me. I have spent 9 months here in the USA working which has been challenging and rewarding at the same time.

This will be my first White Christmas. I call it white but it is more an off-white to grey slush now as we have had warmer (3-6 degrees! ) in the last week or so.

Anyway, stay safe and all the best for 2006!

Update: December 21 

 It looks live everything is going to work out ok. I have put in my extension for my current B1 Visa. My paperwork for my E-3 is pretty much done and all I need to do is arrange an appointment for Feburary sometime. So it still looks like I will make it for the wedding which is great!

——————–

I got an email today about my E-3 Working Visa. It looks like the Lawyer botched the application. Here is an extract from the email:

Seems Chris must return to Australia to obtain an E-3. The lawyer has completed all the paperwork which Chris has an original so that part of the process is complete. Chris has to finish the process himself. Now, after he obtains an E-3, we can file the extensions here in the US and he would not have to return to Australia.

My current B1 Temporary working visa expires in around a week which means I will either

1. Have to return to Australia when that expires
2. Lodge Another extension which will max out the time I can stay on the B1 Visa

Hopefully I can find out what I am doing on Monday. I have already extended my B1 once and I am not sure if they will let me extend again…

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Ally
Happy birthday to you!

Hey Hey!

I was checking my email this morning and low and behold, I got an invite to be a Beta Tester for the New Windows Live Messenger 8 (Replacing MSN Messenger)! I am looking forward to testing the new software

I dont have any invites yet (and probably won’t for a while) but comment below if you would like an invite!

Yesterday I was bitching about the weather but today I am all smiles I headed down to the pub for some dinner and bevvies and when I went to leave, it was snowing!

  
  

I took some pictures on Sunday morning and I have uploaded them to gallery. I also took some video and I will put that up shortly I am now very happy with my new down jacket I bought last week.

I was going to start this blog off by saying “It’s December Already, where has the year gone?” but f**k, doesn’t that just sound dead boring? I think it does

Anyway, I will start this blog saying that Winter is here. Some of the nights (and days here) have been freezing!

Work has been going along OK. We are still very busy with our large project in Colorado. I tell you what, I will be happy when it is all done as we have been working on it since early September. A few of us did take time off to go to the SERDP and ESTCP conference in Washington DC on Wednesday. I had never been to Washington before so it was good to see some of the city. The conference covered things such as regulations for base cleanups, technologies and new developments. It was pretty interesting and a chance to meet some more people from the industry.

I mentioned a few Blogs ago how Kate and Andrew are getting married. I have asked the boss and I have the all clear to have some time off in Feb to go to the wedding.. It is going to be a blast! I am definetly going to bring my Video Camera It is only a bit over 2 months away!

How cool is this! Air Darts!

Quote from the Article

Powered by your mac or pc, you’ll have hours of flying fun with these USB air darts. Let the mission begin!

* Control the aim and the firing mechanism of the darts via your computer mouse
* Cylindrical base
* 3 darts
* USB powered
* Software included

So when someone annoys you when you are on your PC.. Ready… Aim… FIRE! Click on the image for more info!