New Blog

Well, it's goodbye to this blog and in with the new one...

My new blog may be found here

http://owenjohn.wordpress.com/

Musical Equipment

I'm selling my bass amp today. It's been sitting here in my room for years gathering dust and the last time I played through it was probably at least a few years ago. There comes a time when those old musical instruments or equipment must go. Of course, I will still be a rock star at some point in the future but at the moment, the amp is just money sitting there getting in the way of me moving around the world.

Maybe you can empathise with me, maybe not but either way I'm sure you'll understand how much you can get attached to a piece of wood or electrical equipment. When that lifeless piece of equipment has been an instrument that has enabled an expression of yourself you begin to think that it's not so lifeless after all and the parting is all the more difficult.

Oh well. I can always buy another one when I have the space for it. Anyone have a small practice bass amp they would like to sell me?

Passive Racing

Definition: An on road race within the road code and known only to one party.

Requirements:

Your car and another car traveling in the same direction preferably unknown to yourself.
A common destination.

Rules:

Obey all road rules and speed limits.
The other car cannot realise whats going on (or the racing is not passive).

Aim:

Get there before he/she does. To pass the time in a traffic jam.... Or just endless fun for the competitive streak in all of us...

It's all about knowing which lane to be in, which off-ramp to take or when the lights change... for all those boy racers with a conscience.

Franz Josef Glacier

Friend of mine let me down a 'bottomless' crevasse in the Franz Josef. I was going to add a heavy breathing track to make it seem more 'touching the void' but didn't get around to it.

Philippines

Here is a brief article I wrote for our company newsletter...

I hadn't travelled to the Philippines before so when the opportunity arose for Kate Mackay and I to give John Grimston and Robin Dawson a hand with some dam safety evaluations for a few weeks I was quite excited. It proved to be a great experience culturally and since the dams we were inspecting are some of the highest rock fill dams of their time, the water engineer in me was constantly inspired.

We stayed in Manila for the weekends and during the week travelled out to the dam sites, roughly 200km north of Manila. Crazy driving and crazier traffic meant some blurry photos of the scenery, but the Filipino countryside is beautiful and very green (even coming from NZ).

In the first week we visited the Ambuklao and Binga dams which form part of a cascade down the Agno River near the city of Baguio. These were impressive dams; both rock fill and over 100m in height, set against amazing backdrops in narrow valleys, although in both cases the structures themselves had not been maintained quite so well. The inspections in hot weather, the frustrating search for documentation and the personalities we encountered made the work quite an experience.

On the third day it fell to me to do some of the reservoir inspections which made for a great day outside. We made record time getting to site over the winding road dropping 900m from Baguio where we were staying into the Agno river valley shaving half an hour off the 1.5 hour journey. We surveyed the Ambuklao reservoir in a powerboat observing the large sections of hillside that had dislodged during the Baguio earthquake in1990. The Ambuklao Dam power inlet is covered by 10m of sediment that was mobilised by the earthquake and along with 40m of water on top of that, it proved too difficult for the last contractor. At present the scheme just spills water.

We jumped back in our van for a journey over even worse and unsealed roads to the Binga reservoir where there was no powerboat in sight. Instead, for 600 pesos (NZ$20) we hired a few local fishermen and paddled their outrigger canoes the 3km or so to the head of the lake. The level of sedimentation in these reservoirs was remarkable and rounding a bend that should have been only half way to the top of the reservoir we encountered the sediment fan slowly advancing, eating up the reservoir volume. Total sedimentation is projected to take only another ten years at which point the schemes are likely to become run of river.

The second day of inspections found Robin Dawson and I at the Binga Dam ready to inspect the spillway galleries. No, there were no galleries through this dam, we were informed by the dam manager after an hour of driving. After a bit of asking around, fortunately a gallery was ‘found’ thanks to the maintenance contractor. The entrance was in the centre of the spillway road and covered with a deep steel cover that had to have weighed a ton and obviously hadn’t been opened for years. No way of removing the cover presented itself but eventually a ute was sent for ‘strong men’ from the power station down the road. The ute returned full and after gathering up some steel bars we headed up to tackle the gallery. The strong men heaved away while the international consultants, well, consulted. Finally we made some progress and cracked the lid open to reveal the gallery shaft dropping deep underneath the spillway. We discovered another opening that provided ventilation and the following inspection didn’t show anything out of the ordinary except some rather large stalagmites forming as the calcium leached from the concrete joints.

The next week we travelled to the Pantabangan Dam scheme where we were scheduled to inspect the two main dams and a regulating dam downstream. Two other small dams (Canili and Daiyo Dams) were added to the schedule by the client at the last minute and after an unsuccessful search for any documentation covering them, we found ourselves travelling out find them.

The winding road took us through some beautiful countryside, complete with rice and banana plantations and the Pantabangan Township relocated to make way for the Pantabangan Dam Reservoir. After an hour or so of travel we arrived to find that the small dams were only small in comparison to the main dam. The dams were 72 m and 64 m high and heavily overgrown. We carried out the inspections were in the sweltering heat to the disbelief of the group playing a casual game of chess and sitting around in the shade by the road that traversed the dams. We stopped for a drink, watched the game and were joined by local checkpoint guard complete with automatic rifle and keen on a game. After questioning the caretaker who was accompanying us we discovered that his father in law, the previous caretaker was one of those involved in the construction and still lived just around the corner. It turned out that he had even kept a few souvenir documents he was kind enough to let us borrow – some of the only original documents we managed to source.

The dams turned out to be part of a trans-basin diversion scheme built in the 70s to divert water through a saddle and into the main reservoir. Both dams seemed to be doing the job but badly in need of maintenance.

Inspecting the remainder of the dams took us till midday the next day. At times the only way to inspect a spillway or dam toe was by machete while on the watch for ‘deadly’ insects or the huge pythons we were constantly warned of.

After the inspections we headed back to the Manila office to begin pulling it all together. It was great to be able to work alongside some of our Filipino colleagues and we were grateful to be introduced to such a diverse and fascinating country.

Other highlights during our stay included: Open air banquets of local fish raised in dam reservoirs, riding Jeepnees, eating balut (fertilized duck egg), Volcanos, SM malls and Manila traffic jams. The last I would not recommend but if balut doesn’t get you on a plane, don’t worry, the rest of the food is exceptional as well.

Think before you handshake.

One thing that has always surprised me is the lack of hand washing in the first world. I can only comment on my own gender of course. During my construction worker days it was quite common not to be able to wash your hands out in the bush as there was no water around or the porta toilet didn’t have the capability. That was something you dealt with as part of the job and it was unfortunate but understandable and you took care. These days I work in offices and the number of times people I know who do their thing and leave without even hesitating at the sink really astonishes me! Sure, none of these people may have been to a country where evil diseases roam but surely they know about personal hygiene?? They are often highly educated! You tend to have an aversion to opening the bathroom door after you see someone leave in a hurry or reviewing the document they have just handed you….

Maybe our hygiene is going backward, either way, don’t handshake before lunch.

(Well that is that pressing issue off my chest for today)

Street level browsing

Some great new developments in the virtual world as different companies vie to become the leading online providers of street level panoramas and imagery linked to the overall map. The scene is moving along fast and it seems as though every time I look it up its gone through the next step change with companies such as EveryScape putting up a technology preview of its annotatable 360deg bubbles taken at geo-referenced locations... its smooth and an exciting preview of what's to come.
Also check out goggle's 'steetview' for locations such as New York.... or ogle earth's podcast on the latest developments. And if you want to be blown away, go see what Microsoft is pouring some of its coffers into with photosynth. I'm not sure how long this one will take to become a reality or piece of software that we can start to put our own photographs into but it shows tremendous promise.

Arduous Work Trips

The lack of posting this time is down to an arduous work trip that I've been on inspecting Filipino dams.

I hadn't travelled to the Philippines before so it was a great experience culturally and since the dams we were inspecting are some of the largest in the region (south east asia) it is no surprise to those who know me that I was constantly inspired.

Stayed in Manila for the weekends and during the week I travelled with colleges out to the dam sites roughly 200km north of Manila. Crazy driving and crazier traffic meant some blurry photos of the beautiful scenery. The Filippino contryside is very green (even coming from NZ) and beautiful.

Dams and irrigation schemes were beautiful also although in some cases the structures themselves had not been maintained quite so well. It fell to me to do some of the reservoir (lake made by the dam) inspections which made for a great day out aside from the 3 to 4 hours driving over rough winding roads.
Here are some photos (Just an unedited start) of the first week I had there.

Other cultural experiences included:
Open air banquets of local fish
Riding in a Jeepnee
My first Balut
Shopping at the Mall of Asia
Manila Traffic Jams
Will post more in future and will update the photo album...

Catch phrase...

The last little while has been hectic - professionally and privately. Thus the lack of blogs.
Always think about blogging something but after a while, it all builds up and then there is just too much swimming around in my head for me to zero in on one.

I've always been a sucker for a good original quote, so here are a few I've been the benefactor of recently...

"... that looks like it was built by the first two little pigs!" Danny Bhoy

Rather appropriate considering the roof blew off the site office I've been working in.
I'm also saving this up for a site inspection at some point...
Went to watch him (quoted above) last night which was good fun. Couple of thoughts on watching comedians though. I'm used to listening to people speak in either a university setting, work presentation, or church. So when listening to a speaker your often watching for an argument, opinion or strong bias of some sort. Funny thing was with this guy was that it was just a string of random thoughts, most of them funny but most of them not giving away anything that would alienate him from his audience aside from the occasional rude or slightly anti religious joke. I was entertained but my attention wandered, and I realised that the opinion is what keeps me interested. A strong argument engages me. A bias gets my blood going. Just a thought.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Tom Standage

The statement that makes all of us agnostic at best... said in the context of the scientific community attempting (impossibly) to prove a negative. The case in context: damage caused by cell phones. Or GM. Or the effect of overhead power lines.
Some bold and great thoughts from the imaginations of many in a book I'm reading called "What we believe but cannot prove - today's leading thinkers on science in the age of certainty" edited by John Brockman.

"Perhaps your spreadsheet is poorly concieved and does not capture the complexity of the real world" Asok in Dilbert 08/08/07

Everyone who has done any excel modeling will be nodding.... This was played out for me the day I recieved this particular beauty. For those of you who are not getting it, all the better for you.

Death to America

Was recently engrossed by a BBC radio documentary of the same title. Whether it be expressed in such extremist language or couched in intellectual phasing the sentiment is the same. Anti-Americanism has become the popular world wide liberal intellectual standard.

Here in New Zealand there is a very strong underlying anti-American sentiment as well. There was shock when the twin towers were hit, but the resulting synopsis by your average kiwi was generally that America shouldn’t have been so surprised. It was comeuppance for meddling.

The reason I have found this documentary series so good is that it has not only served to confirm or debunk some of my theories on American empire building but that it has shown me how careful I need to be. I tend to pride myself on being tolerant, on being open minded and able to live alongside other cultures and races, however, in hearing others expressions of rage (rational or otherwise) against the USA I have often felt the same chord being played in my own mind.

That may be fine when there is a clear case of American exploitation but something tells me that I have to watch myself. And when others rage is turned to violence against the USA and its interests I tend to find myself vaguely satisfied and realise that at the heart level there is not a bit of difference between myself and them. The rational arguments against empire building give way to irrational stereotyping, anger, and approval of violence. I’ve crossed the line. It’s almost like racism. I have joined the extremists that I’ve abhorred on the TV.

So, I have endeavoured to rationalise my feelings towards America. I still maintain some very strong views on American foreign policy but I will not let the popular sentiment push me over the extremist edge, even if it is never acted upon.

This blog is sounding like a confessional but hey, we all have to start somewhere. =)