Showing posts with label antarctica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label antarctica. Show all posts

Friday, November 30, 2007

The Desk Jockey Pt. 3

The Mariachi fast asleep after a long day at battle in the office. The Mariachi gives and gives and gives... the world just takes and takes and takes.

But our hero will be ready again tomorrow. For he is always ready to pick up the phone and answer it with a calm and clear tone so that we can plainly understand him; he is always ready to type as fast and as efficiently as possible so that we can quickly comprehend his emails; he is always ready to perform office yoga so that he can last the day in complete and utter awareness.

Little else is known of El Mariachi, Man of Mystery. But if you dare, you might find him pounding the miles away on the treadmill in Acey Ducey.

The Desk Jockey Pt. 2


El Mariachi performing his daily morning "psych up session" before he strikes out upon the world...

Monday, November 26, 2007

The Desk Jockey


He is known simply as "El Mariachi," this merchant of whirly bird airtime. Little is known of the mariachi, except for his ill temperment and otherwise quiet disposition. But if you study El Mariachi from a distance, you will see him for the maestro that he truly is...

Every morning, in the Antarctic pre-dawn, El Mariachi begins the careful inspection of his stable and familiar steed. He checks for the usual stress fractures, keyboard placement, mouse laser accuracy and monitor angle. The morning's frost hangs heavy in the office coating his desk which gleams back at him with the flirtatious glance of a fair woman. Confident, he glides into place in front of the workstation. The mariachi's steady hands depress the ignition button fastened to the front plastic faceplate. The chassis crackles as the CPU fans stutter and rattle to life, gaining a steady hum. He leans back in his seat and patiently waits as his black and silver Hewlet Packard d510 Convertible Mini Tower nervously shakes itself awake. With a single beep, it acknowledges a successful POST negotiation and begins to load the Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack "el numero dos" operating system. When the logon prompt finally appears, the mariachi raises his palms with the care and grace of an orchestral conductor - his digits outstretched - he deftly applies the three finger salute against the well worn keyboard's surface. CTRL, ALT, DEL. Windows reloads his trusted and familiar instrument panel. The mariachi begins to taxi onto the information superhighway as he double right clicks the Outlook desktop shortcut, then double right clicking the Internet Explorer icon which he will guide to his Gmail account. With his workstation at full stride, he glances outside his cockpit window studying all the factors comprising his surrounding conditions like the wind speed, visual range and air temp. El mariachi is finally ready for the adventure that lie ahead of him and his mounted steed. The telephone rings and the mariachi answers, he hears the sound of eager grantees anticipating his very breath...

The rest of his days are filled with the cacaphony of mouse clicks, both right and left, and the clatter of keys on his keyboard. El Mariachi is an aritst and mindful desk jockey clearing numerous paths for scientists bound for far off places.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

My new art project...

I've started a project while on the Ice this year. I'm recreating Himalayan prayer flags out of reused Antarctic route flags. These flags are mounted to bamboo poles and are used to mark safe routes for Antarctic travelers found near McMurdo Station. It will be an ongoing project that will hopefully evolve as I make more and more of them.

In Tibet and Nepal, prayer flags are designed to eventually fray and bleach in the harsh exposure to the elements. This intended or accepted degradation reflects Buddhist beliefs towards life's own temporariness. Ultimately, this outcome will probably take my flags as well.
I've been writing the Windhorse Prayer on them and had them hanging all over Zach and I's room. I've completed close to 20 so far and probably have 20 more to go until i take this to its next evolutionary step... to put them to some kind of use.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Photos Galore

Keep an eye out on my gallery pages over at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/watkinch

they contain all the digital eye candy i'm generating while here in Antarctica. enjoi!

Friday, September 07, 2007

Looking out my window at McMurdo Station.

Looking northbound at Hut Pint Ridge above Dorm 210. The sun is just minutes away from finally showing itself to all of the station in since its setting in March!
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Sunday, August 19, 2007

Into the Heart of Darkness

Its been said that the first time someone travels to Antarctica (otherwise affectionately known as "The Ice") it is for adventure, the second time for the money, and the third because they no longer fit into regular society. So what then of those who are traveling southward for their 4th or 5th time? Does that mean they no longer fit into regular western society by a factor of three then? I'm keenly interested in finding out the answer to this hanging chad of an story as tomorrow i begin my 5th bi-annual migration into the world's heart of darkness, McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Right now, McMurdo is -7 degrees F and clear. There is no moonrise and no moonset. And from what I know, there is also no sunrise or sunset as it is just after the middle of winter there... but then again i've never gone to Mactown during this early opening period known as 'Winfly' .