February 19, 2010
I debated on how I should start this blog. Should I wax poetic about the ice? Should I even bother saying anything since no one other than my dad and a few friends are even reading this?
Ice – beautiful and sharp
Hi Dad! Hey guys!
I’ll do both.
In the off chance that you’ve found this blog by searching google for a term like “data mining” (which is some of what I’m doing here) or “hot naughty nymphos” (which I am NOT doing here as there are no females at all within many, many miles, and in one day, there will be NO ONE at all but me), then I should probably introduce myself.
My name is Mason. I’m a huge nerd. Seriously. I have two degrees in computer science, specializing in the fields of data mining, automata theory, and math algorithm analysis. And believe it or not, I LOVE what I do. (Told you I was a nerd.) I’m probably not going to talk a great deal about what I do here on this blog, because my dad could care less and my buddies will be getting the data back in the states so they’ll know first hand.
I am currently, and until February 2012, in Antarctica. Jealous? Yeah, a lot of people want to work here. Far more than I imagined. Of course, most people want to be at McMurdo Station where there are hundreds of people during the summer months. Well, I am at the literally unheard of Embry Base, about three days away from Amundsen-Scott in summer and four months away during winter. (Closer for air travel, but we’re pretty much stuck with crawlers.) I’m almost as close to Dome Fuji, a Japanese base, and in the event of a crisis, I would contact them as well as Amundsen-Scott for assistance. (God willing, there will be no crisis, because NO one is getting here for several days in the best conditions and weeks or months in the worst.)
Embry Base currently has a population of three – me, Omar, and Cody. Omar and Cody brought me here from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station two days ago, along with my food and emergency supplies for the next year. They leave tomorrow on the 20th, and I will not physically see another human being for 12 months when I get “refueled.”
While I am here, I will be collecting data and maintaining equipment that resides about eight feet out my “front door.” I just have to make sure that it doesn’t get buried by snow drifts, the battery is live, and other things are operating as desired. I will be going outside to collect data about twice a week and to keep things running. That is the only reason I will be going outside. It’s frickin’cold here!
I saw this job posted on a dirty scrap of paper on an obscure bulletin board at the University lab. There wasn’t a great amount of information, but what was there got me thinking. “Willing to live alone for 2 years and make tons of money?”
Yes to both.
A few phone calls and a plane trip to Denver later, and I found myself taking part in the strangest job interview ever. They wanted to see my work, which definitely made sense to me, but that was over in the first hour.
The next two days consistent of a physical and mental assessment. They wanted to make sure that I could live by myself for two years without turning into Jack Nicholson from “The Shining.” Mentally, I was found to be a suitable candidate. Physically, I was sure I would fail. After all, I weigh 400 pounds.
However, they said I passed on all counts, and the only penalty of my weight was that my weight would not allow me to bring as many things with me as a thinner person could. Oh well. I still have plenty to last me for a year. Thank goodness for my ultra light weight hard drives. I may not have TV, but I couldn’t live without movies and books (God bless you, e-Books) of any sort. (And my buddies back home have promised to email me videos of the latest episodes of The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy, since my satellite internet connection will only be open for about four hours per week. Thank goodness it’s fast during those four hours.)
There were three big reasons I wanted to come to Embry Base after I found out what the job entailed. One, it sounds cool. How many people get to go to Antarctica? Two, the salary is kind of low, $28,000, but I have ALL living expenses paid. Granted, here, that consists of room and board, heat, sundries, and food, but there are no stores here, so I’ll be spending NO money. In the two years of this project, I will make $56,000, completely saved and in the bank. That is definitely nice and something I could not do at home.
But three is my biggest reason – I am obese. I weigh 403 pounds. (There’s an industrial scale here, and I weighed myself as soon as I got here. 403. That’s morbidly obese. That’s gonna-die fat.) I don’t like being morbidly obese. I don’t like having low self-esteem. I want to be thin.
And when I return to society in 2012, I will be thin. I will step off that plane in Louisville, Kentucky at 180 pounds and healthy. This two year hiatus is the perfect way for me to come home to a new life.
But for now, this is my home. For a small base that NO one has heard of (there isn’t even a Wikipedia entry), the set up is definitely nice. I brought a camera, but I stupidly forgot to bring a cord, and I don’t have a card reader, so you’ll get no photos. Sorry. Not that it probably matters that much anyway. The landscape here at Embry is surprisingly dull. It’s beautiful, but google any image of Antarctica and you’ll get the gist. That picture in the header of my blog is pretty typical of most bases, except this one, which only has one exterior light and I only turn it on in the winter in case of an emergency if someone is coming to evac me out. I don’t plan on that being an issue.
Anyway, back on the subject of the camera, I would take a picture, but I’ll just have to give you a description.
I have more room here than I did in my old apartment. There is a kitchen, a huge pantry (that holds enough food for me for more than an entire year), a storage room that is big enough for six caterpillars (due to arrive in winter 2014) but is currently almost empty (save for one caterpillar with GPS in case something major does happen and I need to make the three day crawl to another station in the dead of winter), a series of generators the size of a small village that sips JP-8 jet fuel(seriously, this thing is huge!), the computer room that’s the size of a small non-walk-in closet (basically holds the computer equipment and one chair for me), a small hydroponics bay so I can grow some fresh fruits and veggies (honestly – not making this up), and three small living quarters that are pretty nicely furnished. Oh, and the tiniest bathroom in the entire world that all three quarters share, but pretty soon, I’ll be here solo, and it won’t matter at all. The entire thing is partially underground (well, under glacier, anyway) to help with heating. It’s all enclosed in a geodesic dome designed in such a way to keep snow from drifting over the top of it, and I can guarantee you, I will spend the majority of my time in ANY room except for the storage room. There is so much open space in there, it is almost as cold as outside. I’ll stick to my room with the comfy temperature of 58 degrees, thank you. And yes, while that would be cold at home, here, it’s like a heat wave.
I was fully trained in a LOT of different areas before I even got to Antarctica. I know how to keep the generators running and fueled up, which is good, because if those ever go out, I’ll freeze to death within hours. I now know how to hydroponically raise vegetables, so when I get tired of eating dehydrated, tinned, canned, and otherwise preserved food, I’ll still have some fresh produce. I was given the most comprehensive lesson on first aid. Literally, I could do anything at this point except for remove my appendix. After all, I’m going to be alone for a LONG time. If I sprain my ankle or even break a limb (neither of which is likely, but still… it could happen), I have to take care of it myself, because I am days away from everyone. I feel pretty good about it. I don’t expect anything to happen, but if it does, I’m prepared.
One major downside? Unreliable internet. I can expect to have internet for approximately four hours per day, and that’s limited to email. Fortunately, my buddy Austin back home is going to take care of everything for me via email, and I’ll just send my blog posts to him and he’ll post them and email the comments to me. So if you do find this blog, yes, I’d love to read your comments, but expect about a two week delay in responses. He’ll email them to me, and I’ll make sure to address them in my next weekly blog post.
Anyhow, my name is Mason, please feel free to leave me a comment, and I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures here. They’ll probably consist mostly of “hey, I lost this much weight this week” and “I saw an awesome movie on my hard drive” because, really, what else is there to share? You’re probably going to learn a lot about me by reading this blog, because I’m not holding anything back. You’ll probably hear me ramble on and on about Star Trek or muse enthusiastic about something porn-related. (I’m going to be alone for two years – are you kidding? I have 2 terabytes of porn with me.)
Anyway, I’ll be back on again in a week, and by the time you read this, I may be completely alone on the bottom of the world.
Stay warm,
Mason