Undone

Be brave, dear one.
Be changed or be undone.
My Brightest Diamond, All Things Will Unwind 2011

All Things Will Unwind

Undead

I hate the Twilight series. Maybe hate is a bit strong, but I really don't like it. It's got a lot to do with the fact that the entire series feels watered down compared to the classics. I mean it's basically a teenage romantic drama with some vampires and werewolves thrown in for good measure. Where's the action? Where's the deep emotional trauma? Where's the apocalypse? Where the hell is Buffy?


Buffy the Vampire Slayer will always be my reference point for anything undead. The series was groundbreaking. You had a high school cheerleader being chosen to save the world against all levels of weird, supernatural and world-destroying creatures. Buffy had to battle vampires, evil boyfriends and passing math. She had to make extremely difficult decisions like killing the only person she loves to save the world. Buffy even died a few times. Now, that's a vampire show. Compared to Buffy, Twilight just feels like alcohol-free beer.


The undead have always featured in movies, books and comics. The most recent I had the pleasure of reading was The Goon. Thanks to my brother who introduced to this zombie-killing hero. The Goon is an enforcer for a powerful mobster and keeps the Priest and his armies of zombies at bay. I expected a good action story with lots of zombie-bashing, but was impressed by the great twists in the plot and how complicated it got. Read it!

The Goon and Frankie

I can only repeat what Frankie always suggests for those troublesome zombies: Knife in the eye!

Terrible Truths

There are some things you uncover as you grow up which can be quite disturbing. One of course being the realization that your parents must have had sex since you're around. The fact that they might still be having sex is a terrible truth many people only acknowledge in their late twenties :-).


Another thing you realize is that not everyone around you might believe what you believe. I'm talking about religion. I grew up in a Christian home but not strongly conservative. We always had open discussions about different beliefs. Since then, I've realized the whole concept of religion doesn't make any sense to me. It's quite possible there's a higher power out there, but the god thing is too much of a stretch for me. Many people believe in a one almighty being or many almighty beings that watch over them. I do believe in karma - happy thoughts out, happy things in.


I've always marvelled at our immense capability to believe in things. As a child, you never had any doubts that a fat man could get down a chimney and bring you presents. I think believing is a critical part of life - you can move mountains with it. It comes back to mind over matter. How many stories are out there about people surviving incredible circumstances simply because they refused to give up? They kept believing in themselves and that they would survive. How else would motivational speakers make so much money? They help people get back their belief and confidence in themselves. I don't understand that really - I'm super awesome so it's easy to believe in myself :-).

Rango

I recently watched Rango again - the animated film about a pet chameleon that has to survive out in the desert. But, he doesn't know who he is, so he turns himself into Rango, a tough-as-nails cowboy. And that's the secret. He decided to believe in himself as this amazing person and that's what he became.


My most terrible truth is the amount of power we have. Simply by believing. Believing that you'll survive the bad times, believing that you can change your life. Again, not simply sitting back and moaning about it, but getting up and doing something. But, it's starts with thinking it. You control your emotions, your thoughts, about everything! Scary and super cool.

Taking Credit

Geology is easy. Being a geologist is tricky. The rocks have been the way they are now for millions of years - only our knowledge of what's beneath our feet changes. And that's where the tricky part comes in.

I've mentioned before the sometimes difficult relationship between the geologist and the engineers on a coal mine (Gaggle of Dykes). And more often than not difficult geological conditions are entirely your fault. Even though the rocks have always been like that, somehow the geologist is to blame. It is your fault if you didn't warn the production teams of the conditions ahead of time. But, the actual rocks? Definitely not.

I've had many issues underground around thick in-seam inorganics. These are sandstone lenses in the coal seam which are harder to cut and worsens the overall quality of the seam. Some stone layers can become thick quickly in a localized area and causes major problems with the crushing and transporting of the material underground. As the geologist, I can only predict what the stone will do. I cannot remove it. This is sometimes lost on the engineers.

Recently, I was underground with the foreman of the section. He took me all over, complaining about the unmanageable cutting conditions and how the huge stone layers were blocking his feeder breakers and chutes. He was ranting and then implored me: "How the hell I am suppose to cut this nonsense?" (I have censored his word choice slightly.) I very calmly replied: "With difficulty." His anger deflated immediately and he came back down to Earth. "That's probably the right answer to that kind of question," was his reply. He knew I could do nothing about the stone. His expression was quite hilarious though! I do think most of the guys get so much pressure from above that they just need to vent to an understanding person. I sometimes just fall into that role.

This kind of blaming happens quite often, so when you can take the credit for something, you should! We were busy with a large stoneworks project through a dyke and devolatilized coal (the intrusion had burnt the coal). Burnt coal is very soft and dangerous to mine through since it's so unstable. The plan was to drill boreholes to test for when we get into the normal coal again. We did a couple of samples and finally reached clean coal. When I shared the results, I was congratulated and patted on the back by everyone! It was so funny. I didn't magic the coal not being burnt - it's been like that forever. I only gave the laboratory results back. But, as I said, you get blamed so often for the state of the rocks that it was a welcome change to be congratulated.

At least mining is never boring :-).

Spoon Bending

In my final year of high school, I was the head girl and had to make speeches at the beginning of every term. My counterpart, the head boy, was always very serious and talked about studying hard and persevering. Good stuff, but I thought it was a bit like those motivational speakers you see on television. I took a different route.

 

For 10 to 20 minutes, I was in front of the whole assembly and they had to listen to me. It was a great power trip :-). I decided to make my speeches interesting and added props and jokes and so on. I can't remember all of them, but the first and last ones will always stay with me. In my first speech of the year, I talked about some people apparently being able to bend spoons and what amazing brain power we all have. I then ended the year coming full circle.

 

What I can do (with a set of pliers)

I had gotten up behind the podium after the head boy had spoken. He had said some very nice things about studying hard in the upcoming final exams and doing your best and blah blah blah. When I started speaking, I pulled a teaspoon from my pocket and slowly showed it to everyone. This is some of what I said (which I'll never forget):

At the beginning of the year, I talked about people being able to bend spoons - mind over matter. During this past year, we all bent spoons. Some of us bent small ones, others bent soup ladles. Some bent many while others simply tried to bend something. All of us tried to do something this year, even if it was as little as possible. The point is to never stop trying. Never stop dreaming. Without our dreams we are nothing.

This last year of high school will mean something to you. Maybe you don't think so now, but one day when you're in jail or discussing your tormented youth with a psychiatrist, you'll see it.

 

When I read this now, I can't believe they let me on stage. I mean I was talking to very young kids as well! :-D. But, I still believe this - never stop believing you can bend spoons. How else will we continue doing the amazing things that has given us oranges all year round and space shuttles that don't always explode?