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Holocene Eggs to Eat

Shadow of a traveler

Shadow of a traveler

With all the traveling a lot of us migrant, tramp, geos do from job to job, I wonder how many people have tried to maintain a semi-healthy road diet and is this even possible? Say you have to drive 12-20 hours across remote USA. Your goal is to stop as infrequently as possible, based on bladder and gas tank. When I approach my vehicle at the start of a trip, I cram the passenger seat with bottles of water, fruit, carrots, sliced cheese, G.O.R.P., fat-free pretzels, vitamin water, Gatorade, almonds, berries, rice cakes, etc. HOWEVER, seems in about 40 miles I want a breakfast burrito with bacon and melted fake cheese in a tortilla dripping with oozy fat. Why is that? Because I am a human.

Usually, after about 400 miles of snacking on rice wafers and seaweed, I run out of gas and find myself drawn to the button on the pump that is asking me if I want to pay at the pump or pay inside –INSIDE where all the goodies are — all those little packaged sausage and egg biscuits under a warming bin right in front of the cashier, aisles full of snickers bars, Doritos, Corn Nuts, licorice, zoozoos and carbinkies. I can hardly help myself. At the least, I never buy soda pop. I buy more water, usually and a few snacks.

By the time I go about 800 miles and have chowed down on a variety of artificially flavored, dyed, puffed-up, fossilized, sugar and preservative enhanced sticks of “food” I am ready to return to my original planned health-diet. (Why is that?) If I ever want to have a normal bowel movement again or live to be older than 60, I need to eat something that once grew in the ground or ate something that grew in the ground. IN about 1200 miles, I find myself staring at the refrigerated contents of gas stations offerings trying to find something my 50 year old body wants to eat. I ask myself,

“Do I want sweet or salty? Crunchy or smooth? Soft or hard? Dairy or fruit?”

I think the safest food I ever bought in a gas station was probably a hard boiled egg and ones that were barely boiled in the Holocene, I think.

2010 07 09 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

Dog Paddling in the Sea of Mining

I am in this strange mental space: I get used to being a consultant, having an intense schedule, needing to accomplish very specific tasks that will save the mine, people wanting to participate and be helpful, and then getting laid off. Part of that scene is a drag (being laid off) and sometimes I had clients that were poopoo heads to work for (that and sometimes I was not safe). Now that I am doing a direct hire, I am experiencing a little bit of the BS (based on envy or competition maybe?) that makes a full-time permanent job such a drain, emotionally.

I understand why people barricade themselves in their offices. They got to the point they simply needed to keep their job no matter what, take a paycheck, do their work, avoid the politics and try to stay out of the mainstream of hoohoo that floats down the hall. Divorces, sex, desks, printers, cell phones, company vehicles – all of these things generate a whirlwind of negative-energy in an office environment. Makes you wonder how a company can get any gold poured at all??

Drilling, blasting, mucking — THAT’s the good, fun stuff. Why can’t we just go out with a track-mounted rig and drill out a deposit? Be happy? I don’t know. My position would be totally superfluous if we could just go drill where we thought there might be mineralization. How about land status? Why the million dollar investment in writing-rewriting-reviewing-editing a contract that is so long and verbose that the files take a space on the server that warrant their own directory? I could write a one-page contract whereby a person loans a company the money to drill:

CONTRACT TO LOAN MONEY

I, _________, am gonna loan some money $__________________ to __________________ gold company in order to drill. Please pay me back plus some extra in a certain period of time of course.

 

Signed:_____________________ Dated:_______________________

 

One page, five minutes, cost: 25 cents.

Maybe mining isn’t about the gold in the ground? It’s a circus - (circus monkey music here - Ne-Ne nene-ne-ne ne ne ne ne…) I am not immune to the office circus. However, I have my foot in another world — my huzbun expects me to drive up to our house one day, all packed up from my office having quit in a tizzy. I am trying to be more mature, more responsible these days but it could happen.

There was a Mine Expo in Elko last week and other people I know also dog paddling in the sea of mining have spanky new jobs with “other” companies from the last time I saw them and I knew I could probably land on my feet elsewhere, closer to home, maybe even make good money if I left here.

But I know how it goes. I can’t help but wonder at what point the new company would loose its luster as well? When would I realize my log-in time was being monitored by the company police? How about company time on phone calls? How about streaming radio? When would I.T. decide I do not warrant the privilege of having my own printer in my office? When would I not be trusted to brush my own teeth? And, would I eventually become paranoid that all the guys have bigger desks and monitors than the women (go measure the desks, chairs and monitors in the guys’ offices at your company – am I on to something here…?)

In any case, I am staying afloat, reading about BP and the oil spill and being thankful I do not own THAT company, and trying to save this mine here in Nevada with my contribution. I have no idea how it will all play out but I wish the gold were at the end of our drill bit and on its way to the stockpile…

2010 06 14 Michele Murray Mining Comments (2) Permalink

The Humbolt River, Nevada

Cougars go where I go

Cougars go where I go

Here in Northern Nevada, I can roam after work. I leave the mine and go explore the rivers. The Great Mountain full of gold bares down on sage-covered plains in every direction: east mostly, but the ground opens out with rolling hills to the south and there is another valley parallel to this east basin on the opposite side of the range. The alluvial aprons are dissected by rivulets of eroding streams, intermittently flowing in the Spring and forming dry chasms for badgers to live in the rest of the seasons.

On the west, Independence Valley drains to the north through a system called the Owyhee — (pronounced, “o-WHY-hee,” rhymes with “Hawaii”) — River, and reaches a confluence with the Snake River just over the Idaho border. Eventually, the water joins with the Columbia River and finds its way through spawning salmon to the Pacific ocean, where Orca invade the bay to feed on seals and ocean-going trout.

To the east of our Great Mountain, the North Fork of the Humbolt River trickles ankle deep through a cow pasture below the mill and gains momentum and depth as other streamlets add to its girth: The Mahala, Jim Creek, Hills Creek, Gance. The Pie, Eagle Rock, McClellan, Fordman, Mason, Dorsey and Willow Creeks flow from south to north to meet the Humbolt at the gates of Devil’s Gap – a faulted chasm in Volcanic rock. The Humbolt makes a wicked right turn abruptly heading east through this dark canyon. Cows go in and don’t come out. Cougars live there in shadows of the cliffs and under great trees of sage. It’s a crazy place in the middle of an otherwise mostly flat terrain.

I started fishing the Humbolt just off the highway across from the mine next to the Haystack Ranch. It’s all BLM there and before they put the winter cows loose for Spring time grazing, I had the whole range to myself. Double Mountain is weirdly bifurcated. Half of it is Tertiary ignimbrite, the other half is Silurian limestone. The two rock eras are brought into juxtaposition by a fault to form the high relief of Double Mountain. The fault also forms a chasm through which the Humbolt flows under thick willows, across shadows on pools of water ponded behind big round boulders. The steep banks of rock shards and skree are littered with skulls, femurs, teeth, claws and vertebrae from Eagles’ dinners, having fallen from above where huge nests cling to the tall cliffs. Chukars liver there — sage grouse, rabbits, fox, coyote, badger, marmot, mice, crows, ducks, geese, mule deer, pronghorn, and cougars as well. I’ve seen them in my reconnaissance of the river.

Beyond the Hay Stack ranch, the south-flowing Humbolt River runs headlong into the north-flowing streams and makes its sharp turn through Devils Gap, eastward through the Keddy Ranch, along side Lost Wallet Rim and joins larger streams — the Beaver, the Cottonwood, the Horse, Indian Creek – all the while growing, meandering, flowing into tomorrow and flooding, too.

Sadly, as the North American Craton super-slid over the top of the Farallon plate and basins opened as the continent spread thin and extended westward, the mouth of the Humbolt became cut-off from its ocean by the dipping ranges and dropping basins. This high desert river looses its yield of water in the sands of the Humbolt Sink – a great dry lake bed, remnant of prehistoric Lake Lahontan 13,000 years ago. Supposedly, a species of cutthroat trout lived in the original ocean-bound water. The Shoshonie and other ancient people knew this fish in ancient times. Now, the Lahontan cutthroat trout have been reintroduced to the area and THAT is why I am exploring and fishing the ranchlands and basins around the mine.

2010 05 24 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

My Own Private Nevada: Part 1

I’ve been working north of Elko, Nevada since before Thanksgiving. The best part of this current mission is my living situation. I evaluated the town of Elko, summarized the commute, assessed the inhabitants of that hamlet and investigated the social medium, decided to move as far north as I could get without having to pay Idaho state taxes. Besides, it was chukar season and if anything could get my mind off of shooting ducks, it would be this little gray bird with a red beak.

All I knew about northern Nevada is that there are sedimentary-hosted disseminated gold deposits in ranges that stick out of the ground between alluvial basins and some of the ranges are metamorphic core complexes. Other than that, I had no idea what to expect of this region and every day posed a new adventure.

To find a place to live as far north of Elko without having to pay Idaho taxes, I drove around the region stuffing flyers into mailboxes introducing myself as an errant geology girl working at the mine looking for a place to park my camper and/or rent a cabin. Result: nothing. I dropped in on houses for sale and asked if they would rent: No. I put an ad in the paper and online. Respondents thought I was looking for a RENTER (No — read the ad: “”I need a place to rent,” which further confirmed a growing suspicion that the reading and comprehension level of Elkonians might be impaired by the dust…)

One afternoon, I decided to drive to the west side of the Big Mountain. There is an intersection on my regular north-to-south commute from Elko to the mine, marked by a saloon with Christmas Lights in its windows. This narrow paved road was commonly snowed over and wind-swept. It seemed to lead directly into the setting sun (when there was a dim glow from the winter sun on the normally dreary, gray horizon).

People at the mine told me, “You don’t want to live out there.” I told them, “Yes, I do.”

Women in the security office told me I needed to live in Spring Creek. I told them, “You mean in addition to driving 50 miles back to Elko, I would also need to drive through town during rush hour congestion to get on a 4 lane highway full of other corporate mining types shoulder to shoulder in SUVs in the dark, in the snow on the ice driving as fast as we can to go even further south and arrive at a manufactured stick frame, bi-level home where the wives live and the kids ride their bikes, dogs live on leashes and every block has either a traffic light or a stop sign – you think I should live there? I don’t think so.”One woman made point to tell me a single woman (she thought a woman working in a remote place far from Colorado couldn’t possibly be married?) shouldn’t live out where I was looking because of the snow and because it wasn’t safe. I listened to her and weighed what she was saying so as not to be so bull-headed that I wouldn’t heed the advice of a local. I decided she relied on the mall and a pedicure for her sense of security and that I would be safer out in the boonies one-on-one with the few humans who pass through rather than live in an apartment in the middle of thousands of milling persons, many of whom are transient, possibly desperate, commonly drunk and maybe cruising for an opportunity. I decided the countryside probably has its dangers but that Elko has more.

2010 04 10 Michele Murray Mining Comments (2) Permalink

Hedgehogs and Marmots

This has been an odd day.

 
HEDGEHOGS
An environmental engineer just left my office. She brought her pigmy hedgehog to work (show and tell day, I guess). It is very cute (of course) but has quills like a porcupine (ouch) and teeth like a vampire (ouch) and claws like a cat (ouch). The palms of my hands are red from holding it.
 
BEES
There are YELLOW JACKETS IN MY BEDROOM!! I have to guess there is a nest in the wall or the floor. The guys at the bar are going to hunt them for me while I am at work.
 
BIKES
Ferd (a favorite drunk at the bar) is fixing up two bikes for us. His famous bicycle story:
 
A few years ago some car lost two racing bikes from the top. The bikes were taken to the bar and fliers put up. No one claimed them. Around St. Patrick’s day the bar received some promotional trinkets including a 3′ tall green mad hatter’s top hat, which Ferd immediately adopted and took to wearing full time. He got it in his mind to ride one of the bikes to this other bar way up the road (there used to be another bar up the road– it’s closed now but the redoubt of Jack Creek is still there.)
 
Ferd will tell you that though many people speculate about how far it is to the Jack Creek Bar, he can tell you it is exactly 16.12 miles and 11 inches and uphill both directions. He took off on the bike wearing the top hat and only made it about halfway when he started looking for a ride (and a beer). No one came by so he ended up peddling and walking the whole way to Jack Creek. When he got there he begged for a ride (and beer) back to Taylor Creek Resort bar but no one was heading that way. So, he headed back to TCR but halfway the school teacher drove by (which there is one school teacher and all 8 kids go to the school there.) Ferd waved her down. She wanted the top hat in trade for a ride plus she was not going all the way back to TCR so he still had to peddle the last mile. When he got back (without his hat) he passed out and was served dinner in bed.
 
MARMOTS and BUNNIES
Today, Laura (another geologist) and I were looking at Mike’s bale of alfalfa (Mike is an engineer who put a bale of alfalfa out for a bunny that lives under his office) because the bale was wobbling like it was alive - way too much activity for a bunny. We watched and a GREAT BIG FAT KING MARMOT came out of the center of it and looked around at us. It is bigger than any marmot I have ever seen — could take on a badger I think. I put on Personal Protection Equipment and went to see if there were bunnies being held hostage in the thing. Nope. All had abandoned when the Great Fat One moved in.
2010 03 12 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

Tuscarora

I have been “offline” on the blog because I was totally thrown off by InfoMine’s decision to, um, drop this rather “colloquial” means of miner-to-miner communication. (I was wondering when my weird cartoons were going to be a bit overboard, especially my drawings of monsters with penises…Hey – that’s art!)

That said, InfoMine is still “hosting” the blog (paying for it) because this venue is, after all, pro-mining and they are all for that. Just that there is too much information – important news – that takes higher priority with the professional services InfoMine offers. The blog had to go. I understand.

Topic du jour: I am working at Jerritt Canyon and living in Tuscarora. This is the highlight of a northern Nevada career move. I had been hunting chukkar everyday until season ended (locals tell me I can get an Asian multi-species hunting license good for any time of year called a “Po-Ching” license. I declined because it includes an offer to win a free trip to “Jail-ling”…)

One of my collected observations about living in Tuscarora is the degree of freedom. You can drive just about any speed you want and in any lane you want in order to avoid suicidal bunnies, patches of ice, or chukkars along the way. This recently came to an end, though, when the someone made an anonymous phone call to the state patrol. In one week I got pulled over in Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. Now, I use my cruise control.

Also, the migrating snow drifts look a bit like balooga whales. The paw prints of animals make inverted-casts that stick up in a pattern as the snow blows away from around their compressions. Out by Tuscarora, you can stop in the middle of the road to take a photograph because no one else is out there. One woman told me she put her chains on in the middle of the road without pulling over and no other vehicles came by.

I will write more about the wonderful wold of Tuscarora later.

2010 03 05 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

Ben Wright, 91: a Colorado mining legend passes

“Benjamin L. Wright, Jr. was 91 years old. He was involved with mining in Park county beginning in the 1930’s with the Phillips mine in Buckskin gulch, later with Leadville Lead on Mount Sherman.  He started putting together the London mine properties in the 1950’s and was a major mine owner in Park, Lake and Summit counties, owning all or part of over 350 patented mining claims.” — Maury Reiber

Imagine a really tall, elegant old man. Put him in nice clothes and give him a smile. Now, fill his brain with hands-on knowledge how to run a mining business, hand steel, stake mineral claims, petition in county courts, manage investments and add on nearly 80-some years activley mining to this guy. That was Ben. He was more than a mining monument in Park County, he was also a pillar of a community man and contributed to the foundation of what Park County is / was as it is beginning to change in accelerated momentum toward anti-mining interests.

Ben – you were a wonderful man and I am fortunate to have known you. Your friends are encouraged to contribute their memories / statements on InfoMine in the comments as follow. I heard you were taking care of business for the London Mine up to your last day.

Happy Trails, Ben.

2010 01 28 Michele Murray Mining Comments (2) Permalink

Lithium resources in the general publics’ news forum

Hey, the general public is turning its cyber-eye to a mined resource — lithium — with news about what lithium is used for in our daily lives:

(from http://autos.aol.com/article/lithium-resource…)

“A key supplier of Toyota Motor Corp. has formed a partnership to mine lithium in Argentina, securing greater access to a metal critical to the production of future hybrids and electric cars.

The partnership, announced late Tuesday, includes Toyota Tsusho Corp. and Australian miner Orocobre Ltd. They will develop a lithium mine in northwestern Argentina, and the project is expected to cost about $100 million, Orocobre Chairman James Calaway said.

Lithium will play a bigger role in the auto industry, especially at Toyota, which has plans to sharply boost its hybrid and electric vehicle production this decade. The lightest metal on the periodic table, lithium is a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries — currently found mostly in cell phones and laptops but expected to be more widely used in future automobile batteries.”

OK, sounds oddly benign so far…

“This generation and the next generation of batteries in automobiles … is going to be lithium,” said Don Hillebrand, director of the Transportation Research Center at Argonne National Laboratory. “Looking at the cutting edge stuff 10 or 30 years out, that’s going to be lithium too, and probably more lithium intensive.”

Lithium-ion batteries currently have a small role in the auto industry. Current hybrids, like the top-selling Toyota Prius and Honda Motor Co.’s Insight sedans, use nickel-metal hydride batteries. These are better suited for the constant recharging and discharging that takes place in hybrid motors, which switch between gasoline and electric battery power. However, they store less energy than lithium-ion batteries.

Conventional hybrids are widely expected to give way in the coming years to plug-in hybrids. These, unlike traditional hybrids, can be plugged into a wall socket and run for long stretches on electricity alone. Toyota is launching plug-in hybrids along with battery-powered cars running solely on electricity starting in model-year 2012. Both will be powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Last week, the company announced plans to double its global hybrid sales to 1 million annually, with many likely to be powered with lithium-ion batteries.

In addition, the Chevrolet Volt, slated to go on sale this year, will be powered with lithium-ion batteries supplied by LG Chem Ltd. of South Korea. The Tesla Roadster sports car is powered entirely by a lithium-ion battery.

Global lithium-ion battery sales are expected to surge to $21 billion by 2015 and to $62 billion by 2020, from $34 million last year, according to a study by business consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

Under its agreement with Orocobre, Toyota Tsusho will pay $4.5 million for a feasibility study, expected to be completed in the third quarter 2010. Then it will take a 25 percent stake in the mining project. Orocobre will own the rest and operate the joint venture.

Toyota Tsusho, partly owned by Toyota Motor, based in Toyota City in central Japan, is securing a low-cost loan from the Japanese government to help fund 60 percent of the mining project.

Orocobre expects the mine, Salar de Olaroz, to begin production in 2012, with a capacity to put out 15,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate per year.

Most of the world’s lithium is produced in South America, China and Australia. Chile and Argentina together account for about half the world’s 27,400 metric tons of lithium production, though proven reserves have been found elsewhere.

“We know that there are literally mountains of it in South America, which is the easiest place to mine it at this point,” Hillebrand said. “We haven’t even started to look intensely to find out where there might be other sources.”

The mention of South America being the easiest place to mine” would probably bother someone somewhere if I thought the general public would (could) read this far without loosing interest.

2010 01 23 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

Avatar

Zodiak horse is for a space cowboy

Zodiak horse is for a space cowboy

AVATAR: what a beautiful movie to watch. However, from the get-go I had issues with the premise, which only got worse as the plot unfolded. If you haven’t seen the movie yet let me be the first to tell you: It is ANTI-MINING. In your face: mining is a destructive, menace to the universe and miners are ignorant jar heads. The military is in there as well, though I really liked the gung-ho bad-ass commander who is the biggest bad guy hired to protect the mining interests.

This movie, of course, is G-R-E-E-N. Surprised? I was. For some reason, I expected to see a sci-fi movie along the lines of War of the Worlds or Independence Day. Instead, AVATAR is an idealistic, Disney/Sierra Club version of what a perfect world would be like if people got their electricity from the roots of living trees and every one had a perfect body.

The indigenous people are lovely blue with highlights of  other colors, really pretty. These people live in harmony with nature (miners don’t). They control and train great beasts like six-legged horses and pterodactyl-like critters to fly them around (I would love that). The people can tumble through the air over cliffs and out of the sky for hundred of thousands of feet and not get hurt because of their very dexterous athletic abilities. (That would be very handy if I had a 6-legged horse or pterodactyl.)

On this planet the people have naturally occurring electricity, which is generated by a magical tree and propagated through the root system of the forest. The climate is always warm. The water is pure. All the people get along like moonies and are oddly uniform. They all have the same opinions, goals, mindset, even hairdoos. No one is ugly, fat, gimpy. There is no disease. All the people are strong, youthful-looking, slim, athletic – even the old ones are terrific looking. Their ambitions are universal for the good of the community. No one is a radical loose canon. There is no individualism. There is no need for hospitals, medicine or doctors because their spiritual tree gives them life – it can even transfer a soul from one dying body into another body. Who would want to cut that down? A mining company of course. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THE PERMITTING THAT WOULD REQUIRE?? It would totally be uneconomical.

Before I saw this movie, I thought it might be an enlightening movie - one with a message about humanity. I come from a family of indigenous North Americans (first nations people, Ojibwe). Plus, I have worked in Indonesia and Africa with other people indigenous to their area, living in compatibility with a newer, and completely different host-culture. I was looking forward to food for thought and a refreshing point of view. Instead, AVATAR’s message is simply another “green-in-your-face” happy-scenario built on the premise that the indigenous people are victims to technology, in particular, when a big mean mining machine arrives. On top of this, the indigenous people can’t help themselves or solve their own problems – they need one of the European-descent Earthlings (so much like Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves) – to save them from the other European-descent Earthlings.

The antagonist is an austere mining company (how contrite) that is harvesting a big hole in the forest for something called, “Unobtainite”. OK, let’s keep teaching our kids to hate and try to abolish an industry they know nothing about – an industry whose quarterly taxes on a county level pay for 90% of their schools and roads and which also supplies all their materialistic needs: mountain bikes, snow boards, cell phones, electricity, heating.

AVATAR the movie is parallel to Kevin Kostner’s self-ingratiating movie, “Dances with Wolves” in that a skinny, white balding guy in his 40’s can penetrate the inner spiritual circle of the ancient ones, and become totally accepted as one of them is fulfilling some kind of vacant place in the heart of maybe our middle class/wealthy elite  Americans who are seeking some kind of spiritual path but don’t like their own ancestral heritage. What a fantasy.

Why can’t a wealthy American, bald 40-ish guy (and some of the other wealthy elite women I know) be happy with their own heritage? Bond with your own roots, man. The Europeans had their own spirituality. Why acquire other people’s doctrines? Why not choose to align with the American-Jamaicans culture? American Koreans? Become a Buddhist like the Beatles. Why do the Euro-people in the movie industry look for spiritual connections in other than their own ancestral cultures? Europeans have got those cool Vikings and Neanderthals to look up to.

Anyway, the AVATAR star, Jake Sully, is an Earthling transported into an indigenous person’s body via synapse in the brain and a brain-to-brain consciousness transporter machine (I’ve got one at home. It uses a lot of electricity). Signs from the magical tree disclose him to the indigenous people as The Chosen One (because a European-descended Earthling guy is more blessed than one of their own people, I guess.) As this special visitor, he manages to win the blessings of people although he totally interferes with their culture, breaks up a planned marriage of ancient design between the Chief’s daughter and one of their biggest warriors. That guy (the trounced groom) gets mad at first but by the next scene has accepted the loss of his hereditary birth-rights and is shoulder-to-shoulder amigo with the Earthling-gone-AVATAR-guy, Sully. They are buddies now.

The mining company employs some really hard-core military types. It is not clear if they are missionary-type hired guns, like Wackenhut, or if they are government army guys. However, they are armed! Their military weapons are impressive including a look into the future of robotic warfare. It is cool. They are cool. I would love to have them at our mines but most of the mines I have worked at are “protected” by skinny unarmed (well, they have guns from World War ONE but no bullets), indigenous people in white shirts. No one who has ever protected me has looked like he could pick up a box of core.

So, wouldn’t you expect some juxtaposition of the “natural-peace-loving-way” versus fighting the mine with weapons of mass destruction? I did. I waited to see what the beautiful people would use to fight the army/mining jar heads. Let’s see – flying reptiles, 6-legged horses, lizard-like dogs, OK, I’m watching…. HEY THEY GOT GUNS!! Yup, the Euro-Earthling-gone-native guy, Sully, procures a massive machine gun, grenades, rockets, other weapons probably dropped in the forest by visiting commandos. The indigenous people do ride their ponies and fly their big bats, but they are armed as well as the army guys. It is a fun battle in the air to watch.

So, the message is: when in conflict – arm yourself with weapons of mass destruction and lead your people into combat. Be a martyr. Die in battle for the good of the people. Hmmm, isn’t that what our real world is currently doing? What kind of a resolution is that?

OK, the movie needed an enemy. Why mining? Why not the fast food industry? Why not commercial fishing? How about puppy-farms? Raiders of the Lost Ark revived the terrible Nazis. That was a good choice. They were thinking. For me, the people who really scare me are the uneducated, unauthorized, unaccredited, self-appointed activists — usually trust-funders who never held a job in the first place and who didn’t have to pay their way for anything let alone college that they dropped out of — the NGOs who instigate murder and warfare on behalf of their own, ignorant, warped causes.

Even Dr. Seuss’ character the dreaded tree killing Lorax was described in writing on paper and published into bazillions of books published on paper as the author lived in a wood-frame house in a lovely deforested subdivision. He wasn’t scribbling his thoughts on clay in a cave. Point being: the “green” people in the movie industry are once again way off base in trying to portray what I hoped would be some enlightening alternative to maybe the way people interrelate and cope with the changes in our world.

AVATAR is going to be a tough one to watch if you have a more developed world view than a 10 year old. I saw this movie in Elko and multiple people walked out.

2010 01 12 Michele Murray Mining Comments (2) Permalink

System Restore and Chkdsk utility for the Miner

These are monsteurs interfering with my daily rountine.

These are monsteurs interfering with my daily rountine.

Do you ever go into the BIOS of your computer with trepidation and tell yourself, “Here I go — I know better than to do this…” but you can’t help yourself? Why is it you never listen to yourself? Is there no one you can trust better?

Thing is, by the time you are performing surgery on your system the situation is probably mortal. Let me tell you this: those self-help fix-its are not designed to help you. Those applications are designed to keep you in an infinite loop of false hope and away from contacting support whose phone numbers are not published and if you are at a mine in, say, Indonesia or Goocluckitstan, no one is online during your time frame anyway.

There you are alone with your miserable blue screen and the IT people are safe at home in bed, or at the plant, or installing a server with VPN connection to save the mine. Not available. They don’t like people and think you are stupid.

Those self help fixes are like being a rat on the wheel – going no where, but you can’t seem to control your curious nature. How about the System Restore? If you actually do manage to get your computer to boot up again that accomplishment seems like a Holy miracle, divine intervention, and no guarantees your computer won’t give you the blue screen of death again.

If you happen to have made a backup of your files in the last month then you are probably congratulating yourself as one of the World’s Smartest people, (which you should do because you are).

Here are some tasks that could help you save your world:

  • Make a copy of your files to an external hard drive right now. That is your backup and no one can call you stupid if you do that.
  • At the end of the day, run your full system virus scan.
  • At the end of the next day, run your disk defragmenter.
  • During lunch, go to your command prompt and run chkdsk on your C drive. (You can get there by going to your START button – PROGRAMS – ACCESSORIES — COMMAND PROMPT, a window will open with your active directory blinking, type in “cd..” and hit ENTER – repeat that “cd..” (two dots after cd, which means, “change disk”) hit ENTER until the cursor is blinking at the root of your C-drive, then type in “Chkdsk”

A program will begin to go through all your files and mysterious information and it will repair errors. When that is done you can close all these windows and restart your computer. IF that happens to fix your problems, believe me that is only a temporary state. You should make a SYSTEM RESTORE point in the event you need to get back to this exact moment of everything running fine.

To Make a SYSTEM RESTORE POINT, go to the START button – PROGRAMS – ACCESSORIES — SYSTEM TOOLS — SYSTEM RESTORE – a window will open that gives you the option to CREATE A RESTORE POINT. Follow that wizard. If (when) your computer crashes again, you will have the option of restoring this feel-good moment. If all your data is lost (it probably isn’t, you just don’t know how to store your files logically…) you have your backups.

Don’t go into the BIOS. Listen to me on that. The BIOS is for people who are protected by Big Spirit Medicine. Now, go out and save the mine.

2010 01 08 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink