I touched down in Vegas. Off the jetway my ears immediately fill with the fake tones of spinning slot machines. I hate this town, but it's where important family and good friends are and this will be the last opportunity to see some of them before I head South.

I had a new lens for my camera to play with, a Nikkor 10-24mm wide angle, and I had just read a good article on the use of wide-angle lenses from Ken Rockwell (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm). I had a couple great opportunities for pictures while in Vegas. Mid-week a very large thunderstorm passed over the city, and I woke up around 3am to the thunder rattling the entire house. I grabbed my camera and from the porch began rapid-firing the shutter to hopefully grab something from the sky. Of the 500+ frames, about 8 of them had something in them, one of which turned out ok (the main bolt was blown out).

Earlier in the week Nathan had shown me his new telescope which immediately sent my picture-sense tingling – was there a way to hook up a Nikon to this? After some research, we had a plan. A T-ring adapter was required which is specific to the camera fitting the lens mount and allowing a few different types of connections to the telescope. The two most common are “Prime Focus” and “Projection”. Prime Focus connects the T-ring directly to the telescope in place of an eyepiece. Projection provides a container that you place an eyepiece into which then connects to the telescope. We chose the latter since this would allow more magnification and the ability to swap out different eyepieces depending on the subject being photographed. So up to Mt. Charleston we went. We found a nice turnoff next to the road that was past most of the houses on the mountain, which would keep headlight-blasting cars few and far between.

The tripod for the telescope was a bit underpowered for the weight of my camera on the back, which made focusing very difficult. The moon was easier to work with. I focused on the darker side.

After a failed attempt at Jupiter, we shot the moon a while more, but I had to try again. This time instead of the two of us trying to work on adjustment, Nathan showed me how to use the locater scope and it took me about 15 minutes to get Jupiter in my sights. I could see 4 of its satellites! Focusing took another 15 minutes.

Burning Man!

The Burn was another good one. I hadn't been since 2008 and it was definitely bigger this time. Alex rode down with me as a first-timer and will apparently be going back next year. :)

Burning Man is hard for me to sum up in writing as it is something that has to be experienced to truly understand its purpose. There was awesome art. Awesome art cars (the VW Bus built on a firetruck chassis was my favorite). Awesome music (a little Theivery Corporation here… some Infected Mushroom there …). Every time I go I will try to convince you to go too. So watch out 2013!!

This year was spent with Camp Monkey Business - an amusing group of folks who love their banana suits. The morning mix of Banana Phone, Peanut-Butter-Jelly-Time, Amazing Horse (Weebles-stuff extended version) and the afternoon soft rock happy hour became quite the awesome daily ritual. Also, purely by chance, across our street was a large shopping cart art car – 25ish people in banana suits stuffed in a shopping cart driving to center camp to crash the Santa-con meet-up. One of the weekly highlights. :)

I played some Flaming Tether-Ball too - and managed to damage a friend of mine in the process. Oh, and then there was that treasure hunt caused by a mailbox discovered during a dust-storm.

On the way down outside of Klamath Falls my car lost power. I was unable to climb hills faster than 40mph and some became 25mph crawls. We decided to press-on and deal with any fallout once the event was over. I thought being stuck on the desert after an epic week of fun was much better than being stuck in some small town waiting for parts for a couple days and missing most of the event – the car still moved even towing 1000lbs of trailer. We were going to head to Reno on Monday for repairs but I was reminded by a camp-mate that Monday was a holiday – I began tearing my engine apart to find the problem. I discovered the hose coming out of the intercooler had separated heading to the throttle body, eliminating any turbo-boost and probably about 20HP. The o-ring was also damaged in the process. With Alex providing rubber-goop from his bicycle-tire repair kit, I was able to salvage the o-ring, MacGyver everything back together best I could, and we had a functioning turbo for the trip home.

The unpacking continues tomorrow.

The family lore is that I am somehow related to Roald Amundsen and the E went rogue and became an O somewhere in the Midwest. While I am not able to verify this claim, it's still kind of cool.

As a winter-over I had to fly to Centennial, Colorado (near Denver) to take a psych exam – during this visit to HQ for RPSC I was introduced to the network team and colleagues I would be working for remotely. I was asked 62% of the time if I had any relation and gave the “according to family lore… ” bit.

So it would be nice to actually verify this – but the quote I received for a genealogist to do this research was around $2000 at least. I'll have to see how this goes and possibly accept that my answer to the relation question will be vague.

Regardless of relation, the planets have aligned such that I'm able to go during the season that marks the 100th year since Roald and his team reached the South Pole for the first time on December 14th. This day is going to be a busy one at the station. There will be quite the influx of tourists who will be celebrating the 100th, some arriving by plane, some racing across the ice, some re-creating the exact Amundsen and Scott routes.

Carla sent me an article talking about the races, hikes, and even memorial service that will be happening during the summer season.

Tourists Mimic Polar Pioneers, Except With Planes and Blogs

As most people know at this point I have accepted a one year contract as Network Engineer for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. This is through the USAP program of the NSF, managed by Raytheon Polar Services (RPSC).

http://usap.gov/

So here I am, resurrecting my blog for those interested in following along. I make no promises – this blog has been a way for me to document my adventures for personal future reference. There are certainly better writers out there. My goal is to combine topics such as life a the South Pole with aspects of networking and communications systems at the bottom of the Earth. I will also be posting my attempts at photography including astrophotography which I have never before tried.

A bit about my current schedule for the next few months:

1. August 24th, End of Vestas

My time at Vestas was short - 11.5 months. The company was great: international team, interesting projects, and working in an industry that is making dents in how we generate power on this planet. Had such a great opportunity not presented itself I would still be here, pushing packets for wind turbines and travelling across rural America.

2. August 28th, Burning Man

The South Pole will be out of my mind for a week while I'm in a hot desert being out of my mind. Extreme heat is a nice symmetry for the upcoming extreme cold I will be experiencing. Also interesting - the South Pole is drier than the Black Rock Desert. Alex is travelling with me and attending for the first time.

3. September 19th - 29th, Denver

As a “winter over” - someone who works the Austral Winter, Feb to Oct - I have more things to learn than someone who goes down for just the Austral Summer, Oct to Feb. For a couple weeks in September I will be in training, mostly for Fire and Medical. I am looking forward to this as much of it will also apply to sailing.

4. Early October, Partay in Portland!

Carla and I have been discussing a joint dinner-party of some sort as a last bash to hang out with friends and family. We're not sure what this will be yet.

5. Mid-End of October, Deployment

I don't have a specific date yet, but sometime after the 15th I begin the journey to the South Pole to begin my 1 year tour. Portland → Denver → Los Angeles → Aukland → Christchurch → McMurdo, Antarctica → South Pole. Travel time end-to-end sometimes takes a week, sometimes more. Patience and going with the flow are required characteristics in such an adventure. The possibility of being delayed somewhere is ever-present and I am sure the logistics of witnessing our operations on Antarctica are going to exceed what I picture them to be.