Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >You know, when I was 10, I developed a love for rocks and geology. I was
> a huge fan of Cousteau and excitedly followed all the new discoveries we
> were making in the ocean.  When I was 16, hydrothermal vents were
> discovered...so cool...That was in 1977, just after the oil crisis, and
> I began to seriously dream about working as a geologist or oceanographer
> for an oil company.  <sigh>
> Some things just don't work out like you think.
> 

Nothing works out like you think.

When I was a just graduated EE, my first gig was with the Geology & Geography 
dept of the University of Tennessee.  I jockied the homemade electron 
microprobe made for the express purpose of analysing the newly acquired NASA 
moon 
rock samples.  I prepared the samples (got to handle moon rocks, well, pieces 
about the size of a pea) by cutting wafers from them and mounting them to the 
probe slides.  The electron microprobe was necessary because they wanted to 
do 
repeated readings but not destroy the sample.  

It was utterly boring work.  The thing worked by pumping out the air in the 
chamber, then using an oil "christmas tree" extraction to achieve as much of 
a 
vaccuum as possible.  Twice a week it would foul up and vaporize the oil in 
the chamber which required completely disassembling and cleaning it.  Then 
test 
it all over again against reference samples.

I was being nudged into taking more and more of the G&G classes there, but in 
talking with the grad students, they all said that nearly 100% of the jobs 
were with oil companies and you did not get to choose where you lived.  Then 
I 
had already given over to the dark side and was longing to be on a homestead. 
 
"Homesteading" and not being able to choose where you live didn't go well 
together.


James