The Bar 2014 Edition

[fernley1]

Cold, windy and Snowy here in Fernley too, but not sticking yet.

[AntiM]

Heavy in the Utah mountains, bad in the valley for the commute, but I seem to be in a little bubble with just a couple inches and none sticking to the pavement.

[unjonharley]

Cold with no moisture..cloud level down to 300 feet..Our house is 530 ft. So this morning i'm on top of the clouds.

[fernley1]

Snowing super hard now and sticking, about an inch per hour.
Going to be snow shovel day.
I will differently need a good warm drink today.

[lucky420]

I'm still at home. Thinking I'll be taking a snow day off from work. Washoe county school district may close school early here because of icy roads. My work follows what the school district does in that regards.

I'm in northwest Reno and work in Sparks. Why bother going in if I'm just going home soon again? Plus I can tell that my dog really wants me to stay home and curl up with her...

[AntiM]

Larry and his student are in Idaho, headed for Montana. They are north of the storm now, although were driving in it last night. I think I get to see him tomorrow. Woohoo!

[trilobyte]

Stay home and curl up if you can, Lucky... then again, now might be the time to check your supplies and make a run to the store if you need one. Things are cold in SF, with even colder and possibly wetter on the way - if you guys get similar up and out your way, it'd be nice to be holed up and not need to try and get out in anything nasty.

Elliot, the cutoff on embedded images is dynamic, and changes depending on the width of your browser window (or screen). Like others said you could right click and view in a new window to see the whole thing and scroll as necessary. Good call on resizing your images, some people use the free site imgur, but I usually post the pics I use on my Tumblr account, which automatically resizes them to 500 pixels when it shows them on that site. I just copy and past the URL from that page for my embeds.

Yesterday went and got a little crazy for me, but I still managed to get a bunch of textures rendered. I still need to bring them over to the 3D app and tinker around to how things look, hopefully I'll get to do that today and I can come up with something that looks better than what I used for last year.

[bedlamdoll]

Morning all!

It's chilly and dry here in Seattle. Looking like we'll avoid snow for now (hooray! I can't drive in the stuff so I'd be stuck at home).

So in good news, I got the job I interviewed for a couple weeks ago. In bad news, I'm so sick my boss banished me to working from home for most of my first week on the job.

Time for more hot tea.

[^Rhino!]

Actually, moving a geologist is something you don't want to do. After the house furnishings and the basic necessities, we're loaded up on boxes of rocks and books. Two trips is on the light side.

Ironically, I used to move rocks with a crane truck for a stone company… I'm better at moving rocks than anyone you know. You can't possibly have what I consider a lot of rocks!

Great. Now I know who to call when I plan my next move. Thanks.

[ygmir]

Actually, moving a geologist is something you don't want to do. After the house furnishings and the basic necessities, we're loaded up on boxes of rocks and books. Two trips is on the light side.

Ironically, I used to move rocks with a crane truck for a stone company… I'm better at moving rocks than anyone you know. You can't possibly have what I consider a lot of rocks!

Great. Now I know who to call when I plan my next move. Thanks.

snickering.........good call.

[^Rhino!]

Professor of geology, eh.... Wonder what you might think of the first chapter in James Michener's novel Hawaii (1959)? He describes the volcanic action that formed the Hawaiian islands, and it is absolutely pure heavenly poetry. Michener was famous for his research -- and Hawaii specially so -- which makes me guess he cannot have it all wrong. Accuracy aside, if you enjoy a good read.... Anybody who enjoys a good read, actually. Michener was hecka storyteller.

Back in Clearlake, Millicent is now safe from frost. Plenty else to do, though.

Michener did a good job with Hawaii. Same with his book Alaska, where he goes through the concepts of island arc accretion adjacent to a subduction zone.

For geology, I much prefer mysteries by Sarah Andrews. Her forensic geologist, Em Hansen, is a real treat to read about.

Mysteries by Craig Allen Johnson, though, are the best. His Sheriff Walt Longmire, fictional Sheriff of fictional Absaroka County, is the source for the new A&E TV series Longmire. I'm also partial to work of Tony Hillerman, whose legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police are sure to get the job done.

General non-fiction geology I recommend to all: John Mc Phee's Annals of a Former World. It won the Pulitzer. I also recommend Simon Winchester's books The Map that Changed the World and Krakatoa. I bought those one weekend and couldn't put them down.

[^Rhino!]

snickering.........good call.

Oh, don't think I've forgotten your stone talents, good buddy. You are also on the list.

[Patsh]

Great. Now I know who to call when I plan my next move. Thanks.

snickering.........good call.

dang.
and all this time, I'd have thought "Yggy", for moving rocks and such...

[^Rhino!]

You and I think alike, Patsch.

You just 'volunteered".

[ygmir]

Great. Now I know who to call when I plan my next move. Thanks.

snickering.........good call.

dang.
and all this time, I'd have thought "Yggy", for moving rocks and such...

well, I've moved a few........

me1stone.jpg

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scan0003a.jpg

[Savannah]

" . . . Hello, Ladies."

[MyDearFriend]

" . . . Hello, Ladies."

Yes, indeed.

And thanks, ^Rhino! for the book recommendations! That John McPhee looks great.

[Ratty]

Good afternoon Bar Rats. I need a white wine. (Please). Did anybody get the volunteer announce letter about data entry in SF on the 7th. I want to go even if it's just to check out the new digs. The company is always great and pizza too!

[unjonharley]

" . . . Hello, Ladies."

How you been, dude

[Savannah]

" . . . Hello, Ladies."

How you been, dude

I'm awesome, how about you?

[unjonharley]

" . . . Hello, Ladies."

How you been, dude

I'm awesome, how about you?

Life is treating me like a king..

[trilobyte]

Today's been hectic, more hectic than yesterday, and I'm working harder but feel like I'm getting less done. I'm going to keep cranking through a few things though, a couple little things I want to make sure get done this week. Meanwhile, I'm both happy and sad about Joseph's news. He's an awesome guy, and I've been following along as MARS has been growing and thriving over the years. Sad to see him go, but very happy for him. Drinks all round!

[theCryptofishist]

*stand and raises glass*
To Joseph, and Scott's tying one on in heaven!

[magicmarty]

Hey Rhino, I've read a number of the books you mentioned and MDF is right about McPhee. His "Assembling California" was really terrific as was "Basins and Ranges". I heard him speak at UC Davis with his geologist adviser Dr Eldrige Moores a few years ago and it was fascinating. McPhee is a really prolific writer with many books (even one on tennis) and tons of articles in the New Yorker magazine and many other publications.

Quiet night here and quite cold and getting colder for the next few days. Maybe frost tonight.

Dives into the NEB with a snifter of brandy seeking a bit of company.

Cheers

[ygmir]

HI Marty!

how's the pottery coming out?

[fernley1]

I too have read "Assembling California" and "Basins and Ranges".
They are some of my favorite books to read and reread.
Every time I go past Auburn on I-80, I look for that spreading center outcrop that they found in the book.

Super cold here tonight, @ 8 degrees is what the news said.

[ygmir]

what's this "spreading center" outcrop? since I live in the area. I'll find the book, but just wondering if you can give a quick description?

[ygmir]

the columns in my pics, I believe, are rhyolite, it's a neat formation of "crystals" of this, all split into these columns. looked like a honeycomb when we first saw it.
and next to it, is a pearlite tube, that is shedding apache tears, by the bucketfull.
it's not far from the playa, near Jungo, on the road to sulfur, just south of rosebud canyon.

*Rhino, please correct me if I have terms or names wrong?

[^Rhino!]

the columns in my pics, I believe, are rhyolite, it's a neat formation of "crystals" of this, all split into these columns. looked like a honeycomb when we first saw it.
and next to it, is a pearlite tube, that is shedding apache tears, by the bucketfull.
it's not far from the playa, near Jungo, on the road to sulfur, just south of rosebud canyon.

*Rhino, please correct me if I have terms or names wrong?

Rhyolite you have correct. The 'columns' are exactly that....individual columns displaying columnar jointing. Individual columns usually have from 3-8 sides perpendicular to the long axis of the column. Normally they're thought of as being part of volcanic terrain, like the basaltic columns on the Giant's Causeway in northern Ireland. We have columnar jointed rhyolites in Missouri on Hughes Mountain and a few other lesser-known locales. There are also columnar jointed volcanic 'necks', also called diatremes. Devil's Tower in Wyoming is one of these.

Apache tears = obsidian composition, ususally embedded as they were little blebs of volcanic liquid lava that solidified so fast they became volcanic glass.n Pearlite is normally spelled 'perlite. You done good, yggy....your spelling was near perfect.

Glad to see you and everyone else enjoy mu choice of McPhee a a fine author,

[magicmarty]

Fernley, you're a kindred spirit! YG, my pottery firing came out beautifully. Have some great new glazes and will try to figure out how to photo some of the pots and post some pics on this site. Not too sure about the whole process of posting pics and stuff here. Try to do it this weekend.

Hey, Rihno, I played tennis in some limestone caves in Carthage, MO some years ago. Legget and Platt used the caves for warehousing stuff You could drive multiple big rigs in there. Never had been in so large a cave before. Very cool and in some ways a very weird place to play tennis. They had a real court set up with lines a net and the whole deal.

Time to hit the hay

Cheers