Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Now that’s an idiom I’ve not experienced in a long time. Until I did. Twice in the past three months, in fact. I guess I was due. Hey, we all need a little humbling every now and again. The first recalibration of my self-importance came […]
How My Oil and Gas Career Began
Twenty-five years ago, I embarked on an eight-month adventure that would define my adult life. It was not intended to. In fact, at the time it was more lark than prescience. Okay, maybe lark isn’t the fairest description, but academic value and eyes to my future were certainly not priorities when I chose to spend […]
The Irony of Poor Communication
The other day, as I wasted a few more hours of my aimless life plodding through monotonous Candy Crush levels, the voice on the radio caught my attention by mentioning that next year marks the 25th anniversary of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. Upon hearing this factoid, my mind blurted an invective lamenting yet further […]
Geology’s God Complex
If I’ve learned anything on LinkedIn, it’s that a lot of geologists fancy themselves climatologists. Expert ones, even. Almost weekly, one or another of my connections likes, shares, or comments on a post that either questions anthropogenic climate change or outright denies it. Some of these articles are obvious partisan rants, borne of frustration and […]
The Return Intern
I have a fantastic idea. It’s a self-serving idea, to be sure, but I believe it to be fantastic nonetheless. I haven’t looked for a job in nearly fifteen years. I haven’t had a job for more than ten of those. But kids age and spouses lose jobs. So like a fledgling, I awkwardly tumbled […]
Know Thy Golden Handcuffs
Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” The man was centuries ahead of his time with that meme-worthy nugget. He was Facebook before Facebook was cool. Or invented. He was also full of shit. Truth is, knowing yourself is the beginning of depression. And self-loathing. Knowing myself has never so much as […]