The House That Joko Built (an update)

The day hums sweetly when you have enough bees working for you - Baron Vladimir Harkonnen

Last February, the groundwork for a new villa across from my place was just getting underway. A fair bit of progress has occurred since then and it now seems like a good time to update.

Now we are getting somewhere. The foundation has been filled in and the walls are up. The beginnings of the swimming pool can be seen on the left. The Villa will three bedrooms along with a living area and kitchen. The pool is planned to be one of the overflow types with a waterfall - that should look nice.

Today's usual peace and quiet was broken by the noise of a cement mixer starting up and lots of shouting of instructions in Indonesian. Today was the day for pouring cement into the forms that would soon become the main support pillars for the house. A few extra helpers were called in especially for the occasion.

The bucket brigade is at the ready.

The bucket brigade in action. The whole time there were pouring cement they were singing a song - I suppose it makes the work go by more pleasantly. Their singing is what got me out of my house to see what was going on.

The best job of the day - mixing cement! I once watched a crew build a three story hotel using one tiny cement mixer along with a block and tackle to get the cement where it needed to go. Amazing!

Someone was planning ahead or maybe he just got lucky. The gravel arrived just-in-time to go into the mixer. Who says Indonesians are not abreast with the latest critical path management techniques?

The cement will take a few days to set and then the forms can be removed and the next stage of building started. Some of the workers have taken advantage of the lull to go home for a family visit.

It will still be some time before this house gets done so I may be able to milk 1 or 2 more postings from it.

pj

btw Just a little something on this whole villa thing.

Although there have been several villas going up in my neighborhood lately, there is still no sign of anything resembling infrastructure from the government. The access road is in terrible shape and some some of the residents of this street still prefer to dump their trash roadside as opposed to having it picked up(for a very reasonable fee). Electricity is at a minimum and the waiting list for power is at least a year (unless you want to pay extra and even that's no guarantee). Anyone thinking of buying a villa here should really apprise themselves of what they are getting. Prices are not cheap and the quality can be frighteningly poor. Caveat Emptor.

You know something is good when....

Criminals are using it.
High fives to the folks at research in motion, the makers of the blackberry. Now everyone can have military grade encryption on their messages. Of course this makes tapping into those blackberries by police/intel types more difficult. This in turn has prompted mp's in canada to attempt to introduce legislation that would force rim to make their software tappable. Can't see that little plan going anywhere fast.






Blackberry has a easy-to-read 92 page document outlining their security systems here (in case you have nothing else to do for the next 2 hours or so).

helicopter down in north atlantic

Anyone who has ever worked offshore can commiserate with possibility of a helicopter ditching over water. Although oilfield workers train for these eventualities its difficult to imagine an underwater escape from a helicopter in one of the most inhospitable oceans anywhere.

So far the coast guard have found one survivor. Really really really hope they find the other 17.

Update

As of today there are still 16 missing, 1 survivor in intensive care, and 1 confirmed dead. The helicopter was a Sikorsky S-92, a very modern heliocopter. The search has located 2 life rafts which were both empty. Its looking very bad now for anyone still in the water - their survival suits are only good for about 24 hours under good conditions: 3 m seas and 30 knot winds are hardly ideal.

The survival suits are equipped with emergency transponders which activate upon contact with water. So far of the sixteen possible transponders not one has been activated. This would suggest to me that all of the missing passengers never made it out of the chopper.

Hope I'm wrong.

I find this very disturbing, terrifying even.

Jon Stewart Kicks Ass

Jon Stewart putting it to cnbc. Brilliant!!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

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Electrical Disconnect

I received a pressure washer today from Italy. Thats not really news. The newsy bit was when I went to plug it in. Couldn't do it! The plug was different. Why is it that all electrical connections in the Oil Patch must be as individual as snowflakes? The generators are typically 3 phase but are often single phase. The loads are usually single phase but can also be three phase. Power outputs can vary from 220v-480 v and equipment can require anywhere from 120V-480V. Some equipment can only run on 50hz, some can only run on 60hz and some doesn't care. None of this stuff has any drawings or nameplates and can only be identified with intuition and a fluke meter.
Why does it have to be this way...always.
Calling the sparky now...