The Initial Ramblings of a Reformed Fracker and Unrepentant Wanderer

Greetings from Pulau Pinang!

So, this is my delayed introduction post on Steemit. I've managed to write a post and resteem a few other interesting things I've read while getting acquainted with the platform. It seems as though now is the time to share a little about myself and, I suppose, warn you about what you might expect to read from following my blog.

Hydraulic fracturing, plus a workover rig, in Colorado:

I think I'll start this off by giving some of the highlights of where I've come from and where I think I'm going from here. I was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; but I left home at 18 and I've been gone for all but maybe a total of 12 months out of the nearly 156 months since I first set off to Toronto, Ontario. Toronto lead me to Copenhagen, Ottawa, Kyiv, Cairo, Jerusalem, Ottawa (again), and plenty of places in between until I began studying anthropology at the University of Lethbridge in southern Alberta. From there, an accident of fate lead me into somehow working as an automation technician in the oil and gas industry, where I spent most of the following 5 years working on instrumentation and control systems for hydraulic fracturing equipment.

Some of the expensive things I used to get paid to break/catch on fire:

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"I do not think there is any theoretical or analytical discourse which is not permeated or underpinned in one way or another by something like an imperative discourse. However, in the theoretical domain, the imperative discourse that consists in saying 'love this, hate that, this is good, that is bad, be for this, beware of that,' seems to me...to be no more than an aesthetic discourse that can only be based on choices of an aesthetic order." -Michel Foucault

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Driving to a job site at an oil well in Utah:

I have a lot to say about "frac", or "frack" depending on your preference (people in the industry write it without the 'k'). Most of what you think you know about frac has been written by journalists who try to do their best writing about a subject they know nothing about with absolutely no credible information available. Hopefully I can help you out with this! I find it very problematic that the people who are opposed to hydraulic fracturing often make up for their lack of technical knowledge on the topic with an extra layer of righteous indignation and/or sensationalism, which only undermines their credibility among those readers that they should be trying to target. I'll give a quick preview here: if you say things like "fracking rig" or "fracking well", you're only betraying your ignorance. Stop using those words. People in the industry don't tell you this because they like having a laugh at your expense.

Two drilling rigs and a pumpjack in west Texas:

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"I was surprised, as always, by how easy leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility." -Jack Kerouac

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You might be wondering how an anthropologist and avid wanderer became a fracker...but a reformed fracker? Well, I embraced that time of my life for what it was: an opportunity to explore the human condition, be involved in some mentally stimulating work, and travel all around the western United States. I was able to satisfy my need to travel within this industry, which kept my interest longer than it may have otherwise done. But, after years of working nearly 4000 hours per year, risking my safety, and sacrificing my health for really not all that much money, I got sick of it. I was living in Las Vegas at the time and I simply disposed of all my things and bought a one-way ticket to Mumbai in India.

In the past year and a half I've been mostly in India and Nepal; but, while planning to carry on to Malaysia, I took a detour to Haiti for a few months and then had an extremely challenging and somewhat hilarious bus trip from Barcelona to Lviv via Bonn and Krakow. After a month in Ukraine, I continued on to Athens by train and bus, where I then caught a flight to Kathmandu. And now I'm in Malaysia. I hope to share that and many other stories about not giving a fuck, embracing the randomness of life, and how to not own so much crap.

As for now, I work as a consultant advising clients on things involving the Internet of Things, blockchain, machine learning, and other cool stuff; and I like travelling. I speak a few languages to varying degrees of terribleness and I hope to mangle a few more in my days. I'm sure I'll find the time to ponder languages and philosophy, as well as topics related to technology and science. I'll also share lots more photos of cool places I've been and, of course, things that I've drunk and eaten.

From Athens:

From Reykjavik: