Jobs

So I am a bit down at the moment, I just got another letter from AIMS saying 'thanks for your application but unfortunately you were unsuccessful this time'. It is like the third or fourth time I have applied for this position I loose count a bit. So no Benthic Ecologist position for me this time round.

This leads to the Question though What the hell am I going to do when the position I am currently in runs out at the end of next August. the honest answer is that I have absolutely no idea. It's rather hard when you work in an industry that has fairly few prospects and limited resources. I still want to work in Science. I am suited for it my brain just works that way, also you get to meet interesting people and go to some of the most spectacular places. Tom was right when he said that even though you do not get the financial rewards you get rewarded in other ways that are much better ( the lack of funds though does on ocasion make it hard to live though).

Still on the optimistic side I do have just under a year to try and find something. Who knows I might be able to apply for the Benthic ecologist position at AIMS agian ;) I can make it like a tradition every time that job is advertised I can apply. Then thereis the fact that you never know what the future hold and you are better off enjoying the ride rather than worrying about the destination.

Pinapple Chunks (Rowers will Know)

So on Sunday the corporate rowing had it's first regatta. The Port Authority team had training at 7:30 am then we hung around and went in some races later in the morning. There are 12 teams going in it and some of the teams have been in corporate rowing for 3 years. Anyway now I'm a financial member of the Townsville and JCU rowing club. It's not a bad sport good excersise but just doesn't last for very long. I mean the races on the weekend were 250m, not all that far, but then our team might have trouble balancing our boat for a race that is longer than that. Not that we are bad but that's the way rowing goes you have to learn to balance the boat then you can learn to get your stroke right then you can concentrate on perfecting the technique. each of these steps has a different time frame as well. 5-8 trainings to get the balance alright. then 20-50 more trainings to get a decent stroke technique, then the perfect technique is like the search for the perfect wave "maybe the next one will be better".
This is our team, Min is the Cox in the stern and I am in seat 6 the third rowing seat from the stern. We were not the best team but neither were we the worst team and there are some easy ways for our team to improve by about another 10-14 seconds over a 250m race. For the record our Time over 250m was 0:1:26 which I thought wasn't bad untill I thought about our 500m time in the ocean in an outrigger cannoe was 0:2:02 which is considerably faster in a boat that is much slower. Oh well we just have to work on it, what was it in the last post oh yes 'Better pick up the pace'.

Pick up the pace

So right at a time when I thought that I would have more time I actually have less time. All the Rogaines are finished and the paddling season is over, but Dave our Paddling coach has decided to start training for next year now. Also Min's work sponsored a corporate rowing team which had 13 people in it so I volunteered to drive the tinny for the Coach (Min). Several people droped out though and it ended up that for balance of the boat and lack of people I ended up rowing, which is good I wanted to experience rowing and what it is like to be in a rowing Skiff (I think they are skiffs). They train on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday which is good because I'm free those afternoons. That now means that I train for paddling tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Then train for rowing wednesday friday and Sunday. Leaving only monday free to persue thet goals that I set for September which is finish off the Main bedroom and get the house back into some sembelance of order. Then Saturday and Sunday Afternoons I can do the corrections for my thesis and I will have time to rest once it's all finished.

I think I'd better pick up the pace a bit!!!

Holidays

I know I know, it's a bit early to start sorting out the Holidays for Christmas. I do have a fairly ambitious plan though. A plan to bring people together and hopefully see my whole family and I have Mine own and Mins Holiday times to consider. Anyway with all of this stuff to sort out I thought that the web would be a good forum for everyone to letme know there plans for the holidays. That includes you by the way Dad. What I need is for everyone to leave comments about there plans for the holiday.
My Plans are that I will head down to Sydney/Wollongong a bit before Christmas maybe on the 21st or 22nd hang out have Christmas, then I might go down to Durras on the 1st of Janruary have some fun then fly back to the Ville maybe about the 6th or 7th of Jan.
What do you lot recon.

Note to those that are not family I am still interested in what people might be up to over the holidays so please leave a comment letting us all know what glorius events will fill your time over the Christmas Holidays.

Cheers

Slack

Maybe Slack is actually a bit of an understatement. I haven't posted on my website in ages, but at least I have something to say now.
Lauryne Grant a friend organised a weekend trip to Paluma. We all stayed at the house that is owned and kept by the JCU. It's basic but lovely. Paluma is such a nice place it's quiet and there is so much wildlife around that you just feel calmer just by being there.
There are especially alot of birds and Tom has just gotten into 'Twitching' which I discovered is just spotting birds and recording where and when you found them. Tom was all set then and was off spotting birds whenever he could. Ben and Jane are also rather Keen and were joining him ocasionally.
The Weekend was great we arrived after a busy day in Townsville (busy even though no-one from paddling turned up to paddle so the morning was a bust), then proceeded to relax and talk the night away. It's really nice to have good friends that you can talk to and go away with and have relaxing weekends. The next day we went out to birthday creek had a swim in the absolutely F*#*&%$ Freezing water (sorry for the expleative but in this case it's justified and nesecary). It was so cold that your feet hurt imediately when you put them in the water. The problem was that they never stopped hurting. Anyway we clambered around in the water for all of about 1 minute then climbed out and shivered on the rocks in the sun for a while. Then we went back to the house packed up and went home. It doesn't sound like a very exciting weekend but it was relaxing and a wonderful place to get away to. The only hitch for the weekend is that I left my Toiletries bag in the house so I have had to buy a new toothbrush.

More Posts to follow soon.......

Butanol Biofuel

I have just read that they are starting to use Butanol in the UK as an alternative to Ethanol and Petrol.

New British biofuel plan beets ethanol

Ben Webster, London

August 24, 2006

BRITISH drivers are to be offered a new fuel made from crops that will be less harmful to the environment - but there will be no need for them to modify their engines.

Sugar beet, grown in East Anglia in eastern England, will be fermented to produce butanol, which will be blended with petrol and sold at more than 1200 petrol stations.

The Government plans to accelerate the introduction of butanol and other biofuels by setting oil companies tough targets for producing renewable fuels, which have much less impact on the environment.

Ministers are considering doubling the target for biofuels from the current requirement for 5 per cent of all fuel sold by 2010 to 10 per cent by 2015.

Companies will pay a penalty for failing to hit the target.

The Energy Saving Trust, the British government-funded environmental body, said butanol was more promising than other biofuels, such as ethanol or biodiesel, because it did not rely on drivers buying special cars or spending hundreds of pounds adapting their engines.

Car manufacturers permit drivers to fill up with fuel that contains a maximum of 5 per cent biofuel and 95 per cent ordinary petrol or diesel. This is because of concerns that biofuels can corrode tubes and gaskets in engines. But butanol has a less corrosive effect than other biofuels, allowing suppliers to create a blend that contains only 80 per cent petrol. Butanol also has a much higher energy content than other biofuels.

Richard Tarboton, the trust's head of transport, said: "Butanol is a big step forward because motorists won't need to worry about what is going into the tank. They can fill up as normal."

British Sugar, which is building Britain's first butanol plant in Norfolk, eastern England, plans to produce 70 million litres of the fuel a year. Butanol is expected to be introduced in all 1250 BP petrol stations by 2010.

Phil New, BP's head of biofuels, said the Norfolk plant would use surplus sugar beet, which can no longer be sold abroad under EU rules.

He said Britain did not have enough spare land to supply all vehicles, but said BP was experimenting with other crops that could produce more of the fuel.

The Times

Now Australia could a leaf out of the UK's book and start developing plans and incentives to use biofuels. Australia has the opportunity to become a major player in the world energy market if we just start now and figure out our options and put some investment into it.

Sunset Bay

The Last regatta for the season went off with out a hitch ... ...well nearly without a hitch. The trip down to Mackay was a bit long but nice and we got to our hotel before dark which was nice. We had the sprints in the morning and the Marathon just after midday. Then I had the OC2 after at about 4:30. Well the day started off an hour late and went down hill from there, so there was not much chance of me doing my OC2 race on time but I had hoped to finish the race in daylight.
The Sprint went really well it was a 500m sprint and untill the 250 mark we were up with everyone else then we started to tire and dropped back a bit, but we still didn't come last. A time of 2min 4sec which is pretty Awesome.
The marathon went much the same way we were battling two other crews for the first kilometre or so then they started to pull away then we would make a charge and come back a bit get close. then the would pull away again. the good thing is that we finished 5th out of 8. There were 3 other boats that finished behind us. This is a big change we were only a little way off of coming third.
Racheal and I did reasonably well in the OC2 race but i was stuffed by this time and couldn't paddle the way I should've but we didn't come last and we didn't fall out.
I got paddler of the month from Maggie Island Paddlers and Had a fun presentation. It ended up being a really fun it's a bit of a pity that that was the last regatta for the year. Oh well train up and start blitzing them next season.
Yah

Biodiesel

The Government is trying to lower fuel prices without cutting into it's margins from the fuel excise. What it should see this as is an oportunity to promote alternative fuels, renewable fuels, environmentally responsible fuels. Ethanol is one of these fuels and can be produced from waste celuloe however current engines would need modification to run on pure ethanol. Current engines could run on a E20 mix though with no adverse affects. Last night BP and I think Caltex anounced that they would sell E10 at a discount price as Ethanol is currently cheeper than Petrol. So Ethanol is a good alternative but at the moment it is only a Mix-in to 'Ordinary Fuel'.
Biodiesel on the otherhand does run in current Diesel engines with no modifications to the engines. Beyoned that Biodiesel extends the life of a diesel engine because of Biodiesel being slightly more oily that regular Diesel. Biodiesel produces less of the harmful sulfides in the exaust because the sulfur compounds do not exist in the oil to start with. Biodiesel can be made from Vegetable oil and Ethanol providing a huge market for Farming products. This would help farmers and the beleagured sugarcane industry to recover, helping many communities that are currently struggling witht the impact of low price of sugar and impacts from narural disasters.
The next benefit would be to reduce Australias Carbon debt. Biodiesel comes from oil produced by plants so there is no net CO2 output into the atmosphere. Then if we Joined up with the Kyoto Protocol we could begin Carbon Trading, selling the carbon credits that we would have from our reduced emissions. Increaseing the input to the economy from this one industry that could be huge. Once the Biodiesel industry has become big enough we could then also be an exporter of Diesel. The Next benefit to the environment is that Biodiesel breaks down easier that fossil fuel Diesel, and so in the event of a spill there could be less damage to the environment.
With the High price of crude oil we have the perfect oportunity to promote the use of Biodiesel, encourage it's production and reduce Australia's Carbon debt. Instead though the Government Increases the Tax on Biodiesel so that a fledgling industry, that benifits farmers, the community and the environment, is burdened with increased cost instead of being given some tax breaks. If there was no Fuel Excise on Biodiesel it could be sold for about 50c a litre. People would buy it because it would be cheep incouraging the growth of a new industry that could provide employment and provide a way forward away from the relience upon fossil fuels that are found in politically unstable areas or in poorly maintained facilities (BP in Alaska).

The Quoll is done for the Year

BIG BIG weekend is behind me and IMD2 is off to a good start. It all started Saturday Morning at 6am when I went for a paddle and Min went to Rowing. At paddling we had 8 people so we took out 2 canoes 4 people in each. It's a lot harder to paddle a 6 person canoe with only 4. Anyway we paddled out almost to Picnic Bay Jetty and back. Which adds up to about 16km. Then went home had breakfast and packed the car for The Trip up to Lake Tinaroo where the Quoll Adventure race was. Picked Min up from her place she was a bit stuffed as I was from our respective training. Then we were off up the coast and the Gillies Highway to Lake Tinaroo. The Campsite and the start of the race was at the Lake Tinaroo Education Centre only meters from the lake near the town of Tinaroo.

We arrived about 5pm set up camp and pottered around waiting for the briefing at 7:30. Found out at 8 that the briefing was at 11pm. We quickly ate some dinner and got in the Tent for a quick power nap (we were going to need all of the power we could get). Woke up about 10:30pm got into our adventure racing gear and went to the briefing. We got our maps and were told the rule and the conditions of entry. Also we were informed that the Police were making it rather difficult and were taking the equipment needed way above what the road rule were. We had to have Two front lights one fixed and one flashing and on all major roads we had to dismount and cross the road on foot to make a right hand turn. About 1 minute before the race begins, at 12am mind you, I remember that I had forgotten One of the essential pieces of safety equipment (you get disqualified without) my safety whistle. Run down get my whistle and hear Go. Mount my bike and ride across the startline about 30sec behind everyone else. Start of Race 12:00:30am.
The first stage was a 2hr bike ride about 25km (we had to stop and get markers along the way) from Lake Tinaroo to Atherton via the back roads. We were the last team in but we got all of the markers and finished with about 1-2 minutes to spare. 1:59:00am.

Second stage was a Hiking through the bush Rogaine style for three hours. We did quite well in this event and got about 2 thirds of the markers better than most other teams (everyone else seemed to have trouble finding the markers). We came in about 20mins early, which gave us time to get our stuff together for the next stage. We didn't know what that was yet but hey we would be ready. We covered about 15km on the hiking stage. 4:41:00am.

Then we found out that the next stage would be a 5hr Bike Rogaine collecting as many markers as you could on the way back to the Start of the race next to the lake. At the start of this part of the race it was absolutely freezing. It was about 2 degrees C and you actually wanted to ride up hills as it warmed you up. I started to have some problems at about 7am. I felt a bit sick in the stomach and after about another 5km I was seeing stars whenever I stopped riding. Then I thought about it I had been expending large quantities of energy but I had failed to eat anything so far. I quickly munched down a powerbar and when ever we stopped to get a marker I had either a Apricot delight (Cube of processed Apricot and sugar) or a bite of Powerbar. By about 9am I was feeling better and we made better time. Min was amazing at this stage she was feeling good and kept us going and trying to get more markers. We wouldn't have done so well at this stage if it wasn't for Min. Finally climbed the last hill and coasted down to Adventure HQ. 9:41:00am.

Last stage is a paddle and hike Rogaine combined. We had 5hrs to do a paddle course and a 90min Rogaine on one of the peninsula's sticking into the Lake. Finally something I would be at least as good as the other groups in I thought. We had been a bit slower than the other teams on both of the bike legs (Note More bike training for next year). Problem was that some other teams had brought their own two person Kayaks with paddles and these things were about twice as fast as the bath tubs that the Race organisers provided (If any organisers read this I really appreciate the fact that you organised canoes for us that made it possible for Min and I to do the Race so Thankyou. They were not however very fast canoes).

We finished the first half of the paddle course and Mins Arms were about to fall off (you don't use your arms much in Rowing) and I was feeling tired but alright. We got all but one of the marker in the first half because we didn't read the clue that said it was 30m inland, we were looking for one hanging off of a tree over the water like all of the others. oh well. A quick tour of the peninsular for the bush Rogaine and we had collected just under half of the marker in 40min. Good time to get back to the paddling so we could do well in the paddling course. We got 7 out of the other 8 markers and then paddled for home. My arms were about to drop off after the paddle so Min put in an Absolutely mammoth effort. 2:10:00pm.
Then I went to sleep for about 30min woke up by Min who was falling asleep in her chair. We went to the Presentations ( there were some very impressive teams there). Found out we did Like second best out of all teams across all Events (7, 15 and 33hr)in the paddling leg of the Race. Ate a Meal and went to sleep 5:01:00pm.
Didn't wake up till 7 the next morning then got up SLOWLY and paked up drove home. Awesome Weekend and good start to the Month. Now I just have to compete in my 5 races at the Sunset Bay regatta and I have achieved my goal for the month. Oh as well as turning another year older

Photo.

Aurthur bay in Winter.

This is why I love living up here in the North. Winter is such a marvelous time. It's sunny and warm it would be perfect if I could spend summer on the south coast of NSW.

Oh well we can all dream.