CompuServe Messages

Gary, This may be a bit long, but…. Yes, my degree is a B.S. in geology. My first job in the field was for a little environmental outfit in the L.A. area. Working in a small firm means that you're a jack of all trades. Our speciality was in doing site assesments for banks to determine their risk should they have to forclose on a property that the bank loaned the money for. Here in California the owner of a property is responsible for cleaning up whatever environmental problems may exist with no limits (unless one has good lawyers). We would take a look at the property and the surrounding area. A look at historic aerial photos and building permits would follow. A property on a corner was a red flag because that was a prime location for a gas station. With all this info we determine the risk of the property being contaminated by something. If we thought there was a risk we'd suggesting a drilling and sampling program. In this company I did everything from answering the phone to putting together a bio-remediation program. Since I was the youngest and most computer literate person in the company I did most of the computer working including the graphics which were done in AutoCAD. It was about this time that I became active in CompuServe (about 6 years ago). Now the fellow that owned this company was a real hard-rock geologist and hated the L.A. area (no real geology, just lots of alluvial material…err…dirt<g>). He decided to move up near Sacramento to be near the Sierra but still close enought to civilization to get some work. I didn't care much for the Sacramento area (too hot for me) and stayed down south. After a while in this company I had gotten pretty good at this computer stuff and was doing some consulting with other environmental and geotech firms. I was doing quite a bit of geotechnical drafting and AutoCAD customization for geology types and posted a message on the AutoCAD forum here on CompuServe looking for more work. This was about the time Autodesk (the makers of AutoCAD) was increasing head count due to fast growth and they invited me up to the S.F. bay area for an interview. And here I am. About a two years ago a geotech firm briefly pulled me back to the L.A. area to get their office going with a UNIX network and some PCs for their landfill work. After a year of doing geology after coming from the computer industry I found I was bored and returned here to Autodesk with a programming wife in tow. Doing geology for money (as compared to research) has several problems. To get anything done (be it geotech like in building something or environmental like cleaning a property up) you have to deal with a local, state, and/or federal agency. These agencies move as slow as glaciers and seem to be filled with the stupidest people. I considered myself lucky if I spoke the same language as the person I needed to talk to. You wouldn't believe the permits and red-tape needed. I interviewed with several other environmental companies and your "ace" was (is?) the contacts you have developed in the various agencies. Another problem is that the companies that use your services think of your time as a waste of time and money and their only using you because they have to. They just want their building built or their property cleaned up. The less time and money needed to do it the better. I don't have a very optimistic image in mind about the future of this nation (perhaps the world). Science seems to be OK as long as it doesn't cost anything. Clean the environment? No problem! Just don't delay my project or use any money! <grin> You know, someone came up the other day and commented on my "Heavy Metal" T-shirt (it says "Heavy Metal" in big letters with a periodic table of heavy metals below) and said, "I just don't understand how scientists can spend so much money trying to create these new, heavy elements when people are starving in the world." She went on to say she heard about the project in Texas of a group of scientist trying to detect neutrinos <sp?> with large tanks of water in old salt mines and what a waste of time and money it was. I was kinda shocked and didn't know what to say as I've always thought highly of this person. I didn't even think to mention she wouldn't even have a job in the computer industry if it wasn't for all these silly scientist "wasting" all this money. As the bumper sticker says "Beam me up, Scotty. There's no intellgent life down here." Let me finish to say I find geology more enjoyable as a hobby as compared to a living. Ever so often I thing of getting a grad degree and perhaps teaching or something. But the computer industry is pretty interesting these days. I find quite a few geologist in this field too. Sorry to ramble on. Plz excuse the grammer and spelling missteaks…it's late and it's been a long weekend of work. If you have any other questions or want any other hopes crushed just let me know<grin>! Mike Sisk Autodesk UNIX software QA