Saturday, December 10, 2005

Postless Saturday

The great diarists – John Evelyn, Samuel Pepys, Chips Channon – wrote about everything and anything; but mostly about their social scenes. I have explained to people who ask that being a blogger is somewhat like being a diarist online. It has always seemed to me, though, that certain diarists (e.g., Marcus Aurelius) only wrote when they were bored or weren’t terribly busy.

Today’s post isn’t about what I’m writing for the blog. I’m busy writing for my living: a new brochure about commissioning deepwater drilling rigs.

Unless you’re in the industry, this particular sort of mechanical wonder may not have drifted across your consciousness. Unless you’ve been watching the results of the awful 2005 hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico, you won’t have noted that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 109 oil platforms and five drilling rigs in the GOM. Offshore drilling and production platforms are among the most complex machines built by modern human beings. Tremendously exciting and well worth writing about.

So – please excuse me today. No musings on the meaning of life, the universe, and everything (including advertising). No social scandal, no gossip about prominent personalities living or dead. I have work to do. Saturdays are sometimes like that.


© Photographer: Bob Evangelista Agency: Dreamstime.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Personally, I like the look of drill bits. They have a peculiar knighthood feel. I hate it when the self-employed brag about working on the weekend. I bet there will be a weekday that feels like Saturday in your future.
SDK

Richard Laurence Baron said...

You be right, I bet you back. RLB.

Anonymous said...

If you ever get a chance to go on a rig, do it. I was fortunate enough to tour one that was in dock for refurb before it was sent to Trinidad. The rigs are much larger than one can imagine from a photo. It is a self-contained city with lodging, dining, entertainment, etc. And to look into the hole where the drill is carving its way into the Earth is breathtaking. That human minds can imagine and create these devises is amazing to my simple little brain!

PS...I know you go to the movies mid-week, so no sympathy from me for working on a Saturday!