This is why I stay in Colorado.


Played 9 holes yesterday with a friend. Hit the ball pretty well. Other than that, laying low and doing homework this weekend.

Policy @ Mines

I attended a seminar to focussed around what role CSM should have in Public Policy. Below is more specific info on what I attened. This is an excerpt from a white paper written by Rod Eggert and Laura Pang for the seminar that was to guide the discussion. This is important to me and I look forward to playing an active role in it as it develops.
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Broad Vision
Mission. The mission would be threefold:
1. To bring greater visibility to CSM’s expertise in discussions of public policy in
CSM’s focus areas, drawing on technical and non-technical disciplines and
covering both domestic and international issues.
2. To increase CSM’s intellectual capital and expertise as they relate to all aspects of
public policy and analysis in CSM’s focus areas.
3. To engender greater inter- and cross-disciplinary collaboration in policy-related
issues across the campus with a special view to integrating and synthesizing
knowledge acquisition, generation, and dissemination from engineering, applied
sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.
Role. CSM would strive to be an “honest broker” that would help frame discussions and
debates about energy policy, possibly in a “think tank” format. Specifically, CSM would
bring together interested parties from academia, government, industry, the media, and
non-governmental organizations.
Audiences. The target audience for Item 1 would be public policy makers at local,
regional, national, and international levels. The target audience for Items 2 and 3 would
be the CSM community of learners.
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Possible Activities and Functions
• Host special events: for example, an annual policy conference on energy issues; a
guest lecture series
• Engage in outreach: publish a journal; arrange press interviews; place CSM faculty as
featured speakers elsewhere
• Host experts: visiting researchers/scholars
• Promote research: funded and unfunded
• Enhance existing programs: including Engineering and Technology Management,
International Political Economy of Resources, McBride Honors Program in Public
Affairs, Mineral Economics
• Establish a chaired position(s)
• Fund fellowships for graduate students; new certificate and degree programs
• Recruit a well-known “public intellectual” to spearhead the effort

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Encana/Halliburton "Frac Job" (Hydraulic Fracturing Stimulation Technique)

Pics from the Frac job yesterday. Lindsay, Roberto and I went. We basically had a private tour of a frac job. Many thank to Halliburton and Encana for having us.
Lindsay with the well head and isolation tool in the background. The tool allow for other tools to be put inside of it first, then lowered into the well without having to release the pressure of the well.


Roberto and I in the TCC or Tech Command Center (Trailer). This is where they monitor and "call" the job from.

Some mountains in the background.
Last 2 photos courtesy of "Pumba" the Halliburton guy that gave us a tour of the equipment.
"Pumba" showing Roberto and I the equipment.

Thanks for looking.

Skiing, Hedging, Turbos and Gems

I went up to Arapahoe Basin skiing on Wednesday morning for the first time this season. They had 2 lifts and a top to bottom run open. The snow was good and the weather was great. I went with to other graduate students from Mines and made it back just in time for accounting class.

Thursday of last week I went to an IPAMS (Independents Petroleum Association of Mountain States) Hedging seminar. It was focused on practical application of hedging for the oil producers in the Rockies. I learned so much, thanks to a sponsorship from the Association, because otherwise I would not have been able to afford it right now.

While I was driving up to the mountains on Wednesday, I noticed my car was losing some of its power and of course the check engine light came on. So Friday I got outfitted with a rental by the dealer where I get my work done and they set out to make some money on me. 8 hours and 400 smokes later I redeemed my rental and was please to find out that they owed me a refund for some work done 3 months ago that should have been warranty work. More good news is that my station wagon now hauls butt. The inline 5 cylinder Volvo with its low pressure turbo is ready to take on any challengers and go full speed ahead up the mountains for winter. They also were able to do an alignment which has smoothed out the ride noticeably. The roads in Denver in my opinion are pretty crumby in spots so the alignment can take a beating.

Friday Night I was invited by a friend to attend the unveiling of the largest specimen of Aquamarine found in the state that was held at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It was really an Oil and Gas event with tons of politicians, lawyers and independently wealthy oil men of Denver. Aquamarine is the gem name for Beryl which is really just a blue emerald. The specimen they unveiled was absolutely amazing.

And to wrap up this post, we got a bunch of snow earlier but none of it stuck. Now the temp is dropping, supposed to bottom out around 19 tonight. And I am actually heading to well site tomorrow morning to see a stimulation job called a "Frac" around 6 so its should be kind of chilly in the morning. I'll try to get some pics.

Bears, Nuns, Firemen, Lions and Spiderman --- oh my!

So these are some pics of Scott and Lania Ross's Spider Man, Skip and Soonie's Fireman and a lion and bear who I am still not sure who they belonged to. So cute, might have to have one, one day. Please note: that is a pregnant Sister Lania with the fireman above, hehe. We also have bride and groom to be/Megan and Lorin/Bridezilla and in the Dog House posing with the snow cone portion of the Suh Family. The minnie snow cone is, if I remeber correctly, less than 2 months old but they were able to find a wig that fit.