Morning Report - Day 18 - Monday, March 24th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 25th 2014 ~ 04:30 (UTC +1:00) 

Bonjour!

Work:
Days on Rig: 11
Current Rig Ops: Drilling ahead. We will be drilling for neigh on 2 weeks.
Current D&M Ops: Same. We drilled close to 400 meters yesterday!
Current Weather: Cool evening with calm seas, day was mostly clear and hot, night some rain.

Personal:
Current Music selection: The Chieftains
Current Books:  
Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin - Frenchmen, blunt and scathing in their assessment of the USA.
The Life and Teachings of Hillel by Yitzhak Buxbaum
Books read: 3 + parts 
Distance Ran Friday: 2.5 miles
Time walking on Heli-deck: 0.5 hrs


Summary: 
This is a long section that we are drilling. There won't be much changing for the next almost two weeks and I am looking forward to the flow of the work routine that helps the time pass.

To offer an explanation about my comment about Voisin, he writes in the 1959 book, "American farmers have exploited the soil like a mine and have forgotten to respect the demands of the grass. They have made it work like a slave: they have worn it out with work, neglecting the periods of rest it required. After the grass had died from overwork it was the soil itself that succumbed. Washed away by erosion in the rivers, it went on to sleep its last sleep in the Gulf of Mexico."

Another quote that struck me in the first chapter of Life and Teaching of Hillel  has to do with how we ought to understand who it is we quote. Something that struck me and makes me nervous to go on spouting "so and so says." The quote, "The rabbis tell us that when someone utters a traditional saying in the name of a teacher, he should see that teacher as if he were standing before him." As a Christian, how do I see Jesus before I go and use His words? 

Who is Hillel anyway?

Hillel the Elder is one of the greatest Jewish religious leaders of the 1st century BC. He was a contemporary of Herod the Great (The Herod of the nativity narrative) and grandsire to Gamaliel, Paul's first rabbi and instructor. His teaching and understanding of the Torah shaped the Pharisee movement and the set the tone of the Jewish religious landscape that Jesus came to with all the other various sects: Sadducees, Essenes, and Herodians. (Pharisees have gotten a terrible rap over the years in Christian teaching which I have discovered is an uneducated and unfortunate disparaging of a fascinating tradition. A tradition that shapes the earliest teachers of the Church, including Paul who never stopped being one if you look at Acts 23:6 & 26:5, and can give much depth even to the teachings of Christ. End soap box.)

I love the chance to read so much when I have my 12 hours off tour, but I should get more sleep.

Veritas Numquam Perit!