plus 2, Gulf driller to light up a cigar after job is done - Deseret News

Gulf driller to light up a cigar after job is done - Deseret News
Switching careers: photo editor becomes a nurse - Walletpop.com
NBA Rumors: Five Reasons Why Allen Iverson Will Get an NBA Job - Bleacherreport.com

Gulf driller to light up a cigar after job is done - Deseret News

Posted: 15 Aug 2010 09:03 PM PDT

Published: Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010 10:06 p.m. MDT

Wright said the BP well was the biggest job of his career, but it's only the latest in a long line of wells that began after he earned a graduate degree from Texas A&M University.

His work took him around the world, from Venezuela to Norway, convincing him this was how he wanted to spend his life.

By the mid-1980s, "I had developed an obsession that drilling relief wells and working on blowouts is what I wanted to do with my career," he said.

The work on the BP well has been an intense stop-and-go project, with Wright drilling only a short distance at a time so his team can then do tests to make sure he's still on target. If not, the crew adjusts the drill's trajectory before restarting.

To date, he and his team have drilled nearly 18,000 feet — more than three miles. The grapefruit-sized drill bit is about 50 feet from their target, which is less than half the size of a dart board. The unusual depth, the relative weakness of the rock and the high pressure in the well have made the task challenging.

The planning was equally arduous for what Wright says is one of the most complex jobs he's ever worked on. One team had to figure out where Wright needed to drill to kill the well — and another had to work out how to get there.

Story continues below

"In general the shallower the intersect the harder it is to kill, the deeper the harder and costlier it is to intersect," Wright said.

More difficult than the work, Wright said, is getting everyone to agree on how to do things. The process has often been slowed with so many officials from BP and the federal government involved.

"Many additional hours in meetings and preparing justifications are necessary to get a consensus than normally would be required on a lower profile blowout response operation," he said.

Wright, who is not a BP employee but is working on a contract basis, is senior vice president of technology for Houston-based Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc. Boots & Coots bought Wright's company in 2009, and Wright became vice president as part of the sale.

Wright and his crew have spent what little free time they have using the rig's simple amenities — a gym, several TV rooms, a pool table, a smoking room and a card room. Most of the workers kill time reading books or watching movies on laptops.

The sleeping quarters — mostly two-man rooms with a toilet, shower and TV — are far better than the accommodations on other jobs. Wright recalled that many times, as many as 14 people share a room, toilets and showers.

"In one case I slept for two months on a couch in the wheelhouse with a blanket over my head," Wright said.

Things are more comfortable back in Wright's native Houston, where he plans to go after the work is done. He and his wife spend time there when they're not on their ranch in Texas hill country.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Switching careers: photo editor becomes a nurse - Walletpop.com

Posted: 16 Aug 2010 07:12 AM PDT

The jobs picture isn't getting better, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The private sector only added 71,000 new jobs in July but the overall economy lost 131,000, thanks to the loss of Census positions. Unemployment remains at 9.5%.

Despite these less than stellar numbers, some experts say there's some reason for cheer. Of the 12 sectors that job website Indeed.com posts in, 11 are growing, including transportation and manufacturing. And although health care was down by 2% year over year, it remains the one with the most openings.

Ian Malkasian, a photo assignment editor for The Oregonian, is one of those who decided to go into health care, becoming an oncology nurse. It took two application cycles before he got into nursing school but he's happy he did it. He shares his experience of taking small steps toward his new career goal.

Ian Malkasian: wanting to help others

Ian Malkasian landed his dream job as a photo editor at The Oregonian soon after graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism in 1998. Yet, by 2002, he was restless, looking for "something to feed my soul," he told WalletPop in an e-mail interview. He took a National Outdoors Leadership course in the Yukon Territory, during which he backpacked for 28 days, learning survival skills like how to read a compass and how to administer first aid.

A fascination with first aid led to a Wilderness Medical Institute Wilderness First Responder course, then EMT courses at a local community college and eventually volunteer work with the Mt. Hood Ski Patrol. Talks with paramedic friends got him thinking about nursing school.

"I was tentative at first," he recalled. "I was making some good money, had a mortgage and was comfortable in my life. This was a huge decision and I didn't know how I was going to make it happen."

Malkasian, now 39, made it a reality one step at a time. He slowly "chipped away at the prerequisites at night school," he remembered. By the time he quit his photo-editing job in 2008, he had married and had applied to nursing schools twice, finally getting accepted by the University of Portland School of Nursing. "Nationally there is a nursing shortage, but the bottleneck, it seems to me, is at the nursing school level," he said. "Schools can be very, very picky and there are 10 times as many applicants for every student who is accepted."

He is now working as an oncology nurse at Providence Portland Medical Center in Portland, thanks in part to a three-year commitment he made with Providence Health & Services in exchange for two years of tuition, totaling $30,000. He and his wife Faith also learned to live on her salary as a photographer at The Oregonian.

"Choosing nursing is choosing to serve," he said. "Occasionally I get asked, 'Why didn't you go to medical school instead of nursing school?' Medical school is ideally suited to those who want to 'fix' people. As a nurse, I want to 'serve' the patient."

He continued, "Nurses who serve recognize the whole patient and not just the pieces that are broken. This is the holistic approach of nursing and why I'm drawn to it."

NBA Rumors: Five Reasons Why Allen Iverson Will Get an NBA Job - Bleacherreport.com

Posted: 16 Aug 2010 07:04 AM PDT

Let's look back at Iverson's long career and see where it began dropping off.

When Iverson first entered the league, he was rookie of the year, averaging nearly 24 points and 8 assists a game. In '99, Iverson led the Sixers to a playoff berth, and in '01, to the Finals (with an Eastern Conference leading, 56-26 record). Iverson, the franchise player, played his style of ball and led the Sixers to their best season in years.

When Iverson was traded to the Nuggets, he joined an offensive beast in Carmelo, but many saw this as the beginning of the downfall of AI's career. Especially after they compared his time in Denver to that of the pure point-guard in Chauncey Billups.

However, Denver's front office is the reason for the Iverson flop in Denver. Why they insisted that adding more firepower to an already dangerous lineup was necessary is beyond me. Iverson played how he always played, a way that earned him success. However, he was criticized for the attention to offense as opposed to defense.

When Iverson was traded to Detroit, he was traded to a team that lost a leader and a foundation in Chauncey Billups. Iverson's style once again did not fit the mold, and the superstar was forced to humble himself on Detroit's bench. Detroit, a team that lost its identity, is still suffering from the Chauncey trade, even without Iverson "plagueing" the team.

In Memphis, Iverson didn't believe that Conley was a better option at point-guard than he was (and that he wasn't given a fair training camp evaluation), starting the negative media attention that boiled Iverson's statements to, "I don't want to come off the bench."

After a warm, Philadelphia homecoming, Iverson was relevant again, until he encountered family problems, forcing him to give up on his season.

And here he is now, a great player caught in basketball Limbo.