Ken Klassy

Mid Winter Greeting

Ken Klassy — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:46:17 +0000

I was honored this week to find out that two of my photos were used for this seasons Mid Winter Greeting. This greeting is sent out to all of the other Stations in Antarctica. The top photos is a panoramic of the town taken in April. The lower is the Town photo of our winter population.

Time goes by quick!

Ken Klassy — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:48:36 +0000

We are just weeks away from several plane loads of new faces, mail, and FRESHIES! Yesterday I turned in my request to leave first flight Main Body. That means Sept 23. A few days in Christchurch NZ then off to Picton NZ for 6 days of Scuba lessons and certs at GoDive. Very much looking forward to that.

Mid Winter is next week, after which is a down hill slide to WinFly.

Vacation planing time

Ken Klassy — Mon, 31 May 2010 02:44:38 +0000

: [web_bar-1] More department and group photos for the yearbook These folks are our bar tenders…

Time to start thinking about the eminent release from the darkness. In just 10 weeks we will be invaded by upwards of 500 people. If that were not bad enough they will be happy, tan, cheerfuller, full of energy, and just plain annoying to 200 tired, white, grumpy, snarly, and ready to get out of town Winterovers. Its not as bad as that, there will be several friends returning to the Ice for the summer season as well. But this does mean room changes, longer lines in the galley, lines in the laundry room, lines in the weight room, lines in the gerbil gym, and lines just about ever where you go.

I have reservations in Picton New Zealand at a local Backpackers for 6 days. During that time I will be spending a lot of time at GoDive getting my SCUBA certifications. I have wanted to do this for a long time. I know a few Dive Masters down here and thought it would be good vacation activity. Then back to Christchurch and on to HI for a few days on the beach! I have not taken any time in the past two seasons for vacation but I am going to this time. I am ready for a warm beach, good coffee (Kona), and some time in non frozen sea water!

I will be back in Jamaica in January with Won by One for a few weeks as well. I really enjoyed the time I spent there last January so its time to go again.

Dept Photos

Ken Klassy — Tue, 04 May 2010 03:49:24 +0000

Someone got the crazy idea that we needed a Year Book for this season. I have been taking department photos for weeks now. Should be done soon. It has been a learning experience. I have also been able to put CS5 to use. Very nice upgrade…

Store Front

Ken Klassy — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:04:58 +0000

After years of randomly searching for a website that I can offer photos and prints I finally decided on Zenfolio. I have a few pics up there which you can order prints, mugs, t-shirts, key-chains, and piles of other useless junk. The prints however can be wallet to poster size.

View Photos Here

I always get asked this question…

Ken Klassy — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:33:13 +0000

Is it dark there? I found this cool little webpage that lets you select a location and date to find out Day/Night times. I am at -77S.

A Day in Antarctica Part 2

Ken Klassy — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:04:19 +0000

As can happen from time to time, a few things came up during the day. On arriving to work I got an email from Weather stating that today would be a good day for the Town Photo. I immediately started planning out the communication and coordination with everyone to get 200 people at the same place and at the same time. No easy feat. But we pulled it off mostly successful. There were a few who did not show up and now we will be doing a REDO for those. This photo to the left is of Bill and I. Bill is our NSF Station Manager. Although he shots a Nikon camera, is not all that bad of a guy.

Want a sneak preview of the town photo? SHHHHH no one else has seen this yet.

A very small preview based on what is to come. Notice that Bill and I are in the photo? Just a little Photoshop Magic.

After this was done I got another item that poped up. In a previous post I mentioned that the Ice Pier had cracked right down the middle. Well a new pier is under construction and I get to help document its construction with a few photos.

Here are a few of our Fleet Operations guys and the Station Manager from Scott Base measuring the thickness of the Ice. This was all open water just a few short months ago. Now over 90 cm thick of solid ice. Soon they will start moving more snow and water in and begin layering the pier.

A Day in Antarctica Part 1

Ken Klassy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:29:32 +0000

First… Click on the pictures, they are larger than they appear. Also there is more in the picture than what is showing.

This morning I woke up and decided to take a few pictures of my day. I was pretty board, I have not put anything on my blog page for a long time and my days are not usually all that exciting. In fact I did this to add some excitement. However, a few things developed along the way.
This is my bed. I have two down comforters on it for extra comfort. My room is on the first floor of dorm 209 so sometimes it gets pretty cold. The buildings are raised off the ground about 3 feet so wind does blow underneath the buildings. The floor and the ceiling can be +- 10 deg diff at times.

I usually wake up about 5am. I anticipate my alarm so sometimes earlier than that. I use a program on my computer to wake me up via iTunes. No loud alarms just random music. Some times, like this morning I just lay there and listen to the music.

This is my kitchen of sorts. I have plenty of space for dishes, food, microwave, refrigerator, hot water pot, and what ever else gets thrown in from day to day. Like my radio and charger. Most of the food is pretty healthy. I try to maintain a pretty good balance of food. I have lost a few pounds since being down here and spend six days a week in the weight room and in the gerbil gym on the rowing machine. Most of the Tia food came from Sara, the summer NOC supervisor for the Sys Admins.

I spend some time in the morning reading my Bible. An area requiring constant growth. This helps me remember that I need to be patient with people and situations down here.

I pack my bag with stuff I will need through out the day, like my workout clothes and food container for breakfast. I don’t usually eat in the galley for breakfast.

I also carry my computer back and forth. I use it at work and just remote into a local desktop. I prefer to use my Mac over the PC. I have all my stuff on there and don’t really need the Windows stuff until I need to administrate something, hence the remote desktop.

The first thing you do before you enter the galley is WASH YOUR HANDS. If you are sick its because you did not wash your hands and then touched your eyes, mouth, or nose. That’s the most common method of infection from disease. There are some who do not wash their hands, like our engineer, who I caught digging his hands in to a bowl of “community” chips instead of using the tongs. I have not eaten chips since…

I get two eggs hard and some Greek yogurt with fruit and head back to the office. This is 2nd Breakfast. First Breakfast is cereal which I usually have in my room first thing. The yogurt is fora snack later in the day.

OK, to be continued. A few things came up making my otherwise boring day not so boring.

Adobe’s new CS 5

Ken Klassy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:48:09 +0000

I am personally going for the Production Suite.

Today

Ken Klassy — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:05:32 +0000

Today I am starting a new project. A Day in Antarctica. I am photographing the major things that I do in a day and will be posting it soon. It may be one big post or several small ones posted in revers order (so they show up in order). Coming soon!

Today we are also taking our town photo, baring complications…