The Dilemma of a Geologist

There has been a lot of talks recently about what I want to do with my career. It came out during a 1-to-1 talk with my team lead, asking me where I would like to be in my career path. Then they assign me a mentor who holds a really high ranking in the international company and I basically don’t know where to go. He gave me 3 options;

1. To stay in a technical path and be really good at what I am doing
2. To consider a managerial path in my career
3. To specialize as a specialist geoscientist i.e; Geochemist, Pore Pressure Predictor, Sedimentologist etc.

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Unfortunately, that’s the nature of the business. You can’t stay in your comfort place forever because it’s an ever-changing environment and the price of oil & gas fluctuates. You have to be nimble enough and adaptable to changes otherwise you’d just be laid-off or replaced, similar to what geology taught me; even the most complex and smartest being will eventually end up extinct while the one which can evolve or adapt will continue on. I’m pretty sure this is applicable to most of us with a job, there’s always that thought on the back of your head on what if you’ll be replaced or laid-off.

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So which option did I choose? I don’t think it matters that much right now as things might change and perspectives might change. I do want a career where I get to keep using my geological knowledge or any of my skills. Then again, learning something new is not that bad anyway; I’ll take anything that comes my way. I guess until the day I have to make a decision, I’ll keep upscaling myself as much as I can be provided I don’t get burnt out. Where will I end up 5 years from now? I have no idea but at the time I am writing this post, I am still in a junior position and there’s not much I can say other than follow the set path for 3 more years then I can decide for myself.

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What’s also surprising is how open some people are in the company talking about finding work outside the industry and to me that is very much refreshing and it does make you take a step back and think about where do you want your life to go. There’s life outside of your work and that’s your own life. Sure you might like what you do but only a select few will be able to wake up enthusiastically and go to their office job every day 8 to 5 for the rest of their youthful life. I don’t know the answer for myself or if there is even an answer, maybe it’s just a journey to enjoy and that is good enough for me. The way how I see it; I am pretty much set for the long run, stable career (for now), good health, a coffee business that churns out not much but an okay amount.

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around, you might miss it.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, 1986

Well, looks like I gotta start livin’ a little. Take care will ya?

Until then,

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Coffee Roasting; A Case of Missing Identity.

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You might know this or you might not but I started roasting coffee beans on my own this year. You might question me why out of all things that I want to roast coffee beans but I actually really like coffee and not in a snob-ish type of way (trust me, the coffee scene is quite mental with a lot of beef going on in between roasted bean suppliers, café owners and even people who love coffee but always tries to one-up other people.)

Unfortunately, I personally have been attacked by one of these “coffee-lovers” on how there’s no way my roast can be better then other roasters. It’s a bit strange here in Brunei that if you want to make a name for yourself, you have to do it outside of the country first and then go into the market here. There’s something about Bruneians (generalizing) that I don’t quite understand in a way that they cannot watch a fellow Bruneian succeed but they would hype and support other business from another country thinking that a local start up business cannot compare with those overseas.

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Could this attitude be caused by a lack of pride? Why are Bruneians always looking up to people from overseas while in my opinion as human beings we are all equal (well physically that’s a matter of debate but I don’t want to go into biology on why our national football team kept losing). Can’t we just shift our mindset that we can learn any skill and potentially be a pioneer on a certain subject matter? I guess it has to start with me but I can definitely for sure expect people who will talk down to me.

Looking at the past, South East Asia is home to one of the most complex culinary dishes. We use a lot of spices and experiment with different combinations, just look at Peranakan food! I guess nowadays people are trying to grasp this concept of “foreign is better” because they found out that what they grew up with is boring and that it is better to be left in the past.

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I guess what am I looking for is identity. I want my roasts to have this either distinct or subtle identity that people can recognize that it comes specifically from this part of the world. It might not win any awards now but one day people might look back and see that it is unique, rather than blending in like the rest of the world. That was quite a rant but this also serves as a note to myself to stick to my principles and that I can learn any skill and be good at it or even push with an unorthodox approach. Maybe you too could be a pioneer in your own field or your own lifestyle.

Until then,

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Eating Asphalt and Seismic Waves

Well, it finally happened. I dropped my bike for the very first time. How that happened is actually quite common, a car went out of a junction without looking left or right and I had to slam my brake. Now the problem with small displacement bike is that you only have one disc brake in front and there’s no ABS which is terrible even for the most experienced rider. So it happened, I slammed by brake front and rear so the front wheel locked and I lost control of the front end and the bike lowsided (slid). Thankfully I was already going slow so I came out with no injury but the bike has a few cosmetic damage and a bent handlebar. The driver just kept on driving without a care in the world and that was pretty upsetting. Good thing is my bike is a Yamaha so that means it’s tough as nails, I’ll just have to straighten out the handlebar and it’s good as new again.

My country’s motorcycle law states that in the first year, the new rider can only ride a motorcycle with a displacement of less than 250cc and all the motorcycles sold here which fulfills that requirement has no ABS whatsoever which is pretty disappointing and frankly dangerous. A new rider must have access to ABS, the ABS is basically a huge barrier to prevent harm no matter how good your riding skill is. I do afraid all these complaints falls on deaf ears so I’ll spare you the details.

Being a new geologist also means I get to be sent on courses, unfortunately in the new normal means my courses are virtual. Nonetheless, I still managed to get the best out of it. Studied geology thinking I’ll get work out in the field but instead it’s the opposite; in-front of the screen all day and looking at wiggles called seismic sections. At first glance it looks boring but trust me, spend a bit more time and you’ll see fantastic things if you know how to filter and extract the attributes. I saw a huge canyon, enormous underwater landslides, long snaking channels and lots more. I think I’m starting to warm up to this job.

Until then,

Reducing, reducing…… Burrows!

Part of my job is to understand the depositional environment of the potential prospect. This involves me to go into a core section taken from a close by well which sands I can correlate to the sands of the potential prospect (that’s as rough as I can explain it without going into too technical).

Okay so observation first, it looks like the section is all coarse grained materials with very nice laminaton. Two obvious things that I can observe is the red sands (ignore the core plug) and the nice burrow that little a little critter has made. Red sands indicate an oxidizing environment and if you notice, the little burrow was initially in the oxidized red sand package but surrounding the burrow the sands changes colour. Basically this is due to the nature of the organic material that the little critter leaves and instead of oxidising, it’s reducing hence the change in color.

Taking all of this into account (which is incomplete, I need to observe the lamination but I’m a damn petrologist not a sedimentologist so I’m still learning). I would interpret this as a shoreface environment, maybe upper shoreface. That’s just what I think atleast. This whole thought process is very nice and it was introduced to me from a german sedimentologist who was arguing with an australian sedimentologist on how to coach this fresh graduate.

Until then,