BUY!
Home This is the saga of TSA and the Siberia Gym. Web Design, history, frustration, and a few side trips. TSA is no expert, but he tries hard.
February 2, 04 Okay I got into the game. Yes I did it. I will tell you more tomorrow. It was not easy but I did it.
February 1, 04 Great party I meet Warren Moon, P. Diddy, and Janet Jackson to name a few. Mr. Moon almost got me. He started into the heavy football stuff, I was lost. Finally he said, "I understand once the season is over you just want to forget about playing right?" Me being an expert I agreed. Asked Mr. Moon about tickets, he said show up at the stadium early, 1 PM. and stand out front he will have somebody, meet me.
January 31, 04 Okay I wandered at the Main Event. At 6 foot 4 inches, 270 lbs people thought I was a football player. I admit I did not deny it. I said I was with the Seattle Seahawks, figured they are so far away nobody in Houston would know anybody on the team. So I get invited to a big party at the Vodka Club. Yes that is the name, for real. Just mingled with people and they all thought I was a football player.
I quickly found an internet connection and quickly reviewed the Seahawk's season. Their tough losses. Well I pulled it off. Got an invite to another party and may be tickets.
January 30, 04 Made some phone calls. Tickets are very hard to come by. Somebody will sell for $4,000. No way will I pay that much to see a football game. But will check down town at the parties.
January 29, 2004 Flew all day to Houston. Just going to bed and go downtown tomorrow. Super Bowl is on Sunday. Need to find some tickets.
January 28 04 made it to Moscow. Any way we found a cabin and some good people let me dry out. I was one popsicle. Lucky I made may be lucky alive. Never take a short cut across a lake, or at least do not be the first one.
January 27, 04 Missed today's flight to Moscow. Will fly out on morning of January 28. Plenty time to make the Super Bowl. Any way the chief was sleeping when the sleigh. started to go through. I fell off the back but held onto the sleigh. It just stopped. Ralph and friends could not pull it out. Chief woke up and screamed, jump off the sleigh. Said some words to Ralph and pulled like crazy.
Well they pulled me out. but I was soaked from the waist down and it was -30. The Chief threw me in the sleigh, told me get those wet clothes off and hold on. Well they were not wet but frozen on me. Hit them broke the ice and got them off.
Well we flew across the lake. Lucky we did because I was starting to get real cold, real cold.
January 26, 04 I made a big mistake and we almost died. The chief said follow the trail around this big lake. I thought, well lets just cut across it. Save hours of traveling. Well the ice was not quite hard, or water running under it or something. Or may be somebody had cut a swimming hole. Anyway the sleigh started to go through.
January 25, 04 Okay we travel all day and made it half way. We are at Hunti settlement where everyone is related to the chief. Ralph did a good job. The chief let me steer the sleigh for awhile. You use this big long pole and just hit Ralph on the left or right side to turn. Interesting. The Chief is enjoying the trip. Temperature is -30 and rising.
January 24, 2004 Well the Chief says 2 days if we push the reindeer hard. I said good lets use Ralph as the lead. We take off at first light tomorrow. We have the satellite phone.
January 23, 2004 Okay, it seems the roads are not passable to get out. So the clan chief says best option is by sleigh. Okay, I say but we can not make 300 kilometers in one day. I am leaving tomorrow. No he says 3 days at least. I call the boss and ask him if he can send in a helicopter. He says no, too expensive.
January 22, 2004 Seems I have to figure out how to get out of here. We drove here but there is not an airport within 300 kilometers. It is in a city I have not heard of before. The weather is not helping, it is -40.
January 21, 2004 So the plan is to leave around the 26 th to Merry old Houston. Boss says it is okay, get out of there now, you are driving me crazy.
January 20, 2004 I am up to date, I am up to date, I am up to date
January 19, 2004 Okay we have an agreed plan. We start construction April 1. I will work on plans and the chief will approve. The boss says, you handle it all. I do not want to deal with any natives. The boss is a little prejudice are may be scared of the natives.
January 18, 2004 So I think it will be Houston again. The Super Bowl is going to be there and it is home of the oil business.
January 17, 2004 But I think I need a vacation. Xmas and New years here is tiring, plus the cold. Mom, says do not come home. She is headed to Florida and does not want company.
January 16, 2004 Well temperature is still mild -30. So the clan chief says lets start building. I told him hard to start building when the ground is under 1 meter of snow. He says no problem. You big strong American you can do it.
January 15, 2004 Okay, not doing very good on my New Years Resolution, to stay up to date on the site. But things are good. With 170 visits per day, January, no reindeer searches things are good.
And yes the reindeer store was a big big flop. Sold one item! Yes one item!
January 14, 2004 Well it has warmed up to -30 degrees. Moving out equipment to start working. The holidays are over everyone has recovered, time to make some money!
January 13, 2004 Well today is the Russian Old New Year. Yes the Old New Year. Have worked here a long time but admit I still do not understand. But seems they celebrate the old Xmas more than the old New Year.
January 12, 2004 I called Mom. She said, You forgot your own birthday? How could you do that?
January 11, 2004 still confused what day yesterday was?
January 10, 2004 Something is special about today, but I do not remember why. Must be something important.
January 9, 2004 Well the Russian New Year is January 13 th. So I do not have to start keeping things up to date until then.
January 8, 2004 Anyway that is my New Years resolution. Keep the web site up to date instead of doing one week behind.
January 7, 2004 Today is Xmas here. So nobody working. Like these days. Gives me time to reflect on life and consider where I should go. Thinking about the web site. Need to quit being so lazy and write every day.
January 6, 2004 Well I am going to take a break from here. Figure since so cold can not do any work any way. But we are going through with plans for the building.
January 5, 2004 Well cold as Siberia here. Well we are in Siberia. Any way -50 here so it is very slow here. Seems nobody wants to work when it is this cold.
January 4, 2004 Did I tell you we have satellite TV. Watched the Sugar Bowl. LSU won! Fantastic. Rare that anything in Louisiana is ranked above 40 th in the nation. But they got their priorities right, football over education, health care, etc.
January 3, 2004 Okay back to work today, well may be not January 7 th is Xmas here!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 2, 2004 Well I woke up about 5 PM on New Years Day. One really good party, what I remember. Woke up in a Choom back at the base. Seems the clan leader and I got to toasting.
January 1, 2004 Happy New Year, well I think it is 2004?
December 31, 200 Today is New Years Eve. Got to stop working, 9 AM and somebody is making a toast, got to run!
December 30, 2003 Well, I am just down about the drop in visits. But even 120 to 130 is good during the holidays. If we had some football bowl tie in that might help? How can we tie Siberia Gym to the Sugar Bowl?
December 29, 2003 Any way we are all thinking what to focus on next. Linking yes, but get some really weird request. One site offers design your own porno web site name.
December 28, 2003 Ran the web ranking software. Great software, but for some reason 1/3 the way through Yahoo, it stops working. So I guess Yahoo knows what is going on. I mean who would search for 15 different things from the same url? Anyway our overall ranking number is around 61 to 63. Climbing very slowly in key search word like gym.
December 27, 2003 Well as expected the day after Xmas the visits plummeted. From close to 500 per day to 150 to 160. Rode those reindeer pictures to an all time high visits per month.
December 26, 2003 Got a big fur hat. And yes my very own reindeer coat. Tried the coat and hat out. It was -40 and I was outside for two hours. Never got cold at all.
December 25, 2003 Well Merry Xmas everyone. I got a big surprise. They put up a Xmas tree and gave me presents. I will tell you about them tomorrow.
December 24, 2003 A big storm hit today. Snowing hard but warmed up to -20. So not too bad at all.
December 23, 2003 Only a few days until my Xmas. Yes, my Xmas. I am the only foreigner here so I am the only one celebrating on the 25 th.
December 22, 2003 Yesterday was the shortest day of the year here. It was daylight for one hour. A whole one hour. I spent the whole time outside screaming, what am I doing here? Well Ralph came up and gave me a nudge so that helped.
December 21, 2003 Okay well it has turned cold again. We are just plugging a way. Got two units working steadily and getting ready for a third. This building design is tough. The clan leader is really pushing for a Choom design. Ralph is fine.
December 20, 2003 Well we are getting ready for Xmas. Actually Xmas here is on January 7 th. 13 days after our Xmas. We celebrate both, when you can get another holiday, just go for it, right? The boss always heads for the USA anyway. Me, well I am going to spend the holidays here, then go visit Mom. She says I love you son, but you were just here a few months ago.
December 19, 2003 The bubble is going to burst. We are getting close to 500 visits per day. But the draw is those reindeer. So Ralph and friends are popular. But come Xmas day, nobody is going to look for reindeer. So what do you do.
It appears the AAH cult is not developing. So may be Ralph should be the main character? I tried talking to Ralph about it but he did not want to talk.
December 18, 2003 Actually lived in Norway for awhile. Trusting people, used to leave their kids outside in buggies, while they shopped. That was really something.
December 17, 2003 Well the site is smoking, up to almost 500 visits per day. But yes, okay gloat, yes nobody is buying anything. But still plugging away. Added another page for those reindeer. And just have to get a picture of Ralph on the site. Optimized for reindeer also.
My new goad is to get top listing for reindeer. Just hope Ravna Foto will let us kept using his pictures although no sales. But you got to like a guy you lives above the Arctic circle trusting you.
December 16, 2003 Well meet the local head of the oil company. He is actually bigger than me. But no he could not lift as much. He has a great gym at his office and invited me there next time. Siberia Gym, well he at first thought it was strange working out in containers but then the plain beauty of the place just grew on him.
December 15, 2003 We got power and more work. Seems the head of the local oil company is a body building nut not the normal vodka drinking shirt chasing person. So we are going to meet tomorrow.
December 14, 2003 The temperature hit -34 so we lifted the gym off the trucks and set it. We will have power connected tomorrow and heat. Heat is important. Do not want anymore equipment breaking.
December 13, 2003 Well okay, the forecast is for -35 right after lunch. So we think the crane will not collapse at that temperature. I of course had to some Russian management. Told the crane driver if you set the gym I will give you a case of Vodka. If you do not do it, I break one of your legs. Of course breaking a leg is just a joke, but everyone believes I might do it.
December 12, 2003 It is still -40. I decided to workout in the gym up on the trailers. It was cold and trying to lift in full winter gear, mittens on and big heavy boots. Boy, what a workout. Only problem was I dead lift about 200 kilograms for 15 reps. I then dropped the bar on the floor.
On the weights broke in two pieces and so did the bar. At -40 things metal does strange things. It was an imported set. So I called the manufacturer. Would you believe they said, you were doing what, lifting at -40? Like nobody else does that.
December 11, 2003 Well the temperature was at -40. I wanted to start the foundation. But I was the only one willing to go out and work in -40. Okay it is a little cold. But it is good workout to be working at that temperature. But What can you do. It is hard to move 1 ton concrete slabs on your own.
December 10, 2003 The gym well have not forgotten about it. Just the Boss said get the base and camp going before I set that dam gym up. So we are going to build the foundation tomorrow. And set it up on Monday December 15. The Siberia Gym will start again
December 9, 2003 I have been correct Choom is the better English spelling for the native teepees. I am corrected. I am learning a great deal from the leader of the clan. He says he will teach me their ways. I said, I will teach him my ways, lets go to the gym.
December 8, 2003 One thing about reindeer they do not smell very good. this is especially true if they are inside a hot camp. Just had to take Ralph outside. Like Ralph but he is a reindeer. Besides the whole herd was trying to come inside. Reindeer are like sheep, where one goes they all goes.
December 7, 2003 Well Winter hit hard today. The temperature went down to -45, and only early December. Ralph even came inside with me. Normally they would migrate South for the Winter. But the Clan head, well he wants to protect his investment and is setting up a permanent settlement. He said the boss agreed to this. Call the Boss and he said well may be I did agree.
December 6, 2003 We are having a big debate about the warehouse. The local Nenets want something that blends in with the country side. They do not want anything that looks like it is oil related. They will give us their proposals. Can not argue with them. Our Boss put in the rental contract that they have to agree with all designs.
December 5, 2003 Today is Friday. Did you know that? Anyway we have decided to build a warehouse. We got the camp set up and 50 people living it. Built a coral for the reindeer also. Ralph the Reindeer he has really settled down. Will have to put a picture of Ralph on the web site some time.
December 4, 2003 Holy Reindeer hit another record 454 visits in one day. Like that, Holy Reindeer, got that from the old Batman TV show. Holy Reindeer, like the sound of that.
December 3, 2003 Thanks to them reindeer November was another record month for visits. Work; well we got our second unit today. Built another large Chome for it.
December 2, 2003 Never thought site would be a Mecca for reindeer lovers. Yes, reindeer pictures is the search word we are getting all the hits from. Of course no sales but that is life. And beside Ralph the Reindeer is growing on me.
December 1, 2003 Well unit went out for a job. We had a ceremony, drank reindeer blood and all that good stuff they do up here. But progress and the Boss is happy. Invited him up but he said not until he is sure I have calmed down.
November 30, 2003 And it may be that it is children that are looking for pictures and at school. So they look but do not have their parents’ credit card with them. So can not buy at school
November 29, 2003 But the guy you took the foto Mr. Ravna says he likes the store. So got a compliment, and that is better than nothing.
November 28, 2003 Well no sales from the reindeer store. Busy shopping day in America and not one sale!!!!!!!!
November 27, 2003 Well move our first piece of Oilfield service equipment on to the base. We built a giant Choom to put it in. A little cold but very environment friendly
November 26, 2003 Whole camp is up and running now. Running water, flushing toilets, you have no idea how nice it is compared to a Chome.
Blog Siberia Gym October November 2003
Blog Siberia Gym August September 2003
Blog Siberia Gym May June July 2003
Look at the Past History of AAH and Web Design March/April 2003
Look at the Past History of AAH and Web Design February/January 2003
Look at the Past History of AAH and Web Design December
Look at the Past History of AAH and Web Design November
Look at the Past History of AAH and Web Design October
Look at the Past History of AAH and Web Design September
Look at the Past History of AAH and Web Design August
SIBERIA GYM WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM