A Semi-Professional Memoir: My Epic Failure to Achieve Self-Actualization after 40 Years of Reservoir Engineering in the Oil and Gas Industry. This humorous memoir takes the reader on a completely unnecessary journey through the author’s 40-year struggle to transcend his career as a petroleum reservoir engineer and Become Something Moore. The easy-to-read essays and short … Continue reading Plugged & Abandoned
Author: tunnelwriter
31 Flavors of Career Guidance
My first reservoir engineering experience occurred when Phillip knocked the spigot off the Moa-Moa punch dispenser. It was a hot July night in 1975, my high-school sophomore year, and I had a summer job in a small Baskin Robbins ice cream shop in east Tulsa. Phillip and I were handling the after-movie crowd, scooping orders … Continue reading 31 Flavors of Career Guidance
A Fortune of Reversal
“Today was Bob’s ninety-first birthday, and he was fifty-seven years old.” The leaving-of-age story of Robert Dodd, who at age seventy-eight discovered he had stopped aging and was growing younger every day. After medical science confirmed his “condition” and the news was made public, Bob reluctantly endured the significant drama that accompanied his fifteen minutes … Continue reading A Fortune of Reversal
Weekend Saving Time
This weekend we must all - except the fiercely independent folks of Arizona and Hawaii and a couple of other places - Spring Forward with boundless enthusiasm for savoring more of the glorious illumination provided by our favorite sun during warm summer months. Sunday morning 2am becomes 3am, and just a few months later 2am … Continue reading Weekend Saving Time
A Pair of Shorts and a Quote
Second Act Captain Sullenberger focused on his instruments as he rotated the aircraft skyward. He had thousands of hours of flight experience but still piloted each takeoff as though it was his first, using careful, precise movements, maintaining constant vigilance, and monitoring critical gauges and indicators. He initiated a banking maneuver to swing the plane … Continue reading A Pair of Shorts and a Quote
Quest for the Double-Double
I grew up in the 1970s and in our house Saturday evening was called “burger night”. Dad would set up the Weber kettle grill late in the afternoon, neatly stack a pile of charcoal in the middle and douse it with lighter fluid. After making sure the coals were completely white-hot (“son, you don’t want the … Continue reading Quest for the Double-Double
Bill Ram and the Space Creature’s Journal
My second-earliest attempt at creative writing occurred when I was about twelve years old. It was during sixth-grade English class. The teacher stood at the front of the class holding a book and reading aloud a short science fiction story, one of the rare occasions that this genre popped up in my twelve years of … Continue reading Bill Ram and the Space Creature’s Journal
Vehicular Mindslaughter
Apparently last night someone broke into my garage and taped the automotive equivalent of a “Kick Me” sign to my front bumper. It must read “PLEASE PULL OUT IN FRONT OF ME” as this morning no less than six brave commuters believed they could put the four feet of space between me and the car … Continue reading Vehicular Mindslaughter
Deja Interview
In 1988 I wanted to find a better opportunity and arranged to get a job interview with a reservoir engineering manager at a large independent company. It was my first interview in two years and I was serious about improving my career. I was also realistic about my chances for getting an offer but thought the interview would be … Continue reading Deja Interview
Engineers in Company Cars Getting Stupid
When I started my petroleum engineering career in the early 1980s oil was still booming, the beginnings of the next bust still a couple of years away. One of the best perks enjoyed by many oil and gas professionals at that time was the use of a company vehicle and my first company had a … Continue reading Engineers in Company Cars Getting Stupid
Tunnel Writer 