David Williamson - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I was born in the sticks of South Carolina (spent the first 8 years of my life in Clemson and Anderson). Truly, it was the backwoods. Getting dressed for a day in the neighborhood meant throwing on a pair of cut-off bluejean shorts, no shirt, no shoes. We'd run around in the woods or the corn fields, find wild blackberries to pick and eat, and do a whole lot of nothing. It was so small town hick, that when we moved to Lafayette, Louisiana (pop. 100,000) when I was 8, I actually thought we'd moved to the "big city." Even so, the woods, fields, and animals of Anderson are probably most responsible for instilling the awe, love, and respect I have for Nature and natural places today.
See, I told you: a regular hillbilly in the making. Thank God we got out of there before I started wearing a racoon cap or taking up the banjo. Check out my other two "country boy" shots in My Pics.
My formative years were spent growing up in Lafayette. I went to Acadiana High School (class of 1988).
"Congrats to the AHS Wreckin' Rams, 2006 State Champions!!"
Lafayette was a fun place. In fact, I had so much fun in my life during high school, I had very little room for anything else, especially ambition and responsibility. Needless to say, my first foray into college right out of high school was less than stellar. So, I took a few years off, went back to Lafayette, and got the rest of the partying out of my system...bartending at the famous POETS club (okay, famous in south Louisiana anyway), going to great Cajun festivals, and generally consuming as many beers and shots as possible.
I'll flash forward a number of years, since my later college history is elsewhere on this site. Suffice it to say, I became a "rock jock" (a major in the geosciences). (UTD Department of Geosciences)
This bio would be lacking if I didn't point out that my alma mater, The University of Texas at Dallas,

can lay claim to having the gayest mascot of all time:
CLICK LOGO OR HERE TO MEET TEMOC
The Legend of Temoc
"Temoc the comet was born and abandoned on earth on March 26, 1997 when his mother Hale-Bopp passed by earth. That same day the Heaven's Gate cult committed mass suicide, a tragic event that Temoc blamed himself for and shaped the course of his life. Abandoned by his mother, Temoc was faced with many challenges early in life. Forced into the streets, Temoc quickly joined a local Dallas gang where he gained a reputation for freezing rival gang members with his ice cold touch. After spending three months in prison for unpaid parking tickets, Temoc tried to start a career as a rapper. He was quickly sued by the estate of Tupac Shakur due to his similar sounding name and never produced an album. At his lowest point Temoc would scrape part of himself into a cup and sell it to children as a snow cone. Alone and destitute, Temoc heard that UT Dallas' mascot was a comet and started attending games as an 'unofficial' mascot. Temoc's actions were noticed at the university and he was quickly hired as a full time mascot."
More than anything else I got out of college, the most important thing I got was my wife. We started dating while we were still undergrads, way back in '95. It took us 5 years to get engaged (2000) and then another 4 years before we actually tied the knot (2004). We don't have any children yet, but we're having fun trying.
Professionally, I've been a mining geologist and GIS specialist at Meridian Aggregates, which was later swallowed up by Martin Marietta Materials [MMM]. CLICK LOGO OR HERE TO LEARN ABOUT MMM AND THE AGGREGATES INDUSTRY
I was the geologist for MMM's Southwest Division, being responsible for the geology within over 50 quarries and distribution yards in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. In 2004, strange circumstances (and good fortune) led me away from mining and into oil and gas (where I had tinkered as a geotech years earlier while still a student). I've been with Pioneer Natural Resources [PXD] as a West Texas petroleum geologist since '04.
CLICK LOGO OR HERE TO LEARN ABOUT PXD
.. ..."AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT" (A LITTLE GEOLOGY 101. CHECK OUT THE LINKS BELOW.)
GEOLOGIC TIME PLATE TECTONICS
SMITHSONIAN'S VERSION: FROM GEMS & MINERALS TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM ALL ABOUT VOLCANOES
"OIL ON MY SHOES" (LEARN ABOUT THE BLACK GOLD BIZ) EARTH FROM SPACE...VERY COOL
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF ASTROGEOLOGY (PLANETARY GEOLOGY) AND, OF COURSE: DINOSAURS

My Interests

I like to travel, but I haven't even tapped the surface of the places I'd like to see.
I love nature...give me mountains, trees, winding country roads, and funky rock outcrops any day. And I'm pretty much an environmental activist: in a pinch I'd likely choose Nature over People if it came to that. But I hope it doesn't come to that: Humankind vs. the Natural World in which humans reside...only one winner. I hope we learn to be better stewards of the environment. I hope we, as a species, mature...mature to a level of understanding such that we realize this Earth of ours truly is a finite system and truly is the only residence we have. We don't need to preserve the environment for Mother Nature's sake (she doesn't really give a shit!). We need to preserve the environment for OUR sake -- for our children to have a place to live and thrive and for their children to have a place to call home. Watch Carl Sagan's intro to Pale Blue Dot below (you may wish to pause my music player below first).

I'm a collecting nut: books, coins, eclectic historical items, mineral and fossil specimens (a byproduct of being a geologist)...ebay is the best and worst thing to ever happen to me.
Of course, I love geology. I'm just not sure I love it enough to do it my whole professional career. We'll see.
I love my wife, my dogs, my psychotic cat, and my house, all of which are where I spend the bulk of my time, attention, and effort when not at work.

..
I'll always have a book on the nightstand and can't imagine life without reading. I'm always up for a good debate about politics, religion, or all those other taboo subjects.

I'd like to meet:

(I) I'd like to meet the idiot that designed the messed up Dallas Tollway system and thought it would be cool to charge people money to have them sit at a standstill. Yeah, I need to meet this guy.
(II) I wish it were possible to sit in on a conversation and share a few pitchers of beer with Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking. I'm sure listening to these guys talk shop would blow my mind more than anything I did back in the high school daze (pun intended).
(III) Speaking of high school, I'd like to visit with a handful of my teachers from H.S. and tell them a little bit about what I've become, to thank them for what they tried to instill in me, and to apologize for being so damned difficult to deal with.
(IV) I'd like to hang out with some of our time's most successful, influential or innovative people--Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Warren Buffet, Bill Clinton (sorry, had to throw that one in there)--to learn what makes them tick and what inspired them.
(V) I'd like to be in a large movie auditorium with the key decision-maker from every country in the world, where for hours on end, images of the mayhem and destruction we've caused (wars, famine, environmental destruction, civil unrest) flashed up on the screen and they were forced to watch like Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Afterwards, we'd all reconvene in a massive meeting hall. Along with all the leaders of the world, present at my invitation would be great peacemakers past and present: Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Jane Goodall, Rachel Carson, Isaac Asimov, Albert Einstein (lucky him - he gets to be on my list twice), and the Dalai Lama. We would all argue, debate, and even fight until our differences were all out of our systems. No one would be allowed to leave until a lasting WORLD treaty was established that could not be broken that protected the dignity, safety, and opportunity of every human being in our WORLD and the diversity, beauty, and sustainability of every ecosystem in our WORLD. If after a few weeks of this, we weren't getting anywhere, I'd invite Moses, Jesus Christ, and Mohammed (and Buddha and Vishnu if it'd help) to do a little whoop ass on everyone there until they all got their acts together and took the message of "Peace or else" back to their peoples.
(And if you're still reading this, you might consider getting a hobby. Or...
TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ TO SEE WHICH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES--REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS--BEST FIT YOUR POLITICAL BELIEFS)
This is actually pretty interesting, and you might be surprised at the answers. Remember: your vote counts!

Barack Obama
Score: 31 Agree
Iraq
Taxes
Stem-Cell Research
Health Care
Abortion
Social Security
Line-Item Veto
Energy
Marriage
Disagree
Death Penalty
Immigration

-- Take the Quiz! --

Or better yet, why don't you check out the following link...

CLICK BANNER ABOVE OR HERE TO LEARN ABOUT IT

Music:

Everything from classic rock to classical to alternative to blues to new age ambient. Give me Pink Floyd, the Stones, the Beatles, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, or even U2. I'll take Moby, Michael Stearns, DeVotchka, or Robert Rich anytime. I like movie soundtracks like Pan's Labyrinth or O Brother, Where Art Thou or Blade Runner. Growing up in Louisiana, I like Blues, Zydeco, and Jazz, in that order. And I've been in Texas long enough to even find my foot tapping to some Country (kind of like the old guys, like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, etc.). Wagner, Holst, and Beethoven kick butt. Just spare me from Rap. And if Hip-Hop means boy bands or obnoxious female vocalists who like to shave their heads or who don't know what Chicken of the Sea is, then I'm out.

Movies:

The Lord of the Rings trilogy; the 3 original Star Wars (yes, I'm old enough to have actually seen them all at the theatre when they were first released; no, I didn't like the next 3 that came out); still like the Indiana Jones flicks; kind of hooked on those damn Harry Potter movies; Pulp Fiction; good ol' Forrest Gump; A Clockwork Orange; stupid movies like Evil Dead Part II and Army of Darkness; Doctor Zhivago; Alfred Hitchcock movies, like North by Northwest; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Napoleon Dynamite; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; It's a Wonderful Life; Monty Python's The Meaning of Life; etc, etc

Television:

House; The Office; My Name is Earl; Heroes; Scrubs; Nip/Tuck; Rescue Me; The Daily Show with Jon Stewart followed by The Colbert Report; 30 Rock; just about any documentary

Books:

The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit; A Prayer for Owen Meany; The World According to Garp; Battlefield Earth; Le Morte Darthur; The Little Prince; The Giving Tree; Fables of La Fontaine; The Grapes of Wrath; the Dune trilogy; To Kill a Mockingbird; the works of Edgar Allan Poe; The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide; C.S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters; the Narnia series); Slaughter-house Five; etc, etc

Heroes:

(I) True American statesmen (such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, F.D.R., and J.F.K.), not the crap we have masquerading as politicians today.
CLICK IMAGE
CLICK IMAGE
(II) People who stand up for what they believe in and who have more courage than I could ever muster: Rev. Martin Luther King; Joan of Arc; Dian Fossey; Gandhi; Winston Churchill and the British people during WWII; the student in front of the tank at Tiananmen Square in China; the men of the Alamo and all of history's underdogs like them.
CLICK PICTURE TO HEAR OR SEE MORE...AND LEARN
(III) John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, James Cagney, and all the other greats from Hollywood's old school.
CLICK MOVIE POSTERS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THOSE HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS
(IV) Those who suffered the most for no good reason: the Jews at the hands of the Nazis; the people of Darfur at the hands of Omar al-Bashir; the victims of 9/11 at the hands of Osama bin Laden and the later victims of 9/11 (our brave troops) due to an over-reaching, over zealous U.S. foreign policy. "Can't we all just get along?"

CLICK ABOVE TO LEARN ABOUT THE UNITED NATIONS. CLICK LEFT TO LEARN ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
(V) My Mom and Dad.

My Blog

ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS "VIDEO OF THE WEEK" PICKS

(1) "Newly discovered NASA footage of the first moon landing." (Actually, it's the first half of Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon), the 1902 French black and white silent science fiction fil...
Posted by David Williamson on Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:24:00 PST