this is cool. i'm currently in shah alam for my 10-weeks industrial training at Orogenics Geosolutions located in Bukit Jelutong. it's just 10minutes drive from Reza's house. oh yea, im staying at his place throughout the duration of my stay here.
i reported duty for the training on my birthday. thanks all for the birthday wishes! thanks for remembering. the first day of training was a bit of a disaster. i arrived at sharp 8 only to find out they start work at 8.30. they receptionist was so sweet. kak Lucy was awesome and introduced me to the whole office before sending me off to the lab to my supervisor abang Zainey. to my surprise, i'm the first student to apply and got accepted for internship with Orogenics shah alam branch. but then again, the company is quite new and still growing.
the lab is located at the opposite of the main office building. they only rented the place and had just moved in about two years ago. even if the lab is quite small but it is fully equipped with modern machines. (i so like this since the apparatus in UMS is so ancient - no offence but, seriously, what they have here is the best!). my head supervisor is a senior consultant geologist. he's a specialist in Palynology and Paleontology. Palynology is a branch of paleontology and is a study of microfossils especially foraminiferas, spores, pollen, dinoflagelates and such. honestly, i completely have no idea on what they are doing here. when i got the acceptance letter all i saw was "geological laboratory analysis and core analysis" as the task description - not imagining it would be something that i have never even studied before back in uni.
i thought geological laboratory analysis would be the same analysis i did for my final year dissertation which is more on engineering geology - run tests to determine soil properties - or maybe even other laboratory practicals i did in uni. core analysis on the other hand, i could expect it would be something new so i dont give a shit about it but am eager to learn. but PALYNOLOGY? like eva love to say, "aigu........". i do have a basic of paleontology. studied invertebrate paleontology with a flying lecturer (not literally flying but a lecturer hired from another uni to come and lecture during the weekends). and that course is a crash course on paleontology, and since it was the second semester out of my six semester there, i almost completely forgotten what i have learned. bad? ya, i know.
and so, no one knows what to do with me. they sent me to my own desk. it was empty though because the HR department is still trying to get me a new computer to use when im being assigned to a project. yes, i will be assigned to a project that they're currently trying to finish and also a new project coming as soon as Petronas gives them the green light to test core samples brought in from offshore. woots!
i have also asked to be sent to AsianGeos for about a week to polish up my skills on soil properties studies. Mr. Munif (the senior geologist) said a week is enough although i asked for more, but he insisted i hang around the biostratigraphy and core analysis lab because then it would serve the purpose of industrial training - where we should learn something new and important for when we decide to join the oil and gas industry.
my supervisors never stopped promoting the benefits of joining the oil and gas industry. they have seen my resume and knew well that my interests is more towards foundation studies involving civil engineering works or maybe offshore foundation studies, but after a week of supervision, they see my potential of staying in oil and gas industry - provided i work harder during my stay there.
my tasks this week only involves the microscope. first lesson is on foraminiferas. palynology is important to determine microfossils that inhabits a certain region in the sea because then we can identify the type of depositional environment of that region. before this, i never even knew the importance of biostratigraphy. or i can say was negligible. :P or because i dont study it that much so i decided not to care. haha!
i spent almost 4-5 hours staring in microscopes. the initial sample preparation processes is simple. pretty much like what i have seen kak Ieda did at the lab. but the search for forams under the microscope is a pain in the ass. sometimes i had to walk around and stare out the window to fight back that nauseous feeling of "mabuk microscope". i had a nasty headache on tuesday and wednesday. thursday and friday wasnt so bad so i think im getting used to it. friday was a bit of a torture. i was a bit hungry by 3pm and sleepy. so i was cranky because the sample that im processing at that moment was nasty. i could only detect one or two forams in an hour. imagine that, staring into the microscope for about an hour and finding, nothing! amidst the hot afternoon, the nasty headache, the grumbling of my stomach - my supervisor came to me and asked to see the samples that i was processing at that moment. he peered into the microscope and said, "eh, bagus ni. awak dapat jumpa sample yang cantik tapi sangat halus. see, you've got good eyes for forams. next week we try smaller samples ek?"
ok, that was scary. enough already i had to process samples the size of 125micrometers, next week it'll be spores and pollens smaller than 125microms sand grains. *pengsan*
but that will be next-next week since monday and tuesday and maybe wednesday, we'll be in Hulu Langat warehouse, processing core samples from Petronas. that will be the task of us the "kuli batak" since they dont have any other hard labor to do the job. so technically, the geologists here process the samples from scratch. which i dont mind, really.
only thing is, anybody knows where to find a size 5 safety boots? i kind of need it as soon as possible.
i reported duty for the training on my birthday. thanks all for the birthday wishes! thanks for remembering. the first day of training was a bit of a disaster. i arrived at sharp 8 only to find out they start work at 8.30. they receptionist was so sweet. kak Lucy was awesome and introduced me to the whole office before sending me off to the lab to my supervisor abang Zainey. to my surprise, i'm the first student to apply and got accepted for internship with Orogenics shah alam branch. but then again, the company is quite new and still growing.
the lab is located at the opposite of the main office building. they only rented the place and had just moved in about two years ago. even if the lab is quite small but it is fully equipped with modern machines. (i so like this since the apparatus in UMS is so ancient - no offence but, seriously, what they have here is the best!). my head supervisor is a senior consultant geologist. he's a specialist in Palynology and Paleontology. Palynology is a branch of paleontology and is a study of microfossils especially foraminiferas, spores, pollen, dinoflagelates and such. honestly, i completely have no idea on what they are doing here. when i got the acceptance letter all i saw was "geological laboratory analysis and core analysis" as the task description - not imagining it would be something that i have never even studied before back in uni.
i thought geological laboratory analysis would be the same analysis i did for my final year dissertation which is more on engineering geology - run tests to determine soil properties - or maybe even other laboratory practicals i did in uni. core analysis on the other hand, i could expect it would be something new so i dont give a shit about it but am eager to learn. but PALYNOLOGY? like eva love to say, "aigu........". i do have a basic of paleontology. studied invertebrate paleontology with a flying lecturer (not literally flying but a lecturer hired from another uni to come and lecture during the weekends). and that course is a crash course on paleontology, and since it was the second semester out of my six semester there, i almost completely forgotten what i have learned. bad? ya, i know.
and so, no one knows what to do with me. they sent me to my own desk. it was empty though because the HR department is still trying to get me a new computer to use when im being assigned to a project. yes, i will be assigned to a project that they're currently trying to finish and also a new project coming as soon as Petronas gives them the green light to test core samples brought in from offshore. woots!
i have also asked to be sent to AsianGeos for about a week to polish up my skills on soil properties studies. Mr. Munif (the senior geologist) said a week is enough although i asked for more, but he insisted i hang around the biostratigraphy and core analysis lab because then it would serve the purpose of industrial training - where we should learn something new and important for when we decide to join the oil and gas industry.
my supervisors never stopped promoting the benefits of joining the oil and gas industry. they have seen my resume and knew well that my interests is more towards foundation studies involving civil engineering works or maybe offshore foundation studies, but after a week of supervision, they see my potential of staying in oil and gas industry - provided i work harder during my stay there.
my tasks this week only involves the microscope. first lesson is on foraminiferas. palynology is important to determine microfossils that inhabits a certain region in the sea because then we can identify the type of depositional environment of that region. before this, i never even knew the importance of biostratigraphy. or i can say was negligible. :P or because i dont study it that much so i decided not to care. haha!
i spent almost 4-5 hours staring in microscopes. the initial sample preparation processes is simple. pretty much like what i have seen kak Ieda did at the lab. but the search for forams under the microscope is a pain in the ass. sometimes i had to walk around and stare out the window to fight back that nauseous feeling of "mabuk microscope". i had a nasty headache on tuesday and wednesday. thursday and friday wasnt so bad so i think im getting used to it. friday was a bit of a torture. i was a bit hungry by 3pm and sleepy. so i was cranky because the sample that im processing at that moment was nasty. i could only detect one or two forams in an hour. imagine that, staring into the microscope for about an hour and finding, nothing! amidst the hot afternoon, the nasty headache, the grumbling of my stomach - my supervisor came to me and asked to see the samples that i was processing at that moment. he peered into the microscope and said, "eh, bagus ni. awak dapat jumpa sample yang cantik tapi sangat halus. see, you've got good eyes for forams. next week we try smaller samples ek?"
ok, that was scary. enough already i had to process samples the size of 125micrometers, next week it'll be spores and pollens smaller than 125microms sand grains. *pengsan*
but that will be next-next week since monday and tuesday and maybe wednesday, we'll be in Hulu Langat warehouse, processing core samples from Petronas. that will be the task of us the "kuli batak" since they dont have any other hard labor to do the job. so technically, the geologists here process the samples from scratch. which i dont mind, really.
only thing is, anybody knows where to find a size 5 safety boots? i kind of need it as soon as possible.
