Sunday, February 24, 2008

Museum

I have mixed feelings about my museum experience.  I was slightly disgruntled by the cost, though it's consistent with other museum pricing.  The museum itself was a little disappointing.  The items were interesting, but not intriguing.  What really did not help was that I seemed to go during a prime field-trip time.  There were tons of kids everywhere and it was quite chaotic. 
The oil exhibit was stinky -- literally.  One of the kids kept turning the sulfur wheel.  

Perhaps I am slightly immune to oil basics.  Everything there I already sorta knew, so it was a little disappointing.  I liked that they had a few bit types.  I don't think a lot of people know that Hughes made his big money off the tri-cone bit.  

There were two things that caught my eye.  One was a comment about oil and water, and the other was a comment about oil and cows.  Some of my undergraduate background is in groundwater hydrology, so oil and water are both near and dear to me.  I heard once that the next big war will be about water, not oil.  I guess we'll see.  

There was a quote that said that oil and cows are the perfect mix.  During a summer internship I worked on a field on the King Ranch in South Texas.  Oil and cows are such an integral part of the culture, it's hard to think of Texas without them.  And anyone who has been to the King Ranch can share my pain on the infamous bump gates.

1 comment:

Jason Cullen said...

I agree with Erin about the museum being disappointing. It took a whole 20 minutes to get through the oil industry exhibit. There wasn't much detail beyond the basic stuff you can find on websites targeted at middle school and high school students.

If anyone is down in Houston you might want to stop by the Weiss Energy exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science. I visited the museum two weeks ago and have to say I was very impressed. Took me about 45 minutes to get through and I didn't even get to spend time at all the exhibits. It was a weekend and there were a bunch of annoying kids, guess Austin and Houston have at least one thing in common.