The Fungergames: The War on Fun

Everyone has been calling this year in Antarcitca, the Year of Change.  There have been tons of changes.  To start with, Lockheed Martin replaced Raytheon as the contractor.  So now I work for the Antarctic Support Contract under Lockheed instead of Raytheon Polar Services.  Lockheed is contracting out, so actually most my friends will be working for PAE, while I am an actual LM employee.  With this new contract has come some changes in policy and finance.  Lockheed and the NSF want to reduce the population of the station by 20%, but still do just as much science.  That means that most departments have lost at least 20% of their employees from last year (In my lab office there were 4 last year, and this year there will be 3).  Shuttles lost about 60% of their drivers going from 26 or 27 last year to 11 this year!  This of course is making the already hardworking workforce down here (we work 60 hour weeks in tough conditions) work that much harder.

In addition to this, they have made lots of changes around town.  One example that is actually helping me out, is that they are not issuing dorms based on how many ice years you have, but with how long your contract is this year.  Both Jerod and I have the longest (winterfly contracts) so we were put in one of the best dorms--a dorm we couldn't have hoped to get normally until our 4th season down here.  But of course this makes some of the long-time people very upset especially if they don't fly in until mid october or november and thus can't get their old room back.

Some of the other changes that are making people unhappy.  They are no longer allowing Yoga in the chapel, so to make room for it and other classes like that, they are moving everything out of the gerbil gym (the gym with the cardio equipment) and putting all of that stuff (along with some new machines from the military) into the library.  The library is getting moved (sadly bc some books will have to be shipped off continent due to lack of space) to a lounge in one of the dorms.  So there is lots of talk about the NSF "burning" books.  They are also closing the bars at 11pm now instead of 2am, even on Saturdays.  They are now charging for haircuts, which has a lot of people upset.  One of the things that has people the most upset is that they will now be following som US rule that you can't sell or make a profit on anything on gov't property.  They have several craft fairs here each year including a huge one before Christmas.  They are awesome bc people down here are just super creative and talented.  But since the whole place down here is basically private property, there can be no craft show.  Another thing they are doing which has people up in arms is adhering to the fire codes for the number of people allowed in a building.  This basically means that all these work center parties and parties in the big gym would not be allowed or must have a bouncer bc they are always way over capacity.  Everyone knows that this could have a serious effect on the fun of the parties

People are also upset about how they are cutting back so much on money and stuff and paying attention to all these minor things all of a sudden, but not helping improve things for us.  For example, at least 3 of the work-centers are in condemned buildings.  So it seems sort of hypocritical to have people working long, hard, and tiring hours doing dangerous jobs in unsafe buildings and then to enforce this fire code thing for the first time.  Apparently there are lots of things in dorms and in workcenters that really need to be done and have been put off bc this contract switch ended up taking 5 years.  To try to alleviate this the station managers is trying to do this thing called "the smell of fresh paint" in which we are doing some minor and cheaper repairs (like re-painting) so that the population thinks and knows stuff is moving forward.  This also of course has people angry bc it's not "real" progress.  Stickers have been being passed around and stuck up everywhere that say "the smell of fresh taint"  Another of the many hypocritical things is that they are going to enforce the fire codes for parties and such, but for Crary science talks, crary labs for the busy part of the season, the galley at dinner and all hands meetings, where we go over the limits, these codes won't necessarily be enforced.

People have definitely been a bit up in arms about al this.  And the All-hands meetings have been quite interesting with people asking tough questions to the station manager and demanding answers and action.  The thing is, in my opinion, he better be a bit careful bc if there was ever a group perfect for an uprising or revolt, it's the Antarctic group.  The population can be described here as highly motiviated, intelligent, and creative.  We are like college students except with experience.  They also all have temporary jobs and are used to unemployment, so that doesn't scare people.  They also are well aware that there is only one US marshall on the whole continent (the tiny station manager) and that in reality the majority of jobs are safe bc the people down here are highly skilled and basically the only people that can possibly know how to run this place. Without them, the program would virtually stop for several years.  It's a very involved and active community as well.  And one thing for sure is that they LOVE this place, and it's their home, so they will stand up to things they don't like or think unfair.  So if ever there was a place ripe for revolution and with the right people for it, it could be here.  So I think the NSF, Lockheed, and the station manager better proceed with care.
There have been these stickers floating around and stuck to many buildings that say "IMPEACH" and have a stars wars character (an ewok) that looks just like the station manager crossed out.  So far things have been pretty civil.  Even at the all hands meeting, though those have gotten pretty civil.  However, come mainbody in Oct the station population will more than double and a lot of these passionate people will be arriving.  Also there has been talk of severely limiting alcohol consumption, so that could fire people up.

So basically people have declared a war on this War on Fun.  If you've read or seen the Hunger Games recently, someone down here (Charlotte from SciCo) made this cool logo (seen on this blog) that resembles the Hunger Games logo, but of course says Funger Games.

It will be quite interesting to see how things play out.  I am not too worried.  If there is one thing I know about the Antarctic population, it's that they are the most creative and smart group I have ever known.  They will figure out how to get around things and actually make them better.  They always have.  There have been many things shut down in the past that they have made better or creatively figured out a solution to.  Plus they just love fun and know how to have a good time, so they will undoubtedly still have fun. 

And of course I received news recently that Miss Fun, Cassa Grant herself, has gotten a contract and will come down.  Her on top of lots of my other fun friends will be down, so I am not worried.  There is really so much to do down here even without things like the parties, shows, Maag, and craft stuff, that I know I will still be too busy and have trouble finding time to sleep!