Another Course: Leadership- Management Level

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Captain Jill

I’m at the airport again. I’m heading to Baltimore this time. I’m due to arrive there after midnight tonight and then will start the Leadership course at MITAGS first thing in the morning.

This is another one of those classes I am required to take in order to keep my job. This particular course is a new requirement. It came with the STCW 2010 Manilla amendments.

Yep, I thought I was FINALLY finished taking these (stupid, totally un-necessary) courses when I finally got my Masters license. But nooooooooo,

Not even 6 months later, the officials of the IMO (International Maritime Organization) came up with a half dozen MORE courses to saddle us all with. This is all in order to improve SAFETY out there on the ocean.

I’m still waiting to see the proof that all this shore based training has done diddly squat to improve safety offshore. So far, I have not seen anything to say that it has.

For example: Leadership. Who thinks leadership is something that can be TAUGHT? If you think it CAN be taught, do you think it can be taught in a week long class?

I’ve heard the military is good at producing leaders. I know they spend a lot more than a week doing it tho.

I’m not sure leadership CAN be taught. At this point, I think its more innate to a person. A part of their personality. I suppose it can be learned. I would think it would be more easily learned by observation and practice. I think that would be much better effected on the job, on your boat, with your crew than in any week long class.

Well, I’m stuck here all week regardless, so will have to wait and see what they teach us and what we learn.

Achievement: Master Any Gross Tons

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Captain Jill

Here’s my entry for the Daily Posts’ Weekly Photo Challenge: Achievement challenge.

Master Unlimited license from the US Coast Guard

It might not seem like such a big deal just from looking at it (the old style was much more impressive), but it took me over 30 years of steadily working towards my goal to get one. I admit, it’s not usually THAT hard to get. It doesn’t take most people that long to get one (if it did, they wouldn’t be able to run all the ships we have running around the world).

This license shows the world that I am capable of running ANY ship, anywhere in the world (or at least that’s what it did mean before they started up with the new rules, there are some few restrictions now).

I know the usual path is for a person to go to one of our maritime universities. You can go to one of those schools and come out in 4 years with a bachelors degree AND a maritime license.

If you have the means to go to a 4 year university like that, you will come out with a 3rd mate license (or 3rd assistant engineer) and then you only need a year of sea time to get a 2nd mates license. One more year of sea time and you can get your Chief Mates license (along with a test). One year sailing as Chief Mate and you can get your Unlimited Masters license. So, you can become an Unlimited Master in only about 10 years, or even less if you’re lucky with finding the right kind of work.

That is the way MOST people get their license. I was not able to do it that way. First of all, I couldn’t afford to go to school for 4 years. I had to work. You can’t work offshore AND go to school. It’s really hard to be in 2 places at the same time!

Some people are able to go to Kings Point, the US Merchant Marine Academy. If you can get into that school, its FREE! I did try, but I was too fat to pass their physical. Then I tried to get in the Navy. Same problem- too fat.

So, I went to a 2 year program instead. I moved to Texas to go to the Ocean Marine Technology program at Brazosport College. It was a 2 year program that when you finished you would get an Associates Degree in Ocean Marine Technology AND both an AB (able body seaman) and a QMED (qualified member of the engine department).

It took me 5 years to finish, (and to my regret I never tested for the QMED so I can’t work in the engine department any more).

When I got out, I started working in the offshore oil field. I worked my way up from ordinary seaman, to able body seaman, to 1000 ton mate, to 1600 ton captain.

I started the OMT program in 1978. I was able to work my way up to 1600 ton master by 1986. It was NOT easy. I had a couple of strikes against me from the start. One, I was female and things were VERY hard for women trying to work offshore in those days. Two, I was fat. The job description is ABLE BODY seaman. Most people did (and some still do) discriminate against me for both of those reasons.

When I got my 1600 ton masters license from the Coast Guard, they gave me an unlimited 2nd mates license along with it. Like an IDIOT I gave it back to them! I had not asked for that license, simply because I didn’t feel completely confident in my ability to do that job. I didn’t want to be thrown into a situation where I might screw up and hurt somebody.

The Coast Guard officer who had just given me my license was shocked at my decision. Apparently no one else had ever given back their license they had earned before. But I was told that I could come back and get it at any time, whenever I wanted it.

BIG MISTAKE! The USCG changed the rules re: licensing without telling me (or anybody else). That was against their own rules, they are required to publicize it any time they want to change the rules, to prevent just exactly what happened to me!

When I did feel confident of my skills to run the bridge of a large ship, I went back to the USCG to ask for the 2nd mates license I should have already had. They informed me then that they had changed the rules and I could not have it. I would have to stop sailing as master/mate and go back down the ladder to sailing as AB in order to get a THIRD mates license!

WTF??!! I would have to go 2 steps down the ladder to earn again what I was already owed! I would have to work for a minimum of 3 years as AB to get that license back! So, I sucked it up and went and found a job as an AB on a ship large enough that it would count towards getting back that 2nd mates license I had already earned.

I was lucky to get a job with SeaRiver on their tankers. I spent a few years running up the West Coast to Alaska. I really enjoyed the job and they helped me get my third mates license. The only problem with them was, they told me they would NEVER promote me to third mate due to the fact that I was an “alcoholic”.

WTF??!! Yeah, I had a DWI, way back in 1982. When I asked for a promotion it was 1998 or so. Yeah, they consider you PERMANENTLY an alcoholic if you’ve EVER had any problem with it. WOW!

Considering their experience with the Exxon Valdez and the fact that they threw Captain Hazlewood under the bus to get the focus off of their company POLICY (which REALLY caused the accident), I can totally understand their reasoning. So I just quit. People told me I should have sued them over that, but it really wasn’t worth arguing with them about it to me (and I would have had to win millions since for sure I would have been black-balled).

For some reason, I decided to listen to my grandmother and go back to school. I had a bunch of money saved up. It was gone in 2 years. I had to go back to work. I took a job with Coastal Tankships as 3rd mate. I asked them in the interview if they had any problems with me being ‘an alcoholic” due to my long ago arrest for DWI. They laughed and basically welcomed me on board. 🙂

I had a great time working for Coastal as 3rd mate. I had some really great ABs that helped me learn how to be a good Third mate. I would have stayed there forever. But Coastal sold out to El Paso and they scrapped all their ships. 🙁

I had seen the writing on the wall since the buy-out and had already applied to Oceaneering. It took them over 6 months to actually hire me. It worked out well, since it gave me the time I needed to study and pass my Second mate exam. Talk about STRESS!

I passed the tests and got my Second mates license in January 2002. On February 1, 2002 the STCW 95 amendments went into effect. Whew! In by the skin of my teeth!! I had been hearing rumors of this huge change in the rules, but nobody had any real knowledge of what was going on. Even the USCG, who would be in charge of enforcing these new rules had NO idea when I asked them about it in November 2001 when I was applying to take the Second mates exam.

The problem (again) was that they didn’t notify anyone of what the rules were or how they would affect us. It is a rule that they HAVE to do that. They didn’t. So, I got ROYALLY SCREWED (again)!

I should have been able to simply get my 1 years sea time as second mate and then sit for my Chief Mates license. Since they changed the rules (again), I would now be forced to (re)take a dozen classes (each of which cost a minimum of $1000).

So, yes, I TRIED to protest. I wrote to everyone from the local USCG office to the President. No one was willing to consider my arguments (the fact that they did not follow their own rules, the fact that I had ALREADY taken each and every one of the required classes). All I got from any of them was that the USCG thought the rules were the rules and had to be followed (never mind the fact that THEY broke the rules)!

In the meantime, while I was trying to protest, I started taking the courses whenever I had both the time and the money together. It took me over 7 years and $50,000 (not counting the lost income I should have already been earning) to complete the courses so that I could apply to test for my Chief mates license!

I FINALLY got it and then had to get a minimum of 6 months sea time sailing AS CHIEF MATE. It was really hard to find a position as chief mate and so I did just get the bare minimum. I was able to use a full year sea time as Second mate to fulfill the requirements for Master.

I got my Masters unlimited license in December 2011. I was SO happy. I could hardly wait to get outside the building and shout YEAH! FINALLY GOT IT!!

If you click on the link, you can see what these license USED to look like.

printcert.pdf

Home: Get Ready to Work

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Captain Jill

I’m home. But only for a short stay. I got home from my FRC (fast rescue craft) class last night. I’m leaving for my course in Leadership (management level) on Sunday. FRC was only 3 days. Leadership is 5 days. All these courses are required (by law) for me to keep my license.

So, I really only have today and tomorrow to catch up on a lot of stuff. I’ve got to go for an eye exam this morning (also required for my license- yearly). I’m going to the dentist tomorrow morning. I need to get a haircut. I need to try and get my computers fixed. I need to see about getting my house exterminated (pretty sure I’ve acquired mice since I’ve been gone- and some sort of LARGER creature that is rampaging around my attic at night).

When I get back from the leadership course (in Baltimore at MITAGS), I’ve got to get my USCG physical done (required yearly so I can keep my license). That entails blood tests I’ve got to get done for my Dr to renew my prescriptions. I’m trying to do that through an online service since it’s MUCH cheaper (and I REFUSE to get sucked in to the Obamacare trap!!)

After I get done with all the medical crap (and “training” crap) I need to do in order to keep my license (without it I am not ALLOWED to work), then I need to try to figure out my tax situation.

Since I am not working for an American company now, they don’t take anything out of my paycheck for taxes. This is the first time I’ve been in this situation. I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to pay my own taxes quarterly now. All I know is, I’ve got to get my accountant on it so I don’t get screwed (any more than usual) by the IRS next year.

I’m still in the pool at work so I’m figuring I’ll be due back around Dec 4 (leave Houston Dec 2). That means that in my “month off”, I’ll have had 14 days at home. That’s pretty typical now a days, considering all the required courses and not required (except by the company) “training” we have to take in order to keep working.

How the HELL did it come to this? A free country where most of your time is spent trying to complete government mandates (license to work, TAXES)? A job at sea once was the ultimate in FREEDOM. You just had to do your job and nothing else mattered. Now, it’s almost the complete opposite.

First of all, if you piss in the jar and it somehow ‘fails’ the test, then you’re OUT, completely and totally. You can not work for ANYONE for a LONG time. You might as well forget about ever working at sea again. What that piss test has to do with your job is totally beyond me, it’s just a bunch of pure BULLSHIT that has tied it to your ability to do your job, but it has become all important. 🙁

After you manage to pass that hurdle, of the company deciding that they OWN your time OFF the job as well as on it, then you can try and pass the ‘physical’ hurdle. Some (very few now) companies are happy enough with the required USCG physical (which gets harder and harder every time there is some sort of incident that gets some news coverage).

Most companies now have their OWN standards. They have their OWN doctors they send you to for things like MRI’s and even psychological tests! Here’s an example of what one recently thought was important that I could do: balance on one foot on a trampoline for a couple of minutes. Another thought I needed to be able to climb up and down the stairs for 20 minutes while carrying a weight of 50 lbs (for a company where it’s not allowed to carry weights of over 35 lbs)! Remember, you can’t set off the BP/pulse monitor either while you’re doing all that!!

Then, once you pass all that and you’re actually allowed to show up on the job, you have to complete a ream of paperwork before you can actually START even the simplest job (JSEA, risk assessment, PROMT card, etc). Oh yeah, you have to be dressed to the hilt in all sorts of ‘safety’ gear: steel-toed boots, hard hat, hearing protection, safety glasses, coveralls, gloves, lanyard for your hard hat.

But NO knife! They are ‘prohibited’ as DANGEROUS. WOW! What twisted logic we have to live by offshore.

So, here I am, a person who chose to go to sea for the FREEDOM it once offered, now suffering from an overdose of ‘safety’ which has completely destroyed the freedom. The same thing is happening on shore. All over the country.

What the HELL has happened to America? A country founded by people from all over the world who once valued their FREEDOM above all else? We’ve turned into a country of whiny-baby scaredy cats, willing and able to sue anybody and anything and blame anybody but ourselves, we need to be ‘protected’ from the big bad world and even ourselves. 🙁

I wonder is it some sort of disease? Something that causes people to lose their common sense? Or is it some kind of intentional mind control, something put out by ‘our leaders’ to get us to stop thinking for ourselves and just do whatever they tell us, no matter how stupid (no knives, airport strip searches, etc).

My guess would be the second one. 😉

Disappointed

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Captain Jill

I tired to vote on election day. I always try to (even tho I seriously doubt it does any good). Since I knew I would be at work on the ship, I filed for an absentee ballot. I sent it in. I even checked off the box for EMAIL. I had some slim hopes that the mail would deliver my ballot in time for me to vote in this election.

It seems they can’t get an envelope from Texas to Angola in 3 weeks, never mind that I never would have been able to mail it back to them in order to be counted before it was too late. So, NO, I did NOT get to vote in this election. 🙁

I am very disappointed, mostly because in contrast to the people who constantly tell me I’m wasting my vote by choosing to vote Libertarian, I am NOT wasting my vote at all. In fact, my vote counts 100 times more than theirs will.

By voting 3rd party, I am making my voice heard. I am emphatically stating that the way things have been going for the last 100 years is NOT acceptable!!!

I try not to pay any attention to politics. My friends will probably disagree with that statement. Especially since it may seem like that’s all they ever see me posting about on Facebook.

Sometimes I get carried away with it in personal discussions. Some have even accused me of ‘ranting’ on certain issues.

Yes, I have to admit, it’s almost impossible to avoid the politics any more in the USA. I have come to envy certain people. I really don’t know how they manage to do it. To completely ignore everything that’s going on in the world around them.

They’re happy to just live in their own little world and ignore all the continual and constant additional rules and regulations being piled upon us every day. The constant violations of our ‘god-given’, or as I prefer to call them, natural rights.

It helps to be retired, or otherwise not concerned with a job. It helps to not have to leave the house. I think even if I could live that way I would still be bothered just by the fact that any time they want, the government could choose to destroy you personally (KILL YOU on a WHIM, read up on the PATRIOT ACT and/or NDAA) and everything you’ve ever worked for in your life (Google asset forfeiture).

I’ll never understand how so many people just continue to totally ignore that fact and just go on with their lives like everything is perfectly fine.

It’s NOT. 🙁

Let's Talk Justice

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Captain Jill

To follow up on yesterdays post, can anybody justify this situation?

I would really like to hear from people. Please give me your reasons for why you think women should be treated as worth less than men are.

Why are they still denied a full education in so much of the world? Why are they still considered as property of some man in so many places? Why are they still not allowed to make basic decisions about their own lives in so many cultures?

I’m especially interested to hear from people with Muslim influences. Just because it seems to me that the Muslims are the worst offenders at this point in time. If you don’t think they are, can you please explain why you don’t think so, who’s worse?

I would also love to hear from people of all religions as to how they reconcile their ideas of justice and basic fairness with a god who supposedly says they should treat some people with less respect than others.

If you do worship a god who you think says that kind of thing, WHY do you continue to worship it?

Just thinking it’s past time we (the entire world) start to discuss this situation and CHANGE it. I think first we need to get to the bottom of the reasons people claim it needs to be this way in the first place.

I don’t think it’s justified, at all. For any reason.

Now, who’s up for a good argument??? 🙂

Women Rallied Behind Beautiful, Wartless Witches

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Captain Jill

Women of the Early 1900s Rallied Behind Beautiful, Wartless Witches | History | Smithsonian.

Check out these cool Halloween cards. I thought the history mentioned in the article was pretty interesting.

It’s hard for me to imagine how different life must have been for women in the past. Of course, for most women in the world things are still very different than they are here in the USA (not that we’re perfect yet).

Women in many countries around the world are still treated like second class citizens. They’re still denied the opportunities and options that men have, simply because of their gender.

As an American, growing up as an American girl, I can hardly imagine what it must be like. How does a girl from somewhere like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, or even India or Africa or South America manage enjoy life, or even to get through it all without the options we have here?

I imagine they must only be able to bear it when they don’t know about any other options. Maybe they just don’t think they can live any other way. I don’t really know. It amazes (and disgusts and infuriates) me that in this day and age we STILL have not managed to create a society where women can live their lives as THEY choose.

It’s hard for me to imagine how I would be able to stand a life like that. That I would not have any choices. I wouldn’t be able to go to school. I wouldn’t be able to LEARN about so many things. I wouldn’t be able to decide what kind of work I would like to do. To choose who I would want to marry or IF I would want to marry at all. To be able to choose when I want to have sex, or with who, or IF I want to have sex at all. To be able to choose to have children, or not to have any.

SO many choices taken away from me, just because I happen to be female. What must that be like?

I read a book- Infidel- by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It really opened my eyes. I have to say I admire her strength and courage to do what she did. She grew up in Somalia, was raised a Muslim, and then grew disillusioned with the life she had. She moved to the Netherlands as a refugee, eventually became a member of Parliament there. Her story is really encouraging. I hope more people (especially young girls) will read it and take hope.

I can see from the Smithsonian article (and even from my own life), that we have made some progress in the USA.

I remember when I was young and I chose to work at sea. I had to fight so hard for every job I ever got. It was ALWAYS a struggle to get hired. Yes, just because I was a woman. No one wanted to have a woman on board. 🙁

Now, (30-40 years later), it is not nearly as much as a problem (tho, yes, it IS still a problem). I see more and more women working at sea. I even see other women in positions of authority. They are no longer delegated to the stewards department, they can work at other jobs and be more than just cooks and room stewards!

I happen to be the only woman on board this ship, (1 out of 178) but on my last one there were women working as geologists, mud engineers, fluid engineers, etc. I’ve seen quite a few other women DPOs lately and even a couple of other captains. 🙂

I hope to see more women from other countries able to take advantage of all the opportunities the world offers. I was very encouraged to hear about the Italian livestock carrier who had female master and chief mates.

Hopefully sometime soon women from all over the world will have the same rights and opportunities that men have always had. It would be wonderful if everyone everywhere had the chance to live their lives the way THEY choose to.

Which Wine Goes With Your Favorite Halloween Candy?

Posted on October 26, 2014 by Captain Jill

Which Wine Goes With Your Favorite Halloween Candy?.

Halloween is my favorite holiday (after St Patricks Day). Since I’ll be working (again) this year on Halloween, I won’t be able to enjoy any of my favorite wine (or candy). 🙁

I never was much of a wine snob. I like sweet wine but I don’t know enough about different wines to drink it much anymore. I don’t like to buy a bottle to try it, only to get home, open it up and find out I hate it and just wind up dumping the whole thing down the drain.

I hate to waste good food or drinks. I have a bottle of wine in my fridge that’s been in there for a year now. Maybe I’ll get around to drinking it soon. Who knows what it tastes like at this point?

My favorite wine (when I was drinking a lot of it) was Cello Lambrusco. I could always get that kind since that was what my dad drank around the house. It came in gallon jugs. 🙂

If he was still alive, my dad would probably be charged and heavily fined now for “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” for allowing me to have a glass of wine every now and again, but my grandmother was Italian and wine with meals was a given. 🙂

My other available choices back then were MD 20/20, Night Train, Ripple or Thunderbird (all affectionately known as ‘Bum wines”). 🙂

I wasn’t really a bum at that point (I was still in school), but my grandmother used to get on my case all the time about hanging around with a lot of them. 😉

Well, yeah, I did. But what’s wrong with that?

How else to get your booze supply when you’re underage in the USA?

Talking Thunderbird Blues- Townes Van Zandt

Among the strangest things I ever heard
Was when a friend of mine said “man, let’s get some thunderbird”
I said “what’s that? ” he just started to grin
Slobbered on his shirt, his eyes got dim
He said “you got fifty-nine cents? “

I said “yeah, I got a dollar, but don’t be a smart-aleck
I ain’t gonna spend it on no indian relic”
And he said “thunderbird’s not an old indian trinket,
It’s a wine, man, you take it home and drink it.”
I said “it sure don’t sound like wine to me”
And he said he’d bet me the change from my dollar

We hustled on down to the nearest u-tate-um
The guy wanted my id, I whipped her out and showed him
He got a green bottle from the freezing vault
My friend started doing backward somersaults
Through the cottage cheese

Took it back to his house, started drinkin’
Pretty soon I set in to thinkin’
“man, this thunderbird tastes yummy, yummy, yummy
And I know it’s doing good things to my tummy, tum…, t…”
It’s so you reason when your on that crap

Got a few more bottles, chugged them down
I pulled myself up off the ground
Decided I go see my dearest sweet wife
Who met me at the door with a carving knife
Said “get them damn grape peel from between your teeth.”

I could see we’re gonna have a little misunderstanding
I said “dear, I better get in touch with you later”
She said “forget it, man, you’re never touchin’ me again!”

Now I’ve seen the light and heard the word
And I’m staying away from that ol’ dirty thunderbird
A message come from heaven radiant, and fine,
All I drink now is communion wine
Six days a week

Comedy: Steve Hughes

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Captain Jill

I got an email earlier today from the Dollar Vigilante (I subscribe). He was talking about how we need to find ways to get more people to wake up, to see what’s really going on around them, to get involved.

It’s funny cause I was just suggesting the same thing at the Campaign for Liberty meetings I go to Tuesday nights when I’m home. How maybe we could try to use movies, videos and COMEDY to catch peoples attention.

At least long enough for us to start a conversation. Hopefully the comics would at least open their minds and get them thinking just a little bit out of the ordinary. Then maybe we could open it a little bit further. I was thinking along the lines of George Carlin (who was also in the TDV video).

I never heard of this guy Steve Hughes before. He’s from Australia. In the video he says he lives in England now. He’s doing a show in Sweden (Swedish subtitles). I think he’s pretty funny in this show. I also think he says a lot of things that OUGHT to make people THINK. I like that. 🙂

I especially liked it when he started up about second hand smoking. Check it out. 🙂

PS- If profanity REALLY offends you, maybe you ought to think twice, he does use cuss words.

LAS

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Captain Jill

Well, I made it through another security theater without blowing my top.

I waver between frustrated anger at the fact that these people all think they’re doing me some sort of favor by stripping me of my ‘god-given’ (Constitutional- Natural) rights along with my clothing and my dignity, and incredible sadness and depression over the fact that the American people put up with all this TOTAL BULLSHIT with barely a whimper of submission.

I wonder how in the hell did a country full of risk takers, who ALL (other than the Indians) came here from somewhere else, leaving everything behind to make a new life for themselves in the land of the FREE, turn into such a bunch of whiny, irresponsible, scared shitless morons every time ‘our’ government whips up a fear frenzy?

I wonder how many people REALLY believe that “our government” has our best interests at heart, is only doing what it “has to” to ‘protect us’, is only ‘doing its job’? I wonder how in the hell they could POSSIBLY still believe all that CRAP when it’s been proven over and over and over again that ‘our’ government is full of evil bastards who would kill their own grandma if it would get them even an ounce more power!

I wonder how is it possible they’re still willing to give ‘our government’ the benefit of the doubt when it’s been proven over and over and over again how it has stolen our wealth to grow it’s own power. It’s committed numerous unjustifiable attacks against too many countries to name here. It’s committed crimes against humanity (against it’s own citizens, not just against foreigners)- MANY times in its history.

Doesn’t ANYBODY pay attention to history? Doesn’t ANYBODY think about what the hell they’re REALLY planning?

Does anybody think Americans will ever grow some balls like the people in Hong Kong have?

I wish them all the luck in the world over there. I hope they can save themselves and their country. I hope the Chinese rulers turn out to be more sensible than ‘ours’ are here. I hope they’re successful in saving their freedoms in Hong Kong and I HOPE the Americans can learn a lesson and STAND TOGETHER to fight our common enemy!

Time Flies!

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Captain Jill

Well, it’s over. My brain is overflowing with too much information from all the great presentations and interesting people I’ve met here in Las Vegas. I’ll be heading home tomorrow. Then heading back to work already on Tuesday. Wow! Time flies!!

When I came to the IL conference “Fast Track Your Retirement Overseas” this year, I thought I had my mind made up. I had pretty much decided on Panama.

The main reason is because I’m really not old enough (or rich enough) to ‘retire’ yet. I needed to find some place. ANY place, that would allow me to continue working so I could support myself outside of the USA.

Not many places offered that as an option. In fact, in over 7 years of looking, Panama was the ONLY place that I could find that would allow me to continue to work in my profession. Or even anything remotely resembling the profession I’ve spent over 30 years of my life becoming proficient in.

Most places would not allow me to do anything other than teach English (since I don’t know how to do anything else their own people can’t possibly do). The restriction is to keep me from stealing a job from a local. OK. I get it.

I was seriously thinking about teaching English. I still think I might do that some day. I think it would be pretty interesting. The thing is, I don’t want to have my work visa and ability to stay in country totally dependent on my job.

Lots of times I see language schools will give you a job and they will do all your paperwork for you. Then your work visa (and ability to stay in country) is tied up with that school! They sign you up and promise you health care, housing, etc. OK, all that sounds great.

What happens when you take them up on it? You show up in some foreign country, you’ve never been there before, you don’t know anybody, you don’t speak the language, and the housing they put you in looks NOTHING like the photos they sent you beforehand.

Are you expected to just shut up and live with it? You’re in some small town in China in some freezing cold, dirt floored hovel with a squat toilet. Or a tiny room in Thailand you’re sharing with another couple of teachers that has no AC.

Yeah.

Now what?

The whole idea of looking outside of the USA is to find OPTIONS!

I’m not saying things wouldn’t work out perfectly with a teaching job. I might wind up in the most beautiful situation ever. My point is, I don’t really have any idea WHAT I’d be getting myself into. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that level of risk at this stage in my life.

Soooooo…

I’ve been searching for years to find a country that would allow me to move there and continue to WORK as a mariner. It’s been a very hard thing to find. Panama recently started a program that would work so I figured I had better get down there and start the process.

Too bad my new job switched around my schedule and I had to cancel my trip to Panama.

Over the last couple of days here at the conference, I’ve learned that there might be other options. I’m almost certain someone told me that Mexico has some new programs. Uruguay too.

I’ve signed up for more information from all of those places, along with Belize, Philippines, and even Malaysia.

If nothing else, maybe with this new job I can FINALLY move out of the USA. At the very least escape obamacare before I get sucked into that humongous trap!

I’ll be heading back to the ship on Tuesday. I hope I can work out some kind of schedule with work so they can get their ‘training’ done so I can have the time off I’ve earned the next time home.

That’s a whole nother issue I don’t really want to get started on right now. I think I’ll go enjoy my last night in Vegas and try my luck on a few games.

Las Vegas: Conference

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Captain Jill

The IL Conference starts this afternoon. This is the real reason I came to Las Vegas.

I sure hope I can get some useful information. Enough good info so I can FINALLY make the move!

Work is driving me CRAZY! Even on vacation these people bother me. Usually, when I’m off work, I’m OFF. No one bothers me at all. Never hear from them til I get my plane ticket.

I was OK with my previous job. Too bad obamacare forced me into taking a permanent job. I HAD to do it in order to get insurance. What a SCAM!

I need to find SOME way to retire. NOW!

I need to get out of the USA. NOW!!

Writing 101: Contrasting Views

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Captain Jill

…

But Mike, a free country would never FORCE someone to buy anything.

But Jill, they already force us to buy car insurance.

I don’t HAVE to have car insurance Mike, in fact I don’t even HAVE to have a car! But that’s not right either. So, according to you, 2 wrongs make a right?

Nooooo, but people NEED ‘health insurance’.

Who says?

It’s just common sense Jill.

Really? I think it’s a HUGE scam!

Scam? Come on Jill. Health care is so expensive, if anything happens to you, you can easily get financially wiped out.

And the reason for that is the fact that ‘our’ government has become so involved with the health care system. It is not anything remotely resembling a free market anymore. Before they started screwing it up (100 years ago), it was the best in the world. We had a system that was affordable and innovative. The few people who couldn’t afford what they needed were helped out by charities, as well as friends and neighbors.

WTF are you talking about Jill?

Well, lets see. To start with, they went right along with the requests of the ‘doctors’ to restrict entry to the medical profession. They created ‘licenses’ and ‘accredited’ medical schools. People could no longer see the health care professional they wanted to, they were restricted to only those approved by the government. Of course, when you restrict the supply of something, the price goes up. Just like those doctors ordered.

Then, they created the FDA (not called that to begin with). That created the same problems with the supply of drugs and other products to do with health care. Now, it’s to the point where a company has to spend multi-MILLIONS of dollars to get an ‘approved’ drug on the market. No wonder the prices for drugs are so high here when the same things cost 90% less everywhere else. And, most places you don’t need to get a prescription either (saving you more doctors fees).

Are you nuts Jill? You want to let the snake oil salesmen loose again and allow people to buy adulterated products?

No Mike. I want to let the free market work. If you would ALLOW it to, there would be PRIVATE groups that would take over those functions that we really NEEDED. Just like the UL and Consumer Reports checks out many things now and informs people of whats up. There would be groups doing the same thing for health care providers and for drugs and other items related to health care.

But there would be no force behind those groups!

Yeah Mike, that’s the idea. No FORCE. Why do you think people need to be FORCED into doing things all the time?

If they won’t do what they ought to on their own, then someone needs to find a way to get them to do it.

REALLY? So who gets to decide what everybody OUGHT to do? You? Me? The President? Some irresponsible government bureaucrat?

Well, since Congress passed the law, then we all ought to follow it!

REALLY? Last time I looked, the LAW (the Constitution) said we are still a Constitutional Republic, NOT a democracy. The Bill of Rights still stands and there is NOTHING in there that authorizes Congress to write any such law, therefore regardless of what they may pass, it is NOT valid.

This country is SUPPOSED to be one that respects individual rights. It was formed specifically to do just that! When it violates that principle, then it is our right and duty to protest, up to and including civil disobedience and refusal to follow such unconstitutional so-called ‘laws’.

Oh Jill, you kill me. Go ahead and do that and go to jail. Get yourself shot for your beliefs.

No Mike, really its you and people with your attitude who are killing me. With every ‘fix’ your people put into effect, to ‘fix’ the things they screwed up before, it makes it harder and harder for me (and everyone else) to get decent health care in this country! I haven’t even got into the REAL drivers of the high cost of health care.

Oh?

Yeah. Do you realize that pretty much NOBODY ever had or needed health insurance til the government enacted wage and price controls towards the end of WWll? Health care was very affordable up until that time, even with the restrictions on providers and drugs. Because of the restrictions on wages, companies had to offer something ELSE to get the workers they needed. That something just happened to be health insurance.

That started the whole deal of tying insurance to your job (a HUGE problem), and it started the big problem we have now. That being no real price control. When people don’t have any concern about what something costs, then usually those costs are going to go up. Company paid health insurance started that ball rolling.

Medicare and Medicaid started in the 60s and really started pushing that ball!

So, now you’ve got restrictions on supply and a humongously increased demand and what could you possibly expect but that prices will go up?

Yeah, but SOMETHING needed to be done. People are dying because they can’t afford health care! Do you just want to let them die? That’s pretty harsh.

Mike, no one is turned away from an emergency room if they can’t pay. The hospital is required to take them (that’s another problem). Then they’ll have HUGE bills to pay (which they’ll either stay in debt forever or just walk away).

What I think is that we need to actually try to fix the REAL problem, which is government interference with the market.

Oh yeah, always back to the government. The government boogyman. You’re a broken record Jill.

If I am, it’s only because the government IS the root of most of our problems!

Yeah Jill, whatever.

…

Las Vegas!

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Captain Jill

I’m heading to Las Vegas early in the morning. I have to get out of here by 0500! Much earlier than I like to get up. I didn’t want to waste a day and only get there in time to find my hotel and hit the sack, so I took the early flight.

I’m going specifically to the “Fast Track Your Retirement Overseas” Conference. I’ve been trying to find a way to get out of here for a few years now. Nothing I’ve tried so far has worked.

Now that I’ve finally found another job where I’m working overseas again, things are looking up! I think I ought to be able to make a move soon.

Actually, I was ready to go back in June. I had tickets bought already. Too bad I just started this new job. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell them right off the bat I couldn’t go to work when they asked me to.

So, I cancelled that trip. Too bad. Now I don’t know how long it will take me to get back down there. At least with this new job I shouldn’t have to worry too much about getting thrown in prison for lack of totally unnecessary and ridiculously expensive obamacare scam ‘insurance’!

I’ll have a couple of days to explore Las Vegas itself before the conference starts. It’s actually outside of town at the Red Rock Casino. It looks pretty nice, but it’s way out in the middle of nowhere.

Anybody have any ideas of interesting things to do around town?

Writing 101: An Interesting Character

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Captain Jill

I met Capt Hugh a few months back at one of the weekly meetings I go to whenever I’m home. The Campaign for Liberty is an offshoot of Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign and I’m a big supporter of his views. So is Capt Hugh.

I still don’t know Capt Hugh very well. We haven’t both been home off our ships at the same time very often. He looks like an ordinary guy. Comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. Middle aged, average height and weight, nothing really special about his looks. But it all comes out when you talk to him. His passion for life and liberty, his sense of adventure, his determination to do whatever it takes to further his goals.

He doesn’t live near here. He lives up near Dallas somewhere, I think. That’s a few hours drive from here. He comes all the way down to our meetings when he’s home from work. It shows a high level of commitment to the goals we’re working toward (increasing freedom and liberty).

He works offshore like I do. He’s working as captain on some kind of oilfield support vessel. Recently he’s been working out of Africa (me too). I’m working off the Congo River, Hugh is working further north. He’s on a much smaller vessel than I am and so he gets to go into port occasionally.

If you’ve never worked out of Africa, you have no idea what that entails. It’s very chaotic and can be extremely frustrating. It takes a really special person to not only go there and do the work that needs to be done, but to ENJOY it. I’ve only met a couple of people like that so far and each of them was full of great stories and a love of life that showed through.

I follow Capt Hugh on Facebook. He’s quite an adventurer. He’s planning a vacation in Africa whenever he gets off work (who knows when). With everything going on over there, including an epidemic of Ebola, he doesn’t let it stop him. He takes the opportunity when it’s offered. A ‘free’ trip to Africa! What a deal!

Capt Hugh is not only captain of the supply vessel he is employed on, he has his own little sailboat too. That’s another feather in his cap! He’s willing to put everything he has on the line, buy a boat, fix up what he can, and then take off for parts unknown. That all shows a real spirit of adventure, love for the ocean, and a desire to find the freedom we’ve lost here.

I hope he is able to sail off soon. I’ll keep track on Facebook. It’ll inspire me to see where he winds up. I know it’ll be somewhere worth going.

Conundrums

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Captain Jill

Conundrum

The definition of the word Conundrum is: something that is puzzling or confusing.

Here are six Conundrums of life in the United States of America:

1. America is capitalist and greedy – yet half of the population is subsidized.

2. Half of the population is subsidized – yet they think they are victims.

3. They think they are victims – yet their representatives run the government.

4. Their representatives run the government – yet the poor keep getting poorer.

5. The poor keep getting poorer – yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.

6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about – yet they want America to be more like those other countries.

Think about it! And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century.

Makes you wonder who is doing the math.

I didn’t come up with the above, a friend sent it to me in an email. I thought it was worth putting it out there for a few thoughts from the rest of you out there. This part is all mine. 🙂

How did we turn into such a socialist country from what was once the most free country on the planet? How did we turn from a country founded SOLELY to support and protect INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY into this mess we have now?

Any thoughts? Comments? Insults? Rants??

Writing 101: Try Again

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Captain Jill

OK. I’m going to try this “Writing 101” thing again. I tried it before, but I was on the ship and could never find the time to do the assignments. I’m really glad the folks at WordPress decided to run this challenge again. I would like to improve my writing.

Today is the first day of the challenge. I got home late Friday after a couple of days traveling home from the ship. We were working offshore Angola (West Africa). I worked all night Wednesday and then started my voyage home Thursday morning.

I was basically up for about 60 hours straight, not counting the few minutes at a time I managed to doze off on the plane(s). I’ve had a couple of days to rest up and catch up on mail, etc so I hope I can find the time now to keep up with the assignments for this challenge. 🙂

Today’s assignment is pretty easy. It’s to “JUST WRITE”. Just like talking, I can always find something to say, I can always find things to write. Who knows if anyone will listen to what I have to say either way I put my thoughts out there? It seems most of the time I am ignored. 🙁

I think I have some good ideas and some good solutions to a lot of the things no one likes to see happening around the world. It’s all about FREEDOM. Too bad I’m not the dictator of the world. What a paradox. 😉

I would SO love to see this world full of people where everyone is able to live their lives the way they choose. I would love to see everyone able to live to their fullest potential. I would love to see everyone have enough to eat and comfortable surroundings and work that they enjoy.

I used to have long arguments with my best friend J. about this kind of thing. I told her once I would love to buy an island. I would have to buy it so that it would be mine, as legitimately mine as it would be possible to be. (Not to get into the whole argument about is it really legitimate for people to own land at all). I just don’t want it to be claimed by any government, they would ALL be totally against everything I’m trying to do.

I would turn that island into my own country. Anyone could come there and do anything they wanted to do, as long as they didn’t hurt anyone else (no murder, rape, robbery, etc). That is my basic premise in life. That is the idea that I live by.

Of course the USA would probably bomb the hell of my island. There’s NO WAY they would allow the world to see that a place with REAL freedom could exist and prosper. It would prove to the entire world what a fraud (and a danger to the entire planet) the US has become.

Yes, on my island you could drive without a license, without wearing seatbelts or helmets. You could drink or get high on whatever you wanted to (but you would be responsible for your actions whether high or not). There would be no spying allowed for any reason. There would be no universal ID such as social security has become (and therefore a magnet for identity theft). There would be no such things as ‘guilty property’ (asset forfeiture), money laundering laws, etc. Yes, there would be legal gambling and prostitution and there would be no such thing as a ‘victimless crime’. You could work at whatever you chose, for whoever you chose, for whatever wages and benefits you chose. There would be no government licensing of anything.

Since this island is based completely on voluntary action, I can see people working together to provide all the things we need and want without resorting to the use of force. If we need roads, schools, etc, people will come up with ways to provide them just like they did in colonial times in the USA. I can’t even think of anything we would need taxes for, so there probably wouldn’t even be any of those! 🙂

I would base my laws on the US constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights and I would follow the letter and the INTENTION of those documents! That being to promote INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM! To keep the people in control of the government and NOT the other way around.

We would get into huge arguments about what exactly was meant by the word “hurt”. I told her, I think it would have to be defined as an ‘objective’ hurt. Something obvious to everyone else. Otherwise, anyone could just make anything up they wanted.

I think it would have to be something ‘proveable’. Something that you could prove actually happened to you and that it actually did hurt you. You should be able to prove real harm.

So, we got into all these arguments over ‘what if?’…

‘what if she moved in next door to my multi-million dollar mansion and built a junkyard?’, (who said I would have a multi-million dollar mansion? I just spent all my money to buy this island!

‘what if she came to my (multi-million dollar mansion) and shit on my floor?’ (multi-million dollar mansion??), if she shit on my floor on purpose, then I think I would throw her out of my house. If she was sick or something and couldn’t control herself, then I think I would send her to the hospital but still get her out of my house!

‘what if somebody’s feelings got hurt?’ see above point about being objective and proveable

‘what if somebody trashed your boat?’ unbelieveable! they would have to pay restitution for the damages and/or they would get deported!

After a while of this kind of thing, we both got sick of the argument. I decided I would not really want to be dictator after all. It’s too much work!

I really just want to be left alone to live my life in peace. I don’t want to BE alone, I just want to be LEFT alone. There’s a huge difference.

It seems very few people understand where I’m coming from. Almost everyone seems to think people are somehow better off with other people running their lives instead of themselves. I am totally in opposition to that idea.

This is why I am searching so hard to find some PLACE where I can live the rest of my life. It is no longer possible to have that in the USA. The country that was founded to allow people exactly that freedom.

My only hope now is to somehow get out of the US permanently and find some out of the way place where the people will just accept you for who you are. Where they are happy to live and let live. Where their government does not have the resources to constantly interfere. And if it does, where the people will force it to back off!!!

So, OK, I’ve rambled on now for over the 20 minutes the assignment called for. Hope some of you made it all the way to the end. 😉

Any comments on this subject (or any other) is always appreciated. 🙂

These people are animals…REALLY???

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Captain Jill

An EXCELLENT post from the Culture Monk! Hopefully he is starting a conversation that we all really ought to be having. I completely agree with his comments about the news media (mainstream news media) and I am SO glad we now have the internet to help us learn the truth about what’s going on in the world and to bypass the lies the psychopaths in power wish us to believe.
I have been promoting the libertarian outlook for a long time. I think they deserve at LEAST the opportunity to have their views known in the public forum. The mainstream news media does all it can to discredit their views and label any politician who espouses them as a ‘nutjob’!
Who’s nuts” Someone who believes in freedom and liberty. or someone who prefers to use FORCE on every issue?

The Freedom Myth

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Captain Jill

the more we can spread this information (which is the truth about what’s going on), the better off we’ll be.

The Daily Post: Can't Watch This

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Captain Jill

When was the last time you watched something so scary, cringe-worthy, or unbelievably tacky — in a movie, on TV, or in real life — you had to cover your eyes?

The question from the Daily Post got me thinking…

I LOVE scary movies! I used to stay up late at night every weekend to watch “Creature Feature”. I still love to read good horror stories and watch scary movies. I like to read disaster stories, I like to hear about how people managed to avoid the worst and survive against all odds.

The thing that scares me more than anything now is what I see happening in real life, every day. The loss of our freedom here in America, more and more every day.

I try not to watch the regular news any more. It’s not really news. It’s just an on going litany of all the horrible SHIT going on in the world every day. Nothing good about it. Nothing helpful about it. Nothing any of us can do about any of it. It’s so depressing.

I can’t STAND to watch that show “COPS”. It almost makes me physically sick. I can’t believe that show is so popular and people actually believe those thugs in uniforms are doing anybody any good. It’s disgusting to watch them strut around. Yes, it’s ‘cringe-worthy’ for sure. 🙁

Weekly Photo Challenge: Relic

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Captain Jill

This is my entry for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Relic. Here’s the story behind the photos I chose for my entry.

I took a trip to Indonesia a couple of years ago to look into having a sailboat built for me. I have been trying to find a way to move out of the USA for years.

The main hold up has been that no other country will give me a work visa (unless I can do something no one else in their country can do). I thought about teaching English (TEFL) and I still think about doing that sometimes (maybe I will one of these days, but I hate to put myself in a situation where that is my only option. I started writing and blogging as another option to hopefully help me make a living without being stuck in the USA.

I am looking for more freedom. I don’t want to jump from the frying pan of the USA (which is rapidly becoming a police state) into a situation where I don’t really know the rules and have restricted myself by not having the finances (because I had to take a low paying job) to get out of any trouble I don’t know enough to stay out of.

So, maybe I’m trying to have my cake and eat it too, but I really think we all deserve to live a wonderful life. The life WE choose. Free to do the things we enjoy, in the physical location we want to be.

I don’t agree with borders in principle. I don’t agree with the idea of any political authority. “Leaders” are just regular people and governments are just groups of people. None of them are any more special than you or me. I believe we are ALL equal under the law (natural law) and we should ALL have the same opportunity to live our own lives without interference.

I think we ALL have the inherent right to do anything we want as long as we don’t hurt anyone else (who has the same rights as we do). The founding fathers of the USA enshrined that principle in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (Bill of Rights), but the government we have now has corrupted that ideal beyond belief.

We are already FAR beyond the point where the original colonists revolted. I keep wondering WTF has happened to the American people that they submit without question to things like the TSA groping their children in the airports.

We have gone from a country where we had a revolution over a 4% tax on TEA, to a country where the government routinely locks up people for LIFE for mere possession of a harmless plant!?!

OK, enough with the politics (for now). 😉

I went to Indonesia look into buying a boat. I thought I could build a business with it that would allow me to live in a foreign country. I thought if I had a means to support myself, I could make the move. Too bad the price of the boats had gone up so much since I first heard about them. There was really no way I could afford one.

Unless it was one like the ones in these pictures. 🙁

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/relic/

Guest Post – Would you survive?

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Captain Jill

I thought this was a pretty interesting question and the comments really caught my eye. I think if the SHTF I would probably NOT survive. Not for long anyway. Yeah, I always keep plenty of stuff around the house in case of a hurricane. I have enough food, water and other supplies to last me for a while. But if the shit REALLY hits the fan, I don’t think I would last for long. I mean really, how would I be able to hold off an armed mob?
It’s still on my mind since I just got done watching the new show “The Last Ship”. I read the book years ago. I liked it then. I have a feeling it’s going to have a different ending, but I won’t spoil it for you. I thought they did a pretty good job of putting it on TV tonight. I’d like to watch the rest of the series, but I already know I won’t be around to watch TV for a few weeks.
It’s interesting because I’ve been going to meetings of the Campaign for Liberty on Tuesday nights for quite a while. Most people there are also very concerned about the way things are going. We’ve been talking about this kind of thing for a while. So, we started a garden. We’re looking into water supplies. We’re looking into how to keep a line of communication going. We’re looking into alternative power sources. All kinds of things like that.
I do love to read disaster stories (including zombie stories). I like to see how the people in them react to the situation. In most of them, most people die, pretty much right off the bat. The story is about how the survivors manage to survive. THAT is the really interesting part to me. Physical, emotional, sociological, spiritual survival. All of that. How do you think you would do? What do you think would happen to society in general if a disaster happened? I’m just wondering if many people even think about this kind of stuff.

SNL: Shut it Down

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Captain Jill

I don’t care which party you like or where you stand on politics in America, this video is FUNNY. 🙂

The first time I saw it on Saturday Night Live, I about spit out my tea! Bachman and Boehner are hilarious!

Miley Cyrus parodies her own song. I like it much better this way. 😉

A Case for Ending the Minimum Wage

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Captain Jill

Well, I thought the article I wrote about the other day had a pretty good explanation of why it was not such a good idea to raise the minimum wage.

It looks like at least some people still don’t get it, so I’ll try again. 😉

I think a lot of people probably still have the mindset that there’s a simple solution to the problem of poverty. Just give poor people enough money to raise their income higher than the poverty level and then everything will work out fine.

Sorry to say it, but it’s not really that simple. If it was, we would have eliminated poverty a long time ago.

There are so many things that contribute to the problem of poverty (poor education, bad attitudes, destructive family life, etc). I don’t know if we will ever be able to solve it completely.

I think we have done a pretty good job here in America. The poorest people here are better off than the richest kings were 100 years ago. They’re richer than billions of people in the rest of the world.

So, poverty is a relative thing. No one here in America really has to worry about starving to death. There ARE ways for them to get help.

As for the minimum wage laws, they are not going to help anyone for more than a short time. These laws have been tried in the past and they have failed. The main thing they always do is to keep the most vulnerable people (those without much experience or job skills) out of the job market. Without that foot in the door, they can’t ever move up out of poverty.

The unemployment level rises. More people go on welfare and other aid programs. More people get used to the idea that they can get by that way (NOT having to work) and so they’re worse off in the long run. So are the rest of us.

Personally, I think it’s a bad idea to have large numbers of people living on ‘charity’ (government aid or private aid). I think it encourages a bad attitude towards other people and about life in general. I think people do better when they have some sort of goals to work towards, some purpose in life. Maybe working at a minimum wage job isn’t the BEST way to live your life, but it does give you a decent way to start down the road to your chosen path in life.

As for the remaining low skill workers, the ones who did manage to keep their now higher paying jobs, they will not be better off for very long either. You raise the minimum wage and pretty soon all the rest of the wages will rise too.

Maybe you think that’s a great idea. Your paycheck will have more dollars in it! Yes, it will, but there’s a little thing called “inflation” that comes along when wages rise. That inflation will not only give you more dollars in your paycheck, it will make everything you want to spend those dollars on cost more!

How many people really think they will wind up better off once that starts? I’m pretty sure I won’t be. I know from past experience that most people are worse off than they were before they got that raise they wanted so badly.

Maybe the little video will help convince you. I know these guys (Thomas Sowell, Peter Schiff) are much more informed than I am, they’re experts on this kind of thing.

Maybe I’m not an expert, but I can extrapolate a few things. I read a lot. I listen to people who have been there, done that. I try to learn from other peoples experience.

I totally agree with the comments in the video and the well meaning people who say that a person shouldn’t have to live in poverty while they’re working a full time job. My objections are only about how to make things better for them. I don’t think raising the minimum wage will help.

I hope to start a discussion here along with the one that we should be having nationally. It would be nice if we could do something effective to help people instead of just try one more time to do what has already failed numerous times in the past.

How about we try to come up with some different solutions to the problem of poverty? Instead of the simple answer of raising the minimum wage, (that has already been proven a failure), we try to come up with some other ideas? Something that might WORK?

The War on Jobs Continues

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Captain Jill

The War on Jobs Continues.

Here’s another good article from Doug French at Laissez Faire. He does a pretty good job of explaining (in simple terms) how the free market works in the job market. He could do a better job of explaining how government interference through regulations always screws things up, but overall he does OK.

I am simply amazed at the numbers of people in America (and around the world) who don’t have even this most basic level of understanding about economics. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at Americans, considering that most of them are stuck in government schools.

For anyone who doesn’t know the history of government schools in America, the purpose of those schools is NOT to educate the children, but to turn them into ‘cogs in the wheel’. Mould them into compliant workers to fill the factory jobs that we used to have.

Now that we have destroyed those jobs through over-regulation, we have a nation full of people with just enough education to fill those kinds of jobs and none of those jobs to give them.

Along with a number of other subjects, economics was not one of the ones thought important enough to spend any resources on for people intended to spend their entire lives working for GM. 🙁

Our ‘public’ (government) school system has not changed with the times. We are still training people to work in factories when we need to be educating them so they can be entrepreneurs!

In the meantime, because we have not educated them to understand the basics of economics (or much else), we have the situation going on right now (again) where people are clamoring for (another) rise in the minimum wage.

Because they don’t understand basic economics, they think that will improve their standard of living. It won’t. 🙁

Read the article again…

There are so many levels of ignorance and wishful thinking going on in this country, it’s sad really. Yes, it’s true, the poor and middle classes here are not doing as well as the upper class. But the reasons for that are mostly to do with the government and NOT wage rates!

We are all going into debt. More and more and more! THAT is a huge impediment to a high standard of living (no matter what your income). The money supply continues to increase, causing inflation, which steals more of our income every day. Our government keeps on spending money like there’s no tomorrow and raising taxes in order to try to keep that up.

THOSE are the things that are hurting our standards of living. I could go on, but I hope you get the point I’m trying to make. Raising the minimum wage won’t really solve anybody’s problems, it will only delay the inevitable and make it worse in the long run.

I read a post, (“Dead Broke”), this morning by Joseph Rathjen. He writes the “Political and Social Chaos Blog”. It ties right into what I’ve been talking/thinking about. Economic illiteracy. Elites vs the rest of us. Amount of income a person has vs standard of living (personal happiness level).

The fact that ANYONE could believe the Clintons were “Dead Broke” (the way WE mean it when WE say it) says it all. I’m not sure how many people really believe it, or if it’s all just the usual media propaganda, but it seems at least a few people fell for it.

You ought to read Rathjens post. He makes some good points. I would take it even further. People like the Clintons belong to the class of the ‘global elites’. They are not JUST rich. They are rich and POWERFUL.

There is a group of people who are very rich and powerful and THOSE people do NOT care one whit for the rest of us!

THAT is why it is SO important for the rest of us to be educated! We need to know enough about how the world really works so that we don’t fall for their BS! We need to know enough to fight back when someone proposes a plan that might look good on the surface but will eventually work against OUR interests.

The latest minimum wage proposals are just one more example of this. It’s sad. Most people still don’t understand how things work. 🙁

Too Poor to Prepare?

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Captain Jill

I agree with most of what Chris says in this video. He makes a lot of good points.

We need to make get our heads straight. We need to learn what’s really going on in the world and not just believe what’s on TV! We need to do whatever we can to improve ourselves to enrich and improve our lives.

Get out of any ‘toxic environment’ you happen to be in. Start working on SOMETHING (anything) to improve yourself (your life).

Get out of debt. “Debt is slavery of the free.”

Start doing something that you really love.

“Stop trying to change the world to make yourself happy or free. Start changing yourself to make the world happy and free.”

That’s all great advice! I’m working on it myself. I admit it’s not easy. I’m especially stuck on the part about changing myself instead of trying to change the world. 🙂

I just don’t have the slightest idea of what I could or would possibly change in myself in order to make myself more happy and free (other than what I’m already doing).

I’m working hard to be debt free again. I’m taking courses to improve my writing/photography/blogging. I’m doing something I love (traveling) as often as I can. I’m trying my best to physically leave this toxic environment the USA has become.

No, it’s not easy. All I can do is the best that I can do. That is what I’m doing. 🙂

Capt Jills Kvetching

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Captain Jill

OK, fair warning here, I’m going to be bitching (a bit) in this post…

This week I’m in Houston re-taking the Basic Safety Training (BST) course. This is a class that the USCG (Coast Guard) started requiring all mariners to take back when they were trying to get the US in compliance with STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) around the turn of the century (STCW 95 went into full effect in the US Feb 2, 2002).

BST is a very basic course that is supposed to teach you what you should know before you can go offshore. Things you would know if you’d ever spent more than a couple of days (working) out there. Things like ‘what is a station bill? what is a muster station? what are the alarm signals? what do you do if someone falls overboard?, where can you find a lifejacket? how do you use a fire extinguisher? etc.

STCW is an international standard and the USCG is in charge of making sure all US mariners comply.

For once, the USCG actually made a rule that sort of made sense. They decided that if you were still sailing during the 5 years before you had to renew your credentials, (still working offshore where you were required to do safety training and drills every week), then you wouldn’t be required to spend another week of your supposed time off and a few hundred dollars (minimum) to ‘learn’ how to do such things as put on a life jacket or about the different types of fires.

It’s really pretty sad to have to require someone who’s been going to sea for 20 years (or even ONE year) to spend a week of their time off in this kind of class.

At this point, the USCG still does not require us to take the BST class more than once. They have caved in to the IMO and WILL be forcing us all to re-take the BST refresher course starting in 2017 (but they’re not yet). So far as I know, there are no approved ‘refresher’ courses since this is a fairly new ruling. Hopefully, the refresher course will only cover what we don’t do every week on board the ships. Things we CAN’T do (supposedly) out there like jump in the pool and/or put out real fires.

Maybe they’ll be sensible and just let us do a one day course on only those couple of things (I can hope, can’t I). 😉

In the meantime, certain companies don’t really care what the rules say. They insist that no one could possibly be ‘safe’ unless and until they finish going to training for THEM.

I see it more and more often in the Gulf of Mexico. The drilling companies (clients) are especially bad about it. Instead of accepting Safegulf or Rigpass, (both of which cover the same very basic materials and are pretty much the same as the BST but more for the rigs vs the boats), each company wants you to go to THEIR training before you go offshore (even tho it’s all pretty much the same material).

Some of the trainers won’t even give you any proof that you attended the class! They don’t want you to be able to go to another company and avoid having to take it again (so they will get paid again for teaching you the same stuff they just taught you 2 months ago)!!

I have no idea why. Well, yes I do, but nobody likes to admit it. All the STCW courses cover the same material. They HAVE to. The USCG requires certain things to be taught. They require that we spend so much time on each subject. There is very little leeway in how these courses are taught.

The purpose of the STCW was to ensure that everybody in the entire world has the EXACT SAME TRAINING. Every country that is approved (on the white list) has basically the same courses teaching the same things. That is so that we can all be certain that every seafarer from every country will have at least the same basic minimum knowledge base.

Now, it seems the intent of the STCW is being subverted. I am hearing that some countries will not accept training from other countries. The sailors have to go and spend all that time and money taking the classes again for the country they want to work in! In fact, the US is one of those countries! (I am simplifying it a little here).

The USCG will not accept a course if I go to another country to take it. For example, if I went to take Basic Safety Training in Greece, they would not accept it. If someone from the UK were to come here and try to get a mariners document, they would have to re-take the BST course here. The USCG is supposedly in the process of changing the rules (again) but in the meantime, its a real pain in the ass for a lot of sailors around the world!

I’m actually lucky this time. I am starting a new job and the company is sending me to the ‘training’ this time. I have pretty much always had to spend the time and money out of my own pocket for all the other times I’ve had to do this.

I spent over $50,000 (!!!!!) re-taking classes I already took in order to get my chief mates license between 2002-2008!

Basically, I am just sick and tired of having to take the same classes over and over again. There’s very rarely even anything new covered in them. The very few things that have changed are things we could have got out of a safety alert or an email. But nooooooo, we have to go spend a week and a few hundred bucks (minimum) to sit through all the rest of the stuff that has NOT changed.

I think if I have to do it again at this point, that will be the last straw. I would just have to say the hell with it and give up sailing altogether. 🙁

And they wonder why it’s so hard to recruit mariners?

It’s very sad that this is what it’s coming to. People say to me, “how can you be against “safety””? OK, let’s get this straight! I am NOT against safety!! I AM against these people (companies and governments) making up rules and checklists and “training” to COVER THEIR ASSES instead of doing the RIGHT thing!

IMHO, the real purpose of all these things is so they can send us to a class for a few days and then send us offshore and if we ever get hurt they can say “it’s not OUR fault, we sent them to TRAINING, they should have known better”. In other words, it’s all about CYA.

Of course, no one will actually ADMIT that.

Instead of actually giving a new person the time to learn the job PROPERLY on the job, with the people they will be working with who know the specifics, they send a new person off for a few days in a classroom.

OK, that’s better than nothing, I admit it, but it’s NOT better than the way they used to learn things BEFORE these rules were put into effect!

We used to take a new person offshore and train them on the job. We would make sure to watch over them and ‘mentor’ them until we were all sure that they knew how to handle themselves. There were enough people out there for that system to work very well. Now that the companies have cut the crew size down to the bare minimum (or less, in many cases), no one really has the time or energy to watch over a new person like that.

So, now we have to trust that they know everything they need to know when they show up on board. After all, they’ve been “trained” and there is no way anybody can just ‘watch and learn’ anymore. Everybody out there now is going to be expected to pull their weight.

Personally, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that there were MORE accidents and injuries since the start of all this STCW and company “training”. (Don’t even get me started on the paperwork component of all this: JSAs, tool box talks, etc, etc, etc). So far, I have not seen any kind of apples to apples comparison. I’m not sure anybody wants to see that done. It might show the companies that all their talk about safety is just that- TALK!

They might just have to come up with something a little more effective at making things safer out there, like maybe putting a few more people back on board the vessels? Or maybe cutting down on all the extra workload each person has had to shoulder since they cut out over half the crew years ago? Or maybe actually letting a person get some rest before they go to work on crew change day instead of putting them straight to work after they’ve just been up for 24+ hours traveling! OMG, they would have to spend a few bucks on a hotel room!!!

Nawwww, that would never happen, they might just have to spend a few more dollars on those crew members then they do on all their ‘safety’ programs. Not ever gonna happen. 🙁

Is There Something Wrong With Me?

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Captain Jill

I haven’t mentioned much about politics on here lately. Maybe it’s because I’ve been traveling outside of the country (I was in Korea for a month).

It’s nice that I can get out of the US occasionally. I would love to leave more often for longer periods of time. I’m even thinking I might want to leave permanently. It’s SO nice to get away where the politics isn’t constantly in my face.

Sometimes I wonder if there’s something ‘wrong’ with me. Most of my friends don’t really care about what’s going on around them. They always tell me to ‘just chill out’, or ‘just ignore it’, or best of all ‘just do whatever you have to do to get around it’.

I wonder “WHY should I have to do any of that”? Why should I have to leave to find the freedom I was guaranteed at birth? I was born and raised here.

I was brought up to believe that THIS country was formed specifically to PROTECT our rights! WHY should I have to try to ignore it when I see our government doing the exact opposite more and more often?

People call me crazy (paranoid) because I’m always aware of how much freedom we have lost in this country, even just in my lifetime. They say I’m crazy to think the things that have happened in other countries (Germany, USSR, N Korea, China, etc) could ever happen here.

But I see that we are following the same footsteps that led those other countries down the path of socialism/communism/tyranny. Why COULDN’T it happen here?

I wonder what’s wrong with everybody ELSE, that they DON’T care what’s happening in this country?

Why don’t THEY get upset that they have lost the same freedoms I have? Why do they clamor to give theirs away (and mine along with theirs)????

I feel more and more like an outsider in my own country. I feel like most of the people in this country have completely abandoned the ideas and ideals that our country was founded on. What made this country so unique in all of history…

The idea that “we the people”, (ALL people), have certain INALIENABLE rights. Rights inherent to us, that belong to us simply because of the fact that we are all human beings. We are all equal under the law (supposed to be here). That our government’s main job, (its’ only legitimate function), was to PROTECT those rights (it did NOT create or give us those rights).

Most people have been distracted and disoriented by the corruption of the language and twisting of the meanings of the words. Rights for example, there are those basic human rights that we are all born with, part of our nature as human beings. Then there are government created rights like voting rights for example. People treat them as interchangeable. They’re not.

People are busy arguing about media created hoopla over free speech (political correctness) and racism (freedom of association) and on and on and on. Too caught up in the small issues that tear us apart instead of fighting together for what’s really important. Our FREEDOM as individual human beings!

Yes, I realize that we are all very busy. I understand that most people have so many things taking up their time and energy now a days.

Most people are so exhausted by the time they get home at the end of a long day, all they want to do is chill out in front of a TV set. They don’t want to think, they want to vegetate til it’s time to go to bed.

Maybe as a sailor, I’ve had too much time to think in my life. Maybe it’s because I’ve always loved to read. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been an explorer. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a skeptic.

But for whatever reason, I do think and I do care. What I see happening around me here flat ass scares the SHIT out of me.

OK, now before you all go running for the doors, please stick with me just a little longer.

Yeah, I’m fishing for comments here. I’d really like to hear from a larger sample of people around the world than just my personal friends and friends of theirs I’ve been arguing with on Facebook. 🙂

OK, just one simple question to start off with…

What do you know about the principle of self-ownership?

Have you heard of it before? Where? What do you think it means? Do you think it’s valid? How would you go about justifying it? Do you think principles like this one change with the times? Should they?

Here’s another one to go along with that, it’s really part of the same question… If you DON’T own yourself, who does?

OK, I’ll leave you all to think on that for a while. PLEASE comment with your thoughts here!

If you’re wondering why I put that video on the top of the post, here’s why. I love that band! I really like this song.

I also think it’s relevant to this conversation I’m trying to start. I do think there’s a war going on. It’s a war for our hearts and our heads. It’s a war for the principles we’ll stand and fight for. It’s a war between the great masses of “we the people”, the common people, (you and me), and the elites.

It’s a war between freedom and tyranny. YES, it really is. So far, it’s happening mostly in the background, behind the scenes. You can see it easily if you look around (don’t count on the mainstream media for your information).

“This is Why We Fight”: “When we die, we will die with our arms unbound.” THAT says it all to me.

“This Is Why We Fight”

Come the war
Come the avarice
Come the war
Come hellCome attrition
Come the reek of bones
Come attrition
Come hell

This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
And this is why
This is why we fight

When we die
We will die
With our arms unbound

And this is why
This is why
Why we fight
Come hell

Bride of quiet
Bride of all unquiet things
Bride of quiet
Bride of hell

Come the archers
Come the infantry
Come the archers
Of hell

This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight

And when we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
Come hell
Come hell

This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight

When we die
We will die with our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight

So come to me
Come to me now
Lay your arms around me
And this is why
This is why
We fight
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell

Catching Up: Capt Jill

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Captain Jill

I made it home from my trip to Korea! I thought for a while there that I might not. I had a really close connection in Bejing, only an hour. I had an hour and 20 minutes when I flew to Korea and barely made that!

I tried to ask Air China to give me my boarding pass in Seoul so I could shave a few minutes off in the airport, but that was a no-go. I tried to get United (which was who I got the flight with originally) to pull some strings, but they couldn’t do anything either.

My flight into Beijing was over 20 minutes late landing, so by that time I pretty much figured I was going to miss my connection. The Asiana crew really helped me out. They had a lady waiting for me as soon as I got off the plane to rush me over to the transfer desk and then over to immigration.

I was able to cut to the front of security, but then got held up for what seemed like forever while the security theatre played on. It seems the Chinese have a BIG think about cigarette lighters! (And power cords that I learned about while flying over and had all nice and neat for them).

I finally got through security without having a total breakdown over the pure insanity of it all and rushed off still hoping to catch my plane (which just HAD to be parked at the very last gate!).

I made it with seconds to spare. Thank goodness I caught a ride for the last few gates! I thought I was going to keel over before I got to the plane.

I was SO glad I made my flight. I didn’t even care much that my luggage didn’t make it. I had all my really important stuff with me.

So, now I’m home. It seems that there STILL is no work for me.

So, MAYBE I’ll be able to catch up on things around here. 😉

First off, it seems I’ve caught some sort of bug in my computer. 🙁

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but it’s driving me NUTS with the constant ads popping up EVERYWHERE! I had to mute the sound, it’s constantly playing videos. It’s annoying as hell.

I know the wordpress blog tells me that my readers might sometimes see ads on my blog, but I have never seen any of them before. I sure hope it’s not always this blatant!

It’s also putting random links into my posts lately that bring you to even more advertisements. WARNING: If you see a link double underlined, that is NOT one I put there!!!

If it turns out that I have a few days at home, I guess I’ll have to take this computer back to the shop to have it de-bugged again. I hope it’s something simple.

I do have another computer, but this one has all my programs and pictures and everything I work with on it. I really can’t do much with the on the other one…

Video: Freedom From Choice

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Captain Jill

I got this in my email today, I just HAD to check it out. This film looks like it will be a real eye-opener and I sure hope it gets the attention it deserves.

The email (from The Dollar Vigilante) said that the first official screening of the film will be at the Freedomfest (Las Vegas Jul 9-12).

I went to Freedomfest a couple of years ago and had a great time. I hope to go again this year. I’m not sure of my schedule yet, so I haven’t made plans. I definitely recommend it for anyone who is into freedom and individual liberty. There is SO much good information there, SO many interesting people, and the atmosphere is just amazing!

Positive energy for a change. 🙂

Here’s what Jeff Berwick (the Dollar Vigilante) has to say about Freedomfest and the new film… “… Freedomfest is probably the largest conference on freedom in the world and so I decided I couldn’t pass it up. Also, at Freedomfest, they will be screening the first public airing of “Freedom From Choice” a film on the state of the US tyranny today with appearances by Peter Schiff, G. Edward Griffin, myself and many more.“

I checked out the link on the email from TDV and liked what I saw. I can’t wait to see the full movie. I even donated a few bucks to help make that happen. (You can too if you want). I think Kickstarter is a great idea (and another example of the free market at work)!

Check it out and let me know what you think. Do you like stuff like this? Do you care about these kinds of issues? Are you concerned about the way things are going in the USA (or the world)? Are you involved in any projects to help change things? I’d really like to know. 🙂

SNL: Obama Addresses Putin

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Captain Jill

He has got his Obama impression DOWN! 🙂

SNL still comes up with some good stuff sometimes.;-)

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Talking Thunderbird Blues- Townes Van Zandt

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