Category Archives: writing

Zero to Hero

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Here it is, the start of another new year already. I guess I’m like most people and start thinking about past, present, future at the turn of the year. So, like with the Christmas posts, I’ll probably be posting about things I’m thinking of for the new year, new beginnings, endings, etc.

I got an email a couple of days ago from the Daily Post at WordPress which I follow. It was about a project that I thought would be interesting and I hope it will help me be a better blogger.

It’s called the ‘Zero to Hero 30-day Blogging Challenge.’ 

Yes, I am signing up for it. I am starting off with this, my first post for the challenge. Todays prompt is to publish an introductory post. To tell the blogging world about who you are and what you would like to accomplish with your blog.

Since I’ve already done that (check my ‘about’ page), I thought I would just do a little update.

I’ve been busy. Very busy! Since I started this blog at the AWAI Boston Workshop in mid/late August this year I’ve been out to work on the Ensco 8506, Crossmar 21, Ensco 8501, and Ensco DS-5 (twice).

I’ve done a beach cleanup at Surfside Beach, gone to the Bike and Blues Fest in Freeport, the county fair in Angleton (twice), the Houston Zoo and Museum of Natural Science (couple of times), and the Workboat Show in New Orleans.

I’ve missed out on sailing with Sail La Vie but I’ve made it to a few of the Campaign For Liberty meetings and a good one on healthy food and nutrition by another local group.

I never knew it before, but they put on a good presentation about a dentist by the name of Weston Price who did studies on traditional societies and compared their health to modernized peoples. I LOVE junk food and sweets but now I’m learning more about how that stuff really is killing me. It really made me think.

I’ve had to take care of a few projects at my house and at my rental properties. We almost completely re-did the beach house: painted, new flooring, new kitchen cabinets, new window treatments, fixed electrical issues, fixed plumbing issues, fixed sewerage issues, fixed shaky decks, etc. I’m looking for new tenants if you know anybody! 😉

As for the blog, I am still concentrating on my 3 big passions: traveling the world, sailing/working offshore, and FREEDOM to enjoy living life to the fullest!

As you can tell, if you poke around a little here, I have other interests as well. I love to eat and drink so I post good looking recipes here. I love music of pretty much all genres, so I post about that. I like to take pictures, so I’ll post some of them here. I love to read, so I might post about a good book I’m reading. I post about anything I think is interesting and I think other people might also enjoy.

I hope I can learn through this Zero to Hero challenge to be a better blogger. I hope I can learn how to keep things interesting, entertaining, enjoyable enough to keep the readers I have coming back and that they’ll tell their friends. I’d like to be able to grow my blog and interact with more people from all over the world.

I’ve been so encouraged and excited to see that already in just the 4.5 months I’ve been working on this blog, I’ve had people from 85 countries visit me here! I’d love to have more interaction with all of these people. I’d really love it if more people would comment and let me know what they think of all the things I post about (especially politics). 😉

6 of The Best Pieces of Advice From Successful Writers

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6 of The Best Pieces of Advice From Successful Writers – The Buffer Blog.

Good tips and a good post from Belle Beth Cooper at the Buffer Blog.

I’ve got the first one down…give yourself permission to write like crap and JUST START.

Yeah, no problem with the writing badly, it comes out pretty naturally. My problem is when to stop. I can go on and on. 😉

I think I get the part about ‘write like you speak’ too. I’ve never tried to write in any other way (yet).

Eventually, I think I would like to try to write stories or even a book. I’m hoping by writing posts here on my blog, it will get me some good practice and feedback.

In the meantime I hope I can keep things here interesting and entertaining. 🙂

I do wish I could just put everything else on hold, take the time to just chill out and do some real work on this more artistic side of me. So far, I have not managed to do that. I have so many things going on and so I just do a bit here, a bit there, nothing is ever as good or as finished as I would like it to be.

I wonder how anyone can manage to survive, much less THRIVE in this world we are living in today. How does a person manage to ever take the time to relax enough to just let things happen and do what THEY enjoy?

I am doing my best to work hard, so I can save up, so I can one day take a nice long break to do just that. I have so many things I would like to do with my life and I worry that I’m running out of time. I hate to think that I’ve spent so much of my life just working.

Yeah, I’m lucky that I still do enjoy my line of work. Yes, they HAVE taken MOST of the fun out of it. It would be SO much better if they would stop letting the lawyers and accountants run everything and go back to allowing some common sense out there. But it’s still a better job for ME then I can imagine any other type of work to be.

I just hope one day soon, I can drop out of the ‘rat race’ altogether and spend my time doing what I really want to do, instead of spending so much of it doing what I feel like I HAVE to do.

Maybe the tips in the article will help me become a SUCCESSFUL writer. 🙂

Catching Up With Capt Jill

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Well, it’s been a little while now since I finished up the November Post-A-Day Challenge (National Blog Posting Month). I needed the break. I actually got home from work the day after Thanksgiving (and missed the big feast). 🙁

As usual it took me a few days to catch up on everything.

First couple of days wasted just trying to catch up on SLEEP. I hate switching over from 6-6 nights! It’s SO hard this time of year, both mentally and physically. Never see the sun, no one is awake at home, never get your body in tune with your meals and sleep schedule, etc.

Since I’m home and finally have a chance to get caught up, I thought it might be a good time to write a little about who I am, what I do and what I’m hoping to do with this blog.

OK, so, here goes… I work as a merchant mariner (Merchant Navy for the Brits). For those of you who don’t really know what that means, it’s simply someone who works on a commercial vessel. Anything from small ferries, fishing vessels, to the largest VLCC or drillships. Usually work is in one of 3 departments: deck, engine, or stewards.

I grew up on the water and started working for my father when I was very young. He had an old sailboat that he used as a commercial fishing vessel for a while and he used to make me go out with him. I HATED it!!!

As soon as I could, I got a job down the street on one of the party boats (head boats). I would go out with them on the weekends. I had a great time on those boats. I worked mainly in the galley (kitchen). I sold the passengers sandwiches and drinks.

Sometimes I helped the deckhands with the passengers. I would help them bait hooks, untangle lines, get the fish off their lines, string them up and put them on ice. When we got to the dock at the end of the day, I would help clean up the boat and get everything ready for the next trip. Maybe clean and fillet some fish for tips. I was doing pretty good for a kid and plenty to live on but I wanted to do more.

Way back then (sarcasm), the commercial fishing fleet was where it was at! The fishermen could go out for a week and come back fully loaded. Flush with cash, they were living the good life.It was wild! I wanted some of that too! But, of course, I was a girl. Not possible, or so they said. 🙁

I tried to get a job on some of the better boats. The ones who consistently brought in a good catch and treated their crews well. I got nowhere with that. I tried and tried and couldn’t find much of anything.

I finally did go out with a friend. It was a horrible trip for a lot of reasons. We did manage to catch fish but that was the only good part of it. I might go into all that at some later point, but for now, just say that was the turning point for me. I was fed up with everything going on around that place and sick of my life. Everything I wanted to do, I was told was impossible, cause “girls can’t do that”. 🙁

To cut this short, I was getting into a lot of things I probably shouldn’t have. What finally happened was that I was very lucky (tho I didn’t know that at the time) and was offered the chance to completely change my life.

I went off to school with the Oceanics and never really looked back. I may not have known at the time, but I was hooked from the minute I got off the plane in Athens and was smuggled from the airport to the hostel we stayed at in the back of a bread truck.

We spent a few months sailing around the world on traditional sailing ships. Studying things like seamanship, navigation, celestial navigation, oceanography, cultural studies, Greek, Russian, Spanish, etc. Part of our day was always spent working on the ship while we were aboard.

I learned to LOVE it! I decided before I came home that I wanted to be a ship captain and sail around the world (and get paid for it). 🙂

My grandmother was really upset! Before I went away to school, I had planned to be a doctor. She never forgave me for changing my plans. I’m sure I made the right choice, even if she never thought so. 😉

The woman who ran the school was such a great help to me (and many others). She set me up in a school in Texas where I could get started toward my goal. A small Jr College in a small town, you would never expect to find such a great deal here.

I moved to Texas to join the Ocean Marine Technology program at Brazosport College in 1978. I managed to complete the 2 year program in only 5 years! I switched from fishing to working in the oil field and now work in all kinds of different areas offshore. Lately as a DPO (dynamic positioning operator).

In school, I learned to work in both the deck and engine departments (and could work stewards dept if I wanted). In the Gulf of Mexico it gets really HOT in the summer! I was working on small boats: crew boats, production boats, standby boats. Their engine rooms were small, smelled strongly of diesel fuel, and HOT all the time! I regret it now, but I never stuck with the engine department. I never even tested for my QMED. 🙁

I still had my sights set on becoming a ship captain one day. I fought hard for a long time to get the sea time I needed to work my way up. I’ll get into that some other time. I finally managed, just a couple of years ago, to get my unlimited masters license (whoo hoo!!).

Now, I work freelance. I work mostly for a couple of temp agencies. I like it since it gives me a chance to ‘try before I buy’. It’s also nice to see how different companies run things, to see the different vessels and meet different people.

One of the best things about working freelance is that I can pretty much make my own schedule. One of the bad things is, if there is no work, I’m stuck at home with no money. Too bad I never know beforehand. 🙁

When I went back to freelancing a couple of years ago, I took the opportunity to catch up and do a lot of things I’d been wanting to do but never could (since I was always offshore when they happened). I went to a few classes and conferences, I took a couple of nice long vacations. It was great! Til the work slowed down and I wasn’t able to get right back to work when I was ready to. 🙁

Now, I’m having a big debate in my mind. Should I stick with freelance? Or, should I go back and get a regular, permanent job again? It’s SO nice to be able to take the time off when I need it, but things are changing a lot with new rules and regulations and the temp agencies are not really keeping up with all that.

I have so many things I’d like to be doing when I’m NOT working. I’ve been trying for a long time to work less and spend more time doing what I like. I’d retire now if I could afford it and I’m working hard towards being able to do that. I have a couple of side businesses.

One is vending machines. I thought that was a great idea. A way for me to slowly work up to having enough income to be able to stop sailing all the time. That didn’t work out for me. I still think it’s a good plan IF I had the time to go find good placements for my machines.

One is real estate. I’m a slumlord like my father was. 😉 No, just kidding. I buy old, run down properties (cheap) and fix them up to rent them out. I started out just buying a place on the water to put a boat (that’s another story). I bought a nice beach house but then wound up renting it out. I’m actually in the process at the moment of fixing it all up again. Hoping to find some new tenants soon. 🙂

I met a really great Realtor while in the process of getting that house and she’s been helping me ever since. I’ve got a few properties now and they do keep me busy while I’m home.

I love to read, I’ve always got a book in my hand! I’ve just finished ‘Half the Sky’, a very good book but kind-of depressing. It’ll stir you up, but then has suggestions for what YOU can do to work off that anger you felt while reading. Right now I’m reading something different,  ‘Choose Yourself’ by James Altucher (who has a blog I also follow).

I like to go to local events like the beach cleanup I wrote about earlier or the JaGa Fest for the great reggae music. That’s where I took those fireworks photos (http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/weekly-photo-c…ight-celebrate), or the Biker and Blues Fest I plan on doing a post on (soon).

I love to go sailing. I joined a local club called Sail-La-Vie and go out with them when I can. It’s always a lot of fun. I also started my own meetup group, called Mariners Meetup. It’s a way for us old salts to get out and about, do something other then just hang around the house watching TV.

I try to keep up with politics, I’m into FREEDOM and trying my best to keep from losing any more of it here. If I’m home I go to the Campaign for Liberty meetings every Tuesday night. We have a bunch of projects we’re working on like our community garden (on hold for winter) and movie night. Last week we were talking about alternative energy and how to get off the grid.

I LOVE to travel (yes, eventually I will get around to posting some travel posts- I promise!). I like to write and take pictures, and enjoy going to workshops about that kind of thing. In fact, that’s how I started this blog.

I went to the AWAI travel writing/photography workshop in Boston back in August and they had a little bit about blogging. I started this blog right before I went up there so I could ask lots of questions and hopefully learn how to make a good blog. Actually, I heard that you could earn money from blogging and I wanted to learn how to do THAT!

So far, I haven’t learned how to do that. 🙁 I’m still trying to figure that part out. If you noticed, I put a link to Amazon down towards the bottom right. I haven’t figured out how to make that work properly tho. It’s supposed to be an Amazon blog and show the posts, but all it shows is the link to 4-5 different links on Amazon. Maybe some of you know what I’m doing wrong and can help me? 😉

I am trying to improve all the time. On here and in real life. 🙂 Now you know what I do when I’m working and when I’m home. Now you know why sometimes I don’t feel like posting for a little while. I do really enjoy it, but sometimes I just get run down. I don’t want this to wind up feeling like a chore, like something else I HAVE to do.

I hope I can keep this interesting and entertaining for all of us for a long time. Thanks for visiting me. 🙂

NaBloPoMo: It’s Over!

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Whew! It’s over! I did it! I managed to do a post a day for the entire month of November! 🙂

I don’t know how many of you noticed the little square flag down towards the bottom right of my blog. It’s for the National Blog Posting Month of November. I saw a post about it on another blog and thought it would be interesting. So, I joined the challenge.

I thought it would be motivational (it was) and challenging (it was) and help me get some exposure (I’m not sure that worked out).

I think I need to go back to just doing these posts when I have the time and inclination. I didn’t really like the feeling that I HAD to get one done. So, if you don’t see anything from me for a little while, nothing’s wrong. I’m just taking a break. 😉

How the Shipping Industry is the Secret Force Driving the World Economy

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How the Shipping Industry is the Secret Force Driving the World Economy | Ideas & Innovations | Smithsonian Magazine.

I thought this was pretty good, despite the reservations I have from only seeing this article. It’s an interview with author Rose George about her latest book: Ninety Percent of Everything. She somehow arranged to spend some time sailing around on the container ship Maersk Kendal. I’m going to have to find a copy of this book to read. 🙂

a container ship underway

a container ship underway

She makes a lot of good points. That people who aren’t personally involved with shipping are totally unaware of the industry. That those of us living in ‘first world’ countries don’t know any seafarers personally any more. That the ports have been moved so far away from the cities that most people don’t have any awareness of them anymore. That people on the beach have absolutely no idea what it’s like to be a seafarer.

I do think she got a lot of that correct. She sees how isolating it is out here now. She mentions the lack of communication and that the ships don’t provide internet or phone access to their crews (because of the expense). I do agree that it is an expense. I do not agree that it is an ‘extra’ expense. I don’t think it’s very much to pay a couple of thousand dollars a month when that would be something like 1% of expenses on most ships (if that). Isn’t it worth that for such a HUGE increase in crew morale?

a tank ship underway

a tank ship underway

I don’t really know if she’s right in her assessment of how much or how little sailors have a ‘sense of romanticism’. She mentions that she thinks the captain has more of it then he lets on, that he still secretly loves the sea.

She seems to think that most sailors are only out here for the money. I might agree that most sailors from the poorer parts of the world go to sea for the money. They probably went to sea because it paid better than anything they could find at home.

I would agree that the great majority of seafarers are not in a great position at sea. Some of the conditions sailors work under are just horrible. A lot of shipowners do flag foreign just so they can cut expenses.

They all say that the cost of the crew is their largest expense so they cut it any way they can. They cut the crew size, they lengthen the hitch (2 YEARS or more), they skimp on groceries, they skimp on medical care, they refuse to pay for visas so the crew can’t leave the ship in port, etc.

That’s not even to start on the issue of crew abandonment. Rose George seems to think the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) will help. I’ve seen in the news there have already been 3 ships detained, but I have serious doubts it will actually help the crews.

In spite of conditions like that, I believe most seafarers do still enjoy sailing (at least sometimes). 😉

romanticism of life at sea

romanticism of life at sea

I know I still do. Most of the time. 😉

The Enchanting Sea Monsters on Medieval Maps

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The Enchanting Sea Monsters on Medieval Maps | Collage of Arts and Sciences.

Another good one from the Smithsonian this morning. I always thought those old charts were so cool. I really loved the drawings.

Those people really had some great imaginations! 🙂

Alienable Rights = Glorified Privileges

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Alienable Rights = Glorified Privileges.

Very good article by Kelly Diamond! I have been noticing for a LONG time that most people don’t have any kind of idea of what ‘rights’ are. This article does a good job of explaining what they are.

People now a days seem totally confused. They don’t seem to understand that there is a BIG difference between natural rights (which belong to everyone regardless of whether any person or even government recognizes that fact) and those ‘rights’ we enjoy because of the society we live in.

Because of this confusion, we are losing more and more of our natural rights. Our government, which was expressly created for the sole purpose of PROTECTING those rights is instead intent on chipping them away to nothing.

Diamond makes some good points about the ‘freedom of the press’ guaranteed to us by our Constitution and how Dianne Feinstein (and others) are working right now to restrict that freedom even more. As a blogger (and hopefully one day able to do more), I am NOT happy with the arrogance of ‘our leaders’ latest attempts to decide who can and can not be considered a journalist re: freedom of the press.

ALL of us should be considered able to publicize whatever we feel is news. That is what the internet has done for ALL of us! Who the hell does Feinstein think she is, to decide what can and can’t be published? Who can/can’t be considered a ‘real’ journalist? What information is OK or NOT OK to be publicized?

The reason the founders included ‘freedom of the press’ in the Bill of Rights was to ensure that we could always get information that the government might prefer to keep secret! The mainstream media has not been doing their job at all for the last few years (at least). Thank goodness for the internet and ordinary people posting to the internet!

 

Our World Through Thomas Paine’s Eyes

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Our World Through Thomas Paine’s Eyes | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Excellent article by Jeffrey Tucker! I guess I’ll have to re-read Common Sense again. I liked it the first time I read it. I liked it more the next time. I’m sure my attitude toward it hasn’t changed, since my love of individual liberty is stronger than ever!

I wonder what will it take for us Americans to stand up and take back our liberty again. We did it once back then when Thomas Paine’s essay managed to stir up the people. Do we have anyone now who could do that job? I know people are trying, the internet is a big help- but most people still aren’t interested in paying attention.

We are in a much worse off position then the colonists were then. Back then, they were fighting the most powerful empire in the world. So would we be. But they were a heck of a lot more evenly matched! The King didn’t have any drones, or NSA spy programs to watch your every move, or even nuclear weapons to threaten with…

Our only real advantage now is the fact that our IDEAS are the better ones. How many people can honestly support tyranny over freedom?

How has tyranny ever lifted the standard of living in a nation? Compared to systems with some freedom allowed? How has tyranny encouraged creativity? Compared to freedom?

Even with the limited freedom we started with here (re:slavery, women, etc), we STILL became the most productive country with the best standard of living on the planet.It’s only as we threw that freedom out the window that we started going downhill.

Get the truth out there to people and they will no longer support “our” government. It HAS in fact become a tyranny.

“Tyranny- arbitrary or unrestrained use of power- oppressive or unjustly severe government.”

 

As the founding fathers fought the American Revolution against King George for such trivial things like a tiny tax on a few items like tea, WE have a much larger tax on EVERYTHING. As they fought against no taxation without representation, WE have no representation either (or do you REALLY think your congressman does what YOU ask them to?).

As they fought against their treatment by the Kings soldiers, we put up with daily harassment by the TSA strip searchers, DEA and police theft/destruction of your property and  NSA collecting EVERYTHING you do or say! How much worse is that then the Kings men occasionally looking through your (snail) mail? And yet no one today protests. 🙁

The government right now is in a ‘shut down’ which did not in fact shut down any of the things they use to oppress us (oh my wishful thinking that they would shut all that down!!). Things like the NSA, DEA, DHS, TSA, IRS are all still open for business (and NO, we do NOT need ANY of them!). They have only shut down the things that people actually ENJOY the use of from the government. Things like the National Parks and the WWII Monument.

They are ‘shut down’ in a fight over the budget and Obamacare. Obamacare is only one more HUGE violation of our rights and the budget is already TRILLIONS of dollars over what it should be! I just keep wondering: what in the HELL is it going to take for the main part of the American people to stand up and say ‘enough is enough’?

How Long Have You Been a Sailor?

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How Long Have You Been a Sailor? | gCaptain

sir stuffington cat

What a cute kitty. Too bad it looks like its already been through hell. 🙁

I would adopt it if I could. Anyone need a good ships cat?

So, how long have I been a sailor? Almost as long as Sir Stuffington. 😉

I wasn’t born on a boat but my brother almost was. He’s only a year younger than me so that’ll give you some idea. For sure I could swim before I could walk. My family has always been close to the water.

When I was very young, we spent a lot of time playing on the beach and our families had boats we would go out on. We spent a lot of time around Long Island NY. My grandfather had a nice old cruiser we used a lot. We would go to Montauk, East Hampton, Jones Beach, Fire Island…

We settled down in Florida when I was ready for 1st grade. My father fell in love with the Island Girl. She was a large (LOA 72′) staysail schooner built in Detroit in 1910. He bought her and sailed her around from Miami to Madeira Beach where we spent the next few years working and living aboard (part time).

He eventually turned the Island Girl into a commercial fishing boat which is where I got my start working on the water. Between fishing trips, he would take friends out for fun sails around the Gulf of Mexico. We had such a blast with that boat. She was well known around Florida for years.

Island Girl

I moved on to the party boats down the street as soon as I could. That was a much more fun job for me. I could make a couple of trips on the weekends and earn enough to pay my dad rent for the month. I know it was unusual to rent an apartment from my dad instead of living with him but it worked for a while.

I was able to go to high school with the Oceanics. That was a HUGE opportunity for me and I jumped on it. It literally changed my life. I was able to sail around the world and I decided on that trip I was going to be a sea captain (instead of a Dr). 🙂

I’ve been working toward that goal ever since. I moved to Texas to go to school to get certified as an AB/QMED (Able Bodied seaman/Qualified Member of the Engine Department).

I finally earned my license from the US Coast Guard as Master Any Gross Tons just a couple of years ago. I was SO happy! I still haven’t had time to properly celebrate that accomplishment. If any of you reading my blog are sailors, you’ll know what I mean.

I do plan to have a party one of these days. As soon as I can find both the time and the money to spare, we’ll be having one to remember! 😉

So, here’s my question to my readers… how long have YOU been a sailor? Tell us your story. I’d like to hear it.

I’ll call it the ‘How long have you been a sailor’ challenge. Write up your story: when did you start sailing? why? do you still like it? or not? what kind of boat (it doesn’t have to be a sailboat!)? where? If you have a blog, do a link from your blog back here (pingback). If you don’t have a blog, don’t feel left out, just post it as a reply.

The Sharing Economy Just Got Real

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Politics.

This is a link to an article on the Utne Reader site. Janelle Orsi is a ‘sharing lawyer’ from California and coauthored the book Policies for Shareable Cities.

I think the whole idea of sharing things we aren’t using all the time is a great idea. Rent my truck from me while I’m offshore and I can’t use it anyway. Or I’ll rent you a bedroom if I’m going to be home for a while. People are doing more and more of that sort of thing. Airbnb is just one example. Of course, the officials want to step in and ruin it before it even gets a chance to get started.

The problem Orsi seems to have with it is that the firms who are getting into this now are all just the usual types of business. She seems to be fixated on the issue of the corporations and their owners (shareholders) getting rich(er). I do get the idea of the rich getting richer, that is true- for sure! No argument. But why is it always assumed by the left (Utne Reader is definitely on that side of the aisle), that to get rich you MUST be raping the poor?

Yes, in this country, at this point, we DO help big business get bigger and stay that way. We DO use all kinds of tax dollars and incentives from the public (the poor financing the rich) to help a bigger business over a smaller one. That is WRONG and should not be allowed to go on! There is nothing in our Constitution that allows for that sort of thing and so it is illegal as well as just plain wrong. We are supposed to be for the FREE market, NOT helping some businesses at the expense of others!

The fact that we do those things is NOT an excuse for saying that any kind of business but a co-op, (or another kind that is owned by the employees and customers), is unacceptable. It is only a reason to go back to our founding principles and STOP providing welfare to big business! STOP picking the winners and losers in the business world and allow the process of creative destruction to function properly. Try allowing the free market to work for once (which of course does include co-ops).

I’m not sure that any kind of co-operative won’t eventually deteriorate into exactly the kind of thing that the left is always crying about. Read George Orwells’ Animal Farm. Somebody has to run the thing. Whoever is in power eventually gets corrupted. It seems to be an unchangeable part of human nature. 🙁

I admit, I would need to do a whole lot more studying to try to figure out how something like what Orsi suggests would work in practice. The idea seems to be very much in line with the ideas of personal liberty and empowerment, voluntary actions, etc. I like that. Yes, co-ops can work. The ones I’ve seen have been on a pretty small scale. Fishermen co-ops in one small area. Farmers markets. All very small in scale. How would a large scale one work? One involving hundreds of thousands or millions of people?

The idea has some merit, I would just like to see some details of how to make it work in reality. I would like to see it work. I would like to see the sharing economy compete with the corporation based economy we have now. I just don’t see how it could be made to work in the real world with real people. Maybe she explains it in her book on shareable cities. I haven’t read it yet. One more for my list. 😉

Functional Medicine for Autoimmune Diseases

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Functional Medicine for Autoimmune Diseases – Mind & Body – Utne Reader.

This is a book review from Utne Reader on the new book The Immune System Recovery Plan. Dr Susan Blum MD MPH recounts her own experience with immune disease (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) and how she has been able to cure herself and even repair her body using functional medicine rather than the usual type we get now a days. They sound like totally different fields of endeavor. 

I like how she describes the ‘new’ field of functional medicine as an approach that looks at the person as a whole, not as a collection of symptoms. I would really like to find a Dr that treated me like that. I’ve always had a hard time with that, most Drs I’ve had take one look at me and blame everything on my weight. My arm could be half chopped off, I’m spraying blood all over the place, and they would tell me I needed to go on a diet and that would fix it. 😉

Yes, it would be ideal to live in such a way that you stay healthy all the time, never get sick or come down with a disease. I just wonder how HARD will it be in reality to be able to do that? I do have to admit, I’m lazy. I don’t want to go on a strict diet. I don’t want to have to exercise for hours every day. I don’t want to take pills every day for the rest of my life either. So, is there any hope for people like me?

From reading just this article, it looks like there actually is. I have a couple of friends who swear their lives have been totally changed by ‘simple’ changes in their diets (and have lost a lot of weight). A couple of friends who’ve had their hormones adjusted and say they’ve been feeling SO much better. I remember my dad had such bad arthritis, but then he started using apple cider vinegar and it just went away. I guess I’ll have to try to find a copy of the book when I get off. 

Anarchy: The Basis for a Civilized Society, Part 2

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Anarchy: The Basis for a Civilized Society, Part 2 | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Here’s the second part of the post I put up last night about Crispin Sartwell and his book Against the State.

The main part of the book is spent in destroying the classical arguments for the State, from thinkers like Hobbs, Locke, Hume, etc. Then he takes up the discussion of why anarchy?

There are plenty of reasons, not least of which, it has worked in the past and still works right now all over the world (example: bowling leagues, ‘invisible hand’ of the market, etc). That is the argument from utility. The other argument is from morality. 

Is it better to argue for anarchy from utility or from morality? I agree with him that the moral position is better.

I think its pretty basic that (non masochist) people don’t want to have violence used against them. People are naturally OK with the Golden Rule. I think that’s a pretty good starting place for society. In fact, I think that’s pretty much the ONLY rule we really need to live in any society. 

Sartwell talks about Lysander Spooner as a good person to refer to. Another writer/philosopher he talks about is Josiah Warren and his book The Practical Anarchist.

I would add Ayn Rand, her writing explained the reasons to value your self very simply. Try her book The Virtue of Selfishness. It’s very short. 😉 Self ownership is the basis for how I think humans should relate towards each other. Society is made up of individuals (duh). A strong, vibrant society is impossible without strong individuals who make it up. The only other alternative to self ownership is slavery and I will never agree with any form of slavery. 

I hope more people start thinking about things like this, instead of just swallowing whatever they’re told in school or on the TV. It’s pretty important. If we don’t have any kind of basis, any foundation, any principles, then how can we expect our society to last? Like a house with a damaged foundation, it will fall down sooner than one with a strong one. 

Our country was based on principles very close to anarchy. We had a VERY limited government, it was a minarchy. Now, we have a bloated beast of bureaucracy and it rules every tiny little detail of our lives.

I can’t count how many times people tell me that if I don’t like the government, I can move to Somalia where they don’t have one. OK, I’m not really up on the details of Somalia but I’ll give you my take anyway…

Somalia is only fighting over WHO is going to be in charge, not that there will or won’t be somebody in charge. So it’s not a stateless society at all, it’s a society with a competition of states. State is defined as the monopoly of the use of force. 

So, Somalia is not a place to go if I don’t like government, it has an overabundance of them and will have to wait for the dust to settle and somebody wins. There’s no place on Earth that I’m aware of that has NO government, if there was, I would absolutely take them up on that and go there asap! 

Bloggers IRL: Get the Most Out of Blogging Conferences

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I had no idea there were blogger conferences. It sounds like a fun and useful thing to go to. 😉

Anarchy: The Basis for a Civilized Society

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Anarchy: The Basis for a Civilized Society | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

In an interview with Crispin Sartwell discussing anarchy and his latest book Against the State, Chris Mayer digs into the questions of what’s really so wrong with anarchy?

I’d really like to know. I agree with them that the left-right paradigm is a big mistake (a scam). All it does is divide us into warring parties and allows the people who really run things free latitude to do whatever they want while we’re distracted.

The reason I posted the Worlds Smallest Political Quiz (http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/worlds-smallest-political-quiz/) as a sticky at the top of my blog was to get people to take the quiz and hopefully find out they might not really be what they’ve been labeled as. That there are other options out there other than just Democrat (left/liberal) and Republican (right/conservative).

It’s a real shame that our media has been taken over by the corporate world and so we never manage to get any real information about the choices we have during elections. Thank goodness for the internet. 🙂

We ALWAYS have more than just the Democrats and Republicans to choose from! We just have no way of finding that out until we see the other names on the ballot (if like most Americans, you get your information from the major media, TV, etc). By that time, it’s too late to make any kind of informed choice, so most people will vote for the same-old, same-old for no other reason than familiarity.

I’ve been a libertarian since I first heard of them. I’ve been fighting city hall since I was a kid. I believe in the principle of SELF ownership. I’ve always questioned authority and I find myself doing even more of that lately.

Who the hell says they’re authorities? Why?? How come the ‘authorities’ constantly screw things up yet still get treated as the best choice there is????  What makes them any better than the rest of us??? Why in the hell should somebody I’ve never even met who has NO idea what my life is like get to make ANY decisions about MY life????

OK, so maybe now I’m becoming an anarchist, even more than a libertarian. They are very close philosophically. I think its worth thinking about more. I definitely think the system we have now which is basically a corporatocracy (run by corporations)  is terribly wrong and we need to get rid of it asap!

I don’t really think any sort of democracy is much better. Look what’s happened to our country since we all started acting like it’s a democracy (it’s NOT, it’s a Constitutional republic!). Democracy is really just 2 wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner. So who wants to be the sheep??

I don’t! Do you?

Zombies, Celebrity Sideboobs, and Smart Social Commentary = Web Gold

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Zombies, Celebrity Sideboobs, and Smart Social Commentary = Web Gold | Mother Jones.

Just found out about this in an email from Mother Jones. 🙂 I used to get Cracked sometimes when I was a kid. I much preferred Mad magazine, but would read Cracked if it was around. I didn’t know it was on the web, never thought to check.

Here it is…www.cracked.com. It looks like its grown up a bit but still looks to be very entertaining. In the MJ interview, they mention they are now ‘one of the webs most popular humor destinations.’

I’ll be checking up on them for sure. I really like their agenda, ‘train yourself to question everything.’ Yeah, definitely my kind of people there. 😉

Man and the Sea: A Longreads Digest

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Man and the Sea: A Longreads Digest | Mother Jones.

Here’s a nice little listing of interesting ‘sea stories’ from Mother Jones. The link is to a page with blurbs from a few (5) different articles. All previously published in places as diverse as the New York Times (A Son of the Bayou, Torn Over the Shrimping Life) to Popular Science (The Quest to Uncover the Secret Life of Sharks).

I think my favorite would have to be “A Sea Story” by William Langewiesche (The Atlantic). Its the story of the sinking of the ferry Estonia where over 850 people died in one of the deadliest maritime disasters of the century. I remember watching a movie, something in a safety class I think. This one would really be worth reading, lessons learned and all that…

Our Fossil-Fueled Future – Environment

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Our Fossil-Fueled Future – Environment – Utne Reader.

Love the picture they start this off with. Right off the bat they make out Exxon as the cause of all the worlds suffering. Yeah, riiiighht…

OK, for the record, I do NOT think we need to stop using fossil fuels! I do NOT think we need to stop the rest of the world from developing up to first world standards. In fact, I think that will be one thing that could help solve everything.

OK, I bet some people are pretty skeptical…

First point: rising incomes = lower birth rate. Lower birth rate + rising incomes = more resources to give a shit about something other than bare survival. So, the first thing we should do if we want to ‘save the planet’ is to help everyone in the world move up the economic ladder asap.

Second point: all of this increase in productivity and rising incomes (time/effort/money spent on other things than energy) depends on CHEAP energy. At this point in time, alternative energy (sources other than fossils) are NOT cheap. They are not anywhere near as efficient and they are not practical (yet). (I DO agree with technology like solar ovens replacing wood burning stoves- that is a GREAT use of solar power in the developing world and a great example of how solar will be able to help)

Third point: they talk about how the entrenched energy companies (meaning fossil fuel companies) earn “staggering profits”, which makes them somehow evil and so they should be either nationalized (BAD idea) or have their ‘profits’ stolen “for the better good” (another really bad idea).

First of all, they don’t make anything like what I would call staggering profits. They only sound like that because of the way they are reported. Which is intentionally to make you feel like something is wrong with it. They are manipulating you to make you want to punish those ‘evil’ corporations. Please read this article to get a more balanced perspective… http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/20/big-oil-isnt-as-profitable-as-everyone-thinks/

And to end my review of this article, I would like to point out my personal favorite way to ‘save the world’ with the least pain and anguish for everyone (and everyTHING) on the planet… start using BIRTH CONTROL!!!

If you really think about it, almost every problem you can come up with is minimized if you cut down the amount of people running around the planet. Global warming for instance. If you say that global warming is caused by the actions of people, then it could easily be solved by reducing the amount of people acting. Right?

YES! So, wouldn’t it be better to just use some birth control rather than kill off the people that are already here (through starvation, disease, war, pollution)???

China has done the world a great service with their one child policy (the only problem is their use of force instead of persuasion). If everyone around the world would think about this and resolve to just have one child voluntarily, it would solve a LOT of our problems. War, hunger, pollution, would all be just about eliminated, or at least minimized to the greatest possible extent.

Yes, it would take a while. But in the same time period they’re talking about 2040, we could make a huge, lasting impact, especially if people really came to value the rest of the planet instead of only humanity.

Personally, I would LOVE to see the use of non-polluting alternative energy sources grow to overtake the use of fossil fuels. I DO value this beautiful earth and all the other creatures living here with us.

I would be happy to use wind, solar, ocean current, fuel cell, or anything else that can match fossil fuels in price and efficiency. I am hoping they will come up with new technology that will allow me to make that choice sometime soon. So far, that day has not come. I’m doing what I can see as feasible in the meantime. No, I’m not going to be a martyr.

 

How To Be a Slave –

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How To Be a Slave –.

A friend forwarded me an email a few days ago that had this post in it.Tonight I read it and I was like, oh yeah, GOOD stuff here…

I might nit- pick a little bit on his numbers, but the truth is, he is absolutely correct. Those of us who are still working for somebody else ARE basically slaves. Most people never think of it that way. I never really thought too much about the employer part of it, which is why I say I have some small issues with his numbers. But I’ve been aware of the fact that I am a slave to the government for a long time now.

Yes, he is right. The government takes between 40-50% of your income. I will argue with that and say it is even more. Just to be nice, lets say it’s ‘only’ 40%. OK, if some bandit held you up on the street and told you that they would take 40% of everything you earned for the next 50 years of your life would you think he was turning you into a slave?

Yes, right, he DID just turn you into a slave. Having the government do the same thing, means that you are a slave to them instead of just a single robber. Whooo- hooo! Big deal! OK, so now we know we are all slaves to the government, lets look at what Mr Altucher says about your employer.

I’ve been working with temp agencies for the last couple of years. In this capacity, it is very explicit that exactly what Mr Altucher is saying is true about the employer/employee relationship. I get a day rate when my company sends me out to work for a client. That client pays my employer a LOT more money then my employer pays me. Yes, it’s VERY clear! The money I (and everybody else working as temps there) earn has to pay for the entire upkeep of the company!

It works the same way at EVERY company. If you are not worth a certain amount of money to them, they’ll either not hire you, fire you, or just pay you less. The arguments going on (again) about minimum wage are very relevant here.

I LOVE what he says about owning your time, owning your work, owning the value you create for others! This is very basic stuff. This is at the bottom of all my political beliefs- SELF ownership.

I want to find out how to break free. I’ve been trying to for a long time now but just by following the usual paths. Work hard, save money, buy a house, etc…. it’s just taking too long. Now I understand more about why that is. OK, yeah, if 90% of what I earn is being taken from me before I even see it, then yeah, I can see why I can’t break free. 🙁

In the article, he mentions a book but he didn’t give a name. I looked Mr James Altucher up on www.amazon.com and found out he has a few books. I am assuming it is the one called “Choose Yourself!”. I just downloaded it for my kindle. It’s only $2.99!

I can hardly wait to read it! 🙂

Are Weeds Healthier Than Farmed Veggies?

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Are Weeds Healthier Than Farmed Veggies? | Mother Jones.

My guess would be yes. 🙂

We’ve had an expert on edible plants come out to lead our Campaign for Liberty meetup group on an expedition to hunt down local ‘weeds’. I’ve managed to miss it both times so far. I’d really like to know more about this and hoping I’ll be home the next time he can come to see us. We’re trying to get more involved with natural, organic, non-GMO foods.

I can’t manage a garden very well when I’m offshore most of the time. I’m pretty sure I could manage to grow weeds. In fact, I have a yard full of them already. I just need to know if any of them are good for eating. 😉

10 Blogging Nuggets From a Newbie

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Great tips for bloggers 🙂

Why Americans Can’t Die With Dignity

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Why Americans Can’t Die With Dignity | Mother Jones.

I thought this was a really good interview with Katy Butler. Author of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death”. I think its a very important issue that we just keep on avoiding. Even with all the talk about ‘death panels’ in Obamacare, we still don’t really get to the point. We need to have the discussion. We need to really do some deep thinking about how we want to deal with a major injury/sickness and death.

I’ve already been through the ordeal of losing both my parents. I was the one who had to make the decisions at the end for both of them. I do totally agree with Katy that we in America spend WAY too many resources on people who are in the last stage of life. Resources that could be much better spent on helping the quality of life rather than the quantity.

I myself would prefer to die before they put me on the machines, before I don’t know who I am anymore, or recognize my best friends. I don’t even consider that as LIFE! I hope I’m strong enough to just get it over with and off myself if I ever get to that point. I would hate to have to put someone else at risk of going to prison for helping me end my life with some dignity. Yeah, I say that now…

Reading the interview I was reminded of how my father changed his outlook once he found out he had cancer. The doctors at the VA hospital only gave him a few months to live. He had a rare form of cancer and so with a lot of help from friends was able to get treatment at MD Anderson hospital instead. It’s one of the best cancer treatment centers in the world. They did everything they could for him. It added probably a few more months to his life.

But he was sick as hell from the treatments. He was in pain most of the time. He was dying and he knew it but he was also determined to fight til the very end. He did. He died anyway (like we all will).

We were able to get some help for him at the end but it was too little, too late. I was trying to help deal with a lot of medical issues I wasn’t really prepared for (even tho I do have medical PIC- it’s harder to deal with someone you know and love).

Near the end, my father had no idea who I was. It would have been nice if he could have been helped by hospice at home, where he was comfortable and had his friends around. We were finally lucky to be able to put him in a hospice facility in Houston, he died there in only a couple of days.

I have no real idea of what all that cost. I just know it was a LOT and there was no way he could afford it. (And yes, I’m pretty sure those costs were passed on to the general public). No way anybody could afford all that! If he didn’t have that rare form of cancer, I’m sure he would have been ‘allowed’ to die a lot sooner. The hospital thought it was worth keeping him around so they could learn from his case. Hopefully they learned something to help someone else down the road.

I really should have had a discussion with my dad before he got sick. I would have felt better knowing what he really wanted. Not a decision made under that kind of stress. Some states have passed a Death with Dignity Act. I don’t think Texas is one of them. I would support it.

Lecture Series | Mariners’ Museum

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Lecture Series | Mariners’ Museum.

I only just found out about this lecture series when I read the link on my earlier post on The Project. It will be part of this Lecture Series. It sounds like a pretty cool thing to do if you’re in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.

Each lecture has a presentation by the author and a Q & A session afterwards. They have them almost monthly and they pick some good ones. The Project about pirates sounds great. They have one on sea monsters coming up Oct 10 that sounds good too.  🙂

Check the link for more information. The website for the museum is www.marinersmuseum.org . Its FREE! 🙂

Bill To Define Journalist Will Get Full Senate Vote

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Bill To Define Journalist Will Get Full Senate Vote : Personal Liberty™.

Just got this in an email… URGENT to all bloggers and anyone else concerned with free speech. This bill will destroy it! Call and write your “representatives” asap. It’s very important to defeat this bill. There is no definition of what a ‘journalist’ is in the Constitution and they have NO need to make one up now. All this bill will accomplish is to silence those of us they don’t like for whatever reason. Speak up now before it’s too late!

Daily Prompt: Toy Story- Sea Snark

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Daily Prompt:Toy Story- What was your favorite plaything as a child? Do you see any connection between your life now, and your favorite childhood toy?

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/daily-prompt-memento/

I’m not sure if my sea snark qualifies as a toy but playing with it (sailing) was my favorite thing to do while I was growing up (other than reading).

I used to take my little sailboat our almost every day, usually after school. Sometimes, I would even sail it TO school 🙂

Made out of Styrofoam, it was indestructible. Unlike the Titanic, it was actually unsinkable 🙂 We DID test that quite regularly 😉

I had SO much fun with that little boat. 🙂 I would go by myself. I would take out my friends. My brother would run circles around me with his outboard powered dingy, but I didn’t care. I always loved just sailing. Letting the wind drive me where I wanted to go. It was so engaging, so peaceful, so enjoyable. I STILL love sailing and go out every chance I can.

As a kid, I never would have imagined that I would wind up ‘sailing’ for a living (that’s what we call shipping out- ‘sailing’). I was on track to be a doctor back then. My grandparents were both pharmacists. My fathers mother was one of the first female pharmacists in the state of NY 🙂 (I definitely take after her) 😉 I made straight A’s in school and I did love studying all my subjects in class, especially math and science.

What happened was: I got sick and tired of taking the same classes over and over again in school. For example, I had been taking algebra since at least 5th grade. I always made straight A’s. I just couldn’t see the point of taking it AGAIN in 9th grade.

So, I started skipping those classes that I’d already taken. I was still making good grades. I could still keep up with the work. After all, I HAD already taken those classes (more than once). I’ll never understand why parents put up with the school systems dumbing down their kids so much!

Eventually, my family got tired of hearing about my transgressions from the school district. My grandmother decided I needed to go to a boarding school, to keep me from skipping 😉 Well, I give her credit. She tried. She really did.

Along with my Aunt Helen, my grandmother and I went on a road trip from Freeport NY, up through Niagara Falls (loved the Maid of the Mist) into Canada. We came back down through the Detroit area (went to a concert there- grandma wore earplugs 🙂 ). Visited family friends near Chicago. Stopped at a dozen fancy schools before we made it back to NY.

I have to admit, I was a total BITCH the entire trip. I didn’t want to go to any fancy-schmantzy rich kid boarding school! I would never fit in. I liked my life the way it was. I loved my town where I grew up and I could spend my days hanging out with my friends on the beach. Sailing, swimming, fishing, even sometimes jumping off the bridge to let the current carry me out to the Gulf so I could swim back in 😉

Yeah, I was also hanging out at the amusement parlor and the pool halls, sometimes the bars 😉 I was drinking and other things I wasn’t supposed to be doing.

It was really a lucky stroke of fate what happened when my grandmother got me back to her place in Freeport. She was so fed up with me after that search for an acceptable school for both me and her, she took me to the library and threw the book at me. Literally! She told me that it was a book listing ALL the accredited schools in the country and if I could find one in there that I liked, I could go there.

The book landed on a table in front of me. Opened to a page with a picture of a square-rigged ship in full sail. I was hooked! I grabbed that book and started reading that thing like my life depended on it (turned out it really did in a way).

The book gave details: the Oceanics School (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19720827&id=nN1VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5eADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6581,6541976). Based in New York City, the school would charter these large traditional sailing ships for months long cruises with their students aboard. The ship sailed around the world and the students learned to operate the ship. They held classes on navigation, seamanship, oceanography, cultural studies and languages of all the countries the ship visited.

I was so excited. I told my grandmother “that’s it!”. That’s the one I want to go to!! She was aghast!! She told me “no way”. “No way are you going to ruin your life with those damn boats like your father did!!” Up til he bought his dream boat, the “Island Girl”, my father was an engineer. A ‘respectable’ professional career man. My grandmother would never forgive the Island Girl for my fathers decision to quit the corporate world.

When I got home and told my dad about the Oceanics school, he was almost as happy about it as I was. He said “you’re going”, and “while we’re at it, we’ll send your brother too”! “You can’t skip school when you’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean” 😉 So, soon enough my brother and I were off to sail around the world. We had some absolutely fantastic adventures sailing the 3- masted schooner Ariadne from Athens to Martinique!

That trip changed my life. I returned without my brother to sail the Ariadne again from Martinique back across the Atlantic. I had some incredible experiences with some wonderful people. It DID change my life.

I will be forever grateful to the Gallaghers (especially Stephanie) who took a chance on me and then helped me SO much. Even after I graduated from the Oceanics, Stephanie was instrumental in getting me set up in the Ocean Marine Technology program in Texas that got me started on the way to earning my license.

Because of the chance to go to the Oceanics, I am STILL sailing. Almost 35 years later.  🙂 I recently upgraded to Master Any Gross Tons and can sail pretty much any ship on the ocean. I still love the traditional sailing ships best but there just aren’t enough of them around to make a living on. Too bad 🙁

So, yeah, you could say my favorite plaything when I was young is still my favorite plaything now. 🙂

Here are a couple of great links. The first one is by Tim Harris of the ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl which he sailed on as a cadet with the Oceanics in the early 70s. The next one is of the same ship in a storm. The last is a link to the ship itself, in case you’re interested in sailing her 😉

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iokDVlHybtE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_YWgRBmVtY

www.lehmkuhl.no

Book Review: A Captains Duty

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http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/Book-Review-A-Captains-Duty-by-Captain-Richard-Phillips-2013-09-09/

OK, I haven’t read this book yet, but it looks like a good one and I’ll be looking for it when I get home. Sailors, merchant ships, pirate attacks, Navy SEAL teams to the rescue, WOW! It should be pretty intense 😉

This is the true story of the attack of the container ship Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates and the response of the crew.

I remember when it happened and I felt like, oh, so NOW people care. Its only because its an American ship. The pirates had been attacking ships for years and holding hundreds of sailors hostage and nobody did diddly til a US ship got attacked. It still pisses me off.

It’s something I never want to be involved in but can relate to for sure. So far, I’ve been lucky. I’ve never been attacked (yet) I’ve gone through the Suez Canal and the Malacca Straits a few times which are both areas with plenty of real life pirates. They’re NOT like Johnny Depp!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the movie with Tom Hanks starring as Captain Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is due out next month. I’ll try to catch it, but the book is always better than the movie IMHO 😉

Let me know how you liked it.

How Do Innocent People Find Justice In America?

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How Do Innocent People Find Justice In America? : Personal Liberty™.

They don’t! Unless you have a LOT of money for a GOOD lawyer, you are better off taking the plea bargain. You will be found guilty by a jury (unless that jury knows their rights to nullify bad laws and keeps their mouths SHUT about it so the judge doesn’t disqualify them)! I know this from personal experience. Yes, (woooo, scary music), I am a “criminal”. I hope that doesn’t chase off too many of you 🙂 I was convicted of DWI back in 1982, the jury insisted over the pure physical impossibility of my breathalyzer results that they were indeed correct and NO police officer would EVER tamper with the evidence or LIE. In fact, the officers involved did BOTH.

Since the invention of cell phone cameras and the internet, more people are coming to the realization that the cops DO in fact LIE and tamper with the evidence. They do that quite often. So, knowing these FACTS, how can anyone trust the “justice system” in the good ol’ USA???

I think they have a good idea with these “affiliate newspapers”. To help “vindicate the innocent”. We definitely need something to stop the rise of the police state we are becoming. We actually have a pretty good one started around S Texas. It’s called the Texas Free Press. I think they publish it in the Corpus Christi area. My local Campaign for Liberty meetup group was helping to distribute it around the Brazoria County area but I think we’ve stopped lately due to lack of advertising interest. Too bad 🙁

We need to get creative and find ways to take back our freedom. We are never going to win this war against us if we can’t do that. We are totally out financed and out gunned (literally). We need to win the war of ideas! Newspapers are still a great way to get the word out. Too bad all the mainstream media that most people read are all owned by the big money and so they are NOT doing their job! We need newspapers for the PEOPLE, NOT corporate owned shills!

Find Your Fans and Grow Your Readership: Introducing Blog Event Listings!

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I love this idea. I hope one of these days I can figure out how to do this on my own blog

The Double Standard of Smoking Marijuana

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The Double Standard of Smoking Marijuana – Arts & Culture – Utne Reader.

This is an article from Utne Reader on a new book, “Marijuana is Safer”. Well, duh, YES, it IS! MUCH safer! I could say I can’t believe how we have spent so much time, effort, money, to keep it illegal in this “free” country. But I do believe it since I know the history of how it was made illegal in the first place.

Federal marijuana prohibition is the direct cause of the continual violations of our 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th amendments and the filling up of our prisons. First of all, the prohibition was not legally passed by congress like alcohol prohibition was. They did not make any constitutional amendment to make marijuana illegal. Instead, they listened to the lobbyists for DuPont, Hearst and their puppet doctor. Congress was bought off by those who just plain didn’t want the competition that the marijuana plants (and hemp) would give their companies making paper from trees and artificial fibers such as nylon. Watch the movie “Hemp for Victory” (put out by the federal government to encourage farmers to grow the weed to help with the war effort) and you will get an idea of just how useful the marijuana (and hemp) plants are. Of course, the prejudice they stirred up against blacks and Hispanics didn’t hurt any either.

I want to know, how many MILLIONS of people do we have to put in prison, how many lives to we have to completely destroy? before we will come to our senses and legalize weed??? I am going to come out and say it, it is a RIGHT! Rights which we enjoy not only under our constitution, (which only says our federal government was formed to PROTECT those natural rights we had BEFORE there was ever any government), rights we have due to the fact that we are human beings. We have allowed “our” government to get its foot in the door, due to prejudice and greed, and of course FEAR, and now we are paying the price. They have used this so-called War on Drugs, which is really a war on US, to take away our rights and destroy our country. 

I am sick and tired of having to listen to people who don’t know what they’re talking about tell us all that we need to continue the ‘drug war’. NO, we do NOT! We need to STOP it asap! I hope lots of people will read this book and learn the truth about the issues, STOP listening to the politicians, they do NOT do anything that is not in THEIR interests, they do NOT represent US anymore, if they ever did.

Libertarian Futurist Society

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Libertarian Futurist Society.

This is a listing of all the past Prometheus Awards. They’re awarded for the best Libertarian science fiction of the year. I’ve read and enjoyed quite a few. I like books that make you THINK and these sure fit the bill! I’ve already read a lot of these books and seeing the list now makes me want to read some more of them 🙂 Some of my favorites on the list (I didn’t even know about the list when I read them)…

2009- Little Brother- Cory Doctorow

2011- Animal Farm- Hall of Fame- George Orwell

2009- Lord of the Rings- Hall of Fame- J.R.R. Tolkien

1998- Time Enough for Love- Hall of Fame- Robert Heinlein

1984- Farenheit 451- Hall of Fame- Ray Bradbury

1983- Atlas Shrugged- Hall of Fame- Ayn Rand

LoneStarCon 3 – 71st Worldcon in San Antonio, Texas

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LoneStarCon 3 – 71st Worldcon in San Antonio, Texas.

Jeeze, sorry I’m so late on this one. I got the news in an email from the Advocates for Self Government but I didn’t really get around to reading it til this morning. If anyone is in San Antonio, they can probably still get there in time to check it out in person.

If I wasn’t getting ready to go back to work already, I would LOVE to go to this event. I love reading, especially science fiction! I’ve never been to anything like this but I bet it would be loads of fun. Film festival, exhibits, Hugo award ceremony, astronaut to meet, etc…  Its also being covered online so if you can’t make it to San Antonio, you can still see what’s going on.