Tag Archives: blogging

Cape of Good Hope

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Hey,

It’s been pretty busy on here since we left Mauritius on Saturday. I thought it would be a nice, quiet cruise for a few days. Instead it’s been one thing after another. I haven’t really had any time to myself.

Today we’re sailing South of South Africa. We passed by Port Elizabeth a couple of hours ago, we’ll pass the Cape of Good Hope and Capetown sometime tonight or early tomorrow. I’m on the midnight til noon watch, so I’m hoping to be able to see something of it when we pass by. I hear the view from the ocean is beautiful.

I wonder if we’ll see anything of Africa before we reach Congo?

Ephemeral

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Here’s my take on the latest prompt from the Daily Post (Ephemeral).

I chose these photos for 2 reasons. The paper origami boats are themselves ephemeral, and I took the pictures earlier this evening in Port Louis, Mauritius.

Why does that make it ephemeral? Because I only got here yesterday afternoon after a looooooong flight (too tired to go out). Today I spent all day in a ‘workshop’ with the rest of my new crewmates. Tomorrow morning (early), we will be leaving to join the ship. So my time in Mauritius sped by and was very short-lived.

It looks very beautiful (I’ll post more pictures later). I hope I can come back again someday. 🙂

At the Airport (Again)

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Seems like I’ve been home for such a short time! I guess that’s because I’ve only been home for a little over a week and the 1st couple of days were totally wasted just trying to catch up on sleep!! So I HAVE only been home for a short time!!

These long flights are really getting old. Especially when they make it so there’s no way to even TRY to upgrade! I started trying to upgrade as soon as I found out I would have a 15 HOUR flight! (And that’s only the FIRST leg to Dubai, I still have another 6 1/2 flight to Mauritius after that!) It would be nice to show up somewhere and not be completely exhausted for the 1st few days you get there.

I don’t have enough miles on this airline (Emirates). They don’t allow use of miles from another airline. I tried to BUY an upgrade, they wouldn’t even tell me how much it would cost!

All this because I’m on a ‘seamans’ fare’, not that it’s really any cheaper than I see online every day. What a rip-off! They USED to be good for a good rate for sailors that had to get to/from their ships on short notice. Not the same anymore, they’re more than the online tickets now.

I could possibly upgrade through my travel agent, IF I could contact them. Seems that is just not possible. I tried calling, emailing, and filling out their online form. Been trying for a WEEK now. STILL no response from them.

So, I guess I need to psyche myself up for a 15 hour long flight with no sleep. I WISH I was one of those so-lucky people that can sleep while sitting up!

I just hope there are no seat-back kicking kids or screaming babies nearby. 🙁

 

Photography 101: Rodeo Moments

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I haven’t been able to get out to get many new pictures lately, so I’m looking through some old ones for the Photography 101 Challenge: Moment.

The idea is to ‘”capture a fleeting moment and experiment with blur and movement”.

I did try this last time they ran this challenge, but I found some different pictures this time. I took these at the Brazoria County Fair a couple of years ago. I don’t think these turned out as good as the earlier ones I just posted. It was SO hard to get a good shot of the cowboys once they came out of the gate on those bulls!

I’m thinking of going to the Houston Rodeo tomorrow tho, so maybe I’ll be able to get some better ones this time. I really love going to the rodeo. I’m lucky to be home for this one. I’m in Houston tonight anyway, so might as well do something here in the morning before I go home. It’ll be either the rodeo or the zoo. 🙂

Photo 101: Architecture

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I thought I’d try to do this Photography 101 project again, since I wasn’t able to spend much time on it last time and missed a few assignments. Here is my post from last time.

I thought I would have more time this go ’round.

It doesn’t look like I will, but while I’m home, I’ll try to participate. Here’s my entry for the ‘architecture’ challenge. I’m trying to find some good ones I can make black and white.

Here are a couple of shots I took a few years ago when I was in Argentina for vacation. I really loved it there. I wish I could have spent months there instead of only couple of weeks. These photos are both from Buenos Aires. The first one is looking down the neat old spiral staircase I found at my first B&B. The bottom one is looking up into the skylight of a market

I think they both show some great ‘bones’. I have some other good photos of architecture from that trip, but most of them look better in color. I don’t usually think in black and white.

Do you think that might help to get better photos?

PS- the ‘featured image’ is also from Buenos Aires. I took it while I was wandering around down near the river one day. I don’t have any idea what the building is.

Mauritius!

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Amazing! I only got home from Angola late Thursday, and Friday I got an email from work asking me to go to Mauritius!

I’ve never been there before. I LOVE going to new places. I just hope to have at least a little bit of time to see something of Mauritius. I’d hate to go straight from the airport to the ship. The pictures look gorgeous! Here’s one I found on google.

I’m going to meet one of our new drillships and bring it around to the other side of Africa and hopefully stay to get it started on its’ first contract. This will be the first time I’ve actually gone anywhere on a ship for months. That will be a nice change.

I’m excited to be able to sail a ship again, instead of just keep it sitting in one place, which is what I’ve mostly been doing for the last few years. Here’s a map of Africa. You can get an idea of where we’ll be going. Just find Mauritius (East of Madagascar) and head South around the tip of South Africa and then back up North to Congo on the West Coast.

Looks like we’ll wind up not too far from where I’ve been working off Angola for the last few months.

Intricate

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Here’s an entry for the Word A Week Challenge from Sue over on her A Word in Your Ear Blog . The word of the week is: intricate. I had these pictures on my blog already, I think they are a nice example of ‘intricate’. I had already done a post about these very intricate designs made from sea shells. They call them Sailors Valentines. 🙂

A Typical Day On A Drillship

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I decided to join in on Jasons’ challenge over at the Opinionated Mans blog. He’s collecting a pretty cool collection of posts from people all over the world. Everyone is posting about where they’re from and what it’s like there. I’ve really enjoyed hearing from everyone.

I really have 2 totally different places I could call home. I live in a small town in Texas, but I actually spend more time out here at work than I do there. So, this is really more my home, out here (at sea).


For at least half the year, I live onboard something like this ship I’m on right now. It’s about 228m long and 42m wide. We usually have between 165-180 people onboard (almost all men). There’s not a lot of space on these ships for living quarters, so almost everyone shares a room. I am lucky to only share with one other person. We are on opposite watch so we’re never in the room at the same time. Some people have 4 to a room and also share heads (bathrooms). I am also lucky to have a private bathroom in my cabin. 🙂

It’s small, but comfortable enough for only a month at a time. Most people are regular on board here and they can bring things from home to fix things up a little bit. I’m still in the resource pool, so I can’t bring much with me. I’m just happy that they have a catering crew here that keeps the room clean and does the laundry. That saves a lot of time. They also take care of all meals. 🙂

I can really only give a very basic description of what it’s like out here, since every ship is different in some ways and the same in others. I’ve been on this one now a couple of times since July. We’ve been working offshore Angola, about 85 miles W of the Congo River. I’m working here as DPO (Dynamic Positioning Operator). My typical day out here (this hitch) goes like this…

Wake up at 22:30. Take a shower. Get dressed. TRY to get online to check email (internet access is very iffy out here). If that doesn’t work, fiddle with my photos in Lightroom on the computer. Head up to the bridge by 23:30 for watch.

Take the elevator up 2 decks to E deck, walk up another flight to the bridge. Get a cup of coffee and chat with my relief before starting to go over the checklist. Go through the checklist. Call everyone for communication checks (engine room, drill floor, standby boats). Then stand my watch for 12 hours on the bridge with a half hour break for ‘lunch’ at 06:30. Since I work from midnight to noon, this meal is actually breakfast that is being served. We have eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, ham & cheeses, fruits, and something usually left over from last night so that people who’ve been up all night can have a different choice.

I work until noon on the ships bridge, looking out for traffic and monitoring the DP system while the drillers are doing their thing. We’ve been working in shallow water lately, so things are more stressful than usual. The difference for us is; we don’t have very much time to react if things start going wrong.

When watch is over, I walk down the 3 flights of stairs to my cabin (or 5 down to the galley for lunch). Then I try to check my email and work on the computer for an hour or 2 before bed. If I really get motivated, and the weather’s nice, I might go walk around the helideck for a while.  I TRY to get to sleep by 1500 but I usually run late. I never manage to get enough sleep out here. 🙁

There’s not usually much to look at here. We might have a supply boat alongside to watch. We can see the flares of the FPSOs (Floating Production Storage Offloading) a few miles away (they’re very bright at night). That’s about it at this location, but sometimes it can be really awesome at sea. Just to see the wild ocean in all its many moods. Or the night sky in all its’ glory, with no lights for hundreds of miles to interfere with your vision. Or schools of hundreds of dolphins keeping you company as you steam along. Those are some of the reasons I love it out here at sea. 🙂

Maersk Finder, Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV)

 

So, the entire month I’m here, it’s basically: eat, sleep and work. Nothing else to do out here but look forward to getting off and going home. 🙂

I only have 5 more days til I’m due off. Or, as we say out here, 4 more and a wake up! It’s always good when you get to the single digits. 🙂

Accepted!

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I’ve been trying for a few years to get started in a second (or 3rd) career as a writer/photographer. I’ve been reading International Living magazine for a long time now (decades). I usually glance over the ads, but eventually I was tempted to sign on for their travel writing course.

I did it and over the years since, I’ve taken a few other courses through IL and what is now called GEP (Great Escape Publishing). I started this blog at the Boston workshop they put on back in August 2013. I figured the blog would be a good way to get my work out to the public without having to go through an editor. I was getting so frustrated at having my photos rejected and I couldn’t even understand what they were telling me when they told me WHY they rejected them.

All along the way, I’ve still been trying to come up with something that I could sell to someone. I do enjoy writing and photography, but I am also really looking for some way to earn an income without having to be out on a ship so much of the time. I really want to find a way to travel more and spend more time doing the things I want to do instead of what other people want me to be doing. 😉

I have somehow managed to have a couple of articles published online (here, here, and here), but that came about only because someone happened to see my blog and liked what I had written on here. I had never been able to get up the nerve to actually send in a formal query to a real magazine editor.

Until last trip home. I FINALLY got around to sending in an article to International Living! I had high hopes. I was really anxious too. I had written a short article (they say short is much better to start with), but I had written it about Singapore. Singapore is not one of the countries IL usually features. I thought they might like it since it was about how to eat cheap there. They DO like articles about how to save money. 🙂

I’m still waiting to hear back from them. I HOPE they willl let me know something one way or another. In the meantime, I’ve been working on trying again to get my photographs accepted on some of the stock photo sites. I’m happy to say, I’ve managed to get some accepted!

I still don’t really understand why they accept some and they refuse others. I do understand what they’re telling me now, I just don’t SEE what they’re telling me about in the photos I’ve sent. So far, my acceptance level is 40% at Bigstock, 0% at Canstock and Fotolia. I’m getting better, at first my acceptance level was only 26%. 🙂

Here are 2 of the photos I submitted. Can you tell which ones they accepted? The first one is of a temple on a lake in Bali, Indonesia. The second one is of the beach in Cancun, Mexico.

Which one do YOU like best? Why?

Hi Ho, Hi Ho!

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I’m on my way back to work. Leaving Frankfurt now. Should arrive in Luanda around 10 hours from now. I should be on the ship for about a month, so don’t get too worried about me if you don’t see me posting quite as often. It’s hard to keep up with anything online when I’m offshore.

Mural- Dixie Friend Gay

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I saw this challenge from Sue over at her ‘A Word in Your Ear’ blog. The word of the week is: mural. I have a few photos of murals. Actually some of mine are a little different, most people think of murals as paintings on a wall. I have some of those, but I also have some murals made in different mediums than just paint. This one is one of my favorites.

My photo doesn’t do it justice. This mural is just STUNNING. I took this a couple of years ago when I was at the Maritime Education and Training conference at Texas A&M University in Galveston (Texas). There is more to it than just the part I could get in this picture. It’s HUGE.

It’s actually a mosaic, made of millions of little ceramic tiles. The artist Dixie Friend Gay made it. I’m not sure how long it took. There’s a better picture of how it all looks in this link. And another one to more about her art.

I think her mosaics are just incredible. I wonder that her work isn’t more well known. I think it deserves to be. What do you think?

We Are Young- Mural

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I saw this challenge from Sue over at her ‘A Word in Your Ear’ blog. The word of the week is: mural. I thought I should get into this one. I have a few photos of those. Actually some are a little different, but this one is one of my favorites.

What's Going On?

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 I looked at my blog this morning and I couldn’t believe my eyes! I had shot up to 72 views (from 8) in the last day. It seems like it’s been really slow lately. I haven’t had more than 10 in the stats bar for at least 2-3 weeks. I went to look at my stats page to try to figure out what was going on and saw that I had 133 views already! That’s the most ever! WTF???
  • Views 141
  • Visitors 121
  • Comments 0

This is very strange. No comments? Only 3 likes out of 141!! views? That is nothing like my usual daily activity on my blog. I’m just wondering what’s going on? I hadn’t even posted anything yet today…

Stats for January 21

Nothing Published

When I looked to see what people were looking at, this is what it showed. That doesn’t add up to anywhere near 141 (or even 133). But when I looked into it more, it showed me a whole long list of posts with 1 view each. Taking all those into account, the numbers did add up. I still have no idea what’s going on.

  • View  14 Home page / Archives
  • View  6 Dave’s Peach Pie Moonshine Recipe
  • View 3 Halloween Treats Recipe Slideshow
  • View 3 SNL: Obama Addresses Putin
  • View 2 Zero to Hero- Day 21: Let the World Know
  • View 2 I’m On Board!
  • View 2 Shadowed
  • View 2 German Coast Guard Trainee
  • View 2 Brrrrr!
  • View 2 Women Rallied Behind Beautiful, Wartless Witches
 It looks like a few people did searches that brought them to me, but that only gives me 8 viewers.
 
 8Search Engines
  • 7Google Search
    • 2 google.co.uk
    • 2 google.co.uk/search
    • 2 google.com
    • 1 google.es
  • 1AOL

These are the blogs where people came to visit me from today. Happy to have the interaction, I liked all of those blogs! I’m on bloglovin, but nobody ever seems to look at me there. I think this is maybe my 1st one that showed up here in my stats. I hope that’s a good sign. 🙂

This is the only one somebody thought was interesting enough to click on to read more about. 🙁

  • About Clicks
  • 1 screen.yahoo.com/broken-news-daily/mysterious-ghost-ship-incredible-history-004502570.html

Interesting to see what people were searching for to bring them to my blog. I’m still amazed by how many people are searching for “moonshine”!

  • ViewsSearch
  • 2 seamans mission limassol cyprus
  • 1 peach pie moonshine
  • 3 Unknown Search Terms
 I always like to see where people are from. I wish more people would tell me more about themselves in their comments, but the little flag widget I have on my sidebar and the stats map are nice to have. They give me a clue. I wonder what makes people from some places come visit my blog. Most of my visitors are from the USA, UK and Canada. I guess today some seamen must be due into port in Limassol (Cyprus) and looking for news about the local Seaman’s Center there. That gives me an idea. I should put a link up for those things! 🙂
ViewsCountry
  • 132United States
  • 3United Kingdom
  • 3Spain
  • 3Cyprus

Here’s another interesting stat today. I’ve still got lots of views for the moonshine recipe. But also a few for Halloween recipes (little late for that, but I’m always up for sweets). 🙂

I’m glad to see some of my older posts are still holding some interest. 🙂

  • ViewsAuthor
  • 127Capt Jill
  • View 6 Dave’s Peach Pie Moonshine Recipe
  • View 3 Halloween Treats Recipe Slideshow
  • View 3 SNL: Obama Addresses Putin
  • View 2 White Chocolate-Raspberry Cheesecake Bars
  • View 2 Dilbert
  • View 2 Shadowed
  • View 2 Self Ownership
  • View 2 Songs of the Sea: The Dutchman
  • View 2 Zero to Hero- Day 21: Let the World Know
  • View 2 I’m On Board!

I’m looking at the posts where I’ve had the most comments. I’m trying to figure out if there’s any common theme that seems to get people more involved. If there is one, I’m not seeing it. I do remember pissing off a few people bad enough for them to quit following me over some of the more political posts (one of those is listed below- war on jobs). Too bad. 🙁

Total comment followers: 37

  • View 109 About
  • View 27 World’s Smallest Political Quiz
  • View 18 In Praise of Alcohol 
  • View 18 WordPress Family Award- I Won One!
  • View 15 Happy New Year 2015
  • View 14 Photography 101 Challenge: A Pop of Color
  • View 14 The War on Jobs Continues
  • View 13 Unexpected News!
  • View 13 Travel Journey of the Week: New Orleans
  • View 13 Zero to Hero- Day 7: Personalize Your Blog
  • View 12 Dreamy: Elvis
 Seems like the categories people like to look at are the things I am posting a lot about, so that’s good. Sometimes it’s hard for me to categorize things, they’ll fit into more than one place, so I label them with more than one label. 🙂 
                 149 lifestyle
    • 98 blogging
    • 80 Uncategorized
    • 69 History
    • 65 art
    • 64 maritime
    • 63 things to do
    • 60 travel
    • 52 video
    • 40 economy

And I FINALLY made it to over 500 followers on WordPress!! It seems like that took forever! Actually, I only started this blog the end of August last year, so it’s only been about a year and a half. Facebook has given me the most “followers”, but I don’t really count them since I can’t seem to get it to go to my BLOG page and not my personal page. Most of those people aren’t paying any attention at all to my blog posts. 🙁

I really haven’t figured out how to use twitter or tumblr yet. I still have NO clue as to how to really “promote” my blog to get more followers or how to ‘monetize’ it. I’m still at the learner stage and having fun with it all. I do hope I’ll be able to figure it out at some point. 🙂

  • Total WordPress.com Followers: 597
  • Total Email Followers: 12
  • 418Facebook
  • 162Twitter
  • 24Tumblr

If any of you have any ideas about any of this, please feel free to comment. Any of you had any weird stats today?

Share Your World

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Here’s another challenge from Cee’s Photography blog. I only manage to stumble on her posts every once in a while. I’m not sure why. Maybe I need to check into my reader a lot more often. I have a hard time keeping up with everything online tho.

Today I saw another of her Share Your World posts and so I’m going to do it. 😉

Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest? I guess this means someone still alive? Someone real? That’s a hard one! My first choice would be God. If there really is one, I would really love to have a conversation- in person- and not have to wait til I’m dead! But, since that is apparently out of the question, I’ll have to pick somebody else.

There are SO many interesting people out there, people that I’ll probably never get to meet. I’d love to meet some of the great explorers/adventurers, like Sylvia Earle, Robert Ballard, Jessica Watson, Max Hardberger, Elon Musk (explores new things!), etc.

But I think I would most like to meet Jeff Berwick, the Dollar Vigilante. I would LOVE to talk to him about what’s going on in the world. How to escape from all the CRAP, and just find a way to enjoy life. Find a way to escape the traps set for all of us here in the US and get OUT! Find a way to avoid being used and abused and live MY life on MY terms! Yeah, I think Jeff would be my #1 choice for a dinner guest. 🙂

When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else? I sing to myself (usually along with the radio) all the time. Last time was yesterday while I was driving back from the grocery store. To someone else? I used to do karaoke a lot. That was probably the last time I sang to someone else (the audience). It was a while ago. I haven’t had the time to go out much lately. Probably over a year ago now.

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be? The ability to eat anything I wanted and stay a ‘normal’ weight. I gained a lot of weight very quickly when I was a kid (still really can’t figure out why), and ever since I have tried everything I can think of to lose it. I can never manage to stick to any kind of diet for more than 2-3 months since they never seem to give me results anywhere near the amount of effort I put in (diet and hours of exercise). I know how I am supposed to eat, I just don’t like eating that way. I don’t like ‘healthy’ food, I like junk food. I can’t imagine spending my whole life just eating things I hate, forcing myself to be miserable every day, all day long. I’m not that sorry about the fact that I’m fat. But if I could have ANY ability, that would definitely be the one I would pick.

What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about? I can’t really think of anything. I think humor is a good way to deal with most things. Even most ‘serious’ things. The latest outrageous attack on free speech (Charlie Hebdo) is a good example. “Terrorism” is serious, right? I think one of the best ways to fight it is to ridicule it. Or ignore it. Either way works for me. But since ‘our’ leaders have decided NOT to ignore it and instead take away OUR freedoms, then I think humor is going to be the more effective way to deal with it.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? I’m grateful I got home from work. Safe and sound. No pirates, no ebola, no injuries on the ship, no delays at the airport, no lost luggage, no issues with the rental car. ALL good. I found out last week about the “Icicle Races” and I’m looking forward to going sailing next weekend. 🙂

 

On The Road Again- Willie Nelson

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For some reason this song has been running through my head for the last couple of days. “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson is a classic country song by a classic country singer (he’s from Texas). At 81, he’s still going strong. 🙂

PS- If you want to sing along, the lyrics are playing along at the bottom of the video. 😉

Share Your World

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I’ve been following Cee’s blog for a while, but this is the first time I’ve seen this particular challenge- Share Your World. I usually see the photography ones. I decided to try this one out today. 🙂

Would you prefer snowy winters, or not, and why? I like to PLAY in the snow, but I don’t think I would like to deal with it on a non-optional basis. 😉

So, you’re on your way out and it’s raining. Do you know where your umbrella is or do you frantically search for it all over your apartment/house? I don’t think I have any umbrellas (I took this photo at a market in Busan Korea). I don’t really mind getting wet – except for my glasses. I HATE it when my glasses get wet and I can’t see anything!

Do you prefer your food separated or mixed together? I prefer my foods separate. Unless it’s something that goes really good together, like peanut butter and chocolate, or beans and rice, or cake and ice cream. Then I might mix them up. 🙂

What is set as the background on your computer? I have a beautiful scene of a small fishing boat harbor in winter. It shows a few bright red boats against the blue water and crisp white snowy background. If you click on the photo, it’ll open up very large! That’s what it looks like on my desktop. 🙂

(It’s not my photo, I found it online somewhere, free background photos, maybe National Geographic? They have some GORGEOUS photos!).

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? I’m grateful for our camp boss who made our Christmas day dinner special. You can see some pictures I took of it I posted on my blog here. I’m looking forward to getting off this ship and going home in the week coming up. I’m told I’ll be on the chopper on the 7th.

Colorful Creatures: Yellow

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Here’s my entry for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Yellow. I had some decent photos of the brightly colored fish that they keep at the Houston Zoo. I love to watch the fish swim around and interact with each other.

I really love to watch the jellyfish, but they’re not yellow.

I go SCUBA diving every chance I get (which isn’t near often enough). I can see lots of fish like these when I go. I still can’t name a dozen of them, but there is so much life around a healthy coral reef it’s unbelievable.

 

Yellow: Birds and Blooms

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Here’s my entry for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Yellow. I really liked playing with the big, bright, sometimes blaring yellow flowers and the birds with just that subtle touch of bright yellow to set off the rest of their plumage.

2 bugs in a blossom

2 bugs in a blossom

What do you think? Do you like the big, bright blooms better? Or the birds in the background? 🙂

Photography 101 Challenge: Triumph

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Well, this is it. The last assignment for the Photography 101 Challenge. It’s Triumph.

I thought about this one a lot. I really can’t think of anything I have photos of, to show the idea of- “triumph”-other than the fact that I actually managed to FINISH this challenge. I even somehow did it within the time frame they had set for it.

For me, that really is an accomplishment. Usually I fall so far behind in these things I never manage to complete them and it would be months too late if I had.

So I decided to make another gallery of some of my favorite photos from the various assignments. Here they are…

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If you like any of these and want to see more of the original post they were featured in, you can search my blog for the words at the bottom of the photos (double, moment, solitary, etc). 🙂

Photography 101 Challenge: Double

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It’s almost over. In fact, I think it is officially over. But here’s my post for Day 19: Double of the Photography 101 challenge anyway.

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Photography 101 Challenge: Glass

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Here’s my post for Day 17: Glass in the Photography 101 challenge. I haven’t really been out to take pictures. Too busy trying to catch up on other things. But I found a couple of good ones on my computer (I sure WISH I could get the darn thing fixed!!).

I took these last time I was in New Orleans. I went on a plantation tour one day. We went to Laura Plantation and Oak Alley. I’ve never been on one of those tours before. I thought it was interesting how different they were, even though they were both built to do the same thing.

I liked the contrast in these 2 shots too. One is very old and also practical. The other is brand new and really serves no purpose other than decoration.

Photography 101 Challenge: Landscape

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Here’s my choice for the Day 15: Landscape challenge.

I took it when I went out to Las Vegas for the Freedom Festival. I took a side trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. I only wish I had more time. It was an amazing trip!

 

Photography 101 Challenge: Swarm

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Here’s my photo for the Day 14 assignment: Swarm. Yes, they were “moving about in great numbers”.  I do love to watch them, they’re so calming. 🙂

Photography 101 Challenge: Moment

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At first I thought it said movement, but then I saw it was really moment, but the assignment (Day 13) is still to play around with blur and movement. I think there are a lot of ways to interpret this one. 🙂

I’m still stuck in class all day and it’s way too cold out here for me to go out (and I have no transportation either), so I’ve been picking out old photos to try and illustrate the themes for the challenges.

Here’s a photo I took in New Orleans last winter. I loved watching this couple dance and listen to the band play in the street. New Orleans is really great for this kind of thing. 🙂

It’s not really blurry, but I hope you can get the idea of motion anyway. The couple was really dancing up a storm (swing, jitterbug, etc.), the musicians were all tapping their toes and swaying to the music and everyone was having a great time.

I didn’t think to buy a CD from this band, I wish I remembered their name. But I did get one from another one that was playing further up the street. Here’s a post I did about that one. Check it out, the music’s worth a listen. 😉

Architecture: Black and White

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I tried to find some of the photos in my computer so I could ‘finish’ the task for the other day. To look at these buildings in Black and White. I did look on my computer, but for some reason, I couldn’t find all the photos I used (or I couldn’t get them to a place where I could change them into black and white versions).

Here is what these same photos look like in Black and White. I didn’t change anything else. I probably could have made these look a lot better if I had the time to play around with them and edit them even a little bit. Let me know what you think. Which versions do you like better?

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Photography 101 Challenge: Architecture

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I’m trying to keep up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. I’m pretty busy this week in the Leadership course at MITAGS, but doing what I can here. 😉

This is my choice for the Day 12: Architecture assignment.

Here are a few of my favorite photos I felt would illustrate this theme. I couldn’t make up my mind, so I did a slide show. I do really like to take pictures of interesting architecture, so I have a lot of these pictures. 🙂

The assignment was to think about lines and shapes and to try and go monochromatic, but I just didn’t have the time to mess around with editing tonight and have to get up too early in the morning to think about it. I do think most of these would work nicely in B&W. Maybe if I have time tomorrow I’ll try and see if I can change them. If I can figure it out, I’ll post it. 🙂

School. UGH! It takes too much time! 🙁

If anyone has any comments about any of these photos, I’d like to hear them. Which do you like best (or not like)?  What do you like or dislike about them? Do you think I should have just stuck to one style of building (modern, art deco, temples, etc.)? Or one location (New Orleans, Thailand, Chicago, etc.)? Or do you like the large variety? Do you like the post with the gallery, or do you prefer it when I have all the pictures just all sitting there?

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Photography 101 Challenge: A Pop of Color

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I’m trying to keep up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. I’m pretty busy this week in the Leadership course at MITAGS, but doing what I can here. 😉

This is my choice for the Day 11: A Pop of Color assignment.

The assignment talks about “paying attention to how color affects your images.”

Here are a few of my favorite photos I felt would illustrate this theme. I kind-of took it to mean photos where the use of color influenced the feeling or mood of the shot. Or the color just really made the whole photo stand out.

If anyone has any comments about any of these photos, I’d like to hear them. Which do you like best (or not like)? Do you think they fit the theme? What do you like or dislike about them? Do you like the post better when I put the pictures up like this? or in a gallery where you see them one at a time like the one I did for the post on the “Natural World“?

New Orleans, Jackson Square at night Full moon over the Ferris wheel Penguins Orchids Fitdee, Aberdeen Scotland Spidey Dolphin, Aberdeen Scotland Still life with butterfly Fishing at night Butterfly in orange and black Thailand Thailand tuna boat twilight

Photography 101 Challenge: Mystery

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I’m FINALLY catching up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 10: Mystery assignment.

The assignment talks about playing around with lighting to create a mysterious atmosphere. For this challenge, I felt like going a different direction and just showing an object that is mysterious in itself (at least to me- I’m sure the Korean people will know exactly what these things are and will probably think I’m pretty ignorant not to know).

This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the famous seafood market in Busan and took tons of pictures. I love going to the market in foreign countries. The things they have on sale are so different than the things I see in my local supermarket. I never could figure out what these things are. My best guess is some kind of sea squirt. I do know the Koreans like to eat them. 😉

Anybody have any ideas?

I’m curious (but no, not enough to try eating one). 😉

Achievement: Master Any Gross Tons

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

Master Unlimited license from the US Coast Guard

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

Photography 101 Challenge: Warmth

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As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 9: Warmth assignment.

This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the market and took tons of pictures. I chose these to represent warmth for a few reasons: the soup/stew was physically hot, it tasted hot, it was full of hot spices, it also included the hot stove and hot coals, and the warmth of the Korean lady. 🙂