Weekly Photo Challenge: My Home- Afloat

Here’s my entry for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat. I have LOTs of good pictures for this one. I’ve spent most of my life at sea. I’ve already posted a few photos, here are some of my latest ‘home’ afloat.

These photos are from my latest ship, the Ocean Rig Apollo. I’m actually aboard right now. We’re delivering the ship from the shipyard in Korea to it’s first job offshore Congo. I joined the ship with the rest of the crew onboard right now in Mauritius about 3 weeks ago.

These are some pictures from our voyage. The first one is our departure from Port Louis, Mauritius, the ‘cliffs’ are the coastline of South Africa, after we passed Cape Town (I was asleep for that so missed getting any pictures from there).

I'm Beer!

This is an entry for the Word A Week Photograph Challenge: Window from Sue at A Word In Your Ear blog.

I took this one while I was on a trip to Korea a couple of months ago. I like the colors and neat graphics of this shot.

AND, I like beer! 🙂

Rusty But Still Trusty?

Here’s another entry for this weeks word a week photograph challenge (rust).

I took these while on  the same vacation in Indonesia a couple of years ago. I went to the island of Sulawesi looking for a traditional style sailboat for sale.

This rusty old tub was parked right next to my hotel in Makassar. One of the best hotels in town. I didn’t mind waking up to this view out the back, I almost took a hike over there to see what was going on. Those guys looked like they were having a lot of fun. 😉

I wish I knew how to speak Indonesian. My trip would have been so much more productive and enjoyable. I did have a wonderful vacation (I had to use an interpreter to help me ask about the boats I was looking for).

Wood Gets Rusty Too

Here’s my entry for this weeks word a week photograph challenge (rust)

I took this one while on vacation in Indonesia a couple of years ago. I went to the harbor looking for a traditional style sailboat for sale. These old ones caught my eye.

They’re wooden hulled, but still rusty.

Preview: Back to Boston

Just a quickie here, that’s all I can manage til I get off this trip. It’ll only be a couple more days and I’ll be home again. 🙂

I was looking at the pictures I already had uploaded here (since the internet is too slow for me to get any more on and I can’t spend much time on it here).

I thought I might go back to Boston where this blog really got started. 🙂

I had been thinking about it for a while. I really had no idea of how to do it. How to get started. How to make everything work.

I had been interested in the idea of travel writing and photography for a while already. I figured since I LOVE to travel and take pictures of everything, it would be a perfect fit!

Yeah, I guess it would be if I could manage to find the time to actually WRITE.

I DO manage to take pictures, tons and tons of pictures. But I learned while taking a workshop on how to be a travel writer/photographer that I was not taking good enough pictures. They had to be PERFECT. 🙁

At least I learned what I was doing wrong and why my photos were rejected (mostly to do with the quality of my camera lens).

I also learned that you could do a lot with a computer to improve your pictures. I still haven’t learned how to do that very well. I’m better than I was, but I still have a lot to learn. I also still don’t have the time to spend editing all my pictures. Even getting them uploaded onto my computer is hard sometimes.

I am still working on my photography and I still toss around story ideas and put together a little thing every once in a while, but I’ve only actually tried to get my pictures accepted twice (so far) at stock agencies.

I’ve never tried to send in an article (yet).

It seems I’d just rather spend any spare time off on another adventure. When I’m forced to stick around the house, I spend it taking care of business I can’t put off any longer. Like working on my taxes (ugh) and other fun stuff like that.

I had heard that blogging was a way to make money online while doing something you enjoy. I was all into that!

When I found out there was going to be an additional blogging session as part of the travel writing/photography workshop I was interested in , I was sold on taking time off for another learning vacation!

I just barely managed to get this blog started before I left for Boston. I had such a hard time figuring out how to do things like upload a photo, make a ‘gallery’, add a link, etc. Things that I do all the time now and seem so simple. 🙂

The workshop was great. Paula Pant, who has a blog called Afford Anything, was our instructor for the blogging session. She was really inspirational and a lot of help.

I met incredibly interesting people every day there and the instructors sent us out and around town on some helpful assignments. Then we had our work critiqued. I learned a lot there but was still hungry for more. I still feel like I could use more help.

Especially with the part about how to make some kind of an income from this internet stuff! I’m really enjoying the whole process of blogging and meeting people from all over and interacting, but I’m spending a lot more time on it all then I ever thought I would.

Remember I started out this post saying “just a quickie here”? That’s what I mean…

Here’s a ‘taste’ of Boston, I’ll be back with more later. 😉

PS-I’m going to another workshop in Korea in a couple of weeks, can;t wait to get over there and see/do/try everything!! Maybe I’ll even run into some of my old tuna boat crew. 😉

Capt Jills Christmas Card

DC AWAI workshop

 

I took this photo at the AWAI photography workshop in Washington DC a couple of years ago. I had just got my new camera and was really going crazy taking pictures of EVERYTHING. The people at the hotel must have thought they had a bunch of real weirdos hanging out there. I got a lot of strange looks every time I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of all my food during breakfast, lunch and dinner. 😉

She’s Off Into the Wild Blue Yonder

Well, I’m out of here in the morning. Into the wild blue yonder. Or at least the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). I’ve had a longer vacation than I expected, schedule changed at the last minute.

I’m still not really ready to go back to work, but at this point I think I would need to be off for a few months straight to actually be READY to go back. 😉

I’m in New Orleans for the night, or at least a few hours. Usually, I have to get up at 2 AM, so they can come and get me at 3 AM, so we can be at the heliport in Fourchon by 5 AM, so I can sit around drinking coffee and trying to stay upright and keep my eyes open til around 9-10 AM when they get around to putting me on a chopper so I can finally get out to the vessel I’ll be working on.

Lots of people seem to think flying to work in a helicopter is really cool. I guess it might be, the first few times you do it. It is really nice to fly at a lower altitude and see things better then you can in an airplane but I never really liked it a whole lot. It’s noisy, it vibrates a lot, it’s cramped (more then a plane and you can’t get up to go to the restroom!).

I’m used to it now, it’s just part of working offshore to me. I’m just glad when I can finally get out to the vessel and start my real job. It’s like driving to work in traffic, do you enjoy that part? Or you’re just glad to finally get there? Same thing. 😉

crew change by chopper

crew change by chopper

I’m going back to the same rig this time as I was on a couple of weeks ago. I like that. It’s nice to go back where you know people and you’re familiar with how things are done on board. I think my job freelancing is perfect for me since I do get to go back a lot of times to the same familiar vessels, but before I get bored I might get to go to a new one. I also do a few different jobs, so it keeps me on my toes. 😉

A lot of ways they’re all the same, but they all have little differences. It takes a few days to get it all straight. I have the hardest time learning everybodys names. It’s not so bad on a ship, when there are only 18-25 crew, but on a rig there might be 250 people on board! Sometimes you might be working 4 weeks straight with someone and never see them til you go home on the same chopper!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up with this blog once I get out there. I’m sure it will be at least a couple of days before I can catch up on things, so don’t worry if you don’t see me for a while. 😉

I’ll be back! 🙂

Daily Prompt: Food for the Soul (and Stomach)

Yeah! Margaritas!! Great way to start a meal.

Yeah! Margaritas!! Great way to start a meal.

Start off with a round of drinks…a little appetizer to go with…

chips and dip Mexican style

chips and dip Mexican style

bacon burger with onion rings

bacon burger with onion rings

This is one of my favorite meals, I love cheeseburgers!! 🙂

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/daily-prompt-food/

Submarine Racing

🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

Flying in to Fourchon

Flying in to Fourchon

I took this from the helicopter on the way in from the Ensco 8501 last hitch. We had just crossed the shoreline on the way in to Fourchon. This was a nice shot of the marshland that goes on for miles. The colors were just gorgeous. My photo doesn’t really do it justice, it’s really hard to get good photos from a helicopter with a point and shoot camera. 😉

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

Chicago skyline in the evening

Chicago skyline in the evening

I took this from the observation deck of the Hancock Tower in Chicago. I was there for the AWAI Workshop last year.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

Horizon from the beach

Horizon from the beach

I took this on the beach while I was at the International Living conference at the Mayakoba resort near Playa del Carmen Mexico.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

the sun sets over the clouds

the sun sets over the clouds

I took this on the plane while flying home from the travel writing/blogging/photography workshop in Boston. I’ve been having a lot of fun with this blogging stuff since then. 😉

Obama vs Nixon…

Hard to believe he still hasn’t been charged with anything, he’s done a hell of a lot more to hurt this country then Nixon ever even thought of. He swore an oath to uphold the Constitution (or he SHOULD have) and he has done nothing since he’s been in office but work to destroy it. 🙁

He should have been MORE than impeached over this illegal spying. Don’t even try to tell me he didn’t know about it. He knew. Therefore he was complicit. As the leader of the Executive Branch, he was ultimately responsible. Since he was a ‘constitutional law professor’, he KNEW every bit of every one of those programs was unconstitutional (and so illegal) and it was HIS duty to destroy ALL of them! Period!!

Instead, he chose to destroy the constitution. He should be drug out of the White House on his ass, tarred and feathered and then thrown in a (regular) prison for the rest of his life! And yes, Bush should have had the same treatment for Iraq and the PATRIOT ACT. (But Obama has done NOTHING to get rid of that horrible ‘law’, and our people are STILL in Iraq and Obama could have brought ALL of them home years ago!)

I can’t think of ANY other reason he’s still in office and has evaded the trouble that even Clinton had except that Obama is ‘black’. Yeah, I know, I’m going to be accused of racism. Well, accuse away…

I know I’m not a racist and that anyone who brings that up is only doing it because they have nothing else to say. They have NO rational argument to make, so they start calling names. All those high hopes for our first black president from so many people. Obama has sure given the shaft to the next few dozen blacks who might want to run. It’ll take a LONG time to get rid of his ‘legacy’. I only hope this country can survive the rest of his term. 🙁

I am SO sad to see what has become of my once great country. ALL of our presidents for the last few decades (at least) have been working overtime to destroy that history but Obama is the one in there now and he needs to GO before he’s allowed to do any more damage!

A Word a Week Challenge- Arch

arch at Ballys Las VegasP

I took this at Ballys in Las Vegas when I was there for the Freedom Fest a couple of years ago. There is a rounded arch at the front and then there’s kind of a tunnel with arches supporting it.

here’s the link/pingback to the originating post…http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/a-word-a-week-challenge-arch/

A REAL lion!

A real lion (at the Houston zoo)

A real lion (at the Houston zoo)

Here’s a photo I took at the Houston zoo, which unlike the Chinese zoo mentioned in my earlier post today, does NOT try to trick people into thinking a DOG is really a lion! Just compare the photos, would you think that dog was a lion? look anything like these guys???

Another (real) lion at the Houston zoo

Another (real) lion at the Houston zoo

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sea

flying over this ship on the way to the LOOP

flying over this ship on the way to the LOOP

I got a few decent shots while flying in from the rig last hitch. This was a tanker on the way to the LOOP.

Gangsters…Real vs Wannabies

😉

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sea

Anchorage at sunset in Singapore August 2012

Anchorage at sunset in Singapore August 2012

Obama and Bush…

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I got this from the Dollar Vigilante, I love their newsletter, they have lots of good information about what’s going on in the US and around the world

Jeezum Crow That’s a Weird Lookin’ Lobstah | gCaptain

Jeezum Crow That’s a Weird Lookin’ Lobstah | gCaptain

Yeah, this IS pretty damn weird! I’ve never seen anything like this in nature. It makes me think somebody’s playing tricks. Anybody ever seen anything like this in nature?

Owl Shit :-)

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Sun setting over the clouds

on the way to Boston, watching the sun set over the clouds

on the way to Boston, watching the sun set over the clouds

Boston- full moon over the marina

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Night on the river walk

Night on the river walk

Pretty blue jellies

I've been playing with my new camera

I’ve been playing with my new camera

Semisubmersible Rig

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Where I've been working lately...

Where I’ve been working lately…