Tag Archives: Zero to Hero

In Spite of Ourselves

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I was fiddling around with my i-pod the other day and listening to some music from home. I thought maybe I’d share some of my favorites.

I haven’t really been able to keep up with my ‘editorial calendar’ I came up with on assignment from the Zero to Hero Blogging Challenge. I was going to do a feature called ‘Wild Wednesday’ (or creature feature) and another on the weekends called Song of the Sea, but the time just flies too fast.

So much of my time is spent offshore where I’m lucky to be able to get online at all and the connection speed is pretty slow. When I’ve been home lately I’ve been so caught up in just trying to get caught up, I haven’t had much time to work on my blog at all so it’s been kind of hit and miss as to what I post and when. 🙁

I’m still trying to post at least a couple of times a week and keep it interesting. I do like the photography challenges and I like to post good stuff I find to share, things like good recipes, interesting articles, beautiful pictures, cool ideas, and good music.

I thought some of you might like this song. I love John Prine, he’s a great songwriter. I always love a good story-teller. Iris Dement is the perfect match for him in this song. Listen to the lyrics, I think you’ll enjoy it. 🙂

500

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I noticed last night that I was at 499 posts. So this is my #500 post since I started this blog.

For some reason, I keep thinking of Molly Shannon doing Sally O’Malley (I’m 50!). 🙂

I was little surprised to see that number. That’s averaging a little over 1 post a day. I did try to do 1 a day for a while. I did a post a day challenge a while back. That was for the Zero to Hero challenge. That was just too much for me. It was stressing me out trying to keep up with the blog while I was also offshore working.

Since then, I’ve given up on the once a day posting and have settled for the once a week challenge instead. That seems to be working out just fine. 🙂

I tried to do the Blogging 201 challenge, but I was too busy with other things and could not keep up with everyone else. I didn’t get as much out of it as I had hoped to. I am still working on the last couple of ‘assignments’. Maybe I’ll actually finish it up here in the next week or so. 🙂

I don’t feel like I have to find something to post about. I post something when I have something interesting to say. Something I think is interesting. You all may or may not agree, but I hope it’s at least something to distract you for a minute or two. Maybe even get you to think about something a little bit different than your usual day to day stuff. 😉

So, here’s to the next 500!

Behind the Scenes: Capt Jills Journeys

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I’m still home. I’m still on the hook, waiting to hear if/when I’ll be going back to work. I’m still having computer issues. 🙁

I thought it might be a good time for me to catch up and reflect a little on what I’ve been doing here- on my blog.

I started this blog last August. August 15th, to be exact. I was going to a travel writing/photography workshop in Boston which had an add-on blogging workshop and I wanted to have something to work with there.

By the time I got to the workshop (which started Aug 21), I had my blog up and running and already had 1-2 followers. I had it linked with my personal Facebook page which is where most of my ‘followers’ come from. Now I had actual BLOG followers! I was so excited just to see my first real follower!

The next month I was thrilled to see my numbers increasing across the board! I had steadily increasing viewer numbers and a total of over 1000 views for the month! I was really excited to think my blog might be one of the few to grow so fast. 🙂

But the next month I had to go back to work and so I couldn’t keep up with the posting like I had been earlier when I was home and could concentrate more on my blog. My numbers fell off a cliff. 🙁

I joined the Zero to Hero challenge in January, which helped me grow my blog. 🙂

January turned out to be my best month yet, even to this day. It really was a challenge for me. I was at work, so I lost a lot of sleep. Not that the tasks were that difficult, they were but I had already figured out how to do most of them on my own after a lot of time and stress. I wish I had known about this challenge BEFORE, when I was first starting my blog, it would have been a lot more useful to me then. 😉

Since then, I have been noticing that when I can find the time to post a lot, once (or more) per day, then I get lots of views. When I can’t manage to get here to post something for a few days, my numbers take a dive.

I’ve been working on this for 9 months now, my stats show I’ve made 480 posts which have received  614 comments (thanks everybody!). According to my blogs home page I have 841 ‘followers’. I don’t count all of them as followers tho, since they are coming from a few different places.

For instance, 388 of those 841 are just Facebook contacts (from my personal page). Contacts may never even see what I’ve been posting. I do have a few regular people who like and comment on my Facebook page, but I’m sure it’s nowhere near 388 people!

I recently learned that the Facebook page I started for my blog has not been working at all. I just started a new one. Now I’m trying to build traffic there instead of only on my personal page. I hope more people will find it and ‘like’ it. 🙂

I also started a google+ account and page. I just started it so there’s not really much there yet.

I have 12 followers on Tumblr. I have never seen anything from any of those people, so I have no idea if they’re really seeing or liking my posts.

I have another 90 on Twitter. I do see a little bit of interest from Twitter, but I really would expect more interaction with 90 people looking at the kinds of stuff I post. Especially to Twitter! I think I put more out there than to anywhere else (check out the feed at the bottom right of my blogs home page). Maybe most people are like me and have a hard time limiting themselves to only 140 characters so they never comment?

The followers I’m most happy to see are the ones who follow this blog. Today (last night) I passed a milestone. I now have 351 followers of this blog! Plus another 8 that follow “comments” (I’m not sure what that means).

So, in 9 months, I’ve managed to grow my audience from a low of 0, to 350+ followers of my blog. If I keep going like that, I could hope to double that by this time next year. Maybe I can increase my followers on my other networks by the same amount or more. 🙂

I wonder if there’s anything else I could do to increase my reach? Other than just posting more since I already post as much as I can find time to do. Does this seem  normal? high? low? for numbers?

I’ve been trying to sort through my stats to see if there are certain things my viewers like more than others. From what I can tell, they actually seem to be interested in a lot of the same things I am. 😉

I was a little surprised to see that they liked the maritime stuff as much as they did. People really liked the videos of the Costa Concordia and the Rat Infested Ghost Ship. 😉

I’m glad to see they appreciate my photos. 🙂

I’m not too sure where they stand on my politics, but since that is such a huge part of who I am I’m just going to keep on with that anyway. 😉

I did notice a big (relative) increase in traffic when I was involved with any of the blog challenges. The photo challenges, the blogging 101 (zero to hero) and blogging 201 were all great for getting out there into the blogosphere. I did (barely) manage to finish the zero to hero challenge but still haven’t finished up the blogging 201 challenge. 🙁

I was traveling (in Korea) for most of the time it was going on and so I just didn’t have time to check in and do the assignments every day. I started on it so late that I missed out on the whole community aspect of it. That is really the most important part IMHO.

I’m still working on it, it’s still in the back of my mind, but I hope the people behind it at WordPress will do another one when I’ll have the time to really focus on it. I do think their challenges are helpful in making better bloggers. 🙂

I’m still trying hard to improve my blog and hopefully to increase my numbers. In the meantime, I’m still having fun with it and love to hear from people whenever they want to comment. 🙂

So, that’s what’s been going on behind the scenes here at Capt Jills Journeys.

 

 

Zero to Hero- Day 30: Think Big Picture

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Well, sad to say, this is the last day of the Zero to Hero Challenge. It HAS been a challenge. I’m not really computer literate and it’s taken me some real effort to figure out how to do some of the things they suggested.

Todays assignment is to…

 Extend your brand, think about a bigger strategic plan for promoting your online presence, and set a goal for the next 30 days.

I’m not sure exactly what they mean by “extend your brand”, how to do that or how to ‘promote my online presence’ more than what I’m already doing. I’ve linked my blog to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr already. I’m also on Pinterest.

I don’t think I really want to put a direct link to my blog on my Linkedin account, although I do mention in my profile (at the bottom) that I am the creator of this blog. I am a little concerned that my political ‘rants’ will cost me some job opportunities.

I would like to be able to freely promote my blog on there since I have a LOT of contacts on Linkedin. That site is focused much more on work and business than any of the other websites I’m on and I’m trying to keep my posts on there businesslike.

I am not at all happy that employers are looking into what you do on your time off and I am in TOTAL disagreement with that, but it is what it is. I am still working for others, so I do have to take that into account. Yes, self-censorship. I hate it, but I would hate it more living out the rest of my life as a bag lady living in the streets and eating catfood. 🙁

So, that’s what I’m doing to ‘promote my online presence’. Does anyone have any other suggestions? If so, please leave a comment and let me know what you think I should do.

As for my goals for the next 30 days…

I do plan to start a weekly series I’m calling the ‘creature feature’. I’ll post about interesting animals in the news or that I come across that I think others might like to learn more about. I’ll start it next Wednesday and will probably concentrate on marine animals, but will probably branch out and cover everything. 🙂

I’ll be committing to posting at least 1-2 times a week. I’ll probably be able to do more, but with my schedule I never know where I’ll be or if I’ll have decent internet access. So, I’ll just promise the minimum. That way I won’t disappoint anyone by breaking my promise.

I’m also hoping to increase my readership and ‘followers’. I went from just over 200 (I think it was 202) to 242 followers of my blog in the month of January! It would be fantastic if I could keep increasing my readership at that rate! Actually, I would be happy to have ANY increase, but the more the merrier. 🙂

I really do love sharing some of my personal experiences along with all the interesting stuff I come across online. I love meeting new people and hearing about what they’re doing with their lives too. I hope I can continue to keep in touch with people through my blog and my ‘online presence’.

Here’s to the rest of the Zero to Hero bloggers, nice to meet you, and well wishes for the future. 🙂

Dave’s Peach Pie Moonshine Recipe

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Dave’s Peach Pie Moonshine Recipe | Good Ole Ways.

I wasn’t really thinking about re-visiting this subject. At least not so soon. 😉 But the assignment for todays Zero to Hero Challenge is to…

Find the post that has received the most views, likes, or comments, and write a related follow-up post. 

Since my most ‘popular’ post by FAR (going by the number of ‘views’ I had that day), was the one on the Crock-Pot Apple Pie Moonshine, I thought maybe I should follow the experts advice at ZTH and (what else?), post another moonshine recipe! 😉

I really do love apple pie, so I was looking forward to trying some of that apple pie stuff. Can’t say I feel the same about peach pie. I’m not really a big fan of peaches. I have a friend who LOVED to drink peach schnapps. He could drink it with beer or all by itself. Personally, I think it’s too sweet.

Maybe the moonshine will cut down on some of that sickly sweetness. Let me know if you try it! 😉

PS- I really like Dave’s blog too and would have liked to comment but for some reason it won’t let me. I can’t even figure out how to sign up to follow it. 🙁

Zero to Hero- Day 26: Mining for Ideas

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Here we are at Day 26 in the Zero to Hero challenge. Almost over. 🙂

Todays assignment is to look back through your past published posts…

 What have you been most proud of? What are the common threads? Which have been most popular? Create and save at least two draft posts with ideas that come from those.

I’ve spent a little time doing that and I have to say personally I’m most proud of my political posts. That is the subject I get most passionate about in my writing. I am a very strong believer in individual liberty and it really gets me going to see how we are throwing it away here in the US. That doesn’t seem to be what attracts my readers (so far). 😉

From looking at my stats it seems that other than my home page/archives (which could mean anything) and my about page (glad people are interested in who I am and why I’m doing this), my all time favorite post is the one about the apple pie crockpot moonshine.

Maybe I need to post more ways to make home made booze? 😉

After that one, the maritime posts are getting a lot of attention. That’s great, since that’s what I do for a living and I love it. I think it’s a great lifestyle and only wish that I could sail foreign again.

Of course, that has everything to do with politics here.

Next most traffic getting area is photography. I’m happy to see that. I love to take pictures everywhere I go and it’s nice to see that other people like my pictures too.

Looks like next is everything to do with writing/blogging/zero to hero. I think that must be partly because of the concentration on checking out others blogs and commenting during the event. I hope some of those people will stick around. 😉

I haven’t done much about traveling here yet. I hope to do more on that. My recent posts on New Orleans got some interest. I do love to travel and I think it’s cool to be able to connect and compare notes. 🙂

Recommendations on food, books, music, things to do, things of interest is another area that people seem to like. I have got away from posting much of that kind of thing since I’ve been busy and the Zero to Hero posts are pretty much all I’ve been able to get done for the day.

I hope I’ll be able to get caught up at some point and get back to posting more good stuff on here, but I’ll be going back to work soon and who knows what the internet situation will be out there this time. 😉

Looks like I need to just keep on keepin on! 😉 My followers have been increasing slowly but steadily.

I passed the 200 mark of actual BLOG followers right after New Years and today I’m up to 233 (the rest are mostly Facebook friends who don’t necessarily ever look at my blog)! I only started this in mid- August 2013.

Of course I’d like to get millions, but hopefully it’ll work something like the rice on the chessboard. 🙂

Video: The Be Good Tanyas- The Littlest Bird

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I’m taking a break today from the Zero to Hero Challenge. Todays assignment was to look around at other peoples blogs. Find something there you really liked (not content). I’ve been doing some of that but I haven’t seen anything today that I really MUST have on my blog. 😉

Actually, I did see something a while back, but now I can’t find it again. When I do, then I’ll do more of todays assignment. Or maybe not. 😉  In the meantime I haven’t been doing much with music on here lately. I really love music. All different kinds.

I really like this band. The Be Good Tanyas. I have a couple of their albums. I thought I’d post this particular video since I just did that post on New Orleans and this video was done there (and around).

I see the street performers around the French Quarter every time I go there. I bought a great CD from a band last time I was there. OK, I’ll do another post on them. But first…

A Word A Week Challenge: Undulate

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I’ve been busy with the Zero to Hero Challenge lately so I haven’t had much time to do any other posts, but today I didn’t post anything for the Zero to Hero challenge.

I just did the assignment, which was to visit other participants (and comment) in the event I joined on Day 22.

So today I am posting a few photos for the Word a Week Challenge from A Word In Your Ear’s blog. The word of the week is ‘undulate’. Here’s the definition:

1. to move with a sinuous or wavelike motion; display a smooth rising-and-falling or side-to-side alternation of movement: The flag undulates in the breeze.
2. to have a wavy form or surface; bend with successive curves in alternate directions.
3. (of a sound) to rise and fall in pitch: the wail of a siren undulating in the distance.
verb (used with object), un·du·lat·ed, un·du·lat·ing.                 4. to cause to move in waves.
5. to give a wavy form to.

I really like this one, so I am going to add some pictures for a couple of the definitions…

The flowing, wavelike forms of these flowers.

The sinuous movements of the octopus and anemone.

The intricate, fluid movements and undulating music of the Balinese dancers.

These stunning, sunning, sinuous snakes.

Snaky scenery by the sea shore. 😉

And (last one) the flag rippling in the breeze.

Zero to Hero- Day 23: Roundup Ready

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Todays assignment for the Zero to Hero challenge is to ‘Publish a roundup post that links to posts on at least three other blogs, and tell us why you love the posts — and why we should read ‘em.’

 

Indian Rocks Bridge–

First New Species of River Dolphin Discovered in a Century– I really liked this because I really like dolphins! All kinds of dolphins!

I think it’s a hopeful sign that we can still discover a new species of an animal this large in this day and age when we seem to have already explored so much of the Earth.

I also liked it because I have been seeing posts about the annual Japanese dolphin slaughter and that always makes me feel bad whenever I’m reminded of it. Angry, sad, frustrated that I can’t put a stop to it.

Yeah, they need to eat, yeah they have their traditions, but personally I would like to see them come up with a substitute to replace this one. 🙁

That There England-

How Much Time Do Your Countrymen Spend on Books?– This one caught my interest since I am a total bibliophile! 🙂 I read voraciously. I read constantly. I read everything I can get my hands on!

I know I am unusual for an American. I already knew that many Americans don’t read much if at all. I have a lot of friends who almost never read anything. Personally I think that’s sad, but they don’t seem to think they’re missing anything.

What really surprised me about the post (neat map!) was how much time some of the other countries spend on reading. It really surprised me to see Egypt and Saudi Arabia as high up as they are. I wonder if they are only reading religious books like the Koran, or are they really opening themselves to all the other worlds reading can do for you?

The other interesting thing about this post was that it breaks down the reading by types of books. How many people read ‘love stories’ for example. How many men? How many women? It also breaks down by age. Very interesting. 😉

June Steward’s Blog-

Spectacular Images of Decaying Ships– I was browsing through my reader and was really just caught by the beautiful photography. For some reason, I have always had an interest with old things. History. Ruins. Abandoned, empty places. Haunted? Haunting, for sure. I’m not usually very imaginative but they always make me wonder/imagine what happened?

This post combined a few of my interests: ships, ruins(shipwrecks), travel, photography, art, history.

I hate to see these beautiful old ships just abandoned. They were beautiful afloat while they were working and I think they are still beautiful even when they are old, wrecked and abandoned like these.

I’ve actually been to visit the wreck of the Peter Iredale (the last photo) and took tons of pictures (as always). But that was before digital so I don’t have any of mine to share of that particular wreck. I do have a few of some other ships tho I don’t know their names or history.

Someday I’d love to travel to the places where those other wrecks lie.

 

So, those were my 3 choices for the days assignment. What do you think about them? I think it might be interesting to do a post like this as a monthly feature. Make a post featuring 3-5 of my favorite posts I saw during the last month? Or maybe sticking to a more focused theme, like 3 favorite photography posts, or favorite videos, or recipes, etc. Which would you prefer and why?

 

Travel Journey of the Week: New Orleans

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I was looking around at the list of blog events for the Zero to Hero assignment for Day 22 and I found this one I thought would be interesting. It’s called the Travel Journey of the Week from Melissa at the Liberated Traveler’s blog.

I liked her idea of asking other people contribute by writing a post and linking back to hers. Since she seems to be focusing on FOOD, which of course New Orleans is deservedly famous for, I thought I would add to hers by posting some photos of places to find some great food in New Orleans.

I’ve got everything here from the Cafe DuMond for their famous chicory coffee and beignets to Rouses grocery store for the best muffaletta to the old JAX Brewery. World Famous restaurants Arnauds and the Bourbon House compete with less known but just as good local favorites.

You’ll find everything from classic French to Cajun and Creole. Old style steak houses. Oyster bars. Fresh seafood and local delights like catfish and alligator fixed a dozen different ways.

If you just have to have it, there’s always a slice of pizza to go with your daquiri. Hot dog stands supply snacks you can eat as you wander down Bourbon Street with your Hand Grenades and Hurricanes. It’s hard to miss a good meal in the French Quarter! 🙂

 

Here’s a link to the original post: Travel Journey of the Week: New Orleans at the Liberated Traveler blog.

Zero to Hero-Day 22: Share Your World

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Todays assignment for the Zero to Hero Challenge is to join in on another blog event or challenge. I looked through the link in the assignment to the Blog Event Listings and saw a few I was interested in.

Maybe I’ll get back to some of them later when I have more time.

I decided to do the Share Your World Challenge. It seemed interesting and fairly quick and easy. Each week Cee asks 4 questions for you to answer “about you or the area of the world you live in.” Sounds like fun. 🙂

So, here are her questions and my answers for Week 3…

  1. In what do you find the simplest of joys? I can find joy in a lot of ways, for example: enjoying a good book, good music, good food, good friends, watching a beautiful sunrise/sunset, watching the waves roll by on the ocean, watching the birds run around on the beach or the squirrels in my backyard, learning something new, being creative doing something like drawing/painting or playing the piano, solving a crossword puzzle, hiking through beautiful scenery, seeing the plants/seasons change. Yeah, lots of things. 🙂
  2. Jello or Pudding? And what is your favorite flavor? I prefer jello. Pretty much any flavor as long as it’s made with vodka! 😉 yummy jello shots!! 🙂
  3. Is there a language you would like to learn? I would like to learn Spanish better because I live in Texas and there are a lot of people here who speak it (just not to me). I took it for a year in college but since then, I haven’t been able to find anyone to practice with and I’m losing my ability to speak it. I would like to travel some more in Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries and it would be so much better to be able to really talk to the people I meet there.                               I would like to learn Mandarin since I really love traveling in Asia and I would like to go back to China and learn more about the people and the country.                      I would like to learn Russian since I learned a little bit when I was in high school and spent some time there. I thought the country was beautiful and with all that has happened since then, I would like to go back and spend some time talking to the people that I was not allowed to meet back then.                                                   I would like to learn Tagalog (one of the main Philippino languages) because I almost always wind up with at least some Pilippinos on the ships I sail on. I would like to be able to communicate better and learn more about them and their country. I would like to learn Korean since I used to work on a Korean fishing vessel and every time I tried to say something in Korean to the crew, they would break up in hysterics. I would like to find out just what was so funny. 😉
  4. Do you prefer juice or fruit?  It depends. I like juice better because it’s so convenient. Quick and easy, goes down nice and cold. I like fruit because it takes longer to eat and fills me up better.                                                                                                                                                                                                        Here’s the link to Cee’s Share Your World Writing Challenge- 2014- Week 3

Zero to Hero- Day 21: Let the World Know

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Todays assignment for the Zero to Hero Challenge is to ‘publish a post inspired by your post from Day 19, and publicize it on one or more of your social networks.” I actually did 2 posts for the challenge for … Continue reading →

Zero to Hero- Day 20: Pass on the Pages

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Todays assignment for the Zero to Hero Challenge is to add a new page. Since I just added one a couple of days ago and it took me a loooong time to put it all together, I think I’ll take … Continue reading →

Zero to Hero- Day 19: Some Short Snips

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What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.
Robert Green Ingersoll

If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
Epictetus

Zero to Hero- Day 18: Socializing

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The assignment for the Zero to Hero Challenge for Day 18 is to ‘explore one or more social networks’.

Link the account to your blog and ‘create a strategy for how you’ll use it’. I have no idea what to do with that. Strategy??? WTH? I’m just fumbling along here…

OK, I have the little share buttons beneath every post so if anyone really likes something and would like to share it, there’s an easy way to do it. (hint, hint!!) 😉

I already have accounts at Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr and they are linked to this blog. You can see the feeds for them along the right side and the bottom of my home page.

The Facebook one just shows people who’ve liked my JP Friedman page instead of the actual feed. I don’t know why it only does that. I still haven’t figured out how to get the Facebook feed to work on here but maybe it’s better to just leave it the way it is.

My blog posts do show up on my Facebook page (most of the time). I do get some comments there, tho it surprises me I don’t get more. 😉

I have a LOT more interesting stuff showing up on my Facebook and Twitter feeds from all kinds of interesting people! I love to go on Facebook and catch up with all my old friends and sometimes I meet new friends through them, or even people who just happen to join in a discussion.

I think it’s a fantastic invention (social media) to keep people informed and interacting with each other, physical location is no barrier.

I post a lot of things to Facebook and Twitter when I don’t have much time to comment personally but still think something is interesting enough to pass along and I think people might get a kick out of it.

I also have accounts at Tumblr and Pinterest and they are also linked here (at least I see things from this blog showing up on my Tumblr feed).

I do also have a Linkedin account but I try to keep that one more focused on work and professional type things. I occasionally share something from my blog there but I’m more concerned about that site potentially harming my job prospects.

More and more places are checking out your online presence both before and during your employment there. I totally disagree with this practice! grrrrr!

I think it is completely wrong that your employer has anything to say about what you do on YOUR time! They pay you for a certain amount of work, they do NOT own you! They do NOT own one more second of your life than that time you are working for them and that they pay you for!

It’s bad enough that most of us are working for somebody else and can’t really do what we would prefer to be doing with our limited time here on this planet. It’s a real shame that our employers want to limit us even more than they already do. 🙁

My Linkedin account is actually where I have the most contacts and some great conversations. According to them, I have a few million people in my ‘network’. 🙂 Too bad I have to (self) censor myself on there in fear for my present and future employment prospects. It’s a real shame!

 

 

Zero to Hero-Day (16)- 17: Focusing on Formatting

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Oh well, I still haven’t come up with anything to say about the assignment for Day 16 (prompt: reputation). So I never did write a post on the subject.

Reading the assignment for Day 17, I have already looked at quite a few of other Zero to Hero participants and commented on some of their posts. I really enjoyed reading some of the very different takes on that one subject. It sure brings to the forefront the beauty of blogging, that even tho we are all here and all doing pretty much the same thing, there is still SO much variety! 🙂

OK, since I didn’t do a post on the prompt, I am going to write a post today about something else. 😉

And, to follow along with the challenge, I will use 2 (or more) of the suggested formatting tools (“block quotes, preformatting, or an ordered or unordered list”).

I'm not really sure what is meant by 'preformatting'. 
So I guess I'll just write a little bit til I can see what happens.

Here we go. It doesn't really seem to do much of anything. Changes the 
font and looks like it cuts off the space I can write in a little bit. 
Also makes a black space around my writing while I have the 'preformatted'
box checked.

OK, so that’s that. I learned something new. 🙂

Since today is a holiday here in the US, it’s Martin Luther King Jr Day, I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes of his. Also using the ‘blockquotes’ formatting tool.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I really like all 3 of those quotes. I have always been a fierce believer in freedom in all its forms and hold the fact that our governments entire purpose is to uphold individual liberty as our greatest accomplishment here in the USA.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,…

Declaration of Independence

I am SO sad to see what has been happening here in the last few years.

What happened to all those people who were around back when Martin Luther King Jr was out protesting against the wrongs of society? Why aren’t those people STILL trying???

Things have surely NOT been fixed! Obama is NOT the answer.

I was pretty young back in the 60’s when Martin Luther King Jr was around in person, but I read a lot. I read a lot of history and politics and social studies, etc. I think people were trying to create a more free, more just, more peaceful and prosperous society.

WTF happened??? The people who were protesting back then are the ones in power now. People like the Clintons for instance. They grew up and now they are the ones upholding all the same old crap they used to fight so hard against! 🙁

Things like…

  1. the War on (some) Drugs
  2. (Unjust) Foreign Wars
  3. Big Government
  4. Big Business
  5. The SYSTEM

It makes me sad to see how many people just don’t get any of the things I try to bring to their attention. Things like why it’s so bad that we have given up our freedom and liberty for the TSA, NSA, NDAA, PATRIOT ACT, FACTA, etc, etc, etc. Never-ending big government information gathering and CONTROL of every tiny little aspect of life here in this ONCE free country.

I just don’t understand how a once free people (and we were SO much more free even when I was a kid) can give up so much and not even seem to care. Most people I talk to think it’s somehow a GOOD thing.

Have they never read or seen George Orwells 1984? or Animal Farm? Or any of the numerous other books describing how power ALWAYS corrupts? Or how lack of privacy (spy programs) turns society into a dreary, bleak, isolated, sad, destructive, sick mess that eventually sucks dry every bit of human decency, compassion and creativity?

I wonder what will it take? What will have to happen for people to WAKE UP and take back THEIR lives and their freedoms? I sure don’t know but I hope with all my heart and soul it will happen soon, before we have to go through another total collapse of civilization.

We ARE all in the same boat together. We only have one planet (unless we can hurry the hell up and get ourselves to Mars PDQ)! It’s a global civilization now and for better or worse, we do all influence each other now in numerous ways. I hope I can be a force on the side of peace and freedom.

I hope this blog can help. 🙂

Zero to Hero- Day 14-15: Bloggers Choice!

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Still working on catching up here on the Zero to Hero Challenge. 😉

For the Day 14 assignment, I did a little of everything they suggested, just not all at one time or one one day. I did some commenting. I did some looking around the Reader. I read the post on developing your blogging voice. I spent a little time looking at the comments on the Zero to Hero threads. AND I posted (see the previous post on day 13).

For the Day 15 assignment, I played around a while with the various fonts. I thought there would be more of them. I really didn’t see anything there that I liked enough to change the one I have. Especially considering that I would have to pay to change what I have. I’m still not at the point where I really want to pay for anything extra here.

So far, I’m just learning. This challenge is really helpful. I’m getting a lot out of the daily tasks and looking at what other people attempting the challenge are doing. I might want to do more to customize my blog later, but for now I’m pretty happy with the way it looks.

I’m still trying to figure out how to work the widgets to do what I’d like better! Hoping there will be more on that later on. 😉

There is SO much I can do here. I only need more TIME to blog! 😉

Zero to Hero- Day 13: Building a Better Blogroll

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Catching up again. 🙂

I’ve been home the last few days but SO busy! I’ve been spending a lot of time in Houston this week. It started out Monday morning when I went for a meeting about work.

Went back again for a Dr appt. I had to get my lap band filled (been putting it off WAY too long). Spent the rest of the day at the Museum of Fine Arts (it’s FREE on Thursdays). Went to a happy hour sponsored by the Houston USMMAAA (Kings Point Alumni). Spent the night so I didn’t have to drive all the way home. 😉

Spent the next day at the zoo and then a Liberty Forum sponsored by the King Street Patriots. They had a great lineup moderated by Ben Swann, including past LP Presidential candidate (and now Honorary Chairman of the Our America Initiative) Gary Johnson and his VP running mate Judge Gray.

I was very encouraged to see the great response to Kathy Glass who is running for Texas Governor! Gary Johnson also got a standing ovation. It always makes me happy to see people who actually support true liberty and not just give it lip service! 🙂

Went back up to Houston Saturday morning to spend all afternoon with my sponsor for a training event. More on that later…

And that’s only the stuff I did in Houston this week! Not counting the local stuff!! 😉

So, now you know why I haven’t been keeping up very well with the Zero to Hero Challenge this week.

I did take a look at this one (day 13) a couple of days ago and fiddled around with it when I could. I already had a couple of different ways to see some of the blogs I like on my home page.

I had a widget I called “More Good Stuff” that showed the gravatars of some of the blogs I follow on the right side bar. I also had an area in the bottom center of my home page with links to websites and blogs I like. There was a blogroll there too.

I also already had a links page (tho I admit I don’t have much on it yet).

So all I have done (so far) for todays challenge was to increase the number of blogs I followed that was shown from 20 to 50. I also added a couple more to the links on my home page.

One I added was the Jack Tar Magazine. I really like to check out all the things they’re doing over there. It’s a great resource for the maritime community and I LOVE their focus on the larger sailing vessels and all the maritime culture and traditions.

Another one I added was the Texas Music Scene. I rarely watch TV, but I do try to watch Saturday Night Live when I’m home. After that’s over, the Texas Music Scene show hosted by (9 time Grammy winner) Ray Benson comes on. I really enjoy learning about great new music and bands I may have never heard of before.

Another one I added was the Lightly Braised Turnip. I checked it out when someone posted on my Facebook page about the giant squid that washed up on a beach in California. I liked the way they reported the story and decided to keep them on my list of sites to ‘follow’. I say it that way since I haven’t yet found a specific follow button on their site yet and I just go check them out every so often.

I’ll be trying to catch up with more of the Zero to Hero Challenge tonight. 🙂

Zero to Hero Challenge- Day 12: Inspired by the Fourchon Shuffle

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The assignment for day 12 of the Zero to Hero Challenge builds on the one from the day before. The one for day 11 was to leave comments on 3 blogs you’ve never commented on before. Today’s is to build a post out of one of those comments.

I made a comment on the New England Watermans’ blog yesterday. I really liked his post with the video of Port Fourchon. Here’s the link to my comment again.

His video was a time lapse of his work over the last year. Both offshore and in the port of Fourchon, La.

I liked it because it reminded me of a lot of the same things I see all the time at work. He also mentioned the Global Orion which is one of the vessels I used to work on.

Global Orion

Global Orion

I’ve been in and out of Fourchon more times than I can count. It’s NOT my favorite place! It’s the largest port in the USA for the oil and gas industry and it is VERY busy! Usually it’s a huge pain in the ass to go to Fourchon.

We call it the Fourchon Shuffle. Bring your boat to the dock so you can unload your deck cargo. Oh, your halfway done but there’s another boat that has a higher priority. So, MOVE.

OK, so you go to another dock to get some fuel. Wait, there’s no space there. So, you wait. Wait some more. It’s not like parking a car, you can’t just put a boat in park and walk away (tho some DPOs might think so).

Oh, now they’re calling you back to finish unloading. No time to spare, you have to get back offshore again ASAP.

Oh yeah, you still need fuel so go back over there. This time you can get to the dock. Now you need to go to another dock to load up more deck cargo. You’ve got priority so you make 2 other boats move out of the way for you….

That’s just a short verse, the Fourchon Shuffle goes on and on. They’ve improved it slightly with some additional dock space but it’s still far from ideal.

No one in Fourchon ever gets any peace at the dock. I always just wanted to get the hell out of there and back offshore as soon as possible. At least be able to get some rest again.

Here are a few photos I took in Fourchon recently…

 

Luckily, I don’t spend too much time driving around Fourchon anymore. Lately I’ve been working on a lot of large vessels like drillships and they don’t usually go into port. I only go to Fourchon to fly in or out to the rig. 🙂

 

PS- the orange boats are the ones belonging to the Cajun Navy 😉

Zero to Hero- Day 11: Be a Good Neighbor

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The assignment for day 11 in the Zero to Hero Challenge is to make 3 comments on blogs you’ve never commented on before.

Well, that should be an easy one. I’ve never been a shy one when it comes to saying something anonymously (or even semi). 😉

Since I’ve been looking around the blogosphere more than usual for the previous assignments, I do have at least a couple of blogs I haven’t commented on yet.

Let’s see if I can find something interesting now…

A Yankee in the Cajun Navy

I found this blog the other day for the day 9 assignment (I think). I saw his mention of the Cajun Navy and knew exactly what he was talking about and from his blog tagline “A Yankee in the Cajun Navy”, I could just imagine how entertaining he was going to be.

So, today I checked his blog and found this neat video to watch. My computer is so slow it messed up the music but it was fun to watch anyway. I wanted to say more, but tried to keep my comment short(er)… here’s a link to the post and comments…

http://newenglandwaterman.com/2014/01/09/2013-in-review-a-timelapse-review/#comment-1307

Home Improvement

The Eleventh Stack is another blog I found while looking around for the Zero to Hero Challenge. I really like the variety of things they talk about there. It’s a library sort of blog so I guess it can really cover EVERYTHING. 🙂

I went to look around again for todays assignment and found this post on do-it-yourself projects. I’m a big fan of DIY.

I love to watch all those shows on Home and Garden TV like the Property Brothers and Househunters International. I get all kinds of ideas for fixing up my house and my rentals. I don’t have much time for TV but when I do watch, it’s probably going to be some of that stuff.

So, here’s the post that caught my eye today and my comment…

http://eleventhstack.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/i-can-do-that/#comment-15846

Another Jills’ Journeys

I noticed this one while I was on assignment too and really just checked it out since we have the same name. But the more I look around her blog, the more interesting things I find. She has a really neat series on a trip she took to Easter Island which is also on my bucket list.

I picked her post on the free museum days to comment on. Just because I thought it was funny that we both posted on that, we both have the same name, we both love to travel (to out of the way places). I thought it was cool. Here’s the post and comment…

http://journeysbyjill.com/2013/09/25/museums-open-doors-with-free-admission/#comment-2182

Zero to Hero- Days 8-9: About + More Cool Blogs!

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Since I got off the ship the other day, I’ve been busy just trying to get back on schedule. It’s really hard to switch back and forth from working nights for 3 weeks to being up in the daytime like most normal people. I feel like I need to be up days while I’m home, it’s hard to get anything much done at night here.

So, I’m a little caught up on sleep and mail and bills, got some groceries in the house and so ready to take up the Zero to Hero Challenge once again.

I did go over my About page again (day 8’s assignment). I don’t really know how to make it ‘irresistible’, but I did spiff it up a bit. I’ve been thinking about adding some other things there but not sure if it would actually make it any better.

For day 9’s assignment, to find more blogs to follow, I’m having a hard time limiting myself to just 5! I am starting to wonder just how much time can I spend wandering around the blogosphere? 😉

It’s REALLY hard to try and find ‘new’ things, things I’m not already following or new subjects that I don’t already have an interest in. So, I didn’t really follow directions, I did take a look at some things I really have no interest in, like sports, and cars, and fashion, but I don’t really see the point in following things I’m not interested in at all.

So, I looked around some more and found some outliers in subjects I am interested in but don’t follow as much as I would like.

Here are my picks for today…

  1. Human Rights Warrior– I love her tagline “There is some good in this world…and it’s worth fighting for.”
  2. The Official How To Blog– It’s always good to learn how to do things! Laugh while learning is good!! 🙂
  3. Beer & Whiskey Brothers– I always like a good drink, beer was never my favorite, but it’s always available so learned to like it. Learning about more flavors is great!
  4. The Squeaky Robot– This looks like an interesting blog with nice photos. 🙂
  5. Coffee and Irony– I liked the post on the Civil Wars (I LOVE their music!) and lots of variety on this blog, I think it’s worth following for a while.
  6. Austin Music Source-This one’s not a wordpress blog, but it’s one I like and found today while wandering around online. I do love Austin! Lots of good stuff on this one!
  7. Texas Music Scene– Here’s one last one, it’s not a wordpress blog either, but I found it today and really liked the stuff they had on there.

I found all of them interesting and plenty more, but I don’t have enough hours in the day to devote the time and energy they deserve, so limiting myself to these today. 😉

Maybe I’ll find some more in the next few days. 🙂

 

 

Zero to Hero- Day 5: Looking at Themes

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Todays assignment for the Zero to Hero Challenge is to take some time to find a theme you like, or if you have one you like already, go take a look around and sample something different.

So far I like the one I have right now. I read over the post on choosing themes to see if there was something I was missing.

I’m looking around the Theme Showcase and there are a few there I like. It looks like I’m still liking the same sorts of themes as when I first looked around and decided on this one. 🙂

Here are a few of the alternatives I almost chose…

Yoko

Mystique

Coraline

Oxygen

I really liked the look of some of the others but I felt they didn’t really fit what I’m trying to do at the moment. Mostly to do with the photography. They had some great themes for showing off photos (ex: Photography) but I want to do more than that. Maybe later. 😉

Also, I’m not ready for a premium theme yet, so I didn’t look very hard at any of those. Some of them looked really nice, but not for me just yet. Maybe later. 😉

Well, this has been an interesting assignment. I originally picked the Twenty Eleven theme and I still like it. Maybe I’ll get tired of it one day and change it. But for now, that’s my theme and I’m sticking to it! 😉

Zero to Hero-Day 4: Explore the Blogosphere

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Todays assignment was to learn how to use the Reader and to follow 5 new topics (as well as start finding bloggers you love).

I already was following quite a few bloggers, WordPress and others. I had never really used the reader much tho. So this morning, I took a look around.

I have to admit, I was tired and so didn’t really find anything outside of my ‘normal’ interests to follow (yet). I spent about and hour poking around and finally had to just force myself to STOP it!

Warning: WordPress Reader is addictive!

Since I’m short on time today, I’ll just list the new blogs I found and decided to follow…

  1. Natures Place– looks like an interesting mix of science, nature and photography (macros, lots of bugs- cool!)
  2. Eleventh Stack– a variety of librarians recommend things to look for at the library
  3. Roam and Home-life and travels at home and abroad
  4. Pinky Binks– travels and life in Asia (and other places)
  5. Food to Glow– healthy food that (hopefully) tastes good
  6. New England Waterman– another maritime blog, looks like his job is similar to mine
  7. 70dayweekend– independent music blog
  8. Jon Negroni– music, movies, apps, modern life
  9. Marine Cafe– another maritime blog by Baristo Uno, more from a foreign perspective
  10. Earth is our Address– travel and adventure from a different perspective

OK, so that’s the quick and dirty for now. Check them out if you want. I’ll have to get to it later. I just wanted to get the Zero to Hero post for today finished before I knock off. Those last 2 blogs I did not find on the Reader.  I’ll be trying to take a closer look at these blogs later and maybe even make another foray into the realms of the Reader tonight. 😉

Zero to Hero- Day 3: Bypass the Gatekeepers!

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Todays assignment for the Zero to Hero Challenge is to ‘write the post that was on your mind when you decided to start a blog’.

OK, well I didn’t really have any particular ‘post’ on my mind when I decided to start a blog. It was more like a general idea.

I have been trying to find a way to make a living without having to be out on a boat all the time. Yeah, I still like sailing. Yeah, I still like my job (most of the time, most of the things about it). But I’m getting to the point where I’d like to do something a little different. At least for a while.

I’d been hearing for a while about how it’s possible to earn a decent living by working online. Writing, stock photography, copy-writing, etc. I’ve even taken a few short courses/workshops to try and learn how to do it.

I’ve enjoyed going to the workshops. I’ve learned a lot in each one of them. But I’ve never managed to pass muster (yet) and get anything I’ve done accepted for publication.

I admit, I haven’t spent a lot of time trying to ‘sell’ my product; my writing and photography. I tried a couple of times to get some of my photographs accepted onto a couple of the stock photography websites like istock.com.

So far, I haven’t had any luck. My photos were rejected and I had to take a course to even begin to understand what the heck they were talking about when they told me why they rejected them all. 😉

I haven’t even sent in any of my articles to anyone yet, tho I have sent a few queries to a couple of magazines I thought might be interested. One magazine even told me they were interested but they never got back to me and I let it fall by the wayside due to all the other things I’ve been busy with.

FOCUS! I think that’s what I need. I’m pretty sure if I had all the time in the world and no ‘real’ job and wasn’t busy with a dozen other projects, I could find the time to hound the gatekeepers of the publishing world until they let me in. 😉

Too bad I don’t have that kind of schedule right now.

SO……

I decided to start a blog instead.

My plans for the blog have changed a little bit. I’m not focusing so much on putting my magazine type writing on here. Maybe one of these days I’ll post one and see if I can get some feedback from the blog world. I’ve been spending a lot more time just posting about things I find of interest.

I’ve really been posting a lot more about what gets ME going, what interests me, what turns me on, what turns me off. I enjoy catching peoples attention and trying to make them think.

Of course, I am still trying to work on my writing and photography. I still plan to try again to get my photos accepted online and my articles by some magazines. I work on that stuff when I can find time too.

I figured if I started a blog, I could get my work out to people WITHOUT having to go through an editor. Just get it out there and let it stand on it’s own merit. Either people will like it. Or they won’t.

Of course, the original purpose was to find some way to make an income. I’m told you can do that as a blogger too. So far, I haven’t the slightest idea of how to do that, but still hoping to learn. 😉

In the meantime, I’m enjoying myself here. I especially like interacting with people all over the world. It’s really fascinating to me when I look at my blog stats and see people have visited my blog from places like Namibia, or Ghana, or Pakistan, or Ukraine.

I wonder what was it that interested those people and why? I have seen a lot of people online who have so many similar interests. It seems a great community here, even if it’s only ‘virtual’.

It’s great that we can all have blogs now, no need to hold back, just get ourselves out there and the whole world is open to us! 🙂

 

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). 😉