Category Archives: lifestyle

Freedom of Speech – Remember Charlie

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I really don’t know what I would do if I was seriously threatened. Would I censor myself? Would I stop doing something I loved? I can only HOPE not. I admire those people who can and do stand firm for the rest of us.
I am amazed that these nutjobs (religious fanatics) are allowed to roam free around the world today. They have proven over and over that they can NOT act in any kind of civilized manner. IMHO they should all be locked in a cage and FORCED to live out their year 600 fantasies they want to impose on the rest of us! A bunch of sick bastards should NOT be allowed to run the rest of the world, should NOT be influencing it in ANY way and absolutetly shoud NOT be forcing the rest of us to restrict our liberties or our lives in ANY way!

15 CARTOONS FROM ARTISTS RESPONDING TO PARIS SHOOTING

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Good for them! If I was a cartoonist I would be up in arms too! I’m not a cartoonist but I’m pissed as hell at these so-called muslim fanatics. I wish I could do something to put a stop to their insanity. It’s just amazing to me that so many people in so many places have put up with their ridiculous use of ‘religious freedom’ to take advantage of others.

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. 😉

Unexpected News!

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Looks like I’ll be leaving soon after all. I was not expecting this at all. Not that I’m complaining. It’s always nice to be getting off work and going home. 🙂

home

I’m now busy trying to get everything done I need to do before leaving here. I have a room-mate so I can’t get in my room til he gets out tonight. I need to get in there to get my seamans books to have the captain sign me off.

I’ll have to get up (even more) early in the morning to pack. I have to put away my hard hat and coveralls somewhere in case I come back here. There’s no way I can fit that stuff in my carry on bag which is all I brought with me this trip (due to helicopter weight limits here).

It seems I always have too much to do and too little time. I’m already making plans for my time off (or trying to- it’s very hard to plan anything much when I don’t know how long I’ll be home for).

I’m really hoping to be able to get down to Panama this time. 🙂

 

Songs of the Sea: The Sea Has Spoken- Songs of Water

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Here’s some nice, mellow music to start the new year. It’s an instrumental by Songs of Water. I don’t usually listen to this kind of thing. I really like the stories they tell in some songs. I prefer songs with someone singing words I understand- which eliminates most rap songs and opera. 😉

But this is nice and it fits my mood lately. 🙂

News Tomorrow?

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I left to come out to the ship Dec 15, thinking I would be here for the ‘normal’ 4 week long hitch. I heard last week that I wasn’t supposed to stay here that long and was scheduled to go home in only 3 weeks. The other day I heard that someone might not show up, so I might be staying even longer than the original 4 weeks. 🙁

I hope someone is in the office tomorrow who can answer my email about when I am scheduled to get off of here.

Capt Jills Year In Review

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I got that cool ‘Year in Review’ email from WordPress about my blog. I see in my reader that a lot of other people are posting about how their blogs did through the year. I’ll probably make a post like that too. I thought it might be a good idea to post a review about some of the things I did this last year and what I’m hoping to do next year.

I got off the DS-5 Jan 9 and had a couple of weeks at home. As usual, I spent most of my time at home catching up with paperwork and projects around the house. I also had to take care of some medical things.

I had recently signed up as an ‘energy consultant’ with Ambit Energy (I’m always trying to find SOME way to earn a living without having to spend time at work), so I went for some training in Houston with my friend and sponsor. I still haven’t managed to actually sign anybody up myself yet (I don’t know many people who live in Texas that I can talk to about it and I usually forget to bring it up til it’s too late). Contact me if you’re in Texas and want to save on your electric bill! 😉

Ensco DS-5 (ex: Deep Ocean Mendocino)

Ensco DS-5 (ex: Deep Ocean Mendocino)

I got to relax a little bit and visit with some friends but then it was time to get ready to go back to work. I left for the DS-3 on Jan 29. I got off there earlier than planned (more on that in another post later) and got to go home for 1 night. Left the next day to join the Ocean Alliance.

Ocean Alliance

Ocean Alliance

That was nice. I got to see a lot of old friends from when I used to work direct for Oceaneering on the Performer. I wrote a little bit about that hitch earlier. I really loved that job and the people there. I wish they would have kept us all overseas. We really were like one big happy family.

When I got off, I had almost 3 weeks at home. I made good use of it. Besides the usual catching up on paperwork and household issues (restock groceries, pay bills, fix sink, fix toilet, etc.), I got to go to a few interesting events. Other than my usual Tuesday night Campaign for Liberty meetings,  I went to a Sail La Vie meeting and then went out sailing with them the next weekend. I made it to the Houston Rodeo. I found the Houston Maritime Museum the next morning. It’s small, but definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.

We dealt with the rain at Surfsides St Patricks’ Day Parade. Everybody got soaked but we all had a good time anyway. Plenty of green beer and Irish whiskey helped out with that! Texas A & M in Galveston had a WISTA meeting where they had a nice presentation and the cadets were full of questions about working with DP. I stayed in Galveston overnight and went to Moody Gardens before heading home the next day.

I was aboard the Deepwater Pathfinder March 26th- April 7th. Then home a few days to get ready for my trip to Korea for another travel writing and photography workshop (with GEP).

That was a fantastic trip! I met so many wonderful, interesting people. In the workshop and before, when I was wandering around on my own from Incheon to Busan to Geoji to Seoul. The only thing that could have improved the trip was if the Sewol disaster had never happened. It was a very sad time for everyone in Korea.

I got home from Korea May 15th and immediately started getting ready to go to work for Ocean Rig. I really preferred working for the agencies as I had been for the last few years, but with Obamacare fixin’ to screw me royally if I didn’t bow down and buy into that humongous scam, I had to suck it up and take a regular job. I’m still not sure I did the right thing. I just hope I can find a way to move out of the US SOON, so I can escape that trap!

Anyway, I got put on the payroll May 26th and then started running around with more errands for work. I had to do some things before they’d allow me to actually go to work for them. Shots, paperwork, photos, more paperwork, etc.

They sent me to the Basic Safety Training course (again!!- I’ve been certified to teach that course) and wouldn’t listen at all when I told them it was NOT required and they were wasting their money and my time. Since I hadn’t even stepped aboard one of their ships yet, I figured I had better just suck it up and go to the class AGAIN. USELESS! AS ALWAYS!!

A total waste of their money and my time, just as expected. But, I figured I should at least give them a TRY before I quit. So, I had to suffer through one MORE class that I’ve had (more than once) that was totally un-necessary. They sent me all the way to Aberdeen Scotland to take the lifeboat course. I’ve been a lifeboatman since 1979! NO need to re-take that course, but they insist. In fact, I’ve found out that they insist that we all re-take these courses every 2 YEARS!

I’m wondering just when, exactly, are we EVER going to get the time off we are all working offshore to earn?

So I left for Aberdeen on June 28 and went straight to my first Ocean Rig vessel as soon as the course was over. After a couple of days on the plane, I made it to Luanda and then flew right offshore to my ship. They sent me home on my birthday, so that was a nice present. 🙂

I got home July 31 and left again for another ship Aug 12! Not much time to even catch up on sleep, but that’s pretty much all I tried to do that time. I did make Shark Night at Moody Gardens and my Tuesday night political meetings. 🙂

Skyros from Aug 12-Sept 12. Not a bad hitch. Nice ship, nice crew. I was still glad to get off tho. 😉

I got home from the Skros Aug 12 and since I was due to have approx 28 days off, I scheduled a couple of things. I finally got to work on one of my rental houses. We’ve been trying to get the rotten wood and siding changed out for about 2 years now. Termite damage. I’ll have to tell you about the major project that’s become! I spent a week with my maintenance gal and another helper cutting out the damaged wood and replacing it with new. Now there’s only 1 more side of the house to do and it will be finished. At least that part of it. 😉

When that job was done, I left for the Fast Track Your Retirement Overseas conference in Las Vegas. I left a little early so I could have an actual vacation for a couple of days before the conference started. I love to learn all they have to teach us about how to move and live overseas, but it does get a little overwhelming sometimes. I like to have a little time to just chill out, hang out at the pool, play the slots, etc.

I got home Oct 6th and due to dept for the Olympia Oct 7th. I was ready to go (barely) but for once the gods smiled on me and my visa was delayed for days. Yes, I was ‘on call’ and checking my email constantly, but I got to spend a whole extra week at home! 🙂

I left for the Olympia Oct 14 and spent the next month aboard. I got home Nov 7th and spent the next few days arranging appointments I needed to renew my USCG documents. Then I had to go to the fast rescue course required by my company, so I spent a couple of days in Galveston. Hit the eye doctor, dentist and hairdresser before the weekend so I could leave again Sunday for another course.

I spent the week of Nov 16-21 in Baltimore at MITAGS for the Leadership course. It’s newly required by the USCG to keep my license due to STCW 2010 amendments. It wasn’t a bad week, it just gets old spending so much of what is SUPPOSED to be my vacation time taking redundant (VERY expensive) courses that never actually teach anything useful.

I got home again about 0300 Saturday morning but too tired to do anything that entire weekend but hang around the house and catch up on mail and email. I was hoping to be able to go sailing, but just couldn’t motivate myself enough to get out of the house that day. 🙁

I heard from work that I was requested again on the Poseidon, so I got a little extra time off. I used it to go to New Orleans for the Workboat Show. I was in New Orleans from Dec 2-7. I got home after midnight Sunday and so had to catch up on sleep again on Monday. I had that whole week to just hang out around the house and rest before leaving on the 15th for the Poseidon. I’ve been here ever since. 🙂

So, now you’ve got a pretty good idea of how I spend my time. At least, the kinds of things I do when I’m not at home. Which is most of the time, as you can see from this post. 😉

Dramatic New Year's worldwide

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AP PHOTOS: Dramatic New Year’s moments worldwide

I’m stuck out here on the ship for at least another week, so I missed all the festivities going on at home. This article was the best of what I saw for the worldwide celebrations of New Years Day.

I hope some of you got to see some of these fine fireworks. Does anyone have any good stories or photos to share?

Happy New Year 2015

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HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015

It’s almost dinnertime here on the ship, but I think I must still be in time to wish people Happy New Year before the big celebrations are over all over the world.

I hope this year is a good year for everyone and even better than last year! 🙂

Cheers!!

Deep Question

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I think this is a eally good question from Jason over at his Harsh Reality blog. I think its a good one for posting this time of year. People tend to think more about how they would like things to be and how to make it so around New Years Day. I posted my answer in the comments on his blog. If you’re really interested, you can go there and read it. 😉

Lots of other people made some very good comments too. 🙂

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.

Poseidons Christmas Dinner

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Our catering department stepped up their game and came up with a fantastic Christmas dinner for the crew. The European tradition is for seafood for the holiday. So we had shrimp, mussels, salmon, fresh tuna and lobsters. Appetizers were various cheeses, crackers and homemade pates. We had roast beef, baked chickens, cold meats, even a roast suckling pig. For dessert we had fruits and nuts, cookies and cakes, ice cream and puddings. Our Italian clients even had a  special delivery of enough panettone for everyone to try a taste. Everyone enjoyed the feast. 🙂

We don’t really appreciate the catering crew enough out here on these rigs. I have to give them all a big hand.

Santa DID Show Up!

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We had our doubts that Santa would find us out here. All the way out in the middle of nowhere. Offshore Angola, actually. It’s a long way from where most of us call home. But, even tho Santa may have encountered a few problems along the way, he DID finally show up. 🙂

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Will Santa Make It Out Here?

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Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. 🙂

End of Well

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We should be finishing up this well sometime tonight and probably getting underway tomorrow. That means I’ll be even more busy (with less time to blog) than usual.

I’m not used to these drilling rigs yet. I’ve only been doing it off and on for the last couple of years. I’m a mariner, not a driller. 😉

I do find it amazing how fast they get the job done on these rigs over here in Africa. In the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), I seem to remember it taking many months to drill a well.

Here it seems to take them only a few weeks. I’m sure part of the reason is that these ships are the latest and greatest (so far)- 6th generation dual derrick drill ships. They can use both derricks at once, that saves them a LOT of time.

Ocean Rig Olympia

Ocean Rig Olympia

I hear this next job will only take a week or so. That one is only putting down the ‘top-hole’, it’s not the same thing as drilling a well.

This kind of work keeps me MUCH more busy than I usually am offshore. I’m learning a lot, which is always good. I just hope it doesn’t get too stressful (it’s ALWAYS stressful when we’re moving).

It should only take us a couple of hours to get there once we finally get underway. The new well is only about 12 miles from where we’re at right now. What takes time is getting underway and then getting set up again once we reach our new location.

Our drillers and subsea guys have to pick up all the riser and the BOP. We (DPOs and ROV guys) have to pick up all our transponders and then secure our transducer poles for our acoustic reference system. All that can take quite a while.

When we get to our new location, we have to do all that in reverse. We will also spend a lot of time and effort to calibrate all our equipment so that it all works as well as possible.

I’m looking forward to the move, but a little nervous too. :-/

PS- I was on the Olympia last hitch, but these are not my photos, (I got them from googling “drillships”)

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: Submarine

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Here’s another entry for the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge:Yellow. This one is more about things I see at work.

I took the first photo at the Maritime Museum in Aberdeen when I was there in July for the freefall lifeboat course (click the link for more on that). The museum is really great and well worth a visit. They had some great exhibits on the offshore oilfields, the fishing fleet and the square-rigged sailing ships they used to build so many of nearby.

Here’s picture of a ‘NEWT suit’ they use for deep water diving.

I took the next one at the Workboat Show last time I was home. They have it every year in New Orleans and I try to go if I’m not working. The show is a great place to meet old friends and make new ones. The big companies always sponsor happy hours to meet and greet, they’re a lot of fun and probably where most of the real business takes place.

mini ROV by SeaRay

mini ROV by SeaRay

I got to play with the little ROV (remotely operated vehicle) this time. Usually there are so many people trying it out I never get the chance. I worked for Oceaneering for years where we used their big ROVs to do all sorts of interesting projects. Similar to the one in the background of the top photo.

The ROVs were used when the work was too deep or otherwise not available for the divers (even with the NEWT suits).

I think if I ever lose my mariners license, I’d like to try ROV. It was a real challenge to get the buoyancy right, but I think I was starting to get the hang of it. 🙂

Merry Christmas 2014

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Song of the Sea: Margaritaville- Jimmy Buffett

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Another classic sailing song. No, it’s not really about the sea, but it’s close enough for me. It’s about hanging out on the beach, chillin’ out in some tropical place, drinking.   margaritas and enjoying life. My kind of song! 🙂

Yeah! Margaritas!!

Yeah! Margaritas!!

Margaritaville- Jimmy Buffett

Nibbling on sponge cake, watching the sun bake,
All of those tourists covered with oil,
Strumming my six string, on my front porch swing,
Smell those shrimp, they’re beginning to boil.

Wasting away again in Margaritaville,
Searching for my lost shaker of salt,
Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame,
But I know it’s nobody’s fault.

Don’t know the reason that I stayed here all season,
With nothing to show but this brand new tattoo,
But it’s a real beauty, a Mexican cutie,
How it got here I haven’t a clue.

Wasting away again in Margaritaville,
Searching for my lost shaker of salt,
Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame,
Now I think, hell it could be my fault.

Blew out my flip flop, stepped on a poptop
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home,
But there’s booze in the blender,
And soon it will render,
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on.

Wasting away again in Margaritaville,
Searching for my lost shaker of salt,
Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame,
But I know, it’s my own damn fault.

Yes, some people claim that there’s a woman to blame,
And I know it’s my own damn fault.

 

Offshore Saturday Night

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I made it to the rig by Wednesday afternoon (I left home around 1330 on Monday). I managed to stay awake long enough to finish my first watch. Since then I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep. It takes me a week or so until I feel halfway normal again after a long trip like that. 🙁

It’s the weekend so we have a little bit of a change of routine. Today we had a nice BBQ out on the bow. The cooks did a great job (as usual with the BBQ). They had ribs, chicken, sausage, roast beef, hamburgers, shrimp, salad, corn and all the fixin’s.

There was even a choice of sodas and (near) beer!

The weather was nice, it was already getting dark and there was a nice cool breeze. The clouds had started clearing up (for some reason it’s always overcast here), we could see some stars. 🙂

The weekly BBQ is something we all look forward to.

Tomorrow should be drill day. We look forward to those too, but not in quite the same way. 😉

 

(the pictures are from another BBQ, not tonights)

Rumors

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The big discussion I’ve been having with everyone is over the price of oil and how it will affect us (we all work in oil related industries).
I’m sure for most people, it must be just such a nice bonus, especially this time of year. To have the price of a barrel of oil cut in half over the last few months is probably giving most people a little bit extra to spend on Christmas presents.
I think it’s got to be a boon for the world economy. Oil plays such a HUGE part in our everyday lives. Most people don’t even realize.
It’s not only used to fuel almost the entire transportation industry worldwide (there are a few electrically powered cars now), but it’s used in so many OTHER things we never really think about.
Things like plastic, which is itself used in almost everything. Like pharmaceuticals, fabrics, lubricants, fertilizers, chemicals, CDs, artificial limbs, and here’s a link to a list of some other uses.

Of course, I do have a life outside of my job. 😉 I love it when the price of gas goes down and I can think about going exploring around my neighborhood again. I appreciate when the price of a plane ticket goes down. I love it when the prices of all the things I have to buy drop because the price to deliver them to the market drops. (Why does it always seem that it doesn’t drop as much as it SHOULD?)

But, since I’m working in the oilfield (again), on a drillship, looking for MORE oil, when the price of oil drops it’s not usually a good thing. The oil companies we work for definitely take note, and things start slowing down out here.

New projects are delayed or canceled. Boats and rigs are put into storage. Crews are laid off. Like most people, we’re also living paycheck to paycheck.

So the rumors are flying. We’ve all heard about companies already paying millions of dollars to back out of contracts. Projects being cancelled. Rigs with no contracts. People in super-high demand a couple of months ago unable to find work and others being laid off. Companies starting to change their policies so that working for them is not as good as it was last year (they realize we are not as willing to just jump ship if we don’t know we have another job or 2 waiting in the wings).

We’re all wondering if our companies are going to keep their contracts (and so we will be able to keep our jobs). We’re wondering how low will the price of oil go this time and how deep the cuts.

Yeah, I think it’s a help to the worldwide economy when the price of oil drops. I also know that the price of oil affects the entire oilfield and everyone related to it. It’s a HUGE influence all over the Southern US. So many people all over Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida work offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, they support entire counties in those states with their paychecks!

The shale boom from Texas up through Oklahoma and the Dakotas (and all the way up into the Northeast) has helped bring the US out of the “great recession” (finally). Shale drilling is already screaming to a halt. The boom in those states will go with it.

So we’re all just wondering, how low can the price of oil go and for how long?

Frankfurt

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Anybody from Frankfurt? I’ve got a 10 hour layover here. Is there anything worth doing in that timeframe here?

Back to Africa

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I’m at the airport again (lot of time spent here lately). I got my visa at the last minute for me to be able to make my flight today, so spent the morning rushing around trying to finish up last minute things around the house.

I’ll be spending the next 30 hours (minimum) in the air (or airport). I expect they will send me straight to work when I get there. I’m really not sure how they expect anyone to do a good job after being awake for 45+ hours.

Anybody have any ideas on that?

Do you work someplace where they don’t allow you to start work unless you’re awake and alert? What happens if they tell you that you could have slept on the plane? Anybody out there that can actually sleep on a plane (in anything but first/business class)?

There is actually a law out there that says we (mariners) are not allowed to go to work unless we have had at least 6 hours of REST beforehand. That was put into place because the investigators realized that the REAL cause of the Exxon Valdez oil spill was FATIGUE. NOTHING to do with the Captain (except that he should have insisted that his crew got some rest before departure- but we’re all just slaves to the companies now). 🙁

Fatigue is always at the top of the list, #1, 2 or 3 of causes of ALL accidents!

In the 20+ years since that law was passed, I’ve only ever heard of ONE company abiding by those rules.

ONE. 🙁

I’ll try to get online on my layover in Frankfurt. If I can’t, I’ll catch up again here when I get caught up at work.

WPC: Twinkle

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Here are a couple of shots of the twinkling stars and the last eclipse of the moon for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Twinkle.

I love trying to take pictures at night. So far, I have not been very lucky with getting my photos of the night sky to come out very well. I just got a telescope to play with. Hopefully that will help. 🙂

 

Twinkle

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I just got back from a trip to New Orleans. I was there for the WorkBoat Show. I always try to spend some extra time there if I can. It’s such a great city to just hang out in. There’s so much to see and do and it’s such a creative place.

I saw lots of really beautiful Christmas decorations. Here are a couple of the Christmas trees for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Twinkle.

New Orleans: Christmas Parade 2014

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I went to New Orleans for the WorkBoat Show again this year. I stayed over a couple of days to just chill out and enjoy New Orleans. It’s such a great city to hang out in. 🙂

I did try to check around to see if there was anything especially interesting going on. I checked online and didn’t see anything unusual.  I had thought about going on another walking tour or going to the WWll museum, or the Pharmacy museum. What won out in the end was sleeping late. 😉

I had just got around to wandering out of the hotel and I heard the drums playing. I had to find out what was going on. I’m so glad I did. 🙂

I followed my ears down the street a couple of blocks until I ran into the crowd lined up along St Charles street and the parade marching by.

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It was so neat. I missed out on the beginning of it, but I was still in time to see a few groups of dancers, majorettes, and marching bands. The riding club and their little miniature horses were SO cute! So were the little girls all dressed up in their sparkling outfits, tapping their way down the street.

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Floats carrying bands playing Dixieland jazz and Santa-hatted, bead throwing locals were interspersed among the dance schools and high school marching bands. Santa and his dancing elves brought up the rear.

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And tho I think for some reason the bikers weren’t in the parade (technically), they didn’t let that ruin their fun and they had their own little parade right after the last musical blasting car passed by.

Nowhere like New Orleans for a party! 🙂

Mediterranean Gardens: Great Gyros!

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I just got in from my regular Tuesday night meeting. Lately we’ve been going to the Mediterranean Gardens, a local Greek/Cajun restaurant. They have the best gyros in town (and really great French Dip sandwiches). Also, the baklava is really good.

But I don’t actually go there for the food. I go there for our weekly Campaign for Liberty meetups. I go there to get my weekly political fix. I can go out, have a good meal and talk politics with people who (mostly) agree with me. That’s a nice change. 😉

We talk about all kinds of things… The history of the United States, the proper function of government, the role of the Federal Reserve, the situation with our money/dollar/debt, who’s running for office (local, state, national) and do we like their plans or not…

Then we try to come up with projects to work on and things to do to increase our membership. We started a community garden (pesticide and GMO free), we’ve shown a couple of movies (Behold a Pale Horse, Atlas Shrugged), gone to a few rallies, etc. It’s really hard to do much if you don’t have a very large group of people involved. People are just so busy trying to survive now, they don’t have the time to get involved.

It’s a catch 22 situation. People are too busy to get involved, but if they don’t get involved, things will only continue to get worse and they’ll have even less time to do the things they would really like to. Instead they’ll be working harder and longer to pay the bills (and TAXES).

I have to admit. I don’t have the ability to do as much as some of the people that go. I just don’t have the energy, but I sure am glad that those other people are working so hard to keep it all going.

I wish more people really understood and took to heart the founding documents of our country. We are unique in the history of the world. These principles, that the government is made to serve US and NOT the other way around, are what made this country special. The Declaration of Independence says it perfectly…

http://calibloom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/DeclarationOfIndependence.jpg

A Lesson from the Aboriginal Book of Wisdom

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I love this quote, it is SO true! Wake up world!! We all need to govern ourselves and forget about the rest of it!

WorkBoat Show: Day 2-3

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I had hopes of getting a little rest after the first day of the Workboat Show, but that didn’t happen.

I went back to my hotel fairly early Wednesday, but made the mistake of stopping in the lobby and ran into an old friend. I wound up staying there with some new friends from the fishing side of the maritime industry (they don’t usually come to this show- it’s more focused on the oilfield). We hung out til they closed down the bar.

In the morning, I got over to the Workboat Show in time to meet my friend who was there especially to check out the “Military to Maritime” job fair. We had some lunch first and then went to see who showed up at the job fair. They had quite a few booths. A good variety of both inland and offshore boat companies (Kirby, HOS, Chouest, etc) and land based support (Stuart & Stevenson, etc).

I was surprised to see that they weren’t all mobbed all afternoon (but then I left by 1345). With all we hear on the news about the levels of unemployment, I would have thought there would be a much larger crowd. I think they need to advertise the job fair better. It really wasn’t promoted like the Show itself is.

My friend actually got a job while we were there so he had to take off. I stuck around to talk to people and try to figure out how much hiring they were doing and get some specifics. The USCG was giving a talk about how to get started in the maritime industry, (specifically for members of the military), in a room off to the side, so I went in to see what they had to say.

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After the presentation, it was just about time for the WISTA tea. I’ve been to a couple of them before as a guest, but I joined WISTA (Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association) as a member this year. I haven’t really done anything with them yet, but they do have some good programs. I love the tea, it’s such a nice atmosphere.

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After the tea, the Show was pretty much over for the day, so I wandered over to the French Quarter to see what was happening over there (there’s ALWAYS something). 😉

It was really nice. The fog was just coming in and it made everything look so atmospheric. You could barely see the ships on the river, but you could hear them coming.

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Now it was time for the party at the old JAX Brewery (sponsored by some of the companies at the WorkBoat Show). I had missed some good ones the night before, but I was going tonight! I met up with friends from C-Mar and Oceanwide (I worked for both of them in the past).

They had a fabulous (free) buffet and a great band for dancing. They rented out the entire place so we had room to spread out and the balconies if we wanted to smoke. Lots of people were dancing with the band.

We closed that place down and then hit Bourbon Street. We had a great time. I know I actually went home earlier than some others did. I guess I just ‘cain’t hang’ anymore. 😉

I drug myself out of bed again Friday morning and made it over to the Convention Center just in time for the seminar on ‘Training for the Mariner’. There was a panel of speakers representing different training providers and other interested parties (but very obviously NONE representing those MOST affected- the mariners).

I was hoping to hear some regards for the mariners who are the ones being forced into taking all this ‘training’, but nope, that didn’t come up. I was disappointed in the panel, it seems the focus is going to continue to be on more and more ‘training’ (most of which is going to be held on shore, at our expense).

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the show. I hung out with my friends from Oceanwide some more. Saw some other friends from Texas A&M. Stopped by a few more booths to say hi and see what they were doing.

I got to try out all the latest DP systems (that is my main interest now a days since I’m working as a SDPO). I also got to play with a tiny little ROV. That is a lot harder than it looks, but I think it would be a pretty cool deal to work with one of those too.

Kongsberg DP system
DP system by Beier Radio
MT DP system

I was about ready to check out and it was a good thing, since they were taking down the show everywhere around me. 🙂

 

mini ROV by SeaRay

mini ROV by VideoRay

I hope I can go back again next year! There’s always new stuff to see, more interesting people to meet, and old friends to catch up with. 🙂

propeller

 

WorkBoat Show: Day 1

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After a VERY late night, I drug myself out of bed to check out the WorkBoat Show.

I didn’t really plan on staying up half the night, but I saw on Facebook that a friend and travel writer was going to be in town for a ‘comp trip’. I had met her at a travel writing workshop in Boston a couple of years ago. After messaging back and forth on Facebook before leaving home, we agreed to meet up here in New Orleans after she finished up her work.

Turns out, when I went to meet her, she was in the middle of dinner with the whole group of writers involved on the comp trip. It was an interesting evening, for true! 🙂

I got back to my hotel about 0200 in the morning, but for some reason I just couldn’t sleep. So it was pretty hard to get up and out. Once I did, I walked over to the Convention center for the WorkBoat Show.

In the same Facebook conversation, I learned there was another writer (and fellow blogger who I met at the same workshop)  coming to town for the show. We planned to meet up too. The first thing we wanted to do was to hear Capt Phillips. He was the Keynote speaker.

Remember the Maersk Alabama, the American flagged ship that got attacked by pirates a couple of years ago? Tom Hanks played him in the movie? Yep, that Capt Phillips. He gave a good presentation and we got to ask questions and afterwards have pictures taken with him (I skipped that but my friend got hers done).

As the presentation was ending, I spotted another friend of mine from Kirby Towing. We stopped to say hi on the way out. That’s what I love about these events. I always wind up meeting so many of my old friends. It’s great to catch up and hear what everybody’s been doing. 🙂

I had a couple of hours before the next presentation. My writer friend was doing an interview with a guy from the Deadliest Catch, so I went to wander around a little bit and ran into some other old friends.

Father Sinclair and Doreen from the Apostleship of the Sea. They always have so many good projects going on to help the sailors and the maritime community. Sinclair still sails, but he somehow finds the time to get involved with all kinds of important stuff.

I went to the presentation on mariner health issues. I picked that one since I have a lot of concerns of my own about how the medical standards are getting harder and harder to meet and are being used to throw a lot of us sailors out of our jobs. It seems a lot of the companies want 50 years of experience in a 20 year old body. 🙁

Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the convention center and checking out  some of the things there that I’m especially interested in. The latest DP systems from Kongsberg, MT, L3, etc.

I met a few more old friends. Hope to spend some more time with them tomorrow in between all the other events. 🙂