I was looking at my stats and I found it hard to believe SO many people liked those posts I did way back when on ‘moonshine’. They were my all time most liked posts! (Don’t bother clicking the recipe links in my earlier posts, for some reason they’ve disappeared off the internet. I didn’t even know that was possible!).
Makes me think I need to post some more on that topic.
What do you think?
Christmas is coming up…
I’m about to head out to my weekly political meeting. Or, as most people refer to it as “those crazy conspiracy freaks going at it again”!
Does it REALLY matter if it’s a conspiracy if whatever you’re concerned about IS really happening?
Personally, I couldn’t care less if it’s technically a conspiracy or not. I just want it all to STOP! I’m not nearly as involved/informed as some of the other members of the group. I just don’t have the time (or the inclination) to spend SO much time investigating and following up research on SO many different things.
Things like:
The list goes on, and on, and on. I don’t know if every one of these things is really going on, is really as bad as some of my friends there make out. I DO know that SOME of them are, that’s enough for me to keep going. to keep fighting.
There are SO many ways we are being used, and abused. I go to the meetings to TRY to find ways to deal with it all. To TRY to find solutions. To TRY to find ways to inform and educate enough other people so they’ll come to care about all this stuff and join in the fight.
My friend Mike thinks I’m nuts. He tells me I shouldn’t worry about any of those things, I should just let Obama (or Hillary) do their thing and everything will be fine. It’s all the Republicans fault according to him (yeah, I’m simplifying a little bit, but not by much). Sorry, but it’s NOT just the Republicans fault! It’s the fault of BOTH parties and I get SO tired of hearing one side argue about the other!
BOTH parties are STATIST! That is the problem and THAT is the reason we have so many of those problems I listed above! Until we get the population of the USA to believe in FREEDOM and LIBERTY like we all used to believe in, then things are just going to keep on getting worse.
In America, we the PEOPLE are the supreme rulers! Individuals are MORE important than the state! The government works for US, NOT the other way around!
Harry Browne asked a question when he was running for President a few years back. He asked people “Would you give up your favorite federal programs if it meant you never had to pay income tax again?”. Sadly, almost no one would.
Staying home tonight, waiting for my TEFL conference call to begin.
I signed up for this program on teaching English overseas a few months ago. Another of my attempts to find a way to support myself when I move out of the US.
So far, I haven’t made the move. I still haven’t even taken the actual TEFL course, tho I am getting closer to signing up. I have started actually researching different programs, at different schools.
My old friend from high school just finished his TEFL course and he’s already teaching. So far he’s loving it.
I think if I didn’t have so many bills, I would be much more likely to do it myself. I definitely worry too much.
I hope tonights call will help me get off my ass and make some kind of decision! If I can’t get back offshore, I need to find SOMETHING to do that will bring in some money to pay the bills. I figure if I’m living somewhere cheaper, I won’t be spending so much money. I hope that’s how it works!
I talked to a couple of old friends today. Both of them have made the move and encouraged me to ‘just do it’ too.
One friend I used to work with on the ships has made the move to Thailand. He’s still working for the same company we were at together, but he has been working in Korea for a few years now. He spends his time off in Thailand. He’s married a Thai lady and is VERY happy there.
My other friend went to high school with me on the sailing ships. He’s got the same adventurous spirit that I have, but he’s actually DONE something with his. Soon after high school, he spent 10 years living in Venezuela. He moved back to the states to raise his family, but now they’re grown and he’s looking for a change. He’s just finished his TEFL course and is now teaching in Mexico.
I’ve been trying to find something to do with myself for years now. Decades really. I’m so tied up in trying to find a way to get out of here, but I want to do it safely. I don’t really love the idea of trying to sell everything I own, cut all ties, and give up everything I’ve ever worked for in order to support myself overseas. Is that possible? I know I’ve been trying for a LONG time and still haven’t really come any closer to finding an answer.
I’ve been lucky to have had a good job (until a couple of months ago). One that paid me enough to pay the bills and put a little aside every month. In trying to find some way to support myself, so I could leave the US, I’ve started a vending machine business (total failure), bought rental properties (which I am going to have to sell since I can’t afford them if I’m not working), working on stock photography, blogging, writing.
None of those projects has yet brought me anywhere near the amount of income I need to start the process to emigrate somewhere else. Only the rental property will bring in enough money so that I can apply for residency (not citizenship) in a few places.
I’ve been hoping to get at least a couple of weeks of regular work over the holidays. That would help a LOT. At this point, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. So, now what?
I’m thinking my best alternative would be to take the TEFL course myself. At least that would give me the option to live someplace cheaper and get away from some major expenses here. Also, find a much less stressful lifestyle somewhere.
I’m still worried about so many things, pretty much all of them to do with finances. How will I pay my bills? How will I be able to keep up my ‘training’? How will I be able to keep my LICENSE? I need that license in order to work offshore and I can’t imagine giving it up after working so hard for 34+ years to earn it.
I need to renew it by December 2016. If I want to keep it after that, I HAVE TO find work at sea! So, I have about 9 months to find something else to do before I need to be back here to start the renewal process.
So, does anyone have any helpful ideas for me? Something other than “just DO it!” Some ‘it” to do?? I’m open to suggestions. Send ’em over here. 😉
I took a little break and went to the movies yesterday. I’ve been wanting to see the movie “In the Heart of the Sea” since I first saw the commercials for it a couple of months ago.
I’d read the book (by Nathaniel Philbrick) a couple of years ago. I LOVED it. It’s a fantastic sea story (which I always love).The movie tells the story of the Nantucket whale ship “Essex”. “In the Heart of the Sea” showcased adventure, suspense and even horror mixed in with the wonderful descriptions of the sailing ship and life on the sea 100 years ago. Then there was the whole Moby Dick thing. The whaling and the incredible idea that there might be a whale out for vengeance!
I admit, I don’t remember much about the book ‘Moby Dick‘. We all read it in high school. I had no idea it was based on a true story. I don’t remember being all that impressed with the book. I’m pretty sure the ending was not the same as in this movie, (if it had been I’m sure I would have remembered it better)! Like a lot of those ‘classics’ we had to read in high school, I remember thinking “what the hell’s so great about this book?”.
They did a good job with the film. It wasn’t as good as Philbricks’ book (movies almost never are). Still, it was good.
It started right off by following the Chief Mate, Owen Chase (played by Chris Hemsworth), leaving his pregnant wife behind and heading into town for his next assignment. He’d been promised a captains position on his next voyage and was pretty ticked off when he found out he got screwed out of it in a case of ‘office politics’. I hadn’t realized they were even doing that way back then. 😉
Captain Pollard (Benjamin Walker) gets the job instead, simply because he comes from an old time, respectable family.
This creates a situation on board between the Master and Mate where they are constantly butting heads and is NOT good for the ship (it never is)! The tension between the 2 characters is evident throughout the entire movie. They could have done more to show the interaction with the rest of the crew, but the focus was on these 2 men (and the whale).
The movie, directed by Ron Howard, uses the story device in which Herman Melville (working on his book Moby Dick) is interviewing Thomas Nickerson, who went to sea as a young boy on that disastrous voyage. Nickerson is ashamed by what he did to survive and has never spoken to anyone about it. His wife finally convinces him to speak to Melville in exchange for much needed funds.
It works as a way to tell the story. You can still see the effects the incident had on Nickerson, even all these years later. It was well done, not disturbing the story too much with the returns to the scenes of the late night story telling over drinks.
I really enjoyed the movie. I loved all the scenes of the everyday work aboard the ship. I yelled at the captain that he was an idiot to sail into the storm like he did. I was thrilled to see the whales and caught up in the chase when the boats were launched. I cried when the ship was lost. (I’m glad it was dark in the theater). 😉
I suppose todays environmentalists would be cheering for the whale the whole time, but I found myself wavering. Sometimes I felt like I imagined the whale felt. Angry at men for destroying so much innocent beauty. Coming to murder my family for money! Sometimes I felt like the men. Just out to make a living, to survive however they could. This was a survival story in the end. On both sides.
I’m glad we discovered petroleum oil, or we WOULD have wiped out all of the whales. OK, I have been working in the oilfield the last few years (so maybe I’m prejudiced), but I wonder what would have happened if we had NOT found an alternative to whale oil. Would we still have been able to progress? Or would we have gone back to the ‘dark ages’ when everything stopped when the sun went down? Yeah, even tho we have a few oil spills, I’m still glad we have petroleum. The whales are recovering now.
I was at the Workboat Show in New Orleans last week. I spent most of my time this year talking to recruiters, crewing agencies and training providers. One of the more interesting ones was the Son of a Sea Cook workboat cooking school. It’s a new program of the Sea School based in St. Petersburg, FL.
If things weren’t so totally dead offshore right now, I would heartily recommend it for anyone who wants an ‘in’ to get started working offshore. As things are, I would still say it’s a good idea. It helps if you like to cook, but most small boats require everyone to cook sometimes. It really doesn’t matter if you like it or not.
It’ll be dead offshore til the price of oil goes back up, but there were still plenty of inland companies hiring at the show. It’s still an advantage when you’re looking for work to have a skill like cooking to add to your application. Companies know that a good cook will help keep a happy crew and that’s always good for business.
Knowing how to cook is a good skill to have even for your OWN benefit. It’s sure nice to know how to cook up a good meal instead of living on TV dinners and baloney sandwiches. I know, when I got my 1st apartment, I lived on Campbells cream of tomato soup and baloney sandwiches.
I never learned how to cook til I HAD to, when they took our cooks away the last time the oil price took a dive back in the 80’s. We lived on TV dinners and sandwiches for months. Thank goodness my crew was willing to let me learn to cook! I made them a deal, I would (try) to cook, they could clean up. It took me a while, but I did eventually learn. Now I can cook pretty good, and I even enjoy it.
The Son of a Sea Cook school is a 28 day course, includes free room and board in Bayou La Batre, AL, and will get you set up to find a job as a boat cook. They’ll help you get your US Coast Guard documents if you need them. They have companies that look for graduates of their training programs to hire on. They even have tuition assistance and job placement help.
“Important elements of this training include soup stock, sauce, starch, sauces, roux, salads, menu planning, nutrition, basic food purchasing & production, costing, regional cuisine, cajun cooking, safe meat cutting & poultry handling, galley management, food-service sanitation, storeroom operations and introduction to baking.”
If I had to start all over again, I would seriously consider signing up myself. I’m SURE it would have been much easier for me to get on board as a cook then as any other position (as a female). Once you’re on board, it’s MUCH easier to work your way into another position if you decide you don’t like the galley.
If you’re looking for something fun and interesting to do, give them a call (1-800-237-8663) to find out prices, the website doesn’t list them. You can also check out their other courses if you’re interested in working on a boat (but not as a cook).
I’m at the Denver airport, waiting for my flight back home to Houston. It’s been a VERY busy couple of days here in Colorado.
I got here fairly early Monday morning. Shared a ride to Evergreen with my fellow attendee and new room mate Hope. We spent the next 2 days sharing a 2 bedroom suite at the Highland Haven Creekside Inn. We came for a ‘writing retreat’ along with another dozen fledgling writers.
The Highland Haven was a nice place to have the retreat. It was quiet and peaceful. The main rooms where we spent most of our time working on our writing had crackling fires to keep us warm. I loved seeing the snow on the ground, a small creek ran right alongside the property. The place was surrounded by huge evergreen trees. We even saw a small herd of deer pass slowly by while we all tried to shoot them (with cameras). 🙂
We had breakfast (included) in the rustic log cabin next to the office and then walked upstairs to the loft where we did most of our work. We were a small group (12 of us hoping to become published writers). People from all over the country came to learn from past Denver Post travel editor and writer Kyle Wagner.
We spent our time writing short ‘front of the book’ articles. Kyle critiqued our writing and explained how to write articles that editors would love to publish. We learned the 10 most common mistakes, how to structure our article, how to write query letters, how to find the right publication for our story. We heard each others stories and helped each other work through ideas and come up with different, more ‘exciting’ ways to get our point across.
I think I have a good idea of what to do now. I learned my biggest problem is figuring out how to start my story. I need to figure out how to write a good ‘lede’. Something to grab your attention and drag you into the story, something to keep your interest, something to ‘tease’ you.
Yep, now I know WHAT I need to do. Now I just need to figure out HOW to do it! I think I have my work cut out for me.
Wish me luck!
PS- I wrote this last night. Thought I posted it, but got in a rush to board the plane and guess I forgot to hit the ‘post’ button.
I was in New Orleans last week for the Workboat Show. I got there Wednesday morning, had enough time to check out the show and then walked over to the WISTA tea at the Windsor Court Hotel.
Some friends invited me to a party held jointly by the Massachusetts and Maine Maritime academies. It was high up on the 23rd floor at the W Hotel with a fantastic view of the Mississippi River. There were more parties to attend afterwards, but I was pooping out. I didn’t think I could stay up partying too much longer so I headed back to my hotel.
On the way I stopped in at Harrah’s casino. I played the nickel video poker machines. I only put in $20, but it was after midnight by the time I thought to make a move. I still had over $10 left.
After breakfast at the hotel (not worth getting up early for), I wandered back over to the show. I talked to friends at all the recruiters (C-Mar, Oceanwide, CLS). I stopped by my old shipmate’s booth to say hi and catch up on news.
I checked out some of the more interesting booths like the one promoting tall ship sailing for everyone. I’ve always loved the tall ships, that’s what made me decide to become a professional mariner. I’ve been trying since my high school sailing trip to recreate that experience.
I was hoping to find someone hiring at the job fair, but no such luck. There were no offshore companies attending this year and so no work available. There were a few inland companies there and they were hiring. Marquette, Kirby, Canal Barge). There were a couple of engineering companies (Downey Engineering, Schottel). The hiring companies were completely outnumbered by the hopefuls looking for a job.
The Show closed down pretty soon after I finished with the job fair. I headed through the Riverwalk Shopping Center and had lunch overlooking the river. It was getting dark and cooling off when I finished so I stopped in again at the Casino and wound up spending another couple of hours there.
I wandered over to the French Quarter and did some window shopping down Royal Street. Lots of interesting art and good music even on the street. I walked back to my hotel down Bourbon Street and wondered at my lack of desire to join in the party.
I was in bed by 11 PM. Up in the morning in time to pick up the rental car I needed to run down to Fourchon to pick up some paperwork from the Mystic Viking. I spent the day driving back and forth and got back too late to return the car.
I got up early enough to return the car. I wanted to go to the WWII museum nearby, but I found out there was a parade starting soon so I changed plans. I went to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art instead. They had a lot of really interesting stuff. Anything from the usual classical paintings you’d imagine belong in a museum, to ‘art’ I bet any monkey could do. I’m always amazed how those sorts of things wind up in a museum or why anyone would pay anything for it.
mud & paint on plywood by Jimmy Lee Sudduth
I left the museum in time to find a good spot to view the parade. It was fun to watch the kids lunge for the candies and beads. The costumes were fun and of course in New Orleans they weren’t what you would expect. Not just the usual cheerleaders and marching bands, but roving bands of Elvi’s and ice cream girls in pink stripes. I’ll write more on the parade later.
I’ve got to get up early again tomorrow. I’m heading to New Orleans for the Workboat Show in the morning.
I’ll tell you about it tomorrow night, after I see what’s up and get settled in. In the meantime, you can get a preview here, or here to see what was going on last year. Or just search for ‘Workboat Show’ on the blog here.
My response to the Daily Posts weekly photography challenge.
I took these at the Houston Museum of Natural Science a couple of weeks ago. A butterfly was just coming out of its cocoon. They have a beautiful butterfly center there. I thought it would fit this weeks theme of ‘transition’. 🙂
I meant to say more about the Renaissance Festival before this, but I’ve been super lazy and haven’t been blogging for a few days.
I haven’t been able to go to the RenFest for 20 years or more, but this year I went twice! I really enjoyed myself both days. There was so much to see and do and the weather was pretty nice. Bright and sunny all day, but it did get COLD there last Sunday night.
I’m not usually much of a shopper, but I do like nice things and they had a lot of nice things there! Candles, clothes, arms & armor, leather work, crystals, jewelry and even pets (dragonpets). Not to mention the food! 🙂
I spent some time looking at the fashions. I love looking at those beautiful clothes! I’m not sure I would have liked actually wearing them, they really didn’t look very comfortable. They were expensive! As usual, nothing I liked fit! That was probably a good thing since I’m supposed to be saving my money being laid off and all.
I did break down when I saw the really special, unusual and unique jewelry at Pendragon Jewelry. I had taken a quick look early in the day and just kept thinking about it, so I went back later to ask questions and try things on. Here’s a sample of their stuff:
I would have bought a lot more of their beautiful jewelry if I knew when I would be going back to work. As it is, I had to settle for only a couple of my favorites. I spent some time talking to the proprietors, everyone was very nice and helpful.
I finally settled for 3 pieces I really loved. One is a mermaid pendant on a gold chain. She is sitting on a large labradorite stone, surrounded by “Horkimer diamonds”, a blue topaz on one side and a peach moonstone on the other. I got her for half off as a package deal with the other pieces.
One is a bracelet of cabochon moonstones.
And the other is a necklace with faceted moonstones and blue topaz.
They look gorgeous, together or apart!
This is the last weekend of the Renaissance Festival this year and I’m not going out. I signed up for the mailing list since they don’t have a website. I’m sure I’ll see more to be tempted by.
If you have any interest in this kind of thing, here’s the contact information I got:
Pendragon Jewelry, 435-703-7777, pendragonjewels@hotmail.com, you can also find them on Facebook.
I’ve been so lazy the last few days, I haven’t even managed to look at my own blog! I’m pretty much over the Thanksgiving food coma now so I figured I had better start catching up around here. I had started this 3 Quote Challenge last week, but if you have been paying attention, you’ll notice I only made it to Quote #2.
Here’s #3…
Yeah! I really DO believe that one and I TRY to act like it. BUT, things just keep getting in the way. Yeah, things like bills mostly. Things like fears more importantly.
Somehow I need to find a way to get rid of my fears (of how to pay the bills, of what might happen if I just GO- pack it all up and leave!). Could I get mugged? Could I lose my stuff? Could I be physically attacked? What if I get stuck in a bad place? With bad people? What options do I have if I don’t have plenty of money? How can I possibly support myself in a foreign country? Will I be able to renew my license (to work) if I leave? How?
Yeah, I really do think of stuff like that (and more). I have to admit, those thoughts, more than anything else, is what is keeping me here. I’m sure things can’t be as bad as I worry myself about in my mind. After all, there are thousands of people wandering the world, doing just the kinds of things I want to do.
I want to travel. I want to see the world. I want to sail. I want to SAIL around the world! I want to explore, to learn new languages, to meet new people, to try new foods, to really get to know a place. I want to spend more time being creative, reading, writing, painting, photographing, playing music, singing, playing.
I just need to get over my fears and just DO IT! Anybody have any suggestions?
I got this in my email from pensitivity101, I’ve been following her for a while now. She lives aboard a little riverboat over in Britain with her husband and their dog. I like to read about how they manage to handle the living arrangements on their boat.
I don’t usually do these challenges either, but I do collect quotes so I figured what the hell, this one might be fun.
The rules are:
That’s one of my all time favorite quotes. I even have it posted on my refrigerator. I think it’s one of those things that keeps me banging my head against the wall trying to FIX things here instead of just saying “the hell with it all, they asked for this, let them suffer their mistakes”. 🙁
I had a hard time thinking of 3 bloggers I could be sure would like to play this game. So I’ll copy pensitivity101s idea:”my invitees are anyone who wishes to participate”. So, I am not going to limit this to only 3 bloggers, anyone who wants to, feel free to join in! Please link back to me so I can see your quotes. 🙂
The Fund Your Life (FYL) conference finished up this evening. Spent 2 1/2 days soaking up all kinds of information and ideas about how to make a move overseas and actually pay for it (without having to be retired with some sort of pension).
I met all kinds of interesting people. Lots of people from the US and Canada, one lady came all the way from Hong Kong. We all seemed to be in pretty much the same frame of mind. All looking for lower cost of living, less stress, more freedom, more options. Ideas flowing, but not really sure what to do with them.
There are so many options. So many different countries to chose from. And then all the different locations within those countries. Farm and country or city? Cool mountains or warm beaches? English speaking or other?
Things to do to earn income ranged from the traditional idea to buy rental property to working online with elance or publishing ebooks. Lots of ideas to start a business, like open a bar or restaurant, bakery, book store, import-export, leading tours, helping other people make the move, organizing peoples closets, etc.
I’m still not really sure what to do. I’m still not sure where I want to go. I have so many places I’d like to go, things I’d like to do. I hate to even consider the idea of losing my ability to work at sea. I do NOT want to lose my license I worked SO hard to get.
As long as the price of oil stays as low as it is, I don’t know if there’s much I really can do about that. There really is not much work offshore right now, and I don’t see the job market improving til the oil price does.
I want to stay connected to the maritime world, I want whatever I wind up doing to be in some way related to sailing. I could teach sailing or navigation, I could deliver peoples boats, I could work in a marina. A few people I met told me I should write a book. I’m open to that idea. I have been trying to transition into writing and photography anyway. I just wonder what, specifically, would I write about?
Would you all give me some ideas? Feedback? Would you be interested in a book from me? About my life? About my career? About what it’s like working at sea? About conditions out there? About how YOU could do it?
I’d love to hear any feedback from you. Especially people who are not in the USA. Any ideas for me? I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with. 🙂
I tried to make an early night of it last night, so I could be awake and alert all day today at the conference. I had dinner at the hotel and was in bed by 1030.
My problem started when I decided to do a little reading before turning out the light. I was reading Carl Hiaasens “Skink No Surrender“. I really like his style, he’s got a great sense of humor and his books are always quick reads. I’m not sure how to classify this one; young adult? mystery? comedy? adventure? It had all that and more. Like all his writing, this book kept me interested til the end.
I also like his books because they remind me so much of where I grew up in Florida. His cast of characters and the adventures they get involved in are such pure Florida, it’s almost like going home again. 🙂
Johns Pass Florida
This book features Skink, a character familiar from previous stories. He’s always been one of my favorites and reminds me of some of the guys I grew up with on the beach over there (Johns Pass). My dad used to rent apartments to a lot of the people who came to the beach. We had some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met come through there.
My grandmother used to wonder why I always enjoyed hanging out with all those strange characters, but they were just so interesting. Travelers from all over, musicians, fishermen, artists, bartenders, etc. I heard some fantastic stories!
Skink No Surrender tells the story of a teenage boy (Richard) who’s worried about his cousin Malley who’s disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Skink helps Richard track her down and their adventures across Florida are pretty entertaining. 🙂
I tried a few times to stop reading and turn out the lights, but then I had to continue again and again. I finally finished the book and tried to go to sleep around 0230. Last time I looked at the clock, it was almost 0400.
I had the alarm set for 0730, conference starts at 0900. I’m probably going to have a hell of a time staying awake and paying attention. 🙁
I’m here in Phoenix, Arizona (Mesa) for the Fund Your Life Overseas Conference (put on by International Living). The subtitle to the conference is: How to Create the Kind of Life You Don’t Need a Vacation From.
YEAH! I am ready for THAT!
I flew in early yesterday, I had hoped to spend some time exploring the area, but I was just too beat from lack of sleep. I didn’t do much exploring. I managed to take a walk around the area near the hotel, check out the hotel pool and that was about it.
Today was the first day of the conference. We had 2 solid hours of speakers: Dan Prescher and Suzan Haskins, Barbara Winter, Valery Young, Winton Churchill. All telling us about some of the options out there for making a life overseas, and getting us excited to hear more in depth from them over the next couple of days.
We even had an hour long cocktail party with free drinks and snacks. I’ve already met at least a dozen very interesting fellow attendees. 🙂
My mind has been churning, thinking up all kinds of ideas. I’m still trying hard to figure out how to move and looking forward to hearing more ideas tomorrow.
I got here yesterday and after a nice long nap I decided to take a walk around and see what there was to see.
There’s a nice big green park across the street. I was surprised to see a lake, people fishing, and even a lady out feeding the ducks.
I’ve never seen ducks like these! One looked like it had a little feathery clown wig on it’s head. I don’t know what kind of duck it was, but we need some of those around Houston, just for the laugh factor. 🙂
I walked through the park and finally saw the cactus I was expecting to see here in the desert. They’re getting ready to bloom! I’ll go back tonight to see if they’re flowering yet. Cactus are SO beautiful when they bloom. I was happy to see them even tho it was only a planting along the edge of the park along the roadside, at least it did let you in on the reality that we are here in the middle of the desert- no matter that there’s a lake right there!
Of course, there was a shopping center right across the way. Typical.
People have been asking ‘what’s up?”, yep, it surprised me. Some people have actually sent me messages asking where I’ve been. Neat. 🙂 I’m sorry I haven’t been around here much lately. I’ve just been worn out. Too tired to spend the time and effort to even write a post. 🙁
Maybe you wonder what has been keeping me so busy? Nothing really. I think I’ve just been so frustrated with this thing lately, and maybe even a little depressed. I can’t seem to make any progress in getting my blog back to where I am interacting with people like I was before I moved. I don’t know what went wrong or how to fix it and it’s been bothering me. A LOT! And then there’s been the other issue with my photos. 🙁
I even consulted a couple of computer ‘geeks’ to see if they could help me. So far no luck. I have’nt had much time since I asked them either, so part of that may be my fault.
Since my last posts here on Sunday, I’ve been fairly busy. I spent the first part of last week in my new job in the mornings. Monday night my DPO friend was in town so she drove down from Houston to visit me and we went out to Red Lobster for dinner. Tuesday night was my usual Campaign for Liberty meeting. Wednesday I met my DPO friend again and we had a good time shopping at the Galleria with a late dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!).
I took the day off Thursday, just went to visit my friend J and brought over a big pot of my favorite beef stew. She doesn’t get out much and I felt like she could use some homemade cooking. 🙂 We had a nice talk about all kinds of things. I really wish she was still up for going out together.
Friday I went to a lunch meeting in Houston where they had an interesting presentation about FPSO’s (yeah, I know, most people probably wouldn’t think that was very interesting, but I really do still like to learn about all that stuff!). I was going to the zoo afterwards, but they closed it early for a ‘Feast With the Beasts’ and I didn’t want to pay (a LOT) extra to enter since I’m a member and should get free entry.
I went to the Museum of Natural Science instead. I always really like their ‘bug house’ (exhibits on insects, etc) and butterfly center. It’s really fascinating to watch the butterflies come out of their chrysalis and pump themselves up to fly away. I like to take lots of pictures of all the butterflies and flowers. It’s a really relaxing experience, sitting around listening to the waterfalls while the butterflies land on you. I only wish it wasn’t always so HOT and HUMID in there!
I got a membership there too, so I could see all the exhibits. They had Faberge‘ there again which I really enjoyed. I always did love beautiful things and there were a lot of them in there, much more than just the famous eggs. Everything they made was just exquisite! So finely made, so delicate, so intricate, so gorgeous, so expensive!
They also had an exhibit on spies. It was called “Spies, Traitors and Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America”. That was really interesting and I wish I had a lot more time to spend there to really take it all in.
One thing I liked was that they had little interactive quizzes set up at some of the exhibits. For instance, they had one that asked if the US government should be able to spy on their own citizens (like they ARE doing). Of course I answered no (HELL NO!).
I was absolutely stunned to see how many of my ‘fellow Americans’ answered differently. Amazing! Hard to believe so many are willing to give up their rights. Sad to see how many just don’t get Ben Franklins warning about those who would trade freedom for security.
Amazing how many have learned nothing from history and I guess that means that we will be repeating it all again. VERY VERY sad.
I was running out of time, they were closing the museum so I had to leave. It’s probably a good thing, since I was getting a little pissed off. Yes, it really does upset me whenever I’m reminded of how MUCH of my freedom has been stolen from me! I still find it hard to understand how anyone, much less any American, can stand it. Yet I see more and more of them willing to accept more and more of this theft every day.
So, the weekend came around and MORE rain! I spent the entire weekend being super lazy! I was just tired. Really worn out. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday lying around reading (Michael Chrichtons book “Travels”, Kim Harrisons “Witch With No Name”), watching TV (Saturday Night Live, Texas Music Scene, Househunters) and cooking up a storm. 🙂
Yesterday I eased back into things by catching up on phone calls, emails, etc and today I’m back in the flow of things. Went back to my new job this morning and political meeting again tonight. 🙂
Tomorrow I’m getting up REAL early to go to a conference I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It’s called Fund Your Life Overseas. I’m still hoping to find SOME way to support myself without being tied down here in the states. I have been trying to move overseas for YEARS now. Decades actually.
The ONLY thing keeping me here is my finances. I hope I will be able to learn something new at this conference that will finally allow me to earn an INDEPENDENT living. Something not tied to any specific location would be best, but if its located outside of the US, that would probably be OK too.
So, if you don’t hear from me again for the next few days, don’t worry. I’ll be soaking up the info at the conference and hopefully the weather will be decent when I return. Since I already missed the Pirates, I’d really like to see the Barbarians at the RenFest! 🙂
It’s been raining here non-stop for the last 2 days! I’ve been stuck in the house, can’t even take my daily walk. Planned to go to the Renaissance Festival for the Pirates, but that is NOT somewhere I want to be in the rain!
So….
It’s still going on every weekend til Nov 29th, so I’ll try to go another weekend when hopefully it’s not raining. The Barbarians will be there Nov 14-15, they should be almost as good as the Pirates. 😉
Since I’m just hanging around the house listening to the rain, I’ve been trying to fix my blog. So far I am making zero progress and getting nothing but frustration out of the project!
I did get my computer back from the shop, but they couldn’t fix the issue (virus that encrypts all my photos) and I am VERY upset over losing all that stuff! I had hundreds of photos on my thumb drive (put them there since computer was full up).
I can just be thankful it didn’t get into the computer too.
I met a guy on linkedin the other day who I HOPE can help me with some of this stuff. Otherwise, it’s getting to the point where I’m wondering if it’s going to be worth all the stress and aggravation. 🙁
I hope we can get together tomorrow to go over everything and he can start working on it soon. I’ll be busy most of the week with other things and won’t have another ‘free’ day til Friday.
I got home late from Houston tonight and I was taking my daily walk. I was searching the sky for Orion, to see if I could spot any meteors (the Orionid metor shower is still going on).
All the sudden- ICK! YUK! UGH!
I walked under a tree and it was like I got attacked by a giant spider! For a minute I felt like Frodo when he got tangled up in Shelobs lair in the Lord of the Rings. 😉
I’m still not sure if it was a real spider web I somehow ran into, or if it was a Halloween decoration gone wild, but it got me good!
At least I didn’t ever see the spider who might have made that giant web!!
Sad to say, I didn’t see any meteors tonight either, it was just too cloudy and the moon was still too bright to see many stars. I need to get to sleep soon, so won’t be staying up to try again when the moon sets. I’ll be up and out early in the morning, so maybe I’ll have better luck then. 🙂
It’s Tuesday. That means its time for the weekly meeting of my favorite local political group, the Texas Liberty Campaign of Brazoria County We meet every week at a local restaurant for good food and interesting discussions.
We’ve been meeting at the Mediterranean Gardens for a while now (since we moved from China Town). Plenty of good Greek (and Cajun) food. I’m looking forward to it tonight since I haven’t been in so long.
I miss being able to talk about all this ‘crazy’ stuff, politics outside of the 2 party system, REAL freedom and liberty for America, things not really covered in the mainstream media. Yeah, most people think we’re a bunch of tin hat conspiracy theorists. 😉
Sometimes I do too. But sometimes I think there really might be something to it (like all the completely unconstitutional spying on everything and everybody the US government does for just 1 example). And sometimes I even think it’s worth doing something about.
I only wish I knew just exactly WHAT to do about it all (other than speak out).
If anybody is interested, come on out and join us! We’re there from 7:00 til closing. 🙂
I just mentioned I’ve been thinking how much I’d just LOVE to be able to just chuck it all and go sail around the world. Seriously.
Yeah, I’ve spent about the last 40 years TRYING to do just exactly that. I’ve spent almost my entire life at sea, hoping to see the world, have some adventures, and earn a living at the same time.
I keep TRYING to get the hell out of the Gulf of Mexico, go somewhere interesting and get a job where I really love what I’m doing, like I used to love what I do now. It seems no matter what I do, even if I manage to find a job overseas somewhere, I keep getting stuck right back in the Gulf of Mexico again. Right back to the same old, same old. Right back to the place where they suck all the excitement and enjoyment right out of being a mariner.
I’m up here at the DP Conference in Houston this week. I’m here hoping to learn something useful, meet some interesting people, get a feel for what’s happening in the DP world, and maybe even get a clue about who might be hiring DPOs.
Well, I have met some interesting people, and I have learned a little bit, but it sure doesn’t look good for anybody hiring any DPOs anytime soon. The more I think about it, the more I think it might just be time to say the hell with it.
I still have no idea how I could possibly make it work, but the more I think about it, the more I want to just GO! The only thing holding me back is the fear of wondering how in the heck will I be able to support myself?
I’ve been trying for years now to figure out SOME way to pay my bills without having to be out on a ship somewhere. I’ve tried vending machines. I’ve bought rental property. I’ve been working on writing, photography, etc.
That’s even one of the main reasons I started this blog, hoping to find a way to get around the editors, to get my photography out to the world (and hoping someone would like it enough to buy it). I still haven’t figured out what the hell happened to the blog when I moved it from wordpress, but it seems I’ve lost most of my readers since then. 🙁
I have actually sold 2 photos online so far. I’ve earned 50 cents for the 2 of them. 🙁 I have had a couple of my articles published, and once I even got paid. I wonder if I stayed home and was able to spend more time on it, if I could somehow earn enough to survive?
I wonder if I just did take off to travel for a while how long I would be able to last? It must be possible somehow, I just don’t know how I can do it!
I need to spend some time seriously figuring out my finances and looking at ALL options. I need to get over being so spoiled and afraid!!!
I’m in Houston for the DP Conference. I was looking up the website for my previous post and found this quiz.
http://dynamic-positioning.com/dp/
I should have aced it (but I didn’t). 🙁
This popped up in my email this morning. Yes, my email finally started working again here this morning after 3-4 days of having absolutely no luck with that! No reason why it didn’t work, or why it did this morning. I just hope it continues!
Anyway, this recipe looked so good, and so simple, I thought I’d share it with you. Just follow this link. I think I’ll skip making the home made crust and just use a frozen crust to save time and effort.
I can’t complain about the food on here, the cooks are doing a great job with what they have to work with. Still, I like to cook my own food sometimes. I can’t wait to get home and try out some of these great recipes I’ve been seeing lately.
I’m due off this ship tomorrow. Of course, the crewboat won’t get us off here til 10-12 at night and we won’t hit the dock in Grand Isle til Thursday morning. I probably won’t actually make it home til around 9 pm Thursday night. Great to get off here, but sucks to be SO totally exhausted by the time I get home that I’ll have to waste 2 days catching up on sleep before I can really do anything. 🙁
Aye, I’ve been so busy here on this old ship, I totally forgot that yesterday (Sept 19th) was International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Yaaar, I be stuck here on this old ship, but I still could have had some fun with the whole pirate thing. Yeah, even here.
Of course, it would have been a hell of a lot more fun to be off. There are parties all over the world to celebrate and for sure I would have been in attendance!
Next year, I’ll be sure to remember next year.
I know everybody’s out there enjoying the holiday weekend. 🙂
I went sailing again. Not racing this time, just a nice, relaxing cruise. I went out with the Sail La Vie meetup group. We went sailing for the day and then came back to join a BBQ party in progress on the dock.
Things didn’t start out too well. It was pouring buckets on the drive up to Kemah! I had to slow down to 30 mph a couple of times, just to see where I was going. It was still raining when I got to the dock, but just a light rain so it wasn’t too bad to unload the truck and get down the dock to the boat.
We had a full crew for the Paradise,13 including Capt Kent. Everyone was in good spirits, even if they were all wet. The mimosas helped quite a bit. 🙂 No fair weather sailors in this crew! We checked the weather online and saw there was a pretty big squall line right over us. We decided to wait out the rain in the cabin before leaving the dock.
hoping for the rain to stop and the wind to start
We got underway and headed out into the bay. Capt Kent brought along his dingy. The plan was to sail for a while and then take the dingy in for lunch. Once we got out of the channel, we put up the mainsail and found out there was no wind. 🙁
The weather was still against us, so we decided to go ahead and have some lunch and hope the weather would improve. We put the sail back down and motored over to ‘Noahs Ark’ in Bacliff. It was a little hard to find it, but with the help from the internet (google maps) and a good lookout, we found it pretty quick. Kent had to shuttle back and forth a couple of times to get everybody over there. He had a little trouble with the outboard, but eventually managed to get us all over (and back). 🙂
Gary and Bill dropping the anchor
It didn’t help that they insisted they wouldn’t allow us inside without ID! (How ridiculous is that?! I never heard of anything like that before. Yeah, I know you can’t serve alcohol to someone without ID, but FOOD??) They lost some business over that cause a couple of our crew didn’t have ID. I never thought the USA would devolve into a state where ‘let me see your papers please’ was the accepted reality. 🙁
So, a couple of people had to stay on the boat, but they took it pretty well and there were plenty of drinks and snacks so they didn’t starve. We had a pretty good lunch ashore. The music was just right for our bunch, lots of Jimmy Buffett and 70s-80s stuff. We liked the décor, open air palapa bar, lots of funny signs and pictures around the ceiling, nice underwater painting. The food was good, I had a patty melt with onions (but it didn’t come with mushrooms).
Nice choice for lunch (except for the thing with the IDs)!
By the time we were ready to go, the sun was shining and the wind picked up enough that we could set both sails. We had a great sail back to Kemah. We had good music, good snacks, good conversation, good wind, plenty to drink and not much traffic. Not more to ask for on a day on the water.
Alright! Now we have both sun and wind!!
Capt Jill teaching Kim how to steer a course
We dropped off the dingy and motored into the dock around 6:30 and then headed over to the Sail la Vie BBQ party. Our chefs for the event Vic and Paul had some special recipe chicken cooking and there was plenty of fruit, macaroni salad, chips and dips, cookies and drinks to go around.
Vic and Paul explain their selection of BBQ sauces
It was nice to meet some of the other members and catch up with some I hadn’t seen in a while. I haven’t been going to the meetings for a while, mostly because it takes me so long to get up to Houston and home. I don’t go up there anymore unless I have more than one thing to do.
I wound up getting home about 11:00. Too tired to do much but hit the sack. It was so nice to sleep in today. I plan to do it tomorrow too! 🙂
That’s how I’m spending my holiday weekend (nope, nothing about remembering what it’s really all supposed to be about- LABOR day and all that). Just chillin out and enjoying the time off.
How are you spending your weekend? Let’s hear it. 🙂
I’ve been having a hard time keeping up around here lately. Since I moved my blog, I’ve had nothing but problems. I’ve been spending a hell of a lot of time just trying to get things working around here again.
But I always like Cee’s photography challenges and I did have a few decent photos of orchids around on the computer. So, I figured I’d join in on this one.
Here are some orchids from the Singapore Botanic Gardens, they have a really great orchid garden along with a lot of other beautiful plants. It’s a very relaxing place to go when you get tired of the ‘city’ of Singapore. 🙂
In case you’re wondering, I had a little time tonight and I’ve been TRYING to get my blog back in some kind of decent shape. As you can see, it still has a LONG way to go to get it back to where it was before I moved it.
The biggest concern I have is to get the ‘follow’ button working again. I think I’ve actually been losing followers since I moved. 🙁
I hope those of you who are still here will stick around while I’m trying to fix this mess. It’s looking like it might take me a while. 🙁
I’ve been busy. You would think things would slow down around here since I’ve been laid off, but nooooo… I’m just as busy as ever!
Saturday I went out with Capt Vic on the Bat Boat (she’s a C&C 38). We were a little late getting underway due to some trouble with the battery (it was dead). We made it to the starting line right on time (actually about 2 minutes early).
It was a gorgeous day, there were lots of boats out sailing. Capt Vic said about 60 were in the race with us. A few different classes of boats. I’m not really sure what they all were, I’ve really only started learning about racing sailboats.
These races are set up through the Galveston Bay Cruising Association. They have all sorts of races, regattas, cruises, etc. I don’t know much at all about how they run these races, just that we were one of the bigger, heavier, slower boats. Not using spinnikers.
The sun was out and the wind was about 10-15 kts for the first part of the race. It slowed waaaay down after we made the turn to head back towards Kemah. We took down the jib and put up the ‘gennaker‘ (the bat sail) and it actually helped a lot in the lighter winds.
We did lose some time, mostly because we were not used to setting that sail and it took us a while to get it working properly. Once we got it set, we had a nice, leisurely sail back towards Kemah. We were doing pretty good in the race til then, but we fell behind while we were messing around with the gennaker. 🙁
We made it to the finish line right before sunset and got to watch the sun go down and the full moon rise over the bay. The sunset was nice, but the moon was absolutely stunning! I wish I could have taken some better pictures, but I was on the wheel at the time and couldn’t concentrate on the camera, I had to pay attention to the traffic in the channel.
It was getting dark by the time we got to the dock. We fought off the mosquitos while folding up the sails up the dock. Once we got everything secured, we could try out the ‘dark and stormies’ we had been hearing about all day. D. came up with some mosquito spray and we had our 1st rewarding rum drinks out in the parking lot.
Not too bad. 😉
We slowly made our way over to the clubhouse for the afterparty. The Rum Races are sponsored by Cruzan Rum and so we had to head up there for the end of the race announcements. We had to see who won (even if we knew we didn’t), we could still enjoy the rewards. Free rum and snacks to go with it. 🙂
It was fun to hang out for a while and talk over the race with the other sailors. Everyone was friendly and in good spirits. The free rum helps with that. 😉
Some of us decided to go out for a more hearty snack from there and we met up at Sam’s Boat for nachos, sliders, chicken wings and more good stuff. 🙂
I made it home about 3 am. Days like that really make me appreciate the life of a sailor. 🙂
Hey, I got back home last weekend and ready to go out sailing again. Luckily, Capt Vic has had a standing invitation to join him for the Rum Races in Galveston Bay. I’m going out tomorrow! 🙂
Hopefully, the weather will be co-operative and we will have a little wind. I always love to go sailing. Not too much beats a day out on the water IMHO. Here’s a picture from the last time I went out racing with Capt Vic.
