Category Archives: Uncategorized

In Praise of Alcohol

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I’ve been noticing a lot of poetry going on in my reader lately. Maybe I should join in the poetry slam. 😉

I can’t say I’m a big fan of poetry, but I do like some of it, sometimes. I especially like (dirty) limericks. 😉

As for ‘real’ poetry, one of my favorite poets has always been Robert W. Service.

He had an interesting life. Grew up in Scotland, moved to Canada. Then Alaska, where he became famous as the “Bard of the Yukon”.

He wrote about the people he met in his travels. He managed to get the most incredible characters to come to life in his poetry. His poems ‘The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and the “Cremation of Sam McGee” are still considered classics.

I remember an old friend from Florida would dress up and recite some of these poems at parties I used to go to. KC was a character himself and did a great job of rousting us all up. I miss those days.

I like a lot of his poems. I have his book “Collected Poems of Robert Service”. I liked it a lot. Some of his poems are really great stories. Here’s a short one.

 

In Praise of Alcohol
Of vintage wine I am a lover;
To drink deep would be my delight;
If ’twere not for the bleak hangover
I’d get me loaded every night;
I’d whoop it up with song and laughter –
If ’twere not for the morning after.

For though to soberness I’m given
It is a thought I’ve often thunk:
The nearest that is Earth to Heaven
Is to get sublimely drunk;
Is to achieve divine elation
By means of generous libation.

Alas, the wine-cups claim their payment
And as the price if often pain,
if we could sense what morning grey meant
We never would get soused again;
Rather than buy a hob-nailed liver
I’m sure that we’d abstain for ever.

Yet how I love the glow of liquor,
As joyfully I drink it up!
hoping that unto life’s last flicker
With praise I’ll raise the ruby cup;
And let me like a jolly monk
Proceed to get sublimely drunk.

 

Author Notes

From Later Collected Verse by Robert W. Service (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1965), page 421.

Guest Post – Would you survive?

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I thought this was a pretty interesting question and the comments really caught my eye. I think if the SHTF I would probably NOT survive. Not for long anyway. Yeah, I always keep plenty of stuff around the house in case of a hurricane. I have enough food, water and other supplies to last me for a while. But if the shit REALLY hits the fan, I don’t think I would last for long. I mean really, how would I be able to hold off an armed mob?
It’s still on my mind since I just got done watching the new show “The Last Ship”. I read the book years ago. I liked it then. I have a feeling it’s going to have a different ending, but I won’t spoil it for you. I thought they did a pretty good job of putting it on TV tonight. I’d like to watch the rest of the series, but I already know I won’t be around to watch TV for a few weeks.
It’s interesting because I’ve been going to meetings of the Campaign for Liberty on Tuesday nights for quite a while. Most people there are also very concerned about the way things are going. We’ve been talking about this kind of thing for a while. So, we started a garden. We’re looking into water supplies. We’re looking into how to keep a line of communication going. We’re looking into alternative power sources. All kinds of things like that.
I do love to read disaster stories (including zombie stories). I like to see how the people in them react to the situation. In most of them, most people die, pretty much right off the bat. The story is about how the survivors manage to survive. THAT is the really interesting part to me. Physical, emotional, sociological, spiritual survival. All of that. How do you think you would do? What do you think would happen to society in general if a disaster happened? I’m just wondering if many people even think about this kind of stuff.

SNL: Shut it Down

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I don’t care which party you like or where you stand on politics in America, this video is FUNNY. 🙂

The first time I saw it on Saturday Night Live, I about spit out my tea! Bachman and Boehner are hilarious!

Miley Cyrus parodies her own song. I like it much better this way. 😉

500

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, here’s to the next 500!

Cadets Having Fun

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I was goofing around on the computer tonight (youtube) and came across this video from the International Maritime Academy.

It’s nice to see the cadets can still have some fun while they’re in school. 🙂

Too Poor to Prepare?

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I agree with most of what Chris says in this video. He makes a lot of good points.

We need to make get our heads straight. We need to learn what’s really going on in the world and not just believe what’s on TV! We need to do whatever we can to improve ourselves to enrich and improve our lives.

Get out of any ‘toxic environment’ you happen to be in. Start working on SOMETHING (anything) to improve yourself (your life).

Get out of debt. “Debt is slavery of the free.”

Start doing something that you really love.

“Stop trying to change the world to make yourself happy or free. Start changing yourself to make the world happy and free.”

That’s all great advice! I’m working on it myself. I admit it’s not easy. I’m especially stuck on the part about changing myself instead of trying to change the world. 🙂

I just don’t have the slightest idea of what I could or would possibly change in myself in order to make myself more happy and free (other than what I’m already doing).

I’m working hard to be debt free again. I’m taking courses to improve my writing/photography/blogging. I’m doing something I love (traveling) as often as I can. I’m trying my best to physically leave this toxic environment the USA has become.

No, it’s not easy. All I can do is the best that I can do. That is what I’m doing. 🙂

Nine Days?

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“A cockroach can live for nine days without its head.”

 

I was sitting on the pot reading the Wildlife magazine from the Houston Zoo and this quote caught my eye.

I wondered what the heck were those cockroaches doing for those 9 days without a head?

I had always assumed that they spent most of their time looking for food. But if they don’t have a head, then how are they going to eat? So, do they still spend all their time looking for food? Is that really what they did before they lost their heads?

I wonder it they don’t have a head, how do they find their way around? I mean, they have eyes and antennas on their head for that, but once the heads gone then what do they do? Do they just lie there like they’re dead (but they’re not dead) for 9 days?

Or do they wander around trying to find out what happened to their head? Do they miss it? I guess they must not miss it all that much if they can go without it for 9 days.

I wonder is this some kind of survival trait? They don’t go around looking for food while they’re headless, they go around looking for sex? How would that work?

I mean really, they’ve been around FOREVER.

Maybe having a head isn’t as important as we’ve been led to believe?

I wonder just how many headless cockroaches are running around? I have to admit I’ve seen a lot of cockroaches in my life and have yet to see a headless one, dead or alive.

I wonder, did they do some kind of study on this? Did they just happen to find a headless cockroach running around and say, “Hey, I think we need to investigate this, how long can a headless cockroach survive?”.

Did they just find a bunch of headless roaches to study? Or did they actually pull the heads off enough roaches to make a valid study? Just how many headless cockroaches does it take to prove the statistic that they can survive for 9 days? Is just one enough?

How many died immediately? How many only lasted 1 day? 2 days? etc?

They didn’t mention how long a cockroach could live with a head. I have to assume it’s quite a bit longer than 9 days.

Oh well, just a few thoughts to start the day. 😉

 

PS- I got curious enough later to actually google it and yes, it’s true. They explain a lot of my questions in this article.

 

11th Annual Photo Contest Winners

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Announcing Our 11th Annual Photo Contest Winners | Photo Contest | Smithsonian.

I don’t know how the Smithsonian judges ever manage to narrow down their choices. They have so many just stunning images to pick from every year.

This year is no different. I’ve been flipping through their choices for finalists and runners up in the different categories and I would have a really hard time making up my mind.

I think I would pick this one…

Photo by Ken Lee (finalist: travel)

If only because I LOVE the night sky and it’s SO hard to get good photos of it. There’s so much light pollution now. Also, I really love science fiction and the way they’ve set up those giant bugs just really does it for me. Lots of creativity and excellent camera skills. I love it! 🙂

Click the  link and check out all the other photos. It’ll be worth your while. 🙂

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Water

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I haven’t done much with these photo challenges lately. I do really enjoy them. Looking at what everyone else is doing and trying to come up with something to fit the theme.

This one is from Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. Here’s the link in case you want to get in on it… http://ceenphotography.com/2014/05/27/cees-fun-foto-challenge-water/

This one is easy for me. Water. It should be easy for me. I have so many photos of water in all its various forms, it’s really hard for me to pick out a few real good ones. 🙂

But, I did manage. Here you go…

out on the water

out on the water

no waves on this beach!

no waves on this beach!

water makes patterns in the sand

water makes patterns in the sand

water sprays in Singapore

water sprays in Singapore

 

 

waterways

beautiful beach Riviera Maya

beautiful beach Riviera Maya

water from the air

water from the air

 

water (vapor-c;louds) in the air

water- 3 kinds- clouds, rainbow, ocean

water- 3 kinds- clouds, rainbow, ocean

Those were a few of my favorites. I hope you like them too. 🙂

Travel Is The Best Teacher

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More Affordable Than University, Travel Is The Best Teacher.

Here’s another great post from the Dollar Vigilante. They always have a lot of great information on their website. I’ve been a subscriber for a while now.

I really couldn’t agree more with his post. I’ve been a traveler since I was born. 🙂

My father used to work as an engineer (before he said the hell with it all and started fishing). 🙂

He used to take on contract jobs for all the big firms. Sperry, Northrup Grumman, Corning, etc. I remember living in Boston, Rochester, Syracuse, Phoenix, LA, El Paso. Lots of other places in between I don’t remember. I was born in Minneapolis. My brother was born in East Hampton (we were staying on grandpas boat).

For a while we all  lived in one of those old style cab over campers. Mom, dad, me, my little brother, the dog and the cat. We would live at a campground for a few months at most while dad did whatever job he was contracted to do.

We finally settled down in Florida. My dad took a job with Honeywell. Maybe because it was time for me to start school. I really don’t know for sure. My dad found the love of his life, (the schooner Island Girl), and my parents got divorced.

By then the travel bug was in my veins and I’ve been infected for life! I LOVE to travel!!

My grandmother did too. She was always off somewhere interesting and exciting and she would bring us little presents when she came to visit. Sometimes I was lucky enough to go with her.

I remember one time she took me skiing in Aspen Colorado. I was about 13. I had a blast! Another time she took me (along with her sisters) on a long road trip to pick out a boarding school for me. (I was a bad girl)

I refused them all. I just didn’t think I would fit in at any of them.

Good thing for me! I wound up going to school with the Oceanics out of New York City instead of any of those nice, fancy, expensive schools my grandmother wanted for me.

That experience changed my life forever. I wound up sailing around the world on large traditional sailing ships. I LOVED it!!I decided I wanted to be a ship captain, sail around the world and get paid for it. My grandmother never got over that I didn’t want to be a doctor anymore.

I wanted to keep sailing and traveling and never go home. I did wind up staying after for a while. I tried to find a job working my way back home on a ship. I was only 16 and didn’t have any seamans’ papers yet, so that didn’t work out very well. 🙁

I wound up talking my way into a position on board an old Thames sailing barge in London. The CIV was the name of it.

I had a blast!! The guys on there were such a fun group. I was supposed to cook and keep the place clean while they got it ready to sail across the Atlantic to the US. I don’t know if they ever made it. I had to fly back to the US before they got it ready. 🙁

I learned so much on that trip. MUCH more than I ever could have or would have learned in any kind of normal classroom environment.

We had class on the ship. We learned about things like navigation and seamanship. We learned them by DOING them. Most things we learned outside of class. For example, I learned how to work as part of a team. I learned to be a good shipmate and how everyone on board is there for a good reason and just as important as anyone else there.

We had to keep a journal (good practice). We also had a class called ‘cultural studies’. When we went ashore we learned about the countries and the people we visited. We learned the languages of the countries we were due to visit.

I learned how to communicate better, sometimes even non-verbally. I learned how to be flexible and more accepting of how things were instead of how I thought they should be.

I learned how other people dealt with the same kinds of things we do at home but in their own ways. I learned that my way (or my countrys’ way) was not always the best way.

I learned that most people are basically the same, wherever they live, they all want/need the same basic things… food, water, love, connection, a home, etc. We’re not all that different. 🙂

I learned there is such a great, big, wonderful world out there. I learned about myself that I never want to stop learning and exploring.

Travel is SUCH a great teacher, in so many ways. I encourage anyone and everyone to get out there and DO IT! 🙂

Poll: How Did You Find Capt Jills Journeys?

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I’m still working my way through the Blogging 201 challenge. This is my attempt to complete the assignment for Day 12 (create a poll/survey to gather feedback from your readers on your site and its content).

The Blogging 201 challenge actually ended a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to finish it anyway. I’m hopeful that by following through I will continue to learn how to make my blog better.

I hope that will help me grow my audience.

So, here’s a poll. Please feel free to add anything you’d like to say in the comment section below (as always!). I’m interested to know how people found my blog (and also what they like about it).

Thanks!

Blogging 201: Day Eleven- Buddy Up

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Late to start. Late to finish. That’s just typical for me. 🙁

I started the Blogging 201 challenge a couple of weeks late. Too late to really get into the whole community aspect of it. IMHO, that is the best part of it. Interacting with all the other bloggers working on the same challenge and all their different takes on it.

Since I was so far behind, everyone was working on totally different things than I was. I just kept an eye on what they were doing and tried to catch up.

The challenge ended a couple of weeks ago, but I hate to quit anything I’ve started. So, here I am again, plugging on with the Blogging 201 challenge.

The assignment for Day 11 was (is) to “find a blog buddy”.

I did read the assignment only a few days late. 😉 I’ve been thinking about it since (in the back of my mind). I haven’t yet come up with anybody specific to ask to ‘be my buddy’. 🙁

I wonder if it would be better to try and buddy with someone with similar interests (offshore, maritime, travel, politics, nature, sailing, boats, philosophy, liberty, food & drinks, music, books), or someone with interests that I really don’t post about much here (fashion, beauty, celebrities, family, kids, relationships, sports).

I think for now, I’ll still just keep this idea in the back of my mind. I really haven’t had the time to work on this blog as much as I would like to lately. I’d hate to have someone else depending on my being able to keep to a writing schedule right now. 🙁

At some point in the future, I’d like to try to use the guest blogging idea. I think either way (like/unlike my blog) would work to try a different audience.

Has anybody else been participating in the Blogging 201 challenge? Did you complete the assignment for Day 11? How did it go?

Does anybody want to be my buddy?

Behind the Scenes: Capt Jills Journeys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Catching Up: Capt Jill

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I made it home from my trip to Korea! I thought for a while there that I might not. I had a really close connection in Bejing, only an hour. I had an hour and 20 minutes when I flew to Korea and barely made that!

I tried to ask Air China to give me my boarding pass in Seoul so I could shave a few minutes off in the airport, but that was a no-go. I tried to get United (which was who I got the flight with originally) to pull some strings, but they couldn’t do anything either.

My flight into Beijing was over 20 minutes late landing, so by that time I pretty much figured I was going to miss my connection. The Asiana crew really helped me out. They had a lady waiting for me as soon as I got off the plane to rush me over to the transfer desk and then over to immigration.

I was able to cut to the front of security, but then got held up for what seemed like forever while the security theatre played on. It seems the Chinese have a BIG think about cigarette lighters! (And power cords that I learned about while flying over and had all nice and neat for them).

I finally got through security without having a total breakdown over the pure insanity of it all and rushed off still hoping to catch my plane (which just HAD to be parked at the very last gate!).

I made it with seconds to spare. Thank goodness I caught a ride for the last few gates! I thought I was going to keel over before I got to the plane.

I was SO glad I made my flight. I didn’t even care much that my luggage didn’t make it. I had all my really important stuff with me.

So, now I’m home. It seems that there STILL is no work for me.

So, MAYBE I’ll be able to catch up on things around here. 😉

First off, it seems I’ve caught some sort of bug in my computer. 🙁

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but it’s driving me NUTS with the constant ads popping up EVERYWHERE! I had to mute the sound, it’s constantly playing videos. It’s annoying as hell.

I know the wordpress blog tells me that my readers might sometimes see ads on my blog, but I have never seen any of them before. I sure hope it’s not always this blatant!

It’s also putting random links into my posts lately that bring you to even more advertisements. WARNING: If you see a link double underlined, that is NOT one I put there!!!

If it turns out that I have a few days at home, I guess I’ll have to take this computer back to the shop to have it de-bugged again. I hope it’s something simple.

I do have another computer, but this one has all my programs and pictures and everything I work with on it. I really can’t do much with the on the other one…

 

 

Songs of the Sea: Sloop John B- the Beach Boys

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Here’s another oldie but goodie. I always liked this song. I even learned how to play it on the guitar (but have forgotten since). I miss those days, hanging out after class with my friends in the OMT (Ocean Marine Technology) program.

We used to have a blast! We would go to classes and learn all about how to run a boat. Some days we even got to go out on one to practice all the things we learned in class.

On the weekends we would go down to the beach and have a big bonfire. We’d roast hot dogs and marshmallows. We’d play guitars and sing and camp out overnight sometimes.

I miss doing that sort of thing. All my friends from school moved away (or just got older and gave up all that kind of thing). I forgot how to play guitar. 🙁

Anyway, here’s the song. If you want to know more about it, I found a good link (here). It’s got a lot of interesting stuff on there. 🙂

I’m heading home (from Korea) in the morning. I hope things won’t be so hectic and I’ll be able to catch up with things on here soon. 😉

This Dumbo Octopus Video Will Melt Your Heart

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This Dumbo Octopus Video Will Melt Your Heart – gCaptain Maritime & Offshore News.

I got this in an email from Gcaptain.com. I subscribe to their emails and they always have something interesting to share. I really enjoyed this video of the Dumbo Octopus.

Dumbo octopus

Dumbo octopus

I actually watched quite a few videos of them before, I thought they were really cute. 🙂

I was trying to find some information on this other creature I saw on the ROV video feed while I was working last hitch. The ROV crew called it a ‘heart’ or ‘sea heart’ or ‘heart of the sea’. Nobody knew what they were really called or what kind of creature they were.

I looked and looked all over the internet. I found all sorts of really weird stuff, but nothing I could say for sure was the same creature we were seeing from our ship.

It looked a little bit like some of the online pictures of the Dumbo octopus.

The closest thing I could say would have to be a vampire squid, which also looks a lot like some of the pictures of the Dumbo octopus.

vampire squid

vampire squid

But it turns out, it was really some sort of swimming sea cucumber. I’ll do some more posts about these creatures, but for now here’s a photo of one type of swimming sea cucumber (there are many different types).

enypniastes-transparent-swimming-sea-cucumber

enypniastes-transparent-swimming-sea-cucumber

I’ll try to get back on track for Wild Wednesday and post some more about it by then. I have some video from the ship I can post. 🙂

Top 26 Margarita Recipes

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Top 26 Margarita Recipes : Recipes : Cooking Channel.

Another holiday with special drinks coming up! So soon? Yep, its almost Cinco de Mayo. 🙂

Get ready for all kinds of events and parties featuring margaritas and Mexican food. 😉

I found this post online today. It has 26!!! different margarita recipes.

I like margaritas, but I haven’t tried most of these. Heck, I’ve never even HEARD of most of these.

Cucumber Jalapeno margarita? Chipotle Grapefruit margarita? Lavender margarita? Raspberry Lemon margarita…

For all you moonshine aficionados out there, there’s a Moonshine margarita!

There’s even a recipe for a Mint Julep margarita in case you want to combine your Kentucky Derby party with your Cinco de Mayo party!

And a Watermelon margarita in case you want to get ready for Memorial Day. 🙂

I definitely want to try the Magical Low-Calorie margarita asap. 😉

With this list, you can margarita all year round. 😉

Busan’s Eobang Festival 2013

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I’m heading out to this festival today. I hope it hasn’t been cancelled like they’re saying on the internet.
Love the photos here!!

Blogging 201: Day Two- Audit Your Brand

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Still trying to catch up. The assignment for Day 2 (though I’m actually so far behind it’s really already day 10) is to ‘audit your brand’. The assignment is to look at everything you put on your blog and make sure it’s consistent with your ‘brand’.

I’m having a little bit of a hard time with this one. I’m not really sure of what my brand IS. Is it ME?? Since I don’t have any sort of product I’m trying to sell here, I guess in a way it IS me.

I’m trying to interest readers in my content which consists of my interests. It includes my photography, my opinions, my choices on what to share here, etc.

I’d really like to get people to get excited about the things that I am so passionate about, so I try to present those sorts of things here but I’m not really sure how that relates to ‘my brand’.

I’m trying to look at my blog with a critical eye. I still like the theme and think it works well for me.

I like the font and colors for my posts.

I definitely like my title and tag line.

I could probably tweak the titles of my widgets a little bit but I can’t come up with anything better right now to change them to.

I think I’ll probably move the awards to a separate page eventually and clean up the sidebar a little bit.

And MAYBE I might want to change my header photo. I’m not sure yet. I really love that photo and the feeling I get from it, but I think I might like something more in line with the coloring of the rest of my blog. That orange is just really glaring. It’s very attention grabbing, which was my purpose when I chose it for the header and I still like it for that. So I’ll leave it as is for now.

I did manage to create a new email account just for this blog (captjillsjourneys@gmail.com). It took me a while so I have NOT managed to change the settings yet (but I’ll get to that soon). I think it will probably work better for me if the email notifications re: the blog don’t keep on getting mixed up in my personal email. I lose a lot of them that way. 🙁

I also changed my ‘comment prompt’. I hope it will make people feel better about communicating with me here. 🙂

Does all this carry through to other places I’m online? I only use Facebook, Twitter, and now Pinterest (tho I’m still pretty confused as to what to do there). I’m sure the content concentration carries through.

I use the same gravatar on Facebook so it’s a good marker there. I do have one of my pictures for my Twitter gravatar but it’s actually one of me instead of one I took. I don’t see anything on Pinterest to do the same sort of function. Is there something like that on there?

I’m so far behind with the assignment that I’m not having much luck trying to look at the Commons, the computer just won’t allow me to go back that far. Does anybody have any feedback or suggestions relating to “my brand”? I’d appreciate any comments. 🙂

 

Moving on to Busan

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Today I’m rested up enough to think about traveling again. I’ve also seen everything I REALLY wanted to see here in Incheon, (tho it is an interesting city and there are a few more things I wouldn’t mind seeing).

I went to explore Chinatown and Jayu Park with its statue of General MacArthur. I went to Wolmi Island (nice place to watch the sunset over a seafood dinner). I finally found the fish market and wandered around from there to Marine Square. I wandered all over the area near where I’ve been staying (right next to Juan (chew-on) Station). I’ve decided to go ahead and make a move.

I’m going to head on down to Busan. For a couple of reasons. They’re having a couple of festivals in the next few days-the Lotus Lantern Festival and the Gwangalli Eobang Festival. I think both of them will be worth seeing.

Also, I wanted to visit the Korean Maritime University there and I’ve met someone online who lives there and has offered to show me around. I might be able to meet up with some of my colleagues from Dongwon who I used to work for on the tuna boat a couple of years ago. It’s also close to Geoje Island where my best friend from Oceaneering has been working for the last few years. I’m hoping he’ll be back in town so we can visit.

I’d like to post some of the pictures I’ve been taking the last couple of days, but they don’t have wi-fi in my hotel (Fox Hotel- 91, Juan-ro, Nan-gu- +82328664477) and I can’t get my photos uploaded. Other than that and the fact that my mattress is very hard, I would recommend this place.

It’s a good deal (approx $50/nt), the managers are very nice and helpful. The lady doesn’t speak English but her husband does. The rooms are not too small and they’re stylishly decorated. They have coffee pots with tea/coffee and a refridgerator in the room (also bottled water). I would stay here again.

It’s very convienient, right accross the street from Juan train station where you can come direct from the airport and go anywhere in the area, including into downtown Seoul (much cheaper than taxi).

The next place I’ve booked is supposed to have wi-fi, so hopefully I can get some pictures on here in the next couple of days. 🙂

 

 

 

I made it!

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Well, after over 40 hours of traveling, I made it to my hotel in Korea! 🙂

This is just going to be a quick post since I am totally EXHAUSTED!

I left the house at 0400 yesterday, left Houston at 0730. I made it to Washington DC with barely enough time to catch that flight. Flew from there to Beijing (China). Again, I had just barely enough time to catch my next flight (and I never would have made it if I hadn’t asked to cut ahead and go in the ‘fast track’ line).

If you ever go through China, be sure to put ALL your cords in a separate bag. I have no idea why, but the security wants to see all your electrical cords (phone cords, camera chargers, kindle chargers, computer cords, etc). It delayed me quite a bit digging all that out! Oh yeah, they don’t like cigarette lighters there either (they confiscated mine).

So I got to Korea (Inchon airport for Seoul) at about 1830 tonight. I had an easy time getting out of the airport. It was all very modern, English signs for everything, information booths everywhere.

I decided to take the airport train into town. I had to get a transportation pass first. I asked the lady at the tourist information booth at the airport and she was very helpful. I got a pass for 10,000 won. It should last me for a couple of days at least and I can charge it up when I need to. I ‘think’ she told me it was good all over the country, city bus, metro, etc.

Easy enough to take the train into town. I can’t beleive how helpful everyone was! I found the train at the airport and started talking to a Korean man who was just coming home from working in Japan. He helped me figure out which stops I would have to get off and transfer. He even gave me a bag of chocolates from Japan!

I made the first transfer OK, but the 2nd one was a little more difficult. Lucky I only brought fairly small roller wheeled luggage! This station had stairs, stairs and more stairs and no elevators (at least that I could find). A very nice lady helped me, she just grabbed one of my bags and started walking up the stairs.

The tourist information lady had called my hotel for me so she could tell me how to get there (which was what I had originally asked about there), they said I would spot it right away when I came out of the station. OK, I wandered around for an hour and saw no sign of it.

I tried asking people. No one had any idea. One very nice man called them for me. Turns out, I had exited the wrong side of the train station. He took it upon himself to make sure I found the place and led me back through the train station (NOT as simple as it sounds, it’s a maze)! He had the lady from the hotel meet us at the door coming out of the station.

Wow! What amazingly helpful people! I got to the hotel and the lady gave me my key and right away showed me my cute little room and where everything was. It’s called the Fox Hotel and now that I’ve seen it, I have to say it’s really a pretty good deal.

It’s small, but it’s cute and it has everything I need. There’s a little fridge, with bottled water and cans of coffee and something I haven’t figured out yet. It has a picture of a lady in a cornstalk on it. Any clues?

I’ll be here in Incheon for a couple of days. I think then I’ll head down towards Busan. I haven’t really decided yet. Maybe I’ll learn something while I’m wandering around here tomorrow to give me some ideas. 😉

 

Capt Jill Journeys to Korea!

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I’ve hardly been home a week. SO much to do and not nearly enough time to do it all. I had to leave a lot undone. I’m leaving this morning for my vacation/travel writing workshop in Korea. I’m at the airport now so I don’t have much time.

I saw on the news this morning about the capsized ferry. Hoping to learn more about what happened. What a disaster! I feel so sorry for those people and their families. So many kids are missing.

I really want to know what happened. What would make it sink like that? Here we go again with a similar situation to the Costa Concordia where it sounds like the crew did not alert the passengers to abandon ship til it was too late.

From what I gather from the news reports, it sounds like they’re doing a pretty good job of rescuing the people who did escape the ship itself. The water is pretty cold and I think most people would develop hypothermia a lot sooner in 50 F water then the 1.5 hours they’re saying. Jeeze!

Anyway, I’ve got to go catch a plane. More later! 🙂

Documenting the Streets: Street Photography Tips from Dominic Stafford

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some beautiful photos and great tips for taking good ones. I do this all the time, too bad I only have my point & shoot camera with me, it’s such a pain to carry the really good camera around, I almost never have it (unless I’m going specifically to take pictures).

Songs of the Sea: The Light and the Sea- Dar Williams

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Here’s another Song of the Sea. It’s by Dar Williams. I really like her (tho to be truthful, this isn’t really one of my favorite songs by her). I like some of her other stuff a lot more, but they’re not all about the sea, so, listen to this one and then check out her other stuff! It’ll be worth it. 😉

The Light and the Sea-Dar Williams

Sitting out upon the waves, in darkness and upheaval
I was told that I alone would not know good and evil
Oh but in time but oh in time it came to me
As my shepherd fallen rise
I could turn and lift my eyes
To the light that distant light
There will always be
The light and the sea
Rolling sea the light and me
And as the days rolled by I turned my wheel toward the thunder
Taking on a challenge that I knew could take me under
Oh..and it took me down and oh it took me down
And it came to me
As I cursed the stem and sail
Because its fate that I should fail
There is a light there is a light
There will always be the light and the sea
The rolling sea the light and me
And it all comes down down to me
To feel the presence of my soul
Amid the torrents and the cold
Of the sea..
And there will always be the light and the sea
The rolling sea the light and me
The light and me

 

 

Rambling On: Crew Change, Korea, and the Frontier Discoverer

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I made it to the airport! I was only out a short time this trip, but going home still feels as good as ever. I was out on the Deepwater Pathfinder. It was a pretty good hitch, even if it was shorter than usual.

I was a little frustrated over the weekend with not being able to get a flight out of New Orleans til early evening. Hard to believe there wasn’t an available flight til almost 1800!

Turns out there is a big golf tournament going on in Houston and all the flights are booked solid.

I was lucky to get a flight at all!

Really, it worked out that I was on the late flight since the weather was foggy with a cold front between us and the heliport. I didn’t get to the airport til almost 1300. At least I wasn’t panicking about missing my flight. 😉 It all worked out in the end.

So, I should be able to catch up a little bit here over the next few days and get ready for my trip to Korea. It’s only about a week away, YEAH!

I really have no idea what to do there other than the travel writing/photography workshop I’m going to Seoul for. I haven’t had time or internet availability to do any research. Anybody have any suggestions? I have a couple of weeks before the class and a week after.

I was thinking I might go down to Busan to visit the company I used to work with when I was on the tuna boat. The new captain on the ship I just got off mentioned that they have a good maritime university in Busan. That sounds like it might be worth checking into.

I’m hoping to go see an old friend I used to work with at Oceaneering. He’s an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) mechanic. When they brought our boat to the Gulf of Mexico to work, he was able to get a transfer to Korea and has been working there ever since.

I would have LOVED to do that too, but Oceaneering only had one vessel over 1600 tons and so they didn’t have any other jobs to offer me. Being a ships officer/DPO doesn’t make for an easy job transfer when there isn’t any other ship. I felt I had no other option but to leave at the first opportunity.

Too bad, they sent the ship out of the Gulf only a couple of months later. When I found out, I was sad I didn’t stay longer. The job I took instead turned into a disaster and I didn’t even stay for the whole trip. 🙁

I hated to quit that job. It sounded so perfect when I decided to take it! I had never really been interested in drilling since it always seemed so BORING. Sit in one spot for months on end, never moving, never really doing much ‘SAILING’.

But this one seemed to be a great option. It was supposed to work in Alaska in the summer and Australia in the winter. I would actually get to do quite a bit of sailing. 🙂

But when I got to the ship, I felt a little queasy. Not because I was seasick!

The ship was in bad shape. It was old. It was rusty. It had issues. LOTS of issues!

It was basically an old ship (built 1966!!) that they had cleared off the topsides, then stuck a new house and a drilling rig on top of it. It had not been taken care of properly. I was not comfortable with it at all.  Bad news. 🙁

I’m not any sort of safety nazi, not by a long shot, but I was really concerned about the condition of that ship and the lack of concern for all of the ordinary things we seamen look out for.

I stayed on there as long as I could, hoping that things would improve. I finally had to leave after only 3 weeks. I couldn’t stick around knowing the problems that were bound to come up. No job is worth my license I’ve worked so long and hard to earn, or my life! This one was seriously putting both at risk.

I couldn’t figure out WHY they would want to bring an old piece of sh*t like that up to work in the pristine waters of Alaska, KNOWING Greenpeace would be all over them.

Turns out, they DID have all kinds of problems on the trip to Alaska and since. They’re presently back in Asia in the shipyard (again) and all plans for Alaskan drilling on hold (again).

I wonder if that was the plan all along? If they had a nice, new, fully functioning rig would there have been such an outcry? Would there have been so many problems? Would the oil companies all have put off their plans to follow the success of this adventure in Alaska?

I don’t know, but I think if they had a better ship/rig, they would be drilling by now instead of still spending a fortune in the shipyard. Was all this a case of trying to save a few bucks by using old, worn out equipment? If so, they sure messed up on THAT decision!

Is she, or isn't she aground? I'm sure glad I got off when I did!

Is she, or isn’t she aground? I’m sure glad I got off when I did!

FIX THE WORLD PROJECT’S PUBLIC STATEMENT, APRIL 2, 2014

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this stuff REALLY needs to get out to more people! we are being lied to and abused CONSTANTLY now, it’s really getting old

New Blog Challenges Start April 15!

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I did the first Zero to Hero Challenge, I’m going to do the second one. I hope it will help me learn to grow my blog some more. The first one was very helpful. I only wish I could’ve done it a couple of months earlier when I was just starting out and totally clueless! 😉

Facebook Posts: What Happened?

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I’m out at sea again and having a hard time here keeping up with the blog. I’m not sure what’s going on with Facebook, but for some reason 3-4 of my recent posts never got posted there and I can’t edit my settings to get them on there.

So, since most of my followers are on Facebook, none of them even got a chance to see them. And they were some good ones too.

The Sailing video by Rod Stewart, my Saturday Sail La Vie adventure, the Houston Maritime Museum, my post about working out here and how things have changed  and LOTs of photos of all that stuff.

I’m not sure which ones made it to Facebook and which ones didn’t. Internet is slow out here and I scrolled back for a while but didn’t see these. That doesn’t mean they’re not on there already. I hope they are, but it seems like the visits to my blog have dropped WAY down recently and I’m guessing that’s why.

I HOPE this one makes it. Let me know. 😉

I guess you’ll just have to look at my actual BLOG if you want to see any of that stuff that didn’t make it over there. 😉

Weekend Wisdom: Please Be a Traveler, Not a Tourist

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I always try to be a traveler, not a tourist.
Thanks for the reminder at Life out of the Box.
Check it out, they have an amazing blog over there. 🙂

Sad End to the Celt

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Here’s a link to a video which tells the story of the gorgeous yacht the ‘Celt’. It’s really a cool story.

luxury steam yacht Celt

luxury steam yacht Celt built 1902

Originally owned by a railroad tycoon, used by the Navy a couple of times (WWI and WWII), owned by Thomas Edison, used by the Circle Line for tours around NY Harbor, used by Madonna in a music video and more.

What a cool history for a boat like this. It would be wonderful if someone would fix it up again, but for now it looks like just another sad story of a beautiful ship wasting away in the boondocks. 🙁

http://screen.yahoo.com/broken-news-daily/mysterious-ghost-ship-incredible-history-004502570.html