P
I took this at Ballys in Las Vegas when I was there for the Freedom Fest a couple of years ago. There is a rounded arch at the front and then there’s kind of a tunnel with arches supporting it.
here’s the link/pingback to the originating post…http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/a-word-a-week-challenge-arch/
How Long Have You Been a Sailor? | gCaptain
What a cute kitty. Too bad it looks like its already been through hell. 🙁
I would adopt it if I could. Anyone need a good ships cat?
So, how long have I been a sailor? Almost as long as Sir Stuffington. 😉
I wasn’t born on a boat but my brother almost was. He’s only a year younger than me so that’ll give you some idea. For sure I could swim before I could walk. My family has always been close to the water.
When I was very young, we spent a lot of time playing on the beach and our families had boats we would go out on. We spent a lot of time around Long Island NY. My grandfather had a nice old cruiser we used a lot. We would go to Montauk, East Hampton, Jones Beach, Fire Island…
We settled down in Florida when I was ready for 1st grade. My father fell in love with the Island Girl. She was a large (LOA 72′) staysail schooner built in Detroit in 1910. He bought her and sailed her around from Miami to Madeira Beach where we spent the next few years working and living aboard (part time).
He eventually turned the Island Girl into a commercial fishing boat which is where I got my start working on the water. Between fishing trips, he would take friends out for fun sails around the Gulf of Mexico. We had such a blast with that boat. She was well known around Florida for years.
I moved on to the party boats down the street as soon as I could. That was a much more fun job for me. I could make a couple of trips on the weekends and earn enough to pay my dad rent for the month. I know it was unusual to rent an apartment from my dad instead of living with him but it worked for a while.
I was able to go to high school with the Oceanics. That was a HUGE opportunity for me and I jumped on it. It literally changed my life. I was able to sail around the world and I decided on that trip I was going to be a sea captain (instead of a Dr). 🙂
I’ve been working toward that goal ever since. I moved to Texas to go to school to get certified as an AB/QMED (Able Bodied seaman/Qualified Member of the Engine Department).
I finally earned my license from the US Coast Guard as Master Any Gross Tons just a couple of years ago. I was SO happy! I still haven’t had time to properly celebrate that accomplishment. If any of you reading my blog are sailors, you’ll know what I mean.
I do plan to have a party one of these days. As soon as I can find both the time and the money to spare, we’ll be having one to remember! 😉
So, here’s my question to my readers… how long have YOU been a sailor? Tell us your story. I’d like to hear it.
I’ll call it the ‘How long have you been a sailor’ challenge. Write up your story: when did you start sailing? why? do you still like it? or not? what kind of boat (it doesn’t have to be a sailboat!)? where? If you have a blog, do a link from your blog back here (pingback). If you don’t have a blog, don’t feel left out, just post it as a reply.
I’d like to go see this if I’m not offshore. I didn’t know about this. It looks fun.
Here’s another one from Utne Reader. Linda Buzzell writes about what it takes to build a sustainable community. Community- yeah, she’s right, we need it, we yearn for it, we miss it, we seek it out.
I remember growing up in a little fishing village on the beach in Florida. We used to have a real community there. Everybody knew each other and would keep an eye out for each other. Yeah, it was like a soap opera sometimes. But I always knew I was home, I fit in, I was accepted.
I moved to Texas when I was just barely 17. I didn’t know a single person. I moved there to go to school and luckily I found a community in my little group of fellow OMT students (Ocean Marine Technology).
We most definitely did NOT fit in with the rest of the school or the surrounding towns. 😉 Bunch of hippie ‘boat trash’ with long hair, shorts and flip-flops in a town where no one left the house without perfect makeup, new cars all washed and waxed. We were definitely on our own.
I made friends with the only other girl in the class. She took me to meet her ‘mother’ and we’ve been best friends ever since. That was over 30 years ago- wow!
With my friends from class, we went to the beach and had cookouts over the bonfire. We played music. We drank beer. We danced. We hung out with each other even when we weren’t in class. We had many similar interests. After all, we had come from all over the country to take this course in Ocean Marine Technology. We had an automatic community.
When I finished the program, most of my friends wandered off into the wild blue yonder and I never heard from them again. Only occasionally I’ll hear of someone or run into somebody in some unlikely place.
Since then, I’ve tried a few times to find or create another real community. I think I find it most easily at work. I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy working at sea. After all, we are still isolated out here. In our own little world. We have to depend on each other for everything. To get our work done, to have someone to talk to, to help us if we need it, to take care of us if we get hurt. We get to know and care about each other. It is a community in its own right.
In the article, there’s a checklist for community building success. A list of 16 things to do or have. I think a lot of the things are good to have and I’ll definitely suggest them to our local meetup group (Campaign for Liberty). We’ve been struggling to grow and find more members.
We’re a community, we do a lot of those things, but maybe not consistent about it. Somehow we can’t keep the new people who come excited enough to come back, to join our community. What can we do to make them more comfortable? Maybe the things in the article will help. We can try…
I had no idea there were blogger conferences. It sounds like a fun and useful thing to go to. 😉
Arrrgggh Matey! Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Check out the link and have some fun. 😉 http://talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html
You can change your language on facebook from regular English to Pirate English. I don’t know if they translate from other languages (Spanish, French, German, etc) to Pirate. 😉
I did that last year for a while for fun. My computer has some kind of bug in it right now and I’m having huge problems with facebook. I have to go use a different computer to get on there so I haven’t done it this year. I was just on there trying to catch up a little bit.
By the time I get home to fix my buggy computer (hopefully fix it), Pirate Day will be long gone. So, enjoy it without me this time, me mateys- arrrrggh.
Have a cup of grog or a few shots of rum for me. 🙂
Best Stargazing Events of September 2013 (Sky Map Gallery) | Space.com.
This is pretty neat. I just found this. It gives you a run down on all the interesting things you can see in the night sky throughout the month of September. Tonight is the Harvest Moon. The 22nd is the equinox. It tells you where to look for the planets,etc.
Be sure to flip through the slide show. 🙂
Watch Out for the Harvest Moon – NASA Science.
I knew about the Harvest Moon, but I didn’t know that every full moon had a special name. It’s almost time for the Harvest Moon, it’s coming up here (USA) the night of Sept 18-19.
I was out earlier this evening and looking at the moon. Took a few pictures. It was already up pretty high by the time I got out there. This should remind me to get out there earlier and try to get some good moon shots. 😉
It’s real hard to do out here with the motion and vibration. Maybe some of you can get some nice, clear shots. Best time is early, right around sunset. 😉
This Next-Generation Bug Spray Could Make You Invisible to Mosquitoes | Surprising Science.
Hey, this would be great! Maybe they could have a booth for this stuff at the Great Texas Mosquito Festival (www.mosquitofestival.com) !
I’m one of those people who always gets eaten up by mosquitoes every time I step outside. I use the sprays but they don’t seem to help much.
I remember I was traveling a couple of years ago in Sulawesi Island and the mosquitoes were just horrible at this one place. I kept thinking I hope I don’t come home with some strange tropical diseases. It really ruined the atmosphere. 🙁
How Chemistry Can Explain the Difference Between Bourbon and a Tennessee Whiskey | Food & Think.
Interesting article in Smithsonian online. I like a good whiskey every so often 😉 What sailor doesn’t (or at least a shot of rum)…
Is it really that important that we find out exactly what all 4000+ chemical compounds do for the drinks? I’d rather spend my time on simple taste tests. 😉
I’d LOVE to go wander the whiskey trail over in Scotland, or Ireland, or even Kentucky one of these days. 🙂
Molasses Spill Kills Fish in Honolulu.
Hawaii molasses spill is polluting the harbor. At least its not oil. It’s edible. Or is it? Why is it killing all the fish? Simple lack of oxygen? Or is that much (sugar) molasses poisonous in some way? Only to fish??
Got an update on this today, they’re sampling the water. Nothing yet on what the results were.
Later update from Smithsonian online… .
Where oil stays at the top of the water, molasses sinks and sucks up all the oxygen in the water that fish need to breathe. According to the Hawaii Department of Health there’s basically nothing they can do to clean it up from the depth. Janice Okubo, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s sugar in the water. If you know a scientific way to remove it from water, let us know.”
So, I guess it is just killing the fish, sucking all the oxygen out of the water. Not dangerous to people, just plain old molasses. 🙂
19 Real Sinister Conspiracies That Actually Happened | Cracked.com.
OK, I did get this from Cracked but I’ve seen a lot of this stuff before. I didn’t know about ALL of these, but I did already know about quite a few. The Lusitania for instance. The syphilis. Bikini Atoll. Caligula. The DEA/CIA thing. Tobacco.The Shah of Iran. DeBeers diamonds.
All of those have come to my attention for one reason or another in the past. I wasn’t even really looking for anything specific. I’m sure if anyone wants to look up this stuff, they can find plenty of evidence. Now that we have the internet it should be much easier.
Does the name calling (tin-hat conspiracy theorist) really prevent so many people from believing in the truth of this stuff?? I think it probably does.
Comments?
I’m ready to do this! Baby steps, yeah OK, but which way to go? She has great points to make. My holdup has always been financial. I’m sure that’s what’s holding most everyone back from living their dream life.
Zombies, Celebrity Sideboobs, and Smart Social Commentary = Web Gold | Mother Jones.
Just found out about this in an email from Mother Jones. 🙂 I used to get Cracked sometimes when I was a kid. I much preferred Mad magazine, but would read Cracked if it was around. I didn’t know it was on the web, never thought to check.
Here it is…www.cracked.com. It looks like its grown up a bit but still looks to be very entertaining. In the MJ interview, they mention they are now ‘one of the webs most popular humor destinations.’
I’ll be checking up on them for sure. I really like their agenda, ‘train yourself to question everything.’ Yeah, definitely my kind of people there. 😉
Charts: How Big Debt on Campus Is Threatening Higher Ed | Mother Jones.
If you read my earlier post on the college degree arms race (http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/disarming-the-college-degree-arms-race/), then you might like to read this as a follow up. It’s a little bit different take on the subject from Dave Gilson and Maggie Severns at Mother Jones.
They put out some good information. I’d like to see a chart there about how the amount of government aid correlates to increased prices for a college education. I have seen some work on that before. Maybe it was in a Reason magazine. Nope, I found it, it was in a Cato publication, heres a link to a summary page where you can read the whole thing if you’re so inclined (http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/making-college-more-expensive-unintended-consequences-federal-tuition-aid)
The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again 🙁
Liberator Online: There ought to be a law…?.
OK, I’m a little late getting this one out but here it is… the August issue of the Liberator Online, sent out by the Advocates for Self Government. As they say, it’s for “anyone who loves liberty”. 🙂
This one is pretty entertaining. I especially liked the articles on the “killer lurking in your kitchen”, and America’s nuttiest warning labels. There’s also a good video interview with Greg Glassman who founded CrossFit, along with the usual quotes, powerful pursuasion point, and libertarian response to corporate abuses by Dr Mary Ruwart. Enjoy…
Great tips for bloggers 🙂
Disarming the College Degree Arms Race – Politics – Utne Reader.
Although I found this article a little hard to read, I thought it made a lot of good points. Anyone thinking of going to college should read it through and really spend some time thinking about it. There are a few aspects to this issue that I haven’t seen come up anywhere else yet. I think we really should have some kind of national discussion about ‘credentialing’.
I noticed a long time ago how a high school diploma had warped into a bachelors degree. I mean, jobs you could get hired on for and do very well at with just a high school diploma back in the old days (before say 1990), now require at LEAST a bachelors degree.
I thought it must be because of how the schools have been dumbed down so much. I have a hard time understanding how/why a school would pass someone who failed all the tests. Someone who can’t either read or write. But apparently, the parents have demanded that their kids don’t deserve to fail. WTF???? If they failed the class, then yes, they DO deserve to fail!
The school systems gave in to the parents and pass pretty much everyone now. So a high school diploma has become pretty much totally worthless. I got a job tutoring people in college so that they could pass the remedial math and English classes, wow! Why were they accepted into college if they couldn’t pass BASIC math and English??? Now, anyone who wants a ‘decent’ job MUST go to college??!! So somehow we have to help them all get through it. Or at least that’s what we’re all told.
I have to disagree. I should NEVER have listened to my grandmother. She was one of those people who insisted “you’ll never be able to get a good job without a college degree”. I informed her that I already HAD a college degree (2 year AAS in Ocean Marine Technology). She insisted that “didn’t count”.
Why? I have no idea. I already HAD a ‘decent’ job. In fact, more than decent. It was a very well paying job, with way more than the usual time off, it had great benefits, and to top it off, I actually enjoyed it. I really looked forward to going back to work.
I was only a captain tho, and not on a cruise ship 🙁 Maybe if I HAD been working on a cruise ship instead of in the oilfield, my accomplishments would have been acceptable to my grandmother.
So, I quit my job as licensed master 1600 GT and went back to school. I started back at the local jr college where I got my AAS degree. I was going to go on to a university later for a degree in Chemical Engineering. Since I live in the middle of about a dozen chemical plants, I figured I would always be able to get a ‘decent’ job.
NOT the right thing to do!! I finally figured out that I was NOT going to be a chemical engineer after my 1st year at UT Austin! No way was I going to do that kind of work for the rest of my life! Now what? I had just spent 3 years in school (and a ton of money) and still no degree… I asked around and turns out that if I changed majors to math I would only need one more full year in school.
I was already BROKE again. I needed to go back to work. Back offshore where I could save some money again. So, I went back to the US Coast Guard only to find out they had changed the rules without telling anybody (which is against their own rules) and so I would have to start all over from the bottom.
I shipped out as an AB (on tankers) so I could start working my way back up again to only a 3rd mate unlimited license when the USCG had already given me a 2nd mates license (but then changed the rules and took it back). I did manage to earn my license and finally enough money to go back to school again.
I found that the University of St Thomas in Houston had a program where I could get almost all of my course work done without having to quit my job (offshore- 2 months on/2 off). I did have to quit finally to do one whole semester and got all my remaining math classes out of the way.
OK, so now I managed to FINALLY get an acceptable college degree! Whoo-hoo!! Did it do me any good at all??? NO!!! I have been on the lookout since I graduated (with honors) with a bachelors degree in MATH and I have not seen even ONE job advertised that would use it. Not even one!
Yeah, I could teach, but only if I went BACK to school for another couple of years for a teaching certificate! I’m sure my grandmother would love for me to do that so I could get a ‘decent’ job off the boats and live a ‘normal’ life. Get married, have kids and all that. She’s not around any more to tell me that so I do what I want with no guilt. 😉
Why in the world would I quit the job I have now to take one that pays only about 1/4 (or less), and works at least twice as much? It really doesn’t take a math major to figure out that equation just doesn’t work!
So, this whole idea of people having to go to college to get a decent job is a crock of sh*t as far as I’m concerned. Its too bad so many people (including me) have been suckered into spending so much time, effort, money for a piece of paper. People would probably be a heck of a lot better off finding something to do with their lives that they actually enjoyed doing. Maybe go to a trade school, or even ‘apprentice’ with someone. You don’t have to be in a school to learn something useful!
To anyone out there who’s thinking about college, take a lesson from me and don’t let anyone guilt you into something you’re not sure about. Take some time off- a gap year- and wander the world, think about life and what you want out of it. There are a million ways to earn a living, but you’re the only one that can figure out how you really want to do it. Go for it! 😉
Why Americans Can’t Die With Dignity | Mother Jones.
I thought this was a really good interview with Katy Butler. Author of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death”. I think its a very important issue that we just keep on avoiding. Even with all the talk about ‘death panels’ in Obamacare, we still don’t really get to the point. We need to have the discussion. We need to really do some deep thinking about how we want to deal with a major injury/sickness and death.
I’ve already been through the ordeal of losing both my parents. I was the one who had to make the decisions at the end for both of them. I do totally agree with Katy that we in America spend WAY too many resources on people who are in the last stage of life. Resources that could be much better spent on helping the quality of life rather than the quantity.
I myself would prefer to die before they put me on the machines, before I don’t know who I am anymore, or recognize my best friends. I don’t even consider that as LIFE! I hope I’m strong enough to just get it over with and off myself if I ever get to that point. I would hate to have to put someone else at risk of going to prison for helping me end my life with some dignity. Yeah, I say that now…
Reading the interview I was reminded of how my father changed his outlook once he found out he had cancer. The doctors at the VA hospital only gave him a few months to live. He had a rare form of cancer and so with a lot of help from friends was able to get treatment at MD Anderson hospital instead. It’s one of the best cancer treatment centers in the world. They did everything they could for him. It added probably a few more months to his life.
But he was sick as hell from the treatments. He was in pain most of the time. He was dying and he knew it but he was also determined to fight til the very end. He did. He died anyway (like we all will).
We were able to get some help for him at the end but it was too little, too late. I was trying to help deal with a lot of medical issues I wasn’t really prepared for (even tho I do have medical PIC- it’s harder to deal with someone you know and love).
Near the end, my father had no idea who I was. It would have been nice if he could have been helped by hospice at home, where he was comfortable and had his friends around. We were finally lucky to be able to put him in a hospice facility in Houston, he died there in only a couple of days.
I have no real idea of what all that cost. I just know it was a LOT and there was no way he could afford it. (And yes, I’m pretty sure those costs were passed on to the general public). No way anybody could afford all that! If he didn’t have that rare form of cancer, I’m sure he would have been ‘allowed’ to die a lot sooner. The hospital thought it was worth keeping him around so they could learn from his case. Hopefully they learned something to help someone else down the road.
I really should have had a discussion with my dad before he got sick. I would have felt better knowing what he really wanted. Not a decision made under that kind of stress. Some states have passed a Death with Dignity Act. I don’t think Texas is one of them. I would support it.
Daily Prompt:Toy Story- What was your favorite plaything as a child? Do you see any connection between your life now, and your favorite childhood toy?
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/daily-prompt-memento/
I’m not sure if my sea snark qualifies as a toy but playing with it (sailing) was my favorite thing to do while I was growing up (other than reading).
I used to take my little sailboat our almost every day, usually after school. Sometimes, I would even sail it TO school 🙂
Made out of Styrofoam, it was indestructible. Unlike the Titanic, it was actually unsinkable 🙂 We DID test that quite regularly 😉
I had SO much fun with that little boat. 🙂 I would go by myself. I would take out my friends. My brother would run circles around me with his outboard powered dingy, but I didn’t care. I always loved just sailing. Letting the wind drive me where I wanted to go. It was so engaging, so peaceful, so enjoyable. I STILL love sailing and go out every chance I can.
As a kid, I never would have imagined that I would wind up ‘sailing’ for a living (that’s what we call shipping out- ‘sailing’). I was on track to be a doctor back then. My grandparents were both pharmacists. My fathers mother was one of the first female pharmacists in the state of NY 🙂 (I definitely take after her) 😉 I made straight A’s in school and I did love studying all my subjects in class, especially math and science.
What happened was: I got sick and tired of taking the same classes over and over again in school. For example, I had been taking algebra since at least 5th grade. I always made straight A’s. I just couldn’t see the point of taking it AGAIN in 9th grade.
So, I started skipping those classes that I’d already taken. I was still making good grades. I could still keep up with the work. After all, I HAD already taken those classes (more than once). I’ll never understand why parents put up with the school systems dumbing down their kids so much!
Eventually, my family got tired of hearing about my transgressions from the school district. My grandmother decided I needed to go to a boarding school, to keep me from skipping 😉 Well, I give her credit. She tried. She really did.
Along with my Aunt Helen, my grandmother and I went on a road trip from Freeport NY, up through Niagara Falls (loved the Maid of the Mist) into Canada. We came back down through the Detroit area (went to a concert there- grandma wore earplugs 🙂 ). Visited family friends near Chicago. Stopped at a dozen fancy schools before we made it back to NY.
I have to admit, I was a total BITCH the entire trip. I didn’t want to go to any fancy-schmantzy rich kid boarding school! I would never fit in. I liked my life the way it was. I loved my town where I grew up and I could spend my days hanging out with my friends on the beach. Sailing, swimming, fishing, even sometimes jumping off the bridge to let the current carry me out to the Gulf so I could swim back in 😉
Yeah, I was also hanging out at the amusement parlor and the pool halls, sometimes the bars 😉 I was drinking and other things I wasn’t supposed to be doing.
It was really a lucky stroke of fate what happened when my grandmother got me back to her place in Freeport. She was so fed up with me after that search for an acceptable school for both me and her, she took me to the library and threw the book at me. Literally! She told me that it was a book listing ALL the accredited schools in the country and if I could find one in there that I liked, I could go there.
The book landed on a table in front of me. Opened to a page with a picture of a square-rigged ship in full sail. I was hooked! I grabbed that book and started reading that thing like my life depended on it (turned out it really did in a way).
The book gave details: the Oceanics School (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19720827&id=nN1VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5eADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6581,6541976). Based in New York City, the school would charter these large traditional sailing ships for months long cruises with their students aboard. The ship sailed around the world and the students learned to operate the ship. They held classes on navigation, seamanship, oceanography, cultural studies and languages of all the countries the ship visited.
I was so excited. I told my grandmother “that’s it!”. That’s the one I want to go to!! She was aghast!! She told me “no way”. “No way are you going to ruin your life with those damn boats like your father did!!” Up til he bought his dream boat, the “Island Girl”, my father was an engineer. A ‘respectable’ professional career man. My grandmother would never forgive the Island Girl for my fathers decision to quit the corporate world.
When I got home and told my dad about the Oceanics school, he was almost as happy about it as I was. He said “you’re going”, and “while we’re at it, we’ll send your brother too”! “You can’t skip school when you’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean” 😉 So, soon enough my brother and I were off to sail around the world. We had some absolutely fantastic adventures sailing the 3- masted schooner Ariadne from Athens to Martinique!
That trip changed my life. I returned without my brother to sail the Ariadne again from Martinique back across the Atlantic. I had some incredible experiences with some wonderful people. It DID change my life.
I will be forever grateful to the Gallaghers (especially Stephanie) who took a chance on me and then helped me SO much. Even after I graduated from the Oceanics, Stephanie was instrumental in getting me set up in the Ocean Marine Technology program in Texas that got me started on the way to earning my license.
Because of the chance to go to the Oceanics, I am STILL sailing. Almost 35 years later. 🙂 I recently upgraded to Master Any Gross Tons and can sail pretty much any ship on the ocean. I still love the traditional sailing ships best but there just aren’t enough of them around to make a living on. Too bad 🙁
So, yeah, you could say my favorite plaything when I was young is still my favorite plaything now. 🙂
Here are a couple of great links. The first one is by Tim Harris of the ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl which he sailed on as a cadet with the Oceanics in the early 70s. The next one is of the same ship in a storm. The last is a link to the ship itself, in case you’re interested in sailing her 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iokDVlHybtE
Is it Safer to Work Offshore in 2013?.
Well, I don’t really know. I would like to see some statistics on how it compares to back in say the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s. Personally, I think its probably a LITTLE better. The companies I’ve been working with are constantly harping on safety. They go on and on til its coming out our ears. But I still hear of people doing really stupid things. Like that fire on the platform back in November last year , due to improper welding operations (http://www.blackelkenergy.com/news/67-explosion-and-fire-on-gulf-platform-occurred-during-welding-contractors-failed-to-follow-standard-safety-practices.html) . I mean, jeeze…
What the hell is it going to take?? I get sick and tired of being treated like a moron when I go to work. The company has to tell me how to get dressed in the morning? REALLY???
I’ve only been working offshore (professionally) since 1977! Having to re-take classes like BST (Basic Safety Training) or Rigpass really gets old. I mean, who forgets how to put on a life jacket??? What’s new in shipboard fire fighting? We have the same classes of fires we’ve always had (except they now label a galley grease fire as “K” for kitchen I guess- trying to make it SEEM like there’s actually something new). We fight them the same way.
I think the way to make things safer offshore is to concentrate on creating a culture of personal responsibility!!! Get people to understand that they can do what they’re going to do but THEY are responsible for their actions. They’ll pay attention if they know THEY are going to pay the price if anything goes wrong.
The fact is that we have all sorts of programs out here that SEEM to encourage safety. Instead, they take the ability to THINK about and then CHOOSE their actions away from people. Take away options from people and you take with it their responsibility. You can only BLAME them then, since you’ve taken away any REAL choices.
It seems to me these companies love to send people to these classes so they can tell the world, “it’s not OUR fault those people got hurt. After all, we sent them to training. They should have known how to do the job properly without getting hurt.” Yeah, like a day long class is really going to teach someone ALL they need to know to work safely out here. I don’t think so!
I’m NOT saying we need to go to any more classes!!! What I AM saying is that once a person goes through those very basic classes, they have only the bare minimum of knowledge. We can and should use the time spent in our weekly drills and safety meetings to train people PAST that bare minimum!
Those of us out here with some experience need to take into consideration that SOME of the people we’re working with are almost totally ignorant! From my perspective, it seems like a lot of the incidents are happening with relatively new people. We need to concentrate our efforts on training THOSE people! We need to keep a good eye on them. We need to take the time to really MENTOR them. We need to be generous with our time and our knowledge and not keep it to ourselves in fear of losing our jobs to the newbies…
It would help a LOT if we were not constantly having the crew size cut and cut and cut some more! OK, this below is referring to shipping and not so much drilling since I don’t know too much about drilling yet (but its probably still relevant)…
A typical ship used to carry a crew of 45-50 men. Now they sail with half that (and LOTS more work to do)! Some COIs (Certificate Of Inspection) will allow only 17 man crew (or less). This is for a 1000 ft long tanker!!! ATBs (tug/barge combination) which can run up to 600-700+ feet long, can be run with less than 10!!!
Check out the REAL results of the investigation into the Exxon Valdez incident. You’ll find that it was actually caused by the fact that the entire crew was exhausted and had NOTHING to do with the Captain at all. He could have been totally sober or drunk as a skunk and it wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference.
They passed the 12 hour rule after the Valdez spill to remedy that. There are work hour restrictions in US law and in the STCW. So it applies to pretty much ALL shipping worldwide. That does include all the larger oilfield support vessels. I don’t know how the drilling industry has escaped notice on this but I don’t know of anything similar that they have to abide by (I might just be uninformed on this point- any drillers to comment?).
Ask any sailor around the world how well they follow that rule. I can almost guarantee you they’re being ‘forced’ by their company policies to break it constantly. Of course, company will never admit it, will blame it on the crew if it ever comes up, and will deny they ever had any idea it was happening 🙁
Being tired is one of the leading causes of accidents. I would think that would be one very easy solution to vastly improve safety. But of course, it would cost some extra money to hire a few extra hands. Is that gonna happen any time soon???
Safety first??? I don’t think so 🙁
Chinese cockroach farmers are making a bundle selling pulverized bugs for $89 per lb. – Quartz.
OK, I have to admit, I REALLY don’t like cockroaches. Especially these big ones. Or the ones we get down South near the water where I live. We call ’em Palmetto bugs. I’ll never forget the night I was just falling asleep. It was a hot muggy night (so no covers) and one of those huge suckers flew across the room and started crawling up my leg. I must have woken up half the block with my screams!
So, the idea of people actually FARMING these things just gives me the creeps. Maybe its just me? The Chinese people seem to think there’s some real good medicine in these things. I just remembered this exhibit I saw at the Chinatown Heritage Center in Singapore last year.
Sign at the Chinatown Heritage Center, Singapore
I guess if you grind it up and add enough other stuff to it, you might not even notice it going down? I do try and taste different foods when I’m off traveling, but so far, the only bugs I’ve managed to try were some ants -chocolate covered- that helps 😉 – and some kind of grub they had at the ‘tasting kitchen’ at the New Orleans Insectarium (http://www.auduboninstitute.org/visit/insectarium). Those tasted almost exactly like that Honey Nut Crunch cereal. They did have other flavors, but I was OK with just trying that one 🙂
Tasting room at the Insectarium in New Orleans
Trying out some of the taste ‘treats’ at the New Orleans Insectarium
I do see plenty of people in Thailand and Indonesia snacking on grasshoppers, water beetles, grubs, etc at the bars I go to. I always figured they must just be drunk. I never managed to work up the nerve to try any of those larger samples. Maybe next time…
Learn how to prepare your pests for tasty treats!
Or maybe not. I did read something recently where the scientists were recommending that we should ALL start eating insects. It would go a long way towards helping to feed all the starving people around the planet. Yeah, they are a great source of protein. Yeah, they cost a lot less to produce, they don’t cause as much damage as cattle, they’re easy to raise… yada, yada, yada. Personally, I would prefer people start using birth control before we’re all reduced to eating bugs for breakfast 😉
The Rise of the Antiwar Libertarians – The Daily Beast.
I can’t agree with them calling either Justin Amash or Rand Paul Libertarians. They’re not. RON Paul was the only Libertarian we’ve had in D.C. for a LONG time.
I can say I’m glad to hear the word libertarian mentioned in some other context than in reference to a ‘nut job’ 🙂
I’m happy they’re both against the war on Syria. I would just like to see them actually follow some consistent principles of liberty. As long as they stick with the Republicans, that pretty much eliminates the chance of that happening. 🙁
I would LOVE to see these guys lead this country back to its founding principles of INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. In other words: Libertarian principles! I don’t see it happening until WE start pushing them that way.
All I can do at this point is to write letters of support when they DO manage to support the right side of an issue (one that supports individual liberty), and telling them why they were wrong when they supported the opposite.
I can only HOPE they actually read my letters. To think they might pay some attention and THINK about what I’m saying about principles and basing actions on them would be fantastic! Pipe dream? Probably 🙁
PS- try the Worlds Smallest Political Quiz at the top of my page and see where you land. I’m a libertarian 🙂 What are you?
MV Gold Star Becomes Epic Cannabis Campfire Off Malta | gCaptain
Interesting story. Wondering just how they got their estimate? Before or after they hung out downwind for a while??
Call the Midwife… Coast Guard Delivers Baby at Sea | gCaptain
OK, here’s a good one… I want to give a HUGE thanks to the USCG for this one and also give appreciation to all the rescue workers. They do a fantastic job and they are very welcomed by all of us seafarers for the help they give us when we need them.
In all my years out here I’ve very rarely seen any pregnant women out here. I think I’ve seen 1 recently (that I know was pregnant). In fact, its still pretty rare to even see ANY women out here. I’m on a rig right now for instance, and out of about 135 people aboard, there’s only 1 other woman. Most of the time, I see between 2-5 women on the ships I sail on now. That’s a HUGE increase from when I started sailing ‘professionally’ back in 1978, when I was almost always the only one aboard.
I wonder how long that ships hitch is? Why was she still working on the ship if she was so close to delivery?? I do think women should be able to work offshore (obviously). Even pregnant women. But I do have to say I have serious issues with women who are close to delivery time being on a vessel that they might not be able to get off of for weeks or even months at a time. My tuna boat crew had a minimum hitch of 18 months for the officers! The unlicensed crew stayed 2 years!! I don’t think its fair to either the ship, the rest of the crew, the owners, or even the woman herself to take a job offshore that could endanger everyone involved like that. Women DO need to take into consideration the risks involved to themselves, their fetus, and the ship and other crew as well.
Any other seafarers on here? Comments???
How Do Innocent People Find Justice In America? : Personal Liberty™.
They don’t! Unless you have a LOT of money for a GOOD lawyer, you are better off taking the plea bargain. You will be found guilty by a jury (unless that jury knows their rights to nullify bad laws and keeps their mouths SHUT about it so the judge doesn’t disqualify them)! I know this from personal experience. Yes, (woooo, scary music), I am a “criminal”. I hope that doesn’t chase off too many of you 🙂 I was convicted of DWI back in 1982, the jury insisted over the pure physical impossibility of my breathalyzer results that they were indeed correct and NO police officer would EVER tamper with the evidence or LIE. In fact, the officers involved did BOTH.
Since the invention of cell phone cameras and the internet, more people are coming to the realization that the cops DO in fact LIE and tamper with the evidence. They do that quite often. So, knowing these FACTS, how can anyone trust the “justice system” in the good ol’ USA???
I think they have a good idea with these “affiliate newspapers”. To help “vindicate the innocent”. We definitely need something to stop the rise of the police state we are becoming. We actually have a pretty good one started around S Texas. It’s called the Texas Free Press. I think they publish it in the Corpus Christi area. My local Campaign for Liberty meetup group was helping to distribute it around the Brazoria County area but I think we’ve stopped lately due to lack of advertising interest. Too bad 🙁
We need to get creative and find ways to take back our freedom. We are never going to win this war against us if we can’t do that. We are totally out financed and out gunned (literally). We need to win the war of ideas! Newspapers are still a great way to get the word out. Too bad all the mainstream media that most people read are all owned by the big money and so they are NOT doing their job! We need newspapers for the PEOPLE, NOT corporate owned shills!
I love this idea. I hope one of these days I can figure out how to do this on my own blog
Museum Day Live! 2013 Registration.
This is a link to the Smithsonians’ Museum Day. Saturday 9/28. It’ll give you and a guest FREE admission to a museum you choose. Its not only the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.. There are links to museums all over the country. You can search by subject or by location.
In Houston, you can choose among the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, Dunham Bible Museum, Holocaust Museum Houston, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Lawndale Art Center, and a favorite of mine in Galveston the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum. There is the tall ship Elissa right there too, if you do happen to hit the Ocean Star Museum, you can make it a maritime day and enjoy lunch on the waterfront watching the cruise ships dock.