Yes, I am still trying to finish the Blogging 201 Challenge! I’ve been traveling in Korea and so busy. I don’t want to spend all my time inside on the computer when there are so many interesting things to see and do going on outside my hotel room!
So, I know I’m late but I’m still trying to complete the challenge. The one for Day 9 was “to create a page or section on your blog to display links to your online presence elsewhere, and make sure your other presences reflect the brand you’re developing on your blog.”
I’ve been thinking about this challenge for the last couple of days. I don’t really think I want to make a special page for that. At least not right now. I already have links to my Facebook page, About.me page, Twitter feed, and Flickr pictures on my home page.
I am online in a few of other places like Pinterest, Tumblr, Oilpro, Linkedin, Gcaptain, and probably a few others I can’t remember right now. That might tell you one reason why I don’t really see the need to make a special page for them here right now. I really haven’t done much with some of these yet (plus I get a bit scattered sometimes). 😉
I’ve barely started with Pinterest. I only check into Tumblr- (islandgirl37- I can’t get a link to work)- every once in a blue moon, tho I do notice my posts here are automatically posted there (which is nice).
I rarely comment on Oilpro, tho I do like a lot of their content. A lot of it is outside my area of interest.
I love Gcaptain and I comment on there fairly often (as JP), tho not as much as I used to. They have a lot of really great back and forth conversations between real mariners (like me) on there in the forum section. Lately, I’ve been following the discussion on the Korean ferry disaster tho I haven’t been commenting.
I’m probably on Linkedin more than a lot of other places. There’s such a wide variety of groups on there. It’s too bad they limit you to only joining 50! I read and comment on a lot of different groups. I thought about linking my blog to it, but I’m still a little leery about doing that since it is really more for business. I’m trying to keep my posting there more professional. 😉
I think the main thing I can take away from the challenge for Day 9 is to go back and make sure I put a link to my blog into each of my profiles on these other sites. 🙂
OK, so I’ve got Day 9 pretty much in the bag. The assignment for Day 10 is to “invest in your community by leaving five comments, adding (or updating) a blogroll, and introducing a comment policy.”
I’ve been leaving comments all along, I enjoy interacting with other people on the things they’re doing that interest me. I’ve never really been one to keep my opinions to myself. 😉
I already have a blogroll and it updates itself according to who I’m visiting (“more good stuff” in the sidebar). I also have a list on the bottom of my home page, but I haven’t really had time to update it recently so I’m sure it’s missing a lot. I was trying to include links that I’ve written about in posts. To have them all in one convenient place, but I got out of the habit of updating that list and so I know it’s going to take some work to catch up on.
I don’t have a formal comment policy (yet) and don’t really see the need to add one at this point. I do believe in free speech and hopefully won’t come up with any reasons to throw somebody out of here. 😉
I suppose eventually somebody might come up with something that pisses me off enough to get rid of them (online), but so far no one has come close. 🙂
So, I guess I’ll just wait and see on adding the ‘comment policy’. Hope ya’ll don’t take this as license to start giving me shit now! 😉
I went out the other day to go to the Gwangalli Eoban Festival. Yes, I was taking chances. There have been a lot of event cancellations around Korea this year because of the ferry disaster.
The internet said this festival was cancelled, but I figured I would go and see myself since I had heard that the Lotus Lantern Festival was cancelled too, but I went to the park where it was supposed to be held it was still going on.
The Eobang Festival is another fishermans festival, like the Gijang Anchovy Festival I tried to go to the other day (which was also cancelled). It sounded really interesting and I was really looking forward to it. Especially after seeing Andreas’ post in her blog about last years.
So, who knows? I tried it. I got there and – no festival! Oh well. It was a pretty decent day. A little overcast, but that was good for me since I get sunburned really easily. The beach was nice.
There were a lot of local people out enjoying the beach but it wasn’t too crowded. People were out flying kites and walking their dogs. I saw a couple of fishermen. A vollyball game was going on and looked like fun. Lots of picnics were sprinkled around the sand.
People were skateboarding and bikeriding along the promenade. The other side was lined with bars, restaurants and coffee shops. I stopped and had some coffee and watched the scene for a while.
Here are a few photos so you can get the idea. 🙂
I tried my luck with the Gijang Anchovy Festival but it was cancelled due to the ferry disaster. 🙁
I couldn’t really tell that anything was different in this place tho. There were tons of people out shopping for anchovys (and all kind of other seafood).
There was no festival going on, but other than that, everything seemed normal.
People were shopping for seafood, haggling over prices. Eating BBQ squid and anchovys. Fishing off the seawall. Checking out the restaurants.
Check it out…
I am working on the assignment for Day Eight in the Blogging 201 challenge. The task is to “create a 30 day plan for how you’ll grow your presence (and your blog)” on Facebook, which is the social network I chose in the Day Seven assignment.
I’m not really sure of any “plan” yet. I just read over and followed the directions on todays assignment post (here) and created another Facebook page. I thought I already had a Facebook page that was for my blog. I wondered why it never had anything show up on it.
Turns out I didn’t really set it up correctly. I remember it being a major pain in the ass when I was trying to get it started. Now that I can just follow the directions, setting up the page was pretty simple. Its there now and seems to be working so far.
I haven’t yet posted anything to it directly from my blog. This post will be my first test. 🙂
Now for the hard part. The PLAN.
OK, I plan to ‘publicize’ all of my posts. I already do that! Now, I just need to see if they actually show up on my new Facebook blog page. They have (mostly) been showing up on my personal page (except sometimes they don’t. I think I figured out they won’t if I do a ‘gallery’ post).
I used to get quite a few referalls to my blog from my Facebook page, but I haven’t for the last couple of months. I can’t figure out what’s up with that. I hope this new page will correct that situation.
What else for the PLAN? I’ll stick to the goals I made during Day Ones assignment. And, of course, I’ll continue to do what I’m already doing on Facebook. Sharing all the interesting stuff I see that I think other people would be interested in (and generally pissing people off). 😉
I just learned something when I checked the ‘publicize settings’. It will only allow me to post to ONE Facebook page at a time. I guess thats why nothing shows up on my other page I created for this blog! So now what? Do I need to post it once on my blog page and again on my personal page? If I do that will it post twice on my other networks (Twitter, Tumblr, etc)?
I can’t really think of anything else to do with it. Does anybody else have any suggestions?
The assignment for Day Seven of the Blogging 201 challenge is to “Broadcast Your Brand”. To “pick one social network you’ll use to grow your blog and connect it to your site in at least one way”.
I’m already connected here to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. I use ‘Publicize’ pretty much every time I post. I did have some issues a while back with my posts not showing up on Facebook, but they look like they’ve been posting on there lately.
I thought about adding Linkedin since I’m on there looking around and commenting quite a bit, but I’m a little concerned (paranoid maybe) about how things I post on here might affect my job. I know companies now are looking at things people have on the internet.
Personally, I don’t like that trend. I think you ought to be able to have a work life and a home life. I know I keep them pretty separated. Maybe in my job it’s easier since I am home for weeks at a time and then at work for weeks. I just don’t think what a person choses to do when NOT on the job should have anything to do with what they do ON the job.
For now, Linkedin is out. Too bad, cause I’ve got tons of connections on there. 🙁
I’m also connected on Flickr. You can see some of my photos I have posted on there in the widget towards the bottom of the sidebar. I just started a Google+ account but I haven’t done anything with it yet.
I’m also on Pinterest, tho I don’t really know what to do on there yet. I do have a couple of boards started. I just collected some things other people posted that I liked. I have only put a couple of my own things on there so far. Again, I’m not really sure what to do with that one yet. 😉
So, I choose Facebook for the one social network to concentrate on. I like Twitter, but I tend to go overboard with the verbiage. It’s very hard for me to keep what I want to say so short and sweet! 😉
Tomorrows assignment (or Day 8 for those people who complete assignments on time) is supposed to teach us how to “create a strong presence” on our chosen network. I can’t wait! 🙂
The assignment for Day Six of the Blogging 201 challenge is to drive traffic to your archives. They suggest a couple of ways of doing that.
1. Use links. I’ve already been doing that for quite a while. I could probably use more of them, but I get involved with what I’m posting sometimes and forget.
2. Widgets. They suggest using the “Top Posts and Pages Widget, Categories Widget, and Archives Widget”. I already have the Categories and Archive widgets. I also have the “Recent Posts Widget”. Maybe I should trade that one in for the “Top Posts and Pages Widget”? It does seem sort of redundant since it just shows the same posts you can see on my home page. Any comments on that idea?
3. Activate the “Related Posts feature”. I had already done that and liked it. I learned from reading the assignment today that you can change the way this feature looks on your blog. I changed mine today to show more than just the post title. So far I like what I’m seeing. Any comments on the change?
4. Compile a “Best Of Page”. I’ll have to think about this for a bit. I think the Top Posts and Pages Widget would serve the same purpose. Is the idea that more people would look at a separate PAGE than the Widget? I’m not sure how many people look at the widgets I have or even if there’s a way to track that. I know the page views are tracked, so that’s something. 🙂
All in all another helpful assignment from the bloggers at the Blogging University. I’m glad I signed up! 🙂
The assignment for Day 5 in the Blogging 201 challenge is to take a look at your blog statistics and see what they can tell you about how to better manage your blog.
I’m already a stats junkie. I check my stats page every day. I love to see lots of visitors and views. I really like to see where people are visiting from. I think it’s interesting to see people from all over the world looking at my blog and I wonder what brought them to my blog?
From looking at my stats, it seems like I must have a lot of people who like to drink! My most popular posts of all time (other than the home page and about page) are the ones on making your own booze! Peach or apple? Peach has more views, but maybe that’s only because I posted it after I had a few more visitors. What do you think?
After the booze posts, it looks like people are actually pretty interested in the maritime stuff. I wasn’t really sure when I started this if ANYBODY would be interested in that sort of thing, but it looks like there are at least a few. And, to my surprise, they’re not all other mariners! 🙂
It looks like the photography has a pretty good showing too. People like my travel posts, which is great since I haven’t really put much of my travels up on here yet. The food/drink/recipes get a lot of views too. 🙂
Even the political posts get a pretty good showing. The Worlds Smallest Political Quiz is right up there at the top! That’s really encouraging. I had hopes to get people at least thinking more about politics with my blog. 🙂
I can’t really tell much for a pattern as to when I get the most traffic. I seem to remember the weekends being high traffic days, but when I just looked at the most recent weeks it seems I have more traffic on Wed-Thurs-Fridays.
So, what have I learned from looking at my stats? Maybe I should post more home-made booze recipes on Friday to give everybody a head start on the weekend?
I’m already trying to stick to a Creature Feature post on Wednesdays, combining photos (maybe mine, maybe not) with some interesting information about some kind of critter. 😉
I’ve been trying to do a post on the Songs of the Sea on the weekend, since that’s normally when I have more time to get online to surf the web to try and find a video. I do love my music, it’s just hard to put the whole thing together into a post sometimes. 😉
Maybe I should try to put more of the quirky stuff, things I just find interesting towards the beginning of the week, tho I normally only post those things on the spur of the moment when I come accross them.
The thing that really stands out to me is the HUGE difference in my stats from when I had the time to work on the blog. When I had time to post every day (or close to it). When I had the time to post even more than once in a day. Those time periods were when I really got a lot of interest.
I can see that made a difference and I would love to be able to do that well all the time, but I just don’t really know how to make that happen. I’m doing about the best I can with working on the blog along with all my other projects (my JOB, looking for work, keeping my household running, taking care of my rental property business, traveling, photography, etc).
I guess I’ll just keep on muddling along and hope for the best. I’m learning more from this challenge, which is good. Looking forward to more in the Day 6 assignment. 🙂
The assignment for Day Four of the Blogging 201 challenge is to make sure your site is ‘mobile-friendly’. I checked and it seems that my ‘theme’ Twenty Eleven is already ‘responsive’. That means it should already be OK for all sorts of mobile devices automatically. 🙂
That’s a really good thing, since I had no idea it might not show up looking the same way. I just never thought about it before this assignment.
I did take a look at it in the appearance menu on wordpress to see what my blog would look like on mobile phones and tablets. I think it looks pretty good on both. I only saw a couple of things I’d like to change, but I don’t know how. 🙁
The first thing is that all the ‘widgets’ show up at the very end. I’d like to have my ‘follow me’ widget up closer to the top so that people might be more likely to see it (and hopefully click on it!). 🙂
The other thing is that for some reason, the post’s I’ve done with a slideshow (the Bike and Blues Fest for example) don’t show up inside the screenshot on the phone preview. I’m not sure if that’s something going on with this computer when I look at it, or if it really looks like that when someone looks at my blog from a cel phone. 🙁
I also took a look at my blog on www.quirktools.com/screenfly that another blogger on the Blogging 201 Commons mentioned. Those posts with the slideshows show up the same way there, like they’re way off-center for some reason.
Can anybody out there check it out and let me know? If it IS a problem, does anybody know what I need to do to fix it?
Has anyone else had this issue? I’m trying to look through the Commons but haven’t seen anything yet. I admit, I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on this project so far, but trying to catch up. 🙂
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!!
I’ve been in Korea for the last week or so. Seems I still can’t get away from the ocean. 😉
I’ve spent a lot of time going to the local markets. They have a LOT of seafood in their markets here!
Yesterday I went to Gijang. They were supposed to be having a festival yesterday. The Gijang Anchovy Festival. It said on the internet that it was cancelled. I went anyway since it also said the Lotus Lantern Festival was cancelled and it was still on. 🙂
I figured it would be an interesting day out anyway. Yes, the festival was actually cancelled. Yes, it was still an interesting trip. 🙂
I took the metro up to Haeundae Station and then the local bus (181) from there to the harbor where the festival was supposed to be. The town was obviously set up as a place for people to come and buy and eat fish, (more kinds than just anchovys), but I saw no signs of any kind of festival. I guess it really was cancelled (due to the ferry accident).
I wandered around for a while and took a bunch of pictures. I’ll have to take a look at them later and will put some in a later post. I’m trying to stick to my goals for the Blogging 201 Challenge, one of which was to get back on track with my “editorial calendar”.
So I am posting today another Song of the Sea. All that wandering around the fish market and the fishing boats made me think of this song by Billy Joel. It’s about the fishermen in the USA (NE Coast), but fishermen around the world are all the same. 🙂
It’s always hard work and the pay is never enough, but of course it’s still totally worth it!
I hope you like the song as much as I do. Enjoy. 🙂
The Downeaster ‘Alexa’
We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
And left this morning from the bell in Gardiner’s Bay
Like all the locals here I’ve had to sell my home
Too proud to leave I’ve worked my fingers to the bone
So I could own my Downeaster Alexa
And I go where the ocean is deep
There are giants out there in the canyons
And a good captain can’t fall asleep
I’ve got bills to pay and children who need clothes
I know there’s fish out there but where God only knows
They say these waters aren’t what they used to be
But I’ve got people back on land who count on me
So if you see my Downeaster Alexa
And if you work with the rod and the reel
Tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis
And I still have my hands on the wheel
Yeah yo [x4]
Now I drive my Downeaster Alexa
More and more miles from shore every year
Since they tell me I can’t sell no stripers
And there’s no luck in swordfishing here
I was a bayman like my father was before
Can’t make a living as a bayman anymore
There ain’t much future for a man who works the sea
But there ain’t no island left for islanders like me
Yea yea yea oh [x4]
The assignment for day 3 of the Blogging 201 challenge is to continue refining your ‘brand’. I’ve already done quite a bit of that when I was first getting started and then again during the original Zero to Hero challenge.
I also took a critical look at my blog for yesterdays assignment (Audit Your Brand). I think there are a few small things I’d like to play with, but since I’m actually traveling in Korea at the moment I’m not going to do that right now.
I hate to spend my time here playing on the computer for hours on end when I should be out exploring Korea!
All in all, I’m pretty happy with the look of my blog. My brand. I’d be happy to hear any comments or suggestions from anyone as to how to improve it. 🙂
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. 🙂
I’m late again (sigh), but I’ve been so busy I just haven’t been able to get around to this project til now. I had high hopes for this Blogging 201 challenge, but I’m thinking since I’m so late to join, that I’m probably not going to get as much out of it as I had hoped.
Maybe they’ll do it again some time. I hope so. I’d like to be able to start with everybody else. I think it would help to be on the same page. I’m going to jump right in anyway and hopefully I’ll at least learn something, even if not as much as I could have if I’d been able to get started on time.
So, to start off on Day One (when it’s actually Day 10), the task for the day is to come up with 3 goals for your blog. To “write down 3 concrete goals you want to achieve”.
I’ve actually been thinking about this for a while. Not in specifics. Not “concrete”. But here’s what I’ve come up with now that I’m trying to be specific...These will be my goals for the next 3 months. After that, I think I should think some more and re-assess.
1. Increase traffic to my blog. I’d like to see at least 30 views a day and/or at least 1 new follower a day.
2. Get more organized. I tried to set up an ‘editorial calendar’ while I was doing the original Blogging 101 challenge. I was going to do a post called Wild Wednesdays (or Creature Feature). I was going to post something about some sort of interesting creature I thought other people would think was neat. 🙂
I was also planning to do a series of “Songs of the Sea”. Hopefully every Saturday. So far, I have fallen WAY off the schedule for both of those things. My goal is to get back on track and get at least those posts done every week.
3. Spend at least an hour a week on the Reader, checking out other blogs I’m following. I already get a lot of emails from blogs I follow and I read all of them (just not all on the same day they come in the email). I follow more blogs in the reader and I’d like to keep up with them better.
I spend a lot of time trying to keep up with people who’ve visited my blog so I’m not really sure how much more time I can afford to put into this right now, but I think I ought to be able to commit to at least an hour.
OK, so those are my goals for the next 3 months! On to the next days challenge!!
This is the first day here that I’ve been able to use my own computer. So it’s the first time I’ve been able to do a lot of things online.
I’ve been wandering all over and taking tons of pictures, so I thought I’d do a preview of some of the things I’ve seen so far. I haven’t had time yet to edit my photos, so all of these are straight from the camera. Enjoy. 😉
Korean Chinatown
This was the beginning of my first day out in Incheon. I wanted to see Chinatown. I heard it was the only one in Korea. It was very quiet through the afternoon. I left before seeing if it got any busier at night.
Wolmi Island
This was one of the ones I took at Wolmi Island. It’s kind of a playground for kids and adults. There’s an amusement park, a couple of museums, a maritime school, tons of seafood restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc.
Sunset at Wolmi Island, Incheon
I went to Jayu Park and wandered around downtown for awhile.The trees and flowers were all in bloom and the blossoms were falling all around in the breeze. The petals were covering the ground like snow. I finally figured out I was not going to be able to walk to the fish market, so I put it off for another day.
The next day I went to the fish market. Wow! What a huge place. It was crowded with all kinds of people from the smallest babies to the oldest grandmothers. Whole families were out shopping together. There was every kind of seafood imaginable (and some that I have never imagined at all).
Fresh, frozen, dried, still alive and squirming. It doesn’t matter, you can pick it out and they’ll wrap it up for you to take home, or you can bring it over to have them cook it up for you in the little kitchens in the back. There are also food stalls all around outside in case you want something other than seafood (or you can have more seafood!).
I found out those little pancakes are called something that sounds like “hotdogs” and they’re really pretty good. They’re stuffed with something kind of sweet, I think maybe bean paste. Then they add nuts. I like them. 🙂
After I got tired of wandering around the fish market, I made my way down the street to the Marine Square where some of the fishing boats and ferries dock. It was pretty quiet and I just watched the local people hang out. A bunch of kids were playing with the seagulls. They were pretty entertaining. 🙂
fishing fleet, Incheon Korea
I was about ready to call it a day, but I was kind-of hungry so I spent a little time wandering around near my hotel in search of something for dinner that was not too spicy. I wound up going to a place that I thought had a picture menu (it didn’t). I wound up having chicken soup. It was interesting watching the Koreans cook their dinners at the table.
That was the end of my night and going to be it for me tonight too. I’ve got another busy day planned tomorrow! 🙂
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. 🙂
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. 😉
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! 🙂
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).
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. 😉
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
I might have picked some different ones, but stumbled on this video while I was looking at something else.
It was made by Incredible World. They look like they have some very interesting stuff on utube. I thought this one was pretty cool.
That MOUTH!!
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!
Just a quickie here, that’s all I can manage til I get off this trip. It’ll only be a couple more days and I’ll be home again. 🙂
I was looking at the pictures I already had uploaded here (since the internet is too slow for me to get any more on and I can’t spend much time on it here).
I thought I might go back to Boston where this blog really got started. 🙂
I had been thinking about it for a while. I really had no idea of how to do it. How to get started. How to make everything work.
I had been interested in the idea of travel writing and photography for a while already. I figured since I LOVE to travel and take pictures of everything, it would be a perfect fit!
Yeah, I guess it would be if I could manage to find the time to actually WRITE.
I DO manage to take pictures, tons and tons of pictures. But I learned while taking a workshop on how to be a travel writer/photographer that I was not taking good enough pictures. They had to be PERFECT. 🙁
At least I learned what I was doing wrong and why my photos were rejected (mostly to do with the quality of my camera lens).
I also learned that you could do a lot with a computer to improve your pictures. I still haven’t learned how to do that very well. I’m better than I was, but I still have a lot to learn. I also still don’t have the time to spend editing all my pictures. Even getting them uploaded onto my computer is hard sometimes.
I am still working on my photography and I still toss around story ideas and put together a little thing every once in a while, but I’ve only actually tried to get my pictures accepted twice (so far) at stock agencies.
I’ve never tried to send in an article (yet).
It seems I’d just rather spend any spare time off on another adventure. When I’m forced to stick around the house, I spend it taking care of business I can’t put off any longer. Like working on my taxes (ugh) and other fun stuff like that.
I had heard that blogging was a way to make money online while doing something you enjoy. I was all into that!
When I found out there was going to be an additional blogging session as part of the travel writing/photography workshop I was interested in , I was sold on taking time off for another learning vacation!
I just barely managed to get this blog started before I left for Boston. I had such a hard time figuring out how to do things like upload a photo, make a ‘gallery’, add a link, etc. Things that I do all the time now and seem so simple. 🙂
The workshop was great. Paula Pant, who has a blog called Afford Anything, was our instructor for the blogging session. She was really inspirational and a lot of help.
I met incredibly interesting people every day there and the instructors sent us out and around town on some helpful assignments. Then we had our work critiqued. I learned a lot there but was still hungry for more. I still feel like I could use more help.
Especially with the part about how to make some kind of an income from this internet stuff! I’m really enjoying the whole process of blogging and meeting people from all over and interacting, but I’m spending a lot more time on it all then I ever thought I would.
Remember I started out this post saying “just a quickie here”? That’s what I mean…
Here’s a ‘taste’ of Boston, I’ll be back with more later. 😉
PS-I’m going to another workshop in Korea in a couple of weeks, can;t wait to get over there and see/do/try everything!! Maybe I’ll even run into some of my old tuna boat crew. 😉
this stuff REALLY needs to get out to more people! we are being lied to and abused CONSTANTLY now, it’s really getting old
I’m glad I had most of these photos uploaded before I came out here this hitch. I really haven’t had the time to get online much and the computer situation is not the best here. I’m kind of limited in what I can do til I get back home.
So, I figured since I already had the pictures on here, I might as well add a little bit more flavor to my earlier post about the Summertime Bikes and Blues Fest.
I was actually there last summer. They usually have this event the last weekend in August. I try to go if I’m home. I usually see a few friends, it’s neat to check out all the cool bikes, and I really love the music. It’s out in the open, spread out around the old downtown area of Freeport. I like that it’s that way, it doesn’t feel very crowded. The food is good too. 🙂
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! 😉
I’ve been wanting to get this post done for a while. Something always comes up. I went to the Summertime Bike and Blues Fest last summer and it’s taken me this long to get around to posting these photos.
I went down there with my friend D. They’ve been having this festival in old downtown Freeport for a few years now. It’s kind of neat wandering around down there with all the old buildings, right in the middle of everything.
We had a good time checking out the bikes, listening to the music, trying out the food, running into friends. I always like to go to these things. 🙂
Here are a few photos to get started. I’ll have more later. 😉
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. 😉
Hilarious video with Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley! 😉
I remember watching this one years ago when it was originally on TV. I used to LOVE staying up to watch Saturday Night Live.
I still try to, but it just doesn’t seem as good as it used to be.
I miss John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase…
I loved the Coneheads, those ‘wild and crazy guys, the cheeseburger guy…
I still love their take on the news, “Weekend Update”.
I rarely stay up late enough to watch it anymore, but if I’m home Saturday night and still awake, that’s what’s on TV. 🙂
PS- I started working on this post while I was at home. I noticed after I posted it this morning that the video I thought I already had in the post had disappeared. I tried to put it back, but since I am at work, I can’t look at things like that. They block it all here. So, I am not sure exactly WHAT the link will show. I HOPE it is showing the video I wanted to put on here about Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley competing for a job as a stripper at Chippendales.
Will somebody please check it out and let me know if that’s where the link goes. 😉
So sorry. I’ll have to be more careful about what I try to post while I’m out here. It IS a funny video, even if it’s not politically correct. 🙂
It’s already time to go back to work. It seems like I just got off!
Yes, I did have a couple of weeks at home. Tomorrow would have been 3 weeks. WOW! It sure flew by. 🙂
I have been pretty busy this time home. I went up to Houston a couple of times. I went to the Houston Rodeo (yeehaw!). Only my 2nd time in all the years I’ve been here. It was fun, I watched the barrel racing and the mutton busting. I tried the fried Snickers ice cream sundae (yummy). Took TONS of pictures. 🙂
I was hoping to meet a friend who was volunteering at the Wine Garden. I did actually meet her, but she was pretty busy by that time and I was on my way out. I was on the way to a meeting with the Sail La Vie sailing club I belong to (check out my post on last Saturdays sail).
That was an interesting meeting. 😉
I spent the night up there in Houston. I had planned to go to the zoo in the morning since the weather looked nice. Apparently everybody else in town had the same idea. I couldn’t get into a parking lot anywhere within a half mile.
I decided to try something else instead. I decided to check out the Houston Maritime Museum. It was actually pretty close to where I spent the night and the Zoo but I drove around for a while looking for it.
I finally found it and was glad I did. Of course, yes, I am always interested in a good maritime museum. 😉
This one didn’t look like much from outside, or even when you first walked in. But the more you wandered around, the more it opened up. There was something interesting to see around every corner.
The Houston Maritime Museum was founded by James L. Manzolillo (merchant mariner and cruise ship lecturer), and opened to the public in 2000. Since then, it’s worked to educate the public about maritime history and the continued importance of the maritime industry to Houston and the State of Texas.
I enjoyed exploring rooms full of models recreating everything from aircraft carriers (including tiny little airplanes on deck) to Liberty ships to semi submersible drilling rigs to the USS Constitution and famous ships of the age of exploration.
The museum counts Master Modeler and restoration expert Lorena Alvarez as a valued member of the team. Her expertise shows! The time and effort that goes into building even one of those models is just unbelievable and they had dozens of models!
They had an excellent collection of navigation equipment: sextants, astrolabes, starfinders, compasses, barometers and barographs, etc.
They had a nice display of ships (and other things) in bottles. I still don’t really know how they get all that done, but it looks like a good project to work on if you don’t have a blog or another hobby to keep you busy at sea. 🙂
They had a mock up of a ships conning station with the ships wheel, compass and engine order telegraph.
They had a room covering war ships and it had a pretty good exhibit on how the merchant marine functioned during war time. Convoys and Liberty ships, sinkings, explosions and other disasters, navy escorts, etc.
They had a room with memorabilia from the old cargo liners and another display of things relating to the passenger liners “Titanic”, “Olympic”, “Britannia” and the SS United States (still one of the fastest ships ever!).
They had a room to tell the history of the Port of Houston. It did a pretty good job of explaining how important the Port was and still is to Houston. How the founders built up Buffalo Bayou and brought cotton and sugar to/from Allens Landing and all up and down the Bayou. Those old photos were really fascinating!
There was another room full of really interesting stuff from the oilfield. There was a painting and write up on Howard Hughes’ (spy ship) Glomar Explorer. There were models of drillships, floating production facilities and semi submersibles. There was a nice little section on whaling (not much of that going on in Houston). 😉
They even had a room just for the kids to learn about maritime stuff. The day I was there, it was still a work in progress. They had costumes for the kids to dress up in and have fun pretending to be ships captains, pirates, mermaids, engineers, etc. 🙂
One of the staff was working on installing a cushion for the floor in the kids room and I started talking to her about the museum. Turns out she was the Director of Operations so I got a really good person to talk to and answer all of my questions.
My biggest one was: why in the world was the Maritime Museum located in such an out of the way place and not nearer to the Ship Channel where people would expect it to be? Turns out, they are in the process of building a new place right over there and it will be opening in 2014 for the 100th Anniversary of the opening of the Houston Ship Channel.
That will be a good move for the Museum, for the Port of Houston and for the general public. It should be easier to find and they will have a partnership with the M/V Sam Houston (which gives free tours of the ship channel), that should help both parties.
That tour is a very interesting thing to do too, especially if the weather is nice. Free boat ride! Woot Woot!!
It really is amazing all the things that go on in our own backyards and most people have no idea. The maritime industry is one of those things that I think more people would be interested in if they only knew about it. I think the Houston Maritime Museum will be a good place to go to learn more about it and I hope more people will take advantage of the opportunity. 🙂