I’ve been trying to get back into blogging more often. When I get a bit of time to do that I usually go online and look around at other blogs. Today I found this challenge: Weekly Prompts Color Challenge- Mainly Orange.
So, to join in I looked through some of my photo collection and found a few to fit. I tried to find some different ones, things you wouldn’t usually expect. Like an orange, or a pumpkin (though I did just have to throw that one in). 🙂
Chile cookofffresh carrots tulipsCrocoite mineral sample from AustraliaSingapore sunsetripe tomatophotos at the pumpkin patch
I didn’t realize how many different shades of orange there are in all the common things we see. I’d be interested in seeing how many others you can come up with. 🙂
I’ve been trying to keep up with the Just Jot It January challenge, but since I left to head offshore it’s been getting harder and harder. The internet was out most of the day yesterday and due to my upcoming change in position, I don’t think I’ll have access to blog again until I get home. It might not be until next Wednesday. 🙁
I was supposed to be getting off and heading home tonight. Last night the office called and asked if anyone was willing to work over. No one was. So I stepped up.
After crew change tonight, I will go from being mate on here to being galley hand. So, I will change watch from working noon-midnight, to working 1800-0600. Instead of standing watch on the bridge, I will be washing dishes, laundry and sanitation.
Haha! I get to suggest today’s prompt for the Just Jot It January challenge. The word for today is: liberty.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but liberty is very important to me. In fact, I completely agree with Patrick Henry when he said “Give me liberty or give me death!”.
I would really rather be dead than to ‘live’ without liberty. I really don’t consider it living if I don’t have the freedom to live my life in the way I choose to. In fact, I consider it a long, drawn out slow death. A death of my creativity, of my happiness, or my loves, of my life. I don’t think I’m out of line at all. In fact, I can quote all kinds of things that show that America was founded to promote liberty and that it is the ONLY legitimate purpose of our (or any) government, is to protect and promote the liberty we all were born with.
Let’s define our terms…
noun, plural liberties.
1. freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.
2. freedom from external or foreign rule; independence.
3. freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice.
Looking at that definition, can anyone seriously argue that we have NOT lost most of our liberty in the United States over the last few years? How many people can read the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights and argue that they do NOT argue for the liberty of all men (and pleeease remember the times they were written in)?
How can a country specifically formed ONLY to protect our natural rights (liberty) turn around to such a degree? To the point where that government, formed ONLY to protect our liberty instead spends all its time (and our money) to violate our liberties every chance it gets?
I’m perfectly aware that most people couldn’t care less about the loss of liberty we’ve suffered in the United States over the last few decades (and increasingly since 9/11). I hear from almost everyone that they don’t care what anyone does to them as long as ‘it keeps them safe”.
Really? Safety is all important? I don’t think the people who say that have really considered what they’re saying when they say that. After all, liberty is not really the sort of thing you can divide up. You’re either free or you’re not. It’s like you’re only a little bit pregnant. No, you either are or you’re not. You either own your own life or you don’t! If you don’t, then someone else must and you have become a slave.
Government is nothing but the monopolized use of force. If you study how governments came about, that’s very obvious to see. When you give up any of your powers to the government, you are ‘agreeing’ that they have the right to use force against you (whether you agree to it or not). And (they say) you don’t have the right to protect yourself against it!
At this point, we have given up almost all of our freedom. All of our liberty. We have very, very little of our natural rights left that we can exercise fully. You think I’m exaggerating? Try going to a law library and taking a look at the Federal Register!
Hundreds of thousands of pages of incomprehensible legalese. Shelves of big fat books full of ‘laws’ we’re all supposed to know and obey. How could that possibly equal freedom?
George Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning, not as a roadmap. But left him choking in the dust by 1985! Our ‘big brother’ doesn’t only keep an eye on us from our home TV sets, he tracks our every move through our cell phones! He uses the EZ pass (toll roads) to keep track of where we go in our vehicles. He can tell our habits through tracking our spending on our credit/debit cards. He can get all kinds of information through our ‘smart’ devices. He’s already testing driverless (completely controlled by government) cars. And we can’t fly anywhere anymore without government permission (TSA)!
Big brother has already convinced fearful parents to chip not only their pets, but their kids and their parents! Scientists have already invented pills that inform your doctors if you take them or not. Soon they will report all your health information. Cashless societies are on the way, where every dollar you spend will be tracked (to cut down on tax cheats).
Just think of how the government controls everything now a days. What, if anything, don’t they have their hands in? They regulate the food you eat, the drugs you take, the doctors you can talk to about your health issues. Oh yeah, they also regulate what your doctors can say (and your churches if they want to remain tax free which is a form of coercion).
Free speech? Not so much any more with all the ‘political correctness’ BS going around. If I like Trump for one thing, I do love him for the fact that he is most definitely NOT PC! They regulate the amount of water you can use to flush your toilet and the type of light bulbs you can use in your house (forcing dangerous mercury filled bulbs to replace previous incandescent bulbs).
Think you can choose what jobs you’d like to work at? Nope, big brother is enforcing hundreds of regulations restricting the rights of people who choose to work in professions as diverse as hair braiders, to animal massagers, to interior designers, to merchant marines. They’ve manipulated most businesses in the country to coerce us into submitting to giving up our rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. Do you call it freedom to be forced to beg permission from the government in order to go to work?
I don’t! I don’t call it freedom because it ISN’T!
Think you can just pick up and leave? “If you don’t like it here, you can just go back to where you came from?” Well, I would if I could, but I came from HERE! I grew up in the good ol’ USA. I believe 100% in the principles this country was founded on “LIBERTY and justice for all!”.
I believe everyone, everywhere in the world SHOULD be able to exercise those same liberties we here in America are promised. But the fact is, America is the only country, anywhere, ever in the history of the world to form specifically in order to promote and protect the individual rights of all of us.
I wish the American people would wake up and take back our freedom before its too late. I don’t think we have much time left to turn things around.
Sorry to all the democrats who think its all Trumps fault. Or the republicans who blame it all on Obama. Fact is, it’s ALL of our political ‘leaders’ fault! And ours, for continuing to believe that any politician from either of the mainstream parties will ever change anything! For the last 100 years (at least), they’ve ALL conspired to strip us of our liberties and give themselves more power and control.
It’s sad how easily they manipulate us. They keep us divided and fighting over such stupidities as the word “shithole” and how many ‘illegal’ votes were counted. It’s time to stop wasting our time fighting each other and come to understand who we really SHOULD be fighting. Look beyond the party lines. I can promise you, you will find the same people are running things on both sides.
There is nothing to be gained by continuing to support these political parties who want nothing more than continued CONTROL. I want my freedom back! Do you?
Today’s prompt for Just Jot It January is: silence. Something I don’t get too much of normally.
When I’m out at sea, there is always the rumble of the engines in the background (we hope). Then there is the noise of people wandering the passageways, flushing toilets, watching football, etc. The sound of the winches starting up, or the containers slamming the deck, or the anchors letting loose, or the thrusters ramping up. It’s very rarely silent out here.
Even on a sailboat (which I much prefer- except that they don’t pay), there is very rarely actual silence. Yes, it is much quieter, but there is still the sound of the wind in the sails, the shushing of the waves against the hull, the tinging of the halyards on the masts, occasional calls on the VHF radio.
I’m not sure I could deal with real silence for very long. I think it would drive me batty!
Sorry but the internet is not working well here tonight. I don’t want to keep trying to write something interesting and have it not work. I’ve been trying to check my email since about 1700. Its 2230 now and still getting nowhere with it.
I don’t really get much time to get online out here. So, for SoCS, I’ll keep it short and sweet. I had planned to continue on with the post from yesterday (about the octopi) and use another word with ‘oc’.
I have been preoccupied with my occulted occupation on the ocean. 🙂
It’s been a rare occurrence lately that I’ve had the occasion to enjoy spending time on an ocean-going ship.
Sadly, I have not seen any octopi (yet) on this voyage.
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. —Ayn Rand
Todays post is a One Liner Wednesday (also continuing on Just Jot It January). Thanks Linda for coming up with this stuff! Lots of interesting posts from everyone. Makes it much easier to do just a short post like this!
Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. —George Addair
Todays post is a One-Liner Wednesday (also continuing on Just Jot It January). Thanks Linda for coming up with this stuff! Lots of interesting posts from everyone. Makes it much easier to do just a short post like this!
The prompt for today is: pants, but I’m too out of it to come up with anything to say about that.
I got up at 0400 so I could do everything I needed to and get on the road by 0530. I had only gone to bed at 0030 and didn’t fall asleep for at least another half hour after that. I’m just not right after only 3-4 hours of sleep.
I’ve been dragging along all day. I got to work in Houston on time. The traffic was lighter than expected this morning, even after last nights thunderstorms. We got out of work by 1500 and I had to run some errands on the way home.
I got home at around 1800 and had a couple of interesting phone calls (more on that later). I took my walk about 2030, then cooked dinner. Just finished that up. It’s already 2230!
Where did the time go? Oh yeah, I filled out another ridiculous online application (where they ask you to upload your resume and then you still need to fill in all the exact same information again on their computer form and if you skip something or don’t answer ‘properly’, you need to do it again). That took up an hour or so. 🙁
I need to get to sleep. Another 0400 wake up coming soon enough!
We were supposed to work tomorrow and Wednesday too, but it looks like Wednesday has already been cancelled. I really need the money, but I really need the zzzzzz’s too. I can’t be too pissed they’ve cancelled the class.
Cee always has such interesting challenges. I haven’t participated in this one for a while, it’a always fun to see what everyone comes up with. So here’s the challenge for this week and my answers…
I’m also counting this post for the Just Jot it January challenge for today. 😉
What one word describes you best? Hmmm, good question. Hard to chose one word. I considered: inquisitive, curious, friendly, loyal, adventuresome, well-traveled, freedom-loving, passionate, open-minded, outspoken, righteous, sovereign, capable, stubborn, tenacious, fun-loving, crazy, lazy, and more. 😉 But I finally settled on ‘frustrated’. Why? I guess because I am all those other things. Also, fairly obsessed with the ideals of freedom and justice for all. This is my main passion: freedom! I love it, I want it, I desire it, I need it! It’s incredibly frustrating to be raised in a country- (and so to believe what we’re all taught in school)- that constantly insists its only legitimatepurpose is to guarantee (not to provide) the inherent rights and freedoms that we’re all born with– (re-read the Declaration of Independence again for proof)- and yet continually violates almost every one of those rights every day. It drives me absolutely nuts that so many ‘freedom-loving’ Americans really could care less about even a single one of those supposedly guaranteed freedoms. For just one (of too many to mention) example: TSA robs us of our right to travel freely all day long, every single day. Millions of people violated daily and all I hear every time I stand in that line is “I don’t care what they do, as long as it keeps me safe”. Reaaaally? Absolutely nuts!
What is set as the background on your computer? At the moment it is a gorgeous picture of a mountain scene. There is snow on the mountaintops, but it’s still green lower down. The sun is glowing brightly golden on the left side. Clouds are touching down off in the distance. I think it might be in Yosemite somewhere. Last time I had a photo of a snow covered town (I think in Norway somewhere), with little red houses and fishing boats, calm waters surrounding. I have not changed it since I got this computer.
If you have been to a foreign country name those you have been too? I’ve been to a lot of foreign countries! How about I list the ones I haven’t been to and still want to visit? First off: Antarctica- it’s not a country, but I really want to go there! Then, India, South Africa (planning a safari there asap), Botswana, Chile, Romania, Belize, Philippines, Panama, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vanuatu, New Zealand, Austria, Hungary, and more I’ll probably think of later!
What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination. I very much appreciate that I was able to get a relief so I was able to get off my last ship before it left the country. I was really looking forward to the trip across the Atlantic and visiting the ports around Northern Europe (Bremerhaven, London, Vlissingen), but I learned once I got on board that I physically just wasn’t up for the job. 🙁 I also appreciate very much, that I was able to get that job in the first place and so sorry I had to put my health first and leave the ship without completing the voyage.
Starting out the new year without all the usual drama. Why? Mostly because I’ve been staying home, sticking to myself, too paranoid and depressed to go out to celebrate the holidays with everyone else.
I decided to join in on Linda’s Just Jot It January challenge again this year. The idea is just to write something (anything) every day during January. Hopefully it will be enough to start a good habit that will continue.
I’ve been trying to transition from working on the water to a more sedate lifestyle. Not by choice, but only because there has been approximately ZERO work for the last 2+ years! I’ve been trying to make a living with a more creative focus. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, photography, painting, etc.
I’d love to be able to just relax, chill out and stop worrying about all the ‘drama’ going on around me. Crazy issues always coming up with tenants, roommates, family, work (or lack of work/finances) and just the normal everyday shit going on in the world.
I wish I could just focus on one thing. Writing, for example. I’ve started a book, I’m on the last chapter, but haven’t worked on it in a couple of months now. I just can’t get motivated to write when I’m trying to deal with all the rest: how to pay the bills, crazy woman in my house (she’s gone now), finding a job, city sending me threatening letters about my properties/tenants, getting income taxes sent in, brakes gone out on my truck in the middle of Houston traffic!
Oh yeah, I’ve been having a wonderful life these last few months. But you know what? I think I would get so bored if I didn’t have all this shit going on around me. I do bring a lot of it on myself.
I grew up in a crazy house, two of them. I’m sure I would’ve been taken into protective custody if any of that had happened today. Both my parents houses were pretty wild. Constant drama at both places. My brother was lucky, he could pick and choose. He could stay at Dads where he was treated like a king, until he wasn’t. Then he would go home to Mom’s where he could do whatever he wanted.
I was stuck at my Dad’s most of the time. He was really strict on a lot of things, but very open about a lot of others. He ran a pretty strange household for back then. First of all, he didn’t work anymore. He retired in his early 30’s. Bought a bunch of property and a sailboat and got out of the rat race. I’ve always admired him for that.
He worked on his boat and rented apartments to all the ‘poor’ people in town. Our apartments were full of the local fishermen, bartenders and drunks. We had parties on the shuffleboard courts every weekend and big pig roasts in our empty lot every couple of months. Dad would have me play the piano upstairs for his drinking buddies.
Moms house was a whole different adventure. We were allowed to keep pets over there and have friends come over. We had cats, dogs, fish, gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, turtles, parakeets, even a kinkajou once (that only lasted til it bit my mom real bad one night). My stepfather would hang out drinking beer and making crude comments all day while we tried our best to ignore him and stay out of his way.
Between the two of them, there was always some drama going on. I think in a way I miss all that. I try to keep my life interesting and not boring. I’m not bored often, but that’s because I always have something I should be doing. Most of those things are only because I say so.
I don’t have to write, work on my photos, paint, blog, etc. But I like to do those things and even tho they’re a lot more work than I ever imagined, they keep my busy and I still enjoy messing around with it all.
I’ve actually cut down a lot. I hardly even go out anymore. That eliminates a lot. I miss out on all of my friends, but I can’t take the chance of going out to see them any more. It’s sad, but this place is not the same anymore.
They’ve taken all the fun out of life here. All in the name of ‘safety’. Screw safety! I’d rather have a LIFE back! Stop shoving us all into tiny little perfectly ‘safe’ boxes and let us enjoy our lives. So what if we screw up occasionally? So what if we have a little accident every once in a while, that’s how we learn! That’s all part of LIFE!
Stop pretending life is about being safe, or secure. It’s NOT! Life is about taking chances, experimenting, seeing the world and everything in it, meeting new people and learning new things. None of that is about being ‘safe’!
I could do without all the drama around the issue of safety! The theatre they put on at the airports with the TSA. Geez, how long are they going to keep that up? How long is it going to take for people to wake up to the fact that none of that is anything BUT a SHOW?
I’m so tired of other people trying to control me! Aren’t you?
Joining in on this weeks challenge from Ben. It’s at the Daily Post: Rounded. Here’s what he had to say about it…
This week, share your take on “rounded.” it’s a broad theme, so I look forward to your personal interpretations, whether you choose to focus on a curving street, limbs caught mid-way through a dance, a bowl of fruit (think of all the round shapes!), or any other object, landscape, or texture that fits within your definition of the theme. As always, less-literal takes are equally welcome.
It’s fun to think of ways to respond to the challenge, and neat to see what all everyone else comes up to. Feel free to join in, just click the link above.
My first thought for this challenge was about how it seems like it used to be much more important to be a ‘well rounded’ person. People were educated differently years ago. It seems they got a decent education in math, science, history, government and civics, sports, geography, languages, music and arts, and even rounded it out with travel.
Today, it seems our ‘educational system’ is focused on ‘teaching to the tests’. I don’t see that producing many ‘well rounded’ students, or even ’rounded’ at all!
I think we should go back to giving everyone a well rounded education. Let people focus on their interests and encourage them to learn about other things they might not even know they’ll love.
Here’s a few ’rounded’ shots. Just for the hell of it…
Cee always has interesting challenges on her blog. She does photography challenges a lot and she also does this “Share Your World” post every week. Here are her questions (in bold) and my answers for this week.
If you had to move to a country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why? This is such a hard question for me. I’ve been thinking of moving overseas for years now. I can’t make up my mind. I’ve considered Mexico (of course), Nicaragua, Panama, Thailand, Chile, Italy, France, Ecuador, Viet Nam, Korea, Ireland, even Russia!
The main reason I haven’t left yet, for anywhere, is that no place will give me a work visa. At least not for anything like what I’ve spent my entire life doing. The only thing I can do (legally) is to teach English. I have now gone and got certified to do that now, but now can’t figure out how to pay all my bills here at home while only earning teachers pay in some foreign country.
IF finances were taken out of the equation, I think I would move to Ireland. I’ve only been there once, but I didn’t want to leave. The people were really friendly and I had such a wonderful time there. I loved the landscape, the weather was gorgeous, and the fact that it’s an island just adds to the perfection for me. I love the music, the sound of the language, the peoples love of literature, horses and whisky. I would move there in a NY second if they would let me!
What color would you like your bedroom to be? Light blue. I would paint a mural on the walls to remind me of the ocean and the ceiling like a starry night. Maybe put some twinkling lights up there. 🙂
What makes you Happy? Make a list of things in your life that bring you joy. A good book. Music, especially cajun, bluegrass or reggae music. Delicious food shared with good friends. Deep conversations, solving the problems of the world. Exploring. Learning new things. Travel. Meeting up with old friends in unexpected places. Creating something beautiful like when my paintings turn out better than I thought they would, or one of my photos comes out perfect, right out of the camera. Sailing. Night watch out at sea where I can really see the stars.
What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination. I read an email from a man, Jon Morrow, who has some major serious medical issues. He somehow managed to overcome all his physical limitations, sold everything he owned, moved to a foreign country (broke), and made a successful blogging career. He talked about how he was able to buy his father a car and how proud he was. I admire him for what he’s been able to do and how he (says) he is helping other people now (I did not buy his program, I’m broke, but it did sound helpful). He’s definitely an inspiration.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is to post something using a word that starts with ‘C’ that is at least 4 letters long. My entry is: chameleon.
I’ve always loved watching these little guys creep around. They move with such purpose, their eyes swiveling around in different directions. All the sudden they whip out their long sticky tongue . If they’re lucky, they’ve caught a nice big bug for a snack. Quite the little hunters, these chameleons.
They’re also quite the change artist. The colors they can recreate are amazing. They can match pretty much any color you put them on and they’ll do it quick too. They’re really entertaining little lizards. 🙂
I was at work last week (finally!) and while taking a break I was watching the fish swimming around the ship. It was a beautiful calm clear day, one of the few like that I saw in the month I was offshore. It was entrancing watching the fish swim around.
They mostly moved together, it looked like some sort of order. Was there a boss fish leading them all around? If there was, I sure couldn’t tell which one it was. They all just seemed to be meandering around, then all of a sudden they would change direction. All together. Weird. Spontaneous order.
I know some people don’t believe in such a thing (especially when it comes to human society). I see it all the time.
There have actually been studies done on how fish school together like that. On birds too.
The science behind it is pretty interesting, but I think just watching is cool. Too bad we seem to have lost the ability to just sit and observe nature. That’s one of the things I love the most about working at sea. I haven’t even been home a week and I’m already missing it.
Check out more on “order” from the Daily Post here.
I’ve always been into science fiction. Not like a huge geek or anything, but I love the way the stories make you think. About all the different possibilities. What would people do under these circumstances? Or those? The genre allows so much freedom to explore.
LIFE starts out on the International Space Station (ISS). They retrieve a returning Mars probe and find a single celled organism onboard. It grows. Rapidly. Proof of ‘life beyond Earth’. The world is fascinated. They name it “Calvin”.
Too bad, but all the wishful thinking in the world doesn’t make Calvin a nice guy.
A lot of these colors look alike to me- almond, apricot, peach, desert sand- mango tango and burnt orange- copper and antique brass. Can you tell them apart? I sure have a hard time! Why do they need crayon colors so close together nobody can tell them apart unless they’re studied under a microscope?
I always thought part of the fun of drawing/painting/being creative was learning to blend the colors you had to make the ones you wanted. I’ve been trying to learn to paint lately. I sure as hell don’t want to go buy every color I might need to make a painting come out. That would cost a fortune! I’m learning the color wheel and how the different colors relate to each other.
It’s a challenge to make just the right color to make your painting ‘pop’. It’s fun too. Here’s an example of what I mean. I painted this a few years ago, when I was working as an AB on the tankships running up the West Coast to Alaska. Of course, I didn’t bring any paint with me. I scrounged around in the paint locker til I found what I needed.
I made that whole colorful undersea scene with only a few colors of deck paint. I know I had black, white, signal red, yellow, international orange, green and blue. That was pretty much it.
I must sound like an old geezer, ‘well sonny, back in myyyyy day, we used to color with only 8 colors in the box!’ I actually got the 64 crayon box later when I was growing up, but did I ever use all of those colors- nope. Does anyone use all of the 120 colors this challenge is based on? I think I would have a hard time using up a whole box of crayons myself. 😉
Anyway, here’s my entry for the challenge color of ‘almond’…
I took this photo in November while I was traveling around Turkey. I had a great time wandering all over Istanbul and Cappadocia where I took this photo of one of the many ancient rock churches at Goreme. It was a lot of fun scrambling around amid all this history, seeing how the people lived and worshipped all those years ago. I only regret that they didn’t allow any photography inside (even without flash). I really would have liked to have got a few shots of the beautiful frescos inside. I’ll just have to be satisfied with the internet. 🙁
Where the heck do they come up with these names?! Continuing on with Jennifer’s Color Your World Challenge, the color for today is “atomic tangerine“.
I really had no idea what color that was, I had to look it up.
And now, let’s see. This is the closest I could come. I’m having a hard time distinguishing the difference between some of these colors, they really look a lot alike, especially when the color is not on a crayon or a color swatch, but on something from the ‘real world’. I took this photo of a neat looking shell at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Still playing along with Jennifer’s Color Your World challenge? It’s never too late to join in. Today’s color is ‘mango tango‘.
Here’s my take on it…
I took it at the Houston Museum of Natural Science a couple of months ago. They have a really nice butterfly exhibit. Not all of them are dead like this one. You can walk around the habitat and sometimes the butterflies will land on you.
I forgot what kind of butterfly this photo is of. They have cards with pictures so you can identify the butterflies around you. The only one I can ever remember is the Owl butterfly. This one is definitely not an Owl. 🙂
I found another blog challenge from Jennifer Nicole Wells, she runs the Color Your World Challenge on her blog. I did a few posts last year. It goes on for 4 months, so I didn’t manage to finish the whole thing, or even to post every day.
Jennifer is running the Color Your World challenge again for 2017. I’ll post when I can. Todays color is ‘vivid tangerine‘. Here’s my take.
I took this photo of the traditional ‘shop houses’ in Singapore a few years ago. Back when I was still working and able to travel. We used to spend a lot of time there. I miss the days we’d spend at the Jurong shipyards. The Seaman’s Center took good care of us. Their people haven’t forgotten the importance of the merchant marine. 🙂
Singapore is a fantastic place to hang out. I loved to take the metro downtown and see Chinatown, Clark Quay, and the Durians. The beer was always cold, the food was hot, cheap and plentiful. The people were friendly. I’d go back anytime. 🙂
I skipped out on the last JusJoJan prompt (for the 6th- Tangible). I still don’t really have anything to say about it, so I’ll just start up with something for today’s prompt- mongrel.
If I had any pictures of old pets, I would post them here. Our family was always partial to mutts. We had pets of all kinds over the years, but I don’t think we ever had a purebred anything. I haven’t been able to keep a dog for years. Or pets of any kind really. Not even plants lately.
Since I’ve been working at sea, I haven’t been able to keep anything alive while I’m gone. No dogs, cats, fish, plants. They’re all dead or gone by the time I come home.
I’ve been out of work for more than a year now. I could have picked up a pet of some sort by now. A mongrel dog or cat would be just fine. I would love to have another dog, or cat. But since I’m still hopeful of finding work at some point, I haven’t done it. It wouldn’t be fair to the dog, cat’s don’t seem to mind quite so much. 😉
My best friend finally got herself another dog after years without. Just to keep her company I think. It was a mongrel. She thinks is was part lab and part blue heeler, but of course not sure. She got it from the pound.
Sad to say, she had to take it back. It freaked out when someone came to the door and she was worried it would hurt someone. She wouldn’t be able to stop it. She still misses it. Sad for both her and the dog. 🙁
I came up with this photo. I took it at the Brazoria County Fair. An amusement park ride. Starship 2000, all ‘spangly’ with flashing and colored lights. 🙂
When I saw the prompt for today’s Just Jot It January challenge (warning), I immediately thought of this photo. I took it once on vacation in Thailand. I was going on a tour of Phang Nga Bay. We’d be riding one of the local ‘long-tail boats’. I was really looking forward to seeing the limestone caves, the village of the ‘water gypsies’, and ‘James Bond Island’.
I did a double take when I saw this sign as we were loading the boats.
What are ‘jacket lifts’? 😉
Are they warning you not to forget your Bacardi rum to go along with your ‘jacket lift? Or maybe you’ll need your rum after you finish your ‘jacket lift’? 🙂
I can’t read Thai, but hopefully it’s more clear in that language than it is in English. 😉
I’m sure they meant ‘life jackets’. I just couldn’t help but wonder how all the people who’s first language wasn’t English (or Thai) would interpret that warning sign. 😉
I’ve joined in on Linda’s Just Jot It January 2017 blog challenge. Posting every day in January to her daily prompts. Today’s theme is: time.
A great prompt! There are so many ways I could go with this one. I don’t usually think much about the ‘idea’ of time. Only to think ‘I’m running out of time’, or ‘I don’t have time for that’.
Even now that I’ve been out of work for so long, I’m still in that mindset. Even tho I’m able to decide how I want to spend my day, I still feel like I’m ‘running out of time’, and “I don’t have time for that”.
I’ve fallen into the trap that so many people do. Living in the past- or the future. I keep thinking about how much I miss working. Miss having that steady income so I could do all the things I wanted to. I keep thinking about how I’ll be able to do all that again, only once I get back to work. And stock the bank accounts back up.
In the meantime, I stress about ‘how am I going to survive’ next year if I don’t get back to work soon? I’m worried about how can I possibly make it another year? 5 years? 10 years? 20???
Instead of doing what I should be doing- living in the moment- taking these huge blocks of free time to concentrate on my writing, painting, photography- I spend too much time worrying and wasting time online, filling out applications and looking for work that just isn’t there anymore!
I’m still very undecided. What should I do? Keep on trying to find work? When I KNOW there is none? On the slim hope that I’ll finally find something that fits my skills and experience?
Or take a mind numbing, totally exhausting job for $14/hour (add 3+ hours daily commute) where I’ll have no life, no time for anything but work- eat- sleep? A job that still won’t cover the bills, but will help, a little bit.
Time…
I only have so much time. I’m getting older, 55 years old now. I feel like I should stop wasting it, hoping for a job that just is not going to happen. I should just forget about ever going to work again, since the likelihood of that happening is fading away with every day that passes. I should just forget it. The question is- how???
I feel horrible, trapped by fear, but can’t seem to get past it. There are so many things I want to do (most of all, to travel). But everything costs money. Money I don’t have anymore. And tho I could possibly make things happen even without much money, I’m afraid to go that route. Even when I can logically tell myself I’m being stupid.
I get the points these quotes from Tolle, Buddha and Einstein are making. About the nature of time and reality. I still can’t stop my fears. 🙁
I just found a new blog ‘challenge’. It’s from Narami over at her De Monte Y Mar blog. It’s called “Tuesdays of Texture” and it looks interesting so I think I’ll join in (even if I’m a day late). 😉
I’m more of a photographer than a writer, tho I’m trying hard to get better at writing. That was one of the reasons I started my blog. To give me a place to practice and (hopefully) to get some feedback.
Here are a few photos of interesting textures…
Those were just a few plants. Orchid, I don’t know what the 2nd flower is called, ornamental cabbage of some sort, and a daylily. They’re all pretty common and fairly easy to spot around town. All of them have very different textures of both the flower and the rest of the plant.
So much variety, even in just one small subject and location. I thought that was interesting. 😉
I’ve got a semi-workable computer today, so I’m joining in Cee’s Share Your World challenge for this week (week 23-2016). She always has really great challenges and in this one she’ll just ask a few simple questions. It’s always interesting to see all the different ways people answer.
What was one of your first moneymaking jobs (other than babysitting or newspaper delivery)? My first moneymaking jobs (other than working for my father painting, plumbing and pulling weeds for $3/hr) were working on a party fishing boat as a galley hand/deckhand on the weekends, and working as a dishwasher at a little family owned Greek restaurant down the street after school.
What is your favorite month of the year? I’ve never really thought about it, but I would probably choose March. It’s not too hot yet, and the weather is usually pretty nice. Not so gloomy/cloudy/rainy and temps are decent- in the 70’s still. The wildflowers are in bloom and here in Texas, they are really amazing. Just acres and acres of bluebonnets, or driving along the roads with indian paintbrush, bluebonnets, buttercups and the rest. It’s stunningly beautiful. It’s also the month for St Patricks Day parties and parades and one of my favorite holidays. 🙂
What three things in nature do you find most beautiful? The sea, the sky, mountains. So many aspects of all three of those things, too many to describe, I find beautiful. Sunsets, sunrises, rainbows, the way the clouds form and shift, the STARS in a clear night sky! The rolling waves, crystal clear turquoise waters lapping a sugar sand beach, the amazing diversity of sea life on a coral reef. Tall peaks against the sky, flowery alpine meadows, majestic glaciers. SO much beauty all around just those 3 things.
List at least five of your favorite spices? (excluding salt and pepper) I like garlic salt, onion salt, Mrs Dash, Nature’s Seasonings, cinnamon, cloves, dried chopped onions, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and some mustards. Those are about the only ones I use.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to attend the TBEX (blogging conference) in Minnesota. I met a lot of cool people and learned a lot. I’m looking forward to having 3 days of paid work next week.
I decided to give Cee’s Share Your World Challenge a try again today. My computer has finally settled down a bit (where I can work online for more than 2 minutes without it either freezing up or going crazy). I haven’t been able to do much work online lately. I don’t want to go completely bald while pulling my hair out in frustration over it! 😉
So, I’m back today and hoping to the high heavens this lull in the computer hell around here will continue. On to the challenge. Here are this week’s questions with my answers…
What is your favorite go to beverage? Water, coffee, tea, coke, soda (non-alcoholic)– tea- hot in the morning when I wake up and then iced the rest of the day.
Can you change a car tire?– yes, tho I greatly prefer not to! That’s what AAA is for! 😉
Are you a listener or talker?– a talker.
Would you rather have no internet or no cell phone?– most definitely no cell phone!
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? -I’m grateful that I got at least one days work last week, every little bit helps! I’m looking forward to going to the travel blog exchange (TBEX) in Minneapolis next weekend. I’m hoping to meet some great people- bloggers and ‘travel facilitators’. I’m really getting excited about it. Here’s a post I wrote about it the other day. I’m not sure, but it might still be open for registration. In case anyone’s interested in going.
As an American merchant mariner, I have to say I have a love-hate relationship with the USCG. They are the government agency I have to deal with the most in my life at sea.
They do a lot of great things. They protect our waterways, conduct vessel inspections, enforce the safety regulations. They license the people who work on the water. Their search and rescue operations are absolutely heroic. I am relieved to know they’re out there and ready to help if I ever need them.
I do have a lot of issues with them in some other areas, mostly to do with licensing of mariners. I know they’re ‘only doing their job’ and following the rules. But those rules are pretty damned complicated and a lot of them are up for differing interpretations.
As a mariner, I can not work without getting some sort of license from the USCG. In other words, beg permission from the federal government in order to earn a living. Yes, I really do have problems with that.
Besides the philosophical objections, I don’t really think it’s at all necessary to make it as difficult and complicated as it is. Not just that earning the license is difficult (it is), but that the rule making process is so long, drawn out and what comes out at the end is something that almost always makes life more difficult (and expensive) for the mariner just trying to earn a living. We have no clout in Washington DC where the rules are made. 🙁
That’s not all due to the Coast Guard, in fact most of it is simply due to how the political system works (or not) in the US today. Rules are proposed, dozens of different stakeholders make changes and what comes out is a twisted mess of spaghetti that almost never helps the mariners who are the ones who have to deal with it. 🙁
I’ve been posting in the A to Z Challenge the last few days. I missed out yesterday on the post for D. I was just too busy. I’m trying to catch up today. I actually wrote one earlier today (Dreamstime). I can’t believe I didn’t immediately think to post on this instead.
I’ve been working as a Dynamic Positioning Officer (DPO) since 2002. Or, I was, until I got laid off along with so many others who work(ed) in the oilfield. My last job was as DPO on a drillship like the one in the picture below. I haven’t heard of any work since last October. I heard over a half million oilfield workers laid off world-wide a couple of months ago and still seeing more lay-offs in the news daily. 🙁
Ocean Rig Apollo drillship
I’m guessing that unless you or someone you know works in the oilfield, you’re probably pretty happy with the low price of oil. I would be too, if my job and so many others weren’t so dependent on it.
I’ve been working at sea since 1977, when I went off to school. I sailed as a cadet on a couple of large traditional sailing ships. I was hooked and wanted to continue that lifestyle forever.
But the American Merchant Marine has been shrinking for decades. We have been globalized and most ships are no longer operated by Americans. Pretty much the only place to work has been related to the oil industry. Either tankers, ATBs, or some type of support vessel working directly in the oilfield.
DSV Global Orion
I worked as an AB on tankers for about 10 years in the 90’s. I moved up to third officer and then my company sold out, scrapped all their ships and laid us all off. I was very lucky to find a job on a DP vessel at that point (before the requirements got so strict that they kept almost everyone from becoming certified).
I’ve been fairly happy sailing as DPO since then. I worked my way up from third officer to master. I sailed mostly as second officer/senior DPO. I really enjoyed the job most of the time.
A DPO’s job is to operate the DP system onboard a vessel. Sounds simple, right? Most companies would agree. Plenty of them seriously think any monkey could do it. Sorry, but it’s not.
No, it’s not ‘rocket science’, but it’s not all that simple either.
First of all, most clients ask for a licensed officer to run the desk (they would always be required on the bridge anyway). Requirements changing to reflect that now too. It is not easy at all to become a licensed ships officer. There are a few different ways to go about it. You can either take the easy way and go to school (if you can afford it), or you can work your way “up the hawsepipe” (the hole in the ships bow where the anchor chain comes aboard).
It takes at least 4 years at a maritime academy to earn your third officers license. There is also a requirement for sea time. Then there is the US Coast Guard exam. You have to pass the Rules of the Road section with a 90% score. No, it’s not at all like the one for driving on land! The other sections are a tiny little bit easier, but you still have to get over 80% on most.
Then there are all the new ‘assessments’ added since the STCW came into effect. They are required for both academy grads and hawsepipers.
To work your way up the hawsepipe, you will probably spend much more time to get that license. You will spend quite a bit of cash to get those assessments signed off. But at least you’re able to work and earn some money along the way. You can still study on your own to pass the US Coast Guard exams.
So, after you get your US Coast Guard license as Third Officer, then you can start the process of getting your DP certificate. First you have to take an ‘induction’ class. That only takes a week and a couple thousand dollars.
The hard part is: you have to get onboard a DP vessel to get your log book signed off before you’re allowed into the ‘simulator’ class. Since most companies have cut crew levels to the bone (even before the latest crisis), they do not want to take anyone onboard who’s not fully capable and qualified (licensed) to do the job. This makes it almost impossible for any prospective DPO to get certified.
Those that do get lucky (and that is what it takes- LUCK), go on to take their simulator course. After that, they’ll need at least a couple more months onboard as a ‘trainee’ DPO (so still facing major hurdles in getting that position onboard any vessel).
If they finally manage to make it through the training stage (before the allotted time runs out), then they were in high demand (up until last year).
They would be in charge of keeping the vessel safe and steady in position for it to do the work it was hired to do. They controlled the computers that controlled the vessel. Keeping a drillship positioned over the well, or a dive boat over the top of the divers, or a pipe layer on the right track while they laid down the pipe.
These jobs might sound easy to some, but they are actually working in some pretty exact tolerances. For instance, a drillship in shallow water (<500 ft) might only have a watch circle of 9 meters. That means that the DPOs must keep that 6-800 ft ship’s moon pool inside a circle with a diameter of less than 30 ft. In ALL conditions. All the while contending with helicopter traffic, supply boats wanting to come alongside, stability issues, permits, phone calls, pages, etc.
It’s very important for DPOs to know the weather, and how their vessel will react to differing conditions. Storm fronts can change the wind direction 180 degrees and increase from 5 knots to 50+ in less than 10 minutes. A DPO had better be on his toes and know exactly what to do and when to do it!
And the weather is only a small part of the things they need to know. There is so much more, but too much to get into for this post.
If you’re interested and want to know more, let me know. Comment and ask questions if you want.
