Tag Archives: #no internet

Still Out Here

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Tomorrow will mark 3 weeks offshore and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will get to stay out here even longer.

Usually by this time, I’ve about had enough and I’m itching to get off the boat and go home. Take a nice, long vacation somewhere. This trip has been the first real work I’ve had in a loooong time, so I am not in quite the same frame of mind.

The only thing I could wish for out here is a little better situation with the internet, but oh well, we all just have to deal with it…

I will stay out here for as long as I possibly can. Especially since there is no telling how many more months I might have to wait until I can find another ship.

I know most people are happy that the price of oil has been so low for so long. I would be too, if my career didn’t depend so much on it. Sadly, the US Merchant Marine is almost totally dependent on the offshore (oil) industry. We have less than 100 deep sea ships left and probably half of those are shipping oil.

When the Gulf of Mexico slows down and lays off crews, it affects the entire US Merchant Marine. Sadly, US mariners are not wanted in most of the rest of the world. Everyone is afraid we are going to sue them I guess. 🙁

Internet Today?

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Amazing! My computer is actually working for the first time in weeks!

After working on the tuna boat in the South Pacific with extremely limited internet (I would have to wait til we got to port to go ashore and check email), I swore I would never again work on a boat without it.

Well, sad to say, things have been so bad offshore that I am very, very thankful to be out here with or without internet! I just feel frustrated with not being able to keep up with the daily blog posts (or at least weekly). 😉

I don’t know how long the internet will stay on, or how long I will be able to keep working. I’m hoping both will continue for a long time. 😉

I’d like to write more about what we’ve been doing out here, but want to at least let you all know I haven’t stopped posting just because I don’t want to keep communicating with you. 🙂

I hope you’ll stick around for more posts (whenever I can get to post them). 🙂

Finally!

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I wonder if things are finally beginning to turn around? I heard a tip from a friend while I was at the TBEX in Huntsville about a job. I immediately tried to call the people who were looking (it was the weekend) and eventually got in touch.

Thank goodness! We were able to work things out and I left for the ship on Monday. I’ll be working as a DPO for at least a couple of weeks! A real job!! 🙂

I was glad I got to go to the TBEX in Huntsville. I learned a lot, ran into some old friends and met some new ones. I hope I will be able to turn my experiences there into some good stories and will follow up on connections asap.

Sadly, that may not be all that soon. It looks like I will be pretty much out of touch while here on the ship since internet is not up to snuff and phone is out of range. 🙁

After working for over a year on a tuna boat, 3+ months incommunicado at a time, I swore I would never again work for anyone who didn’t have enough respect for their people to provide them with a minimum ability to keep in touch with friends, family and business at home.

Well, after almost 20 months of unemployment (without being able to collect even a dime of the thousands of dollars I’e paid into the system over the last 40+ years), I’ve had to change my attitude, suck it up and take anything that anybody offered. 🙁

Thank goodness, I’m finally working! It could last as long as 6 weeks!!

I just hope this is a sign of better times ahead.

I’ll try to post as often as I’m able. Sorry but I don’t think I’ll be able to very often til I get off. 🙁

Zanzibar: Kendwa Beach

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Internet still really SUCKS, but here’s what I get to look at in the meantime. 🙂

Horrible Internet

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I’ve been trying for hours to get a post uploaded. It’s still not working. 🙁

I’m traveling around a gorgeous island. I hate to spend so much time trying to stay connected instead of enjoying the beauty around me.

If I can’t manage to get anything done tonight, I’m signing off til I get home (or at least to the airport where the internet works).

Good News!

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I thought I had some really great news today. I got a call about a DPO job! Only for a month, but hey- I’ll do just about anything right now. A month as DPO would help a LOT!

I was actually in Houston for an interview for a different job when I got the call about the DPO. I think the interview went pretty well, but will have to wait and see what happens next week. I’m still not sure exactly what that job is all about.

When I got out of the interview (I had my phone turned off), I had another call about a job. This one was leaving immediately. Only for AB, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers! I still remember how to chip and paint. 🙂

The DPO job is not a sure thing, they don’t even know for sure when they’d need me, or IF they’d need me at all. I figure a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush (learned that lesson). I’m leaving early in the morning.

I’ll drive to Louisiana, get on the boat, deliver the boat to Columbia, fly back home. Should take less than 10 days if everything goes as planned (it never does).

I’m looking forward to the adventure. 🙂

I’ll be SO glad to be back at sea again. Only problem is- I’ll be incommunicado. They have no internet or phone. I swore I’d never take a job again where I couldn’t stay in touch, but it’s been so long since I’ve had ANY work. I’m just going to have to suck it up and keep hoping things get better offshore soon.

It’s hard to believe how people treat you when they know you’re desperate for work. Hard to believe anyone thinks it’s OK to send people to work totally cut off from the world for weeks at a time. Yes, we were all used to that, back in the day. Back when no one had internet or cel phones, it was bearable. We waited to get snail mail when we reached port. That was decades ago! Hard to believe employers still get away with treating their people like that. We’re not talking 3rd world employers either, these are Americans. 🙁

Anybody out there from Columbia? I would love to learn more about it. I was there for a short time during high school, not nearly enough time.

Iffy Internet- Crappy Computer

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Trying to blog with shitty internet and crappy computers.

I’m still struggling to grow my audience. It’s been so hard the last few months with all the issues I’ve had (still having) with the internet and my computers. I’ve tried everything I can think of to fix the problems, but nothing’s really worked. The only thing left to do is to move!

And yes, I would LOVE to be able to do that! Trying hard to find ways to support myself somewhere other than the USA. Being unemployed gives me plenty of time to spend working online, trying to do that. I’ve been trying to sell my writing and photography. Not having working computer or internet kills that whole deal!

Of course, I would very much prefer to be able to go back to work at sea! Working out there gives me the time off to travel, and the money to go.

In the meantime, while I wait for the price of oil to go back up-so the ships will go back to work, so they’ll start hiring people again, I spend my time working on writing, photography, blogging, and looking for jobs around town. None of that is easy without working computer and internet! 🙁

Still

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Having computer issues! I can’t believe it! After calling dozens of times, 5 visits from technicians, 1 visit from IT gurus, replacing interior and exterior lines….. I STILL can’t connect to the internet!

I’ve tried 8 different devices, NONE of them work!

Do I need to move to McDonalds or what???

A to Z: Just Do It!

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I thought I had posted this here last night. Turns out, I had only actually posted it on my old blog. I always write my posts here and copy them over there. I must have been getting tired. Also, still having huge problems with the computers and internet here.

The tech finally showed up this morning, only to find out that his computer worked fine. None of the 8 devices we’ve been using here in the house for the last couple of weeks works (all the sudden)! So, I’m right back to the starting board. 🙁

Anyway, here’s yesterday’s post for the A to Z Challenge. I’ll have today’s up in a little while. I have to think of something to do with “K”.

Today’s post for the A to Z Challenge is “Just Do It”!

That’s what everyone’s been telling me since my post yesterday.

I have so many things running around my brain. I want to ‘just do it’, but I don’t know how. Basically, I’m scared.

How do you all get over your fears? How do you prepare to do something you’re really, really worried about.

Anybody else have some inspiring stories to share?

A to Z: Dreamstime

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Yesterday’s post for the A to Z Challenge is “Dreamstime” (I skipped it yesterday cause I was just too busy and too tired by the time I got home after midnight). For the challenge, I’m posting every day in April (except Sundays), one for each letter of the alphabet.

Some bloggers have chosen themes. I haven’t. I’m just doing what I normally do- mostly maritime, travel, and photography- but also anything that interests me. That includes food, drinks, philosophy, history, religion, politics, culture, art, music, science, astronomy, jokes, etc. You might find anything here. I hope you like surprises. 😉

Anyway, today’s post (which should have been done yesterday) is on Dreamstime. If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know I’ve been trying to find ways to earn income other than just working at a regular job.

One way I’ve been trying to do that is to break into ‘stock photography’. Dreamstime is one of the places to do that. I’ve been accepted on there for about a year.

Check out my Dreamstime portfolio- here.

I’ve only managed to get 26 photos uploaded and accepted. My acceptance ratio is over 95% which I think is excellent. I’ve only tried uploading photos already accepted at Bigstock on Dreamstime, that helps.

So far, I’ve earned a grand total of $4.11!

I need to work on getting more photos on there. The last couple of weeks would have been perfect. The only problem has been that my computer with all of my photos has been in the shop and the internet has been giving me fits! I have my computer back now, but I have to download the programs back onto it. Now just have to wait for the new modem to show up so I can get proper internet access again.

It should get here by Friday. 🙂

How to Stay Motivated

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How to stay motivated? I have no idea!

I have been trying, for years now, to find some way to earn a living on my own. I’ve known for a long time that working offshore was not going to last. I did my very best to prepare. I saved all I could. I invested the best way I could figure out how (stocks, real estate, training, etc). I spent a lot of time trying to learn photography and writing. I started blogging. I even went to Mexico to get certified to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL).

I’ve spent my life working at sea. I’ve earned the highest license there is. I’ve been laid off the ships since mid-September 2015. I haven’t had a single interested response for any of the thousands of resumes I’ve sent or applications I’ve filled out. I don’t expect to see any until the price of oil goes up quite a bit and stabilizes. Maybe then I can go back to work. IF my licenses are still good.

I’m trying everything I can think of to earn income even if I can’t get back to work. Some are predicting the oil field won’t recover for 3-5 YEARS, if ever! That means I’ve got to make my savings last for the rest of my life. At the rate I’m going now, they won’t last even for the rest of this year.

In the meantime, I’ve been working as hard as I can to make my blog interesting and figure out how to ‘monetize’ it. I’ve done all I can to promote it, but there is some issue with it where it’s keeping people from easily being able to ‘like’ a post or ‘follow’ the blog. I can’t figure out what’s wrong with it on my own and I can’t find anyone who can help me. It doesn’t help that my computers have been on the fritz for a couple of months and my internet has been completely out for the last few days.

I’ve also been trying to work on my photography. I would like to find a way to promote them to the world and hopefully someone out there would like one enough to buy one every once in a while. It seems the universe is totally against that idea!

From some sick, greedy bastards hacking my thumb drive and blackmailing me to get my photos back, to having my computer refuse to open the photos so I can see them because it’s stuffed full, to now having almost none of them transferred to the new hard drive! I’m also unable to download the photo editing software I use (Lightroom), since the internet keeps dropping off before the program finishes downloading.

So, I am getting incredibly frustrated. It seems for every thing I try to do, there is another roadblock set in front of me. I’m having a hell of a hard time trying to stay motivated to do anything. I’m just trying to find a way to survive financially before I lose everything I’ve worked so hard for all these years.

I’m about to give up on getting the computer to work until the modem comes. Does anybody have any suggestions for how to promote, or sell photography online? I’ve tried Craigslist and Varage Sale, no response yet. Trying to figure out eBay but would rather avoid that one.

If anybody has any ideas on selling photos, please let me know! These 2 are just a couple of examples. I’ve got thousands! Look around my blog for more, almost all of them here are my photos (I occasionally have to find something on google).

Sunday Struggles

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No posts for the A to Z challenge on Sundays. Good thing, cause my internet is still not working right and drops off constantly. At least it’s coming on now and then. It’s been completely gone for the last 4 days. Now I only have to wait for the new modem to show up (3-5 business days- no overnight delivery!), set it up correctly and then MAYBE I can get my internet working properly again after almost a month!

I’ve been trying to download Open Office for the last 8 hours and STILL can’t get it to go all the way til the end! Same thing for Adobe Lightroom.

I finally got my computer back from the shop on Friday and hoping to have everything working correctly. I knew I was going to have to download and re-install all the programs I use, since they can’t be moved from the old hard drive to the new one. I didn’t figure it would be that big of a problem.

Today was my first chance to try it out and nope. I’ve lost ALL of my pictures! I hope to hell they’re still on the old hard drive, but that still means I’ll have to take the computer back to the shop so they can take it all apart again to reinstall the old hard drive and copy those pictures over. Jeeze!

It seems that for everything I TRY to do, there are 15 roadblocks thrown in my way. I hate to be so negative on here all the time, but this is the only outlet I have, other than screaming at the walls and throwing my computer across the room.

All I am trying to do is to get a working computer in the house! I have 5 of them! I am only trying to get ONE of them to the point where I can write, research and edit my photographs. It really shouldn’t be so hard.

 

No Internet

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Sorry All,

My good computer is still in the shop. My internet at home has been going off and on for the last 2-3 weeks. Some days it shuts off altogether and won’t come back on no matter how much I fiddle with the computer, modem, phone lines, etc.

Today has been another one of those days. 🙁

I spent another hour on the phone with tech support, (after doing the same last week for the same issue- which did nothing to help). They said they would have to investigate further and it would be another 2 days before I could expect them to get back to me. 🙁

I have a couple of friends staying with me. One of which is kind of a computer geek. He’s tried a few things to figure out what’s going on and his conclusion is there is something wrong with the modem. I concur.

Let’s  see if the internet provider finally figures that out and gets me back online.

I guess I’ll be spending a lot of time at McDonalds for the next couple of days. 🙁

Update: Internet

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I posted previously that my internet was down at home.

I got home from the FRC course last night and it was working again. It seems I had a phone line down somewhere outside my house, I got a call from the repairman while I was in class the other day. I’m still on dial up. Mostly because I use Juno as my internet provider and they’re cheap. Also, I really don’t want to have to change my personal email address. I’m terrible about stuff like that.

I was glad to find out that at least my phone was working again when I got home. 🙂

So, I was hopeful that my computers would be all nice and back to normal. But, noooooo, neither one of them is working normally now.

I took the Apple to the shop today. It seemed like it might be the easier one to fix. Basically what it was (is) doing is not staying connected to the wi-fi. It connects up but then drops off after only a minute or 2. I can’t get online with that one any other way than wi-fi, so it’s not much use to me now.

Actually, the guy told me I ought to take it to the Apple store. We don’t have one of those here so it would take me a minimum of 2 days to get that one fixed and probably not worth the price. What to do? I went and got a new one. 🙂

I did buy the Geek Squad protection on it this time. Not that it helps a whole lot when you travel as much as I do and you have to send it off, but I’m hoping they’ve got local expertise there on the Apple stuff.

As for the other computer. Still not working right. I will try taking that one to the shop in the morning and hopefully it can be fixed in a couple of hours.

In the meantime, I’ll have my new Apple to set up and play with. 🙂