Tag Archives: #things to do

Writers Block

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Or just plain old laziness?

I have to say, it’s a little of both.

It’s not that I don’t have anything to say. That’s never been a problem for me. It’s if I have anything I think will be interesting to say (to you- my readers).

Since my last post, I went back out to sea on the same ship. It was still quite chaotic on there and I didn’t have much time or internet access. I was wiped out at the end of the day and just not up to trying to get online.

I was out for 2 weeks (working nights), home for a week and then out for another 2 weeks (on a different ship- back to working nights). While I was home, I was busy with trying to catch up on the usual: mail, bills, car, paperwork, housework, yard work, etc. I also had to take a physical for the job I was up for. I wasn’t positive I would get that job, so I signed up to work at Maersk again as a role player.

Turns out I did get the job, so I had to leave Maersk after only 2 days. I went straight to the airport from work the second day. Flew over to New Orleans and joined the ship the next day.

I was supposed to spend 3 weeks onboard. We finished the job early. The client was in a huge rush to sign off on completion. We wound up back at the anchorage (otherwise known as the “drillship graveyard”) off SW Pass a week earlier than expected.

Once the ship was anchored, they didn’t need 2 officers on the bridge anymore. They sent me home a week early. I think things may finally be improving a little bit offshore. I’ve had more work since April than I’ve had (total) for the last 3 years. It’s nowhere near normal tho.

They’ve cut costs everywhere possible. Small crew sizes are unsustainable, but the clients (oil companies) are pushing everything to the limits. I hate to think about the problems they are bringing on themselves by being so short sighted. As usual, I’m sure it will take a major accident before they consider doing what they should’ve been doing all along.

 

I’ve been home a few days now. I’m still trying to recover from switching my schedule back and forth from nights to days again. I need to just spend a couple of days sleeping in, not doing anything else!

I haven’t been able to do that yet. I still have too many things on my “to do” list. 😉

PS- check my Instagram feed for a few photos. I’ll try to get a few more up here in the next few days.

Where Is My Art?

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A friend asked me after yesterday’s post where could he find my art? I figured I might as well write a post about it (just in case anyone else might be interested). All of my art is always for sale. If you like something, let me know and we can work something out (or you can buy from one of the places I’m at- but they charge more!).

I do lots of different things. When I went to Galveston yesterday to pick up my work, the gallery owner told me what he likes best about my work is my ‘diversity’. 🙂

I do a lot of photography. That is really my favorite. I take pictures of everything, all the time, everywhere. 😉 I have tons of photos from all my travels and tons more from decades of working on the water. I also like to go to zoos and museums and take lots of photos of animals, fish, birds, bugs, and all kinds of interesting things at the museums.

I do pastels, colored pencils, charcoal drawings and I’ve been learning to paint in oils, watercolor and acrylic. I haven’t been able to get to class as often as I’d like. It seems whenever there is any work for me, it’s always on a Tuesday. Tuesday is when they have the painting class at the art center so I have to skip it.

So, I mostly get started on a project in class and then it sits around the house until I get tired of looking at it and then I’ll finish it up on my own. I’ve got 2 oil paintings sitting here now that are over a year old already and not even half done. 🙁

If you want to know where to see some of my work, I have a lot of photos up around the web. At Youpic, Flickr, Bigstock, Dreamstime, and Society6 and FineArtAmerica where you can have my photos put onto t-shirts, phones, towels, etc (pretty much anything you want). You should be able to get a good idea of my range from those sites (and my blog).

As far as my drawings, paintings, etc- right now they are all at my house (except for a few that are in the satellite galleries around town here). I had to pick them up yesterday to bring them home until the From the Heart Gallery can open their new showroom. I’m hoping that’ll happen sometime next week. In the meantime, you can take a look at this link, it’ll show you a couple of the things I was showing up there.

one of my favorites

 

W is for Wandering- #AtoZChallenge

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“W” is for wandering. Something I do love to do. When I was younger, I used to ride my bike all over the place. I would ride up and down every street, just to see where they went. I would ride around the neighborhoods and stop and talk to the people I saw (usually started by asking where I was). I got to meet a lot of cool people. I knew everybody. 🙂

When I moved to Texas, I kept it up. I got a car after a couple of years so I could expand my familiar ‘territory’. I used to cruise down every old backroad I could find. I would stop in country stores and old hole in the wall beer joints and play a game of pool. I wandered all over the county and then some. Then the gas prices got so expensive, and I got so busy doing other things, that I just pretty much stopped going out anywhere around here.

Now I mostly save my wandering for when I’m traveling on vacation. I really love to wander through the woods, or a park, or the beach. I love to go up to Washington or Oregon in the summer. The weather is gorgeous, nice and crisp and cool. I can enjoy being outside, unlike here in Texas in summer when it’s hot, humid and buzzing with mosquitos.

I’ll pick up a map and just start walking. I usually have a camera with me and I’ll take photos of all kinds of stuff. Trees, weeds, flowers, buildings, details, patterns, rocks, water, squirrels, sky, (occasionally) people, etc.  I never know where I’ll wind up. It’s always somewhere interesting. 🙂

People always ask me if I worry about winding up in ‘the bad part of town’. Or if I fall down a mountain or get eaten by a bear?

Nope. I don’t. I just go. I’ve never had anything bad happen to me while wandering around like that. Not in all the years I’ve been wandering around the world.

I seem to be pretty good at it. I never get lost (even without a map). I always manage to find my way back home (eventually). 😉

Blogging

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I haven’t been paying as much attention to my blogging as I would like lately. Since I went on that delivery trip to Colombia and was totally cut off from the world (no internet), it seems like I’ve just been trying to catch up.

I haven’t been doing much that would explain my absence. I’ve only had a total of 5 days work (whoo-hoo!). I went to a Nautical Institute seminar and then left for a travel writing workshop in New Orleans for a week. That was fun but kept me super busy.

When I got back I had a room mate move in, so trying to get used to having someone new in the house. I finished my taxes (finally) or at least enough to get them to my accountant before the deadline this coming week. And I finished with everything I needed to do to give my license renewal application to the Coast Guard.

Along with all that crap I pretty much had to do, I also managed to do a few fun things I wanted to do. I got to go out for the last of the Rum Races with Captain Vic on the Laz. I made it to a couple of Campaign for Liberty (political) meet ups. I started painting class again. Went to the inaugural Sail La Vie Dive Bar tour (looking forward to the next one).

Went to see Snowdon last week and the Deepwater Horizon movie Friday (both were good, the DWH was intense!).

I’ve been off the Buzcador for about 6 weeks now. I still haven’t caught up with everything I was cut off from when I went out there for 3 weeks with no internet! I’ve been spending a minimum of 2 hours/day online (usually much more) and still can’t make any progress.

I feel like I should apologize, that I haven’t been spending much time blogging, but I just don’t feel like spending anymore time online. It’s getting to be a real drag.

I’d much prefer to spend my online time blogging and writing, but I’ve been spending it catching up on ‘important’ emails, looking for work and filling out ridiculously long and repetitive online applications (that have nothing to do with the job I’m applying for).

I’m getting to the point where I’m trying to decide should I just say ‘the hell with it all’ and ‘retire’?

Even tho I have no where near enough money saved up to support myself for the (hopefully) 30+ years I’ll have left. Do that, move to somewhere cheap like Mexico and work on my writing, photography, and painting? In hope that somehow I’ll be able to survive?

Maybe one of these days I’ll figure out how to ‘monetize’ my blog. Or someone will like one of my photographs or paintings enough to buy one (for more than a quarter!). Or maybe my book will become a best seller?

Or give up on doing anything with my life, suck it up and take some soul-sucking minimum wage job at McDonalds or Walmart?

I think I don’t really have much of a choice at this point. There’s nothing I can do about the price of oil, so not a thing I can do to go back to a decent job, a job that I care anything about. I’ve already applied to every maritime company in the USA, most of them more than once. Plenty of overseas companies too.

I think, for the sake of my sanity, I’m going to have to ‘retire’.

But I don’t want to. 🙁

Mermaid Parade!

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This sounds like my kind of thing! I always wanted to be a mermaid. Or a dolphin. 😉

Don’t forget, today is World Oceans Day. 🙂

images-3images

Sorry I won’t be able to attend the parade (this year). I only just found out about it. I don’t remember this from when I was spending time up in that neck of the woods. I guess they hadn’t started it yet. If you’re going to be anywhere around NYC, you should plan a trip out to Coney Island. The 34th Annual Mermaid Parade is on for June 18th. It looks like a blast!

Anybody going?

Info on The 34th Annual Mermaid Parade, June 18, 2016, 1pm, including Registration, FAQ, Judgeship, Sponsorship Opportunities and Parade Route!

Source: The Mermaid Parade | Coney Island USA

580kenny9

TBEX

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I know some of you are fellow bloggers. Can I get a show of hands? Click ‘like’ if you blog too. Feel free to comment too (even if you’re not a blogger). 🙂

How many are ‘travel bloggers’? I consider myself a travel blogger, even tho I blog about a lot of different things. I love to travel, love to take pictures of everything I see and do, love to try new foods/drinks/music/culture, and love to share all about it.

So, I decided to head up to Minneapolis for the TBEX next weekend. The “Travel Blog Exchange”. It bills itself as the “world’s largest gathering of travel bloggers, writers, new media content creators, and social media savvy travel industry professionals”.

Is anybody out there going to be at the TBEX (Memorial Day Weekend in Minneapolis/St Paul)? If you are, let’s connect!

I’m really looking forward to this as an opportunity to meet some great people and learn more about blogging and how to improve mine.

Have any of you ever been to a blogging event like this? I’m wondering how it all works. What did you like about it? Not like about it? What did you get out of it? Was it helpful? Can you give me any feedback?

Is anybody from around that area? Have any suggestions for things I really should see/do while I’m there?

Busy Tuesdays

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Tuesdays are always the busiest days of the week for me. Today was no exception. I woke up early (0430). I had to leave the house by 0530 to get to the training center on time. It’s all the way up in NW Houston, it takes me about an hour and a half if there’s traffic.

I spent the morning role playing for one of the training sessions. We have more and more of these required courses every year. This one was to assess how the trainee would handle emergency situations at work.

As a role player, I act the part of one of the bridge team. Today my job was to keep track of what was done as things progressed. I had to make note of the times certain things were done, for example: what time did the incident start, what time did they call for muster, was anybody missing, who, was help called, when, were the fire pumps started, etc.

It’s actually a pretty interesting ‘job’. I enjoy it. It will definitely help me when it’s my turn to take the class.

I stopped on the way home to get rid of some of my books at the Half Price Books store. Hard to believe, but they only offered me $6 for 9 (very good condition and great to read) books! I took 2 of them back after that. I’ll donate them to the library.

I got home in time to make a few phone calls (check to see if any news on the job that was supposed to start on March 4th, figure out why the pharmacy gave me the wrong prescription yesterday, call and message about another possible job). No satisfaction on any of them, I’ll have to try again tomorrow.

I went for my daily walk. The weather is still really nice and cool. I wish it lasted longer. We’re supposed to have another cold front come through tomorrow so it might last a few days more. 🙂

I checked out my plants. My lemon tree is blooming like crazy and is already making tiny little lemons. A bunch of them got blown off in the wind today. The lime tree didn’t have so much damage, but it’s right up next to the house. I’ve got 4-5 strawberries that look like they’ll be ready for picking in a few more days. I’ll have to keep a close eye out to get them before the birds do.

Came in and tried to check my email, in between the internet dropping off every few minutes. Nothing too important in the mail (nothing about work).

Off to the weekly Campaign for Liberty meeting for our usual political discussion. Last week we had a new guy show up. He had some interesting things to say. He sounded pretty hard core socialist to me, but we did agree on a lot of things (corporations have too much power, GMO labeling, fiat money, sky high debt levels). I have to admire him for sticking around for the entire meeting and holding his own when everybody else was on the opposite side on a lot of issues. Sorry to say, he didn’t come back tonight. 🙁

Too bad. We really need to work together to find a way to fix what’s wrong. We really all do agree on a lot of issues but it seems like we just can never focus on that. We always wind up fighting over the few little things we disagree on. We’ll never win the real fight if we can’t figure out that we should not be fighting each other, we need to concentrate on the real enemy.

We’re going to try again to get the word out about our weekly meetings and to inform people about some of the concerns we have. It’s hard. We’re still a very small group and everybody is always so busy. Nobody really has any time to concentrate on this stuff and we have a lot of things we’re involved in (community garden, radios, GMOs, etc).

I promised to make a Facebook page. I hope I can remember how to do that. 😉

I hope to heck I’ll be at work next Tuesday! If not, I’ll go to painting class instead of role playing, they don’t have anything else scheduled up there til April 11th. I hope I don’t have to wait that long to go to work again.

Friday Night

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Is everybody out for Friday night? It’s awful quiet around here today! What’s everybody up to?

My good computer has been in the shop since Monday. I had to go and drop off programs to reload this afternoon. Hoped to have it back today, but nope. It will be Monday (I hope).

I took a ride down to the beach after I finished at the computer shop. It was dead down there too. It was really a beautiful day (a little warm), sunny and bright, but nobody was out enjoying it.

I came home early so as not to get busted crossing the bridge. I’m hoping to have a quiet night at home and catch up on sleep. 🙂

How to Write A Bucket List

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I got an email today from Caz at ytravelblog.com. I’ve been following for a while. It’s a very interesting and inspiring blog. Her email today about how she wound up with free tickets to watch a surfing event she really wanted to see was pretty cool. Here’s what she had to say…

…It sounded so exotic and fun and I made the decision that is was something I was one day going to do.

It made my bucket list and I just put it away.

When we moved to Burleigh, I knew we’d be here when the Quiksilver Pro was on at Snapper Rocks – my favourite spot along the East Coast of Australia (sunsets here are magical).

Bucket list done. We made the decision to head down to the rocks and jostle for space among the crowds to watch. I was committed and fully immersed in the joy the ocean and surfing brings me.

Then, on Friday Woody, one of my best friends and part of our old surfie crowd – someone who I’ve checked off a lot of bucket list moments with, and who makes me laugh so much – phoned to say she had VIP tickets to the Quikky Pro and if I wanted to go with her!!

I train my Money Cleansers to not look at the world through the eyes of co-incidence, but magic and the miracle of possibilities. These tickets arrived on the day we happened to be in town, in between two trips away. The comp finished early so we wouldn’t have made it at all otherwise, even on the rocks.

And they came only a few days after I announced in this update sharing Kathmandu’s competition that if I could take one trip with a friend, I’d hike Maccu Piccu with Woody because travel has been at the core of our friendship, we laugh so much together, and afterwards there’d be many drinks to celebrate.

Well, we didn’t get Maccu Piccu, but we got front row seats high above the waves at my dream event. We got to see our two fave Aussie chick surfers (sadly the men were cancelled – No Kelly or Mick Fanning!), we had Coronas flowing all day, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. (Photos on Instagram)…

 

I think a lot of what she had to say makes sense. She says it works for her. It goes along with what my stepmother Irene always insisted on (and it worked for her too). When I would worry about all the things that could go wrong, she would tell me “don’t worry- the universe is in divine order.”

It definitely worked for her. She always did pretty much whatever she wanted. I remember she was so excited to go skydiving for her 70th birthday. 🙂

I’ve never made a formal bucket list. I have so many things I still want to do, the list would go on forever! Here are just a few of the things I would put on mine (if I had one). In no particular order…hike Mt Kilimanjaro, cruise to Antarctica, African safari, explore India, play piano well, play saxophone well, SCUBA dive Yap, sail around the world, volunteer with Cross Cultural Solutions, volunteer with Earthwatch, write a book, sing in a band, learn to play the fiddle, cruise the inland passage to Alaska, see the Northern lights, ski the Alps, sail the Barque Europa, sail the Picton Castle, learn to speak Spanish well, …, find a home base where I can live free! Get the idea? It’s really, reeeeaaally long!

Do you already have a bucket list? What’s on it? If you don’t have one already and want to make one, this is how to do it according to Caz…

  • Dream
  • Write it out
  • Commit to it
  • Immerse yourself in the joy and love of it
  • Take some sort of action
  • Let go of control
  • Allow for the miracle of possibilities

 

Rainy Days

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It’s been raining here non-stop for the last 2 days! I’ve been stuck in the house, can’t even take my daily walk. Planned to go to the Renaissance Festival for the Pirates, but that is NOT somewhere I want to be in the rain!

So….

It’s still going on every weekend til Nov 29th, so I’ll try to go another weekend when hopefully it’s not raining. The Barbarians will be there Nov 14-15, they should be almost as good as the Pirates. 😉

Since I’m just hanging around the house listening to the rain, I’ve been trying to fix my blog. So far I am making zero progress and getting nothing but frustration out of the project!

I did get my computer back from the shop, but they couldn’t fix the issue (virus that encrypts all my photos) and I am VERY upset over losing all that stuff! I had hundreds of photos on my thumb drive (put them there since computer was full up).

I can just be thankful it didn’t get into the computer too.

I met a guy on linkedin the other day who I HOPE can help me with some of this stuff. Otherwise, it’s getting to the point where I’m wondering if it’s going to be worth all the stress and aggravation. 🙁

I hope we can get together tomorrow to go over everything and he can start working on it soon. I’ll be busy most of the week with other things and won’t have another ‘free’ day til Friday.