glassy-eyed

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=150&modelid=7344

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=149&modelid=8503

MacENC + GPSPhotoLinker = neato!

Step 1: take photos

Step 2: export track from your MacENC nav software

Step 3: run GPSPhotoLinker

Presto: all your images are geotagged.  Biggest problem was timezone: MacENC export labeled all times Zulu.  GPSPhotoLinker assumes local machine time.

How to sail somewhere…March 20 2009

Weekend weather forecast:

Sat
E winds 5 to 10 kt. Waves 1 ft.

Sat Night
S winds 5 kt. Waves less than 1 ft.

Sun
SW winds 5 kt. Waves less than 1 ft.

Looks like Iron Genny Time.

And winds were forecast from the N on Saturday as of last night.  HIGH doesn’t know what it’s doing.

recent recipes

in case I lose them, organize later.

Mashed potatoes with dandelions:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/dining/111mrex.html

Braised tofu in curried coconut milk:

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/how-to-cook-something-braised-tofu/?pagemode=print

Whatever you wanna call this:

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/cross-cultural-tofu/

life aboard, Q1

So I reckon I’ve been living aboard since roughly the middle of November, which would make this roughly the end of Q1.  Technically I’ve been homeless since Jan 2 so we can call  Apr 2 a versary of some sort, but thought I’d wax a bit about life aboard since November.  I’ve had a bit of Nelson’s blood, and it’s a crisp clear windless night outside, so what better time to wax.

Towards the end of November, a heron hang out on pier 2.  It was early enough for the herron to be around still, but  late enough in the season and quiet enough in the marina that nobody disturbed it.  Every time I walked towards pier 2, he’d squawk one of his deathly squawks and scare the living piss out of me.  Not quite literally.  A few weeks later, he left.  I reckon it migrated though I don’t know how near and far. Speaking of scaring the piss out of me, I just love having the option of three piers, with two ends each, whence to take action when said living piss is scared out of me.  I generally manage to hold it until I get to the end of the pier.

About the same time that the osprey disappeared, several new ducks started hanging around.  The domesticated ones are here year around, as are the mallards.  But since December we’ve had a couple of canvasbacks, and several couples of buffleheads. Buffleheads nest almost exclusively in holes excavated by Northern Flickers and occasionally pileated woodpeckers, but we have none of the latter around since, last I heard, there were only 2 left and these in some landlocked state.  Also, the buffleheads are one of a very few species of duck who, unlike men,  remain monogamous.  This is in stark contrast to mallards, I guess.  There’s at least one gay mallard couple in the marina. (strangely, the ones in the picture also seem to be two males.  Maybe I’m in the gay part of the migration path.)  I also found out that ducks can leave trails in the water.  NYE at the marina with good friends, lots of drink, and cold, cold water to jump in.  Can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend NYE with than you who were here.  Nor a better place than Bahia.

In sadder news, sometime in January someone shot one of the white domesticated ducks, for no good reason.  Strangely, the gay mallards started hanging out with the widder duck.  January also iced over the creek, and brought the first snow.  I’ve seen very few places as peaceful as a marina in the snow.  In other news, a southpaw was signed in to office.  I’ve never seen people in DC so happy.  I think the entire town, locals plus 2 million visitors, were absolutely elated. I mean really. Everybody. About time.  Of course, we locals stayed at home and drunk and watched the teevee.  Saved the really good stuff for Burns night, light though it was. 

Next thing I know, three paragraphs later it’s February and 70 degrees outside!  Time to take the kayak for  a spin.  Two things I realized:

1. I really enjoy answering people when they still ask me “where” i went kayaking.
2. I just realized this tonight: i have to walk about a hundred yards towards land to launch my kayak.  How cool is that?
3. unrelated, but since I’m enumerating: I like cooking on the boat.  The size of the galley makes it more of a challenge.  Setting limits makes for better food.  Cold nights bring long-simmering stews that warm the cabin as well as the body.  Hot nights, quickly cooked crisp meals. Neato.
4. I guess it’s not just food that’s influenced by temperature.  I guess there’s a heightened sense of awareness outside the realm of what has become human: of the weather, the animals around me, the way the wind blows.  Seasons are defined by weather and fauna and flora and winds rather than the calendar.  I know if there’s this type of weather, it will bring that type of wind which will bring a high or low tide.  Winter has much more drastic tides than summer.
5. I haven’t been sailing since early fall.  Time to go again. Anyone?

Now, not all’s peaches and cream. I have one or two things to complain about:

Here it is: Next person that mentions “living the dream” gets all their sailing rag subscriptions revoked (especially Lats and Atts), and I will personally pay Puck to read that passage of the Pardeys having sweet, sweet love to them. Repeatedly.  With feeling.  And pictures.

Oh, and the bastard gulls mooning me.

No-Sno.

Was reading Woody!’s discussions today and I saw an interesting dissertation on DC snowfall:

SNOW IN LONDON GOT ME TO THINKING ABT WHEN DID WE LAST HV
SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL (LAST WK NOT COUNTING). AT DCA AND BWI IT WAS
12/5/07...DCA HAD 2.6" AND BWI 4.7". AT IAD IT WAS 1/17/08 - 4.0".
AND LAST REALLY BIG ONE WAS 2/16/03. QUITE A LONG DROUGHT FOR
SNOW LOVERS.

WE NEED SEVERAL INGREDIENTS FOR BIG SNOWS...ONE OF WHICH IS LOW
PRES TO THE SOUTH. WE HV THAT W/ THE LOW MOVG ACROSS CENTRAL
FL...BUT ALTHO THERE HV BEEN MINOR WOBBLES IN THE PROJECTED TRACK
THIS CONTINUES TO LOOK LK IT WL TRACK TOO FAR E TO BE A
SIGNIFICANT SNOW MAKER IN MID ATLC. ON TOP OF THAT THE LOW WL BE
TRACKING N MUCH TOO RAPIDLY EVEN IF IT WERE TO TRACK CLOSER TO
THE CST TO GIVE US A SIG SNOWFALL.

So once again it looks like we’re escaping any significant snow.  But there’s still hope.  Historically February-March are the best months for snow in this area.

starting to warm up…

29 January 2009

According to the normals for this area, as of today-ish, the worst of the cold is over.  From here on out, we’re warming up!  yippee!

All in all, not a bad winter.  Lowest so far was about 6F, and interior of the boat stayed comfortably in the 60s.  Around those temperatures my fershwater pump and sink drain froze; I got a heat lamp to help alleviate that situation in the future.

I guess we’ll see the winter ducks start leaving soon.

cheers!

Y

Brrrrrrrr!

2009 01 16 0400

TPLM2

Ice Accretion (ICE): 0.24 in per hour

9 Jan 2009: Internet aboard

so far my best solution is engenius 3610 EXT.  Neat product.  And props to both Engenius and their reseller, Keenan Systems for taking the time to answer all my questions.  (Don’t be afraid of Keenan’s website…just contact them and they’ll tell you exactly what you need: www.keenansystems.com )

Don’t know when or why I wrote this but I bet there was alcohol involved

I just found it, I’m posting it.

Manifesto on Instituations

from the view of party a: party A must not trust party B since party A needs some official to enforce the trust, and then from the view of party b: party b does not feel trusted.  Or perhaps “Alex” may not be very secure and some official’s approval will help Alex feel more secure but then “Ariel” may think that if Alex doesn’t feel very secure that must be because of what Alex thinks Ariel may do or be doing, but if Alex thinks that way about Ariel then Ariel may think that Alex thinks that way because that”s what Alex would do or is doing. And then there’s Stevie who just wants to tell the whole world and Stevie and Stacy just are giddy about each other but of course the world doesn’t really care they’re just there for the free booze, and the part of the world that would care probably know anyway, and Stacy is thinking why does Stevie have this infatuation with telling the whole world perhaps it’s because Stevie doesn’t really believe in Stevie and if Stevie makes the whole world believe maybe Stevie will start believing it too so now Stacy is thinking why doesn’t Stevie just accept things, maybe Stevie isn’t really into it for Stacy so now Stevie gets to feel the same way as Part A or maybe Alex or maybe even both and several others too like Mackenzie and Marrion and Noel and Paris and Taylor so now Stevie has some sort of mix of split personality disorder and OCD and schizophrenia and just goes crazy and starts listening to people who aren’t there and typing everything with extremely long run-on sentences and eventually Stevie gets fired from his editing job because Editor-in-Chief Evan really doesn’t like run-on sentences and Stevie can’t find another job and doesn’t have any savings and is out on the street bumming dimes but still, Stevie is a pretty smart person but still deranged so Stevie starts believing all the deranged stories that the Wino Vic tells Stevie about how the aliens control all our thoughts and government in a secret plan to take over the world but we have to keep secret because they can read our minds so then Stevie starts walking around with a towel on the head double-shielded with extra heavy-duty aluminum foil to evade the alien thought-reading machines and manages to get a library card and secretly studies nuclear physics and logarithmic dynamics and quantum medicines and masters about a half-dozen other disciplines, including welding, because, remember, Stevie’s still a pretty smart fella albeit a little deranged, and then Stevie gets to work building this super-duper-cold-fusion-macro-nuclear death ray that can penetrate the Martians’  force field (Stevie calls them Martians because that’s what Wino Vic called them even though Stevie has no idea if they’re actually from a marshland nor Mars) and rid the Earth for good of the oppression of the red people (not the indians nor the communists, the ones that live in spacehovercrafts 3/4 up the atmosphere but we can’t see them because of their invisible field) by destroying  their nerve center at the planet balaktikon in sector lambda (which reminds Stevie of Stacy a little bit but Stevie doesn’t show any feelings, not anymore) and one day the machine is done! and Stevie fires one…fires two…but oh the shame! the tears! Stevie forgot to take into account the motion parallax of planet Zelphure in the next galaxy over from Stradford-∂ which is the galaxy Balaktikon calls home, and in a fit of rage Stevie says “I”m going to eat my hat!” and so Stevie does, which completely disables the shielding powers of the hat  (let alone Stevie’s digestive system) and now Stevie is once again subjected to the mind reading waves of the aliens but the aliens do not know that Stevie is working alone and take Stevie’s actions as an act of aggresion against all space (because in reality the martians weren’t a single race but a consortium of United InterStellar Beings consisting of 97.2% of all intelligent beings (1.8 percent being some saps out int he outskirts or Quealorx, and 0% being Earth creatures) so now we have an overwhelming majority of hyper-intelligent space armies marching (flying) down on li’l ol’ earth and not even Stevie knows about it and in a flash:

*flash*

the whole world is disintegrated but not of course the whole world because there is a world outside the atmosphere but at least the whole world known to everyone in this world except Stevie and some Junkie in Seattle, including Stacy.

 

QED