April 2012
7 posts
Saw the space shuttle the other day — and put the camera away, deciding instead to actually see what I was looking at.
Of course I’m going to write something good today — Im vacuuming and scrubbing the toilet.
#thatshowzombiemoviesstart
Don’t pet the cat crying in her cage at the animal hospital after hours
How I Published an Out of Print Book on Kindle and...
I read How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World about 20 years ago as a self-help book. I liked the message, and the granular way Harry Browne took the reader through questioning assumptions and offering alternatives. I found the book to be energizing and hopeful then, as I do now. It helps you think about your own life and options and encourages you to do what you really want to do with it.
Fast...
So egg-cited for the Easter egg hunt tomorrow, eggs are stuffed!
Editing a Book I've Already Written
This post is written for digital writers and publishers to give an idea of the thought and work process necessary to achieve the goal of publishing titles that will generate a profit.
So I’ve got this business book I wrote over the course of 2011 that I have decided to dust off and publish. It is a series of entries and lessons I gathered while running an online selling business. There is...
Gas is so expensive you’ve got to consider your odds of getting the job before driving 45 miles for the interview.
January 2012
1 post
Amtrak employees in Alexandria VA rock!
They were a lot of help when a birthday party of 15 kids and parents showed up — the Amtrak people were friendly, helped with info, held luggage in baggage check and one fellow even handed out kiddie train books to teh little ones. Very nice!
November 2011
1 post
Black Friday Assault on my Inbox
How many sale emails did you delete today? I’m up to about 30.
October 2011
5 posts
If fantasy authors keep building on each other's...
will they eventually become realists?
Stolen joke:
Two cannibals are eating a clown, one turns to the other and asks, “Does this taste funny to you?”
Cracked iPhone glass
can fix it myself, sure, but I contacted ‘reliable iphone repair’ and he hasn’t gotten back to me in a week!
September 2011
13 posts
What's with all the tweeting of famous quotes and...
Obsessing over old ideas that failed us is not going to make a better future — offer something original or shaddup — there is an energy cost to all this pointless electronic activity.
The Moon is Just Past Full
Both hatches are off the boat for painting, the cicadas and the water are keeping a rhythm, the air is temperate enough for shorts and a t-shirt on deck and life is good.
Owning a Boat, Green Acres Edition
The warning sound on the inverter went off, and since I was laying down and trying to sleep, it went through me the way I’d imagine a siren in a biohazard lab would sound.
What the…? I immediately had my ‘jump to conclusions’ mat out and decided the damned inverter had already failed — at less than three months old! Damn, I threw out the packaging! I can’t...
Another Great Reason to Own a Boat, Tea Party...
There’s no government program that guarantees the right to own a boat.
No section 8, no cash for canoes, no means, that I know of, for people who have not worked for the privilege of owning a boat to get one for free and have the maintenance and operating expenses of the vessel paid for from the sweat of someone else’s brow.
Everyone who is on the water has earned it. They bought...
Forget Two-Foot-Itis, I've Got Eight-Foot-Itis
You know the old saying, ‘if I knew then what I know now,’ and in terms of the boat that means I am looking for something in the 34-foot range. Still capable of single-handing, but but enough to cruise in style. The headroom on my Pearson 26 requires me to stoop and it’s just a little too tight.
I am going to skip the two foot growth spurts and go for what I want, which allows...
This Boat Will Be Watertight
After a 2 hour sail, I resumed working on fiberglassing the deck. I am removing all deck fittings, some permanently, and swabbing resin over the whole mess. After scraping and sanding.
I figure most of the water coming in during rainstorms is from the handrails and the loose stanchions, with smaller amounts coming in from loose screws and assorted cracks.
It is a 40 year old boat, and it...
Is it really a mobile phone
if it’s plugged into a power supply all the time?
I’ve got a house and car charger now, and keep the iPhone plugged in at all times when I’m not using it, and sometimes even to take a call. Tough on the neck, but man if this thing doesn’t lose battery faster than when I first got it.
But I must be an ingrate — it’s AN IPHONE.
The line between expediency and half-assing it
is pretty thin and when it comes to doing the deck repairs on the boat it’s top of mind. The idea of doing a showroom restoration is out of the question — I think it’s a waste of time, at least for me, and I don’t have the time. First, a Pearson 26 is a good boat, I love it, maybe it’s a great boat.
But it’s a boat. meaning it is meant to be sailed and lived...
Purged my Netflix queue of all the junk
and added workout videos. It’s a start.
When faced with a seemingly difficult task
contrast is always helpful. In my case, I’ve been kind of dreading the must-do project on the boat — fiberglass deck repair, then priming and painting it.
But I’m watching a documentary, 180 [degrees] south, where the cast had to deal with a broken mast at sea — and then repair it off Easter Island, in the water, using handcut wooden supports to get the thing back up! Let...
Rain, rain -- just go away.
August 2011
29 posts
The oldest cure for writer's block in the book...
is taking a piece of writing you admire, preferably in book form, rip the cover and binding apart, then put it on a typing stand and transcribe it word for word.
It allows you to forget about your own designs and get your fingers moving [which I think is actually the best cure for writer’s block], and enter into the world and style of thinking of something you admire. You will quickly come...
Why do I always wake up at 4:30 on the boat?
Marina has no power...
and that’s okay! Sleeping on the boat without even the small amount of light from the power stations and overhead lamps makes it even more peaceful. And the water is so calm it doesn’t even feel like I’m on a boat. No movement at all. The crickets are at a low volume and the masts are pointing at the stars.
Hurricane update, human edition
I probably interacted with 50 people during and after the storm - neighbors, workers, strangers, and 49 of them were helpful, cooperative, cool and really made the experience feel like a shared community. Very nice. As for the one guy who was a jerk, I just feel bad for him, he missed out.
Hurricane update, infrastructure edition
Really impressed and thankful for the CIty of Alexandria workers, parks, tree, contractor and police who all stepped up and worked around the clock to keep things safe and secure. We had a tree come down that was taken care of quickly, power went out but came on fast, and Comcast even came out a day earlier than expected to reconnect the downed wire. Thanks!
Hurricane update, sailboat edition
#irene spared my boat, did take on some water, mostly due to the known issue of deck fiberglass that needs repair. Did lose a wooden cleat, but it served proudly for 40 years. a couple friends checked on the boat during the storm, and my dock neighbor actually added a couple lines to make it more secure - boat people are the greatest!
#Irene lesson no. 32 - if the power goes on and off three times, keep flashlight close by
Amazing two guys are outside w a chainsaw clearing the felled tree. #badass
And the tree goes down! I was sleeping with one eye open watching that thing. Luckily it went toward the street, not the house, which sustained earthquake damage earlier this week, #irene
#irene has now taken out power so no more shopvac bailing tonight. Unplugged all electric as I expect to put my feet down into water in the am
A Boat is Just One Big List
My friend Richard told me about one project boat he had, where they made a giant list. They worked through a lot of it, skipped or improvised some of it and just ignored other parts. The boat sailed, they enjoyed it and eventually moved on to another boat.
Boating is interesting in this regard — you understand quickly that you are never going to accomplish all your goals, and learn how to...
Would Thoreau Have Used the Drive Thru?
Probably, I remember reading that he used to get care packages from a local when he was roughing it in the woods.
Anyway, it’s storming here — plenty of advance warning here thanks to marina buddies and weather.gov — and am taking a break.
Got a lot done on the boat today, including:
— Installed a fire extinguisher on a mount inside the cockpit locker.
—...
Speaking of boaters and their opinions ...
… they all have them, and every boater has passed on useful ideas, but every single one has also voiced an idea that either doesn’t work for my situation, or is flat out wrong.
Case in point is that 2 people were appalled that my boat has a wire leader for the main sail halyard, and insisted that I switch to rope, but it turns out the boat was built to work with the wire and rope...
Holy Flare Up Batman!
Now I know why pressurized alcohol stoves are out of use on boats — the Kenyon stove that was probably original equipment with my boat lit up alright — the entire unit became engulfed in flame when I tried to get it started. Luckily the previous owner left half a dozen charged fire extinguishers on board. only used one, but it was not pleasant. I plan to try and light the thing again...
Want to Be the Next Apple? Lose the Bafflegab:... →
Great article on business strategy by Virginia Postrel in Bloomberg.
Docked my boat by moonlight last night
using this app by Navionics: Marine & Lakes USA. It was $9.99 and if it doesn’t replace more expensive chart and gps equipment, at the very least it is an awesome backup.
I stayed out a little later than I should have, but the chart on the app [I have an iphone], kept me inside the buoys, away from shallow spots and got me back to my dock.
Anyone who believes in the rational investor thesis has never owned a boat.
Chapter 3 of The Potter's Notebook now online!
The third chapter of The Potter’s Notebook is online and available to read for free:
http://www.thepottersnotebook.com/chapter-3
The whole books is there as well, or you can buy it for the Amazon Kindle, device or app, for only .99: http://goo.gl/JZ0EY
What will Amazon’s tablet do to Kindle pricing? My best guess is $49 for Christmas — but $89 or even free is possible! Of course, after Christmas, and after Amazon gets a foothold in the tablet market, Kindle will be free — then it will get discontinued [inside of 2-3 years].
Is it just me, or is the stock market frenzy slowing cellphone [AT&T] service down during the day? I had two dozen dropped data operations during the day, but now that the market’s closed, it’s working fine.