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.
Chapter 2 of The Potter's Notebook now online!
The second chapter of The Potter’s Notebook is online and available to read for free:
http://www.thepottersnotebook.com/chapter-2
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
ShatFest!
Netflix now has Star Trek original recipe available for instant viewing!
1 tag
I need an iPhone case ...
… not to protect it from water [dropped it in the soap bucket three times], not to keep it safe from dropping it on the concrete floor of the warehouse [at least a dozen times] … but to keep it from that scaly, mucusy film that it picks up every time the four year old plays his games on it — man, what is that stuff?
1 tag
What is it about sailing?
I went out on the boat by myself for the third time today — the winds were so rough I could only sail using the jib, and turned around to the dock — to get another guy!
We went back out and with both the main and the jib, we were heeling over 20-25 degrees — and the tacks were brutal! Everything in the cabin got tossed, we had bumps and bruises, a cut appeared on my knuckles...
1 tag
The Potter's Notebook, Chapter One, Online!
The first chapter of The Potter’s Notebook is online and available to read for free: http://www.thepottersnotebook.com/chapter-1
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
1 tag
The Potter's Notebook - Now Available to Read...
The Potter’s Notebook by Frank Giovinazzi, a historical novel set in 17th century Japan, now has its own website and is available to read online in its entirety: www.thepottersnotebook.com.
Or, you can purchase a digital copy for convenient reading on your Kindle app or device for just ninety-nine cents:
http://goo.gl/JZ0EY
May 2011
6 posts
The Owl in Daylight Now Available on Kindle
The Owl in Daylight, the third adventure featuring Alain DuChamp, is now available for download on the Kindle — app or device!
Alain DuChamp is thrust into a virtual nightmare of The Owl in Daylight, a computer game that has been taken over by an evil artificial intelligence. While trying to defuse the danger presented in the evil intelligence running the game, he continues to try to save the...