I am going west once more to the beautiful mountains of Colorado this Memorial Day weekend. I will be driving, again, perhaps with a friend depending on whether or not his work stops pulling his chain and makes up his mind about sending him to Dublin. I've been feeling an urge to drive and this opportunity came up to see more of Colorado so there you go. I call it my Sin Tour 2009 for reasons either you know or you don't. ;)
In preparing for Sin Tour 2009 I have decided straightening up my house so when I return I won't be overwhelmed would be a good idea. I always thought it was stupid growing up that mom would make us clean up before we left. Now I totally understand it. So I went around with the trash can throwing a ton of crap away. I have all these little piles of stuff that need to be relocated now, including a ton of crap that goes to storage. That'll open up all kinds of space if I get my ass in gear and load up the Jeep.
The next thing I need to do is get the leaks on the deck of the sailboat fixed so it doesn't get all yucky inside from rain and sitting in the sun all closed up for two weeks. I have two of six fixed so far. I just finished fabricating fixes for two more and I'm just waiting for the wood sealant to dry. The final two are just a matter of pulling the old sealant out from the porthole and squirting some new stuff in there. A task for tomorrow or Thursday. Then I can let her sit for two weeks without worrying about it. Doesn't look like I will have time to sail it this week though, which makes me sad.
Finally, once again I am playing the 'will Ryan get paid in time' game. Three invoices out of six in the ether, will any of them get paid before I leave? I really need to do something about this cycle. It is probably the only real point of stress I have going on right now.
Ok, enough with dicking around. Back to work!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Adventures In Sailing! - Night Sailing, Rescues, and Elbow Braces
Ever since I have gotten my engine back I have done as much sailing as possible. This usually involves getting at least one other person and a nice day. With all the rain over the past month I haven't gone as much as I would have liked but I have done quite a bit. One thing I have been doing quite a bit lately is sailing in the evening. I really enjoy it. The temperature is even (no sun to be hidden behind the clouds) and it just seems very peaceful. Plus, the DC skyline is nice at night. One thing that I learned pretty quick is that other boats sneak up on you fast at night since their lights blend into the skyline. And for whatever reason there seems to be more traffic from the big boats at night.
If you have spent any real time boating you have probably been part of a rescue at one point or another. One of the Federal boating rules is that you must render aide to a stranded vessel as long as rendering such aide will not endanger yourself. From my time with my speed boat and this sailboat I have been the rescuer twice and the rescuee once. My first rescue was in the back bay area south of Ocean City on my speed boat. It was a swamped canoe that we brought aboard with the two canoers and drove them to shore. Having 9 people plus a canoe on a 19' boat was a little crowded, to say the least. My time being the rescuee involved the lower unit of my speed boat grenading while coming home from messing around in the lower part of the Chesapeake. Had to get a two to shore from a passerby and they hire a tow boat to take me to the other shore since the one we were towed to didn't have a public ramp.
This brings me to a recent adventure, being the rescuer on a sailboat. Normally it is sail boats being rescued speed boats, but in this case it went the other way around. We were sailing in the Potomac and I heard a horn toot twice and some yelling. Honestly, I tried to ignore it because they were close to shore and we were having so much fun sailing. But they honked again and then I saw them trying to paddle. I wasn't able to pretend they weren't in trouble anymore so we dropped the sails and puttered on over. The keel promptly got stuck before we reached them so it had to be cranked all the way up. We hooked a tow line up to them and then my little 8 hp outboard spent the next hour dragging them the two miles or so slowly up the Potomac to the public ramp they needed to make it to. In hindsight, it is probably good it happened since we decided to head in afterwards. The temperature fell like a brick that night when it became dark and it made for some chilly motoring home. If we had stayed out later like we were talking about doing it would have been miserable going back in.
I took the Mom and the Brother out on Sunday for Mother's Day. We spent a good 8 hours out on the water, probably 6 1/2 of them under sail which makes for the longest continuous sailing day I've had so far. The winds became pretty gusty from time to time and we heeled over quite a bit. Mom's eyes about popped out of her head when that would happen and she kept saying 'Ryan, fix it!'. I let her know that as long as the first word out of my mouth isn't a cuss there is nothing to worry about. All in all it was a very enjoyable day.
Finally, elbow braces. My elbows have really started to hurt pretty bad on some days after a long or particularly rough sail. I finally made it to the chiropractor who told me my elbows were inflamed and it was basically the equivalent of Tennis Elbow. She said it is something the body eventually gets used to but I should wear a brace until it does. So I picked up two Ace elbow braces and they have been added to my sailing equipment. Hopefully my body figures this stuff out sooner than later.
If you have spent any real time boating you have probably been part of a rescue at one point or another. One of the Federal boating rules is that you must render aide to a stranded vessel as long as rendering such aide will not endanger yourself. From my time with my speed boat and this sailboat I have been the rescuer twice and the rescuee once. My first rescue was in the back bay area south of Ocean City on my speed boat. It was a swamped canoe that we brought aboard with the two canoers and drove them to shore. Having 9 people plus a canoe on a 19' boat was a little crowded, to say the least. My time being the rescuee involved the lower unit of my speed boat grenading while coming home from messing around in the lower part of the Chesapeake. Had to get a two to shore from a passerby and they hire a tow boat to take me to the other shore since the one we were towed to didn't have a public ramp.
This brings me to a recent adventure, being the rescuer on a sailboat. Normally it is sail boats being rescued speed boats, but in this case it went the other way around. We were sailing in the Potomac and I heard a horn toot twice and some yelling. Honestly, I tried to ignore it because they were close to shore and we were having so much fun sailing. But they honked again and then I saw them trying to paddle. I wasn't able to pretend they weren't in trouble anymore so we dropped the sails and puttered on over. The keel promptly got stuck before we reached them so it had to be cranked all the way up. We hooked a tow line up to them and then my little 8 hp outboard spent the next hour dragging them the two miles or so slowly up the Potomac to the public ramp they needed to make it to. In hindsight, it is probably good it happened since we decided to head in afterwards. The temperature fell like a brick that night when it became dark and it made for some chilly motoring home. If we had stayed out later like we were talking about doing it would have been miserable going back in.
I took the Mom and the Brother out on Sunday for Mother's Day. We spent a good 8 hours out on the water, probably 6 1/2 of them under sail which makes for the longest continuous sailing day I've had so far. The winds became pretty gusty from time to time and we heeled over quite a bit. Mom's eyes about popped out of her head when that would happen and she kept saying 'Ryan, fix it!'. I let her know that as long as the first word out of my mouth isn't a cuss there is nothing to worry about. All in all it was a very enjoyable day.
Finally, elbow braces. My elbows have really started to hurt pretty bad on some days after a long or particularly rough sail. I finally made it to the chiropractor who told me my elbows were inflamed and it was basically the equivalent of Tennis Elbow. She said it is something the body eventually gets used to but I should wear a brace until it does. So I picked up two Ace elbow braces and they have been added to my sailing equipment. Hopefully my body figures this stuff out sooner than later.
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Ideological Animal
Came across this article that talks about the psychological factors that contribute to a person's chosen ideology (liberal or conservative) and the way in which fear is utilized in the manipulation of that ideology.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Star Trek!
When I first heard they were doing a new Star Trek film that was going to focus on the original characters (Kirk, Spock, etc) and explore how they met and such, I didn't think much of it. The Star Trek films, in my opinion, had been falling behind the times and pretty constrained by the universe that had been established by the various tv shows. Anything they did that touched on the early stuff would be very constrained.
However, when I learned that JJ Abrams was behind it I started to look forward to the movie. Abrams is behind both the LOST and Alias TV shows of which I am a fan of both. His unique talent is in being able to take an existing storyline and just reinvent it every couple of seasons. He has been somehow able to just turns these shows on their head and go in a completely new and unexpected direction all while staying true to the major story arc. With the movie Cloverfield he did the same thing to monster films like Godzilla. So the question for wasn't if Star Trek would be enjoyable or not, but how was he going to reinvent it and would it work?
Well, not to go into plot and give away details, but this sure as hell is your daddy's Star Trek. I was worried they were going to wuss out at the end but they didn't. It looks like they have relaunched the Star Trek franchise in a way that will probably satisfy a good chunk of the Trekkies while making it enjoyable for a new generation of fans that don't care much for the old stuff.
This movie totally stands on its own. I sincerely hope they can keep the cast together and crank out some more stuff. The movie certainly sets it up to be able to explore a lot of stuff that I thought would have been out-of-limits originally.
Anyway, all of that is to say this. Don't think of this as a 'Star Trek' film if you don't like Star Trek. If you like action/adventure stuff you'll enjoy this. Fast paced, enjoyable plot, special effects are up there, wasn't much for the music but that is a personal thing. If you do like 'Star Trek' films and know the back story to the original series (with Pike and such) you'll probably enjoy this too. Just don't expect a traditional Trek film. This is a new beast and baby, I likey.
However, when I learned that JJ Abrams was behind it I started to look forward to the movie. Abrams is behind both the LOST and Alias TV shows of which I am a fan of both. His unique talent is in being able to take an existing storyline and just reinvent it every couple of seasons. He has been somehow able to just turns these shows on their head and go in a completely new and unexpected direction all while staying true to the major story arc. With the movie Cloverfield he did the same thing to monster films like Godzilla. So the question for wasn't if Star Trek would be enjoyable or not, but how was he going to reinvent it and would it work?
Well, not to go into plot and give away details, but this sure as hell is your daddy's Star Trek. I was worried they were going to wuss out at the end but they didn't. It looks like they have relaunched the Star Trek franchise in a way that will probably satisfy a good chunk of the Trekkies while making it enjoyable for a new generation of fans that don't care much for the old stuff.
This movie totally stands on its own. I sincerely hope they can keep the cast together and crank out some more stuff. The movie certainly sets it up to be able to explore a lot of stuff that I thought would have been out-of-limits originally.
Anyway, all of that is to say this. Don't think of this as a 'Star Trek' film if you don't like Star Trek. If you like action/adventure stuff you'll enjoy this. Fast paced, enjoyable plot, special effects are up there, wasn't much for the music but that is a personal thing. If you do like 'Star Trek' films and know the back story to the original series (with Pike and such) you'll probably enjoy this too. Just don't expect a traditional Trek film. This is a new beast and baby, I likey.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Stream of Concisounness!!
So.
It is 1 am. I have returned from hanging out on a friends deck with some other peeps and drinking some wine. I am listening to a song that helped me through a difficult part of my life right now (posted at the end of this) and I have decided to just babble and see where it goes. Haven't done this in a while. Buckle your seat belts.
I let old Ryan show some today. I'm not proud about it. I took out some frustration (ok, a lot of frustration) over this fricken boat on a friend. Yea, it was through text messages but I was still being a dick. I also probably wasn't the most enjoyable person to be around for a bit today. So sick and tired of these delays. I'm sure you all have been here but I felt like everything was lining up against me. I mean how else can you explain a left turn light that doesn't function so people had to run it which caused this big traffic delay when I was trying to make it to a wine vertical I've only been talking about for over a year? Stupid construction and the weirdest places too plus a cop that rather than letting the six cars turn right instead decides to let the main traffic go again. Granted, he corrected and let us go but man that didn't help my mood. And really. I've been talking about this damn event for OVER A YEAR!! And I was an hour late. Ok, sure, it was awesome and the wine was great and I ended up buying a case of this normally $50/bottle wine for $200. Hard to beat that. And so good!
Oy, new paragraph. Anyway, I said all that to say this: why is that when your (and I am generalizing here) mood sucks it seems like everything is against you? There is a line from a Rush song that goes something like 'The way you feel changes how you view the world' that comes to mind a lot and I think it is right on. Perception is something I've talked/bitched/discussed about on here and in person and I really think it is key to almost everything. 'Reality' is shit. NLP (Neural Linguistic Programming) is a psychological practice that came about in the 70's. The more I read/observe/learn about it the more I think it is right on. It deals a lot with perception and 'mental maps' that people create to interpret the world. Understanding that people are coming from a different background/culture/world than you can explain a lot in how differences in opinion can come about. One of my favorite tenants of NLP is that 'the meaning of the message is in how it is received, not how it is sent'. Basically, the whole 'but I meant' this is crap...it doesn't matter what you said...it is totally in how the other person took it. This doesn't mean you have to responsible for how they take stuff or their shit, but it helpful to understand this when misinterpretantions come up. It doesn't do any good to try to convince someone you meant something else. It works a lot better to try a different angle.
Damn I want to go sailing. It's been something like two months now. The deck looks awesome...at least compared to what it was. Much cleaner and whiter. Hopefully tomorrow. I just want the peace of being propelled with nothing but silence. I need it.
So when I was in college I went through a very difficult time. I had failed out (I blame DOOM and a computer lab in a parking deck) and I didn't know what I was going to do. I was still living on campus at the time. Actually, this was the second time I failed out. The first time I fixed on my own and went into 'academic probation'. How ominous. But I failed out AGAIN while on this probation. Looking back I think the hardest moment was telling my dad I failed out of college. For some reason my dad being disappointed in my was (still is, really) the worst thing that could happen to me. After talking to him and my step-mom I remember taking a walk to a park near where they lived and crying quite a bit. I remember resolving to come out of this better and more focused. It was during this period in my life that I came across a song.
Have you ever been in a place in your life where a single song really helps you through? It can be uplifting or depressing. Happy or sad. Doesn't matter. It just talks to you at that point in your life and just fricken helps. I've had a few moments like that in my life but I've always remembered this one. I remember being alone at my mom's with this song cranked up loud as hell and singing my heart out...tears and everything. Did it help? Not in the way I thought. I managed to fail out the very next semester and just gave up on college for the time begin (I've sense started going back). My life went if a VERY different direction but looking back I have few regrets. I think for where I was when I was I just wasn't able to appreciate college. Not like I can now. How amazing it is that perspective can change so much over the years. Totally and utterly fascinating.
Anyway, I'm not so running out of steam as much as I think the number of people that actually make this far are going to be few and far between. Is that me being realistic or just beating myself up? Don't know. Probably both. Funny that.
The song I mentioned was 'Someone Else' from Queensryche. The video can be seen here and the lyrics are posted below. I want to highlight one specific part for you all:
I think this sums up that summer and some periods in my life since. Knowing that there is more but not being able to reach it. The 'heavy with the past' part DEFINITELY describes some days for me recently. But that could be another posting like 30x as long as this one, so lets not go there now.
Anyway, full lyrics follow. For those of you that made it this far (this is me beating myself up again), I appreciate it.
Enjoy:
It is 1 am. I have returned from hanging out on a friends deck with some other peeps and drinking some wine. I am listening to a song that helped me through a difficult part of my life right now (posted at the end of this) and I have decided to just babble and see where it goes. Haven't done this in a while. Buckle your seat belts.
I let old Ryan show some today. I'm not proud about it. I took out some frustration (ok, a lot of frustration) over this fricken boat on a friend. Yea, it was through text messages but I was still being a dick. I also probably wasn't the most enjoyable person to be around for a bit today. So sick and tired of these delays. I'm sure you all have been here but I felt like everything was lining up against me. I mean how else can you explain a left turn light that doesn't function so people had to run it which caused this big traffic delay when I was trying to make it to a wine vertical I've only been talking about for over a year? Stupid construction and the weirdest places too plus a cop that rather than letting the six cars turn right instead decides to let the main traffic go again. Granted, he corrected and let us go but man that didn't help my mood. And really. I've been talking about this damn event for OVER A YEAR!! And I was an hour late. Ok, sure, it was awesome and the wine was great and I ended up buying a case of this normally $50/bottle wine for $200. Hard to beat that. And so good!
Oy, new paragraph. Anyway, I said all that to say this: why is that when your (and I am generalizing here) mood sucks it seems like everything is against you? There is a line from a Rush song that goes something like 'The way you feel changes how you view the world' that comes to mind a lot and I think it is right on. Perception is something I've talked/bitched/discussed about on here and in person and I really think it is key to almost everything. 'Reality' is shit. NLP (Neural Linguistic Programming) is a psychological practice that came about in the 70's. The more I read/observe/learn about it the more I think it is right on. It deals a lot with perception and 'mental maps' that people create to interpret the world. Understanding that people are coming from a different background/culture/world than you can explain a lot in how differences in opinion can come about. One of my favorite tenants of NLP is that 'the meaning of the message is in how it is received, not how it is sent'. Basically, the whole 'but I meant' this is crap...it doesn't matter what you said...it is totally in how the other person took it. This doesn't mean you have to responsible for how they take stuff or their shit, but it helpful to understand this when misinterpretantions come up. It doesn't do any good to try to convince someone you meant something else. It works a lot better to try a different angle.
Damn I want to go sailing. It's been something like two months now. The deck looks awesome...at least compared to what it was. Much cleaner and whiter. Hopefully tomorrow. I just want the peace of being propelled with nothing but silence. I need it.
So when I was in college I went through a very difficult time. I had failed out (I blame DOOM and a computer lab in a parking deck) and I didn't know what I was going to do. I was still living on campus at the time. Actually, this was the second time I failed out. The first time I fixed on my own and went into 'academic probation'. How ominous. But I failed out AGAIN while on this probation. Looking back I think the hardest moment was telling my dad I failed out of college. For some reason my dad being disappointed in my was (still is, really) the worst thing that could happen to me. After talking to him and my step-mom I remember taking a walk to a park near where they lived and crying quite a bit. I remember resolving to come out of this better and more focused. It was during this period in my life that I came across a song.
Have you ever been in a place in your life where a single song really helps you through? It can be uplifting or depressing. Happy or sad. Doesn't matter. It just talks to you at that point in your life and just fricken helps. I've had a few moments like that in my life but I've always remembered this one. I remember being alone at my mom's with this song cranked up loud as hell and singing my heart out...tears and everything. Did it help? Not in the way I thought. I managed to fail out the very next semester and just gave up on college for the time begin (I've sense started going back). My life went if a VERY different direction but looking back I have few regrets. I think for where I was when I was I just wasn't able to appreciate college. Not like I can now. How amazing it is that perspective can change so much over the years. Totally and utterly fascinating.
Anyway, I'm not so running out of steam as much as I think the number of people that actually make this far are going to be few and far between. Is that me being realistic or just beating myself up? Don't know. Probably both. Funny that.
The song I mentioned was 'Someone Else' from Queensryche. The video can be seen here and the lyrics are posted below. I want to highlight one specific part for you all:
Standing here at the crossroad's edge
Looking down at what I used to be
A drowning man, trying to stay afloat
Heavy with the past, but somehow keeping hope
That there's something more that is seen
But it's somewhere out of reach
I think this sums up that summer and some periods in my life since. Knowing that there is more but not being able to reach it. The 'heavy with the past' part DEFINITELY describes some days for me recently. But that could be another posting like 30x as long as this one, so lets not go there now.
Anyway, full lyrics follow. For those of you that made it this far (this is me beating myself up again), I appreciate it.
Enjoy:
When I fell from grace I never realized
How deep the flood was around me
A man whose life was toil was like a kettle left to boil
And the water left these scars on me
The chains I wore were mine, dragging me towards my fate
Planned for me long ago
I played by all their rules, went to their right schools
Who was I to question?
They used to say I was nowhere man
Heading down was my destiny
But yesterday I swear that was
Someone Else not me
Here I stand at the crossroad's edge
Afraid to reach out for eternity
One step when I look down
I see someone else, not me
I know now who I am, if only for awhile
I recognize the changes
I feel like I did, before the magic wore thin
And the baptism of stains began
Sacrifice, they always say... is a sign of nobility
But where does one draw the line in the face of injury?
I'm just trying to understand
Standing here at the crossroad's edge
Looking down at what I used to be
A drowning man, trying to stay afloat
Heavy with the past, but somehow keeping hope
That there's something more that is seen
But it's somewhere out of reach
So I keep looking back
Looking back and I see someone else
All my life they said I was going down
But I'm still standing stronger proud
And today I know, there's so much more I can be
I think I finally understand
From where I stand at the crossroad's edge
There's a path leading out to sea
And from somewhere deep in my mind
Sirens sing out loud, songs of doubt, as only they know how
But one glance back reminds and I see
Someone Else, not me.
I keep looking back at Someone Else... me?
What Has Ryan Learned Lately
This is what I have learned over the past couple of days:
1) No matter how passionate you may be about politics, you can still be good friends with the other side.
2) When your mechanic looks at you and asks you if you would like him to go ahead and change the part out - even though you may have waited six weeks and feel frugal and prideful and regardless of how easy you think it'll be or he implies it'll be - suck it up and let him do it.
3) Despite the best laid plans, lightning trumps everything. Deal with it.
4) Some wine and some friendship can fix a lot of problems.
Thanks my peeps. I haven't been this frustrated in a long time and tonight really helped.
1) No matter how passionate you may be about politics, you can still be good friends with the other side.
2) When your mechanic looks at you and asks you if you would like him to go ahead and change the part out - even though you may have waited six weeks and feel frugal and prideful and regardless of how easy you think it'll be or he implies it'll be - suck it up and let him do it.
3) Despite the best laid plans, lightning trumps everything. Deal with it.
4) Some wine and some friendship can fix a lot of problems.
Thanks my peeps. I haven't been this frustrated in a long time and tonight really helped.
Friday, April 24, 2009
I'm Still Alive
Haven't updated in a while. I've just been treading water the past few weeks, not moving forward or back. That ended a couple of days ago, finally.
I updated my iFreelance profile and started pounding Craig's List for new contracts. I'm down to one and need to get a safety net going. You can check out my profile if you like at Lucidosity. Yes that is the name I am doing business under now. Hopefully I'll be able to eventually turn up some additional work.
I am picking up the boat engine today! Yay! Last week I spent Thursday, Saturday and Sunday working on the boat. I figure I put in 20 solid hours actually on the boat cleaning and fixing. Had some help from C on Sunday, thanks! The teak has all been installed with only two mishaps. I managed to split one board because I screwed the screw in too deep. And apparently I misplaced two screws because the standard sized ones that are used everywhere else popped through on the other side of the teak. Other than that, its all nice and pretty now. The decks have been cleaned as much as they are going to get without breaking out power tools. I'm going to see what waxing some of the surfaces looks like. I found two leaks in the deck that I need to fix this weekend then I move on to the interior.
At some point I WILL GO SAILING, dang it all. Probably not until next week though.
This weekend I have a Nebillio vertical tasting at Breaux on Saturday (mmmm) and the Reston Wine Festival on Sunday (mmmmm). Sunday night, I sleep. :)
So there you go. An update in a nutshell.
I updated my iFreelance profile and started pounding Craig's List for new contracts. I'm down to one and need to get a safety net going. You can check out my profile if you like at Lucidosity. Yes that is the name I am doing business under now. Hopefully I'll be able to eventually turn up some additional work.
I am picking up the boat engine today! Yay! Last week I spent Thursday, Saturday and Sunday working on the boat. I figure I put in 20 solid hours actually on the boat cleaning and fixing. Had some help from C on Sunday, thanks! The teak has all been installed with only two mishaps. I managed to split one board because I screwed the screw in too deep. And apparently I misplaced two screws because the standard sized ones that are used everywhere else popped through on the other side of the teak. Other than that, its all nice and pretty now. The decks have been cleaned as much as they are going to get without breaking out power tools. I'm going to see what waxing some of the surfaces looks like. I found two leaks in the deck that I need to fix this weekend then I move on to the interior.
At some point I WILL GO SAILING, dang it all. Probably not until next week though.
This weekend I have a Nebillio vertical tasting at Breaux on Saturday (mmmm) and the Reston Wine Festival on Sunday (mmmmm). Sunday night, I sleep. :)
So there you go. An update in a nutshell.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
