De- motivized

This morning I went for a dive, then I came home and took a nap. Now I feel like I should go out and do something, but I just feel lazy.
Tomorrow at work I'll be wishing I hadn't wasted the day today!

Fishermans Dock Marina Dive

click images to enlarge



































































I went diving at one of my favorite spots, Fishermans Dock Marina (that's what a dive buddy of mine named it, it doesn't really seem to have an official name). Got an OK shot of a French Angel fish. I found a scuba tank. If it was full of air, it would still be good to use, but it was full of water, and very heavy. I decided I would add it to the bathtub, an underwater landmark that I use at this dive site. I carried it (because I didn't want to restow my lift bag after deploying it). Plus you know I love walking and running fin-less underwater! I took off my fins and jogged across the sand flats, stopping to check my compass. I got to the mini wall and turned right, and jogged on till I found the bathtub. I tossed the tank in it. I found some rope there so I tied the tank to the tub.
Then I went and did my deco, and took some close-up pictures of christmas tree worms. And a tiny fish in a tiny hole. It was a very good dive.

*****Workday Lunchtime Meditation*****

Stress Management Imagery

Picture yourself near a stream.

Birds are singing in the crisp, cool mountain air.

Nothing can bother you here. No one knows this secret place.

You are in total seclusion from that place called the world.

The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity.

The water is clear.

You can easily make out the face
of the person whose head you're holding under the water.

There now, feeling better?

Sun-Day

CLICK ALL PICS TO ENLARGE!!!
The first pic shows the new antennas on the left and the old antennas on the right. The leg on the left points directly north and has 105.3's antenna on it. the antenna on the right is for 89.9 FM. See the two guys up there working? I've been up there! It's spooky to me! Maybe I'll climb up there tomorrow and take some pics for my blog!! Maybe NOT!!!

The second shows the old antennas coming down. Bye antennas!
Good job for 15 or-so years!









Today was an special day at 19.2 degrees north latitude. On the earth, the sun is directly overhead at the tropic of cancer at the minute summer begins. That is the longest day in the northern hemisphere and the shortest day in the southern. (It's also the first day of winter in the southern hemisphere). Spring and autumn begin the minute the sun passes over the equator, those days are equinox's, the day and night are equal length. Everywhere on the tropics, the sun passes directly overhead twice each year. I like to figure out which day it is because I think they're the best days to go to the beach, so I happened to have in my calendar that it was today at 12:32. As you already read, I was out by the tower, watching the new antenna installation. So I took some pics of the sun as it passed overhead, I mean directly overhead. This would never happen outside the tropics.
The sun isn't visible in the first pic, but is very close to the teeeny opening you can see at the very top of the tower. (the tower is like a very tall pyramid, with a straight up and down piece at the top, a 260 feet tall pyramid).

The bottom three pics didn't come out well because the sun was bright and made the pictures dark, I had to brighten the heck out of them. There were some clouds overhead, and I figured it would ruin the pics, but actually they saved me, because they filtered the sun. The middle one is the best because the clouds are covering about half the sun. The sun is so directly overhead that if you were in the bottom of a well the sun would shine all the way to the bottom, a naked telephone pole would have no shadow at all!

Big day workwise

Today new antennas are being mounted on the tower. That means first the old ones have to come down. That means we'll be off the air at least all day today and probably till lunchtime tomorrow. I get to do several projects I've been wanting to do but haven't been able to because I didn't want to take us off the air. And I didn't want to get up in the middle of the night to go take us off the air when we have theoretically the fewest number of listeners. It should be a very good day.

Last night was gas blending night. I went to my dive buddys garage and we blended gas for diving. With diving, nitrogen is increasingly narcotic with depth, not good when you're diving. Oxygen becomes toxic beyond a certain depth, that depth depends on how much O2 is in the gas you're breathing. (The max operating depth for air is about 209 feet.) Since air is about 20.9% O2 and 79% N2 (nitrogen), we need another gas to keep the level of either O2 or N2 from getting too high. Helium! Helium is inert, it isn't narcotic or toxic. It's a little complex to explain here, but anyway, I have all my diluent bottles and bailout bottles filled and ready to go for some excellent rebreather diving coming up!!

No Post This Morning

My post this morning didn't work so I deleted it, It was an animation that didn't work properly when I posted it, but I thought maybe it was a problem with Firefox, so I came to work and tried it with Internet Explorer and it was still screwed up looking. So I deleted it.

Another Monday

I stayed up late two nights in a row. I'm not complaining. But I like getting up early. Today it was 5:40 when I got up! (that's late)

Sometimes I post a post here and wait a really really long time, like a whole 10 or 15 minutes, then I come back and check and nothing! Not a single comment. 15 whole minutes!! Dang! I feel so ignored! Torture me people!

And I wish I got more comments on my blog, when I don't get comments I feel like it's boring, which I know it is. I noticed that nowadays I check for comments even before I check my email!

Also I notice that when I post a post, it usually stops the comments on previous posts... I'm not the only one who notices that! (Hi Wanting More!)

Dry dive

This morning I woke up, went diving and came back home and went to bed for a few hours. Then I took my dog to the beach, had a swim, came home and gave him a bath and now I'm making coffee thinking about supper. I don't normally drink coffee this time of day and I'm not hungry, but that's what I'm doing.

The dive was kinda dry. I figured it would be spectacular since I forgot my camera. But it was murky, and we didn't see much. Dry is a weird way to describe a dive, but that was what I was thinking, "it's kinda dry down here today".

Goot Mornink!

Yesterday, I worked a full full day, as is normal whenever I want to try to escape early. But it's ok.
I went diving yesterday afternoon, it was great but there was a strong current, you could swim comfortably into the current and stay still, if you kick a little more you can progress ok, there's never any hurry underwater. My camera can take short videos and I took one to show the current. It's about 5 seconds long and shows some soft coral flapping in the U/W breeze and you can see particles in the water whizzing by.
My dive buddy took off his fins and was walking along the bottom. He asked if I wanted to race, him without fins and me with. I said sure (all through sign language). 1-2-3 GO and I started kicking as hard as I could into the current and I looked behind me and there he was, right on my tail. I was getting tired fast, kicking as hard as I could. I was ahead but he seemed way more efficent without fins in that current. I've done it before too, take off my fins and walk or run along the bottom, it is really fun. There's less gravity than the moon, not that I've ever been there. Here's two pics of him running underwater, carrying his fins.

Then I came home and tried to get audio on this blog. I created a Yahoo group, tried to set it up so nobody has to be a member for access, then link from here to the files section. It seemed like it worked for a while but then quit. I guess yahoo changes some portion of the web page address periodically, it worked from on my computer and another computer (on which I wasn't logged onto either blogger or yahoo) for several minutes at least. Then quit working everywhere at once. I reposted and it did the same thing.
Thanks to those who replied to my "test" post last night. (I deleted it)
Anyway, I'm drinking cuppa coffee number one and going to work for a while later today.
Have a great day!

I feel it coming on..

Woke up late this morning, 5:35. Clouds look like they're going away (it got cloudy just before noon yesterday), its Friday. I gotta funny feeling I might be getting sick around lunchtime and have to take the afternoon off. I think about a one hour dive this afternoon might be the cure I need. Or an afternoon on the beach.
Of course, the days I feel like this are usually the busiest, most chaotic, work-late days of them all.
hmmmm
Weee shall seeeeee............

Speaking of Spam

In 1988, I was struck with the desire to have a can of Spam. I couldn't sleep or think of anything else. So I went out and bought one. I scratched the date in the paint on the can.

I still have it, the date on it is 4-19-88.
It's in my nightstand, just in case.

Spam, Cause you never know.

Spammed

Well, I got spammed. I am apparently being punished for someone named "killer"
I don't even know who "killer" is.
I know how the spammer did it, just paste and post the comment, then hit the back button and post it again. and again.
Here's a sample:

Glue Factory Bob said...

oh boy -- poor you. you have to put up with the consequences of killer's actions. please do mention something to him about the evils of spam wont you?

such a shame that you keep such poor company. i am sorry for what i am about to do to you. but someone, namely killer's little pals need to explain to him that when you go around spamming someone, you never know when it's gonna come back around and bite everyone in the ass. please help me educate him wont you?

8:29 AM

Glue Factory Bob said...

KILLER IS A PUSSY!! KILLER IS A PUSSY!! KILLER IS A PUSSY!! KILLER IS A PUSSY!! KILLER IS A PUSSY!! KILLER IS.....

it was pages and pages of this, each on a separate "comment".

Dogs

My dog cracks me up. I find it hilarious what he finds extremely important, like sniffing a pee puddle or another dogs butt. What information is he gathering? Another thing is when he has to poop, he sniffs and searches till he finds that perfect square inch. Then he poops in a spot about 2 feet behind that because his nose is in the perfect spot, not his butt! What does he think? "Dang! missed again! I was certain I had that one lined up perfectly that time!"
How come every dog falls for the trick when you throw something and don't let go, the dog thinks you threw it and it disappeared?
But dogs display unconditional love every day, the best known example I think.

effect and affect

I have serious problems with the words effect and affect. If anyone can spell it out for me, I'd appreciate it. I guess If I put some effort into it I'd remember.

I got an email from my friend in Cozumel, here's a piece of it, reprinted without permission:

I was pretty well prepared, also for a flooding; I had a few full stage-tanks ready under my bed and my diving suit and sidemount-harness ready to put on :-) I also had stored up with water and 300 hours of cave-diving lights... In the end, I realised that this hurricane could become really serious, so the better half of my brain stopped me from going cave-diving... (However, five hours after Emily passed by, I was already clearing the road to my favorite cave-diving site, Aerolito :)

My main concern during the hurricane, was the expected flooding, but another worry was a huge, heavy cell-phone tower, which is cemented into the ground, only 15 meters from my room... The tower got a bit bent, and a huge steel-structure on top of the tower, is now completely bent to the side, but fortunately it didn`t come crashing through my roof :-)

Although Emily did pass by pretty close, she had a fairly high speed and, hence, didn´t have enough time to destroy the island.

Three hundred hours of cave lights! Plus all his tanks filled, plus his rebreather! I told you! He was seriously thinking about it. I've thought about it, not in a cave, but there's not much wave action that reaches down, say 200 feet, but the problem is, staying down long enough for the storm to pass. And the transition through the shallower, more turbulet waters.

Got that girl at works computer all sorted, its going to be a sweet machine. I still have to install some more software tomorrow. I give her a week to screw it up.

One of my long time friends found the link to this blog on my Yahoo Profile the other day, she told another friend. Pretty soon everyone I know will know about this blog. Too bad they're all too chicken to leave a comment! Heee HEEEE!!

Plaino

Every morning when I walk my dog, I can tell that it's getting darker and darker, because the sun is coming up later and later. This morning that singing bird I've mentioned wasn't there. The first day of summer is the longest day, after that they get shorter until the first day of winter.
This morning I feel kind of "Plaino" I don't feel good or bad, happy or sad. Just Plaino. I think I invented a new word. I always wonder how does someone know how they feel? compared to what? The only reference is how they felt at a different time. There's no way for a person to know how they feel compared to someone else. Maybe my "plaino" is someone elses estatic, or vice versa. Yesterday, when I walked outside, it was fantastic- EUREKA! This morning was just.....plaino.
I wonder whatever happened to that mouse in my storage box? And if he'll cohabitate with all the curleytail lizards that live there too, or if someone'll move out? I'd rather have the lizards.
This girl from work brought in her computer for me to fix. I added a hard drive and now it won't boot up. No video, nothing, just some beeps. I'm thinking the power supply or video card went bad. Of course, she's going to think I broke it. I would hate to give it back to her in worse shape than when she gave it to me. I want to fix it and be a hero, not stumble through and be a screwup. You see, that's the problem, I wanted to fix her computer to make myself look good, not to be helpful, and because of my impure motive, I get punished.
Today is my split shift day, I take a looong lunch hour and then work late for a live program. I like the long lunch hour. I go to the beach and take a shower before I go back to work. I need some time at the beach. Remember how I've been complaining about the past few weekends being cloudy? I like the sun!

Time for bed

Not much to write about tonight.
I got my car back today. It seems to be ok, a stuck valve was the problem. the rental car costed more than the repair, (I'm NOT complaining)
And I went diving, finally. It was my 100th rebreather dive. We were underwater for 59 minutes. My total time underwater with my rebreather is 8930 minutes. There was a pretty strong current and great visibility.
Also, before the dive I ate at Burger King, and that was a mistake.
good night!

Cloudbattle

My alarm goes off every day at 5:00AM. On a good day, I wake up at 4:35 and say "yes! I can sleep a little more!" and snooze till 5 then pop tall, shave, make coffee and shower (in that order) then get dressed and take my coffee for a walk, with my dog. I mean, I take my dog for a walk, with my coffee.

This morning there was a lot of thunder and lightning coming from two cloudbanks separated by a swath of pre-sunrise blue sky. The bottom of one was a peculiar orange and the bottom of the other was red red. I got the impression they were communicating. first one would thunder and flash lightning, then the other would reply. Back and forth. Although the orange one was more scary looking than the red one, I got the feeling he was the good guy. Yes, now that I think about it, I am sure they were arguing about something. My dog didn't want to stay outside, which is most unusual, I guess he's scared of the cloudbattle.

Also, I got an interesting email this morning. An invitation from a spammer to beceome a spammer too! Isn't that nice? Do they think I always wanted to be a spammer? Would you like to be a spammer too? Just answer this ad! I wonder how much spam that'd getcha!

(not a link, but you can click to view image exactly the same size as it is here, on a page all by itself)

He shoots! - HE SCORES!!!!!

As you know, my car has been giving me problems. I took to the repair shop and they said it needed a new transmission. After thinking about it, I found it hard to believe because I had the filter cleaned a while back and I was told the transmission was "perfect". Also I found out from the receptionist (who happens to be totally hot) that their transmission mechanic was off the island.
Last week, I went there and told them I didn't believe the transmission needed to be replaced. There was no trauma, I wasn't pulling anything, nothing happened to make it go bad, it didn't make any noises, it just quit because the fluid just isn't flowing properly, that's all. I told them I wanted them to check it again.
I went back today and it was parked in the same spot. I took a guess that it hadn't been moved since I saw it last. I confronted the owner for not looking at it properly and accused his mechanic of troubleshooting it by driving it to the corner, seeing the problem I described, and saying "it needs a new transmission" without even opening it up to take a look. (I took a shot in the dark, and scored a direct hit!!!!) I said I knew that it wasn't dead and I wanted it fixed. I couldn't afford a rental car while mine sits in their parking lot. Of course I had to do all this and still look cool for the abovementioned totally gorgeous receptionist.
They called this evening and said it was finished, $300. That's a lot better than $2200.
Whooo Hoooo!

Dannng! Talk About A Conversation Killer!

I guess nobody liked my zackleys joke, Not a peep from anyone after that! Jeez! Sorry! I'm not the one who invented the zackleys ya know, its not my fault! In grade school this kid in my class told me he invented diarrhea, he was being serious too.
Since I got home from the hurricane, I've been asleep, almost 12 hours of deep deep sleep. Now it's bedtime and I have to go to bed, but.... I'm not tired.
I feel cheated because I've had 3 weekends in a row ripped off because of bad weather. My last dive was July 4th.
I have a friend in Cozumel, so I'm still tracking the hurricane, hope they're as lucky as we were. They should be feeling it right now. The eye looks like it's closer to Cozumel that it was to us. He has a rebreather too and he emailed and said he had it all ready to go in case he needs to spend some hours underwater. He's a cave diver and my deep diving buddy and I know he isn't joking. He will go in an underwater cave and wait out the storm there.

Hurricane wait

10:30 PM (Saturday night)
I'm at work, the hurricane has begun. I got here, first thing I found was that the hurricane comittee radio wasn't working. I fixed it (replaced burnt power supply) and now I'm hiding out in my office number two. I'm just going to keep adding to this all night post if anything happens worth mentioning.
4:07 AM (Sunday Morning)
Took a nap on the Radio Cayman sofa, woke up with the zackleys, so I had to brush my teeth. Do you know what the zackleys are?
The hurricane has passed its closest point. It is raining, but not too hard and the wind is blowing but nowhere near hurricane force.
I have rescued two frogs from inside our building and put them outside. Also, eariler, I was cleaning up outside my apartment and I found a mouse in my outside storage box. We stared and each other for probably almost a minute before he ran off. I would bet he is back in there now. I have noticed my dogs peculiar interest in that box for a couple weeks.
7:01 AM Well, it's light outside. We really didn't have any wind at all. It blew for maybe a couple of minutes. I am surprised and kind of puzzled. There wasn't much rain either. I expected a lot more wind and rain.
8:52AM I'm going back home, Huricane's over. Time for a hot shower and a big time nap.

Hurricane time again!

Well, it's dark and I'm going to work. The sunset was very red this evening, there is a lot of clouds and the wind is starting to pick up.
It looks like the hurricane won't hit us too bad but we'll definitely get some tropical storm force winds.
I went swimming this evening and the water was nice and calm. My dog, Ditto, went swimming too then had a double shampoo shower, toenails trimmed, and is coming to work with me. Another girl is bringing her dog too. My dog is well trained (militantly, I'm afraid) and was at the station for the last hurricane with no complaints (to my face) and many compliments on being so well behaved. I'm afraid that dogs will no longer be welcome after this with her dog there, a little hyper, poop and pee all over the place, teeny tiny curly haired fuzzdog. But who am I to complain? Nobody, that's who!
I am aware of a feeling that this is NOT the last hurricane of this season!!
Anyway I'm taking my laptop and all my electronics (camera, mp3 player, external hard drive with tons of moovies, chargers, etc) and some clothes and a cooler and my rebreather of course. I am NOT taking my tent and camp stove and stuff like that! Hoping for the best.

50 or 100 years ago

What did they do 50 or 100 years ago? tonight is a beautiful night, soft breeze, stars, crystal clear skies.
If it weren't for technology, no one would know that in 24 hours, a hurricane will be bearing down on us. There's no way to tell.

Another Friday

It's Friday again, and it looks like another rainy weekend coming, to put it mildly. If Emily stays on her path, it shouldn't be THAT bad. Huge waves wrecking the south side of the island as the storm approaches and huge waves wrecking Seven Mile Beach as it leaves, that's if we're lucky. If the storm turns to the right even a little bit, it will be much much worse.
I've been stocking up on supplies all week. I have a lot of water and canned goods and stuff. Since my landlord never fixed my apartment, I expect the roof damage to start where it left off after Ivan, so I plan on getting all my valuables out of there.

Especially my REBREATHER!

They cancelled the Half Mile Sea Swim scheduled for Saturday. Wimps. It's just a category 4 hurricane. I woulda swum!.. swimmed, swam?
Heres a picture of my rental car. It's not bad anymore. I'm getting used to it. I took the pic with my phone camera in the grocery store parking lot last night. It looks pretty good in the picture, but if there was a person standing next to it, you'd see that the top of the roof only comes up to about their knees! Its a tiny clown car! (I'm joking, it's not quite that small!) I called the repair place and told them I didn't think it was a goner. Their receptionist told me that their transmission mechanic was off the island. Hmmm, so who said I needed to replace it? Turns out they drove it to the end of the driveway and said,"needs a new transmission" and never even looked at it. Once before the owner told me my transmission was "perfect". I started wondering how it went from perfect to needing replacing with nothing in between. So I started asking questions....

There's a new contest on Blogger. It's called
"Most Boring Post"
I know this is the most boring post ever, if you know it too, click below where it says "comments" and tell me!
or tell me if you don't...

Hurricane Season

Here's how its supposed to work:
Hurricane season starts June first. Anytime after that, these little depressions start forming off the hump of Africa and either fizzle out or strengthen to Tropical Storms then Hurricanes as they curve north up the center of the Atlantic.
Then as Hurricane Season progresses, these depressions may gradually start forming further and further west of the hump of Africa and start their northerly curve later and later. As this happens, the chances of Hurricane activity in the Caribbean goes up and up.
Towards the end of the Hurricane Season, here in Cayman, it may start raining, then as the rainstorm moves away, it may become a tropical depression, tropical storm, then Hurricane.
This year, however, the storms are forming much more westerly than usual and are heading more directly west and are reluctant to curve north. As a result, the storms are entering the Caribbean and even worse, heading straight HERE!
The early storms this year, Arlene , Brett, and Cindy acted like typical end-of-season storms that you would see in October or November. They formed so far west there's no more room to go! They had to head almost straight north! Dennis was like a mid season storm, August type I think.
Adrian was a freekazoid of a storm, that started in the Pacific and tried to cross Central America to head straight for Cayman, before the start of hurricane season!
Emily's track is taking her way down low, where it's nice and hot, she's gathering energy, getting ready to pounce! Compare Emily's Projected Path to the path of Ivan, a record breaking Hurricane in many ways. They're almost identical.
I think we gotta watch out for Emily! <----- Link to most recent position and projected path

embarrasing photo club meeting

I just left a photo club meeting.
First I felt weird because I was the only single person in the room, everyone else came in couples or groups.
I felt like the only amateur in a room full of pros.
The only one there who doesn't know anyone else.
I actually didn't just leave, I fled.
This guy I never met set up half a room of lights and shit. Then he looks right at me and says "who wants to go first?"
Nobody even said what was going on. I said I didn't want to go first.
Intimidating.
I go up there first and he tries to plug this half a room of lights into my camera.
None of the shit works. My Nikon D-100 doesn't even have that kind of connector.
Now I'm supposed to take pictures of this girl. Nobody told me.
He puts this other (small) flash on my camera, I say "I've got one of these at home, no one told me to bring it."
The girl asks me what I want her to do. I say "I dunno, say CHEESE!"
The flash doesn't work.
I say "look, I really don't want to go first."
He calls the next person.
I said "take this off my camera."
He's trying to plug his half a room of stuff into the next persons camera.
I unplugged his flash and set it down.
I walked to the back of the room.
I check my camera, it seems to work fine.
I picked up my stuff and left.
Social failure.
I felt extreme, way over-intense, intolerable insecurity beyond description.

I can't wait for the next one!

This is a
Super Top Secret Encrypted Message!!!
Only the intended recipient will understand!!!

For My Birthday A NEW CAR!!!

Just kiddin'
but they want to replace the transmission for $2200 and I probably won't have it done. I saw a 4Runner for sale on the way to work, I called and they want ten grand for it. 1997. hmmmm
I have a rental car now. A teeny tiny P.O.S.
What I'm thinking is "simplify your life, just ride your bicycle, be one with nature". Then I think "Ya right! be for real, How're you going to carry around a rebreather and sidemounts and scuba gear? on your bicycle?" (I talk to myself like this all the time). Next I say say to myself, I say "you just need your basic no frills transportation."

Something like this maybe:

What do you think? Just a 'lil pickup truck like this?!??!!

Actually, there's a remote possibility I can get a transmission out of a junked one that has been sitting for a long time. I sure don't want to spend any of my savings buying a new car.
Time will tell!! Soon!

Red Sky at Morning

Woke up this morning, took the dog out and was surprised by the red sky. It had rained and there were a few tall red smokestack clouds against a blue blue sky.
Red sky at morning, sailor take warning, red sky at night, sailors delight.
Last night I spent a lot of time working on a post, it came out really well. It was completely finished and posted but I went to make some minor changes and got that stupid non specific warning about cannot publish post. I then selected ignore errors but the post was messing up the whole blog, so I deleted it.
I decided I'll hitchhike to work. Last time I got picked up by a girl named Carol and we had a pretty good conversation. As usual, I got out of her car without asking for her number, and have been kicking myself in the ass for it ever since. Maybe she'll pick me up again. She had a very nice toenail paint job.
7-11, that's what the date thing says on my watch. That's my birthday. Whoo-pee! Hopefully nobody I see today knows and I can make it through the day without being hassled.
I feel kind of aggressive today. I hope everyone justs leaves me alone.
I want to go diving.

Todays Mission,

My Vehicle clik to enlarge

Yesterday my vehicle started messing up, when I am driving down the road it slowwwwly seems to go into neutral. Yep, you guessed it, transmission. So today, my mission is get all the scuba gear and other stuff out, put my bicycle in the back, and take it down to the garage, and ride home, stopping by the beach repeatedly. The garage is closed today, but I don't have time to fool with it in the morning traffic and this way it will be there when they open tomorrow.
I think the transmission filter is clogged, it has fluid, but isn't flowing properly. I can drive a little, stop, drive a little more and stop. Here is a picture of my car and I, it's a 1990 Toyota Landcruiser, 2 door (not available in the US), with the straight six engine. I love this car, but worry about how much life it has left in it... When I bought it it had 68000 miles on it, now it has 138000.
Well, gotta go!

Traveling through Blogspace (finding things)

I remember when I started this blog, I couldn't even find anyone else's page. Then from the dashboard I found, "Blogs of note" from there I would hit the "next blog" button and I could cruise through blogs that way. That's how I found a lot of blogs I regularly read.

But I kept noticing more and more ads, inactive old blogs, and pages of weird crap.

I have found a better way to travel. I click on a blogs comments, pick an interesting one, and go to that persons blog. From there, I find an interesting coment someone else has made and go to their blog. This way, I jump from cool blog to cool blog and I seldom, if ever, come across any junky ones.

It's also fun to follow the "tags". When a person "tags" someone, it's like they are given an assignment to answer questions or something, and then tag someone else. It travels around and around from one person to another and one can follow the tags in either direction. You find a lot of stuff, and you find loops, that take you around to places you've been before. A while ago I followed a tag all the way around to myself! That was cool, things started getting familiar but I was still surprised to see my name and page pop up! (By the way, I tagged Anduin a long time ago but she apparently hasn't found it yet! (scroll down, way far!!))

When I first started my blog, I was searching out to find out how it was done and what it was all about. Now that I have a circle of friends here whose blogs I regularly read, my circle tends to quit growing, maybe even to shrink. I try to always search for a while for new stuff, as well as maintain my regular "rounds".

One pitfall is that this tends to make you spend an ever increasing amount of time online, which I do not recommend, almost anything outside is better than being on the computer. If I am online, it is because it is cloudy and/or raining, dark outside, or (don't tell a soul) I'm at work. Right now it's cloudy and there's big waves from the storm that passed, so no beach, no diving.

Its the same on this island, it tends to shrink with time. When I first moved here, I knew only one person. I went out, met people, and got a circle of friends. Then, having a circle of friends, I kinda quit actively looking. Over the years, people from my circle leave the island and they are not replaced. So my circle of friends slowly gets smaller and smaller. One tends to become more and more isolated. I think this happens in larger communities too, but it's easier recognize it here.

I think it's important to not let this happen. And it takes ACTION!

Remember the guy?

Remember the guy, Joseph Edward Duncan III, who kidnapped the little girl and the little boy after he killed their family?
Rememember the news said he was keeping a blog?
Well, I found his blog and it's right HERE

Guess who I saw yesterday?

I was sitting in slow moving traffic yesterday and I caught a glimpse of an old girlfriend in a car going the other the other way. I made a call to a mutual friend and found out that yes, she was indeed back on the island and had been here for about 3 months. I told our friend to tell her I was asking about her and I wanted to call and to tell her to call me if she wanted.

When we were "quitting seeing each other", whenever I asked her out or asked to spend any kind of time with her, she would refuse, saying I didn't want to see her. Even then I was saying WTF?? If I didn't want to see her, why would I be calling and asking to see her?? Our mutual friend told me then that she had done stuff like this in the past. Self destruction of relationships

When Hurricane Ivan came, she was on vacation, her apartment was destroyed, and I thought she never came back. I heard she was in the Pacific. I sent her a short email, telling her about the storm and asking for the above mentioned friends phone number. She replied with a long detailed email about everything, she came back briefly after the storm, her move to the Pacific, how she liked it, the locals, etc. It was a VERY long detailed email. I responded to her email, which was also somewhat long by necessity.
She then replied that I never wanted anything to do with her while she was there, now it seemed like I wanted to "strike up a friendship". I said WTF? again! I had sent a short email seeking for some info, with some polite chatter included, she replies with this immense email to which I merely responded. Our mutual friend again told me she had messed up relationships in this way before. I said hell with it and didn't reply to her email.

I called the same mutual friend yesterday. Her attitude was completely different, like I had been the one to mess up the relationship. She told me I needed to "giggle more" (exact words). I said "Giggle more? WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?!!??"

Me, f***ing giggle....right!

So I told our friend, nevermind, DON'T tell her I called, DON'T give her my number, and forget the whole thing.

Case in point: She's on the island 3 months and doesn't contact me. As soon as I see her, I instantly try to contact her. Who doesn't want to see who?

Yet this morning, I was thinking it would be nice to "spend some time" with her, if you know what I mean...

Also
Looks like the hurricane's going to miss.
Grand Cayman is moving out of the cone! <-----temporary link

Soon To Be A Hurricane Dennis

Here comes Dennis!

(Click To Enlarge)

Humph

Well, I'm very disappointed, I missed my photo club meeting because I worked late.
I thought for sure I'd make this one, then 5 minutes before I walk out the door, I get a call about the new computer program not working. Last week it was the hardware and now it's the software.
I am tired of placing work before my personal life.
I really wanted to go to the photo club meeting, I had it in my calendar for along time.

UW Self Portrait

(click to enlarge)

This is a pic I took at about 15 feet while decoing. I pointed my camera at one of those dome-shaped rearview mirrors for your car. you can see a piece of the camera in the mirror on the right. Attached near my mouthpiece is the HUD, or Heads Up Display, it has lights I can see to constantly let me know the status of my rebreather. Behind me is a buoy and the sun. On my hand is my rebreather handset. Both the HUD and the handset are permanently connected to the lid. All of this together is the electronics and is the most important and expensive part of the rebreather, which is what I had to send back for repair. (It's working great now!)

New Oxymoron Invented by ME!!!

I invented a new oxymoron this morning:
"Prepared In Advance"
two others coined by me, to which I owe my immeasurable fame, are:
"A Dry Wetsuit"
and
"A Wet Drysuit"
A couple of my favorite oxymorons (besides the ones I invented) are:
"Random Order"
and
"Jumbo Shrimp"

Perhaps "Prepared in Advance" is not an oxymoron, but a redundant phrase.......

Orts for supper!

Today was the first sunny day of the weekend, I went diving, then went to the beach, then took a major nap. I don't know how many hours I slept, but it was a long time.
So now I'm wide awake at 10:25 and I have to work tomorrow.
Tomorrow tha antenna installers arrive so we'll (they'll) start putting up my new FM antennas for work. It should be a considerable improvement, signal-wise, the new antennas are way better than the old ones and are custom built for the tower.
I signed up with an online dictionary/thesaurus this weekend, Wordsmyth. It seems Ok but maybe a little too simplistic. I needed a thesaurus and found it online but you have to register. So far they haven't started spamming me. As a test, I looked up the word "ort". It wasn't there. I utilized a special link they have to "suggest" they add a word. An ort is a leftover morsel of food. I learned it by doing crossword puzzles. Next time your kids want to know what's for dinner, tell them "orts!" You should get a funny look at least. Ort is one of my favorite words, another is "agog".
Tomorrow night is a C.I. Photo Club meeting. Maybe tomorrow night I'll have some cool pictures to post. The theme is "George Town At Night and Light Trails". (The link goes to the website, but none of my photos are posted... yet)
I appreciate all the comments on my previous post, I was just wishing I coulda thought of a way to get that girl to stay!

What to write about?

I haven't written in a few days becuse I don't know what to write about. I've been working, and I've been diving. I don't want to just talk about work and I don't want to turn this into a logbook of my dives.

But that's all my life is I guess.

I go to work. I don't think anyone at work socializes anyone else at work. I go diving, I meet whoever I am diving with, we get in, we dive, we get out, and we go our separate ways. I don't have anyone I socialize with, I don't confide in anyone or have any close friends. I haven't dated in a long time, I have always had a hard time dating and getting into a relationship. I can't describe how I met any of my past girlfriends, except to say it just happened, randomly. Nowadays, most of the women I find attractive are unavailable or too young.

I read an article about certain retarded people, they literally can't function in the world. They can't hold a job or take care of themselves, but they are hyper-social, they can talk to anyone and get them talking back.
The same article describes the other end of the scale, people who are perceived as a genius, but they can walk away from a meeting thinking, "That went well", but in reality they offended everyone in the room and everyone is outraged. They are just as retarded and the first example but they are sometimes able to function, hold a job, etc.

I'm no genius, in fact I don't think I'm even that smart. I always feel like I'm in a little bit over my head. I always am running to go learn something I think I already should know before anyone finds out I don't know it. I feel like I have to guard what I say lest I commit some unknown offense.

I don't think I am fully either type of retarded person, but I definitely think I lean towards the latter of the two examples.

So I don't know what to write, I feel like an inadequate, boring person who is wasting his life. Every day I can write a variation of, "had a lousy/great day at work today", or "Today I had a great dive! here's some pictures!" But I feel like if I said what was REALLY going on in my head, everyone would either run away or have me locked up. And I don't want to be some psycho, (I guess I already am, but I don't want anyone to know).

An hour ago I was sound asleep and dreaming, but I heard my front door open and abruptly I woke up. I walked to the door and it was a very pretty girl standing inside, who said "I think I'm in the wrong apartment", and she went back out. Now I can't sleep wishing I could have thought faster and found a way to have gotten her to stay!