More Piracy

There has been an increase in piracy in recent years. I remarked a few weeks ago it would be as well to deal with them in the old fashioned manner, but regardless they need to be dealt with.

One of the latest stories here, from in the UK guardian:

Joe the plumber is a great guy

Having gone through Hurricane Ike, I have a lot of appreciation for guys like Joe the plumber who allow me to have a hot shower, clean water, and allow me to flush sewage away instead of using an outhouse. I get annoyed when people in the media and in politics put guys like him down because he doesn't like the idea of giving more of his earnings away to the government so thay can "spread the wealth around".

Navy Warships Monitor Boat Hijacked by Somali Pirates

Sometimes I wish we would go back to the way the Royal Navy dealt with Pirates in the old days.

Ike Recovery#3

We have an apartment, and will try to get moved in in the next few days. Heard that Seabrook Sailing Club was washed away which is sad. Not sure what they will do....
We scraped muck out of the house again today, found we have running water, which will make cleaning much easier tomorrow.

We talked to the Allstate people some of them at least, there's three, count em, three, different policies. The first says there's no claim. Hope that isn't the word from the other two.

Ike Hurricane Damage #2

We dropped by the shed where Surprise is stored, I found her intact and undamaged. Here's the photos.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/567103735avukmN

We went back to the house and continued to work on stuff. Here's the photos:
http://community.webshots.com/album/567127274AyQLqS

The kitchen and the down stair bathroom are cleared, Day Sailer #3000 is back on her trailer, and got the electronics in the living room out on the lawn for inspection by the insurance people when they show up.

The sunfish were extracated form ther fallen limbs surrounding them and place in a part of the yard away from the work. We sawed up the fallen limbs and continued to clean the place up.
We moved the sunfish to the bakc, and emptied the refrigerator

During one of the breaks I went up to the Red Cross disaster relief truck on the corner of 9th St and FM 517, just to ask where the nearest FEMA Point of distribution was to get a bag of ice. They handed gave us a bag right there, and said they were going to start serving hot meals. I had had one of these meals yesterday, it was really good to have some hot beef stew after several hours of raking fulthy muck out ofthe house and trying to identify things that might hold some small value.

I plan to donate some money to the American Red Cross after this is all over, and if you feel like doing something good, I recommend sending a donation to them.

They are good folks doing tough work for people who are so taken up with restoring their part of the world or even just trying to survive that they may seem ungrateful, but are not.

More tomorrow!

Whining about it don't help.

The local CBS news media were in our area, we had them take some views from our balcony of the area. They didn't interview us on camera, just asked us a couple of questions in passing. We were hoping they'd use the footage, but they didn't. They asked us if we had insurance, and I replied "Of course, we're responsible people."

That night they had the predicable story highlighting people who can't speak decent English grammar. There was also a story about some dumb woman who lives in San Leon, crying about not having insurance( even though it's subject to floods and storms), and only recovering her late grandmother's Bible. Of course they had her cry... It was despicable. My wife on the other hand, had said to the media "San Leon will come back!" They weren't interested in that.

Ike Recovery #1

Kathy and I got to our property for the first time today after the storm. I've uploaded photos here:

http://community.webshots.com/album/567051644YfLAaP

We spent a lot of time just creating paths into the house. Lots of garbage in the garage, and sadly we have lost one of the Day Sailers we had been working on for a while. Hull #1795, was in the garage and upside down on sawhorses. There's no sign of her; all I can determine is that she floated off during the storm. I regret losing her, but on the other hand we still have our primary boat, Surprise, in a shed away from the house, which I have yet to check on, but I'm confident she's ok.

Another boat, hull #3000, is safe; she was picked off her trailer and is currently resting in the driveway. Her mast was damaged slightly, the spreaders will need to be replaced, and otherwise she's ok. Our third hull is sitting on the grass, that hull was going to be more for parts. Our two sunfish are still there, but we may have lost the rudders and centerboards. The pier lost some planks and will need repair, but we'll deal with that when we can.

As for the house, everything on the bottom floor is garbage now, but everything on the second floor is just fine. It's the oddest thing, like two different houses.
Manuel - Be advised the Day Sailer Southwestern regional trophy is safe and unharmed!
We put a lot of our property on the second floor prior to the storm and when we rebuild we plan to put everything on the second floor, but that's step 20 and we're on step 2 or so....


We've files with our insurance company, and with FEMA, just in case. We're staying with friends nearby, for which we are grateful!

The neighborhood is like a war zone. A house from the next block is on the road; our neighbor’s house burned during the storm and is gone.

It was a muddy, dirty day of work and we will have more to come, but we don't feel bad. We’re better off than many, and we take it a day at a time.

Nil Desperandum,
Bob and Kathy

I still don't like Ike

Of course I have no idea how things are at my place specifically, but based on the data from the Eagle point weather station - less than a mile from my house, I think the lower floor of the house is flooded. Kathy put a lot of the things we valued most in the bottom floor up on the second level, before she got out. I never returned home, since it would have been insane to go all the way from Intercontinental airport south to San Leon, and then back north and west to Kerrville with the rest of the evac traffic.

Hopefully the roof stayed on well enough, although I expect we lost shingles. Things are covered in plastic there.

A latin tag came to me this morning - Nil Desperandum. Never despair.

I don't like Ike

We evacuated yesterday afternoon. Kathy got back home early enough to get to the house and boarded up things, grabbed a few essentials, and got the cats. I got back to Houston about 4:30pm, and met up with Kathy on I-10 west of Houston. It took us until 1am to get to Kerrvile where we will wait out the storm.

I expect we will lose a lot of stuff, given the storm surge, but we will see what we will see...

Sunnyvale trip day 3

I went to downtown Sunnyvale and had dinner at an italian placve called Gumbas... had a Calzone after much trouble deciding great calzone.

Saw an episode of Mythbusters on tV afterwards, the building ot the right of M5 is being built up as I saw, but they do make the area look cleaner....

Hurricane IKE is coming to Houston, just in time for me to return. I'm currently sitting here in the San Jose airport, and when I get back to Houston this afternoon, we will be under a mandatory evacuation order. I hope I can get home, but not sure if I need ot go there for anything.... I may just head up to Kerrville. Moistly I hope I can get fuel for my truck.

Sunnyvale trip, day 2

I stayed in Sunnyvale, after training today. For dinner I went to a P.F. Changs, the first time I've been to one. I know they have one in Houston, but never got there. It was pretty good food, but a little pricy. The place was crowded, and I sat at the bar.

Afterwards, I went to a borders bookstore bought a couple of books.

Sunnyvale trip day 1

I'm on a business trip to Sunnyvale today. I'm taking training on Tropos networks. if you're interested in what that is, google it. The training is good, and the subject interesting to me. I hope to use the skills I'm gaining soon.

I drove up to San Francisco after class today, with no idea where I would eat. I also wanted to see where M5 industries is located - that's where they film the TV show mythbusters.

I drove by it but didn't get too close, not wanting to be considered a stalker or something. The thing I found most odd is that the area there is FILTHY. Trash is lieing all over the place, there's scaps of garbage everywhere. It doesn't look that way on TV. It's very strange. to see it in the "real world". The street in front of M% is very narrow, and taxis come from a lot at the end of the street constantly. I wonder that they havn't been seen more in the show.

I found this excellent little bistro called Aperto on 18th St in SF. I ordered a risoto dish with fennel sausage, peppers and an interesting hard cheese.
I also ordered a Caeser salad where the croutons were slices, not cubes. really good.

My over all impression of SF is it's dirty compared to the last time I was here... 10 years? There's more trash on the streets. Sunnyvale is likewise dirtier than the last time I was here for a shuttle simulation exercise. The city looks a lot dirtier than it does on TV. SF looks a lot more dirty than on TV.... The streets here reminded me of the Monk TV show scenes, but dirty, grimy, etc. There's lots of papers on street poles, mostly political signs. There were surprisingly few Obama signs. They were mostly for local propositions.
I dropped by a little market before driving back, Located near 18th st and mississipi. It looked like a convenience store in San Leon, that is, a scary place. The area was pretty much a slum, except that there were a lot of nice bistros.

When I drove back to Sunnyvale, I heard the SF city council proceedings on the radio. They counded civil, which is good, but you would never get the impression that any government business is conducted civilly form watching the news. They were a little annoyed that one person didn't provide some budget data.

Some discussion on a Navy enviro impact some dort of remeidation... I think its for an old hanger in the area, possibly of historic value.

Finn medal race live blog #2

1:05 am Comment from the RC... "I'm taking up fucking golf".
Looks like they are not having much fun with this...

And people wonder why golf is more popular than sailing.

Live blogging the Finn Medal race

Watching the video feed fom NBCoplympics.com jobson is providing text xommentary. Too bad no voice over is available. Hearing the background sound.

Railey and Ainsley sailing around
postpoment, RC shifted mark. checking wind vel. 7kts.
12:11 RC sounds like they are almost ready.

PRO is checking with upwind boats.
Lots of Brits there with Union flags... No Americans. Sad.
NBC has broadcast nearly every sport so far, but not sailing.
As if Equestrian is more interesting than sailing....

12:14 - still waiting for ap down
RC changing the starting line
140 at 6
Ainsley makes jybing the boat look easy.
There's some American's watching...
RC is changing windward mark again...
12:18 Jobson must dislike the Finn. No commentary since 12:00
moving mark to 145

12:23 RC reminds me of Blair from work... CAlls everybody "buddy"
estimating the start time at 12:35 local...
raised the line flag with a horn... odd.
Ainsley sporting a three day beard....
SWE boat has thae same nasty robins egg blue color deck as a lot of DSs...
Railey's Finn has this cool looking transparent GRP deck...
FRA has some fans....
12:30- AP down.
Jobson's probably in the bar... no commentary from him.
12:31 class flag up...
NBC is making me watch a damned ad...
4 min - USA and GBR are next to each other opn port
SLO looking for wind....
ditto CAN and SWE
1:30. no commentary so far
AP--- dammit...
No wonder sailing isn't a spectatpr sport... Gotta have patience, something most Americans don't have, sadly...
Lack of wind....
3.8km/hr
I have not been impressed with Qingdao as a venue. I can see why the Aussies were bitching....
RC has a tough job...

12:44 getting ready to drop AP
12:45 AP down

brits cheering...
Jobson must be drunk

wind 10.5 km/hr
12 46 class flag

-2:30 wind checks going on...
boats at boat end
-1:00 boats starting to line up
boat end seems favored
AP again... sheesh. This is getting stupid
Guess they need to get it right
moving the mark...
No commentary from Jobson..... That really sucks....

closed video and reopened it. Commentary is back... NBC is what sucks...
Jobson said GBR and USA were sitting on each other. recommends Railey get away since Ainsley has match racing experience.

12:59 Is that Charlie O watching from tre stands?
Lots of Chinese walking about... Looks like a nice marina. Needs wind, though...
Well, I can't watch anymore... hope to see the replay, if NBC allows it...

Olympic sports I would kill

OK, with the Olympic games going I have realized that some of these sports need to be forever banned from future games. Here's my takre on each of the current events. My criteria is that the game should not be decided by judges. The fresults should be objective.

Archery - keep. The basic idea is to put the arrow at the center ofthe target. No judges required.
Badminton - keep. There are judges involved, but the game is played to a number of points.
Baseball - keep. This is a game
Basketbal - Keep. Like Baseball, this is a game.
Beach Volleyball - keep, with reservations, becasue it's annoying to have to look at the women's teams. ugh...
Boxing - DISCARD - the points are assigned by judges, and unless it's obvious one guy is beating the tar out of the other, is' suibjective.
Canoe/Kayak - keep, with reservations. It's a race, but time is added for penalties decided by judges.
Cycling - Keep, but no event that is decided by judges, such as stunts should ever be allowed.
Diving - DISCARD - Scoring is done by judges appointed by a panel appointed by the International Diving federation.
Equestrian - Get rid of every thing except jumping, because only jumping is based on objective perfomance. The other competitions require judges.
Fencing - Keep with reservations. Althouhg scoring is done using electric appartus, there are still judges who can decide right of way, etc.
Field Hockey - keep. This is a game.
Gymnastics - This is by far the "sport" that should be discarded first, bar none. They themselves call it the "Olympic artistic gymnastics competition" It's scored by not one panel of judges, but two. It's been a joke ever since I can remember how the Communist judges would score western competitors lower because they were, well, not communist... The politica may have changed, buit the corruption is the same.
Handball - I was surprised to see the description for this game. I remember it being a game between two guys hiting a rubber ball at reach other. Looks like its an inverse of soccer. ok, keep it.
Judo - Discard. Scoring is done by judges and the referee.
Modern Pent - keep this, All the sports that make this up are real races or competitions not decided by judges.
Rhythmic Gym - I was wrong earlier. Gymnastics is the second "sport" on the list to be killed. THIS is the first.
Rowing - A race. Nice and objective.
Sailing - Races. Objective except for protests, but for the most part it's who sails the fastest.
Shooting - Like archery. An Objective assessment of performance can be measured.
Soccer -A game, like base ball and basketball.
Softball - ditto.
Swimming - a race. keep it.
Sync. Swimming - This might actually count for the second best choiuce fo killing. Panel of judges. Like figure skating.... This is a stupid "sport"
Table Tennis - keep it.
Taekwondo - Keep with reservations. Judges and refs score it.
Tennis - a game. has some refereeing, so keep with reservations
Track & Field - all the events in this sport are measured in some fashion. Keep it.
Trampoline- judged. lose this.
Triathlon - races. Keep it.
Volleyball - a game scored objectively for the most part. keep.
Water Polo - a game. keeps
Weightlifting - Scored by the weight lifted and the competitor's body weight. keep
Wrestling - keep with reservations. Refs and judges score it.