Nugland

The famous ‘Gee Bee‘ racing airplane from the early thirties earned its reputation as a killer by crashing spectacularly on December 5, 1931 (and on film) during a speed record attempt at what was then the Wayne County Airport. That’s DTW to you and me… Continue reading

I’ll start by mentioning the places I didn’t go this week: Honolulu, HI and Canton, OH (thereby connecting those two iconic American cities for, perhaps, the very first time).
Canton and Honolulu share something: they both have newspapers that are combining. Happily, I won’t be having much to do with either project for now.

I didn’t have to go to Hawaii because those folks have their shit together enough… Continue reading

I just watched another Avatar ad. Wow. That looks like the worst movie since Titanic. Maybe even worse than Titanic. Wow… Continue reading | 1 Comment

So this Rand Paul character wins the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky. For a seat left in contention thanks to the resignation of the really good baseball player and, arguably, lousy Senator Bunning.

Rand Paul is a self-identified libertarian, and has, now, exposed some of the problems I have always had with libertarians. Chiefly, the libertarian idea that the occult hand of the market will correct errors — any… Continue reading

And he had Jeremy Clarkson and Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. on, and that’s not what I want to type about. Nope.

I’m annoyed that an eHarmony.com ad made a big deal about intellect being one of 29 things that they match people up by. Seriously? Intellect and 28 other things? Um. Fuck eHarmony.com.

How about Intellect and then twenty-eight other, less important things. That may or… Continue reading | 1 Comment

Apparently Microsoft™ thinks that humor is a core competency. Can I please have some sort of certificate now?

Hat tip to the incomparable @hodgman

Nova, the PBS show for kids, did a takedown on the ‘Chicago’ school of Economics (A.K.A. ‘Freshwater’ school). It was delicious. There were even interviews with all the Chicago big-wigs; they smugly defended their theories (which was predictable) while every other part of the show — both the science bits and the straight history bits — proved them wrong.

Priceless.

The whole thing is available online from PBS… Continue reading

Vitamin D, which I can get for free (along with a bitchin’ tan) from sunlight, might keep my butthole from killing me. My love of being contrary may add some years (amount of years yet to be determined) to my life… Continue reading

To break through that, you need hard-hitting campaigns and simple slogans. And I have a sinking feeling that once again, the Obama team is going straight for the capillaries. Let’s hope they prove me wrong.

Maybe just go read it, but, still, “straight for the capillaries” is Nobel-worthy… Continue reading

I wonder if there are many model railroaders who have ended up really good at painting tiny graffiti… Continue reading

Tiger just three-putted from five feet. Oh, well.

Then he eagles the next hole. This guy is killing me.

Not Phil, please not Phil. Doesn’t my booing count for anything?

C’mon, Phil, use the driver on 18. That club never lets you down.

Three wood? Pussy… Continue reading

but they remembered, roughly, what they’re supposed to do.

The mainmast in the picture on the left has been removed from that painting (it was crooked), but these two fellows looks pretty good to me. Especially considering how rusty I felt while executing them.

Back to work tomorrow, but there’ll be a little time after to add… Continue reading

I’m going to start painting again — pictures of boats, not the boat itself.

I went on the Googles and found a dearth of yacht portrait painters, so I figure that with a little work on a portfolio, I might be able to cover some sailing expenses (as low as they look like they’ll be) with a commission here and there… Continue reading

My nephew Ivo now prefers a more formal look. He will still rock a pirate outfit (among others), but seems happiest in suits. Kids today.

Christmas was fun, and I got a ton of swag for the boat. Now I have to deal with our office moving, and then some more moving; updates to follow eventually… Continue reading

The mice had gotten to the Loy’s lovely mainsail cover, but they had some extra Sunbrella™ that matched them stashed away. I was able to sew some patches on with my trusty Kenmore 1946 Zig-Zag sewing machine. Not exactly beautiful, but it does the trick… Continue reading

The Shrill One explains why I’ve been kinda’ bummed out lately in a new must-read blog post. Let’s hope that his hopes are not in vain… Continue reading

‘Sailing the Centennial’ is a pretty wonkish little piece on, well, sailing the Centennial. More informational than entertaining, but I’ll update it as I learn more… Continue reading | 1 Comment

I put up a page of ideas for people who sail in the ‘Pages’ area (links to the right, or here). It’s a ‘Page’ because I plan on updating it as new stuff occurs to me. Enjoy?… Continue reading

We got down to the marina on Sunday and were able to button the Centennial up for the winter.

The Loys had provided a nice tent sort of thing to cover the cockpit. It should keep snow and rain from causing too much trouble for us.

Barely pictured in the right of the above image is the… Continue reading

Here’s a pic of my budget GPS Chartplotter. $300 from eBay. It runs Windows 2K on a ruggedized Pentium III 500 tablet computer left over from some Department of Fish and Wildlife survey or another. (It’s a WalkAbout HH [Hammer Head] 3, FWIW.)

It has a GPS receiver and runs SeaClear GPS chartplotter software well enough. I… Continue reading