Seems like i’ve been on a real toy-buying kick lately! Over the past 6 months or so, i had been considering a few purchases for myself, primarily a new digicam, a new PDA, and a new casting rod. In the end, i figured that i’d get just one of the above, and call it quits at that. I settled on the fishing gear, and special-ordered it from Island Marine.
Well… During that wild spur-of-the-moment getaway that Gillian and I took to St. Maarten, the prices on cameras were so good that i couldn’t resist… I did, however, resist buying that new Palm T|X!
The rod, a silly custom-order Quantum rig, was seemingly back-ordered forever! I’d just about given up on it, while at the same time my laptop died, and i was left without my all-important internet access! That cinched the issue, and i ordered the new Palm T\X off the internet.
Of course, the PDA showed up within a couple days of the arrival of (you guessed it) the rod and reel! So much for my budgeting…
Yesterday i made what i hope will be the last toy purchase for awhile; a new toybox! I picked up a great little foam-lined everything-proof Pelican Case for the Palm, keyboard, camera, memory cards, chargers, and batteries. About the size of a lunchbox, and ought to keep my toys in good shape through a sailing lifestyle.
So that’s it, i guess… Uh-oh… What about a tacklebox?
September 8, 2006
Toybox
August 31, 2006
Drunken emaiils… The new version
Some of my freidns/readers have experienced onew/more ofmy famous drumkem emails.
Now theings are a little difeerent.
it used to be that i would use the office lappy, with its loathesome dial-up, and hurredly crank oyt a few words of atrociously-typed drunken wisdom.
Now taht i’m using my Palm more and more for mail, it’s no longer strictl online-composition via web-mail. Imstead of hitting “send”, i hit “outbox”, and a little while (an hour? A day or two??) the writing sits in the palm, waiting for me to drive past a hotspot and send it.
the urge to edit myself is harder to overcome… So these days, i stricytly do not read whatever is sitting in the outbox…. Even this one.
March 28, 2006
bones
so sorry ’bout the recent rash of un-posts… been feeling particularly non-writerly of late. my pocketgeek finally shit the bed (as they say), while i simultaneously lost the memory card back-up… so there goes 5 years of creative writing output, lost to the ether. a kind of offering. reeling and feeling a funk for awhile, but now, just now, i just might… write.
December 30, 2005
more flames
Another thought… marine liquid-fuel stoves seem to be going (have gone?) the way of the dodo. At first sight of Centaurea’s Optimus, several visitors have immediately suggested replacing it, or somehow converting it to propane.
Weelll… a few points to consider:
liquid fuel is, on an absolute level, no more dangerous than a pressurized gaseous fuel, and somewhat less explosive. However, with propane, there tends to be a reliance upon systems to assure operator safety, while with the Optimus, it’s up to the operator to assure their own safety.
The second pont is to dredge up sailing some sailing icons: the Pardey’s mantra of “Go small, go simple, go now!”, and after reading of journeys aboard Suhaili (complete with liquid-fuel stove), the realization of “If it was good enough for Sir Robin Knox-Johnson, it’s good enough for me.”.
Thinking more about it (especially after seeing how well the Optimus burns, and noting how less arduous the 7-step lighting-prodedure actually was), i’m left wondering where all the best and brightest of marine liquid-fuel stove technology has gone.
The first answer that comes to mind is from the world of trekking/backpacking. They make a whole wild range of multi-fuel compatable stoves for backpackers these days, which have managed to help sustain most all of my adventurous friends at one time or another. A quick web search has revealed a whole slew of fresh thinking in portable multi-liquid-fuel stoves, but nothing in the way of new marine liquid-fuel stoves.
