Moved da blog

So I found a new home ... and moved ... Actually I switched to wordpress. I program for wordpress for a living now so heh, might as well use it.

Withinboredom

Moving On

Finally preparing to go further on south. On to Charleston! I got a job there with Cyber Sprocket Labs LLC being a programmer guy full time. I'm so excited. The past couple of weeks I've been working mad overtime on learning stuff I haven't had use to use before but may be using them at my new job. Things like PHP and SQL. But this isn't the place to talk about code. The plan is to go south via the ocean. There's several different routes, but I'm hoping the weather will grant us the most direct route, albeit probably an overnight trip.

The red line is the route I'll be taking.

As you can see, we'll be taking a route staying less than 4-5 nm off shore, allowing us to take up at an anchorage if we so desire if the weather were to become non-cooperative. Even then, that route only adds on four or five hours vs. the extreme direct route.

As of right now, there will hopefully be two people going, David, the guy who taught me to sail, will be coming down from VA Beach to get some blue water experience (we both need it) and I'm hoping to find a third guy (or gal) to go along with, especially if they're more experienced.

Overall I'm excited, with everything from the trip itself to starting at a real job to meeting new people.

Planning a trip is a lot of work, it really is, everything from the route, figuring out how much food to bring, stops along the way, organizing crew, planning with the weather ... all in all ... I love it.


Until next time,

Robert Landers
S/V Blue Macs

To the Beach!!

Last weekend, we made it a four day vacation from here, at the Cape Fear Marina, down to Snow's Cut and back up to Wrightsville Beach. It was a blast! We got to see a lot of dolphins, spend some quality time together, teach Jessica how to sail the boat, and take Blue Macs out on the ocean for the first time. Just watch the video ... but you might want to get some popcorn first ...

South Bound Soon

So a lot has been happening here on Blue Macs in the past month. I've been unable to find a decent paying job doing something I want to do instead of something I have to do. Jessica has moved on board and hasn't been able to find a job period. I love this town I really do, and I'd love to stay and be near my brother, however, looking at job openings here vs. further south... We're heading south.

So, I've been sending off resumes to companies down there so hopefully I can just get an interview and get us all set up before we ever even leave the dock. Blue Macs still needs some work before any long term sailing can be done, but its mostly cosmetic at this point.  The boat is back in the water now, it's been up on the hard for the last several months waiting on some glassing to be done to the keel. Feels awesome to be rocked to sleep by mother nature again.

 

Fiberglass fixed up and ready to go!

Yeah, she knows how to hover too ...

Going down?

Just as we started the engine we heard a klunk ...
turns out the alternator belt snapped. Easy fix.

Blue Macs going in her slip.

I've been teaching Jessica the basics of the boat ... I'm sad that I'm such a horrible teacher, but she's patient with me and learns quickly. Hopefully over the course of the next few months I'll have her able to sail Blue Macs by telling me what to do ... 

And that's all for now ... still trying to find compressed natural gas in North Carolina and just not having any luck whatsoever.

Until next time,

Robert Landers

S/V Blue Macs

Get Your Stalker On!

So, in case you didn't know this; I live on a boat. I'm kind of driven towards ways to share what's going on in my life since there's no one here to share it with and some of my stories are kind of out there. At the same time, there are so many things that I forget people like (most of) you probably take for granted. Like I don't have a fridge. I use ice to keep my food cold, and it lasts significantly shorter than it would if I had an actual fridge. I have running water, but its pumped out of a tank and once every few weeks I have to refill it. I have to constantly watch my power levels of my batteries so they don't completely die on me. Its an interesting life-style. And I love it.

But! To the matter at hand... I want to share my location when I go out on the water. I have ways of getting a cell signal way out on the ocean (learned how to do it in Afghanistan) so I'm not too worried about being out of contact from everyone if I'm outside the USA but when I'm here, I want people to know where I am, or at least where I last was.

So ... our feature presentation: TrackMe. Right now, its just a prototype application built for the internets and my friends or whoever really feels like stalking me. In the future I'll have ways to share just want I want with who I want. For now, for this first "big" test, the way it is, is fine. You can scoot on over and check it out right now if you'd like: My Current Location

All it does is show you where I am on my roadtrip back to Kentucky right now. As mentioned, I'll have it much more feature complete in the future. I literally coded this in less than several hours the other day. I'm not bragging or anything :)

I'm no web developer, so the underlying html/javascript could seriously use some work. In fact, its the first time I've ever really made a web application. There are a few things I'd like to do, like actually use json instead of just returning a string from the web service requiring three calls to the server. Also, I couldn't be bothered to make a database specifically for this application so right now, it simply just reads a file from disk. Way more intensive than it should be.

Kinda Homesick

I'm just now starting to realize I need to make a checklist of things to do on the boat. I've been just going off of what I can remember needs being done, but that doesn't work sometimes. I have a pretty bad memory. I suppose what I'm really saying is that I need to get organized.

I left Duncan Donuts ... best decision I think I've made since I got here. I have so much more time to work on things that matter rather than serving up some coffee and bagels. I made some friends, so I suppose I got something worth while from working there.

I've noticed lately that I'm extremely homesick ... I miss my good friends back in Kentucky, they were almost family for me. I need to go back and get the rest of my stuff, but I'm almost afraid to. Will I want to come back to this part of my life? I think that I will, this is too much fun ...

I still work for Virtual Apexx and although the past week I haven't been able to get much done between being sick and my sister being in town, starting this afternoon, it's all that I have to do. So I might as well get right down to it.

I think that's it ... in the whole scheme of things, not much has happened.

Until next time,

Robert Landers
S/V Blue Macs

Settling In

So I'm settling in to a life in Wilmington NC ... I don't want to get too settled in, but I think I'll like it here for a long time even though some want me to move out to Alabama and even others back out to the midwest. A lot is happening here under the surface and in four or five or fifteen years this place will be very different. Its growing, and out of all the places I've been the last few years: I might be able to make a tiny dent of a difference here.

I'm still working at DD and I actually enjoy it. I don't know why, I just do. The drama stays away from me for the most part. Then, I don't really talk to people there either. There's a few people I've hung out with after work, and I'm pretty sure they think I'm a little bit out there. But then who doesn't?

I really enjoy most of the people at DD ... there's a few that I don't like, but the afternoon crew is a trip. They talk about funny stuff. I don't repeat it, so they keep talking. Either that, or they think I'm not paying attention. Maybe both.

My programming job has kind of stagnated due to my phone being destroyed by my self-destructive technology directed temper. But a new one is on the way. I can't wait to actually get some coding done. That'll be nice. I've managed to do up some limited code, but without a way to actually see how the device reacts to certain things, I can't really do much.

The boat will start getting the bottom all prettified along with some fiberglass repair here shortly with it hopefully getting in the water before March. At least before the end of March. There are no words for how much I can't wait to get it in the water and do some sailing. I feel so utterly helpless stuck on land.

Until next time,

Robert Landers
S/V Blue Macs