Saturday, December 9, 2023

Of Ships and Other Things

OAFS Photo
I had snapped that picture above a while back, mid-October and then forgotten all about it. Until today.

It seems that I have gotten out of the habit of blogging after my self-imposed exile from that. It felt like I was gone a long while (wasn't really more than a week or so) but during that period I realized that blogging had become something of an all consuming passion. I wasn't reading as much as I used to (heck, I could go through a book a week, given the time to do so, back in the day) and that bothered me, a lot.

Then my laptop died (heard the other day, it's irrecoverable, sucks, but there it is¹). I was frustrated just a bit. The old desktop still limps along (I'm using it now) but all the games I enjoyed needed the speed of that laptop. Now what?

I know, catch up on movies and TV series I wanted to watch and/or revisit (doing the Boardwalk Empire thing now, watched The Wire before that), perhaps even pick up reading again. Which I did.

But here's the thing, I love to write, it's in my blood now. So I'm back at it, but perhaps not as intensely as before. Which means, sad to say, that the fiction will be on the back burner for a while. Probably after the holidays I'll pick it up again.

Oh yeah, about that picture.

I was stuck in traffic on the way to work (check out my side mirror in the lower right corner of the photo) when I saw something interesting off to port. (Well, something interesting other than the great view from atop the Mt. Hope Bridge.) So I snapped a photo, and completely forgot about it, until today when I was looking for something to blog about.

A ship of some kind. See a lot of them up here we do. Below is what I saw (full resolution cropped version of the opening photo).

OAFS Photo
And zoomed in ...

OAFS Photo
Looks like the sort of ship one would use to haul big things around, kind of like a ship flatbed. Anyone care to venture a guess as to what they're called? (I'm too lazy to look it up.)

In other news ...

Broke a frigging tooth Thursday night, great way to start the weekend, neh? Fortunately there isn't any pain, it's a tooth which has probably seen more than one repair, probably had a root canal at some point. But half of it sheared off when I bit down on a mint, the remainder of the mint seemed a bit, you know, hard. Uh uh, tooth, not mint. Still no pain, getting it fixed first thing Monday morning.

So I've got that going for me.

The weekend's other big thing is that The Missus Herself and I will be winterizing the koi pond. Before things freeze up, dontcha know? Then maybe I'll go see Ridley Scott's Napoleon, keeping in mind that I am going for entertainment, not educational, purposes. I like his movies. If I wanted a history lesson, I'd read a book.

Which I think I'll go do now.

Be seeing you.




¹ Thankfully The Naviguesser had gotten a rather good warranty with that when he got it for me. Smart lad. I will be able to replace said laptop.

34 comments:

  1. It looks like a large offshore supply ship. After you see the movie, let me know who played Illya Kuryakin.

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    Replies
    1. Hhmm, nothing offshore here to supply, that I know of.

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    2. Definitely an offshore supply ship. Any offshore windfarms in your area? Or could be contracted for bouy tender service.

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    3. Apparently they're building one off the Vineyard. New Bedford, once known for killing whales, apparently is now a player in killing migratory birds.

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    4. And whales. The Ultra Low Frequency emitted by the blade tips has been linked to whale strandings and whale vs ship casualties. And directly killing whale calves.

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    5. franksouze711@gmail.comDecember 9, 2023 at 7:07 PM

      One eye balling my ceiling fans for potential infra sound damage to my already stressed metabolism.

      Delete
    6. Beans - We had one close by, albeit a small one. The noise it made was pervasive and irritating. Fortunately it broke down and the owner has deemed it too expensive to bother with.

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    7. frank - Hopefully your ceiling fans are not having a deleterious effect on you. The sound can be a bother.

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  2. Went to the local branch of the county library system yesterday, it reopened early last month after closing down last December for remodeling. Good to be back in familiar surroundings even after visiting another branch for the past year. Curious Sarge, how long did your laptop last?

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    Replies
    1. The laptop lasted roughly 17 months.

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    2. Good Lord. My second is still chugging along and I bought it in 2001.

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    3. Try intense graphics gaming. It eats laptops for breakfast. Next gaming machine will be a desktop. I'll get a laptop for travel. (Blogging and the like.)

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  3. The reviews of Napoleon are not real positive.
    IMDB ratings of 6.5 out of 10.
    I have given up watching any movie or tv production rated less than 7.0
    You might want to save a dollar by watching it over one of the streamibg services like ww11.0123movie.net.
    Free viewing of movie and tv offeribgs.

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    Replies
    1. I went & watched it at the theater, wait until it you can see it for free is my advice. The money wasn't wasted but Napoleon did change the world and that part of what he did was ignored.

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    2. Beaner49 - Yes, it's been panned by many critics.

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    3. Rob - I really want to see it on the big screen, even though I know I'll probably be disappointed by it's inaccuracies.

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  4. What to do with your free time is a good problem to have... sort of.
    Write, read, watch tv, sleep, eat, interact with others.... they all take the one thing you only have so much of, your time. It's your life Sarge, spend it well!
    Merry Christmas!

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  5. Sarge, I feel the same. A day without writing a blog post feels like the something is incomplete about the day. It really is an addiction (but, as someone pointed out, at least it is not something bad for you...).

    Bummer on both the computer and the tooth. Hopefully both will resolve themselves quickly.

    (On the bright side, I do how like you have had The Staff step up. The "doubling your current rate of pay" memo was eminently clever.)

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  6. Crusty Old TV Tech here. It's a commercial ship I assume, but it almost looks like a Coastie buoy tender to me.

    On the tooth...yeah, went through that last year. 3 new crowns, one pre-existing crown, one new dental implant under one of said crowns, and STILL another partially broken toofus to fix next year. Doc who did the inplant used Fentanyl on me, a very interesting experience, that. They had a small hand-held X-Ray generator that looked exactly like Marvin the Martian's Eludium Q-38 Explosive Space Modulator, a fact which I mentioned to the nurse in recovery. I guess I was still in the Fentanyl state and might have embellished the observation some, she looked at me quite sternly and said nothing.

    I guess broken teeth is part of being alive at our (relatively speaking) age Sarge. Maybe it was AF grub what did it, or exposure to JP-4 and radar signals. In any case, may the Schwartz be with you on your upcoming tooth doc work!

    Computin machines...laptops lead a hard life, way too many bits in such a small space! Good luck with the replacement.

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    Replies
    1. Buoy tender, we do have a lot of those in the bay (buoys that is) and a Coast Guard station which takes care of those.

      On the laptop, too much stuff generating heat in a small space, just couldn't hang I guess.

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  7. ...just a few months ago had my second crown installed. My molars' early 1960s' era silver fillings are showing their age, and my dentist suggests crowning when cracks become deep enough to concern, and prior to tooth breakage. "An ounce of prevention, ..." and all that. My dentist has cautioned me to drastically [for me] alter my lifestyle: I now avoid my erstwhile very much enjoyed afternoon snack bowl of [real, poppped] popcorn, and forego chewing the ice cubes in my ice-water glass. ...ah..., the sacrifices we make to aging! :-(

    17 months of computer life does not seem all that acceptable. You must work the h*ll out of that thing. In 2018 I spent $1150 on a HP Envy laptop with a 17.5" screen, 16GB RAM, and Intel 17 processor, to use as my desktop & to travel with, and it's still going strong. OTOH, my usage is probably 1/100 of yours, as I don't do gaming and such. I see that the newer model of my laptop is now going for ~$1300 on Amzn, but it's got all kinds of newer, bigger, faster guts, so is probably a far better quality deal for the over-5-years minimal increase of $150. ...makes me almost, almost I say, tempted to upgrade!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I played a lot of high power games on that laptop. They use a lot of power and apparently the heat overwhelmed it. Sigh ...

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    2. See about getting a cooling stand (one with fans that force air into the machinegercomputing) as that's the only real way to force cooling into a laptop.

      There's a reason 'gaming computers' have 5 or more fans and weird cooling systems.

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  8. So when's the new wunderbox arriving?

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  9. All consuming passion sounds somewhat like an oxymoron. I'm glad you do it though, as I enjoy being part of this little community you have built.

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    Replies
    1. Maybe, but it's an apt description.

      Glad you're aboard.

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  10. I spent entirely too much time looking for historic ship data from mid October near Your Town, RI. The free stuff ends 30 Nov. Hmmmmm.... What to do..... Not a coastie, wrong livery. Hmmmmm...... Some kind of OSV....

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  11. Sorry, Sarge. Late to the fight! Had some important business to take care of in Austin. Successfully, thankfully.
    In regards to your post. I found it interesting and heartening to note that our Fearless Leader sometimes might have a hard time finding a subject. Been pondering that myself lately. Not to worry, got a pretty good one stored in RAM for Monday.
    On a different note, and a reminder to myself, only 16 days til Christmas. Got a lot left to do.
    Talk to ya later!
    juvat

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    Replies
    1. Hopefully the business in Austin went well, sounds like it did.

      Yes, Christmas is in the offing, I do believe I can spot the masthead on the horizon.

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