Monthly Archives: July 2005

Is that my silhouette?

Sunday, July 3, 2005

I'm currently uploading a ton of pictures to the BMEfest galleries and other BBQ/culture sections, but before that, let me share with you a cool poster that MisterV sent me:

You may remember that I recently posted a link to an article by Dr. Diamond suggesting that humanity's “worst mistake” was leaving the hunter-gatherer phase and becoming farmers in terms of health and social issues. This documentary is about his Pulitzer Prize winning book of the same title discussing how local environments shaped societies and the direction they took more so than biology.

Diamond can tend to be a little one-sided in his opinions on this subject, but if you're in an area that gets PBS, consider checking this out… it stars next Monday.

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I know there's an answer

Saturday, July 2, 2005

As is quite obvious if you've read my page for any time, as much as I've been very successful in “Western society” in all its complexity, I really long for a simpler life, a better way of being. My dream personally is living the cruising life, sailing around the world over and over, visiting all those magical places that can't be reached by any course but that of the ocean.

Some time next year I want to take about two weeks off and do a sailing charter through Tahiti and French Polynesia. Hopefully I can rope Barry and Jen into the trip, but another couple or two would be good for brining the costs down. I'm looking at chartering a crewed 50+ foot catamaran sailboat and exploring the islands. Below are a variety of photos of what I'm talking about.


If you think this is something you'd be interested in doing, it wouldn't be a cheap trip, but it would be absolutely amazing and life changing (aren't all things?)… Drop me a line if you think you'd like to do this. It can also be set up as a training mission for those seeking to learn to sail a larger craft. That's part of my motivation, because while I'm proficient in smaller fresh-water sailing, I've never sailed anything over twenty feet personally, and certainly not on the open sea.

It's possible that I spend too much of my time dreaming of a better life, but in reality, I think it's far more likely that most of us spend our time convincing ourselves that such a better life doesn't even exist.

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Waiting for AC

Friday, July 1, 2005

…so I decided to open up my computer and blow out the dust:

That big CAUTION-covered thing in the bottom right is an enormous heat sink that draws molten lava off the desktop CPU they've jammed inside. I was actually surprised how little dust has built up inside, but it's probably still a good idea to periodically open it up and blow it up.

Other than that I spent the day reading for a change (a book on ancient engineering), and doodling pictures of the boat I want to build one day, a massive (100+ foot) trimaran in the shape of a manta ray. Can anyone here that's a sailor tell me why wingsails aren't more popular? Wingsails are the technology I want to build the boat around, and while they're fairly rare, they seem to me to be the ideal way to propel a sailboat.

Well, I'm going to power down again. I've got about two hours to wait before the AC is up and running again. It sucks a little because it means the work that I'd planned for today becomes the work I'm planning for tonight — meaning the sleep I'd planned for tonight becomes the sleep I fail to get.

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