Jun. 15th, 2010

aggienaut: (tallships)

   I'm in the galleyhouse washing the dishes from lunch, through the window in front of me I can see the skyscrapers of Seattle across the sound, the boat rocking gently side to side, when over my the music I have going on the galley sound system I hear some moaning and groaning from elsewhere in the ship. "That sounds like zombies!!" I say to myself, grabbing the rolling pin I just cleaned and stepping out.

   Sure enough Sabrina, our newest volunteer (a trapeze artist from Canada!?) is stumbling up the steps out of the main hold. I promptly pretend to whale on her with the rolling pin until she's pretend out of commission. I then turn my attention to Pony, who has emerged from the other companionway. As long as all the zombies are belowdecks I have them in kind of a chokepoint since both companionways come up pretty close together and with the rollingpin I can take them out one by one by killing the zombie emerging from one companionway and then the other. Nevertheless the push me around the side of the galleyhouse. I'm just bashing the brains out of the last one one, and someone in the background is saying "I think Kris just single handedly stopped this zombie uprising!" when Noah grabs me through the galley window. I'd forgotten I was standing next to an open window!

   We do love our zombie drills.


   Saturday was our boat's 22nd birthday. After we finished our workday we made hawaiian punch with a gallon and a half of rum in it, put on some Hawaiian music (we played IZ - Over the Rainbow on loop for a long time with the specific intent of annoying the Lady crew :D ), rigged up hammocks, and those who had them donned hawaiian shirts. Since we're getting close to the longest day of the year now the sunset lasted for about two hours of beautiful pink sky. It was a wonderful evening.
   And meanwhile the crew on the Lady was still working -- they had an evening charter that kept them out till 9pm, by which point our crewmate Will was already passed out!




other recent photos

aggienaut: (Default)

   ::dusts off microphone:: TAP TAP, hello, anyone still here? I think posts here now get read much more via the feed to facebook than here directly, so hello facebook!


   As some of you may recall with dread, traditionally every June I participate in a little something called 30 in 30 wherein one makes 30 updates in 30 days. 30 blog posts that are actually worth reading. I had participated every June since that first fateful June back in 2004. This year would be Season VII, and you may have noticed you haven't noticed me clogging your friendslists and news feeds with posts. The combination of internet frequently being a half mile walk into town and being constantly busy has finally proven too much for me to keep up.
   However, all the original participants might be out but a new generation is keeping the dream alive! The delightful miss [livejournal.com profile] whirled and gallant mr [livejournal.com profile] hereticxxii seem to be doing a grand old job of it! And if anyone else is doing it please let me know, and/or if you want to do it but this is the first time you've heard of it, keep in mind my first season I started on the 16th of the month (the deadline is always 30 entries by the 30th)

   On any account, I'll try to get as many updates up this month as I can. And as always these days, there's more up at my other blog



A statue in Edmonds, WA

Pictures of the latest adventures

aggienaut: (Default)

   Hello from Port Orchard, WA! We only just got here yesterday so I don't know much about this town. Seems to be the typical small seaside town up here though -- one main street with shops on it, a disproportionate number of which are antique shops, four bars, only one coffee shop (and it is more like a well lit plastic table sort of restaurant than a coffee shop). But this coffee shop has free wi fi so I'm going with it.


   Our boat's been very underhanded lately. Err I mean shorthanded ;D. Crew's been down to 9 and for a day 7 .. whereas the normal crew is supposed to be 12 and minimum operating crew is supposed to be 10. Meanwhile every day our partner vessel the Lady Washington seems to get 2 or 3 more crewmembers -- they've been up to 15 or 16 I think.

   Other than the fact that having so few crewmembers means we get fewer days off I really don't mind it. It means more running around to grab lines during sails, but hey that's the fun part! And it's nice having a close knit crew consisting entirely of people who are awesome and get along fantastically. Compare this to when I first got on board, the crew of 13 or so consisted of a number of pairs of people who hated eachother's guts -- it was not a close knit crew at all. And while the Lady doesn't have people that loathe eachother (to my knowledge), I don't think they all click with eachother like ours.

   Day before yesterday we finally got a new crewmember, a Canadian trapeze artist (!?) who has worked on other tallships before, and she seems like she'll fit in alright. Last night our new first mate arrived, he'll be taking over for Jimmy, who'll be taking over as captain, as today is our current captain's last day. So for today I suppose he's our 2nd Mate? And today we have a whopping 11 people.
   The new first mate, JB, has a long history with the organization, and has been captain before with Jimmy as HIS first mate. As the current captain has... at least not clicked socially with the crew I'm confident this new reshuffling will only make the crew dynamic even more awesome.


   We had a very fun hawaiian party for the ship's 22nd birthday last Saturday, and today to celebrate the changeover of captain and three crew birthdays within days of eachother we're going to have another epic party.
   In short, it's been good times.




Deckhand Brecken and cook Daisy
This is how we roll. :D

aggienaut: (Default)
And now for something completely different! A beekeeping related post from the other blog earlier this year!


Getting Stung in the Facec - A Practical Guide

   So I got stung dozen and a half times in the face the other day at work, but that wasn't even the worst part.


   I was making the rounds at our largest bee yard, where we have some 75 hives on three sides of a large square. Sometimes bees would start buzzing around me in a way that is either a warning or just means they're gearing up for battle, I'm not sure which but I know it's the precursor to trouble. Their buzzing takes a different pitch when they're doing this or in an active attack pattern (same pitch), and it's pretty obvious the bees are flying around ME rather than going about their merry business. When that happens I stand perfectly still. Although they can still tell you're not a statue because they can smell you and are sensitive to specifically the carbon dioxide one exhales, standing perfectly still makes them notice you about 80% less and is usually sufficient to make the concerned bees calm back down.

   With the bees, you're good as long as you're good. I have this suspicion that they can sense when you're afraid or agitated, because people who are not me seem to get stung a lot more than people who are me (for example my boss usually gets himself angry or stressed about one thing or another, and then starts getting stung). But once you get stung once, you're not good. When a bee stings you it releases an alarm pheromone. So now you're marked. You know in war movies where they mark something for an air strike with a smoke grenade billowing out a plume of bright red smoke? Suddenly that's you.
   So I was walking through the hives, sometimes pausing till bees lost interest, then proceeding. And I was good. And then I was not good -- I got a sting. And then another, and another.
   Normally this would be time to walk brisky to the truck and put on a veil, but I look up to find that Dave has driven down to the water spigot down the road a bit to go get water for the bees, and the suits are on the truck. By now they're stinging me faster than I can scrape out the stingers.
   So I walk briskly to the middle of the yard, since the hives are all on the perimeter, and take off my hat. Batting wildly at bees never works and you just look like an idiot and tire yourself out. HOWEVER, when bees become tangled in your hair, they're relatively stuck and one swift bat can take them out. I wear a khaki coloured hat because my hair is dark brown --the colour of bears--, which tends to upset the bees. But once they're already attacking me, it's better to give them get tangled in hair than bounce off a hat to come right back looking for a fleshy spot to harpoon me. So I take off my hat and immediately have half a dozen struggling in my hair. Swat swat swat, one by one they drop dead at my feet and the buzzing around me subsides.

   I then walk to the hives on the opposite side of the yard from where I was and give them the walk through. I do this at a brisk pace, because although these bees aren't looking for something to sting yet, if they catch a whiff of the sting pheromone I'm now thoroughly covered with they'll be right on it. I am able to give these hives the walk through without incident (I'm just giving them a quick inspection that there's traffic in and out the entrance and no ants on the hive or other obvious problem). Dave's still not back so I walk back to where I left off on the other side, hoping if I give it a fast enough walk-by I can accomplish my mission without getting mauled.

   No sooner am I near the hives then they're all up in my face again. And not only that, but a bee crawls IN MY EAR. I quickly walk away again, somewhat very disconcerted by the bee in my ear (this has only happened to me once before, and that briefly). It feels a bit like water in your ear -- if the water were scrambling with six tiny legs and buzzing and liable to sting you. Needless to say it was NOT COOL. If the bee were to sting me it would likely die in there AND the inside of my ear would swell shut or something.
   I make an extra effort not to clench my teeth or make any expression that might constrict the ear canal. I try tilting my head so that side is towards the ground and jumping up and down, like one would to shake water out of one's ear. No luck. I know that bees usually crawl upwards to get out of places so I tilt my head to the other side, so the bee ear side is upwards, which feels a bit counterintuitive, and just pray* that it crawls out. ... fortunately it does. However the memory of the sensation is STILL giving me heeby geebies.

* and by pray I mean just hope urgently

   I had finished inspecting all the hives, but Dave was still not back and by now there were bees following me trying to sting me on a regular basis (by which I mean succeeding every few seconds), so I walked around at a brisk pace. Running for your life of course works too, but walking at a brisk pace is usually sufficient to keep the bees attacking you from behind, which means they're mostly getting stuck in your hair and not giving you sausagelip. When Dave returned I tried to look nonchalant about it but it was obvious I had dozens of bees flying angrily around my head. He asked if I was okay and I managed a smile and said yeah ... then grabbed a veil.


Picture of the Day


One corner of the aforementioned square perimeter of bees

aggienaut: (dictator)
And now for something entirely unrelated!

   I've always been a huge fan of strategy games. I've been a player of Dune II, Red Alert II, Warcraft II, Age of Empire II, Civ II & III, Starcraft, and possibly others.
   Originally, opposing sides had either units that were more or less exactly the same, or at least units that looked different but were functionally identical. Then the makers decided to change it up, make the strategy a little asymmetrical and give the various sides different sorts of units. Starcraft even made the means of production slightly different. One very major aspect has always been the same though: the economics.
   Invariably, one must harvest something in order to produce your tanks. It is odd to me that this should be the unexceptional rule, since throughout history only Columbian narcoterrorists have really had such a direct corrolation between production and military output. Normally, the military strategists have a set budget. Yes they have to fight fluctuations of it in Congress, but dear god don't make THAT part of the game. Not only is it unrealistic, I find it incredibly annoying, as keeping an eye on my workers and balancing production between economic capital and military units is not what I play strategy games to do.
   In addition your vehicles will have a build cost but no maintenance cost. This allows one to simply continue to build up bigger and bigger armies over time. This is also very unrealistic, as the limit to military build-up on a strategic scale has always been available support budget, not build time. For example, I would imagine the "cost" of an infantryman is somewhere near half the yearly cost to maintain him anyway, or such (since what you're paying for is primarily just paying him during training). So you see, this is not only unrealistic, but also effects the strategic interplay of the game.

   I think it would be interesting to make a strategy game that not only breaks from the standard harvest-based economics, but has the various factions work on different economic models. Here is what I thought up:
Democracy: The military forces of a democracy will have a set budget. However, for every person they lose (counting both infantry units and members of vehicle crews), they lose some of their budget (as popular support for the war goes down). Consequently the Democracy forces will want to emphasize stand-off attack weapons and expensive technology that will minimize losses.
Communism: Communist forces will have a set budget. It doesn't matter how good you do, the budget comes from those who produce in accordance with ability, to those who need in accordance with need. In fact, your budget might even go DOWN if you're doing well in the scenario. Purchase of additional units, however, isn't done by paying a set price, but rather requesting the units from central command, whom will decide whether or not you really need the unit, and send it to you with substantial delay. (= Units are cheap, however, and maintenance costs, especially personnel pay, is low. Available units are quite technologically advanced for their costs.
Local Warlord Kleptocracy: Budget depends on holding on to certain key stratego-economic points. Also, likely funded by a Democratic or Communist force by proxy (this money will probably just be a set amount). Kleptocratic forces will probably use cheap out-of-date predecessors of Democratic/Communist units, and technicals, and such.
Insurgents: My main thought with insurgents is that whereas other factions will have structures and vehicles, as is usual in strategy games, the insurgents will have primarily only personnel units. For example more units will be recruited by a "recruiter" individual, whereas for most other forces they'd come from barracks and such. There will be some buildings however, such as weapons caches and bomb factories. The basic idea is that most insurgent units will only be detectable up close so they'll be hard to find. I'm not sure how they'll be funded. I'm thinking they'll get a certain bounty for killing enemy forces, and perhaps budget increases when the enemy accidently kills civilians. ...and maybe a small permanent budget to tide them over - this is the money Iran is giving them ;)
Narco-Terrorists: Think FARC-EP. They'll be the only ones to work like most stategy games -- budget will come directly from operating and harvesting hidden drug fields and labs.
Mercenaries: The Mercenaries work for whomever and are entirely funded via bounties on destroyinig enemy units.

   And of course, as I noted above, maintenance costs should be such that the size of your forces is limited by the budget, and can't grow ad infinitem until you can zerg rush your enemies with mammoth tanks. You'll have to actually utilize tactics and strategy to destroy your enemy!



   So there you are. I think someone should make this game.

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