Favorite Book
Hi, I'm not back to blogging - I just had a question for you. What's your favorite book? Can be a classic you read long ago, or something still in hardback that you just finished. I listen to audiobooks on my way to work, thanks to my local library. I've listened to about everything they have that I know I wanted to read, and I'm nearly to the point of just picking random books.
- posted by Worldgineer @ 2/16/2005 10:36:00 AM 27 comments

 
End of blog
Well, I've not been known to do things halfway. This goes for baking and now blogging. Deciding that I should spend more time in the real world, I am ending my blog. I may visit other blogs from time to time to say hello, but that's about it.
- posted by Worldgineer @ 9/15/2004 08:23:00 AM 10 comments

 
Television
So nobody wants to comment on books? That's fair - it's hard to find time in our modern world for books. Most everyone watches television to some extent. The only show I'm into now (and have been since the beginning) is The Amazing Race. This season's a little dry, but I love the competition of these things. Travelling is one of the most difficult situations on a relationship, which makes this show great.

I know I've mentioned this somewhere else on the web, but I'll mention it again. My favorite reality show ever was Lost, which only lasted a season but was absolutely awesome. You take couples, drop them somewhere in the world, and have them find their way home. They first have to figure out where they are, then must beg, barrow, or steal ways to travel home. This was true reality tv. No plush hotels where you get 12 hours of rest time between days, no pre-paid for flights. They did give you money if you completed tasks, but not much. Great stuff. My favorite team was the two guys that just hung out and drank with a russian family until someone bought them plane tickets home. Those nice russians.
- posted by Worldgineer @ 9/14/2004 01:24:00 PM 1 comments

 
A book not to read
Ok, I'm not going to say "don't read this book." I'll just go with "don't read this book unless you like teenage romance novels combined with a bit of WWII historical detail and a lot of added fluff, where by fluff I mean over detailed description of every scene and a whole lot of plot that doesn't matter a bit to the book's core theme." The book is The Great Fire, and I read it for a book club I belong to. I actually love my book club - it forces me to make time to read, and we've read a lot of good ones. I guess they can't all be Middlesex or All Over Creation.
- posted by Worldgineer @ 9/14/2004 10:02:00 AM 1 comments

 
Hello
I'd like to meet lurkers. Don't be shy, say something. I know you're out there (my web counter tells me so). Feel free to use the Anonymous account. If you'd like to talk about something in particular, the topic I choose is: trees.

- posted by Worldgineer @ 9/13/2004 04:08:00 PM 4 comments

 
Tomatoes
Just wanted to post a note thanking the Fort Bragg Safeway. Good tomatoes are generally hard to find - grocery stores generally go for the picked green and artificially ripened type. The fresh, just picked tomatoes are only available at farmers' markets or from your own garden. This Safeway actually sold fresh-picked, heirloom tomatoes. Sure they were more expensive than the normal rubber, flavorless tomatoes, but I would have paid 5x the price they charged.
- posted by Worldgineer @ 9/12/2004 02:50:00 PM 4 comments

 
Ian's very nice beer page


I might try beer brewing, if my wife will let me. My only previous try was something called beer-in-a-bag. You boil some water, add it to this large canvas bag, and hang it up somewhere. After a week or so it ferments, the bag becomes pressurized, and you have beer. Something went wrong with mine. I hung it in the kitchen, and after a few days it exploded. I mean exploded. We weren't home at the time, but that's what must have happened as much of the kitchen was coated in a syrupy goo.
- posted by Worldgineer @ 9/11/2004 02:04:00 PM 2 comments

 
End of the world

Well, end of the english speaking world. That's where I'm at. Each evening the blog world, halfbakery world, and general internet world slows down. It's the least interesting part of the day, as I know it won't start up again until I'm asleep and the web won't change much until then. Sure there's the occasional Aussie that will stir things up, but other than them and those of us on the west coast US the 'net's pretty empty.
- posted by Worldgineer @ 9/10/2004 03:14:00 PM 0 comments

 
Sailing


I had always considered sailing to consist of rich couples with little else to do with their money than search for a new place to sip wine. Then about a year ago I went whale watching with a friend and saw the sport in a new light. There were many sailboats that could get much closer to the whales due to their lack of motors, and I imagined these families enjoying a quiet weekend on the sea - sailing around Puget Sound, whale watching, picknicking on beaches you can't access any other way. Of course I still saw it as being far out of reach, but I looked into it anyway. Turns out you can get a sailboat worthy of spending the weekend in for as low as $3,000. Not play money there, but about 1/10th of what I'd imagined.

Now curious, I looked into parking the thing. Turns out that's the pricy part. $2,000 a year - ouch. Then classes - about $2,300 to learn how to use the thing. Discouraged, I almost gave up on my new strange dream of sailing. Until I found out about this one yacht club. Yeah, sounds like people named Craig and Buffy in polo sweaters, docker shorts and vans laughing at the rundown $3,000 boats on the water. It's actually university students using donated sailboats teaching each other how to sail. Remember the John Cusack and Demi Moore 80's movie One Crazy Summer? It's perhaps what Hoop's group might have created if they were to start a club. For a few hundred a year I can use their boats, and they teach me how to sail for free.

My wife didn't share my dream, but did agree to join me in classes anyway. Our first night was in the middle of winter, with rain pouring from the sky and the sound of thunder. The class description recommended wetsuits, and said we had to be in the water as part of the class. We turned our car around on the way to class and decided to wait until summer.

Ten months and two sailing courses later, my wife and I are both certified to sail in the lake with any of the club's keelboats. We've gone on an overnight trip to one of the islands, and have mastered little sailboats and large ones. My wife still doesn't love sailing, but we're both happy to have a new place to sip wine.
- posted by Worldgineer @ 9/10/2004 11:32:00 AM 5 comments