Occasional Quote:

Excellence is an art won by training an habituation. We are what we repeatedly do.

-Aristotle

Ancient Ships

Does your mind ever wanter to a time of long ago?
When the salty air filled your lungs with life force
As the spray of the sea washed the sweat from your brow
And the solid earth was not your foothold of choice?

Do you ever dream the sound of mighty canvas sails?
Whipping windward as the seagulls soar to meet the sky?
The beauty of dark stained mahogany and golden brass rails
The memory of a shipmate's shout, "To portside, whales going by!"

Can you remember the sting of the bloody hands around the sheets?
As your worked side by side with mates to bring the ship about?
Setting a course for far off lands and great adventures to complete
Entries in your diary of exploits, even treasures... did you tout!

Then, there was that storm, a gale which was never seen before,
Force was the "Devils" favor as she approached the black of day
The still calm of the sea behind seemed to be running back to shore
All aboard the Clipper knew what lay ahead and all began to pray!

Immediately the mainsail bellowed as it filled with a furious wind
The Captain shouted, "Trim her tight agains the wind, hold her steady"
Over sounds of clapping thunder and the frenzied screams of men
Do you recall the strength you felt, as the Sea Witch stood ready?

As she listed to starboard, swells cascaded over her slippery deck
"Secure those sheets, release the Jib...Mr. Baker, check below for flooding!"
The Captain's voice, full of the force of God, they would not wreck!
You held your ground and faced the wrath, no time for brooding!

Within threedays time, the storm had quelled, the gulls returned
"A job well done, men, shall be rewarded with an extra hunck of mutton!"
Cheers echoed forth, all knew the heartfelt pride they had earned
Stars were bright that night, a zephyr was free, you were a glutton!

I challenge you to wonder...to ponder that amazing trip...
Were you dreaming, or was that you aboard that Ancient Ship?

-by Geneva Canaday
R.I.P

Happy Birthday Kipling

His bio is here. As you may know I am an enthusiastic fan of his poem "If".

Occasional Quote:

Ayn Rand

"Guilt is a rope that wears thin."

Starting to look like a daily quote, isn't it.

"Success" by Berton Braley

" Success"

If you want a thing bad enough

To go out and fight for it,

Work day and night for it,

Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it

If only desire of it

Makes you quite mad enough

Never to tire of it,

Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it

If life seems all empty and useless without it

And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,

If gladly you'll sweat for it,

Fret for it,

Plan for it,

Lose all your terror of God or man for it,

If you'll simply go after that thing that you want.

With all your capacity,

Strength and sagacity,

Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,

If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,

Nor sickness nor pain

Of body or brain

Can turn you away from the thing that you want,

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,

You'll get it!

Occasional Quote:

Will Rogers

"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."

Occasional Quote:

Anna Pavlova

"To follow, without halt, one aim: There's the secret of success."

Happy Birthday Pasteur

He was the man who brought us pasteurization, proved that spontaneous generation was incorrect, and gave us a vaccine against anthrax.

Lyrics to "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off"

Since the most frequent reason people visit my site is to find the lyrics to this song, I thought I should actually post the lyrics:

SHE SAID i'M GOING OUT WITH MY GIRLFRIENDS
MAGUARITAS AT THE HOLIDAY INN
OH MERCY...MY ONLY THOUGHT
WAS TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF

I TOLD HER PUT AN EXTRA LAYER ON
I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SHE DRINKS PATRON
HER CLOSETS MISSING HALF THE THINGS SHE BOUGHT
TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF

CH....SHE'LL START BY KICKING OUT OF HER SHOES
LOSE AN EARRING IN HER DRINK
LEAVE HER JACKET IN THE BATH ROOM STALL
DROP A CONTACT DOWN THE SINK

THEM PANTYHOSE AIN'T GONNA LAST TOO LONG
IF THE D J PUTS BON JOVI ON
SHE MIGHT COME HOME IN A TABLECLOTH
TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF

SOLO

SHE CAN HANDLE ANY CHAMPAIGNE BRUNCH
BRIDAL SHOWER WITH BACARDI PUNCH
JELLO SHOOTERS FULL OF SMIRNOFF... BUT TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF

CHORUS

SHE DON'T MEAN NOTHING
SHE'S JUST HAVING FUN
TOMORROW SHE'LL SAY
OH WHAT HAVE I DONE
HER FRIENDS WILL JOKE ABOUT THE STUFF SHE LOST
CAUSE TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF

Things you can to to increase your home's saleability

These are stolen from "Sell Your House on Purpose" by my friend, Pat Forber. He has a great list of items so I decided not to reinvent the wheel. The italicized parts are his headings, the comments are mine.

Condition
1. The Love Factor/Perfect Inspection. Show that your home is well maintained by doing those five to ten repairs you've been meaning to do, but haven't made time for. You may have stopped noticing that the faucet doesn't quite work right, or front door sticks, but a buyer sure will.

2. When in doubt, paint it! Paint goes a long way. Think about it if you drive up to a house and the front of it has chipping paint, that is going to color your view of the whole home. Even if the interior is perfect, you are going to be looking for flaws because of the first impression.

3. When in doubt, fix it! The buyer will probably ask you to do this as part of the inspection anyway. Why give them the opportunity to renegotiate the price? Fix it.

4. Keep water in the tub! Plumbing problems scare the crap out of people. Make sure your plumbing is in great working order. If your toilet runs, make it stop. If you sink drips, make it stop. If you have water damage, figure out the problem and fix it.

5. High tech standards. Make sure your electrical system is up to code.

6. Concrete and Dirty Ideas. Fix any landscaping and concrete blemishes outside the house. Especially in the front of the house.

7. Outland awareness. Once you've done the landscaping, keep it neat and trimmed.

8. The Furnace. Have your furnace serviced and if possible have them check for any gas leaks. Make sure the area around it is clean.

9. Interior decorating. Try to eliminate anything that is offensive to the current market. Get rid of that orange shag carpet!

10. Setting the stage. Basically, make your home look clean when potential buyers tour the house. Get rid of clutter. Make your home feel as welcoming as possible. Keep all areas of the home clean. Get rid of clutter (I already said that didn't I.)

I hope this was helpful.

Response to Rev's Question

Thanks to Rev for posing the comment/question. My response got so long I decided to make it a post.

You can definitely save money by doing some of the work yourself. The value added would still be the same as long as you didn't sacrifice quality by doing it yourself.

So let's run through an example. The national average cost for a deck addition was $11,300 and the cost recovery at sale was 90%. This means if your house was worth $200,000 before the remodel, it would be worth $210,170 after the remodel ($200,000 + ($11,300 x 90%).

If you were able to reduce the price of the deck addition by 10% by doing it yourself, the price of the deck would then be $10,170. So the increase in value would be exactly equal to the cost of the project.

The same type of analysis would apply for any of the project remodels.

As far as getting advice in your neighborhood, I would definitely recommend talking to a the Realtor who farms (ie specializes in) your neighborhood. If they are putting themselves out there as an expert in your neighborhood, they should be able to tell you what the buyers are willing to pay extra for in your neighborhood. They should know what the trends are and what you as a seller can capitalize on.

Getting an appraisal may not serve your purpose and the Realtor will likely do the analysis for "free". By free, I mean they will do it for no cost other than the honest opportunity to win your business. If you don't plan on moving anytime soon or are going to use your buddy Joe, have the courtesy to take them out to lunch at a decent place.

When people here in Denver ask me what to do to their homes, I recommend they make whatever changes to their home that are going to make them enjoy it more and not to worry about the dollar return on investment. The return is their enjoyment of their home.

It isn't worth what it cost!

As a real estate appraiser, I know that cost and value are not the same thing. Every year NAR does a study of what remodel jobs pay off and which don't. That is kind of a misnomer because in general, they don't pay off. They are trying to be positive so they put it in a percent of cost recovered, but I would prefer if they put a percent gained or lost based on the investment put in. Almost all of the numbers would be negative, but that is more realistic.

Smartmoney published the list here. Keep in mind that you only made money on your investment if the number is greater than 100%.

Dumb Criminals

This goes along with the Darwin awards. Hat tip to Business Pundit.

Occasional Quote:

Theodore Roosevelt

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

Merry Christmas

Firefly Life Lessons

This is Firefly's answer to "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten".

Occasional Quote:

Thomas Jefferson

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

Occasional Quote:

George Washington

"Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company."

Top 100 Skylines

I've had this one on my favorites list, but I thought I'd share with my readers. There is something about a skyline that makes you think about all of the people working there and what they are accomplishing.

I'm (not) with the band

I played guitar for about ten years around when I was in high school and early college, but set it aside. I just recently picked it up again and have been surprised about how much I remember.

Anyhow, since I've been playing I've been toying around with the idea of starting a blues band. Not something too serious with the touring, and the promoting, and the recording, but something to do for fun on occasion. Maybe the opening act for an opening act.

Well, last night I spent the evening at Swallow Hill at their blues jam. I had a great time! I learned a few new songs. I learned a few new cords. I played until my fingers (almost) bled. (Note to self, work on my callouses).

As much as I had a great time, I came to the conclusion that the weakest member of my one man band is me. It is going to be some time before I'm ready to ask others to play with me. I had a terrible time remembering chord changes. I was sort of like the littlest girl in a kindergarten dance recital; I would watch the others for the next move. I was like the Peter Keating guitar player.

So this just means that I'm going to have to keep on practicing, keep on playing at sessions like last night, and generally keep on keeping on. Eventually I'll be just like John Lee Hooker, only a little whiter.

Congratulations

I want to say congratulations to Gabriele who just finished the first draft of her first novel.

The Dead Zone

I just finished On Writing by Stephen King and I thought it was a good read. Coincidentally, Ian over at Banana Oil posted his thoughts on King's "The Dead Zone", which King talks about in On Writing.

I've never read The Dead Zone, but I love good plots and the plot of this one is "What happens when the lone gunman in the tower is right?". Ian goes into the plot in more detail. Just the simple question makes it an intriguing novel. Most great plots can be summarized with an intriguing question starting with "what happens when":

What happens when a priest falls in love with a gypsy girl? (Hunchback of ND)
What happens when an ugly, but witty, man seduces the woman he loves for a hansom, but simple friend? (Cyrano)
What happens when a mulatto returns home to confront a racist general and his slave trading brother? (George by Dumas)
What happens when a man fights against a Wall Street syndicate to build a grain elevator? (Calumet K)
What happens when a valley girl becomes a killer of vampires? (Buffy the Vampire Slayer-I had to throw this one in)
What happens when the mind goes on strike against society? (Atlas Shrugged)
What happens when a son discovers his father's unsavory past? (All My Sons by A. Miller)

All of these are great and intriguing plots.

Occasional Quote:

The solo sailor has to be conscious of every sight, sound, or even a change of motion on the yacht, whether on deck or below because it could indicate a change of wind speed or direction, a developing problem or the failure of a component.

-Andrew Roberts, Project Director, Aviva Challenge

Online Radio Stations

I normally don't listen to the radio at the office. I get distracted by the commercials and the DJs. Something about hearing someone talk interrupts my ability to focus on anything else.

Recently, I've checked out a couple of the on-line radio stations. I started with AOL and have tried out Yahoo! Music. I have to say I'm impressed. AOL had a great mix in the three categories I've been flipping between--blues, classic rock, and classical. This week, AOL seems to have partnered with XM radio and the mix went down hill. This prompted me to check out Yahoo!

Yahoo!'s mix is as good as AOL's. They do play commercials periodically, but only 30 second spot at a time. You also have to pay for some of the more specialized sites, including blues. :( They have two additional features I like: First, they have a "skip this track" button. If you just hate "Takin' Care of Business" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, you can simply skip it. (You can't skip the commercials!) Second, it will stop periodically to see if you're still listening. It is nice to know that the radio won't be on all night if I forget to shut down the computer.

My older sister, who works at Microsoft, has recommended I try MSN's music site. I'll let you know what I think once I give it a shot.

Compete in the America's Cup

The Spanish challenger to the America's cup just posted an on-line simulation game which allows you to sail a boat against a challenger. The directions are in Spanish, but it is possible to get the gist of the directions with a little help from Common Sense.

Tie me up, tie me down

Here is a link for boating knots. I always used to watch my dad tie things up when we were moving and was in awe that he could keep a giant desk or a couch from falling over with rope. Now that I've learned the essential sailing knots, I think I can one up him by using about half of the rope that he did.

If the title of this post excited you, you might be looking for something more like this. ;)

Happy Birthday Beethoven

Today is Beethoven's birthday. His short bio is here. I love his Fifth Symphony and his "Ode to Joy". He was one of the great composers of all time. If you want to learn more about his life and contribution, I recommend checking out the courses Robert Greenberg gives at the Teaching Company.

Creation and Destruction

Last Tuesday I came home and the house across the street was gone. It had been there that morning and had completely disappeared by 6PM. It amazed me that the wrecking crew took a single day to destroy what took some developer at least six months to create.

Fortunately, there is a new developer who is going to put up a shiny new duplex in its place, which will make my house more valuable.

Occasional Quote:

Thomas A. Edison
"Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work."

Copulating deaf couple unaware of own volume

The title says it all. The full article is here.

Hat tip: Noodlefood

Jack the Ripper

Since I mentioned it: If you go to London, don't miss the Jack the Ripper walking tour. They start at midnight and take you on a tour of the crime scenes. It is definitely gruesome; you definitely learn a lot about the crimes, but you learn about the times too.

If you don't have a taste for the macabre, go to the improve. You might get to see some of the cast of the British Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Healthy Competition

Apparently Muir and C&F are competing for some kind of award. And they are taking friendly jabs at each other in the process. I think they are both funny. I have a little cartoon crush on Sam, the redheaded engineer with an assault rifle, on Day by Day, so I may have a little bias.

English Breakfast

I like to have a big cup of coffee in the morning. Not so much because I need the caffeine. I don't. I drink decaf. I just like coffee.

The last couple of days I haven't been able to have my morning cup. I don't have any coffee in the house and haven't managed to make it to the store. Normally I would just skip it and make a mental note to buy some coffee, but it has been so bloody cold lately that I need something hot. In place of my beloved cup of Joe, I have had to resort to drinking tea. English breakfast to be exact.

Drinking this particular flavor of tea brought back a vivid memory. Liz and Norman brought Tina and I to this little coffee bistro when we first arrived in Scotland. I follow the old maxim "cum in Roma", so I ordered the "Scottish Breakfast". I devoured it. There were a few things on my plate that I didn't immediately recognize, but that never stopped me before.

Afterwards, I asked about the little blackish mound of stuff I had eaten. They explained to me that it was black pudding.

"What's that?" I ask.

"Well, it is blood that they boil and add spices to." Liz said.

At this very moment, I let loose a sneeze I had been fighting off. When I looked up, everyone had taken a step back and had a horrified look on their face.

"What's wrong?"

"Well," Liz said "I thought after telling you what was in the black pudding... and the motion that you just made... well, I thought you were going to vomit."

They were actually surprised that I hadn't.

So it's been nice re-living some old travel memories. I will have to get some coffee soon or I'll keep reliving my travels to Britain. Then you'll be subjected to my "Jack the Ripper" story.

Blogging Heroes

hero (n) A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose.

There are two bloggers I'd like to give a hat tip to. They are heroes because of their courage and dedication to their goals.

The first is Dee Caffari. She is adding to her list of heroic sailing triumphs by sailing alone around the world backwards. It is easier to sail around the world going west a la Magellan. She is going it alone to the east. Reading her blog/diary is fascinating and exciting.

The second is Jason Duncan. He is starting a coffee shop up in Bozeman, MT. He just graduated from college and has taken on this big undertaking. I really enjoy his blog too.

New Pirates of the Caribbean Movie

I always hear about the good new movies from Ian first. Check out the trailer.

Ziggies

I just discovered a cool bar in Denver. I won’t say it’s a new bar because it is only new to me.

It’s Ziggie’s Saloon: Colorado’s Home of the Blues. It is the only blues bar I know of here in Denver. I mean strictly Blues. I dropped by the check out the band they had there on Saturday night and what struck me was how friendly everyone was. I ran into a guitarist, Andy, who told me about their Sunday jam sessions. It sounded like fun, even though I haven’t really played guitar in years and my skills are hovering just above newbie.

The band was cool too. They played a pretty interesting mix of blues and funk. Chucky, the bar owner, told Andy and I that they were a trio from three other bands and they played together on the side.

The bar’s walls were covered with posters of the old Blues legends--Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, etc. They also had signed photos of the bands that have played there over the years.

I’m definitely coming back!

Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl": An analysis

I don't really know what to say except that if this song baffles you as much as it baffles me, this article will add some insight.

Ancient long distance seafaring

I found the link above via Zephyr. It is a story about evidence that contradicts the belief that ancient mariners never left sight of land. Maybe I watched too many Indiana Jones movies as a kid, but archaeology is so fascinating to me.