Scurvy Jack's Tortuga Adventure

Thought for the day

2009-02-19T13:11:00.001-05:00

Is intolerance of intolerance intolerant?

Hmm...

The Bottom

2009-02-12T14:48:00.002-05:00

Based on cumulative research and oodles of data at my availability, I predict that the US/UK/European economies, the respective stock markets, and FX/interest rates will reach their bottom on this Valentines Day, 2009.

This will only become evident in about 3-6 months time once sufficient reliable data has been collected.

This was the P-A's prediction. Let it be henceforth written. etc. etc.

By Toutatis!

2008-10-01T13:41:00.004-05:00

So for those of you out of the know, a space-tourist named Toutatis after the "Asterixian" Celtic god is going to be in the area for a couple of days, ready for in a near earth fly-by on November 8th 2008. Get those telescopes out!

There's all sorts of speculation amongst the doomsayers out there that T will hit earth in 2012. Problem or solution? You decide.

Picture lifted from Celestia.

Philosophizing

2008-09-27T11:53:00.002-05:00

I'm afraid there'll be no picures in this post. This is going to be a long, drawn-out ramble with no conclusion by a confused angst-filled writer with numerous unresolved issues.

God, I certainly hope not. There are more than enough of those out there. How did I become one?

Yes, I've had a crisis of 'faith' per se over the last few months, but the faith in question not being one of religious belief, but more so faith in the capitalist system, and our unquestioned buy-in to its underlying assumptions of 'more stuff will make me happy'.

What I've come to notice more and more is the old adage, 'time is money'. Unfortunately, it doesn't work the other way around. Money is not time. The 70 hour work week you just spent doing some 'urgent' task is just so. SPENT! No getting that time back. Was the money worth it? If you work it out, if you're on a monthly salary, by working more, you're actually getting paid less per hour. You've just had a cut-price sale for your time.

There are only a few real truths - one of which is that you exist - 'cogito ergo sum', and another is that you will cease to exist given enough passage of time. If your work gives your life meaning (and there are some people out there for which this is true - and more power to them!), then spending most of your time working should make you happy. If not, then its simply a means to an end. The end being: money in order to live comfortably for the rest of the non-working time (your meaningful time).

I'm beginning to wonder if Socrates was right, in that to truly be happy, one needs to remove oneself from society with a handful of closest friends and live on a self-sufficient plot of land. A hippie commune, without the hippies. I recently met a person who does in fact live this way, at a place called Zendik Farm. They seem like they're relatively happy for now, but sooner or later these sorts of arrangements inevitably break down, don't they? And what about having a pension when they do?

Clearly breaking away from the accepted societal norms is not something which most people could do easily without some form of safety net. I'm beginning to think that the key is fewer people. Fewer people = less competition for resources, less demand for meaningless products, a return to what is important in peoples lives. So how do we cut the world's population?

Nuclear devastation would be a quick fix, but not one I'm particularly fond of (too attached to my own safety to be an anarchist of that nature). Some form of biological weapon could be a bit more selective, but ultimately, the richest people would be the ones who would be able to afford a vaccine or cure, so the world that would emerge afterwards would resemble a feudal system. No thanks. My personal favorite is the 'stealth strategy', which I suspect may already be underway by sheer accident, (or design, who knows) - indiscriminant sterilisation. If 75% of the population couldn't produce offspring, we would start to see a steady decline in the population levels. Of course, the offspring of the other 25% would likely not be affected by the sterilisation agent, and so the population growth would start up again. Meh.

My personal favorite is finding a sterilisation agent that would affect 95%+ of the population, and having a 'neutralising agent' which would allow procreation based on suitability of the applicants, which would mean that their offspring would be affected by the sterilising agent, and be subject to the system. Too Big Brother for your liking, eh? Yes, I do acknowledge this requires faith in the system (and who does these days), and the extreme corruption that a system of this nature would experience. I never said it was perfect. I'm a philosopher after all, not a social engineer. I'll leave that sort of thing to the world's next big mentally unstable dictator, and end up being his/her Nitzche.

So, I've worked my way from a crushing capitalistic system through to a crushing genetic manipulation system. All in the name of happiness.

Back from the Dead

2007-12-18T02:24:00.000-05:00

Tintagel, Cornwall, UK

Hi All,

I've been really bad not posting for months and months. Of course now no-one will actually read my site, but I felt like putting material back up here.

World of Coke, Atlanta

A lot has happened in this time - I am getting married in a few days time, I've just bought an apartment in the Cayman Islands together with my fiance, I've made maiden voyages to Havana, Atlanta, Seattle and Cornwall, I've been promoted to Management level at work and I've played the lead role in a theatre production performed in the Cayman Islands.

Some Park in London, UK
No wonder I had no time to blog. Although Facebook still seemed to get way more than its fair share... Damn its simple interface and non-requirement for thinking.

Che Mural in Cuba

Wishing everyone a great holiday season, and all the best for the new year!

Our apartment from the back garden

Just call me Q

2007-04-27T01:04:00.001-05:00

Hi all,

A certain big client of mine has been keeping me really busy for the last 3 months (and probably will keep me in full employment for another month), so I have had no time to say anything on here, not that I've had time to do anything particularly exciting anyway.

I've gotten caught up in the wily webs of Facebook which has brought me right back in touch with a lot of people who I wouldn't normally keep in touch with (and probably only see back home once a month or less), which is really cool.

Angie's parents arrive today for a week, and hopefully we should have some pics of their visit to post up soon.

Until then, I'm Mr Q. Reporting for Q Network here in Q.

Touch Rugby Tournament March 2007

2007-04-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

Picture of our team courtesy Matt Miller (the guy with the red cap). See more of his pictures taken on the day here (some pics - this one included obviously - taken by Wasim).

The Jolly Roger

2007-03-12T03:11:00.000-05:00

This is the culmination of 3 hours of freeeeeee rum punch. Just glad I was the one standing up...

Me mates' Ski Vacation

2007-02-18T07:28:00.000-05:00

This is me mates on holiday in the Italian Alps. Bonjourno you guys! Wish I could have joined you. Work in the first three, er five, months of the year, she's someting of a beach.

That sure does look cold (although my definition of cold these days is anything less than 22C).

Cayman Road Hogs

2007-02-18T06:58:00.000-05:00

It just pisses me off. And I'm livin' in de i-lands where life is meant to be chilled mon.

This is the worst part of Cayman I've experienced so far hands down (and we do so every day). From the Dickheads with their Hum-Vee's and the Knobs in their Dodge Calibre's (Oh, I'm so hardcore - don't mess with me I'll pound your puny vehicle into the ground), to the Tools in souped up sports cars (I can do Mach 1 by the time I run out of road), there is a brewing hatred for the ego's out there.

People talking on their cellphones, doing 70MPH (speed limit is around 40 most places) while overtaking at a corner of the dual carriage highway, just to get where they're going (presumably a burial plot with a view) 5 seconds faster.

Unfortunately, I'm not blameless. I flipped the bird at some guy while cycling today, because he overtook me with a fairly minimal distance between the car and my bike. I punctured his fragile ego with my sharpened middle claw, and he felt the need to defend himself with well constructed arguments such as "there was an oncoming car on the other side of the road you $%^#.", to which I countered, not quite as convincingly, "Well, why couldn't you just wait for it before overtaking me?". Clearly my argument was not as solid as his, as I kept the expletives in my head, and he went off satisfied that he'd proved his manhood to the world. Road rage may land another Knob in the slammer as he so rightly deserves, but the landing myself in intensive care, after a 2.0l Caliber to the head was not quite a fair trade-off. The imbalance of power in these type of showdowns is a case-study for Postal Worker gore-fests and bullet-riddled bullies bodies.

Ugh. And they're not killing each other off quickly enough either. There's only twelve pegging off every year.

Work Sailing trip/80 hour working challenge

2007-02-09T08:34:00.000-05:00

Our small group (called a pod) at work organised a sunset sailing trip out on the North Sound for a couple hours yesterday 'after' work. I say 'after', because I went back to the office and put in another 2 1/2 hours. I've been challenged to put in 80 hours of work this week by one of my managers, and damned if I'm going to skip out on a challenge. In the pic to my right is Terri, the manager I'm doing most of my work for (and not the one who set me the challenge).

Cycling Accident

2007-02-02T09:20:00.000-05:00

While cycling yesterday, I got knocked off my bike. Granted, I was driving in rush hour traffic (about 5:30pm), so the roads were clogged with plenty of frustrated people in a hurry to get anywhere. The whole reason for cycling at that time is that its just after work, and its before it gets dark (happens between 6 and 6:30). I think I'm not going to cycle in traffic again - the weekends are good, and if I can somehow manage to take time during the day on weekdays, perhaps. I'll just have to do a hundred laps of the minature swimming pool we have at our complex to make up for the lack of excercise.

I haven't got any serious injuries - two skinned knees, and a sore arm, but it could have been much worse depending on where it had happened - some of these roads are really narrow, and the drivers don't respect cyclists. Its really frustrating when a car doesn't even bother to go around you - it just drives past as if you weren't even on the side of the road. I would get about 2 or 3 of these every time I cycled. Thats kind of how it happened yesterday. Panel van overtook me (barely bothering to go around me), and then pulled further across to the left while still adjacent to me, and I just felt cornered - it was like a wall had come up half a metre alongside me, plus there was a bicycle in front of me who I was about to overtake myself - hello I had the right of way Mr Panel Van. Anyway, long story short, I was going to crash into the guy in front of me, felt hemmed in on my right - nowhere to go on the left (road shoulder), so I put my hand out to push against the car. Two moving objects touching at different speeds, yada yada, I was flat on the floor. Bit dumb of me, but the driver really needed to realise that his actions would pin me into a corner.

A fellow passengers photo's

2007-01-16T08:32:00.000-05:00

More Photo's from a fellow passenger on the cruise are uploaded here.

Our new House in Cayman

2007-01-13T04:23:00.000-05:00

New Years K-Man style

2007-01-13T02:31:00.000-05:00

Cheers to a couple of very special New Years party animals - Wasim and Angie!

Miami South Beach and our Cruise across the Caribbean

2006-12-24T10:48:00.000-05:00

Some of the highlights of the cruise are included here - see the full set uploaded here:

Cruise Photo Gallery

New car, old car

2006-12-24T10:42:00.000-05:00

We've had this for a while, but never actually had any pictures to show for it. In the foreground the new car, in the background, the old.

Hope Springs

2006-12-09T03:04:00.000-05:00

Eternal apparently.

We have found a new place, not in as great a location, and for more money, but it is really nice inside and we both like it. I think it will be a homely apartment for us. It is still in the area of the island we wanted, but no sea view. :-( I suppose it'll be a blessing if there is a hurricane next year, but right now its just unfortunate. We have got a pool now though.

Pics to follow.

Scratch Sand Cay

2006-12-01T04:01:00.000-05:00

So the son of the landlord, who organised the whole lease calls me up today and wants to take it all back. WTF? Apparently his girlfriend is pregnant and needs a place to stay with her dogs and this is the only answer for them. $%%^&*!

So told the guy he needs to return my deposit and recompense us to the tune of one months rent for the inconvenience (however the hell you spell that). Arranged viewings of other places tomorrow, but obviously can't sign any leases until this one is cancelled.

We really liked this place, and I don't think we'll find a comparable one, but I suppose one can but hope.

Barkers Clean-up

2006-11-27T09:31:00.000-05:00

As part of the annual "Impact Day", Deloitte sent a crew to do a clean-up at the only National Park in Cayman (Barkers) on Friday. The locals seem to believe that it's an alternative to the official dump site. Well, we made some headway and at least the majority of the visible debris has been tackled.

We found sofas, mattresses, several dead dogs, cabinets, washing machines, a jackhammer and a toilet (of all things), as well as the old favorites - beer bottles, condoms and needles!

A Christmas Carol

2006-11-27T08:15:00.000-05:00

Hi - we've been talking about the play for ages, and finally have some pictures I can show you:

A Christmas Carol 2006 Pictures

Lease for 2007

2006-11-24T05:09:00.000-05:00

Hi All, we've just signed a lease on a really cool beachfront property in South Sound - #11 Sand Cay. Very exciting - we're really looking forward to staying there. We move in on December 26 2006. See the Google Earth Photo's to give you some perspective...

The busy times of our lives

2006-11-15T08:49:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Just a quick one - no pictures because we haven't bought batteries for the camera for about 2 months. We've been really busy with rehearsals for "A Christmas Carol" in which I play Bob Cratchet (and Ang plays a charity lady), which opens on Thursday as well as invading George Town this weekend (the current year pictures aren't up here yet, and we didn't bring our own camera, so no pics of us in costume...)

I'll be aired on Cayman TV in the next few days as part of a 30 second commercial for the play. I'm famous!

Kiwani's Bike-a-thon

2006-10-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

Another lengthy bike ride - this time from East End blowholes to Smiths Cove. Shorter than the one two weekends ago (32 km's vs 36km's ), but no stops this time. The new Trek was pretty key though. I don't think riding the Huffy would have been pleasant. Took me 1hr 15 mins -> Wow! 25.6 km's per hour - major speed wobble. Of course I now want to try and do it in an hour, but slowly slowly catch a monkey. The new bike is also an ATB, so probably won't be able to match those guys on the ultra light racing bikes. Maybe I'll buy one at some point if this becomes more serious.

An ode to the Mother City

2006-10-27T02:36:00.000-05:00

We have a Mountain
We have trees
We have fynbos
We have bees

We have a Mountain
We have shacks
We have squalor
Heaped in stacks

We have a Mountain
We have beaches
Sunny skies
And juicy peaches

We have a Mountain
Crime and politics
Friends and family
Steel and bricks

We had a Mountain
A wonderful place
We had a Mountain
But not the right face

We don’t have a Mountain
It’s with us not
We’ll always have a Mountain
No matter what.

We have a Mountain,
Bru.