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Jul. 23rd, 2006 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anigoHullo! It is I.
Much to talk about, most of it rambly, so I'll cut tag it so you can read only the stuff that interests you (or not at all... your pleasure)
The race was good. If it wasn't for the crabby skipper it would have been incredible. The first day and night was evil. Blowing like snot and raining. It was a DDW spinnaker run the whole way and the first day and night involved a large number of death rolls. Fun! It took about 3 days to get there, which put us in a full day earlier than Thom had expected, meaning that we didn't have any place to stay. So we stayed on the boat. Sleeping in very close quarters with one's comrades is fun! We stayed in different locations around St. Pierre. The new guy, Gregg and I stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. Shane and Pete - Oh yeah, Pete ended up coming, despite the fact he was horribly sick. He couldn't resist. Stayed at a hotel and Thom and Steve stayed on the boat. St. Pierre was great. It was like somebody picked up a bit of Newfoundland, clunked it on an island somewhere, then picked up a chunk of rural France's population and stuck it on the island as well. T'was fun trying to speak in French most of the time. I have a pretty pathetic grasp of the French language and the joke of the trip was how I explained where I worked as "Je suis un Bureau". There was a lot of wine drunk and a lot of good cheese ate and a lot of fresh bread and croissants eaten as well. There was very very little alcohol consumed during sailing, which was comforting. The trip back was fairly uneventful. We left the boat in Cape Breton and this coming weekend we're going up for a Regatta in Cape Breton and then to bring the boat back. A whole 8 days in a paragraph. Sounds like it wasn't that exciting. But it was. Hmm... Let's see... I fixed a vang which had come away from the mast at 2:00 in the morning in 25 knot winds. That was fun. I played 20 questions with Shane at about the same time on another day (with much nicer winds) and found out all kinds of fun things. (His worst habit is playing with his ears). I found out that I can wear my contacts for 3 days straight if I have to (but it's not all that comfortable) I didn't puke, though the first day was puke worthy (one of us did puke, but that was because he volunteered to go down and cook my meal for me because he knew I'd end up being sick... how sweet was THAT!) Um... what else. Um... I saw dolphins playing beside the boat. I was surprised how many people in St. Pierre smoke, and in how many locations they smoke. Kind of unusual when you're used to such a "smoke free" place as Nova Scotia to see people smoking in restaurants and bars and bakeries and well.. pretty much everywhere. And In summary, I did it. I sailed in an off shore race that had some kind of icky weather and I did more than survived, I thrived. Yay Me. More on this if I can think of anything exciting.
Dunno if anybody's read Christopher Moore's Lamb: The gospel according to Biff but I highly highly highly recommend it. It's basically the story of Jesus' lost years as told by his friend Biff. It's satirical and funny as hell and still some how really really touching without being insanely overzealous. It kind of got me thinking about the religions of the world (Without giving too much of the story away, Jesus and Biff go looking for teachers of various religions). I was brought up Baptist and I have considered myself at any time some flavour of Baptist, agnostic, Wiccan, atheistic... and a whole bunch of other bits and pieces mixed in at some time or another. Now I'm on a bit of a Buddhist kick, I think. I kind of like a religion that doesn't diss other religions but who doesnt necessarily worship a deity, rather it's all about the personal enlightenment and such. From what I understand so far, the whole idea behind it is the belief that suffering happens, but it happens because you want stuff. You want to be liked, you want to have belongings, you want social status, etc.. and suffering is a result of the unfulfilled wants. The way to not suffer is to not want. And you will stop wanting when you practice the path.
Yanno, I explained that very poorly. But what do you expect from somebody who changes religious bandwagons at the drop of a hat and who's only experience has been a book about Jesus' friend Biff and some internet reading. Anyway. Might look into it a bit further.
And in conclusion, I've just finished two weeks vacation, which has been swell. I have to go back to work tomorrow and I'd rather not, but I'm not dreading it as much as I would expect. It's been hot and humid here (as it has with everywhere else in the rest of the world, it seems - except perhaps St. Pierre) and I don't mind it one little bit. Mind you hot in NS is about 30 celcius, which, in the grand scheme of things ain't all that hot. And basically, life ain't so bad.
And that's all I have to say about that for now, except that yanno what? I really like you people. All of you. And you and you and you. Every freekin' one of you. Thanks for being my cyber friends. I'm constantly honoured to be included in your lives.
Much to talk about, most of it rambly, so I'll cut tag it so you can read only the stuff that interests you (or not at all... your pleasure)
The race was good. If it wasn't for the crabby skipper it would have been incredible. The first day and night was evil. Blowing like snot and raining. It was a DDW spinnaker run the whole way and the first day and night involved a large number of death rolls. Fun! It took about 3 days to get there, which put us in a full day earlier than Thom had expected, meaning that we didn't have any place to stay. So we stayed on the boat. Sleeping in very close quarters with one's comrades is fun! We stayed in different locations around St. Pierre. The new guy, Gregg and I stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. Shane and Pete - Oh yeah, Pete ended up coming, despite the fact he was horribly sick. He couldn't resist. Stayed at a hotel and Thom and Steve stayed on the boat. St. Pierre was great. It was like somebody picked up a bit of Newfoundland, clunked it on an island somewhere, then picked up a chunk of rural France's population and stuck it on the island as well. T'was fun trying to speak in French most of the time. I have a pretty pathetic grasp of the French language and the joke of the trip was how I explained where I worked as "Je suis un Bureau". There was a lot of wine drunk and a lot of good cheese ate and a lot of fresh bread and croissants eaten as well. There was very very little alcohol consumed during sailing, which was comforting. The trip back was fairly uneventful. We left the boat in Cape Breton and this coming weekend we're going up for a Regatta in Cape Breton and then to bring the boat back. A whole 8 days in a paragraph. Sounds like it wasn't that exciting. But it was. Hmm... Let's see... I fixed a vang which had come away from the mast at 2:00 in the morning in 25 knot winds. That was fun. I played 20 questions with Shane at about the same time on another day (with much nicer winds) and found out all kinds of fun things. (His worst habit is playing with his ears). I found out that I can wear my contacts for 3 days straight if I have to (but it's not all that comfortable) I didn't puke, though the first day was puke worthy (one of us did puke, but that was because he volunteered to go down and cook my meal for me because he knew I'd end up being sick... how sweet was THAT!) Um... what else. Um... I saw dolphins playing beside the boat. I was surprised how many people in St. Pierre smoke, and in how many locations they smoke. Kind of unusual when you're used to such a "smoke free" place as Nova Scotia to see people smoking in restaurants and bars and bakeries and well.. pretty much everywhere. And In summary, I did it. I sailed in an off shore race that had some kind of icky weather and I did more than survived, I thrived. Yay Me. More on this if I can think of anything exciting.
Dunno if anybody's read Christopher Moore's Lamb: The gospel according to Biff but I highly highly highly recommend it. It's basically the story of Jesus' lost years as told by his friend Biff. It's satirical and funny as hell and still some how really really touching without being insanely overzealous. It kind of got me thinking about the religions of the world (Without giving too much of the story away, Jesus and Biff go looking for teachers of various religions). I was brought up Baptist and I have considered myself at any time some flavour of Baptist, agnostic, Wiccan, atheistic... and a whole bunch of other bits and pieces mixed in at some time or another. Now I'm on a bit of a Buddhist kick, I think. I kind of like a religion that doesn't diss other religions but who doesnt necessarily worship a deity, rather it's all about the personal enlightenment and such. From what I understand so far, the whole idea behind it is the belief that suffering happens, but it happens because you want stuff. You want to be liked, you want to have belongings, you want social status, etc.. and suffering is a result of the unfulfilled wants. The way to not suffer is to not want. And you will stop wanting when you practice the path.
Yanno, I explained that very poorly. But what do you expect from somebody who changes religious bandwagons at the drop of a hat and who's only experience has been a book about Jesus' friend Biff and some internet reading. Anyway. Might look into it a bit further.
And in conclusion, I've just finished two weeks vacation, which has been swell. I have to go back to work tomorrow and I'd rather not, but I'm not dreading it as much as I would expect. It's been hot and humid here (as it has with everywhere else in the rest of the world, it seems - except perhaps St. Pierre) and I don't mind it one little bit. Mind you hot in NS is about 30 celcius, which, in the grand scheme of things ain't all that hot. And basically, life ain't so bad.
And that's all I have to say about that for now, except that yanno what? I really like you people. All of you. And you and you and you. Every freekin' one of you. Thanks for being my cyber friends. I'm constantly honoured to be included in your lives.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 10:36 pm (UTC)I've pretty much deviated from the Christian path at this point, but I won't say that I'm atheist. I'd rather align myself with Wicca, but I'm also studying Gnosticism. I want to believe in SOMETHING higher, but I can't believe in the Christian God anymore - at least not the one I grew up with. So I'm with ya on the spiritual path piece. It's time to look critically at myself and ask, "Okay, just what the hell AM I?"
Blessings to you, and congratulations on a great vacation!
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 11:07 pm (UTC)I like you too! *hugs*
no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 06:51 am (UTC)I'm glad to call you a friend, my friend, and yeah, I know what you mean by not being all that sure about what you are. Me, I figured that what I am, is me. My path is my own, and it's perfectly ok to borrow bits from other religions, without applying their labels.