So much for that
Posted by Ray @ 3:07 pmI was really hoping I’d get the Lady Musgrave dive trip photos by today, so that I could put up photographs for all to see, but it seems that’s not likely to happen. That wouldn’t be so much of a problem, if I weren’t leaving tomorrow for Fraser Island & Hervey Bay to camp and stuff.
While I’ll be back on thursday, various scattered events around me are conspiring to happen all at once. You know how it goes - several weeks of nothing much, followed by one week of extreme business, followed again by nothingness. So I don’t know when I’ll next be checking in.
I’m not sure what Zeng is up to. Here’s to hoping he’s got enough free time to hold the fort.
Pre-write up
Posted by Ray @ 3:52 pmSpent the last 5D/4N on the M.V. Esperance Star, scuba diving off Lady Musgrave island. It’s what’s called a “liveaboard” - you literally live aboard the ship, eating, sleeping, bathing, diving.
Saw lots and lots of stuff. Lady Musgrave is absolutely stunning.
So that’s why we haven’t been updating.
Photos to follow.
Breathtaking Vista
Posted by Ray @ 7:19 pmSo, uh, I’d thought of a myriad of ways to do this post.
I had this one idea, where I described a second-by-second, first-hand account of what happened.
Then I had this other idea, where I’d make it funny, y’know, by doing a little comic strip or something. I had it all planned out… the title would go “Having Troubles in Life?” and the sub-title would go “Commit Near-Suicide!”
And then, I had this other idea, where I’d have this list of things to do in my hand, and I’d check one particular one out. And it would say, “Jump out a plane at 12000 feet”. Rather whimsical, I thought.
But none of that would do it justice. So I decided to just do this:
Behold, I look like a japanese porn starlet
And that’s how I spent my saturday.
Straddie Weekend
Posted by Ray @ 9:59 amSo despite all the difficulties, the SCUBA diving weekend trip at North Stradbroke Island was a blast. As promised, a photoset of the days.
The HMS Rubber Ducky
At least that’s what Ken, our skipper, called the boat. I’m sure it was named something more impressive, but none of us actually asked.
It’s a pretty small boat, but we all had a great time.
The coolest thing you’ll see today
Posted by Ray @ 10:33 pmNASA’s Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft just did a gravity-assist flyby of Earth. As it did so, it captured 358 pictures of our home planet. NASA then crammed the photos together into an MPEG file.
[via /. If this link gets tanked, the /. post should have alternative links].
Just so ya’ll know…
Posted by Ray @ 10:40 pmA dive to 26m (85ft) in gusty winds, choppy, 19-degree celsius (66 fahrenheit) ocean waters and strong currents is pretty thrilling. But anyone who claims anyone can SCUBA needs to try it for themselves (and have their collective asses handed to them by the Pacific Ocean).
The waves were big! And our boat was oh-so-very small (it’s a hard-bottomed rubber dingy… or in the words of Ken, our skipper, a rubber ducky). Currents were strong enough to bring a diver clinging onto the anchorline at the front of the boat, to behind the boat, in a couple of seconds (I know, it happened to me). Waves would crash over your head and clog the snorkel. The snorkel, the precious, indispensable snorkel, which I almost didn’t bring along because I was a bloody newbie who’d always gone in calm waters and heretofore never needed to use it to breathe.
Luckily I’d gotten my advanced licence; I think the open water divers were a bit frazzled with how fast their air ran out. Technically (if they’re PADI certified) they’re not allowed to exceed a depth of 18m (60ft). The particular site we were diving went down to 26m and below. For those of you not in the know, the deeper you go, the more air you use per breath, and the quicker you run out. Some of the open waters ran out of air mid-way through the dive, and had to ascend without a safety stop (believe you me, this is a bad thing).
One girl lost the group in the strong currents, and had to ascend alone. On 20 bars (290 PSI) of air! Again, for those not in the know, anything under 100 bars is considered “time to go up!” pressure, and even more so at that depth. And you never separate from your buddy.
Enough on the bad stuff, I’m exhausted. I’ll get a nice post up with all the awesome stuff later, once I’ve stolen the photographs from Josh (a guy with an underwater digi-cam). I’ve seen the shots, they’re worth checking out, believe you me.
So Proud to be Human! Not.
Posted by Ray @ 12:12 pmA city gets hit by a big-ass hurricane, and what happens in the aftermath?
Mass anarchy. Mob rule. Roving rapists. People huddled amongst the rotting corpses of the dead because they can’t go out for fear of other fucking people fucking them.
It’s not enough that the hurricane killed so many, no. Humans have to go in and fuck it all up even more.
For fuck’s sake, the mob is fucking shooting at rescue helicopters.
What a motherfucking disgrace.
More Information:
- The Interdictor. The Survival of New Orleans blog.
- Wikipedia’s entry on the whole affair.
- New Orleans in Anarchy with Fights, Rapes
- Technorati has a ton of blogs indexed. Look for the tags “katrina” and “new orleans”.
- Google News also has lots of information.