getting ridiculous

Here's a pic of the houseboat nearly fully jacked up. It's getting ridiculous.

Raise Up!

Sandra D got jacked yesterday. We lifted her about 6 feet in the air.

We need to lift her a total of about 9 feet up to get to the right height to install the floats and stuff. But we need to pause at 6 feet for a day so we can spray on some insulation underneath the floor.

My back hurts today. I suppose it should, considering Jack and I lifted a 35,000 lb boat up 6 feet, completely by muscle power alone.

Oh, and here's one more picture of Tommy. I didn't prime him on this. The kid opened up my wallet and immediately went for the American Express gold card. Sandy and Jack should be nervous. But at least he's a zip car fan too.

Thursday's Progress

After looking at the schedule and all the timing with Jack, we feel like we're probably not going to actually get this sucker in the water. But that's ok. The real hard part is just putting the floats on. That's really why I'm here. The floats are big, heavy, and big. So, the house boat needs to get jacked up 9 feet in the air so we can slide the float in underneath them. So that's the plan for the week.

Here's an animated gif what we did today. (update) damn, I'm having trouble getting an animated gif to work. I'll work on it more later.

The Sandra D rising, day 1

I'm in Seattle to help Jack raise his boat this week. Thought I would try to post a bit about it:

I got in at noon today, so it was just a half day. We got some teriyaki from Charlie and then received a delivery of a couple hundred 2x4s. We cut them to pieces to make cribs (cheap boat supports) We need to make 8 stacks of cribs, 7 feet tall. That takes a shit load of 2x4s. So we cut 8 footers down to 2 foot pieces. Lots of cutting. That's all we did today. Here are a few pics.

advertising juggernaut

I flew into Seattle today. I'm here to help Jack jack up his boat and get it toward the water (maybe not all the way into the water, but closer...)

I had a little time on the airplane today to think, airplanes are great places to let your mind run without distraction, without the invasion of attention diversions.

(side note: don't fly US Airways. Those guys are cutting costs so hard, I can't help but imagine what kind of costs are being cut in the maintenance shop too, and that makes me nervous. My evidence is the little things on the plane: no peanuts, no pretzels, only 1 drink offering on a 5 hour flight... And then, there's the lack of sink water in the lav. Seriously?! That's a pretty disgusting health issue. 2 hours after takeoff on a 737, I have a hard time believing they ran out of water. No, I'm sure US Airways is carrying less water to save weight, ergo save fuel. That's just pathetic.)

OK, on to my real thought of the day. I'm here in Seattle, and I flew, and I had time to think on the plane. I've been thinking about new media, about web 2.0, about the future of the dissemination of information and the radical changes afoot in publishing and print media. It's a time when anyone can be a journalist, anyone can publish their rantings to the world (ahem). The costs and barriers to publishing the written word have fallen dramatically. But those costs aren't zero. It takes a few pennies to publish this blog posting, and others. And there are incredible amount of others And who funds those pennies? Advertising.

So here I am, in Seattle. I flew in today on that shitty US Airways flight, where I was distracted by the granola bar advertisement plastered across the entire surface of my seat-back tray table. And now I'm sitting with Jack and Sandy - astounded to watch the advertising juggernaut that is American Idol. I don't have a TV, so I don't watch this shit at home. But damn, I'm really amazed. Is this what television has become? I'm amazed to see product placement and integrated advertisement so incredibly woven into every part of this show. itunes, Ford, Coke, past performers (and their record labels), future stars (and their record labels), royalties for song writers of covered songs. Damn, it's in every aspect. Ooops, I just spoiled the winner of Dancing with Stars after reading in on the New York times before it was on tv in Seattle. Wow, she's pissed. Who knew it was so serious? I was just told that if I tell who wins American Idol tomorrow night, I'll have to find a new place to sleep. Damn.

Point being: advertising isn't going anywhere. It's here in full force and spreading it's tentacles into every media-touched aspect of our lives. It's a bit frightening when I realized how often I'm being pitched to, even more when I think about how often I don't even realized it.

Ok, after all that, watching Steve-O and Woz dance on the dancing with the stars is actually pretty fun.

Return to form

Prior to exercise, it used to be generally excepted practice to stretch. Loosening up the muscles prior to vigorous work is important, so the theory goes. I've been mentally stretching a bit lately, getting ready to put my metaphorical feet back on the pavement. So, here's a first post after a long haitus. These are only first steps, so I'll keep it short. But the first steps are the most important ones, right?