The Perfect Desktop

http://howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-ubuntu-studio-8.10

My laptop really belongs to my employer and our home computer is run by the kids, but I gotta say, if it were just my machine, this is the way I would go with it.

Mike

Ship Update: Standing Rigging Done

It's been a while since the last update - partly because it was a busy term and I couldn't work on it as much as would have like, but also because there was a lot to do in this stage. This was lengthened by adjusting some things I had already done. The forstay blocks on the bowsprit were moved so the forstays ran reasonably close to parallel (they look like hell otherwise). Also, as shown in the pictures at the bottom, I had to do some other jigging with the bowsprit rigging to leave room for a boom and sail to be added on later.



As you can see, the masts are now fully assembled and (I believe) all the standing rigging is now up. Next would be assemblying the remaining spars and sails with their associated rigging.

In an earlier post I mentioned that there was going to be an issue with attaching the bowsprit boom. The first picture on the right (from a few months ago) shows the problem with the orientation of the stays and chain under the bowsprit leaving no room for the boom. This was done as per the picture in the assembly book (which is nothing but a bunch of pictures). The second picture shows one of the solutions that came with the kit. Here they moved the blocks for the lower set of stays further aft, leaving room for the boom, but, as you can see, there is no room for the sail to hang down. The assembly book had a different solution of completely removing this set of stays, but that still means the sail is above the chain. There is no way this would work in real life. I ended up pulling out my DVD of Master and Commander (the Russell Crowe film) and scanned along until I came to a good shot of their bowsprit. The correct way now seems pretty obvious with the stays moved foward and the chain aft leaving room for the boom and sail, as shown in the last picture.
PS: I'm putting my photo collections on Flickr from now on. They have better services and I don't like how Orkut makes you sign up in order to view the pictures - sorry Google. The model pictures are now there, and the rest will soon follow.

The Book of Genesis Through Facebook

The Facebook of Genesis

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Facebook, but this is pretty funny.

Mike

Cold - What Cold?

Well, our sailing season has officially come to an end. I got my last sail in Tuesday. The air temperature was a few degrees below zero and I didn't last long before my hands gave out (I've gotta get better gloves), but there was a good blow and I had to take advantage of it.

The above pick is my oldest from last week during the first snow of the year.

Fun stuff!

Mike

US Candidates As Trains

Long time - no post. Busy - busy. I haven't even been on the Internet too much, but this made me laugh today.

Algonquin Trip

Well I just got back from four days in Algonquin Park with a group of six students. We had some rough spots with the weather, including being caught in the thunderstorm, but the kids were awesome. Five of the six were actually rugby players and they just powered by the other groups on the portages - absolute machines.

The image above traces our route - about 70 km with over 7 km of portages. Here are some pics that were taken.



Mike

Model Ship Update: Ratlines

I haven't worked on my model ship all summer, but once I got my course done I started picking away at it again. The main addition were the ratlines which are the lines that are tied across the shrouds (and also the stays with this ship) to allow the crew to climb aloft. You can also see, attached to the front of the tops (the platforms on top of the masts) the lines that go to what the kit identifies as "fiddle blocks". I gotta be honest, I'm entirely sure as to the function of these blocks - whether they were to help secure the tops, adjust the tension on the stays, or something else.

Next come the rest of the masts, which will pretty much double the height of the model. I've already got them made and needing only one more coat of varnish. Then come quite a few more shrouds and stays.

By the way, I've got all my model pictures on my Orkut page if you want to check them out.



Mike