25¢ Words

Send Me to Yosemite

Graham — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:56:52 +0000

While in New Zealand I took a photo I liked enough to enter into a photography contest. (This is a definite first for me!) The picture was taken inside a snow cave on Fox Glacier. Glaciers are dynamic environments; caves come and go every few weeks, and the subject of this picture is long gone.

I chose this contest because the reward for the top four vote-getters is an all-expenses-paid trip to Yosemite for a nature photography workshop. I’ve become quite interested in photography over the past few months and this workshop would be a lovely way to progress (and an excellent excuse for a camera upgrade). Please give me a vote if you like the photo.

Vote for my photo!vote

You may also want to browse the other submissions. "Nature's Firefall" is my favorite photo in the contest.

My full Fox Glacier photo set is up on flickr.

Here and Gone

Graham — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:45:30 +0000

I got back to Austin a week ago. Baked bread, roasted coffee, acted social, reconnoitered the local public boat launch, and voted. Tomorrow I’m hitting the road again, this time for a brief loop to New Mexico. I’ll head toward White Sands, then wander up the I-25 corridor, aiming for Las Vegas (NM) in time to watch the election returns. Then it’s back to Austin for a reprise of the contract life while I figure out what to do next.

Launch!

Graham — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:30:07 +0000

(The rest of the launch day set is up on flickr.)

Heading off again

Graham — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:48:00 +0000

I’m departing for Tennessee tomorrow morning. Quite ready to get the kayak varnished and in the water! Stories from the New Zealand trip have been delayed as I’ve been consumed with photos (see the collection so far).

The number of shots I brought home apparently surpassed the capacity of iPhoto, so I switched over to Aperture. It took me a couple of days to get up to speed with the program (it’s much deeper in both curation and editing options) but I’ve come to really enjoy it. Have also ventured toward a rabbit hole with HDR photos (just before leaving I installed the CHDK firmware on my camera to allow RAW capture and automatic bracketing of exposure), but haven’t produced anything satisfactory yet.

Home…

Graham — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:45:31 +0000

…happy, at odds with the clock. Just starting to process photos. Planning to post trip highlights over the coming week.

New Zealand Itinerary

Graham — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:47:19 +0000

For those keeping score at home, here’s the plan (dates are local, hence the apparent asymmetry in travel time).

8/5-8/7: Fly from Austin to LA to Auckland to Christchurch
8/7-8/8: Christchurch
- ride the gondola up Mount Cavendish and walk back down
8/9-16: Wellington
- 8/9: travel from Christchurch to Wellington by train and ferry
- 8/10-16: WWOOF farmstay in Petone — half-days working, half-days exploring
8/17-8/26: South Island (with car)
- 8/17: Picton
- 8/18: Christchurch
- 8/19-8/20: Dunedin
  - Otago Peninsula wildlife tour
- 8/21-8/24: Te Anau
  - Milford Sound nature cruise
  - Kepler Track day hike
  - Doubtful Sound wilderness cruise
- 8/25: Wanaka
- 8/26: Fox Glacier
  - Fox Glacier heli-hike
- 8/27: Christchurch
  - via TranzAlpine train from Greymouth
8/28: Fly from Christchurch to Melbourne
8/28-8/31: Melbourne
- symphony, art, aquarium, cricket match
8/31: Fly from Melbourne to Auckland to LA to Phoenix to Austin

Many more things I’d like to do, with more time…

Joining and Naming

Graham — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:01:33 +0000

The boat is now joined, reinforced, bulkheaded. It is architecturally complete. And it has a name (suggested by my dad, in fine How I Met My Wife fashion).

I’ll let the epoxy cure while I’m in New Zealand, then return to varnish the boat and complete my quiver of paddles.

Summer, Winter, Fall

Graham — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:54:34 +0000

My plans for the next few months have come into focus. I’ll spend the first half of July finishing up the boat and the second half putting it to use. I’ll return to Austin in time to catch up with friends before they move away, then spend the bulk of August in New Zealand. After which I suppose I’ll call the sabbatical complete and move on to the next big thing.

Kara is accompanying me to New Zealand. We’ll spend a week on a farm stay, two weeks touring the south island, and tack on a long weekend in Melbourne. Aside from a few days in Wellington we’ll leave the north island untouched, as it would be more enticing during a warmer season.

Mini-Vacation

Graham — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:48:57 +0000

My experiments with magnets and glue have been successful. I have a couple of days’ worth of fiberglass reinforcements in store, then it’s time to join the deck and the hull.

I’m off for a mini-vacation in Georgia — a visit with friends in Atlanta followed by a trip to the International Disc Golf Center.

Shoptime

Graham — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:55:57 +0000

Fireflies are blanketing the hill down to the lake as I write this.

I got the boat back into the shop about a week ago, then pretty quickly tackled two of the more daunting aspects of the project. First was the cockpit. I cut the hole, installed the coaming wall, epoxied on the rim, trimmed things to fit, sanded and sanded some more, and glassed the whole assembly. That culminated yesterday in fitting the sprayskirt onto the deck. Which worked, happily.

Today I cut the hatches. Given that I’ll use the cutouts as the hatch covers, both sides of the line mattered. The initial pocket cut was tricky against the slippery radius of the deck, but once the blade penetrated the rest of the cut went smoothly. Next I’ll inset magnets into the hatch covers and mold a fiberglass shelf to hold the covers flush to the deck.

While I’m enjoying this time in the shop, I’m eager to get the boat on the water!