The Value Of A Dollar

Yesterday I was standing in line at the Little Caesars to pick up a Hot 'N' Ready pizza for $5. Then I saw that they have a deal going on where you can get a pizza, some italian cheesy bread and a soda for $11. Score! I ordered my combo, pulled out a $20, and got my $9 in change which I promptly put back in my wallet.

A man behind me asked, "What was that combo you just ordered?" I pointed it out on the board to him.

"Aw man, I only brought $10 ... I feel awkward asking, but you wouldn't happen to let me bum a buck off of you so I can get that combo, would you?"

Of course my first thought was It's my money ... why should I let YOU have it? And I was a bit taken aback by my own knee jerk reaction. I was taught from a young age that you work hard for your money and you don't just go giving it out to strangers on the street. That is what charities and donations are for if you want to do something kind.

However, this man wasn't some random stranger holding a sign. I knew he wasn't trying to scam me ... he was holding his $10 bill. He obviously had the means to pay $11 for the combo meal ... he just didn't bring the extra dollar with him. What he was asking for was for another human to show him a bit of kindness for the sum of 100 cents.

A flood of things that I could buy with my $1 flashed through my mind. A soda from McDonalds. 3/4 of a dry cycle at the laundromat. 1/3 of a starbucks coffee. 38 minutes of parking downtown. 1 minute of massage. A pointless lottery ticket. A candy bar...

Another memory from my childhood popped into my head. This one was from a trip I took with my Dad and Stepmom to Mexico when I was a teenager. We were on a cruise and currently docked in Cozumel enjoying the nightlife at Señor Frogs. We were all having a great time and my dad was buying drinks for all of our vacationing friends. A shot here for that fellow. A yard long drink (or two) for my mom and sister. Countless Coronas. It was the first time I ever had a shot of tequila...

But the party had to come to an end eventually. My dad asked for his bill, it arrived, and he reached back to get his wallet ... only to find it absent! In the carefree vacationing mode, he had left it back on the ship. In an instant, my dad who was a wealthy man and easily had the means to cover such a bill, found himself without the ability to do so. Luckily, I had brought all of my cash with me in the hopes of buying something nice for my at the time girlfriend back home. My father thanked me profusely and a bit sheepishly as he took my money to pay for our bill. We laugh about this experience to this day ... we were all just glad we didn't end up washing dishes in Mexico for a month to pay off our tab! (And he promptly paid me back upon our return to the ship).

But it reminded me that sometimes people, no matter how much money they have, just need a little kindness from someone else. It doesn't matter if you are the richest man in the world, or a guy just a dollar short from a pizza and some cheesy bread. At some point we will all call upon the kindness of others.

So what was my kindness worth to me? Did I value my ability to help another human to the sum of one single dollar? Do I value my kindness as worth more than a soda from McDonalds?

I'd like to think so.

"Eat well," I said with a smile as I took a dollar out of my wallet and handed it to him without another thought.

"Thanks! You're awesome!" He replied as he turned to order his large pepperoni, cheesy bread, and a 2 litter of soda.

I'll probably never see that man again, but I know that I will be paid back in full. That's just the way life works. At some point we all will rely on the kindness of others ... no matter what. And I know I wouldn't be where I am today without countless selfless acts of kindness from my friends, family ... and random strangers.

I believe that it was the best dollar I've spent all week.

Until Next Time
~Adam

S/V Aramis

Making Money Online With The iPad

Eventually I plan on throwing off the dock lines and cruising about for an extended period of time. So, one of the major factors in doing this project is discovering how to generate an income while sailing around the world. Because of its size and versatility, I have chosen the Apple iPad as my main media source while living aboard my sailboat. I'm a bit of an Apple fanatic (I admit). I use the iPad for everything from watching movies on Netflix to writing this blog post you're reading right now. But, I also plan on making a portion of my mobile income through making money online with the iPad.

I'm going to highlight for you some of the ways you can make money using the iPad through different websites in order to create a passive income to supplement paying the bills. My whole philosophy revolves around simplifying life in order to create a higher quality of life and achieve my dreams before the age of 65. In order to do this, you have to be creative with all the resources you have available. For me, that means turning the hours I plan to spend sailing and lounging around on the deck of my small sailboat into money making time.

So lets go over a few of the ways I have discovered to make money online with my iPad ...

Pay Per Word Content Farms

There are a ton of websites out there that you can write content for and get paid directly for your work. Unfortunately, some of them don't work well with the iPad. But the one that I have found that pays decent, constantly, and is compatible with the iPad is Textbroker.Com.

Textbroker is a place for clients to post assignments that anyone qualified can fill. Most of these orders are for web content for various websites, blogs, and marketing. The client provides an outline and other requirements (like key-word density). After you accept an order, you have a set amount of time in which to finish the order, normally a day or two. After you have completed the order, you submit it and, once accepted by the client, the money is deposited into your account. Twice a month you can request the money in your account be transferred to your paypal account. So far I have received 3 payments from Textbroker, so I can testify that it does indeed pay what promised.

I normally write just one assignment a day, normally around 400 words, and it takes less than half an hour with an average payout of about $3.00. Now, I know what you're saying ... that's less than minimum wage. However, it adds up. Writing on there for just 1 hour a day generates about $180 a month, and for me that is enough to cover my moorage and electric bill. And it only takes an hour a day ...

There are some other contact farms out there, but the few others that I have looked into require you to download software to your computer ... making it not compatible with the iPad. However, Textbroker is done entirely from their web browser and is completely compatible with the iPad!

A great app to have if you're going to try writing for content farms is Pages (a word processing doc for iPad). Pages will allow you to write, edit, and refine your work before copy and pasting it into the Textbroker web browser and hitting the "submit" button.

You might also want to invest in a wireless keyboard for the iPad. Pretty much any bluetooth enabled keyboard will do the trick, but the one I use is the Apple Wireless Keyboard and it works great.

Blogs and Adsense

If you have something interesting to talk about, then you might as well blog about it! Once you have a regular readership, you can monetize your blog and make a few bucks a month off of it. And the iPad is GREAT for blogging. I use Blogger.Com for my blog and the only complaint that I have is that it is difficult to adjust the layout of your blog using their interface and the iPad. I have had to resort to using a computer to change around any of the actual blog's layout.

However, for just typing up posts, replying to comments, and posting images, the iPad is perfect. I use an app called Blogpress to do all of my blogging on. Making money on your blog can take some time. At the time of writing this post, my blog

In Search Of The Sea

has been in existence for over 3 years. Now, I only started really seriously blogging about 9 months ago, and so far my blog has only made about $80 total, but in the past 9 months I have seen a growing increase in the amount of money the blog brings in ... albeit it is measured by cents.

However, Google Adsense isn't the only way you can make money on your blog...

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a simple means of promoting other peoples products on your blog or website and earn a commission for every sale made through your website. You don't have to do anything other than post a link to their product on your website with a unique tracking referral. If someone buys the product after clicking on your link, you get a commission for it.

The two affiliates that I have made money with so far have been ClickBank.com and Amazon. So lets talk a little bit about them ...

ClickBank is a haven for online marketers and vendors. Thousands of products are listed online and all you have to do is sign up, search for products related to your website, create a "hop link" (which Clickbank does automatically) and then insert that hop link in an appropriate place on your website. The only downside that I have discovered so far is that you can't "copy and paste" the hop link with the iPad. For some reason the option just won't pop up when you try to highlight the text. So, in order to use ClickBank with the iPad I do have to manually write down and they retype the hop link in order for it to work.

Amazon is a bit easier. In fact, there are widgets you can just copy and paste right into your blog once you are an Amazon Affiliate. You can either pick out specific products to promote through amazon, or simply type in some keywords and Amazon will automatically generate products for you.

Become an Amazon Affiliate is easy ... all you have to do is go to their website and sign up!

CafePress Products

This is one that I haven't directly tried yet, but am looking forward to! On CafePress you create graphics for t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, and hundreds of other products. Then you determine what products you want featured and anytime someone orders a product with your design on it, you get a commission for the product. You can even set up your own storefront and link to it directly from your blog ... in essence creating a marketplace for your own website!

I plan on creating nautical and simple living themed merchandise to be used on CafePress. The iPad has numerous graphic design apps available that are more than adequate in creating .jpegs ready for download. Unfortunately, the CafePress website doesn't support uploading from the iPad yet ... so you'll have to mail your creation to yourself and then upload them from a computer at some later date (this is the ONLY reason why I haven't done this yet ... I need better access to an actual computer ...)

More Ways To Make Money With The iPad To Come

So far that has been the extent of my experimenting with making money online with the iPad. I don't expect that I'll ever be able to make enough money with the iPad in order to sustain myself ... but hey, every little bit helps! And besides, I love writing and the iPad is an amazing tool in helping me get my voice out there while I'm underway.

These are just a few ways that I have made money with the iPad onboard

Aramis

so far. I'm sure there are many more. As I discover new ways of generating online income with the iPad, I'll be sure to let you know!

Until Next Time
~Adam

S/V Aramis

My First Injury and Ducks Are Dinosaurs

In an effort to have my asshole of a cat onboard with me, I bring him to the boat for a few hours every few days or so. These little trips normally breeze by without incident. I go over to the house, put him in a bear hug, walk quickly to the boat while he tries to claw free, and then hop onboard and close us up in the cabin as quickly as possible so he can't escape. We have a very loving and trusting relationship ...


Last night things were going fine all the way up to the last part. Normally my method is to take out the first two of six slats out of the companionway, drop him in, then quickly vault over into the cabin myself and secure the two slats and the hatch. Well, in my hurry to get inside my foot missed the companionway stair and I fell sideways ... right onto the remaining companionway slats. It hurts. I think I heard Topher laughing at me. As I laid down in pain, he promptly made himself comfortable on the table and fell asleep.

This morning about 4am I woke up with a horrible pain in my side. My impalement had left me with a nasty bruise and most likely a bruised rib as well. Any movement hurt. I decided I needed to ice this ASAP, but I don't have any plastic bags onboard. So I came up with an ingenious plan. I used an old gatorade bottle, filled it with ice, and then laid on my back with it wedged between me and the port settee cushion while I fell back asleep. While I slept, the ice melted and when I woke up I had a gatorade bottle filled with ice cold water! Talk about efficient use of resources!

But my side still hurts. I think it'll take a few days for that to get back to feeling normal. My pride is hurt more than my actual body ... I wasn't even in a rough sea. I was tied up to the bloody dock ...

At least it is beautiful today so I won't mind laying low on the boat watching the river life.

Which brings me to another realization. I agree with Dr. Allen Grant (you know, the guy from Jurassic Park that is obsessed with Raptors). I believe that my neighbors, the canadian geese that crap all over everything, are actually, in fact, dinosaurs.

(I understand that my title says "Ducks" and I'm talking about "Geese". But I did it for the alliteration of the title ... and the sentiment applies to all birds so stop being so nit-picky.)

They are beautiful and the new hatchlings are adorable all bunched together on the log right next to my boat. But EVERY TIME I leave my boat I fear for my life. The way they move, their beady little eyes, and the sounds they make are truly prehistoric. If you can picture a goose large enough to eat a lawyer on a toilet, then you'll see the resemblance. They are miniature T-Rexes.

The fully grown geese hiss, spit, and act like they are going to charge me as I try to innocently walk past. I keep as far to the side of the 4ft walkway and try not to make any sudden movements. Taking Dr. Grants advice, if they ever look directly at me and hiss ... I freeze. They can't see me if I don't move ...


Until Next Time
~Adam

S/V Aramis

Happy Mother's Day! (Stupid Old Crow)

Don't worry, the title will make sense by the end of the post. So keep reading :)

First off HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!! I am so so thankful for all the "moms" in my life. Especially my mother and my #2 :) I'm lucky enough to have two wonderful mothers who have helped me become who I am since the day I was born. Well, #2 mom came a few years later, but she has never made me feel anything but loved. Throughout this whole change over in my life they have both been so so supportive.

About 2 years ago my mom gave me a book called "The Secret" which basically says that if you put it out to the Universe, then the Universe will respond. I can honestly say that this past year has been proof of that! But let me list some of the other wonderful things the "moms" in my life have done for me this past year ...

*Give nothing but support
*Cook me hot meals (yum)
*Bring me things when I am sick
*Call me just to chat
*Let me borrow their car
*Let me shower and do laundry at their homes
*Do my laundry for me even when I can do it myself ;)
*Give me relationship advice...although I think she has ulterior motives
*Make me laugh when I'm down
*Make me laugh when I'm not down
*Leave insanely long voicemails with code words to test me to see if I actually listened to the whole message. (keep)
*Listen to me when I need to rant and vent
*Tell me everything will be "OK"
*Have faith in me, even if they don't have faith in what I'm doing
*And a million other things I'm sure :)

So I hope that you are doing something nice for your mother today! They deserve it.

Now for the "Stupid Old Crow" part.

I don't like random noises on my boat. So when I woke up this morning to a very odd banging noise, I was a bit perplexed. At first I thought someone was knocking on my boat and needing me to come out. So I threw open that hatch.

But I didn't find a person waiting for me.

What I found was a crow, sitting on my spreaders, and pecking away at the mast. The sound was reverberating down into the cabin and it sounded like someone was hitting my mast with a wooden baseball bat. I thought What a stupid crow! Doesn't he know that my metal mast is far stronger than his little beak!?

So I yelled at him and he flew away.

Stupid old crow ...




Until Next Time
~Adam

S/V Aramis

Out Of The Wild

If you live in the Pacific Northwest then I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather! What a perfect weekend for hikes, picnics, and Mother's Day!

But when the rainy weather returns (which we know it will) I'd like to suggest a rainy-day show to watch. It is called Out Of The Wild and right now you can watch the entire first season on Netflix Watch Instantly. I love watching nature documentaries, and as I get closer to the day when I can start filming web episodes for your viewing pleasure, I've been doing "research" by watching some other reality docs when I can.

I was very impressed and inspired by Out Of The Wild. The show pits 9 people against mother nature for no other reason than the experience. There is no prize money, no voting off, an no goal other than to get back to civilization after being dropped off 70 miles away in the jungles of South America. The team must learn how to live off the land and stay alive while transversing across rivers, mountains, savannas, and dense jungle.

But what really amazed me were the reasons each individual gave for being there. And, more importantly, how the experience affected them and changed their perspective on life. All of them commented on how much they personally grew and how much "stronger" they felt, even though they were pushed to near starvation and exhaustion. One man, who signed up for the adventure because he had become "that guy" and had been working in the corporate world for his entire life (you could tell he was getting depressed), decided that when he returned home he was going to go back to school, get his PhD, and teach ... because that's what he wanted to do in the first place.

Watch the episodes and really pay attention to what they say (especially in the later episodes) about how the challenges and pushing themselves brought more meaning and enjoyment to their lives.

The struggles they endured are far beyond what I will be experiencing in my project (I don't plan on starving or eating termites for dinner) but the concept is the same; to challenge myself on a level that my normal way of living hasn't provided, to become closer to my own personal understanding of the world around me, and to grow spiritually, personally, and intellectually while experiencing more of the human condition.

So, if you're looking for more inspiration on how to have experiences that will bring meaning to your life, then I'd highly recommend you cozy up on a rainy day and plough through the 8 episodes of Out The Wild. It's a great experience :)

Until Next Time
~Adam

S/V Aramis

Knotty Days!

Boat in the water ... check.
Sails rigged and ready ... check.
Projects done ... check.
Leak fixed ... (maybe) check.
Engine running ... check.
Sunny weather ... check.
Gas tank installed ...

... gas tank installed .... anyone? ... Bueller? ....

sigh

Well ... needless to say, I'm closer to sailing than Keanu Reeves is to getting his acting career back. The gas tank is the final final thing that must be done before casting off the dock lines and taking off on Aramis's shake down cruise after being up on the hard for over a decade. I'm hoping I can cram and secure that monstrosity of a tank into the hull before the good weather goes away.

But the sun has inspired me to keep working on the boat, even if I can't take her out quite yet. I've given her a bath, stuck on her identification stickers, procured an anchor hanging thing for the bow rail, and undid the most god awful knot in the anchor rhode.

Seriously, this thing was a beast. Trying to figure that out and untangle the 150' line was harder than trying to understand my family tree. But in the end I prevailed and now have a nice, clean, and untangled anchor to throw overboard when the engine fails ... uh ... I mean for when I reach my destination.


I probably should have marked it off in 10 foot increments while I had it all laid out on deck. Oh well. I can always just eyeball it. Except I still don't have a working depth sounder.

(Mental note; buy depth sounder).

Anyone want to go sailing soon?!

Until Next Time
~Adam

S/V Aramis

Boat Projects! 3 months onboard the boat ...

I have now officially been living aboard Aramis for three full months. The majority of those months have seen me battling mystery leaks, trying to cook (unsuccessfully) something more substantial than Top Ramen, and endless days of listening to the wind and rain beat down on my little boat. It has been an amazing learning experience full of "what-the-hell" moments, beautiful realizations, and many days of watching Netflix late into the evening waiting for the random middle of the night hailstorm to wear itself out.

It's very hard to fall asleep onboard during a hailstorm. I compare it to trying to fall asleep under a tin roof while a gravel truck dumps tons of little rocks onto of you. Loud enough to wake me up and keep me up ...

But the Pacific Northwest is starting to switch over to the paradise that we call "summer". You know ... those 3 weeks a year where it's sunny outside. Hopefully this year will be a bit longer, but you never know. So I plan on taking advantage of any good weather that comes my way.


This last weekend Ted, the previous owner of Aramis, came over o Saturday to help me sort out the rigging. My former ship, the Columbia 22 I called Saffron, had a very simple rig. However, the Newport 27 had me scratching my head at all the various lines, pulleys, and other random thing-a-ma-jigs that I had no clue about. Thank God Ted seemed to remember where most everything went. After a few hours, some root beer and quesadillas, and much head scratching, we think we figured it out! Aramis now has a working roller furling headsail, a possibly working mainsail, and all the lines potentially run through the right pulleys.

There are only two more major projects that need to be completed before the sailing phase of this project can get underway ... literally. I still have to install the permanent gas tank. And there is still that troublesome leak ...

About 2 months ago water stopped coming in through the leak. This was after many attempts with epoxy putty to stem the leak. I figured that the water pressure inside must have equalized with the water pressure outside. This is what my hopeful brain had concocted as a reason for the sudden disappearance of the leak.

Then I saw my dock lines, which were bran new, covered in slim where they had been sitting in the water. And it hit me. There was no "equalization of water" that had stopped the leak. It was much simpler than that. Scum.

River scum has built up enough of a film to block the leak from the outside of the hull. Cool. Expect that as soon as I go sailing that layer of scum will be wiped off and the leak will continue. Enter my new idea ...

While the compartment is dry and free of leaks, I am coating it with a spray on sealant to plug up any holes and make a smooth surface coating any potential leaks. Unfortunately, I'll only know if this works after I go sailing the first time ...

~crosses fingers~

So pray for me. I seem to be settled into the whole "living aboard" part of this adventure. However, I'm getting very close to the "sailing" portion.

Getting scared again.

But what good is life without a little fear?

Until Next Time
~Adam

Writing from the sunny cockpit of S/V Aramis








(This is my confused contemplating face. I've been making it a lot lately.)

Things On A Boat

So I've been living aboard Aramis for about 3 months now and I'm starting to notice some of the little intricacies that living aboard a sailboat entails. A lot of what I've learned so far is what exactly works with the lifestyle while weeding out the things I don't actually need. I'd like to take a moment to highlight two of these little revelations ...

Bowls Are Better Than Plates








So far in my living aboard experience one thing has become very apparent; bowls are better than plates. Period. First off, anything you can eat on a plate you can eat in a bowl, but there are a ton of things you eat in a bowl that just would be a mess if you put it on a plate (Lucky Charms and 2% milk do not work on a plate ... messy!). Plus, all it takes is one good sized wake from an a**hole speeding down the channel to make that lovely spaghetti dinner a lovely reason to rip out the carpet ... if you were eating off a plate. However, a bowl solves this problem entirely (almost). Bowls are also easier to stack and wash in my tiny little sink. Although, they seem to be more frequently stacking than cleaning ...

So I have come to the conclusion that bowls were made for boats and there is no reason to ever have a plate onboard. Do I have plates onboard ... well yah. But only because I didn't know any better 3 months ago when I moved aboard! They'll be walking the plank soon ...

Pringles Are Awesome

I'd like to give a shout out to the amazing geniuses at the "Pringles Center For Packaging Development" for their discovery that if you put fragile chips into a stack and enclose that stack within a durable, compact, and easy to store container, then one has the perfect snack for a sailboat. I don't have to worry about my chips being crushed in the tightly packed food storage compartments on my little ship, nor do I have to worry about a stiff breeze blowing my bag of chips overboard while enjoying a nice sunset out on deck.

Any other fragile consumables that typically come in bags are promptly transferred to hard plastic containers ... but this process takes precious lounging-about-the-boat time and, lets face it, crumbs tend to get everywhere in the dumping process. But not with my Pringles! Oh no ... from the store, to the car, to the boat, to my mouth I never have to worry about a crumbly mess.

Also I'm trying to figure out a clever way to reuse the Pringles bottles ... Any suggestions?

Until Next Time
~Adam

S/V Aramis