In many ways, the past 22 months reminds me of the time I was waiting because Gee was in a coma about a week before she died. Gee had nearly died from an eroded vein. The vein was one that had been transected during her Whipple operation over a year earlier and when it ruptured, [...]
Recently, there was a video circulating about performance artist Marina Abramovic and a performance she had done at the MOMA back in 2010. Marina and Ulay had met in the 1970s and loved each other intensely—becoming partners in life and performing art together out of the van they lived in. After a little more than [...]
There is a cool new docudrama on TNT about the Boston Police Department called Boston’s Finest. The show follows various members of the Boston Police Department around while they are working as well as giving the viewers a look into the personal lives of the officers involved. While the show may be of interest to [...]
Nicholas Kristof writes about Scott Androes, a college friend of his that had taken a gamble and is paying the price. You can read the two columns about Scott here and here. The story of Scott Androes hits home for me. In many ways it would have been Gee’s story had she and I not [...]
My friend Pia, who writes for Psychology Today, pointed out a great post on the Psychology Today blog on Self-Lock. I believe this is an article that Lauren Elizabeth really needs to read because it deals with issues on how to improve one’s self-esteem. I very deeply believe that Lauren Elizabeth’s drinking and drug addiction [...]
I think the real problem Lauren Elizabeth has is that she doesn’t really understand what love is or what it means. I think part of her problem with not knowing what love is was caused by the fact that she grew up in a household with an alcoholic and emotionally abusive father. Her father’s treatment [...]
On Facebook, a good friend of mine posted a link to an article titled “How a Single Oxycontin Pill Nearly Ruined One Man’s Life.” I am posting the entire text of the article here along with a warning to Lauren Elizabeth, the woman I love, that this story shows what could easily happen to her [...]
There is an excellent article by Lynne Hughes on Grief and how it got an expectation of an expiration date in this society. Grief doesn’t only apply to the loss of people, but to many other things, like a career, a pet, or a relationship. I am very familiar with grief and grieving. I have [...]
I found this post and thought I’d repost it here for Ellie to read. I really hope Ellie is still reading this blog. I don’t really know any more. I know she was still reading in February… Love shouldn’t hurt. Love is something that is wonderful to give and receive. But to be able to [...]
If you need any proof that the US legal system is broken, this story is pretty much all you need to read. Currently, an asshat that is also an attorney has filed suit against one of my favorite online cartoon websites–The Oatmeal, the National Wildlife Foundation and the American Cancer Society, as well as the [...]
It is funny, the most painful memories aren’t the ones of loss or bad things happening—at least not for me. I look back on the death of my twin brother at the hands of a drunk driver as sad, but not really painful any more. The same goes for the memories of Shelley’s and Gee’s [...]
When people care too much, When anything you do affects them, When they look forward to what you will say to certain things, When they wait for the next day to arrive only so they can talk to you again, When they find a way to put you in every context of their everyday talk, [...]
Salon.com has a really great article on scars, imperfections and differences… My favorite part is the concluding paragraph where it says: “I know life for Abigail – and Natalie and Johan and Frank and everybody else wounded or scarred or born different — is more complicated than that. The things that make us stand out [...]
On this most holy of weekends, between the day Christ was crucified and the day he was resurrected, I have been thinking about God’s Will and God’s Grace a lot. A beautiful woman I know and love, whose birthday is today, once said: “God’s Will will never take you where God’s Grace can not protect [...]
Today’s Mega Millions jackpot is at a record-breaking $640,000,000 as I write this. I have to wonder how many of my readers bought a ticket for tonight’s drawing, and if they did, what would they do if they won? I bought a couple tickets, but not because I want the money for myself, but because [...]
The people in our lives who love us are a gift to us. We don’t know how long we will have them for, and we should always make sure that they know how much they mean to us. In some cases, we lose them very suddenly, like I did my twin when he was killed [...]
This weekend, I was thinking of Gee and Ellie, the two women I love most…and decided to watch a movie that reminds me of them both for a lot of reasons. The movie, Message In A Bottle, is one that Gee and I saw in a movie theater when it still playing. The second time [...]
Someone recently asked me if I love Ellie because she reminds me of Gee. That was a question I hadn’t heard before. The answer is no. While there are some things about Ellie that do remind me of Gee, I would say that they are more the common denominators of all the women I love. [...]
There are times when you make decisions and the results make you ask “What if?” Those “What Ifs?” can drive you crazy. One such decision for me happened nearly 25 years ago, when my twin left on a drive back to San Diego, headed back to school. This is the first time I am writing [...]
The Serenity Prayer or Neibhur’s Prayer starts with an almost universally recongized: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. My friend Grant wrote that being a twin isn’t always easy, but he wouldn’t trade it [...]
I recently saw an ad on TV for a company that says they can protect you from “identity theft”. Identity, by definition, can not be stolen. Identity can be defined as: the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another. While someone can pretend to be you…they can not actually be you. Granted, if [...]
The rain has prevented me from working on s/v Pretty Gee as I was planning. So, instead, I thought I would write a bit about the amazing woman I love, to let my friends see who she is and why I love her so very much. Ellie is a beautiful, intelligent, selfless, stubborn, and fiery-tempered [...]
Over the past few weeks, I’ve received a lot of support and love from friends that I met via online sailing forums and through blogging. While many of these friendships started out on the Internet, I have been lucky to meet quite a few of them in real life as well. They range across a [...]
On the Sailfar.net sailing forum, there was a thread on the apparent prejudice that seems to exist against smaller sailboats, which seems to show up in some marinas. Over the last two decades, there seems to have been trend towards larger boats for the cruising market. Now, I can understand why the boat manufacturers have [...]
So, you’ve finally decided you want to buy a boat. Well, here is some advice on how to go about doing it. First, you need to decide what you want to do with the boat. Are you looking for a boat to weekend and daysail on the Chesapeake? Are you looking to cross oceans? [...]
As I am a member of some social networking sites and have a fairly high on-line presence, I thought I’d write a bit about security and social network sites. A lot of social networking sites, like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and such have a fair amount of personal information about anyone who is a member. This [...]
Again, E. Coli is in the news. There was an article in the New York Times about the most recent E. Coli outbreak, which has been traced back to ground beef from Fairbank Farms. When I was growing up, there weren’t E. Coli outbreaks of the lethal nature found today. Certainly, the food-processing procedures and [...]
There was a sailor asking me about his mainsheet setup on an on-line forum, and was thinking of using line clutches or line jammers for his mainsheet. I tried to explain that this was both unwise and dangerous. A line clutch or line jammer can take too long to release—and in the case of a [...]
One thing you have to do on boats is bed hardware. This has to be done on a regular basis, especially with hardware that is under heavy cycling loads, like cleats. However, using the right sealant can make this task much simpler. Most people are familiar with silicone caulk, since it is the most commonly [...]
Multihulls have some advantages and disadvantages compared to monohulls, and a lot of how severe those advantages/disadvantages are depends on the exact design you’re looking at. Whether one will be suitable for your purposes depends a lot on what you’re trying to do. For instance, a lot of the charter market catamarans have trouble sailing [...]