Mid winter checkup
Actually after years at working in a greenhouse I tend to think of this time of year as spring — we’d have finished cleaning out the winter crop of poinsettias and well into planting and seeding crops for the coming summer. It’s stuck with me much to the consternation and confusion of friends and family alike. So, this past week the 2017 Waggoner’s came out — you can pick up your free digital version here and I also decided to take advantage of a Boat Show special and pick up the complete set of Salish Sea Pilots for only $34.95 CAD. And since it’s “spring” and we decided not to head to the Vancouver Boat Show this weekend, I thought I’d start on some 2017 cruising planning.
Our intention, now that the boat is committed to charter, is to try and sail as much as possible from the time exams are over (mid to late April) until the first of July and then leave the boat for charter clients in the high season: July, August and September. Our early season cruise last year turned out just fine and L and I don’t mind the cooler weather, especially since it comes with a dearth of crowds. The first hiccup in that plan however was a couple of weeks ago when NYCSS called me up and asked if they could have the boat for the 19th of June. And, since we had intended an extended cruise beforehand, could they have it several days earlier to do the extra cleaning needed for the turnaround. We talked it over and decided that we could make that work; luckily the exam schedule this year works so that we could head to the coast mid April if we do want full two months for ourselves.
How Long?
And that brings up the first question. Do we want to go cruising for two full months or do we want to just head out for shorter stints? So far I have no commitments that will stop us from heading out, but that also means I will have to turn down anything that comes up between now and then — something I am leery to commit to. If we only go for a shorter period we would likely stay in the Gulf Islands or maybe the San Juans, but there are still plenty of new places left to explore.
The 2017 Hunter Rendezvous is June 1–4 this year and it was a lot of fun the first time we went; I wouldn’t mind doing it again. I’ve also semi-committed the boat to a “boy’s weekend” in Schooner Cove in mid-May which would give me chance to show her off to a bunch of old friends and have some fun. If I did both of these things it would mean making at least two trips out if we didn’t decide to go for the duration. Driving over and over again can get wearying and flying gets expensive (although we would definitely have to drive the first time to haul our gear). For now all we are doing is marking dates on a calendar.
How Far?
Two months might seem like a lot of time to cruise considering we did Vancouver to the Broughtons and back in a 3 week trip a few years ago, but we’ve finally learned to slow down. As charterers ourselves we got caught up in the moving-to-a-new-place-everyday idea since time was limited, but there is a lot to be said of swinging on the hook for three or four days and leisurely taking in all the beauty that is the Pacific Northwest. We are definitely converts to taking it slow. I don’t think I would want to do the trip to the Broughtons in less than a month now and even six weeks seems like a minimum. But with potentially 8 weeks available, where would we like to go?
Exploring Puget Sound is high on my list, but preliminary research makes a lot of it out to be more marina hopping than anchoring out, and we are looking to maintain last year’s ratio of four or five to one (nights anchored to nights on dock). This is because we want to a) save money and b) get the aforementioned “slow” time in. I haven’t ruled it out yet and my visit to Anacortes on NorthWest Passage intrigued me so maybe we will at least give the northern reaches of Puget a try.
I also wanted to spend time in False Creek (Vancouver) last year and we never did. You can pick up a two-week anchoring permit for free online and it might be nice to hang out in Vancouver just for fun. We’ve only ever been at Specialty Yacht Sales’ docks on Granville Island and that was more business than pleasure. it’s pretty central and from there we could head up Indian Arm, Howe Sound, cross back to the Gulf Islands or cruise south into the U.S. All good possibilities.
Desolation Sound is also within pretty easy reach, although last year we were at least a month kicking around there and I enjoyed the pace so I wouldn’t want to do it any faster. But there are still plenty of new places to explore and tons of old ones that I would love to revisit. Definitely a possibility if we decided to take the whole two months. And staying in the Gulf Islands or revisiting Victoria whether we only have two weeks or manage an extended trip is a similar situation, still tons of places to explore.
And of course we could head north to the Broughtons. I haven’t yet looked to see who might not be open in early May and I know the weather would still be quite cold and wet, but if we commit to the whole two months I might be tempted to give it a try. I really love it up there.
Other, less likely, possibilities include circumnavigating Vancouver Island, Heading up the Strait of Juan de Fuca and visiting the Broken Group or Ucluelet or heading up to Bella Bella or Ocean Falls. Any of these might require some investment in equipment and a good weather window but I won’t say no just yet. My successful trip down the coast to LA has made me a bit more adventurous.
To Do’s
I will probably do another post on my “wishlist” for the boat as it is growing more and more extensive, but I do need to consider how much work I want to do on the boat at some point. The more work, the later we take off from the docks. One of the high points of having Never for Ever in charter is that she will be prepped and ready to cruise when we step on the dock. and I don’t actually have to do anything.
But having said that, I do want to do some of the work myself since there are still lots of things about her that I have yet to learn. Ian and the crew at NYCSS are working on my leaky windlass over the winter (they are still hoping to source parts to rebuild it so I don’t have to replace it) and I would like to reinstall it myself. She also has the wiring (and a dvd player) already installed for a tv so I am thinking of buying a cheap 12v unit and mounting it on the bulkhead. The rest of the projects come down to money and I will have to start budgeting.
Decision Time
Luckily we don’t have to decide anything final just yet. The boat is reserved for our use until June 17th and the only pressing thing to consider is registering for the Rendezvous. But Lawrence is adept at squeezing boats in and as much as he’d like us to register early I don’t think he would turn us away if we put it off.
So what does that mean? Well I (we) will continue to think up plans until the perfect one comes along and then we will head out and enjoy our first season as absentee owners. The only thing for sure is that we will go sailing for at least three weeks and then who knows…maybe will get stuck in some far off port. It wouldn’t be the worst thing.
—Captain Why #Posts
Instagram This Week
Instagram This Week
Book 2016…
Happy 2017! This is my fifth year of recording (and counting) my books read. Previous lists (and associated totals) can be found here: 2012 (85), 2013 (95), 2014 (106), 2015 (92). In 2016, I also tracked them by month although occasionally books would bleed from one month to another. The results were distinctly lopsided. So how many did I manage to read this year? Let’s find out…
January
The Happy Return C.S. Forester (1937)
Horatio Hornblower Book 5 – ebook;
A Ship of the Line C.S. Forester (1938)
Horatio Hornblower Book 6 – ebook;
Hornblower’s Charitable Offering C.S. Forester (1941)
Horatio Hornblower Book 6.5 – ebook;
Flying Colours C.S. Forester (1938)
Horatio Hornblower Book 7 – ebook;
The Commodore C.S. Forester (1938)
Horatio Hornblower Book 8 – ebook;
Today I Will Fly Mo Willems (2007)
An Elephant & Piggie Book – HC;
Lord Hornblower C.S. Forester (1946)
Horatio Hornblower Book 9 – ebook;
Bears Don’t Read Emma Chichester Clark (2014)
– HC;
Hornblower in the West Indies C.S. Forester (1958)
Horatio Hornblower Book 9 – ebook;
The Last Encounter C.S. Forester (1967)
Horatio Hornblower Book 10 – ebook;
Virtues of War Bennett R. Coles (2015)
Astral Force Book 1 – ebook;
February
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance Lois McMaster Bujold (2012)
Vokosigan Saga Book 13 – ebook; reread
A Book Editor’s Primer (What a Book Editor Does) Dr. Leslie Vermeer (2016)
-manuscript
Oath of Swords David Weber (1995)
War God Book 1 – ebook; reread
The War God’s Own David Weber (1998)
War God Book 2 – ebook; reread
Wind Rider’s Oath David Weber (2004)
War God Book 3 – ebook; reread
March
War Maid’s Choice David Weber (2012)
War God Book 4 – ebook; reread
Sword of the South David Weber (2016)
Nofressa Book 1 – ebook;
War Maid’s Choice David Weber (2012)
War God Book 4 – ebook; reread
Balance Point Robert Buettner (2015)
Janzen Parker Book 3 – ebook;
Fool’s Assassin Robin Hobb (2014)
Fitz and the Fool Trilogy Book 1 – ebook; reread
April
Fool’s Quest Robin Hobb (2015)
Fitz and the Fool Trilogy Book 2 – ebook;
Hell’s Foundations Quiver David Weber (2016)
Safehold Book 8 – ebook;
May
Unbreakable W.C. Bauer (2014)
Chronicles of Promise Paen Book 1 – ebook;
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Becky Chambers (2014)
Wayfarers Book 1 – ebook;
A Talent for War Jack McDevitt (1989)
Alex Benedict Book 1 – ebook; reread
Polaris Jack McDevitt (2004)
Alex Benedict Book 2 – ebook;
Seeker Jack McDevitt (2005)
Alex Benedict Book 3 – ebook;
Dauntless Jack Campbell (2006)
The Lost Fleet Book 1 – ebook; reread
Fearless Jack Campbell (2007)
The Lost Fleet Book 2 – ebook; reread
Courageous Jack Campbell (2007)
The Lost Fleet Book 3 – ebook; reread
Valiant Jack Campbell (2008)
The Lost Fleet Book 4 – ebook; reread
Relentless Jack Campbell (2009)
The Lost Fleet Book 5 – ebook; reread
Victorious Jack Campbell (2010)
The Lost Fleet Book 6 – ebook; reread
The Lion of Farside John Dalmas (1995)
The Lion of Farside Book 1 – ebook; reread
June
The Bavarian Gate John Dalmas (1997)
The Lion of Farside Book 2 – ebook; reread
The Lion Returns John Dalmas (1999)
The Lion of Farside Book 3 – ebook; reread
Madness in Solidar L.E. Modesitt Jr (2015)
Imager’s Portfolio Book 9 – ebook;
Alliance of Equals Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (2016)
Liaden Universe Book 19 – ebook; eARC
Cauldron of Ghosts David Weber and Eric Flint (2014)
Crown of Slaves Book 3 – ebook;
A Princess of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs (1917)
John Carter of Mars Book 1 – ebook; reread
The Gods of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs (1918)
John Carter of Mars Book 2 – ebook; reread
Warlord of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs (1919)
John Carter of Mars Book 2 – ebook; reread
Dragon and Thief Timothy Zahn (2003)
Dragonback Book 1 – ebook; reread
Dragon and Soldier Timothy Zahn (2004)
Dragonback Book 2 – ebook; reread
Dragon and Slave Timothy Zahn (2005)
Dragonback Book 3 – ebook; reread
Dragon and Herdsman Timothy Zahn (2006)
Dragonback Book 4 – ebook; reread
Dragon and Judge Timothy Zahn (2007)
Dragonback Book 5 – ebook; reread
Dragon and Liberator Timothy Zahn (2008)
Dragonback Book 6 – ebook; reread
Terms of Enlistment Marko Kloos (2013)
Frontline Book 1 – ebook; reread
Lines of Departure Marko Kloos (2014)
Frontline Book 2 – ebook; reread
Angles of Attack Marko Kloos (2015)
Frontline Book 3 – ebook;
Chains of Command Marko Kloos (2016)
Frontline Book 4 – ebook;
July
Ring of Fire Eric Flint ed. (2004)
Ring of Fire Book 2 – ebook;
1633 Eric Flint (2002)
Ring of Fire Book 3 – ebook; reread
1634: The Baltic War David Weber (2007)
Ring of Fire Book 3 – ebook;
Cobra Slave Timothy Zahn (2013)
Cobra Rebellion Book 1 – ebook; reread
Cobra Outlaw Timothy Zahn (2015)
Cobra Rebellion Book 2 – ebook;
The Lies of Locke Lamorra Scott Lynch (2006)
The Gentleman Bastard Book 1 – ebook; reread
August
Red Seas Under Red Skies Scott Lynch (2007)
The Gentleman Bastard Book 2 – ebook; reread
The Republic of Thieves Scott Lynch (2013)
The Gentleman Bastard Book 3 – ebook; reread
Drifter William C. Deitz (1991)
Pik Lando Book 1 – ebook; reread
Drifter’s Run William C. Deitz (1992)
Pik Lando Book 2 – ebook;
Drifter’s War William C. Deitz (1992)
Pik Lando Book 3 – ebook;
Scholar L.E. Modesitt Jr (2011)
The Imager Portfolio Book 4 – ebook; reread
On the Trail of Space Pilots Carey Rockwell (1953)
Tom Corbett Space Cadet Book 3 – ebook;
Princeps L.E. Modesitt Jr (2012)
The Imager Portfolio Book 5 – ebook; reread
September
Imager’s Battalion L.E. Modesitt Jr (2013)
The Imager Portfolio Book 6 – ebook; reread
Antiagon Fire L.E. Modesitt Jr (2013)
The Imager Portfolio Book 7 – ebook; reread
Rex Regis L.E. Modesitt Jr (2014)
The Imager Portfolio Book 8 – ebook; reread
Revisionary Jim C. Hines (2016)
Ex Libris Book 4 – ebook;
Foreigner CJ Cherryh (1994)
Foreigner 1 Book 1 – ebook; reread
Invader CJ Cherryh (1995)
Foreigner 1 Book 2 – ebook;
October
Inheritor CJ Cherryh (1996)
Foreigner 1 Book 3 – ebook;
League of Dragons Naomi Novik (2016)
Temeraire Book 9 – ebook;
All my Sins Remembered Joe Haldeman (1977)
– ebook;
Old Man’s War John Scalzi (2005)
Old Man’s War Book 1 – ebook; reread
The Ghost Brigades John Scalzi (2006)
Old Man’s War Book 2 – ebook; reread
An Exchange of Hostage Susan R. Matthews (1997)
Jurisdiction Book 1 – ebook;
Prisoner of Conscience Susan R. Matthews (1998)
Jurisdiction Book 2 – ebook;
Angel of Destruction Susan R. Matthews (2001)
Jurisdiction Book 3 – ebook;
Sheepfarmer’s Daughter Elizabeth Moon (1988)
The Deed of Paksenarrion Book 1 – ebook; reread
Divided Allegiance Elizabeth Moon (1988)
The Deed of Paksenarrion Book 2 – ebook; reread
Oath of Gold Elizabeth Moon (1989)
The Deed of Paksenarrion Book 3 – ebook; reread
Citizen of the Galaxy Robert Heinlein (1957)
– ebook; reread
November
Oath of Fealty Elizabeth Moon (2010)
The Deed of Paksenarrion Book 4 – ebook; reread
Kings of the North Elizabeth Moon (2011)
The Deed of Paksenarrion Book 5 – ebook; reread
Echoes of Betrayal Elizabeth Moon (2012)
The Deed of Paksenarrion Book 6 – ebook; reread
Limits of Power Elizabeth Moon (2013)
The Deed of Paksenarrion Book 7 – ebook; reread
Crown of Renewal Elizabeth Moon (2014)
The Deed of Paksenarrion Book 8 – ebook; reread
Madness in Solidar L.E. Modesitt Jr (2015)
Imager’s Portfolio Book 9 – ebook; reread
December
Treachery’s Tools L.E. Modesitt Jr (2016)
Imager’s Portfolio Book 10 – ebook;
Far-Seer Robert J. Sawyer (1992)
The Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy Book 1 – ebook;
Fossil Hunter Robert J. Sawyer (1993)
The Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy Book 2 – ebook;
Foreigner Robert J. Sawyer (1994)
The Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy Book 3 – ebook;
The Magic of Recluce L.E. Modesitt Jr (1991)
The Saga of Recluce Book 1 – ebook;
The Towers of Sunset L.E. Modesitt Jr (1992)
The Saga of Recluce Book 2 – ebook;
Spellwright Blake Charlton (2010)
Spellwright Book 1 – ebook; reread
Spellbound Blake Charlton (2011)
Spellwright Book 2 – ebook; reread
Spellbreaker Blake Charlton (2016)
Spellwright Book 3 – ebook;
Legion of the Damned William C. Dietz (1993)
Legion of the Damned Book 1 – ebook; reread
The Totals
101 books read —8.4 books a month, 1.94 books a week, .28 books a day
46 new
55 rereads
January — 11
February — 5
March — 5
April — 2
May — 12
June — 18
July — 6
August — 8
September — 6
October — 12
November — 6
December — 10
Some Conclusions
Surprisingly my new books/reread ratio favours rereads for the first time —not the first time ever, but the first time since 2013 (2013 62/33, 2014 67/39, 2015 58/34). I attribute that partially to being on the boat half a year and also to the release of a lot of books at the end of a series—I often go back and reread the entire series if it’s been a while in order to get the full effect. Nonetheless it seems I did put off reading new titles since I have at least five or six in my library that have been there most of the year. I wonder what that means?
As you can see I have stuck mostly to fantasy and SF as usual. I did finish off the Hornblower books (very enjoyable) and read L’s manuscript for the Complete Canadian Book Editor (Woo-hoo! There is an author in the family!). Despite my reluctance to read any new fantasy (I am not a fan of the mega-series which seems to dominate the marketplace these days) I seem to be reading a lot more than I would have suspected. But new books are almost always from authors I already respect or as a result of recommendations by those selfsame authors. So I guess they have been more prolific than usual.
April was brutal. The month itself was fine but I chose to read two 1000 page+ books and Fool’s Assassin (another monster title) bled from March into April by a lot. As a result I technically only read 2 books. We did spend that month prepping the boat for departure from Victoria so that accounts for some of it, but I admit to a bit of shame when I look at the sparsity of titles. Ah well, c’est la vie… Other months made up for it though. We were in full cruising mode in June and the count soared, although I will admit that the Dragonback series is Juvenile SF and thus a bit shorter and of course Burroughs’ John Carter books are smaller than a modern book.
Speaking of Burroughs, I was astonished at how much my perspective has changed since Grade 8 when I first discovered and consumed these classics. It is so obvious to me now that they are such a product of their period, but none of that registered on me then. Like many others, Heinlein and Burroughs were my entry into the SF/Fantasy world and it’s a bit weird reading them now and reacting in such a luke-warm manner.
I had sampled a bunch of William C. Deitz a few years ago and am now making my way through a bunch more of his canon. Nothing spectacular but good solid stuff. And I’ve always liked L.E. Modesitt Jr, but for some reason had avoided the Recluse series (although I suspect I may have read the first book when it came out but it just didn’t ring any bells). So I made some headway there and will continue to work my way through the 19 titles that make up the (thankfully) non- linear series. It’s funny that he doesn’t really register as one of my “favourite” authors yet I consistently enjoy anything he’s written.
I also picked up a bunch of Robert J. Sawyer titles for free using my Kobo points, so I started my Sawyer introduction with this Canadian SF author’s Quintaglio Ascension trilogy. These were some of his first major works and the while enjoyable, the inexperience shows. I’m a bit ashamed that I have never before read any Sawyer, he being Canadian, a multi-award winning author and in fact the only SF author I have ever met in person. Funny story, I actually said something like “Wow, I am so excited to meet you—I’ve never read one of your books — but I am so excited to meet you!” Ask my brother, I have always suffered a bit from foot-in-mouth disease. I blame my not reading his stuff on his seeming focus on hard SF (not my favourite), a series of spectacularly bad (in my opinion) covers and that uniquely Canadian prejudice/insecurity that “Canadian”=The Beachcombers. Sad, I know. I will move on to some more of his recent stuff in 2017. I promise.
The Library
As for the state of the library, I am now up to 464 ebooks. Acquisitions have been slow but again, I have been sailing and not working, so expenses were definitely a consideration.
I did give Shelfie a try. This is an app that allows you to scan your paper books and potentially download electronic or audio version for a much reduced price (or even, so they say, but I have not encountered, free). The software is pretty cool. You snap a picture of the spines of your books and it processes them — almost always accurately deriving the title and author — and then adds them to you library. You can also just go ahead and scan the individual barcodes, but that’s not as cool. Then it goes through the lists of publishers/titles it has deals with and tells you which books you can gain access to digital versions of. In order to use it you have to sign up for Goodreads (which was annoying since I was [sort of] already using Librarything as L is a big fan).
I have entered 70 books so far and it has let me know that 22 are available as ebooks and one as an audio book. The ebooks are almost all $1.99 (USD) and the audiobook is $8.99 (regularly $24.95). There are some old titles (the Rissa and Tregare books by F.M. Busby written in the late 70s) and some new ones (David Weber’s Safehold series) but it seems to be rather random. As an experiment I picked up Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades since I had some later books in that series as ebooks already. You have to sign the copyright page and submit a picture of it and a picture of the cover, then it charges your Apple account and sends you a link. The interface is a bit clunky and it can be hard to find the available purchases but all-in-all it works pretty smooth. I will start unpacking some books and seeing what’s available in the new year.
So there you have it. 2016. I guess it’s time to start reading….
Earl ( the cause of all this statistical nonsense) has his list up already here. Leslie’s can be found here.
Instagram This Week
My First Wikipedia Article
I generally use Wikipedia to look up pub dates for books I am reading and to keep track of series orders etc. Imagine my surprise when I looked up Blake Charlton — who has three books published by Tor — and there was no entry. While I have occasionally edited a Wikipedia article, I have never attempted to write one from scratch so this looked like a good opportunity.
I did a brief bit of research and outlined a brief entry (see below). Then I submitted it without creating an ID. This puts it into a hold queue waiting for review from more senior Wikipedians (Wikipediaites?) to review, approve or reject.
The interface is surprisingly easy to maneuver at first but it becomes increasingly more complex and arcane as you get down to details. Which is as it should be I suppose.
The queued entry can be seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Blake_Charlton
Blake Charlton
Blake Charlton (1979-) is an American science fiction author. He is the author of the Spellbreaker series published by Tor books and currently a cardiology fellow at the University of California San Francisco. As boy Charlton had to deal with severe dyslexia but has he managed to overcome his condition and learned to read fluently by the age of 13.
Blake’s non-fiction has appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine, The British Medical Journal, and The New York Times. and his science fiction short stories have appeared in the Seeds of Change and the Unfettered anthologies.
Charlton graduated summa cum laude from Yale University studying English Language and Literature and went on to graduate from Stanford Medical School.
The Spellwright trilogy is set in a world where languages for the basis for magic. Nicodemus Weal is a cacographer (similar to Charlton’s own dyslexia), who nonetheless is talented in magical languages. But his disability that causes misspelling in any text he touches.
Bibliography
Series fiction
Spellwright
- Spellwright (2010, Tor Books, ISBN 0-7653-8856-8)
- Spellbound (2011, Tor Books, ISBN 0-7653-5659-8)
- Spellbreaker (2016, Tor Books, ISBN 0-7653-1729-2)
References
- http://dyslexia.yale.edu/charlton.html
- https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Charlton
- http://www.blakecharlton.com
- http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/opinion/defining-my-own-dyslexia.html
This entry created and uploaded as a part of the Ulysses testing process.
Instagram This Week
A Test-drive of Ulysses
A writing program
Ulysses is a writing program that I putzed with for about 5 minutes during NaNoWriMo but didn’t look at again. Then it turned out they were offering a few free copies of the software to lucky contestants in a draw. I entered. I won. So now I have my own fully functional copy of Ulysses to play with.
It features iCloud syncing, sheets that can be merged etc, export styles, and attachments. Ulysses is designed to make writing easier. I have generally used IA Writer Classic in the past because I have old version that work on my old first gen iPad. I am not sure yet if I will switch but that’s what this exercise is for.
Markdown
Ulysses uses Markdown XL for formatting functions. I have previously dabbled in Markdown on the blog but this has a few more bells and whistles. The full list of available definitions is accessible via ?9 or the toolbar’s A| button.
I am writing these all down again as a reminder to myself and to practice getting used to the language.
Heads (preceded by pound symbols — one for each level)
quote: preceded by greater than (>) symbol
emphasis is ?I or a bracketed by single asterisks (*)
Bold is ?B or a bracketed by double asterisks (**)
A divider is 4 dashes
——
Lists
- unordered lists
- are preceded
- by a dash
- and a space
- ordered lists
- are preceded by
- the numeral,
- a period
- and the space
Add highlighted text (bracketed by double colons ::) or deletions (bracketed by double vertical bars ||)
Comments are bracketed by double plus symbols ++you can see this comment only because I overrode the code++
…or are paragraphs preceded by double percent signs
%% This is a comment paragraph, again visible
because I used code to override
Text Objects
A Footnote1 Type (fn), enter your footnote text and hit Cmd-return
To add a link, type square brackets [ ] around a word or phrase (or use the ?K shortcut).
To add an annotation type curly brackets { } around a phrase, It is basically a note added to that phrase. I don’t think it exports.
<a href="sample code> is done by bracketing with the tick mark (found under the tilde). Entire paragraphs can be done by preceding with double single quote marks
code code code code etc
Executable code that won’t show in a pdf but will in a html doc can be made by using Raw Source: bracketing with double tildes or paragraphs preceded by double tildes.
So this ~~<a href="http://www.neverforever.ca">A link to neverforever.ca done manually in html</a>~~ appears as this:
A link to neverforever.ca done manually in html
And finally, here’s a link to a pdf 
And that’s it for the Markdown portion of Ulysses. More to come…
- This is a footnote (it appears at the bottom with an automatic link) ?
Reposts etc.
When I started up neverforever.ca I had intended it for a broader audience than my personal blog so that meant making some attempt at promotion was called for. Besides sharing links for each post on Facebook and Twitter, I also answered a call from threesheetsnw.com to provide content for their site aggregator. They would repost the first couple of paragraphs and or images from a post that they thought was appropriate for their readership and then link to my site for the balance. They didn’t pick up every post I made but did contribute significantly to the traffic overall.
But not so long ago I was looking at the site stats and noticed that a whole bunch of viewers —hundreds! — of my post about my trip down to LA had come from the same site — which was actually someone’s e-newsletter. Seems Cruising Compass had picked up the story and republished an excerpt and link in their weekly newsletter and of course also on their home site, BWSailing.com, under the heading Website of the Week (A West Coast Journey: Not So Offshore).
Now I in no way mind that they did this, but I do wonder at the lack of permission seeking or even notification. I would never had known about it if I hadn’t investigated the spike in traffic. I originally had thought it was due to my latest post , but quickly realized that it was for a post that was over a month old. That led to discovering the above. But, as they say, any publicity is good publicity…
Movie Time?
Guess who got a new action camera? I picked up a SJ4000 from 6mega for only $120. I decided to go for it after watching a review of different underwater cameras by Gone with the Wynns. It comes with an underwater housing and a bunch of mounts. And hey, for 120 bucks how can you go wrong?
Seriously though, I am hoping it will make getting some good sailing footage much easier. Now I just have to wait for sailing season…
My ride home from buying microSD cards. It’s always something…