Mettle Mission :: Day One
Until I get a job there will be a daily Mettle Maker - we're on a mission - a mission to get a job and maintain mettle - so we'll call it the Mettle Mission.
Mettle Makers :: She Adjusted Her Sails
I lost my job.
I'm a bit bummed out. I liked this ship. I liked my shipmates. I liked the cargoes. I liked the ports. I wasn't ready to move on yet.
Such is the life of a sailor. Ships come and ships go.
This particular ship will now have a foreign crew and my shipmates and I will look for a new ship.
I can't say it's a big surprise - the writing was on the wall - we were having trouble competing in with foreign freight rates.
I'm summoning my mettle. I'm trusting the universes judgement - that it's time for me to do new things. I'm perfecting my resume. I'm taking deep breaths.
I'm adjusting my sails.
Good Vibes.
One more small housekeeping note.
You'll be seeing posts that don't quite make sense chronologically.
I took a lot of photos during my past rotation at work that never made it up! Nautiemermate Adventures here we come! I had some good times that I'd really like to share!
This is my last week in Hilo (insert very sad face).
Every morning I wake up and think: should I extend my ticket? I am really not looking forward to leaving...
I'm working on tying up loose ends. I'm working on visiting friends. I'm working on good vibes.
#FitMermate
Small housekeeping note here.
I'm talking about Fitness! I'm talking about healthy food! I'm talking about drinking water!
If you look to the upper right hand corner of the screen you'll see #FitMermate - and this is where you can join me in talking about Fitness! Food! Water!
I'll also be instagramming this business at FitMermate - feel free to check it out - or make a Fit(YourNameHere) instagram profile and join in!
Otherwise you'll be seeing hashtag FitMermate around the interwebz! Don't shy away!
Here's to Fitness Nautie Friends!
Jungle Walk. Fitness!
Boobies. Of the Bird Variety.
The men around town are tired of talking about Boobies. The blog hasn't exactly been gender neutral lately so let's cut them some slack, shall we?
Let's talk about Birds. Of the Booby variety.
Somewhere off the coast of Mexico (during my last rotation at work) we got birds. Lots of them. There was A Bird....and then there were Many Birds. I loved them. They dipped and soared and reminded me of one of my favorite poems.
I took Big Bertha out on deck and took as many photos as I possibly could - before I started feeling like they were looking at me - like the kind of looking at me that made me feel like my skull was going to get pecked open.
I managed to take hundreds of photos and was in full on Many Bird Love Mode.
Then day two point five of Many Birds rolled around. Someone commented, 'who spilled a bucket of white paint on the bow?!' to which I had to reply, 'ummm shipmate....that would be bird shit....'. Riiiight, needless to say Many Bird Love Mode was over. These birds destroyed the deck. When we finally rid ourselves of them I said to the Bosun, 'lets get some scrubbers and tsuji the deck' (this means scrub with soap and water.....nautical lore says that back in the day sailors sourced a soap called 'tsuji' overseas...my guess is Japan....this would be WWII era....anyways, scrubbing the deck has been called 'sugee-ing' ever since...and I roll with the Japanese spelling....). Turns out this bird shit was potent stuff - the deck gang had to literally scrape it off....as in with a scraper!
I spent some time on the interwebs and best I can tell these are Boobies - possibly Brown Boobies - and you guessed it - the booby jokes were alive and well onboard - can I tell you how many times I heard, 'I loooove brown boobies!!!!!'.
gah, it was amazing to see how close they could get to the water without actually touching...
the best part was watching them fight and stick their feet out for not so graceful landings...
....and there are more so, click through at your leisure!
Nautie Books :: January 2014 - Americanah
There's been a bit of buzz surrounding the name Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the interwebz. Beyoncé released an album and people were captivated by a voice that wasn't hers.
In Beyoncé's song ***Flawless she samples from a TEDx talk Chimamanda gave titled 'We Should All Be Feminists'. The talk has reached many - and has now reached many more. I hadn't heard it - or had even heard of Chimamanda until listening to the song ***Flawless. Here are the clips from this powerful TEDx Talk found on the song:
“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller We say to girls – you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful otherwise you will threaten the man. Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. A marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support. But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors not for jobs or for accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are. Feminist: A person who believes in the economic, social and political equality of the sexes.”
Clearly, I needed to find out more of about this woman! I googled her name - and in addition to finding her TEDx Talk - I found that she was an author - an incredibly well regarded one!
Her most recent novel Americanah is getting rave reviews - and was getting rave reviews WAY before she started blasting from speakers everywhere.
Please join me in reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
I think it will prove to be a great read! Can't wait to hear what you have to say!
“I’m chasing you. I’m going to chase you until you give this a chance.”
Also, check out her TEDx Talk! It's great! (It's about 30 minutes long but WELL worth it!)