Beach-Club - Summer 2002


Introduction:
Well - It's been a 'long time' since we updated our website (no - let me take that back) - Mr. Bill has been lazy, useless and un-productive since he got laid-off (on 26 April) after 14 Years with Motorola .   I shan't attempt to blame our lack of an updated web-site on my hunny-bunch, Ms. Wong, who was 'long gone'  for a considerable time early this summer (click: "MayChinaTrip02 "  or try the same link in the "MenuFrame" to the left.

So - It's all Mr. Bill's fault the web hasn't been updated.

So - SOME WILL ASK (or at least wonder) what has he been doing for three months since he's still not employed - well he's been LOOKING FOR WORK - but - that's a VERY un-productive activity with the market being what it is these days - it's VERY VERY LIMITED...

I've gotten a few "nibbles" - but mostly I'm on un-employment and severence pay - (lasts through November, along with our health insurance (but I'm healthy now - I'm sure something catastrophic will happen the week after the
insurance runs out!)

Anyway - I've been looking for work - spending - for the most part - 4-10 hours a day - every Monday and Tuesday - since that's when the automated job-hunting scripts run and that's when Monster.Com and all the others I'm on and subscribed to do their auto-magic things... Here's just a brief-sampling of a few of the sites I'm using...
BUT - I 'got close' a few times with:
and, now, am trying: http://www.bombardier.com

BUT: - I'm seriously considering hanging-out my own shingle and trying to do computing-support,
an see if I can make a living offering people the benefit of my experience at $50 or $100 an hour? - we'll see!

AND: - I've been doing a LOT of yard-work - I trimmed about 40 palm trees for the hurricane season with
pole-saws from the ground.  for the better part of 6 weeks I was trashing about 16 trash-cans a week plus a huge pile of palm-frond-ends - which equates to about 10 hours a week in the yard...

AND: - I've been doing a LOT of kite-boarding and kite-board-building (I broke my first one - UGH ) -
but it taught me a lesson - this weekend I'll lay-up the fifth board - a balsa-cored / carbon / epoxy - vacuumbagged
asymmetrical that I think will be a real winner...

Just "some" of the samples I've received from these companies have helped me build a LOT of kiteboards
at VERY LITTLE out-of-pocket expense.  I seem to be buying a lot of resin, ultimately from the Gougeons:
but I'm not buying much (carbon) cloth or core-materials - most of that I get from these contacts I made when I attended the " IBEX " trade  show in Ft. Lauderdale in February 2002.
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AND: - I've been doing a LOT of cat-petting!!!!

AND: - I've finished the 'Westlawn Yacht Design "Lite" Course' ( http://www.westlawn.org ), and got a score of 88/100 and finished it - for the most part - in about 3 months - 8 lessons...   This course is something I'd been wanting to do for - probably - 20 years or so.  So I'd 'gifted' myself with the "Lite" version at Christmas 2001, hoping I could finish it in less than a year.  Boat design is something that is 'intrinsically obvious' to some but obviously not to some others - it's astounding how many poorly designed & engineered boats there are out there. - The course is excellent at teaching you the math & theory behind what I already know.  Further, it is a HUGE time-sink - so, nowadays - when I have "nothing better to do" - the Westlawn
study gets all my 'spare' time...

- Now I'm taking the "FULL" course (as opposed to the "Lite" course), and am almost finished with "Module One" (of which there are a total of 4) - it has 12 "lessons" in it - of which I'd done five in the "Lite" course -  - once it's complete (hope to finish by the end of this month) - then I'll get module 2 and I have notdone any of those lessons before.  - I'm going to 'attempt' to do at least one "Module" a month - until I'm done - means I'll finish the end of October , but I am guessing the end of the year is more realistic...

AND: - that's about it -      MORE LATER - once we get the time, effort & motivation to update - yet again!...
last updated:  Thursday, 25 July 2002 @ 21:29pm