Category: Stuff

Red. Meet Red. We coming to kick your butts, boys.

Of course, it would have been funnier if Houston went on to meet the Red Sox. I mean, think of it: A Texas team competing against a Massachusetts team. Sound familiar?

Damme I almost forgot – today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Shiver me timbers, I am such a gob.

I thought I would re-post some writing and graphics from previous Pirate Day essays. Either that, or I could write on the upcoming US Presidential race–the two are interchangeable.

re-printed from 2003’s Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ye be a sorry lot and not a True Pyrate amongst ye! Me thinks it’s because ye can’t talk like a pyrate. How can ye be a True Pyrate if ye can’t talk like one, I says to meself.

A few lessons in how to Talk like a Pyrate for the Pyrate Impaired:

From Maritime Pirates

Cackle Fruit – hen’s eggs

Hempen Halter – hangman’s noose

Nelson’s Folly – rum

Run a rig – play a trick

From Pyrate Talk:

To Go on Account – a pleasant term used by pyrates to describe the act of turning pyrate. The basic idea was that a pyrate was more “free lance” and thus was, more or less, going into business for himself.

Take a Caulk – on deck of a ship, between planks, was a thick caulk of black tar and rope to keep water from between decks. This term came to mean to “take a nap” either because sailors who slept on deck ended up with black lines across their backs or simply because sailors laying down on deck were as horizontal as the caulk of the deck itself.

Quarter – deriving from the idea of “shelter”, quarter was given when mercy was offered by the pyrates. To give no quarter was to indicate that none would be spared. Quarter was often the prize given to an honourable loser in a pyrate fight. If enraged, however, a pyrate would deprive the loser any such luxury.

From The Olympian:

Aye, aye: “I’ll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over.”

Arr: “Yes,” “I agree,” “I’m happy,” “I’m enjoying this beer,” “My team is going to win it all,” “I saw that television show, it sucked!” and “That was a clever remark you or I just made.”

Beauty: The best possible pirate address for a woman. Always preceded by “me,” as in “C’mere, me beauty” or even “me buxom beauty.”

Lubber: This is short for landlubber and is the seaman’s version of land lover, mangled by typical pirate disregard for elocution.

From The Pirate’s Realm:

Avast – “Avast Ye!” from the Dutch term for ‘hold fast’ and means “Stop and pay attention.”, like, “Get a load of this.”

Black Spot – a death threat among pirates made of a black spot or mark on a scrap of paper with more specific detail sometimes written on the other side, referred to in the story, Treasure Island.

Black Jack – large drinking cups made of leather that were made stiffer with an application of tar

Bumboo – A drink of the West Indies made with watered rum and flavored with sugar and nutmeg

Arrr.

as for the flags…from the same day

Arrr, me beauties! Cast your eyes on the beauty of the flag we be sailing today, for Talk Like a Pirate Day. Some seek to cast our maidenly efforts into shadow with their offerings but soon find themselves cast adrift, the scallywags.

Arrr!

(Reverting to multisyllabic non-gutteral speech)

I know that today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, rather than just plain Pirate Day, but a history buff such as myself can’t go through the day without imparting a few nuggets of piratical lore. For instance, the flag that I started and that Elaine beautifully modified was actually an adaption of the flag that the priate John Rackham used to fly. Rather than the traditional skull and crossbones, Rackham showed crossed swords beneath the skull’s head because, rumor has it, he was always up for a good fight.

As for the skull and crossbones, known as the Jolly Roger, rather than being flown to strike terror in the hearts of those about to be attacked, it was, in some ways, a reassurance – a promise that if the prey gave in without a fight, their lives would be spared. Maybe.

However, if a pirate flew a flag that was red in color, this was a signal that no quarter would be given, the pirates were out for blood. In fact, it’s been hypothosized that the name “Jolly Roger” was from the French joli rouge – pretty red.

So, what does our flag say? The crossed swords could signify that the women who fly it are up for a fight, but this message is somewhat softened by the gentle coloring and delicate detail, the tasteful bandana, and the elegant and stylish beaten gold earrings.

Perhaps what the flag is saying is that the women who fly it are up for a fight, but we’d rather not, thanks all the same. Or perhaps all it says is that though we may be deadly, we haven’t lost our keen fashion sense.

Of course, if a ship was carrying webloggers, there would be only one possible flag…

Updated for modern times, in honor of the political pundits among us who really understand what talking like a pirate is all about – the cat would be wearing jammies.

I would like to be out walking more now, but the weather has continued extremely warm, and I don’t deal well with hiking in upper 80 degree weather.

The official Fall Color watch for Missouri starts the 15th of September, and the colors peak about October 15th. I’m in the mood to just spend the rest of September focusing on drives about the state, and maybe into Illinois and up to Wisconsin and over to Kentucky. This is a pretty time of the year in this area, and there’s loads of places I haven’t photographed.

I’m broke, so can’t travel too far, but I can manage some day trips. Nice thing about a digital camera is that it doesn’t cost to take pictures.

What I would like to do is take some photos of the famous Ozark spring mills in the south of the state. I know they’ve been photographed to an inch of their worn and weathered boards, but it would be fun to see if I can capture something unique about them – something new. And this year I am covering The Great Balloon Race, in Forest Park.

As for technical writing, if you want to cover something, drop me a note or say something in comments, and I’ll see what I can do; otherwise, I’m going to assume you’re bored with the tech writing and want to hear about hikes and rides and life and see pics, instead.

I have several essays I’m working on, and as happens when you split your attention into completely different directions, you write and write, but you can’t finish anything. Or if you finish something, you’re not sure you’re happy with it. You feel grumbly, and dissatisfied, and kind of pissed at the whole thing.

Rather than maintain this state, I’m just going to leave everything for the rest of the weekend and go for a walk. A long walk.

However, I did want to point out a fun little scientific article at the BBC that’s making the rounds. Monster raindrops delight experts goes the headlines, about the discovery of the largest raindrops in scientific history. (Thanks to Rogi.)

And there’s also Jerry’s unique form of solar photography using a home telescope and a digital camera. Pretty amazing stuff.

Then there’s my own less impressive contribution to science: my Care and Feeding of Hurricanes done completely in DHTML (Dynamic HTML) – created over four years ago.

It’s not very polished, but it still works all these years later–which isn’t bad for web technology. Especially considering that the JavaScript files that run this application, cbobjects.js and animator.js, were created in 1997.

(Sorry, does not work in Safari. And it requires Javascript. Also, you need to forget all the really sophisticated Flash movies you’ve ever seen before looking at it.)