After the sailing we decided to stop by some fancy places. The first was a little winery tasting room for MJA Vineyards. We had some of their wine, but didn’t think it was that great. The chocolate covered coffee beans were pretty tasty, but that didn’t justify a purchase. After the wine tasting we went to a chocolatier and got a lot of chocolate. Steph was cute and kept seeing something else she thought sounded tasty and she would grab one and add it to our pile. We ended up getting 11 different kinds of chocolate. We tried one while driving back and it was really good. I don’t think it was quite as good as the Chocolate Garage chocolates, but still nice. It was more flavored with not as great chocolate.
Today we took Cat 35 out for our first sailing outing on the big boats without an instructor and it went really well. We only stayed on the water for about 4 hours, but it was plenty for us. Nima and Caryn weren’t feeling too good, so 4 hours was about the limit. The winds were really strange, as there was about 2 miles of no wind before getting into the regular wind stream. It took us a long time to get out into the wind, and we were really far off the coast. I am glad we got some good wind after all, as it would have been a disappointing sailing outing without it. Julian was a lot of help around the boat as he had done a good bit of sailing with Lasers, so he knew the basics. Bri didn’t seem to be enjoying herself all that much, and was the only one not to take a turn at the wheel. Since we had to go 2 miles offshore to get wind, the waves were pretty big compared to what we had normally been dealing with. It made the adventure that much better, but also made the passengers that much sicker. When we were moving it wasn’t too bad for them from the sounds of it, but when we were hove to they were feeling really bad, especially Nima. We had lunch out on the water after we had hove to, and it was really tasty. Julian and Bri brought a tasty spinach and artichoke dip, along with some margarita. As we were heading in the racing had move to only a couple hundred yards from the mouth of the harbor, and we got a little in their way. They were far to close to shore, but there wasn’t any wind anywhere else within a few miles.
When we got to Nima and Caryn’s we played some Factory Fun! and it was quite fun. I took a heavy handicap of the hard brown building, and on top of that I had to use only the leftovers of the other players. I managed to get a decent factory going despite the setbacks. The second game we played I didn’t take the use only the leftovers penalty, but Steph still beat me with her last move. It was a really nice machine she made, so I can’t be too upset about her defeating me.
Last night Steph and I met up with Nima and Caryn at the Old Pro. We got a couple of appetizers between us, and it was pretty good, but greasy food. We also had a few drinks and it was a nice time. Afterwards we went back to Nima and Caryn’s place. On the way we stopped by Fresh and Easy to get some food for sailing.
I ordered a months supply of the food replacement powdered drink supplement called “Soylent” after the movie Soylent Green. This substitute has been engineered to be easily absorbed and full of all the essential things a body needs. It is also full of non-essential good to haves like antioxidants. I will be using this as a meal replacement for those meals when I would be eating by myself. I might still have some veggies around to snack on.
I’m looking forward to getting my Fitbit Flex, but I got an email yesterday saying that they are going to be 2 weeks behind schedule from the 3 week wait they already told me! Oh well, I’m still looking forward to it.
The book has a lot of interesting information about how the first world environment, specifically that in America is causing boys to become emasculated, slothful, and distracted. He claims that the major factors influencing this are: endocrine disruptors, video games, stimulants for ADHD, teaching methods, and devaluation of masculinity. I agree with most of these, and see how some of them have impacted me, and those that I know. The focus of the book is the impact on men, but I think it can be said that the impact reaches to many women as well. I know a good number of women who fall into the same category, the big difference being that they aren’t necessarily expected to make something of themselves, and being a housewife is sufficient. I think housewives can be hard working and full jobs, like the way my mother approached it, but I see that as not being the norm.
Most of the books I’ve been reading recently on being great involve inspiring others. That is the core focus of this book, and describes well how to go about starting to inspire. The key that this book puts forth is give people a large goal of “Why.” When people have the “Why” then they can work towards the goals of the group without having to constantly ask the group if things are ok or not.
This was a nice and short overview of where skepticism and religious relativism come from and what the basic ideas behind them are. It doesn’t get in depth about it but give a lot of points to look into things further.
It's an Exciting World 