We left Key West at daybreak on the 18th (I think). We had some nasty rollers off our bow that was causing the boat to roll upwards of 50 degrees. That’s an estimate, but when the sailboat’s prop is coming out of the water because of a roll, you know it’s pretty dramatic. We slowed down a few knots and this helped to alleviate some of the rolling. It was still an uncomfortable night trying to sleep though. We pulled into Ft. Lauderdale Tuesday morning, April 20th. My dad took a taxi to his flight back home (the surgeon would be the same one who did his hip) and the remaining crew (Archie, Larry and myself) took showers and relaxed dockside. We had dinner at a nice restaurant on the water, then the next morning we set sail again for Charleston, South Carolina, which would be my final leg of sailing (the boat is continuing to Point Judith). The sail would take about 3 days of offshore sailing ( 2 nights), and with only three people on the boat the overnight watches were a little long. I was on deck (alone for the most part) from 6 – 9:30 PM and then back up on deck from 2 to 6 AM.

However, just because the sailing was over didn’t mean that my adventure was over. My cousin who was deployed in Iraq was going to be home for the week, and there was a party for him on the coming Saturday. So I canceled my flight and instead rented a car. But not just any car, a Cadillac SRX. It was only $140 for 24 hours, not bad really. It was a really nice ride, and the 70 MPH speed limits in SC, and NC make the miles go by fast. It had a Bluetooth-enabled radio that allowed me to hook up my phone’s MP3 player, so I was all set. Windows down, tunes cranked and singing along, and loving going 80MPH (sometimes 90) instead of the boat’s 8! I made a stop at South of the Border for some “gifts” for my cousin and continued on to Maryland where they live.

Party on Saturday, where I finally got to try a Texas “Shiner Bock” beer that I’ve heard so much about. Then do the DC tour thing on Sunday with my brother, his wife and kids. I bummed a ride with him on Monday back up north, and he dropped me off at the Old Saybrook train station. I bought a ticket from there to Westerly (only $13) where my mom picked me up and drove me back to their house. I was full from road food, but she was making my dad’s birthday dinner of Lamb chops, and they smelled so good I couldn’t resist. Three lamb chops, a baked potato and two glasses of wine later I was an extremely satisfied man.

This morning she drive me back to Johnston (where I live now), I picked up my truck and drove to work….The end.

Whew, that’s the “condensed version” believe it or not.

saw a cool color in the sky that I’d never seen before. went from powder blue by the sunset to deep navy blue opposite. not a cloud in sight, just a single star (or planet I’m presuming). I wish i had my real camera…

saw a cool color in the sky that I’d never seen before. went from powder blue by the sunset to deep navy blue opposite. not a cloud in sight, just a single star (or planet I’m presuming). I wish i had my real camera…

Love’s a battle
can’t never be won
just let it alone
so she can have her fun
she’s out on the town
all the misery-o
if you’re goin out again
just give me a call

she’s a mystery
to me and herself
she might like you
but she loves herself
in her eyes all anger and fear
she ain’t gonna show it
won’t shed a tear

Pre-release version:
No Love

Give it some time,
let nature take hold.
Forests ‘r like hearts,
they like to grow old

And he played the fiddle
while she would dance
short skirt twirled ’round corduroy pants.
Old age, new age,
we’ll meet in the middle
Singing the song of forbidden fiddle

Old rusty dinghy,
brand new cell phone
Best thing about
those they always see you home

He rows his boat
like she goes to the store
Buyin’ brand new clothes
she can’t afford

And he played the fiddle
while she would dance
short skirt twirled ’round corduroy pants.
Old age, new age,
we’ll meet in the middle
Singing the song of forbidden fiddle

Pre-Release Version:
Forbidden Fiddle

Beach full of sand
Aint nothing planned
One thing on my mind

Jump in the ocean
Sun tan lotion
want me to apply?

wet bikini
dry martini
anchor over the side

gonna have ourselves a time tonight

find a cove
that no one knows
listening to prine

cookies and gin
put the hendricks in
another slice of lime

coke and whiskey
chicks are frisky
stars are out tonight

Huggin Kissin
Bathing suit missing
Better close the blinds

gonna have ourselves a time tonight
gonna have a sandy bed tonight
gonna have a sunburn tonight

Alternate version:
Have Ourselves a Good Time Tonight (5)

Kegstands in the air
shotgun or funnel a beer
ice luge
with a shot of jaegar

Short skirt and makeup on
showing off a sexy thong
tramp stamp
that says i’m easy

all the guys think im hot
showing off what I got
and that aint much
but i’m horny

Red plastic cup
gonna go and fill it up
aint going home alone again

Red plastic cup
30 grand just to fill it up
But I’m hooking up again

I won’t call her in the morning
He’ll call me in the morning
hungover looking for
self-esteem

Listen Now!

Ribs in The Oven.PDF

So just stop asking cause when i’m talking to you
I’ve probably already had a few
and if  you aint careful
the next song
will be about you

He’s my grandpa
And I love him
I can’t wait
to see him again
I want to talk
bout the trip we had
And tell him that I love him

I was a boy with a mind so so wild
I ate pancakes
too many for a child
but I felt like a man
with my grandfather-man

I got sick and he understood
Just like the man, that I knew he was
yes he was
perpetually kind,
give his sight to the blind
yes he would

He’s my grandpa
And I love him
I can’t wait
to see him again
I want to talk
bout the trip we had
And tell him that I love him

Every day I wake
I know that he’s with me
watching my path looking out for me
and I know someday we’ll meet again
cause he’s my grandfather man

the killer bees are gay, we’ll find a place a to stay
a hundred miles more
and we can pray

A steak and shake a change of clothes
they’ll be on our toes
but we’ve got a stone to take and I know we’ve got to go,

cause he’s my grandfather man

Listen To It Now:
grandfather_man

“A new search engine! OMFG!!!!”

That seems to be the reaction that a lot of people have whenever a new search engine comes out. There’s a huge fuss about it; Digg, Slashdot, and eventually CNN and MSNBC pick up on it, and everyone holds the new engine up for inspection and dissection. Which is exactly what I’m about to do.

Cuil has received a lot of bad press. Almost everyone has the opinion that “It’s totally not Google.” I don’t think it was their intention to be Google, but to provide something different. Their main focus (at least for now) it seems to me, is to allow you to research something. If you want to find the address of Joes Barber Shop on Main Street, go use Google. If you need to learn about something that you have little knowledge of, use Cuil.

The Name is Stupid

You hear this a lot from people who are bashing Cuil. From the Cuil site:

“Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge.”

I’m fine with that. In fact, I’m surprised that domain name wasn’t already taken and populated by one of those annoying domain sitters that just buys a domain and puts up random advertising links hoping you’ll click one. In this state of Internet affairs, if you can find a four letter domain name, and it happens to have actual meaning related to your intended business, good for you.

But how do I spell it? It’s pronounced ‘Cool’ but spelled ‘Cuil’.

Personally, since the first news story I saw about it I haven’t forgotten how to spell it. I didn’t have to Google for “new search engine spelled like cool” to find it. I just typed it in. Digg has two Gs, flickr is spelled wrong, yet these sites are doing fine.

Their Search Algorithm Sucks

This is another common complaint. Their search algorithms do provide some random failures, you don’t always gets the correct results, or any results at all, when you search for something that you know exists. You can always tweak the algorithm, and I’m sure they will. However, I think this lack of results might be in part intentional, or at least part of the plan; a way to differentiate themselves from Google.

“Lack of results is a feature?”

Yes. As part of my hypothesis that Cuil is meant for research about something that you know very little about I decided to research the “History of South Africa”. Deciding on a topic took a long time as I am quite knowledgeable on very many subjects. However, on a recent adventure I met a bartender from Cape Town, South Africa. I knew very little about South Africa apart from its geographic location (hint: It’s in Southern Africa, no need to jump over to Google Maps yet). This will be a perfect test for my comparison I decided.

First Search

I typed “History of South Africa” into both Cuil and Google. Cuil provided 129,408 results, Google provided “about” 15,700,000 results. Already the culling (Cuiling?) of the results is apparent. I wonder what could possibly be relevant to the History of South Africa on the fifteen-millionth Google result? To be fair, the one-hundred-twenty-nine-thousandth result is probably not much better, but the point about culling is still made I think.

The presentation is obviously different. Cuil uses a magazine-type layout, while Google uses their tried-and-true list of results, along with advertisements on the right. Both have similar results, with the Wikipedia article “History of South Africa” being near the top (top-middle column in Cuil, first result in Google).

However, the research-oriented approach of Cuil becomes apparent immediately. In the top right is a category suggestion box that lets you see some recommended categories. Are you looking for “Afrikaners”, “South African Politicians”, and more. Curious what an “Afrikaner” is I hovered over that. The category popped open with more search suggestions for Afrikaners like “Boer Republics” (some type of wild pig party association I’m assuming), “Voortrekkers”, and other creatively named items.

The point anyway, is that Google does not provide this. There really is no way for Google to suggest avenues of research about your topic. Maps of History of South Africa? Sure. The first result there is a map of the United States, the first pushpin being “University of South Florida – Center for Africa and Diaspora”, whatever. I had more luck with Google images, one provided a nice 1024 x 1220 map of South Africa. However, the utility of random images during a research task may be fairly low. I’d have to visit the sites that these images are coming from, it could very well be “Joe Shmoe’s PhotoShopped South Africa Map”. You can also search for news. Although in this context I don’t think there will be very much “News on the History of South Africa”

Conclusion

I’d better have a conclusion an a blog entry about research eh? I’m curious to see where Cuil ends up. When their initial investment cash dries up will the VCs be willing to invest more? We’ll see. Personally, I think it would be nice to have an alternative to the Google Monster, but getting a piece of that market share is like trying to eat away at Microsoft. I don’t hate Google by any means. I have a gMail account, I’ll keep using Google maps to get directions and spy on my neighbors, and for the time being I’ll probably keep Google as my home page. But if I need to find out more about Voortrekkers, I might head back to Cuil.

This was taken with a D300, 1 shot per minute, from about 10AM to 3PM