dying slowly in a glass box

[sparau]

Hello All

Just wanted to say hello and thanks for all the great info and reads, i've always been an independent minded person and relish finding like in others, there certainly seems to be a number here !

So why the morbid title? Normal mid life crisis (i'm 43)? Nah, i really love the challenge of my job (computer programmer) but i hate working for idiots and the structure of society really pisses me off.

examples:
1: air conditioning - it runs in the office for near 24/5. On the sunshine coast there is are very gentle temperature shifts, you can honestly work 95% of the time very comfortably if you are a soft brit expat or 100% for a normal human without it. I would like to think we can all make a difference but now way, i have blocked up the air con (?5,000+watt) to my office and have a fan (~10watt) to cope with the fact that i can't open the window... The owner of the company once commented about his power bills, when i pointed out (yet again) the stupidity of the air con he responded by never complaining again but keeping it going the same.

2: lighting - all light on, something like 50 flouros (~1,000watt) for a long office with full glass windows. why? because everyone has to close their blinds because of the heat of non opening windows (i have mine disconnected with the blinds open, it isn't a problem, the same 10watt fan fixes it just fine.

3: public transport / cars - just wow, really? how many overpasses do we need before we get the idea, trains, umbrellas and feet, bikes, motorbikes, stop being so grrr&^* soft, we don't need 2 ton of metal and plastic to protect us, experience the world around us !

now i know these reasons will seem environmental to some people, to me it just seems stupid, whether the temperature is rising or not it is just a waste of resources.

so what? i really need to get away from it at least for a while, it dents my otherwise sunny disposition

the plan - work smart, stop selling my experience for someone else to aggrandise their ego. since the $20k 40ft ferro got canned (ha ha, really it's pretty good !), for the time being that means doing just that and 30 hours on the side for my own business with a talented user interface guy

then, well, my office can be very mobile.

first perhaps this (for experience, since the ferro on the hawksbury idea failed ):
23 foot open cat
that should be a good boat to go from windsurfer to large object.

and then perhaps (this one even has an office !):
crowther 85

anyway, i'll try not to post tbh, my understanding of storms (woohoo, time for a windsurf) are very irrelevant and my practical knowledge of big boats is currently nil i'm here to absorb

just seemed odd not to at least make a real hello after reading so much...

Cheers
Shane

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Shane.

[Wotname]

Welcome aboard Shane.

[Randyonr3]

You need to change your out-look Shane..
Had the same issues as I worked as a building inspector in San Francisco for years, fighting the traffic and heards of people..
I now make about 1/2 of what I did befor BUT,
I live in a resort Marina, I ride my bike to work, and with the door open and sun shining, as it often does, I can look throu the palm trees to see my boat in the distance.. and when the wind blows from the west, I get a hint of salt in the smell of the air..
You dont have to be out on the open ocean or traveling around the world to be happy, just put yourself in a place where you love living..
It might take longer to get where you want, but you'll injoy getting there much more..
Good luck in the future.........

[s/v Beth]

Shoot, as a programmer you should be able to move aboard now, just get a job where you cyber commute...

[Cheechako]

Boy oh boy..... I hear you on big building's AC and leaving lights on. It's stupid. I hate office buildings.. feel confined and want to open a window!! Ever think about all the "wall warts" that stay plugged in 24/7? Want to make a billion bucks? Invent one that turns itself off after an hour's non use. Then get congress to pass a law that only that kind can be used. Let's say each household has an average of 8 of them, there are about 100 million households in the USA. If each wall wart draws about 70 milliamps... how many amps is that in 24 hours? (and this neglects all them in use in offices) I just ran it quickly and came up with over a trillion amps in 24 hrs... must have slipped a digit... can it really be that high?

[rebel heart]

I've worked in software for about a decade (developing, producing management, architecture). My only advice, and I got this from another guy, is that you need to find a way to be happy today. Sailing is harder work with worse hours and a lot of it is a meat grinder both physically and emotionally. If you can't be genuinely motivated and positive in the middle of some hellacious development push it's going to be the same calculus when the boat is in shambles, your broke, and you're going through huge withdrawals from losing your land identity.

By far the greatest reasons I see for people abandoning the dream is that they a) have health reasons or b) can't manage the psychology properly.

[zeehag]

i have encountered a few programmers out here cruising and enjoying life as they work on other peoples systems..doesnt seem to be a big problem, with skype and othr methods of communication.

[sparau]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Shoot, as a programmer you should be able to move aboard now, just get a job where you cyber commute...

yeah, our business is coming along and i wont really need any face to face interaction, 2 customers currently but i takes quite a long time to write a good application.

my problem on that front is that family wants to keep the house, so i need ~150k cash or more for a boat that is considered acceptable. the old but cute ferro for $20k was rejected.

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Sailing is harder work with worse hours and a lot of it is a meat grinder both physically and emotionally. If you can't be genuinely motivated and positive in the middle of some hellacious development push it's going to be the same calculus when the boat is in shambles

i'm not losing it because of the work, i'm losing it because the people i work with drive me insane. i'm happy from 8pm to 12:30 working on my stuff ! Being micro managed by a grumpy lunatic who created classic asp with inline sql in 2008 isnt my idea of fun...

as to more work, not sure about that, we have a full 1/4 acre in the sub tropics with 30 y.o massive grown garden (1 10ft high trailer load of leaves and fronds every 2 weeks), 4 br house, granny flat and my wife and children spend far too much time collecting things...

[s/v Beth]

Personally, I would get that Cute but small 30ft 30 yo ketch for 20K, and figure out if your family loves sailing. If they don't dig the waves and the sails, no amount of $$ is going to change that. If they do dig it, you don't need 150K.
Just saying, I have been there and done that.
Now I'm mostly solo on at 150K forty foot boat....

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by sparau

Hello All

Just wanted to say hello and thanks for all the great info and reads, i've always been an independent minded person and relish finding like in others, there certainly seems to be a number here !

So why the morbid title? Normal mid life crisis (i'm 43)? Nah, i really love the challenge of my job (computer programmer) but i hate working for idiots and the structure of society really pisses me off.

examples:
1: air conditioning - it runs in the office for near 24/5. On the sunshine coast there is are very gentle temperature shifts, you can honestly work 95% of the time very comfortably if you are a soft brit expat or 100% for a normal human without it. I would like to think we can all make a difference but now way, i have blocked up the air con (?5,000+watt) to my office and have a fan (~10watt) to cope with the fact that i can't open the window... The owner of the company once commented about his power bills, when i pointed out (yet again) the stupidity of the air con he responded by never complaining again but keeping it going the same.

2: lighting - all light on, something like 50 flouros (~1,000watt) for a long office with full glass windows. why? because everyone has to close their blinds because of the heat of non opening windows (i have mine disconnected with the blinds open, it isn't a problem, the same 10watt fan fixes it just fine.

3: public transport / cars - just wow, really? how many overpasses do we need before we get the idea, trains, umbrellas and feet, bikes, motorbikes, stop being so grrr&^* soft, we don't need 2 ton of metal and plastic to protect us, experience the world around us !

now i know these reasons will seem environmental to some people, to me it just seems stupid, whether the temperature is rising or not it is just a waste of resources.

so what? i really need to get away from it at least for a while, it dents my otherwise sunny disposition

the plan - work smart, stop selling my experience for someone else to aggrandise their ego. since the $20k 40ft ferro got canned (ha ha, really it's pretty good !), for the time being that means doing just that and 30 hours on the side for my own business with a talented user interface guy

then, well, my office can be very mobile.

first perhaps this (for experience, since the ferro on the hawksbury idea failed ):
23 foot open cat
that should be a good boat to go from windsurfer to large object.

and then perhaps (this one even has an office !):
crowther 85

anyway, i'll try not to post tbh, my understanding of storms (woohoo, time for a windsurf) are very irrelevant and my practical knowledge of big boats is currently nil i'm here to absorb

just seemed odd not to at least make a real hello after reading so much...

Cheers
Shane

Personally I think you have to take the good with the bad. I don't like air conditioning either, but I do have it on my boat during the hottest nights so I can sleep. My boat somehow stays pretty cool but some of them really run hot. The one I had before this, the cabin frequently got up to 110 in the summer, and that was with a wind scoop.

I have a drop-in air conditioner that goes in my forward hatch. It swings on and off easily with the spinnaker halyard, so I can still sail the boat any time I want. That's a bit of a trick as a live-aboard, to keep your boat sailable.

I don't know where you live, but where I live, in the Tampa bay area, people sometimes drive like maniacs. Last week I was in the left lane when the guy next to me in the right lane cut right across in front of me in a 90 degree left turn, kept going, and turned into a subdivision on the other side of the street. Such things are common here; a friend had his truck totaled about the same time when a larger truck did the same thing to him. With that kind of driving, no way would I use a bicycle or scooter (or even a big motorcycle). The truth is that most cities don't have *efficient* public transportation. Next time you're in NYC, take the same trip by bus and by subway. The bus takes five times longer, and that's no exaggeration, and that's in a city with excellent bus routes.

Where I used to live, in St. Louis, they have light rail now. It's great -- as far as it goes. The places it goes is extremely limited. it's nothing like either NYC's subways or Chicago's el's. I can't imagine what it would take to get Tampa Bay area up to NYC or Chicago's public transportation levels, but it might not be used as much, because public transportation is a habit of mind in Chicago and NYC, but not here.

I wish what I'm saying wasn't true, but it is.

[sparau]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

I wish what I'm saying wasn't true, but it is.

i hear you, its about expectations and habits, you cant force people to use public transport or other methods of transport and while everyone uses cars it excludes other options due to finances etc.

we know that petrol is a scarce commodity, we also know it has a huge amount of energy for its size and weight, yet we seem hell bent on burning every last drop we can find in the shortest space of time possible.

Here on the sunny coast 90% of the area population live within 2km of the beach, a thin strip, even with a moderate population density it would have to be one of the easiest routes to add a train line... apparently it is kind of being built, perhaps half the distance by 2025

[sparau]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Personally, I would get that Cute but small 30ft 30 yo ketch for 20K, and figure out if your family loves sailing. If they don't dig the waves and the sails, no amount of $$ is going to change that. If they do dig it, you don't need 150K.
Just saying, I have been there and done that.
Now I'm mostly solo on at 150K forty foot boat....

yes, this is good thinking, if i can convince everyone for an adventure and keep it floating for a year the thing's paid for itself !

If i cant and the cruising has to wait the 23 foot cat would be more fun and i think a better learning experience offshore.

One thing i am a bit concerned about the ferro is that the yacht dictates a fair amount of your experience. That being said it would be very capable of cruising the east coast with some work and while slow that has it's pay offs in stability. I could really handle coding on the whitsundays for the next 6 months *sigh*

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Boy oh boy..... I hear you on big building's AC and leaving lights on. It's stupid. I hate office buildings.. feel confined and want to open a window!! Ever think about all the "wall warts" that stay plugged in 24/7? Want to make a billion bucks? Invent one that turns itself off after an hour's non use. Then get congress to pass a law that only that kind can be used. Let's say each household has an average of 8 of them, there are about 100 million households in the USA. If each wall wart draws about 70 milliamps... how many amps is that in 24 hours? (and this neglects all them in use in offices) I just ran it quickly and came up with over a trillion amps in 24 hrs... must have slipped a digit... can it really be that high?

That really adds up. 0.07 amps X 120 volts = 8.4 watt X 8 = 67.2 watts X 100,000,000 households = 6720000000 / 1000 = 6720000 KW/hr X 24 = 161280000 KW/hr per day X 0.12 cost per KW/hr = $19,353,600.00 per day of wasted energy. My-O-My, never gave it much thought till you brought it up and I crunched some numbers.

[s/v Beth]

I hate facts like that Bob. It just means we are pandering to somebody who wants the air conditioning because it makes his collar too sweaty. Sparau let it slip he is from Australia (probably Queensland) I spent two years outside every day in Queensland, and other than a super dark tan, lived a completely healthy and comfortable life.
I think the same could be said of most offices in the US. How much $$ are we wasting every day so that we can be less healthy and "more comfortable"?