Category Archives: On Blogging

Some thoughts about blogging.

Loving the Cruising Life

Posted on by
11

Living on a boat, cruising from place to place at my own pace, is almost too good to be true.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t been blogging here lately, it’s because I’m busy trying to catch up with the blog posts I need to write about my big boat trip, which I started back in October. While I was traveling with two different friends — one for about 3 weeks in October and the other for about 3 weeks in December — I just couldn’t seem to get my head into writing mode. Days and days of my trip slipped by without me writing a word about my trip. This happened to me during my cruise in Spring 2022 with Capt John on the Intracoastal Waterway and although I promised readers I’d write up the missing days, I never did. I don’t want to make or break promises about this trip. I just want to write it up.

You can find what I’ve written so far in my Great Loop blog, MyGreatLoopAdventure.com.

Why I Blog

Understand that I blog, in part, to document what’s going on in my life so I can revisit those times in the future. I started this blog in October 2003 — yes, it’ll be 20 years old this year — and it has become my personal wayback machine, providing me with hundreds of true stories covering nearly 1/3 of my life. I can go back and not only read about a specific trip or day in my life, but also about what I was thinking of feeling about politics, current events, and personal matters, such as my work or divorce.

So when I neglect to post in this blog, I’m neglecting my duties as chief documentarian of Maria Langer. I’m creating gaps in my record, empty patches where days and weeks and related events existed only to be forgotten.

Do you think blogs are dead? Think again, The Verge published a piece called “Bring Back Personal Blogging” on December 31, 2022, less than two weeks ago.

My response? Bring it back? Who says it went away?

Who cares? you might ask. You’re nobody. No one gives a shit about what you did or saw or thought.

Here’s a newsflash for folks thinking something like that: We’re all nobodies. And we’re all somebodies. It’s all in your state of mind. (Also: If you don’t give a shit about what I write here, what the hell are you doing here reading it? Get lost.)

Anyway, it’s important to know why I blog to understand what I blog. And why neglecting my blog disappoints me.

What I’m Up To Now

So what’s keeping me so busy that I’ve been neglecting this blog? As the previous post here indicates, it’s not Twitter. (Frankly, the changes at Twitter have made it so distasteful that I’m glad to avoid it and get hours of my week back. Jeez, what are we thinking wasting so much time on social media? Want to wake up and smell the coffee? Read chapters Six and Seven of Johann Hari’s book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again.)

I’ve been on my winter travels and they’re very different from the RV trips I’ve been taking to travel south for the past 10 years.

This winter, I’m on my boat, which you may have read about elsewhere in this blog. I sold my helicopter in May and bought a trawler in September. In October, I had the boat shipped to Chicago where I put it on the Great Loop. I’ve spent a total of 72 days/nights on the boat since then, traveling south and east, and I am totally loving it.


My buddy boat friends shot this photo of Do It Now as we headed out of Carrabelle, FL, the other day around dawn.

I really think that 20 years of RVing prepped me for living on a boat. I wrote about that in a lot of detail back in November after the first three+ weeks of this trip, when I went home to take care of responsibilities. Since then, I traveled for three weeks with a different friend and have since traveled for nearly a whole month by myself.

I think going solo is what has really made me fall in love with this type of travel and lifestyle. After so many years of my life spent compromising with a difficult partner on so many things, it’s great to be able to make all of my own decisions. While it’s nice to share a trip with a friend, it’s not as nice when that friend has expectations that aren’t in line with mine — or maybe even the reality of this lifestyle. It’s very frustrating to travel with someone who is perpetually disappointed when you’re having the time of your life.

Right now, it’s before dawn on a Thursday afternoon. I’m in Steinhatchee, FL, at a surprisingly affordable marina. I arrived several days ago and had originally planned to leave yesterday, but weather is on its way so I — and a boat I’ve been traveling with for a few days — have decided to stick around. The marina has a great staff, three restaurants within walking distance, and a grocery store and hardware store I can get to on my bike. I’ve made friends with a few of the other boaters waiting here for the weather to pass, including another solo traveler in a boat even smaller than mine.

The next leg of my trip is long — 82 nautical miles! — and is mostly on the Gulf of Mexico. The weather we’re waiting out isn’t severe like thunderstorms, but it is windy and wind generates waves. Although my boat can handle ocean travel, there’s nothing pleasant about traveling 80+ miles in waves that are two or more feet high. So we’ll wait until the Gulf calms down, probably on Sunday morning, and make our run then.

What awaits me at my next stop? An anchorage in a town known for its manatee population in the winter. I’ll have to use my dinghy to get to shore to walk around. I’ll stay a day or two and then continue down to Tarpon Springs. After that, I’ll be in the Tampa area where I can hop on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and not have to worry so much about weather and waves for a while.

I have no set plans. I have no reservations. All I have is a comfortable and seaworthy boat, access to the information I need to plan out the next few days of my life, and a credit card. What else does a person need for adventure?

A Home on the Water

I’ll say it here — if I haven’t already said it elsewhere — I’m enjoying this so much that I’m starting to think about becoming a full-time live aboard. That’s a person who lives on a boat instead of “on the dry” in a “dirt home.”

I’ve already met a few liveaboards on this trip. My favorites are Kenny and Rhonda in a big Kadey Krogen trawler. I don’t know how long they’ve been cruising full time, but it’s been at least a few years. They’re knowledgeable, they’re comfortable, they’re happy, they’ve come up with a “formula” that includes marinas and anchorages and isn’t as expensive as one might think. This part of the country is perfect for living and traveling aboard a boat full time: south in the winter, north in the summer, in between in spring and autumn.

(I think people who live on a boat in a marina are missing the point just as much as folks who live in an RV in an RV park or piece of land. Your home can move; why not move it? If you’re going to stay in one place all the time, you don’t need a home that can move.)

So far, I’ve passed too many places too quickly; I’d love to go back and see some of them again with time to really see them. The idea of traveling along the route of this 6000+ mile circle, possibly for years, is incredibly appealing to me. Every day different, always meeting new people, always doing new things. I wish I could have started doing this when I was younger, but it’s not too late to do it now.

(Yes, Do It Now is the name of my boat. When I think of the years I wasted in a dead-end relationship with someone too afraid to take risks and have fun, I cringe. If you want to do something with your life, do it now.)

Would I do it in this boat? Probably not. I’d need something a bit bigger, one with decent guest quarters and a place I can set up as a workstation for doing my own thing. I’m thinking of something a few feet longer and maybe a little wider than this one. But I’m not going to start looking now because then I’ll want to buy what I find and I’m not ready for that. Not yet.

Anyway, while my house-sitter is dealing with what seems like a never ending winter of snow and frozen fog — including several days when the water was shut off because the water company found a leak in their lines — I’m hanging out on the water in the sun with new friends, planning my next adventure.

And I’m starting to wonder why I need to go home at all.

My Vlog

Posted on by
Comment

I brush the dust off my personal YouTube channel for use as a vlog.

I began posting videos to YouTube on my personal YouTube channel way back in 2007. Back then — as today — the videos were mostly short clips I used to share things going on in my life. I guess I used it a lot like folks use TikTok today. (And no, I don’t have a TikTok channel or any desire to get one.)

The cool thing about putting content on YouTube for so many years is that I can look back at my life and what was going on. Some of those posts are better than blog entries because they show more than they tell. (If you’re a writer, you should understand the value of that.) I find special value in the posts that highlight things in progress, like the building of my new home or the development of my cats from kittens to full grown barn cats. Just the other day I watched a video from 2015 where I noticed the tree I’d found growing in one of my planters; not long afterward, I’d replanted that tree in my yard and it’s now more than 30 feet tall. (No kidding!)

Although I put a lot of time, energy, and money into the FlyingMAir YouTube Channel, I pretty much neglect the Maria Langer YouTube channel. There are only so many hours in a day and these days I have little desire to spend my time in front of a computer. I’ll be frank: the FlyingMAir channel earns me money through ad revenue and memberships; the Maria Langer channel does not. The FlyingMAir channel has nearly 70K subscribers; the Maria Langer channel does not. In my shoes, where would you put your time?

But I’ve recently decided I want to do more vlogging — video blogging. While lots of folks seem to consider the content on the FlyingMAir channel to be “vlogs,” I don’t. To me, a vlog is more personal and less edited. It might take me hours to video, store, back up, edit, render, and upload a 30-minute flying video. I think a vlog entry should be looser and more spontaneous. It should be something I can create quickly with my phone as the camera. Something that shares what’s on my mind or what’s right in front of me at a specific moment. Something I can upload quickly, perhaps minutes after I record it. Or maybe even while it’s going on, as a livestream.


I posted this on Twitter yesterday, but I sure wish I’d slowed down and shared it live.

What kind of content would I livestream? Well, yesterday morning, I woke to find a blanket of snow covering my entire area. It was absolutely gorgeous. But what was even more amazing was the way the sunlight hit those snowcapped peaks as the sun came up. That’s the kind of thing that’s great to share live and save for future viewing.

And how about when the bighorn sheep return to the neighborhood, as they’re likely to do within the next month or so? I’d love to create a livestream where I answer questions about them while videoing them grazing in my yard. (There actually is a livestream of this on the FlyingMAir YouTube channel; the only way to livestream it was to put it on a channel where it really didn’t belong.)

And right now, because the temperature is around freezing, the wind machines in the area are running. I’d love to share a live view of them in action, answering viewer questions as I record the sound.

That’s the kind of content that interests me. The stuff that’s going on now, the stuff I can share live with others who might have questions or comments about it. Interactive video content that doesn’t rely on editing to be interesting. Something short and sweet.

The trouble is, with fewer than 1000 subscribers on my personal channel, I can’t enable the mobile device live-streaming feature. I can only livestream from a laptop or desktop — and who the hell wants to see my talking head, especially with a view that’s likely to look up my nose?

So that brings me to a request. Can those of you reading this who have Google/Gmail/YouTube accounts go to my channel and subscribe? As I type this, I’m only 85 subscribers short of being able to turn on mobile device live-streaming. You can be one of those 85 subscribers! Three easy steps:

  1. Go here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MariaLanger/
  2. Click the Subscribe button.
  3. To be notified when there’s new content, click the bell icon to run on notifications.

And even if you don’t want to subscribe, I urge you to take a moment to check out the channel and some of the videos you’ll find there. They cover a wide range of topics and I’m pretty sure that if you like this blog, you’ll find at least a few short videos that you’l also enjoy.

Oh, and if you’re a Twitter user, follow me on Twitter. I might not tweet a lot of stuff, but most of it is personal and blog-like. After all, Twitter began as a microblogging platform and that’s still how I use it.

The Seasonality of My Blog Posts

Posted on by
5

What you find on the home page varies depending on the time of year.

A few months ago, I was thinking about how I never blog about flying anymore. But a quick look at the home page and you’d think that flying is the only thing I blog about. What gives?

I realized that my blogging habits are seasonal.

  • Oregon Coast
    I managed to get one trip in before cherry season started: I took the helicopter down to Oregon for some maintenance and spent some time on the cloudy coast with my pups.

    In the winter, when I’m traveling and have limited access to the Internet, I often share quick “postcards” that feature photos of places I’ve been. Occasionally, I’ll do a deep dive into a topic on my mind that time of year. In recent years, I’ve been making and selling jewelry on my travels so I write about doing shows, finding supplies, and learning new techniques.

  • In the spring, after I’ve returned home, I write about springtime topics. Although I love traveling, after 3+ months on the road, I’m usually very glad to be home. I write about the remnants of winter, the weather, and the chores I need to do to get my garden and home ready for the time of year when I’m there.

  • Weird camera Angle
    One of the things I’m excited about lately is the GoPro Fusion camera I recently acquired. It makes interactive 360° videos, which have been a real hit on FlyingMAir YouTube channel. Here’s a screen grab from a recent video — isn’t this a cool angle?

    In the summer, when cherry drying season is underway, I write a lot about helicopters and flying. After all, that’s what’s on my mind. I also dial up my video production for the FlyingMAir YouTube channel, which is quickly becoming a decent source of revenue to help cover my flying costs. Flying helicopters ain’t cheap and I occasionally whine a bit about that, too. I might also write about new cameras or video editing tools I use to get that work done.

  • In autumn, when cherry season is over and no longer have to stick around the house waiting for rain, I eventually hit the road on some sort of autumn vacation. Last year I did a photography cruise in the San Juan Islands, but this year the plan is to go to Alaska; I already got a good deal on First Class plane tickets to get there. When I’m not traveling, I’m prepping my home and garden for the winter and starting to pack for my winter travels, so I sometimes blog about that.

Keep in mind that the busier I am, the less I write in my blog. Sometimes I’m very busy. Other times, I might not be especially busy but I could simply be burned out. Remember, I’ve been blogging here since October 2003 — getting close to 20 years now! Maybe I’m just running out of things to say.

Morel Mushroom
Here’s a morel mushroom I found in mid-May. I hunt for morels in spring and chanterelles in autumn.

I think I blog less now than I did years ago because I’m more active now than I was earlier in my life. I have freedoms now that I didn’t have when I was with my wasband, a man who had limited vacation time and didn’t like me having fun without him. I also have a lot more personal time to learn new things (for example, beekeeping in 2013, gyro piloting in 2014, mushroom hunting in 2016, jewelry making in 2018 and 2019) and build new skills (for example, basic carpentry in 2014; acting as the general contractor on the construction of my home, wiring my home and tiling my bathroom floor and shower stall wall in 2014 and 2015; jewelry scale metalworking in 2018). I do as I please and I do a lot. Who has time to blog?

What does all this mean to blog readers? Well, all it really means is that this blog’s focus will shift with the seasons. It’s summer now, so I’ll be writing a lot about flying and sharing lots of my videos. If the virus situation improves, I hope to get out to do at least one or two jewelry shows and I’ll likely write about that. And, keeping this in mind, I’ll do my best to write about things other than flying when they’re on my mind.

You might even get another political rant out of me. 😉