Is Certification Really Much More than a Money Grab?

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I share my less than satisfactory experiences becoming a certified powerboat handling instructor.

I got my OUPV or “six pack” Captains License from the USCG back in 2023. It required me to take a 7-day class, pass four tests, and document 360 days under way on the water. (A day, in case you’re wondering, is at least 4 hours; two 3-hour days does not equal one day and one 9-hour day does not equal two days.)

I think the experience requirement is excellent, although 360 days is quite a bit of time. If you’ve spent 360 days under way on a boat and have been given any responsibilities other than tossing lines to someone on a dock, you probably have what it takes to captain a boat. Or at least that’s the logic behind the requirement.

As a USCG-licensed boat captain, I can do two things that someone without the license can’t legally do:

  • I can take up to 6 paying passengers on my boat, thus earning a little income should I decide I want to offer fishing charters or tours.
  • I can provide boat training to paying students.

In other words, I can use my skills, knowledge, and boat to make a little money. My fourth career? (Or fifth? I’m loosing count.) Maybe.

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A Short Self-Improvement Video, an AI Summary of It, and What I Think about Both

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I’m impressed by a 15-minute you tube video and surprised by how the Claude AI/LLM summarized it.

I’ll try to keep this short. Let’s see how I do.

As some people know, I often watch boring YouTube videos on my iPad in the middle of the night to help me sleep. The other morning — probably too late to get back to sleep anyway — this one was suggested to me. I tapped it and was soon pulled in by the concise way the creator presented 30 excellent tips in about 15 minutes.

If you’ve got 15 minutes to spare and think your life could use some improvement, I highly recommend watching this. (If you don’t think your life can use some improvement, you’re only fooling yourself; we can all improve.)

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My Anthropic Copyright Claim

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I file my claim in the Anthropic copyright case — and sit back to wait for the results.

I wrote about the Anthropic copyright case in three blog posts here, so I’m not going to go into the details again. If you want to get up to speed on my thoughts, read these:

My Claim

My infringed work
This is the official list of my work that Anthropic illegally accessed, violating copyright law.

The case went back and forth and it seemed for a while that the $3,000 per title settlement was not going to be accepted. But then it was and recently the legal team handling the claims for copyright holders including authors like me published the definitive list of infringed works. I used the lookup feature and found nine of my books.

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Follow Your Dreams

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A blog post I felt I needed to write that is mostly already written for me.

Lately, my brain has been stewing over the situation faced by an acquaintance. Without going into too much detail or identifying him, I’ll just say a few things to set the backstory for this post.

My acquaintance — I’ll call him Joe — is recently retired in his early 60s. He’s married and his wife still works, but she is set to retire in spring. They’re financially secure, living in a nice home in a nice neighborhood. They have friends and family and are involved in a community organization they like.

Joe has some rather serious health issues and they are definitely slowing him down. But he also has a personal goal that means a lot to him. He started taking steps to achieve that goal, despite a total lack of support by his wife and family — in fact, they actively oppose him. In a way, I was part of the steps he took, providing assistance and training to the best of my ability in the circumstances. But when I recently followed up with him, he indicated that he was going to give up on this dream.

And that’s what I’m stewing over.

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No-Knead Crusty White Bread

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A King Arthur recipe modified for a single person household that doesn’t eat much bread.

I don’t remember exactly who shared this recipe, but it likely came from someone on social media as a link, probably this one: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-knead-crusty-white-bread-recipe

Fresh Baked Roll
Yes, you can make just one fresh baked roll at a time.

It’s in my recipe binder now, shortened to fit on one page. I’m shortening it more here to reflect how I actually make this bread.

Keep in mind that no-knead does not mean no yeast or no rise. You have to have yeast and you have to let it rise. So don’t expect to whip this up in an hour.

But the magic of this recipe — at least for me — is that you can make single rolls with it and store remaining dough in the refrigerator to use again and again until it’s gone. This is the kind of hot, crusty bread you can’t get in supermarket bakeries. As the dough ages, it develops an almost sourdough flavor.

Here are the details:

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