I started this venture in 2008 as an avenue to talk about a wide variety of topics, but primarily as a SCUBA blog under the name "Musings from the Deep Blue Sea". It's evolved. My renewed interest in health, fitness, and nutrition (at the age of 43) has brought me to where I am today, and this site reflects that. Having said that, my original mission statement hasn't changed...

Our lives are important only because of the impact they have on the lives of others. Making a difference is important. This blog isn't written for you, it's written for me. My way of reviewing my life, and its significance...Of course, given my wide range of interests in life, there will be much variety. Welcome to my life.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Genius and Stupidity

Anyone who follows financial markets has seen the price of gold make huge jumps over the course of the last several years. Gold is currently trading at around $830, up from the sub-$300 range in 2001. It actually broke the $1000 barrier earlier this year, but has since backed off.

What many are not aware of is that a man by the name of James Sinclair, a leading gold expert, predicted this run, along with the fall of the US dollar. Mr. Sinclair's prediction takes gold to $1650 in 2011. He has also stated that his prediction may have been too conservative, and the price may go higher.

What's odd about James Sinclair is his overall outlook on the world. Read his writings for a week or two, and you may well feel the need to seek help for depression. I find him to be brilliant in his long term predictions, but he usually misses his short term calls.

I also find that his opinions on everything are a reflection of his financial pessimism, often to absurd degrees. When he comments on things outside of his area of expertise, he often sounds foolish. Take one of his writings from yesterday, regarding GM getting a $50 billion US Treasury loan for the development of electric cars and low gas consumption vehicles.

He writes, "If GM wanted a viable electric car they need only call the Tesla Company. They have made a real car, not an overblown golf cart. This car does 0 to 60 in 5 seconds with an equally respectable 1/4 mile both in speed and elapsed time. It tops out at 125 MPH. The car is pricey as it is developed on a Lotus chassis. If produced in good numbers and put on the low level cheap GM or Ford chassis they would have what they supposedly borrowed $50 billion from the US Treasury to invent and produce.

All GM needs in order to find a way to produce a real electric car is a used laptop with an internet connection. That might cost $600." To read more, visit his website, Jim Sinclair's Mineset.

Really, Mr. Sinclair? Let's pretend for a moment that the batteries for this car don't cost between 25 and 30 thousand dollars. Let's pretend that the ultralight chassis they use isn't what allows their electric motors to effectively power the vehicle. Let's pretend that making the car a five seater with room for cargo wouldn't destroy its range, acceleration, and top speed. We can stop pretending now...these are real hurdles, and certainly not the only ones.

To make this car a reality for the typical driver, It must be inexpensive, have good range, seat a family, have reasonable charging options, and pass crash tests. Mr. Sinclair's claim that they could modify this car to be cheap and practical is analogous to claiming that railroad engines of the 1800's could have been easily scaled down for use as personal vehicles...it isn't that easy, no matter how much Mr. Sinclair wishes it to be.

Congrats to Tesla, they've made a great first step toward electric vehicles. I'm sure they'd be the first to tell you that they are far from ready for practical car production.

James Sinclair is a gold genius...and a tech fool.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Greatest Name in Politics

You can't make this stuff up...This year saw a candidate for Congress in California named Theodore Terbolizard. I'm not kidding. Check out his campaign website here.

I swear to God, I was tempted to move to Cali just so I could vote for him. OK, maybe not. Remarkably, there's only one degree of separation between Mr. Terbolizard and me. One of my previous entries talked about a friend's experience in politics. This guy is one of his associates.

I know, I know, it seems like political suicide to associate with people named Terbolizard (or Terbo Ted, as he calls himself). It probably is...Then again, associating with the Ron Paul 'R3volution' was likely political suicide anyway.

The final chapter hasn't been written on my friend's campaign yet. He actually has what I would consider solid political opinions, and comes across quite well when speaking publicly. He does, however, need to work on his associations.

But back to Terbolizard. He seemed to be quite serious about his run for office, though it would be a stretch to call him a serious candidate. He managed to get arrested for DUI during his campaign. To call him eccentric would be an understatement.

In the end, he got a little over 2% of the vote. That frightens me. That's an awful lot of people with a serious lack of judgement.

Or maybe they just liked the name.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Diving into history, and the U-853

Last September Gary and I dove the U-853 for the first time. It was our first dive on this historic wreck. For those unfamiliar with it, it is a German U-Boat (submarine) sunk by the U.S. Navy at the end of World War II. It lies in 130' of water, with the remains of its 55 crew members still on board. Read the story of the U-853 here.

Choppy seas (3 ft swells) made for a stressful pre-dive gear-up and entry, but once we got down to the wreck is was great. The sub is still in great shape, mostly intact. Visibility wasn't great (10'), but good enough to explore.

We descended to the conning tower and headed toward the bow. Through one of the holes in the top of the sub, a human skull was visible. In fact, it seemed to be staring straight out at me.

I'm looking forward to diving it again next year, hopefully with some experienced U-853 divers who can direct us to the best areas to explore. I'd really like to head out to this dive with captain Bill Palmer on the Thunderfish, but since he moved his boat from Rhode Island to Mystic he doesn't head out there anymore.

Of all my dives, this one was the most special. The most historic and fascinating of them all. It is recognized by both the US and German governments as a war memorial, and should be treated with the reverence due any grave site. It does, after all, serve as the final resting place of 55 sailors.

The U-853's log was never recovered. It could help explain the circumstances surrounding its final days. Did they ignore orders, or never receive them? Maybe someday it will be found in the sand around the wreck site, uncovered after decades of burial.

September approaches...The U-853 is calling. Perhaps I'll answer.

Diving the Onondaga


Last weekend, Gary and I dove the Onondaga. For those who've never heard of it, the Onondaga is a shipwreck that lies in about 50 ft of water just off Watch Hill, Rhode Island.

She's 275 ft long, and sunk in 1918. Her entire crew escaped the wreck. Her cargo was varied. Lying at the bottom, divers see Model A tires, perfume bottles, plates, shoes, thread spools, and assorted other items.

It's a fun dive, though care must be taken to hit the water only at slack tide, as the current in this area is very strong. Diving at any time other than slack tide is dangerous.

We dove it last year, and visibility was poor, less than 10 ft. This year, conditions couldn't have been better. Visibility was about 30 ft. We dug around in the sand and found lots of interesting stuff, including a wooden thread spool that was fully intact, even after 90 years at the bottom.

Our ascent to the surface took an interesting turn when we were greeted by several Lion's Mane Jellyfish. It's never fun to be around these things. We had to hang on the line for a minute to allow them to pass before we finished our ascent. After moving past them, I managed to catch a shot of one from above. The picture isn't great, and doesn't do justice to the size of these things.

So, there you have it. The Onondaga in a nutshell. Summer is moving along so fast, and diving time is getting scarce. We're hoping to dive another wreck or 2 before the season ends. If we're lucky, another trip to the U-853 might be in the cards. Now that I think about it, my next post will probably be about our dive to the U-853 last year.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Welcome to the New Blog

After screwing around with the layouts and settings for quite a while, I think I've finally nailed down the look and feel I like.

I hope to post here regularly. Hopefully there will be a fair amount on SCUBA. If there is, it means I'm diving a lot!

Of course, there will be so much more than SCUBA. I have lots of interests. Lots of opinions too, I guess. A good place for me to introduce myself, I guess.

I'm Sean. Scuba Sean. I work as a Software Engineering Manager for a small technology development company in Connecticut. Actually, I work for multiple small tech development companies. It's been an insane year, work-wise.

In February, I thought I was going to be out of work. At the last minute, a new contract came through, and I stayed employed. Then things got interesting.

Things went well with the new contract. The customer was happy with my work. What was supposed to be a short-term project became a long-term project. New contract talks have matured with other customers. the work is flowing in, and things are looking up. Big Time!

Bottom line...as i stands now, I'm a minority shareholder in a small, privately held tech company with tons of potential. I'm also in the process of becoming a minority shareholder in another small, tech company. Work is lining up to keep me gainfully employed for a considerable period of time.

Yet somehow, I'm still dirt poor...

Monday, August 4, 2008

A Lesson in Politics

I have a friend who is running for political office. It's his first involvement in politics. He's fully committed and genuinely interested in making a difference.

He was first attracted to this path when he was introduced to the Ron Paul 'Revolution'...If you've spent any time on the internet in the past year, there's a fair chance you've been exposed to this movement. For those of you who don't know about Ron Paul, he's a Libertarian Republican Congressman from Texas who was running for President. He attracted a small number of people (in terms of percentage), but definitely had an impact.

Paul has since dropped his Presidential bid, but the 'Revolution' continues...and it's gotten ugly! Paul was the glue that held this thing together. The 'Revolution' was a cult of personality that attracted fringe elements of every stripe, along with true libertarians and other conservative leaning Americans. The message was vague enough to attract everyone, so long as they didn't ask about specifics.

Now, back to my friend...I warned him months ago to disassociate himself from these fringe clowns, but he felt it was his only base support. He didn't have the name recognition necessary to be picky about his associations. Now he's paying.

The 'Revolution' is disintegrating. They're all turning on one another. Now that the Messiah (Ron Paul) is gone, they're all discovering that they really don't agree about much. And my friend is feeling it.

"Politics IS compromise", I wrote to him. Ron Paul, et al, are idealogues. For them there can never be compromise.

He changed course somewhere along the way. Rather than ranting, he began to talk to others, became accepting of the opinions of those who disagree with him. In short, he began to compromise.

But that doesn't sit well with his idealogue friends...

Coming Soon

I'm working on a new SCUBA software package.

This one will be targeting mobile phones. Windows Mobile smartphones will be the first target platform. Once that version is finalized, I'll work on porting it to other platforms.

Blackberry and iPhone are the most likely candidates for the next phase. Once those are done, I'll move on to other platforms as I get requests (if I get requests).

Basically, this is the next generation of Plan 'D', which is featured in one of my previous posts. Plan D is a desktop app, which is nice, but useless when you're on the dive boat...

This new package will include the dive planner as well as information for Rescue Divers. It's intended to be an aid to a rescue diver in evaluating dive accident victims. It will allow the Rescue Diver to enter information about an incident and forward information to a hospital or EMT via SMS text or email.

As of now, it's nameless. A Beta version is almost complete. Once it's ready, I'll be distributing it to select divers for evaluation. Remember, it will be for Windows Mobile phones only.

once a finished version is ready, I'll post here with info about where to get it. I'm going to try to keep it free, but some phone companies charge to publish software for their platforms. If i have to pay for that, I'll be forced to charge a small fee for the software.

Stay tuned, I'll keep you updated.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Dive Planning Software


I've created a Dive Plan Software package called Plan 'D'. The software is 100% free. It's hosted on Download.com and certified spyware free...

This project grew out of my frustration with other dive planners out there. I wanted something simple, that allowed me to quickly enter a dive profile.

It utilizes dive table look-ups rather than using more sophisticated algorithms. It's very simple to use, and let's you know if you're violating any rules in the creation of your plan.

it is intended for sport diving only. No decompression info, just the basics. Future iterations may be more sophisticated...We'll see how inspired I feel.

Sadly, I've been hoping for feedback from users, but I've gotten none. It's been downloaded over 200 times on Download, along with another hundred or so from various international download sites...and not a word from anyone.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is what I'm after. Of course, an attaboy or two wouldn't hurt either!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Giving Back

Check out team237.com

This is the robotics team I mentor. It's a high school program intended to foster interest in science and engineering.The adults involved in this program are the most dedicated group I've ever met. The students are incredible. They've restored my faith in our future.

You'll hear lots about this program here. The summer and fall are slow, but once winter and spring come around, we get into full swing.

Here's the gist...Starting in January, we are introduced to a game objective. We then have six weeks to design and build a robot to compete. This is the real deal. No pre-fab slap-it-together type stuff here. This thing is designed from the ground up. When we're done, we have a 120 lb robot that typically does some amazing things.

Our team is a small one, but accomplished. We've won 3 Regional Championships in our 10 years of competition. We've also been to the National Championships in every year.

My role on the team is electronics and software mentoring. I work with the students to wire the robot and create the control software that operates it. We work hard, and have fun.

In 2006, our robot design was selected to appear in a book about FIRST Robotics. FIRST Robots: Behind the Design details the designs behind award winning robots.

If you want to learn more about the program, visit FIRST...