Internet Journey - From Storms To Desktops

After battling the sea for nine years, it's time to move on. That's what I told myself when I first stepped ashore to search for a land job. The decision was not made on the spur of a moment but after much thought and soul searching.

While I was working aboard ship, many of us talked about working ashore some day. I heard people saying they were quitting and then much later, I would find them on another ship. My conclusion -- many have tried to quit, but very few have succeeded.

Whenever I see older seamen on my ship, I feel a bit of pity for them. I can feel their frustrations. And I know exactly what they will face over the coming six to nine months.

They will face the rigors of the sea and extreme climatic conditions, such as huge waves, strong winds, icy cold and hot weather, the boredom and loneliness when nothing much happens, seasickness and insomnia when encountering heavy weather for weeks on end, and of course, missing the home and the family as well as missing out on the many other things that a normal life can offer.

But it's not really a bad life at all if you are still young. It's a life that can offer many exciting experiences and adventures, a lot of traveling, and sightseeing in places that can be far off the normal tourist routes. It can be a very satisfying experience. I still have fond memories of my experiences while working on board ship.

When I first started sailing, I collected souvenirs from all the countries that I visited. After a while, these started collecting dust and I had to get rid of them. Furthermore, I found that some of these souvenirs were actually made in other countries.

That made me decide to take photographs as my souvenirs. I now have almost 3,000 colour slides of my travels.

What can I do with these? Well, some of the images have been accepted by a stock photo agency, but this is just a small portion of my collection.

I was seriously into photography at that time and even bought an expensive SLR camera with a set of interchangeable lenses so that I could take good quality photographs. I even sold a few photographs to some magazines during that time.

When I realised that my photographs were being published to support articles in the magazines, I started to take up writing.

After that my articles were published in the local newspapers and magazines. But that was a very long time ago when computers were practically unknown.

Even after I quit the sea, my experiencees on board ship made a lasting impression on me. I still wanted to explore new places. I was fascinated by computers when they made their debut in 1987. These had the 80286 processor, I remember.

A colleague taught me how to use the Lotus 1-2-3 software and I was delighted with what I could do with it. I was able to created graphs with this WYSIWYG program.

But computers were expensive and not very affordable at that time. I still had to hammer on the keys of my trusty portable typewriter to produce any work.

I moved on to other jobs later, but my fascination with computers continued. Being an engineer, I was very much interested in creating engineering piping diagrams. I learned to do AutoCAD drawings that were very much better than the ones I had to do during my college days with pencil, T-square, eraser and paper.

Later on when I was introduced to the Internet, my interest practically shot right through the ceiling. There was so much information available. At about that time, I decided to build a boat for myself. (It was a dream that I had been keeping in my head since the time I took up sailing during my college days.) So I began to search the Internet and discovered how other people built boats. The whole project took about three months of research and manual labour.

The result was a custom-built kayak that was carefully crafted for speed, manoeuvrability, portability, and durability. And specially built to suit my weight and the length of my legs.

I had experienced the power of the Internet. And I love it.

Being trained in marine engineering enables me to be flexible in using technology or any other tools available in order to get the job done. You see, when working on board a ship, we were expected to make do with whatever materials were available to solve problems. There were no contractors that you could call in to help, in the middle of the ocean.

Anyway, I later decided to learn web designing. I found this quite interesting. And once I delved into web designing, many other subjects also caught my attention. Search engine optimisation, designing for fast loading, html language, marketing, affiliation, advertisements, writing effective sales copy, etc, just crept up along the way.

I even made my own website about marine engineering.

Then I stumbled into e-books and e-zines. I found some of these very interesting, and I started to mess around with them. Eventually, I produced my first e-book entitled "Sign Off -- A Guide to Career Success on Shore".

Now I am into self-publishing and I can publish whatever I want. I shall not receive piles and piles of rejection slips anymore. As an author-publisher, I can also design my own illustrations and layout in whatever way I think best, and most important of all, I don't have to spend money on printing, paper, binding and whatever else.

I can also pass around my e-book to people in the form of downloads and e-mail attachments or even CDs. Unlike webpages, people don't even have to be online in order to read my book. I believe that we are in this world to be a blessing to others. Whatever experiences that I have gone through need not be wasted but can be used to help somebody somewhere. That's why I wrote my e-book.

Also, being involved in a 34-week "Becoming Disciples through Bible Study" programme for the past three years, I have come to realise that by giving we receive.

With that in mind, I searched through the memory bank in my brain, and also my notes, and found that I have many things to share with people. After going through many years of working experiences on land, I think it is worthwhile to share some of the experiences I have with those who are contemplating switching jobs.

Just like the photographs that are gathering dust in my home, these experiences should not stay in my memory or storeroom and be lost forever. I should leave something behind to benefit future generations. So I quickly got my stuff together and started writing the e-book. It took me about three months of free time to complete.

Most of the visitors have an interest in life on board ship, but the e-book I wrote is about working ashore. So that makes the information relevant to anyone else too.

E-books have the potential to spread marketing messages to potential buyers. They can also be instruction manuals for users, for displaying products as catalogues, for publicising services, and a thousand other uses. The outcome of any tool depends on the one who wields it. It only takes a good writer with a flair for IT, marketing concepts and visual communications copywriting and design to make it work.

Below are some useful items that I have picked up in my journey on the Internet:

Eliminating Spam
Viral Protection

Many years of working experience in Marine, Facilities, Construction has given the author material for writing e-books and articles related to engineering, and management. Subscribe to facworld ezine

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Google News Updated : Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:08:13 GMT Ex-Secretaries Suggest New War Powers Policy - Washington Post Aljazeera.net Ex-Secretaries Suggest New War Powers Policy Washington Post - 3 hours ago The next time the president goes to war, Congress should be consulted and vote on whether it agrees, according to a bipartisan US study group chaired by former secretaries of state James Baker III and Warren Christopher. Video: Panel Calls for New War Powers Legislation AssociatedPress War Powers Act needs fixing, bipartisan panel says CNN Reuters - Seattle Post Intelligencer - AOL News Newsbloggers all 639 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:48:10 GMT Alumina Shares Gain as Profit at Partner Alcoa Tops Estimates - Bloomberg Reuters Alumina Shares Gain as Profit at Partner Alcoa Tops Estimates Bloomberg - 3 hours ago By Rebecca Keenan July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Alumina Ltd., owner of 40 percent of the world's biggest producer of the material used to make aluminum, rose the most in more than five months in Sydney trading after partner Alcoa Inc. reported profit that ... Alcoa Profit Tops Estimates After Price Rise New York Times Alcoa beats the Street CNNMoney.com The Associated Press - Reuters - BloggingStocks - Nightly Business Report all 284 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:09:46 GMT Study Finds Flawed Practices at Ratings Firms - New York Times ABC News Study Finds Flawed Practices at Ratings Firms New York Times - 4 hours ago By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM The analyst at the credit ratings agency was blunt: “Let’s hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters. SEC criticizes credit-rating firms Los Angeles Times SEC finds conflicts at rating agencies Financial Times CFO.com Magazine - Reuters - Bloomberg - Wall Street Journal all 301 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:20:01 GMT Google Introduces a Cartoonlike Method for Talking in Chat Rooms - New York Times Los Angeles Times Google Introduces a Cartoonlike Method for Talking in Chat Rooms New York Times - 4 hours ago By BRAD STONE Google, known for its plain-Jane approach to Web design, has come up with something much wackier. On Tuesday the company introduced Lively, an online tool that allows people to embody a cartoonish online avatar and have text-based ... How Lively? Google’s Me-Too Virtual World GigaOm Virtual Worlds Are So Hot Right Now: $345 Million Invested So Far ... TechCrunch Wall Street Journal - CNET News - Los Angeles Times - PC Magazine all 166 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:21:46 GMT Afghan Bombing Sends Stark Message to India: With Power Comes Risks - New York Times Afghan Bombing Sends Stark Message to India: With Power Comes Risks New York Times - 3 hours ago By SOMINI SENGUPTA NEW DELHI - The suicide bombing on Monday outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul was the latest and most audacious attack in recent months on Indian interests in Afghanistan, where New Delhi, since helping to topple the Taliban in 2001, ... Video: Mourning for Kabul blast victims - 08 Jul 08 AlJazeeraEnglish Pakistani PM calls for joint efforts to fight terrorism Reuters India BBC News - Bloomberg - The Associated Press - CNN all 3,127 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:32:49 GMT Bush Won't Back Setting Timeline for Troops in Iraq, Aide Says - Bloomberg Times Online Bush Won't Back Setting Timeline for Troops in Iraq, Aide Says Bloomberg - 44 minutes ago By Catherine Dodge and Roger Runningen July 9 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration rejects setting any ``arbitrary'' deadline to withdraw forces from Iraq, the president's spokeswoman said after an Iraqi official said his government wants a timeline ... Video: Iraqi PM Calls for Withdrawal Date AssociatedPress Maliki's Withdrawal Card Wall Street Journal New York Times - Reuters UK - AFP - ABC Online all 1,754 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:24:10 GMT Coalition launches push for health care reform - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Tampa Tribune Coalition launches push for health care reform Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - 2 hours ago By GUY BOULTON An array of unions and liberal activist groups in Wisconsin have joined a national coalition that plans to spend $40 million to push for health care reform, particularly universal coverage, in the coming election. Coalition to lobby for US health-care reform Reuters $40 Mill Health Care Reform Campaign Launches ABC News Washington Post - Workday Minnesota - Kansas City Star - Bizjournals.com all 266 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:17:57 GMT RSS to Blog RSS Parser

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