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Back pain? Have you tried:

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Starling

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Crow

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*slowly removes my heart-shaped sunglasses* i beg your fucking pardon

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Numb // Linkin Park 80s Remix

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Cha boy Forrest 🌲

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God is a Magical Girl with depression, huh

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Murder Baby Kira ⭐️

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Billie Ace & Lilian

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I think about this every day i want to live inside this video

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$3,800,000/4 br/3600 sq ft 

Telluride, CO 

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HEY WRITER FRIENDS

there’s this amazing site called realtimeboardwhich is like a whiteboard where you can plan and draw webs and family trees and timelines and all that sort of stuff. you can also insert videos, documents, photos, and lots of other things. you can put notes and post-its and, best of all, you can invite other people to be on the board with you and edit together!! 

this is really really awesome and a great tool for novel planning, so if you’re doing nanowrimo…. this could be good for you!!

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THOSE WHO STAY - character concept for graphic novel written by Bartosz Sztybor.

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Kaiden/Galactic-Blackout

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running off to sea to seek your fortune: a how-to guide

About seven months ago now I walked down a dock in April and tried to guess which of the three shrinkwrapped schooners docked there was going to be my home for the foreseeable future. Coming out the other side of the season, I’ve got hands like leather, killer biceps, a general familiarity with sailing, two near-death experiences, and in general I’m pretty comfortable wearing a knife around now. This is going to be a quick breakdown of the ups and downs of windjammer life, because I sure as hell had no idea what I was getting into, and if it sounds like an interesting job maybe you can go into it a bit more prepared than I was.

Windjamming - the part of the traditional-rigged sailing industry that deals with tourists, and the focus of the guide. Generally to do anything else with tall ships, like deliveries (moving a ship from point A to Point B, like the Florida Keys to Boston in time for the summer season), you need to have some sailing experience already.  Windjamming can be split into day sailors and longer cruises.

Day sailors make 2 to 4 short trips a day, generally in the area of three hours each. The tips are better because you see so many people in such a short time. You’re in port every night, so you’ll always have access to cell service, grocery stores, the bars, etc. You tend to have rainy days off. On the flip side, it’s not always a live-aboard position, so if you’re hoping to be staying on the ship, make sure you ask. You’ll also be feeding yourself out of pocket. The repetitive nature of the trips can be monotonous, and you don’t really have a chance to get to know the guests. Generally smaller boats and smaller crew.

Longer Cruises make overnight trips, generally 3-6 days, which means they go further and there’s more variety in where they sail. You get to know the passengers much better, and you really get to see the breadth of weather on the ocean - it’s a much fuller experience in terms of sailing. These are almost always live-aboard positions, so you have a home with no rent to pay. You’ll be fed as well as the passengers are, and even on the days you’re in port, there will be leftovers to eat if you don’t want to spend money - you can save a lot more because virtually nothing has to be spent on the cost of living. On the other hand, you’ll be out of contact for days at a time, and the unending nature of the job - with guests aboard, you’re responsible for their wellbeing even when not actively on duty, which can mean up to six unbroken days of Customer Service Face - means that it can be emotionally a bit overwhelming at times.

Pay varies pretty greatly from one boat to another; for the entry-level position of messmate, I’ve seen anywhere from a pretty generous $400/week to volunteer. Those seem to be the extreme ranges of the spectrum, so anywhere in that ballpark could be expected.

Positions open to you as a total beginner are:

Deckhand - a standard sailor. Usually you need a bit of sailing or sailing-adjacent experience, but not always, if you’re strong and quick to learn. Duties tend to include tacking, furling, and reefing sails, cleaning the ship (deck, the toilets, the sides of the hull, etc.), helping passengers up and down the ladders, and similar tasks.

Cook or assistant cook - day sailors don’t have this, so if you want to work in the galley you’re going to have to commit to a longer cruise. Planning and preparing all meals, three times a day, for about 30 people. Often includes things like baking your own bread. might be on a wood stove or a propane stove; sometimes the stove swings to stay level and sometimes it has fiddles to keep pots from sliding off, but not always. You’ve got to be an early riser, and good at time management.

Messmate: another galley position, but this one is half-way between the galley and the deck - ideally a 3/1 ratio. Cleaning dishes, setting tables, assisting the cook on occasion with meal prep, maybe snacks and things like that, as well as small things on deck like tacking sails. A lot of that is on you, however - go bug deck crew to teach you if that’s where you want to be.

Life on a windjammer/General things to know

Pack practically. I really can’t emphasize this enough. You’ll have a few days off but you’re not going to have the energy to get into nice clothes and honestly you’re going to be covered in paint dust/anchor grease/pine tar/whatever the fuck anyway. You really won’t have any use for anything besides working clothes and mayyyyyybe one nice outfit to remind you that there were better days, once. Bring clothes that you can burn at the end of the season, because they’re not going to be wearable in public.

Get a pair of work pants - Carharts, Dickies, doesn’t matter - as long as they’re tough as hell and have a lot of pockets. You’re also gonna want to have a leatherman, or ideally a rig knife/marlinspike set (cutting lines, tightening and undoing knots, etc. are things you’ll find yourself doing frequently).

Learn how to tie a bowline, a cleat, and a rolling hitch. You can learn everything fancier, but these are the three you’ll be using the most.

Just…give up on ever feeling clean. Life is easier that way. You can get a shower and wash laundry on land, but while on board it’s lucky to have hot water, and you’ll still be washing your hair in a swimsuit, on deck, with dish soap. Embrace it, bring deodorant, go swimming in the ocean.

Some really weird jobs are going to be given to you. Sailing, cleaning, whatever, all in a day’s work. Rubbing down all seventy feet of the main mast with Vaseline while being belayed down on a swing also covered in Vaseline…a bit out of left field. Windjamming is basically an endless string of crises, so don’t be too thrown when something goes wrong.

Ideally you’re reasonably good with heights (if not, avoid ships with topsails) and don’t get motion sickness.  

There’s a lot of turnover - people leave all the time for all kinds of reasons, like going back to school in the fall, getting hurt, getting fired, getting overwhelmed and quitting.

It’s a gift culture - your crew is what keeps you going, and you share what you have - people with real apartments will offer you a place to sleep and shower. People who’ve done this before will give you things you’re missing. Things like hats and books and jackets get traded and gifted a lot. Over the course of the season I gave away hand cream, a coffee mug, rides to places in my car, drawings - not much, but I didn’t come with much that could be useful. I was given a rig knife, a ceramic bowl, a few books, tea, a ukulele. Share what you have and give away things someone needs and you don’t. 

You’re going to meet a lot of weird people. Well-balanced people with 9-5 jobs who are content with their lives and like doing things like ‘leisurely sipping coffee in caffes while it rains outside’ and ‘bathing’ don’t often apply. If this is the kind of job that appeals to you, then it’s likely they’re going to be your kind of people.

There’s definitely a drinking culture, but there’s no pressure to join in, in my experience. Everyone is really chill  about whether or not you’re drinking; often the local dive bar is simply the closest warm place to find people and touch base with the other schooner bums. Once in a while someone will buy everyone a pitcher to share, but this is more related to ‘share what you have’ than to ‘everyone must drink’.

That’s it off the top of my head, but please feel free to message me if you have any questions! I can’t promise I’ll have a good answer, but then again I might. Hope this helps!

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sea shanties masterpost

“one man cannot bring in the anchor. ten men cannot bring in the anchor. but together we can.”

making this because it’s useful for my specific brand of dramaturgy and i generally have a good deal of feelings about sea shanties. these are the result of far too much time searching around for shanties that are both authentic and have a tune that can be found on the internet. organized by theme.

these can all be done a capella, obviously, but if you want accompaniment, getting your hands on a concertina would be ideal.

General Shanties

Roll the Old Chariot Along (David Coffin)

Haul Away, Joe (The Eskies)

Rant and Roar (Howling Gael)

Haul Away the Bowline (The Exmouth Shantymen)

Departing

Away Rio (David Coffin)

Leave Her, Johnny (Coda)

The Rosabella (skip to 3:15) (Wareham Whalers)

Off to Sea Once More (The Black Irish Band)

Clear Away in the Morning (Great Bay Sailor) 

South Australia (Johnny Collins)

Randy Dandy Oh (Johnny Collins)

Girls

With You, Fair Maid (skip to 14:30) (Before the Mast)

Spanish Ladies (unknown artist) (psa this one is in moby-dick!!)

Bully in the Alley (skip to 24:10) (Before the Mast)

London Julie (Three Sheets to the Wind)

Excursion Round the Bay (The Fables)

The Maid of Amsterdam (The Roaring Trowmen)

Storms

Round Cape Horn (Cyril Tawney)

Fish in the Sea (youtube user threelegsomen)

To Old Maui (skip to 9:28) (Before the Mast)

Drinking

The Boatman’s Cure  (John Roberts)

Drunken Sailor (Irish Rovers)

Fifteen Men (unknown artist)

Newer/Environmentally Conscious

No More Fish, No More Fisherman (David Coffin)

The Last Leviathan (skip to 13:40) (Fisherman Friends) (bit of a stretch to call this a shanty per se but it’s really good and sad so)