Today is our final day, of six Mondays session. To conclude it, we’re glazing again, on the pieces we made in the previous sessions.
We got our first session‘s creations back: flowers, turtles, mini plate, etc. My little turtle was broken.
We learnt to pour the glaze into skinny jars where you can’t get to it with a fan brush.
I’m dutifully recording each layer of glaze in the ClayLab app.
Setting record on my dive isn’t really my goal but it just happened: I went down to 61.9′ with Chris, an instructor @ Blue Grotto Williston, FL. It’s a few minutes north from Devil’s Den, on the other side of the road.
.. more pix n videos on Google Maps
The entrance fee is $55. It’s the first time that I pay for my cylinders, at $12.50 each – they were covered during the training period. Blue Grotto rents out at $11.50 (air & Nitrox). But EAN32Fill is $15.50.
Woods & Water’s t shirt is pretty nice, I wear it everywhere. To manage the weight, I bought a wagon to transport my gears. It’s neat in the bag in the morning, and messy after the dives.
There are many creatures in the water. The most famous are two turtles, Virgil and Turbo. I saw both but only caught one on my video – the sealed case didn’t work well, water got in … fortunately I saw it and stopped the bleeding – the phone still works.
… and the compound
… and my newest handbag: Sherwood ST1000 flash light -:) finely made, that includes the package box.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 卧虎藏龙嘛 – Byron Freso ran our pickleball tournaments, who also ran the one at USTA.
Byron is our pickleball head coach, likes to call me Miss Irene. He gives private lessons, both individually and with group up to four.
My first lesson with him is fruitful. He’s a good coach, in that, he builds on what you’ve.
“Take your time.”
CAN you imagine, taking time to line up shot in pickleball? Time, is what the sport doesn’t have. All goes quickly and intuitive reaction. But listen to him repeatedly, I do see the point: that, I do have time to pause, see where the ball is coming from and where it would likely to land.
He likes my forehand topspin, “I was never a good tennis player,” he would say. Toward end of the hour, he suggested two paddles. I tried them both and liked them both. He sells at cost. So I’ll have a new paddle … my last tennis racket purchase was a century ago -:)
He was at my first pro pickleball tourney which was held at USTA in 2022. He remembered the Jewish graduation ceremony. “That was the first time. I went there this May again. It’s annual event now.” He’s the chief umpire.
“Jack Sock got destroyed …” he said. I last saw Sock playing was this April, at Sarasota Open. How did he degrade into such low state? He was once No. 8 in singles (2017.11.20) and #2 in doubles (on 10 Sept 2018) in tennis.
Although pickleball is easy to get into, but to master it, request the same hard work -:) duh. “The top pros make over $1m and the top 1 or 2 travels with their trainers. … A pro team sells for $5m. Tom Brady, Kim Clijsters, etc. are owners.” According to him, Clijsters lives in Florida with her three children.
After the lesson, he said, “you’re going to play tennis …” Of course I’m -:).
有眼不识泰山🦷
皮克球的风云人物
一堂课下来 累死了
…
他说 “明天又去打网球🎾…”
俺 “施压”
简直糟蹋他的时间 [偷笑]
6⃣️ 是去年俺第一次看皮克职业赛 … 他是那里大拿 大碗 大大大
“年年都要去…”
…
他介绍的拍子都非常好用
鸟枪换炮 [偷笑]
周末快乐
After a few dives, I realized that I need a wagon to carry the heavy load of my diving gears, especially after the dives – they become extra heavy due to wetness.
Coincidentally, the day I received my wagon from Amazon, I also got IndiGogo email promoting the next new thing – Lithely: Electric Utility Wagon with Power Bank. It’s with six purchasing options:
Pretty costly (compares to mine) but only loads up to 132 lb. It looks almost identical to the $52 that loads up to 200 lb. When it folds, it doesn’t look compact to me, looks bulkier than mine.
The new new thing has always been in the eyes of beholders.
Charlie Munger says a lot of venture capitalists screw their investors, per Fortune magazine.
It was 2012, I ‘invested’ $250 on a projector that you could use your laptop to display, bypass a conventional projector. It was by a Beijing team. … of course I didn’t receive anything, and never heard from them again. I understand my risk and could be park with $250. I made no noise, till now -:) Vulture capitalists, as one reader wrote.
…
Ya, we’re glazing, finally! With so many colors (Amaco), the fun part begins.
It’s the week 5 of our six weeks session. The teacher suggests the app Clay Lab to keep truck of our pieces.
Glazing in pottery, I feel is a part of science and part of art: two shades mixing up will turn into totally different colors, when you apply differently – like this one: the top is obsidian under white, and the bottom under grey. The result is so drastic.
I glazed three pieces: my flower and mini sauce dish. My turtle is missing a leg and pumpkin was broken into pieces. This pumpkin is made by a classmate who’s not coming back – I’m practicing on it.
the pretty moon this morning
I often use ‘front crawl’ as the breaststroke. Why? I’ve no idea. Actually, front crawl is freestyle lol
My bad.
Don’t know what I’m talking about.
Butterfly at its peak, is faster than free … but freestyle is an endurance style that can go miles on end.
So, once for all (myself mainly), the four style of strokes of swimming are:
Section 6 of Advanced Adventurer is Nigh & Limited Visibility Diving, my second specialty course. Home read would be enough but SSI makes you to go to the hone hour long class and pay.
The content can’t really fill the hour, so we talked about other things.
I saw this ad for a small cruise going to Galapagos, when the diver only has a snorkeler.
“It’s a free dive,” the master said. Then he looked closer, and said, “I would fail her: wearing snorkeler is fine but it shouldn’t be in the mouth …”
Ha, one of the misleading advertisements.
Galápagos Islands is part of Ecuador, population 33,000 (2020), in the eastern Pacific Ocean, around the equator. It’s about 5 hour fly from Miami. The normal cruises that offer diving, is during the port time, using the land diving operators.
Diving from the boat, is liveaboard that offered overnight stay, can get in 5 dives a day (of course you can do less …)
After Open Water Diver, comes SSI’s continuing education: Advanced Adventurer. They call it specialty course. The reading material for this bundle is 160 pages. It has 12 sections, with overview and quiz but no exam, at the end.
Section 5 Navigation, done in two hours, review and practice of how to use compass. We went outside to practice, counting out steps. A little silly tho… who’d count their kicks in the water?
The shop sells writing pad too – the slates. One of the slates is Saekodive, made by a Taiwan company. Wondering is it as good as Sherwood and Genesis brands?
Not sure how useful a slate can be. I’ve no desire to buy one at the moment.
There was another lesson going on prior to ours. It has only one student. On the table, are many gadgets and the tv screen says Communication
Underwater communication devices
Surface communication devices
A management company posted a sign
Please be advised locks must be removed daily or they will be removed if left on.
Thank you.
A common practice at the health clubs as well, that you can not lock a locker overnight / to yourself. (Some health clubs do rent them out, monthly or annually, when and where you can keep a locker to yourself.) But a week later, someone wrote FU … I take it means fuck you?
… actually I didn’t get it at first glance bec I’ve two mates on my tennis team with Fu as their last name … one’s primary school teacher.
So came the graduation. We all passed, just with varying degrees: one got snorkeling only, I got the scuba diver, Ralph got his instructor’s certificate after 200 dives under his belt – congratulations.
It’s a dive social, coincides with the halloween party. Some mates baked a cake and cookies, pizza ordered, I brought two bottles red wine – no one touched it except me lol. … no one drinks wine in a dive bar … ha ha ha.
Meeting other divers from previous classes is great – you need a buddy to dive after all. If you’ve no one to dive with, you’ll have to hire a dive master. Unless you’re on a private boat.
As door prizes, I won the very good looking t shirt for wearing my face mask.
