This is what 87,000 pounds of water pressure will do to a lobster.
Click here for the story of how it got this way
thanks to Kurt Ankeny-Beauchamp for forwarding the story
Tag: Chickity check it!
Chickity Check It!- Trip For The Tree From Our Senator Bruce Tarr
Sister cities Gloucester, Ma and Shelburne, Nova Scotia have a great tradition of Shelburne giving Gloucester a Christmas tree each year and Gloucester’s legislative delegation giving books to the Shelburne library in return.
A delegation from Gloucester is now on the way to get the tree, with Ringo Tarr at the wheel of the truck and trailer that will carry it on the long journey to its place of honor at Kent Circle.
I am part of the crew, and we have video equipment so we will post clips of the trip here over the next few days. The first clip is posted below.
Bruce has his own blog if you didn’t know. You can check it out here-
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Annisquam Light: 1910 On Shorpy
Annisquam Light: 1910
Click the small photo to go to the Shorpy site where the full size hi res photo resides
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Kenny MacCarthy Is Putting Together A Great Gloucester MA Dog Walks Map
Kenny MacCarthy From http://thecutbridge.com/ is putting together a map of places in Gloucester that are great for walking your dog.
Click the Map to check it out and comment on his blog if you know of some great places to walk a dog that aren’t listed. He provides details on all spot on his interactive map once you click through
click the map to check it out-
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New addition To The GMG Free Cape Ann WiFi Map
Sandy Farrell sends In a new Cape Ann location which offers free WiFi to add to the GMG Free Cape Ann WiFi map– Family Car Care.
Click the Map to go to the interactive map to see the places around town we’ve discovered so far and send in any that you deem missing from our list.
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Niles Beach Sunset Pic From Funky Fresh Gloucester
Check out Funky Fresh Gloucester Here-
http://funkyfreshgloucester.wordpress.com/
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Exquisite Flora in Autumn From Kim Smith
Kim Smith Writes-
Dear Gardening Friends,
Last Tuesday I had the joy to attend the New England Landscape Design and History Association’s (NELDHA) October get-together, which is held annually at the beautiful Arnold Arboretum in Boston. The refreshments provided by Jon Hogan were simply delicious and the special guest lecturer Alan Banks gave an absorbing and informative presentation on "The Olmstead Legacy and its influence on today’s landscape design professionals." Alan Banks is the supervisory park ranger at "Fairstead," which is the Frederick Law Olmstead National Historic Site, located in Brookline, Massachusetts. Banks has extensively researched the Olmsted firm’s involvement in over 1,200 projects throughout Massachusetts, ranging from expansive parks to intimate private gardens. Among Olmsted’s greatest achievements is the Boston area’s six-mile Emerald Necklace (Including the Arnold Arboretum) that became a nationally acclaimed landscape masterpiece (Olmstead and his partner Vaux famously designed Central Park, NYC). Olmsted’s humanitarian philosophy and theories for land use are persuasive arguments for today’s landscape designers. To learn more about NELDHA and the manifold benefits of becoming a member, visit their new website New England Landscape Design and History Association’s.
I left Cape Ann several hours earlier than the scheduled event hoping to arrive at the Arnold in time to photograph, but as is typical, the traffic was dreadful and, regretfully, I was only able to take a few shots.
On another note, our daughter Liv is singing every Sunday at the lovely St. Johns’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Farms. The music program, under the direction of organist and choirmaster Nicholas White, is divine. This coming Sunday afternoon (November 7th) at 4:00 pm is a special concert of Requiem ~ Gabriel Faure, with chamber orchestra and soloists, featuring the combined choirs of St. John’s Church, Beverly Farms, and Christ Church, Andover. The program will also include Felix Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer, as well as his Organ Sonata III in A Major. Barbara Bruns is the organist, with Nicholas White conducting. I hope you will come hear this gorgeous music, with Liv singing.
Click here to read the rest of
Kim’s Entry
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Knit To End Homelessness – November 7
Kat Valentine wants You To Knit To End Homelessness
On November 7 the annual Knit-A-Thon to benefit Pine Street Inn will be held at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. The goal this year is $50,000. Among the prizes awarded during the event are jewelry by Leslie Wind and copies of my two Mermaid books: The Mermaid Shawl & other Beauties: Shawls Cocoons & Wraps, a collection of original knitwear designs, and The Old Mermaid’s Tale: A Romance of the Great Lakes, the perfect novel to read while wrapped in your mermaid shawl.Visit http://www.knit-a-thon.org/ for more information.
Check Out Kat’s blog here-
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Chickity Check It! Surfland Fishing Reports
Surfland Fishing Report comes from Surfland Bait and Tackle- Serving fishermen on Plum Island for 49 years. 28 Plum Island Boulevard, Newbury, MA 01951
October 20, Scads of bait, nothing chasing
Today is just a beautiful day, and the tide was right to take a morning trip and see if there was any life outside the Merrimack mouth or along the beach. At the jetties I was greeted by the welcome sign of 50 gannetts diving followed by their huge, rocket-style splashes. I moved up slowly and watched the fishfinder. I figured Gannetts=mackerel. The fishfinder lit up with a pretty steady stream of marks in the 12-25 foot depth. I jigged for a while, but no luck.
Now “fishfinders” and I have had a poor relationship in the past. I usually found little correlation between the “found” fish and real ones. This year, though, I bought a new (used) ride and it came with a nifty new Garmin 440s chartplotter. I usually fish the flats, so the real utility has always been depth to me, trying hard to avoid the sunken jetties. But this year I got outside a lot more and started using the sounder, fully expecting nothing from it.
Click here for the rest of the post
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Author Jane Ward Puts Ego Aside And Takes Matters Into Her Own Hands
Writer, Editor, Publisher…Me
By Jane Ward
The email to my agent is drafted. All I have to do is click the “send” button. Within seconds, she’ll see my decision:
I would like you to pull my food-memoir manuscript out of circulation, for now anyway, while I give serious consideration to the direction in which I want to take my nonfiction writing.
“As for the second manuscript of mine, the mainstream fiction manuscript that has been making the rounds for the past year, I would like that off the market as well. In fact, I would like all copies of that manuscript returned.
“I have decided to publish it myself.”
Self-publishing? Undertaking the roles of editor and publisher in addition to my primary role of writer, all for the pleasure of seeing my work in print?
"Farmers Market Cart," © Jane Ward
Thanks to print-on-demand technology, self-publishing in our digital world has progressed from the pay-to-play model of old. But the option still carries a bit of the vanity press stigma.
While I’m elated that there is a modern print alternative to traditional publishing houses, I have to ask myself about my motives. Is it vanity? Or is it something else?
click here for the rest of her blog post
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Chickity Check It!- Schooner Festival Photos From Photoholic
Schooner "Bald Eagle" 9’10
Schooner Festival, Sept. Gloucester, MA
See others at this site…
en.flickeflu.com/photos/lenbo
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Sarah Kelly Talks About The 2010 Rockport Harvest Fest Video
Here’s Sarah-
She’s also been added to the very prestigious GMG Blogroll to the right -The Roving Home
http://therovinghome.tumblr.com/
Friday night we’re kicking off the festival with a Community Harvest Picnic. We’re asking people to bring a dish celebrating the harvest season and come down to T-Wharf starting at 6 o’clock for some music provided by the Polygroove Orchestra and a meal with friends, neighbors and visitors to Rockport. The picnic will be followed by a screening of the movie Fresh at the Old Firehouse Trust.
The most important thing I should say is this: rain, shine or monsoon, HarvestFest will go on! We’ll be warm and dry under the big tent, so don’t let the weather (whatever it turns out to be) stop be a deterrent from coming to downtown Rockport Friday for the kickoff and Saturday for the main event.
Thanks again for letting people know about HarvestFest – and we look forward to hearing your words of wisdom on Saturday at the Bloggers’ Summit!
– Sarah
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Sarah Kelly Talks About Rockport Harvest Fest In Our Interview
Look for Sarah’s GMG Debut Tomorrow Morning
Sarah is the mastermind behind The Roving Home
Check Out Her Blog Here- http://therovinghome.tumblr.com/
For More Info On Rockport Harvest Fest-
http://rockportartfestivals.blogspot.com/p/harvest-festival.html
Sarah Writes-
Hey Joey,
Thanks so much for stopping by this morning!
I just wanted to let you know that the poster was designed by Rockport’s own Darren Mason of Merge3 Creative (www.merge3creative.com). Also, I wanted to mention that on Friday night we’re kicking off the festival with a Community Harvest Picnic. We’re asking people to bring a dish celebrating the harvest season and come down to T-Wharf starting at 6 o’clock for some music provided by the Polygroove Orchestra and a meal with friends, neighbors and visitors to Rockport. The picnic will be followed by a screening of the movie Fresh at the Old Firehouse Trust.
The most important thing I should say is this: rain, shine or monsoon, HarvestFest will go on! We’ll be warm and dry under the big tent, so don’t let the weather (whatever it turns out to be) stop be a deterrent from coming to downtown Rockport Friday for the kickoff and Saturday for the main event.
Thanks again for letting people know about HarvestFest – and we look forward to hearing your words of wisdom on Saturday at the Bloggers’ Summit!
– Sarah
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Air Tran In Flight Magazine Photographer Jessica Scranton Represents!
Yesterday afternoon Jessica Scranton came down the dock to take some pictures for a piece on Gloucester that I was interviewed for which will appear in an upcoming issue of Air Tran’s in-flight Go Magazine.
They will be featuring Gloucester as a unspoiled destination for great dining and real character. Should do great things for the G-Town as there are a ton of people who read those magazines and they are obviously travelers.
chickity check out Jessica’s site www.jessicascranton.com
she also has a blog-
http://www.scrantonphoto.blogspot.com/
She had the May cover of Smithsonian Magazine which is huge!
Good Times Down The Dock!
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Chickity Check It!- Kim Smith Monarch Butterfly Migration Late Summer 2010
Monarch Butterfly Migration Late Summer 2010
Magical Seaside Goldenrod
Dear Gardening Friends,
So many have telephoned or emailed inquiring about the status of the annual Monarch butterfly migration through our region. This past summer I have observed umpteen Monarch butterflies and caterpillars in cultivated gardens, wildflower meadows, and along the shoreline; however, I did not see the great numbers in great heaps roosting in any one particular place that I have observed in some years past. Rather I would find a small passel here and a small passel there—perhaps several dozen at a time—roosting in the wild black cherry trees (Prunus serotina) at Eastern Point, awakening in the early morning and nectaring at the Seaside Goldenrod in the meadow below.
Monarchs Mimic Withering foliage of Black Cherry Tree
Although the Monarchs are guided genetically, using their internal sun-compass navigation and circadian clock, each year the annual southward migration takes a different form that depends on many other variables, primarily the weather conditions in their overwintering site in Michoacán, Mexico as well as weather patterns in their US and Canadian breeding grounds. Because Cape Ann is located at approximately 43 degrees latitude north, our peak migration pattern is estimated at around September 11, but I modify this pattern because of the strong winds and storms we often experience in the late summer living along the coastline.
Check Out Kim Smith’s Website for The Rest Of Her Post Here
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An Apology To “Dana”
When writing about the second banded gull sighting I wrote the unfortunate words “after some research” in regards to how I found The Gulls of Appeldore blog and who was responsible for the Gull banding program.
One of our readers “Dana” takes offense to me stating that I did any research and for me being responsible for tracking down the Gulls of Appledore blog and Dr Julie Ellis who headed the gull banding program.
She/He? writes in a comment on the post-
“after some research”??
I contacted Dr. Ellis and she contacted you.
What research!!?
I must apologize because in my haste and trying to get out 8-12 strong posts to entertain our readership sometimes I write things quickly to bang out a post. I honestly don’t remember how it all went down and if Dana says that she got me in touch with the Gulls of Appledore blog and Dr Julie Ellis I’ll take Her/His? word for it.
The day of the first banded gull discovery I do remember trying to pinpoint where they were coming from and doing a good amount of research using google with the keywords “Gull Banding” and I do remember coming across several different websites that had gull banding programs but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly which one was responsible for the particular band that was on the first gull I photographed with the black lettered band. It was at that point that I asked for help on the blog and Dana responded in the comment section of that post telling me that it was Dr Julie Ellis.
The first banded gull caught by the GMG lens-
Dana tells me that Dr Ellis contacted me but I have no recollection of ever having any contact with Dr Ellis. I was contacted by the person who is filling doing the posting on The Gulls of Appeldore Sarah Courchesne who wrote after I left a comment on the Gulls of Appledore Blog about my find-
Hi Joey–
I work with Julie Ellis who runs the gull banding project. I’ve been helping her out with her blog, and I wanted to let you know that I just posted on OK9, and linked to your blog. Thanks for reporting on the bird, and your blog is awesome!
Sarah
So just in case my memory is off which I will freely admit could entirely be the case as my memory is HORRIBLE, I would like to make sure that DANA gets full credit for giving me the heads up that indeed it was him/her? that alerted me to the fact that the banded gulls were banded by no other than Dr Julie Ellis.
Thank You Dana for bringing this to my attention.
-Joey
the second banded gull caught by the GMG lens-
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GMG Tech Talk- Geeky Sites I Visit
For a blog to be somewhat successful one component of it’s success will be it’s owner’s ability to apply technology to tweak the settings, to figure out what new technology is being used to create, lay out, and distribute content.
The technology side is not the most important aspect to having a well read blog. The most important factor being that a blogger provides the reader with interesting content. There are probably blogs out there that do well despite the owner’s lack of knowledge of how to leverage existing technology (much of which is free to use). These bloggers may write for publications that have tech staff who handle the way their content gets distributed so all they need to do is write and email in their piece. GMG and all it’s techy features were all figured out one at a time though. we didn’t have a computer engineer to walk us through the steps, but hopefully i can help you by directing you all straight to the best of the web that I’ve found through extensive research over the years.
When I started GMG I had no idea how to code things to look a certain way. I had no idea about distribution, video editing, video or photo hosting, what widgets were or how they relate to a blog, what a blogroll was, ect, ect, ect. Never took a class, but I just got started. Didn’t let much intimidate me and when I had a problem that I couldn’t figure out I used the wordpress or google search box and typed in the question. It might have taken a while to figure out the right way to enter the search query properly but eventually I would get the answer. This is especially true if I thought there was a way to make the blog better or how to increase the readership. I’d just keep researching til I found the right answers.
So during my quest to make the blog the best it could be and to reach the most people it could I figured out that there is an incredible number of free resources out there to help you. There are free video hosting sites. There are free photo hosting sites. There is twitter. There is Feedburner. There are statistics sites. The number of resources that you can use to help in your blogging journey is mind boggling but you need to know where to look to find them. You also need to know what the right tools you should consider for your content creation whether it be software or cameras, tripods, video editing software, photo editing software, computers, smartphones and any other stuff that you use in the creative process.
So here is a list of geeky tech sites I visit and have in my rss feeder to keep track of the latest and greatest technology.
LifeHacker
lifeHacker tackles a ton of do it yourself tech ideas, and is a site I believe anyone could enjoy, even someone that doesn’t care about computers. It has great travel tips. It has a weekly Dealhacker post in which they scour the interwebs to find insanely good tech deals and list them for you.
Gizmodo
Gizmodo Is a gadget guide. If you are a techy gadget freak like me you can’t get enough of sites like Gizmodo and fierce competitor Engadget listed below.
Engadget
DPReview
DPReview is THE source for camera reviews and news. You can find out the latest cameras and you can also do camera comparisons by selecting certain specs that might be important to you. There are also photo examples taken by each camera and user reviews.
Steve’s Digicams
Steve’s Digicams is similar to DPReview but like it’s little brother. It’s good to get a second opinion on cameras though.
Vimeo Community Forums Camera and Editing Software
The Vimeo camera and editing software forum is the best of it’s kind that I’ve found. The users there are knowledgeable and
offer great advise when you are pulling your hair out trying to edit your videos.
Newegg
Newegg offers daily deals and is the place I feel MOST comfortable buying my external hard drives, flash drives, computer monitors, cameras- basically anything. The prices are great and the shipping is insanely fast. I’ve gotten things overnight without paying for overnight shipping. They also have a great return policy. I Highly Highly recommend Newegg for technology purchases. I subscribe to their daily deals newsletter in which they always have prices that make me scratch my head. More times than not you’ll find it cheaper on Newegg than you will at best Buy.
Bidding For Travel
Bidding For Travel is a forum where users list their winning Priceline Hotel Bids and Rental Car Bids. I can confidently say that we’ve probably saved $5-10,000 on travel over the past decade using the information gleaned from this forum to drill down and offer ridiculously low prices for 4 and 5 star hotel rooms and gotten great rates on rental cars. Read the FAQ to get a better understanding of how it works and you too can routinely get 4 or 5* hotel rooms in Boston, Las Vegas and other big cities for over half of what the prices they list on their own websites by using the winning bids of others to get a great deal on a room using priceline.
Better Bidding
Better Bidding does same thing that Bidding For Travel Does. the only reason I listed Bidding For Travel first was because I discovered that site first a long time ago. Both sites are worth visiting before you plan a stay someplace. You are wasting money if you don’t use these free tools to drill down on incredible travel savings.
Aviary
Aviary is a suite of online cloud based computing tools like photo editors, video editors, color editor, image markups and the like. You don’t have to install anything to use Aviary. It’s all up there in the sky, and Free. Did I mention it’s free?
Flickr
Flickr is a website where you can upload and categorize your photos. The reason it is a great idea to upload your photos to a web hosting site like Flickr is because Computers crash and you can lose all your shit but if you take the time to upload your photos to a site like Flickr and put identifying tags you can always have access to your photos no matter where you are. At Flickr you can also use their photo editing software to edit your photos online. Some people are partial to Picassa which is another great place to store and edit your photos.
YouTube
YouTube is THE place to host your videos for a variety of reasons. I used to pay for hosting on Blip.tv because they would convert the video and put them in podcast form for iTunes, but discovered that the way YouTube will automatically make a bunch of different quality movies for you so that people with slower computer connections can view the lower resolution videos you create without having to stop and let them load to view them. They aslo have the best distribution and sharing options. You can upload your video to YouTube for free and share them in emails or on websites with ease.
Those are the biggies for me.
You could waste days looking through all of those but I would suggest you bookmark each one because they are all the best I’ve found over the years.
Hope I’ve provided some decent info for you guys.
-Joey
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Chickity Check It- Run With Ken
At the Lone Gull10K I was introduced to Ken of www.runwithken.com fame- The Running Photographer. The premise behind his blog is that he runs with a camera and takes race photos from inside the Race.
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Chickity Check It- tugster: a waterblog
Deeply saddened By My New Yawk Blogging Buddies Who Bailed On What I Thought Was A Perfect Plan For Them To Come Up For Schooner Festival.
But Alas I can still Check Out Their Awesome Blogs-
Will tells me that The Homie In The last picture of this post got lost on his way from G-Town
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Sustainability ratings (via northshorewaterman)
UGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Wasn’t it just last year when they said they wouldn’t sell lobsters any more because they considered it inhumane to hold them in crates?
Read Doug Maxfield- the most honest fisherman I haven’t had the pleasure to meet.
If there is one blog to subscribe to I would say subscribe to Doug’s but there is no button on his blog to subscribe that I can find. So the next best thing to do is what I always advocate for readers of this here fancy blog- bookmark it and check back often.
Good Morning Gloucester 