Introduce yourself

[Morgan]

It is good to meet you all. I am on month 2. I am recently retired and live in southern California (the first transcription I did, Burton Island 1952, was less than 10 miles from my house in Long Beach.) I intended to study meteorology but ended up in engineering. I now have some time for my own interests, a need to contribute to science, and especially to assist in climate change research. This combines my interests in weather, mapping, and the people side of history. Who would know along the way I would meet such a great community of folks from the world over, with humor and dedication. It is VERY easy for me to get sidetracked reading while I intended to transcribe.
Stay well.
Morgan

[Randi]

This "great community of folks" is delighted to have you!!!
I think you will fit in very well

[Michael]

I'm so happy you found us! This project can lead you down all sorts of interesting paths.

Our ships do pop into Long Beach every once in a while. Some of them were running patrols off southern California and northern Mexico in the 1930s trying to catch rum runners operating out of Vancouver and Victoria.

[adflora]

Hello all!
I've been with OW for over a year, maybe two by now, and on my third ship. I live in Boise, Idaho (US) and have some extra time due to retiring from a nursing career a couple of years ago.

I discovered the Old Weather Project on a television news/weather program that briefly talked about what they do and encouraged volunteers to join. It seemed like a good cause (climate change research) and using skills I have (fast typist and reading physician handwriting) so I joined up and started in. I'm learning much about the Alaskan waterways and sailing procedures of those earlier years along with some interesting history that makes me dig in a little deeper to satisfy my tickled curiosity.

Even though I've been able to stay busy with several ongoing other projects, the Covid-19 isolation and general worry is creating some stress. I find myself using the soothing rhythm of transcribing the logs as a balm for my soul-- that is until I come across some log comment about finding a dead body and hauling it aboard for delivery to the nearest port, or rescuing someone who fell off a dock, or mention of a case of smallpox or some such event that jars me to attention.

I'm still a newbie but I expect to stick with this for a long time. It's so interesting, I just can't stop.

Anita

[Michael]

It's so nice to hear from you. Old Weather does get addictive!

I spent a couple of weeks in Boisie back in 1991. I was on a Fire Weather Forecasting course at BIFFC. Boisie seems like it wold be a nice place to live.

[AvastMH]

It's lovely to hear your story Anita. I worked with doctors years ago - they are a good training ground for OW. Certainly this is a good place to find support for life! I'm glad that you are here and staying

[Randi]

I'm really glad you're enjoying this and intend to stick with it!
You have been doing a super job

[d0cent]

Hi all!
I moved from the old OW forum, where I worked on Perry's and Bear's logs.
I lived in siberian town Omsk since birth, but few months ago I moved to Moscow.
You can feel free to ask me anything about russian names, places etc

[AvastMH]

Hello d0cent - it's great to see you here on the new forum.

It's fantastic that you can help with Russian names. Sometimes they turn up in the whaling logs and I'm hopelessly lost with them unless I get very lucky.

[Michael]

здравствуйте! I took two years of Russian at university, but that was so many years ago that most of it was lost in my many memory downdates. Software updates, memory downdates.

[Randi]

Good to have you back, d0cent

I remember you helping me with a Russian ship name as well as place names!
And, we both had fun with Jamestown 1844

[d0cent]

Good to have you back, d0cent

I remember you helping me with a Russian ship name as well as place names!
And, we both had fun with Jamestown 1844

Yeah, how can I forgot about Jamestown!

[griddlesticks]

Hello all, griddlesticks here,

I've been vaguely involved with Old Weather since 2015, having found it through Zooniverse, and stuck around for a while partly due to how well organized the project was. I've joined the editing team this time as that was what I enjoyed most about the project and have been lucky enough to be able to keep working on the USFCS Albatross - the same ship that I started on.

Looking forward to contributing again!

(Oh and special thanks to Randi for keeping me updated through the years on how OW was going!)

[Randi]

Thank you!
I remember valued transcribers

Good to have you back!!!

[AvastMH]

Good to have you back griddlesticks

[FutureOceanScientist]

Hi Everybody!

I am a born again undergraduate after having spent some time as a chef. I study applied mathematics and earth science with interests in geophysical fluid dynamics, physical oceanography, and machine learning for climate modeling.

As my name might suggest, I plan to earn a Ph.D in oceanography and am interested in becoming a mariner. I've long held the dream of one day making it down to Antarctica to witness one of earth's most storied extremes.

I came across OW by way of NOAA's volunteer page, looking for opportunities to get involved with the organization. I couldn't believe my luck when I found OW. I'm fascinated by the naval history that has been preserved through the archives and am super motivated to help build up more robust data sets for our climate models. Beyond the data, I've been interested in maritime culture and discipline and this is such a great way to get a historical taste. It seems so serendipitous that the professionalism of the navies and other mariners has granted us this legacy of data they collected so long before the advent of global earth system modeling.

I'm excited to dig in and crunch through some transcriptions!

[AvastMH]

Welcome FutureOceanScientist!

You have a lot of strings to your bow with all of your science studies! Impressive! I hope that you really enjoy them and do well. And I hope that you enjoy being here. OW is a wonderfully friendly and supportive place. I also work on the Zooniverse project 'PenguinWatch' and thought you might like this image - perhaps those footprints forging through the Antarctic snows will be your footprints one day?



Joan (AvastMH)

[Michael]

Welcome FutureOceanScientist. I hope you find the work as interesting as we do! I look forward to reading your chats, impressions and ideas.

[Randi]

I think OW is lucky that you found us

[Mer]

I believe I came across oldWeather when googling for a term I'd just heard; citizen science. I love things maritime.
-the majority of my male relatives were in the US Navy
-I grew up in a land-locked, flat, state of the US so I have an affinity for mountains and big water
-I volunteered as a re-enactor on a Cape Horn ship [Balcultha at the San Francisco Maritime Museum], demonstrating the setting and furling of a main mast sail
so I immediately homed in on the projects here, related to ships

I spend my work day on a computer, looking at alot of emails and doing alot of data crunching so I'm not overly fond of doing more of the same in my off-hours but I do love science and especially helping scientist and their projects. I've participated in several project with a non-profit called Earthwatch Institute
-Census of black rhinos in Zimbabwe
-Finding and documenting native uses for plants in the Smithsonian Institute's botanical archives in Washington, District of Columbia
-Gathering initial data on beavers along the border of Germany and The Netherlands.

I love to travel and had a long visit in Turkey planned for this year when Covid-19 hit. Thankfully, I read alot, so I'm doing armchair traveling this year.

Looking forward to interacting with you all in the future.

Cordially,
Mer