November 15, 1999

Long, long overdue Bulletin Update

What an amazing year this has been.

In the past eleven months (or as they say in England; “Eleven Months”) I have come to terms with living in Tallahassee, Florida (Town Motto: “We’re technically not in Georgia”) and even come to like parts of life here. Granted, as soon as I graduate I’ll be out of here like a campaign promise out of George Bush, Jr’s butt, but in the meantime; I’m doing alright.

I’ve gotten myself certified as a EAN/Nitrox diver and can now dive to depths of up to 300 feet. To celebrate I bought a new wet-suit (red & black, of course) and have used it twice in a few of the seemingly hundreds of natural springs around Tallahassee. I’ve had the bizarre experience of swimming with Alligators (inadvertently, but it still counts), swam with sharks, and even free dove into the “Pit of Evil”.

Okay, technically it isn’t really called the “Pit of Evil”, but when you cross over the edge of Wakulla Spring’s HUGE opening at about 25 feet down, and all you can see below you is crystal-clear blackness extending 150 feet straight down, well, “pit of Evil” just seems appropriate. Spooky as hell, but more than worth the Trip.
 

Due to an amazingly limited amount of spare time, the Site has had very little down to it in the past year. In fact, the most work the site has had in the past year has really been in the past month or two. Right now I’m trying to fine-tune and perfect what’s already present before I add anything else, but we’ll see how long that kind of level-headedness prevails. Anyway, please keep checking back periodically and you’ll see what wonderful and time wasting stuff I’ve added.
On a personal note, thanks to all of y’all who’ve gone out of your way to send me Emails complimenting the site and showing your interest in Piracy and Nautical Archaeology. When I started this site I thought I’d get a couple of hits a year, but now I’m getting about 5-10 emails a DAY and even though some are just weird (if not downright bizarre) it’s comforting to know I’m not the only freak in the world who still finds Lego Pirate sets cool.
Thanks,
Rob “Pirate King” Ossian

12/12 – Merry Almost Christmas

It’s been awhile since my last update to the Bulletins Page, but for those who’ve been Emailing me and asking me to get off my procrastinative ass and show off that wonderful literacy-based zeal that fuels the limerick industry from here to Istanbul, here’s some info on the site’s re-genesis and (of course) my own bizarre world.

As for the site, the great and mighty Gods of Adobe Software have been kind and blessed me with the gift of their one true son, Photoshop (version 5), and I’ve redone a lot of the Graphics for the Cove. In case you just link to the main page of the Cove (tsk, tsk) click Here to see the new cover page in a popup so you won’t have to reload the Bulletin page afterwards. I’ve also rescanned a bunch of photos of myself (yes, I do have an inflated ego. Doesn’t everyone?) and have been retooling them in Photoshop to get new layout options especially to use with the photo shoot I did to get the RobNeptune shots I use as the header on most of my pages. So anyway, keep a look out for new artwork to be listed here.

Question: Hey Rob! Where’s the ‘Pirate Cheesiness’ Page?
Answer: It isn’t up yet.
Question: But didn’t you promise with those cruel yet handsome eyes you would have it finished and up, like, a coupla months ago?
Answer: Go read a book.


No, seriously, I’ve been swamped with my Real World lately and haven’t had any time to work on the cgi coding for the "Create Your Pirate Character" section that’ll pretty much be the heart of the whole Cheesiness page. Also, on top of all that, I’m trying to use my spare (Ha!) time to update the site Graphics first.

As for my personal life, well, it’s weird. I’ve been here in Tallahassee for a few months now and I’ve got some friends and I’m settling in, but I still feel like Texas (more specifically: Austin) is my home. I love being able to drive to the coast in 30 minutes so I can spend the day swimming up the Coast, but I also miss living in a city where decent coffee at 4AM isn’t an unattainable pipe dream. I’m planning on driving back to Dallas to see my family for Christmas, but I’ll only be back in Tejas for a coupla days.

Having bills to pay sucks.

Anyway, before this update becomes a Novel, I’m going to end it. Hope this tides y’all over until the next guilt-ridden and late entry. Ciao Bella.

10/27 - Going Native

Where to Begin?

I made it to Florida about two months ago, but I've been absurdly busy with life and other general weirdness so I haven't had a chance to work on the site. I have found a GREAT apartment, even though it is called The Melrose (I'm not kidding: Check it Out). I'm just hoping I get to be the friendly, rugged, good natured "Jake" and get to sleep with Heather Locklear before season three when my evil brother (the rugged surgeon from NY) comes out to destroy me and my life as revenge for killing his wife in that car wreck even though she was having an affair with Jack (Doctor; Across the Hall) behind his back. As opposed, of course, to being cast as the kind-hearted, yet ever so more likely to be stuck dating other gay men "Matt".


Man, finding a place to live these days is tough...
Anyway, on the very positive side:
The weather here is Awesome
The water is Amazing
And the people are, um, did I mention how the weather was Awesome?
Actually the people here are really friendly and cool, but Tallahassee is a LOT more [searching for the right word] "Country" than Austin was and it's taking some adjusting. For example, the people here take football about as seriously as the Marines Corps took Viet Nam.


No, that's not really true.


The Marines were never this serious about Viet Nam. Anyway, I swear by the dashing eyes of the Amazing Beth (Still in Spain. Dammit.) I will adapt to this town! Or else I'll move to Spain and see Beth. Time'll tell us which, I suppose.

8/27 - Move 'Em Out!

Well, I'm leaving the great state of Texas in 41 hours for Florida. So, if you happen see a blue Chevy Blazer S-10 heading east on I-10 or I-20 this weekend with a U-Haul trailer; Honk and say Howdy. I've spent the last few days hanging out with local friends and saying my Good-byes and it's been really cool, but weird. The whole "You can never go home again" [Thomas Wolfe] is really starting to hit home. Enough of this deep stuff though.

The Underwater Archaeology page is up, but I'll be changing it to have a graphical interface like the main page pretty soon. I just hated having the "Down for renovations" page up for so long. I'll hopefully get that finished soon and then get to work on the new Pirate Cheesiness page when I'm in Florida.

Adios, Tejas.
 

8/16 - Pirate Reunion

I went to a relatively new Renaissance Faire here in Texas this weekend called Hawkwood to see some old Pirate crewmates and friends. Most of these people I used to perform shows with before I quit doing Renn Fairs to work at Medieval Times.
After enjoying a few dozen beers and a bottle of my homemade Champagne with them I got copies of the photo shoot we did on an on a real 15th Century vessel. I'll be uploading these to the Gallery page later this week.


And Finally, some Personal Thank-You's;
Amy & Jackie - For the Car Wash of Love. It was Incredible.

Cynthia - For the free ticket to Hawkwood. Wahoo!

Novey and Elaine - For the flagrant display of a non-disfunctional relationship.
I'd heard of them, but never seen one.

SheTracy - For the endless flattery and limitless inspiration. I'll miss ya in Florida..

Cristin - COME TO FLORIDA!!!

8/12 - Operation: Tallahassee

If ANYONE out there who happens to stumble through my site is from Tallahassee, PLEASE EMAIL ME. I need to move to Tallahassee, FL in a little less than three weeks and I have no place to live yet. I'm going to be a homeless Pirate in Florida (probably not the first). I'd rather not become a Jimmy Buffet song though, so let me know if you can lend advice, etc..

On the Site Front:
I'll be add new Underwater Archaeology & Pirate Cheese sections soon. These will have up to date info on how to become an amateur/professional Underwater Archaeologist and groups, resources, etc. The Other will be for the thousands of Email I've received from people who want to be Pirates.

Secret Handshakes, Character resources, Costume Info; You name it, I'll have it. If not, just Email me and I'll tell you to get a life. It's just that complete. Anyway, look for it next Friday.

7/30 - Okay, Here's the Scoop:

Back in '96, my Web-Site began as an attempt to learn HTML. That's it.
Then I met some people, read some books and was inspired by a Woman named Asia Carrera (Not her real name) who had made a kick-ass Web-Site and my site grew even more.

THE EVOLUTION OF PIRATE'S COVE

1996	Originally, Pirate's Cove 1.0 was a one sheet with eight links on it; two of them never actually worked like they were supposed to.
1997	Pirate's Cove 2.0 had five pages, but only two of them were any good. The only positive thing about it was the Black & White Picture of Me doing my 'Rob Neptune" pose (the one over the map on the Main page) I had scanned from a photo shoot I did back when I was working at Medieval Times.
1999	Then, after a major overhaul, Pirate's Cove 3.0 began to kick some ass of it's own. It even won an Award or two.
2000	In Pirate's Cove 4.0, I put a lot of effort into updated virtually everything. I guess I'm starting to feel a little Web-Site Pride setting in.
2005	To celebrate nearly a decade of web presence I have gone back and retooled everything from the base boards up.

The only real problem is that now there's so much stuff, there's no way to tell what I add without digging through absolutely everything. I mean, I may add some files during the week, but who'd know?

My site traffic has increased dramatically over the last year, and now I'm getting about 10-15 emails every day

from site visitors. Most are looking for Pirate/Nautical Info which I love helping people with, but more than a few have mentioned that they'd like to come back if they could be alerted to updates.

Well, they can't be alerted. So, Wah.

Sorry, about that, but what they CAN do is check out this page every week where I'll put weekly news up about me, the site, and whatever stupid high-adrenaline thing I've done this week to make my Mother worry and my Doctor rich.

So whaddya think?
Let me know. I'd like to hear what my visitors and John Q. Pirate think about all this.

Click Here To Send Me Email

7/29/96 - *Notice*
There wasn't a Bulletins page created yet, so nothing interesting was written here.  Go Figure.