Mein Hugo website

Rudimentary business planning

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Having arrived at that point - of willingness to face the world as an entrepreneur, to be the master of an own universe by virtue of creating a stack of wealth we look around. We could build the Next Big Thing except…. We don’t really know what it is.

We do need to look to inward. The answer more than likely, can be drawn from our personal vineyard: That place or series of places where the decision to be the boss was distilled. That said, it would be pushing providence to simply dream up an idea, drop it off the literal edge of business reality and have it fly. Nope, as non-lucky dopes we going to depend on logic. In any case, the statistical record favours the old Approach Pedantic.

Unplanned parenting

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Took the baby out on Tenacious while Sabriyah was having forty (plus) winks. Gave myself the gift of parenthood for a few special minutes.

Simple, small, significant

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

kerbstones of Penal, roof edges of La Pique

Looking Out Stables

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Here we are, lying in the hammock, out on the porch this fine June night. With not too much demand on the old imagination, I hear a horse chewing, grinding the dry grass between his jaws. And it’s not that he’s chewing cud, horses do not have cuds. Something to do with not having two sections of stomach. Or something.

I probably need to explain why our horses were ‘he’ and not ‘she’. Easy enough. Most of our stock were drawn from gelded ex-racehorses. They were so chosen because of tractability - a trait developed due to Not having balls. Go figure that one. Anyway, what I had in mind to say - the reason I’m not actually in bed, has to do with caring for animals. Some people say, folks who have empathy with animals are better people. I cannot endorse the saying as grounded in fact, but I will attest, people who treat animals well, are easier to be around.

Transformation. The step after Information

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Quick link to Lesson 1 Speaking Notes

The ability of our generation to share information is unsurpassed. We are able to message peers one to one, one to many, a crowd - if we wanted. And in turn, open we can ourselves to messaging from either the individual or the crowd.

Which can be powerful in terms of making things happen. We’ve seen the uprisings fuelled by the socially conscious, we note the skill of the entrepreneurial sector, business kings and queens who stoke our desires and who (oh so casually) provide us the means to acquire things they have.

The Swimmer

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

About the paddling trip to Trinidad.

A good life

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What makes a good life? Money makes for a great start according to some. More time would be cool, according to those about to depart this mortal coil. Unsurprisingly there is no definitive answer. leading me to think nobody knows. The search for the best life arguably is the greatest quest man has followed since someone realised a full belly did not always mean hunger has been appeased.

The threats to the good living mission can hide in plain sight. Getting ‘spoused’ is one challenge. Neither male nor female or even same sex promises perpetual happiness - one may leave, some may out of turn, die what then? If the partnership formula provides happiness for both then all is fine. But should one partner just the one put his/her hand on the proverbial winning ticket, their personal, unique version of bliss then there will no good life within the union. The other may come along for the ride but as the record shows, such arrangements never last.

Grandfathering, lifeskill or chore

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Done threescore and ten with nary a hitch (not all true that) and then the lil bugger shows up. Ensnarement might not have occurred had my daughter not offered the baby to hold. Did she know? Hindsight says she did. Ah well, despite the effort, my life’s an open book.

About the baby. I’m learning what parents feel like - who would of thought? These first few months are roller-coaster days. I worry about his health, worry more about his well-being and can only now process something my lifelong buddy Winston had intimated some forty years ago. Words to the effect that a parent’s love for the child is painful. Well put pal.

Running Hugo generated blog on a VPS

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The question is; can you run a Hugo generated folder on a remote Ubuntu webserver if Hugo is not installed?

The answer is Affirmative. In fact, that is one of the biggest selling points of Hugo. Because Hugo is a Static Site Generator (SSG), it only needs to run when you are building the site, not when your server is serving it.
Your VPS doesn’t need to know what Hugo is or have Go installed; it just needs a standard web server (like Apache or Nginx) to hand pre-built HTML, CSS, and images to your visitors.

The Don Quixote syndrome

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Stakeholder awareness is how CSO’s call it in the media training schools.

Tuning Tenacious

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The log continues. We’re taking her out for the fifth time, still with an boat tuning mindset, still wanting to catch a fish. The weather this day is fine, though Saharan dust has obliterated direct sunlight. The feel is for rain the fact is, its just dust. Wind is forecast for fifteen knots, which is fine. Had it been less we would have stayed home. Crew comprises four, Rachel, Michael, Marc and me Bertrand.

Code of Ethics Page

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ethic

Use the Al Jazeera ethics approach

Also have a think on the core messaging of the site . liking Programmes, News,with News Updates or Programme updates.

Yet, its a blog so what about the things I do - which defines me? Is that what reader ship will follow?

Tenacious arrives

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The backstory

First off. I do not own SV Tenacious1. M’lady belongs to Michael Knaggsm, hisself hailing from Trinidad and Tobago. Still, justification to blog about my time with her is provided by the man himself - for reasons no one else is qualified to answer. So let’s just talk Sailboat.

She showed up in my bay the better part of a year ago, late 2025 as it were. Ample information was provided prior to arrival. Suffice to say, a mooring was prepared and time was allocated her. Why Mt. Irvine Bay? Why Mt. Irvine Bay Watersports? Why me? That dear reader is the one backstory this blog can provide.

Ecopreneurship as a cureall

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The big vibe this decade is Ecopreneurship, making money from nature, from nature’s services, or from bespoke products offsetting damage to natural systems over our historic pursuit of livelihood. The problem with green business is however, implementation. Roll-out you see (and this is still implementation) is case/instance subjective. Roll-out becomes problematic as aspiring entrepreneurs typically try the broad brush approach. \

What we’re seeing now in the field is rampant green-washing; half-baked solutions are leaving sustainable ideas languishing - (cos they’re usually sold as boring). Which in the end begs the all-important question. Is ecopreneurship even viable, given the challenges posed by the ever-growing world population and the rapid onset of climate change? \

Mindset, Damage and Destiny

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How do we govern ourselves if the party system caters (this is a historic norm) to exclusion - of people outside the seated political enclave?
Allowing the ambition is for equality, transparency and accountability the citizen might be better served if his/her efforts are placed within civicus.
I want this
I do.

Cry Buccoo once more

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

So I’m sitting here thinking we’re never gonna get it right, fixing the Buccoo usage conflict that is.

Desalination for Tobago

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The background story of Tobago’s push for a desalination plant is a tale of balancing seasonal droughts, protecting a vital tourism economy, and shifting political strategies.

The Core Problem: Seasonal Water Woes

For decades, Tobago has battled a structural water supply problem. While Trinidad has long relied on massive desalination facilities (like Desalcott) to supplement its grid, Tobago remained almost entirely dependent on surface water (rivers and reservoirs) and groundwater wells.

Hello R Markdown

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 21:13:14 -0500

R Markdown

This is an R Markdown document. Markdown is a simple formatting syntax for authoring HTML, PDF, and MS Word documents. For more details on using R Markdown see http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com.

You can embed an R code chunk like this:

summary(cars)
##      speed           dist       
##  Min.   : 4.0   Min.   :  2.00  
##  1st Qu.:12.0   1st Qu.: 26.00  
##  Median :15.0   Median : 36.00  
##  Mean   :15.4   Mean   : 42.98  
##  3rd Qu.:19.0   3rd Qu.: 56.00  
##  Max.   :25.0   Max.   :120.00
fit <- lm(dist ~ speed, data = cars)
fit
## 
## Call:
## lm(formula = dist ~ speed, data = cars)
## 
## Coefficients:
## (Intercept)        speed  
##     -17.579        3.932

Including Plots

You can also embed plots. See Figure 1 for example:

A Plain Markdown Post

Fri, 30 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This is a post written in plain Markdown (*.md) instead of R Markdown (*.Rmd). The major differences are:

You cannot run any R code in a plain Markdown document, whereas in an R Markdown document, you can embed R code chunks (```{r});
A plain Markdown post is rendered through Blackfriday, and an R Markdown document is compiled by rmarkdown and Pandoc.

There are many differences in syntax between Blackfriday’s Markdown and Pandoc’s Markdown. For example, you can write a task list with Blackfriday but not with Pandoc:

Hit the road Jack

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

‘Hit the road Jack’. The old man whispered the words. He never really speaks out loud but the surprising thing was he could connect the name to a voice on the television. Vernie continued mumbling but my thoughts were already on our erstwhile Minister of National Security – and the solution to our crimefest that my demented father -in-law had inadvertently provided.
Crime or its solution if you will, seems to have eluded consecutive governments in this small pisspot of a country. But what if they were to concentrate working the roads instead of trying to fight it on a digital front, or as they fantasize, from an aerial perspective – C’mon we know that there’s not been a lot of flying over the hills of Laventy, given the propensity the boyz in the hood have shown for plinking helicopters and all else that passes near the Hills.
Holding the roads might be cheaper for Jack. He’d have less of a maintenance bill to worry about for starters. All police know how to use cars, given the posh rides they use are great for checking chicks and all. Wink wink nudge nudge Jack. But all police do not necessarily know how to use computers, nor aircraft for that matter. So why continue to buy the fuzz very expensive things that lie outside their realm of understanding? To continue along that line is worse than error Jack. It’s larceny – of taxpayer bucks.
It’s arguable Jack, that the Idle and Evil Ones couldn’t perpetrate a drive-by without wheels, hence old Vernie’s recommendation to hit the road. It’s seems a valid point too that since more crimes affect the normal taxpayer along the highways, byways and car parks, of course you’d want to hit the road sir. And lest we forget, the biggest argument for visible policing is visibility. What’s more visible than the old police blue an whites.?
While we’re at it, do not worry that we the citizenry will worry too much about the noise from the sirens, nor glare of the flashers. We are already almost totally deaf to the racket sirens make. Fuss not about the distraction to the community about the lights on the government vehicles either, the many government motorcades have already desensitized us. Totally.
There’s one thing though Jack. Do the cars yeh, but ease up on arsenal tho. The vast amount of guns in the police hands are gonna bite us back in the collective ass. By now you’d might want really consider all this. Becuz I’m saying that if if the UK can police its much bigger landmass by virtue of its roads, and not by virtue of firepower, why shouldn’t we? In T&T the citizenry are being placed in a position of having to find countermeasures for personal protection that involve lead and gunpowder. It’s not going to work out well Jack. Hasn’t anywhere else.
And Jack before you go. As you will. When the fiscal countermeasures you’re trying don’t work. Do leave a lil something for the next minister to work with. Leave a good example of responsible leadership. Patronage and leadership can oft be confused in this little land of ours. I’ve seen you come hither lately jack as a patron extraordinaire. As leader? Well I’ve yet to witness the transformation. But I’ve got to run Jack. See ya. Oh! I can finally make out what father-in-laws on about. He’s singing Ray Charles’ old hit. I can just make out the lines…
‘..cause it’s understood,
you ain’t got no money,
you just ain’t no good’.
Hey Jack?

Two guys by the pool

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

There are these two guys hanging around a pool. One says to the other,
‘I feel I can swim competitively, you know, maybe try for a medal or something.’
The other guy goes, ‘Of course you can, I can even help you. I know a bit about passing water and I can you know, pass the towels, keep time even.’
The first guy, the swimmer says ‘I shall pay you, naturally. My family is not without the means.’
Other guy, ‘Of course, of course you will. Indeed they are.’

The slow boat to Valhalla

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

These days I’m living a dream. Not your typical fantasy for me tho. Course not. Nah, I’m taking the long slow boat to Valhalla with my in-laws Vernal and Monica. The journey is a surreal escape from the cares of the present, because in the four years or so he’s come to live with us, Dad (Vernie) has changed many of my views on most everything. But let’s hold off a politicians minute there while I speak about Mon.

About

Thu, 05 May 2016 21:48:51 -0700

This is a “hello world” example website for the blogdown package. The theme was forked from @jrutheiser/hugo-lithium-theme and modified by Yihui Xie.

Of Bravado and Bull in Buccoo

Mon, 21 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

There is an element of gamesmanship in politics. Let’s say, (speaking hypothetically of course) that a particular section of the local authority wanted to deliver something positive to a key group of voters. Say that target group was the southwest Tobago fisherfolk. Say the prime solution in the eye of the ‘provider’ was a boat handling facility somewhere down south. And let’s say the only locality they could identify was the marshland at the back of the Buccoo Reef. Nothing bad there so far. After all it is the historical approach to the local quadrennial election game. And the site is a logical option based on light initial investigation.

Talking about calypso

Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Talking about Calypso the art form. Whatever happened to our social commentary? Calypso’s death is also something that contributes to my permanently sour face. Time was when we, you, I could depend on the bards to bring us up to speed with the status quo, what was happening in Whitehall, and what was stinking in the nation’s closets.

Odds are if we examine the demise of calypso we will find similarities to explain why everyone in sweet T&T now sports a grimmer visage than even the Mighty Lingo and why we suffer the same handicap as he. For those coming in late - he won the extempo trophy twice but never saw it.

In 2014 I lost my sense of humour

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I remember having something to smile about everyday. Sulking clerks, rude officials, dishonest taxi drivers, creative contractors even. Nothing, no one in this country could never get my goat. But that was before I realised a show of levity and near perfect teeth was really just despair seeking an outlet. Trinidad and Tobago and the system under which we are governed can do that.

Before losing cool, suave, sangfroid, most of my god given teeth and that highly touted sense of humour there was a time I sincerely held what we had here was better than the folks over in those big countries - where everyone pays through the collective nose for the simplest of services – like medical attention, schooling and roads.

This fascination with things WEB

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 13:09:13 -0600

Should amend ’title’ to read ’things computer’ but fascination is the big factor. About the only explanation I’m driven to justify is the use of a static web. Obviously old fashioned, blazingly fast. Moreso static webs are inexpensive. This last aspect (in sum) is the deal maker.

The static webpage model works for me cos I am at day’s end just a writer. While I may have some facility with , HTML, PHP, Python, CSS, Javascript and can wrangle R as needed, I am quite happy to eschew the database driven website. Worked extensively over the years with several of the big ones, made a living too, but now as it just for my material, static will suffice.

Asses to the rescue

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

As we speak, two hundred Bonaire asses are being considered for the trip of a lifetime; a one way ticket to Haiti. Few options are open to the poor beasties. They can stay on in the sunny Dutch Antilles, forage on the limited land-space, risk incurring the wrath of the locals, and while away some interesting days ducking bullets, avoiding poison or navigating hostile traffic. Or they can avail themselves the boat ride offered by the authorities and go to help rebuild Haiti. But the chances of them surviving once there is as about as remote as that of a snowball in the current New York summer heatwave. Actually, no one faces a rosy future in Haiti, large animals least of all.