5 Steps to Crime Prevention at your MarinaWritten by Marc Eskew
Spending day or weekend on your boat is one of pleasures most boaters look forward to all time. Unfortunately, marinas where vessels are stored at are just as susceptible to crime as our homes and places of work, if not more so. Criminals prey on two facts. (1) Many boats are left alone for days and weeks at a time and (2) when a boater heads out onto water, criminals know that they have more than enough time to burglarize their parked car.With that being said, it becomes important for boat owners to learn some common-sense practices for keeping property on their boats and in their vehicles as safe as possible. Listed below are five steps that boaters can take to help protect their property from crime. 1. Mark It This is a proven deterrent and you will have a better chance of having your property returned if it is stolen. Etch or engrave an identification number, such as you vessel ID number, onto all of your valuable items. This will enable authorities to trace lost or stolen items back to your vessel. Also, enroll in a crime prevention program, like Boat Watch USA. It is free, and you receive a Vessel ID decal which includes a warning for all would be perpetrators to avoid your vessel. Place this decal where it can be easily seen from most common spot your vessel is boarded from. Boat Watch USA also offers smaller Boat Watch USA warning decals to affix prominently to your major equipment. 2. Record It Secondly, record in detail all of your valuable equipment. Compile a written inventory of your boat, trailer, and all onboard equipment. Boat Watch USA includes with it’s free service a form to list unique details and other special identifying features of your vessel. If you have a trailer, you can include particulars about it too. List all electronics, outboard engines, and other gear by brand name, model and serial number. Be as descriptive as possible for both police and insurance companies. Again, Boat Watch USA offers an online vessel equipment log where owners can record equipment information and keep it readily available for law enforcement and insurance companies should they need it. 3. Photograph It Photograph or video tape interior and exterior of your vessel, showing all installed equipment and additional gear stowed aboard. These photographs should show any identifying marks or scratches that can be useful in recovery efforts of law enforcement. Include photographs of open drawers and lockers with all contents revealed. Date and sign photographs and add clarifying or identifying messages as necessary. Store these photographs or video tapes in a safe location outside of your boat, such as your home.
| | Self-Training in Sight-Reading (Piano)Written by Emily Sigers
A good musician should be able to read music as easily as newspaper. With adequate technique, good eyesight and persistent practice, any pianist may become a good sight-reader. In this case, practice means not study of music for performance, but playing at sight of hymns, accompaniments, solo pieces, duets - anything that is within technical grasp. Many good performers are poor sight-readers for reason that mastery of large compositions, which requires many repetitions of small sections at a slow tempo, tends to create an inability to grapple with music in any other way. Here effort towards accuracy predominates. Thorough study of master works is, of course, indispensable; but ability to play at sight is equally necessary for practical musician. In training one's self, first condition is that all music to be read shall be seen for first time. The secret of success is to be able to manipulate keyboard while eyes are steadily held to page. If one memorizes easily, and is accustomed to play with eyes upon keys, temptation is, at even a second reading, to look away and depend somewhat upon memory. It is this feeling of dependence or non-dependence upon notes that differentiate between good sight reader and good memorizer. If you play from memory and have habit of watching keyboard, confine your reading for a time to music that lies close under your fingers. Or, tie strings of an apron around your neck, spreading out skirt over rack, with music holding it there, so that your hands are completely hidden. When you cannot see what they are doing, you will not be tempted to look at them; and gradually you will learn to gauge intervals over which fingers must pass without aid of sight. Getting Right Kind Of Music: For sight-reading, always select music well below your technical acquirements, so that whole attention may be concentrated upon notes. Look it over carefully before attempting to play. Determine key and mode (whether major or minor) and make a mental picture of scale and principal chords of that key with reference to keyboard. Look at signature, and beat out (surreptitiously, if you are to play before listeners) rhythm. Note accidentals and changes of key or tempo.
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