Karen Paffendorf's Hobbies

I have been accused of being a "water rat". I would like to add a preference for warm water.

While on the east coast, I enjoy participating in the annual Eastern Shore Small Craft Institute weekend. (John Rako, my instructor for Basic Kayaking in 1998, is involved in a web page for adventure sports. Another instructor gave me a site for the American Canoe Association)
During the summer of 1998 I sailed on Barnegat Bay and with the Raritan Yacht Club.
In November 1997, I sailed from Cabo San Lucas to Alcapulco. (These pages were written by my watch mate, Steve Lacy. He sailed from San Francisco to Alcapulco and has his diary online.)
During the summer of 1996, the lifeguards forbade swimming in the rough surf (surfing was permitted though) and the police enforced it when the guards went home. :( Wish there was some way around this!
Went rafting with GSP in 1996.
Learned some of the basic knots in sailing. Also have done various crafts which are really just arranging knots. This are a few links on knots: tutorial, FAQ, and links
I found two links I want to explore (Sail America and Sailnet) while looking for information on Sail Expo Atlantic City.
My dad is more into fishing than I am, but I keep him company sometimes: NJ Boating and Fishing Directory, and NJ Fishing Reports.
I am swimming on my lunch hour rather than with Santa Clara Swim Club Masters or SJ Aquatics Masters. (Will I try the Alcatraz Invitational Swim?)
I have enjoyed swimming with US Masters. Davis even shares workouts with the world. For a national directory of pools for fitness swimmers see the Swimmer's Guide

Since I like many outdoor activities, sometimes follow the weather very closely.

Sky Warn
Mount Holly, NJ
HurricaneSite
Interactive Weather Information Network (neat pictures of current conditions)
Weather Underground: New Jersey (a quick summary)
Weather Net (u mich)
U Ill
U Ill
National Weather Service HomePage
Marine Prediction Center Home page moving Marine Prediction Center Home page
climate prediction center
national hurricane center
Climate
Interesting WWW Servers
Tide Predictions for Sandy Hook, New Jersey
NCEP OMB Global Wind and Wave Model Output
The NWS Marine Data Service - Atlantic
The weather channel
ski conditions
boat us

I really do like music, even if I can't name artists, or remember lyrics.

I was pleasantly suprised to find a fair amount of folk music here in Central NJ (ok, northern). (At their Spring 1999 festival I enjoyed the group Water Sign.) Other groups in the area are Albert Music Hall, Fast Folk Cafe (NYC), The Philadelphia Folksong Society , Princeton Folk Music Society and the Princeton Country Dancers
I started taking guitar lessons thru the local adult school when I finished my Masters (May 1998). The TV says you can learn how to play guitar on the web. (It has a nice description of scales and a reference for tunings. I have not had a chance to check out "Information" or tab.) I am not so sure, but there is a lot of information available. There are other sites providing guitar lessons. A classmate gave me information on obtaining Tablature. I found this link to get lyrics.
A friend mentioned abc as a way of representing music as text, but what I am really looking for is a way to make my class notes look nice (chords and tab). Tablature software seems to work better under windows than linux. Mup, a dos shareware package, looks like it has possibilities.
Oooh - a minidisk looks like if would avoid many of my boom box annoyances ( community, appreciation, mic, labels, tips, FAQ)
The Guitar Center is close. An acquaintance recommended her friend's site on guitar shows.
Square dancing is fun way to meet people and get a little exercise. People of all ages do it all over the world. Clubs I have been active with include: Stanford Quads (APD Plus) Interlocked Squares (C1) and Shape Changers (C2). Friends dance ballroom at Pomander Club.
On occasion I have helped the Stanford Savoyards with sets, run crew, and lighting.
I have occassionally dabbled in ballroom dancing when I had a partner.

Some of my other interests include the following:

I actually played in a beginning tennis league. I am not sure why this novice had to look at ratings, but the rules were certainly useful.
A local biking club with a fair number of rides is the Princeton FreeWheelers. Some mountain biking links taken from the Star Ledger are: FasTrack Mountain Bike Club, NJ, International Mountain Biking Association, Bicycling, The World's Largest Cycling Publication, and DirtRagMag.
I have to learn how to stop while roller blading
Hope to get my alinco back soon, so I can get back on the air. I used to belong to the Santa Clara Valley Repeater Society. I contemplate attending meetings of the David Sarnoff Radio Club.
Can I remember the link to a cooking school?
Living in East Brunswick gives one the opportunity to take classes thru the Middlesex County Vocational School
Bay area links:
- Silicon Valley Gateway
- SJ Mercury News
- SJ Living (old)
- SJ Relocation Center
- KRON On-Line
- Pix
- Go Play the Bay
- Bay City Guide, SF
- Yahoo, SF Bay
- City Link, SF
- City Search SF Bay Area
- the Gate
- CA
- Continuing Studies (Berkeley, Santa Cruz, San Jose, and Stanford)
- public transit (SC Valley, and AAA. I have heard good things about Green Tortoise Tours. During my 1999 trip to Europe I picked up links for some of the train companies: Deutsches Bahn, (Amtrack) Ferrovie dello Stato, and SNCFrance. I also found links for the opera in Milan, Italy Teatro alla Scala, the wine growing region 5 Terra, some museums (d'Orsay), and a great place to get gummi bears. After the trip I was given TravelSmith as a place to find stuff to help travel light. A tool for traslating text and web pages can be found at BabelFish. The Human Language Page has dictionaries and other help. Recently several people told me to check out plane fares
- and more (either without links or still as bookmarks)
last update - May 10, 1999