What’s in a name?  The Story Behind catracing.org

  While I am hard at work on the next blog (Backing up your Windows 10 workstation to a network share), I thought I would take the time to answer a question I often get asked about my domain name.  Catracing.org?  Do they really race cat’s?

  Where did the name come from?  Why is it a .org?

  To answer this question, one would have to go back to when I fell in love with boats and sailing.  My dad and a several of his fellow doctors owned a Hobie Cat 16 catamaran they kept on a local beach in San Diego.  Some of my earliest beach memories are around 4 or 5 years old, where my dad, mom, brother, and sister would all pile on the catamaran and sail around La Playa basin.  I would go hang off the trapeze, which is a wire attached to the mast, that the crew or skipper would attach themselves to with the use of a harness so you could stand off the side of the boat to counter balance the sails healing motion.  You normally will hike off the windward side of the boat, however I soon discovered that you would get a lot more wet if you hiked off the lee side.  I was light enough at the time, that with everyone one board, and my brother or sister’s weight on the windward site we wouldn’t capsize the boat.

  Fast forward about 25 years, I bought my own Hobie 16, and began racing the boat in actual class regattas.  As the Hobie 16 is a 2 person boat (Unless you happen to weigh the minimum class legal crew weight, of about 250 some odd pounds.) You had to sail with a crew.  I was involved with a group of people that went to UCLA (Not sponsored by UCLA) who would arrange crew for the racing skippers.

The intent at the time was to setup a server that could facilitate private email, calendar, blog/newsletter type of services.  So catracing.org was born using Zimbra, and a webpage created on Apple’s iWeb.

  However shortly after all of this got facilitated and setup I got my job in Korea, sold the Hobie Cat and moved over the seas.  Since I had already paid for the domain name, and was only expecting to be an expat for a couple of years I kept it.  In 2013, after deciding to really get into photography the idea of the blog as it is today was formed.  It now serves as a foundation to improve my photography skills, share my experiences in Korea, helps other expats with reviews on pensions, hotels, and restaurants.  It also helps me with my technical writing abilities associated with my career in IT.

  The catracing.org domain name just lives on, even though the focus of my blog has evolved and matured over time.

  Sorry to disappoint those who either came here carrying torches and pitchforks thinking this was some terrible sport like greyhound racing, or wanted to see how we managed to organize a bunch of felines to run around a track.. 

  Thanks for stopping by!  Our next technical blog should be out soon.  If you wish to be notified by email when new content is posted you may register by clicking HERE!