Hello, Mr and Mrs America, and all the Ships at Sea
Feb 26th
It's the end of the day, and as we set sail from Puerto Vallarta I feel pretty damn good. I got from Seattle to San Diego to the ship in good order back on the 23rd, I think I look pretty good in a tux (but then, who doesn't?), the job seems to be pretty straight-forward with plenty of free time, the fact that I'm finally working again... ah! So good.
Since, for some reason, the ship isn't giving me any HAL polo shirts this time, I bought a simple black polo in port today, as I was getting a new watch. I hadn't thought to bring one with me, and the clock function of my cell phone as it turns out, is completely dependent on the signal it receives. The signal at sea is pretty bad, it turns out. Had fun taking out a few links from the band, as it was too big.
Finished the Doc Savage collection "The Red Spider," and was progressively impressed. The first story, "Terror Wears No Shoes" was... somewhat confusing. It just kind of... ended. Also, there wasn't any shoeless terror. "The Red Spider" was an interesting little Cold War spy story, with a more developed Doc than I had encountered before. The final story, "Return From Cormoral" was wonderful. I won't mention what I liked, because it would spoil things. I'll just say that after 181 stories, a writer is going to develop their storytelling.
I think I've been eating a tad worse than I have been for the last month, but since I'm no longer cooking vegetarian meals off of food stamps, but hitting the buffet on the Lido deck, I think I've managed to keep my diet reasonably balanced.
Been darning my socks for the last couple of nights. Really should have done it a while back, but I'm certainly going to keep on top of it from now on. Needle, thread, a couple of podcasts playing... nice productive evenings.
Stayed out of the OB until tonight. Had two ginger ales, then grabbed something to eat from the midnight snack on the Lido. Might do it again in five days, a week. Not anytime soon, though.
A few notes to myself about things to do:
-floss
-cut down on the ice cream
-cut down on the coffee
-exercise
-keep darning the socks
-keep reading the lightboard manual
-familiarize myself with what lights are patched where
Feb 27th (morning)
A few names...
Trey - Lights, Edel - SM/Sound, Aris - Rigging(?)/ASM, Joss - Band Leader / Drummer, Dave - DJ, Drew - CD
March 1st
Ah, port days. Wonderful, laid back, port days. Rehearsals around noon or earlier, maybe some bingo, maybe not, then a couple of shows in the evening. Easy as you please.
Been eating better. Greens and fish, fewer sweets, that sort of thing.
Been drawing more, which is nice. Haven't been tending to my socks though, which is not so good.
Finished off the "Have Gun, Will Travel" episodes I have. Could've been called "Biggest Douche of the West" as far as I'm concerned. Honestly, Paladin didn't seem cultured so much as pretentious, and with less than ideal morals. Not in the "Gunsmoke" sense, where things were complicated, and it was all shades of grey... no, Paladin's morals were more dickish. At any rate, I've moved on to "Inner Sanctum" which was a weekly series about murder, and is hosted by essentially a less shrill Cryptkeeper. All the lame, macabre puns, none of the shreiking cackling! (In my mind, I don't even picture the host as some ghoulish figure. Rather, he's an enormous nerd who is practically wetting himself with every time he gets to say something like "Never decapitate the one you love... you know how some people can be when they lose their heads.")
March 2nd
Well, now I can say I've seen an Olympic gymnast perform on a cruise ship. The glow-in-the-dark juggling was pretty good, but the glow-in-the-dark bodysuit on the ropes was a sight to see. Also, I totally need to remember to steal the Philippine contortionist joke (Manilla folder). Here's to you, Lance Ringnald!
Did the tech run for the cast show tonight, so that everyone could go ashore tomorrow, instead of having to stick around until noon or whatnot. Me, I'm going to see if I can't get in touch with whoever I need to talk to about crew internet, and maybe get some laundry in.
Managed to catch "City of Ember" on the cruise television. Ends rather abruptly, but on the totally awesome side, it has giant starfish-nose moles. Like, bigger than bears. To clarify, these are the moles that have TENTACLES on their FACES. So, yes, as I said. Totally awesome.
It's the end of the day, and as we set sail from Puerto Vallarta I feel pretty damn good. I got from Seattle to San Diego to the ship in good order back on the 23rd, I think I look pretty good in a tux (but then, who doesn't?), the job seems to be pretty straight-forward with plenty of free time, the fact that I'm finally working again... ah! So good.
Since, for some reason, the ship isn't giving me any HAL polo shirts this time, I bought a simple black polo in port today, as I was getting a new watch. I hadn't thought to bring one with me, and the clock function of my cell phone as it turns out, is completely dependent on the signal it receives. The signal at sea is pretty bad, it turns out. Had fun taking out a few links from the band, as it was too big.
Finished the Doc Savage collection "The Red Spider," and was progressively impressed. The first story, "Terror Wears No Shoes" was... somewhat confusing. It just kind of... ended. Also, there wasn't any shoeless terror. "The Red Spider" was an interesting little Cold War spy story, with a more developed Doc than I had encountered before. The final story, "Return From Cormoral" was wonderful. I won't mention what I liked, because it would spoil things. I'll just say that after 181 stories, a writer is going to develop their storytelling.
I think I've been eating a tad worse than I have been for the last month, but since I'm no longer cooking vegetarian meals off of food stamps, but hitting the buffet on the Lido deck, I think I've managed to keep my diet reasonably balanced.
Been darning my socks for the last couple of nights. Really should have done it a while back, but I'm certainly going to keep on top of it from now on. Needle, thread, a couple of podcasts playing... nice productive evenings.
Stayed out of the OB until tonight. Had two ginger ales, then grabbed something to eat from the midnight snack on the Lido. Might do it again in five days, a week. Not anytime soon, though.
A few notes to myself about things to do:
-floss
-cut down on the ice cream
-cut down on the coffee
-exercise
-keep darning the socks
-keep reading the lightboard manual
-familiarize myself with what lights are patched where
Feb 27th (morning)
A few names...
Trey - Lights, Edel - SM/Sound, Aris - Rigging(?)/ASM, Joss - Band Leader / Drummer, Dave - DJ, Drew - CD
March 1st
Ah, port days. Wonderful, laid back, port days. Rehearsals around noon or earlier, maybe some bingo, maybe not, then a couple of shows in the evening. Easy as you please.
Been eating better. Greens and fish, fewer sweets, that sort of thing.
Been drawing more, which is nice. Haven't been tending to my socks though, which is not so good.
Finished off the "Have Gun, Will Travel" episodes I have. Could've been called "Biggest Douche of the West" as far as I'm concerned. Honestly, Paladin didn't seem cultured so much as pretentious, and with less than ideal morals. Not in the "Gunsmoke" sense, where things were complicated, and it was all shades of grey... no, Paladin's morals were more dickish. At any rate, I've moved on to "Inner Sanctum" which was a weekly series about murder, and is hosted by essentially a less shrill Cryptkeeper. All the lame, macabre puns, none of the shreiking cackling! (In my mind, I don't even picture the host as some ghoulish figure. Rather, he's an enormous nerd who is practically wetting himself with every time he gets to say something like "Never decapitate the one you love... you know how some people can be when they lose their heads.")
March 2nd
Well, now I can say I've seen an Olympic gymnast perform on a cruise ship. The glow-in-the-dark juggling was pretty good, but the glow-in-the-dark bodysuit on the ropes was a sight to see. Also, I totally need to remember to steal the Philippine contortionist joke (Manilla folder). Here's to you, Lance Ringnald!
Did the tech run for the cast show tonight, so that everyone could go ashore tomorrow, instead of having to stick around until noon or whatnot. Me, I'm going to see if I can't get in touch with whoever I need to talk to about crew internet, and maybe get some laundry in.
Managed to catch "City of Ember" on the cruise television. Ends rather abruptly, but on the totally awesome side, it has giant starfish-nose moles. Like, bigger than bears. To clarify, these are the moles that have TENTACLES on their FACES. So, yes, as I said. Totally awesome.