Stream of Unconsciousness...

I found this on the "Compare People" Facebook application. I think this speaks for itself.

"If you want to use a different photo than the one on your Facebook profile ;)The most effective photos are the ones on which you are waving, winking, sending kisses...be as attractive as you can! Let people admire your photo, let them choose you for dating!"

Wow. outrageous.

Well, here’s an update on the status of our poor ship.
IT’S STILL OLD AND DECREPIT.

Okay, no, really. We came out of wet dock, and it seemed like the ship had some significant remodeling in several areas of the ship.

The first problem showed up on embarkation day, when we didn’t have any Internet access for the passengers. Which, if you even work a single day in an Internet Café, you’ll see that it can make for some very unhappy passengers.

This caused a problem for me. I don’t rely on the Internet for any of my classes, but I do need the Internet CAFÉ to have my classes in (and most importantly for my promotions, that’s where I have my complimentary lectures). Since Trevor needed to have the Café empty (to try and fix the problem in peace), he locked the doors. Unlucky for me, I was unable to have my Computers@Sea Open House and Free Lecture. I didn’t know until later how much this would really affect my revenue.

Now, the REAL problem reared its ugly head when we had to dock in Bonaire (the first destination since wet dock. The problem was, we COULDN’T DOCK! The ship’s bow and stern thrusters were inoperable, and for those of you who haven’t already figured this one out…it makes it very hard to dock a ship grossing over 109,000 tonnes! After calling in the services of two of the local port’s tugboats…we got bumped and shimmied towards the pier without too much fuss.

In St. Vincent, we didn’t have the luxury of tugboats to help maneuver us into the dock, so we had to tender with some of our lifeboats to bring the passengers ashore.

This morning, as we arrived in St. Thomas, my wake-up-call consisted of a “Good Morning Bump” against my outside wall. And another. And another. And another. This was followed by a metal-and-rubber-on-metal grinding noise.

I got out of bed, figuring that I’d see the dock about 15 feet down, outside of my porthole. More than half-naked, I pulled myself up to have a look out the window to see if we had arrived. “Wow,” I thought, Today, I was not fortunate enough to have a porthole view of St. Thomas. Instead, I was greeted with a friendly wave from a man standing on the top deck of a tugboat, right outside of my porthole. I waved back, with my lousy effort of a morning smile, and promptly closed my portholes, so I could get dressed with dignity.

We should’ve left already by 6pm, now it’s nearly 8 and we still haven’t departed. Apparently the tugboat that brought us in this morning broke down. Tonight’s journey was supposed to be an all-night full-speed run to La Romana, but since we’re already two hours behind, with no prospect of the thrusters working, or the tugboat getting fixed on time, it looks like we’re going to have to skip the destination for this cruise.

I noticed many people outside on the Promenade deck, so I went outside to see what the fuss was about. The MSC Orchestra (one of the other vessels in the dock) pushed away from the pier, and backed out towards the sea (there wasn’t much maneuvering space, with three massive cruise liners in the dock. As it nearly got out of the dock, there was a growling, burbling noise as the ship did a slow 180-degree turn to face out towards the sea.

“What’s that noise?” said a crewmember on the deck above me.
“Oh, that’s the Orchestra’s bow and stern thrusters, his buddy replied. “*sigh*...I miss that noise…”

The behemoth MSC sounded three long blasts from its horns (an indicator that it was reversing direction), and started churning up the water as it backed slowly towards the pier. There was a lot of chatter from the decks above, with people trying to figure out why the ship was heading back into dock.

“Maybe they’re doing a training exercise?” said one person.
“Maybe the captain is practicing parallel parking?” quipped another. An officer joined me out on the deck, and overheard the talk from above.
“Didn’t you hear?” the officer asked, “The captain forgot his iPod!” causing a bout of laughter from everyone in earshot.
“Hey! You’re going the wrong way!” shouted someone from the Grand. There was an unintelligible reply from the Orchestra, but it was still enough to make everyone howl in laughter.

NEW PICTURES!!!

This morning was a great start for my day. I had a GREAT night’s rest in my new cabin (I’ve got an Officer cabin with a double bed and two portholes all to myself!) and I was ready to take on the world! Well, not until I got rid of the pervasive morning breath that I could even smell on MYSELF!

I first thought that I’d take a shower to freshen up before classes. I twisted the shower knobs and I jumped in. Not a second later, I jumped right back out, as the previous room tenant hadn’t flushed out the super chlorinated water as per the wet dock maintenance procedures. I didn’t get out quite quick enough, before I got a blast of super chlorinated water in the face. Not terribly pleasant.

Not two days before, I had heard rumor that the ship was running out of their onboard freshwater supply. All I can figure is that they must’ve decided to pump the pools dry to send water to our showers and sinks.

NEW PICTURES!!!

NEW PICTURES!!!

So, after gawking at my cabin, I got things packed away as quickly as I could. After going through the mess they call “immigration”, I was able to catch a cab to the local Galleria Mall to do some shopping! On my way there, I decided to call my boss, who works not even ten minutes away from the port. We arranged that we were going to meet for the first time at the Starbucks across from the mall entrance.

Upon arriving at the mall, I headed straight across the street to the Starbucks. The bells chimed as I went through the door, and several people glanced in my direction (none of them with a smile), so I figured that it was safe to say that my boss wasn’t here yet. I got myself a grande Vanilla Bean Frappuccino, then sat my stuff down, facing the door and waited patiently for my boss to arrive.

A good bit of time went by (over ten minutes), and I had been watching each car as it pulled into the parking lot, trying to see if I could take a guess at what my boss looked like. (Some of you might not know that I got hired without much more than a single long telephone interview.

Several women had walked into the store and greeted me with a smile (yes, I know they were looking at me because I was in a corner…nobody behind me). I figured I’d wait it out a little bit longer, as I’m pretty my boss had seen my picture in my biography that I submitted for the cruise.

Maybe I should call her, I thought. If she’s here, I’ll hear her phone ring and see her answer it! As I pulled out my phone, I got a call. It was her. “Where are you?” she asked. I told her that I was at Starbucks. “Where?”

By this time, I had noticed a woman outside on the patio talking on her cell phone.

“Where are you?” I asked her.

“I’m here outside, looking for you!” I saw her mouth the words and heard them a second later over the phone. Yup. It was her…

It was strange. This is the first time I've met my boss, but I've known her for nearly 5 months! We practically picked up as if we'd always known each other!

We caught up on new changes in the Computers@Sea program, and also discussed some options for future classes. We also discussed a new pilot idea for the company with "Live Web Curriculum" in which we could actually have Internet access for the passengers. This would open up a whole new world of classes that we could teach. (If you didn't know, currently, I don't have Internet access for any of my classes, so teaching eBay is pretty much out of the question).

The rest of the day was spent simply by going shopping (my boss was more than happy to escort me everywhere I needed to go, since it was considered "company time".)

Sorry for the abrupt stop, but that's all I have time to share for now! Ciao!

NEW PICTURES!

NEW PICTURES!!!

Here’s a continuation of yesterday’s blog in regards to the change in my room assignment:

Well, today, I got my room reassignment and my key, so the first thing I did was to scope out my room, and find out who my new cabin mate was.

My cabin number was 4246, meaning that I was forward on deck 4. I trudged through the halls with my key in hand. As I passed through the crew hallways, I noticed the numbers PO 4222, PO 4224, PO 4226, and cringed at how close the doors were together (they had the crew packed in there like sardines, sometimes four to a cabin).

I had some difficulty trying to find the cabin, as there seemed to be a lapse in room numbers. Did Practica make a mistake and send me to some phantom room? (Just to be sure, I checked the hall closets to make sure that they weren’t numbered, as well.) I paced back and forth about three times before I noticed a watertight door that led into another hallway that was out of the way of the regular crew quarters. I was getting closer and closer to my number, and I noticed that the room designations had changed from PO to OF. What this meant, I didn’t know. But I found my cabin number OF 4246. I realized that “OF” actually stood for “Officer”! I was staying in an officer’s cabin (I’m technically ranked as a two-stripe officer, above the majority of the crew onboard)!

I fumbled with my key as I tried to get it into the lock (BTW, this is a real metal key! No longer do I have to worry about demagnetizing my keycard with my magnetic nametag! This happened at least twice a week, and some of the pursers were getting irritated at constantly having to issue me a new card.)

As I opened the cabin, my jaw dropped.

The cabin was the same size as the passenger cabin that I had to share with Trevor, but this one had a single double-bed with two night stands, a desk with ample shelving, a ledge around the bed, for little things like the phone and an alarm clock, as well as having a small seating area and table! There was a full wardrobe for hanging my clothes, as well as built-in drawers under the bed for additional storage! And I don’t have to share the cabin! This was SO MUCH BETTER than I could’ve imagined

Oh, and one more detail. I HAVE TWO PORTHOLES on the bow of the ship! Even when my family went on their cruise, they didn’t even have an outside cabin! This definitely makes things MUCH more manageable (especially considering I’m going to be here for another 6 months (hopefully, but unlikely, I’ll get to stay here for the majority of that time!).

NEW PICTURES!

NEW PICTURES!!!

Over the week in wet dock, there were countless contractors onboard the Grand that were doing repairs from reupholstering furniture, to putting down new carpet, to fixing piping that broke in the “Poseidon Incident” that I wrote about earlier. We were also due for getting a new satellite receiver (and hopefully, a faster Internet connection, as well).

Yesterday, while we were returning from wet dock in the Bahamas, the bridge made an announcement that they were going to clean the water tanks with super chlorinated water. The asked that everyone onboard (keep in mind, there are NO PASSENGERS onboard at this time) would go to their staterooms and help to flush the chlorinated water out by running the sink and the shower. So, while I was watching a movie in my stateroom, I turned on the water and let it run for a while.

Man, the guys really dosed that water a little heavily, as I could smell it throughout my cabin. I had to run the water for a good 10 minutes (and open the cabin door) before the smell finally dissipated.

Later that day, I got a message from Practica (the guy that makes the room arrangements for passengers), saying that I would be changing cabins. There was a new golf professional that was coming onboard, and Trevor would be rooming with him in the passenger cabin. At the time, Practica told me that he didn’t know where I was going to be relocated, only that I had to pack up my stuff to relocate the next morning!

Where would I be heading? I didn’t know I had already gotten to “enjoy” Trevor’s company (as he wasn’t a half-bad roommate), and I hated to think about the awful situations that I might get tossed into. I had visions of being tossed in a crew cabin with bunks, with someone that was rude and crass, who would always go out to the crew bar, and come in drunk late at night, and quite possibly bring back a girl (or a guy) back into the room for…well…nevermind. The point is, it’s not the first time that would’ve happened on a ship. With my luck, I’d end up on deck three, either right in the front, above the bow thrusters, or right on the back, right above the engine room.

***NEW PICTURES!***

Today, Trevor, Vanessa, and I decided to rent a car and head out to a remote beach on the other side of the island of Freeport. Trevor had located the Lucaya Beach, way out of the way of tourism, and suggested that we spend our day there.

The strange thing about the Bahamas is that they drive on the left side of the road, but they have left-hand drive cars (probably since it’s much cheaper to import cars from the USA). The difficulty here was that, the USA is left-hand drive on the right side of the road, and South Africa (where Trevor and Vanessa are from) is right-hand drive on the left side of the road. So we thought things out, and we figured that, since traffic laws are usually the hardest to figure out, Trevor might be better off driving (and the Bahamas, like the USA, require you to be 25 to rent, whereas nearly any other country doesn’t really care one way or the other).

So, Trevor took on the responsibility for our lives into his hand (and gave up a $500 deposit for insurance reasons). When he got in the car he looked down and said, “Um, I’ve never driven an automatic before…”

“And that’s a problem?” I asked. I briefly explained to him that it was quite similar, just easier. He kept on trying to press down on the clutch (which there was none), tried shifting into Neutral before starting (which you can’t do), and then tried feathering the throttle as he backed out of the rental lot (which thankfully wasn’t that hard for him). He was confused with the fact that an automatic transmission car keeps on pulling, even when you’re not pressing the gas (because of the torque converter).

Fortunately, after figuring this all out, Trev, Vanessa, and I were on our way to Lucaya Beach. With the map, I was the navigator (since Trev didn’t know how to read a map). We did great, up until we ran out of map. The rental lot’s map didn’t cover the entire island, so we had to make do with our best sense of direction, which was hindered when we discovered no bridge where there should have been one. With a lot of uneducated guesses, and several wrong turns, we finally found the parking for the beach, which was about a 1/4mile from the beach.

We arrived on the beach at about 11:00am and found that we had the entire beach to ourselves! We had a great time, simply relaxing on the beach. Trev and Vanessa said that they needed to work on their tans…and I just told them to shut up. :o) Love ya, guys.

After taking a nice, long nap in the sun, Vanessa and I grabbed the camera and ran back out on the beach to take some pictures for her to send back to Sam (who she adoringly refers to as “The One I Love”, including one of her writing “I Love You, Sam!” in the sand. Vanessa frequently compliments me on my talent as a photographer, but she really doesn’t give herself enough credit. (I must say, she took some GREAT pictures of me, as well! ;o))

We then sat down on the sandbar and chatted about everything, friends, family, plans for the future, everything. We stayed out at the beach until about 5pm, as which point we figured that we’d go and get something to eat in the marketplace (we hadn’t eaten anything yet, today, besides some crackers and snacks that we had brought along). We finally got back to the ship around 7, concluding the most relaxing day that I’ve had since the beginning of my contract.

I’m not imagining that I’ll be too willing to go back to work after a great day like today, but I’ll take what I can get. ;o)

NEW PICTURES!

Today, I woke up with a headache by the screeching and squealing of a circular saw just at the end of my hall. Not to mention, I woke up sweating because they had just cut off the A/C for the duration of wet dock. So I went to take a shower and get ready to head on land when I realized that we had no hot water, either! Apparently, they were making efforts for energy conservation to control their running costs while they weren’t handling any passengers.

I wasn’t sure if I was being brave, or just plain stupid, but I jumped in the shower anyways. Just stepping under the shower head, I nearly had the air knocked out of me, much like what happens when you jump into a cold pool. The worst thing about it is that it actually takes longer to take a cold shower, because the soap doesn’t lather up really well.

Sorry for the short post, but when I have something more interesting, I'll post that up. See ya, guys and gals!

Last night, we pulled into wet dock in Freeport, Bahamas for repairs. You probably didn’t notice in the pictures, but the ship is getting old (10 years old, now) and is internally in pretty poor shape. So throughout the wet dock, we’re going to have several more contractors onboard, sawing and hammering and drilling, and otherwise just creating a lot of noise.

What does this mean for me? This means that I get to hang out on land for SIX DAYS as they make repairs! Many crew are booking hotels on land to get away from the noise (as well as for some other reasons, too), but I’ll be staying on the ship for money reasons (which is why I’m here in the first place).

No sooner than we pulled into dock, the contractors started tearing up the carpet, rebuilding furniture, and remodeling and making a huge racket. The medical center got moved up from deck 4 to deck 5, just down the hallway from my cabin. Fortunately, I’m pretty far away from the racket of the remodeling, but it’s still a huge inconvenience to be stuck on the ship while sawdust is flying and the smell of burnt wood drifts through the hallways.

Hey everyone!

Good news! I'm in Ft. Lauderdale until December 19th! But with this good news comes bad news.

When I first signed on with Sixth Star, I had been told that the contracts would range from 3 to 5 months. This first contract was to be three months (from Oct 16th to Jan. 16th. I had asked my boss if it was possible to do a longer contract, to which I got a seemingly definite “no”. Anyways, it’s not two months into my contract. I’ve already negotiated my new contract with my boss (from Feb 27th to May 16th). This would leave me with a 6-week break between two very short contracts. So I contacted my boss about a longer contract. At this rate, I’d never have enough money to get back to school in Fall of 2009 (like I had planned). Anyways, I didn’t seem to have much choice in the matter.

Two days ago, I got a call from my boss, asking me about extending my contract to June 13th, to which I thought, “Yes! Another month on my contract!” Then my boss corrected my misunderstanding. It wasn’t a 1-month extension on my Feb 27th contract…it was a 5-month extension to this contract!

This shocked me a bit. I wasn’t prepared for this. I had plans! I was looking forward to going home to family for my birthday! Visiting with friends! Seeing my brother in Kentucky! Why did this have to happen NOW???

I struggled with this for a bit, trying to see the big picture in it all. That’s when God slapped me up the side of the head and said, “You ASKED for this! I GAVE it to you!”

I forgot about that. I had asked for it. I got what I wanted. Sure, the timing was inconvenient for what I wanted to do. But it can’t get much less than ideal than it already is. I’m missing the entire holiday season. I missed Thanksgiving. I don’t get to go home for Christmas. I’ll miss New Years’. Now I don’t even get to go home for my own birthday, Singles’ Awareness Day (Valentine’s Day), or Easter!

But the big picture is this. The only way I could return to school was to work on the ship pretty much the entire time until Fall 2009. If this hadn’t happened, then I’d have to delay school longer. I’d stay in debt longer. I’d be that much further from my graduation date.

So, I’ve decided that I have to flip my thinking around and count my blessings.

1. I’m going to be able to fix a great deal of my debt.

2. I’ll be able to focus on school, and I won’t have to worry as much about finances, or working to “keep my head above the water”.

3. This will be 5 more months that I don’t have to pay rent or food costs.

4. I’ll have more opportunities to see the world!

5. I’ll have more opportunities to share Christ with others! (A cruise liner is one of the best places to find lost people).

I’ve finally rested on the fact that this is going to be the wisest decision for me to make, in the long run, and for the best investment in my future. I hope you guys can forgive this misunderstanding. I'm sorry that I won't be able to come and visit any of you like I had planned, but I hope you understand.

Really love you all,

Scott

(I'll have my cell phone on all week, if you want to contact me) :o)

NEW PICTURES FROM DOMINICA (Caribbean)!

Hey guys! I'm sorry that I didn't have time to write anything, but the good news is that I've got some great new pictures!

Today marked our crossing of the Equator on our way across the Atlantic. As momentous as an occasion it was…it also came with the headache of some very unhappy passengers in the Internet Café. The MTN satellite that supplies the Internet connection to the ship is directly over the Equator. If your name is Paul, Brandon, David, Chris, or you simply just understand how parabolic dishes work, you might be able to understand the idea of the “keyhole effect” in which there is a blind spot directly underneath an orbiting satellite (much in the same way that we humans have a blind spot right in the center of our eyes, where the retina meets the optic nerve).

Now, after you looked up “keyhole effect” on Wikipedia, you’ll have a complete understanding of what our passengers cannot grasp.

Trevor came up to me today, frustrated with the abundance of outrageous accusations. “Man, it’s like everyone just became an IT professional overnight!”

FAQs:

Q1: “If we’re directly under the satellite, shouldn’t the signal be really strong?”

A1: See “Keyhole Effect” on Wikipedia.

Q2: “Our satellite TVs in our staterooms still work! Why doesn’t the Internet?”

A2: TV satellite connections aren’t nearly as volatile. But you still get interference on them as well. Our TV connections use a different satellite.

Q3: “We have a satellite connection at home, and it’s not nearly this slow!”

A3: Is your hometown a quarter-mile-long steel superstructure, floating out in the middle of the Atlantic?

Q4: “This is big waste of our money!”

A4: Stop wasting your money.

Q5: “This is UNACCEPTABLE! I want to speak to the Captain!”

A5: Okay, when would be a the most convenient time for you?

So, our solution to the problem? Trevor locked up the Internet Café after all of my class attendees had arrived, and posted this sign on the door:

Due to our position on the Equator, our satellite Internet connection is currently down. This is due to the fact that we are currently directly underneath the satellite in a dead spot. The Internet Café will re-open when the connection is restored. Thank you.

“Good morning, folks! Today we’re going to have a blast learning how to use Windows Movie Maker to edit your ((**THUNK!**))….um, just a second folks.” I say, as I go to unlock the door.

There’s a passenger at the door rubbing his noggin and impatiently tapping his feet. As I open the door, this is the greeting I receive:

“Is the Internet working?”

“No, sir.” I say, gesturing to the sign. “Because of our current position, the Internet connection is currently down.”

“When will it be working?”

“I’m not sure. We’re currently in a dead spot, so I wouldn’t expect it to be working before this evening.”

“Oh.”

Re-locking the door I take my seat again. “Okay, the first step to creating your home movie is to ((**THUNK**)...pardon me, folks.”

“Is the Internet working?”

“No, Ma’am.)” I say, gesturing to the sign. “Because of our current position, the Internet connection is currently down.”

“When will it be working?”

“I’m not sure. We’re currently in a dead spot, so I wouldn’t expect it to be working before this evening.”

“Oh.” And she walks away.

Sitting back down. “…okay, the first thing to do is to capture the video from your MiniDV video camera. Now, with today’s new hard drive camcorders, you can skip this long and boring process, and just go ah— ((**THUNK**))… um, go ahead and import the videos straight from your camera….”

(15 minutes later….)

“Now that you’ve gotten the music into your movie, you can adjust the levels of the video’s sound in relation to the ((**THUNK**)) music that you just imported. You’ll see here on the left hand side a small button with a ((**THUNK**)) small slider…”

This is starting to make me lose my composure. Not because I’m mad, but because I, and everyone else in the class, am laughing every time another person walks into the locked door.

The thing that amazes me most is not that people don’t stop to read the sign. No, the amazing thing to me is that people don’t take time to read the sign as they are peeling their face off of the glass door.

***NEW PICTURES!