A Humble Bow

I know I promised that I would stand at the bow of this massive ship every morning at 1230 PST. Apparently, 9/11 ruined a lot of things, especially guys waving their arms on the bow of ships for webcams -- that gift is now reserved only for crew members, who use it as an opportunity to escape the constant yammerings of ship guests like me.

I'm sitting in a cowboy bar on the island of St. Thomas at the moment, catching up with world and having a Carib beer before I sail off in a couple of hours -- for St Marteen, I think -- I've sorta lost track.

All in all, the cruising life is a pretty fantastic thing. I can see why many of the people onboard say this is the 10th or 20th cruise they have taken. We left Tortola last night at sunset, probably one of the most beautiful and friendliest of places I have ever been. I stood on the aft (back) deck, eating sushi (yes, sushi) with my wife as my son ran back and forth through the automatic doors and the waiters did sharp turns to avoid him. We pulled away from the dock, turned around on a dime and started skating, ever slowly, away from the small blue and white lights of the town. At that moment, I didn't feel like I was on a ship with 2,000 other people.

I'll give a more detailed review when I get back to servilization...right now, I'm having too much fun. I hope you are too.

Can't promise anything, but I may be editing in the computer lab tonight-- check the cam.

Tomorrow, It Starts

On the way to the airport. Ready to cruise. Remember to look for me at 1230 PST everyday right under the flaghead seen above at Celebrity online

First person to email me a screengrab wins a leisure suit.

Cruise-o-matic

My family and I are leaving next week on a cruise. That's right, a cruise. Some people (myself included) think that cruises are great places for old people to get together and spread all the wonderful germs they pick up at the various ports-of-call as they touch the varnished clam-shells-glued-to rock napkin holders in the local gift shops; but I'm an open kind of guy, and it's a wonderful opportunity for my grandmother to get to know my son, so Captain Stubbin, where's Gopher?, we're coming aboard.

I'm a research kind of guy. I like to read up on all the exciting things I plan to do in my life -- it gives me a sense of expectation, like standing in line at Space Mountain and watching the rollercoaster roll around every once in a while. In my reading up on "cruising" and this whole new world, I find that, besides the stories of people who have far too much time and too little life on their hands, some really wonderful tid-bits.

For example,This Link has live webcam views from the ship I'll be traveling on. I'll tell ya what -- I'll stand on the bridge foredeck at 12:30 EST everyday and wave my hands -- let me know if you see me.

There, that was fun, wasn't it? Actually, in my research, I have found that cruising is not as old or as lame as it seems. Take THIS for example. Turns out that Dave Matthews Band, along with Bob Weir, Toots and the Maytals, and a bunch of other great musicians, like to get together for a few days and play some music on cruise ships and islands around the Bahamas. God, would I hate to be a deck-hand on that ship.

I'll let you know how this all goes and try to send updates on the ship when I'm not discussing false teeth with Bob and Sylvia, the "Cruising Koslowski's" of Toledo.

Cash

So Rhapsody came out with a web-based version of their subscription music service, which means I can use it on my Mac and finally get rid of my PC. Rhapsody makes so much more sense than buying music. Here you can just rent it.

So I look on their "top of the charts" list and there at number 1 is my favorite rebel, Johnny Cash. Now I haven't seen "Walk The Line" -- I feel kinda funny about watching actors pretend to be someone who can't be imitated. Felt the same way about Ray a couple of years ago.

But the good thing is that the movie is giving people who have never heard of Cash a chance to discover his life and his music. And that is pure rhapsody.