29th Cruise

I'm writing this blog from Nassau in the Bahamas. I'm here because my ship was rescheduled to avoid rough seas near Grand Cayman. It seems easy enough to avoid hurricanes at sea. It's also seems easy enough to avoid them in back in Colorado.

I'll be back in Colorado in three weeks. I'm counting down the time. I had been counting days and cruises when I first started this cruise ship gig in April, but I lost track somewhere in the middle when it started feeling a little long. Now that the end is clearly in sight, I'm counting again.

Last Monday, I went with some fellow musicians to Chichen Itza which is the sight of some amazing Mayan ruins. Chichen Itza is Mayan phrase which means "Chicken, that's it!" The pyramids were very impressive, and we had a great tour guide who taught us a bit about Mayan culture. I bought new digital camera after my last one broke, and I'll try to post some pictures of the trip.

I'm really looking forward to coming back to Colorado. I'll try to fit in a few more blogs in the meantime.

Triumph

I'm on the Carnival Triumph for one more month before I come home to Colorado. I'll fly home on September 21. I'm still not sure of my plans after that. I was offered another contract with the Carnival Miracle that would start up on October 20 and would go through the new year. That ship is based in Fort Lauderdale and takes eight day cruises to a few Central American countries and a bunch of islands named after saints.

I have a lot of free time out here. I work very few hours playing music on the ship, and have many hours to practice, read, exercise and explore ports. It's a challenge sometimes to keep from getting bored and find things to do in a limited space.

I'm going to start overdubbing bass parts on the upcoming Hunker Down album this week. I'm really excited about this project. The band worked with the recording engineer Chuck Pierce in Alma who sent me audio files of their sessions via yousendit.com. I'm going to record my parts with my Pro Tools rig on the ship and then send wav files back to Chuck for him to mix in his studio. The plan is to have everything done in time for a big cd release party and concert for when I get back to Colorado. I think it will come out great.

I was hoping to write a lot more original stuff than I have so far. I've been mostly working on my playing, and learning other people's music rather than making up my own stuff. I still have a month to come up with some more ideas. I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Fun Facts

Here are some specs on the Carnival Triumph.
Gross Tonnage: 101,509
Length: 893 Feet
Width: 116 Feet
Guest Capacity: 2,758
Total Staff: 1,100

Novel

Novel. New. Give it up? That's easy.
"There is nothing novel left," he said.
"Well you've never written a novel before, have you?" she said.
"No," he said.
"So," she said, "If you wrote a novel, that would be something new."
"But I can't say anything that's never been said before," he said. "It's all been done."
"You could say something that you have never said before," she said.
"What?" he said.
"You mean you've said everything there is to say?"
"Uh," he said.
"Are you that arrogant?"
"Hey now," he said.
"Sorry," she said.
"Why are you getting so fired up about me writing something. Maybe I don't even want to make anything," he said.
"But you do."
"How do you know?" he said.
"Of course you do," she said. "We all do."
"Then why don't you write a novel," he said.
"Oh I can't."
"Because..." He waited.
"That's your thing. That's what you do." she said. "And besides I wouldn't be able to come up with anything."
"Nothing new to say, huh?" he said.
"Stop it." she said
"Why?" he said
"You're negative and defeatist."
"You're angry and deflective."
"What?"
"Projective."
"You're just making up words now," she said. "Wait, I thought you couldn't come up with anything new."
"You're just making fun of me now," he said. "Look, what do you even care?"
It was that that Sandy realized that she really didn't. So she left without saying another word. And Sheldon sat down and wrote a novel.

Shark Week

I watched this crazy show on tv about this South African guy who "free dives" with tiger sharks. All he has is a snorkel, mask, and wetsuit, but he can stay underwater with the sharks for six minutes. Watching guys on the Discovery Channel diving with sharks is kind of like watching NASCAR racing. The race is kind of exciting, but you're mostly just waiting for the cars to smash into each other. When I realized I was alone in my hotel room yelling "Eat him! Eat him!" at the screen, I had to turn the tv off.