Pull the damn cord, Mikey!!!!

Its no surprise that I injured myself just moments after this photo was taken...

but what a cool photo, n'est pas? :)

I've been working my tushie off this past two weeks I have been home...my God has it been two weeks already?! I have also been on this computer many hours each day trying to finish my new site, I am really surprised that I havent added anything on my blog in the process.... but there you have it lol. The new site will be up this week sometime...and it really isnt anything special, its just a little more full and rounded.... rather than just a portfolio, there are services, prices, CURRENT contact info (haha...guess i should update my address from calgary lol). I have added a storefront, where you can (for real this time) purchase my fine art prints! Not only that, but as your photographer, I am also adding the service of making your photos available for viewing online with your own login and password, so you and your family/friends can view AND purchase photos online from a very reputable third party company! On the wedding side of things, I am adding the option of canvas prints AND Leatherbound Photo albums courtesy of the hard working individuals at www.willowbook.com I have a lot of people on my side of the line this time, helping me out...the team is literally growing daily...it feels good :)

new camera equipment, new site, new business cards (thanks, Charles! lol), new advertising campaign...

...same great taste :)



-M-

Been home since the 18th!

...still hibernating, i am fighting a cold, i miss the guys and gals on the ship but i am glad to be home...

things look promising here on land, i just gotta do some more research and get better of course hahaha

give me a shout ok?

info@michaelwachniak.com

-m-

The one about the Camera

So, I am sitting here in the Grand Cayman internet cafe... Kyla, Thomas, Matt, Richard, and Linda to my right... typing on a computer where only 10 or so days before I was sitting in this exact same spot making faces with Grit to my mom on the webcam... and now Grit is safely at home probably sleeping in my new King sized bed...stress free...waiting only 13 more days for me to come home... and only 2 more formal nights...

and now I have a new camera :)

Get this: everywhere I look this damn camera has been $1899US...so when i found it duty and tax free in Grand Cayman for $1750.. I shit myself...

and after waiting and waiting and finally getting the email telling me its in stock..

I daresay I shat again :)

Therefore I am sure its no surprise to you that I shat a third and hopefully final time when I grabbed up the posse today, went to the store, finally TOUCHED a Fuji S5pro... "MY" Fuji S5 Pro.....

and then the lady said 'minus your Crew discount.....'

expected: $1750 paid: $1661

I danced outside after the transaction was made (and firmly gripped the bag as Thomas, Matt, Linda, Kyla, and Richard all attempted to mugme at the same time)

13 more days in the Carribbean...

Then I go home. No Shit.

-m-

Grit going to my mom's, 20 days to go for me, where's my %&*@! camera, and employee of the MONTH??

Well, now that the internet has been put back on in the ship, I can update again :)

so... much has happened since my last post... Grit has officially quit as a Steiner (down with the hellish company!) and as I type this she is flying somewhere between Toronto and Vancouver!!! She has opted to go home 20 days earlier than me, to stay at my mom's house, and hibernate WITHOUT alarm clocks and hair appointments until I come home on April 18th...

Lucky Lucky Lucky :|

It was a major pain in the ass to get everything sorted out... but she is finally on her way... oh, also: Kylie (steiner from australia) has also quit and gone to Canada WITH Grit, and will be staying with at my moms for a night and then heading to Whistler for a job interview at a spa :)

again, down with Steiner... you suck very much.... and its not just my opinion, its many many many peoples opinions... if I had to choose between working for Steiner, and getting kicked in the plums by a marathon runner with stilettos.... I'd spread my legs and grit my teeth.

In other news: Can SOMEONE please tell me where the hell to find a Fuji S5 Camera Body????? there, I said it, thats the camera.. Its the Nikon D200 but with Fuji Insides.... yes, I am going Nikon.... do research on the Fuji S5 and find out why. Plus, I know the Nikons now more than My own Canon :) I updated the For Sale sign around the ship tonight for my camera and I have my pager on at all times... It will be sold, OH YES, it will be sold...

But the funny thing is, theres a whole lot of nostalgia with my 10D... so many good roadtrips with some of the best friends I have ever had...


now in some weird weird unforseen news....

i was told today by my manager that I have been nominated for employee of the month... sounds cool eh? now, add on the fact that there are only 12 people nominated each month....out of over 800...

800!!!!!

talk about a good way to leave a contract! even if i dont win it (and i expect some hard working, well deserving philippeno to get it instead... kudos in advance), i get a photo with the captain and psd, and a certificate of 'you almost made it!' :)

damn... yay me!

now, to sum up:

if everything goes to plan, in 20 days i will be home, driving in the rocky mountains taking photos with my new camera, with my 'employee of the month' photo framed in my back seat :)

roadtrip? roadtrip.

ruh.

-m-

Out of a Coma, 29 days to Go, and you wouldn't believe it if I told you...

Well Holy Shit... its a new blog entry.

I slipped into a coma there for a while, days blended into each other, blinking meant entire 10 days cruises were gone, and every click of the shutter button spiraled me further and further into a deep state of .....

...Blah...

catch my drift? Much has happened, obviously as every day on ships is a week and every week is a month and so on and what have you.... and yet, with 29 days to go before I meander home... I really have nothing coming to mind to mention...

Havent done many shore excursions, and nothing exciting at work either... I have come to the conclusion that the last 1.5 months of our contracts here we all tend to do the same thing: sleep during the times when we can get off the ship in port, do laundry instead of going to the crewbar, watching movies and hanging out in the corridor instead of partying, going to restaurants and internet cafe's in port rather than 4x4-ing or snorkelling or suntanning...

we are winding down. and we all feel it. 8 of the 12 or so photographers are all leaving within 1-3 cruises from each other, so we are ALL doing this...

Including tonight, 6 more formal nights to go :)

*insert sigh of relief here*

oh, one big thing before I go... (other than I promise that I will update a few times a week from now on... busy bit is out of the way), I am finally upgrading my camera kit.... and if you know any ounce of me in any way, you wouldn't believe what I am upgrading to even if i told you. And yes mom, for the record i will STILL be coming home with a significant amount of money saved up. WAY more than the 300 bucks last time :)

Til the next time, see y'all in the next cartoon!

-M-

Photographer for Hire?

So Grit and I have been talking, and we are thinking that it may be time to leave the shiplife soon. MAYBE!! We are just looking at what is coming after we leave, whats the next step and so on... Her and I are sitting in an internet cafe in the Cayman Islands right now, each roaming the Online-Universe, each in our own private Dell-brand Spacecrafts, hunting for answers.... aka 'cruisin the net'.

i have a list in front of me which i have compiled over the past few days, everything ranging from 'email Jason about the june 23rd wedding', to 'locate and price out german lessons around white rock area', even to 'working permit information for Grit to work in Canada'.... the list goes on. I have stock photo sites I have to inquire about, MANY photographers around Vancouver area that I have to get back to, and find out where the hell in the world Szymon is :) (photog friend from the pacific sky...this dude's been literally 'hammocking it' in the south pacific in Vanuatu for the last 5 months or more... lucky bastard haha)...

Grit's beside me searching up Hair Stylist and photographer jobs in Europe on river cruises... paid in Euros, less stress... makes sense.

So I will keep you all posted as we think of whats going on next... I guess what will most likely happen is that we will come to Canada and I will look for various Photo jobs here and there... possibly get a spot in a Vancouver Gallery for some of my pics from the road... some kind of 'upcoming artist' thing or something...

If anyone knows of anybody needing a wedding/portrait/anything photographer give me a hollar ok? I know I get 30+ hits on the site from the U.S.A. so that goes for you guys as well ok? You are only a hop skip and a jump away if you consider how far I have travelled in the past year... If you guys need a photographer, (especially a good lookin' one with an even better looking German girlfriend hahahahaha) give us a shout ok? send it to info@michaelwachniak.com

Cheers!

-M-

Photo Update!

Hey Everyone! Everything is going well... nothing unusual around here... oh, Jan 17th we were coming back to Ft Lauderdale and we saw a very small boat with 16 or so refugees making a run for the USA... they were badly dehydrated and they had a hole in the bottom of the boat so we picked them up, fed them and clothed them until the coast guard got them. I imagine they go back to Cuba, but i assume its better than drowning! Kudos to the captain for picking them up... when they got on they said 2 other cruise ships passed right by them without even looking.

In other news, Jan 28th is mine and Grit's 1 year anniversary with Princess Cruises... man what a year! Grit's doing well, but has decided this is her last contract as a steiner... we are planning our next step now. I am coming home for a bit after my contract and she will most likely stay on for a bit and then when i am done, she will walk off the ship (quitting and flipping off Steiner in the process), and then we will fly to Germany and tour Europe for a month or so. Bills will be paid by then, and we will have a good idea of what to do next. Dubai is looking promising at the moment.

In Grand Cayman now... gonna head back to the ship and go to the gym for a bit, then its formal night... meh, whattya gonna do :)

I'm Ron Burgandy. Keep it real, San Diego!

-M-

Grit and I on New Years!

Grand Cayman Sea Turtles taste the best...

Grit's first time in Jamaica... she was SO happy :)

MY sexy self walking around the Panama Canal locks Jan 22nd.

The photo team, Christmas Eve 2006. Par-tay!

This is (no word of a lie) Bob Marley's bed. We went to tour his house and went to his tomb as well. I have knelt down 2 feet in front of Bob Marley.

Up in the spa for a full Barber treatment. Shave and a Haircut... literally! (but it wasn't two bits, it was free lol)

Just outside Bob Marleys House and across from his tomb.

St. Maarten. Boxing Day (Dec 26th for you americans haha). Jellyfish sting. Nothing a little Aloe right from the beach didnt clear up! If you have ever licked a 9 volt battery, it feels the same way... but on your foot lol.

Re: My Inner-Violin.....

The night I wrote the previous entry I woke up 3:30am to find out my inner-violin was not an inner-violin at all...it was food poisoning :)

I lept over Grit, ran to the bathroom, and literally emptied from every opening in my body....

shortly after I was quarantined to an even smaller cabin for 24 hours, watching the same movies over and over again, and actually getting bored of sleeping....and showering for fun.

they let me out yesterday at about noon, dubbed it "food poisoning" (not norwalk, thank God).... and i was back in my cabin getting ready to work before I could say "oh shit, my sink is still plugged". :(

as for the whole 'terror in the spa' thing about Grit leaving.... i found out ONE THING.... Grit is just way too damn smart to go down that easily. All the emotions over the past while must have triggered this survival instinct in Grit because she had about 15% retail sales before I went into the quarantine, and when I came out her retail was and still is just over 50%.... Germans must REALLY love David Hasselhoff!

Never Piss off zhe Germans, ja? zay vill puneesh you! :)


but....the inner-violin is still playin.... hrmmm.... sickness is gone, Grit wont be going anywhere..... so what could it be?

My Inner-Violin

so...I have this funny feeling that things are about to change fairly soon 'round here. The air is sittin' a little thicker than before. Its like when you are lying in bed at night and its totally dark and so silent that you hear your own heartbeat... but when it is SO quiet, and so motionless, you hear this little magnetic hum so faint..... its almost like there can't actually be 100% silence. Thats the feeling I have had for the past few days....that hum. I can feel it. Its like an inner-violin buried deep inside me....playing one continuous note.... to either warn or make me aware of something....and to be honest....i have no fucking clue what. All it feels like is a change, not a bad change and not a good change, but a change.... like a new adventure. And only today about 20 minutes ago did I get the first hint as to maybe what it was.

First, Grit works for a shit company. I cant stress that any other way. She works 14 hours a day, along with all the other Steiner slaves, and at the end of the day, just as they pour their bodies into their beds, they are all individually told that they didnt work hard enough, and really shouldn't be here. This is not the way to live. Sure I bitch about my job sometimes, its what I do. But I can get off in almost every port we go to for at least a few hours and relax. Grit, along with all the other Steiners here, gets 1.5 days off in every 10 day cruise. every other day is 14 hours give or take 1 or 2 hours.

I went to SawGrass Mall in Ft Lauderdale today to buy something nice for Grit (while she worked of course..oh by the way, it was an 18 hour shift yesterday). I found her some aromatherapy satchels that you can heat up and wear around your eyes or your shoulders and I also got a feather-pad for the top of our bed so she and I can have less backaches at night. I know she will love it. Totally gonna pamper her tonight (especially after hearing what I am about to tell you).

I went upstairs just before writing this to see her in the spa, and she pulled me aside and started to cry like she has been holding it in for centuries. She and a few others were told today that they have 7 days to improve their retail sales or they are getting sent to another ship in 10 days.

The Inner-Violin plays on...

So now I am sitting here, at the computer in the crew internet room, day ZERO (well, day 1) of a new cruise....and my 'balance' is spinning like a mother fucker..... if she leaves, I go with her. pretty bold statement, i know, but really its not that crazy. the way i see it, is we would both quit. she has so much talent that she could easily find a job back in germany again. I, would come back home, do SOMETHING, and maybe a month-month and a half down the road, I am off to germany on a 6 month visa maybe assisting some post-nazi wedding photographer or something like that.... i actually know some german now... but i would have to step it up if this was actually going to happen. it sounds like I am in the clouds, I know.... but look at the life I have at the moment. Read back on the shit that I have told you all about on this blog over the last year, and then just BEGIN to think about the shit I HAVEN'T told you about.... moving to Germany on a temporary basis really doesnt sound any different..... its just a new chapter that's all.

Nothing's indefinite yet, she may not even leave at all....but sooner or later the shiplife will stop and something new will come to me....in the next chapter.

The Inner-Violin plays on...

-M-

This will be my last entry before Saddam Hussein dies...

I have nothing to say other than that.

I mean, I didnt really know the guy.

-m-

.....And a Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and Happy New Year!!

Holy shit am i glad that the Christmas Cruise is over!!! It was just a weird weird weird cruise...

you'd THINK that during the holiday season on a cruise with all families, people wouldnt steal.... WRONG! thats when they do it the most!

I caught soooo many people (not just kids but old farts too!) stealing photos from the gallery and generally just being HORRIBLE SCROOGES during the holidays.... arg!

ok...thats it... i'm done bitching :)

I got to see St Maarten for the first time (love it... love it...) and Grit and I had a great Christmas .... we woke up around 9am, opened gifts (with Bony M singing in the background haha), and then we made some tea in our new "Decorate-Yourself Starbucks Mugs" and then we met Stu, Carrie, Matt, Kyla, Thomas and Linda on the gangway and went out to St Thomas..... and my God.... Magen's Bay... I can tell you, it was like the beaches in Ouvea...but damn close...

Beach....Tanning.....Swimming.... and my day off, in a Caribbean Island on Christmas Day :)

Now I am sitting in Fort Lauderdale just a few hours before the "New Years Cruise" starts...

what good fortunes and experiences will be brought my way this cruise?

New Years Eve is formal night (typical. just typical.) and I am shooting portraits in The Atrium until 10:30pm and then after we put the photos up in the gallery, we all go up to the open decks and shoot everyone having fun til midnight, when the balloons and streamers drop. Grit is off at 10pm and i told her she has to walk around with me until midnight hahahaha... gotta have the new years kiss ya know :)

alright folks... its off to the ship again... sleep for a few hours and then work for a bit, then when Grit gets off at 9pm we are getting all dressed up and headin to the steakhouse... mmmmmm, dead cow :)

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Instead of wishing you everything you want in 2007, I want to wish you all everything you need. If you truly need it, you WILL get it.

So Be It.

-M-

Long Time No Talk!

hey everone! Its been a long long time, almost a month! i am still alive, but have been pretty busy....and Grit has been taking up my time :) yay! I am in Ocho Rios right now, on December 20th, 5 days til Christmas... in Jamaica and its 30C outside :) dont hate me lol.

Lots has been going on, but just to give a quick summary and then some pictures: I have swam with dolphins (and even kissed one!), I have white water rafted in Costa Rica (with Grit, she loved it, hell its better than her last contract in the Baltic...BRRRR), I have dressed up as Freddy Mercury at an 80s crew disco (and won the grand prize: a Motorola Razr cellphone!), I have worked hard and played hard, and things are going good. Lots of friends, everyone is happy, great team, and I am proud to have the life I have. Not sure if there are many contracts after this one or not, I might be ready for something new soon. Grit and I are planning our trip around Europe in the Summer (dont worry, I will be home first for a fair bit...Brooks and Calgary especially!!...Dad, I'm gonna kick your ass at golf, and I might wanna throw in a fishing trip too!)...

How is everyone else? How is the Christmas prepartion process going? We have 473 kids under 18 next cruise... Holy Christmas, Batman! Also, we had a contest last cruise to see who could sell the most Cruise DVDs and I won (I had 20 and the 2nd place behind me had only 8 hahaha) so I get Christmas Day off in St. Thomas...and Grit has it off too!!!

Oh my god, sitting here typing...and guess what is playing on the stereo at the bar here?

Bony M Christmas...

Only the family would appreciate that..... NOW it feels like Christmas :) what are the odds?

ok, photo time, and then I gotta go!

Merry Christmas everyone!

p.s. I am waiting until the festivities start here on the ship before I send anything home so i can send photos of us having our Christmas in the Caribbean ok? I havent forgotten.. I just thought it would be cheaper to send everyone 1 package of everything rather than presents and THEN photos...

Ta!

-M-

Madonna (Grit) and Freddy Mercury (me) at the 80s disco

White water rafting in costa rica!

Me and Mitch :)

How Real Coffee is supposed to be... in Costa Rica :)

'The 80s Guys'

My 100th Post...what now?

Wow. 100 posts. what now?

It has been just 3 weeks shy of a year since I started this blog, and reading back on some of the posts, I just can't believe how lucky I am.

In the past 11.5 months, just off the top of my head I have:

- flown over the International Dateline to Australia
- been blown away by the serenity of the South Pacific Islands
- been stung by a school of baby jellyfish and luckily didnt have to get peed on
- been a pirate in the indian ocean
- crossed the equator in a ship
- drank beer with strangers in a dark alley in Bangkok
- treated a Thailand prostitute's to a free dinner with a friend and then hung out with her in Kao San Road talking and laughing simply because we thought it would be nice for her to have a "night off".
- not only witnessed but photographed a burial at sea
- sat on the beach in Phuket where the tsunami hit the worst.
- rode on and befriended an elephant named "Sweetheart".
- para-sailed in malaysia.
- fell in love with someone who lives on the other side of the planet, and who to this day i have actually spent more time away from her than with her since we met, and we're stronger than ever. (by the way, Grit told me yesterday that she got a call from Steiner, she is coming to work on the Coral in 8 days!!!!)
- took a train to venice, italy and spent 8 hours in absolute amazement.
- survived what could have been one of the worst disasters at sea ever recorded, and walked away without a scratch and standing taller.
- dipped my hands in the famous fountain, and hummed "give peace a chance" to myself at the John Lennon memorial in central park, new york.
- I have crossed the atlantic in 9 days, and woke up at 530am one morning to watch the statue of liberty get closer.
- I have taken a photo straight down from the top of the empire state building.
- i have cried at the world trade center site.
- i have swung from tree to tree on a cable while it was pouring down in a rainforest in costa rica, and screamed to the heavens the whole way.
- i swam with stingrays in grand cayman 1 week before steve irwin died, and i am going to do it again.
- i have soaked up the sun lying on a tube drifting down the great river in jamaica
- i have finally brought home a girl that my family likes :)
- i have learned a few words in over 15 different languages
- i live with 800 crew members from over 40 different countries every day that never fight each other, never steal from, and can always manage to make each other smile. i dont see why the rest of the world find it so difficult.
- i have watched storms all night and past the sun rising over the middle of the ocean, just because i could have sworn that i could have very well been the only one in the world to see it.
- i have walked ACROSS the locks of the panama canal... very little people do that.

the list goes on...all for the past 11 months.


and what now? i keep on roaming.

thats what we do.

like buffalo, we roam.

and then all of it happens.

and we roam.

-m-

Random Picture Time!

ok these mexican keyboards are very hard to get used to haha! ok, i am in Cozumel Mexico right now, and i just popped off the ship to send some random pics of this cruise. the zipline tour in costa rica was amazing, and although i didnt get to do the ATV tour in jamaica, the river tubing that replaced it was well worth it. Panama was a real treat too, i actually jumped off the cruise ship at 5am while it was still moving and onto a pilot boat that took me to shore. then i shot photos of everyone on their balconies as they past by me in the locks of the panama canal. i actually walked ACROSS one of the locks to go to the other side... not many people do that! in fact, only 3 people on the entire ship can actually leave at that time, and they are all photographers hahahaha. ok, i am gonna finish the blog entry and then grab some mexican food. then its back onto the ship, i gotta finish feeding my negs through the line and print em off before island night! yay!

=M=

this is jay, canadian SR. Videographer (probably my roomate in 2 days too...good thing we really really get along). In panama we shoot the balconies on the ship for an hour and then we have about 6 hours off with an escort until the ship comes back to get us, and all we do is drive around. this is a friend of our escorts in a local REAL pub (not some dolled up one for passengers, this is authentic). Got our asses handed to us in Pool though...damn those guys are good!

this is our new friend pointing to HIS women.... old men dont change no matter where you are haha.

this is one of the tugs that pull the ships through the panama canal. this particular one has been retired and is sitting in a park...for big kids to play on!

striking a pose in panama. Vogue :)

ZipLine tour in costa rica....150 metres in the air, in a rainforest, pouring more rain than any day i have ever been alive to witness. also...biggest frontal wedgie ever...look at that package!

Oh me, Oh my!

I just had to mention this, as I am completely stoked about it. On the Crown last contract I didnt go on a single tour/shore excursion through the ship because I either had zero time, or my cabinmate Jacek always beat me to it...

Today, I have not only booked one, but TWO shore excursions for this cruise.

Ready? Get this:

1. Tomorrow, I am joining a small crowd of say 20 people and we are all hopping on our own ATVs (All-Terrain Vehicles) and we are driving up and down the beaches of Montego Bay, Jamaica. After kickin up the sand for a while, we are driving up Mt. Zion (yes, Bob Marley's 'Zion'). I should get quite a few nice jungle type photos with this one!

and finally:

2. In 5 days time, I will be joining again about 20 people, but all Crew this time (Crew Only Tour), and we are doing whats called a 'ZipLine' in Limon, Costa Rica. A ZipLine can basically be described as "that tightrope people dangle from hooks on in the TV show 'Fear Factor'..."
We are going from tree to tree shimmying across a metal zipline, roughly 80 feet in the air...

stoked? yes! scared?

....not yet ;)

-M-

Cozumel....pant...pant...

Woke up this morning 1 hour earlier to a phone call from an equally sleepy photographer saying we are in Cozumel earlier and we gotta hustle to the gangway for pics....

...2 hours in TOTAL and UTTER heat.....no shade (until Royal Caribbean pulled alongside...thank you!)...

now I am on a few hours off so i get to do basically the same thing...take pics in the hot sun...BUT not of passengers haha... some cool places round here... 'Carlos N Charlies' and of course 'Senor Frogs' (done that....many times....).

I think I am gonna grab a cervesa and then hop back into my cabin (with the broken airconditioner...still cold compared to outside)...and then its island night! Formal night is over (last night) and its smooth sailing from here (for 3 days haha)...

Here are a few pics so far that I threw on just cause I could...
cheers!

-M-

me and my sis and mama just before I left for the Coral

the new gang on the 2nd night on the ship...Halloween! Notice me without a costume :(

the new home...Coral Princess... on my way to it for the first time. Shot from a tender boat in Grand Cayman.

The Atrium of the Coral Princess.

Random Thoughts And Pictures Falling From the Sky

Hey everyone! I thought I would throw a little update online today...tell all my peeps the DownLow on whats been goin on these past few days. Work is good, getting back into my little groove again... deck 2 cabin sucks my hairy ass....pardon the vulgarity, but there is no other way of putting it...meeting new friends each day, some real cool people here on board. Crewbar is small and insignificant...but a beer or two each night to wind down is simply unpreventable. Formal Nights are still the bane of my existance...c'est la vie!

I suck at ping pong...the Phillipeno's dont.

Panama Canal is amazing...there is literally 1 foot of water maybe 2 on either side of the ship...

Fits.... LIKE A GLOVE!

I am eating super healthy... probably because I have only been to the crew mess to eat ...twice maybe. Horizon Court is where its at. Every meal I have the worlds biggest salad: onions, lettuce, carrots, radishes, celery, bacon bits, croutons, peppers, and a TINY bit of dressing. Then there is the fish (not fried) AND either chicken/steak/pork/all of the above. No Deserts (not holding back, they just simply dont appeal to me...plus I am eating too much dinner haha). Still havent started up with the gym again, but i cant find the @!$#!$ thing haha. Everyone says crew gym is on deck 1.. i have looked 4 times and i cant even find stairs to go to level one!!! The spa has a passenger gym, but I would like to try out the crew gym first and make sure i still know how to exercise still haha.

Grit is still at home in Germany. She called Steiner today to see when she can come here and they said they might have an answer wed or thurs this week. getting impatient here... she is guaranteed a spot here, but its all a matter of when... oh well... she is doing well and we are talking lots. I cant wait to see her, she will love the ship, its so much smaller than what we are accustomed to from past contract. Its a lot like the Pacific Sky!

Speakin of which, get this: first formal night (first day i was here) I grabbed my camera and put a memory card in.... i hit preview to see what pics were already on it, and first pic was.... ME.

WHAT THE !$!%?

Apparantly when we sold the Pacific Sky, we sent all our equipment (including the memory cards) to various Princess Ships... the memory cards obviously came to the Coral, but what boggles me is this: I have had a contract in the mean time. The cards were in plain sight, and not only were they on the ship i came to, but nobody deleted these cards for....6 months! And I could have picked any other memory card that WASNT from the Sky... my first thought:

Wake up Neo. The Matrix has you.

Where's the hidden camera? Is this the Truman Show? :)

Very Syncronistic indeed.... yet hard to decypher the meaning so far....

in the meantime, thats all. I am going to Costa Rica tomorrow. There is a Sloth Sanctuary there, I might not have time to go this turn, but I have 16 more times to go before we head to Alaska.

How is everyone else doin? How's the snow? :) Don't worry, it was about +35C today in Panama before the rain....I will send some heat your way ;) I am all sweaty anyways.

See you all in the NEXT CARTOON!

-M-

First message from the Coral Princess

Oi Oi, Geezahs!!!

Ok...where shall I start....

- Vancouver to Vegas to Miami to Grand Cayman via plane... not bad. (first thing i did when i got into miami was....yes.....listen to "Miami" by will smith...."welcome to miami..." haha)
- Staying 1 day in Grand Cayman was good... walked around, saw some places I have already been (and that was cool...not sure why...), had free internet in the hotel, had 2 for 1 Bud light in a bar/grill at night (hey...its still beer). Only slept 2 hours and woke up to the phone ringing and it was the guy downstairs picking me up....slept in haha...oops!
- Got to the ship, saw James Security/Rob Purser/Stacey Tours from the Pacific Sky...alright! Photo Team is really cool..lots of cool ppl, none of them sane by any means neccessary. 6 photogs left last cruise so the cabins are messed up, therefore i am staying with a videographer on...deck 2....Jesus....what did i do wrong? its only temporary though...photogs live on deck 9 here so thats 5 decks higher than the crown! yay! Had 2nd formal night, during which i was the restaurant photo bitch guy thing.....and 3 tables told me I was the nicest and best photographer they have ever seen on the ships... I have 2 more days on this cruise to find them again and introduce them to a little thing called 'comment cards' haha. now its 12:30am...gonna go grab another drink (seeing as how I just found Scotty from the Crown about 20 min ago...life just gets better and better)... i started singing the ports of call song that we made up on the crown and scotty's buddy said 'oh...now i know who you are'...i guess i am popular haha. tomorrow i have no inductions, no laminex to get off the ship with in cozumel, and nothing on schedule til 4pm... guess who is sleeping in? ME! yay!

Summary: Coral-amazing atrium, amazing crew, amazing stabilizers (we arent moving that much side to side), shit crewbar (come on guys...knock a few walls down), and one really hot new photographer...who just joined today... me! lol

oh oh oh, another good thing...msn in the internet room, PLUS a card reader for pics... i can update all the time with pics now!

Getting Grit here in a few weeks or so... and this will be one helluva ship!

see you all in the next cartoon!

-M-

Ok...Calgary update...and my new ship!

Wow, its been a while? (cracks knuckles, clears throat...)

ok...

I came to Calgary last Thursday... guess that would be a week ago already. I stayed with good buddy Graham from FS (aka. retail hell), and saw most of my friends, which was really really good. I took a 128 block roundtrip walk from Marda Loop up through downtown then up through my old stompin grounds north of downtown , stopping for a bite and a Cherry-Rootbeer shake at Peter's Drive-In, and finally back from whence I came (feet didnt even hurt the next day, so nyah!).

I also heard back from Princess Cruises Head Office saying that I can switch from the Star Princess to the Coral Princess for my next ship so that Grit could get on with me, so I gladly accepted it and immediately called everyone I know shouting with glee (I think I actually did shout the word "Glee"... who does that? I do!) So now that I accepted it, I had to cut my Calgary trip short and make a B-Line for Brooks so I could at least see my dad for the once small now smaller period of time... oh, and about to get smaller...read on...

I get to Brooks yesterday, everything goes perfectly, I set up my Dad's stereo system and all the trimmings in his new place (huge and so nice), and then I get an email from Head Office about my flight details....

Now I leave Oct 28th 7:48pm from Vancouver to Vegas, have a 1 hour stay in Vegas, and then fly to Miami, watch the sunrise and chill for a few hours, and then fly to Grand Cayman Island for noon on Sunday the 29th... good news is I get a full day, night, and overnight alone and unsupervised in Grand Cayman to do whatever the Hell I want (pun intended, click on link). Bad news is now my trip visiting my Dad and Anne (whom i have not seen since January) has gone from a pathetic 5 days, down to 3.5 days, to a soggy and under par 2 days...

(I know I know, most of you are probably thinking "wow, such a rough life you lead Mike...poor world traveller")

Screw Grand Cayman, I want time with my dad...

I think I'll just have to plan a much better visit next time I am back. I am spending a month at home next time, and then Grit and I are gonna find an old VW van and tour Europe for a few weeks (Josh and Graham, are we meeting in Rome or Naples?) :)

ok so... everything is going good, but everything is stressfull and I guess I just gotta make the best of what time I have with my friends and family... which is kinda what we all should be doing anyways...

K, I am gonna go for a run to my dad's work and then run to have lunch with him.... ciao!

love,

-M-

Calgary Trip Possibly this Week!

Hey everyone!

Grit left yesterday for home (Germany) and I got a call today at 4pm saying she made it home safe....her luggage though, is still either in Vancouver or London.... the funny thing is, so is everyone else's luggage from that flight lol. Go British Airways Go! They must have found some Atomic Toothpaste or maybe some Explosive Water....sheesh.

Ok so now the house is VERY empty and boring, but its giving me time to get certain things done, and plan my trip to Calgary! I am thinking of coming this Thursday or so, and maybe spending a few days in Brooks with my Dad, and then Monday or so coming back to Calgary to visit for a few days. Is anything going on in Calgary in the next week or two? Anyone wanting a coffee or a pint O' the good stuff? A few of you I already have spoken to, and some want coffee, some want clubbin, either I am ok with. I just want to BE in Calgary for one. I haven't been there since the first few days of January, so I have quite a few things I have planned for just me walking around alone. I might want to do an Elbow Falls run if anyone is interested. This year was the first Canada Day that I haven't gone to Elbow Falls for sunrise pics in...4 years is it? Correct me if I am wrong for those of you who know lol.

It will be nice to just BE in CowTown. Walking around Chinook Mall, Jogging down Centre St Bridge, Sayin Hi to the gang NorthLand Mall Future Shop, Delivering Pizzas around the University (ok maybe not the last one lol). I probably wont see Calgary for another 6 months to a year because I am heading out back to the ships in November so I gotta make it a good trip :)

Lookin forward to seeing you Calgary!

My last view of Calgary as I was on the plane for White Rock BC in January 06.

-m-

One Less Fear...

I have a fear. Well...HAD a fear. This is going to sound funny. I went swimming tonight with Grit, Hill, and Kaia, and it occured to me that I have never actually DOVE off of a diving board. I have JUMPED off a diving board many times, but I have never done the typical 'head first arms stretched' kinda dive. When asked why not by my sister, my only reply was "I dont really know". I think I was scared at some point in my childhood and then never really had a NEED to dive into water before (funny, I work/live in the middle of the ocean). Anyways, so I kinda chuckled to myself and said "well, I guess a fear is a fear is a fear, so lets get this FIRST dive over with just to get it out of my system"...

so up the diving board I went (its only 2 feet off the water)...

and when I got to the end...

(dare i say this. stop reading now please)...

I froze.

what the hell?!

27 years of NOT diving and now I simply CANT.

Long story short: A lot of time passed, I felt like a total puss and finally did it and (to my own accord) after many attempt I also perfected it...sorta.

Moral of the story: I said it before..A Fear is a fear is a fear.... it doesn't matter what degree it is, it can be overcome.

I have many fears, but what I am slowly finding out in life is that I am growing less afraid to overcome them. Today I overcame a fear, and as silly as it was, it felt so good beating it. I am asking you (yes I am talking to YOU) that the day you read this, whatever day TODAY is for you....TRY to overcome a fear. Even if its something childish like mine was....just go ahead and fight it.

There's a lot of things in life to be afraid of, erase one of them today.

quotes on fear:

"Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed." (har har)
Michael Pritchard

"You don't face your fears, you stand up to them."
Anonymous


"Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared."
Eddie Rickenbacher

and my personal favorite:

"He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses courage loses all."
Cervantes

-m-

A Pirate Looks at his Logo...

Decided that I would throw some color onto my blog, so I started making a logo in photoshop... I found an older photo of me sitting atop a cliff in Banff with my hand in the air (most of you know it as the splash screen on my photography site), and then found a free world map photo online... after that I started thinking it looked somewhat like a treasure map.... and seeing as how I have dressed as a pirate on the ships quite a bit (and will continue for who knows how long) and actually kinda feel like a pirate sailing the seas quite a bit (and will continue for who knows how long)....it kinda fit. So i played some more.... then i wanted fire.... so i played some more....

3 hours go by....and voila.

please let me know what you think. personally, and i dont really like to beep my own horn...

...but beep beep! i REALLY like it :)


"Yes, I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons dont thunder, theres nothin to plunder
Im an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late"

-lyrics from Jimmy Buffet's "A Pirate Looks at Forty"

-m-

Holiday = no brain stimulation = me got no words

Wow, I have stared at the screen for 5 minutes and nothing has entered my mind that is even REMOTELY worth writing down.... I hate being sick...

so...just some random babbling ok? ok:

Victoria was amazing, I will post photos tonight probably. Didnt really do much, got a hotel, went to 'YE OLDE SPAGHETTI FACTORY', had a few pints at Cactus Club, and wandered around aimlessly. While eating dinner (i have to mention this), there was a party of ....50 or so people that came in and sat right beside us...all German Speaking.... Grit's eyes lit up like a cat biting through an extension cord! She didnt talk to them, she only listened. At the time, I thought she should say at least something, but now that I think of it....they were just there eating....just like us... I would find it rude if someone jumped in while we were eating.. (*cough* just like taking photos of people in the restaurants on the cruise ships *cough*) =)

Didnt go to Buchart Gardens. Too expensive. I know I know...I regret it, but hey...40 bucks for us to walk around flowers....yes its beautiful I know, but I can think of at least 5 or 10 places around White Rock that is just as beautiful.....and free!

Last night we rented X-Men 3 and The Lake House. HUGE contrast lol! my mom and Grit wanted the Lake House for its romance, and X-Men 3 just so i can pause it and show them where I am in the movie (yes I am in the movie..check out my blog entry from Decemebr 19th, 2005). I personally didnt care, I just wanted to chillax (love that word). Its the small things in life that I love.... like watching movies with Grit with the subtitles on so she can 'learn' while she watches... in my opinion she understands the movies perfectly, but I can just imagine her checking how words are SPELLED while she watches......foreign women rock haha. Next holiday is in Germany, I'll be doing the same....but with a more spaced out look I imagine.

Today we crossed the border to the states and did some shopping with my mom. Only a few hours, but Grit's passport does now officially proove that she has BEEN to the USA.

Photos for Sale:
I have quite a few people from the US checking out my blog regularily (hi! welcome!). I just wanted to mention a shameless plug for myself to those of you that might not know, and refresh the minds of those who do: if you like any of my photos that you see on www.michaelwachniak.com you may purchase them from myself anytime you want (although it is easier to get a hold of me while I am on holidays, I also sell them when I work on the ships, but I have to wait until turnaround days to send them via snailmail). If you would like to support my work in any way, or have questions about my photos, please email me.

Coming to Calgary:
I am coming to visit Calgary for REAL this time!! Oct 15th or 16th I will be flying out and staying for 2 weeks or so. Anyone wanting to chill/have coffee/ throw something at me/ wander around late at night jumping from building to building/ roadtrips/ all of the above please let me know via email.

thats it methinks...

time for tea. Ciao!

-M-

Doing so little its borderline scary...

Hey everyone, just a quick update as to whats been goin on in the past little while.

NOT MUCH!

Grit has been here with me for about a week now, and we have been living every day to the fullest.... sleeping in til 1pm or so, sitting on the couch with a coffee till about 3pm, maybe make some toast (she loves peanut butter...i swear having her here is like when Drew Barrymore brought ET in the house...everything is NEW and exciting!!). Last week we went out for supper at Semiahmoo beach with some buds from the Crown (Chantel, Sarah (crazy cat lady hahahaha), Sarah (Flamingo Sarah), Kim (vaguely remember her from the crown), and a few others that came along). It was great, had a beer at "Charlie Dont Surf" and a quesadilla and then walked the pier with some Dolce Gelato....damn good stuff... we also went to a birthday party in Vancouver and saw some old friends from the Pacific Sky (Amber and Kristen). Went to a cool place called CHAI on West Broadway...very very amazing atmosphere...so warm. Aside from those things we have basically just been goin for walks and hanging out... its been sooooo good just to do nothing!

TOMORROW, HOWEVER:

We are getting a ride to the ferries and the two of us are heading out (on foot, no car) to Victoria! We're gonna get a hotel and basically continue our "doing nothing" there for a few days....but we are also hitting up a few castles, walks, and *cough* have to mention *cough*....BUCHART GARDENS!!!! I have heard this place is amazing in the fall, so we gotta go....

as for the next contract... probably November i am thinking. We might request the crown again hahaha. its got a good itinerary then because everything changes in november... turnover day is no longer in New York, it goes to San Juan... (damn good place to be!).... plus, who wouldnt love spending Christmas and New Years in the Caribbean??? :)

Until then though, I have 2 more weeks with Grit and then I am off to Calgary to visit....whoever!!! Which, by the way.... anyone have a place I could crash at? hahahaha

See you all in the next Cartoon!

-M-

Grit and I beside the infamous WHITE ROCK, in White Rock BC :)

Kristen, Amber, Grit & I at Chai for Amber's birthday!

Grit striking a pose on the pier.

Bright...Light....Bright...Light....Can't...See....

What would you do if I sang out of tune?

There are many times when I write in my blog that I feel like little Fred Savage from The Wonder Years. When I proof-read (yes i do that...sometimes), when I type it out for the first time, and even when I think of what to write, I always get that 'aw, my baby is growin up' kinda feeling lol...and in a way I am. 27 but still growin up. I will probably have this blog when I am 80 and still be 'growing up'.

Anyways, the point of today's entry is that I found a few quotes from the tv show "The Wonder Years" and some of them really sum up feelings I have had over the past year or maybe even longer, but never really had the words... If you listen close enough, I am sure you can hear Joe Cocker's voice trippin' and scratchin' over the bassline:

"I never knew until that moment what it was like to lose something I never really had."

"Love can tear and rip you apart. It can kill you. But if you’re lucky, it can put you back together."

"Change is never easy. You fight to hold on. You fight to let go."

"In your life you meet people. Some you never think about again. Some you wonder what happened to them. There are some that you wonder if they ever think about you. And then there are some you wish you never had to think about again; but you do."

"All we could do was close our eyes, and wish that the slow song would never end."

the list goes on...

-M-

Another Crew Home Safe...

4:30am. home. 7 hour wait in jfk earlier. hungover (dont mention any alchohol for at least a month or two). miss the ship. miss the friends. already showed my mom the buffalo dvd. already had timmies. goin to bed now.

waking up....whenever i feel like it.

vacation starts...... now.

-m-

Damn Tropical Storm...I am packing!

ok, so no Bermuda on my last cruise... how pissed am I? Today I was supposed to have a full day off in St Thomas, but the new guy Paul (God Rest his soul lol) didnt have a laminex and therefore couldnt not leave the ship, and therefore I had to do his fire course... which really threw off my groove. It was however a great day because i spent the morning putting massive fireballs out with various extinguishers on a hill overlooking the ocean. I am glad that tomorrow is my last formal night (yay!) and I will be home soon, but DAMMIT do i need to have a fucked up Bermuda too?! So instead of seaday, Bermuda, seaday.... its Seaday THRICE!!!!!

(not impressed)...

Hurricane season really chaps my ass...ya know?

oh well.

I am glad that I have to pack now though. Yes i said GLAD to pack. I have never really hated packing, as I think I am used to it by now.

(insert Littlest Hobo theme song right about...... now)

I move. We all move. We all change. Change is good. Change is bad. But Change is necessary. I dont expect to stop anytime soon, I dont think lol.

Things I am looking forward to in the next 2 weeks:

- first bath since May....mmmmm.
- walks with sister Hillory, niece Kaia, and dog(s) Adobe, Reuben, and Ava (mommy doberman and the kids).
- Grit coming to visit sep 22nd. (so happy i just peed a little)
- Moby Dick fish and chips on the beach in White Rock (and the gang from the Crown that lives in Lower Mainland, you are all comin with me... this shit is addictive!)
- chillin with my mom (hey shut up lol)
- planning on my trip to calgary (best time to visit, please email me!)
- planning ANYTHING with my dad.


....but the one that beats them all out for the number 1 spot... (sorry Grit):

Tim Horton's Coffee. XL 2c 3s.

God Bless us, everyone. =)

-M-

Random Pics whilst in BarefootBar in Grand Turk

ducky ducky what?


there, i said it. for those it makes sense to, i love all of you and miss you terribly. for everyone else, wait for the dvd lol.

now for some random pics....


Grit and her best friend on the Star Princess, Natalia... 15.5 more days til i am with her lol


ok...um....this...is....um.... me and maggie, and cruise staff: jacinta and cameron

i....er.....um...

this was the night before the youth staff left last cruise... this is on dvd and i can tell you its amazing lol.....

ok, this is bermuda. aside from that, this pic is just a cool picture.

some of my best friends. they will always be with me.

this is the buffalo crew. where do i begin. buffalo is: drink with your left hand all day except for 1230am-1am then you go to your right. if you get caught in the wrong....you finish your drink. thus, best friends and worst enemies lol.

Re: whats up

This is a reply to an email my dad sent to me and my sister today. Just a basic "how ya doin?", and when i started replying, it almost turned into a blog entry...

so lo and behold:

hey guys!

emailing you both as well :)

things are good! i am proud of myself that i didnt give up and come home after the list in july, but everytime we move (even rocking quite a bit as we speak) my knees give out... its to the point now where i am getting giggles from friends and stuff and thats a good thing because when i was at my worst they really respected my space and helped me where i could... we all get a little queezy at the knees when we roll every now and then... but i am proud to say that none of my friends left because of the list on july 18th. and now also that my contract has been shorted from november to september 12th, i am happy but now also very sad... i have made amazing friends here, i cant even explain it and i wouldnt even try. just know that i have reached plateaus of love and friendship on these ships, this ship especially (aside from my little schatzi who i obviously met on the first ship, Grit lol) that i never thought possible... we have a posse here of about 20 i would say...20 CLOSE friends... some dont reach that in a lifetime, and we've achieved it in less than 4 months... we have laughed we have cried, we have been on every end of the spectrum... and its to the point where i have friends from every area in the world... south africa, poland, hungary, germany, england, usa, mexico, ukraine, scotland, ireland, thailand, phillippenes, canada.... the list goes on... i literally have a home in everyone of these places. love, its infectious. we spread it and it keeps on going.
i cant wait to get home, i cant wait to see Grit, I cant wait to see my family, I cant wait to see my friends again somewhere, i cant wait to get to my bed....
and i cant wait to wake up tomorrow.

love

mike

p.s. its grits birthday today! sent her 6 roses from this ship to hers...saying 'here is 6 now, and there will be 6 more at the airport with me in september' :) awwww

How Come? Just Add Water.

This is going to be simple. This is going to be real.

I am sitting here in the internet room of the crewbar at 4:30am (yay i can sleep til 11am). I just finished a round of toasted prociutto and mozza panini's and chicken salad from the international cafe, on my way back from Skywalkers Bar with Chris (we went up for ONE.... thats an inside joke by the way.) I said my goodnights as we sat down in the corridor and smoked a cigarette (hey...shiplife) and then as i ran my ass up to drop off the dishes, I thought that I am in the perfect state of mind to just ramble on in my blog and hope something of value pops into place (my sincere apologies if i am unsuccessful). I am gone in 2 cruises. plain and simple. i can honestly say that i have no idea what i am going to do until the next ship calls for me.... yes i am doing another ship, but only if Grit and I are together... you have noidea ho hard it is to hold a CROSS-PLANET relationship.... i seriously think parts of me (referring to heart, thank you) no longer work like they used to. these people i meet on the ship: passengers and crew, are some of the most amazing things that have ever happened to me. sometimes i want to strangle BOTH of them, but when it all simmers down and i am at home in my room ON LAND... i will miss them both terribly. I remember only now, how i felt the last time i left a ship. I have made the best friends I will ever meet on these ships (if you were offended by that comment, i still hold you closer to my heart than these ones, and I know you will understand how I am feeling). I strongly feel at this point in time, that at home on land...I am nothing but a passenger. I have seen it with my own eyes. I will be forgotten to the point that only pictures and very strong feelings of the past remain. Life moves too fast here on the ships. One day is a week. One week is a month. One month is a year. (again re-iterating that this is a random rambling). How come it was so hard for me to see the world for 26 years of my life, and yet now all i have to do is press my finger down on a camera and sleep? ya know what i mean? i fall asleep and i am in a different country, and 2 times a week i am in a different time zone. the ship life is so random at every moment, anything could happen and 11 times out of 10 it usually will... i am 27 and i am still growing up. there is no fear here, and yet there is so much (but not what you ever think). things you never want to feel emotionally, whether its about family, friends, life in general... you will feel, every single day. tomorrow also, is the 1st anniversary of Port Canaveral since the list. we all know it. i remember setting up formal night and eating in Horizon Court before it happened. Tomorrow, i am sleeping in, setting up backgrounds, skipping food altogether, and wrapping myself in bubblewrap on by bed until i absolutely have to get up for portraits. to each his own.

i am still here, i am still very much alive (i am not talking about my therapy anymore... this is a general life statement now... probably only the ones who really know me will understand... the rest of you will just simply flood my blog with useless banter and shit...again)

this is just a random entry on a random blog about someone who really is happy with his life. i am struggling every day, and i never know what the next day will bring... even beyond this life. but the thing is I am happy. I am home in 21 days, long enough to enjoy my family aboard, but short enough to enjoy my family on land sooner. my love is coming to me in 1 month and 5 days, that says it all.

i strongly reccommend to everyone who loves LOVE and is not afraid of being afraid, to try working for the ships. everything you need (and i mean really really need) in life is there waiting for you.

all you have to do is just add water... (looks around all sides of the ship) ...

Literally.

-M-

Ok, now we plan!

Alllllllrighty then!

I found out today that sadly Grit is NOT coming to the Crown Princess. The funny thing is that it really did not phase me, because it actually turns out better this way! Its probably too late to extend my contract past September 12th, so if she was coming then i would be leaving right when she got here i bet... also, she can now shorten her contract back to September 28th, and she was checking prices today for flights from London to Vancouver (dammit, the girls always one step ahead of me lol...next time, Gadget!!!). So I have 3 cruises left here on the Mighty Crown Princess (starting tomorrow in New York)... which reminds me: Guess where I am going tomorrow?

- some Youth Security, Photogs, and Cruise Staff are taking the subway from Brooklyn to Manhatten and then from there some are breaking off to Times Square and some are going with me to ....... NBC Studios!! I am going to see the Saturday Night Live studio!!!! and God Dammit, I ain't walkin out of there without a Conan O'Brian Coffee Mug, neither! We are also heading to Rockefeller Center, and perhaps a quick jaunt around Central Park again. i love how i can say AGAIN... What a life...

Oh, one more thing: I am also 90% sure that I am switching away from the Photography department for my next contract(s) (at my own will). I have been thinking about it for some time now and I think that I am much more suitable for Cruise Staff. Cruise Staff are the people on board that host the entertainment/games/dances etc... and dress up as cowboys, 50's era, 70's era...etc..and basically entertain the people throughout the ship. So many people have told me over the past few weeks that they have thought the same thing for me... Cruise Staff is the heart and soul of the ships (in my opinion)... Its a lot of work, but i really do think that if i do one more contract as a photog, i may very well never pick up a camera again... pardon my french, but i am sick and fucking tired of taking Sears type portraits.... if the photos arent spontaneous, they arent me, and those of you that KNOW me.... you know i am right on that one.

so, there we go. Some more stuff to chew on.

See y'all in the next cartoon!

-M-

You don't have to go far...

The title is completely random, so don't read too much into it lol. I have found myself sitting in an internet cafe in Bermuda. Inside the airconditioning is maintaining a steady cool breeze, the radio is playin Joe Cocker, and the occasional gaggle of passengers waddle by me, each holding bags and bags of useless souveniers. Outside however, the weather is sunny but not HOT like you would expect in Bermuda. The sounds of waves crashing alonside the dockyard, and the occasional flock of crewmembers on scooters screeching by can be heard.

I woke up this morning at 8:30 to clean the lab printers up on deck 7 with Chris, Adrian, and Jillian. We finished surprisingly quickly, and so we went up to eat at horizon court (deck 15). Afterwards, Jillian and I went up to entertain Chris as he was getting his hair cut in the spa. A few goofy faces and we were off, but as we left the spa, Leona (spa manager) requested Grit's full name so she could send it to Steiner's head office... hmmmm... perhaps she IS coming!

Oh, by the way... did i mention that I found out 3 days ago my contract has been shortened (yet again) to Sept 12th?

So now, the same guy who was dying to get off the ship only a month ago is now trying his damndest to lengthen his contract... hrmmm...

I smell freshly cut grass.... sorry, but i am inside a mall and i smell freshly cut grass... weird.

ok well, my time is running up here... I just wanted to write something completely random, but also to keep you guys up to date as to whats going on. For all of you 500+ people who have found my blog over the past 3 days (you know who you are, and why): if you are coming onto the Crown sometime soon, stop by the gallery and say Hi ok? and let us take your pictures even if you dont buy them lol even if you dont want to, if you have the time then do it, cause it helps us a lot :) we ARE talented you know :) we arent just retards with cameras...

well, not ALL of us.

-M-

Update with pics, and I am in San Juan

I know i havent written a lot lately, and I know i have much to say.... but really .... i just want to update the blog with photos. I am still hanging in there... i am still suffering occasionally from the listing, i crumbled to the ground yesterday out of nowhere because we listed just as we left Grand Turk...it was pathetic, but shit happens, and i wasnt the only one. i still hang out in the crew bar. I have NOW been given the OK from the spa manager for Grit to come here BUT we are waiting on Steiner to email everyone to find out when... I think my contract has been shortened to sept 10th but i am lengthening it to stay a while, for me & Grit and also so i can stay home for Christmas. Grit and I are still steady and strong, she saw her mom today in Germany for the first time in 6 months, i am so happy for her! Chris, myself, Rory and Cameron still sing every once in a while in the crew bar and we always get a crowd of about 40 or so singing to tunes we write, its such a feeling of pride. I bought a G Blues Harmonica in St. Thomas. I now have a "Jummy Buffet's Margaritaville" shirt. i STILL wear my happy face necklace. and I still miss everyone.

But this is my life. and i wouldnt change it for the world. i will see everyone again. everyone. and we will share stories. and we will laugh. and we will cry. but we'll be there together.

john lennon IMAGINE memorial in central park.

the beach party held by the bar staff a few weeks ago. we had to limbo just to get in hahaha

White Light

Ok everyone, I need some serious White Light here. I was in the gallery today and 4 Steiners at different times all came up to me and said "Did anyone get a hold of you about your girlfriend coming here?"

....what?....

I have been asking around DAILY with everyone I could to see if there was any way to get Grit trans-shipped here to the Crown from the Star, and with no luck....

...until today...

Apparantly the spa manager here said that if Grit emails Steiner Head Office and requests the Crown again, the spa manager will request her to come here, and the only remaining factor is that Grit will have to pay her way here...

...not a factor... signed sealed delivered.

So i just called Grit and woke her up in her cabin..woops.. oh well its 6am there. The satelite was screwy so she got all my information that i had spewed to her, but i couldnt hear what she was saying, so up to the internet room i went to email her the goodies...

...now its a waiting game...


white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light Grit & I white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light white light

its really the only solution/therapy that I can think of at the moment.

Listing sucks.

-M-

Imagine...with my own eyes.

Well... we got to New York just fine, no problems (other than my problem sleeping, which seems to be fading).

I had a day off today, and Chris Jenny and I went hellbound all over manhatten....

we saw:

1) world trade center site... its jaw droppingly big, and empty... it just makes you feel so small, especially when you see the surrounding buildings and how big they are and then look at the photos posted everywhere of the twin towers, and how they stand 4 to 5 times larger, if not more. i saw the cross (the 2 welded i-beams with the names of all who perished)...i cant express the feeling that gave me, but what really hit home were the painted signs along the fence that said "post no bills" in white... all over these signs were little messages written in memorial... and one particular message along the "N" in "NO" was this:

"I miss you Dad"

tears rolled. I think it was the DAD part.... DADDY is something you usually see when it comes to situations like this, and its a little child... but DAD. I got this sensation of a full grown man writing about his father, maybe an office worker or something... i dont know, i am probably not making much sense but it really pinned the emotion for me. quite an experience to see it with my own eyes.

2: central park: oh my god i can die now. today i actually walked through "Strawberry Fields" (beatles lovers) and saw the 'Imagine' John Lennon memorial with my own eyes. After that we walked to the giant fountain (the most recent thing i can think of is in the movie 'the producers' where matthew broderick and nathan lane have the singalong in front of a big fountain... well i have seen it, with my own eyes). then we got caught in a terrential rain shower and NO cover.... after about 2 minutes of being raped by raindrops we finally said Fuck It and danced around... of course, 2 minutes later we grabbed a carriage (not horse drawn) and went back to the subway.

3: Times Square: i have seen this a few times before now (with my own eyes), but it always pleases me. so much aggressive advertising, so little money to give a shit. c'est la vie!

and now, back on the ship... we already have passengers on board, and instead of our typical 9 day cruise, we are on a 7 day 'recovery' cruise: sea day, seaday, grand turk, seaday, bermuda, seaday, seaday.

rivotting, isnt it? :

2800 passengers, 1200 crew, terrential rain...

but the statue of liberty is, at this very moment, giving a wave to me through the starboard side window (or LISTING side, as i like to call it)....

ok, its work time... i have filled you in enough. anti-climactic i know, but hey... i did a lot today. brain doesnt have to work 24/7.... if it did, there would be no time to imagine, would there?

-M-

...Ghost Ship...

hello all. just a recap finally as to what happened a few days ago. it is now 430pm july 20th and we have now been ok'd by US coast guard to hobble up to new york. we are actually JUST leaving right now, and there are some seriously 'different' vibrations to the ship as we are going, of course i am making small jokes with the shoppie Kim on the computer next to me, but we both kinda have this look in our eyes.... we do now have Crisis councellors on board for the crew as of today, and yours truly is making his way down after this. everytime i close my eyes at night, i get phantom 'listing' or 'leaning' and my heart starts to pound. we were told the night of the incident that if we listed 5-10 degrees more, we would have capsized.... this is NOT a fact, but its not something you need to hear.

there are only crew members on this ship... what was once a floating majestic hotel of close to 5000 aboard, is now a hobbling, ghost town of 1200. it is in fact a ghost ship.

on the bright side, all 8 crew members who were treated ashore have now joined the ship and are doing well. all passengers treated ashore (i dont know the numbers, but its 100-200) have all been let go from the hospital except for 2, but we have confirmation that neither one of them are in critical condition. You have no idea how bad this was, but NOBODY has any idea how bad it could have been either.... everyone is ok.

I have decided that I am not going home. I am, however making a request to transfer to the Star Princess (Grit's ship) tonight. I figure that leaving one ship that almost tipped over, and joining another ship that had 4 decks burnt to a crisp only 4 months ago... makes sense eh? Grit and I have been speaking about this and she said that she has been talking with the photomanager since the 'incident' here on the crown... the manager said that he was putting in a request for me. lets hope he sticks with it.

i have 2 internet cards now, and 1 phone card so i can contact everyone soon... that was the only thing holding me up before, crew office was closed (no internet cards) and phone cards were sold out..

see you all in the next cartoon! (not leaning to one side)

-m-

Damage Everywhere PLEASE READ ME

ok people, this is a serious post. I am 100% ok, I just want to tell everyone that. The Crown Princess today, at approximately 4pm just coming out of Port Canaveral Florida leaned about 15 degrees to one side and shit hit the fan. The clinic looks like a war infirmery, literally millions of dollars in damage has occured.... floods from busted pipes, marble tables smashed in millions of pieces, people were thrown around, pools on deck 15 emptied onto the surrounding deck... this is serious shit. our whole team is ok, adn there are smiles now finally... everyone is still in shock though... we are back in port canaveral and i think we will be wet docked here for a few days... i will be in touch with everyone soon, i am ok.... it was the freakiest thing that has ever happened to me.....i saw people flying past me and things smashing and screaming everywhere... i dont think we will be sent home, but literally 30% of the ship or more is a complete write off...

the spa.... oh Thank Christ Grit wasn't here with me for that.... people were smashing up along windows and massage beds were flying everywhere...

a $50,000 grand piano in the Princess Theatre literally went THROUGH a wall....

and on top of that... its Formal Night.

I hate Formal Nights...

all is well with me once again everyone... stick by the phones tonight, i have stories :)

and a SHITLOAD of pictures...

-M-

Sweepin', Cool Bob, Margaritaville, and everything else in between...

Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Day off. Chillin' out at an outdoor internet cafe with a Red Stripe Lager. Clouds in the sky. Very Humid. Margaritaville meal still sittin uneasy-like in my stomache. Out of breathe from chasing after some customers to return a bag they left on the table next to me. Smiling at the sight of homeless people cleaning the streets with brooms and picking up garbage, while asking for money, rather than sittin 'round expecting change to fall from the sky. Probably the only way to keep the streets clean, the rest of the world should do the same. Everything in their path that they find while cleaning is theirs. Finders Keepers. Sippin' the lager again. Cringing at passengers that just do not know when to stop eating. All you can eat buffet on ship, and then 'lets go ashore and have a quick bite'. More Lager. Thinkin about 'Cool Bob' and all the other locals askin' me and Chris if we want 'smoke'. Jamaica. ya man. but no man. Thinkin about the crew disco last night. "White Night" sponsered by the Pursers Department. Wear only white. Photogs in Togas. Mike in White Pirate Pants and bedsheet around his neck like an aviator scarf, hair Ace Ventura'd and sunnies. We won. Go Team. Scotiabank next to me. Odd to see in jamaica. Rastafarian on other side. Thats better. Thinkin about what cool thing to buy here.

Should go now, runnin out of things to say lol. When I weed through the 300+ photos takin from the disco last night, I will throw a couple on. Theres a video round here somewhere too .... should be interesting :)

Tomorrow is Grand Cayman, then Seaday, then Port Canaveral FLorida, then seaday... and THEN (pray to the universe) I get a chance to FiNALLY take on New York...bloody hell.

Calgarians who went to Our Lady Peace at the Stampede (Ben you MUST have)...fill me in... everyone here are not fans... but i will throw in a little "4am" when we jam in the crewbar... they dont seem to mind too much, but its usually just a solo-effort :)

p.s. Blood on the moon the other day, hope everyone is doin good.

Namaste

-M-

July 6th, in San Juan, Random Photos thus far...

This is the crew bar. This is my birthday. This is my Birthday Cake hat.

The Crown Princess in Grand Turk... so majestic.

This is the Piazza in the Crown Princess. I still rub my eyes everytime I pass it to make sure I am really seeing what I am seeing. The entire ship looks like this. Its quite humbling.

This is the gang. I can name all of them, but really...all they are is strangers to anyone who sees this lol so hey... friends and family, this is my team... my team, these are my friends and family. There. You all know one another.

Martha Stewart at the Christening of the Crown Princess. She dropped the bottle, it broke. Its a good thing. :P

100 People: Deep Blog Entry in Progress...

This entire entry probably won't come out the way I originally planned it to... I have been toying with this entry in my mind since April on the Pacific Sky when I was in SouthEast Asia. I thought about it during one of my meditation moments (dont picture me droning hums sitting cross-legged with incense burning. My meditation moments are usually any moments where I get a chance to breathe during the day). You will really have to go with me on this one, as it may not really make any sense, but in any case its something worth trying whenever you have a spare moment or two:

Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Sit somewhere that you won't be bothered, much like that of a meditation area. Take a few minutes to breathe, maybe toss on a tune or two, and begin to write down the names of 100 people you know. Randomly, just quick people off the top of your head, list 100 people you have known during your entire life. Friends, enemies, lovers, employers, friends of friends, mailmen, teachers, it doesnt matter. If you have met them and know them well enough, throw them onto the list. Everyone technically knows thousands of people in their lifetimes so it really isnt that hard when you think of it, you just have to be without prejudice (if a name comes up, throw it on regardless of why)....

now, take a look at it.

Repeat this somewhere down the road, be it a week, a month, a year, or even just a different state of mind....

Did new people get onto the 2nd list? Why?
Did people from the 1st list get removed? Why?

It sounds kinda lame maybe at first, but really... as random as your list may be, there are reasons as to why everyone is on there... and the same person that added people onto the first list, has forgotten them on the second... Oh sure, when you get to 75 people I am sure there actually is a fight as to think of who goes on the list... but what if someone in the top half of the first list didnt even make it to the top OR bottom of the 2nd?

Try it twice in one week.... notice the changes if any... now imagine 2 lists one year apart. Two years apart. Ten Years apart. I bet over 60% of the list will remain the same forever, while the other 40% is fizzled away with people that are in our lives one day, and out of our minds the next.

....

I brought this up now because I have noticed something. A photographer here quit 2 days ago, one more is leaving in 6 days, one more is leaving to another ship probably in 6 days as well... we're dropping like flies, all for unrelated reasons mind you... People come and go in our lives, its a fact of life. I have met so many new friends at this job. We have laughed, cried, shared so many of our intimate and darkest secrets. But time goes on. Friends do drift further away, maybe not all the way, but sometimes it does happen. Its nice when we get the ones that stay in the top half. Likewise, the ones that leave the list have at one point touched our hearts in some way... but... (and this is going even deeper now).... would the list be any different than it is now if we didnt ever know them? Even though they are now no longer on it?

****

Anyways, that was my deep topic for the day. Nothing really ship related, but I am well, happy, and content otherwise. Things are good here :)

See you all in the next cartoon!

-M-