My last 3 days on the Carnival Spirit.

Well... it’s 4:09 am right now, on the day I leave as I write this and I have to catch up the last 4 days!
Manzanillo day, I woke up at 1:45 and went up to eat on lido. I worked on more 3d generated pictures and didn’t do a whole lot else until my gig. The first part of my gig was on lido for an hour. It was an OK crowd... but nothing to get me excited about. As I was leaving, a waiter offered me 30 dollars to copy all my tabs onto his external hard drive, which I agreed too. Really.. it’s just a matter of grabbing the files and moving them over. Took like 3 seconds, and it was an easy buck.
When I was at dinner, Noochie came over and talked with me for a little bit, and gave me her flash drive and she asked me for some of my pictures. So I spent the time in my room doing all that until I had to play at 9. The group of guys that were there the night before were waiting for me. So, I kicked it off with rock song after rock song, and kept it going until 12... and then it died. It was very busy though for most of it and the guys were very active.
After the gig, and I got some food in the staff mess and sat with Jess and Pat and talked about various things.. Came back to my room and was up for awhile before falling asleep.

Next day, I got up at around 12, and I just browsed the internet until I was hungry. Then I went up on lido for my last good meal, and chowed down. Came back to my room and watched some family guy, and packed a lot of my stuff. I managed to get a lot of it put away. But couldn’t really finish the process until the next day.
I had an orientation about signing off to go to, so I went to that at 3:30. They collected my VISA and gave me my medical papers back, and we went over the whole process. I would collect my last pay the next day, and I had to fill out a couple forms. As the meeting was over, I asked the MSA guys if they knew anything about my ticket. So I went to their office and they had one for me. Unfortunately it had me leaving at 10:40 at night and I wouldn’t arrive in Baltimore until 9:12 am the next day. I was willing to accept that, but then I looked at the luggage prices, and it would have cost me 340 dollars to get all my luggage home. So I went on Southwest.com and looked to see if I could find a better deal. Sure enough, I got a ticket and baggage cover for 260 dollars. And I get to fly out at 2.. and be at the airport by 11 pm.
I went to dinner and Marcus sat with me. He told me he loved the album, but really felt I should write more songs like Where to Begin. He loved that style.
I got to my gig at 8 pm, and played to a relatively quiet crowd. But by the end of my first break.. 9:30, it was slammed again and I sang straight til 12. It was hard to want to leave, because it was just such a good time. I got 100 dollars in tips, and it was just a rocking time. Eventually everyone just got up and quickly ran to the comedian at 12. So I finished up early and went down to the crew mess and got a quick bite to eat.
I came back to my room and put on Die Hard 2 and continued packing. Noochie called about picking up her flashdrive, so she came over and we talked for a few minutes, and then she left and I finished up the movie and fell asleep.

Today I got up at 11. I got online and checked all that stuff. Then I took a shower and got some lunch. I packed some more things like my razor. I called Felicia for a few minutes and then after that, did more internet stuff. Around 2, Jessica called and asked if I was ready to do my Contract Review. So I went over, and she told me I did an excellent job and I get a perfect score, and anytime I want to come out, ask for her and she’ll find a way for me to work for her.
At 4, I collected my last pay, which ended up being more than I anticipated by a couple hundred dollars. So that was nice. I donated some stuff to the CTC, and went to dinner. I sat with Peter and Randy and talked about my arrangements. Then I came back to my room and got ready to work.
I went up to restring my guitar at 7:30. I played 8-9 and took a break. At 9:30 I played for a small crowd until 10:30, then I took a break. I sat and talked with Casey for a bit. Apparently she has a thing for me. So.. At least I know I can make attractive 27 year olds like me.
At 11, I got up to play again, and it got slammed again and I played until 1:10, with encore after encore. I made another 140 dollars in tips. Many people came up to me and told me I was the best entertainment on the ship. Some people were surprised about how I could sing so hard for so long multiple days in a row. Towards the end of the night, Thom (keyboard player for high rise) and the guitar player came out and watched. He came up after the show and said he was so amazed at how I sang the rock songs like rock songs but with an acoustic guitar, and he gave me kudos.
I packed up everything, and sold my digitech harmonizer. I gave Lewis my laptop stand, since I wouldn’t need it for awhile. Lewis and Elizabeth wished me good luck. I broke down everything, and went down to drop the stuff off in my room. When I got to the door, there was a letter on the handle. It read:

“Hi Stu,

As Derek is signing off tomorrow I just wanted to say once again what a pleasure it has been having him as the entertainment in the casino for the past five months.

He has a huge selection of songs and tailors what he plays depending on the crowd in the casino, changing his playlist to suit the age of the guests at the bar or how busy the casino is. He has also been extremely cooperative with the casino department, which is so important on this class of ship where the singer is located inside the casino. His music is never too loud or invasive, which is often a problem with this set up.

I would appreciate if you would pass along my comments to his supervisor in the office so they know what a great job he has done and hopefully we will see him back out on another ship once he finishes college.

He will be greatly missed by all of us in the casino.

Best Regards,
Gareth
“

Gareth is the Casino Manager. So that was a pretty awesome email to receive. It’s being sent to corporate, and Jessica thought I should see it.
I went to the crew bar, and saw Claire. She told me she left me a message on my phone to come down and say goodbye to her. So I sat and talked with her until I felt I needed to say good bye to the rest of the dealers. So I went up and said goodbye to everyone. A few told me they would come down and buy my cd before I left.
I came downstairs and called Claire, and asked if she would mail the remainder of my CDs home, which she said she would.
I dropped them off in her room and said my goodbyes and came back to my room to get a phone call from those individuals of the casino, and they wanted 3 cds signed. So I opened up three and signed them, and they came buy and picked them up.
I took a shower then, and then packed up the rest of my junk, and here I am.. 4:47... One hour and 13 minutes, and the moving out process begins... Next time I update, I should be home. But I will say this.. it feels so surreal that I’m leaving. I’m really going to miss it out here. Miss my friends and the great times I’ve had. This place was my home for nearly 6 months.. and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. If I can’t get any band stuff going on land, I would easily come back out here because it really is a great job. I loved it and I’m going to miss it.

So... that’s it for the cruise adventures on the Carnival Spirit! I’ll do a follow up update, after I get a few days away from the ship. But I want this blog only to reflect my cruise ship experience.. So I won’t be updating much after the next couple entires.

Another busy night.

Well tonight was definitely slow starting. It seemed like a totally different cruise. Towards the end of my first set, Casie and Amy came and watched me play. On break I talked with Casie while Amy gambled in the casino. After about a half hour, I saw my Gyseppi (spelling is off terribly), and he gave me the other 400 dollars for the 12 string guitar. So now I’m all paid off. That money will be put into food lion gift cards for myself. That way I can’t spend it on stuff I don’t need, and I’ll have 3 months of food money. When I got up to play more, within 10 minutes my bar was slammed busy and everyone was singing along and screaming. I felt famous again! So I played 3 hours straight. Then I ended. It was rather funny, because I saw a guy hitting on Casie, and I didn’t know what she was like when she likes or dislikes someone, or shows interest in someone, but a guy sat beside her and ordered a drink, and tried some small talk to her. She answered... but then turned her back to him to limit the conversation. She’s very talkative to me.. So I guess she doesn’t dislike me.
After I finished, I went down to get some food and sat with Stu, and Pat. Randy joined, and the keyboardist from High Rise did. Then the rest of the band.. and our boss, Jess joined. I talked with the keyboardist about recording and school and such. He seemed very interested in all the stuff I had going.
On my way back to my room, I saw Pat talking with Jess, so I joined the little convo. Then talked with her about my plane ticket, in which there is no word yet when I’m leaving. But she said she’d let me know by Monday night, or ask them.
Now I’m in my room. Tired... worn out. Got work 4:45 and 9. I’m afraid a lot of the same people will be back, and I’ll be out of popular songs to listen too, since I played 80% of them last night. Oh well!

New Years!

New Years dinner was pretty freaking awesome, if I do say so myself. I got there at 5:55, which is usually the best time to show up, because they open at 6, but that way you beat the lines. And boy am I ever glad I did that on this day. They had shrimp, crab cakes, filet mignon, and some other wonderful delicious things.
Claire came and sat with me, and then we were visited by Sarah. Though at first I was a little bummed. A little less than an hour before that, I had gotten an email from my ex-girlfriend, Mary. It had been about 6 months since we talked and since our relationship kind of flurried out into nothing. She apologized and wished me well. I wrote her back a non-fighting email, and just left it at that. But honestly.. I’d prefer never to hear from her again. Leave that in the past.. Chances are I’ll never run into her again, unless for some reason I’m in Nashville and she happens to be at a show. But honestly, I think she’d avoid that, so I wouldn’t have any problems with that.
So dinner got my spirits high again, and before I left, I saw my boss, Jessica who said she had no word yet on when I’m flying out, and that I probably won’t know until Monday or Tuesday... which kind of blows, just because I’d like to let my dad know ahead of time. I asked her about dress code tonight, and of course no one told us earlier, but it was formal. So.. I had 20 minutes to shower and get dressed in my suit and be up on deck to string up my guitar.
Sure enough I was ready by then. I strung up my guitar. Casie, and Amy came by and watched a bit. The crowd was OK... but nothing ecstatic like I was told it would be. I played through until about 11:40. I then took a break and went into the atrium where it was slammed busy, and the jazz band was playing. Then I went up on lido. When I got up there, my God, it was slammed busy. The band High Rise was playing and everyone was dancing and going crazy. Casie and Amy saw me immediately and pulled me over to dance until count down. Amy was pretty drunk. She was dancing with a 11 year old... I’m sure he felt like a lucky son of a @#%#@$. She’s a real pretty girl. Anyways, Weasley (assistant Cruise Director) got on the mic and got everyone up and excited. It felt like I was Time Square or something. People were standing all over the place.
The countdown was loud as hell, and everyone gave each other kisses. After which, I had to run back down to the casino to play again.
When I got down there, all the casino dealers and workers were walking around giving each other hugs, and kisses. I shook hands, gave hugs, and gave cheek kisses to a bunch of them. Really just a great group.
I got up on stage ready to play for an audience of 0. So I played a song, and when nobody showed up, I broke down and packed up.
I then went back up on lido and ran into Tagger. He told me he listened to my CD and loved it, and said I inspired him to really take the guitar seriously and just do it.
I ran into Clair and Sara and they wanted me to come down to the crew party. So we did. I saw Sopemla, Noochie, Nina, and many others. I didn’t stick around too much. I was pretty tired. So I went to my room and went to bed.

The next day, I woke up at 1:34. I went and got some food up on lido, and decided to just get online for the day. So I talked with Felicia for the majority of it, as I downloaded an update to a program of mine. I did a lot of stuff like that for probably 6 hours. Then I went to dinner for a quick bowl of cereal and went back to my room and watched some of the Office, and packed some more stuff. I hit the sack around 2.
This morning I woke up at 11:30 to a phone call from Noochie. She apologized for not being able to hang out this week, which really at this point is fine.. I’m more focused on going home. So I told her no worries. I then got up and worked on some 3d photos of some scenery things. Did a little internet, and watched more of the office. I then went to dinner and talked with Sara for a bit until I went to take a shower. Now I’m anticipating work. 4 gigs left.. Less than 4 days left!!

3 Sea days with a Port Manning San Diego Day...

I know, it’s been awhile since the last update. But so little has happened that I can probably sum up the last 4 days in a page or two. The 3rd sea day was just a quiet day for me. I got up around 11, and watched movies, called my dad and apologized for not calling on Christmas for it was out of my power, and didn’t do much until the night. When I got to playing, it started off slow. Then it grew to be about 100 people at my bar screaming, dancing, singing along with me, girls screaming they loved me, and just having a great time. Unfortunately, because there were so many people from 10 o clock on, I didn’t stop to break, so I ended up playing 3 and a half hours straight.
I went to bed after so that I could rest my voice up. The next morning my voice was slightly sore, but not unusable, and it didn’t feel like I would have troubles that night. The day was quiet, and not much went on until the show. It never got as busy as the night before, but it was still active enough to keep me singing late. I went to bed soon after because the next day was San Diego day... even though I can’t get off, I can still make some phone calls.

So I woke up 8:45 and went up on deck two and called Nick, who got a promotion at work. So that’s great news. Then I called Dad, and talked to him for a bit. Christmas at home was good from what I hear. Everyone liked the calendars I had made from what I hear. I did a lot of browsing on the internet. I called Felicia and talked to her for a bit. In the middle of the conversation, I had remembered a song I had heard on CSI: NY when Train was performing on it, and the lead singer was a suspect. The song’s called “Hey, Soul Sister”. I had lunch with my boss, Jessica, Pat and Randy. Pat left soon after I got there, but then Jess, Randy and I had a big talk about working musicians on cruise ships and our reasons for wanting 4 hours over 5. So, Jessica said that we need to start clocking in every time we practice, look for music, setting up, boat drills and everything else. I suggested we get a sheet together for each person and write down exactly what we’re doing during those clock-ins so it doesn’t look like we’re just inflating hours. She said she had thought of that but was afraid we’d think it was too much. If the cause can possibly get us down to 4 hours again, then it’d be worth it. 4 hours is a lot more doable that 5.
Boat drill was the same ol’ routine, but it is my last drill which is very exciting! At our meeting, we had a powwow over things we liked and didn’t like on the ship. Then I went to my room and relaxed until I went to set up at 7. Within’ a few minutes my bar was busy and the casino was slammed. A couple girls sat in front of me and watched. Then a couple guys sat beside them. One of the guys yelled out I was really awesome. Then one of the girls told him to tell me I was cute too. Then I said over the mic.. it might be less gay if she just said it. That got the laughs going. I found out the girls’ names were Kasie (or Casie) and Amy. The guy that yelled out I was awesome was from Colorado. His name was Tag (short for Tagger.)
Amy bought a CD. She was pretty drunk. Kasie wasn’t as drunk as her by far. But I went and talked to them for a bit. They said they were going to the disco, after I finished, so I suggested that Amy “doesn’t fall down”. Then she turned around and said I was kind of a smart ass and she didn’t know if she liked that, and Casie said she really likes that. Then they left, and I went to eat in the staff mess and sat with Sopemla.
Afterwards, I went to my room to sleep!

The next day, I woke up at 1:40. I didn’t set any alarms so I could get exactly what sleep I needed, which was great because I didn’t feel tired at all, all day. I went up to eat on lido deck at 2. I got a phone card to exchange an order at Musiciansfriend. I had ordered a keyboard from them, but it wasn’t going to be in stock until after I went to college, so I called to exchange it for a bigger keyboard. The guy was real cool. He lowered the price by 10% and gave me free 2 day shipping. So that went well.
I must mention that I listened to “Hey, Soul Sister” 55 times since I’ve gotten it. I learned to play it yesterday. Took a couple hours to get down and comfortable with it (and for sure, I clocked in.) Apparently that song is on the radio or something, because a lot of people seem to know it.
I played that night for a bunch of people again, and Casie and Amy showed up about ten minutes before my break. On my way to talk to them, 4 people from San Diego asked me why I’m not playing in CA. They said I could easily sustain myself with gigs out here because I have so many songs and am such a good performer. I told them it’d have to be more of a guarantee of gigs, then just a few every once in awhile.
So I talked to the girls about last night. Amy didn’t seem to remember a lot of went down, which I predicted yesterday. I told her about the smart ass comment and the girls laughed. Casie went on to tell me she liked that because she always judges guys on how they react to Amy, and I guess I passed some sort of test? But regardless, I found out that Amy is an xray tech, and Casie waits tables... BUT she does have a couple degrees and a masters. She just can’t decide what she wants to do. Oh and the girls are 27, and 28.
I finished up around 12:15 last night. Which I needed to rest my voice because it was very sore. So I came back to my room and watched some family guy and was searching the internet. I did a Google search on myself to see if anything I didn’t know about had transpired with my music, and sure enough 24 pages in, I found a Yahoo question of someone asking what the music was on the Frank Frost Photography commercial. The lyrics are “You got your hair pulled back and a book in your hand.” Someone posted the answer “Where to Begin” by Derek Daisey. Which was neat all the same. THEN, I did more searching and apparently there were a few people looking for it. So I found the site for the company, and sure enough, my song was the main song playing on the site. So I thought that was interesting! And exciting. I also pray that I’m getting royalties on that song. It would be a nice surprise to get some come January from ASCAP and Pump Audio.
So I went to bed after... And I slept like crap. So bad, that I woke up at 9:30... and that’s really early. But I kept tossing and turning... So.. I decided to write this. So, now I’m caught up. 6 more days and I’m free! Looking forward to getting home.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas

Christmas morning, I got up at about 9:20 to a phone call from Noochie. She asked me to meet her outside of the crew mess with her two friends at 10. So I got my batteries and put them in my camera and put on some sun screen and made my way to the waiting area. I was first in line to wait for a tender, but naturally no one is ever on time, so when the 10 people behind me showed up, I let them ahead to get on the tender.
As they left, Noochie showed up. Then we waited for her friends, who took another 15 minutes. Once they showed up, we took the tender into Ixtapa.
Once set foot on land, we got a taxi to a beautiful beach. Once we got there, we found a restaurant to eat at. We ordered some guacamole, fish, shrimp.
Then we rode on a sailboat for an hour around the water. It was absolutely gorgeous.
Afterwards, we came back to the ship, and I went to call my family for Christmas... And of course... of all the days, the phones were down... and won’t be fixed until at least the next day. So I got online and talked with Felicia.
I went to dinner soon after, which had a fancy set up, much like thanks giving. Though the food wasn’t as good, there was fried shrimp, and free wine, and soft drinks. As I was eating, Aaron came and sat with me. Then Kerry, then Clair, and then Rebecca (a singer from Raleigh, NC.) I’ve seen her a bit but never really talked to her. She was pretty cool. So I talked with everyone until about 7:30. Then I ran quickly to get strings and restring my guitar.
I played as many known songs as I could, but unfortunately.. no one sat at the bar. I know a lot of people were interested because I heard claps all over the casino and lots of the people giving me thumbs up. Just no straight bar sitters.
I finished up around 12 and decided to go to the christmas party. I wasn’t going too but since the phones weren’t working, I figured, I might as well get some good food. I was the second person to arrive. So I waited for some people. Eventually all the entertainment staff showed up and it ended up being a good time. I got some sushi and stuff. Very delicious. At one point during the night, Stu brought my CD with him, and he made the announcement that I had had one, and that it was awesome, and he played it. Lots of people were rather shocked. I guess not many people knew what I was capable of. So lots of people told me they wanted to buy it before I leave.
While I was sitting and talking with Sara and Claire, Claire told me Sara asked her secret santa to get her a Derek Daisey CD, which I thought was neat. The person got her a book... But still.
After the party, which I will admit was fun, and I’m glad I went, I came to my room and went to bed.

9 am, I woke up and went up to get a hair cut. Rebecca, another girl by the same name, was there waiting for me. She was in my SCC class. As she was cutting it, she was trying to get rid of all the blotched blonde in my hair. She asked if she could recolor it darker a little later in the day, so she cut it and got it really thin for me. I’m very pleased this time around. I got to play at 4:45 to 5:45... So, until then!!

Christmas Eve.. Alone..

Last night was better than the last couple days. People seemed to care I was there. And I got a bit of requests. I managed to do “Best of You” by the Foo Fighters... which was hard... and it hurt. I’ll probably play it one more time next week. Stu came by around 11 and watched and talked with some people. He talked about my album a lot hinting if they tipped 10 dollars, they could get one for free (at least he’s trying to help me out.)
After my gig, I went to get some yogurt, and I sat with Sopemla. She asked me about my siblings and what they’re doing for christmas. She told me about hers. Then she went to call them for Christmas. I went to my room and got ready to lay down and I got a phone call from Noochie. She asked how I was and wanted to know if I wanted to come along with her and a couple friends to Ixtapa. I said sure, since I hadn’t step foot there and most people tell me it’s the best of the three ports. So we talked about her job and mine and all that. She had a headache but she said she wish we talked more when class started versus the end of class. Which, we really didn’t start talking until the last week because that’s when I really started noticing her fall asleep in class. After we hung up, I watched the Bucketlist and went to bed.

Today, I got up at around 11. On my own. That’s pretty early for me. So I sat up and checked the internet stuff. Then I got dressed and ready and went out for lunch. I was pretty determined to not be hassled by taxi drivers so I walked intently through them ignoring most of them. A couple were quite abrasive. I just kept going. But the guy, Epi, who took me to the flea market a couple weeks ago caught up, and even though I said I knew where I was going, and I only had enough money for lunch, he walked along anyways... and sat at my table...and ordered a beer on my tab... And expected a tip for coming along. Which was kind of annoying because I made it relatively clear I didn’t need any help. I gotta say I’m quite happy I’m leaving Mexico... It’s just too abrasive for me.. And I don’t like the fact the most places don’t have set prices. Everything is designed to be haggled for... and I hate that crap.
So I came back to the ship, and and started playing Civilization 4.... and I pretty much played that, and went to a small dinner, and came back and played more and more and more... until 12 am. So roughly 8 hours of the game. It sucks you in like you wouldn’t believe. But after I beat my game, I won’t want to play it anymore.
I went to get some yogurt and came back to my room... And that’s about all that’s going on.Gotta wait on Noochie’s call tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s Christmas! So Merry Christmas! This will be my first away from my family.. but I guess I should get used to that. Especially if I’m going to be a rock star. ;-)

My Last San Diego Day... and two more sea days

San Diego day was about as eventful as last weeks. I got up early and got showered and dressed to go into town. I lifted my very heavy boxes and took them to the crew bar as I waited for the others that were leaving. After a few minutes, Glenn showed, a couple other guys, and Marcus. I gave Marcus a CD to listen to and show around to people in San Francisco. Never know when I need to find my way over there. He told us we didn’t have to wait in the crew bar, so he walked us up right outside the gate. He explained they really only have us go in the crew bar to get our passports. But American’s get to hold their passports, so there’s no point in waiting.
I balanced the boxes on top of a poll against the wall. I waited. Marcus offered to hold one of the boxes for me as we were getting off, so I handed it to him. Unfortunately they asked for people only shipping stuff to come forward first, so I had to take the very heavy box back. But I was first in line for xray, so I went by really fast, and found myself a taxi. As I was about to get in, I heard someone yell my name, and I saw Kelly with Leah as they were coming out of the terminal. I waved, and got in the car, and took the ride to the UPS store.
When I got in, I plopped the boxes on the counter, and they were weighed and re-taped a bit. But it only cost 95 dollars to ship everything. Significantly less than shipping the 491 dollars worth of stuff last week.
I got my phone out to call Nick, who didn’t answer, so I called my dad and talked to him for a bit about christmas. He received my guitars safe, and my other stuff, so that was good to hear. Unfortunately, the transmission in the explorer went out again (which proves Ford just sucks at making vehicles,) so that makes christmas a little tight. Not a lot of room to get the girls in the other truck and stuff. Hopefully they can get it fixed soon.
After I talked to him, Nick called back we talked. Talked about the band thing, and how him working at this store wasn’t really putting him up for manager and he was getting quite frustrated with them.
After that talk, I did my internet stuff at Starbucks, and updated a ton of things. I talked to Marina about what she was doing in Russia, and what I need to get going on my side o things. But with me going back to school, it’s hard to do a lot of the things I NEED to do. So my plan of action now is to just get a band together and try to play out, while getting an internet presence together. She suggests I go to NYC, which is a good idea, but with no money after college, that will be hard to do.
When I left Starbucks, I got a quick lunch, and saw a girl was playing guitar and piano outside in the mall. So I sat and watched her. She had a great voice and a cute look to her. So I went up and bought her CD, and gave her mine, and I talked to her mom for a bit. The girl’s name was Jessica Lerner. Jessica came over and talked to me, and signed her CD and asked if I’d sign mine, which I did. They asked what I was doing all the way out there, and I told them about the ship and stuff.. And college.
I wished her luck, and went to the music store to get guitar strings. Luke gave me a call back from when I called him earlier. We talked about the living situation. As far as he knew, we wouldn’t need couches, and all that. I would just need the bare necessities. We plan on making the third bedroom a studio. He’s got a girlfriend now, which is cool. He also said he likes to cook, so we’ll be definitely buying groceries for the house. I’d prefer to get a lot of good foods versus the fatty stuff. He said he’d take some pictures and give me everything I need to know in the coming days. I also talked to him about the project album, and doing the band thing with Nick and I. He said he was into the idea, so we’ll just need to get a drummer and a keyboardist and we should be good to go.
When I got to the music store, I bought 7 packs which gives me 12 boxes for the rest of my contract. As long as each box lasts a minimum of 2 nights, I’ll be fine and won’t have to buy anymore.
On my way back to the ship, I called Felicia and talked with her for an hour and a half or so combined. I got a phone call from Matt, a passenger from our first rivera cruise, who wanted to come pick up a couple CDs, so I met him outside the ship at around 3 and passed ‘em off. He’s the cop who used to be a drill sergeant and lost a lot of his voice.
I got on the ship and prepared for boat drill. We were given new vests to wear instead of the flaming gay green hats. Lots of kids running around, that’s for sure.
I had a meeting afterwards, which just went over the christmas stuff. Jessica passed us all a schedule. Something I hadn’t seen since my 2nd week on the ship. She’s really doing a good job as MD. She takes her job very seriously and really helps out.
I went up to the third floor, and browsed more internet stuff on my iphone. Then I called up Nick and had an idea for him and Katrina to move in the house with us, and then it could be like a band house, and we could work together most nights and stuff. Nick was very intrigued with the idea. He could easily transfer to Radio Shack, and right now Katrina doesn’t have a job. He called her to talk, but they’re going to have a more in depth conversation.
After the convo, I went and got some strings and restrung my guitar for the gig. I started playing for a few onlookers. But after the first set, I didn’t really have anyone the rest of the night and was very much dead.
I went to my room to see I had a message. It was from Jessica sending out a group message to all the musicians that we had cabin inspections in the morning. All my surge protector stuff was mailed home, so that was fine by me.


So I went to bed around 2 and woke up at 12. I went and got lunch, which ended up being Raisin Bran. It was good. Came back to my room and I started fooling with some song ideas, and clearing up my hard drive, and deleting unneeded stuff until cabin inspection which was a total of ten seconds. Since all my stuff was gone they didn’t have to look real hard for stuff. Then I got a set list together to send to Luke. Just an idea of some stuff. Maybe get some more input.
Had dinner, which was decent, and then got ready and dressed in my suit. Went up to play my gig. Though some people were watching, I got nearly 0 claps. It was quite dead. I was done by 12:30, and I went and ate with Randy in the crew mess. Pat joined, and soon after, Peter, the piano bar guy joined. We talked about the music business a bit. Randy suggested I went to NYC for the rock scene. Pat said Austin, Texas is great for original stuff and can really get stuff going with live. So... there’s some more ideas. From what I’m told, the new Hotel Director is kind of mean and picky. Our last one, Keith was a nice guy. I throughly enjoyed having him as a HD.
I came back to my room and watched some family guy until I fell asleep.

I woke up this afternoon at about 12:45 (but in all fairness, clocks went forward and hour.) I got online and checked some stuff. Amanda’s been entering me in a bunch of different things, from North by Northeast, songwriting competitions, and others.
I watched some more Family Guy until about 2 and then I went and ate on Lido Deck. The food was good. Enjoyed the Banana Creme pie. I came down and started work on another song. I have a horrible case of writers block write now. Nothing seems relevant to me, and nothing’s inspiring me so I’m stuck. I write 2 or 3 versus and then I don’t like where it’s going and get demotivated with it, and put it away. So.. that kinda sucks.
Anyways, tomorrow’s my day off. I intend to take full advantage of it. So.. until then!