World Cruise - Day 26 - Feb 7 - At Sea

Ho hum, another sunrise at sea:

Actually, I get pretty excited about the sunrise photos.  But maybe it’s getting old using them to start the blog entry each day?  Anyway, I will probably keep posting sunrise photos as long as I am up for the sunrise.  This one seemed like it wouldn’t be that interesting, yet the low lying clouds created a really cool effect.

I’ve had several people comment about the “sunset” photos—they are actually sunrise (not sunset) photos, even though the colors look like they are sunset.  I keep changing up the white balance in the photos to achieve the intense, vivid colors you see in the sunrise photos.  For example, this morning I took 42 different photos on 11 different settings, always experimenting with different setting to see what type of results I can achieve with each photo.  For any camera bugs out there, the photo above was taken at F-stop 8.0, 1/500 shutter speed, ISO 100.  The group of 42 photos I took this morning had an ISO between 100-1600, F-stop between 5.2-8.0 and 1/100 to 1/500 shutter speed.  That said, I am still experimenting and learning.  I still don’t know what exact settings to use to get a specific photo and/or effect.  I tend to take multiple photos at multiple settings and then review them afterward on my laptop to see what worked out best.  The joys of a digital camera—take 42 pics, discard 41.  What did we do back in the days of film?

As an interesting side note to the days of film, we listened to another lecture yesterday by Jerry Mathers.  He talked about working with Alfred Hitchcock on The Trouble With Harry among other things.  Someone asked him if there were any bloopers from Leave It To Beaver and he said yes, there were many, but that none of them were saved.  Apparently any film that was not used was automatically stripped of its silver (since a lot of silver is used and it’s expensive), so only the film that was used was saved.  He said it wasn’t really until videotape was used for taping (vs. filming) shows that bloopers began to be saved.  That’s why you typically don’t see any bloopers from the older TV shows.  Interesting.

I did Zumba this morning with Krissie.  It was the first time I did the entire class.  I had done parts of the class previously when I went there to get some pics, this is the first time I went without my camera and dressed to do the full class.  It was a lot of fun and a great workout.  This may become part of my daily routine while at sea?

The weather has been very warm and pleasant as we approach the equator.  High today is 82 degrees (27.8C) and low of 73 (22.8C).  Today is a little cloudy this morning, but it is supposed to clear by midday.  Overall, the weather has been quite nice.  We have only seen rain in very short bursts and always just a light rain passing by, never a damper on our activities.

I know I said I wouldn’t comment on ping pong again, but I did want to make a note of what happened after the ping pong tournament.  Dan and I did a rally to see how many times we could keep hitting the ball without a miss.  We did 328.  I’m pretty sure that’s a new world record.

We tied again at trivia this morning with 18 out of 20, then lost again in the tie breaker.  As good as we are at trivia, our team is not very good at the tiebreaker.  The first tiebreaker question was: How many children in the Jackson family, including Michael Jackson?  9 (we said 7).  Here are a few of the other questions, starting with the two that we missed (and I don’t think anyone got correct): Who was the shortest ruling British monarch?  Lady Jane Grey (we put Edward VII).  What is in the middle of Sussex pond pudding?  A lemon (we put a plum).  Here are a few other questions that you might enjoy: Who was creator of The Simpsons?  Matt Groening.  What does Amen mean?  So be it.  Whose casting report said: “He can’t act, he can’t sing, slightly bald, can dance a little.”?  Fred Astaire.  How many minutes does it take for sunlight to reach the earth, to the nearest minute?  7,  Who died shortly after playing Joker in a Batman movie?  Heath Ledger.  What was the last thing left in Pandora’s box?  Hope.  What is the world’s largest island that is not a continent?  Greenland.  True or false (we get these sometimes and they are typically pretty difficult, even though you have a 50/50 chance just guessing), English is spoken by more people in the world than any other language.  False (Mandarin Chinese is #1).  In what sport would you find a jerk?  Weightlifting.

Trivia in the afternoon was really tough, the winning team got 12 out of 20, we only got 8 out of 20.  Some of the questions were almost unanswerable (i.e. no one in the entire room got them right), so I’ll just give you a few that at least some got correct:  What two words did James Brown use when asked to define cool?  James Brown (we said Feel Good).  Where did baroque architecture start in the 1600s?  Rome (we said Brussels).  What branch of biology is derived from the work oikos, meaning living place?  Ecology (we put zoology).  What is the shortest verse in the Bible?  Jesus wept (we got that one).  What animal’s fingerprints are virtually indistinguishable from a human’s?  Koala (we got that one).  What country’s name means land of rabbits?  Spain (we put Swaziland).  How many time zones are there in Russia?  7 (we put 11).  What is prodobromhidrosis better known as?  Smelly feet (we put athlete’s foot).  What country’s orchestra is larger than its army?  Monaco (we put Vatican City).  In what language was Bambi originally written?  German (we put Italian).  What is a detective studying when he is looking at arches, loops, islands, whirls and dots?  Fingerprints (we got that one).

They are running Gavin MacLeod, a Biography on the in-room television, so he is probably either onboard or getting onboard soon?  He was the Captain in the Love Boat TV show and was also on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (I think his character was Murray? Another good trivia question…).  I like how they have different people like that onboard, I always find their presentations to be interesting, since they usually give a behind-the-scenes look at what happened on the set and with the other actors/actresses.

We got ready for dinner early, so we went down to listen to David Crathorne on piano.  Before dinner he usually just plays the piano without singing, but later in the evening (after the main show in the theater lounge), he both plays and sings.

The evening entertainment was Comedian George Casey, who was on a few nights ago as well.  Lots more Irish humor.

We watched karaoke for awhile.  One person (Pat) was quite good, singing Crazy and Unforgettable.

We did Movies Under the Stars tonight on the pool deck.  It was I Don’t Know How She Does It with Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear and Pierce Brosnan.  The movie is about a career woman juggling her work and personal life.  Just an OK movie, but it was fun to watch it outside under the stars.

We cross the equator tonight at about 2a.  It will be the first time for both me and Krissie to be south of the equator.  Another couple told us a story about when the sailed across the equator a few years ago and the captain made an announcement that if you looked out the starboard side, you could see the buoys marking the equator.  Everyone ran out on deck with their cameras.  That would have been me.  There were no buoys, of course.

Tomorrow is sea day #4 of 5 on our way to Pago Pago.  Interesting side note is that it is pronounced Pango Pango, although I have no idea why.