May 27, 2009

A Continuing Adventure




An orchid blossom on an indoor Lido table.



Himself: G’s boss returned from shoulder surgery full of energy and plans to get things going again only to encounter a bunch of skeptical employees. Despite what he says, they know they are getting laid off. Walking. Meeting.

Herself: Got the masses of laundry done, and I took a truckload of clothes to the thrift store. Ears not ok again. I’m cranky, nauseous last night. Nose running. Last writing class for a while. I’m going and I’ll isolate myself and my bug. New class: I’ll try water color….if I can draw well enough. I need to bestir myself out of living in the land of lumpishness. I shared last night and G said I made sense, so that’s it for a while.

Reading: Absolutely nothing.

Balance: Sleeping well.
I’ve been trying to write something about “writing about the trip.” Nothing much has stirred the dust mites up in my head tho I know the topic will be of interest to my classmates.

I’m sure they aren’t interested in details of the coding or of the manipulation of the pictures, but they will be interested in the process itself. Yesterday I couldn’t find any way of describing how I did it. It was a day when all in my head was mush. I shan’t try today for tomorrows class either as there is no time to rework anything into something understandable. At least understandable by me.

All the work I did in preparation before we left for the blog proved useless. My online accessibility on the ship was limited by cost, speed, and satellite access. I was able to write brief notes and posted them here most days, but I didn’t have time for reasoned writing that included the photographs. I did download photographs every day to my laptop, but I was able to gain access to my photohost only the once.

Using their computers for the time I needed to upload real blog entries and the photographs I needed for each day seemed very presumptive, and it often didn’t work. Theirs froze. It was as if I were using early dialup to access the satellite too, and this was very discouraging.

I gave up. I collected everything, photos and notes, in the laptop which is a ten year old Dell and is heavy, and cranky. I saved most every piece of ephemera to use later as reminders, and just enjoyed the days. I wrote when I could….some days writing two days on one page. Unfortunately, in the end, I found myself with two entries for each day….one brief one was written while traveling, and another more complete entry written when I’m home and able to access everything. I feel the need to find a better format than that for future trips.

Yes, I am very glad we took the laptop despite its size and weight. I was able to download all the images and so free up my camera for a fresh start each day. That alone was worth every bit of effort. When we got home, we just plugged the laptop in to the network of home computers and dragged and dropped all the pictures from both our camera’s to both our home computers. Instant accessibility.

My blogging friend and travel writer Peter takes his laptop onto dry land then uses a wi-fi he finds in coffee shops or cafés. I was unwilling to give up the time to write off the ship. I did not want haul my very heavy laptop to a cafe, write, return to the ship and put the laptop away then miss a tour. Peter is there to record details of the ship. I’m there as a tourist first and ship enthusiast second. That limited my time to write.

I note on his blogs that he often uploads pictures first then days later adds captions and descriptions. I found I was too limited by the satellite time on board to upload images, and it was easier to write a few brief notes off line, access the ship’s wi-fi, quickly download my comments, and get the heck out of Dodge. The cost of just these few days of notes was almost a hundred dollars for the trip.

Yet the journey isn’t over. In the next few weeks, I’ll make the time to order a handful of printed photos from my photohost. I’ll combine those with prints off my own printer and the words I wrote in my blog into an album of the trip. Perhaps I will even add some of the ephemera. My blogging friend Ruthe makes books about her trips. I already think of my evolving albums as art, so perhaps I too have begun to create unique books of each of our trips. Who knows where this may lead.


Captain Steven Card’s painting of the previous Ryndam in the forward stairwell.

2 comments:

  1. When I travel I keep my blog posts as a kind of diary. I am usually so tired by evening that sitting and writing seems to be the only thing I can do. And I write whether or not I am able to post. It doesn't work as well when I am traveling in this country or with other people. Then I'm much more likely to go out for dinner and the evening disappears too quickly.

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  2. What a wonderful idea to make a story about a trip. I suppsoe you could even make a story about your day if you tried (me I mean).

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