Ramblingshttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/en-US2012-02-24T00:35:33ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.81 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Valentines Day: An Open Letterhttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2012/2/14/valentines-day-an-open-letter.htmlJT2012-02-14T18:34:37Zgeneral relationship womenThere's something great about waking up next to someone. Someone who doesn't mind that you both have morning breath. Someone who realized that those little quirks that you have are kinda cute.

To all the women in my past, present, and future, thank you. Not some pathetic thank you for laying me, but a thank you for sharing a part of yourselves with me. Thank you for those 3am caresses when we're both too tired to keep going, but too fascinated by each other to stop. Thank you for the way you smell, you taste, for the way your soul responds to us. For all the women I should have loved, to the women I didn't know I loved, or wouldn't admit I loved until it was too late, and all those I couldn't or wouldn't let myself love even though I should have, here's to you.

Enjoy this world, this life, because you've all been a part of both my life and my world, and it's all here for you, for the taking, so enjoy it because you've already made it worthwhile for me. And whether it's me doesn't matter, that's not what life is about, but I hope someone has made it worthwhile for you.

]]>Amisshttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2012/2/2/amiss.htmlJT2012-02-03T03:55:08Zgeneral melancholyEveryone has memories associated with specific places - travellers more so than others. For me, this ship held some great memories and some good times though after having been gone for a few years and returned I find it's not the place I remembered. Things aren't the same and the great times I had here are harder to relive than I had thought they would be.

I'm not sure what it is - many of the same people are here but it's just not the same. Maybe it's the memories of things that didn't go so well here. Maybe it's other people here, maybe its me. How does a place once so happy become a place that I can't wait to be away from?

It's a question I've been thinking of a lot lately. Maybe it's that I'm in six weeks of stressful charters and audits; maybe not. Who am I kidding, I know exactly what it is.

]]>Life at Thirty-thousandhttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2012/1/2/life-at-thirty-thousand.htmlJT2012-01-02T19:36:08ZWhat a great time we live in where we can be soaring through the air at 30,000 feet and have access to the Internet at acceptable speeds. Though as I sit here, writing this blog post and enjoying the view I have to ask myself why in the world we can have zippy Internet connections whilst traveling at several hundreds of kilometers an hour but we have to suffer through sub-dial up speeds while cruising along at twenty knots on the ship.

On a little bit of a tangent here, people often ask me what good to do in insert-port-name-here. While I can tell you about the big sights to see in just about any of the major port towns, I'm not particularly a good choice for a travel guide; nor, I might add, is any other crew member on a ship. Why is this you might ask? Since we stop in these beautiful and exotic places so often, you'd expect us to know all the hidden gems it has to offer. Well the truth is that we do know all of the hidden gems. So long as you meant the great little restaurants, the really nice non-touristy beaches and the fast Internet hideouts.

Having managed to purchase "premium" economy seats on both my flights for the relatively low price of $50, I am left to contemplate this from the comfort of an exit row.

]]>Happy Ship Holidayshttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2011/12/26/happy-ship-holidays.htmlJT2011-12-26T16:31:00Zchristmas family general holiday shipThi time of year is always associated with family, vacations, gift giving (and recieving) and usually not with work. Unless, that is, you work in the service industry as I do; specifically the entertainment industry. This year was a lot of work, yes, but it was also a pretty decent Christmas given the circumstances... not being home, not being with family et cetera.

When you work on a ship you tend to bond as a defacto family at times like these. You may not know the other people all that well, you may not even know if they celebrate Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukka or Festivus, but they are the closest thing you have to family at the time and vice versa. I'm thankful for the friends around me and although I'll likely see them again down the road somewhere, I'll miss them when I leave in a week.

]]>1Password and a New Pathhttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2011/12/18/1password-and-a-new-path.htmlJT2011-12-18T17:19:23Zapplications apps general technologyThere are a few applications that have become so ingrained in my workflow that I consider them to be essentials. One such application is 1Password by Agile Bits, however I've recently run into some trouble with it. You see the program is a password manager which integrates with your browser (Safari, Firefox and Chrome) via an extension. The trouble is that the extension is not able to connect to the application anymore for some reason - I've not tried with Chrome but it seems to be the same with both Safari and Firefox. Let's hope the next release solves the problem; it's annoying to have to work around this issue.

On a related but more social note, I'm trying out a new application for my phone called "Path". The idea seems to be similar to Facebook and Foursquare but the UI is much cleaner and more user friendly. It's also designed to be much more reserved for your inner circle. The designers have limited you to 150 friends for this purpose which, if I remember correctly, is based on a magical number. This number is supposedly the maximum number of people that the average person is really friends with and thinks of often. My circle is significantly smaller than that but I've always been a little more introverted than most others!

]]>¿Frog Senior?http://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2011/12/14/frog-senior-1.htmlJT2011-12-14T19:12:17Zashore general recharge travelOnce again I find myself in San Juan, this time sitting in Senior Frogs by the pier surrounded by intoxicated passengers of an affiliated cruise line and karaoke songs that are reminiscient of Hellen Keller playing on a "My First Keyboard". However, the internet is reasonably fast and the food, while overpriced, is not terrible.

Christmas is fast approaching and for me, as most of you know, that generally means more work which is great if you happen to be paid by the hour but it's not so much so if you are paid by the day (or salaried). As my hours go up I see my value dropping and it's not a great feeling. On those days you just have to remind yourself that there are days where you're worth quite a bit.

As a little gift to myself I've revamped my office a little - it's the small things in life that you have to look forward to right?! It's times like this that all it takes is a little recharge... a day or two with a light workload or some time ashore that makes all the difference!

]]>San Juanhttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2011/12/1/san-juan.htmlJT2011-12-01T01:10:28Zcaribbean general vacation workJust a quick post to say hello from San Juan. With about a month left in my contract out here I can definitely say I am looking forward to the week off before I join the Westerdam for a month. The question is, where to go on my vacation following the Westerdam? I was contemplating Toronto for a couple of days... Then again, there's ALWAYS Vegas... Up in the air!

]]>ESThttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2011/11/13/est.htmlJT2011-11-13T12:47:10ZUSA crossing general travel updateIt's been a fairly long crossing but I'm back in familiar territory once again. We arrived this morning in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where we have a multitude of inspections and drills before we're allowed any time ashore. Only one major inspection to go at this point, US Coast Guard. Once that's over with then we'll hopefully be granted shore leave and I'll be able to nip off for a few minutes! Wish me luck!

]]>Greetings from Turkeyhttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2011/10/23/greetings-from-turkey.htmlJT2011-10-23T16:09:22Zphoto travel

Just a little hello from Kusadasi in Turkey!

]]>Croatian Pizzahttp://www.jonathan-tom.com/ramblings/2011/9/23/croatian-pizza.htmlJT2011-09-23T09:59:03Zcroatia general travel workHere I sit, litterally five minutes walk from the ship at a tiny six-table restaurant that makes pretty solid pizza and has decent internet. Having only been off the ship three times since I joined last month this feels great to be out and about even if I'm still within sight of the ship.

I know what you're thinking, "you can't possibly be that busy that you can't get time off". You would be right in saying that, the trouble is I know how much work and e-mails build up if I'm not at my desk. I'm sure those of you reading this can relate to that feeling!

Having said that, I'm enjoying this time of the ship being a real person for a little while and wearing anything other than my uniform. So if anyone is in Dubrovnik right now, you should come over to this little pizza place outside the port - I have a few slices left and I'm willing to donate!

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