So Las Vegas was great. I was there for a week and got to spend time with some really amazing people, some of whom I've not seen in a while and some I've seen recently but it was great to catch up with them either way. I got a great deal at the MGM Grand and the flights were pretty decent as well, no super crazy layovers and I kind of like the Detroit airport. 

I saw Le Reve and Peep Show (with Holly Madison) while I was there. Le Reve was pretty good - it was a very Cirque du Soleil-esque show which is not realy surprising given that it's a Franco Dragone show. That being said, it was entertaining and impressive. Peep Show started off very much like a burlesque show with a fantasy theme involving storybook characters like Bo Peep and the Big Bad Wolf.

Since I've been back in Montreal I've been pretty focused on the fact that I have to move this coming end of June which is fine but here's the catch... I won't be in the country; or even the hemisphere when this all goes down. That's right, I'll be under contract in the Mediterranean which means I need to have all my ducks in a row pretty soon. There's a lot of sorting out places to live and packing to be done so there's been a lot of that going on.

I am looking forward to the move though, as much as I love my city it'll be a new start somewhere new which is always refreshing. Fun times ahead!

The abuse of what land living "normals" consider to be basic rights might be shocking but it's something that deserves attention. A small section of the article towards the beginning that particularly resounded with me was a statistic that 37 ships were lost in 2009 and there were no headlines and no mention of the almost 2000 seafarers who lost their lives there. What if there had been 37 airplane crashes, or 37 train crashes?

If the article interests you... click here.

In other news I spent four days in Toronto recently checking out neighbourhoods and meeting with friends I haven't seen in ages. It was a good time, if a little rushed. For those of you living in or around Toronto I'm looking at places primarily downtown in the Financial, Entertainment and St. Lawrence Market districts. If you have any suggestions I'm all ears!

First and foremost would be the choice of tag line "resolutionary" which is a terrible play on the word revolutionary. I feel like this is something that might have been thought up by an intern right out of marketing 101. I also feel like not giving a distinctive name to the product is a faux pas that will confuse quite a few of their consumers. I can see this being more of a problem when the next iPad comes out though.

Are we putting too much pressure on Tim Cook? It's clear that he has enormous shoes to fill and that it's likely no matter what he does people will still criticize him because he's not Steve Jobs. Investors seem to think that hes doing alright if AAPL is any indicator. Only time Wil tell but really Tim? "Resolutionary", really?

It's only frustrating because I want to legitimately upgrade my copy and this type of setback is annoying. Now I believe they'll probably have this sorted out fairly soon but it's this type of challenge that leads to people circumventing established (and legal) purchasing schemes. If you want to succeed as a business then you have to make it easy for the consumer to spend money with you; iTunes is a prime example of this strategy.

So listen up Adobe, "take my money".

Trouble no one about their religion;

Respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.

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.

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.

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.