LEARNING JANUARY 2008 - Archive What I Learned Yesterday Wednesday February 27 2008 Is sleep OVERRATED or UNDERRATED? I used to hate sleeping but I knew I had to do it. It took away from the time that I could actually be doing something. If there is a master God or something that invented us puppets -- I always wondered why they invented sleep. Of course most of us spend a third of our lives sleeping. Gandhi slept 12-14 hours a day everyday in his lifetime and used his other half of his day, his awake time, accomplishing a whole lot in life. More than 99.9% of the rest of us! So maybe he was onto something with his oversleeping. I always wanted to be a guy like John Grudon. The coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who only needs to sleep 3-4 hours a night to function. His mother said about him that he was always like that as he never took naps as a kid and woke up at 1:00am everyday after his 9pm bedtime and never could go back to sleep. If you do the math, Grudon has been up almost 30% more in his lifetime than an average person his age. That's 30% more things that he can accomplish in his lifetime and do. During the time when I went to college full-time and worked a full-time job in my late teens/early 20's, I would sleep around four hours a day. Four years averaging 4 hours a day finally caught up to me when I was living in NYC. I finished off my schooling and had 5 weeks left on my greencard before I had to go back to Canada. I slept 14 hours a day during those 5 weeks and really just wanted to sleep even the other 10 hours -- but woke up out of guilt because I thought I should actually do something with my day. Maybe sleep is doing something though. Who knows what goes on while we're sleeping. I am able to remember most of my dreams now and I have to say that I've realized a fountain of information and facts about myself. I've had insecurities and fears so far down in my subconscious that I never even knew I had. Thank god for dreams letting those things come out. I think most of the time I'd rather be up as sleep is just an inconvenience - but I really should awknowledge its greatness! I learned yesterday that sleep is good. What I Learned Yesterday - Tuesday February 26 2008 HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY! I think HOPE used to be my strategy, but I realized that it really doesn't work at all. Life seems to reward you for taking any sort of action and that's the best strategy there is - ACTION!. But HOPE is needed in life. It's what makes us take action in life. We hope for something good to happen so that's why we get off the couch and try to get something done. HOPE is the THEME of the most famous film of all-time: The Shawshank Redemption. The main character takes many steps to attempt to get out of jail and also makes sure he can last while he's stuck in jail. But he always has that HOPE that he'll get out. We all need hope as we all want to accomplish things for ourselves and for the world. And HOPE is what keeps us going! But it's not a strategy. Hope is like your support system -- a friend who's there to build you back up. What I Learned Yesterday - Monday February 25 2008 I love doing the radio show. It's something that suits me and I hope I'm starting to do a good job. Doing the show I realized takes the art of being prepared for the topics and guests you have, but also to not be overly prepared. Lack of preparation a lot of times on the show brings out the best moments. But there's something I've learned early on and always knew - Pressure only comes when someone calls on you to perform a task for which you are unprepared for or have no idea what it really is that you are doing. I usually over-prepare for things so I don't feel any pressure. BUT the radio show is the great exception of my life. Pressure is good on the radio, but only if you keep your nerves in check. You have that pressure to entertain so therefore you are forced to step up to the plate while the radio show is happening to accomplish that task. I can't come on the show not preparing at all - but I stop myself when I get too involved in what I want to talk about. Ah Radio!! What a great medium. What I Learned Yesterday - Monday February 25 2008 The events took place this weekend and I like where we are headed. BUT it needs to get better. I demand for it to get better so it will get better. We had some technical problems happen for the first time in our 13 months working with the National Film Board. A lot of technical problems. The tech guy just wasn't prepared to do the job and therefore mistakes happen. I like to keep my cool at all times - Fonzie is one of my heroes. But there are those times when I lose my cool and go off on something. It happened two times in 2007 -- and it's already happened twice in 2008. And it happened this weekend where I completely lost it on the tech guy. From one of his colleagues I heard the line "He didn't mean it." "He/she didn't mean it" is probably the worst line in the history of lines. When I hear that I hear that the that person didn't learn from their mistakes. He all make mistakes in life and we of course don't mean to do a lot of things -- but that's NOT what you say. When you screw up and screw up bad, here are the best responses to say to the person who you screwed up for: "I'm sorry" "This will never happen again. I learned from my mistakes." "What can I do to get this error than I did resolved?" I've lost it twice on 2 different people this year because the person who made the error didn't care they made the error and just thought they didn't do anything wrong. And those situations have to be my biggest pet peeve. When you are in charge of something and something goes wrong on your watch -- you are responsible no matter who made the error. So that tech guy making all the errors this weekend made WILDsound and me look bad. It's all about the right people in your life! What I Learned Yesterday - Friday/Saturday February 22/23 2008 Top 10 Most Important Things I Learned this Week 10. It's all about the preparation. The act most of the time is really anti-climatic. 9. You learn a lot when you give our polls for people to answer. 8. Text messaging will be the #1 form of communication in 20 years. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think I've text messaged about twice in my life but I see how it works for people. 7. Comedy acting is by far the hardest acting to do. 6. If a film leads with its thematic and the plot and characters are in the background -- people generally don't like that film. 5. It's taken me two weeks to finally get over my vacation. Vacations are really overrated. 4. Ethan Hawke was nominated for an Oscar for Training Day, Casey Affleck was nominated for Jesse James, Jamie Foxx was nominated for Collateral -- all in the Best Supporting Actor category. BUT these roles were the main characters in those films. WHY are they in this category then? This is the main reason why the Academy awards don't mean a thing! 3. Don't hire someone to do a job that they don't particularly have a passion for in a industry they don't have much feeling for either. 2. I wouldn't mind winning an Oscar -- even though I still think the whole awards thing is a sham. So what's that all about? 1. Baseball I miss you! What I Learned Yesterday - Thursday February 21 2008 I realized yesterday that I still have a hard time with EGO. At the last minute yesterday I filled in to be the director to rehearse the actors for tonights reading series event. 2 out of the 3 scripts rehearsals went great but there's always that 1 that ruins the night. There were two actors in the same script reading who were obviously a bit overwhelmed and perhaps scared to do the reading (this happens at times for actors at all levels) and were compensating that by criticizing the way we do the things and trying to control the environment to suit their own comfortability. One acting I can handle, but two actors is tough. Teachers always say that there's alway that 'character' in every class who must be stopped right away before they virus the rest of the classroom. The same goes for actors in this setting. There's always that one person -- but when there are two people it's hard to stop the virus. So what happens is that the rehearsal becomes anxiety ridden where it really should be a fun and creative environment for artists to be free to explore their inner creativity with one another. This gets to me because it just isn't fair for the writer and other actors. I've seen time and time again how this rehearsal can be such a magical experience for people -- and when it doesn't happen I feel bad and know that the people involved have been cheated. I need to learn how to stop people viruses right away as I haven't mastered that craft yet. I think I'm pretty good with an individual BUT when there are 2 or more people I can't control it. This is just a stat that really doesn't mean anything but that I find interesting. These actor viruses are 95% of the time attractive females between the ages of 25 to 25. Females who obviously have gotten their way many times in their lives because of the way they look and really like to control any environment they are in. But what I see in many attractive people (and I will talk about this more on the radio show on Monday) is a whole lot of insecurity. And you sort of would think it would be the opposite. What I Learned Yesterday - Wednesday February 20 2008 February is always my toughest month. I am in football withdrawal while I wait for baseball season to start and I really have no outside vice/muse for me to go to when things are down. This is also the month that defines the rest of my year because in January I'm figuring things out and then February is my time to execute it. I just feel weird everytime this month occurs. What I Learned Yesterday - Tuesday February 19 2008 I just want to read and do nothing else. I'm on that kick. But I wanted to be on that kick when I was on vacation. Why do these happen after you wanted them to happen? I feel sometimes like there is a conflict within the heirarchy of my inner soul. Issues come up and it takes me too long to settle them. And by the time I settle them -- it's too late! What I Learned Yesterday - Monday February 18 2008 I might be losing it because I am really tired when I'm up but I am wide awake when I want to go to sleep. I used to have a lot of problems sleeping growing up. But for the last 5 years I never really had much problem. Now it's back and I know why! Anytime I am thinking more than my brain can compute is when I can't sleep very well. In the last two weeks I've learned so much about myself, my brain still hasn't caught up to my emotions. So I'm out of balance with my body and I can't sleep well. What I Learned Yesterday - Saturday/Sunday February 16-17 2008 Top 10 most important Things I Learned this week 10. You need to take a vacation after you come back from vacation. The world seems to be a tad overwhelming after you relax and go away to a new environment and then come back to your old environment. 9. It takes two days to get back to your old routine after coming back from vacation. 8. Vacations are overrated. 7. Never do anything that your inner instinct tells you not to -- no matter how sweet it seems to be. 6. Being on the radio can be an addictive thing. No wonder people like Howard Stern will never retire. 5. We all need a best friend who can be your mentor and protege -- and that best friend can't be your girlfriend/boyfriend. You need that outside perspective. 4. If I don't wake up before 8am, I don't feel comfortable the rest of the day. 3. It's time for me to delegate many of the thing I do and comsensate people financially more. 2. I might have more to say that I actually initially thought. 1. I still really don't know shit. What I Learned Yesterday - Friday February 15 2008 I went to see a performance of a guy playing guitar and singing classic songs of the 80's and 90's. It was fun going out and I had a good time. Unfortunately other people thought I wasn't having a good time. I was listening to the songs and was into it. I'm not the kind of guy who jumps up and down and sings along or dances (not since I quit drinking at least), so I just take in the music and listen along. But others I was with thought I was having a miserable time. I guess I had a serious look on my face (which I usually do). So I guess I was making others uncomfortable because they thought I wasn't haviing a good time! So the question I need to figure out is: Do I need to go out of my way to smile and laugh eventhough it would feel forced -- in order to but others at ease? OR Should I just be myself and not worry about others feelings? I have to think about that. What I Learned Yesterday - Thursday February 14 2008 Today is Valentine's Day. The most made up holiday in the world so businesses can sucker people to buy overpriced flowers, candy, dinners etc... Are we sheep? And just do what the marketers tells us? I really never understood this holiday and if any woman ever wanted a gift from me on this day, they are out of luck. If they think my love or desire for them has to do with me buying them flowers, then that's not the person I want to be with. Now Canadians have a new holiday -- FAMILY DAY It's another official made up holiday so government workers don't have to work another day. Don't people get enough days off? This is another example of why we are becoming soft. And this made up holiday happening on Monday ruined my whole schedule. I've been setting up the events and I needed businesses to be open on Monday and now I'm forced to wait for Tuesda. I don't mean to sound like a February Scrooge but why do we need another holiday? FAMILY DAY was formed so family members can spend time with each other. So we need a holiday for family to talk to each other? I don't know what is worse -- the holiday itself or that they think that this holiday will actually bring families together! February for me is Scrooge month. The month after football season and the wait for baseball season. It's a shitty month for me. What I Learned Yesterday - Wednesday February 13 2008 I am really tired and I feel a bit strange getting back from vacation. I've always been able to juggle a lot of things without much problem, but now I seem to have a hard time doing it. Do vacations make you loose your edge? Or does it just take a bit for your edge to come back? What I Learned Yesterday - Tuesday February 12 2008 Back from vacation. Got in at 7pm last night, did the radio show at 8pm and then walked into a large pile of mail and over 50 voice mail messages. When you get back from vacation, you get so overwhelmed it's time to go on another vacation. What I Learned Yesterday - Sunday/Monday February 10-11 2008 TOP 10 Most Important Things I Learned on my Vacation 10. It's freaky how I can get everything I ask for: After finishing off a book, I really wanted to read this other book that I couldn't find before I left. So I went up to the Cruise Libary and low and behold this freaky book that isn't that popular was sitting on the table for me. It wasn't a book that was in the library catalog, but a book someone must of dropped off for ME! 9. Just push and fight for your own integrity and you'll win. It may take a lot out of you, but you'll get what you think is right. 8. Parasailing is fun. And it's a good way to see the world too. We humans like to make a lot of noise and being up so far in the sky makes you see how quiet things really are. 7. Humans treat humans really bad a lot of the time. We're in the time in our evolution where it's man VS man and now man helping out man. It's that art of competing with each other in order for us to improve while also making sure we don't push people down too far. 6. Titantic made Cruise Ship sales go up 50% after it came out. It shows how much movies effect our world. 5. Vaudeville acts have been going strong since 1900. And no matter how many times you see the same act, you can't help but laugh and be entertained by it. 4. TV sucks because you don't really miss it when it's not around. 3. Hillary VS Obama is the same as Patriots VS Giants. 2. It takes me 4 days to get comfortable in a new environment. 1. I love my parents and my sisters and I wish we could be closer. But I know it's me who has to really push for it and I wish it was them who would do it. What I Learned Yesterday - Saturday February 9 2008 Vacation Day #9 - EMOTIONS I was a sensitive kid growing up as it was hard for me to control my emotions. Everything effected me and it was difficult for me to move onwards to the next set of my emotions. I am still sensitive but I've really learned to recover from my emotions really quickly. I feel something and then I quickly move on. The only time when my emotions stick with me for a bit is when I feel I haven't done the best I could do in a situation. Those are the times where my feelings really last. So I feel happy most of the time and sad or upset or hurt other times of the day -- then I recover. I know that emotions always come and go so in order for another one to come, you must feel the one you're currently feeling right away and deal with it. My family and even my girlfriend still don't know when I'm happy or sad most of the time or if I had a good time or bad time doing something. I guess it doesn't show on my face. My girlfriend says that only those rare occasions happen when my emotions become transparent and show on my face. We went Parasailing today (free trip from the Cruise ship to us because all the hearache they caused us!) and I couldn't help but smile and smile hard! It was fun being 400 feet in the air over the ocean. It's very quiet and it's a great way to see how small you are in comparison to the rest of the world. I just feel so much during these times as the beauty of our world is so obvious. As I child I used to laugh and cry hard about 15 times a day. I was a bundle of emotions and really a hard person to control. I was told to hold my emotions back by all my so called mentors (especially teachers) because it was embarrassing for others who were around me. This caused me to block my emotions so much, I began doing drugs and drinking a lot of alcohol to set them loose. Now I've learned to control them within my own inner body and soul while also having the experience and maturity to understand how far I need to react to things. But the problem is that I'm very stone like that no really really knows when I'm feeling nervous, happy, sad or scared. Maybe I should take up poker. What I Learned Yesterday - Friday February 8 2008 Vacation Day #8 - US vs CANADA I've met US residents on the ship and some Canadians. I've been doing a survey with the US people about the election. Of over 75 people I've talked to, over 80% loved Bill Clinton and what he did for their country when he was president as those same 80% hate George Bush. But only 70% of those 80% want Hilary Clinton to be president. The other 20% are hardcore conservatives and will vote that way no matter what. And all of those people happened to live in the central or mountian time zones. Most people like Obama but think he'll lose to McCain if he goes against him and wins over Clinton. But over 90% of people say that if Clinton wins, then she'll be president. I've talked to over 40 Canadians and only 75% of them knew who are Prime Minister was but everyone knew that Bush was the current US presidnet. Hearing that I made sure all 3 of my nieces knew that Stephen Harper is our Prime Minister. And 40% of the US people I talked to knew who the Canadian Prime Minister was. I am Canadian who went to school for a bit in the US and is a border kid being raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario. I have to say I like US people generally over Canadians. Canadians seem to be too scared of things, epecially someone like me who asks a lot of questions. US people love to talk to me 95% of the time and are willing to answer all the questions I ask. And then talk to me about many other subjects like religion and sports as we always go away learning something new. Canadians mostly answer my questions with their own questions like "Why are you asking me this?" Paranoid country we've formed. And I always seem to walks away scratching my head and not learning anything at all. I really want to change that. What I Learned Yesterday - Thursday February 7 2008 Vacation Day #7 - SETTLING DOWN I've now relaxed. Or at least relaxed as much as I can. I am a man of routine and I need things to be the way I want it to be in order for me to feel comfortable. I love to be random and do things unconventional -- but I need that organization of my life in order to do that. I realized that if I don't have order in my life, I really can't function properly and my mood gets really effected. So now I'm comfortable and enjoying studying people on the boat. It's a fascinating group of people too! What I Learned Yesterday - Wednesday February 6 2008 Vacation Day #6 - PARENTS I ended yesterday's column talking about my parents. I always proclaimed that I had control over them but I realized yesterday that I really don't. Because I was lead down the wrong path by them growing up, (even though their intentions were good, I just happened to be a different person where my first instinct in this planet was to resist what everyone else was doing, perhaps why I became left-handed!) I have a conflict with them that will last the rest of my life. My parents are successful people who really landed on the soft parts of life when they entered their adulthood and helped two out of their three children do the same. Meaning that they have it made it a lot of ways. They worked, retire at a extremely young age and now travel the world while hanging out with their 4 grandchildren when they are home. A great way to live but something that I really could never be doing. First off, I don't think I'll ever retire from anything as I will always try to keep trying to make this world a better place. I know that probably sounds a tad idealistic and trite to some, but it's what I feel. We're all here to help out the world and when I see others not doing that, I don't understand. I love my parents because they have characteristics that are very good and I've learned to use them. That and they are the reason I'm alive today which is something I'm very grateful for. But I really don't get them at all. They go on these trips and pretty much avoid life. Anytime a conflict or any feelings of pure emotion happen, they are the first to run away. And anyone who knows me personally: feelings, emotions and conflict are my favorite subjects. During my recovery from drugs and alcohol I didn't speak to anyone from my past for 2 full years as I needed to figure out who I was. This was my magic time of my life as I really got to know who I really was and I'll always cherish those times. But one day I just called them up and asked them if they wanted to come to one of the events I was running. They said yes and we continued our relationship of parents and son. (A side note to that day – my parents were sitting beside a young writer as she struck up a conversation with them as she wanted to meet the organizer Matthew Toffolo. My parents said they knew me and would introduce her to me. I was smitten with that young writer, Miss Jen Frankel, the second I laid eyes on her and we have been together everyday since.) But nothing really got accomplished during that layoff with my parents. It was like I jumped right back into their life without anything really happening. So I still have this major ball of conflict inside of me that needs to come out to them. The major problem is the mother. It seems that we all have issues with our mothers. We were inside of them for 9 months and that's a lot of time to really influence a human being's soul! My mom was young when I was conceived and already had 2 girls – and a stillborn! That stillborn is the important death of my life because it was a boy and they wouldn't of have me if that baby survived. My parents kept trying until they had their boy again and 15 minutes after I popped out, my dad was on the operating table getting a vasectomy. So I am alive because someone else died. And I don't think my mother ever forgave me for it. And it's why I know that everyday I live I need to make sure I do something to make this world a better place. I'm here in place of someone else and I can't fuck it up. What I Learned Yesterday -Tuesday February 5 2008 Vacation Day #5 - STOP OFFS Took two stops so far in the Caribbean – Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. In Cayman we went on a Sting-Ray trip in the ocean which was cool. But I love travelling to see the parts that most people don't see, not a tourist trap area ala my home town of Niagara Falls. Jamaica was a sad experience. We landed in a very down and out area as the locals tried to grab as much money they could from the tourists. They even wanted you to pay to go on their beaches. Talking to many of the locals, the economy seems to be in ruins with most people out of work. Cayman Islands were clean and pristine. Not a negative face in the bunch and the country seemed to be doing very well. On the left was Sly Stallone's beach house. On the right, Michael Jordan's and Tiger Wood's 21 million dollar condos. Talking to the locals, the economy is flourishing and the unemployment is almost non-existent. Cayman Islands is a British colony as Jamaica was part of the British put parted ways over 20 years ago. Of course the UK took over these islands back in the day and brought in their own culture. Cayman is playing the British game and is doing well as Jamaica is basically just beginning their new independence and really had no idea how to set up a government after the Brits left. I'm sure both of these countries were fine before Britain came along, but Jamaica is now left in a identity crisis of being part British and part native. This reminded me of what the US currently is doing in many parts of the world. Afghanistan is now feeling the wrath of having the US come in and take care of business (in their own way), then take off leaving nothing behind. And they will probably do the same with Irac. It seems that countries sometimes forget to learn from history. Whoever is the #1 power country in the world seems to want to implement their ways to the rest of the mankind. It's interesting why this is but it keeps happening throughout history. The king of the castle always wants to tell others what to do. That's sort of what I feel like on this cruise ship. I've always resisted being a part of the heard and moving into lines that people tell me to stand in. And this is what they keep telling us what to do. I'm a rebel without a trip who really wanted to go on a trip. I learned that I need to just do the trip I want to go on. I got the family pressure to go on this trip and I need to keep reminding myself that everything my parents taught me growing up — though their intentions were good –-- were completely wrong. You figure I would understand that fully now being in my adulthood for the last 10-12 years. But I think this is what this trip is all about! To remember to do the opposite of what my parents tell me that I should do and that always leaves me down the path of total happiness. What I Learned Yesterday - Monday February 4 2008 Vacation Day #4 - JAIL TIME I just realized yesterday that I was actually on vacation and that I should get some rest. I am becoming aware that I need to sleep and sleep a long time. It's time for my body to shut down and feel 100% again. Like an professional athlete finishing off a long season, they know they can still play the game but their working on fumes as their body needs to shut down — that's how I feel. And I refuse to ever go back to any supplements/drugs to keep my body going. So it's time for me to sleep and sleep long. Problem is that the marketers are at their best on this cruise ship. They continue to want you to do the various activities so you will buy more shit...er....product. A cruise ship is like jail with the capitalistic madness stuck inside of it. You can't leave the premises or you'll literally die and they constantly monitor you as every knock and cranny of the ship it being filmed. Bottom line: the only difference between a cruise ship and jail is that the food is a little bit better. It just tells me how far removed I am from the rest of the people as 99% who are on the ship are having a great time. I love to have a good time and I usually do in my normal world – but this isn't what I think a good time is. A friend of mine's father was in jail for about 9 months. He loved it because it gave him time to think, sleep, read and write. He's actually wrote a best selling novel during that time in the clink. He used that time to his advantage and that's sort of the secret of life in a lot of ways. Use the environment you're born into and/or sometimes thrown into, the best way you know how. So while I'm on the ship, I need to use it to the best way I know how. And that's resting so I'm a go for the rest of the year. I have big plans and I need to be physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually at my best. This is my time to rest, relax (the best way I can) and THINK. Think like a madman!! I know people might think I'm crazy that I'm comparing a cruise ship with jail, but if you really think closely, that's what it is. At least that's what I think. What I Learned Yesterday - Sunday February 3rd Day #3 Vacation - The art of bitching What an amazing Super Bowl last night! The David beat the Goliath as the New York Giants stunned the world. QB Eli Manning went from a bum 5 weeks ago to a American legend who's legacy will always be solid – all because of what he did on that final drive last night. I sat at a Piano Bar with a country Doctor from upstate New York, his wife, my girlfriend, a babysitter who was on the Cruise ship to take care of her ex-husbands kid for his new wife??, and a hard core Patriots fan from Maine. Good way to watch a Super Bowl! After the game I was doing some work at the Cruise coffee shop when someone blurted out - "That's what capitalism is about. You can be hated by everyone for year and then you do one great thing and all is forgotten. Eli Manning is what America is all about." That sort of summed up my day yesterday as I learned that America is also about the art of bitching and complaining for the things you believe in. I was promised by the Cruise ship before we got on that I would be able to buy a full internet package deal for a lump sum. This was something I needed to do as I still have to do some work and keep the website progressing while I'm away. I got on the boat and they told me that deal doesn't exist anymore and I had to pay this crazy amount of money per minute to use the internet. They lied to me before I got on and I probably wouldn't of gotten on this ship if I knew that this new policy existed. So I complained. They didn't do anything about it, so I complained again, this time to a higher up. I told him my problem and he sort of brushed it off by giving me a small sum of money for compensation. I wasn't happy so I complained again. This time I completely lost it on this manager guy because he didn't care about my problem. He started to care when I called him a ‘F***in, Asshole Liar and that he was a piece of **it. His eyes opened and he then started to get mad at me for disrespecting him. We had a few more words and then a bigger manager came in. He talked to me and said that he couldn't completely take care of my problem but would give me a $100 dollars of free service. I hated myself for complaining like I did and swearing. But this is what you need to do in this world because people stomp on you if you don't. This is the darker side of how this world is set up. These guys know that most people won't complain that much and company's like this can get away with anything. (BTW - don't use Royal Caribbean). But then I learned that there's a next step to this madness of a world we live in. When you are tired of bitching yourself — get a lawyer to keep the bitching happening. While I was working last night, I got to talking to a guy (who happened to be a lawyer!) about my problem. He wrote down the step by step details and said my internet problems were all over. He would take care of it as this is a total injustice. It was an injustice. I was promised something that's very important in my current world. And this giant of a company didn't hold up to the promise because they can make more money if they didn't. So I was forced to behave and be a way I don't like to be in order to rectify the injustice. Then I knew I can only go so far until a lawyer needs to come up and completely seal the deal of injustice. I guess this is where we are right now in the world. I swore at a guy who didn't deserve to be sworn at but I knew if I did, things would begin to take care of itself in my favor. I've been brought up in the grocery store business. I know how the deal works. The more people bitch, the more they get what they want. The customer needs to be always right. Some people just don't have that bitching gene inside of them and those are the ones who have a lot of problems in our capitalistic world. It's just the way it is. My girlfriend and I took at cab from our hotel to the boat to begin this madness of a boat cruise. We began talking to the young Venezuela driver who happened to love capitalism, especially in comparison to his recent homeland's socialistic and corrupt (his words) system. He said he's doing well working 14 hours a day as he love to work and doesn't understand why others don't. He's got big plans to run his own business and make lots of money. "The only thing you need to do to become rich is to think, act and be just like the other people who are rich." he said. And one of the things you need to do in order to be rich is learn the art of bitching (funny how that rhymes). You can't let people and companies get away with things and if you begin to face them, they will soon give in to you. The problem is that a lot of companies know that they can get away with things because they know most people won't do anything about it. And that's what I learned yesterday. Bitch until you get what you were promised! Then get a lawyer to seal the deal. What I Learned Yesterday - Saturday February 2 2008 Day 2 - What's this whole Cruise ship business all about? This is my first Cruise ship experience and I can already tell that this isn't for me. I could be wrong after it's all over but I don't think so. This is just an environment that's exactly like the world I come from – except here you're on a boat with nowhere to go! I feel claustrophobic because my freedom has been taken away. But people seem to love it! The birth of a cruise ship started with the Egyptians back in the day. The rich used to take voyage cruises on big boats for months at a time to relax, think and get away. Then Adolf Hitler started what is now the great Cruise ship experience of the 20th century and now 21st century. After he was elected he got some of his people to create large boats that would hold thousands of citizens at a time. He would then get people to pay a small honorarium for a nice vacation for the German people! But it was all a ploy to get him to spout his propaganda ideals. You get people away from the world on a boat with no where for them to escape and you got yourself a good old-fashioned spot to get people to believe what you want them to believe. And this worked for Hitler and it was one of the reasons that his following became so profound. So the birth of the Cruise ship experience started with the rich. And I think that's why people are so fascinated cruises. They feel like they are the rich ones just like the royalty does it! That's really how they sell the trips too. Then Hitler took over and really made it into what it is now. Of course no one can really say that Adolf Hitler invented the Cruise ship as that wouldn't be the greatest way to promote it. But that's who invented the Cruise ship - the worst human being in the history of the human existence! So presently all the Cruise ship is now is propaganda for capitalism! They take you away from the world and try to brainwash you to thinking you need this and that to make you believe you'd be happy if you buy it. It's a great racket and I can already see how much money they make by doing it. Here's some of the tricks they do to make you buy: - They offer free water and coffee but any other drink you buy costs money. And of course they over charge. But they know most people need something else besides their two free offers eventually. - They don't offer any TV stations in your suite that you can recognize. And 5 of the 10 channels they do give you are advertisements about what's on the ship. - In order to walk to the free food restaurants they have, you have to walk through the mini-malls of products to get there. You need to get this watch, massage, sun glasses, wine, swim suit, designer clothes, tan, beer etc... in order to feel ALIVE! - You can't pay cash for anything and they give you a ‘cruise card' to purchase products that's attached to your credit card. Because they know people are aware when they spend their money or spend on their credit card – but a made up card is like it isn't even real and you're not spending anything. Of course that is until you see your credit card statement at the end of the day. - They have a really large CASINO! And people don't win at casino's no matter how many of those great stories you've heard through the years from your friends or family. - The suites are the size of a jail cell! We're like sardines in a package ship travelling to our destination for delivery. The smaller the suites, the more people they can get on the ship. One of the other things that really pisses me off is how they ‘suggest to you' how much you need to tip everyone at the end of the trip. Now I don't mind tipping anyone but isn't the suggestion from the Cruise ship of how much I'm suppose to tip a real sleezy thing? If the Cruise ship is so worried about making sure their workers get enough money, why don't they just pay them then like they should get so they don't have to worry about tips? It's not like they're hurting for money! So ‘this free trip' I was suppose to get should cost us upwards of over 1000 dollars with these ‘tips' and the plane ride we needed to buy in Atlanta because of the delays and cancellations we had, in order to get to this crazy Cruise ship. Makes me wonder why we came in the first place. That 1000 dollars my girlfriend and I could of used for a trip we actually wanted to go on. And it's just sad how far removed I am from my family. We have nothing in common at all as I just think and feel different things from them. This is probably the most liberal minded column I've written to date and it's because I've never felt more sad. I guess the more sad you become, the more liberal you get! And that's probably what I learned the most yesterday. That and how much I love my life. I really want to go home already because I love it so much I really don't ‘need to get away from anything' like they say I do. Sometimes you need to get away for a bit just so you understand how great you have it. What I Learned Yesterday - Friday February 1 2008 Day #1 Vacation We woke up at 4:15am in Niagara Falls, Ontario to begin our trip and we arrived at 2:10am in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in our hotel room. We should of just drove down as it problably would of gotten us here quicker than the supposive quick service of flying. The following occured yesterday. My girlfriend said to me before we finally went to sleep yesterday that the theme song to 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' was ringing in her head the entire day. It's was like kind of day. But our title should of been Planes, Delays and Incompentance of Airline companies! : - 3 cancelled flights - We missed our connecting flight in Atlanta and because there wasn't an available flight for the rest of the day, we then had to shell out to get tickets at another airline to make sure we made it to our Cruise ship the next day. - My parents' flight was cancelled altogether so they had to take a bus to the Newark, New Jersey airport to get their connecting flight so they can make the cruise. - Lots of time hanging out at the Buffalo and Atlanta airports. You learn lot about human nature hanging out at airports. At 9am in Buffalo I was walking around and entered into the Airport Bar to see what's up. It was a packed house and everyone was drinking Caesars and getting liquored up! I guess there's nothing better to do. - I got addicted to this Super Mario Brothers game my nieces were playing on their Gameboy (I don't know the 21st century title of these machines). I just realized why I stopped playing video games over 10 years ago! You can waste a lot of time on these machines. - Lots of time hanging out with the nieces and nephew waiting around. It got to the point where we began a Yoga lesson in the corner of the airport waiting room - Many people in the world just want to strike up conversations about pretty much nothing. Where they are coming from, where they are and where they are going: these 3 topics probably take up 97% of all conversations people have, and 2.8% of the time they talk about the weather. - Learned a lot about the art of just listening. One gentleman who sat beside me on the last flight just sat back and listened. He partaked in enough banter to keep the conversation flowing, but he didn't reveal anything about himself as he just listened in looking for insight while I babbled on about my life. He got a lot from me while I got nothing from him. Bottom line: I liked today's adventure as it seems much more exciting for me than to just go to the airport and then arrive at your destination just like that. But it also seems to be the airport's agenda to have cancelled and delayed flights. Therefore all the people hanging out will be forced to buy food, drink, reading materials etc.. at the overpriced waiting areas. They probably make a killing when delays happen so why wouldn't they keep having them -- especially these days where all the travel company's stocks have kept falling since 911! Also, where has the quality of the airline gone? You go on a flight and you get nothing at all anymore. And someone like myself is almost forced to pay for a first-class ticket in the future because at 6'4, I have no room at all. It's like I'm a sardine stuck in a box! In the future, in North America at least, I want to just ride the roads and see America like that. I've had enough adventures at the airport for my lifetime. Overall I learned the art of patience yesterday. Something I've been trying to master for a long time. The magic of life is the times you wait for something to happen. I never realized that until yesterday.
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