Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
JCCC3 Cruise Journal / Day 8
When I got back from my vacation two months ago, I wanted to write
up my experiences and share my journal right away. But I got sick and
life sucked me back in and I wasn't able to overcome that and get back
to it. Until now. Posted in real-time fashion, I hope you enjoyed reliving
JCCC3 with me two months after the fact.
Day 8
[The journey's end.]
--------
Day 8
[The journey's end.]
Saturday, April 13, 2013
JCCC3 Cruise Journal / Day 7
When I got back from my vacation two months ago, I wanted to write
up my experiences and share my journal right away. But I got sick and
life sucked me back in and I wasn't able to overcome that and get back
to it. Until now. Posted in real-time fashion, I hope you enjoy reliving
JCCC3 with me two months after the fact.
--------
I have felt less uptight this year about meeting celebrities and new people. Maybe because I am meeting fewer? Maybe because I worry less about embarrassing Jessica than Matt? Or I know what to expect.
Oo, captain just came on to say we have to head to Nassau to drop somebody off. An interesting development on this cloudy, windy, slightly rainy day.
Day 7
I'm feeling tired at the moment. Blasé. And I got enough sleep. I just don't feel like doing anything. I feel bad about that. I just want to go home, and rest, and process. And this pen is making me sad. It worked so well yesterday during the talks. It's like it only wants to write tiny, and when you ask it to go big and fast, it can't handle the pressure. [I was writing with the Pentel Energel, by the way.]
I'm looking forward to going home to my friends I am used to seeing every day. My fiercely supportive Jen. My normal Ross. My funny and I get her and not too funny for me Becky.
I'm feeling tired at the moment. Blasé. And I got enough sleep. I just don't feel like doing anything. I feel bad about that. I just want to go home, and rest, and process. And this pen is making me sad. It worked so well yesterday during the talks. It's like it only wants to write tiny, and when you ask it to go big and fast, it can't handle the pressure. [I was writing with the Pentel Energel, by the way.]
I'm looking forward to going home to my friends I am used to seeing every day. My fiercely supportive Jen. My normal Ross. My funny and I get her and not too funny for me Becky.
I have felt less uptight this year about meeting celebrities and new people. Maybe because I am meeting fewer? Maybe because I worry less about embarrassing Jessica than Matt? Or I know what to expect.
Oo, captain just came on to say we have to head to Nassau to drop somebody off. An interesting development on this cloudy, windy, slightly rainy day.
Friday, April 12, 2013
JCCC3 Cruise Journal / Day 6
When I got back from my vacation two months ago, I wanted to write up my experiences and share my journal right away. But I got sick and life sucked me back in and I wasn't able to overcome that and get back to it. Until now. Posted in real-time fashion, I hope you enjoy reliving JCCC3 with me two months after the fact.
Day 6
[On this day at sea, I attended three straight hours of panels and podcast recordings. The following are my notes and quotes.]
Nerdist Writer's Panel
[You can listen to it for yourself here.]
John Roderick: Hard to tell sometimes how you make money as a writer (some things are for profit, some things are not)
Joseph Scrimshaw: Twitter=immediate validation
John Scalzi: Strategy is to say yes to all kinds of genres
John Roderick: At first worried was squandering limited amounts of creative energy on not song writing, but decided any writing was good. Throw out 80% of writing anyway.
Randall Munroe: [I transitioned by] doing less good at my job
John Scalzi: Don't believe in the muse
Bill Corbett: Reminds me that you can start writing like we start exercise, a little bit at a time
Joseph Scrimshaw/John Scalzi: If your first thing is awesome, well, that's the thing that pays your bills, like your day job now. It allows you to do the thing you love.
John Roderick: Argues the lack of struggle by self-publishing keeps us at the level of “good” and keeps us from honing our crafts to be “great”.
Joseph Scrimshaw: We still like finished/polished products, but we also like seeing how they got there in real time (a human thing)
Randall Munroe: There are the same amount of eyeballs out there (same amount of attention). It's divided up more. [implying the internet doesn't change the amount of information we consume, but it does spread our consumption out amongst many different sources]
Adam Bernstein: says not to edit so much, so you don't lose spirit of it
John Roderick: write now, edit later
Joseph Scrimshaw: Writes out crappy list of what he's actually going to do to get through rough patch
John Scalzi: Thinks the really good ideas are the ones you can remember, even if you fall asleep again without writing it down. [I am not so sure I agree with him on this point]
Quitter's Panel
[Angela Brett recorded many things on JCCC3, and has put together a youtube playlist of this panel]
Nicole Dieker: Says she is organized and had charts. If she could keep the line of profit/popularity above a certain point for a certain amount of time, then she could quit.
Joel Watson: You have to do it all wrong so you figure it out.
Recurring theme => Make a business plan. This is a business. Get a CPA, don't be your own lawyer, establish your business early to get credit.
Joel Watson: Phases: 1.) Get people to read it and tell their friends. 2.) Sell something. 3.) Thing X.
Christopher Badell: Worst case scenario, best case scenario, expected scenario => Know what to do in those cases so even good doesn't sink you.
Obsessed Podcast recording
[You can listen to it for yourself here.]
Joseph Scrimshaw: “collecting things inside your body...” (this is funny because eating is like this!)
Joseph Scrimshaw, to Phirman: “Have you ever tried doing the fastest, easiest things and seeing if it works?”
Wil Wheaton: Hard to make the same beer twice. Hate American beers, but have to give it to them for consistency.
Mike Phirman: Why would I use a short cut to do the thing I love to do? I love singing harmonies! Sometimes I sing them twice even though it's good the first time because I love singing it so much!
------
Also got sweet 2nd row seats today because Andrew, Sarah, Kate, and Jim got to the show early. Randall Munroe was cute and told dead-pan stories. His jokes were funny as he told about the ball pit in his house (left many questions unanswered for us) and what would have happened to John Roderick's plane [see reference to John Roderick telling a long story about flying planes on Cruise Day 3] on other planets. The Double Clicks were also so so adorable. Liked their sound. Wil Wheaton was Wil Wheaton-y. Loved his RoboCop bit.
We made it to the game room! Jessica and I played games with Matt and Laura and Blake. We played 2 games of Pandemic and lost [though it turns out we may not have been playing correctly], Ticket to Ride (I won), Tsuro (Blake won), and King of Tokyo (Jessica, the pacifist, won).
--------
Day 6
[On this day at sea, I attended three straight hours of panels and podcast recordings. The following are my notes and quotes.]
Nerdist Writer's Panel
[You can listen to it for yourself here.]
John Roderick: Hard to tell sometimes how you make money as a writer (some things are for profit, some things are not)
Joseph Scrimshaw: Twitter=immediate validation
John Scalzi: Strategy is to say yes to all kinds of genres
John Roderick: At first worried was squandering limited amounts of creative energy on not song writing, but decided any writing was good. Throw out 80% of writing anyway.
Randall Munroe: [I transitioned by] doing less good at my job
John Scalzi: Don't believe in the muse
Bill Corbett: Reminds me that you can start writing like we start exercise, a little bit at a time
Joseph Scrimshaw/John Scalzi: If your first thing is awesome, well, that's the thing that pays your bills, like your day job now. It allows you to do the thing you love.
John Roderick: Argues the lack of struggle by self-publishing keeps us at the level of “good” and keeps us from honing our crafts to be “great”.
Joseph Scrimshaw: We still like finished/polished products, but we also like seeing how they got there in real time (a human thing)
Randall Munroe: There are the same amount of eyeballs out there (same amount of attention). It's divided up more. [implying the internet doesn't change the amount of information we consume, but it does spread our consumption out amongst many different sources]
Adam Bernstein: says not to edit so much, so you don't lose spirit of it
John Roderick: write now, edit later
Joseph Scrimshaw: Writes out crappy list of what he's actually going to do to get through rough patch
John Scalzi: Thinks the really good ideas are the ones you can remember, even if you fall asleep again without writing it down. [I am not so sure I agree with him on this point]
Quitter's Panel
[Angela Brett recorded many things on JCCC3, and has put together a youtube playlist of this panel]
Nicole Dieker: Says she is organized and had charts. If she could keep the line of profit/popularity above a certain point for a certain amount of time, then she could quit.
Joel Watson: You have to do it all wrong so you figure it out.
Recurring theme => Make a business plan. This is a business. Get a CPA, don't be your own lawyer, establish your business early to get credit.
Joel Watson: Phases: 1.) Get people to read it and tell their friends. 2.) Sell something. 3.) Thing X.
Christopher Badell: Worst case scenario, best case scenario, expected scenario => Know what to do in those cases so even good doesn't sink you.
Obsessed Podcast recording
[You can listen to it for yourself here.]
Joseph Scrimshaw: “collecting things inside your body...” (this is funny because eating is like this!)
Joseph Scrimshaw, to Phirman: “Have you ever tried doing the fastest, easiest things and seeing if it works?”
Wil Wheaton: Hard to make the same beer twice. Hate American beers, but have to give it to them for consistency.
Mike Phirman: Why would I use a short cut to do the thing I love to do? I love singing harmonies! Sometimes I sing them twice even though it's good the first time because I love singing it so much!
------
Also got sweet 2nd row seats today because Andrew, Sarah, Kate, and Jim got to the show early. Randall Munroe was cute and told dead-pan stories. His jokes were funny as he told about the ball pit in his house (left many questions unanswered for us) and what would have happened to John Roderick's plane [see reference to John Roderick telling a long story about flying planes on Cruise Day 3] on other planets. The Double Clicks were also so so adorable. Liked their sound. Wil Wheaton was Wil Wheaton-y. Loved his RoboCop bit.
We made it to the game room! Jessica and I played games with Matt and Laura and Blake. We played 2 games of Pandemic and lost [though it turns out we may not have been playing correctly], Ticket to Ride (I won), Tsuro (Blake won), and King of Tokyo (Jessica, the pacifist, won).
Thursday, April 11, 2013
JCCC3 Cruise Journal / Day 5
When I got back from my vacation two months ago, I wanted to write up my experiences and share my journal right away. But I got sick and life sucked me back in and I wasn't able to overcome that and get back to it. Until now. Posted in real-time fashion, I hope you enjoy reliving JCCC3 with me two months after the fact.
Day 5
Should have made this diary read something like “Captain's Log, Cruise Day 5...” Oh well, nothing a little editing couldn't fix!
Belly is much better! Meds + time + sleep = better. Still hurts a little, but I've eaten twice. Last night I was feverish during the JoCo Live Band Karaoke. It was bad.
St. Martin/St. Maarten was so much nicer than St. Thomas yesterday. (I couldn't even write about it at the time because it was so bad.) Nice, air-conditioned bus picked us up at the port and took us to a beach with nice views (even from the back row) and nice lounge chairs (with cushions! The way to go!) and umbrellas for $3 (definitely worth it and necessary). I walked along the beach a little, but mostly sat and read. It was warm and peaceful. We got lunch at a restaurant behind us with little picnic-ish tables under roofs. The ribs and chicken were good, as was the rum punch and french bread. The guy who took our order said “Bonjour” [we were on the French side of the island] and I responded “Bonjour” in the worst French accent ever. As in completely an American accent. My French is a little rusty, what can I say. It rained for a few minutes, but we were under the awning. Our cushions got a little wet, but we found if we flipped them over, it was better. Then we were mostly in the shade at that point.
The tour guide was friendly and helpful, and was from Nevis. I wanted to ask her if she knew my friend's husband [who is also from Nevis – it's not that big, so it's completely reasonable she may have known him or his family], but I'm too shy and there was never a good time.
I got to finish reading my book on the beach. It was relaxing enough just because I wasn't thinking about work or interpersonal relationships, but I could have stayed there all day walking in the waves or doing nothing at all.
At a gift shop back at the port, the clerk hit on me and when we left, and Jessica was like “sure, you're the pretty one,” teasing me something like that. I told her she was “the Money” since she gave me a quarter to buy my postcards. Then I realized I was showing cleavage and she was not and that probably was why he was all creepy / “don't hide your pretty face behind your glasses”, because I really didn't look that good after being sick and sweating in the sun all day:
Side note: Jessica talks to herself a lot. She says it's because she normally works alone all day.
Today we had the best ~2 hours yet on the ship, wandering around while most people were still on shore. We took pictures of the art, watched the FlowRider being fixed, and watched from the upper deck as the ship left port.
For the evening's entertainment, Joseph Scrimshaw's bit about playing James Bond the video game made me laugh so hard I cried. We got sweet 2nd row seats next to our new friend Andy because we got there early after our afternoon running around the ship.
[At this point, you may be speculating, as I was, about the root cause of my intestinal distress. I've got only one guess, from my Day 2 adventures, when I wanted to be like Anthony Bourdain and eat the native food:
Anthony Bourdain has had his fair share of eating regrets, though, too.]
--------
Day 5
Should have made this diary read something like “Captain's Log, Cruise Day 5...” Oh well, nothing a little editing couldn't fix!
Belly is much better! Meds + time + sleep = better. Still hurts a little, but I've eaten twice. Last night I was feverish during the JoCo Live Band Karaoke. It was bad.
St. Martin/St. Maarten was so much nicer than St. Thomas yesterday. (I couldn't even write about it at the time because it was so bad.) Nice, air-conditioned bus picked us up at the port and took us to a beach with nice views (even from the back row) and nice lounge chairs (with cushions! The way to go!) and umbrellas for $3 (definitely worth it and necessary). I walked along the beach a little, but mostly sat and read. It was warm and peaceful. We got lunch at a restaurant behind us with little picnic-ish tables under roofs. The ribs and chicken were good, as was the rum punch and french bread. The guy who took our order said “Bonjour” [we were on the French side of the island] and I responded “Bonjour” in the worst French accent ever. As in completely an American accent. My French is a little rusty, what can I say. It rained for a few minutes, but we were under the awning. Our cushions got a little wet, but we found if we flipped them over, it was better. Then we were mostly in the shade at that point.
The tour guide was friendly and helpful, and was from Nevis. I wanted to ask her if she knew my friend's husband [who is also from Nevis – it's not that big, so it's completely reasonable she may have known him or his family], but I'm too shy and there was never a good time.
I got to finish reading my book on the beach. It was relaxing enough just because I wasn't thinking about work or interpersonal relationships, but I could have stayed there all day walking in the waves or doing nothing at all.
At a gift shop back at the port, the clerk hit on me and when we left, and Jessica was like “sure, you're the pretty one,” teasing me something like that. I told her she was “the Money” since she gave me a quarter to buy my postcards. Then I realized I was showing cleavage and she was not and that probably was why he was all creepy / “don't hide your pretty face behind your glasses”, because I really didn't look that good after being sick and sweating in the sun all day:
Side note: Jessica talks to herself a lot. She says it's because she normally works alone all day.
Today we had the best ~2 hours yet on the ship, wandering around while most people were still on shore. We took pictures of the art, watched the FlowRider being fixed, and watched from the upper deck as the ship left port.
For the evening's entertainment, Joseph Scrimshaw's bit about playing James Bond the video game made me laugh so hard I cried. We got sweet 2nd row seats next to our new friend Andy because we got there early after our afternoon running around the ship.
[At this point, you may be speculating, as I was, about the root cause of my intestinal distress. I've got only one guess, from my Day 2 adventures, when I wanted to be like Anthony Bourdain and eat the native food:
 |
| the conch of doom |
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
JCCC3 Cruise Journal / Day 4
When I got back from my vacation two months ago, I wanted to write up my experiences and share my journal right away. But I got sick and life sucked me back in and I wasn't able to overcome that and get back to it. Until now. Posted in real-time fashion, I hope you enjoy reliving JCCC3 with me two months after the fact.
Cruise Day 4
It's no wonder I can't really get myself to talk to “celebrities” if I can't really get myself to talk to my new friends. I would rather have the opportunity to write out our communications and chose words carefully, until everything flips, and that becomes too slow to communicate all I want to share with you.
Tour on St. Thomas was insupportable. “Here's a K-Mart”, “Here's a golf course.”
My belly still hurts, which is unfortunate.
Got to talk to Matt and check email and twitter. Hope hope hope I'm not wrong about AT&T coverage here... [I wasn't] Matt misses me, too. And that's nice. I hope he's not having too bad a time.
[Sick Rachel wasn't very journal-y. St. Thomas was super hot, smelled of exhaust, and had really bumpy roads for a sick person riding in a trolley. I was very grateful for phone access, though, so at least there was that.]
--------
Cruise Day 4
It's no wonder I can't really get myself to talk to “celebrities” if I can't really get myself to talk to my new friends. I would rather have the opportunity to write out our communications and chose words carefully, until everything flips, and that becomes too slow to communicate all I want to share with you.
Tour on St. Thomas was insupportable. “Here's a K-Mart”, “Here's a golf course.”
My belly still hurts, which is unfortunate.
Got to talk to Matt and check email and twitter. Hope hope hope I'm not wrong about AT&T coverage here... [I wasn't] Matt misses me, too. And that's nice. I hope he's not having too bad a time.
[Sick Rachel wasn't very journal-y. St. Thomas was super hot, smelled of exhaust, and had really bumpy roads for a sick person riding in a trolley. I was very grateful for phone access, though, so at least there was that.]
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
JCCC3 Cruise Journal / Day 3
When I got back from my vacation two months ago, I wanted to write up my experiences and share my journal right away. But I got sick and life sucked me back in and I wasn't able to overcome that and get back to it. Until now. Posted in real-time fashion, I hope you enjoy reliving JCCC3 with me two months after the fact.
Again, thought some things I wanted to write this morning while lying in bed, but didn't move because deemed sleep more important. Now regret it, as don't remember.
It bugs me that sometimes I can't figure out what I want to do. I have all these things in my head that are things I should do, and I suggest them to the “Want to do” calculation committee, but I'm never sure if that's what I want to do. A lot of times I know I want to write, but what? I know I want the results to be blog posts or neat things, but writing generally happens best when you have the idea and then choose to write to deal with the idea.
Ah, two things come to mind: 1.) Writing because you have to vs. because you want to, and 2.) the idea of a color-changing temperature guide that you put in hot drinks to determine if you can drink it or you will burn your tongue.
On the latter, Jessica says I should write a blog post on it. I can see the video in my head now: “Always burning your mouth on coffee that's way too hot?” (Insert clip of person drinking then pulling back with burnt mouth, hand comes up.) “Tired of not being able to taste for a week because your tongue is burnt?” (People nodding with wrinkled noses.) “Did your over-eagerness to eat cause you to shovel risotto into your mouth before it cooled?” (Person spitting risotto back onto their plate.) “Then you need Mouth Savers (or other name, perhaps one that is cooler-sounding)! The tool to take the temperature of your food and drink before you dig in! Mouth Savers' unique color-changing technology allows you to know when your food is just right. (Goldilocks! That's what we'll call it!) The patent-pending design changes colors to let you know when your food goes from 'Too Hot!' to 'Just Right!'”
On the former, I had a thought last week about how I know what that means now, and I can see examples of it in my life. [With this I'm referring to the idea that I've heard a lot of professional writers bring up, which is that to really be a writer is to write because you have to, not because it sounds fun to do. Not to write for the money, or the notoriety, but because you have to get that stuff out of your head. And only after you're going to be doing it anyway, to care about the other stuff. That's all highly paraphrased of course.]
Mike Phirman was fun in concert, I might look into a few of his songs. John Roderick gave the best performance of his I'd seen yet. He started off with a long story about flying planes. He also played a new song for us, saying he wanted to for all we've done for him. It was great because he told us that a few of the performers had taken a pledge to work up some new material for the cruise, and he himself had been in a bit of a writing drought for awhile now. Zoe Keating was great, but unfortunately many of us were sleepy. I wish that sounded like more of a compliment, because really, bad music doesn't put you to sleep, it puts you on edge. Great string music relaxes me and makes me peacefully sleepy. She must have a complicated set up for her looping.
Had a belly ache all day today, so took a lot of down time. Did a lot of reading, so that was nice. Maybe it's best since start time is 8am tomorrow, plus excursion on St. Thomas. Our towel animal today was unidentifiable. Small head, two tails.
--------
Day 3- Feel terrible, and lots of waves, but getting by.
- Calf muscles still sore
- But 100% not sunburnt, so there's that!
Again, thought some things I wanted to write this morning while lying in bed, but didn't move because deemed sleep more important. Now regret it, as don't remember.
It bugs me that sometimes I can't figure out what I want to do. I have all these things in my head that are things I should do, and I suggest them to the “Want to do” calculation committee, but I'm never sure if that's what I want to do. A lot of times I know I want to write, but what? I know I want the results to be blog posts or neat things, but writing generally happens best when you have the idea and then choose to write to deal with the idea.
Ah, two things come to mind: 1.) Writing because you have to vs. because you want to, and 2.) the idea of a color-changing temperature guide that you put in hot drinks to determine if you can drink it or you will burn your tongue.
On the latter, Jessica says I should write a blog post on it. I can see the video in my head now: “Always burning your mouth on coffee that's way too hot?” (Insert clip of person drinking then pulling back with burnt mouth, hand comes up.) “Tired of not being able to taste for a week because your tongue is burnt?” (People nodding with wrinkled noses.) “Did your over-eagerness to eat cause you to shovel risotto into your mouth before it cooled?” (Person spitting risotto back onto their plate.) “Then you need Mouth Savers (or other name, perhaps one that is cooler-sounding)! The tool to take the temperature of your food and drink before you dig in! Mouth Savers' unique color-changing technology allows you to know when your food is just right. (Goldilocks! That's what we'll call it!) The patent-pending design changes colors to let you know when your food goes from 'Too Hot!' to 'Just Right!'”
On the former, I had a thought last week about how I know what that means now, and I can see examples of it in my life. [With this I'm referring to the idea that I've heard a lot of professional writers bring up, which is that to really be a writer is to write because you have to, not because it sounds fun to do. Not to write for the money, or the notoriety, but because you have to get that stuff out of your head. And only after you're going to be doing it anyway, to care about the other stuff. That's all highly paraphrased of course.]
Mike Phirman was fun in concert, I might look into a few of his songs. John Roderick gave the best performance of his I'd seen yet. He started off with a long story about flying planes. He also played a new song for us, saying he wanted to for all we've done for him. It was great because he told us that a few of the performers had taken a pledge to work up some new material for the cruise, and he himself had been in a bit of a writing drought for awhile now. Zoe Keating was great, but unfortunately many of us were sleepy. I wish that sounded like more of a compliment, because really, bad music doesn't put you to sleep, it puts you on edge. Great string music relaxes me and makes me peacefully sleepy. She must have a complicated set up for her looping.
Had a belly ache all day today, so took a lot of down time. Did a lot of reading, so that was nice. Maybe it's best since start time is 8am tomorrow, plus excursion on St. Thomas. Our towel animal today was unidentifiable. Small head, two tails.
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