@Sea-Picture Perfect

 How inappropriate to call this place Planet Earth because it is surely all ocean, 

When you sail on a cruise ship  around the world , you start to borrow happiness from tomorrow; not because there is anything wrong with it, but because you will never have had such experiences like this, and the nostalgia-the suffering of remembering the past-will always be part of your future thoughts. Today is a reminder of why I do it: That Blue Stuff

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Nassau-Ship Happens

Working on Ships Has Been A Real Life Saver And Life-Extension

I had an expression  "I haven't been everywhere, but it is on my list." This was the psychology of my "future self".

People  are works in progress who mistakenly think they are finished. Hint. That is not the case.

Yet the power of time transforms our values and shapes our lives and profoundly influence the people we are going to become- For example young sailors pay good money to get tattoos removed that teenagers paid good money to get. and as Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, in this TED Lecture adds, 
Middle-aged people rushed to divorce people who young adults rushed to marry. Older adults work hard to lose what middle-aged adults worked hard to gain. On and on and on. The question is, as a psychologist, that fascinates me is, why do we make decisions that our future selves so often regret?

Cultivating optimism is like plugging into the experience machine

 I am looking at some of my adventures, which were nothing more than bad planning! The ease of remembering versus the difficulty of imagining. I can remember who I was 4 years ago, but I find it hard to imagine who and where I am going to be.

The power of Now, wherever I go there I am-gets trumped by a false belief- an illusion that history, my personal history, has just come to an end, that I have  just recently become the person  that I was always meant to be and will be for the rest of my  life.  That I am STUCK on a ship.

Therefore, NOW--- the present is a magic time. It's a watershed on the timeline. It's the moment at which I  finally become my self. Nevertheless, we are all works in progress, and the person I am right now is as transient, fleeting and temporary as the person I have been. Cruising-living and working on a ship reminds me of this.

Today  Docked In Bahamas

 As I connect the dots, I am reminded of some previous versions of my "selves".

Seven Cruises I Had to Go on Before I Died

These next three links, however,  are before my LEFT brain got good at telling my RIGHT brain what to do:

An I For An Island- Living Well Is The Best Revenge

I think of my job as Art Director  as leading people to those moments of awe – ecstasy that overtakes you when you encounter a new idea, or place.  After all, the definition of ecstasy is that you are not doing your ordinary everyday routine....essentially stepping into an alternative reality...

Let The Orinoco Flow- One Year @Sea

In answer to the Question, "How long has he been drifting?"Celebrating One Year at Sea this week.It started in Rome Sweet Rome, then Santorini...I haven´t been everywhere, but it´s on my list...

Tranquility Base The Ego Has Landed

Space travel sure is fun. Greetings from the user-friendly universe---The Peoples Republic of Santa Monica;Home of The Mac Store, and Apple, the forbidden fruit.

First in January, I was in the Majik Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a bit like Mars.

         Then in February, I went to The Land of Smiles, Thailand, and walked on the moon.

              Finally, in March and April, I had my head in the clouds with The Helium Report, winning and losing the American dream in Macau every night, playing high-stakes no limit- poker, on The Hong Kong Express...

Here Are Some Of My Ships I lived and Worked On

Costa Atlantica-Who is driving the ship Capo (Schettino)
if you are here toasting champagne?Va Veni-Microsoft!

Celebrity Solstice- That's Greek To Me

Pacific Pearl P&O Australia 

Crystal Serenity- Why Pay Less?

Azamara Journey-Check Please

Golden Princess- Nature is More Cruise Ship Less

Princess Cruises-Alaska The GR8 Land

Royal Caribbean-Oasis of The Seas-
An Embarrassment of Coconuts

Disney Magic- As John DeLorean said "I'm going to Disneyland."

On The Disney Wonder looking at last years ship
that I was on, The Carnival Splendor that caught fire,

MSC Poesia- The  YOUniverse

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Bahamas-Castaway Cay

A Room With A Fake View (Inside Cabin)

The light version of Paradise-Hawaii, and reconstructed islands like Castaway, remind me of French Polynesia...

Travels In Hyper Reality-Tahitian Choreo-Musical Performances

Moorea in the distance

Outriggers-

One thing for sure, they all came by boat. So did I!

Reprint from World Cruise 2011 With less than 24 hours in port, the locals and locale  are living up to their sterotypes---the Tiki style roofs, the tropical gardens and swaying palm trees, and more than that, there is still the visual sovenier that, like the Postman, always delivers: The   beautiful  exotic Tahitian Princess with their down-to-the knees long raven hair ---hand-weaving leis  effortless, while wraping themselves  in water-colored flowered sarongs, in the post colonial suburb of Paris, known as modern day Papeete. As the  ukulele soundtrack in the background  is playing , I feel like I am on safari-- Polynesia cannot escape being a human zoo seeking to contain the lives of its star attraction--its 'first'and native  people.

It's A Small World After All

Marketing the definitive view of paradise

Playing the game of staged authenticity in the tourist themed spaces of Tahiti, while it is not the Mcdonald-ization of the South Pacific, it is playing more like a Disney animated feature film----Staged Authenticity! I feel even weird participating in the rituals of sightseeing and taking pictures--Even at the Gaugain Musuem, the pictures are fakes (They can't afford to preserve and curate the orginals). I have seen most of them around the world, mostly at the Hermitage in St Petersburg Russia of all places. But anyway the copies are better than the ABOrgininals!

The hyperreal world is the world of ‘the Absolute Fake’ where imitations do not only reproduce reality, but try improving it. The French artist Gauguin's  obsession with French Polynesia is still  working!!

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Bahamas-Vitamin Sea

I managed to make this year differently  by doing the same thing I did last year---sailing to The Bahamas, but not before a 6 month "break" in the Middle East. Today is Nassau, one big shopping mall
The video is from May 7th,2014, Castaway Cay,   or as I call It Cloud 10, the place I will return to tomorrow.

This private island in the Bahamas, is a Disney Cruise Line port of call. In answer to the question: "When Is The Copy Better Than The Original?" This would be it
.
I am not talking about staged authenticity, like my visit to Papette Tahiti. Most designers spend their time creating shopping malls. Re-creating the island paradise, however, is admirable.

Once used as a stop for drug smugglers.Think “Snow White” or “White Snow” . There is an airstrip on the island, but it is no longer in regular use nor maintained (I shot some video on July 4,2012, a previous visit) .It's unusual isolation becomes, in its own way, a paradise-somewhere in the Bahamas.

It is not Gilligan's Island but it has also been used for filming; the beach where Tom Hanks first encounters Daryl Hannah in Splash is on the island.

Jan 21,2013-Last Visit Castaway Cay-Cloud 10

I no longer live on Cloud 9. I leveled up

Airplanes are like diets, I don’t like being on them. Float planes however (you know flying boats) are the exception. This summer in Alaska, I got a business class ticket to cool, with complimentary mojo on takeoff.

This landing strip is the only thing   aviational besides the staged authenticity-wrecked prop planes on Disney’s Castaway Cay.

I used to live on Cloud Nine in the People’s Republic of Santa Monica, riding my carbon fiber bike 100 miles a day down the Venice Beach strand through  the boat yard of Marina Del Rey, and out towards Manhattan Beach.  It gave me an energy and enthusiasm and natural high that begged the question “What are you on?” I was simply on my bike.

Environments create mood, and  Starbucks, Yoga,  drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juices and good sunny weather  created fuel for thought. This   west coast life style suited me well. It gave me momentum towards a greater something.  

That something became a move to Cloud 10, sailing the seven seas on cruise ships.

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