I was looking for ideas on what to blog about since I’ve been pretty stagnant recently, and so I was surfing my friend, Tina’s blog. Haha. I always get good ideas from her… But anyway, I realized she had tagged me in one of her posts and this is it…

Well no offense to the other people who have done this before, but I’m going to stay away from the cliches of what makes us feel blessed. Haha. I just want to be unique…

1. My laptop. Enough said.
2. Getting a bartending job. Oh man I was really discouraged for a long time when every place I applied to expected years of experience. Which I think is idiotic… Every place requires experience, but no one’s willing to give it. But anyway, thanks to Cruise Toronto for taking a chance on me. I’ll be even more thankful when I finally get a real bartending shift (like… serving real alcohol).
3. That Eman finally convinced me to try Sushi.. It’s really opened up a whole new world of food for me.
4. Music. I like music.
5. Grey’s Anatomy. The Unit. And House.

Ok I actually don’t have much to say. So. I’m just going to finish here. Now’s the time when I’m supposed to tag some people. But I’m kind of a blog looser, and I don’t have many friends who blog. So I’m just gonna tag my cousins… Bianca, Eling, Panchang, Enzo.

As I always do when I have a bunch of random things to write about… I list. Here it is…

1. I’m picking at the massive scab on my right leg, even though I promised myself I wouldn’t… What was I thinking? Of course I’m going to pick at it. Who cares if it scars… I think scars are actually cool. But anyway. I got it when I fell, rollerblading. It’s huge… About 4 inches tall, and 2 inches at it’s widest point… Actually, it’s kind of shaped like a diamond..
2. I’m in awe of Google Apps right now (http://www.google.com/a/). I’m using it to make the entire Torchbearers Philippines website thing.. I get to use GMail for the @torchbearers.ph emails, which is good, plus on top of it all, I don’t have to pay for anything now, except for the domain. I’m not very impressed with the website creation tools though, hopefully they’ll do something about that. What would be really REALLY amazing, is if they somehow integrated Blogger into it. If so, man I can probably even create @excelstillmore.ca emails, or @ichthus.ca emails. That’d be sweet. Problem is: I’d give up on PHP altogether. LOL.
3. I secured some piano students for the summer… 2 of my School of Music students are going to stay on, which provides me with extra income. What’s even better: they want morning lessons! Oh man how sweet is that. I won’t have to ask my boss at Cruise Toronto for any days off, which means I can work as many hours as she can give me.
4. I finally watched the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy today. Oh my… What can I say.. Actually, nothing. I can’t wait for the next season to start, gah.
5. It worked out really well that next week I’m not scheduled to work on the ship. I have some serious practicing to do for the concert on June 3. That reminds me, I need to make a facebook group for that.

Bah, I have alot more things to write about, I know. But I’m feeling really lazy right now. Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow…

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been 10 days since I last posted something. That has to be the longest I didn’t post anything on my blog (except for the 1-2 years I was starting it up, and I was in BC too).

Anyway. It’s really weird how busy I’ve been for not having a lot to do. The whole of last week seemed to really just pass by so quick. But yes, what I came on to talk about was my work – on Cruise Toronto, not really anything else, cause I don’t have much time until I have to start work – on TEC.

Yesterday was my first bartending shift. Although.. Yeah well, I was tending a bar. Except, there was no alcohol in it. It was a high school prom of some private school. So it was pretty… dry. In all the sense of the word. It was a good learning experience for me though. Or well, I should say familiarization time. Cause really, what I was most worried about starting on the bar wasn’t even the whole serving alcohol deal. It’s the whole figuring out the soft-drinks gun thing (the spout thing that shoots pop, juice, and bar mix).

I feel confident that I know where those mixes are now, so I think I’m really ready for my first real bar shift. Which actually isn’t for 2 more weeks (I have no shifts scheduled at all next week).

I worked 3 straight cruises now with Cruise Toronto. Each one of them weird and different. The first one was a 21st Birthday party, which I was a waiter in, which is best described as a drunk fest. Idiot rich college kids… The next one was, amazingly, an Internet Porno Convention. LOL. Well. Not so much a convention – aparently there was a Porno convention in Toronto. And these people handle like internet porn and stuff.. They were mostly techies though – background folks. But yes, there were a few porn stars there (not that I know who they are… but it was pretty easy to distinguish which ones were porn stars, and which ones were background tech people). I was a waiter for that one too. But anyway. Weird as that cruise was, weirdest was how… subdued those people. I would have thought that it would be more like the drunk college fest. But nope. It was pretty quiet. They weren’t drinking much alcohol even though it was an open bar. I’d be there was just as much tea and coffee drank as Alcohol. Oh, another weird thing about it – lol, the band was a celtic band. They were pretty cool though.

Uhm. Yes. So that takes us to yesterday’s prom. Which wasn’t bad by the end of the night and people were dancing more (especially the teachers, lol). Something cool that happened – I met up with an old friend there… Well.. Actually an old camp kid. Man that really made me feel old. It’s this kid from my very first year working with parks and rec. He was 10 years old at the time, and I was 16. Now he’s 16 and i’m… well you can do the math. Yeah that was pretty cool.

Ok well I’m gonna stop here, cause it’s getting difficult to do this and work at the same time.

Updated: May 13, 2007

[ ] Appear in a TV Show or Movie[ ] Ask KC Concepcion out on a date[X] Become a Bartender[ ] Become Fluent in French[ ] Become Fluent in a 4th Language[ ] Buy a Car[X] Bunjee Jump[ ] Have children[ ] Get a bartending job on a cruise ship in the Bahamas[ ] Get my Philippine Citizenship back[ ] Go to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver[ ] Go to a Canadian National Park[ ] Go to an Ontario Provincial Park[ ] Go Winter Camping and sleep in an Igloo[ ] Get Married[ ] Graduate with Distinction[ ] Learn how to Salsa[ ] Learn Claire De Lune[ ] Learn CSS[ ] Learn PHP[ ] Run for Public Office[X] Surf[ ] Sky Dive[-] Swim in each of the Great Lakes    [ ] Huron    [X] Ontario    [ ] Michigan    [ ] Eerie    [ ] Superior[X] Take Public Transit in the Philippines by myself...[ ] Take the train across Canada[ ] Watch a Hockey Game during the Playoffs[ ] Watch a performance of Appalachian Spring (Ballet)[ ] Watch a performance by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra[X] Whale Watching[ ] White Water Rafting[ ] Write a Song, Record it, and film a music video for it

---

[-] Travel To    [ ] Africa    [-] Asia        [ ] China        [ ] Hong Kong        [ ] Japan        [-] Philippines            [X] Baguio City            [ ] Boracay            [ ] Cebu            [X] Mindoro            [ ] Siargao Island            [X] Tagaytay    [ ] Australia    [-] Europe        [ ] France        [ ] Germany        [ ] Italy        [ ] Spain        [ ] UK    [ ] Middle East    [-] North America        [ ] United States            [ ] Colorado            [X] Florida            [ ] Georgia            [ ] Hawaii            [X] Illinois            [X] Michigan            [X] New York            [ ] New Jersey            [X] Pennsylvania            [ ] Texas            [X] Washington            [X] West Virginia        [ ] Mexico    [-] South/Central America        [ ] Argentina        [ ] Caribbean        [X] Guatemala

So I was enjoying my nice meal with my friends… It’s Vera’s Birthday… Happy Birthday! Anyway, I realize that I didn’t have my wallet. Actually I realized it earlier when I had to pay for parking – which I normally do with my credit card. But anyway, I just happened to be telling my friend, Jan, that I didn’t know where it was, when I was told that the place we were going to afterward (Kareoke Bar) cards everyone that comes in.

Dillema of course. But we weren’t too worried. My experience getting carded is that people don’t pay attention. Plus of course, having taken Smart Serve myself, I know all the tricks of how to get past the questions people might have. We chose a guy in the party who looked closest to me and I used his Health Card to try to get it. Didn’t work. Bah. Stupid stupid stupid.

And where was my wallet? At church. I take it out of my pocket on leave it on the piano cause it irritates me when I’m a half inch taller on one butt cheek. Unfortunately, I didn’t grab it again afterward. So, instead of singing kareoke with my friends, I find myself driving home at 11:30PM with nothing else to do… Bah, the night was just beginning. But yeah, whatever. It was an alright evening.

I got my work schedule for the next 4 Weeks. Only 3 cruises. Which is alright… I guess. I made a good choice, keeping my calling shifts with TEC for the May Session (ends just when the craziness of cruise season begins). So I’ll still have an income through these next few weeks. But yes, the School of Music is also finishing up for the summer (1 last lesson each student). So everything is really just dying down. Ahh. I’m really looking forward to what will be my only vacation this summer.

Sweet. Well tomorrow, my plans are:

1. Make plans for my kids’ piano recital on Monday… Includes cancelling a doctor’s appointment I made for that day.
2. Finally clean my room – but not too much. Most of the mess in my room are school stuff, and I’m waiting for my paycheque from TEC and from Church to buy some organizer things that I’ll use to organize those.
3. Move all the movies I have in my external hard drive to the downstairs computer, to make room for the new taping I need to do tomorrow night (Grey’s Anatomy).
4. Mark my students’ theory work!!! Argh. Gotta do that before the evening.
5. Uhh.. I’m out of ideas. I need some sleep then maybe I can figure more things out here.

Ta da…. Ahh. I feel good. Oh yeah, I forgot, even though I’m done all my exams, I technically still have one left – that is, my bartending exam. Which I frigging have to do. I gotta really buckle down and study for this. But it’s ok, it’s for fun. Yahhhhhh.

Yah yah yah. I am officially… out done school… for the year. Ahhhiyeee.. I didn’t even care how I did in that last frigging exam, I JUST WANTED OUT! Of course that attitude will be changing in the next week or two as marks come in. But whatever. I’ll do better next year. LOL.

What my day was like yesterday is best captured in a facebook message I sent to a friend this morning:

• 5AM- woke up, had to go to the washroom. hey good thing I woke up this early, I should study… Nahh. went to bed instead.
• 9AM- woke up again, just randomly. study now? nahh, went back to sleep.
• 11AM- ok pretty much approaching the limits of how much sleep a person can have… whatgever, 2 more hours won’t hurt, went back to sleep.
• 1PM- Ok there’s no way I can sleep anymore now… I should study. Nahh went to a friends house.
• 4PM- back home, study now?? Nahh watch TV.
• 5PM- work.
• 7PM- a lesson is cancelled (piano lesson), good opportunity to study… nahh, just go home and watch TV.
• 8PM-1 more lesson to go.
• 8:30PM- no more work for the rest of the day… should study. watched TV instead…

Yes… All those references to studying had to do with an exam I have this evening… my last one of the year, horay. And probably the easiest History Exam I’d be doing too (because I actually went to lectures for this class).

Nonetheless, it’s still an exam, to which I need to commit some time to studying. I was supposed to start at 5AM this morning, but here’s kind of how that went…

• 4:30AM woke up early cause I slept ridiculously early the night before (on account of needing to wake up early to study). Not yet 5AM though, so went back to sleep.
• 4:45AM woke up again, still not 5, so went back to sleep.
• 5AM, alarm goes off, finally time to study… went back to sleep instead.
• 5:30AM, woke up… one last time… went back to sleep.
• 5:45AM, woke up… bah, ok I promise I’ll start at 6AM.
• 6AM, keeps promise, actually starts to study.
• 7:30AM, sick of reading. Goes to sleep.
• 8AM, sick of sleeping, goes down to eat some breakfast… a dozen buffalo wings from buffalo.
• 8:30AM, those were some wings… goes to watch a little tv.
• 9AM, feeling a little sleepy from all that food… goes to sleep.
• 9:30AM, ok I’ll study again at 10…
• 9:45AM, not 10 yet, go back to sleep.
• 10AM, ok fine, time to study…

Etc etc. Now I’m just takign a little lunch break at which time, I do feel the pressure on now to get some studying done, so I think I’ll actually do some more studying now. Meh…

Thanks to Abby for this…

—

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here’s how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie

—

Opening Credits:
More Than Useless – Relient K

Waking up:
When Did You Fall – Chris Rice

First Day at High school:
I Don’t Know Why – Nat King Cole

Falling In Love:
For the Beauty of the Earth (Hymn) – Chris Rice

Fight Song:
Revolution – Starfield

Breaking Up:
Huwah Na Huwag Mong Sasabihin – Kitchie Nadal

Prom:
Night Rain – Jim Brickman

Life:
I Can’t Let Go – Rivermaya

Mental Breakdown:
In the Mood – Big Daddy Orchestra

Driving:
One Pure and Holy Passion – Passion Band (Kathryn Scott, leading)

Flashback:
Where You Lead Me – MercyMe

Getting Back Together:
More Than I Could Imagine (Christian Song) – Ben Lockyer

Wedding:
Tragedy – The Bee Gees

Birth of Child:
Breaking My Fall – Jeremy Camp

Final Battle:
All That I Have Sown – Bebo Norman

Death Scene:
It’s Gonna Be Love – Mandy Moore

Funeral Song:
Thank You For the Blood – Matt Redman

End Credits:
The Lighthouse – Evan Smailes

—

Notes: I promise I did not cheat – otherwise, I would not admit to having any Mandy Moore songs in my music library (although I do find her incredibly hot). But anyway, my favourite are:

• Opening Credits: More Than Useless – Relient K… Haha, that’s so hillarious! And so true… uhmm.. kind of. LOL. Hey. I am more than useless…
• Flashback: Where You Lead Me – MercyMe… It’s kind of oposite… But hey it can work. Where you lead me… as a flashback. meh.
• Funeral Song: Thank You For the Blood – Matt Redman... I actually would like that song to be my funeral song now.
• End Credits: The Lighthouse – Evan Smailes… I didn’t even know this song existed in my music library, but now that i listen to it, I kind of like it.
• Wedding: Tragedy – The Bee Gees… LOL!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Oh man. I almost fell of my chair when that came up…

But my all time favourite is this… Driving: One Pure and Holy Passion – Passion Band (Kathryn Scott, leading)… LOL! Anyone who knows how I drive will agree that this is the song that I need to keep in mind when I’m driving. Haha. I think it’s a sign from God… a rebuke one would say about how I drive. First the little voice in my head telling me that what I’m doing is stupid, and now this.. Oh man, I’ll be driving like my dad soon…

Argh, I don’t even know how many mosquito bites I have… But they’re all very very iritating. Bah. All from a whole day spent at the harbour of course.. flies were everywhere. But other than that, the day was pretty fun.

Or wait, acutally it did start off pretty bad… or well, it started of incredibly uncomfortably at least. Our very first module was the life boat module… Which meant we had to put on them “key-hole life jackets” and get in a life raft. Uhm. Yah, life jackets – very restrictive, and uncomfortable. Life rafts – very wobbly and nauseating. I think it messed me up for the whole day, cause everytime I was on a boat, I felt really sick.

Anyway, I can’t remember in what order we did the modules but they were… EMS, Emergency Procedures, Security, Life Raft, Life Preservers/Rings, and my personal favourite the Fire module.

Hmm.. So The Life Raft and Life Preserver/Ring modules were essentially the same. Learn how to put on the life jackets/learn how to put it on someone. But the addition to the Life Preserve/Ring module is throwing the floating ring out… That was cool, I did it twice. The EMS one was pretty much useless to me since I’ve got my First Aid already – note to self, I gotta renew that – and the Emergency Procedure module was basically just talking about the different emergencies that we might come across … mainly man over board – because of aparently all of the idiots/drunks who decide they want to jump out of the boat and swim to shore or something (illegal by the way, they get arrested and are sent to 52 division). I already talked about the Life raft one.. But anyway, my favourites were the Security one, and the Fire one…

Post 9-11 of course, we got a little lecture on what to do in a violent situation like a terrorist threat. But the cool part – it was basically cool cause we weren’t expecting it, and it was actually a really good excercise – was this memory/recognition exercise that we did. Basically, we were told that we have about 30 yards to identify people who “do not belong” (aparently, we can identify people we know well, like family from 100 yards away). So we did this exercise where he partnered us with someone we didn’t know (ie, someone from another crew) and then told us to introduce ourselves to that person. Well smart aleck that I was, I realized that he was doing some kind of memory thing so I committed what the guy told me about himself to memory – he’s in the kitchen staff with Yankee Lady charters… LOL I forgot his name though. But anyway. So we then faced away form the person, and he changed things up on us. Instead of asking us the information I thought he was gonna ask us, he instead asked us to identify what the person looked like… Well I sucked at that. Although I actually did pretty good… I got the Red Hat, Black Sweater, Jean shorts, and his height – which he was about 2 inches taller than me. But then I mistakenly thought he had a goatee somehow.

Anyway, I just thought it was a cool exercise… Our last module was the fire one, which was what I was really looking forward to the whole day. We put out a real fire (controlled, of course, inside a pot) with a fire extinguisher, and we got to use a real fire hose (which I found out later wasn’t running on full power, though). But yeah, it was good way to finish the day off (oh we had an abandon ship drill afterward, but I was lucky enough not to have to get in to the life raft again).

Another good thing about today was how well I got to know my coworkers already.. From which I established who the bartenders are (there are 4 of us – 2 guys – though one of the guys is part time here and part time in another shipm and 2 girls… All of them have a ton more experience than I do). But yeah, I think it was good that we were all pretty much talking to each other quite a bit by the end of the day (although I still don’t know a few people’s names), which is a really big difference from waht I normally experience with the city. I think it’s cause here we were all brand new and didn’t know anyone, while with the city, there are typically cliques already that you need to break into to make “friends”.. lol.

I remember my first three years, I was pretty much a loner (first two were 2 different programs I trained for, and the third one was my first year as a coordinator). But my 4th and part of my 5th summer trainings were good. It’s amazing how many people you end up knowing after that many years working there. But anyway, the problem with my 5th summer training was that I switched programs again – into the worst one too in terms of pre-existing cliques, which was the Arts Staff training.

Eh, I don’t even know why I got into that. But yeah, I’m really really looking forward to the summer now. I think I mentioned that my first shift was on the 11th already, right? eh… It is… But I’m not bartending that day, I’ll be serving.. Plus I found out that it was a 21st Birthday Party… which is giving me doubts about tips, cause… well I’m 21, and I know how much I tip peoeple… But it was correctly pointed out to me that most likely, the people who would be at this party (ie, the kind of people who can throw a 21st birthday party on a charter boat), would probably have a little cash (cause the only reason I don’t tip well is cause I don’t have the money to tip well) to do it.

But yeah. whatever. yay. excited…

Well actually in training is more like it. Er, and not even that – just orientation really. I suppose I’ll get my training on the job. But anyway, this is my report on the Crew Orientation at my new job with Cruise Toronto, yesterday.

First of all, I didn’t want to say anything, but I actually felt a little sick on the boat while we were just sitting there, and the waves were rocking it a little. Duh, I think you mentioning that you felt sick on the boat you’d be working on for the summer might be a little hindrance to you. I’ve never had problems with boats though so I’m not worried. I felt sick pretty much all of yesterday. I think it maybe had something to do with something I ate, or just the fact that I only had like 4 hours of sleep the night before.

Wait. I think I lied. I think that was the night I had an amazing night’s rest – on account of the 2 benadryls I took to alleviate my suffering from the alergy tests I did on Wednesday. But meh, still I felt sick most of the day.

Anyway, the crew looks… pretty fun. I’m sure that’ll come out later on – they got hired for a reason right? But it certainly isn’t very much like training with the city where there’s some seriously jolly people. The ice breaker we played would have been a disgrace at any parks and rec training session, but it suited me fine. It wasn’t exactly the crowd to be playing “atom” with.

From that, we pretty much launched into the meat of the policies and procedures of the boat. Boring stuff, obviously. But all policies and procedures are. What I liked about it is, we did it all in one go, unlike what we do with the city, where they’d give us like… 20 minutes of policies, follkwed by like 20 minutes of “fun games” then 20 minutes of policies again. etc etc. Bah. That’s what turns Policies and Procedures from boring-but-you-gotta-pay-attention-cause-your-job-depends-on-it, to just simply unbearable.

The other thing too, though, I suppose, is I guess I felt more weight of responsibility here. I mean. When I write the emergency procedures at camp, I’ve got like… Staff with the kids playing games. Staff waiting for EMS to arrive, or something like that. Here, in a major emergency, we could be in the middle of the harbour, so our jobs are like… man the life rafts. Hand out life vests. etc. Some pretty weighty stuff.. I mean, not that having the responsibility for the safety of 40+ kids, isn’t weighty. But yeah…

Anyway, we also got a description of what “Safety Day” will be like. It’s this saturday, and it’s run by the Coast Guard, I think. But basically, all the real deal people will be there showing us the real deal stuff.. Toronto Fire, Police and EMS. We get to put out a real fire – with a fire hose, and with one of those mounted hoses, I think, I don’t remember exactly which one. And I think the finale is supposed to be an abandon ship drill, with however many people getting into life rafts (each one is holds 75 people).

Yeah I’m totally psyched for that. I just hope I don’t go into the water.

Hmm. Yeah so safety is a big deal. I’m seriously considering renewing my First Aid now, which I hadn’t planned on doing, really. I’ve taken what, 5 courses already in like 8 years. I don’t think I need to anymore, but meh, might as well. Certified is certified, and you never know if you’ll need it. Problem is, when I can do it. Don’t have cash right now… But it’s ok, I think it expires at the end of June. I just need to find time.

Hmm. As for the job itself – bartending. I relaly only have one concern. That’s the other (I’m not sure how many there are, but I can pretty much tell for sure that she is one) bartender. She’s a little older. She told us during the dull icebreaker that she has 2 daughters who were both prenant and due pretty soon I think. Why that concerns me is, the polar oposites that we are at. Here she is, veteran bartender with tons and tons of experience, and here I am, hot shot wanabe who just graduated from bartending school. She reminds me of my instructor at bartending school, by the way. Which is good, means I can learn lots from her. But duh, if there ever was a choice between who should take a shift on a cruise with a ton of people with a ton of drinks (meaning, potentially a ton of money to be made), then who are they gonna choose?

But, then again, what was I expecting? I’m a newbie, up and comer. I’ll work my butt off, and we’ll see how things go. Problem is, I really wish I had a better idea of how much money I would be making. My “materialistic-ness list” is probably getting thrown out pretty fast. Cause I think I need to buy a car. Bah. I’ll figure that out later on. But one thing is for sure, I’m sick of fighting my mom and my brother for the car…

Anyway. First cruise is on May 11. For which I’m actually just serving, not bartending. It makes sense. I can learn the ropes before I actually get behind the wheel (from what I can gather, it seems like the bartender is the heaviest duty there). But then again, here’s what I’m thinking. I think this may actually be counter productive to the experience I have already. Working the cash register (which the bartender has one, exclusively, while the servers share just 1) in a high volume, high stress time (uhh.. yah. Boxing Day at Old Navy? can’t get any higher volume, higher stress than that… specially since they allowed returns on boxing day). And of course, making drinks. Those I’ve actually done. While serving. Never… oh well, tea and coffee server at Capernwray of course. But yeah that’s pretty much it.

Ok anyway. I’m gonna go back to bed. I really need some rest.