It finally happened.  After many cruises on different ships, I’ve seen the dolphins, and they were glorious.  I had port manning this last cruise (for non-ship folk this means I have to stay on board in every port) and I was determined to catch a glimpse of flipper and his gang.  I went up on deck as we sailed out of La Paz and I decided I wasn’t leaving until either the sun went down or I saw a dolphin.  About 1.5 hours later, there they were.  Being the idiot that I am, I didn’t get any pictures, but, a friend of mine did, so as soon as I get them from her, I’ll post.  They were awesome.

More later,

James

It’s been a while since I’ve written, mostly because I haven’t had anything too exciting to write about.  Life on a cruise ship can get monotonous and I just haven’t had too many stories to tell.  Things are still good, though.  I’m getting more opportunities that I could possibly ask for to work on my jazz improvisation.  The better I get, the more I want to learn so it’s been a self perpetuating endeavor so far.

The weather has been beautiful and I don’t see myself getting sick of it anytime soon.  Cabo San Lucas is usually pretty toasty, but I don’t mind.  I’ve posted a few pics on facebook, because I’m having a hard time with the upload speeds on the free wi-fi that I pick up in the ports.  I hope to be taking more pics soon as my buddy and I have plans to visit the San Diego Zoo and maybe take a shore excursion in Cabo in the near future.

That’s all I have to report for now.  Hope you’re all well and Happy Columbus Day!

James

Just buy a Maxtor OneTouchPlus 4 hard drive. It has a really cool feature that freezes your system anytime you try to transfer files to it, giving you the only option to force shutdown your computer with the power button. It’s great.

In other news, things have been okay out on the high seas. I’ve spent a lot of time practicing things I’ve always wanted to work on such as ear training exercises and improvisation.  For the ear training I’ve been trying to do a lot more playing by ear.  I’ve also tried to spend about 30 mintues a day with the ear training software MacGamut.  In addition to the ear training I’ve spent my free time listening to different jazz albums in my iTunes collection.  Right now I’m picking out a few solos to transcribe and listening to them over and over so I can get them in my ear before trying to learn them on the horn.  I’ve decided I’m going to take the advice of so many teachers and friends and learn each solo by ear before writing it down.

I guess that’s all I have to report for now.

James