Been a while;

Update:
I've been working a lot, was on the SS Kauai for amonth back in november, then got on the M/V Green Bay from early January until the end of March. That job kept me busy. the kauai just went from Oakland, to Honolulu, to Seattle, and back to Oakland. not too interesting, although i was on a 30 year old ship, and we were plugging blown superheater tubes in the starboard boiler every time we got into port. our main cargo was containers, but we also carry molasses. On the green Bay, we went from Honolulu to 3 cities in Japan, we stopped in the middle of the ocean to nearly kill me, the 3rd mate, deck cadet, and 2 A/Bs in a lifeboat... we continued on to 2 cities in Mexico, (dont expect me to remember their names, i never even got off there. I didnt want to anyway, what a shithole. We continued through the Panama Canal, stopped for a few hours in San Juan Puerto Rico, where the chief steward decided to just pack his bags and leave... and when we finally hit Jacksonville, we actually got some food on board so we didn't starve or get sick from the weevils... the cook was fired, and we got a new steward who wasn't any better than the last one.
"her" name was Vernon Thibeudeax. You know, you'd think with a cajun name like that, they'd be a pretty good cook, right? Wrong. I had sailed with her on the Matsonia a couple years ago, she was always in the captain's office, she refused to wear gloves while cooking or serving us food. the food she makes is always bland and plain. you have to douse the shit in salt and hot sauce to make it close to palatable. Have you ever seen Dane Cook's show with the office worker who's body is just... "shapes?" the one who keeps shifting like some amoeba, this weird lumpy body, all shapes, hard to tell if its a man or a woman. i told the oiler Ricky one day that "yeah i sailed with that steward before. she's no better than the guy who left" and his jaw dropped to the floor. as he was picking it up, i said "yeah, she's awful. always in the captain's office for one thing or another, always bothering the engineers because a hinge in her room is loose, or a light bulb burned out, or whatever" and he said, "SHE???!!" what do you mean she?? and i said oh yeah, the captain had to ask what sex she was. and she replaied "oh, no, sir, i'm a woman, i'm a woman" hilarious.

So from jacksonville, we headed to baltimore, newark, Rhode Island, Boston, back south to Savannah, jacksonville, and finally Houston, where i couldn't stand it anymore and quit. they were going to head over to 10 nasty ports in the middle east, and i wasn't going to have any of that. Especially with Richard Phillips as captain. drills drills drills. and then he'd probably let some pirates aboard because they claimed to be starving refugees, and  even give them the keys to the ship, and set off in the lifeboat again....
That was a car carrier, aka "ro-ro" (roll on, roll off) and we carried all jsubarus, mazdas, and suzukis from japan. on the east coast, we loaded up brand new caterpillars, plus lots of used ford explorers and lexuses.... made me proud to see a couple things that the US makes better than anyone else. those black people sure do love ford explorers and 2-door lexus cars with 30" rims.... My ex-girlfriend was t-boned by some nigger with a ford explorer sittin on 22's... totaled her 71' BMW, when the prick decided to do a left turn on a red light while she was cruising through the intersection at 35 MPH... and of course, they didn't have insurance because he had spent the rest of his money on his chrome rims because respect in the hood of LBC is more important.... what a waste.

So i just got back from New Orleans. It was my first time actually going into the city. I spent a summer in southern Louisiana working back in 08', but never got a chance to go to the city... i went there to ensure i got a job on the research ship, because i had to show them my paperwork. i had a pretty nice time though. the company reimbursed me for the flights and the room. I wasn't impressed with Bourbon Street, though. I liked Decatur street better. nicer place, felt more authentic. I hate going to places where its just amob of people walking around looking at all the other people and acting stupid because they were told that everyone has a good time there..... its like that all over the place and i'm sick of it. especially San Francisco. i hate how people don't understand when i tell them that the city is ok, i prefer oakland though. they stop talking to me after that. not that people really talk to me anyway. i went on a date with this girl i met recently at the cold war kids concert. we shared no more than 10 sentences of conversation the whole night. but she's the one who asked for my number in the first place, and set up the date and a cool bar/club. i kept asking her questions and  she would just start talking to someone else randomly at the bar. we went outside for a smoke and she became best buddies with a group of 4 dudes standing outside bumming cigarettes off me talking about everything under the sun. she asked me a few questions, but as i started to answer them, she would turn around and talk to someone else. But later she gave me shit for "having a vibe that says don't talk to me" and being weird, like how they show a serial killer in the movies. I laughed, i though that was soo typical of a girl like her to say. She stopped walking, and with this expression of fear on her face, she said "don't laugh like that. seriously. who are you?" and i just kept laughing... hahahaha. When she and her friends finally found a new place that was cool enough for them to be seen in, they proceeded to bum cigarettes and drinks off random people in the bar. There was a giant projector screen where a bunch of asians were having a street fighter video game championship. I had a beer, sat down at the bar, talked to the bartender, got bored and went home. Later this girl actually texted me asking if i made it home ok. i considered not responding, but i said "yup"... if i ever hear from her again it will be too soon....