Tiny Hoonah

I like a good cup of coffee, but am also pretty tolerant about drinking whatever gets called by that name. This ship claims to be serving Italy's Best. If true, something is wrong with Italy's taste buds. I am literally mixing it 50/50 with hot water, and it's still strong.

Have never liked fees that trap people who don't know they are there. The worst of these is shipboard cellular. Suppose you are an American with a fine phone plan. You wisely kept your device off when in Canada, and then started using it again once you hit Alaska. That would be logical, but the trap has struck. Likely your smartphone will be merrily using the on board cell tower, and you are incurring big extra charges. It could add up to hundreds of dollars very quickly, and you wouldn't know until your next bill shows up. No plan covers these hidden charges.

Speaking of cell phones; I have both a Canadian plan and an account with a US carrier for whenever we're in the states. My device is an iPad, so they are both data-only plans, and my American is one where I only pay for what I need. Actually, part of it is free as they "give" me 200 megabytes a month. Yesterday I popped out my Canadian nano-sim and put in the Yankee one in preparation of arrival at our first American port-of-call.

Now I'm ashore and cannot get any cellular hookup. My US company is T-Mobile, and all there is here in the largest American state's airwaves is AT and T, and American companies refuse to play nice with one another. It is going to be this way for our entire time in Alaska.

Today it was a stop at "Icy Strait." This is an old fish cannery decked out to entertain cruise ship passengers. The actual town is about a mile away out of sight, and isn't a town at all; it's a village. Its name is Hoonah.

I didn't do any kind of tour, or even a shopping/museum visit to the cannery. Instead, I went for a run. To make it worthwhile, I settled on about an 8km distance. After riding the tender to the cannery, I headed off towards Hoonah. Passed all the landmarks; the hardware store, the school, the post office, the park station, and part way to the airfield. My fitbit told me it was about 4km, so I turned back and did it again all in reverse.

By this time, there were clumps of cruisers wandering around after having taken the shuttle bus over. They were literally standing with nothing to do, or wandering with nothing to do.

On the way out, passing local vehicles had ignored me as I was clearly a cruise person, and a weird, running one at that. On the way back, every driver waved at me or at least nodded. I guess they couldn't take the chance that I was a local who deserved a greeting, even if they couldn't quite place me.

So I got back, rode the tender to the ship, and was alone. All my buddies were off doing something somewhere. Pulled on my swim suit, headed to deck ten, and hopped into the indoor pool. It is magnificently heated and full of nozzles and bubbles. Truly a pool after my own heart.

Now I'm gazing out through a glass wall, drinking coffee, and wondering when my people will re-appear.

We've been here in Hoonah over a half-dozen times, and this has been my favourite visit. The run, and swim, and sit is a lovely and relaxing combination.

Tomorrow is Skagway day, and I've been running there for years. It just might be two favourite days in a row.

On the Recent Cruise

This cruise is the first we've done to Alaska of ten days duration. As a result, the line feels obligated to come up with a few more port stops than are experienced in a one-week voyage.

We'll be hitting all the basics; a glacier, Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. The two additions they've come up with are pretty cool.

Tomorrow, our very first stop will be at Sitka. It's very cute little place with a very Russian history. It used to be the capital city. Helen and I have been cruising up this way over a dozen times, and have only been there twice, on our 1st and 3rd voyages. We've done annual trips here with good friends for at least a decade, and they still haven't visited Sitka.

I wonder how it will have changed.

The other added stop with be in Canada at the city of Victoria. It's a little funny, as we used to live there. It is the place of my birth. On every other Alaskan cruise, Juneau is the biggest city. Victoria dwarfs it.

It will be strange to visit Victoria as tourists from a cruise ship.

This ship has the best ice cream. There is one poor bastard in the kitchen who makes all that they serve. Of course, they have the usual types, but nothing is better than the ginger.

If any evening rolls around where I just can't face a big plate of perfect food, I can go to the big sushi section at the buffet dining area. Nothing wild there, mind you, but infinite amounts of decent maki and basic nigiri. Quite near the ice cream, actually.

There are the usual pools and hot tubs onboard, but the indoor pool is special. It is heated almost to hot-tub level, is salty, and has a bunch of powerful jets and nozzles. Helen wants to frolic there every day. Now, if my ship-provided bath robe were only a few sizes larger. Helen's is identical, and fits to a tee. Mine is a mini skirt.

They have superior treadmills in the gym, with one strange flaw. While you run, there are a few entertainment options to try and keep your brain alive. You can play music, watch TV, or do my favourite.

There is a lovely scenic video of a route around a sandy lake in what seems to be California. As you work out, you are presented with what seems to be a point-of-view of a person heading down a trail. The weirdness is that the video is in no way synchronized to your pace. At a walking speed, the video is quite delightful. If running, it is a tad comical as you find yourself being passed by strollers, and by tiny puppies.

The fitness and spa department is all strangely contracted out on this ship, and not run by the cruise line at all, and is pretty lame. Doing something like that is usually a way to pay the staff even less than on other lines. It shows. The fitness people seem very un-motivated. The setup is even weird. Most ships have a spa desk manned with uniformed, professional, and perky staff. Been here almost a week, and through that area every day and I don't have a clue where one would go to book a haircut or massage. On board ships I sometimes get barber shaves, depending on my mood and the price. Nobody here to ask.

It is physically a very attractive vessel. Our most recent cruises have been with Princess, and although the ships were actually very new, every design choice seemed to have been made with our parents' generation's tastes in mind. Beige prevailed. This ship looks modern in every aspect.

We have been on about 20 cruises, of lengths of 3, 4, 7, 14, and 15 days duration. 3 and 4 day trips are just too short. A week is the standard, but is also just short of satisfying. Two weeks or more are great, but somewhere near the end a heavy and weary feeling starts to settle in.

This cruise is 10 days, and I predict it will be the perfect duration.

Three or Four

I love, love, love to travel. I also love Jiu-Jitsu, and sometimes the two are in conflict.

I like planning things ahead, and have been doing so for both vacations and for my Jiu-Jitsu progress in rank.

Up until now, there has been no insurmountable difficulty.

To be promoted in Jiu-Jitsu, there is a minimum 8 month training period. There are also minimum attendance requirements of various types. Most are very easy to fulfil, but the total of 90 advanced classes can be tricky. The third requirement is having your instructor decide you're ready. Mine seems pretty happy with me, so it's really only time and class attendance I have to concern myself with.

Vacations don't stop the days from rolling by, so time-in-rank isn't an obstacle. Class attendance can be.

Up until now, I've had no serious difficulty with this. Sometimes it has been kinda close, but not a problem. I've had an eye on my next couple of promotions, and there is no difficulty for those two, either.

Today, I took things much farther into the future. I've plugged in the most likely travel scenarios.

After receiving a Purple Belt, each of the next four stripes could arrive 8, 16, 32, and 40 months later.

For the first stripe at 8 months, I will not complete my attendance requirement in time, and it will require an additional 3 months. Of course, this moves the timetable for all subsequent promotions back as well. Instead of 8 months, it will come at 11 instead.

For the second stripe, which was to have been at 16 months, there will be no further slippage, so it will also be 3 months back. This one will come at 19 months.

The 24-month third stripe will slide further to an extra 4 months, and the 32 month stripe further still for a total of an additional 6 months. They will come at 28 and 38 months respectively.

That's half a year, and looks like this slippage will continue for all higher ranks as well.

I'm not crazy about how this looked to be turning out, but am ever optimistic. There may be no slippage at all.

An upcoming issue at our school is how to present the curriculum. There is going to be a 50% increase in what we cover very soon. We are currently doing levels 1 and 2 together, section by section, every two weeks. Level 3 will be available soon.

People are managing now, but only barely. Possible solutions after the increase in curriculum could be to perhaps add a third week to every section. That would work, but it would make the entire training cycle jump from about 14 months to 21. That's an awfully long time.

The option that our instructor is currently considering has our main class continuing with levels 1 and 2 at the current pace, and that we add a class to the timetable to concentrate on level 3 for those who want to work on it. Instead of three advanced classes per week, there would be four.

Plugging 4 classes per week into my prediction changes everything. In that paradigm, every one of my future promotion dates will work out at the minimum, regular 8 month intervals.

It would be swell if that's how it goes. At three classes a week, the last Purple Belt stripe would come 38 months after first receiving the belt, compared to 32 if we go to four.

6000 calories

Cruise ships are very dangerous.

A person can get very fat. The rule of thumb is a pound a day. I've always thought that sounded very high, so I decided to figure it all out.

Take a typical day.

Up for early coffee, and a single chocolate croissant.

Breakfast of bacon and eggs and taters and toast. More coffee, and juice, and perhaps a danish.

I don't put butter or jam on anything, but I do put sugar in my coffee.

Lunch. For me; perhaps two dishes of custom-cooked pasta. A few scoops of ice cream, and two glasses of lemonade.

No more until supper, which consists of a shrimp cocktail, and some other appetizer. Entree? Let's make it the last meal I had on board; big pork dish, with a bit of potato and some veggies. Desert? Creme Brule and chocolate cake.

Add it up. It's about 6000 calories. I burn about 2500 on a low-activity kinda day, so I am about 3500 over.

Every 3500 calories eaten or burned is about a pound of weight gained or lost. The rule of thumb looks to be right on.

There are exceptions, of course.

This time it was a ten-day cruise, so a potential ten pound gain.

Before we left, my weight was 173.4 pounds. My first day back had me up to up to 179.7 pounds. A measly 6.3 pounds gain.

I'm down to 176.1 after 2 days, so only 2.7 real pounds of gain. I was pretty active on this cruise. I ran on the treadmill several times for about 6 miles a go, and 8 km ashore at Hoonah. Helen and I went out dancing most nights. There were also many miles of walking both on ship and ashore.

The excess weight won't last long. We got home just in time for me to go to open mat at Jiu-Jitsu, and on Saturday I was there again, and biked ten km getting to town and back for groceries, and ran 8 km more. Today was lazier; did another 8, km but nothing more.

Haven't been eating anything like I did on the ship.

Every so often I fantasize about one of the lovely 115 day round-the-world cruises. If I gained at the rate I did this time, I just might weigh something around 250 pounds.

I'd rather that didn't happen, so I shall keep world cruises securely within the realm of fantasy.

On the Boat

I hate it when somebody tries to get nickles and dimes out of me.

Cruise ships have been doing that more and more.

Twenty years ago we did our first cruise. They had a bunch of exercise classes every day, and even had a program where you could earn tshirts and water bottles for participation. Classes were packed, and everybody was having fun.

Over the years, the number of free classes has been steadily dropping and being surplanted with pay-as-you-go activities. Now there are yoga and Pilates instead of generic fitness classes, all with additional fees.

On our last few cruises the last aerobic classes without extra fees were Zumba ones. These were so popular that they wouldn't fit into the fitness centre at all and were held in one of the big show rooms. There were be a hundred people crammed in compared to a dozen at any of the paid sessions.

Alas, this is no more. Our current cruise has Zumba classes only every other day, and they carry a fee, and fit easily into the fitness centre. There are no aerobic classes without additional fees remaining.

In order to make a few dimes, the cruise line has killed off their entire highly-popular fitness program. Funny thing is they don't have the price of the fitness classes posted anywhere. You have to ask, and therefore receive the sales pitch. Gotta love that.

They do still have complimentary stretch classes once a day. That's where you sit, unmoving, on the floor. Quite a workout. Only a matter of time before they are paid, too.

Am I just cheap? Nope. To go to one class a day would bump the price of the cruise up about a hundred bucks. When we're booking a cruise, a price difference of several hundred dollars has absolutely no influence on which we choose. Being hit with petty, little charges does. Next time we book, if this line has a price $200 less than the others, I'd pick any of the others due to this petty charge policy. I'd happily pay a little more to get a truly all-inclusive feel.

Carmagedon

Surely you remember the cars of the 1960s; big, powerful, wasteful, and covered with fins. A lot of car fanciers consider that the heyday of automotive culture. It was also a decade of bloodbath, literally.

The same year that a man walked on the moon, the American automotive death rate peaked at over 26 deaths per 100,000 of population.

Things have improved slowly over time. The current rate is a shade over 10 deaths. In Canada, where we drive the exact same kinds of cars, the rate is 6.

In the States, people arm themselves to the teeth in an attempt to protect themselves from violence and crime, but don't give a thought to automotive safety. This is ass backwards, as they are twice as likely to be killed in a car as to be murdered.

How easy would it be to cut that automotive death rate even further? People could modify the way the drive, or start selecting vehicles that are safer, improve roads, or institute safety laws. All of these are a big, inconvenient bother.

There is something else about to happen that will do it automatically.

Self driving cars and trucks are about to take the road in commercial numbers. The first steps will be small, with laws requiring a “driver” to be seated by the controls as the car merrily goes on it's way. All the experts agree that such vehicles will be much safer than those driven by people. Less people will be injured or killed.

Are there other benefits? The mind boggles.

If fully self-driving cars become the norm, and the legal requirement for a “driver” goes away, think of the possibilities.

Ever been to Vegas? You stay in some fabulous resort, with your car parked way the hell over in some distant parking structure. That's a lot of walking back and forth, or your car could drop you by the door and go park itself. Use your smart phone to bring it back anytime. In your home town, the same thing will happen in the mall lot.

Why does every house have a big, ugly structure shoehorned into it called a garage? That could all be living space, and the cars could be stored a short drive away in some dedicated parking facility.

Time to take little Sally to her ballet class. Best load up all the other kids into the van and drive over to the dance school, dragging the others away from their home activities, along with at least one parent. You go in the van, burning a ton of gas. Perhaps instead it might be better to put Sally into a pint-sized self-driving car by herself. It takes her to dance, leaving the rest of the family at home, and burning less fuel.

One of the biggest shocks to everybody later in life is the day when they have to stop driving. With a self-driving car this need never happen. No need for the aged to be trapped in their homes with a car like that.

My wife and I like to go on big holidays, and prefer travelling by road. We don't hate driving, but it loses its luster after the first thousand kilometres or so. It would be much nicer to have the car do the driving.

Sometimes on these trips we experience big-city traffic jams. Self-driving cars would minimize these clogs. Unlike humans, they can accelerate in perfect sync with the car ahead of them, and precisely maintain a much closer cruising distance than is possible by a person. They have a virtually instantaneous reaction time. They don't need a two-second buffer, and would take up less than half as much highway as a conventional car. They are almost non-existent as traffic.

Such cars are possible now, and the first small steps are under way.

The only thing that can prevent it will be human irrationality. Funny that we can accept over 30 000 deaths per year at human hands in a country like the USA, but every single self-driving car death might be considered an unacceptable risk.

Intimidating. Me?

Noticed a weird phenomenon the other day. It seems some people in our advanced class are a little scared of me.

Let me set it up by saying that I don't usually pick my partners at sparring time. I take whoever wants to roll with me.

There seems to be two clear groups that like to pick me, and one that doesn't.

The first group that likes me is the smaller people. Tawha and Elizabeth usually pick me, as does Kaizen. He's a big boy, but not really into his adult strength yet. I think they pick me as I roll with them in a manner that doesn't rely on strength, at least I try.

The other group that likes to roll with me consists of guys like Robert and Tobias. They are similar to my size, darn strong, and know what they are doing on the mat.

The rest seem to prefer other partners. I don't mind, as I get them once in a while. Nobody actually ducks me, but they seem to prefer others than me. Some of them are bigger than me, and some smaller. The only thing they have in common other than being male, is that they are relatively inexperienced.

I always thought it was because they have friends they prefer to roll with, and had nothing really to do with me. Likely this is a big part of it, but there seems to be something else going on.

Last week I was taping up my finger like always, and a couple of these guys were in the change room with me. One of them asked if I wrapped my hand in order to intimidate them? I would have thought a bandaged would seem less threatening, not more. Seems not; as he was only half kidding. I think it's a case of the old guy with his heavily-striped-up belt has bandaged hands; a scarred warrior. Ridiculous, but there it was.

Keep in mind, I'm popular with the small people because I'm not dangerous. Somehow, to the less-experienced men I seem different.

The only thing I can think of that makes sense is that I know a heck of a lot more than they do. Although not physically dangerous, perhaps I am intimidating on some other kind of level. Maybe they fear getting dominated and made to feel silly.

Today, my first couple of sparring partners were people who usually choose me, but the third one wasn't.

Joe is our newest Blue Belt and was clear over the other side of the mat. At the call to, “grab a new partner,” he made a bee line for me. The less-experienced Blue Belt guys just don't do this.

We rolled. Nobody got submitted, and we went through a lot of positions. I sprung a few things on him that he hasn't seen before, but didn't push the advantage, giving him time to come up with a response. I was really impressed with how well he handled our roll. Nobody was ever in pain, or made to feel incompetent. I think he enjoyed it. I'll know if he tries to partner with me again.

I don't know how I feel about being considered intimidating.

It's pretty silly.

Trend

Last night there were a total of 9 gentlemen students on the mat for the White Belt class.

Nothing particularly interesting or unusual about that.

Like always, Elizabeth was there, as was Tawha, and Koko. If things were normal that would mean that out of 12 people on the mat, 3 would have been female, or 25%.

Things, however, have been changing. For about a month there have been two teenage White Belt girls training regularly. That would have made the ratio 5 out of 14, or 36%. That would have been the best it has been in a long time, but last night even this wasn't true.

One of the teenage girls brought a friend along to watch earlier in the week. Last night she was back to train. That made it 6 out of 15; the best in years at 40%.

Perhaps this is overstating it a little. Altogether, the active male membership at the school is about 20 to 25. This makes the percentage that are female to be closer to 25% overall. Still, this is much better than it has been recently.

If anything, Jiu-Jitsu skills are more important for smaller people, especially if they are at greater risk of violent assault. Sadly, in our society, that means women. The problem is that less women than men study the art.

In any case, I call the changes in our ratio to be a positive event. Perhaps it's even a trend.