Does this mean they'll start carrying the good hummus?
Because if so, merge away, baby.
My President's Day weekend was quite fun. Photos are finally Flickred.
2.21.2007
2.11.2007
Poor old 'Lady'
This is a prodigiously long blog post, but it's something I've been meaning to write about for awhile.
So, my family likes to cruise. It's been our family vacation every year for many years now, and as a result I've cruised on four different lines — Norwegian, Celebrity, Carnival (blech) and Royal Caribbean. We've largely gone to different areas of the Caribbean, although last year we went to Bermuda, and this year we're doing a New England/Canada thing.
When I mention this to people, they often ask what my favorite cruise was, or what was my favorite place to go. Favorite cruise, hands down, was our first, on the SS Norway:
Doesn't look like your usual McMegaCruiseShip, does it? That's because the Norway was built as the SS France, one of the last (along with the Queen Elizabeth 2) Transatlantic ocean liners.
The France, which for a long time was the longest ship in the world, didn't have a very long career as an ocean liner. By the time she came out, flights had become a more popular way to cross the Atlantic. By the mid-70s, the ship was mothballed, until it was resurrected by Norwegian Cruise Lines to serve as a Caribbean cruise ship, and rechristened the SS Norway.
While the ship doesn't look like one of those giant floating plastic things that run laps around the Caribbean now, it was HUGE for a cruise ship in the 1980s, and pioneered those mega ships. It was built super long so that it could sit on the crest of three ocean waves at once, and the photo above was taken, I believe by my mom, from a tender, a smaller boat used to get from the ship to shore at many of the Caribbean islands. The ship needs a deep water port to dock — think New York, not St. Thomas — and it was so big it carried two boats that were oceanworthyin themselves.
While the ship had undergone a lot of renovation, and had even had decks added, to make it more suitable for cruising, there were still lots of places where you could still see that ocean liner — in the dining rooms, certain lounges, and its glassed-in promenade (nobody spent much time outdoors crossing the Atlantic). I love old things and ocean liners, so I thought it was super cool.
When we cruised on the Norway, in 2002, despite her age and lack of rock-climbing walls and ice skating arenas and other such things in the newer mega ships, she was still the second most popular ship in NCL's fleet. In 2001, she went on what was supposed to be her farewell voyage, a last Transatlantic trip, including a last stop in New York, in early September. The ship was at sea on September 11, and not long after, NCL decided to keep her in service in the Caribbean.
But in 2003, one of her old steam boilers exploded as the ship came into the port of Miami, killing eight crew members. After the tragedy, NCL had the ship towed to Germany, to assess whether it could be repaired. Repairs were deemed too expensive, and NCL announced that the ship would never sail again.
I think it's really sad that they didn't make an effort to keep one of the last ocean liners going — replacing the old boiler with something more safe, to prevent another tragedy. But what happened to the Norway is even worse.
The ship was built at a time (1960) when asbestos was a commonly used material, and it is full of it, and other toxic materials. The ship should never have left Germany for the purpose of being scrapped, because the toxic materials, under European law, should not have been exported.
The ship was towed out, though — possibly under the auspices of being turned into a floating casino somewhere. Instead, though, she was towed around the world until she ended up at Alang, India, to be scrapped. Prior to that, there was a stop in Bangladesh, which wouldn't let the ship enter its waters to be scrapped due to the toxic materials.
Improperly dismantling a ship full of toxic materials isn't legal in India, either, and the ship, now rechristened the SS Blue Lady, is now part of a battle in the Indian Supreme Court over whether she can be scrapped there. She has been beached, and much of the hull has been out of the water. Even if the Supreme Court rules that it can't be scrapped, it may have to be, if it can't be moved without expensive dredging. And because the ship has been out of the water so long, the hull may be compromised, so that she can't float.
The ship could have been properly scrapped in Germany, which is equipped to handle the materials. But it would have cost far more to do it there, and safely, with no impact to the environment.
This site shows pictures of the ship as the France, and the Norway, and finally as the Blue Lady, beached at Alang. Apparently there are some groups out there looking to buy the ship, saving it and turning it into a floating hotel. NCL could have done right by history and the environment and pushed to find a buyer that wanted to see the ship preserved in the first place. Now, even if someone comes up with financing and the breakers sell the ship, it may not be able to float.
So all in all, a terrible story. The last great CGT ocean liner, the former flagship of the French Line, left rusting away in Alang, on Greenpeace's watch list.
I know she's just a ship, but she's also a piece of history, and I think the poor old "Blue Lady" deserved more than this.
So, my family likes to cruise. It's been our family vacation every year for many years now, and as a result I've cruised on four different lines — Norwegian, Celebrity, Carnival (blech) and Royal Caribbean. We've largely gone to different areas of the Caribbean, although last year we went to Bermuda, and this year we're doing a New England/Canada thing.
When I mention this to people, they often ask what my favorite cruise was, or what was my favorite place to go. Favorite cruise, hands down, was our first, on the SS Norway:
Doesn't look like your usual McMegaCruiseShip, does it? That's because the Norway was built as the SS France, one of the last (along with the Queen Elizabeth 2) Transatlantic ocean liners.
The France, which for a long time was the longest ship in the world, didn't have a very long career as an ocean liner. By the time she came out, flights had become a more popular way to cross the Atlantic. By the mid-70s, the ship was mothballed, until it was resurrected by Norwegian Cruise Lines to serve as a Caribbean cruise ship, and rechristened the SS Norway.
While the ship doesn't look like one of those giant floating plastic things that run laps around the Caribbean now, it was HUGE for a cruise ship in the 1980s, and pioneered those mega ships. It was built super long so that it could sit on the crest of three ocean waves at once, and the photo above was taken, I believe by my mom, from a tender, a smaller boat used to get from the ship to shore at many of the Caribbean islands. The ship needs a deep water port to dock — think New York, not St. Thomas — and it was so big it carried two boats that were oceanworthyin themselves.
While the ship had undergone a lot of renovation, and had even had decks added, to make it more suitable for cruising, there were still lots of places where you could still see that ocean liner — in the dining rooms, certain lounges, and its glassed-in promenade (nobody spent much time outdoors crossing the Atlantic). I love old things and ocean liners, so I thought it was super cool.
When we cruised on the Norway, in 2002, despite her age and lack of rock-climbing walls and ice skating arenas and other such things in the newer mega ships, she was still the second most popular ship in NCL's fleet. In 2001, she went on what was supposed to be her farewell voyage, a last Transatlantic trip, including a last stop in New York, in early September. The ship was at sea on September 11, and not long after, NCL decided to keep her in service in the Caribbean.
But in 2003, one of her old steam boilers exploded as the ship came into the port of Miami, killing eight crew members. After the tragedy, NCL had the ship towed to Germany, to assess whether it could be repaired. Repairs were deemed too expensive, and NCL announced that the ship would never sail again.
I think it's really sad that they didn't make an effort to keep one of the last ocean liners going — replacing the old boiler with something more safe, to prevent another tragedy. But what happened to the Norway is even worse.
The ship was built at a time (1960) when asbestos was a commonly used material, and it is full of it, and other toxic materials. The ship should never have left Germany for the purpose of being scrapped, because the toxic materials, under European law, should not have been exported.
The ship was towed out, though — possibly under the auspices of being turned into a floating casino somewhere. Instead, though, she was towed around the world until she ended up at Alang, India, to be scrapped. Prior to that, there was a stop in Bangladesh, which wouldn't let the ship enter its waters to be scrapped due to the toxic materials.
Improperly dismantling a ship full of toxic materials isn't legal in India, either, and the ship, now rechristened the SS Blue Lady, is now part of a battle in the Indian Supreme Court over whether she can be scrapped there. She has been beached, and much of the hull has been out of the water. Even if the Supreme Court rules that it can't be scrapped, it may have to be, if it can't be moved without expensive dredging. And because the ship has been out of the water so long, the hull may be compromised, so that she can't float.
The ship could have been properly scrapped in Germany, which is equipped to handle the materials. But it would have cost far more to do it there, and safely, with no impact to the environment.
This site shows pictures of the ship as the France, and the Norway, and finally as the Blue Lady, beached at Alang. Apparently there are some groups out there looking to buy the ship, saving it and turning it into a floating hotel. NCL could have done right by history and the environment and pushed to find a buyer that wanted to see the ship preserved in the first place. Now, even if someone comes up with financing and the breakers sell the ship, it may not be able to float.
So all in all, a terrible story. The last great CGT ocean liner, the former flagship of the French Line, left rusting away in Alang, on Greenpeace's watch list.
I know she's just a ship, but she's also a piece of history, and I think the poor old "Blue Lady" deserved more than this.
2.10.2007
The new camera rules
Now if the memory card would just arrive so that I could take more than six photos at a time, that would be awesome. But I did take six, and I love this thing. The buttons and menus make a ton of sense, it really did very well in fairly low light, and it's ready to shoot within like a second of turning it on.
I went to the Aveda Institute near Gallery Place this morning for my annual drastic shocking haircut (six inches...they asked if I would donate the hair they cut off to the Institute so they could practice dyeing it or whatever...hee!). It looks really good and now I reek of lovely Aveda smell from all the product.
Then since I was only two metro stops from Union Station, I went there to take some pictures. It was a good indoor place to test the camera out. Also, I checked out the Express there and learned that they still had a ton of stuff on clearance. BAD. BAD.
So here are my whopping six Union Station pictures.
I went to the Aveda Institute near Gallery Place this morning for my annual drastic shocking haircut (six inches...they asked if I would donate the hair they cut off to the Institute so they could practice dyeing it or whatever...hee!). It looks really good and now I reek of lovely Aveda smell from all the product.
Then since I was only two metro stops from Union Station, I went there to take some pictures. It was a good indoor place to test the camera out. Also, I checked out the Express there and learned that they still had a ton of stuff on clearance. BAD. BAD.
So here are my whopping six Union Station pictures.
2.03.2007
New camera
So after letting it sit in my Amazon.com shopping cart overnight, this morning I finally pulled the trigger on a Fugifilm FinePix F20.
As Eileen and Jeff would probably attest, I spent entirely too much time in London fiddling with my camera, and taking pictures by placing it on the floors of old churches, Tube stations, and other miscellaneous places around London. It's a wonder the thing didn't get punted, thus forcing me to buy a new one sooner. Things looked like crap if I used my flash, but it took five years for the camera to gather enough light to take a shot sans flash, so I had to put it on something solid to make it stable enough to take a clean picture.
Hence the FinePix, which is supposed to be super good in low-light situations. I only knew about this after doing some research. My initial liking of the camera was based on playing with it at Target (sorry, Target, you know I love ya, but it was almost $50 cheaper on Amazon) and liking the ergonomics and the menus. But it turns out it's a good camera, at least according to all the reviews I read. Its brother, the f30, is more widespread, but aside from the LCD on the back, the only differences between the two are things I don't even understand, and the f20 was much cheaper.
So now all I have to do is wait for it to arrive. That would have been the advantage of buying at Target. Expect a big Flickr update when it lands and I wander the DC metro area with it.
As Eileen and Jeff would probably attest, I spent entirely too much time in London fiddling with my camera, and taking pictures by placing it on the floors of old churches, Tube stations, and other miscellaneous places around London. It's a wonder the thing didn't get punted, thus forcing me to buy a new one sooner. Things looked like crap if I used my flash, but it took five years for the camera to gather enough light to take a shot sans flash, so I had to put it on something solid to make it stable enough to take a clean picture.
Hence the FinePix, which is supposed to be super good in low-light situations. I only knew about this after doing some research. My initial liking of the camera was based on playing with it at Target (sorry, Target, you know I love ya, but it was almost $50 cheaper on Amazon) and liking the ergonomics and the menus. But it turns out it's a good camera, at least according to all the reviews I read. Its brother, the f30, is more widespread, but aside from the LCD on the back, the only differences between the two are things I don't even understand, and the f20 was much cheaper.
So now all I have to do is wait for it to arrive. That would have been the advantage of buying at Target. Expect a big Flickr update when it lands and I wander the DC metro area with it.
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