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Sat. June 12, 2007.

I still maintain I will not tire of this itinerary for some time, although things are beginning to get repetitive and a bit boring. That is different than not liking my job, which I very much still do, it's just that anything and everything over the course of time will get to be, well, a job. We've settled into a set group of performers and performances, which means every week the same acts (other than comedians) will pretty much stay the same until the middle of summer. Then, things are going to get interesting as the fleet entertainment people are putting a new show on the ship, which is a new show to Princess, not just to this ship. We received a 900 pound crate in Vancouver this week that contained the start of the scenery, and it's expected that we're going to get similar packages from now until July 28th when the show debuts. That's something to look forward to.

In the meantime, today in Juneau I got a haircut (a wee bit shorter than I wanted) and ate in the local Mongolian BBQ. A very interesting speaker was on board today though giving a presentation in the theatre this afternoon, whom some of you may have heard of. She won the Iditarod in 1985 and became the first woman to ever win the race--Libby Riddles. She mostly talked about her dogs and the very important role they play in the race. Just racing the Iditarod is something of note, and winning it is even better. Then, to be the first woman to do it is nothing short of spectacular. Libby's presentation was the highlight of the day.

Here's a bit of interesting trivia too that would not have come to light without the aforementioned boredom: when I was standing around for a lengthy sound check this afternoon I stepped back from the mixer and really noted just how big it is. So on a whim I got out my measuring tape and jotted down that it was 7'3" wide, and 3'5" deep--pretty big, really. But that didn't satisfy my curious boredom quite enough so I counted just how many individual knobs, faders, switches, sliders, anything I could manipulate or operate and came up with a number. On the Crest V-12 there's exactly 5,852 controls on the board. No, I don't use all of them in every show. But even that wasn't enough. Behind me there's three racks of equipment such as the CD players, multitrack recorders, compressors, gates, effects processors, wireless receivers and transmitters, the Clearcomm system, and other what-have-you. Add up all the user-operable controls of those units and it comes out to 903. So the grand total of every last little whoozit yours truly can twist, turn, or push is 6,755. What was the catalyst for taking such a ridiculous census? There's a row of seats right next to the audio booth on either side, and most of the time I'm standing less than three feet from a passenger. So here's the top three things I get asked:

3. "If you need a hand in there, let me know. [passenger laughs]"

2. "How long did it take you to learn all of this?"

...and the most commonly asked question I get:

1. "Do you know what all those controls do?"

When asked #1, I have a canned set of responses I give largely depending on the demeanor of the passenger. The most common one I give for the younger people such as teenagers is, "Yeah, I know what everything is except for that one [pointing to a random control]. I don't suppose you know what it does, do you?" I got a pack of smart-alec 14-year-old girls once and one of them started poking around on the board asking, "What does that do? What does this do?" After a short-lived stint of patience, I just smiled and said, "That one calls security." They laughed.

Finally, there's a big red button on the board covered with a plastic shield. I get asked relatively often what that button does. Naturally, a big red button covered by a plastic shield just reeks of the self-destruct button. I tell people I push that when the performers get really bad. It usually gets a laugh followed by, "So how often is that used?" I tell them, "No more than a couple of times a night," which usually elicits another laugh.

Anyone interested in knowing what the big red button REALLY does can shoot me an email and I'll tell you. That way I know who's reading my logs and actually gives a rip about what I'm doing out here. :)