Funny thing about ships

I think there are funny things that go along with ships.

I guess yesterday I wasn't feeling very...happy. I was in a bit of a blah mood. Although my night got better once I started working. See! Thats how I know I'm in the right field. I'm happy WHILE working. But to get back to that funny subject matter. Once I got on the ship after being uber excited, I immediately got in this i don't want to be here attitude. I don't know why. Maybe it was because I found out that half the team was leaving in a cruise or two. I didn't want to make the effort to get to know them. I don't know, I just couldn't be bothered.

Meeting new ppl and getting to know them means you have to always do your fair share of talking about yourself. something I really have grown sick of doing. When I'm back home I get ask 18 million questions about me, what my job is, how great it is, how did I get this job, and than my film/production background. I get sick of repeating it allllllll the time. on ships its the same...just different content is discussed. Where am I from, how long have I been doing ships, what my position is, do i have a bf, when do I leave. I was not in any mood to talk about me to anyone. So, in result I have been keeping to myself a bit. NOT really Amber-esq.

Last night I was talking to my roommate a bit more. thankfully about work stuff. (I am finding out my senior is a bit contradictory...about everything. lol. The whole being upbeat about being negative that I mentioned in an earlier post was exactly the thing the junior before me mentioned. my roommate had a laugh. lol) But i was wandering and just finally had a conversation with someone. I am slowly coming into my own. when done at my own pace it works out. :-)


The funny thing about ships---meeting new ppl requires you to know yourself a bit more than average. Which is a good thing....and bad thing.





**note to sister----eat lots of sweet for me. lol

First Boston

I did my first tour in Boston today and even though it was cold, rainy, and super windy I liked it.

I did the freedom trail tour. I am always a fan of that. I saw an edit of the same tour last week...completely boring. no idea who did that tour, the senior or the old junior. I hope my edit is somewhat entertaining.

Tomorrow I have a free day in port. that I'm not use to. I usually work every port. I have to shoot country night later on that night. I'm not complaining. I feel with our lack of sales we should be doubling up on tours...that's not my call. I'm not complaining about anything this time around.

Last night I was supposed to hang out with the photogs. never happened. After I posted my address I went to hang out, and felt like I was gonna be sick. So, i just left to my cabin grabbed some water and layed down. I felt blah!! I blame that GROSS coffee I drank. ewwww! I know it was that. They asked me if I was sea sick, yeah right I'm use to worse than this. Although, today is a bit rougher than I expected it to be.

I hope its not raining in Maine tomorrow. I hope I can make it to a mac store to get my comp fixed!! :-)

Address

Amber Sherman
VDO2
Photo Department
MV Caribbean Princess
CRuiselink II,ltd
676A 9th ave, BOX 238
New York, New York 10036

here is my address if anyone needs to send anything. :-)

I better get a Halloween card from someone!!!!

better ...so far

I woke up in a better mood. That is a good sign.

Last night I was invited out by my roommate. I didn't go up to the bar. I just am not feeling the drinking, to be honest. when she got back I guess she went with a bunch of other photogos. I guess because I'm a new joiner I was supposed to be up there partying. everyone I heard was asking where I was.

I am talking a teeny tiny bit more. I'm just glad I got out of that mood quickly.

Good news! I don't have to wait a week to to get out on ports. :-) Because I'm an American I don't have to do immigration. They did that on the Golden, but thankfully its different on this ship. So. I will be out and about tomorrow in Boston.

We were in Newport Rhode Island. It was really crappy out. It's raining right now. The ship's anchor got suck. We got delayed a tiny bit. I think they mentioned having a diving team go, and check things out. All is well now.

Yeah, the showers were not as bad as everyone said they were. Totally fine. not the hottest shower in the world, but it's not as bad as they made it seem. Just that in itself made me think this isn't gonna be as bad as I thought it was, referring to this whole contract in general.

My senior ... it seems like he hates everything. He's really nice, upbeat and all that...he just says everything sucks-shooting wise. I had to shoot sailaway. He said it was a really sucky time. blah blah blah. I shot it going in FML, after everything was said and done, I was like yeah I've had worse.
lol

just a bunch of negative Nancy's

There is this new system. videographers have to fill this thing out tracking everything we do...every 15 minutes. lovely right? just one more thing I have to track...it's a tedious task.Its just like an ILO. Instead of just marking when we work, and rest this one has us put in codes describing exactly what we did during our work hours. We have to do this for 3 weeks. I guess some videographers on other ships were complaining about doing more work or whatever. so some guy was hired to track the efficiency of the video team fleet wide.

I have to shoot champagne waterfall in an hour. My least favorite event. I have to run two cameras by myself. my senior has to shoot a happy gay wedding. I say it like that cause every 5 seconds he says "hehehehe I have to shoot a happy gay wedding." laughter to follow. yeah ...I wonder about him. lol


I think it's going to be fine :-)

day 1...contract two.

ok...so, this is my first day. I cant say I'm excited as I once was. ehhh, Im use to this mood thing on ships that I get tho. I hope I adjust.

my senior and manager....pretty tolerable. I dont think they'll be a bother. The team, ehhh I dont really know them yet obviously. Most of them already tagged me as shy.

Apparently my roommate is a big partier. Half the team is either leaving next week or in two weeks. all of the photo staff's showers get no hot water. We average about 10 dvd's per cruise. None of the photogs push the dvd. I guess they say the passengers on here are more rude than any ship they've been on. oh and I forgot to mention the editing suite is a shoe box. Stephen wasnt joking about that when he told me back on the golden.

so...off to a good start? not so much. I wanted to throw myself in work, but videographers on this ship do hardly anything.

I've only been on the ship for about 8 hours. I am already thinking I am gonna hate this contract. lol. That is bad. Being back on the ship makes me miss all my old friends back on the Golden. :-(

We'll see how this goes. Sadly I cant post videos, or pics since my comp is still sick. Once thats fix I will supply all the pics you can think of!!!








note to sister: yeah i thought about just chilling in NYC and not getting on the ship once I was at the hotel. lol I should have stayed. but this is where the money's at. lol

Summer Vacation

I am leaving in two days. My First vaca from the ship is ending. I have to say this vacation has been eventful. It was filled with several things I wanted, things I didn't expect, and things I needed.

I was sad to say good-bye to LA when I decided being back home was what I needed to do. I wasn't thrilled about moving back in with the family for these few months. logically it made sense.


I had a awesome roadtrip. Me and my sister re-established our relationship. we both grew up and changed as people while I was away for about 10 months. We re-learned who each other was, and I'm glad we became the best friends we once were. It has been a long time. I'm glad I got my sister back.



The Perfect House






I got hired for a feature film that was shot in Cheektawaga. I had a blast on that set. I have to say thanks to Tal first. He taught me a lot of things about the camera obviously, but also about the overall way of how making a movie works, and how everyone interacts. The crew was filled with such great people. Klinger and Kyle...I honestly don't know what that movie would have been without them. I know they helped me out a lot as well. I hope to work with them again. Tim---this guy! lol. He was an awesome fun guy. Glad he was there to make those stressful times fun! The directors/producers I admire them for going after their dream. They are making it happen. I'd work for them again in a heartbeat. Working on this movie was a great experience for me, and I learned a great deal.

check out the movie!
www.theperfecthousemovie.net




I was in one of my best friend's wedding. I am so happy for them. :-) I still cant Believe Mary is married!! It was a fun couple of days, and there was drama to follow who knew. lol








It was, for sure, a roller coaster ride being home with the family. the fights and the laughs! I remember when I first got home i just hated it! I couldn't wait to leave. I was going crazy and I just couldn't take the stress of home life. But now, I am excited to go, but I will miss home life. lol. it always works that way. I found my niche at home just when I have to leave. I'm gonna miss getting woken up by the kids. Dylan beating me up randomly. lol. I feel like I helped raise them. Who knows maybe I taught them something useful.





I met some new people, got close to people that I thought would never happen, and I got back in touch with people I haven't seen for years. There are a couple people that stick out.


one person in particular is Mike. I met him through my friend Joe. It was a small Comedy show at merge that Joe was doing. I sort of knew we would talk and end up getting closer. I'm glad I met him. I had a lot of fun with him. To me he was a very rare, special person. I appreciate him for his creative,artistic mind. I fell in love with how he expressed himself through the things he loved. Whether it was music, words, or comedy. He introduced me to new music. He fulfilled my craving for that something more I was looking for in music. I will always remember a lot of moments with him.
We has a website of his stand up videos, blogs, and podcasts. check it out his stuff.

http://mikeclinejr.com







There are some friends that I wanted to spend more time with, but my mood, lack of funds, or lack of time got in the way. I feel like I should have spent more time with My friend Jen. She is becoming such a good mom. I'm very proud of her. I'm sorry I didn't give you more of my time, but I'm glad we did have some good moments this summer. :-)



My friend Matt!! Dude I'm happy we hung out as much as we did!! We had a lot of laughs!! I found myself at my most comfortable with this guy! I always had fun with him. Although I am mad we wont let me send him a postcard. lol.




I feel like there are a lot of things that are going to come to a close. It feels like I am saying good-bye to these ppl. In a way I am. I just want people to know how I felt about this summer. When I come back to Buffalo in February I Know I will be hanging with my sister. But you never know where your friends will be. I hope to re-establish some of the relationships I formed this summer. but you never know. I guess I am just documenting and remembering. There were people this summer that made me feel special. THANKS!!



I am starting a new contract. I am very eager to find out who I'll be working with, who I'll get close to, who I'll hate. lol. I am very excited. Lets see what happens!! :-)

On my way

After I posted the last blog I thought seriously about what I wanted to tell Princess.

I waited a few days, but I told them I was fine with leaving on the Caribbean Princess.

Yes, it is not the ship I wanted. It was the ship I NEVER wanted. There are some benefits to this itinerary. It'll give me a bit more stability and routine...as far as ships go. I'll be visiting NYC so that's a plus, figure out if I love and actually want to move there. That's only for the first two months. I get to visit Boston again too!

I don't really know why I was dreading the Caribbean. I guess I wanted to go somewhere further from home. But I look forward to getting to know the islands like I got to know the islands of Hawaii.

I leave Aug 21st. I get back Feb 18th....thats if they dont switch anything up. who knows ya know.

Most posts and pics will be up soon. I will also try and get some video blogs up as well!

My next contract

I recently have been communicating with Princess about my next contract.

Originally I was supposed to join the Diamond Princess September 19th. Well....that isn't gonna happen now. One of the videographers got medically disembarked, and they called me up to find out if I could leave right away to join the ship. This was sometime 2 weeks ago.

I am gonna be honest the terms weren't in my favor. I will say that...but are they ever, really?? Since I am American, and because my job entails working on foreign soil; I may sometimes run into ***hey I need a visa!!*** Well this was the case with China and the Diamond Princess. Since they needed me to leave right away....I didn't have time to get my Chinese visa. So, I would have had to join the Diamond for only 2 months, than since there was no guarantee that I would have been able to get my visa while on the ship I would have been trans-shipped.....WHO KNOWS WHERE!!!! Everyone who does ships knows that being trans-shipped--- SUCKS!!! If I didn't leave when they wanted to I would have been bumped totally off that ship. Either way I probably wasn't gonna make it to Asia like I wanted to!!

So, what did I do? I told them the earliest I could leave would be Aug 3rd. I was optimistic that I would obtain my visa while on the ship. I was set to leave Aug 3rd.

All of this was discussed, and they needed an answer in a matter of a half hour on one phone call. My rash decision was: "Yes, sure I can leave on Aug 3rd."

I hung up the phone started to tell my friends that I was gonna be leaving Buffalo. I started to scramble to be quite honest.

Than I started to really think this over. DO I WANT TO LEAVE...at least right now???? I talked to a few important people, and even did a freaking pros and cons list!! I mean how stupid is that?!? If any one actually does that please let me know so I don't feel like an absolute fool. lol.

I emailed Princess two days later saying no I couldn't go.

my reasons...

***Well I wanted to go to Asia....no money and time to get my visa before joining the ship.
***There was no guarantee that I'd be able to get my visa while on the ship.
***I had to get uniform stuff in order(they dont pay for that stuff)
***I didn't wanna do Alaska again for two months.
***I was holding out for this film job(yes I took that risk)
***I wasn't ready to leave Buffalo Just yet.

All in all I guess I didn't really have a big giant reason why not to go. Plus I was gonna miss out on a few things that were happening this August.

Since I denied that contract there was a chance they weren't gonna offer me a new one. If they offered me a new one I could get a bad itinerary. Once I told them I couldn't my rep told me that my next ship was going to possibly be the Sapphire on Sept 19th. LAME ITINERARY!!! All places I've already been...at least 70% of the ports.

Than two days ago I got another email asking if I could go on the Caribbean Princess. I DO NOT WANT THAT SHIP!!!! lame itinerary. 7 day cruising. They make NO MONEY on that ship. Selling DVDs is like pulling teeth on that ship!!! Every Cruise fleet-wide they have the worst in sales!! It doesn't matter who the videographers are...what cool commercials they have going, what awesome flyer is up...they sell like 20 DVDs. No commission money for me.

so, right now I haven't said no to that ship....I haven't said yes.

I don't even know if I wanna do ships anymore. I am thinking I wanna save for a year than focus on my film career. Who knows?????

I am very torn on this ships/film thing.

OY!