chartoo presents...

Ireland Ought To Invade England

William Wall's manifesto for an Irish invasion of England. If you're Irish this is a must read, for the rest of us, just plain good humour.
Ireland Ought To Invade England – For Her Own Good

Windows XP Reloaded

"Issuing an update to XP would represent a significant shift for the software maker, which for months has insisted that it had no plans to create a separate version of Windows before Longhorn. A company executive confirmed to CNET News.com on Thursday that Microsoft is now discussing a product internally referred to as "Windows XP Reloaded."

Delaying Longhorn could further benefit Linux, considered the chief threat to the dominance of Windows, said RedMonk analyst Stephen O'Grady.

"With any delay of Longhorn, Linux desktop advocates have potentially gained an extension to the window for getting their respective offerings established within enterprises," O'Grady said. Already, analysts had cautioned that the long time frame between Windows XP's debut and the arrival of Longhorn represented perhaps the best opportunity for Linux to make headway on the desktop.

Time to take look at Linux?? Read more....

Daily Grind

Vacation was great but that's behind us now, it's back to the work a day world, d*mn I hate it when that happens.
On the flip side I've been working with Chris Moore testing his revamped site, using PHPNuke, at cmoore.com.

Want to read some of the lastest news headlines with a sarcastic twist? Then by all means stop by Cmoore.com's Vanity Site Extraordinaire to see what's new, tantilizing news headlines posted daily, always entertaining and irreverent.

If you don't agree with us please feel free to become a member and post your own news links or just post a comment to say hello, let us know how you feel.
We'd love to hear from you.

Saturday

We left Cozumel friday evening, headed back to Miami.
Though there was still day left our cruise felt like it was over.
It was Valentine's Day, the restaurants were booked, we ate at the buffet all week rather than use the dining rooms.
The buffet was great, there was always something to eat from six am to 4 am and variety was good, fresh bread, fruits, a choice of entrees and the desert bar always tempting, cheesecakes, petit fours, pudding and ice cream!

The assistant cruise director conducted a game of Jeopardy in the Stardust lounge that was as good as it was absurd. Followed by a variety show of all the ships talent, comedian , big band, classical guitar virtuoso and vocalist.

Cozumel, Friday the 13th

The Palancar reef in Cozumel is the second largest coral reef in the world, topped only by the Great Barrier reef of Australia.

This morning we went on an island tour jeep safari. Six jeeps in a caravan first stop the Pee Pee station for a tourist shopping break more the a pee pee break.
The Eduardo, our guide and leader, had all the men stand facing the road sign and act like we were relieving ourselves as the days first big photo op.

We cut across the middle of the island of Cozumel and headed for the deserted northeast coast. At the Iguana spot we turned onto a dirt road carved out of the jungle of palms and ferns.

The highlight, for me, of the whole tour, excluding the beautiful view of the oceans Caribbean sea, was when Eduardo wrecked the umbrellas.
He had the umbrella shafts hanging out of the passenger window of his jeep.
Trying to avoid some of the ruts in the road Eduardo, scraped his jeep into palms and scrubbrush caught the umbrellas shafts, bent them almost in half.

We stopped at the beach we would return to later for lunch, it looked like rain.
Ernesto took out the bent up umbrellas laid them to the side in the sand.

After short visit for viewing Cozumel's north point we changed drivers and headed back for lunch on the beach.
Walter, an older man from Canada got to drive the other half of our tour.
I learned quickly that keeping the jeep in first gear made the jeep tough to control over the rustic path, there were just to many ruts, rocks and whoop tee doos to avoid and running in second gear allow you to almost coast down the bumpy path feathering the gas without having to use the clutch. Walter thought first gear was the way to go..The jeep jerked around everytime he let out the clutch. I loved it bouncing and jerking then he stalled. We got going again when Walter trys to shift just as we hit some soft sand wham, stalled again he gets the jeep started guns the engine and the wheels just spin. Here we go, he guns the engine again the jeep just sinks a little more into the sand. Walter's wife, Sharon was getting agravated with Walter's driving.
Finally he gets smart puts the jeep in reverse rocks the jeep a bit, suddenly we're going again.
Sharon let's Walter know she's not entirely happy with his driving and we continue. It's obvious that Walter is not listening.
.
It had started pouring rain as our jeep tour left the point. I'm thinking I don't want to eat lunch in the rain if there's no umbrellas.

As Walter pulls our jeep up into the clearing to park for our Mexican lunch on the beach it's still pouring now we're totally soaked
Ernesto is directing the jeeps to park lined up side by side in the clearing but Walter decides this is not for him pulls our jeep to the left up by the jungle and promptly runs over the bent umbrellas and puts new twist on the umbrella poles.
I couldn't stop laughing.
First the tour guide catches the umbrellas in the jungles edge, now we run over them again in our jeep, it's pouring rain and we're supposed to have lunch on the beach.

Guess you had to be there.....
Friday the 13th?

Majahual, Costa Maya

Unfortunately due to high winds the Norwegian Sun was unable to dock at the pier at Majahual. About a half an hour after leaving Majahual, believing the winds had slowed enough, the captain turned the ship around and made a second attempt but the winds,alas, were still to high to dock.
I was disappointed one things I was most looking forward to on this cruise was the opportunity to visit the Mayan ruins at Kohunlich.
So the ship headed up the coast to Cozumel. We arrived at nine thirty this evening a half day ahead of schedule.
We got off the ship and took a quick walk around Cozumel surveying some the shops that stayed open late knowing that our ship was docking this evening.

Tomorrow it's a 4x4 island tour. There's a few small Mayan ruins here in Cozumel thought not as significant as the ones on the Yucatan peninsula like Chichen Nitza, Tulum or Kohunlich.

Cayman Islands

What a difference a day makes. Cayman Island was everything that Jamaica wasn't.
The tour of Stingray city is recommended. Martin the skipper and Mark the diver did an excellent job transporting us from shore the viewing ship out near the reef.
Mark was great bringing the stingrays right up to our observation windows and sliding the stingray past the entire hull so everyone got a good opportunity to the stingrays.

It was a short visit to Grand Cayman island but memorable...............

Big Apple Jerk Center

Jamaica, ya'mon!

Spent seven hours on a Jitney bus touring the Black River and YS Falls.
The Black River is on Jamaica's southwest coast opposite Montego Bay where our boat docked.
The road out was bumpy and rough the road back was absolutely bone jarring.
We hit one bump on the way back that launched us from the back seat almost to the ceiling.
The countryside traveling through the coastal ridge hills was as beautiful and the Jamaican's homes were crude.
As our tourbus headed towards the Black River there were signs all about for jerk chicken or jerk beef. Jerk is a Jamaican reciepe for spicing meat learned from the Arrowok indians.
Along the road my favorite sign was Big Apple Jerk Center.
The hills in the countryside are covered with palms, coconut, banana and papaya trees.
The biggest trees were covered with spider plants and other succulents.
The wide stately trunks supported huge expansive canopies.
Our trip up the Black River was great. Our tour guide and captain of the boat, Charnel was excellent. We got to see three crocodiles up close and personal.
He called out to the crocs teased them with a little bread and two of the crocodiles responded the third just sank to the bottom as the tour boat closed in. Charnel reached out and scratched last crocodile and tugged on his foot all while the croc was right next to the boat. I was only five away when this happened.
After a quick lunch at the Bridge Inn, in Black river, of jerk chicken and beef, beans n' rice with a Fruit Punch chaser we headed to YS Falls.
The falls came right out the hillside and the canopy was so thick you didn't see the Falls until you walked in to an opening on the hillside.
There were several young Jamaican's assisting anyone who chose to wade in the pools created by the cascading falls. It was more like one good sized waterfall a the top with two smaller falls connecting pools.
There was a rope swing over the largest pool available for the brave at heart.
All in all a decent tour except the bus ride back was draining it was so rough.
We were glad to get back to the ship.

Dazzles

Yesterday evening in the Dazzles lounge, on board the Norwegian Sun,there was a band playing that is one of the most unusual I've ever seen.
Five piece band three Chinese men, two who looked like brothers, young Chinese woman singing lead and a Hispanic drummer.
They were tight and polished as you might expect from a cruise ship act but I just couldn't get over it when they went into one of the tightest and upbeat Beatles medley I've ever heard, fifteen Beatles hits one after another in quick sucession.

Being a white American kid from the sixties, it was bizarre twist watching three middle age Chinese musicians doing such a great job singing and playing Beatles hit songs.

Click the link Bridge cam at top of this page for a live view off the bow of Norwegian Sun.
For best results view during the day time.

Lifeboat drill

Well we made it. We're onboard the Norwegian Sun sitting at the dock in Miami awaiting departure in a few minutes.
The ship is gorgeous, a floating hotel if you will. The room is small but I don't think we'll spending to much time in the room except for sleeping, showering and changing.

We had a quick lunch on the upper deck near the pool.
The crew was handing out free Pina Coladas and there was a four piece smooth jazz band playing poolside.

After boarding the ship and eating light lunch we went back to our room only to be hailed over the PA system by the cruise director that we had to attend the mandatory lifeboat drill, wearing our lifejackets.

Ah, a sea of orange on deck, yup, you had to wear the life jacket for this drill to show you knew how to put it on in case of an emergency.
It was very comical and everyone couldn't wait till the drill was over and yes the ship's crew did take attendance to make sure everyone complied with the
drill.
This is the first time I've logged on using the Sun's Internet Cafe. The connection isn't quite as fast as DSL but it's better than dial up but not by too much. I hoping the speed will improve once the ship is underway.

Norwegian Sun

Leaving tomorrow morning for Miami..
The Norwegian Sun leaves at 4pm for the western Caribbean.
I can hardly wait, below is a map of the islands our ship will be visiting on this cruise.
I've only been to Aruba in the Caribbean so I'm really looking forward to this trip.
Since I was in the seventh grade I've always wanted to visit the Yucatan peninsula

I plan to post updates from the Norwegian Sun in the evening as we sail to the next destination.
Stay warm, I'll be back.

How rich are you?

Find out where you stand on the Global Rich List.

When you realize how many billions of people make less than you it puts a whole different spin on being rich.
Out of over six billion people on the planet, virtually all Americans will be among the top ten percent richest people alive today!

Dio for America

Don't know how I missed this before but I finally found my candidate for President.
None other than Ronny James Dio.

Vote Dio for America

Thoughts are things!

The power of your thoughts is remarkable. In fact it is through your thoughts that your life unfolds. You have to have the thought before it becomes reality, a new car, dinner at your favorite restaurant even your health and happiness.

Whether it's good thoughts or bad the events in ones life come into being with your thinking.
As Earl Nightingale said "We become what we think about"

Jim Donovan's article Thoughts are things

Quote:

"Your world is a living expression of how
you are using and have used your mind."

Earl Nightingale

Favicon

Maki as written a great article on the now popular "Favicon".
You know the little icon that displays in the address bar of this browser.
And on the current tab you in, if you use Mozilla.
What I found particularly interesting how prevalent and persuasive the use of Favicons has become.

All Consuming

If you want to add a list of books that you are reading, with a link to Amazon ,
on your home/blog page the simplest and easiest way I've found is All Consuming.net web site.

Login, create an ID. Once you have your ID you can create a profile of the books that you have read or are reading with a short synopsis.
After you've generated a list of books a code box is generated of your book listing with embeded links to Amazon.

Copy and paste the code in to your blog page template and voila, an instant blogroll of your current reading list.