The Merchant Marine Express

I’ve dropped a few more spots and getting closer to being picked for work! Although, surprisingly, the jobs that have been offered on the online union job board, have primarily been Engineer assignments!

I made a call to union dispatch, and asked the question,” Why aren’t there any Deck (officers) jobs being posted?”.Believing,further, that I was put on some list contrary to my position, or mistakenly placed on a separate list intended only for engineers, the reply of the union towards my question was ,basically, the fact there were no deck jobs and it quelled my wandering mind and somewhat calmed my senses for awhile.
Meanwhile, however,I’ve received a call from a company looking for mates to fill vacancies onboard their bulk cargo ships. I have a Resume set up on a search engine and apparently, they found me on the web and responded to my well versed qualifications. I, kindly, mentioned my established rapport with the union by expressing the fact I could only work as a ‘relief’ mate for those who need a temporary employee to replace another mate needing emergency leave,etc. I concluded the phone call by agreeing to refer any prospects from anyone looking for maritime employment.

In the Interim, while at home, I’ve been tinkering with my latest hobby of video editing. I purchased an editing software to initially compose a short video of a wedding I was asked to film earlier in the Fall. However, it takes a lot of know-how, patience, and the ability to have some computer skills in order to make a video! And I used every ounce of my meat filled brain to figure it out!
You see,the short semester course I took on “Computers for Deck Officers 101″, back at the academy, was basically an intro to computers which seemed a blur of information, in my eyes at the time. Dr. McDermott, who taught the class, was an older and well distinguished professor and probably thought that all the cadets attending who were too young to remember things like record players, turn nobs on televisions, or life without X-Box and already understood the use of computers and probably took for granted that the “older” cadets such as myself would flow with the current and whiz by. Well…somewhere I got lost during those months with content as I got a ‘C’ yet passed the darn course! But did surprisingly well during Finals.
In fact, I do remember a classmate,Steve Prince who was sitting in the space next to me, trying to grasp the knowledge of the project and complete the test. He was noticeably,lost beyond words ,as he just sat there, staring at the screen with nothing more than his name and subject heading on the computer screen. When an hour’s time had passed, Dr. McDermott peered up from his readings and gazed across the room and said proudly, ” Class..at this time, those that have A’s and F’s should be wrapping up their projects and be calling it a day”. And at that time, a stellar fellow cadet i’ll call Dave, stood up proudly and walked across the room and set his diskette on the instructor’s desk and smiled as he exited the room. Steve, on the other hand, hesitantly, managed to turn in his diskette as he mumbled walking out of class! Hmm…I could only look back years later at that prized moment and wonder if Dr. McDermott wanted to say, “..And there goes that A and F..”!
So anyhow,this software that I’m utilizing has elements such as splicing,audio editing,special effects transitions,and DVD Copying. I remembered I had made a silent thirty-second video of some rough seas while on board the Ocean Titan, back in Summer of 2006. So I used the video with background music to illustrate what it would feel like, and I think I did a good job. I also made a brief video while on board the Arthur M Anderson Lake Freighter in Fall of 2006. On the first one, I found a few that I had copied and used them and spliced together about two minutes worth video. Here, is the final version with an appropriate song, “Stayin’ Alive” performed by the Disco-era BeeGees. On the freighter, a more gaelic type tune accompanies the short. Here they are:
Ocean Titan Video
Arthur M. Anderson Lake Freighter

Tags: Michigan – Home Port