MM 7 — Day 3: All (Day) At Sea
Today is our first “sea day” on this cruise.
I love sea days: from wherever on the ship you look out, you see only water. Lots of it. Combine that with balmy warmth outside, a nice breeze, and the gentle noise of the waves from the ship’s cutting through the sea, and it’s the perfect atmosphere to really wind down.
Of course, it’s also during sea days that most of the MacMania seminars take place, so you have to make a conscious choice between relaxing idle time or learning cool new things about the Mac. Making that choice is surprisingly simple, though: if you’re already familiar with the topic, and the class expressly targets an entry-level audience, or if the topic just doesn’t interest you, you’ve got some more spare time on your hands.
Today’s classes pretty squarely fell into the former category, so I opted to scrap ‘em all, except for one.
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As a less formal kind of “class,” this cruise features “Ingenious Bar” sessions. Modeled after the “Genius Bars” found in Apple Stores, they’re an opportunity for us to ask the MacMania speaker luminaries for advice on all things Mac.
The one I joined today was manned by Apple’s Sal Soghoian and Macworld’s Jason Snell, and quickly turned into a pretty deep discussion about how technology could be used to teach Civics to young people, which topic was brought up by Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss, who is with us on this cruise.
Richard explained that he has since left showbiz to focus on just that: teaching civics to kids and teens, and raising awareness for its importance. He will present this project during “An evening with Richard Dreyfuss” next Saturday, and I am excited to find out more about this. Should make for an interesting blog post, too!
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Yeay for towel animals!
The cabin stewards sometimes craft animals from towels during turn-down service. On this cruise, they even use stick-on eyes!
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