The April 1999 edition of Sea had a great article worthy of laminating and posting on any private boat for the required reading of guests. (p.45-6). I know this has been sitting here for some time but I really do like the author's attitude and feel I can use this as proof to my freeloading friends that they need to antie-up.

 

A Guest's Guide to Boating Etiquette

1. Buy the Fuel: Boats burn a lot of fuel. A guest should offer to pay for the fuel bill. The boat owner is already covering the cost of wear and tear, moorage, monthly payments, marine insurance, licensing, yearly luxury taxes, and a long list of other fees. Buying fuel is little enough to ask of a guest who has come along for the ride.
2. Bring Lunch: The skipper gets to the boat early, sets things up and runs the boat. The least a guest can do is offer to feed him or her.
3. Help the Skipper: Guests generally want to help, but they often improvise too much. Stand by and let the skipper give instructions.
4. Don't Force It: How many hasps, hinges and catches are yanked and mutilated by boating guests annually? Too many. If it doesn't come open easily - ask.
5. Stay Out of the Skippers Way: A boat is a small space. The person running it often has a lot on his or her mind, such as weather, waves, and where are the fish (or, where are we? for that matter.
6. Don't Touch That Dial: Electronics are the captain's turf. Don't fiddle with the dials, punch buttons or try to make things beep. If guests want to learn about the boat's electronics they should ask questions, or better yet read a manual while running out to the fishing grounds.
7. Remember, Docking is Serious Business: Why is it that whenever I approach the docks of my destination, everyone aboard starts fidgeting, taking off jackets and gathering up personal belongings? This is distracting, and it starts the weight shifting all over. It makes docking difficult at best. As a guest, either man you designated position while docking or sit still.
8. Clean-up is Serious Business: Salt destroys metal, and a good skipper wants to keep a clean boat. Washing the boat is not on par with washing the car: It's preventative maintenance. Guests should offer to help at the end of the day. Guests should realize the the chores must be done quickly and efficiently. All that stands between the skipper and "Miller time" is clean-up.
9. Help Out: with the invisible work like waxing in the spring, winterizing in the fall, bottom painting and countless other jobs required to keep a boat in shape.
10. Please Reciprocate: I'm sure the people you take out fishing are knowledgable in other areas. When the skipper shares his expertise at the helm with a guest, a guest should share his or her expertise in another area with the skipper.

THE FIVE STAGES OF DRUNKENNESS


Stage #1 -- Smart

This is when you suddenly become an expert on every subject. You know
all and greatly wish to express this knowledge to anyone who will
listen.  At this stage you are also always right.  And of course the
person you are talking with is very wrong.  You will talk for hours trying to convince someone that you are right. This makes for an interesting
argument when both parties are "smart".  Two people talking, in fact,
arguing about a subject neither one really knows anything about, but
are convinced that they are they complete authority on the subject
makes for great entertainment for those get the opportunity to
listen in.

Stage #2 -- Handsome/Pretty

This is when you are convinced that you
are the best looking person in
the entire room and everyone is looking at you.  You begin to wink at
perfect strangers and ask them to dance because of course they had been
admiring you the whole evening.  You are the center of attention, and all
eyes are directed at you because you are the most beautiful thing on the
face of the earth.  Now keep in mind that you are still smart, so you can
talk to this person who has been admiring you about any and all subjects
under the sun.

Stage #3 -- Rich

This is when you suddenly become the richest person in the world. You can
buy drinks for the entire bar and put it on your bill because you surely
have an armored truck full of your money parked behind the bar. You can
also make bets in this stage.  Now of course you still know all, so you
will always win all your bets.  And you have no
concern for how much
money you bet because you have all the money in the world. You will also
begin to buy drinks for all the people in the bar who are admiring you
because you are now the smartest, prettiest, and richest person on the
face of the earth.

Stage #4 -- Bulletproof

You can now pick fights with the people you have been betting money with
because you cannot be hurt by anything. At this point you would go up to
the boyfriend of the woman who had been admiring your beautiful self
all evening and challenge him to a battle of wits for money. You have no
worry about loosing this battle of wits because you know all, have all
the money to cover this bet, and you obviously win a fight that might
erupt if he looses.

Stage #5  -- Invisible

This is the final stage of drunkenness.  At this point you can do

absolutely anything because no one can see you. You can get up and dance
on a table; you can strip down to your underwear, to impress the people
who have been admiring you all evening, because the rest of the people
in the room cannot see you. You are also invisible to the person whom
you have picked a fight with earlier in the evening. You can walk through
the streets singing at the top of your lungs (because of course you are
still smart and know the tune perfectly) and no one will think anything
of it because they can't see you.  All your social inhibitions are
gone. You can do anything, because no one will know.

And you certainly won't remember !

I haven't updated my xanga lately because I haven't had the time to and quite frankly, it's not a big interest to me. However, I wanted to blog down some vivid dreams I've been having for the past two nights.  See the possible dream interpretations I found below. Enjoy!

Night One:  Death Defying

I head over.to a corner liquor store located in a strip retail center and  I go inside and head over to the drink section to see what I want to drink.  As I am pondering what I would like to drink, I see a mexican lady and her baby son looking at candy in front of the counter and the the Korean liquor store owner rings them up for some milk.  Not seeing anything good to drink, I decide to head towards the front door and a grungy looking white man walks in as I open the door.

The next day, I'm reading the newspaper headlines and read an article on two people being murdered at that exact liquor store I visited the day before.  Being in a shocked state of mind, I somehow find myself back in time at the same liquor store.  This time, I know what's gonna go down.  So I proceed to leave the liquor store and look through the door to see how the murders happen.  I see the grungy white  man force the liquor store owner and the lady in the backroom and hear two loud shots:  BANG!  BANG!

Now immediately after the shootings, I again find myself back in time at the same location.  But this time, I am outside of the liquor store before I am about to enter.  Knowing what's going to shake down, I decide not to go in and just see again from the outside.  This time, the assassin is a african american. As the assassin proceeds to the cashier, he shows the liquor store owner a Flush poker hand and says "Pay Me!"  The assassin starts getting angry and liquor store owner tells him that he has to lock the front door first.  He runs to the front door, pulls out his key, and while he's locking the door, I whisper to him to tell him not to go in and that something bad is going to happen. With a puzzled expression on his face, I tell him to trust me and follow me.  So we walk to a grocery store in front of the entrance and I try to tell him what was about to happen.  As I am explaining to him, the door opens up wide and the assassin is right in front of us.   He grabs me and the liquor store owner and tells us to lay on the ground face down.  I'm very startled at this point and I beg for my life.   The assassin says " I can't guarantee that you will be alive after I shoot you, but I'm gonna have to shoot you."  He shoots me and I immediately awake from my dream.  I look over at my clock and it reads 9:15AM  "Fuck!  I'm late for work!"

Night Two:  Breaker Bar Choke Hold

A friend and I finally have the chance to buy some bikes so we go out and buy Suzuki SV650S.  We go riding around town and at this point, I am ecstatic about my new purchase.  After puttin around town, we get tired so we decided to stop by my dad's house.  My friend parks his bike on the side of the street and decide to take the bike around the block one more time.  I get back to my dad's place and I park my bike in front of the firelane driveway considering that I don't want to take the chance of getting it knocked over from the passing cars.  I move my friends bike to the same area and notice that there were some missing parts. I head inside and as I walk up the stairs, I decide that I want to take a look at the bike again.  Once outside, I notice that my bike was gone.  Great!  my bike is already stolen.  At this point, I'm upset and trippin.  A couple hours later after I've cooled down, I hear ruckus in the garage.  I proceed to open the garage door and I see a father and son dismantling some other motorcycles.  Immediately, I pick up the phone and call 911.  Apparently, these people weren't scared.  With no sudden movements, I pick up my 2 foot breaker bar and head over to the son.  I then go behind him and place the breaker bar behind his neck and start choking the shit out of him.  Well he's coughing trying to grasp for air but no way in hell am I going to let go.  Right before he's about to die, I wake up and the alarm clock displays 9:00AM.  Fuck!  I'm late for work again!

So these were really trippy dreams.  I was curious to see what these dreams meant by doing a little research on google.  Thank you google!  This is what I came up with:

Dying in your dream:

Dreaming of one’s own death (a dreamer may witness his or her funeral, or may “just know” that he or she has died) symbolizes an inner metamorphosis and an evolution of development. Old ways of perceiving are passing away; new self-discoveries are being made. The dream is a symbol of transition.

Killing someone in your dream

If you dreamed of killing someone, whether intentionally or by accident, it signifies a period of severe emotional stress during which you must make a heroic effort to control your temper.  If you are killing someone in your dreams, you are probably expressing hostile feelings. Consider this an opportunity to look at your negative feelings and decide what would be the best and the least destructive way to address them.

So now I think back and reassess myself why I've been having these dreams.  I think it's because I've been playing Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City like 24/7.  Yea that explains it!