I’ve broken my unspoken promise to keep updating at least once a week, and I can’t say it’s because I’ve been busy. Quite the opposite, for the most part. The last few weeks have been very eventful, but at least during the afternoons I’m plenty available at work. I suppose I’m just slacking.
The good news is that I have ambition.
All great men become great through conquest. This may be an unfortunate fact, but it is a fact nonetheless. Whether it’s conquering people, nations, ignorance, or societal norms, there’s always a usurper and the overthrown, and if you think I’m wrong about this, consider this point: I’m not.
The point of this is that I’m going to conquer the ocean, or at least a small part of it. The pirate in me is rearing its eye-patched head, and I feel the call of the sea. So we’re building a raft. We’re sailing this raft across the Ariake Sea to a small area of Kumamoto Prefecture. Actually, you can see the exact path we’re taking if you happen to use Google Earth; just search for “Kuchinotsu, Japan” and look across the bay to Futae. It’s not so far, but I’m pretending it’s a huge victory in the hearts of men because it makes it more enjoyable all around.
As far as names go, I’m leaning towards the S.S. Sussudio. I’m considering this name for the following reasons:
1) Instances of the letter ’s’ make up more than half of the name.
2) It sounds kind of poetic.
3) People might ask about it, which will afford me the opportunity to explain that I think Phil Collins sucks.
I didn’t say Genesis sucks. I said Phil Collins sucks. There is a huge difference here. “Sussudio” is not a word despite the fact that he uses it as one in the song by the same name, and Phil himself explains it thusly: Apparently, he was sound checking and just using a made up word as a place holder, but no actual word sounded right after the fact. So “Sussudio” became the name of the girl in the song, and later became the name of his daughter’s horse. In an interview, he apologized to all the people of the world who are now named Sussudio. I thought that was rather arrogant, assuming that adoring fans had named their children after your song title all over the world, but a quick search on Facebook and Myspace reveals that, unfortunately, there are people named Sussudio out there. If nothing else, Phil has dicked them out of the opportunity to have a respectable first name.
This is mostly about not liking Phil’s music, because for all I know he’s a nice guy. I do know he left his wife for someone half his age and completed most of the divorce proceedings by fax.
My point is, it’s my raft, and if I want to call it Sussudio then who’s going to stop me? You? I don’t think so.
The crew is assembled, and it is a sturdy crew indeed. We’ve begun preparing materials. I hope to set sail in the early summer, though as of late new dangers have come to light. For one, the waters in question are reportedly shark infested. To me, this is a non-issue. Essentially all ocean water has the potential to house sharks from time to time. This seems like a silly reason to be afraid.
Not a silly reason: deadly whirlpool. I just heard about this, though all the fisherman know to avoid it. Nobody felt the need to point out the existence of the whirlpool to me until last week, which seems a bit late in the planning stage. Apparently it’s about halfway between our start point and end point, and I’m imagining something huge and frothing and vicious and inherently angry despite being unable to feel human emotion. I can already tell I’m going to personify the hell out of what amounts to moving water, but I can’t help it.
Updates to come. Any suggestions for alternate names or any tips for sail construction?