The Syndicate

Syn wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:19 pm Do you still get butterflies over your wife?

Not really butterflies, but a sense of warm calm.

There is certainly still an eagerness and excitement at times, and I’m still prone to stare at her from time to time. Touch is a mutual love language of ours, so playful touches are very much still a thing. Sorry, you all may go puke now.

Syn wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:19 pm What is your number-one tip for relationships and how to ensure they remain healthy?

Communication- both speaking your thoughts and listening to the thoughts of your partner.

Syn wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:20 pm Is there a cuisine/meal you have yet to try that you'd really like to?

I’d like to branch out and try authentic Indian cuisine. There is a sizable Indian-American population not far from me and there are two restaurants and a market that I’d like to explore.

My wife’s grandmother was born to Dutch-American missionaries in India and grew up there until she was in her late teens. She made curry for us once but I’m eager to try the real deal someday soon.

G-Man wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 10:50 pm

Syn wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:19 pm What is your number-one tip for relationships and how to ensure they remain healthy?

Communication- both speaking your thoughts and listening to the thoughts of your partner.

Listen to their thoughts?! Damnit, G-Man, how are we to learn telepathy?!

G-Man wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 10:57 pm

Syn wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:20 pm Is there a cuisine/meal you have yet to try that you'd really like to?

I’d like to branch out and try authentic Indian cuisine. There is a sizable Indian-American population not far from me and there are two restaurants and a market that I’d like to explore.

My wife’s grandmother was born to Dutch-American missionaries in India and grew up there until she was in her late teens. She made curry for us once but I’m eager to try the real deal someday soon.

If you need something fusion first, I can highly recommend tandoori chicken pizza. At least here on the West Coast, there are lots of Indian pizza places, and they usually have at least a couple pizzas that incorporate their own cuisine in some way.

i feel bad for anyone for whom indian food is not in the regular rotation

Any last questions?

Do you want your kids to go into any specific fields of study?

Have you ever met anyone from the internet?

What is your favourite tree species?

Do you track any of your media consumption?

Were you born in the faith or did you find it later?

Syn wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 pm Do you want your kids to go into any specific fields of study?

No. I want them to figure out what they want to be and I will support it, so long as it is not impractical or achievable.

My parents got pregnant with my sister when they were teenagers, so their professional prospects were jacked at the start. They also weren’t the most studious in school, so they really pushed my sister and I to do well in school and pick fruitful careers so we didn’t end up like them. As a result, they sometimes cared very little about what we were interested in if it didn’t further their goals for us. My sister figured out early in high school that she wanted to become a speech pathologist. I had lots of interests but my parents never invested in them, so I was adrift through my freshman year of college. Even then, I didn’t pursue my real interests.

Long story short, I want to do the opposite with my kids, so long as they don’t want to be anything with super-limited prospects.

Syn wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 pm Have you ever met anyone from the internet?

Not yet. Some day I want to show up randomly at Epi’s door.

Syn wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 pm What is your favourite tree species?

Hmm. I’ve never thought about it. Sequoias are pretty awesome- large and old. That serves as a perspective check against us humans.

Syn wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 pm Do you track any of your media consumption?

Can you elaborate on this question?

Are you asking if I keep tabs on how much of a particular source I turn to for news?

G-Man wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:56 pm

Syn wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 pm Do you track any of your media consumption?

Can you elaborate on this question?

Are you asking if I keep tabs on how much of a particular source I turn to for news?

Do you track the movies and TV shows you watch? The albums you listen to? The places you've been?

Syn wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 pm Were you born in the faith or did you find it later?

I was born and baptized into the United Methodist denomination. My dad never attended church except on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. Now he’ll show up when the girls sing in the junior choir a few times a year. My mom took us to church every week, but she didn’t reinforce it at home. I grew more serious about it on my own accord as a teenager and in college, where I stumbled into picking up a Religion minor almost by accident.

I am still United Methodist. I like the Wesleyan-Arminian concepts of Grace. There is also a thing called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral that I dig as well. This makes me a heretic to some more fundamentalist circles, as I am prima scriptura instead of sola scriptura.

Syn wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:58 pm

G-Man wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:56 pm

Syn wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 pm Do you track any of your media consumption?

Can you elaborate on this question?

Are you asking if I keep tabs on how much of a particular source I turn to for news?

Do you track the movies and TV shows you watch? The albums you listen to? The places you've been?

Yes for movies, and also books.

My freshman year of college I took a special comp & speech class where all we did was watch movies, discuss them, and write papers about them. We started our own class rating scale and I kept with it after the class was over. According to my master spreadsheet, I have seen and rated 866 movies in almost 20 years. My goal is to hit 1,000 before August, so I plan on cheating a little and watching a lot of short films over the summer to get me across the finish line.

I have a master spreadsheet for a project I'd like to start soon. I have every album listed for every artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on a spreadsheet. It's sortable by artist, album title, and release date. My goal is to listen to them all in order of release. It might be a fun idea for a podcast as well, but I'll settle for another crappy Blogger site like I have for movie reviews.

I don't keep a detailed list of shows that I watch, but I also don't watch much TV anymore. I thought about trying to rate episodes, but it never took off.

I'd like to get one of those world maps with color-coded push pins to show where my wife and I have travelled over the years. It won't be very impressive for a while though, and it also feels a little showy at the same time, so maybe I won't get one. Who knows.

@G-Man thank you for participating!

This week the questions will be for @Scotty

Why cruises?

Why "Scotty"?

What is your favourite dish to have on a cruise?

How do you stay in shape while working on a cruise?

Hi! Thanks for having me back!

Syn wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:28 pmWhy cruises?

They pay. I don’t particularly like cruising

Scotty wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:55 pm Hi! Thanks for having me back!

Syn wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:28 pmWhy cruises?

They pay. I don’t particularly like cruising

What are you doing after cruising?

Have you ever ended a contract outside the US and stayed abroad for a while?

osieorb18 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:47 pm Why "Scotty"?

What is your favourite dish to have on a cruise?

How do you stay in shape while working on a cruise?

>Why Scotty?
The real answer that isn’t Star Wars or dog related- I once had a childhood acquaintance named Scotty who was the biggest piece of shit that I knew and so I did what everyone would do and use it as my screen name in the MMROPG I was playing at the time. So if I died or something, it wouldn’t be me, it would be Scotty.

Damn, that’s kinda morbid and petty now that I have it in writing.

Anyway, I adapted the name over the years when I made characters to be related to the Star Wars guy and the dog. But them’s the origin.


>Favorite Dish to have on a cruise?
Well, whatever they’re offering, I guess. When we had privileges to eat in the buffets, we’d get a special corner every day in the back. Indian was always my favorite, next to seafood corner.

Otherwise, it was just anything edible that wasn’t Swai or uncooked chicken bones. And there were lots of that..


>How do you stay in shape while working on a cruise?
Our department had a lot more downtime than other departments, so I was able to go to the crew gym pretty frequently. It’s just we had to find times where Dining wasn’t there. I dunno what it was with the Dining team, but there were always a shitton of alpha aggro yelling douchebags between food service. Never wanted to go to the gym during the day because of that reason

Scotty wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 5:18 pm

osieorb18 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:47 pm Why "Scotty"?

What is your favourite dish to have on a cruise?

How do you stay in shape while working on a cruise?

>Why Scotty?
The real answer that isn’t Star Wars or dog related- I once had a childhood acquaintance named Scotty who was the biggest piece of shit that I knew and so I did what everyone would do and use it as my screen name in the MMROPG I was playing at the time. So if I died or something, it wouldn’t be me, it would be Scotty.

Damn, that’s kinda morbid and petty now that I have it in writing.

LMAO.

Syn wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:58 pm

Scotty wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:55 pm Hi! Thanks for having me back!

Syn wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:28 pmWhy cruises?

They pay. I don’t particularly like cruising

What are you doing after cruising?

Have you ever ended a contract outside the US and stayed abroad for a while?

> What are you doing after cruising?
Well, I’m an actor by trade. I just ended my 3rd cruise contract, and honestly probably won’t do it again. Just odd jobs until the next gig. Im actually interested in tabletop games to the extent that I’m taking steps creating my own Publishing company. Working on about 6 different prototypes to get something up this year. Hopefully.

> Have you ever ended a contract outside the US and stayed abroad for a while?
So far, all my contracts began and ended in the US. Could have done a Mediterranean cruise contract, but turned it down because it was just not the right timing.

I did a tour that went to Tokyo and Seoul for some months which was kickass. Would love to go back there. My wife and I love exploring so we try and make time to see things between our contracts in other countries and around the US.

Have you been on any TV shows/movies?

Syn wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 5:32 pm Have you been on any TV shows/movies?

I’m more of a theater guy, tbh. Nothing that big

I did do some bit parts on a couple Tyler Perry tv shows tho lol

How do you deal with motion sickness?


Have you ever sent a family member an awkwardly worded autocorrected text?


What's the last thing you binged on Netflix?


Where is the most exciting place a cruise has taken you? Have you ever had a scary cruise experience (like bad weather scary)

dunya wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:37 am How do you deal with motion sickness?


Have you ever sent a family member an awkwardly worded autocorrected text?


What's the last thing you binged on Netflix?


Where is the most exciting place a cruise has taken you? Have you ever had a scary cruise experience (like bad weather scary)

> How do you deal with motion sickness?

Luckily, I don’t get motion sick. My wife, who was also on the cruise with me, isn’t usually so lucky. You get used to the rocking after being on for so long, but we definitely have our moments during storms that I have felt slightly queasy. They give free Dramamine for everyone, and we see lots of guests with those little dots put behind their ears. Seems to work. Night time rocking is great for sleep. Also, if you’re ever seasick, head towards the very middle of the ship- it’s usually the least rocky.

> Have you ever sent a family member an awkwardly worded autocorrected text?

Yeah, last year I texted my mom “happy bitch dad”
Though it doesn’t happen IRL as often as it does on here, I think because I tend to type fast and don’t proofread as often

> What's the last thing you binged on Netflix?

Need to look through my history, hold on.
Oh, ‘Pieces of Her’. We like Toni Collette. The premise was nice, and I liked the first half, but I didn’t like the rest of it. I can’t put my finger on it, but it was meh.

2nd season of Upload on Prime was pretty good tho. Had some questionable plot decisions but great humor in the writing

> Where is the most exciting place a cruise has taken you?

Most exciting is what you make of it- the appeal, to me, of the destinations is how far you can get from the port itself. There’s always cruise line-sponsored excursions that are fun if you’ve never, like, snorkeled or been in a dune buggy or just want a guided tour of the nearby town, but my wife and I are much more adventurous.
A few years ago, St Maarten was a stop- we left the port with all the touristy shops and such, and took a taxi to the other side of the island (it’s one big island). Got off at this little resort nestled between some mountains. Beautiful. Did a zip line tour with just my wife and a guide, who handed us self-application gear, some beat up gloves, told us how to brake, and peaced out. Super unsafe! But no waiting for slow people, we could zoom zoom all the way to the tree on each line. Got some bad burns accidentally brushing my hand, but it’s all good. Ended with a hike around the ridge, and booked it back to the ship to perform that night!
Another one- Cabo. Went on a camel ride, then went bungie jumping into a canyon.
Another one- St. Lucia. Took a 2 hour bus ride to a pointy craggy mountain, one of the hardest hikes of my life. The back 1/4 was just climbing ropes up vertical faces. Beautiful views, totally worth it.

Man I could go on.

> Have you ever had a scary cruise experience (like bad weather scary)
We’ve had, just last contract, cruises where we had 12-14 foot waves licking the 4th deck. Thing is, as a crew member, we’re never worried. And unless you’re on, say, the Costa Concordia out of Italy (look it up), cruise ships are extremely safe.
But performing during those swells? Kill me. When you have guests come up to you around the ship later on saying ‘I don’t know how you could balance or dance during that storm last night’ my response is something like ‘YEAH ME NEITHER’.
This one time I was getting off a lift in the stage that started to come back up to stage level from 10 feet down, and the swinging was so violent that it pushed the side of the steel base structure and created a large mountain. Broke a few things. Don’t worry, we had ushers doing trivia or some shit to the horrified audience for about 45 minutes while the techs fixed it. Then we somehow restarted the show.

Where and what is home to you?


What’s your Bucket List destination?


How challenging is it to make lasting friendships doing the cruise contract scene?


Were you ever contracted with the Carnival Fascination?

What was your favourite subject pre-college?

What is a belief you held as a teen that you no longer do?

Are you my dad?

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:58 pm Where and what is home to you?


What’s your Bucket List destination?


How challenging is it to make lasting friendships doing the cruise contract scene?


Were you ever contracted with the Carnival Fascination?

>Where and what is home to you?

I’m based out of NYC, where I am now. But ideally we’d like to move to a place with forests and mountains. Home is where my wife and dog are, and if they’re not with me, I’m a homebody and can settle in wherever. I’m used to living out of a suitcase after years on the road.


>What’s your Bucket List destination?

Switzerland! We were supposed to get married there for our elopement/honeymoon but pandemic happened. Ce le vie! One day. Will probably make a thruhike out of it when we go. We love hiking.


>How challenging is it to make lasting friendships doing the cruise contract scene?

We have plenty of downtime, so any coworkers on the ship we connect to we can hang out with as much as we can. Usually we’ll find 2-3 friends that we’ll form bonds with after contract. It’s easy to do since we’re around each other 24/7 in a dorm-like situation. As far as continuing friendships with those on land? It’s difficult, for sure. Texting was free on the ship which is nice. But yeah, I’m not having dinner parties from my friends in Brooklyn while I’m in the Bahamas

>Were you ever contracted with the Carnival Fascination?
Nope! But we docked with them every so often. I think. Carnival has like 30 ships.

Syn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:12 pm What was your favourite subject pre-college?

> What was your favourite subject pre-college?

I was pretty lazy. Even though I had a 4.0 average I never took any AP or advanced level classes in HS.
When I wasn’t actually doing acting in drama class (yep I was a drama kid), I was sneaking out to do coffee runs for my drama teacher. Was really able to practice coordination driving with coffee.

Syn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:12 pm What is a belief you held as a teen that you no longer do?

I used to think Hawaiian pizza was the best

Then I tried pineapple pepperoni. The saltiness and sweetness counterbalances each other so very well.

It’s the best pizza don’t @ me

Syn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:13 pmAre you my dad?

Yes. And it upsets me that you never call.

On an unrelated note I think you’re older than me.

Scotty wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 8:40 pm

Syn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:13 pmAre you my dad?

Yes. And it upsets me that you never call.

On an unrelated note I think you’re older than me.

How old r u

I don't think he is lol

dunya wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 9:07 pm

Scotty wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 8:40 pm

Syn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:13 pmAre you my dad?

Yes. And it upsets me that you never call.

On an unrelated note I think you’re older than me.

How old r u

tHiRtY oNe

This decrepit old geezer really do be saying I'm older than him, smh. Get outta the way, Gramps.

When you were a kid, what were you most looking forward to as an adult? Did it live up to your expectations?

What would you recommend someone check out if they visit New York City?

Have you ever struggled with your identity?

What's your all-time favourite food?

Syn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:47 pm This decrepit old geezer really do be saying I'm older than him, smh. Get outta the way, Gramps.

When you were a kid, what were you most looking forward to as an adult? Did it live up to your expectations?

I always thought you as like 40. Huh.

Anyway, this is gonna sound like a kitschy answer but I always wanted to find my soulmate. And I did! And it is incredibly fulfilling. 10/10 would recommend. I try not to flaunt it or brag about it, however, because I engage with so many couples that any lay observer can see are not exactly compatible. It’s been 7 years knowing each other and I still feel like I’m in my honeymoon phase, so the answer is that has exceeded my expectations

Syn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:47 pm What would you recommend someone check out if they visit New York City?

There’s something for everyone here, so unless there’s something specific, I know what I always used to recommend.

• you simply must walk through Times Square. It’s a rite of passage if you’ve never done it before. Once you’ve done it once, and experienced the magic of it, you can safely avoid it like the plague like the rest of the locals. Don’t take pictures with the creepy Elmos and Spider-Man knockoffs.
• if you want a good view from midtown, don’t do the Empire State Building. Go to Rockefeller Plaza. Better price, better view.
• hit up One World Trade. Don’t need to say a lot more about this one. It’s very reflective and hits you like a ton of bricks. There’s a 9/11 Memorial and Museum that you should walk through too.
• Walk around Central Park. Really anywhere you can enter, if you go far enough in, you can forget you’re even in a city. We explore the park almost every day and still find places we’ve never been to
• Broadway show(s). I can give lots of recommendations on shows to see. Hamilton is a must. If you’ve already seen Hamilton, I’d recommend Come from Away. It should have won Best Musical but was overshadowed by the overrated Dear Evan Hansen (I’m not bitter). The most heart in a musical you’ll see. Wicked is a mainstay. Phantom, Chicago are just tired at this point. Hadestown won best musical last year- have a few friends in that one.
• Lower East Side has a great nightlife bar scene, if you’re into that. Just wandering around the Bowery you’ll see many great locales
• FOOD.
  -Gotta hit up a Ray’s “Original” Pizza. There’s like 20 of them, and they all claim to the the original location. It doesn’t matter. Get a cheap slice and go to town, especially if you already had some beer.
  -Chinatown is amazing. I used to recommend a few places I know of but I think all of them closed down during the pandemic, which is a right bummer. Still a lot of authentic cuisine strolling the streets.

Anyway, I’ve lived here since 2008 so if anyone is ever planning a trip, hit me up for recommendations

Syn wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:48 pm Have you ever struggled with your identity?

Y know, I got into theater as a kid because I often felt like an oddball that didn’t fit in with the rest of my “normal” peers, so this tracks. I’ve never been incredibly self-reflective and it’s only dawning on me that performing gave me the outlet where I could feel the most personal and vulnerable. I’ve always been pretty in touch with my emotional side and that’s probably why.

I have a lot of friends that are struggling, and I think this industry both attracts those people with open arms and is a safe space for it too