Grand Cayman + MORE = Post

Here are some pictures with a few small captions. I have a huge headache and have for the past day and a half. Then I had jury duty today, so please bear with me. I know some of you (Shelley) are getting antsy for pictures and life updates, and I will do what I can here. I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize for the (rather) terrible quality of the pictures. It is a (fairly) cheap camera, even by non-underwater standards. Better than nothing.

This is me swimming through an underwater coral trench on the way down to Robert's Wall, North Wall, Grand Cayman. It started at around 50 feet and dropped down gradually to about 110 feet, at which point the shallows end and the deep begins. The actual depth at this point is somewhere around 6000 feet. To put this in perspective, your head implodes at something like 300 feet. Your watch implodes just after that, around 350 feet for high end diving watches. Comedy? I think so.

Even when you're at 100 feet, it's markedly more difficult to draw air from your regulator. This is due to the fact that the atmospheric pressure doubles just below the surface of the water and goes up by one atmosphere's worth of pressure for every 10 meters or 33 feet. This causes the air in your tank to be compressed quite drastically at depth, making the air more difficult to draw out. SCIENCE! Because of this compression and difficulty breathing, you cannot stay at depth for very long on a (standard) 2000 psi tank. Only about 20 minutes at 100 feet, compared with upwards of 45 minutes with a max depth of 40 feet or so.

I think my gesture/pose in this picture was supposed to say, "Look at this sweet shit behind me." I think, instead, because I am an awkward creature by nature, that it came out closer to, "What do you want?", or possibly "Where am I supposed to go?". I assure you this was not the intention.

This is my turtle friend. I woke him up, which I feel bad about. But such is life. He was just chilling at about 100 feet up inside the coral wall at Lemon Drop, North Wall, Grand Cayman. He's on the left there, in case you can't pick him out. This was my highlight of the trip because, those of you who know me, you know that I love turtles. Especially sleepy turtles. Related sidenote: one of my mom's kids has a turtle's face. Thus, I have dubbed her Turtleface. Quite cute.


Here we are at Stingray City. You can see the Divemaster here hugging a rather large Green Moray eel. There are also two stingrays in the picture, which I am sure you will be able to pick out. The large one on the left is the female, and the smaller one on the right is the male. This is always how they are sized in relation. Females also have longer tails, while males have two short tail fins. The bottom of them feels like a plate of snot. The top feels like a strip of sandpaper covered in snot. The only bone structure they have is a spine made of cartilage that can actually cut you if you run your hand from rear to front. They have no teeth, instead sucking up their food into their mouth on the bottom of their bodies. Their mouth is outfitted with some grinding plates which act as teeth. I had one suck on my arm for a brief period of time, and while it wasn't overly painful, it certainly did not feel good. They leave a pretty mean hickie in as little as a second or so. Pretty powerful suction. The eel was simply frightening. It tried to swim up father's shorts. Comedy?

Here he is again. Look at those eyes. Creepy bastard. IT'S HEADED RIGHT FOR US!

I have yet to pull the pictures from my dad's digital onto my computer. It has some pictures of us on land. Rather boring stuff, but I wanted to show you guys my new sunglasses and get your opinion. I think they are my favorite pair so far. Simple, black Oakley's. But they are pretty big, and I love big sunglasses. Not too big, but I'm not really a flashy guy at my core. I think they work.

Oh, here's a picture from our hotel. Gorgeous.

Also, I went to the Fall Nationals drag races down in Ennis this past weekend. It was really an awesome experience. I had been to races before but on a much smaller scale. My dad used to drag back when he was my age, and he had a orange Plymouth 'Cuda. We would go out to the Lancaster drag strip in BFE New York whenever we were in town visiting relatives, and he would tell me stories while a 1993 stock Ford Taurus raced an Astro van. Of course there were bigger and better races, but that will always stay in my memory.

These are completely different. 8000 horsepower means running a quarter mile in 4.6 seconds at a top speed of 350 mph. Basically, some years ago, they hit the speed limits of gasoline. So they started to inject these beasts with Nitro, which is probably a better version of what ricers call Nitrous, made famous by The Fast and the Furious. The two crew chiefs, when the cars are on the line and ready to race, turn to each other and give a nod. They then remove a small pin from the engine, similar to removing a pin from a grenade, which causes the Nitro to enter the engine and mix with the gasoline. There is a noticeable difference in the sound and deafening rumble of the engine as the Nitro is released. They do this because this mixture has a tendency to ruin metal engine components. After the pin is pulled, they fire up, creep into final position, and rocket down the quarter mile. It really is like a bomb exploding constantly for 4.5 seconds. I would liken the sensation to if someone were to grab your insides and shake them violently. I think it is something everyone should experience at least once in their life. Your jaw will drop. Guaranteed.

I took about 200 pictures in between plugging my ears, and I am fairly proud of myself. I got some pretty good pictures with my dad's SLR. What a magnificent piece of machinery that is. Anyway, when I get those pictures off the camera onto my laptop, I will post a few here.

In other news, I managed to (somehow) land an interview with Microsoft for next week. It is in Austin, so those of you in town, expect a call if I have time. I think it will have to be a short trip, sadly, as the OU game is that weekend. If Microsoft is reading this, please know this:
You might find somebody with a higher GPA and more experience in the industry, but you will certainly not find somebody who desires to work for this company more than I do. Working in Redmond, WA with your company is not just something I want for my career, it's something I want for my life. I swear, if I get the opportunity to get my foot in the door, it is on like Donkey Kong. And having seen King of Kong (movie of the year), I know that when Donkey Kong is on, it is not to be trifled with or taken lightly.

I hope everyone is well.

P.S. I just watched the series premiere of Bionic Woman. I'd give it a 5 out of 10. Better yet, after this, the series premiere of Life came on. It stars Lt. Winters of Band of Brothers fame. It's about a detective who is framed for murder, goes away for 12 years of his life sentence until they clear his name. Then he gets this huge settlement from the government or whatever, gets his job back, and fights crime. It's a far-fetched story, but not so far-fetched as to make it unbelievable. Also, I love his character. I'd try to explain it, but I would fail. It really intrigued me and caught my attention. I'll definitely be watching it next week. Check it out online at nbc.com or whatever.