Day 37 - Sunday, 12/15/24 - At Sea to Florida - Day 3

It felt good to sleep in a bit today as our denominational church service is not until 9am in the Wajang  Theater.  It was very well attended and Pastor Dan gave a good Christmas message out of Luke chapter 2. Ida cote, then gave her historical lecture on Al-Andalus which was essentially the capture and occupation of Spain by the Moors.  She also gave a brief historical peace on the history of the formation of Islam and how it led to the occupation of what is now Spain.

Nick followed with the Holland America origin story. However, we did not attend it as we have seen it many times. I use the time to continue my back up process of my pictures. That took about an additional hour to complete. But I'm glad that I've done it and I could now relax a bit knowing my pictures from this trip are backed up 

After lunch, we went to the showroom for the third session in the artificial intelligence lectures by Bradley Jacobson. This one was on the use of artificial intelligence to create music. It was a fun interactive time, and the audience really got into the whole process of creating songs using artificial intelligence. Also many of our shipboard friends have downloaded the picture making app ChatGPT and where displaying their creations. I even created some additional pictures of our stuff in Gibraltar and Casablanca. They turned out pretty cool if I do say so myself. This lecture series is turning out to be one of the highlights of the lectures and is very well attended.





Afterwards, we adjourned to the Crows Nest and I shared my pictures with another guest from the back up that I had created and showed her how she could access the pictures on her phone and edit them. We ate a light Lido dinner before attending the excellent evening entertainment in the main showroom. 

Tonight's entertainer was, Hyperion Knight, a virtuoso pianist that we have seen a number of times on other cruises. He literally puts on a clinic about musical history while playing some incredibly beautiful and difficult piano music. As is his custom, he will be back tomorrow afternoon to do a music trivia session, which is also another clinic on music history. In prior interviews that we have watched, he has indicated that he is a big trivia buff and we have seen him playing trivia even on this ship.



Afterwards, I adjourned to my normal spot in the third floor atrium area by the Christmas village set up to dictate and edit my daily blogs. It's fun doing it here because I also can listen to the music from the fifth floor ocean bar band and vocalist. 

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