Watery Graves

I've never really given much thought to what I want done with my remains after my death. I'm mostly sure I wont care. However, there are some pretty unique things out there that are offered.

Foremost among them is the Neptune Memorial Reef. It's an artificial reef that's also a graveyard. Family members can have their loved one's cremains put to rest in one of thousands of plots.

What a great business idea! Charge to become part of the memorial, and the charge to dive it to visit your loved ones. Brilliant!

I can't decide if this is cool, or just creepy...

Pet Peevish

Working at a scuba shop we get a lot of incorrect conceptions; no you don't have to hold your breath for over a minute, no sharks aren't dangerous, yes it's dark during night dives. Some still really get under my skin though. My biggest pet-peeve is when a customer wants to look at "goggles, flippers and tubes". Flippers and tubes I can live with, they're simply an old term for fins and snorkels. Goggles, on the other hand are a completely different thing than a mask. Goggles cover your eyes, a mask covers your eyes and nose. They're two completely different pieces of equipment, and people look at me strangley when I try and correct them. I know it's a small thing, really nothing in the grand scheme of things, but gorramit it irritates the crap out of me!

How many people would go into a ski shop and ask for slippers, and wonder why they weren't shown ski boots? What about asking for 4 new wheels, when you really want new tires? How about asking the people at Best Buy for new memory, when your hard drive is broken? If you're looking for gloves would you ask for mittens? It's like ordering a beer and getting Coors. It's all pretty damned ironic.

I swear, the next person that asks me to show them goggles, I'm going to show them goggles. Then I'll beat them to death with a snorkel when they look at me with a pitying look and say, "No I need goggles I can dive with." Maybe I've just been here too long, or maybe I just need a tall, cold, frosty beer. It's my own private valium, mmmm....beer....

Wii-compression

Being a dive professional I'm always curious about SCUBA related books, movies and games. Turns out that a scuba game is coming out soon for the Wii. OK, maybe "game" is the wrong word, it's really more of a diving simulator.

It's called Endless Ocean, and frankly, it looks...different. From what I can tell players catalogue fish, take pictures of them, find treasure all the while exploring the fictional Manaurai Sea. I loved the clip of petting a great white, which is actually pretty realistic, they're just big puppy dogs. No really they are.

This "game" is worth checking out, but from what I've seen it seems, well, boring. Maybe I'm biased by actually diving regularly, it's possible that it's a decent "game" and I've unfairly prejudged it. It just seems there's not much worthy of a video "game". There are no terrorists, aliens, Nazis or zombie dolphins present. Not that these are required for a good game (this may appeal to the Sims folk), but having some task or goal is required to be entertaining. I'm all for giving non-divers a feel for diving, but this also may give them a boring view of diving as accurate as it may be (it's rare that someone has attempted to cut my hoses or shoot me with a spear gun).

Anyway, I'm curious enough to try it. Not buy it mind you, but try it. Should make for a good Yahtzee review though...