Hello!
It feels kind of weird to be writing about myself but here I go.
My name is Mark, I am 21 years old and I am just about the most ship-geekiest person you could ever hope to meet. I love ships! Infact I am crazy over them! If you are a regular reader of the blog you will have seen that this is so.
My love for ships started years ago when I was just a little kid. As with many other shipgeeks, my love of ships started with the RMS Titanic, however unlike many shipgeeks from my generation, it wasn't the movie that started this love...it was a Titanic book I found in a book store over a year before the movie came out. At that point I had never heard about the Titanic (I was only like 5 or 6) and after getting the book and reading it, I was hooked.
For my first few years of shipgeeking, I stayed mostly with Titanic and other classic ocean liners, like the Queen Mary or the Normandie. It was also durring this time that I decided that I wanted to go into Naval Architecture as I have always been pretty good at drawing (not to brag) and I figured at the time that ship design was a good way to balence my love of ships and my love of art.
Anyways, for years my focus was on the older ships and the shipping industry back then, I had yet to really discover the modern cruise industry. That changed in the later 90s to early 2000s when Carnival bought Cunard and announced plans for Project Queen Mary, which would eventually become Queen Mary 2. Around that time I was discovering that the internet was a valuble resource for me and my hobby.
After the Queen Mary 2 came out my interest in the cruise industry was ignited. I eventually joined shipgeek forums (such as Cruise Talk at Travelserver.com) where I learned and talked about ships and the industry. Thought I still have much to learn, I have learned a lot over the years and now have a modestly extensive knowledge on the subject of ships and the cruise industry.
Over time I fell even more in love with ships and the industry and my want to be a part of it grew even stronger. In February 2006 I was lucky enough to wittness the meeting of the Queen Mary and the Queen Mary 2 in Long Beach, California. That was a moment I will never forget! Two of the greatest ships ever built together, is an awesome sight.
One thing that is important to note about myself is that I have yet to go on my first cruise. Sad isn't it -__- . I have wanted to for years now and I have even been booked on several (including QE2's final transatlatic crossing :'( ) but in the end something always got in the way. That said, I am determined to changed that this year. There are several cruises and crossings I am looking at and as soon as I can I am going to book them.
Last year, in an attempt to put myself our there in the cruising community I decided to start my humble blog. For the first few months it struggled along with barley any readers, then, in a matter a weeks tht all changed. In January 2011 alone the number of readers more then tripled and so far that growth has continued. The blog now has hundreds of readers from all over the globe!
Hopefully it will remain succesful and continue growing well into the future!
Anyways, there you go, there is my shipgeek story!
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