If I was to choose between being a ninja or pirate for a year, I would totally be a ninja. In their practice of stealth, and superior knowledge of weaponry, they can survive for the entire year. A pirate, however, lives day to day (which adds to the fact that he enjoys life), because he might die in a skirmish, or, more likely, of scurvy or any other disease out at sea. And a pirate today is way too glorified. Many pirates probably were happy to even see a piece of gold or silver, much less fight a superior ship of, say, a Spanish or British galleon and rob the lot.
However, even with my ninja-ist views, I AM a pirate the week before and after, and the day of, September 19th, previously said as National Talk like a Pirate day.