Steve Martin

Is this 0th place on the Heirarchy of Jokes? Recycle the same material decades later and see if anyone realizes?  Now I see in the comments that I'm not the first to discover this, but I realized it on my own!



1989

2012

I had a BM

I was skeptical going into it. My friends in MA knew that I was not really into the idea. Going to Burning Man a week after moving back to Hawaii?  Wife moving from MA to VA, driving across the country to meet me in NV?  It sounds like a mad plan. The reason was to give us an experience that separates the New England chapter of our lives from the next chapter on back in the islands.


Burning Man is both amazing and disappointing. It's radical self reliance on Walmart at the last minute and Amazon if you planned ahead.  It's a place for rich white people to go and be rich and white.  Those that can afford a week's worth of resources, away from work to look at art and party are the 1% of the world.


Youth, drugs, sex, bacon and alcohol; in that order are what I saw most people going after. If you're not here to get drunk, laid, do drugs and party you need to figure out why you're here.

Some of the art was outstanding.  Art cars are largely awful.

I fixed a flat tire for a stranger in another camp as a gift, mostly to give something. They gifted me a CD of their own music. Living in a gift economy has made me realize that I prefer it over barter.

The playa dust sets the scene for a surreal landscape. Black Rock City is a prehistoric lake bed. The dust is in everything. It washes away the stink. It levels the playing field.

Or so I thought. I really wanted it to be a barrier. I wanted it to screen out the ones that didn't really want to attend.  I couldn't understand why so many people would go to just dance in the desert for a week!

I really enjoyed the sexy post apocalyptic dress code that it necessitated.

The first 2 or 3 days we were there I hardly ate anything. I hydrated very well but just was not hungry despite being incredibly active. Learning how few material goods I need to be happy was a really liberating experience. No internet, phones or screens for a week!

The most disappointing aspect was the music.  I wanted to not hear anything I would recognize.  I heard Kid Rock, Melissa Etheridge (on repeat), Limp Bizkit and Katy Perry & Carly Rae Jepson not ironically.

Quick highlights:  Thunder Dome, Lamp Lighters, reconnecting with wife, cinnamon roll.


I'm pretty sure my gift to the Playa next time I attend will be catering to the monogamous, vegetarian and sober crowd, the under served population.

And that's the story of my experience in Burning Man, Alabama.

Photoset

We have a copy of the C&H Tenth Anniversary Book that we've been reading the last few weeks. I really identify with Hobbes more than Calvin, who strikes me as spoiled and kind of a jerk. Hobbes makes the most sense to me, as someone who's always down for whatever and is pretty forgiving.
Bill Waterson is the real hero of the comic, never merchandising or selling the rights. How great. I'm sure he was often offered a lot of money to sell out and he managed not to. 

This is great Sunday morning activity with someone you love. You have an activity, you create something beautiful and create a shared memory.

Differential Oil

I have 2006 Subaru Forester X. It has 47.5k miles. It has AWD with two differentials. Today I changed the rear differential oil and the front differential oil / manual transmission oil.

Magnets holding on to shards

The rear oil is a pretty simple process, you can access the differential case without using ramps. Make sure the car is level and the parking break is engaged. It uses a 13mm socket which is .512". Most ratchets are .5". You probably don't need to purchase the 13mm socket.Tools needed:

• 5" ratchet.
• oil pan
• differential oil. My Subaru takes about .8 of a quart.

Begin with warm oil. To change the oil, remove the top (fill) plug to relieve pressure, then remove the bottom (drain) plug. Let it drain. Examine the drain plug, it has a magnet on it that catches pieces of the differential gears. If you see large chunks then you may need to have it checked out by a pro, though changing the oil might be the preventative maintenance needed. Clean the plug and, once it is drained, screw it back in. Pour the new oil into the fill hole on the top.

This can be tricky because there is not a lot of vertical room in which to pour down. Some quarts have a mechanism to squeeze it out, others don't. It is full when the oil starts to spill out of the top fill plug, now screw in the top plug. Tighten both the top and bottom plug as tight as you can.

The front differential oil is shared with the manual transmission. If you have an automatic transmission it will have its own oil and you should not mix them. Tools you'll need:

• .5" ratchet.
• T70 Torx bit
• oil pan
• differential oil. My Subaru takes about 3.8 quarts
• tube and funnel
• clean cloth to wipe the dip stick

The front drain plug does not use the same 13mm socket, it uses a T70 Torx bit. I found mine at Advance, most auto shoppes carry them, it was $6. To drain, unscrew the T70 bit. This case has about 4 quarts of oil so be prepared for such a large amount of fluid. Be sure to check the plug for shards again and clean off the plug before replacing it. Once it is drained, screw it back in. 

The fill plug is on the top side of the same case, accessed through the hood.  It is in the center of the engine compartment all the way back against the firewall. It is a bit tricky to find it, but it has a yellow handle and is pretty deep in the back.  I have a very poor picture here, with the firewall to the left.

I recommend a tube and funnel, make sure the tube is all the way in the fill hole to so you won't spill any, differential oil is stinky. Fill it up, when you've emptied 3 quarts, begin fill slowly and stop to check the dip stick frequently. Differentials do not like being too full or too empty.

My thoughts on which kind of differential fluid: do not use a fluid marked for Limited Slip or LS. The additives in LS oil does not work well with the synchronizers in the Subaru manual transmissions. Many Subaru fora recommend a mix of Motul 300 and Redline oils. I don't like the idea of mixing oils as they will separate over night and they'll have to remix every time you start driving the car. YMMV but I feel find putting just the high end Motul in. Motul is difficult to find locally, I ordered mine from Annapolis Subaru, a vendor on SubaruForester.org. I got a slight discount. The range of prices for the dealership to change differential fluid is between $200 and $300. If I'm already doing this work myself then I can justify spending more on high end fluid. Especially for such a vital part of my car.

This maintenance greatly improves shifting. Shifting is smooth an much easier to get in to gear. Motul is rated for low temperatures so I'm hoping to glean that benefit on the -9F mornings here in Mass.

Doing my own car maintenance is very satisfying. It saves some money but I mostly enjoy having a deeper understanding of my car and how cars work in general. 

Writing a letter

I wrote a letter to my aunt and uncle.
I had a root canal today, so today's TaD has to be simple. This is my cat, Merlot:

Merlot

She desperately wants to eat but her dinner isn't until for another 1.5 hrs.  She also woke me up early this morning and I'm upset with her about that so I don't feel bad putting this unflattering picture of her on Internet.

Closure part 2

An ordeal has finally ended. 20 months ago I had my wisdom teeth removed. During that procedure the adjacent tooth's root was broken.

To CYA my surgeon paid for:

• A root canal which could not recover the tooth
• I then had another extraction
• A bone graft of someone else's bone shards and
• Another bone graft of someone else's bone shards
• An implant
• An uncovering
• A failed molding during which the implant was pushed up into my sinus
• A surgery to remove the implant impacted in my sinus.

When the implant made it to my sinus I couldn't form a seal in my mouth. I couldn't use a straw. Breathing vibrated the nerve in the open canal and was very uncomfortable. 

The new surgeon that removed the titanium implant said that the prosthetic tooth is not even necessary because of how much the teeth overlap, so the entire procedure could've been avoided.

My dentist is awesome though and when I went by today to show them the titanium implant I asked for copies of my X-Rays. They didn't know how to export them from the computer so they let me do it. They also gave me chocolate covered short bread cookies. I brought them tangerines.

People that are really good at what they doing

Ronald Jenkees. I just bought 2 copies of his CD, so he'll sign them.

Danny MacAskill. I did not buy his CD.

Firecrackers.

Waipi'o

I went camping with the Intermediate school on Thursday. It was an end-of-the-year reward for the kids that got all their work done on time.
My usual approach to school outings is to do whatever the kids do, eat the same food, do the same activities and get just as dirty. This being no exception I opted to walk down the valley with the kids, on a road that is 4wd only for a good reason. So steep that it was often difficult to stop once the momentum had its hold. It's two days later and I'm still sore, I have trouble standing up and sitting down or standing still. It's that bad. It's a beautiful way to spend a Thursday: removing invasive species in a beautiful valley that the Ali'i of old used to live in.


The valley is called Waipi'o because it's a microcosm of the water cycle.

Wai - water
pi'o - arch or curve.

As you can see it's absolutey beautiful. It's a lush tropical rain forest teaming with life.

The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Tell Us Is Possible

Posture

I made a monitor stand! I came across a DYI monitor stand via stumble upon about 6 months ago and have been thinking about it since. The author paid for a fabricated stand and a custom cut steel plate with another custom cut glass plate on top. His TCO was about $125. It looked ultra cool.

I do computer work for Aloha Machine & Welding (best name evar), a local machine shop I considered asking them to cut me what I need in a work exchange, but decided I wanted to be more integral to the process and I didn't really want to spend much money on this, I don't have a lifestyle that dictates form over function.

I took measurements of what I wanted covered and headed to the hardware store. I bought a board, had it cut and came home to paint. I had some spray paint leftover from the previous painting projects: keyboard and mouse. I managed 2 coats of blue on the base before I ran out.
2 x steel cans got 1 coat of white before it ran out and the other two ended up getting several coats of black. I gave the blue base 3 coats of clear finish.

I used a liquid nails equivalent and a real nail fasten them in. I was less concerned about exact measurements but everything is more or less where is should be. My monitor now sits 5" above where it was and I'm sure my neck and back will thank me for it shortly.


Parts:
Board: $8. Still have 3/5ths of the board left
steel cans: free
spray paint: free
4 x nails: free

Wedding

Having just been intimately involved with a wedding here are the things I learned.

Photography

We relied heavily on friends and family which had lots of good points:

1. free
   
2. we keep all the originals
3. lots of candids
   
4. we have 1,200 pictures
   

The downsides are:

1. they vary quite a bit in quality,
   
2. we missed a lot of important shots, like the family portraits because
   
3. there was no organization for any of the shots
4. there was no expectation of professionalism

In hindsight, I should have arranged with some of the groom's men to be in charge of organizing the photography.

Style and originality

Be as as unique as you want to. We had a wonderful minister who did an amazing job and she gave us a unique ceremony that many people seemed to enjoy. We also had leis shipped from Hawai'i and my nephew being a flower boy dressed in aloha gear.
But plan ahead. We had some really great ideas but there just wasn't enough time to arrange for them.

Invitations

We made our own. We designed them in Publisher, used flower graphics that our friend made, printed them at Office Max for about $75 and cut them ourselves. This was a really good decision. We got a lot of great feedback from everyone (grandparents & friends). It really set a nice mood for the ceremony. My cousin advised that as soon as you mention the word Wedding to a professional anybody the price jumpes about %100 because they know you aren't a returning customer.



We did the same for the RSVPS . The glaring error that we made was in not leaving a place for them to write their name. We received so many RSVPs that said "All 5 of us will be coming" and we had no idea who they were. Sometimes though, no matter what you do, the ravages of the USPS can deliver only the useless husk of a one grand RSVP.

Marriage License

We got ours at the Richmond Circuit court. It cost us $35 +$2.50 for a certified copy of the marriage license. To help the process go smoothly, arrive in a good mood, bring cash, and your ID. Turn off your cell phone.

Location

Our ceremony was held at the Unitarian Church in Richmond, and Artworks in Southside hosted the reception. We really lucked out. We only had 6 months to find a place. I suggest start calling as soon as you can, a year before is not too early. Seriously, start calling now.
Having the reception at a venue that already has some decoration helps a lot. Ours was at an art studio so there was lots of gorgeous stuff on the walls already. My brother had his at a nursery, so all of his pictures have plants in the background.

Food

Don't expect to eat on your wedding day. I was lucky, I got a little bit of food during the reception, J got less. We didn't really eat until we got to the hotel room where my uncle had arranged a gift basket with delicious bread and other treats.
My dad arranged the catering, mostly from a Mediterranean bakery. He complimented it with food from Costco for those with more delicate palettes. We got lots of compliments on the food we barely touched.

Minister

We had the best minister possible. She is a family friend and has been a part of my life since I was a baby. She's beautiful, smart, resourceful, talented and was absolutely perfect for us. She made the ceremony. She kept me from folding from nerves, she kept me sane, she gave me a kiss. Choosing the right minister will make your ceremony a real success.

Getting married is one of the best experiences of my life. The months leading up to it were very very difficult and put a lot of strain on us. The wedding day completely made up for it. I could not have asked for anything better.

Please comment on your wedding if you've had one, or with expectations if you haven't and plan to, or why you won't if you're not.

Every day is different. Every day is exactly the same

It was a wonderful day.

Strong Finish

A couple of months ago, shortly before thanksgiving, we bought a Nikon D40x DSLR. We researched as much as we could before choosing, we just didn't know what we'd want or need. I chose the d40x over the d40 because of the higher megapixels. We got the body and a kit lens for about $650 (quitting smoking money) from Amazon. Shortly after we bought a camera case and a tripod for $40 also on Amazon.

I took a photography class in highschool and that's the extent of my formal training. I had a great teacher who loved Macs and really pushed us to create art however we saw it, either with SLR cameras or digital videos. For some reason I felt that all those lessons I learned JR year would carry across a decade.Getting this camera has been a blast for me, it's allowed me to take some really nice shots of the island we live on.

The d40x allows a shutter time up to 30 seconds which is usually more than I need. Playing with the shutter speed for night shots and aperture settings for day shots has been so much fun for me. I'm only recently starting to bump up against some of it's short comings.
1. No time lapse settings: no way to create a gif automatically. It has to be done manually, and I have, it's just not as pretty and a big PITA.
2. No bracketing. This would allow me to take the same picture x number of times with different exposures to make some HDR pictures.

This is a great beginner camera. It's taken almost 6 months for me find things I want it to do that it can't. Also means I can get another camera someday and leave this one for J or our kids one day :)

One of the best things about this camera is that it encourages me to adventure. My dad gave up photograpy because he feels it takes away from the experience of the event. I agree, but I also find that I wouldn't even be at the event if it weren't to take pictures. Now I also get a chance to share some of that experience with you.

Fine day

This morning I woke up and realized how to take long exposure pictures during the day in plenty of light! Boy I was excited. I also figured out how to use the AF-L (Auto Focus Lock) button. What a productive day and I'd only been awake for 20 minutes. Gosh what a beautiful day it is too! Not a cloud in the sky, I can see all the way up to Mauna Kea and if you look closely you can see the observatories where Kevin works.
Today is a special day so we decided to do something special and go somewhere I'd never been before, Akaka Falls. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that I'd already seen Akaka Falls and many many other places on the Big Island without actually having been there personally. I see tourist pictures of these places every day. Everyone takes the same pictures of the same places Sometimes they put their boyfriend or wife in them but usually they're content with what's there.
Since I'm not interested in posting the pictures with me or my fiance, you get a generic picture. I did try some of the delayed exposure stuff that I learned, but there was just too much sky and it over exposed very easily. There's a little bit of the milky effect from the fall, but not much.










Here is where I really lucked out with the long exposure. There was just enough tree cover to allow a 1.3" shutter speed. If only the leaves weren't so over exposed but I'm still learning and I'm very pleased.

A respite from the rain

I took this on Monday waiting for my surgeon to open their doors after lunch. some people miss the changing of the seasons. I understand that, but I never get sick of this weather, and the rain provides a balance that's good enough.
There's claim that those that suffer from seasonal affective disorder can reap a great benefit from living in this climate. Sometimes January and February are just rough months.

the only way to fix it is to flush it all away

Flooding is another one of nature's recitals that can be added to the list. Hilo is getting a lot of rain right now. This makes for excellent pictures! It's very difficult to shoot in the rain without getting the equipment wet. I missed an amazing photo opportunity at rainbow falls but I just couldnt' bring myself to expose my camera to that kind of rain.

Today we went out again to try and grab a shot of rainbow falls, and while it's still an awesome shot, the falls aren't nearly as big as they were last night. Here's the shot of the day, a drainage canal with a 10" exposure time:



For context of the amount of rain that's been showing up, Rainbow Falls before and after

Fire inside

I don't like sitting still for terribly long. I have a lot of brains and I enjoy using them to create and develop ideas. I don't mind making small things, but as long as I've contributed something I feel good.
My new schedule at work leaves me with most of the day time to my own devices. A couple of days ago I made this fancy .gif of an ice cube melting.

Short Story 2: Surfing

Surfing is one of those mythical activities I'd never actually be able to do. Like owning a convertible or seeing Nine Inch Nails in Prague.

I'm about to make this happen! As I stare glassy eyed at several boogie boards hanging. Which do I need? What's the difference? The owner is quacking away on the phone without a care for me.

I choose one, immediately he gets up “you don't want that one, you want THIS one.” he snaps and then back to his phone. I grab some flippers and wax and I'm out.

Twice a week I ride to the beach to learn this sport and conquer this. 45 minute bike ride there, 2 hours of flopping around in the water, 45 minutes bike ride home. While discussing my trouble I hear that I may be too big to catch waves.

How can this be? Hawaiian men are bigger than me and I know they do it, they invented it! My motivation sapped, I give up for a few weeks. I ask around about surfing and how to get starting. No one wants to tell me about the boogie board, only about real surfing. Longboarding. It took them only a few tries to pick it up. Good for fucking them.

The motivation I lost turns to spite with this latest news. I'll show them by showing myself and learning this once and for all.

We drive to the beach in the rental, I launch out, pass the snorkelers towards the waves. They're coming in high and strong today.

I'm the only one out here which is a little strange but it's too late to worry about that now. I position my body facing the shore and turn my head to wait for a good wave. A few small ones and then a big one, it lifts me up and pulls me but I didn't kick fast enough and it rolls past me and breaks a few feet infront.

Another couple small ones, then a big one on it's way. I don't have much hope but I kick as hard as I can. It lifts, it... breaks right on me! I'm looking down at the water this time. My board starts to shake and I then I understand: I'm riding the wave. I can't see anything, there's salt water in my mouth, I can hear screaming and my face feels strange.

I open my eyes and I can see. I spit out the salty taste of the pacific. The screaming was actually me shouting with excitement. The strange feeling in my face is the ear to ear grin that I haven't had in a long time.

I paddle back to shore. I've caught my first wave.

Published with Google Docs

Short Story 1: Howzit

“howziiiiiiit!” he says louldy right behind my head, my heart rate increasing the longer he draws out the word.

It takes me a moment to understand what he's saying. I turn around. “oh hey”

Everyone here is friendly, so this interaction is to be expected. The last city I was in, everyone ignored everyone. If you weren't being ignored, there was usually trouble.

Weeks go by, I begin to understand the accent. I don't cared if it's english, local dialiect can be pretty fucking far from the english I know.

I give a cigarette to a kid and I receive Mahalo.

I hear “give me da kine” and sort of understand what she wants this time.

One night a giant dressed in white sports jerseys lays on da pidgin right thick. It's a cool evening. The fan is on as well as the AC and I start to sweat. I barely understand a word he says. What's worse is that he wants to know about a computer, he tries using technical terms but uses the wrong ones. All made worse by this new to me language. He's patient and we make it through the conversation, I lose the sale anyway and he walks out empty handed.

Months have passed without problems and now I'm much more comfortable with this town.

I'm riding home one night after closing the shop, what the sodium lights lack in lumens they make up with adventure, I have to be extra alert and aware of my surroundings as I ride and I am. I ride past a couple of kids sitting on the concrete barriers.

“howzithowzithowzit!”

“oh hey!” and I nearly wreck my bike in front of everyone.

Published with Google Docs

Vacation

There are too many digital photographs in the world. There's too much data. Google has made a sweet dime organizing it. I'm taking advantage of it and adding to the excess.

I'm almost tired of talking about a few of these pictures, because I was so proud of them when i took them that I told everyone I knew about it, I looked at them all the time for inspiration and now I'm sick of them So here is the last time I'll present some of these unless there's money involved.

The swimming pool was taken at 1am with 25" exposure, almost no light and is probably the best technical picture I have.








.
I like this one because of the motion blur. Again this involved long exposure, I think 4-6". Failing light around 7pm.









.
Sometimes my composition hurts it's so good. I took this last night in Captain Cooks' Memorial. I would've grabbed a few more pictures but I was quickly reminded about taking pictures of people I don't know.

In case you think these are super awesome and need to add another feed to your reader, you can keep an eye on my fancy pictures. Here's the feed

Shocker!

We made a trip to Waikiki on the 18th. We ate at a super touristy sports bar called Da Big Kahuna, I agreed only in hopes they would have a Big Kahuna Burger from Pulp Fiction fame, also we got a coupon for free fries. The burger was $9 and worth every penny up to $7 after that I was either paying for the name or to eat it in Honolulu.


We spent an hour or two in Ala Moana mall at their crazy food court. We've eaten at some pretty awesome food courts in our time, but this place rocked my casbah.







We came across this awesome car in the garage, I used to think I'd only see this in RVA, but nope! Gangstas live in paradise too.






This last picture is from the county fair in Hilo, it was exactly like every other county fair I've ever been to, same people, same rides, same food. I was sick so we didn't stay, but it was a beautiful sunset.