Saturday adventure

This week I got paid and felt rich, I wanted to spend money! I reigned myself in and examined what I really wanted, to buy something, and what I didn't, to buy something new & spend all my money. There is a place that satisfies these needs: The Thrift Store.

I frequent my neighborhood store a couple of times a month, so for this occasion I wanted to expand. I decided on a Tour de Thrift de Springfield. I Googled Thrift Store and noted 4 shoppes in my area. Turns out that Google lumps in the corporate headquarters of the Good Will and the Adult Care Service Center of the Salvation Army as thrift stores, so my neighborhood shop is the only one in my area.

I found matching dog bowls for my HB. An elongated photo frame for Thing-A-Day week and Jessie picked up a pair of nice mugs from Japan and some OT stuff for her kids.

Chameleon

Wife has a Largan Chameleon digital camera from about 8 or 9 years ago.  Most of the indicator words next to buttons have worn off. It has a female USB A port, meaning it needs a male to male USB A cable. With no zoom or any manual settings of any kind it takes the most unusual photos. It was a gift from Wife's grandfather and I'm pretty sure it came free when he bought a machine for work. It went everywhere because of its size, but also because it had no monetary value, here you can see it braving the rain in Saint Kitts.

This camera is famous for being difficult to install with hard to find drivers.  There are no Win 7 drivers. It barely detects when plugged in to the computer.  Thanks to XP mode in Win 7 Ultimate I was able to fire up an XP machine and install the camera and grab what's left of the 51 pictures!  Unfortunately they're in pretty rough shape and they're all in variations of this masterpiece.

Cheers for XP mode at least.

These doggies are big

We took HB to a farm last week. He's been making do with fairly short walks around the neighborhood; competing for space with cars, houses and other doggies. We have an awesome friend who's family farm is close by and she let us come up for the afternoon.
HB was a little nervous at first having never seen horses before.

He quickly made friends and after introductions they all got along famously. 

He had so much fun exploring and running around that he didn't want to leave. He ran for 3 or 4 hours, playing in the snow, playing with their dog; Bodi; and exploring the fields. I'm really glad we got a chance for him to run. He doesn't enjoy computers like I do, so actually doing something was pretty great.

Priorities

Someone special came to visit for Thanksgiving. It was exactly perfect. Difficult and busy but splendid and refreshing; it was needed. But now, after a week away, I'm back to work and it's taking a little getting used to. Getting the time off was easy, boss didn't even want a reason.
I took a break to go home and put on socks and shoes to cover up my pedicured toesies from the mocking eyes of middle schoolers.

My work friend asked how I enjoyed my vacation. I scoffed, that was no vacay! It was work, it was driving, it was expensive. My primary purpose was to take care of my girl and everything else was secondary. It's something I'd forgotten; to be so preoccupied with someone else.

'Ohana

Big Island Ohana Cafe. Owned by a father and mother, run by daughter and son. I never knew their names or their nationality. They had vintage signs on the wall and still offered banana splits and malt milk shakes. They were cash only.

When I moved here I ate there a couple three times a week, usually getting bacon cheeseburgers, fries and a drink for me and my boss. The store changed owners and my shift moved to the evening when BIOC was closed so I stopped eating there.

We started going to church and would eat lunch at 'Ohana Cafe every Sunday. Over the summer my hana'i nephew paddled every Saturday morning and we took him there for lunch afterwards.

We went often enough that they let me order off menu. I usually got fish over fried rice with eggs over medium. It was fantastic. Jessie got the same thing every time, which with their accent, was pronounced "Frenche Toast."

They closed 2 weeks ago.

Update:

BigIslandVideoNews.com has video of the corner being torn down. It may have been ugly but I don't see 15 new parking spaces being better than the 'Ohana Cafe.

Tsunami drill

Every month they sound the Tsanmi warning alarms as a test. This month they organized a complete Tsunami drill.

I was unprepared, I didn't bring water or really know what to do. So I set out to keep the kids in line as we made our dry run from the school to the edge of the airport where we waited in the sun for 20 minutes for them to open the gates. We walked with 700 kids across the tarmac of Hilo airport to then sit for 2 hours waiting for a bus ride home.

The kids did not take it seriously, they were rude and didn't follow directions and were plagued with selfish behavior as previously mentioned. In the event of a real Tsunami they might focus a little more because it's serious, but they'd also be under prepared and there would be a lot more chaos around them.

Tsunamis are a very real thing here. There have been serous ones within memory for some members of the community and the kids' families, so it's not like an abstract idea. I wish I knew how to convey the serious nature of this threat and the benefit of being prepared and focused.

The reality is that if a Tsunami hit where we are most vulnerable most of that area would not survive, there isn't enough time or organization to get everyone out.

The price of island life.

Precious

I was reading about secret societies. I came across the Order of the Engineer. They follow a code of ethics regarding engineering. Its purpose is to foster pride and resonsibility in your work. I think it's awesome. It's not a secret society, it's not used to make extra money or get a job. It's about being pono with your work. They get a plain stainless steal ring.

I'm a member of several clubs as outlined in the previous post, none of which have rings or formal introductions. I was lamenting not being a member of any clubs like that when I look at my left hand and saw my wedding ring.

I've tried to talk about this to a couple of friends, neither of whom are married and one of which cannot legally marry. I came across like an asshole I think, pushing my marriage in their face. Now I'm going to try to explain myself here and likely present myself as an asshole to a much larger audience. I feel vulnerable when I'm not wearing my ring and confident when I am. It's a heavy ring, platinum and silver, very comfortable and fits well. It was made by a wonderful and akamai friend as a wedding present. I'm very proud of it. My pride is not meant to be exclusive. I think everyone should be able to marry if they want. I will likely talk about my stance on marriage at another time, this post isn't about that, but about membership in societies.

Jessie and I once had wooden rings we got in Spain. I broke mine catching a Frisbee the week we got back.

A frequent ring I see is the class ring. I never wanted one from high school and I certainly did not want one from my community college.

What groups are you a member that are significant? Do you wear any jewelry that shows your membership?

tracking

Several months ago before I went on my O'ahu trip I heard something on NPR while shopping for supplies. It was a medical comedy sketch. I enjoyed it but was too focused with the task at hand to complete the listening and find out who it was.

Months later I found motivation to track it down. I emailed Hawai'i Public Radio and they eventually told me it was mostly likely a syndicated show out of Cleveland hosted by Robert Conrad. I found their programming schedule and emailed him for confirmation; it was Nichols and May, a comedy duo. The album I'd heard was called Nichols and May Examine Doctors.

Turns out Nichols also directed the Catch 22 film.

There isn't much to see on Internet about these two, YouTube has a few clips though.

Photography

Sometimes it's the tecnique, playing with a new setting, squeezing the AoF as tight as I can or following some principles.

Other times it's the process, getting me out of the house. It can sublimate cabin fever when it threatens.

Mostly it's the content. Your body of work is never done. It's important to continue to create and explore and express if only for yourself.

It's always a good thing.

I'm just glad I can create something. It doesn't have to be amazing, it just has to be honest. I like showing my pictures here and on Flickr, but the audience is mostly me and mostly unimportant.

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

productivity

The video card in my gaming machine was crashing and showing artifacts during POST. It's being RMA'd.

This has stopped me from playing computer games which has let me accomplish all the other chores and projects that've been waiting to get done:

1. Installed uTorrent on my WHS. I have it watch for torrents in whs\public\torrents. I've also set up RSS feeds for the shows I like, the feeds come from feedmytorrents.com. It downloads them all to one dir and then moves them into whs\video\tv\%showname% to make it easy for the wife and the rest of the hosue to find.

I also set up the scheduler in uTorrent to only download and seed at night when everyone else is asleep. uTorrent's scheduler is tedious to configure but works. I tried at first to figure out a way to do with it Task Scheduler in Windows but hade a very difficult time and scratched that idea.

2. RMA'd a bad stick of memory back to G. Skill. I don't really like evanagalizing products but now I will. G. Skill offers everything I like: the memory is good quality, cheap, comes with a lifetime warranty and they have an easy RMA process.

3. I filed my taxes. It's depressing to see how much money I've made compared to how much I have, but it's exciting to think how much I'll get back. No matter what, it has to be done and I don't mind paying taxes. But I recognize the need and the corrolation between the taxes I pay and the services I use and I often feel that I get more than I pay for. I appreciate the roads, the schools, the police and the EMTs. I just wish more of my taxes went to them than to war.

4. Laundry! Yes! I've done 4 loads this week.

5. Hollowed out a book. The next best thing to do with a book after reading or burning is to gut it.

6. Cleaned up the htpc menus. fixed some error messages and added the photos from WHS.

7. Spending more time with my wife. Always a good idea.

What have you been up to?

Meat Parade

Both the vegetarians have left the house for the holidays. The two meat eaters in the house have been having Meat Fest 2008 (tm). We did steak chili, prime rib for Gregmas, steak and eggs for breakfast, chinese food.

There's already a huge fanbase on Internet. So by no means is the bacon weave a new idea, but it's still awesome.

One layer 6 x 7 bacon weave, lightly cook until chewy, definitely before it's crispy. Uncooked turkey slices wrapped around portugese sausage, baked until turkey is done.

Top bacon weave with cheese, roll around turkey/sausage like a bacon burrito and use toothpicks for structure. Bake until done.

Scallops fried in bacon fat and pork stuffing (as the vegetable).

Nom.

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

Photography

My friend wrote a life list. One of the items was to buy a DSLR camera. Here is my response:

I don't know how much time you've spent with a camera since highschool. I tried to get back into photography last November and it was a wonderful decision. Here is what I've learned:

1. Buy a used DSLR to begin with. Get a used bottom line camera from any of the big manufacturers like Cannon or Nikon. After 6 months you'll know if the limits are your camera or you.
2. Have somewhere to store your photos in redundancy. Storing all your photos on your laptop will work until your hard drive dies. Then you're fucked. I store them on my WHS with duplication enabled. Your Flickr account will probably suffice for the important photos.
3. Use the highest quality settings. You bought a DSLR, put that image sensor to use. Storage is cheap. Also DSLR pictures can be pretty large. My D40X on its highest setting takes pictures in the range of 3-4mb.
4. Buy a case and tripod at the same time as your DSLR. You can manage without either of them but the case will lengthen the life of your camera and a tripod enables a lot of really cool shots.
5. RTFM. I read the manual every few months and everytime I learn something new.

Here's a Mauna Kea panoramic

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.

City lights on the inside of my eyelids

I miss living in a city. I haven't very often or for very long. Barcelona for 2 months, Seattle for 5 months, I guess you can count Richmond for 2 years. A corner stone of any city that I'd like to live in is public transportation.

Seattle had an amazing public transit system that would take me from Bellevue into downtown in about 45 minutes. This is me time, time to read and listen to music. NOT talk on the phone, because that's just rude. But I really enjoy the sway of the bus, the other travelers; I feel connected with them in a way that I don't when we drive next to each other. The driving is left to someone else and I can watch the scenery. I can focus on the birds and sunset, I don't have to worry.

Around Seattle also had ferries, these are at least 12 kinds of awesome. They also provide a time for picture taking, down time, time to talk and provide a good adventure, even if only for 30
minutes.


I enjoy much more riding the subway. The dirty tiled floor of the station, swiping cards or giving tokens has a sense of time to it that cannot be matched anywhere else. Again, I enjoy connecting with the other passengers by their presence only. Talking to strangers in that kind of setting has never appealed, but the clutch of the train as it pulls away and the G forces as it slows down. The flickering of lights, well it just appeals to me.

I miss living in a place where I can travel without being the driver. Here either I bike or I drive. There is a bus, sure, but it runs only a few times a day and isn't really designed for around town commuting, more for cross island destinations.


I enjoy walking on stone. The hard surface beneath me makes me feel small against the age of this stone. It's been around longer than I have and will continue to be long after I'm not.

It's not just the reduced carbon footprint, or the lower cost, the absence of anxiety from not driving. It's also the culture. These things were built during a time when city planners put an enormous effort into moving a large amount of people. This technology comes form a time when society wasn't centered around the individual. You can blame it on whatever you want, video games or media, it doesn't really matter at this point. Pretty much everyone is on this path to manifest destiny.

$4.50 at the pumps yesterday and I still filled up.





To revive my old meme:
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be.
If you had your choice of method of transportation there, what would you choose?

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.