Naomi's Birthday

(click on picture for video)

Everything is so amazing and nobody is happy...

The Apple iPad came out today. For those who have been hiding under a rock, or have nothing to do with current technology, it's like a computer with a built in pressure sensitive tablet. No keyboard. If you've seen an iPod. It's kind of like a giant iPod. You can browse the internet, call someone, listen to music, watch movies, view your pictures etcetera, all from a device 9 inches diagonal and half an inch. Wow.

The community had mixed reviews, but mostly negative. It was kind of like, yeah, yeah, this is basically something we've seen before. What's the big deal? Yeah it's bigger, more apps, yeah it's only about $100 more than the iPod I bought last year. So what?

For those with that point of view, please, take a minute and watch this video. At the very least you will probably laugh at yourself.

My Shoe Fell Off

Jerky Boys? No. I had these great pair of leather clogs perfect for the workplace. I left them in a box in the tropical heat for too long I guess. I rediscovered them over the weekend and donned them for work today. Stoked. As I got out of my car, the ball of the sole fell off. The rest of the soles turned into rubber rocks the size of kitty litter pellets before 10AM. Sabotage

Maui No Ka Oi

Sue and I popped over to Maui Friday night to mooch free room and board off of my friend Ian while he was there helping to host an Iron Man event. We were there for the day Saturday, and again that night. We got back to Oahu Sunday morning.

So far Sue and I have been on three trips to Maui. We've never been up the hill to Haleakala. We headed 'Up Country' and on up to the Volcano after breakfast. We stopped a couple times along the way. From Kihei, it took about an hour and a half for us to get to the top. Although it was a cloudy day, the clouds pretty much vanished at around 7,000 feet. From there until the summit at nearly 10,000 feet it was crystal clear. The air is so thin up there, the sunlight was intense. It only took us about 20 minutes to turn a little pink.

There is something about looking a landscape as immense as the Haleakala volcano basin. I saw across the floor of terrain eight miles wide, and lost all sense of scale. In fact, the peaks of big island poking out of the clouds were clearly visible from the precipice. Awesome.

On the way back down, we decided to stop at the Ali`i Kula Lavender Gardens. It's hard to explain the appeal as a heterosexual male, but it is noteworthy, and I will try. The Lavender Garden is several acres of land mostly filled with lavender (shrubs?) and several other visually and herbally unusual flora. The overwhelming scent of lavender immediately chillaxed me. If you've ever heard that the smell of lavender is a soothing agent, you should believe it. It was like a big field of purple chill.

In our haste to cram a trip into a single day, Sue and I overlooked lunch. We arrived at the Lavender Gardens hungry, and found the Gallery (gift shoppe) in the middle of the garden acreage. The shop offered several rubs, fragrances, decorations, and YES foods made with lavender. I think we ate about a dozen almond lavender cookies with our herbal tea, and then went back for lavender scones. *burp* Not bad. Lavender has an mellow peppery accent about it. Odd but fun.

Here's a movie I did from just the volcano part of the trip.

Dinosaurs at Bishop

I took the kids to the Bishop Museum after work again today. It's fun to spend an hour there and let everyone stretch their legs before we get back in traffic. The new temporary exhibit is called "Dinosaurs Unearthed". It will be running until January 3rd. There's about a dozen animatronic dinosaurs in front of and inside the first floor of the exhibit hall. Of course, there's also the classic bones, and placards, but we kind of go for all the noise and scare factor.

It's the kids second time to see the exhibit. They are off from school for break right now and went with Sue last week.

I took them again today and put all our video footage from both trips together with a little homage to "The Land Of the Lost". I think that corn-ball show was my introduction to dinosaurs, so it fits well in our home video.

Tantalus

It's my birthday this Friday and a friend of mine wanted to catch me early in the week and give me my gift before all the hullabaloo later this week. Tantalus is one of those places I've heard about, but never thought about. It's nice to know that after three years on the island there is still so much to see. Tatalus is a breathtaking lookout on the Eastern ridge that defines the Manoa valley. It faces South and from that point you can see most of the South shore: Diamond Head, Waikiki, Honolulu, the airport, the harbor, and Barbers Point. It is one of her favorite places, I felt honored that she took the time after work to share it with me, talk story and then treat me to dinner in the valley.

Surfs Up

I guess the winter is finally here. You can tell because the surf is up on the North Shore. It has been overhead since Tuesday. I drove up twice this week on Dawn Patrol to get ninety minutes of thrill before my day at the office. There is nothing like a drive into the country an hour before sunrise when the surf report is over 10' (face). You get so excited its like being over-caffeinated. There might be smooth buttery walls to carve, or it might be some double overhead blown out choppy monster. It's also a time for mental inventory, surfing 10 feet over a reef is actually kind of dangerous. Time to think about some of your life decisions.

On Tuesday I shot for almost an hour, then got washed up on the inside. I took the opportunity to go back to the car and grab the surf cam. This was a fun camera session. The North Shore was smooth enough that when the sets weren't firing I could change up the camera position. This video is the result of that session. I think more than any other one I've put together, it gives you feeling of what its like to play with the waves.