#92 - foreboding

doesn't this picture look foreboding? it was actually a pretty good day when i took it, kristen's friends from japan came over so we took them around, tried to see some turtles at the beach so i snapped some shots at papa'iloa. it was overcast, but not too cold, and not too ominous the weather, but somehow all my pictures came out real trecherous-looking. this one was shot on the reef as the waves were rolling in over the shelf, it was a bit rougher than usual and the crest of the waves over the shelf was a pretty cool sight. it's kind of creepy to see such a large mass of water moving so quickly and forcing itself up on the flat tops of the reef.

anyway, i thought this was a pretty appropriate pic for right now, kind of ominous, see the thickness of the wave somewhat far off in the backgroud, yet rising fast and if not for the snap of the camera and the time it gives you to evaluate this moment afterwards you'd have no way to discern what to think of this moment until it's already upon you. okay, that was too overdramatically stated but i'm not going to go back and erase that. hey if i can make crap up like this maybe i should become an artist...

#91 - marathon

so it's vacation... a very rainy vacation and so no beach or tennis or dog walking right now, and so i've got a lot of time on my hands. good thing there's tons of tv marathons on and i've got dvr! first of all, futurama, every night all night until the new year = sweet. then on the discovery channel every day will be a different show, yesterday it was mythbusters = awesome. hopefully man vs. wild will be on in the next couple of days.


random thought:

i notice now that i'm living by myself and watching tv by myself i laugh out loud a lot more than i used to when i was living at home. i guess i feel free-er to laugh at dumb stuff than i did before.


anyway, today there's true life on mtv all day. i think this show is probably the best on mtv (well, there's not much competition, i think it goes from next --> the real world --> parental control --> made --> the hills --> true life), and probably one of the better shows on tv period. just because it's reality without being very overdone, and of course a lot of the people in/on it are stupid, but there are some genuine people and sometimes it makes for genuine storytelling, so i like it.


so... watch a couple episodes in the morning with breakfast, go to the gym, watch a few more episodes with lunch, go to yoga, and that's what we call thursday.


oops, i forgot to post this one so it continues to friday and saturday... today is saturday and it's a MADE marathon today, woo hoo! i love this show, some people are retards, but for the most part it's actually kinda touching, especially when they take total losers who know they're losers but can't do anything to change it and actually succeed at what they're doing. like i really like that episode with that dorky girl who wanted to be a wakeboarder, she seemed really sincere about everything. i think i would've made a good "made candidate" in high school. right? total band geek wants to be made into a volleyball player or pro surfer? that would've been awesome! oh well...

next post: yardwork!

#90 - nippon!

guess what? i'm getting excited about movies again! woo hoo! it's been a long long time since i've been into watching movies. for the longest time i thought it was the most boring thing in the world, sitting for two hours watching badly scripted lameness. the only thing good was the popcorn (which is super-mondo-ly good, by the way). i think my movie-hating started around when "titanic" came out, because all the movies were getting epically long and i got tired of super dramatic action flicks very quickly. but in the past couple of years i've been probably a handful of movies, i tried to stick to either one of three categories:

1) little thinking required off-beat comedy - e.g. knocked up ("don't you hate it when your baby steals your food, stop stealing my food baby!")

2) super-hyped "must-see" movies that any of my friends would go see, these must be seen drunk - e.g. drunken spiderman 3, drunken transformers from the second row in the theater

3) japanese horror films

i guess it all started with "ringu" and then the american "the ring," and sequels of that... then there was "juon" and "the grudge" and sequels of that. for both of those i thought that storyline and creepiness of the japanese films were better but the movie making and disturbing-ness of the american films were way better, like, you couldn't get the story or the scary level of the american films without the japanese-type ghosts or the relative lack of dialogue that's common in japanese films, but then the japanese films lacked scariness due to the lameness of the movie effects and super-lame acting.
one missed call is a movie i saw at a hawaii international film festival a couple of years back, i thought it was great! it's like, the first half of the movie was pretty typical japanese lameness with some mixed in creepiness, but the second half of the movie was messed up! wow, i still remember being completely shocked at how suprisingly impressed i was by the second half of the movie, i guess it was good that i wasn't expecting much huh?
now they're making an american version and i can't wait to see it... it's been a long time since i've actually been waiting for a movie to open, but this is one of them. i hope it's not lame. it's got some girl who was in buffy for a couple of episodes (not faith, shucks), but that movie poster is just unnecessarily gross.
anyway, after all those movies started coming out a couple of years ago, my aunty started sending me recommendations for more asian horror movies, one of them was this one, "the eye." it was chinese so i think that made it a little better movie-making wise, and the storyline is pretty good so i thought it was great.
and now i just saw a commerical for an american one, woo hoo! and it's got jessica alba (everything thinks she's super hot... i thought she was hot at first, and then she was in fantastic four and i lost all interest, but i dunno, she might redeem herself). so i'll be seeing that one as well.


anyone seen any other good asian horror movies? oh, i've got one more, they haven't made an american version of this one yet... maybe because the story is a little too convoluted... but if anyone has seen it let me know what you think... it's called "the infection" a japanese one...

#89 - what better place

it's hard to keep in mind, sometimes, the reasons behind why you live your life the way you do. it's very easy to doubt and to re-analyze your actions and second-guess your thoughts as well. especially when you're on vacation... haha, too much time to be thinking about stuff maybe. luckily, it's also pretty easy to remind yourself about where your life has been and where it's headed. for me this week, it was as simple as driving out to north shore: how can you drive over that mountain, see haleiwa and the ocean ahead of you and not be reminded how lucky you are to live in hawai'i?
anyway, not wanting to get too deep or introspective right now, i'll just say i had a great christmas day. it was a really long one, felt like three separate days. i woke up super early to go to chruch in the morning (i never go to the 7am mass but thought i would on christmas because there's no evening mass, the early morning would be a lot cooler and less crowded, and simply because i've just never been to it), made some port. sausage and eggs for breakfast, then drove up to north shore for surfing at haleiwa. it was a really nice day, mostly clear blue skies, cold water but clean waves, tons of people in the water but lots of space on the waves for everyone (as you can see on the set above). pretty sweet. then make some potatoes to take to dinner at my aunt's house. okay, well, it really wasn't that long of a day, but it just felt like three different days i guess because of the three very different activities and lots of time inbetween each one. plus i had to get dressed three different times so i guess that makes it feel like three different days.
anyway, like i was saying, it's pretty easy to remember the good things when you give yourself some time to goo and find them. it's also good to create situations that help you remember those reasons as well. for example, now i keep my board straps in my car to remind myself not to forget to make time for the beach and for going surfing, it's my self-therapy technique. and surfing on christmas? where else could you do that?

#88 - birthday karaoke

well, i was gonna post a whole bunch of pictures for our very successful karaoke night last saturday.... but they were all pretty hideous. i guess mixing dark room, with beer, with funny singing faces and open mouths doesn't make for very good picture-taking. there were actually the two best pictures of the lot. oh well, it was some good karaoke-ing anyway, like nicole said, we debuted some new songs, partied with some new people, and even got an extra couple songs thrown in past closing time, score!

thanks again for coming everyone!

ps - didn't anyone click on the "disturbing link?" i expected some reaction, haha, go ahead and click on it, it's funny too...

#87 - wanna see something disturbing?

go on... i dare you to click on this link...

haha, wasn't that the most disturbing thing you've ever seen... and now don't you want to make your own? i got it from my mom, who made all of our family on it (and then proceeded to make my aunties and uncles and cousins too), and i wrote back to her and told her it was lame... and then 5 minutes later i'm putting in my own photos... it's a vicious, vicious cycle.

anyway, just thought i'd put up a little elf thing because i did my own elfing today (why the heck did they make me so obviously a female dancing elf? what the crap? i tired to change it somehow but that didn't work... grr). after a whole-day conference in waikiki instead of fighting traffic back home in rush hour, i spent the evening at ala moana. so, i left home at 6:30 am and came home at 9:00 pm, yikes.

but i had a good time with some of my old classmates at the conference (which actually was not bad, more practical, not stuffy, not completely-bust-your-head-against-the-wall research driven, like every other crappy conference i've been to this year), and i had tons of success finding christmas gifts! amazingly, i've only got four more gifts to get, and i know what two of them will be so that's just two more, woo hoo! and i got GOOD gifts this year, haha, or i hope so at least... we'll see i guess. anyway, just a quick post because i wanna get some sleep!

#86 - comfort

it's amazing how far from comfort you can be before you find it again. and how quickly it can come rushing back. since i've moved in it's been a slow (but surprisingly constant) process of adjusting to living on my own and getting comfortable with the fact that this place is now my home. i never really felt that way dorming at UH (probably because of UH... and also the fact that i went home almost every weekend, hey, free food, free laundry, how could i refuse?), and it's been a slow process trying to gain that feeling here. too many unfinished jobs, too many essentials still to get before feeling that i could live independently. of course, i'll never be completely done with everything, but today was a huge step, the furniture's in, pictures are up, paint is done! here's my new living room: here's the view into my kitchen:
my new queen bed:
and my new guest bedroom/office:
notice my old bed and desk and chair and bookshelf and end table in there? haha.

so even though it was just a simple thing to have the furniture delivered, things don't feel so much in limbo anymore. it feels like i have some sort of ownership of this place, phased out all the temporary stuff and got my own stamp on everything in there.

so anyway, back to the point of this post... on monday i lost all comfort. it was a damn crappy day, just nothing ended up going my way, work sucked (as it always does), but on that day it went beyond sucking. normally i get upset at my clients, sure because they're all dumb, but usually i can say to myself, well yeah they're dumb that's why i see them so nevermind. but on monday i couldn't. monday i got angry. it's not a good thing knowing that you're getting very mad and knowing that you really shouldn't be getting mad and knowing that it really sucks that you're allowing yourself to go past that point of anger where you say, dang i didn't know i could get that mad, but yet you're there. okay, sometimes those days happen, you drive yourself out of your own comfort by your own doing but can't stop it. it would have been okay, but like i said, things just weren't going my way on monday and bad news compiled upon more bad news turned the whole thing to crap. comfort that i (perhaps selfishly) expected wasn't there and that of course made things worse.

but tuesday was a different day and after falling pretty low on monday it's a bit uplifting to know that there's gotta be an upside after that. and even though things change and positives creep up, it takes time to work through them and that's what tuesday was... more living in limbo. just waiting for wednesday.

so today is wednesday. funny how things can change so drastically. comfort found again. so what have i learned?

- self-pity = crap, don't need it
- don't jump to conclusions, you have a thought, fine, keep it at "a thought" and continue living your life until something tells you different
- tv can be pretty useful self-therapy, my guilty pleasure = "the hills," lauren is hot
- i need a piano
- live like you're on tv... like someone's watching you go through the hard times, it'll keep you honest and force you to work things out

for tomorrow... things are looking up, keep at it, don't falter, there are good things to work for.

#85 - wedding again

i thought i told everyone to cool it with all the weddings and babies and crap. no one listens to me... anyway, here are some pics from the wedding:

click here to see the wedding pics

#84 - broke

aaaaaand....... i'm broke.

it started innocently enough... there was a one day sale at homeworld on tuesday that they advertised a mirror/drawer/coat-rack combo piece that was regular $400 but on sale for only $147, i'd had my eye on it earlier so when i saw the ad in the paper it was perfect timing, so i went over after work to buy it. as i was walking around homeworld i was getting inspired, after all, what good is a brand new place without some cool stuff to put in it? and i'd been making it by with my little twin bed, second-hand (and surprisingly UN-comfortable) futon couch until now, but it's time to grow up and get real furniture right? so i thought, since i'm in pearl city, i might as well go check out pearlridge and inspiration right?

so i go over to inspiration (and inspiration NEVER has sales) so i figured i'd just go to get ideas and maybe look for similar types of furniture to buy elsewhere, but they were having this closeout sale on Bo Concept furniture, they were gonna stop selling the brand and so everything by that brand was 25% off. perfect right? for a store that has great stuff that never comes on sale? anyway, the sales guy was super helpful (a little too helpful) and they had those 3-D computer programs where you can give the dimensions of your room and they put all the furniture in and make sure it fits (which is perfect cause my place is small and i wasn't sure how much i could stuff in here). so i got "suckered" (i say with quotations because it really was my decision to spend on all those things.... really.... i didn't get influenced.... it just happened to be a bit unexpected with the sale, but i do my research very thoroughly and i was confident in my decisions) into spending $5000 on tuesday. BUT! look at all what i got:

- queen platform bed frame in wenge
- 2 matching nightstands
- farenheit queen mattress (it's like the temperpeutic kind)
- 1-seater armchair
- 3-seater sofa
- matching end table
- functional coffee table (picture above)

so all that for $5000 is pretty good right? right!?!? oh well, i'll have to get used to being broke. i just made my first mortgage payment, bought this stuff, and then i've got my window treatments coming sometime in the next few weeks so i'll be running on fumes for awhile. anyway, everything's getting delivered in a couple of weeks so i'd better get to painting already... i put it off for a long time because i'm still a little nervous about it (i guess local people like the white walls, but i've got two colors picked out that i think would look really nice). i'm thinking "sage gray" for the living/dining/entrance and "false cypress" for the bedrooms. it's a little bit dark... i had a lighter combination ("pewter tray" and "green tea") but i'm thinking i'd like it a little darker. well, we'll see i guess, wish me luck!

anyway, on the plus side of being broke, i was not tempted at all by all the after-thanksgiving ads in the paper today. ever since i got this place (after the lottery way back in march) i've been scouring the newspaper ads everyday building and building on the list of things i need to get (and things i want to get), but finally i think it's all slowing down and i'm finally getting to the point where i've got what i need to make this place seem like home, everything that comes after will be bonus. it's like a huge relief to STOP thinking about things i need to buy or get or do and just think about living here. of course, there'll always be stuff to do, but none of those things are so pressing, everything else will be icing.

good timing too... by christmas i'll be able to enjoy completely my first holiday season in my own place on my own, that's a great feeling.

#83 - show off

seems like everytime i go to my dancing cousins' concerts i've got lots to say after. well, i guess it just gets me thinking about stuff because i'm sitting there in the auditorium watching the weirdest crap ever and i can't turn to anyone to make jokes because everyone around me is either completely engrossed in watching all the half-naked people convorting and whatever on stage, desperately trying to pick out which of those half-naked people convorting or whatever on stage is my cousin, or trying desperately to avert their eyes so they won't have to see the half-naked people convorting or whatever on stage. haha, okay, well that last one is mostly me and i don't know how many other guys in the audience dragged to the concert by their girlfriends or relatives (that excludes the tremendously gay guys dressed up with boas and scarfs and girl jeans yelling out "go jasmine"'s from the audience). so, since i can't release all those comments during the thing, all those thoughts (and jokes) build up in my brain and i come home with all these comments to make, for example:

1. okay, gotta admit, it's actually a pretty cool production, if you let your eyes blur and don't think that half the people dancing up there are in high school then you could be very entertained, i was particularly impressed by the coordination of all the stage elements and people, it shows a TON of work was put into it and i'm pretty proud of my cousin actually for being part of a big fat production like that... even though it was completely fruity
2. i think dramatic dancing is a big fat joke. i mean, sure it can be graceful and stuff, but really, it's just plain fruity, i gotta say though, i've been to a lot of these concerts for my cousins over the years, and this one was the first that actually worked in a bunch of humor into the dances, which was cool, because that's entertaining stuff.
3. guys should never wear dresses, even whilst dancing
4. guys should never wear tights, even whilst dancing
5. it should not be so difficult to distinguish dancing guys from dancing girls, yet somehow...
6. i think i might be a narcissist. okay, that one was kinda random, but hear me out... so in every dance they do there's like a "main character," and i guess when you're in that audience and you start getting caught up in everything, you start thinking that whoever that main character is, he/she is pretty damn cool right? but when that "cool" character is a shirtless (but wrapped up in some kind of straps, they like to have guys dance shirtless wrapped up in straps) long-haired fem-dancy guy you kinda have to reevaluate your thinking. haha, no offense, but that's funny. anyway, got me to thinking that if i'm thinking all these main characters probably get tons of cool points then that must mean that i subconsciously revere that kind of attention huh? think about it... i do like to show off stuff, heck, look at this blog! i don't mind not having window coverings yet because i'm not scared of people looking in and seeing me eating breakfast or reading the newspaper. i like having mirrors in my house. i'm not afraid to talk in front of a lot of people and i enjoy performances. i think i might be narcissistic. maybe that's why i liked band so much. wow, i'm having like revelations here, phew.

anyway, those are my thoughts for tonight, and now to bed! to bed i said!

#82 - reconstruct

i'm in... finally. can't tell you how happy i am to finally be out there living on my own. it feels awesome to have my own place, i feel like i'm completely in charge of my life, i can take it to where it needs to be. so here we go... after all that talk ('cause up until now all it's been was talk) now i finally have the chance to start fresh... reconstruct my life into what i want it to be, no restrictions, i finally have the freedom to make my life my own.

well... no restrictions besides money, re: an enormous lack of it.

okay, so maybe i can't rush right out and get my life started completely just yet, but that's the whole point of doing this right? take my time, be patient, not have anxiety over what's still needed or how i want things to end up because the point is that i need to make it so, and i need to take the time to make it so. if everything were set up in my place and my life just how i wanted it to be already, then i would already be bored with it and i'd have nothing else to do. now i'm busy everyday trying to get things in there like the window treatments, the furniture, the cable and internet (just done this past saturday, finally i can watch monday night football), paint, and all those little things in between too. so there's a lot to do still... but not to worry because there's tons of time to do it, i just gotta be patient (sometimes that's hard for me). anyway, here are some pics of before i put everything in... here's the front door and kitchen (to the right) taken from inside the living room: here's a shot of the kitchen:
and the master bathroom:
even got a little yard, not much, but definately a plus:
so let's recap what's been happening since the move-in... well pretty much i've been moving in! but there's been some other stuff too, like... well y'know i tried to list everything done that's happened since the last post... but damn it, there's way too much stuff that i can't write down. well, suffice it to say that it's been a very humbling experience so far. not in a bad way, but like i realized that i'm very impatient and yet have an extremely hard time deciding... which makes things very difficult on myself. but it's been nice going through the rough situations that i'm sure every other guy my age has already managed to put himself into, but since i've been so sheltered i just haven't had to face those kinds of situations yet. the positive of all of that is that now i'm finding out just how well (and not so well) i can deal with situations independently, and i'm finding that i CAN handle them well, and sensibly, just i give myself pressure within my own head. oh well, i'll have to cool it with that.

anyway, here's a pic from halloween, cool huh? i had exactly ONE trick-or-treater... sad.

all in all, things are looking up and getting back on track. i'm really starting to feel like this place is my home, things are going really great with my new girl, i finally got back to 24 hr. fitness after taking about 3 weeks off during the move-in, so i feel balanced again. everything got kinda shaken up and defragmented with the relocate, but things are falling back together now and i can reconstruct it how it needs to be... just hope i can figure out just what that way is.

#81 - it pours

damn this has been the longest week ever... but in the best possible way. i feel like in the past month i've grown up like 10 years. or maybe i just caught up on all that growing up i was supposed to do a long time ago. anyway, it's been busy because i finally got my keys! yup, i guess this should've been a more important post since getting my own place was supposedly the spark that started this whole blog (y'know, reconstructing my life, starting over from the beginning, blah blah), well, that plus boredom.

so monday was the big key day. i didn't do too much, moved some junk in, but mostly just marveled at that empty place, couldn't believe i was actually gonna live there, and all by myself too. everything came out really nicely, i mean, i was optimistic about it because the lady i worked with at the design center was so great and friendly and patient and actually gave my a lot of positive reinforcement about my choices, but to see it all in real life, it was so much nicer than i'd imagined. i'm really glad i spent all that money on it, it was so well worth it (although ask me again in december when my first mortgage payment is due).

tuesday was a buy lots of crap that i didn't know i needed until i needed it kind of day. it was also a what the crap i have no clue what i'm doing did i really think i could do this all on my own kind of day. uplifting and depressing all at once, but i shouldn't be complaining at all. i think my philosophy right now is spend on what you really want and don't worry too much about it because it's an investment, and then save by fore-going the things that would just be nice to have and do without them because really, my hugest investment was the place itself, and all those other things really just block out spots on my wonderful bamboo floor so don't need, haha. the rest of the week until now is kind of a blur, a mix of stress, rushing, wonderfulness, and going back and forth between home, work, new home, home, work, store, new home, home, new home, work, yikes.

anyway, all in all, things are really coming together, bumps in the road all over the place of course, but y'know when it rains...

#80 - third rock

that last movie post got me reminiscing... anyone remember "3rd rock from the sun?" it's one of my very favorite tv shows. it's all about perspective. taking the things that get overlooked in daily life and seeing them for the first time. plus it was damn funny. anyway, it's that perspective that i wish i could capture a little more of throughout my everyday life. i get so stuck in routines sometimes that i miss out a lot on those things that go out outside of my routine. and then when something outside that routine interferes it causes me a lot of stress (even if it's a good thing, but that's the PDD side of me talking). if you could see everyday with new eyes how much more wonderful would each day be? what a great experience that would be, being able to step back and look at the world with an open perspective. it would be great.

ps - who the crap would've guessed that the long-haired girlie looking kid would end up in so many movies? pretty good roles too. weird.

#79 - the lookout

just saw this movie, i didn't know what it was about really when i put it on my blockbuster queue... so i was really surprised to find out it was about TBI! woo hoo! sure, i'm a dork, but i think neuropathy is just about the most fascinating thing in the world. and even though i'm in no rush to head off and get a second degree in neuroscience (i've got no more motivation for school, i got drained out of that after junior year of high school), that don't mean i won't read/watch/listen to every single interesting neurogenic article/tv show/whatever that comes my way. so, couple tramatic brain injury and a 100 minute movie together and you've got the perfect combination for me.

anyway, a pretty well made movie i think, in the respect that it handled tbi as the focal point of the story, but not so overpowering so it looks like some kinda PSA to seat belts. plus i'm a nerd and recognized the s/s of the disorder as they occurred in the movie. but bottom line, it was a storyline that was nicely in-tuned (if that's a word) with what post-tbi people really go through. i am especially fascinated with tbi because it's so incredibly common and can happen to absolutely anyone. don't you wonder, while walking around the mall, or going out to eat or something who around you might have had a tbi? i think that all the time, haha, because i see TONS of people who act like they should've had a tbi, whether they did or not, haha. but really, it's like being judgmental and biased in a good way, because i empathize more with strangers (whether i know or not about their neurogenic status), and i think it makes me think like a better person. in fact, sometimes i think that i must've had a tbi because i find myself doing tbi-like things more and more often... hmm.

point is, brains are cool. i think i might have to get back into adult neurogenics at some point in my career, something in the world is calling me back to it. eventually. maybe i'll get a tbi and then i'll be in therapy and then i can be that therapist who needs therapy himself. is it sad that i think that might be a pretty cool life? like, say you suddenly have a stroke and get aphasia and then you can't do your regular job anymore so you collect disability or whatever and then volunteer to be the therapist with aphasia who provides therapy to other people with aphasia? doesn't that sound like a pretty nice life? helping people out like that? well, i'm sure there are downsides... pretty big downsides, but at least you'd be helping people and it'd be like you really had a purpose in life. okay, i'm probably over-estimating the awesome-ness of that situation, but (getting back to the movie) i guess that movie just made me think that going through a traumatic brain injury like that would really give your life focus (how paradoxical is that?). i mean, you'd have so many difficulties that your goals would simplify up so much. but then again, you'd probably not want such a simplistic life and it would drive you crazy that you couldn't have more than a simplistic life (and who says you can't?).

anyway, i'm essaying here (remember how in high school, mrs. itagaki taught me that an "essay" is not just writing about a topic, but the word "essay" means a journey so when writing an essay it's not important that your train of thought is the same throughout... in fact, it's better when you use the writing to "travel" to new ideas)... but go check out the movie, it's very nicely introspective without being too overly dramatic. i liked it.

#78 - reconstruct

while i'm still not completely decided on whether or not the fall break is a good or bad thing (on the plus side, a week-long break from work is always a good thing, but at the expense of shortening the summer and making us start work in july in a sweltering room for an extra month and a half), i've gotta say that this has been one of the most eventful vacations i've had in a few years. the even better part about it is that i've had very little time to think about the fact that i've gotta go back to work, i've had lot of other things on my mind.

1. reconstruct - change is hard. sure. but, what the heck? it's good too. 1 week until freedom. wow, only one more week and i'll have my own place. i can barely believe it still. the good part about this whole process is that i bought it before it was built so that gave me 7 months of preparing to move out on my own (finally). i probably wouldn't have been ready if i had bought a resale and moved in right away. but this gave me lots of time to get my mind used to the idea of living on my own (even though the motivation is there, reality doesn't always match up, so i had lots of time for reality to catch up to imagination), and now i feel very prepared to start my life again, independently (kind of the whole point of this blog in the first place, if anyone remembers that).

2. continuation - usually when vacations come up i seem to slip back a little, i think i take vacations a little to enthusiastically and let myself regress in terms of what direction i want my life to go in. okay, way over-dramatically stated. what do i really mean... hmm... here's an example, during the regular work week i tend to fall behind on my sleep-getting and therefore fall behind on my exercise and workouts because of tiredness, then when vacation comes i think that i can use them as opportunities to regain some normalcy in my sleeping patterns and therefore reestablish positive workout cycles. what actually happens is i try to fill up my vacations with so many other things that are lacking during the working week (including the opportunity to stay up way late and therefore not get any more sleep than i would during the work week anyway) that my cycles are distorted even more than during the work week and i'm actually looking forward to getting back into the working routine to reestablish those routines (even though they're not ideal). this fall break though, i've been able to keep a positive rhythm flowing in addition to adding those vacation-type activities into my days, so i feel like i'm in good shape to keep up with myself during the upcoming work week and i feel like i will do better at not falling behind.

3. forward motion - all in all, things are looking up. it feels like i'm finally getting my life on some kind of track and that track ain't too shabby. my theme song right now is "up and up" by relient k (of course, what other band would it be?). of course, i can't stop now, because all along the way there'll be obstacles and hardships, but it's all about maintaining that forward motion. not falling back on contentment, but pushing forward. cause things are good when you're feeling positive and enjoying that forward striving movement. i know i've quoted relient k before, but this sums up my intentions at the moment:

yesterday was not quite what it could have been. as were most of all the days before. but i swear today with every breath i'm breathing in. i'll be trying to make it so much more // cause it seems i get so hung up on. the history of what's gone wrong. that the hope of a new day is sometimes hard to see. but i'm finally catching on to it. yeah the past is just a conduit. and the light there at the end is where i'll be //


ps - anyone see snl last night? i feel very optimistic that our generation is finally poised to make an impact on this world... why? take a look at this:



now, if you saw it and you instantly recognized every single character and why they're funny, then you too are among the current and future leaders of the world! finally, we've come to the age of determination! our childhood memories become reality! we control the culture of america! mwahahahahahaha!!!!

#77 - listening to old people

do old people really know what they're talking about? i used to think not, because old people are just people like you and me who have been living longer, and there's no magic portal that shifts you from young adulthood (where, supposedly, you know nothing) and regular adulthood (where you're wise in the ways of the world or something). but lately it seems like the old people are right... annoyingly right all the frickin' time. here are some examples:

1) "if it was meant to be, then it'll happen, if it doesn't, then it wasn't meant to be..." - this one has to do with my place. the first lottery that i entered, i was so stoked to be getting a chance and i thought that would be my one and only chance at finally having my own place, but i got shot down and was totally bummed. it seemed like the LONGEST time between that rejection and finally getting a place, but really, it was within the span of only one year... which brings me to:

2) "you never know what'll happen..." - as in, just go for it, put yourself out there and see what develops. who knew that it would take me five lotteries plus someone else backing out of their contract to get me my new place? you can't plan that stuff out, but the end result is the same.

3) "it's always when you least expect it..." - man, i can't tell you how many times in the past year or so i've heard this one (probably because i work with a whole room full of substitute "moms" who give me motherly advice all day long), but damn it if it ain't turned out to be true. of course, it makes you wonder... is it the expecting things that make them not occur or is it that when you do no expecting then your brain doesn't take note of the time inbetween things occurring? why does this line seem to be so darn consistently true? it's confounding!!

anyway, the point is... maybe i should start to listen to old people. haha, why is it that they're so annoying right all the time. not that i'm complaining, because it seems like maybe i already know the answer to this. you take a look at the life that you've led so far, and how many dead-ends in your life have turned into wonderful opportunities? if you backtrack all the good things in your life and try to rediscover how you got to those points in the first place, how strange does it seem that you are where you are right now? could you fathom even the tiniest bit how things would turn out from even the most auspicious of those beginnings? what the crap is up with that? i've got TONS of situations like that! look how i ended up at my job (which right now is very good), just two years ago i was thinking about quiting, and a year before that i was trying to work up the courage to drop the program and career path entirely, and the four years before that i could not comprehend the idea that i might one day have a job and go to work everyday instead of being in school. how do lives get so incredibly twisted (in good and bad ways), yet somehow seem to turn out into such realistic, plausible, and sometimes wonderful everyday experiences?

that must be the good part about life huh?

#76 - over-react much?

so, you have a free afternoon, you flip on sportscenter and everyone's talking about his guy. at first you think, "what the crap?" and then you start laughing, and then he gets louder so you laugh more, and then it goes on for like 2 1/2 more minutes and by the time he was done i was on the floor gasping for precious air to breathe in so i can laugh more and not die.

and who the heck CLAPS after that?! HAHAHA!!

#75 - year of the dog

just watched "year of the dog." i like this kind of movie. low-key. it kinda takes a lot to get me interested in a movie, after having netflix and blockbuster pass and with my parents going nutsos renting like 15 movies a week i've learned to filter the crap movies from the good ones. so actually, i should rephrase that it takes very little to get me interested in a movie, that is, it takes only a little bit of well-made movie to get me to sit down and watch the whole thing (usually i'll give it about 10 minutes and if i'm not interested it's back in the postage-paid envelope for ye!). like this one, very simplistic, not a ton of music or dialogue, but good use of non-talking time and seemingly plain yet effective cinematography. not like i know anything about movie making or anything, but i think that quality work is when you don't notice the camera angles or special effects or movie-production extras. just a simple story very well executed. not too intellectual, actually a bit depressing, kinda wussy, but surprisingly uplifting. i liked it.

#74 - to whoever the crap is in charge of uh sports

to whoever the crap is in charge of the uh football schedule (aka herman fraizer),

so what good came out of scheduling charleston southern (aka the SECOND Div. I-AA team out of 12 games this year) really? let's list them:
1. rest colt
2. colt got to rest
3. no playing on a bum ankle for colt

that's it. "oh, but they got another 'w,'" you say? big whoop. so now they're 4-0 with two wins over two Div. I-AA teams. right.

"oh, but graunke got some good real game experience," you say? and the rest of us got a glimpse at uh football 2008... uh oh.

"oh, but we got to see the second and third string guys play and score and get confidence," you say? great. just what they need, MORE confidence, that way when they tackle someone for the first time maybe they can king kong their way to even more unsportsmanlike conduct penalties (poor dan kelly's right leg).

ah, well, i guess a win is better than a loss anyday huh?


on a related note: i would like to take this moment to publicly thank the new mexico state university women's volleyball team for:
1. actually existing
2. bolting from the sun belt conference (where they dominated almost as much as UH in the WAC)
3. joining the WAC
4. finally giving UH a worthy opponent in conference play and making the mid-season actually matter again

uh sports rant = the end.

#73 - humor

so i was watching snl tonight and it made me laugh. i think i tend to laugh for different reasons than other people, very different from my family at least. here are some things that make me laugh:

1. meaningless randomness - here's a good example:


2. repetition - like mike says, there's a point where you can make a joke over and over and over until it stops being funny... and then you make it again and it's even funnier:


then that one became even funnier after seeing this (even though i don't watch this show, this is where the snl joke came from):


then this one is just silly:


3. kids getting hit in the back of the head and falling down - self-explanatory:


very simple huh? no need to try and flesh it out, keep it simple and dumb and that equals funny.

#72 - why i will never drink heineken

forget the fact that the girl looks like a creepy evil elf or something, or that some idiot actually thought making her a cyborg would make her MORE attractive, but damn that music is first-rate crappiness. at first i thought i'd give the keg a try, but after seeing this damn commerical 17 billion times an hour during UH games i swear to never again drink another heineken in my life. this crapload of a commercial ranks right up there with the gary shandling show and mambo no. 5 (re: things that i hate from the very bottom of my soul).

but fortunately, the majority of beer commercials actually do serve their primary function very well, which is not hard since i like funny stuff and love beer. ejemplo uno:



i definately need a russian accent. bud light, you got a problem with that? also, example 2 (aka my halloween costume this year):

#71 - things i know to be true

1. date of freedom = october 15.
halle-frickin'-lujah, i'm finally getting the ass out of this place. i swear, everywhere i turn there's someone in the way. can't escape. the house in back of us has been having pool parties every monkey-butt-lovin' day. their patio is right outside my window and i can hear every horrible word they say (including all the baby crying and scolding). my dad turns on his portable radio and dials into krater for the entire frickin' night and those two old bastards perry & price every morning. i need space. i need quiet. i need alone. i'm a loner, dottie, a rebel.

2. eliza is hot.
mornings are crap, especially when you have to wake up and go to work. to help make mornings more appealling, i've been picking up zippy's or jamba juice breakfasts on the way to work and treating myself to some morning tv (morning tv is also crap by the way, but what i found out is that mtv actually plays music videos before 8:00 am). this morning they played nickelback's "rockstar," which i've heard and liked on the radio (mainstream catchy enough to satifsy a car-ride sing-a-long) but it was my kind of video, a bunch of random dorks lip synching with a few celebrities scattered throughout. and guess who was one of the celebrities? hottness = eliza dushku. okay, so she was only on screen for probably a total of three seconds but even that was enough to make mornings right again. if you haven't seen eliza, i mean, the video, check it out here: http://www.kovideo.net/music/video/Nickelback---Rockstar/1693.html

3. i'm an idiot.
i consider myself pretty strong-willed when it comes to most things. i have my opinions and my opinions are damn good. haha, but how come with some things i'm very easily influenced. things like "buying stuff" (i get anxious in stores and, despite my most-thought-out plans, i seem to very often leave the store with stuff i didn't want after completely letting my plans flop when one part doesn't go the way i had planned). for example, today i went to restring my tennis racquet, i wanted to try out new strings so i researched them online and picked out ones i thought would be good. but when i got to the store one or two things didn't go the way i had expected and i got flustered and ended up buying different strings. i can't even explain why except to say that while it was happening i knew i should've opened my damn mouth to say something but i didn't, i just stood there like an idiot and let it all transpire beyond my control. which, in the end is not such a big deal because if i wanna be a good tennis player anyway i gotta adjust to different racquets and strings, but the point is that i'm an idiot who lets anxiety completely overtake what my brain tells me to do, or not do. and then later on i reflect on what an idiot i've been and wonder what could have made me such an idiot. i blame parents. putting so much pressure on a young kid to manage money and always make the best decisions. what's wrong with impulse buying? why can't i buy something the first time i see it instead of going back home to research and then look in the ads for months before finally going back to buy it on the 14th visit to the store? so much anxiety for such a simple task. man, they screwed me up.

4. people are fat.
wow, i just watched "the biggest loser" for the first time and while i commend those people on their effort to get themsevles healthy again, i was watching the weigh in and those fat guys were taking off their shirts and geez it's like jabba the hut here. how the hell do people get that fat? i mean, forget the psychological factors (re: bullshit... haha), physically just how does a human body get that ginormous (i apologize for the use of the word "ginormous," and yes, it is a real world, it was inducted into webster's or oxford's dictionary last year... which, although i think is very stupid to acknowledge, i am not opposed to because language is, by definition, a constantly evolving thing and therefore anything a native speaker of that language says is correct). can you imagine being only half that fat and then just watching yourself get even frickin' fatter? geez! how?! well, i actually like the show because g-damn those people need to do something about themselves. but i don't like that they get voted off one-by-one, for the sake of humanity, leave them on the show and get them healthy again! i mean, i'm not the fittest guy in the world but i try and if it ever came down to me getting like a quarter of that fat drag me off to boot camp quick! can you imagine what the world would be like if we all evolved to be that fat? holy crap. seriously though everyone, health is important, and it's something that (biologically) everyone can (and should) keep under control (not counting syndromes/diseases/etc.). i'm deadset on that. find me a girl who values fitness, she's a keeper.

5. people are one part of nature.
along the same lines of human evolution... who's to say that we're above nature? maybe we have wrestled away a bigger slice of the control pie from mother nature than some other species, but we still live on earth and still abide by nature's laws. therefore, why fight so hard against changes? first off, global warming. remember when it was called "the greenhouse effect?" haha. anyway, guess what, environments change, sure pollution and all that probably changes things a bit faster, but nature's got an aswer for it. we might not like that answer (and we may not be around for the end product of that solution), but life in some fashion will still go on. that's the whole point of "life," it adapts. lookie at those shrimps and crabs who live on the sides of those underwater volcanos that are thousands of degrees F and like tons of pounds of water pressure, yet they thrive. okay, and when the volcano gets used up they all die, but something else comes along to replace and benefit from their death. ever think of that kind of creature will come around to benefit after all the humans are gone? okay, that's kinda morbid, but what i'm saying is that us humans are kinda getting a bit over-populated in terms of "a species living on earth" so don't you think that nature would have a solution to deal with us? if any other species gets over-abundant something comes along to eat them or stomp them out or otherwise balance the scales eventually. so what's out there to stop us? well, ourselves for one. then there's viruses... some people say higher incidents of developmental disorders (like the spike in autism) or whatever could be nature's way of thinning the herd. hey, how about gay people? think about it... they don't reproduce, they're still productive members of society, and in some cases they even help the over-population issue by adopting orphans and whatever. see? so nature's at work out there, we gotta remember that we're still a part of that.

6. sleep is good.
and i need more of it. makes you a better person. or rather, a lack of sleep makes you a crappier person.

#70 - the story ends with me putting him in the wall

i don't know much about nascar, except that people think it's a sport and that's retarded. nascar is a much of a sport as wrestling, figure skating, or chess (re: it's not a sport at all). but, this is a damn funny commercial:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWgpGVGeL_g

here's the first one:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3of10ksI8kg

#69 - US Open: First Round

ahh... first round of play at the us open. what could be better? i've gotta argue that wimbledon is THE tournament of all tournaments, but the us open brings so much more excitement and action, it's a better sports event. i mean, even though maria looks hot in all white, take a look at her in all RED! woo hoo! love that game face.
and as hot as she looks her game is just as hot. as is ana ivanovic, her forehand is looking sweet!
on the men's side, djokovic and roddick are both starting out playing well, if only andy didn't have to face federer in the quarters (if they both make it there), but actually, it might be better for him to face roger in something other than a final, given roger's immaculate record in finals. as far a djokovic goes, he's the man to beat in the bottom half of the draw in my opinion, forget nadal, who likes nadal? no one. and on hard courts that's for good reason. still, whoever picked hewitt in my little poll on the right, good for you! woo hoo! now we're getting some debate going! even though i think hewitt can beat djokovic, right now i'd say hewitt is still second best in the bottom half of that draw and so i'm sticking with my prediction for djokovic in his first grand slam final.
how can you bet against roger? geez, in all black his game is monster right now. he'll still have to mow down john isner (a rookie american, like 8 feet tall), richard gasquet, roddick, and james blake and then djokovic to win it all, but c'mon, that sounds like another day at the office for roger.,
and here's what i didn't expect on the women's side... venus williams is looking sharp as a very sharp thing. serve is crackin' (i think she got up to 129 mph in her first round), groundstrokes are lasers, and her footwork is impeccable. unfortunately she's got a REAL tough road if she wants to win, gotta go through (should all seed hold) ivanovic, jankovic, justine henin/sister serena, and then maria in the finals. geez, can't get harder than that... but she is venus williams...

#68 - quick question

here's a rare opportunity to directly affect my life... are you ready? don't get too excited, it ain't that big.

next week thursday the next semester of taiko classes begins. having taken the summer session class at kcc, i think i got a pretty good feel for how the thing works. while i don't feel that i learned a whole lot about taiko or really got that much of an opportunity to play all that much (they, of course, encourage practicing outside of class, but 1) i have no drum, 2) i'm too lazy/not motivated enough to make my own practice drum, and 3) pretty much i joined the class as a "go and do and come home" kind of thing, not really wanting to make it my new lifestyle). i was hoping to meet some new friends and begin to make it a new hobby that i could carry for at least a few years, but even though i felt like the most out-going person there (which, marvel at that fact for awhile, means that i think i tried to talk to everyone in the class at least once and got about zero feedback from pretty much everyone), i didn't really meet any new friends and i don't think that going to one class a week and having that be the extent of my taiko playing would fill that hobby void. as far as taiko playing itself goes... i like it well enough, but i don't think that my interest in playing is great enough to justify driving to kcc every thursday in rush hour traffic (both going and coming home since the class is from 5:30-6:30) without the prospect of the class also being beneficial socially.

so, the decision is... do i sign up for another taiko class and hope that i get to meet more engaging people the next time around? or do i sign up for another taiko class and hope that i have so much fun playing taiko that i'll want to continue the hobby even longer? or... do i not sign up for the class, go to yoga at 24 hour instead (like i used to do on thursdays, and which is something i actually really like doing and is very good for my mental and physical well-being) and search for other venues to explore new hobby/friend possibilities?

right now i'm leaning toward the last option. any suggestions?

#67 - back to it

phew... after about a week and a half of feeling like a flattened dead toad baking on the asphalt i'm finally back to feeling alright. sickness sucks, no wonder people try to stay away from it.

anyway, it's time to get back to living now, i think my 24 hour membership might've expired while i was sick... i sent in my renewal payment, but i used to prepay everything and this time i want them to take out my monthly from my checking, so i hope it went through, i didn't get anything back yet. oh well, i guess i'll find out when i go in on monday and they reject me at the front desk.

oh, and volleyball. sigh. how can they be so crappy already? i mean, obviously you look to kamana`o first (or the absence of kamana`o), and even though the sets ARE misplaced and predictable, it really should be good enough to get some decent hits out of the already experienced players. at first i was like, okay, opening match jitters, gotta work out all the kinks and whatever, but after tonight's 0-3 lost or oregon state? i mean, oregon state? sure they're a different team from last year, but i watched each of their games the past two nights and they ain't the greatest... oh well, at least it'll make for an exciting season (one way or the other).

on a brighter note, US OPEN STARTS TOMORROW!!!! woo hoo! my picks, you ask? federer and i'm going out on a limb... taking a risk... and going for ana ivanovic! why? well, just take a look... she's hot! haha, nah, but okay really she's not a total dark horse, she's #4/5 in the world and she's been in the semis of the french open and won a bunch of titles (including a big one in LA just a few weeks ago). of course, i also gotta go with my girl maria sharapova, defending champion... but her game has been a little suspect (especially the serve) recently. still she's got a good draw on the bottom half of the women so i'll pit her up against ivanovic for the finals (even though ivanovic has gotta get through jelena jankovic and then possibly serena/justine in the semis). i'd call venus williams my dark horse for the big upsets this major around. serena of course is always in there, but i think her injuries are still hampering her a little too much to be able to get past henin.
on the men's side... well, who would you take? my man roger federer or the field? haha, i'm going with roger. how can you not? i'll tell you why not... novak djokovic! this guy's my new favorite (aside from roger), winning two huge hard court titles this year (beating, along the way, roddick, nadal 2x, and roger in the final of the big one a few weeks ago) and i think he'll push roger in the final, maybe take off a set, but roger will come up big in the end to win his fourth consecutive US Open title. i'd really like to push for roddick, because i like the guy and really want him to do well (especially at the US Open), but he's gotta get through both roger (in the quarters) and then djokovic (supposing he gets to the finals) and i don't think he can get both done in the same tourney, still, he's got the skills so if he catches one of them on a bad day (especially since he'll be facing federer early on in the tournament and heck, he's the last guy besides roger to win the US Open anyway!). my dark horse i'm gonna pick lleyton hewitt, he's been showing some sweet game lately, but he's gotta play djokovic early and i'm liking djokovic for the finals so....
well, opening matches start tomorrow... 10 hours of tennis every day, woo hoo! by the way, if you know any girls who look like miss ivanovic up there... 1) find out if she's single, 2) tell her what a great guy i am, and 3) introduce me. especially if she can pound forehands (ala steffi graf) like ana, i'm all in. ha.

#66 - sick day

i'm sick. sucks. i like to consider myself a very healthy person and i admire myself (yes, i do practice narscicsm regularly) for not getting sick very often due to good nutrition, exercise, hygiene and whatever. but, i'm sick. i think it happened because i haven't been sleeping well. i'm noticed that if i go through a whole work week of getting less than 8 hours of sleep everynight then i'm get sick by the end of the week. but if i can somehow manage to get the full 8 hours at least one night during the week then i can stave off sickness (i might feel kinda crappy, but not be sick at least). anyway, that didn't happen last week and into the weekend as well (which is usually when i can catch up on sleep, although that's not such a good thing to bank on) and now i'm sick.

looking back, this is the very first sick day i've taken since i've started work. wow, i can't believe it took me 2+ years to take my first sick day... i'm trying to remember other times when i probably should have taken a sick day... but really i can't think of any when i was just dying and needed to stay home. i've luckily been a very health boy until today, ha.

it kind of kills me that i still had to wake up early to call in sick though... seems like they should let me sleep. hah, oh well, luckily i was able to get back to sleep from about 8:30-10:30 on the couch, that was cool. oh and luckily again there was tennis on tv the whole day so it was a good day to be a sickly couch potato. i also got a chance to consistently throw rocks at those damn noisy dove bastards in my yard all day. pet the a-dawg too... can dogs get sick from people germs? i did clean the bathroom, which was a pretty productive thing for sickly me to do ay?

well, now that i've got a taste of what life can be like when you're sick i might have to take sick days more often eh? well, luckily today was a non-babysitting day for my mom and then she was out on errands the whole day so i had the house to myself (FOR ONCE!) so it was a lot different than it usually is, y'know, when there's PEOPLE EVERYWHERE AND YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM ANYONE IN THIS HOUSE!!!

i guess i'll have to wait until i move out to take another sick day.

#65 - drain

man did i ever need a weekend. the past week or so has been such and emotionally draining stretch of days. but luckily, it was one of those emotionally draining weeks when you can still look back and see that things have still turned out alright. still, when you go through rough times and look back at the events and the eventual outcomes and see that, like, on paper, it doesn't really amount to much, it's kinda sad because you feel like you've been through so much more.

and the sadder thing is that nothing really happened to me, haha. i mean, the actual events happened to other people around me, but of course i'm involved with them so i get involved in the reprecussions of the events. okay, yeah, vague, sorry. but i don't wanna spell it all out because these things didn't really happen to me, so it's not my story to tell. anyway, i know that i in no way had the worst of any of it, but i was still pulled along with their stresses and emotions and i guess a combination of a bunch of that plus bad timing has left me completely spent and it's not even friday yet.

but, i can share two things that i've learned through these various trials:
1. all people are just people... and people can be dickwads - it's really easy to define people by their professions and the positions that they hold, but i've gotta remember that they're still just people, and no matter how much schooling or years of experience a person has about how human beings operate and how they can deviate from that "normal/accepted" operation, they still have the innate potential to be dickwads. also, it has become my belief that people don't grow up. they learn how to be "grown ups" but it is a conscious decision on their part to act as such. therefore, i should not be surprised when adults in positions of supposed respect conduct him/herselves in a manner that is consistent with the behavior of total dickwads.

2. i guess there's a reason why i'm not working rehab - yesterday i was playing caretaker with my grandpa while the rest of the family was out and there was an accident and although i believe i handled it to the best of my ability, i do not believe that i'd be cut-out for dealing with these kinds of situations on a daily basis. all i could think was, "man, if a simple accident with an elderly person gets me so worked up like this, how am i ever gonna handle when i have kids?" yeah, well, thinking WAY far into the future i know, but then again i work with parents who are my age and have like three or four kids already so i know it's not my age, but my own personal lifepath that has not drawn me down the "kids" road yet. but then again, i mean, if a baby fell down i could just pick them right up and carry them or whatever, but you can't do that so easily with a grown man huh?

anyway, lots of stuff running through my brain and such this week. boy i'm gonna enjoy this weekend... i'm a-gonna grab myself some sand and surf and take it easy.

#64 - papa'iloa

man i was feeling so lazy today... well, after my first full week back to work, i kinda just wanted to sit on my ass all day catching up on dvr recordings (especially the quarters and semis of the acura classic with maria... hot hot... sharapova). but taking a glance outside how could i possibly let this bee-u-ti-ful summer day go to waste on anytime tv? alas, called the surf report and it was flat all over. blah. so i decided to take a tourist day and head up to the north shore for some snorkeling/sand-lying-on activities somewhere beyond pupukea. for some reason though traffic was backed up way past kawailoa so i took an early exit and went to papa'iloa instead. k
man, i'm completely jealous at the houses lining the beach... what does it take to get to live in one of those houses and see this every morning?
i think i was a good decision to stop off at papa'iloa, hardly anyone there... which is exactly what i was looking for after being trapped in this house with people frickin' everywhere i turn! ghaa! i gotta move out... only two more months... hopefully.
turtles were out in force too... didn't get any pictures though, because they actually look pretty gross, especially when they're out of the water, at least in the water they look kinda shiny, but not that nice. OH, and i also saw a seal taking a sun break down the beach. i tried to take a pic but it was too far away and then it took off right after that so oh well.
anyway, it was fun day out at the beach, just me and mr. sun-baked crab being out in the sun and (lack of) surf. actually, after taking these pics, i drove on back to ali'i beach for some snorkeling (i saw some stickfish, a couple wrasses, several puffa-fish, another turtle, some fat weke, and even a little papio) and laying around on the sand, by the way i finally got around to reading a little bit of that carl sagan book that i started about two years ago and never got even halfway through. so, all in all, good day.

#63 - duh dun... duh dun...

did you realize that shark week is half over already? damn stinkin' calendar schedule, who moved work up to august? remember when school started in september hello? damn the man, now i'm working during the summertime and have no time for shark week.

remember when you were like 8 years old and took your real life shark jaw to the living room in a box marked "fragile: do not touch" to watch hours and hours of non-stop shark shows on the discovery channel? i don't get to do that anymore. sigh... don't they realize that i'm a guy and i need to watch tv shows about sharks? duh. ok, so maybe i've already learned a lot about sharks, the shows that i have watched actually seem a bit lame, maybe shark appeal has kind of lost a bit of it's edge so many years as jaws: the revenge. still, check out the pic of this tiger shark taken on the north shore. holy crap!

i've only seen sharks in real life (minus aquariums) in the ocean twice... once when i was snorkeling in waimea bay when i was a kid, there was actually a school of small hammerheads (very small, probably babies), but i was so freaked, i bolted for shore... but then of course, i still wanted to go back out and see them again. i've caught sharks at waimea bay too... one was a two foot long hammerhead and the other was maybe a 3.5 foot silky shark. the only other time i saw sharks in the ocean was when i was surfing a few years ago at white plains, they were way out pretty far from me though, i saw splashing and a bunch of birds circling overhead, and then i saw some white tipped fins flashing in and out of the water and i bolted again! haha, looked like they were feeding on something so that time i did NOT get back in the water.
cool pic yeah? what is it? a barracuda about to chomp down on some akule or something? as a kid i was probably more scared of barracudas than sharks, because with sharks, man you know what you're getting and you know that if a shark's gonna come at you, well then it's gonna come at you and you'll see it and then perhaps you're screwed, but those damn barracuda can be anywhere, and i've swam with them in HUGE schools (like in waimea bay) and they just look nasty and disgruntled. bleh. sharks, on the other hand, are way cool. they do kickboxing too, see?
oh, by the way, new poll... if a shark bit off any one of your body parts, which one would you sacrifice? of course, "none" is not an option during shark week... so i'd probably pick "a single leg" because i'd say legs are more easily replaced than arms or hands (you could get a pretty good prosthetic leg nowdays and wouldn't have to worry too much about fine motor control), and since we come with two feet, i'd like to keep at least one of them intact, and surgeons could probably make a stump look presentable, but i'm thinking that trying to reconstruct your ass would be pretty nasty looking. what do you think?