#100 - the perfect day

well, no, today wasn't the perfect day. in fact i don't think i've ever had the perfect day, which is okay, because if you had a perfect day then it might kinda suck knowing that every day after that wouldn't be as perfect as that day was. but that's besides the point because it's probably not ever possible to even have the "perfect" day. but that's okay too because those almost perfect days are still damn good to have and then at least you know you can have a lot of them because they'll only be almost perfect and not completely perfect so you don't have to worry about the days that come after that sucking.

anyway, my sundays have been pretty free because i don't have tennis lessons for a few months (they're re-surfacing the courts so until that's done tennis is on hiatus), so today i went surfing. i know, it's freezing my ass off cold but the sun was out so i thought i'd chance it. i'm way glad i did because even though i WAS freezing my ass off, i had a great time. the waves were pretty wind-whipped so even though it was a pretty sweet swell the wind was pushing my huge board all over the place so i kept getting pushed off the waves. then it started raining a bit, i wanted to hold out for the sun but i was absolutely frickin' freezing my 'nards off and the damn wind would not for crap's sake stop blowing so it was a short day. but still a good day. i re-discovered some music from a few years ago in grad school. my friend made me a jack johnson cd to help me celebrate finishing comps (the comprehensive final exams) and it really impressed on me the kind of life i want to be leading.

i was driving down kam hwy with the north shore in my sights and "better together" was playing, just those first guitar notes does something don't you think? it sets the mood so great, calms the nerves, makes you think back to what's really important and, more importantly, what's really not important. and i realize (as i've realized many times before but seem to constantly forget) that i like the person i am when i go surfing. it brings peace. i'm not sure if it's the ocean water, the exercise of surfing and paddling, the getting away from everything else, or the uv radiation doing the trick but i like the way i feel... the kind of thoughts and feelings i have, the way i carry myself, and the way i approach the world after i go surfing. i makes the rest of my day better.

so maybe i should go surfing everyday huh? well, that would make everyday seem somewhat perfect at least... so what would my perfect day look like? it could be something like this:

- wake up with the sunrise, take the dog for a quick walk/jog
- make breakfast, take a quick glance at the morning paper
- head down to the beach (preferrably i'd be living on the north shore, so it wouldn't be too much of a trip) for an early morning surf session (but not too early, don't wanna be shark bait)
- take a shower and head to work (on my perfect day i'd have a job that starts later so i'd have the morning time to myself)
- go to work (why does my perfect day include work? well, even though it's not the most preferred way to spend my time, it does make you feel like part of the world, like you're making a contribution, y'know?)
- sushi for lunch?
- home early from work, maybe a quick trip to the gym to workout for a bit
- if i skipped the gym, get in some tennis
- go out to dinner with my girl (on my perfect day my girl would be eliza dushku... or maybe ana ivanovic), or maybe eat in, have some japanese comfort food, do a little sukiyaki at the table and a cup of green tea for dessert
- go to bed early ('cause the sun drains you) and feel those waves again when i close my eyes

that'd be pretty sweet...

#99 - almost there?

not quite huh? this is my 99th post. have i gotten to where i wanted to get? what was this all about? well, boredom for one. narcissism for two. hopefully a way to keep myself on track to where i want to be in life... for three.

i wasn't planning on doing anything special for my 100th post, i'm not big into numbers or milestones, i feel it's a pretty arbitraty thing (well, i guess that's the whole point of having it huh? deeming something important so that it's easier for us to comprehend or make sense of things). i kinda feel the same way about my 100th post as i do about my age, it comes and goes. not that it isn't important, because if it never came, then it could never go so it's important to have. but when you look back at it, wouldn't it me be much more satisfying to see the 100th post and NOT see something special about it? that would mean that each post was a point along the line and i didn't have to MAKE the 100th post special in order to have it be important.

well, that's probably overthinking it, but the point being that just by getting to the 100th post absolutely does not mean that i've made progress with this blog and with my life. yes there has been progression, but also some sliding back as well. obviously the house has done great things toward me getting my life on a nice looking path, but it's still so difficult to follow, and really, who knows where i'm trying to get anyway? self-improvement is difficult to pinpoint, therefore how can i plot my way to it if i don't know where i'll end up? the point is, i guess, that you take the road there without reservation and with honest intent, then whereever you get to is where you should be.

anyway, just a little contemplation before embarking again on another 100 posts of me trying to get my life on track. there are so many things that i think i should be doing, or should be doing better, and little by little i work down that list and take the small steps to get there. looks like it's gonna take some time, well, it might as well, i've got a lifetime to do it.

ps - i was walking to the mailbox tonight and it was freezing cold. the air was chill and i grabbed a jacket just to walk down the street to the mailbox, but the whole scene brought me back some great memories. something in the air reminded me so much of being in san diego. i was there for about 5 days for a speech path convention a couple of years ago, i gotta believe that trip was a big turning point for me. it wasn't all fantastic, there was turbulence (a definately understatement there), but it all brought me great perspective on where my life was and where i wanted it to go. walking through sand diego gave me my first real motivation to find my own place, to explore my independence, to recognize the importance of friendships and relationships and how to evaluate each one for the better or worse, just being able to walk in the crisp air with a jacket under clear skies feeling like... well, a grown up (since i can't find words that don't sound so dorky). plus it was just a great place. i've always said that there's absolutely no reason for me to want to live anywhere but hawai'i, but if i had to, san diego is absolutely on the top of my very very short list.

anyway, it's that feeling of independence and the thought that i might actually be a part of the world that was so captivating about that trip and being in that place. i suppose since i grew up here and have lived here all my life i sometimes belittle my place here, and taking a trip to somewhere else, a place that surprisingly impressed me with how much i liked it, and then add on to that that it was a business trip where i actually made a contribution to the convention itself (albeit a pretty lame one, my research project for grad school was made into a presentation board), on my own just for the betterment of my own career (basically) made something click. that click started me off on this road and i'd like to keep up that motivation... that pic up there in the banner, that's from san diego, looking at it i can just feel the crispness of the air by the ocean and i remember how i felt walking through that city, i want to keep that intent, and use it to keep me striving forward.

#98 - aussie open

can you believe that this is my first post about the aussie open? it's almost over already? well, i've been watching the whole thing (go dvr!) so far and it's been a fantastic tournament, some highlights:

1. 2nd round: lindsey davenport v. maria sharapova - yup, SECOND round match, lindsey just had a baby like 7 months ago and is on the comeback, she's been playing really well, but maria was completely on fire, it was awesome. still, gotta feel sorry for davenport, she won three slams (us open, wimbledon, aussie open) but her last one came in 2000. she's been in four other grand slam finals since then but got beaten by a williams sister each time. too bad, it just seems like she should have won so many more, but how can you complain? she's won THREE!

2. 3rd round: janko tipsarevic v. roger federer - the match of the tournament for sure, federer was in serious trouble and only edged janko out 10-8 in the fifth set. i've been a fan of tipsarevic for a long time, it's good to see him finally get some due with the other trio of serbians, which brings me to...

3. the serbs: novak djokovic, ana ivanovic, and jelena jankovic. all in the semis, ana in the finals, novak to play for the final against roger federer tomorrow. ana took out venus, jelena took out serena. all of them have great personalities, they're all great people, i love rooting for them. add tipsarevic in there and serbia is my new favorite country.

well, there were a lot of other great matches, it seems like the best tennis of the year happens at the aussie open, maybe because it's the beginning of the tennis year and everyone's rested and rejuvenated for the year. lots of new faces begin popping up and there's lots to talk about reflecting on the past year. but anyway, we're on to the men's semifinals (roger v. novak, nadal v. tsonga, a newcomer) and the women's finals.... probably the prettiest women's final since... probably EVER!

#5 maria sharapova v. #4 ana ivanovic

#97 - hit and miss

bang. terminator : the sara conner chronicles is number one on my list at the moment. well, a pretty short list with no new episodes of the office or heroes or anything else on tv. but i was excited about this one for awhile back and i am not disappointed. although i have to admit that most of my excitement stems from the fact that i get to see this girl in action again. after firefly and serenity (she was even on an episode of angel) i've been itching to see her in a kick-ass role again and she dooes not disappoint. plus it's like terminator robot fighting which is all blocky and rough (not like how they make her fight in firefly) which is totally cool. i was worried how they would justify the time travel and all that, but the cancer thing was a great device, now they absolutely HAD to time travel because sara conner didn't have time to wait around for the events to occur. overall, i'm very happy with the way this new show has started and i'm looking forward to being a rabid dorky fan in the very near future.

ps - i've also heard that they're trying to make T4, another movie... not sure how that would work with the tv series... maybe it could be like after the events of T3 and all that, and then end with them sending back this terminator girl to get the events of the tv series started?

but, unfortunately, for every hit, there's a miss... and this one was a big disappointment... yup, american gladiators is total CRAP! so sad... but here's why:

1. way over-produced (sound effects, multiple camera angles, fake replays to try and extend the action... they think we don't notice just because it's a replay at a different camera angle)
2. gladiators are way too wussy - they need to talk less, beat up more, not lose
3. events are lame - they picked only the quickest and wussiest ones to reproduce and make easier (what happened to hang tough? there's only like three rings now!)
4. the eliminator makes the contestents look like pansies - does every single contestant face plant after coming off the balance beam? maybe they should screen contestants to see if they can swim. dropping off the hand-bike and climbing back up is WAY faster than struggling through the whole way. what the crap is up with the "travelator?"
5. i guess this ain't the 90's no mo'...

#96 - hasta la vista, baby

man, am i excited about this tv show. it's been a long long time since i was actually excited about something on tv (besides "the office"), but this one looks sweet. i've been preparing for "terminator: the sarah conner chronicles" by watching all the other terminators, luckily they've been showing them on tv and i've got dvr, score! hard to believe the orginal terminator came out in 1984, and even though i saw it after i had already watched terminator 2: judgement day i still like it. right now i'm watching terminator 3, and even though it's not a great movie... it made the right moves by hearkening early and often back to the first two movies for bits and expanding on the original storyline, i thought it kept pretty true, didn't leave any plotholes. that's why i'm so excited about this new tv series, well, for the terminator story and also because of summer glau, that's her up there. she's playing the bad-ass good terminator protecting john and sarah conner. and if anyone's seen her in firefly or serenity, you can bet she's gonna be a bad ass robot! the series is gonna pick up after T2 but how are they gonna keep it from running smack into the events of T3? how are they gonna justify the presence of a helper terminator after arnold had to take that lava dip?


anyway, that all which reminds me of firefly. too bad, poor show, got cancelled way too fast. i started watching it late, only after i found out it was written by joss whedon (who also wrote/created buffy the vampire slayer and angel). i think i like pretty much anything that guy writes, it's more "realistic" than other tv writing. i don't know, it seems more natural, his scripts are light, not all overly dramatic like every other show on tv. i recently found out that he used to be a writer for "roseanne" (another one of my favorite shows because of the writing) and he even wrote an episode of "the office" (my current favorite show). so i'm hoping maybe he'll have a hand in terminator, it seems like tons of actors & people from the joss whedon universe end up in the same shows (buffy, angel, firefly, serenity, lost, etc).


speaking of buffy... just thought i'd throw in another picture of eliza dushku, because she's hot!

#95 - make-up weather

finally! the last week of winter break is making up for the first two weeks of crappy weather. but this week it's been all sun, sand, and surf. i've been surfing every day since the sun came out and it's been great. i'm waking up early (relatively) which is a really good thing because the clear blue skies are only lasting half a day and then when i get back home that's when the clouds roll in. no pics of the surf today, but yesterday, after a sweet day a chun's i decided to give some of those haleiwa shrimp trucks a try. there was giovanni's and hono's, but they both only had four different dishes so i went with the garlic shrimp from hono's (i've never heard of hono's before, whereas giovanni's is pretty famous, but they didn't have garlic shrimp). it was $12 and not in any way worth it. haha, well, except for the fact that i spent the day on the north shore so i'd better have gotten a shrimp plate for lunch.


today a little bit more of the same thing, weather was great, i thought the surf would be a little too big for me so i went to ali'i today. but it was perfect! clean, glassy, overhead on the sets but so clean that they were way easy to catch. and it wasn't all that crowded either, so i got to catch a lot. i even did some of that, y'know, rip a turn on the top of the crest, flick some white-water off it, and then ride back down on top of the curl... what do you call it? whatever, doing it is damn fun! i even caught a little barrel for a bit, sweet.

well, looks like surf will be up tomorrow in the "too big for me" range so i'll have to find something else to do, heck, if the weather's good again maybe i'll just go to watch the big ones, gotta savor my last two days of freedom...

PS - almost forgot! while i was sitting out in the water at ali'i today i saw some humpback whales jumping off in the distance! whoa, that's the first time i've actually seen whales (all the other times someone yelled "whale!" and i'd look and see a splash and then lie and say "oh yeah, cool, whale"). it was cool, and a great bonus to my surfing day. but i think the best bonus after a day at the beach is when you're lying in bed that night and you feel the waves rolling under you. that's the coolest! and then when you close your eyes you see those salt-water ridges rolling toward you in long walls and then feel it rise up under you... neat.

#94 - and that's sunday

ahh sunday. usually the routine is:
- wake up (around noon)
- make breakfast
- read the paper while watching nfl
- go to tennis
- shower
- 1st load of laundry
- church
- pick up dinner
- 2nd load of laundry
- sleep

but today... no tennis lessons and i'm trying this new thing called "waking up early," so far i'm at 8:00 am... and i'm on vacation! wow, that's like getting up at 4 am on a regular work day. anyway, so today it was:
- wake up (at 8 am)
- make breakfast
- read the paper while watching nfl
- go surfing

it was pretty nice today at ali'i (especially since i was there early) and in the morning it was clean, glassy, and overhead on the sets, pretty sweet. there were a lot of people in the water, but for some reason they were all leaving me alone and i was having my pick of waves, nice! i don't know why, i was sitting in a pretty nice spot, but no one wanted any of the waves so i took off and rode 'em all the way in a bunch of times, it was tons of fun. but, once the day got longer people started showing up and pretty soon it was like 5 people per wave (see above), so i got outta there, sat on the sand for a bit before heading out to kua'aina burger, yum!


after that it was home to work on the yard, see? i mixed in all the compost so we're ready to plant grass, woo hoo! brandi's totally right, getting back to earth, working with your hands is a great feeling, especially in the sun with a radio on, it's nice work.


anyway, after church it was dinnertime with the return of american gladiators!!! woo hoo! i was stoked to hear that they were remaking this show, i still watch it on espn classic, but this new version has some tweaking needed i think. it's way over-produced, the contestents get way too much face time (which makes for retarded banter, a la "next" on mtv). way too much camera angles and replays. just get back to the original formula, the whole reason why it was so great is because they treated it like a sport, with sportscaster commentators and real-speed camera work. none of these retarded sound effects or whatever. the gladiators themselves pass the personality test (especially fury up there, my fav of the girls, complete with corny home-made signs in the audience too), but bombed performance wise!

i mean, c'mon, they got completely embarrassed on those obstacles, and "hit and run?" lame. at least they got some things right though, for example, HELGA, haha, with pigtails and everything. and wolf, haha, nice. i'm glad they kept assault, powerball, joust, and those, but some of those new ones are dumb.

last, but definately not least... did you see that first eliminator with the women? HAHAHA! i couldn't stop laughing the whole time! how completely pathetic, haha, it's funny that they put that block wall at the end because they all looked dead crashing through it at the end, haha.

anyway, i think the new american gladiator has promise (especially if they really have the winners from this year become gladiators next year), but they gotta keep those producers hands' OFF the control panel and let the cameras roll, make it more like a sporting event and less like a video game.

now it's early to bed for some early to rise action tomorrow... and that's sunday.

#93 - new year, new yard

ok, ready? i'm gonna start off the new year positively. instead of wishing for the things that i think i should be experiencing at 26 years old, i'll focus on the things that i've worked hard to accomplish so far, because i HAVE worked hard dammit! acknowledge that, self! why do you keep bumming yourself out over the things you don't have yet!? dumbass.

anyway, let's start off the new year with independence and all the wonderful things that can stem from living on your own. take all those new-found responsibilities and reflect positively on them, it's no longer "i have to do the yard," instead it's "alright, i get to do my own yard!" and that was the new year's day plan... 1) wash the car, 2) do the yard. unfortunately the weather is rainy and non-cooperative so i've got time to blog about doing the yard instead. this is a picture of my yard when i first moved in... see how clean the lines are? all the mud nicely compacted and smooth. well, sucks to that, all that means is that i had to dig it all up to turn and aerate the soil!

so here's what my yard looks like now... after a day of working the ground with a pick-axe. i've only got a tiny little area, but damn if it wasn't hard work turning all that soil. i gave myself a couple of nice blisters with that little yellow tool there, but i actually had a lot of exhausting fun doing it. it's like real work, earth work, like a farmer. plus, very good exercise.

next step, which was supposed to be today's step (before the sugar bowl, of course) = mix in that redwood compost into the soil. i got myself a hoe and a rake, just waiting for that sun to come out and the rain to get the f*** out. haha. i don't really know what to do with the yard after that, i'll probably just plant grass first, put down a couple of flagstone-like stepping stones and try and plant that japanese-y tree in the corner somewhere. but i figure once the grass is in then changes can be made no problem, the hard part will be trying to get even coverage cause the mud out there right now is pretty much like clay, it needs a lot of work to get stuff actually growing in it.

well, wish me luck, hopefully i can keep up with the positive-ness and make this a damn good year...