Happy 4th (Belated)

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. Mine was enjoyable and restive ... Transformers 2 on IMAX on Friday (big robots on a big screen), sunset dinner cruise and fireworks on Saturday, quiet Sunday. Too bad it had to end with work again on Monday. I managed to get some great photos from the boat and the fireworks were awesome.

Cheese-head on Parade

I'm not sure how I got on Abecrombie's email list, but I got another spam-out from his office regarding healthcare reform. The problem with his kind of reform is to spend more money and try to give more people more things for free which isn't fixing anything. Part of the problem is the plethora of stupid lawsuits that doctors face for every little thing they cannot control or should not be held responsible. There really needs to be tort reform which would do much to decrease healthcare cost mostly because doctors would not be required to pay out the yin-yang for their malpractice insurance.

Interesting-sounding Movies

Transformers 2 comes out, technically tomorrow but apparently some people have already tossed it out onto the web... big surprise there. It's one of the movies I wanted to see that's coming up, the trailers and previews look good (at least the special effects are awesome) We'll see if they came up with a decently written script.

Icky weather

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring ...

Actually, it's not really pouring but it is raining. I'm looking out of the window and the mountains are almost totally obscured by the rain and clouds. I should bring a digital camera and snap pictures to upload into the post ... it seems to add a little je ne sais qua to the entry.

Surprise day off

I actually had Kamehameha Day off from work which is surprising since most people don't have it off. I would much rather have other days off, but that's another discussion for another time. Anyways, I spent the late morning and early afternoon hiking up Diamond Head crater. If at all possible, start the hike earlier in the morning because it is dang hot at midday and there is no shade until you get to the top. You see a lot of people going up and down wearing odd things. One woman was wearing a dress, another older Japanese tourist was in a polo shirt and slacks, another woman was wearing golden sandals... definitely not stuff you ought to wear when hiking. The view was fabulous at the top, you could see the other islands on the horizon.

The panoramic pic is actually 7 shots stiched together using Microsoft's Live Photo Gallery program. It's free and works pretty good.

After hiking, I drove over to Haleiwa for Matsumoto's shave ice. Another place to go early if you are able since it was really crowded. I stood in line for probably over 20 minutes for my large rainbow shaved ice with ice cream.

Here we go again . . .

This is another attempt to start this up and keep it consistent.

Here it is, another holiday - another day at work - another quiet, relatively boring day at work where nothing noteworthy will be happening... as far as clients go anyway.  Last year was eventful, though, moving out of the apartment, flying to San Francisco for brain surgery... moving out and flying to San Francisco for a month all happened one right after each other.  I ought to relay the entire story one of these days for posterity.

Amazing how time flies sometimes and how much real life can completely detract you from things. A very short comment, but I did want to post something to show some activity and say I plan on being more prolific in my writing . . . "plan on" being the operating words.

Exciting Day

I certainly didn't expect to feel everything shaking this morning at around 7 am and especially the second time aroune 7:15. At first I thought it was just unusual for me to be up that early on a Sunday morning for one thing. It must have been just a little before 7 since I had time to get out of bed, look around to see my wife was gone to do her photography thing in the Haleiwa area and go back to bed. I lay there for just a few minutes when the entire room started shaking which was quite a surprise and fascinating experience. Being 150 miles from the epicenter made the quake much less than the 6.6 reported by the USGS and I was lucky none of my things got knocked off the shelves, etc.

While I was thinking about the first quake that was a completely new and unexpected experience for me, the first aftershock made the room shake 7 minutes later; measured 5.8 on the Reicter scale. That's when I noticed the power had gone off; I had been trying to turn on the computer to see what was going on and nothing would go on. So, I started listening to KSSK, the only station on the air, on the little battery powered radio I had for the rest of the day. Electricity was just restored to the upper Pearl City area a few hours ago.

Where's the Kaboom?

"There was supposed to be a powerful, earth-shattering kaboom"

- Marvin the Martian

The results of the "much anticipated" nuclear test by North Korea seems to have been a dud by any objective observations with the yield being less than a kiloton and radiation not being detected by our monitoring planes. I guess they forgot the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator? One thing is certain, though, it looks like this is much ado about nothing.

Aftermath

I've been hearing accounts of the funerals for the Amish girls that were murdered earlier this week and can only express amazement and awe for the response by the families to the widow and father-in-law. The Amish demonstrated exceptional strength and compassion by embracing the shooter's wife and father-in-law; something that is uncommon these days. There is still no reason being given for why the man did what he did and the sketchy details are just that; general statements with no real relevance. While I don't want to live that particular life, I still admire and respect the people that choose it.