Thursday, September 30, 2004
Well that was weird.
I got an e-mail a few days ago from Dell telling my that my computer order had been delayed until October 12. Nearly two weeks! Super-bummer. They mentioned in the note, however, that I now had the option to cancel my order. Mother offered the quite-sage advice that I should attempt to fix my computer, and if I got it working well-enough before they were supposed to ship my computer, I could cancel it. Good idea.
And as it turns out, I think I managed to get my computer working at least a little alright. I installed Mozilla Firefox ™ © (all rights reserved) which has blown the pants off of both my old Netscape install and Internet Explorer in terms of running without crashing to the desktop. Plus some random disc scan stuff and a system re-install, and I think I may have everything pretty much on the path of righteousness. And it only took two days after Dell sent me my delay notice.
And actually, I’m kind of glad, because that means I can delay my computer buying moment further still and perhaps get an even better computer. (You know how these things go). So I go to check up on my order and see if I can cancel it, and it looks like Dell has already shipped it.
…Huh?
I’m actually a little torn about this. Now that my current computer is working again, I really would rather not have a new computer. Between paying USC for my class and not getting reimbursed until next year, vacation stuff, new computer, and random other bits, I’m surprised I still have any money at all. I do, granted, it’s not like I’m in straights anything at all like ‘dire’, but I think I may have overextended my budget a little. I checked over my finances, and it looks, actually, like my biggest unnecessary expenses have been in what I’ve labeled in quicken as ‘entertainment’. Video games, not surprisingly, go in here.
So the first step is to admit I’ve made a mistake. Which I have, though not, perhaps, a catastrophic one. Pretty recoverable. Wiser men than I have said that when you realize you have made a mistake, you must take immediate steps to rectify it. In my case, the best thing to do is to cut back on spending. Especially unnecessary spending. This is pretty all right for me, though, being as I’ve spent so much on the beloved PS2 entertainment, I actually have quite a few games to play through. I think I should be pretty well sated until ~ Christmas.
And speaking of Christmas, I would like to come home for Christmas, but I’m guessing that the primary stopper on the success or failure of that plan will be $$$. I certainly have the time. (Raytheon gives us nearly two weeks off at the end of every year. Quite kind, really.) I’ll have to make the decision soon, though, tickets being what they are.
Very little else of note has happened recently, though. I’m going to a housewarming party this weekend, but not a whole lot of ‘going out’ or ‘clubbing’ or ‘tearing it up.’ This might be a bad sign, it might not. Time will tell.
-N
I got an e-mail a few days ago from Dell telling my that my computer order had been delayed until October 12. Nearly two weeks! Super-bummer. They mentioned in the note, however, that I now had the option to cancel my order. Mother offered the quite-sage advice that I should attempt to fix my computer, and if I got it working well-enough before they were supposed to ship my computer, I could cancel it. Good idea.
And as it turns out, I think I managed to get my computer working at least a little alright. I installed Mozilla Firefox ™ © (all rights reserved) which has blown the pants off of both my old Netscape install and Internet Explorer in terms of running without crashing to the desktop. Plus some random disc scan stuff and a system re-install, and I think I may have everything pretty much on the path of righteousness. And it only took two days after Dell sent me my delay notice.
And actually, I’m kind of glad, because that means I can delay my computer buying moment further still and perhaps get an even better computer. (You know how these things go). So I go to check up on my order and see if I can cancel it, and it looks like Dell has already shipped it.
…Huh?
I’m actually a little torn about this. Now that my current computer is working again, I really would rather not have a new computer. Between paying USC for my class and not getting reimbursed until next year, vacation stuff, new computer, and random other bits, I’m surprised I still have any money at all. I do, granted, it’s not like I’m in straights anything at all like ‘dire’, but I think I may have overextended my budget a little. I checked over my finances, and it looks, actually, like my biggest unnecessary expenses have been in what I’ve labeled in quicken as ‘entertainment’. Video games, not surprisingly, go in here.
So the first step is to admit I’ve made a mistake. Which I have, though not, perhaps, a catastrophic one. Pretty recoverable. Wiser men than I have said that when you realize you have made a mistake, you must take immediate steps to rectify it. In my case, the best thing to do is to cut back on spending. Especially unnecessary spending. This is pretty all right for me, though, being as I’ve spent so much on the beloved PS2 entertainment, I actually have quite a few games to play through. I think I should be pretty well sated until ~ Christmas.
And speaking of Christmas, I would like to come home for Christmas, but I’m guessing that the primary stopper on the success or failure of that plan will be $$$. I certainly have the time. (Raytheon gives us nearly two weeks off at the end of every year. Quite kind, really.) I’ll have to make the decision soon, though, tickets being what they are.
Very little else of note has happened recently, though. I’m going to a housewarming party this weekend, but not a whole lot of ‘going out’ or ‘clubbing’ or ‘tearing it up.’ This might be a bad sign, it might not. Time will tell.
-N
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
*Kaboom*! My computer asplode!
I bought my computer at the beginning of my Junior year, which means it’s made it through just barely more than 4 years, which is about as much as can ask of any piece of hardware I own, save my chair, which still lets me sit in it 6 years later. My dad dislikes the fact that I still use the same one we bought for m y freshman year in college, and it is showing signs of wear. It’s on the list of things I intend to buy someday. I’ll get to that list later.
But the time has come to set that old, trusty piece of hardware aside. I know I have been talking about getting a new computer, but I was honestly hoping to wait until early next year. It seems like that’s not quite going to happen.
I’ve been seeing signs of wear for a few months now. Aside from just being slow, it’s been having some subtle issues under win XP. More recently, though, the hard drive has begun to wig out on me. There are times when the system simply doesn’t start up, it just hangs there and the hard drive makes these wicked noises like it’s trying to recover data by dragging the hard drive heads over the disks. “Gritch, gritch, gritch. Gritch, gritch, gritch.” You don’t let your computer do that for long before restarting, that’s for sure. And it does that repeatedly, too. The only remedy seems to be to start it up in safe mode, and even that takes nearly an hour to do. I assume it’s doing some sort of disk scan because the hard drive keeps spinning the whole time, and eventually it boots up, and then I can restart it in regular mode. But I can’t afford to be waiting for an hour+ every time I need to turn on my computer. I’ve got stuff to do, classes to watch.
And speaking of stuff to do…
The final insult, Internet Explorer doesn’t work anymore. If I try to navigate to *any* webpage beyond ‘about: blank’, it crashes IE instantaneously. I can still browse with Netscape, to a limited extent, but either Netscape is broken too, or Windows just hates it or something, because I can’t seem to do anything over a secure connection with Netscape, like log into watch my classes. That’s not a want, that’s a need. I need to watch my classes so I can get the bloody things finished. I’m not watching them for their riveting story, that’s for darn sure. (I wonder what’s going to happen to the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator *this* week?) I’ll be watching them on my work computer for now.
I’m convinced that I could probably fix the problems with enough effort. I suspect that formatting the hard drive would clean up some of the issues with boot up, and a re-installation of Windows would probably work as a stopgap measure against the IE problems, but really, I think it’s just time for a new computer. 4 years is a long time to own one machine. And I’ve been blabbing here about how getting one of these things is the first, vital step to the creation of my audio studio. Well, it’s time then.
What will become of my old machine? I’m actually a little excited about it, really, because even though I talk about ‘formatting a hard drive’ like it’s no big thing, the truth is that I’ve never done it. It’s not like the computer is completely worthless, it’s just old, I want a new one, and it doesn’t do what I need to any more. It still processes data. It still computes. I figure this is as good a chance as any to get some experience cleaning up a computer. I can rip out the hard drive and transfer all my important data to the new computer, put the drive back, and then format the beast and see what happens. Perhaps I’ll have two usable computers. I’d use the old one for browsing the internet, word processing, etc. Or, you know, also *not*, potentially. Why use an old computer when you have a new one? It’s just the opportunity is there. And if I totally botch the hard-drive formatting experiment? Eh, wasn’t an important computer anyway.
Or I could donate it to somewhere. I don’t’ know if there are places that could use a machine like mine, assuming I get it working *and* decide I don’t want it. Any civic-minded people out there know of a worthy cause?
Alternative number three is to recycle it. Not throw it away, recycle. There’s a lot of weird metal and other less-than-delicious components in a computer. Would you want that floating in your drinking water? I don’t think so. I know there are programs out there to recycle your computer because someone did a presentation on them in my public speaking class back at CalPoly. I retained the knowledge that such places exist; I just…forgot where those places are. I’m sure even minimal internet research will uncover them again.
But if there’s an ‘out with the old’, there has to be an ‘in with the new’, right? Here’s the new:
Dell Dimension 8400
3.4 Ghz Processor, 800 Mhz. FSB.
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x512M)
19 in 1901FP Dell Ultrasharp™ Digital Flat Panel Display
256MB Nvidia® GeForce 6800 GTO Graphics Card
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
16x DVD Drive
16x DVD+RW/+R w/ dbl layer Drive
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
Note the absolutely atrocious sound card option. That’s because it will eventually get replaced with an audio interface, recording-studio style. That’s thinking ahead, kids. I’m also going with a flat panel monitor, on the advice of many a person. Hopefully it matches the hype. Now do note that audio work requires a *lot* of hard disk space, and a *really fast* hard drive. I’m not entirely sure if just running it off the normal hard drive will be enough. Additional options include a second internal hard drive or an external fire wire drive. Those are upgrades, though, and hard drive addition/replacement I can do. *Very* plug and play. And yes I got a big, beefy graphics card. I am a gamer after all.
I did order from Dell. There was a very timely coincidence of special offers that matched my needs quite nicely. 15% off, free shipping, hard drive and DVD upgrades, and a student discount that my parents were quite keen to turn me on to; it ended up saving me about a hundred bucks. So I got pretty much exactly the computer I was hoping for, and saved some good money in the process. Derek was pretty quick to point out that it’s probably a little expensive for the ‘amount’ of computer I’m getting and he’s probably right. Whenever a Computer engineer tells me about a computer, I tend to listen. Just like you should listen if I tell you not to lick those two wires. I’ve been trained; I know what I’m talking about. But there are intangibles that I get too. For one, they build the darn thing for me and send me all the documentation and required software in a dandy little package. I know a thing or two about computer hardware, but there’s no way I’m going to build my own. It’s just worth it for me to pay to have someone else do that.
I put in the order earlier this morning. I would have done it last night…but my internet was broken. Pshaw!
So here’s a list of other miscellany that I need to buy at some point in time or another.
New computer chair
Battery backup/UPS/Surge protect
New printer (It’s functional, but as old as the chair)
Some good art
And, of course, what qualifies as ‘good art’ is a Blog entry unto itself.
Other than that, not terribly much new to report. I’m holding back on the ‘amazing dramatic occurrences’ until I can get my schedule better under control. I think I’ve got it, so the next thing to worry about are my finances. Perhaps I’ll talk about that next time, and perhaps I won’t.
Same bat time, same bat channel,
-N
I bought my computer at the beginning of my Junior year, which means it’s made it through just barely more than 4 years, which is about as much as can ask of any piece of hardware I own, save my chair, which still lets me sit in it 6 years later. My dad dislikes the fact that I still use the same one we bought for m y freshman year in college, and it is showing signs of wear. It’s on the list of things I intend to buy someday. I’ll get to that list later.
But the time has come to set that old, trusty piece of hardware aside. I know I have been talking about getting a new computer, but I was honestly hoping to wait until early next year. It seems like that’s not quite going to happen.
I’ve been seeing signs of wear for a few months now. Aside from just being slow, it’s been having some subtle issues under win XP. More recently, though, the hard drive has begun to wig out on me. There are times when the system simply doesn’t start up, it just hangs there and the hard drive makes these wicked noises like it’s trying to recover data by dragging the hard drive heads over the disks. “Gritch, gritch, gritch. Gritch, gritch, gritch.” You don’t let your computer do that for long before restarting, that’s for sure. And it does that repeatedly, too. The only remedy seems to be to start it up in safe mode, and even that takes nearly an hour to do. I assume it’s doing some sort of disk scan because the hard drive keeps spinning the whole time, and eventually it boots up, and then I can restart it in regular mode. But I can’t afford to be waiting for an hour+ every time I need to turn on my computer. I’ve got stuff to do, classes to watch.
And speaking of stuff to do…
The final insult, Internet Explorer doesn’t work anymore. If I try to navigate to *any* webpage beyond ‘about: blank’, it crashes IE instantaneously. I can still browse with Netscape, to a limited extent, but either Netscape is broken too, or Windows just hates it or something, because I can’t seem to do anything over a secure connection with Netscape, like log into watch my classes. That’s not a want, that’s a need. I need to watch my classes so I can get the bloody things finished. I’m not watching them for their riveting story, that’s for darn sure. (I wonder what’s going to happen to the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator *this* week?) I’ll be watching them on my work computer for now.
I’m convinced that I could probably fix the problems with enough effort. I suspect that formatting the hard drive would clean up some of the issues with boot up, and a re-installation of Windows would probably work as a stopgap measure against the IE problems, but really, I think it’s just time for a new computer. 4 years is a long time to own one machine. And I’ve been blabbing here about how getting one of these things is the first, vital step to the creation of my audio studio. Well, it’s time then.
What will become of my old machine? I’m actually a little excited about it, really, because even though I talk about ‘formatting a hard drive’ like it’s no big thing, the truth is that I’ve never done it. It’s not like the computer is completely worthless, it’s just old, I want a new one, and it doesn’t do what I need to any more. It still processes data. It still computes. I figure this is as good a chance as any to get some experience cleaning up a computer. I can rip out the hard drive and transfer all my important data to the new computer, put the drive back, and then format the beast and see what happens. Perhaps I’ll have two usable computers. I’d use the old one for browsing the internet, word processing, etc. Or, you know, also *not*, potentially. Why use an old computer when you have a new one? It’s just the opportunity is there. And if I totally botch the hard-drive formatting experiment? Eh, wasn’t an important computer anyway.
Or I could donate it to somewhere. I don’t’ know if there are places that could use a machine like mine, assuming I get it working *and* decide I don’t want it. Any civic-minded people out there know of a worthy cause?
Alternative number three is to recycle it. Not throw it away, recycle. There’s a lot of weird metal and other less-than-delicious components in a computer. Would you want that floating in your drinking water? I don’t think so. I know there are programs out there to recycle your computer because someone did a presentation on them in my public speaking class back at CalPoly. I retained the knowledge that such places exist; I just…forgot where those places are. I’m sure even minimal internet research will uncover them again.
But if there’s an ‘out with the old’, there has to be an ‘in with the new’, right? Here’s the new:
Dell Dimension 8400
3.4 Ghz Processor, 800 Mhz. FSB.
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x512M)
19 in 1901FP Dell Ultrasharp™ Digital Flat Panel Display
256MB Nvidia® GeForce 6800 GTO Graphics Card
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
16x DVD Drive
16x DVD+RW/+R w/ dbl layer Drive
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
Note the absolutely atrocious sound card option. That’s because it will eventually get replaced with an audio interface, recording-studio style. That’s thinking ahead, kids. I’m also going with a flat panel monitor, on the advice of many a person. Hopefully it matches the hype. Now do note that audio work requires a *lot* of hard disk space, and a *really fast* hard drive. I’m not entirely sure if just running it off the normal hard drive will be enough. Additional options include a second internal hard drive or an external fire wire drive. Those are upgrades, though, and hard drive addition/replacement I can do. *Very* plug and play. And yes I got a big, beefy graphics card. I am a gamer after all.
I did order from Dell. There was a very timely coincidence of special offers that matched my needs quite nicely. 15% off, free shipping, hard drive and DVD upgrades, and a student discount that my parents were quite keen to turn me on to; it ended up saving me about a hundred bucks. So I got pretty much exactly the computer I was hoping for, and saved some good money in the process. Derek was pretty quick to point out that it’s probably a little expensive for the ‘amount’ of computer I’m getting and he’s probably right. Whenever a Computer engineer tells me about a computer, I tend to listen. Just like you should listen if I tell you not to lick those two wires. I’ve been trained; I know what I’m talking about. But there are intangibles that I get too. For one, they build the darn thing for me and send me all the documentation and required software in a dandy little package. I know a thing or two about computer hardware, but there’s no way I’m going to build my own. It’s just worth it for me to pay to have someone else do that.
I put in the order earlier this morning. I would have done it last night…but my internet was broken. Pshaw!
So here’s a list of other miscellany that I need to buy at some point in time or another.
New computer chair
Battery backup/UPS/Surge protect
New printer (It’s functional, but as old as the chair)
Some good art
And, of course, what qualifies as ‘good art’ is a Blog entry unto itself.
Other than that, not terribly much new to report. I’m holding back on the ‘amazing dramatic occurrences’ until I can get my schedule better under control. I think I’ve got it, so the next thing to worry about are my finances. Perhaps I’ll talk about that next time, and perhaps I won’t.
Same bat time, same bat channel,
-N
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Memoirs of a Hawaii Trip
Wednesday
'Roomates' Edwin and Anita, left, and the woman responsible for this whole mess, Tarang.
We left LA at about 9PM Wednesday night. The flight over was blissfully uneventful, and I spent most of my time reading ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’, watching the in-flight movie ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ (book was better!) and playing ‘Astro-Boy and the Omega Factor’ on my Game Boy Advance.
We picked up our Rental-Car and, somehow, managed to navigate to our hotel, despite not having a map or any idea where we were going. We asked for directions a few times.
Finally, we checked in and crashed out, 1:30 AM Hawaii time, 4:30 AM California time.
Thursday
Ian pointing at...nothing in particular.
The first order of the day was to figure out just what it was we wanted to do with our day. Derek and I looked through some of those free coupon-fests/vacation guides and decide it would be neat to do some ‘North Shore’ stuff. For those of you that don’t know, the North shore is the less developed, less touristy, less ‘spoilt’, more nature-y and local-ish. It’s also the home of ‘The Pipeline’. During the winter, when the ocean kicks up, surfers flock to Pipeline to ride the 20+ foot waves. Yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous.
So our first stop was the Dole Plantation. Evidently dole has grown/does grow lots and lots of the fruit that you and buy in cans in our very own Hawaii. Pretty cool. There was lots of greenery to observe and lots of fruit plants to see. I saw my first pineapple plant. I always rather assumed they grew on trees. They don’t. They grow on the top of these aloe-looking bushes. The highlights of the Dole plantation trip were eating fresh pineapple ice cream and doing the maze. The Dole plantation constructed this really spiffy hedge maze at their plantation. Granted it wasn’t very hard, being as you would have had to work pretty hard to find a dead end or get really lost. That and there exist copious shortcuts, which look like they’re actually supposed to be there. Nice walk, nice time.
After that, we went up further to the actual shore of the North shore and stopped at one of the local touristy-spots, Matsumoto Shave Ice. It was really good shaved ice. Like a Slurpee, but with much better syrup, and much finer ice. Definitely a treat. I can see why it became so popular. They had some slick pictures on the wall of employees with the cast of ’50 First Dates’. An excellent movie, by the way.
We hit the beach for a little while, just to look around. The signs up there warned of tricky riptides and…well, you could see the jagged sharp rocks, like *right there*. But it was nice to see. Golden sand, turquoise water, all that. We chased after some tiny crabs, too. That was fun.
So after taking in the beauty of the North shore, we all scampered back to the hotel. When we got back, we heard everyone was going up to ‘Diamondhead’. So, like the puppy-dogs we are, we followed. Diamondhead is the name of a park/military base that exists inside the crater of a long-dead volcano. It was a fairly modest hike, though blazingly hot. At the top you got a gorgeous view of the island and the ocean from one of the no-longer used lookout-bunkers on the top of the crater. It’s quite a sight. We hiked back down and all caught limos back to the hotel. You know, I always thought that important, famous people ride in Limos. Now I know the truth, it’s usually just a bunch of poor college students trying to save money on cab fair. Not a bad deal, overall, I just wish there would have been some Crystal (champagne you always see rappers pouring over nubile young women in rap videos, cause it’s so expensive), that would have made it feel *right*.
We split into two groups for dinner, some wanted to go to a classy steak restaurant. Just…uh…there were entirely too many of us for me to believe we would ever be able to get organized enough to all make it. So some of us, 10 or so, decided to spit off and walk down the street for some super-quick buffet action. Fine by me. I was starving.
After that, we wandered around Waikiki for a while, seeing some shops (there is an ABC general store every 35 feet; by law, I believe). Then we came back to the hotel, changed into bathing suits and went out for a night swim! This is something you can actually *do* down in Hawaii. Over here in LA, beaches get a bit sleazy at night. Oahu? No problem. We were the only people in the ocean, locally, at least. There was a breakwater right in front of where we were swimming, and so no waves came to disturb us. Which was nice, because we were teaching Sabeen and Sakina how to swim. It was a good time, but that sea water tastes *nasty*.
All this…one day.
Friday
Left to right: Sakina, Russell above Puneet, Sabeen, Ian above Tarang, Mary, Me, Scott. Not even close to everyone on the trip, though.
Most of Friday was spent at one of my favorite activities of the whole vacation. Snorkeling at Hanamua Bay. A crater similar to the one at Diamondhead, but the center got filled up with water, creating this beautiful natural bay. The whole middle of it is filled with this gorgeous reef, wherein live all those kinda crazy animals that you see on the discovery channel. I didn’t see any Moray eels (lucky!), but I did see a sea turtle and more exotic fish than I could possibly shake any sort of stick at. We brought an underwater camera along, but I haven’t had time to get it developed yet. I don’t know if there’s a limit on the amount of fun you can bring back on a fishing trip like that, but we nearly limited out, I’m sure.
After some rest, we went out to see the ‘lighting of the torch’ ceremony at one of the Waikiki Malls. It turns out it was less ‘torch lighting’ and more stand up comedy. One of the guys from the Polynesian Cultural center came up and showed us some stuff, making us laugh all the time. Stuff like shucking a coconut, drinking the milk, things like that. I thought it was *hilarious*. He was Samoan (Quote of the trip: ‘Ah…da happy people!’)
After that, more tooling around Waikiki. Let me tell you, those street performers aren’t half bad. Better than the ‘crazy guy yelling’ street performers we get down here. (‘I was in da waaaar!’) A couple guys doing the whole mannequin shtick. One guy who stat around in a suit made out of/covered in newspaper. We got our pictures taken with some trained exotic birds.
Saturday
Smile!
After all the productive vacationing so far, I wanted a lo-key day. Edwin and Anita took off to swim with dolphins, Derek went off with his Hawaii-based extended family. I rented a moped. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon tooling around Waikiki and doing my ‘gift shopping’. Chocolate covered macadamia nuts, now available at Noel’s Café.
And being on a Moped seems like good experience for the yes/no motorcycle experiment. It was definitely fun, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that if anyone else on the road decided to be stupid, I would have been road pizza. Defensive driving, kids.
In the afternoon, just some lounging. I read more of ‘Memoirs’. Good book. And in the evening, karaoke. Ian, Russell and I all went out to a local dive/karaoke bar and belted out some tunes. Ian and I did ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. (I did the high parts). Russell did ‘Hey Jealousy’. I did a bunch of them. My favorites were ‘Hemorrhage’ by Fuel and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana. When I do that one in a Karaoke room, I have to keep my voice under control a bit; but in a bar, I could just *scream*. I held the last note of ‘Teen Spirit’ for about 7 seconds, and everyone went nuts. That was some fun.
Sunday
Leave love bleeding in my hands! In my hands agaaaaaaaaaaain!
Happy birthday to me!
Most picturesque activity of the vacation goes to Waimea falls, Sunday morning. It was amazing. It’s this great nature preserve/hike, where there are exotic plants everywhere. Some nice animals too, and feeding stations. I got a peacock to eat out of my hand. And at the end of the hike, Waimea falls. You can go out and swim in the lake and crawl up to the waterfall and everything. It’s pretty spectacular. I got to meditate under a tropical waterfall. It was…enlightening. I can see why monks do it.
And in the afternoon/evening, the Luau. There were fun activities to do beforehand, and free drinks. (Yum, dawg.) I volunteered to do the fish pull. Traditionally it’s something the men and women do before a Luau, pulling in the fish nets so that they can be munched upon. At our Luau, however, it mostly involved a bunch of tourists running around in grass skirts and making fun of themselves in front of ~1200 strangers. That’s my kind of fun.
After a few more drinks. (I think they put something in my Long Island Iced Tea…like alcohol.) We got to get some good ol’ fashioned Luau food. The pork was excellent. Then there were dance performances, including a fire dance by a Samoan guy. (Ah…da happy people!)
When we got back to the hotel, it was *pouring*. I just stood outside and let it rain on me for about 15 minutes. Yes I was still a little bit drunk, but honestly, it was the best part of the vacation for me. That amazing tropical rain. Water finds every crack, my friend.
After that, we went out to tromp around Waikiki and see if we could find some coffee for Mary. But they were all closed. Unfortunate.
Monday
Hang Loose, Bra!
Our last day in Hawaii. Edwin, Anita and I went out to Pearl Harbor, saw some of the memorials, and took a walkthrough of a retired submarine. Neat to see. They’d done some clever restoration work on that thing.
We also went to the Hard Rock Café in Honolulu. I got my favorite (only) souvenirs of the trip there: a couple of Hard Rock Café drumsticks with Honolulu on them. My favorite kind of souvenirs, memorable, neat, and *useful*.
Then it was off to the Airport, and back home. Everyone seemed a little down that the vacation was over, but honestly, I was excited. I learned a lot down in Hawaii, and I was excited at the opportunity to get back and apply that knowledge to the rest of my life.
Which is what I’m doing now.
-N
Wednesday
'Roomates' Edwin and Anita, left, and the woman responsible for this whole mess, Tarang.
We left LA at about 9PM Wednesday night. The flight over was blissfully uneventful, and I spent most of my time reading ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’, watching the in-flight movie ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ (book was better!) and playing ‘Astro-Boy and the Omega Factor’ on my Game Boy Advance.
We picked up our Rental-Car and, somehow, managed to navigate to our hotel, despite not having a map or any idea where we were going. We asked for directions a few times.
Finally, we checked in and crashed out, 1:30 AM Hawaii time, 4:30 AM California time.
Thursday
Ian pointing at...nothing in particular.
The first order of the day was to figure out just what it was we wanted to do with our day. Derek and I looked through some of those free coupon-fests/vacation guides and decide it would be neat to do some ‘North Shore’ stuff. For those of you that don’t know, the North shore is the less developed, less touristy, less ‘spoilt’, more nature-y and local-ish. It’s also the home of ‘The Pipeline’. During the winter, when the ocean kicks up, surfers flock to Pipeline to ride the 20+ foot waves. Yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous.
So our first stop was the Dole Plantation. Evidently dole has grown/does grow lots and lots of the fruit that you and buy in cans in our very own Hawaii. Pretty cool. There was lots of greenery to observe and lots of fruit plants to see. I saw my first pineapple plant. I always rather assumed they grew on trees. They don’t. They grow on the top of these aloe-looking bushes. The highlights of the Dole plantation trip were eating fresh pineapple ice cream and doing the maze. The Dole plantation constructed this really spiffy hedge maze at their plantation. Granted it wasn’t very hard, being as you would have had to work pretty hard to find a dead end or get really lost. That and there exist copious shortcuts, which look like they’re actually supposed to be there. Nice walk, nice time.
After that, we went up further to the actual shore of the North shore and stopped at one of the local touristy-spots, Matsumoto Shave Ice. It was really good shaved ice. Like a Slurpee, but with much better syrup, and much finer ice. Definitely a treat. I can see why it became so popular. They had some slick pictures on the wall of employees with the cast of ’50 First Dates’. An excellent movie, by the way.
We hit the beach for a little while, just to look around. The signs up there warned of tricky riptides and…well, you could see the jagged sharp rocks, like *right there*. But it was nice to see. Golden sand, turquoise water, all that. We chased after some tiny crabs, too. That was fun.
So after taking in the beauty of the North shore, we all scampered back to the hotel. When we got back, we heard everyone was going up to ‘Diamondhead’. So, like the puppy-dogs we are, we followed. Diamondhead is the name of a park/military base that exists inside the crater of a long-dead volcano. It was a fairly modest hike, though blazingly hot. At the top you got a gorgeous view of the island and the ocean from one of the no-longer used lookout-bunkers on the top of the crater. It’s quite a sight. We hiked back down and all caught limos back to the hotel. You know, I always thought that important, famous people ride in Limos. Now I know the truth, it’s usually just a bunch of poor college students trying to save money on cab fair. Not a bad deal, overall, I just wish there would have been some Crystal (champagne you always see rappers pouring over nubile young women in rap videos, cause it’s so expensive), that would have made it feel *right*.
We split into two groups for dinner, some wanted to go to a classy steak restaurant. Just…uh…there were entirely too many of us for me to believe we would ever be able to get organized enough to all make it. So some of us, 10 or so, decided to spit off and walk down the street for some super-quick buffet action. Fine by me. I was starving.
After that, we wandered around Waikiki for a while, seeing some shops (there is an ABC general store every 35 feet; by law, I believe). Then we came back to the hotel, changed into bathing suits and went out for a night swim! This is something you can actually *do* down in Hawaii. Over here in LA, beaches get a bit sleazy at night. Oahu? No problem. We were the only people in the ocean, locally, at least. There was a breakwater right in front of where we were swimming, and so no waves came to disturb us. Which was nice, because we were teaching Sabeen and Sakina how to swim. It was a good time, but that sea water tastes *nasty*.
All this…one day.
Friday
Left to right: Sakina, Russell above Puneet, Sabeen, Ian above Tarang, Mary, Me, Scott. Not even close to everyone on the trip, though.
Most of Friday was spent at one of my favorite activities of the whole vacation. Snorkeling at Hanamua Bay. A crater similar to the one at Diamondhead, but the center got filled up with water, creating this beautiful natural bay. The whole middle of it is filled with this gorgeous reef, wherein live all those kinda crazy animals that you see on the discovery channel. I didn’t see any Moray eels (lucky!), but I did see a sea turtle and more exotic fish than I could possibly shake any sort of stick at. We brought an underwater camera along, but I haven’t had time to get it developed yet. I don’t know if there’s a limit on the amount of fun you can bring back on a fishing trip like that, but we nearly limited out, I’m sure.
After some rest, we went out to see the ‘lighting of the torch’ ceremony at one of the Waikiki Malls. It turns out it was less ‘torch lighting’ and more stand up comedy. One of the guys from the Polynesian Cultural center came up and showed us some stuff, making us laugh all the time. Stuff like shucking a coconut, drinking the milk, things like that. I thought it was *hilarious*. He was Samoan (Quote of the trip: ‘Ah…da happy people!’)
After that, more tooling around Waikiki. Let me tell you, those street performers aren’t half bad. Better than the ‘crazy guy yelling’ street performers we get down here. (‘I was in da waaaar!’) A couple guys doing the whole mannequin shtick. One guy who stat around in a suit made out of/covered in newspaper. We got our pictures taken with some trained exotic birds.
Saturday
Smile!
After all the productive vacationing so far, I wanted a lo-key day. Edwin and Anita took off to swim with dolphins, Derek went off with his Hawaii-based extended family. I rented a moped. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon tooling around Waikiki and doing my ‘gift shopping’. Chocolate covered macadamia nuts, now available at Noel’s Café.
And being on a Moped seems like good experience for the yes/no motorcycle experiment. It was definitely fun, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that if anyone else on the road decided to be stupid, I would have been road pizza. Defensive driving, kids.
In the afternoon, just some lounging. I read more of ‘Memoirs’. Good book. And in the evening, karaoke. Ian, Russell and I all went out to a local dive/karaoke bar and belted out some tunes. Ian and I did ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. (I did the high parts). Russell did ‘Hey Jealousy’. I did a bunch of them. My favorites were ‘Hemorrhage’ by Fuel and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana. When I do that one in a Karaoke room, I have to keep my voice under control a bit; but in a bar, I could just *scream*. I held the last note of ‘Teen Spirit’ for about 7 seconds, and everyone went nuts. That was some fun.
Sunday
Leave love bleeding in my hands! In my hands agaaaaaaaaaaain!
Happy birthday to me!
Most picturesque activity of the vacation goes to Waimea falls, Sunday morning. It was amazing. It’s this great nature preserve/hike, where there are exotic plants everywhere. Some nice animals too, and feeding stations. I got a peacock to eat out of my hand. And at the end of the hike, Waimea falls. You can go out and swim in the lake and crawl up to the waterfall and everything. It’s pretty spectacular. I got to meditate under a tropical waterfall. It was…enlightening. I can see why monks do it.
And in the afternoon/evening, the Luau. There were fun activities to do beforehand, and free drinks. (Yum, dawg.) I volunteered to do the fish pull. Traditionally it’s something the men and women do before a Luau, pulling in the fish nets so that they can be munched upon. At our Luau, however, it mostly involved a bunch of tourists running around in grass skirts and making fun of themselves in front of ~1200 strangers. That’s my kind of fun.
After a few more drinks. (I think they put something in my Long Island Iced Tea…like alcohol.) We got to get some good ol’ fashioned Luau food. The pork was excellent. Then there were dance performances, including a fire dance by a Samoan guy. (Ah…da happy people!)
When we got back to the hotel, it was *pouring*. I just stood outside and let it rain on me for about 15 minutes. Yes I was still a little bit drunk, but honestly, it was the best part of the vacation for me. That amazing tropical rain. Water finds every crack, my friend.
After that, we went out to tromp around Waikiki and see if we could find some coffee for Mary. But they were all closed. Unfortunate.
Monday
Hang Loose, Bra!
Our last day in Hawaii. Edwin, Anita and I went out to Pearl Harbor, saw some of the memorials, and took a walkthrough of a retired submarine. Neat to see. They’d done some clever restoration work on that thing.
We also went to the Hard Rock Café in Honolulu. I got my favorite (only) souvenirs of the trip there: a couple of Hard Rock Café drumsticks with Honolulu on them. My favorite kind of souvenirs, memorable, neat, and *useful*.
Then it was off to the Airport, and back home. Everyone seemed a little down that the vacation was over, but honestly, I was excited. I learned a lot down in Hawaii, and I was excited at the opportunity to get back and apply that knowledge to the rest of my life.
Which is what I’m doing now.
-N
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Grack! Hang on!
I am back from Hawaii, it was a fantastic time, and I will post a huge entry about everything I did (complete with pictures) as soon as I get the time, but catching up on my DEN classes is kicking my butt. This weekend, probably. Soon. Soon. Promise.
-N
I am back from Hawaii, it was a fantastic time, and I will post a huge entry about everything I did (complete with pictures) as soon as I get the time, but catching up on my DEN classes is kicking my butt. This weekend, probably. Soon. Soon. Promise.
-N
