The Girl Effect

Ice on Mars?

I've been following the Mars Rover on Twitter (cause I'm dorky like that and space stuff interests me, okay? I'm not defensive. I have no idea what you're talking about.)

Anyhoo...

From the JPL website: Camera on Arm Looks Beneath NASA Mars Lander
A view of the ground underneath NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander adds to evidence that descent thrusters dispersed overlying soil and exposed a harder substrate that may be ice. (May 31)

They think that they may have pictures of ice on Mars. Which would mean water on Mars. Which means the possibility of life on Mars. You know, little green men and whatnot.

But here's my beef with all those smarty pants scientists - how come we claim that water is necessary for life? In my book, water is necessary for life as we know it. And quite frankly, all we know is about our puny little planet and we barely know about that - the bulk of the planet is salt water and we hardly know anything about what's going on in there - especially in the deep.

Just saying.

Facebook Gangsta

Facebook Gangsta from Facebook Gangsta on Vimeo.

Not the Fonz

So, I've been venturing out to some new social situations and have not felt particularly successful, which is a bit depressing. I was talking to my friend Mari last night and thinking about it this morning on the way to work and had a bit of a revelation. I generally plan to be fashionably late to social events cause I'm cool enough to pull it off. Usually, this works out well for me, but it turns out that if I don't know anyone at the event, it totally doesn't work. Apparently, I don't have the Fonzie type of cool where folks know how cool you are as soon as you walk into the room. It appears that folks need to actually talk to me before the whole Amy coolness factor sinks in.

And of course, if I'm not feeling cool, I feel like a total doofus. Not a lot of middle ground there - I suppose this is yet another area where I need to work on finding some balance. I'll just add it to the list.

So, I think I need to start arriving on time for these events. Then as other folks arrive and feel awkward, maybe it will be easier to strike up a conversation. I tend to do well with the awkward...

Weighing in

As a general rule, I am not a fan of the scale. But I did go to the doctor this week and they weighed me and I'm down 55 pounds, which makes me rather happy.

I am definitely feeling a lot better and am significantly more active - my friend Jim and I went on a hike in Runyan Canyon last week and I wasn't huffing or puffing. It was great. And of course, I'm still walking at work for several hours a day.

I get incredibly impatient with this process, but I know...progress not perfection. Day at a time.... blah blah blah.... it's about the journey...

Actually, I'm not feeling crabby about it today. I just get irritated by platitudes.

The interwebs amuse me so

I can't even explain why I find this so funny. Maybe I'm just kinda odd...but you already knew that.

Watch this.

Harvey Korman

Dead.

Really sad about this one. Here's a classic clip of him from one of my all-time favorite flicks - High Anxiety.

Pix from my LA trip are up

Click on the pic for more!

Steven Colbert on Gay Marriage

Here, he talks a little about it and interviews Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council.

Colbert asks him exactly where Jesus spoke about gay people and Perkins indicated that Paul did. Colbert replied that Paul also advocated adult circumcision, which seemed to make both of them a bit uncomfortable. Heh.

Who said this about Barack?

"He is a rock star. It's fantastic" "I love what he is saying about education." "I don't think he will win Florida.....but he will win in Ohio and the election". "I am anxious to meet him." "I want to see if he will walk the walk."

Seriously, you'll never guess....

Rupert Murdoch.

Rachel Ray is a terrorist

There's been such an outrour about the scarf that Rachel Ray is wearing in this Dunkin Donuts commercial that it's been pulled. Seriously.

This is what America cares about. I'm speechless.

Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin��� Donuts boycott. ������The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,������ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.

������Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.������

Said the suits in a statement: ������In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial.������

For her part, Malkin was pleased with Dunkin���s response: ������It���s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists.������

Yanked from Boston.com.

This is great

thanks to my friend Volker for posting this.

Sidney Pollack

dead.

Sad.

LA thoughts

1. There are an unbelievable number of iPhones here. They are everywhere.
2. I have confirmed my suspicion that there are way more beautiful people here than pretty much anywhere on the planet. This makes for lovely eye candy and, quite frankly (and kinda shallowly), makes me happy and keeps me entertained.
3. (Not all) people here are nearly as shallow as I originally thought (before I lived here). I, however, seem to have maintained my shallowness regardless of leaving the area (see #2 above).
4. It makes me happy to be around creative people. I was sitting in a coffee place tonight and watching two folks working on a script together. I found it fascinating.
5. It's going to be a big transition back to the PacNW tomorrow. I need some padding for the letdown, I think.

my friends miss me too

Had lunch with a few of my LA girls. They apparently miss me as much as I miss them. This is Jill & Jennifer showing me some love. I am doing the LA coffee house tour - in a little more than 24 hours, I've been to 5 coffee places to meet people. Having a party tonight. Will post pics at some point.

celebrity sighting?

yes, that's ron jeremy's back.

Chilling in LA

Seriously, it's a little chilly. It's grey and on and off raining. Phooey. Whatever.

I'm sitting in a Starbucks in West Hollywood. The thing about WeHo is that when I walked in and ordered my nonfat chai, there were about 25 people sitting around drinking coffee, playing with laptops, etc. That's not the WeHo part - the thing that makes WeHo kinda unique is that I was the only woman. That's right - I'm smack in the middle of what's often referred to as "Boys Town". I was hoping to see my friend Eirlys this afternoon, but that fell through and since I'm in this part of town, I thought I'd walk to Pia's but she's busy. Phooey. So, I'm chilling in Starbucks cause most of my friends are at work and cause I don't want to have to drive again. Seriously - the next time someone in Seattle complains about traffic, I'm going to kick them in the shin. They have no idea how good they have it.

Going out with Orin tonight. Gotta think of some place fun and interesting to go to. In the meantime, I'll watch all the pretty boys...

Whoa....the sun is coming out. Yippee!

“Buttocks unremarkable except for some very light tan freckling.”

That's how John McCain's oncologist, Dr. Suzanne Connolly describes his buttocks. Teehee.

on the way to LA

On Virgin America. it's my first VA flight & I'm even flying coach which apparently means that everyone gets to knock into me when they walk by. It's charming, in the way that public burping is charming. I'm posting from my phone, which I recently set up.

The lighting onboard is purple, which I think is supposed to be soothing. Not sure if you can see it in the pic. So glad I have headphones in my ears cause my seatmates are already yacking it up & I hate talking to people on the plane. Usually only the nutcases talk to me. I'm a big believer in the no talking until descent rule.

Anyways, I'm really looking forward to seeing my peeps in LA.

view from where I'm working today

Through the Auto Glass - Wednesday Edition

Get well card for Ted Kennedy

(gee - how easy is it to figure out that this is a canned message from MoveOn? Seriously though - John Kerry's going to bring a "card" - I don't know what that means in this context - to Ted Kennedy and the more names on it, the better, as far as I'm concerned.)

Sadly, progressive champion, Senator Ted Kennedy, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. I just signed a card from the entire MoveOn community wishing him well and I thought you might want to add your name, too.

Senator Kerry will hand deliver the card with all the signatures and well wishes to Senator Kennedy. All you have to do to add your name to the card is click:http://pol.moveon.org/getwellkennedy/

Thanks!

Cheap(er) Gas

Here's a couple of websites to help you locate the cheapest gas in your area:

AAA's FuelGaugeReport — Web site tracks the daily national average price of unleaded gasoline
GasBuddy — Web site searches for the cheapest unleaded gas prices in your area

Unprotected MP3s from Napster

As you may know, I don't recommend buying music from iTunes because it locks you into using an iPod. Yes, I know, it's the kewlest device out there - now...but if for some reason, some day, you want to play all that music you purchased on a non-Apple device, you have to go through all kinds of hoops to convert the music to a standard (unlocked) format - like MP3 that can be played on any device.

Napster  started offering unlocked MP3s today for $.99 and albums for $9.95 (so albums are cheaper than iTunes, btw). All 6 million songs they offer are now unlocked. And if you want to load them onto your iPod, just download them and drag and drop them into iTunes.

Their subscription service will continue to offer DRM (locked) music, so I'm not such a fan of that.

Through the Auto Glass

This is a new blog feature about what I saw through the window of my car today. As you can see, I did not bicycle to work today.

If you have "through the auto glass" pictures you'd like to share, please send them to amygeek AT gmail dot com and I'll post them up here too!

What I did on Sunday

This is going to piss off people I don't care about

The cost of ammunition is going crazy! Apparently, bullets have more than tripled in price over the last three years. And it's China's fault cause they want more metal (at least that's what MSNBC.com says).

Oh, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are diverting bullets away from the patriots who must protect the homeland (ya know, cause the National Guard is all in Iraq).

"Everybody is feeling it," said Krueger, a Stetson wearing cowboy whose show blasts through hundreds of rounds of blank ammo each week at Six Gun City in Tombstone.

"If things get bad enough, we may all just get one bullet each," he said, to laughter from his grizzled buddies.

Virginia Madsen's Alright With Me

A friend of mine works with Virginia Madsen and invited me to an event they were doing tonight in Seattle. I told her that she should see if Virginia remembers me cause I sat next to her on an LA --> NYC flight a few years ago. My friend asked what we had talked about and I indicated that I never talk to anyone on the plane. If necessary, small talk is acceptable during the descent, but if you talk prior to that, inevitably, your seatmate is a kook and you're stuck smiling and nodding for 8 or 10 hours. These are the things you don't learn until flying a million or so miles. (Or I'm a slow learner.) But I digress.

Anyways, I thought it was funny.

Sure enough, tonight I was introduced to Virginia and the first thing she said was "Hey - you sat next to me on a plane, right?" (funny girl. I like that.) I replied - "I knew you'd remember! I was the one reading the script over your shoulder" and she had the good sense to laugh. (I generally like anyone who laughs at things I say, so that pretty much won me over.)

Plus, my friend had a tough day today and Virginia was kind and supportive to her.

I'm a fan now.

Matching....

I have received responses from desirable/cute Match.com'ers. This is good, but a little nervewracking about how much to reveal about who I am/my sense of humor and when - you know, I don't want to over-Amy prematurely. I think I'm best revealed in pieces. Although, if you don't get the whole Amyness right off the bat, maybe I shouldn't bother with you.

First coffee date this week. Will keep you updated. All advice will be appreciated regarding coffee dates, online dating, being charming and adorable (ah, let's not kid ourselves - I've got that down! I do, don't I? Teehee.), etc.

It's the YouTube Election

The Not So Straight Talk Express...

All my Big Island Pix are now online

for your viewing pleasure at http://amygeek.smugmug.com/. Enjoy!

Anagram

For some reason, I just decided I should see what anagrams come from my (full --> first + last) name. I'm totally amused. Here are some of my favorites from the first few - there's a gazillion. I guess it's cause there's so many letters to work with.

My favorite of the ones I read through (cause there's oh so many): Flayed Limb Menu

More:
A Mumbled Finely
Deniable Fly Mum
Embalmed Flu Yin
Enabled Filmy Mu
Mandible Elf Yum
Bean Mimed Fully
Lamb Fluid Enemy
Defame Numb Lily
Deaf Nimbly Mule
Failed Numbly Me
Inflamed Lube My (hmmmm....)
Daily Fumble Men
Lady Fumble Mine
Menially Bum Fed
Alien Bummed Fly

That was great fun! I heart the interwebs.

How can you join in on the fun? Go to http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/

Quack!

If it looks like a duck...

A blog of things that look like ducks. What'll those kooky internetians think of next?

Mindless entertainment for a sunny Friday afternoon.

Bush must have been talking about McCain not Obama yesterday

Here's a clip of McCain talking about talks with Hamas...you know, like appeasement, right? Suggesting that we formally talk to terrorists. Like when Reagan talked to the Iranians? Like when Donald Rumsfeld talked to Saddam Hussein? It's all so confusing for my little brain...

And, let's not forget the McCain said that he agreed with what the President said yesterday about not talking to terrorists. To quote (probably paraphrasing) Arianna Huffington, "If you want to get on the Straight Talk Express, you need a time machine cause it doesn't exist any more."

What did Chamberlain do?

Not generally a fan of Chris Matthews, but he is very amusing here. Radio talk show host Kevin James was talking about Bush's speech and how Chamberlain was an "appeaser" & Matthews kept asking him what Chamberlain did in Munich in 1939 and what he would have liked him to do differently. James yells the word "appeaser" a lot but never answers the question, although he had about 20 opportunities to do so. Then Matthews makes the point that this guy is talking about historical precedent that he's unfamiliar with.

(In the spirit of blog honesty, I didn't know what happened in Munich in 1938, so I looked it up - but I'm not on national tv yammering about it. That's when Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement conceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler in an attempt to push the Germans towards the USSR, who the Brits were more concerned about. Now that I understand that, I see how that's an obvious parallel to what Obama's been saying, right? Sigh.)

Please don't re-elect these numbskulls.

Posted some of my Big Island Pictures

Hopefully, I'll get the rest up tomorrow night. Click on the picture to see the gallery (only 24 pix right now). I'll let you know when the rest are up.

Gay Marriage is Legal in California

From the NY Times:

The California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved gay marriage ban Thursday in a ruling that would make the nation's largest state the second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings.

The justices released the 4-3 decision, saying that domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage.

Personally, I think that the focus should be on equal rights (taxes, hospital visits, inheritance, adoption, etc.) rather than the word marriage cause that gets the religious folks all worked up. Not that they'd support equal rights or anything, but it would force them to change the conversation away from quoting the Bible.

I do find the following quote from the CA Supreme Court great:

"In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual's sexual orientation -- like a person's race or gender -- does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights."

And this decision will bring out all the religious kooks. Watch McCain jump on the religion bandwagon. Jump John Jump!

Brilliance

via Twitter via Andrew via Rocky.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Woody Allen interviews Billy Graham

There are some things that they don't agree on...this is from a talk show in the '60s.

Woody's first question is "Can I ask you what your favorite commandment is?" and then moves onto discussing premarital sex.

Can you imagine a comedian interviewing a major pastor today? They just don't strike me as having a sense of humor.

Post-vaca letdown

Maybe it's just that I came back with a cold. Maybe it's cause I came back to more grey and rainyness. However, look at the sunshine in my near future:

It's a little sad that I interpret "Mostly Cloudy" as a good thing, isn't it? I've become Seattleized, I think. At least it will be warm. I used to be warm once.

I'm just having some motivation problems. I ate a bunch today. It was healthy stuff, but too much of it is still too much. Makes me feel bad. I was hoping to be down another size before I go to LA and I am so not on the right track. Phooey.

The good news is that I am now breathing through both my nose and ears (they were previously clogged with mucus and who knows what), so that's a plus. I'm rather attached to breathing, as a general rule.

I'm going to ride my bike to work tomorrow and Friday. On Friday, the major corporate enterprise who employs me is having their annual "Bike to Work Day Breakfast". Since I live 1.6 miles from work, it's not really a big deal to ride my bike if someone's gonna feed me in return. But it means that I have to push my bike up the really big hill between here and there. Actually, I only have to push it up 1/2 the hill - I'm able to ride up about 1/2 way. Easy on the recriminations - it's early in the bicycling season here in the grey and chilly Pacific Northwest. I plan on riding regularly through what we refer to here as "summer" (both days of it) (heh) (sigh).

I am off to LA in a little more than a week. Rumor is they have this weird thing called the sun there. I'm hoping it doesn't blind me or make my skin melt. I'll keep you updated.

New Flight of the Conchords video

"Two guys on rollerskates...that's way hotter than one."

Can't wait for their show to come back on HBO.

For more Conchords info, click here.

I want an anteater

TamanduaGirl (see Anteater Entertainment) keeps two South American anteaters - tamanduas Pua and Stewie - in her house. See the photo chronicle of their life in this set and videos on this page.

Want to make a difference?

I just made a donation to Doctors without Borders. I'm a big fan of theirs - they are one of the best rated charitable organizations out there - less than 14% of the money donated to them is used for management & soliciting donations.

I really like this chart that shows the effect of what different donations can do (click on the chart to see a larger image of it):

Anyways, with the earthquake in China and the cyclone in Burma/Myanmar, I wanted to do something. Apparently, they've got some folks on the ground in China evaluating what needs to be done there. Here's what they're doing in Burma:

By May 13, three Doctors Without Borders/M��decins Sans Fronti��res(MSF) cargos planes carrying a total of 110 metric tons of relief supplies, including tents, medical material and drugs, pumps and generators for water and sanitation activities, and ready-to-use therapeutic food had arrived in Yangon. Another plane with 45 tons of supplies is scheduled to arrive in Yangon from Dubai on Wednesday, May 14, and fifth will depart from Jakarta on Friday. The first plane with nearly 40 tons of emergency relief items arrived on the morning of Monday, May 12.

The MSF base in Pathein (Bassein) continues to receive daily truckloads of supplies and new staff coming in from MSF���s other long-running projects in other parts of the country. The supplies include food, plastic sheeting, and other medical and non-medical supplies. Medical supplies have been donated to Pathein Hospital and an office has been set up to co-ordinate the activities in the area. MSF now has 8 boats, 5 of which can carry 5 tons and three additional larger ones.The teams have now received 150 metric tons of rice, 100,000 cans of fish, 250,000 oral rehydration sachets, 20,000 sachets of therapeutic food, and 17,000 plastic sheets, much of which has already been distributed.

MSF has now more than 250 staff and between 10 and 20 new staff arriving daily. In Twantey, Panthein (Bassein), Haigyi, and Laputta, 22 teams are now doing consultations, distributing food, plastic sheeting, and other relief items, purifying water, and cleaning up areas where people have sought refuge.

Anyways, if you can, make a donation to some organization today and remember how lucky we are. For all my whining about this country (at least about our politics), we are incredibly blessed.

Puppies and Kittens

A Golden Retriever in England is nursing her six puppies plus six stray kittens. Awwww...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7397247.stm

How to Speak Hawaiian

The thing about Hawaiian is that all the letters are pronounced - there's no such thing as a "silent" letter in Hawaiian. Plus, there's only something like 13 letters total!

The vowels are what's tricky - they're pronounced differently in Hawaiian than we in the mainland pronounce them:

a = ahhhhh (like the doctor asks you to do when he sticks that stick down your throat)

e = aye (like a hard A)

i = eee (like a hard E)

o= o (like a hard O)

u =oo0h (like ooh, what a pretty dress that is)

So, the area where I stayed on the Big Island is called Waikaloa. Try to pronounce it now.

It sounds like Weye - kah - loh - ah.

There's a volcano named Hualalai....

Hoo - ahh- lah - Lah- eee

See?

Now try to pronounce where Kendra lives --> Laupahoehoe.

Enjoy!

The last few days

 I wrapped up my trip to the Big Island with a great day of diving with Dee. We were the only folks on the boat, so they (the dive boat folks know us - or in my case, about me) basically left us alone. We had some nice dives and Dee took some really great pictures of me and the critters you should check out. (look at the cleaner shrimp hanging out on my hand!)

On Saturday, I went to Laupahoehoe to visit Kendra and see her and Chris' restaurant. Then Ken, Kyle and I went wandering around taking pictures of waterfalls, which was loverly. The picture to the left is one of the pix I shot that day. It wasn't (by far) the biggest waterfall we visited, but it was just such a beautiful little spot, with the nice pool below it.

I haven't cleaned my pictures up yet (yes, this one is Photoshop free), but promise to do so shortly and will let you know when they're up and ready for viewing.

Left on Sunday morning and got to Honolulu around 9:30am. Since my flight wasn't until 12:30pm, I bought the Sunday NY Times, found a comfy chair at a Starbucks and read the entire paper before boarding my Hawaiian Airlines flight home. We took off on time but about an hour into the flight, the captain announced that there was a problem with the plane and we had to return to Honolulu. We had to get rid of a bunch of fuel before we landed, so we drove in circles for another 2 hours and dumped around $18,000 worth of fuel before we landed back in Honolulu around 3:15pm. They announced that they were going to repair this plane and get a new crew and we'd  be leaving at 11:15pm.

Hawaiian arranged for buses to take everyone to Waikiki and gave us coupons to go to a buffet at a Marriott there. I'm not a Waikiki fan, so I hung out at the Admiral's Club and surfed the web and watched web videos (oh, and did a first pass on my work email). The Admiral's Club also had a shower, so I took a nice hot shower before I got on the plane. I slept for about 4 hours of the flight home, which was nice. We landed about 8:30am and I got home around 10am - exactly 24 hours after I had left my hotel at Waikaloa.

Turns out I have a cold, so I ended up sleeping all day. I'm back at work today.

I miss it already.

Interesting blog

Things younger than Republican Presidential candidate (oh, and did I forget to mention “war hero”?) John McCain
Yep. That's the title.

Oh yeah

How about we make "educated" a requirement for citizenship? Or at least spelling?

I do appreciate that she underlined her misspelling to make it more obvious. Perhaps this is an intentional sophisticated message that I'm too much of a dullard to understand.

Who do you suppose she's going to vote for?

Funny quote from talking head last night

"The Clintons aren't going to let a small thing like losing stop them from running..."

and an interesting thought from Kos:

If Clinton were to drop out this week, we'd face an uncomfortable situation in West Virginia, with Clinton likely crushing Obama. That would look terrible for the presumptive nominee. Better than that would be to garner enough superdelegate commitments this week, so that Oregon can push Obama past 2,024. That way, it isn't the supers who clinch it for Obama, but actual voters.

Personally, I don't think the Clintons would make this decision because it's best for the party (and Obama), but it's a nice thought...

Hooray for Pharmaceuticals!

I thought that might get your attention...so here's the deal. I got my original PADI scuba certification in December, 1993. I dove a lot for the first five or six years - probably 30 - 60 dives a year. The folks I primarily dive with in Kona are excellent divers and taught me how to be a great diver - to be aware and observant of what's happening around me, to appreciate the little creatures and not just the large ones, to move slowly and to take my time to watch animal behavior. About two or three years into all of this, I started to have anxiety attacks under water. I had never experienced anything like this above the water, and it was horrible. I considered giving up diving, but my friends told me that it often happens to good divers - it's just your body realizing what's going on and saying "get me the hell out of here - I'm not supposed to be doing this!". They taught me how to deal with it when it happens, so for the past twelve years, when I had anxiety attacks under water, I would muscle through it. It didn't happen all the time, but I was always nervous that it might happen - you know, anxious that I might get anxious....

This is the first time I've been diving since I started taking an antidepressant. Turns out, I don't have the diving anxiety any more - believe me, if I did, it would have come out on tonight's dive. Remember, I've been out of the water for about four years now. So, what do I make my first dive? A  blue water night dive!

At around 8pm tonight, around 10 of us were on a boat that went about a mile offshore to where the water is about 7-8,000 feet. I was feeling good - then I started to think I was getting anxious, but I eventually realized that I was just hot. I stripped down and moved outside and got some air and then I was fine. Heh.

My buddy Matthew gave us a dive briefing, showing us the types of creatures we would likely see, things to remember to be safe, etc. My favorite Matthew quote of the night was about the "tether" on the zipper on the back of our wetsuits. (It's so that you can grab that and pull up the zipper with one hand.) He said that we should stick that inside our wetsuits or it would hit us in the face during the dive and we would scream like a 3 year old. Teehee. He also told us that about 40 minutes into the dive, the food chain would pick up and we'd see flying fish and squid that were coming to hunt. He reminded us that we are not the top of the food chain. Good to know.

Got my gear on, and waited for Matthew to get in, then jumped in. And I was fine. We descended and I was fine. I grabbed a tether (rope with a weight attached to the boat) and attached it to my gear so that I wouldn't go very far and I was fine. (see the theme here?) I was in pitch black water, far from land, breathing like a champ. I hung out around 45 feet, tried to keep away from everyone else and just started sightseeing. And it was incredible. At first, I was looking at the end of my flashlight's beam, but then I realized I needed to look closer and for smaller creatures. Generally, everything was pretty small - under an inch, but I saw several thingys that were a few feet long.

When you shine your light on these creatures, they become incandescent and reflect colors back at you - it's mesmerizing. All the pictures on this page (from Matthew's website - go check it out for more cool pix) are things I saw tonight. The only things I could identify were some larval shrimp, lobsters and jellyfish. I have no idea what anything else was, and I totally don't care.

Matthew checked on me at around 30 minutes and then tugged on my tether at 65 minutes to make me come up. I was breathing well and could have stayed down for almost another hour with the air I had left...but I came up and did my safety stop like a responsible citizen.

This was an incredible experience for me - the diving was so unique and beautiful that I totally lost track of time. And the fact that I was comfortable right off the bat means that I don't have to suffer any more to dive. It's a good night here on the Big Island.

PS. I hardly injured myself too. I always hurt myself on boats, somehow. Tonight, I was fine until I was getting onto the pier and then I knocked my knee really hard against concrete, so now I have a knee shiner. Sigh.

5 cats that look like Wilfred Brimley

Nuff said.

http://gatoisland.com/archive/wilfordbrimleycats/

Hawaii is better than real life

It's true. Had a relaxing day today (including a $10 smoothie at my faschotel  - my abbreviation for fancy schmancy hotel - but let's not waste any 0s and 1s on that...). Here are a few pix I took. I haven't cleaned any of them up yet, but it will give you a bit of the flavor of the Big Island...

This is a little church I wandered upon late this afternoon while cruising the "upper highway". As you can see, there were dark, menancing clouds, but I never really hit the rain.

Nearby, there was a Nene (Nay-Nay) crossing sign, which amused me. Nene's are a type of goose and are the state bird of Hawaii.

 

 

This is a Pu'u (pooh-ooh), which is a cinder cone. They're all over the center of the island.  By the way, this was the same road as the church - about 15 minutes later - but look at the sky! You can see a little bit of Mauna Kea in the background. I think it's the highest peak in the US. (Although I'm thinking there some tall mountain in Alaska that might top it. Or not. Let's assume I'm right that it's the tallest peak in the US. Cause it's more fun when I'm right.) It's over 14,000 feet high and from its base (under the island) to the peak, it is the largest land mass on earth. There are a bunch of observatories up on top. I went up there once and got incredibly altitude sick (I'm just not good at altitude - I need 24 hours to acclimate or I'm a mess). A lot of scientists come from all over the world to work on the observatories on the top of Mauna Kea because it's so clear here - the Hawaiian Islands are the most remote populated islands in the world. Since the islands are so far from the mainland, our pollution doesn't make its way here. There are special (yellow) lights used for street lights here to prevent light pollution. The sky here is wonderful. Usually the night sky is outstanding - with the friggin' vog right now, it's very hazy, so I was very very very happy to see the top of Mauna Kea today.

And of course, the obligatory sunset shot taken from right outside my hotel ------------------------------------>

Skin cancer risk -- higher today. I am a little sunburned on my face and one little spot by my shoulder where I apparently didn't get any sunblock.

My third home....

I've been coming to the Big Island for 15 years now. There was a period of about five years when I used to split my time between LA and NYC. I would spend two weeks a month in each place. Thus, I acquired a lot of frequent flier miles...which I used to come here - every three months or so, I would crash at my friend's place for about two weeks. So for a long time, this was my third home. People thought I was a local and everything...

Coming back after being away from here for four years is very interesting...all kinds of memories are kicking up. It's changed so much since I started coming here - many many many more tourists (phooey - I HATE that), much more money and development - oh, and traffic.

I'm staying at a fancy schmancy hotel I used to stay at when I first started coming here (before I established the friendships that allowed me to stay for free...) and I've got to say that it just doesndoesn't do it for me any more. I'm so over the rich white folks and the hotel is not fancy schmancy - it feels ostentatious. Look - I'm not complaining - it's beautiful, my bed is comfortable, there's an adults only pool which really makes me happy...but I'm just not into it all any more. I'm not impressed that I can afford it any more - when I was 29, that was a big deal, but now, not so much. All the pictures on this page are taken at the hotel.

Seriously - this place is over the top - there's a tram and a boat you can take to navigate the property - it's quite a walk between the various buildings. There's all kinds of asian art, which actually is pretty cool, but look at the table in the "lobby" (it's outside, so I'm not sure it qualifies as a lobby) of my building. How's that for a weird combination? And here's the fountain in the lobby of my building -->

It just says Hawaii, doesn't it?

I escaped yesterday and drove up to the north part of the island away from the other haoles. Discovered a park that I never knew about, so I took pictures and sat on some lava (ow) and relaxed for a bit. Wandered Hawi, ate some mac nut ice cream and just sorta acclimated. The vog is really bad - the volcano is going nuts, so I had a sinus headache all day yesterday. I'm hoping that goes away (the headache, not the volcano).

Today, I'm going to do a brief dive in the lagoon here at my ostentatious hotel and go surprise my friend Kendra at work (she knows I'm here, but doesn't know that I'm going to show up at the restaurant she and her husband own)...a very good day, I can tell.

Preparing

Well, I leave for vacation tomorrow, so today has been largely about getting those last bits in place. Picked up my regulator, which was getting service so that it will so hopefully let me breathe under water. I haven't used it in 3 years, so I am going to do a practice "dive" in the lagoon at my hotel. (They have several pools - including an adults only pool - yay! - and a lagoon that's connected to the ocean, so it's salt water with fish and critters.) I thought I'd just get into the water and do some basic skills and get comfortable again before I jump into the ocean...

Speaking of which, my friend Matthew (on the Big Island) is doing a "friends & family" blue water dive on Tuesday night. I'm going to assume you know what "friends & family" are and skip right to the blue water part. Blue water diving is when you go out deep into the ocean and jump in and look at the creatures and animals that are open water critters. You can't see the bottom or any reefs or anything - just blue water. Matthew's taken to doing this at night when you see all kinds of bizarre creatures that come up from the deep to feed. I've seen video that he's shot (I'll get some when I get there and post it & link to it) and it's unreal - like creatures from outer space. It's trippy to be in black water at night - all you can see is what your flashlight is pointing at. It's definitely not for beginning divers.

Suffice it to say, I put new batteries in both my main and backup dive flashlights...I lost flashlight power on a night dive once and didn't have a backup - I won't make that mistake again!

Just like clothing, I have wetsuits in various sizes. I just found one that currently fits me, so that's taken care of. Clothes are packed, I'm charging my iPod,  ripping DVDs to put on a laptop to watch on the planes, and have arranged to meet my friend Eirlys in LA during my layover there tomorrow (yippee!). I'm going to try to arrange to spend some time with a friend in Honolulu during my layover there on the return trip.

Now I'm off to visit some friends and their new puppy. I'll post again when I in the land of Aloha.

(btw, that picture is totally not me. But I'm helping you get into the scuba spirit...I'm already there!)