words
Missing You...
Today would have been my father’s 95th birthday. I know if he lived this long it would have been quite a feat. Nonetheless I do miss him still.
The Fantastic Four?
I saw these images below posted on some messageboard regarding the new [Fantastic Four] movie being made. From the looks of the these images I’m not too impressed. Then again I wasn’t too impressed with the Thing’s costume or Jessica Alba as Sue Storm. I’m thinking their going to have to CGI the Thing or he’ll just look like a ‘guy in a costume’.
More Thoughts on Election Day
I’m watching tv right now, seeing how the Presidential race is going. It’s interesting to see the color coded map on the screen, and how divided the country is on who should be PODUS (President of the United States - something I learned from watching [The West Wing]) I’m not sure how the country comes out of being so divided on a leader, especially with a war going on and the economy the way it is. Only time will tell if the Country is going to be moving in the right direction.
Halloween Day & Night
Today we went up to the City to Lotte’s place to (1) celebrate Matthew’s birthday - which was last week, (2) a house-warming for Lotte, and (3) celebrate Halloween. Now that’s a lot of celebrating! Photos are posted on the website. I had to head back early to hand out candy at the house. Right now I’m typing this weblog entry from the laptop near the front door. The kid flow is somewhat steady. I’d say about 40+ kids at this point. There are still those older kids who don’t dress up and expect candy. Ugh.
Well, it looks like its dying dying down. Of course as I wrote that three kids came up to both greet with a “trick or treat” and a “Merry Christmas”. Nice. Oh well, closing shop at 8pm no matter what. Better go man the door.
My DVD Burner Experience
I get worried about my computer. Actually, the data stored on the computer, such as email and the family digital photos. Computing, as some of you may have experienced, can be frustrating. Errors in Windows seem to happen daily if your system is askew. The Internet is not a safe place as well. Viruses are everywhere, even in images viewed on websites! Also, hard drives can crash - even though only one has crashed on me ever. In an effort to avoid total disaster should my computer go haywire, I decided to back everything up. I was going to back everything up to another internal hard drive - but what if my computer overheated blowing up both hard drives? I needed an external solution. I decided on finally getting a DVD burner.
Why a DVD burner? Well, if I stayed with my trusty old CD burner to back up the information I desired, it would probably take 10-15 discs. If I backed it up to DVD it might only take 2 or 3 disks. This is because CDs hold about 650MB of information. Compare this to 4.3 GB of information a DVD can hold and you see why DVD is the answer for now. Also, the price of DVD media (the blank stuff) is coming down. I think CDs are about .20 to .25 cents per disc while DVDs are about .50 to .80 cents per (at least the stuff I get). Dual-layer DVDs (the ones movies come on) are still a bit pricey, but that doesn’t matter for now.
I did some quick research on [cnet.com], [tom’s hardware guide] and [videohelp.com]. I then chose my burner: the Pioneer DVD A08XL - in black to match my system. I chose this particular burner because (1) it could burn at a high speed, (2) it had a rebate offer, and (3) it was black to match my computer.
Installation of the drive was straightforward. I was able to burn a DVD once I installed the included software. I was also able to burn DVDs using Nero, which I find better than the included software. I like this drive, and burning with DVDs. The only downside I see with this specific drive so far: it seems slower at burning CDs than my old CD burner.
It's The Political Season
Are you registered to vote? Hope so because it’s too late to register for this year’s election - at least in California. For a comedic look (or a comedian’s pov of politics) check out the following:
- [the borowitz report] I heard him on the KGO radio. Pretty funny guy.
- [Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire] steaming video on someone's blog. Enjoyable.
Saturday is Birthday Celebration Day
Wow, today was a busy day. I helped celebrate my sister and friend’s birthdays.
First off was Susana’s birthday in Santa Cruz. My mom and I drove up to Riva’s on the wharf to meet Susana, Kayla and Rex for lunch. I had my ususal Fisherman’s Platter (calamari, fish, and chips). There was some slight detour-ing going and leaving the pier as a marching band competition was occurring by the Boardwalk. Luckily Kayla was able to guide us back to her house for cake. We even beat Susana and Rex back to the house! (pics posted on the photos page)
Later on that night I was invited to my friend David’s 40th birthday celebration at El Burro’s. There must have been a lot of people celebrating their 40th birthday there as I almost ended up with the wrong party for dinner! It was the first time i met most of David’s family (mom, dad, and his sisters). It was a large celebration that lasted several hours. Good food, good cake, and good conversation. Oh, and afterward we went to go catch a showing of [Team America] at Century 21. My review on that later.
Look Who's Talking
"So you wanna breakdance instead?
-- Purported mumbled word by me.
Ok, I know I talk in my sleep. But I can’t imagine any situation where I might mumble the above phrase. Farrah said I did and she’s not one to make this up. I don’t think I can even make this up!
get lost
our favorite new television show this season has to be [lost] wednesay @ 8pm on abc.
quick shot: plane crashes on a deserted island. survivors try to figure out where they are, how to contact someone for help, and who they can trust amongst their group. it’s a dramatic gilligan’s island!
what we like (so far): the story has many mysterious elements surrounding the island as well as passengers on the plane. when i say ‘so far’, you just never know if the show’s storyline will tank as it moves forward. the characters not only ‘purtee’ but have some depth. the writing is strong (again, so far). this is a show brought to you by the makers of felicity and alias.
what we didn’t like: that it’s only on once a week. ugh!
russell & marjorie's home
man, it’s october and i’m still talking about our hawaii trip that took place back in august!?!?!?! well, my memory on specifics is fading (yeah, it comes with age, huh). this might be the last time i write about the trip. most of the pictures are posted. just a few more from the last days we stayed. anyway, on with the story….
sandy left oahu on saturday afternoon. for the rest of that day we relaxed. we picked up jane, then had a late dim sum lunch with ann, who was working. we might have went to [ala moana], if not that day i’m sure some other days. but after lunch we did drive to the north shore from shave ice! some time later that night we went to circut city - i needed to figure out how to download the photos i had since the ipod wasn’t accepting my camera’s connection. this is where the photo below was taken:
uncle johnny and auntie linda treated all of us to sunday breakfast at [anna millers] . in the afternoon we headed to russell and majorie’s house, in mililani for an late lunch/early dinner.
russell tried his best to bbq, taking care of most of the food. when it came to the beef he delegated that task to sim.
onto kauai
the following day, after pali lookout, we went to kauai. our plane left early in the morning. funny thing going to kauai, and coming back, was being thoroughly searched. we did the whole nine yards of getting the metal detector ran over our bodies and having our bags searched. heidi’s back had an extra passenger on the outside, which airport security noticed: a cockroach! we figured one of our names was a trigger for being searched or our group size. other way it was a hilarious experience.
with jane’s help, we booked four days and three nights, staying in the [kauai sands hotel]. the kauai sands is a nice little hotel, which if i remember reading correctly, is one of the few family owned hotels left. our rooms (farrah and i in one, yen, heidi and sandy in the other) where above/below each other.
the first day on the island was a little rough for me. for breakfast (most of the days we were there) we ate a place called [eggberts], which was close to the hotel. i think the jet lag plus the food was catching up to me because i was getting tired pretty quickly driving. we made a drive to the poipu area of kauai, where there are more resorts and the ocean is calmer then most of the island. afterward we ate a [puka dog] with the coconut relish. they were out of the star fruit relish. oh well.
for day two on kauai we had nothing special planned, just more sight seeing. we stopped by the visitor’s center in the hotel and asked about boating tours to the napli coast. we decided to take that trip on thursday (the next day). next, we did the eggbert’s deal again in the morning. on the walk back to the room we ran across a gecko:
everyone, including yen, took turns holding the little visitor. we got in the car and made our way around the eastern part of the island. the first place we stopped at was the kilauea lighthouse. see all the white dots in the picture below? those are birds, eh.
we then went to the guava farm about 1/2 a mile away. boy, can the girls shop! they almost bought one of everything in the store. guava this, guava that. ugh. we then made our way up north to the princeville resort. huge, lovely, expensive place. the last place we hit before heading back was hanalei, where we were able to go to a couple of shops in the local center.
thursday rolled around and the big activity that day was the boat trip up the napali coast. i was going to go with the girls, but after hearing it was going to be rough out there i backed out, preferring to spend four hours by myself at the local mall. the boat trip started around 3pm, and planned to end around sunset. from what they describe the trip going up the coast was rough, as the captain sped up there to spend as much time sight seeing as possible. the trek back down the coast was at a more leisurely pace.
the last day on kauai was short, with our plane taking off early afternoon. we made a quick trip to the poipu area to grab our last puka dog (no star fruit relish still). we got to the airport and were promptly search before going to the gate.
ah, back on oahu. so we waited outside for jane to pick us up from the airport. as we waited i continued to scratch my peeling back. heidi had an idea to use her lint brush, wondering how much skin would come off. well, the results are below:
hellboy
rating: ** 1/2 out of 5
quick shot: ron perlman brings hellboy to life, embodying hellboy both physically and emotionally.
what i liked about the film: the look, the story pace, and the comedic elements.
what i didn’t like: the ending was slightly disappointing, when it had every opportunity to be stronger. perhaps a director’s cut of the dvd - which i think is scheduled later this year - will prove to make a better film than the current version.
pali lookout and around oahu
the day after hanauma bay, we went did more driving around oahu, specifically toward pali lookout. we could have gone the day before, but after six hours in the sun it was difficult to muster any energy.
the drive to pali lookout isn’t that long. in fact, driving to anywhere on the island doesn’t take too long. pali lookout overlooks the kloolau mountain range. it sort of reminds me of twin peaks in city with the wind and view.
after pali lookout we drove further on the highway, stopping for lunch at a local thai restaurant. we then made our way further around the island, stopping along the coast to see manana island (aka rabbit island) and the blow hole also. picture are located in the pali lookout album.