Monday, January 18, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Some Eggs and Things
This establishment definitely knows how to break some eggs to make an omelet.
The ever popular Egg 'n Things restaurant above the Hawaii's Natural High pakalolo paraphernalia store where they moved to last March across the street from the Waikiki post office. I believe the retail space that Eggs 'n Things formerly occupied, their old location, isn't even rented yet. The state of the economy will only prolong the vacancy. Meanwhile, Trump Towers is a few hundred feet down the street from the re-opened Eggs 'n Things. Rumor has it that Trump Towers picked it's specific location to be close to Eggs 'n Things.
In Brief
As you can tell, I strolled down to the beach again to work on my photography skills. I'm starting to believe that it's not the photographer who's responsible for the shoddy pics. It's the camera. If I may say so myself. Truth be told and all that. At any rate, my photo safari involves at least a five mile trek. I only live two blocks from the beach, itself, but the trail I follow along the beach meanders here and there, and, as such, I rack up extra miles on the footometer.
No waves, or as they say, "flat." Minus well, sit around and talk story in the lineup, la dat.
Another Sony Open street banner.
As the sign extolls, "real" Kona Coffee. Hey, for only 89¢, across the street from the beach.
A popular hangout any day of the week.
Lifeguard station at Kapiolani park. Nice work if you can find it.
Hawaiian koi.
Ahoy, there!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Mornin' (updated)
Sunrise over the backside slope of Diamond Head crater.
Paddlers at dawn on the Ala Wai canal.
Took a walk to the beach. The beach is indeed different on a Saturday morning. I kept adjusting the settings on my camera, but alas I just couldn't get the lighting right on the photos. Last week it was the focus, this week it's the lighting. "Lights, action, camera....huh."
The water appears white-ish in this photo because I set the whatever to a lighter value otherwise the hull of the canoe and the paddlers would look like they were in shadow. (??) Anyways, it's about a 5-mile round trip to the beach and back to the apartment for exercise.
A few years ago, I was taking a photo at night of a menu that this Burger King had posted on the front glass window, and a worker came outside and said something about I can't take photos. So, I politely reminded the imbecile that this is A-M-E-R-I-C-A, and the USA is a free country. Thus, if I desire to take a photo of your fucken menu on the front window while I'm standing on the public sidewalk, it's perfectly legal in this country. They might have had illegal immigrants working on the shift. Or the generalisimo was the self-conscious type. Idiot. That's a chief reason why high school kids don't want to work in fast food joints after school along side their classmates to earn some spending money, only to be in the company of the 40-year-old donkeys.
We're on vacation, eh. I've noticed that walking around Waikiki with a camera makes me feel as if I'm a tourist.
One of the many Sony Open banners strung up on every light pole on Kalakaua Avenue, Waikiki town's main drag.
My apologies to Tiger (Woods) ....
Waikiki's own version of the Seven Sacred Pools on island of Maui. Turn on the shower and you've got yourself a waterfall.
St. Augustine's church across from the beach.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Hawaii motorists now pay the highest price for gasoline in the nation
It be Happy Aloha Friday. Imagine if gas hits $4.00 a gallon, again. You'd kick yourself for not having invested in oil stocks. The logic went that the dividends from your oil stocks cancels out the hike of gas prices that you would pay at the pump, and then some. Same with electric company stocks plugged into the same formula. It's all so freakin obvious. Still, relatively few people take the extra effort to invest in the industries that produce the essential commodities that they themselves consume on the daily basis. Thus they remain as they were the day before as commodities in the eyes of our nation's business barons. So to speak, no more than cattle grazing on a ranch. Send me a check in the amount of $50, and I'll instruct you on how to do these things. Mahalo, and many happy returns. For your own sake, you must act now.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wednesday's Biscuits
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Another, Thing
The following excerpt is from Small Talk, authored by Diane Ako, former tv newscaster.
(*Warning: level red, but wouldn't you agree that some things just need to be shared with your readers.*)
Dogs also eat....used feminine products. I've had to pull a used tampon out of Kona's rear end because it was stuck coming out.
More Focusing Practice with Canon SX20
Btw, why don't Jay Leno do everybody a favor get his ass out of the late night show business. Leno's starting to remind me of A.J. Foyt who "retired" 5 times. The glaring difference is that Leno, himself, doesn't have any worthwhile talent of his own. It's no big secret that the inhouse writers are the unsung comedians who churn out the jokes for the nightly monologue and for that matter on all late night comedy talk shows. Johnny Carson, whom Leno replaced, wasn't overflowing with talent either, however, the late night genre was still a relatively new product then. Now its shelf life is about to expire. To my knowledge, when Leno originally retired, the public wasn't demanding a Leno encore otherwise we'd riot in the streets.
Later, On.
I was talking to a paraglider in the lookout's parking lot who happened to be waiting on some passengers to show up. Hillary Clinton? Perhaps. She's in town. Perfect wind speeds today for paragliding. Clear day, too. If the winds are too brisky, it would only make for a bumping ride, especially with a passenger clinging for his or her life on board the same paraglider. I believe the paraglider was Brazilian. I'll say this that there is definitely a genuine sense of enthusiasm with those involved with paragliding. When you think about it, why would it be otherwise. Taking flight, and all that.
A Day in the Something
Photo taken with my $400 Canon SX20.
Photo taken with my older 4 megapixel camera.
Monday, January 11, 2010
World's Tallest Building is Designed in the Image of Oil Barrels Stacked on Top of Each Other
Btw, regular gasoline is at $3.24 a gallon on the island.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Last Week's BCS Championship Game
Last week, I was watching the BCS football championship game with No. 1 Alabama against No. 2 Texas. That's the game where the Texas quarterback got knocked out super early in the game on his team's opening drive. The injured Texas quarterback had never lost a game that he started since his 8th grade school year. His replacement was a freshman, so I presumed like everybody else in the national audience that the biggest college football game of the year was over and an inadvertent disappointment. Yet, the freshman quarterback brought the team back in the second half, and this is where our story begins. It's not about the players, but about the announcers.
There's the play-by-play announcer in the broadcast booth. Seated next to play-by-play announcer is what's termed as the "color man," who annotates the telecast with personal quips and running commentary on what went right or what went wrong on the current play and various extraneous team-related and player-related trivia. Alas, if the color man announcer only knew when to stop and not wear out your eardrums, he would actually add to and enhance the enjoyment of the game, any game. However the color man in the BCS game was the usual motor mouth who reveled in the sound of his own voice with no less vigor than a minah bird. For example, "the coach is thinking after that play, blah, blah...." And how would the color man supposedly know what specifically the coach on the field was thinking?
Too many a color man have the knack of commenting on their own comment. If a given comment wasn't self-explanatory, than the less said about it, the better, because the next play of the game is underway and would you mind if we just move on and dispense with the self TiVo. Not fully satisfied on whether the illustrious meaning of their previous comment was fully conveyed to the viewing public, the color man then comments on his second comment, and so on, ad nauseum. I did search around if there was a simultaneous radio broadcast of the same game so I could shut off the volume on the tv and listen to the play-by-play on the radio while I watched the game live on the muted tv.
In the fourth quarter, the freshman quarterback has miraculously brought his Texas team back from all but certain defeat. On cue, the fuckin color man (paraphrasing), "....we have witnessed the freshman quarterback grow up and mature before our very eyes. I told ya all along that the kid was the greatest thing to walk on a gridiron since Jim Thorpe, blah, blah...." Sure enough, on the very next play of the ball game, the nationally lauded freshman quarterback throws an interception. Game ends. Darn jinx. Shoulda observed that....there'll be time for counting when the dealing's done. Bill Kazmaier on the World's Strongest Man is an exemplary color man in my opinion. Kazmaier always seems to add just enough and never too much to an ongoing event.
There's the play-by-play announcer in the broadcast booth. Seated next to play-by-play announcer is what's termed as the "color man," who annotates the telecast with personal quips and running commentary on what went right or what went wrong on the current play and various extraneous team-related and player-related trivia. Alas, if the color man announcer only knew when to stop and not wear out your eardrums, he would actually add to and enhance the enjoyment of the game, any game. However the color man in the BCS game was the usual motor mouth who reveled in the sound of his own voice with no less vigor than a minah bird. For example, "the coach is thinking after that play, blah, blah...." And how would the color man supposedly know what specifically the coach on the field was thinking?
Too many a color man have the knack of commenting on their own comment. If a given comment wasn't self-explanatory, than the less said about it, the better, because the next play of the game is underway and would you mind if we just move on and dispense with the self TiVo. Not fully satisfied on whether the illustrious meaning of their previous comment was fully conveyed to the viewing public, the color man then comments on his second comment, and so on, ad nauseum. I did search around if there was a simultaneous radio broadcast of the same game so I could shut off the volume on the tv and listen to the play-by-play on the radio while I watched the game live on the muted tv.
In the fourth quarter, the freshman quarterback has miraculously brought his Texas team back from all but certain defeat. On cue, the fuckin color man (paraphrasing), "....we have witnessed the freshman quarterback grow up and mature before our very eyes. I told ya all along that the kid was the greatest thing to walk on a gridiron since Jim Thorpe, blah, blah...." Sure enough, on the very next play of the ball game, the nationally lauded freshman quarterback throws an interception. Game ends. Darn jinx. Shoulda observed that....there'll be time for counting when the dealing's done. Bill Kazmaier on the World's Strongest Man is an exemplary color man in my opinion. Kazmaier always seems to add just enough and never too much to an ongoing event.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
From the Beach at Waikiki
Happy Aloha Friday through snow, rain, sleet or sunshine, however Aloha Friday managed to make it's appointed rounds to your neck of the woods. As we speak, I'm hearing the Friday night fireworks going off at the beach. I take it that they re-continued the weekly fireworks displays after canceling the event at the tail end of last year due to financial difficulties. I actually can't see the fireworks aerials from the lanai (balcony) of my apartment since my apartment faces the mountains and spaghetti boiling on the stove keeps me from taking a peek from the apartment building's stairwell, but I can hear the noise of fireworks exploding ringing in the 2nd Friday of the new decade and whatever fortune to behold. If Publishers' Clearing Warehouse knocks at your door, it's a cool $10 million this year I've heard. The amount not necessary the prerequisite knock.
In the something like that department: jumping into water teeming with jellyfish is about on the same mental level with the polar bear plunges they do on the mainland states. Myself, I'm immune to jellyfish stings after having had so many wrap their tentacles around me. It takes about a million stings for the self-immunization effect to kick in. As an added bonus the jellyfishes start to sense that you're a jellyfish from that point on and tend to leave you alone. Try it yourself, if you don't believe me.
Somehow, I can't seem to get clear pictures with my new camera. While I was sitting on a bench trying my best to figure things out and waiting for a newton apple to fall on my head, I found a sand quarter on the same bench.
Somehow, I can't seem to get clear pictures with my new camera. While I was sitting on a bench trying my best to figure things out and waiting for a newton apple to fall on my head, I found a sand quarter on the same bench.
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