Island Life

Ah, O'ahu!

After a week of working and playing on this island, I'm ready to stick my stuff on a ship and live here. The Pacific is warm, the skies are blue, the air is perfect, the people are kind and hospitable. Everything is beautiful here. It smells like orchids and food. There are lush, green mountains and heavy, rolling surf. There is the international city of Honolulu, and the backcountries and fields of pineapple and macedamia. There are lagoons, waterfalls, craters and incredible glistening emerald foliage.


Oh, and the MEN! This is a photo I found elsewhere on the web, but this is a rather fine example of some of the hunky Hawaiian men on the island. Big, brown and smiling, some with tattoos, some with long hair, some with surfboards. I like my men with a bit of heft on them, and a lot of the men here do have that. The women are gorgeous too, even when heavy, and the island is teeming with cute little Japanese girls. Japanese culture is huge in O'ahu, particularly in the city. It's like a little Tokyo. Many public signs are written in English and Japanese.

I found it very interesting to be in the Pacific Rim where so many Asian cultures are.

Above is a Bird of Paradise flower, next is the garden of a macedemia nut farm.

We installed a Sony Shop in the CompUSA store in Honolulu. Our boss arranged for us to have 3 days off towards the end, but unfortunately our fixtures were delivered late and we only had 2. But we did manage to drive around the entire island, seeing the city, the rainforest-like windward side with its moist low clouds, and the drier leeward side with clear skies and cactus.



Not sure what these little black lumps are. Whatever they are, they had a fringe of "legs" around their perimeter. They looked like some kind of round starfish or spineless urchin. Or, a squidbilly!








Surfer at the Turtle Bay Resort. We did get some ocean time in. The waters here were very much like our home in south Florida, very blue and warm. Of course there isn't much surfing in Florida. Not like this kind, anyway.

















Sunset at Turtle Bay Resort.











Our first arrival at Sandy Beach had some pretty serious waves coming in. While watching natives placidly lolling about on surfboards in the calmer section, Matt dove head first into the roughest section of the water onto an oncoming wave and received the spatula treatment. He was pressed into a roiling mess of sand and rocks that left him bloody. The lifeguards then promptly started sticking warning signs along the beach. One mentioned how this beach had the notorious distinction of providing the most neck and back injuries on the island. As Matt was getting some gauze pads from another lifeguard (a young, rippling, brown stud of Polynesian descent), I noticed a small flowery memorial at the foot of the lifeguard stand commemorating the death of someone who most probably lost his life to this beach.

So I guess Matt's lucky he didn't break his neck or end up in worse circumstances!



A fallen red leaf provides the wearer with a new prosthesis.














Claiming the best Mai Tai's on the island, Turtle Bay Resort is a peaceful north shore hotel paradise with a pool and outside bar overlooking surfers and sunsets. We stayed in Waikiki, which is very much like South Beach....thronged with tourists and tacky tourist shops stuffed with plastic shittery. But in Turtle Bay there was little of that. Matt used to be stationed at Pearl Harbor while he was in the Navy, and Turtle Bay was one of his favorite haunts.












This is overlooking the mountains of Maui. We flew out from Honulu during the afternoon with a stopover in Maui before we flew to Los Angeles. Don't ever get a double Mai Tai at the Maui airport. It's a rip off. You get a huge glass filled with ice and nary a buzz. We wanted to sleep on the place, dammit, and due to a weak yet expensive drink and uncomfortable seats, we got nary a "z".




If you get the chance to do it, go visit Hawaii. If I had my way I'd be living here for a few years.

Door to Door Atheist?

Just got back from Hawaii. It didn't suck. I'll write more later and post photos, since right now I must get to bed. BUT I have this little gem of a video for ya...

Ever have unwanted guests at your door? I know Mooselet has. This Australian atheist got sick and tired of Mormons knocking on his door, so he actually went to Salt Lake City, UT, the birthplace of Mormon religion, to see how they liked it. Moose, I have no idea where the Jehovah's Witnesses came from , but you might want to stick some free cd's with this guys' video on it on your mailbox just to get the message across.......

It's funny. Really funny. Especially the old guy with the broom.

A Great Friend

I just got back from Boston. Was up there for 4 days for a sad reason. Ann "Nancy" Winchester Monaco, a dear friend of our family, has passed after struggling with a declining body that couldn't house her vibrant young spirit any longer.

I missed the wake and today's funeral because I have to get on another plane today for business purposes. But my thoughts are with her family and mine. This is going to be a tough week for them all.


Thank you, Nancy, for all the love you showed my mother, my father and my entire family. Your humor, strength, bottomless compassion and generosity of spirit has been and always will continue to be an inspiration. Because of you, we all loved each other that much more. You and your amazing family are the truest friends, and I consider myself undeservedly blessed to have have known you. We have learned so much from you. You will be missed and never forgotten.

Not Without A Purpose, Not Without A Fight

Just got back from a week of crazy work in Nashua, NH and Minneapolis, MN. I'll get into that later, but suffice it to say that I freaking LOVE New Hampshire. If I ever move back to New England that's where I'll go and I'll drag snow-hating Matt with me. It was so good to be back up there, albeit as brief and hurried as my stay was. Boy is that accent thick. When you live away from home this long, it's just so damn obvious when you come back. Even my mother doesn't sound that bad, except when she says Target.

THE STREET DOGS KICK ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They just keep getting better and better. Their new album, Fading American Dream, is out in stores now. You can get it from Newberry Comics, which I just visited in Nashua a few days ago. I remember Newberry Comics when it was just one store in Harvard Square. Um, and I also carried potatoes in my pockets to keep my hands warm on the way to school.

That's it for now. Did you vote today????? I did. I voted for Max Linn, the third party candidate for Govnah. I love that guy. But of course Crist is going to take it, the spineless bastard. But hey, at least he's a moderate.........for now. Re the latest news: it's nice to see Dems taking back some seats across this country to redistribute the balance of "power" in this country. Not that I have that much hope for them either. Goodbye, Santorum!!!!!! Smeared on the wall again, fucker!
I dearly hope Dan Savage is dancing around his living room with that bit of good news.