Quote

One of the best I've heard ever:

"Don't worry about what other people think about you, because they don't."

-A comedian on NPR quoting his Dad

Hawaiian Flowers - Part 2 - Red Velvety Spikey Thing (and a Bug)

These turned out pretty nice. Oh and to my blogging friends you guys are slackers! More Blogs! And no more Dave blogger orgasms of 6 posts in a row. Common make eek them out a bit make it last a bit longer...

Hawaiian Flowers - Part 1

I promised Hawaiian Flowers. Should be a couple more blogs worth.

The Newest Front in the Media World War

So YouTube is underfire. First was it the attempt to end music-sharing, Napster, and MP3s (yeah, that worked really well RIAA), and now in this second attempt, they are going against video-sharing. Link

Good luck Google- fight the good fight and win!

The Main Reason

This is the main reason I'm seriously thinking about doing ANYTHING besides work in corporate america. It is a system designed to fuck the middle class:

"The United States long has had the industrialized world's largest gap in pay between chief executives and blue-collar workers. CEO compensation swelled from 85 times what workers earned in 1990, to 209 times in 1996, and 326 times the following year. In 1999, CEO pay surged to a record 419 times the average worker's wage, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The gap then declined, to 282-to-1 in 2002, before surpassing 300-to-1 the following year, according to the research and advocacy group United for a Fair Economy (UFE).
Comparable figures for other wealthy nations generally do not exceed the double digits.
U.S. CEOs' pay rose 313 percent from 1990 to 2003, UFE said. By contrast, the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index rose 242 percent and corporate profits gained 128 percent.
During the same period, average worker pay rose 49 percent while inflation climbed 41 percent. "

AND

"How big a slap? Forbes magazine has just released its annual CEO pay figures for 2007. The top execs at the nation’s 500 largest companies, says Forbes, averaged $12.8 million last year. They took home nearly a quarter million dollars a week, 407 times the weekly pay average Americans were making at year’s end."

AND

"No other country pays so much. For instance, American chief executives received roughly four times what their Swedish counterparts in comparably sized companies did and 3.1 times that of a Japanese chief at a comparably sized company."

FUCK THAT! I mean seriously, what is the point in even trying to carve out a slice of the American Pie when the odds are this stacked against you. I think that the real kick in the balls is the fact that all that money they get is mainly from stock options, profit from that falls under the capital gains tax, which is at a low 15%, or ~1/2 of the income tax that I pay! So they make 350 times more than me and don't really get taxes on the significant portion of that money.

Scary Stuff

Isn't there supposed to be something about a separate and free media?

Link

Chico Bag

So this is the coolest thing that I have bought in a while. I got it at the Food Bin for $3, and it basically fits anywhere you go. I recommend one for anyone reading this, unless you think no throwing away grocery bags is too "hippy". Link

80MPG non-hybrid car

Carbon fiber bitches: link

Adonis Gets a Bath

Oh man, poor kitty. Personally I think this face clearly says, "What the fuck dude?"

Leaving Hawaii- On a Jet Plane

So there you have it, that was my trip. I got home an hour late, and then went into work for what turned out to be my worst day yet. No one was at work, and I had no idea what was going on and spent half the day just calling customers. Made me very sad, still recovering to be honest...

Hawaii Evening 9

We totally chilled after Hanauma, we got some burgers and beers (a rare treat anymore), and then watched Juno again. I kinda passed out in the middle, but got to see the lovely sappy ending and get all verclemped again. After, we decided to walk down to Ala Moana for the sunset, which had all sorts of nostalgic sentimental bullshit for me. Quite lovely really. I love raw pictures, I don't care what Dave says, they are worth the rapid rate at which they are consuming my hard drives. Oh and honestly, I didn't really mess with the second one much. I know it looks like I jacked the color balance, but that's how it turned out on its own.

Hawaii Day 9

So we went diving in Hanauma Bay. We both totally pussed out and only did one dive. I think the week of drinking was catching up to us. I snapped a couple of pictures off to mark the occasion. I like these two. There's also a panorama potential, but we'll see if I ever get around to it. I still have the Hawaiian Flower's Blog to do...

Interesting Sigma Camera Concept

I find this camera review to be an interesting concept. Basically a return to camera roots in a digital world. I hope to see more manufactures take a risk like this camera has and see what can be done with this back to basics philosophy...

Hawaii - Evening 8

This evening we went out to a goodbye party on top of a roof near Waikiki. It was good times with nice peoples. Fireworks went off for the tourists, which was cool to see from on high.

Death Totals

I just read about Myanmar (Burma) and the f-off dicktators who won't let people help them, so we all started wondering how many people died in various disasters over the past few years, and I added some historical reference:

Total Number of Deaths:

Natural Disasters:

2004 Tsunami Indian Ocean - 225,000
2008 Cyclone Myanmar - 134,000
2008 Chinese Earthquake - >34,000
2005 Hurricane Katrina - 1836
1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake - 67
1980 Erruption of Mt. St. Helens -57

Human v. Human:

WWII - 72,000,000
WWI - >40,000,000
Vietnam War - 3,400,000
US Civil War - 618,000
----------------------------
US Civilians in 911 - 2,752
US Troops in Iraq - 4,079
Iraqi Civilians - >1,000,000 and counting...- oh and no known connection to 911...

-----------------------------------------------------------
Defense Spending 2007 - $548.8 billion (#2 at 19% of total)
Education Spending 2007 - $89.9 billion (#7 at 3.1% of total/16.4% of the Defense Spending)


WTF-Mate?

Hawaii - Day 8

Today we decided to get a bit of exercise followed by come chilling by the ocean. First we hit up the Moloki Lighthouse ridge. For some unknown reason there happened to be some rather daft whales who didn't get the memo that it was time to head to Alaska, but thanks for sticking around so we can see you flop up above the ocean. BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't capture because I don't have the huge man-cock-lens for my camera yet. Maybe someday I will grow in stature and have proper confidence about my equipment. However, you can see the surf they were kicking up in the lighthouse picture that is otherwise beautiful in color and contrast. Next, after lunch, we went to Sandys which typically has f-off smashing-your-face-into-sand waves, but was otherwise calm for the day. Again, I'd like to point out Carly's sexy skinny ass, specifically the fact that dudes were checking her out on the way into the surf, haha take that- PROOF!

Hawaii - Evening 7

Tonight we went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall which was entertaining (I'd give it 3-3.5/5 stars). Your typical break up leads to craziness, meeting another woman, with awkward moments. I have to give huge props to the producers for getting 4 different scenes of full frontal male nudity. This is rare considering there was maybe half a dozen boobs all in the same scene. Now that's equality! Oh yeah, and the majority of the movie takes place at Turtle Bay Resort mentioned earlier, so I'm in Hawaii, seeing a movie filmed in Hawaii- weird.

Hawaii - Day 7

Today Carly and I met up with the epic Lizzard at her place of work on Coconut Island, aka Gilligan's Island- that's right- THE Gilligan's Island. It's now a marine sanctuary where marine biologists study the reef, life, etc. They have all of these crazy tanks with salt water flowing through them. The three of us went for an awesome snorkel over the reef and out to the edge where we could see the deep blue. Carly hasn't had much success with snorkeling (the whole breathing under water thing kinda freaks her out, which I totally can relate to, and I think most people understand this quick breathing reaction) so we broke her in nice and slow and built up her courage. By the end she was swimming like a pretty mermaid. On the way out to the edge, I saw my second Hawaiian EEL a red with yellowish creamy white stripes. He(she) was twisting him(her)self around in a hole in the reef, and I got to see his(her) pretty blue face. Lizzard got to see it, but Carly didn't which was appearantly a good thing as she was a little wigged out in general. I also managed to spot two beautiful Poon Fish (aka Aquaticus Poonicus), one white and one brown in marking, they were swimming out ahead of me, managing to elude my grasp, however, one even managed to do a rare mooning behavior, something usually only reserved for non-single men.

After the snorkin' we walked around the island, checked out the shārk (with a Steve Irwin "a") tank, and took the boat back across to Oahu. (Check out the epic Vog-volcanic fog equivalent).

Good, But?

So this happened today. Now, yes, I am happy that this disabled fellow gets to compete, however, how long until some able-bodied person decides that he could get better times by cutting off his legs. I mean they are willing to shrivel their nuts, and destroy their livers/kidneys, so why not. They seem obsessed enough to maybe go through with it...

Hawaii - Evening 6

Rahul was kind enough to have a little 'Visitory' party at his place with lots of wonderful foods and company. There was an eclectic mix of scientists, military fellows, as well as a mixture of other peoples. All that I have to say is that I am officially a hippy. I don't really know when this happened but it definitely has. It kinda makes me sad for various reasons, mainly because I'm out of touch from the majority of society. Sigh*



40% more energy to get here

40% less energy to get here