At the Mall

So Spock says to Spiderman: "That's not how lightsabers work."

March 19 - Waikoloa

In the morning, from our hotel room, I could see Mauna Loa looming over the shoulder of Hualalai. Mauna Loa is bigger and flatter, by far.

Before we left the room, we ate a snack of coffee and macadamia nuts. It would tide us over for a little while.

We took a walk around the resort. At the far end from our hotel building, there was an enclosure with a few flamingos. They weren't too active.

Another enclosure had a few nene, the local goose. It's the state bird of Hawaii and related to the Canada goose.

Hilton had also brought in cultural objects from around the Pacific, like this orator's table from Papua New Guinea. Apparently it was used in meetings such that whoever had his hand on the carving could speak and was required to speak the truth (or face divine punishment, I think).

The resort is a big park. Fish, fish, and more fish swam in the lagoon. Snorkelers, kayakers, and a paddle boarder plied the waters, as well.

We left the Waikoloa resort for a couple hours, heading up the Hapuna Beach. Sunny. Pretty. Fun.

Eventually we had enough. We got back in the car, but we weren’t ready for the hotel yet. We thus turned up the hill to Waikoloa Village. It’s a golf course resort island five miles from the sea, but there are few houses and a grocery store. We bought sandwiches, sushi, and smoked marlin.

Back down the hill, we stopped briefly at Anaeho‘omalu Beach, but didn’t get out. There was no good place to park and watch the ocean while we ate, so we headed back to the hotel.

Since the canal boat was waiting at the lobby, we took it back to our building.

When the sun descended westward, we ventured forth to watch one last tropical sunset before our vacation ended.

A couple hours later, at about 8:30, we decided to go have a mai tai or two. This turned into just another walk around the resort, however. At that hour, all the bars in the resort were closed and the restaurant service was glacially slow. We never did get that last tropical drink.

We sat on the grass and stared at the stars, enjoying the warm evening.

At 9:30, Chunlin wanted to watch another movie. I picked _Seven Psychopaths_, which turned out to be a very bad movie for Chunlin to try to fall asleep to. Lots of quiet conversations interspersed with gunfights and explosions. I watched it to the end, as I always do. I get sucked in to movies so easily.

March 19 - Back in Waikoloa

We traveled by Disney boat from the lobby to our tower. Hilton actually enlisted Disney's help for the design, according to our pilot.

In our room we kicked back and started watching _Flight_. More clouds were outside than the afternoon the day before.

Two-thirds of the way through the movie, we hit pause and headed outside to watch the sunset.

I selected the opposite side of the bay from the previous evening. We sat on a grassy berm, waiting for the day to end.

I let Chunlin use my small camera while I used the large one. The next photo is hers.

Meanwhile, I stared upward.

Eventually, the sun found the horizon.

The sudden darkness was always surprising to me, even though I knew it was coming. It made me miss the twilight of northern latitudes.

We then went back to our hotel room and finished the alcoholism movie.

March 18 - Waikoloa Tourism Quarantine

Out in the middle of a vast black lava flow with hardly a clump of grass, there springs an artificial oasis known as Waikoloa. There's not enough rain on this side of the island to turn the land green like Puna. The lava just sits the way it cooled decades ago.

Except down Waikoloa Beach Road. Past palm trees and flowering bushes and manicured lawns. Past shopping malls, hotels, golf courses, and condos. We eventually arrived at the Hilton.

The resort has multiple buildings strung together with a Disney-designed boat on a canal and a short train that runs right through the "lobby" building.

Three stops to our hotel tower. We got a top-floor room with a view of Hualalai and a peek-a-boo view of the ocean. The palm tree resort spread out in front of us.

What a place. Quite a different Hawai‘i than Hilo or even Kona.

It’s a tourist quarantine, you see? Tourism is a contagious disease, so Hawai‘i built this colony out in the desert to stop its spread. From what we saw around the island, the quarantine is mostly working.

After watching _Life of Pi_ in our hotel room, we hurried downstairs to watch the sunset.

And then we watched _Skyfall_.

A Question of Credulity

When the producers of Eagle Eye and Get Smart realized they had the same plot device at the end of their movies, who do you think got more upset?

Does anyone really think that a bomb tied to a certain musical note is a high-probability method of timing? What if someone happens across the note beforehand? What if the musicians flub the song?

What if someone comes along and stops the musicians from performing? ... Oh wait. That's what happened in both movies.

My Favorite Things with a generic European accent

Rrraindrrrops on rrroses ahnd veeskerrrs on keettens
Brrright copperrr kettles ahnd varrrm voolen meettens
Brrrown paperrr packages tied up veet strrreengs
Deez arrre a fieu of my fahvorrreet teengs

Crrream-colorrred ponies ahnd crrreesp ahpple strrrudels
Doorrrbells ahnd sleighbells ahnd schnitzel vit noodles
Vild geese daht fly vith da moon on deirrr veengs
Deez arrre a fieu of my fahvorrreet teengs

Geerrrls een vite drrresses vit bleu sahteen sahshes
Snowflahkes daht stay on my nose ahnd eyelahshes
Seelverrr-vite vinterrr daht melts eento sprrreeng
Deez arrre a fieu of my fahvorrreet teengs

Ven da dog bites
Ven da bee steengs
Ven I'm feeling sahd
I seemply rrrememberrr my fahvorrreet teengs
Ahnd den I don't feel . . . so bahd

The Three Stooges

Incredibly stupid, yet funny.

At the checkout line in Grocery Outlet, they had a rack of $1 dvds. I said, "Ooh, look! Three Stooges!" Chunlin said, "Who are the Three Stooges?" And I replied, "If you don't know about the Three Stooges, now I *really* want to get the dvd." I had to expose her to classic American culture, after all.

So we got it.

Well worth the one buck. Three short films of the Three Stooges doing what Three Stooges do.

One with Moe, Larry, and Curly. Two with Moe, Larry, and Shemp. Did you know that Moe, Curly, and Shemp were brothers?

Tax Foreclosure Auction

I went to the King County tax foreclosure auction today. Bought nothing. I did bid on one property, though, but was outbid past what we had decided was our limit.

Over the last few weeks, my list of potential properties has been whittled down as the owners paid off their back property taxes. It's been like watching a disaster movie. You never know which of these characters will be the next to die!

I had something like twenty properties (out of two hundred listed) that looked worth bidding on. And then Capitol Hill gets wiped out, and then Newcastle dies, and then Park Orchard and Pipe Lake and Des Moines! Oh, the carnage!

At the beginning of the last act of the movie (this morning), we have five characters left. Three quickly get slaughtered by some torrential flood (of last-minute payoffs): Broadview, Phinney Ridge, and Fauntleroy all go quick. And then there were two: Thorndyke and Skyway. And Skyway doesn't look too healthy.

In fact, maybe Skyway isn't good enough to bid on. Nope, too many problems and unanswered questions. So that just leaves Thorndyke, the first property of the auction.

Bidding starts low, at the $11,000 or so that the county is owed, but quickly jumps up to $75,000. In leaps of $5,000, the bidding progresses. At $130,000, it stalls. One of the two bidders has pulled out. I raise my hand and call out "135!" The other man bumps it up to 140, I take 145, he claims $150,000, which was our limit. I shake my head "no."

In the front row, Santa Claus bids $155,000. The man I'd been bidding against goes to $160,000. "Going once, going twice, . . . sold."

I stuck around for another hour or so, still thinking about bidding on the Skyway property. The guy who'd bought the Thorndyke house bid on some other land, too, so who knows how much he'd have been willing to go up on that one.

A couple people bid on anything cheap, even if it was useless. One woman paid $1,173 for a few square yards of beach in Ballard and then $1,202 for a 1,600-square-foot wedge in Lea Hill. There were no other bids on those. One man paid $1,600 for land completely submerged beneath Steel Lake, then $2,000 for a 14' by 2.1' rectangle (yes, I typed that correctly) in the middle of a block in Greenwood, and then $2,200 for another tiny strip of land near Seward Park. He had a wad of cash. He probably bought a few more parcels after I left.

What could these people possibly be thinking?

Rock!

Remember the scene from Galaxy Quest where the little aliens are chanting "Rock! Rock! Rock!" while Tim Allen is standing around triumphant after beating the little beast? And then this giant creature made entirely of rock unfolds from the ground and starts thrashing on him?

Well, that's what I think of, when I think of Rékaré, God of Rock.

Today is His holy day. Don't make Him upset.




Rock! Rock! Rock! Rock! Rock! Rock! Rock! Rock!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

How many songs from Mary Poppins can you sing?

Why, there's "Let's Go Fly a Kite," which was the one that brought this to my attention on Saturday. And "A Spoonful of Sugar." And "Chim Chim Cher-ee."

And "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," of course.

"If I Were a Rich Man" isn't from Mary Poppins like I thought. It's from Fiddler on the Roof. But I bet you already knew that.

What Season Are We in Now?

Winter changed into Spring. Spring changed into Summer. Summer changed back into Winter. And Winter gave Spring and Summer a miss and went straight on into Autumn.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Although this year it needs a minor modification: Winter changed into Spring. Spring changed into Summer. Summer changed back into Winter. And Winter gave Spring a miss and went straight on into Summer. ... at least for a while.

Zuul, Stop the Rain

Long as I remember, the rain been coming down
Clouds of mystery pouring confusion on the ground
Good men through the ages, tryin to find the sun
And I say it, still I pray it: Zuul, stop the rain

I went down to Manhattan, seekin shelter from the storm
Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow
Smoky ruins and maidens wrapped in golden chains
And I say it, still I pray it: Zuul, stop the rain

Heard the chanters wailing, how they cried for more
The crowd had rushed together, trying to keep warm
Still the rain kept pouring, fallin on my ears
And I wonder, still I wonder: Are you the gatekeeper?

Seven Years!

Today marks the seventh anniversary of my employment at my current company. I've just been too lazy to leave.... But really, it's good here. I get to do something I'm good at, and they compensate me fairly. And the commute's less than ten minutes!

On a semi-related note, have you seen the movie The Seven Year Itch? It's a Marilyn Monroe comedy. I'm sure you've seen the promo picture. Even if you don't think you have, you have.

Quote of the Whatever

It's a bit crass, but it brings a smile every time...

From Red vs Blue, season 2:

DOC: I joined the army as a conscientious objector.

TUCKER: A consci-- who?

DOC: I'm a pacifist.

CABOOSE: You're a thing that babies suck on?

TUCKER: No, dude. That's a pedophile.

CHURCH: Tucker, I think he means a pacifier.

TUCKER: Oh, yeah. Right. Man, I was totally thinking about something else.

CHURCH: That's real classy, Tucker.

I'm a Native American

How many generations does it take, living in one area, before someone can consider himself a native?

This photo was taken by Byron Dazey at Seattle's self-proclaimed illegal (Mexican) immigrant rally on Tuesday:


My answer: Washington. And South Dakota. And Minnesota. Ohio. Quebec. Oh, and one who came over from England as a teenager (by herself, mind you!).

So if you're counting just by great-grandparents, I surely am a native American. Blood of the continent.

And if you want me to go back as far as I can, well then: I have great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents who were born in North America. So there.

And if my uncle's story about my great-grandfather (the Canadian who married the Englishwoman) is correct, I could count back further generations than that in North America. Apparently my great-grandfather checked "native Canadian" (or whatever) on some government form (along with "white"). My uncle has been mistaken for American Indian on occasion, he says.

When in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, we let ourselves be roped into watching a movie trailer and then filling out a survey on it (Underdog = blech). When they asked the ethnicity question, I checked Native American. It's what I am. I'm not "white." I'm not "Caucasian." I'm American, and damn proud of it.

I sympathize with everyone who wants to move to the United States of America, because this is the best country on Earth. But if you do not follow the rule of law, I'm not sure I want you in my country. What other laws will you break?

The people I want as new neighbors are the hard-working, honest, law-abiding citizens of the world who play by the rules and wait in line to get into this great country. True, we could probably let more of these people in, but that doesn't mean we need to completely open the floodgates of our borders.

Perhaps Europe would be a better destination for migrants who don't honor the rule of law. It's already a magnet for handout-hungry migrants. The United States is supposed to be the shining light for those who want to work hard and succeed of their own volition.

If we don't have immigration control, the United States would have a population of two or four billion and several other countries in the world (China!) would be empty. While I belive this land could sustain four billion people, I don't believe we could handle a sudden influx of that magnitude.

So, in summary: increase legal immigration, clamp down hard on illegal immigration, and don't you dare insinuate I'm not a native.

Northgate construction

They're finally digging up the south parking lot. It's a year after the groundbreaking ceremony.

It doesn't sound like they scaled back the project any. Maybe they found more funding.

It still has senior housing, a park along the creek, a movie theater, and shops.

I had thought for sure that the project failed last year because nobody was going to the movies anymore (or at least not enough to justify building a new theater in Seattle). I mentally blamed it on NetFlix.

Personally, I don't know if I'll ever go to a movie at the new theater. We have NetFlix and I like it. Convenient. Except for the whole not-able-to-choose-and-watch-a-movie-on-the-same-day problem. That's kinda annoying.

There's also a commercial/residential block going in at the corner of 5th and Northgate Way. Half the site was sitting empty for years. The other half of the site had the liquor store, Subway, and some other stores. That building is just a pile of rubble today. It was a nice building, too.

Real Kryptonite Isn't Green

Miners in Serbia discovered a mineral that, upon inspection by scientists, has almost the exact same composition as kryptonite, as described in the movie Superman Returns: a hydroxide of sodium lithium boron silicate.

The only problem: it isn't green and glowy. It's chalky white.

And they can't call it kryptonite, because it doesn't have any krypton in it. So they'll name it jadarite, after the region where it was found.

Can you imagine Superman cowering in fear from a pile of chalk dust? It doesn't quite have the same artistic oomph.

Apparently, the only difference is that the real rock doesn't have fluorine in it. Would adding fluorine make it green and glowy? And would it give humans weird superpowers?

Feb 11 evening

We had to drop off our car well outside the airport in a light industrial area. ... Air Pacific's flight is delayed three hours. LA-bound passengers were rerouted to a Qantas direct flight. We'll arrive at 10:30 or so -- five hours ahead of schedule, which is good because we're in row 64. Window seats together, though. $25 departure fee paid on top of the tickets (unlike most countries inclusive) really gives you that warm feeling that you're welcome. Such hospitality. But every country does it, one way or another. Silly. Through customs (to leave the country?!) and security and another maze of duty-free shops -- wait for your gate number! -- and a second security, with tougher restrictions (liquids in a separate bag -- but only under 3 oz -- magnetic wand everybody, check my belt & moneybelt (open it up!)) and finally to our gate.

I'm hot, tired, smelly, and my feet are sore. And hungry now, too. Can't wait for a twelve-hour flight. Yippee.

Takeoff and fly away from the sun.

It's after midnight in LA. I already feel on PST. We're not to the date line yet. ... Switched over to Babel on Chunlin's suggestion, but lost interest out of tiredness. Should I go to sleep and miss the meal? I've eaten enough, but I hate to miss food I paid for.

Feb 6 afternoon

(Chunlin's photo above)

Lazy day in Taupo. Nice big clear lake. Still can see Mts Ruahepu & Tongariro across the water. Walked down to the lake, now at a pub for fish & chips and lamb. Thai food lost out. Don't really feel like sightseeing. ... Two swimmers in wetsuits parallel to the shore, about 200' off, going with the wind. Chunlin is eating sugar from the packet. ... The fish and chips was five times the price of that on the ferry but only half as good.

We walked around a bit more, then back to the hostel for games of pool, Connect Four, Scrabble; a couple cups of tea; and Fletch Lives. The Sixth Sense was missing. Also missing was a good chance to see the sunset. It went down as we watched the film. Only a few tinges when we stepped out. Bummer. It'd've been good, across the lake.