Spring....

This week is going to be rather short. So I've been back in classes doing "make-up" classes that I haven't done or have started and then stopped because of other things going on for the last two weeks. Some of the classes are interesting, some aren't so much. I should be done with them tomorrow for at least awhile. Good thing though is that I have been working for six months now. Yes, I have made it through six months now at a somewhat boring government job at times. Earlier this week we had the "golf" ball return to the harbor. 

It had come into Pearl Harbor just before President Obama visited the islands for his "vacation" (spending thousands of US tax payers dollars) and then left abruptly at the end of January I believe. Now you can't really tell how big this floating "golf" ball really is. I will just say that you can see a crane on the picture below and just the relative size of the ball to the crane. The ball and all of its support equipment rest on an old Russian Oil Platform. Some of you probably know how big those are so it can give you a relative size of the floating ball. Now you probably want to know what the "golf" ball is. It's the Sea-Based X-band Radar (SBX). It cost the military roughly $900 million, and is a 28-story-tall missile defense radar. The home base is in Alaska. Needless to say, I would like to go take a tour of the golf ball, but I don't think I will be able to. 

Some perks about being able to get on the military installations in Hawaii are that I get to get close to floating flotillas such as that golf ball and also see the USS UTAH memorial which is on Ford Island and not so easy to see if you are a civilian. If you come out and visit, we can go see the memorial. 

The USS UTAH like the more famous memorial of the USS ARIZONA is there to remember the shipmen that were lost during the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941. The memorial is on the opposite side of the island than that of the USS ARIZONA. 

The home fellowship that I was going to on Friday's finished the book of Ezekiel. The next thing that they are doing is the Truth Project at the church. Originally, it was going to be in a classroom with limited space, but after the promo video was showed this weekend at church, there was an overwhelming response and I believe now they will be having it in the main sanctuary. The only problem I can see with that is hopefully they break up into smaller groups to discuss the DVD otherwise I think a lot of people will miss out on the purpose of small groups for the Truth Project. 

Lastly, the children's ministry performed a musical this weekend for the Sunday evening service called "Solid Rock Cafe". It was a 50s theme with some southern slang thrown in there. It was pretty good, but I think I was spoiled from my elementary days and middle school days with those children's ministry plays. The musical still had a good message and gave a chance to have people to answer the altar call that the pastor gave after the musical was done. The kids did a really good job. I was impressed that the younger kids (4-5 yr olds) could stay on stage that long and pay attention through the entire thing. 

Spring Break

Well I don't really get spring break, but I do live in a place where people come for spring break, so there is a lot of different celebrations starting this weekend. I would actually have to say the partying started on Thursday, St. Patrick's Day. No, I didn't go out and party and join in the celebrations. Yes, I did know people that went (one being my roommate).


So Saturday, there was the first annual Floatopia Hawaii. The Facebook description is below:

Floatopia is coming to Hawaii! March 19th, the first Saturday of Spring break, there will be the biggest party you have ever seen at Ala Moana Beach. Starting in Santa Barbara, Floatopia has been an annual event for college students for over 5 years. Come join Hawaii's first FLOATOPIA! Bring your floats and your drinks and start you spring break off the right way! The event will be held in the blocked in cove at the end of magic island. There is plenty of parking on the streets in Ala Moana park and in the magic island parking lot. Look for signs directing you to the party. PLEASE remember to be safe and DO NOT drink and drive! SoHo will be holding the official after party for Floatopia! After your day of fun in the sun make sure to head down to China Town for a great party at club SoHo. They are planning on a night that continues the theme of floatopia. Come party at SoHo with 104.3 providing the music!

Basically, it is a huge drunken fest on the beach where spring-breakers can meet other people on spring break and just get drunk and have fun in the water.  I went and saw the festivities, but didn't actually take part in any of the festivities. I ran into a few coworkers though that seem to be having a good time. Their stories of the day were quite hilarious. The first few pictures when it first started.

I went to the other part of the beach at Ala Moana after running. It was much more peaceful over there and I ended up reading bit. I didn't fall asleep this time on the beach but came rather close. I also didn't get sunburned this weekend like I did last weekend which was really nice. I did have to put on some sunscreen after a bit, but this time, I had sunscreen to put on (last weekend, I didn't bring any with me which was quite stupid). The pictures below were after about three hours. The amount of people had increased dramatically.

The cops decided to show up about four afters the event started. I think the lifeguards finally got sick of all the drunk people and called the police. I do feel sorry for the lifeguards that were on duty in the cove that day. They probably wanted to kill themselves. On the other hand, they got a very interesting day and certainly not boring. I saw them pull people back into the cove at least twice (drunk spring break college students were floating out to sea through the opening in the breaker wall). The cops look like they don't know what to do when they first arrived. I don't know if they checked every one's ID or if they just broke up the party. I left before they broke up the party to go see Battle: Los Angeles. 

Battle: Los Angeles, was an alright movie. I wouldn't say it was the best movie I have seen recently. If you like military and a pretty constant line of fighting then the movie is pretty good. There was a nice message of trust and teamwork though that ran through the movie and was realized at the end. 

I also took my computer in to get fixed on Saturday. They told me it would be about five days till I would get it back. I was all sent to live without it for the five days, but yesterday they called me and told me it was ready. Shocked me indeed. I figured the Apple Care plan actually paid off this time. Considering I would have had to pay about $571 for the work that was done on my computer. They had to replace the glass track pad, a logic board (one of the USB ports wasn't working anymore), and the labor. It would have been a pricey fix, but since it was free and all covered by the extended warranty, I decided to get it fixed. A good investment in the end. 

Lastly, a Japanese submarine pulled into Pearl Harbor this weekend and had assess for the first time to the world news. This also brought about that they just found out about the tragedy that happened in Japan. The full story can be read HERE. The Japanese submarines also look weird from the US, but I guess I only notice since I'm around the US submarines all the time. 

I think that is enough for now. Spring break festivities continue this week and probably next week as well as different spring breaks overlap this month. I should also talk about the home fellowship I'm going to on Friday Nights again. Probably next week. 

The Power of Water

I think everything big and interesting likes to happen Thursday night Friday morning. Last week (well two weeks ago), it was the crazy thunderstorm and losing power and this week it was the 8.9 earthquake in Japan that sent a tsunami wave throughout the Pacific Ocean. Also of note, the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN 72) pulled into Pearl Harbor Thursday for some Liberty and to get some supplies before heading off today for her home port.

So what everyone wants to hear about....the tsunami warning/tsunami in Hawaii. First off, I ended up watching the tsunami that hit Japan live Thursday night before I went to bed. It was pretty unreal. Granted most everyone on the Mainland wouldn't hear about the earthquake and tsunami until Friday morning when the video that I saw live would be replaying on every news station and over YouTube and the Internet. It was pretty amazing how powerful water is. You watch it from the helicopter perspective and you're like "that's not moving pretty fast" but then you think again, that is moving buildings, cars, boats, all at a significant pace, wait that is moving pretty fast and it's still going, not slowing down at all. When a wave can carry burning buildings without putting them out, yeah that's some fast moving water, and a lot of it. I was also impressed that I did remember a lot about tsunamis from Earth and Environmental Systems (the class in which most people sleep through). Needless to say, the media (and some unfortunate people on the Mainland and boat owners here in Hawaii), learned the hard way and was amazed that tsunamis are actually more than one wave. Yes, you heard right, more than one wave. The wave that did the most destruction in Japan was actually the 10th wave that hit them. Granted, they were in fast succession since the epicenter was close to the islands of Japan.

Hawaii was ready for the tsunami waves that were predicted to hit the islands around 0300 Friday morning. The Pacific Tsunami center sent out the warning and advisories pretty much immediately after the earthquake hit Japan. It was amazing that they kept upgrading the earthquake as well. First it started off as a 7.9 magnitude, the upgraded to a 8.8 magnitude and finally to a 8.9 magnitude earthquake. Now 8.8 to a 8.9 magnitude earthquake may not seem like a lot, but you have to remember that the scale is on a log scale. If my memory serves me correctly the waves reached the Hawaiian islands about 0330 first on the island of Kauai. A few minutes later, it hit the islands of Oahu and Maui and then finally the island of Hawaii. The highest surges I believe were seen to be about 7 ft surges. On Oahu, the north shore saw about 6-7 ft surges and the boats harbor up there I think saw some damage. In Waikiki, there was only about 2.3 ft surge. Waikiki is protected by lots of reefs that help break up the wave surges. The East side in Kailua saw about 0.1 ft surges (yeah big numbers) and in Pearl Harbor, a half meter surge was seen (don't ask me why it was reported in meters when the others were reported in feet).

I was safe for it all. I live outside the evacuation zone. Some of my friends that live in town and in Waikiki evacuated to people's places that were outside of the evacuation zone. The USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN stayed in Pearl Harbor, the Navy obviously thought it would be safe and the wave height that was predicted wouldn't affect the carrier at all. I got woken up by the tsunami alarms at 0130 and went down to watch the TV to see what was happening. I guess I slept through the 1000, 1100, and the 0000 alarms that had gone off earlier that night. The news just kept replaying the tsunami wave footage from Japan which started to get depressing and how to prepare for the tsunami wave here in Hawaii. The news also had a camera crew up on Diamond Head where there is a spotlight from a private resident (I believe) that gave a view of the ocean so they could watch the wave come in. I ended up sleeping down in the living room with the TV on in case anything happened. Most interesting thing was that I ended up going to work at my normal time in the evacuation zone even though the "all clear" hadn't been given. The reason being was that the emergency phone number in case of emergencies like this still said to report to work at normal times, the radio station(s) that give information about the shipyard didn't have anything different and the one TV station that gives out information (which I was watching) also said nothing about anything different. Only after I showed up for work did I learn that we weren't suppose to come to work until the "all clear" was given (which was about 1000). The guards at the gate still let me in as well. Needless to say, I have experienced my first tsunami warning this past weekend.

As I stated earlier the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN came into port on Thursday. Air craft carries are a whole lot larger than a submarine. Granted, you think that is common sense but when you work on submarines it kinda just gets filtered out. I tried going to the USS ARIZONA Memorial on Saturday to get a water close up picture of the carrier, but the earliest tour time was 1200 which was a bit late (it was 0830 when I got there). I did not want to wait that long and I had something else at 1100. So, I went for the next best option. I went onto Ford Island and got some pictures from the bridge and the island. I also went to the pier on base and got some pictures from there. I didn't get a chance to tour the aircraft carrier :-( maybe the next one that is in port. The number is also lit up very patriotic at night. I did get some great pictures from the USS ARIZONA Memorial sight since the carrier was docked basically right next to the memorial.

Saturday lunch/early afternoon was my church's water baptism/potluck on the north shore at Haleiwa Ali'i beach park. We had 18 members of our church get baptized on Saturday which was pretty amazing. A whole family, some couples, teenagers, and a few young kids got baptized. Truly was a blessing to encourage them during this time. I again ended up taking food home after the potluck was done. Not that I'm complaining or anything, it's nice taking food home. Kinda like college....free food....but instead of catered food here and there, it's home made food and most of the times not American style food. Awesome free food compared to college free food. Free food is free food though. I also brought a Ultimate disc to the potluck and threw the disc around. Granted I have to admit to shame that the disc is a Wam-O disc....yes poor quality....I dont' want to hear about it. It still was good and in a sense better since  the people I threw around with weren't the greatest. a Wam-O disc is alright getting knife-bladed into the ground. I don't feel as bad.

Sunday I went to church and then to the beach with some friends down near Kailua. The beach was a great time, relaxing and just having fun. Went snorkeling for a bit then just hung out on the beach for a greater part of three hours. Bad thing was that I got a pretty nice sunburn during those three hours. Sunlight reflecting off of water just give such an intense dose of radiation, something like that. Needless to say, I have some color after going to the beach. Not lobster red, but still a slight red color. I wonder how my haole friends turned out after that time at the beach.

That is the greater part of last week. I did give blood and the lady that drew my blood, yeah she ended giving me a bruise. Not quite as big as the one I got from Dr. Neeves, but still a decent size bruise. I guess the Blood Bank of Hawaii want's me to start donating platelets next time. They are much more on top of asking me to do that than Bonfils was. I also found out that my logic board for one of the USB drives is dead, so it will have to be replaced. The store had to order the part so I get my computer for a few more days before I have to turn it over to get fixed. The extended warrantee is actually paying off for once. I will have to ask them how much it would cost if I didn't have the warrantee when I drop it off. P. S. Ashley, you seem to keep moving your day of your postings. Also, you should wear Orange on Thursday, although it would probably clash with your red hair.

Speech Impediments, that should not stop you...

I had an interesting Thursday night/Friday night, in which the powere went out at about 0330. I believe it was because of lightning hitting the power line or something like that, overloading the grid. Someone with more electrical background can probably explain it better than I. So needless to say, it made getting ready for work an hour later a bit interesting, doing everything in the dark....I did have hot water though, which was amazing. I thought I was going to have to take a military cold shower and all, but no, hot water was amazing. I ended up taking a nap when I got home (and I had power again). Yes, naps, you may think you have out grown them, but in college you definitely start seeing naps coming back. I had to take a nap since I was planning on going to the Bible study about prophesy that night and the last time I went to that, I stayed there till midnight without a nap. That was an adventure. 

Instead though, I ended up going to a friends house for dinner. He and his wife hosted me and we ended up talking and just hanging out for a couple of hours. They had had power all day and even better for him, he called in "sick" so he didn't have to go to work. Works in the long run, I think it was mainly because the couple he normally carpools with was taking the day off because family was in town. I think the next time I go over there, the will have some more board games. My friend was looking into getting Carcassonne the game. Now, as he was explaining it, I was thinking to myself, "This game sounds really familiar." After thinking about it, I have played this game, it was over the summer I think with Kalen. For some reason, I should have known that Kalen had this game. He has so many of these games. My friend also showed me this awesome documentary about the most popular web based game, Minecraft, http://www.minecraft.net/ Interesting thing about this game is that it goes back to the olden day....as in like 16 bit/32 bit type look, blocks, no curves, etc. Brings back memories of the old days.

Saturday I went and to Barnes and Noble in town. Now, I do have to say, that I do not like BN as much as Borders, probably because the feel of their stores and the level of customer service that I normally get. BN didn't disappoint again, the Customer Service person that I talked to wasn't the most friendly, and BN "Religion" section was just one bookshelf. I was trying to find CS Lewis books and of course he is in like three sections. I couldn't find his books in Religion so I ended up giving up. I got some other books instead. Now, I went there to use the gift certificates that I had to BN. I had a sweet groupon coupon for $20 that I paid $10 for, and also I figured since Hawaii is pretty late dated in everything, I could get rid of the really old paper BN gift certificates that I had found while I was moving. Yes, you heard that correctly, paper gift certificates. Well they did still have check readers (yes people over here use checks all the time it seems like) so I was in luck! I should have taken a picture of those gift certificates, but I forgot to do that. Sorry all, you cannot share in the keeping of old outdated paper gift certificates. The three books I ended up getting were, Ted Dekker's The Heaven Trilogy and Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, and the third, Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice.

While I was down at Ala Moana shopping center, the Cherry Blossom Festival was coming to an end. The festival is pretty much a culmination of Japanese culture fashion and person pageant (I think). Not only do they have a fashion part, I think the main focus is on history, outreach, and community service. It just has to be focused on Japanese decent. The main interesting thing though was in the area above the stage there was Wonder Woman.

The interesting part of the festival (the part I ended up staying for) was the Japanese Taiko Drums. Now, if you haven't heard them, they normally play at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) Lunar Festival celebration put on by the Professional Asian Society of Engineers and Scientists (PASES). This drum group though were not all females as with the one that plays at CSM. This one was a co-ed group. The first song was set up as below. A video of the first performance can be found here (youtube link). I wish I knew that they were going to just play two songs, then I would have recorded both songs. Oh well. 

I also saw SNOW!!!!!! Well, it wasn't really snow, but the "thought" of snow. The Special Olympics of Hawaii was actual doing a polar bear dip fundraiser. Now where is Nathan Valentin when you need him? Anyways, it was jus interesting to see how they brought snow here to Hawaii. Basically, just a lot of ice. I didn't actually jump in, since I saw it when they were packing up. Maybe next time though. I think Clear Creek is pretty cold after the spring snow melt so.....it would be hard to beat that. 

Sunday I stayed late at church when talking with some friends and we ended up sitting through the Junior High and High School service. Now, I know the guy that is doing their classes and he is a pretty intense guy and really has a passion for evangelism. So, question for you, do you witness enough and at every opportunity that you have? I know I don't. I don't share the gospel with everyone I talk with. I guess that should change, but in small steps. At work, it's pretty hard to talk about things like that without  getting into too much of a debate or heated conversation. I do like his method of remembering how to share the gospel, but granted there are also many other ways to do share. Love Jesus Christ RatFace. So weird thing right? Well L is to share the Law, and how we fall short of the Law. J because we break the law, we have to face the judgement of our sins. Of course you have to explain what sin is. C confess the sin that we have done. Now you have to also explain who Jesus Christ is, not just a man, but the Son of God who was holy. R repentance, you have to repent from your sins that you have confessed. F faith, have faith in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. Now there is that little saying, but you have to remember to fill in the gaps with the necessary details. 

I think the highlight of my week was watching The King's Speech. The movie was very surprising and really well made. I would highly suggest watching it if you haven't seen it yet. Now I'm waiting for the movie to finish uploading so that I can post this. I'm also watching (and enjoying) the torrential rain that is happening currently. See below for a friend that I found this past week, enjoy.