Back to Day's

So last week, I found out Thursday when I went into work that some of us that were down on the project were going to go back to class. The bad thing was, I was planning on seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at midnight and one of the two was going to have to go to day shift. Well with that being said, we figured it out, I was staying on the project with the relief of the 4 that were going back up to classes. I was also switching to day shift but I did a gradual shift, came in early on Friday and then fully early today.

Midnight showing of Harry Potter.....well lets just say that it was crazy and there were more people there than I was expecting. The news crew was there and same with the paper taking footage and pictures respectively. The paper representative took our photo, but I went to the website and couldn't find us :( very sad day. I don't know why she didn't put up all the photos. Probably because it is Hawaii and they don't know how. But, the theater needs better planning for big releases. No real plan. They had people outside on the stairs and everything up till 11:30p before they were let in. Well some people didn't get in till probably close to midnight. Most of the theaters were empty since the movies that were in them got out early, why not start seating people in the theaters? You can get them inside and start spending lots of money on popcorn and other junk food. The theater definitely lost money in that respect. It was sold out though....all sixteen theaters.

The movie was really good I thought. It brought the series to a good end, although some of the things that were in the book didn't make it, and the directors had some creative changes, but otherwise it was really good. The two hour movie didn't really feel like two hours. Well, you can read the more in depth reviews if you want a better review. I do have to say this, the 3D version isn't much better than the 2D version. I also liked how they tied stuff from all the other movies.

Anyways, I'm back to possibly doing things with a group of friends that are very last minute planning which at the same time is quite frustrating since it is last minute and they normally plan something in town, which for me takes ~30 min to drive into town. Yes, I know that was probably a long run on sentence. For instance, yesterday, they planned on going to the restaurant, Mexico (Mexican food) and the guy that text me didn't know what time, where it was, etc. Yeah didn't find out until ~1.5 hrs before they were going all the info. I actually didn't go, although they said the food was pretty good, the best Mexican food they have found on the island. That isn't saying much since there are so few Mexican restaurants here.

Last thing, we had two guest speakers speak this weekend at church. In the morning we had the LA Lakers Chaplain, and in the evening the Sunday morning worship team drummer. Both were great talks and messages and didn't rush through the sermons. I'm also seeing if I can go back to learning to run a soundboard. Some of the people that I talked with thought it would be a good idea. I will have to start wading the political waters at church again....

Simplicity of Jesus

So it hit me yesterday while I was sitting in church on how unsimple the notion of Jesus has become. Churches make other things priorities other than Christ. Whether it be numbers attending, how many become Christians at altar calls, or how great the music is. What has become the focus of the church. Was the message good? Was it too long? Was it too short? The question that should be asked to each one of us, did the message lead me to God. That is the key, everything that we do should bring our worship to God. If it goes somewhere else, then it is totally worthless.

The other thing was that I should be happy with where God lead me to. Sure, I wanted to work somewhere else, and not for the government that takes forever to do anything. Sure the government spends money on fruitless things and we don't understand what the rational behind it is. But for me, I should be seeking more on why God brought me here. That should be my focus and then once found, I should expound on it and make the best of the situation that he has brought me into until he moves me somewhere else.

So the simplicity of Jesus is as the name portrays: Quite simple. The gospel, the good news, the Bible all leads to Jesus. Whether in the old testament or the new testament, it all points back to the man named Jesus Christ who came to save us. We were sinners, he died for us, he bought us with his blood, he was buried for our transgressions, and he was resurrected to give us a power over death.

4th of July weekend.

I know this is a bit of late post from my normal routine. Only excuse is that it was a holiday and that I was travelling. 

First off I went came to Colorado/Wyoming for a wedding of a good friend from college, Michael Deal. He and his now wife Laura Deal (formally Laura Burke) had an amazing wedding up in Casper, WY where they both grew up. I did not know this, Laura's family is huge and they can be a bit overwhelming at times. You either have to gradually get involved with the family or just get them in small doses. They also had this amazing dog named Solomon who was a white mix. Good thing, I didn't wear black too much because he was shedding everywhere. 

The wedding took place at St. Anthony's Church which the building was pretty amazing and rather old. The acoustics in the church were interesting as well, and the PA system just bounced off of the walls and high ceilings at times. 

I didn't take any pictures during the wedding, that would have just been a bit weird during the wedding. They did have a professional photographer and videographer capture their wedding though. I was also a part of their wedding, in that I walked down with some water from Golden. Mike and Laura wanted to mix water from the six major parts of their life symbolizing a new start with their mixing of the water after saying their vows. 

The wedding reception was at the Casper Petroleum Club. Nice old building with some heritage to it. Funny thing is they post the current prices of oil, coal, and uranium when you come into the building. Below are some pictures of the cake, the grooms cake and glasses with the bride and groom's name engraved. 

For someone that can't really dance, or that I didn't know that he could dance, my friend Mike did a really good job dancing at the reception. Also, I do have to say that Laura's dress was amazing.

Besides from pictures, I had to get evidence that Mike danced at his wedding with his beautiful wife. 

After coming back from WY, I got to spend a short few days in Colorado. I went and visited Golden and looked at the new construction of the place. I just ended up taking two pictures of the new Brown Building expansion and the street demolotion of 16th street. The webcam pictures on the Mines website doesn't give good justice I think. There is suppose to be a fountain in the cul-de-sac area as seen in the second picture. Hopefully it looks good in the end. I believe that the expansion of Brown is already getting moved into. I should have taken some pictures of the new dorm, but I didn't. 

I also saw fireworks at the Aurora Mall with some friends. Overall, it was a good time in Colorado. Dry heat is pretty amazing, but the allergies are a killer. I just wish I could have stayed a bit longer in Colorado.

Summer fun

Highlights from my week..... I didn't have to work this weekend! I went to see Super 8, which was much better than I thought it would be. Just relaxed this weekend. Got a hold of my two friends that are having weddings in the next couple of months, one this coming weekend. Went on a scavenger hunt for a gift for my friend, I thought it would be easy, but you know it was more difficult than I thought it would have been. The swap meet is an amazing place though. I also went to a liquidation sale, which I thought was going to be pretty cool, but it ended up being such a dud. The admittance ticket of the Blaisdell Center though is quite plain and it seems like you are just paying for the fancy ticket.

So at the swapmeet, this was the most interesting thing I saw. Yes, that is some teenage guys wearing Pokemon backpacks. I couldn't miss the opportunity of capturing that on "film" 

I was also thinking about going to the state fair this weekend, since it was the last weekend that it was open. This was as close as I got to it though since my friends said it was lame. It looked pretty lame everytime I drove past it as well.

My scavenger hunt ended with the to pictures below. The first (the cross) was rather difficult to find and only one booth at the swap meet sold crosses that were of any decency. The cross is made up of rosewood and made here locally in the islands. My friend that this is for asked for a cross or something from hawaii. I found that somewhat weird, but cool at the same time since he isn't really the religious type at all. The second is self explanatory, it's just to help welcome people into their home or something like that to be put in their kitchen or above a door. Their choice really.

As a side note, learning how to program a website is harder than I thought. It's probably because I don't really like programming that much.

Design and Father's Day

I got to meet more extended family this past weekend since one of my "Uncles" had a surprise party for his mom with extended family. She turned 92 and she looks in tip top health and shape. I just hope that I can be that healthy when I get to 92.

The other thing I've been working on this week is redesigning my church's website. I have learned that web design can be get pretty tricky if you don't plan accordingly and second of all if you aren't proficient at making web sites. Well it will be a fun learning experience overall. It has been taking up most of my free time and I keep changing things. Once I get a general picture, then I will work on building the pages.

Also, on Sunday it was Father's Day. Thanks for all the dads out there, but the true Father needs to be thanked even more.

Venture on a surface ship

This week....mmm...yes, the USS Carl Vinson came into port for a few days on its way back to San Diego. I made it a point to try to get aboard and get a tour of some sorts. I accomplished my goal pretty well actually. Carriers are much larger than that of  submarine and guess what, it has a whole lot more space as well. I didn't take that many pictures :(, so next one I might be able to get some more pictures. 

CVN 70s F-18 on the flight deck. The USS Carl Vinson was also taking Tigers back to San Diego, so they had to make some more room for all the extra passengers.

I got the electrician that was giving me a tour to take a picture of me on the flight deck with the control tower in the background.

Carriers always need some planes that have expanded radar capability. It was also cool to learn that pretty much all the aircraft can fold their wings. I didn't know that the F-18s could do that, but it is possible to help save room. 

Onto other things, I had some extended family come in this weekend from the Bay Area in California. It was great seeing them and hanging out with them on Sunday. I also got to meet some more extended family that is on the island. Second cousins and more extended.....family trees can get so complicated if you think too much on them. I'm going to see if I can meet them at the USS Arizona memorial when they go before they leave later this week. 

Work related, we finally got cleared to go back into testing Saturday night! So exciting, that means things will start to pick up again. I had the chance to go back to classes, but I would rather stay on the project and learn/see things. It's alright in the end, I'm still "behind" in classes according to our training coordinator (which in my opinion does a horrible job), so one more class isn't going to kill me too much. Besides, I won't be alone in this one, there will be five others that will be behind as well. 

Hawaii also celebrated King Kamehameha day this past Friday and Saturday. The birth of the king that united the islands. There was a big lei ceremony on Friday at the statue downtown. Most of the state employees had the day off as well. So the traffic was actually pretty nice for once. On Saturday, I as going to go watch the parade, but started watching it on TV. Following the parade, there were activities that were down at Kapiolani park, which I was going try to go to before work. Well plans changed because the traffic was just absolutely horrible. Also, the parade lasted for like 3 hours. A ridiculously long, longer than the ever present Golden parades during the summer. 

lots of lightning

So last week, I got a two day weekend which was very nice since I hadn't had a real "weekend" in about a month. I got a second weekend this past weekend which was pretty sweet. I went and saw X-Men: First Class with some friends. I would have to say that it wasn't the best that it could have been...actually quite poor on the wowness of the movie. Other than work though, I haven't been doing very much. I did end up meeting Keano on Saturday because the first two attempts were a bust (Thursday, Keano slept in, Friday it was storming like mad). Saturday, well interesting thing. We wanted to eat at Eggs N Things, but it was crowded (I guess it's pretty popular) so we ended up going to the Crepe House down in Waikiki. The other interesting thing that happened this weekend down in Waikiki was the Honolulu Pride Parade. Interesting indeed.

Thunderstorms. They are one things that I really enjoy for one thing. The thing though is, I don't necessarily like being woken up at 0500 by the thunder. In Colorado, we normally don't get thunderstorms till the evening or afternoon which is really nice. Here though in Hawaii, it can be all over the place. The last weekend, we had them in the morning, in the afternoon, and also in the evening. I believe on Friday, the thunder that I know of started at 0500 and lasted till about 1100. Yeah, six hours of thunder and rain. The thunder actually shook the walls and the windows of my place, it was pretty sweet actually when you think about it. Since, I'm at work I cannot actually post any pictures or a movie, so when I get back to my place and remember, I will post a movie and hopefully some pictures.

I might expand on this later (as in tomorrow) if I get around to it....