26

So, I have to admit, I've been both busy and lazy and haven't posted anything in a few weeks. I guess I just get lazy and don't want to spend the time to write anything. I've also been bad about uploading pictures and stuff to my computer to add to these, so that's another reason why I haven't written anything.

In the past few weeks, I went on a whale watching cruise and sunset cruise. It was pretty cool. We saw about 10 different humpback whale (I believe) and the company even had a hydrophone so we got to hear the humpback whale while they were under water.

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but I also went scuba diving in the past weeks. I got to hear the whales underwater as well. The bad thing about scuba was that my underwater case for my camera decided to develop a very small leak at pressures (as I looked later when trying to dry out everything, it was because of a small piece of lint). I got all the pictures from the camera, but I haven't been able to get the camera to work yet. I decided to also join the craze and buy a Go Pro. I got the outdoor Hero2 edition.

I also turned 26 this past week. Yes, I know I'm getting pretty old. It was a good time. I went out with friends for dinner. Had some bad reaction with either something that I ate, the tequila, or a combination of both. Anyways, it ended up in a small mess. I also went out to a night club afterwards with some friends. my ears are still ringing though from the music. It is so much better at clubs when you have a date to dance with. My roommates are pretty awesome though. They all went out with me and my friends for dinner and then also one went out to the club with me afterwards.

One of my roommates also has "adopted" a small bird yesterday. He almost stepped on it when getting out of his car, and has been caring for it since. It is doing a lot better since I first saw it. He has been feeding it, and keeping it warm, but putting a warm water bath under another container and then wrapping it in towels and the like. It seems to being doing much better now.

I have to say, I will try to get to adding some pictures and all. But these next few weeks are going to be sparse since I'm studying for the trifecta of last written tests to become qualified by the Navy to work on their reactors. There is so much stuff to remember and to keep straight. So that is what I will be doing the next couple weeks. I hope to leave the island the day of taking that test, but I have to make sure the date doesn't move, so I haven't bought any tickets yet. That's all for now though.

Pro Bowl

I know i've been a bit lazy the last few weeks. I don't have the motivation to write things right now. For some reason I've also been quite tired recently.

Quick overview of this last week. Friday, went out with co workers to Home Bar and Grill. Saturday, went scuba diving and then helped a friend move across the island. Sunday, I volunteered at the Pro Bowl official Tail gate party and also went to the Pro Bowl. I have some pictures from scuba and the Pro Bowl, which I will try to get up sometime soon.

Dr. Martin Luther Jr. Weekend

Three day weekend! It's hard to remember what I did this last week since, it seems like the week is going by both slowly and fast. Saturday, I spent about 2 hours surfing at the beach and just relaxing outside when I could. Sunday, after church I went to the Pacific Aviation Museum of Ford Island. The museum still needs a bit of work, but it isn't bad for being only a couple of years old. Monday, I tried going scuba diving, but the conditions were bad so the company cancelled the trip. I'm trying to reschedule it for some time. I ended up seeing the Martin Luther King Jr. parade though in Waikiki. Part of it was good, although some of it I didn't understand why they were in the parade. I have pictures from this weekend, but I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet. And yes, this is not very informative.

New Year, New plans

So, I flew home on Tuesday, found out that we had class that day, great right, missed one day of work and have to make up 4 hours of class. Oh well. It wasn't that bad actually, well I hope at least. The rest of the week went by pretty fast since it was like 3 days at work! On the weekend, I went hiking on the North shore at Keana point with a friend. I didn't realize that it was a somewhat long hike. If you want, you can hike around the tip. It's also one of those places that you can go "4 wheeling". I had to avoid getting hit by cars. The preserve though at the tip was pretty cool. The preserve is for these pretty large birds seen below. 

There is a small "lookout" at the point, but I thought the view was the main thing that was awesome. You can see the West side of the island from there, and if you look the other way, you can see the North side of the island. 

The water view was pretty nice. There were tide pools all over the place and the waves were a decent size. I need to get the photo from my friend that he took of me, he is just a bit slow on sending it to me. 

On our way back, we saw a monk seal come up from the ocean onto land. It was pretty cool to see it come out of the water. If you look closely, you can see it. It kinda blends in with the sand and rocks in the foreground. 

I also totally forgot that I was suppose to be at my "Uncle's" birthday party. I was about to order dinner with my friend at a Saimen place when my other uncle called to ask where I was. Well, needless to say, we had to leave the restaurant and I had to go home, change clothes to something decent and then rush down to town to get to dinner. I actually only missed the soup and salad part of the meal, but I quickly caught up. Yep, it was a good time with the family and extended family

Lastly, I finally got a used surfboard last night. I was going to get it for $50, but when I went out there to meet the seller, she ended up giving it to me for free! Now I just have to get a leash for it.

2012

So I missed last week. A combination of being lazy and at home and not really having a computer with me since I was traveling all added up to not getting a post written. I left Hawaii on the red eye flight on the 21st and got into Denver the 22nd. It was a pretty nice flight. Newer Continental plane compared to the overused and horrible United planes that I'm used to. The only bad thing (but also was a blessing) was that the TV monitor was broken for my seat. Well I got to sleep instead, so I think that was better.

My sister got me a massage for Christmas so I actually used it that Friday since I wasn't sure what I would be doing after Christmas. It was pretty good, not the best, nor the worst that I have had. I then traveled to San Diego with my family to spend Christmas with my grandparents and to celebrate their anniversary (Christmas Eve). I had a great time down in San Diego, although we had some problems with the hotel. Now when you make a reservation, do you not notify people when you make a change to the reservation? Well that's what happened to us. I guess the assistant manager at the Residence Inn extended the room for the people staying in the room we were going to have and then changed our reservation to two separate rooms right next together without regard to call and let us know that that was happening. It was horrible when we found out since it was like 9pm when we were trying to check in. The poor guy had to call around to find us an equivalent room.

Christmas day was nice and relaxing. My grandparents and Uncle, Aunt and cousins came over to the hotel room to eat dinner and to celebrate Christmas. My aunt makes some excellent food. Ahh, I could eat pretty much anything she cooks.

The day after Christmas we went to Sea World. I have a pass that I can go pretty much all of 2012, so I might have to make a stop in San Diego to go next year. Also, I also try to get a military discount but the lady at the ticket window actually read the card and said it was only for active military. So, I have a beef with that. Granted I am thankful that military people sacrifice their time and their lives to keep our freedom, but I think if you have a goven't ID that says you work in an affiliation with the armed services, we should also be eligible for benefits that the military people get. One we keep everything working in tip top order so they can do their job. If we didn't do the work, they wouldn't be able to effectively serve.

So Sea World, ever since the Shamu accident at the Florida Sea World, the shows have lost its glamour and awesomeness. The trainers don't really interact with the animals in the tanks like they used to, such as riding the animals, and then also getting thrown into the air by the animals. It really is quite sad. It's more like a theatrical story with more video pre done than any actual animal training. Another thing is that the shows all look sexist since most of the trainers that are seen are women. Nothing wrong with women, but in the past there used to be an equal amount of men and women that did each show. The prices for food though were not outrageous at all surprisingly. There are still good deals that can be found if you look for them. My sister went around the park collecting different smash pennies (well ones she liked at least).

I will have to add pictures of the shows later when I can download the pictures from my camera to the computer.

I did get to go skiing once when I was here in Colorado. I went with my friend David Do and his brothers to Winter Park. It's been sad on the amount of snow though that the mountains have seen. For some reason, this year, Denver has seen more snow than the mountains. Oh side note before I forget again, when I landed in Denver from Hawaii, it was snowing and 21 degrees. We had a "white Christmas" in Denver this year. Back to skiing. The snow was alright, though it was icy and most of Mary Jane wasn't open at all which was a shame. I had a good time though and I would say we skied for about 6 hours. A good amount of time. I did get a military discount at Winter Park.

While I was here, I also got to catch up with some friends that I haven't seen in a long time. I met up with Pearl Shields, a friend from high school, for breakfast one day. I also got to catch up with some friends at church and just see what's new with them and their lives. It was also interesting to note that there were a fair amount of my friends that got engaged in the last few weeks. Great for them.

I went downtown for New Years Eve. It was pretty crazy down there. It was pretty cold too. Good thing the 35+ mph winds stopped by the time it was night. I took the light rail from over by my house (my dad and sister dropped me off after going to church) down into town. I didn't realize that there was a concert at the convention center either which I guess kept people from getting too drunk and on the roads. I met up with my friend that was at Denver Christmas Conference (Chris Bostic) and got to catch up with him before he went to the final session for the night and the New Years party that they were having. I ended up walking 16th street mall a few times from end to end and trying to stay warm and awake till midnight. They had a TV and camera set up at 16th and Champa and I ended up down there before ringing in the New Year. I made it onto the big screen a few time when we were all waiting for the new year. After ringing in the new year, fireworks went off at both ends of the mall. I do have to say the fireworks were a bit lame.....I guess I've just been spoiled by awesome firework shows when I was in college. I did have an interesting and random thing happen to me after the fireworks were done and everyone was dispersing. So while I was getting ready to leave, someone came up and asked if my name was Josh, and I said yes. She then asked if my last name was Lau and I was like yes. Anyways, she remembered me from a conference that we had met at like 4 years ago, which is pretty cool. Amanda went to Northern Arizona. Anyways that was my random occurrence within the first hour of the new year.

Like I said, I got dropped off at the light rail station, so I decided to stay with friends who were at DCC instead of trying to battle my way onto the light rail back home and wait for my sister to pick me up at the station. I ended up going to the dance and party at DCC for a while with my friend Karman, who I was going to stay with. I saw some of the Mines people. I do have to comment that there were a lot less than in previous years that were at the conference. I also saw Michael Ehrenfried there, who I met my freshmen year and he is the volunteer staff person at Mines for Cru. Anyways, we had about as much interaction that I have had after the first year with him. So very comforting that he doesn't care to catch up. Anyways, I got really close to the speakers at one point and my ears were ringing for a while after.

I had breakfast with Karman in the morning before my dad picked me up and Karman going to the last sessions of DCC. It was great catching up with him and Bostic while I was able to at DCC. Now to today, Monday, I ended up going to Golden to hang out and meet with people there. I met David and Evan at Chipotle for lunch, although I had to wait like 30 min for them to show up. I think they were playing video games and lost track of time. I also got to see Steven Bates and my friend Jeff. I wasn't planning on seeing Jeff, but he came to pick up some food for his wife who was working. I got to catch up with both of them briefly. I was going to climb South Table as well with some other friends, but I ended up staying at Chipotle talking longer than I was expecting.

I got a tour of the new expansion fo the Brown Building, it's a pretty nice building actually. I also saw the new center connecting building of Weaver Towers. Personally, the new connection is the only thing awesome about Weaver Towers now (besides the new windows that you can open in Weaver). I think that they should tear down each tower and build something modern to go with the new center piece that they are building. It would be a better investment and use of the land. I also went around campus to see the construction and anyone that was around. I found out that they are doing "class" photos now either when they do the M climb or sometime with CSM101 gathered. All the freshmen are "marched" into the year that they are suppose to graduate in. A Pizza Hut Express is also being put into the Digger Den. The new petroleum hall is coming along though. My guess it should be done in time for next school year. Petroleum will finally get out of Alderson!!! I went back to the His House with David and Evan and watched some music videos. I was going to see my friend Chris, but he and his wife was still up in Idaho Springs, so I wasn't going to be able to see them at all. I did end up seeing Karma, DStew, Drew, Drew's new gf and his cousin. Wes also ended up showing up at the house right before I was about to leave, so I ended up staying longer than I was planning. I also saw Preston while I was walking around campus.

Overall, I had a great break and was glad that I got to come back to Colorado to visit family and friends. I don't know if I will come back next year though, only time will tell. I'm thinking about going to Asia sometime this year, so if you want to come, I'd be happy to have you along.

Almost CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Yes, less than a week away now! Can you believe how fast this year has gone by? It has just been totally amazing.

So of interest of what I found out last week on Thursday of all days, was that we had a potential government shutdown....again. I guess it was actually the 4th potential shutdown this year, but I had only heard of the other one that was in March. I personally think that the media was told not to report the dramatics of the shutdown so not to bring up the deficiencies of the US government Congress and their decision making (or lack of), but I could totally be wrong. Maybe just in the backwater fringes of the US (aka Hawaii), we don't get the news passed down to us. Anyways, the House and the Senate passed something and the US government is at least funded to the end of the year. I personally wouldn't have minded the extra time off if they didn't pass the budget extension.

Friday, I hung out with a different group of friends. We ended up going to Kakaaka Winter Wonderland and when I got there also realized that it was Eat the Streets. I guess since next week is Christmas, they decided to move Eat the Streets up one week and also put it in promo with the first weekend of the Winter Wonderland. So the Winter Wonderland, was let's just say, interesting. The synthetic ice was interesting to say the least. From the picture in the link above, you would think the rink would be a a decent size, well that was a wrong assumption for sure. It was actually pretty small. It was overall a good time with friends. I tried tacos at Eat the Streets while I was waiting for my friends. I had the taco sampler from Xtreme Tacos and then a curry taco from another truck. I put lime on the taco, but I don't think it was very good with they lime.

Saturday, I actually spent most of the day outside and with one of my roommates out at White plains beach over on Ewa side of the island. He has his mom in town and another friend and had a cook out with his friends from work. Basically it was a great time outside and away from work. 

Sunday, I went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The movie was actually really good for being the fourth movie in the series, and Tom Cruise being like 50+. The action was good as well and rottentomatoes.com gave it really good reviews (95%). I would highly recommend going to see the movie. I was also trying to see Sherlock Holmes (and today, I found out that my friends saw it on Friday....), so I'll see if I get around to seeing that later. 

Only two more days till I get to go back to Colorado :)

Time is flying

It's almost the end of the year! I will fill this in more tomorrow. I'll be coming back to Colorado just after Christmas. If you want to do anything, let me know.

Friday, I went out to Soul de Cuba which has amazing food. We were originally planning on going to JJ Dolan, but it was way too crowded and we weren't going to easily get a table for 9 there. There is a picture of what I had below. It was absolutely amazing. I was planning on having dessert, but I was too full, so I will have to try the dessert some other time. I will be going back there sometime.

Saturday, I had the finals for the Fall Ultimate league that I was in. It was pretty much 8 hours of playing ultimate. We won our first game, but we ended up losing our second game to the team that would end up winning it all. I was actually glad that we didn't win the second game because I don't know if my legs would have lasted another game. The final game though was pretty amazing, since they were tied until just before halftime (game to 15). After that though, my friend's team started pulling ahead with back to back scores. It was a good game. I ended up being the "official" score keeper. 

The league was having a end of season party at O'Toole's. I ended up going, and I was only planning on staying for a few years, but I ended up staying 4 hours. I did though end up talking my friend Rick into coming out. He brought some coworkers. It was also the pre-evening to his birthday, so after I left, I guess he ended up having a very fun time afterwards having a bit too many drinks. Sunday, I was going to hang out with friends, but I had to work the recording since the boss was sick and I needed to be there. It ended up working since they canceled on surfing and just had lunch instead. Lunch was a Todai's which is an all you can eat seafood and sushi buffet. If you go on your birthday, it is free for you (with proof of your birthday and at least 3 paying friends). It was a good time and all and good social time. 

I went into to study a for a few hours for my test that was today (tuesday). I also go a massage which was absolutely amazing, although I am pretty tight in a lot of the muscle groups. I think I'm going to have to get more more frequent or until things are as tense. 

One other thing, it is the rainy season here and it has been raining pretty well this last week. Also, when it rains, all traffic seems to stop and functionality of driving, well sensible driving that is. 

Let Christmas time begin!

This year just continues to fly by. Man, it's already the first full week of December, can you believe it? I sure can't. Last week was the last week I have Ultimate frisbee on Friday. Thank goodness because driving all the way across town to play at the same time as rush hour(s) traffic is just a pain. I did though talk to three people on the phone while I was in traffic. It was pretty good catching up with people. Interesting thing though when I was driving to Ultimate was that I saw 6 ambulances on the freeway. Yes, six. It was strange to see two at first, then I kept seeing them. For some reason there were a lot of people that needed ambulances Friday night. Hopefully people weren't getting too crazy pre-gaming the First Friday celebration.

We ended up winning our second game of Ultimate after losing the first. It was also interesting to find out that we were play to 13 (instead of 11) during the second game, when we were at 11. Thanks for the horrible communication of the captain. Thank goodness I only have one more week of having him as my captain, well at least for this league. He is a great player, just a horrible captain and team leader. I didn't get home until after 2300 that night as well. Needless to say, I was pretty tired by the time I got to bed. The best thing was though, the next morning, I wasn't sore at all. I must have stretched enough after playing!

Saturday, as I stated earlier, I wasn't sore at all in the morning. I ended up going into work for a few hours to study after taking an easy morning. I was going to go to Electric beach with some friends but when I got out of work, I found that they had decided to reschedule because of adverse conditions. I decided not to go back into work to study, but to instead go downtown to watch the Honolulu light parade and the lighting of the tree down in town. I didn't know that a parade could last 2 hours. Yes, 2 hours, and it wasn't even on par with the Macy's parade or other large parades. Granted it was still good for being in Hawaii. The lights for the tree were LEDs as well. I couldn't figure out where they got the tree though, they had a sound system set up, but a very bad setting. You had to be right next to the tree inorder to hear anything that they were saying. As you can see from the pictures, I was across the street from the tree. You'll also note that there is a very annoying bright light on the right side, yes, they did some bad planning on keeping that light on when the lit the tree. If only they had people thinking ahead would things be better out here for events.

I think the best "float" that I saw was the garbage disposal guys. Yes, if you look closely enough, those are Angry Birds. It was the only float that I took a picture of, so I guess it must have stuck out pretty well for me. I think the best band was the fire department's bag pipe band. All the high school bands didn't do it for me, and besides, bag pipes are amazing. 

I think though the most exciting thing that I learned this previous week that one of my good friends had accepted Christ I guess between the time I left and when I talked to him this past week. I believe it was a while ago, but I just found out this past week. It was pretty exciting and all. I'm glad that he found Christ for himself and that he came to that conclusion himself instead of myself or others just forcing religion on him. I guess we just have to remember that we Christians influence the lives of our friends around us by the things we say, the actions we do, and the things that our friends pick up that we have no idea that they are watching/looking for. I just pray that I can be a good witness to my friends at work, which sadly I have to say, most dont' care anything for religion, and especially God. I just pray that I can reach out to my friend Rick, who I have a heavy heart for right now. 

Thanksgiving

I have a lot to be thankful for and I take a lot of things for granted. For one, freedom to do what I want to do along with religious freedom. Two things that I know I take for granted. There are plenty of other things that I should be thankful for as well. Friends, family, and a job that I can go to every day. But most of all, I need to remember to be more thankful to God and what Jesus did on the Cross.

I can write about what else happened this past week, but it would just be minimal compared to what we should be thankful for every day of the year, not just one day of the year.

In a cloud

The last week was, let's just say a bit tiring. Work was pretty good, took a test, preparing for another test that is next week. That's just my life right now, test after test after test. This Friday, instead of going out to dinner with friends, I instead went to eat at my Aunt and Uncle's. I ended up having three helpings of food plus two desserts. I was pretty full. 

I also went to a memorial service for my grandmother's sister. She past away at the beginning of the month. The memorial service was very nice. It was graveside and short and a Christian ceremony which was uplifting. I hope I get to see Aunty May again someday. After the funeral, we went to have lunch which was pretty good. We only had I believe 4 courses instead of 7 which was good, since we had left overs as it was. I didn't go back to work after the funeral which was pretty nice actually.

Saturday was my very much lazy day. I didn't do much. I gave a double of platelets at the blood bank and then just went down to the mall to walk around and such. I saw some guys doing some parkour at the park across from the mall and watched them for a while. Other than that, I spend the day being very lazy which was actually very enjoyable. 

Sunday I went and hiked Mt. Ka'ala which is the highest peak on O'ahu. I actually didn't make it to the top on Sunday because we were climbing in a cloud with it raining on us and we got to a point where we didn't know where the trail went, so we decided for safety reasons, not to continue until it was better conditions to try to hike it again. The views and the scenery were amazing though. It was so green and nice on the hike, well at least at the bottom part of the hike. As you got higher, it started getting more wet since we were climbing into a cloud. I don't know much else to say about it. I'm not really wanting to write a lot this week.....sorry. 

Enjoy Thanksgiving this Thursday. Remember to be thankful for everything that has been given to you. 

 

3 Day weekend! Thank you Veterans!

Three Day weekend!!!!! Whoops, probably most of you didn't know that it was a three day weekend. All of those holidays I never knew existed at all because of Mines. And now working for the government, yes, I get to know more holidays and I get them off :D. So Veteran's Day, did you remember to thank a Veteran on Veteran's Day? The freedom we have is paid by their sacrifice, we need to remember that as a nation again and thank our heroes that are in the military. Anyways, APEC was also this week. Crazy business and all. The Asia-Pacific Economic Conference brought diplomats from all over the Asia Pacific rim. Traffic was a nightmare, still is a bit since President Obama is still on the island until tomorrow. I avoided going into town at all costs and where ever they were planning on going on the island to avoid the massive traffic backups and all. 

Thursday night, I went out with friends to Sweet Home Cafe, a very delicious hot pot place with an amazing owner that was very friendly. This little whole in the wall place was great and it was great hanging out with friends. Best thing was, being in town, there was absolutely no traffic at all, which was a blessing in itself. 

Friday, I had the day off! I wanted to go on a hike, but my friend had to work, which sucked for both of us. So instead of the one hike that I wanted to do, I did two others instead. I climbed Koko Head again, and I did it pretty fast and without stopping so much this time. I am slowly getting back into shape! Yes! The second hike I did was over in Lanikai and the slang term for the hike is Pillbox. It is a really easy hike. I don't see how the website said it would take 1 hr and 30 minutes to do the hike. It did give a fantastic view of the Windward side of the island. It turned out to be a very fantastic day, slightly windy, but gorgeous none the less. I also though about it, I should have tried kite surfing, I guess I will save that for another time. 

Friday night, I went to Boston's Pizza with my roommate. The slice of pizza is below. Yes, a slice of their pizza is a quarter of the entire pizza. It's pretty large and it is very good pizza. I had the spinach, garlic and artichoke pizza. I also helped my roommate study for the GRE by helping her with the flash cards. Doing this, I realized that I have forgotten a lot of vocab words and that the English Language has some very weird words to describe things. I think we went through about 200 vocab words that night. 

With President Obama being here for the APEC conference, Air Force One was also here. I didn't feel bad this time taking a picture since a lot of other military people were taking pictures as well over here. I have pictures of the other dignitary planes, but I dont' know if I will post them. Russia definitely had a lot of planes, and it was just interesting to see how other countries fly their presidents. Pretty much, it looks like they have a plane that is chartered for the President, except for Japan, they seem to have their own planes for the President and other important people. But China flew in an Air China plane, Philippines, in a Philippines plane, etc. Anyways, I believe most of the representatives and their parties left on Sunday or today. 

I also also remembered that my cousin got married this weekend in the Philippines, so I wish him a happy, healthy marriage. It would have been awesome if I was able to go to the wedding, but the timing wasn't good for me to go. I did however enjoy my three day weekend. I spent most of Sunday at the beach and part of Saturday. Overall, it was a very restful and relaxing weekend. 

Dub Step

Sometimes I think it is hard to remember what I did the last week, just because it seems like everything is running together all the time. Besides the fact that this year has just flown by like none other, I do have to say it has been a great year so far.

Friday I went out to Formaggio's in Kailua with some friends. It was a nice restaurant and I got the savory lamb. It was absolutely amazing. The wine special that I got was actually pretty good as well. A lighter red wine that didn't have a strong after taste kicker. The wine made it all the way from Spain as well. Even better was that our waiter didn't even card me or my friend, but he carded my other two friends that got something to drink. It was pretty amusing. Saturday, I had Ultimate again. I am sad to say that I got another blister. :( It is only the second one though and the first one at that was from the first week. That I think is pretty good actually. I also brought beers for the Black and Tans  (our frisbee team's name is Black and Tan) and I only got carded once when buying the beer. (I bought the beer from two different stores). After Ultimate, my friend Rick invited myself and a few others to his place in Kaneohe. His place is actually pretty amazing. Great view of the bay over there and right next to the freeway entrance and the marine base. The only down side to living over there is the drive, but other than that, it was a nice place. I had a good time over there, we didn't do much though, just hung out and talked, and ate food.

Sunday, after church, I went into work to study for my test that was today (Monday). I unlike most of coworkers, only stayed 3 hours. Some of them stayed 8+ hours yesterday and the same amount on Saturday. Insane I think actually. Other than that, I found that this week is just going to be horrible with traffic because of APEC coming to Hawaii. Yay for insane people rioting, protesting, and overall not contributing to society in any useful way. The Asian Pacific Economic Conference should be interesting except for the fact that they will be making the horrible traffic even worse. Oh well, a good reason to stay out of Town and Waikiki this weekend.

Also, Rick also got dub step stuck in my head all day Sunday when I was studying. I guess it wasn't the worst thing that could have been stuck in my head. I just am trying to catch up on sleep now since I didn't get a lot this past weekend.

Fun in the sun.

Last week I "finished" another section of classes. Only a few more now, then a round of tests (all day tests that is) and then it should be home free.....all theoretically of course. My instructor told us today that we are in the homestretch now, which is quite comforting actually. I know I'm weird.

Last week was Eat the Streets again, I had some good food. The theme was "Latin", which I do have to say, Hawaiian style food and Latin, don't really go all that well together. I did have some interesting food though. I only took pictures of two things I got though. I had a burrito-pizza with their "mild" green chili. I wouldn't really say that their green chili was "mild", it had a pretty good kick to it. 

The second thing I got was actually quite amazing and I was very surprised by it. I got a Hawaiian Enchilada with Kalua pork inside. Surprising, it was very healthy and not very heavy on anything. Then again, I got it from a food truck that was about healthy eating. I think that was the best deal that I got ($6) for that. I also tried blue crab and lobster stew, lobster ravioli with pesto sauce, goat tacos, chimney cake, and spicy macaroni and cheese. (I think that is all, I might have forgotten something....) It was good times with friends though and it wasn't as crowded as last month. 

I also had Ultimate games on Saturday. I showed up a bit lat this week since I was down in town with my roommates. We went to go sign our lease for our place and we went out to eat lunch after. The place we went to is JJ Dolan's, and the pizza there was pretty good and all. Overall it was a good time with the roomies. Went and played Ultimate and then afterwards went to a coworkers Halloween party at his house. It was somewhat crazy, but not too crazy. I guess last year the cops were called, this year though the cops weren't called (well at least when I was there).

Sunday, I went to church and then went to the Windward side to a beach on the marine base, Pyramid Rock Beach. It was actually a pretty fun time with friends and then also meeting roommates of my friend Rick. The beach was a good time. The lifeguards had closed the water for a while due to rough surf and bad conditions, so we buried Sean in the sand (he actually wanted to be buried). We then tossed around a frisbee till ocean was opened back up to us. After that, all bets were off since we were boogie boarding, surfing (just Rick), and body surfing. There was also a monk seal on the beach (which you have to stay away from if they are on the beach). The waves were still pretty rough though even after they opened the water back up. We had a good time though. We took a picture (sans Rick) before I left. Mega is on the far right, Sean with the hat, Bryan in the background, and Ashley on the right. I should have stayed longer, but I had already committed to going to a movie with some other friends in town. I saw 50/50 with them. Not bad of a movie actually.

As promised, these are some pictures of food from Shokudo Japanese Restaurant and Bar. The top is the Lobster Dynamite Roll and the bottom is Honey Toast. 

Can you believe October is almost gone?

This year has just flown bye. Where has it gone? So we are almost at the end of October. I guess next week technically is the last week, but who is going to remember Halloween? 

Last week I had the opportunity to shadow my boss. Well, my bosses boss boss. The head of Nuclear power at Pearl. It was a great experience. It was great to know that there is a senior manager at the shipyard that actually cares for the betterment of the shipyard and the long term stability of the shipyard. It's not all about hiring just the locals and all or just not hiring at all. He at least sees the need to continue to hire new "blood" into the shipyard since there is going to be a high retirement turnover coming up in the next few years. Not only did he care about the people aspect, but also the environment and the community basis as well. Overall, I had a great time shadowing him, and I got breakfast and lunch out of the ordeal. Pretty nice bonus I think. 

Friday, I went out with friends again to Shokudo Japanese Restaurant and Bar and then somehow got talked into going to Apartment 3 afterwards (a lounge). The dinner was a great time. There were 13 of us total that went and we just have an overall great time. The food is really good there and decently priced. If you like Japanese food, I would suggest it. Apartment 3 was....interesting. It wasn't that busy actually which was surprising. It was a good atmosphere and good times with friends. There was only 7 of us that went there after dinner. 

Saturday I had a nice relaxing day. I haven't had one of those in a long time either. It was such a blessing. Just being lazy and all. USC beat Notre Dame and then also UH won their homecoming game. I watched a bit of the UCS/ND game, but zero of the UH game. 

Sunday, I had ultimate league and we played savage. It sucked, best thing was that we only had to play 2 games instead of 3 games. We technically only had 5-6 players so we were had to borrow some players. Playing savage though is pretty horrible since you have no substitutes, but I guess you get to play more so that was a plus. I also got to hang out on the sidelines with some friends afterwards when some teams had to play a third game (makeup game from one of the weeks before). 

I will try to remember to put some pictures of the food from Friday, but I don't guarantee anything. 

Relaxing weekend

I have to admit, I'm going to be lazy this week since I don't really want to spend time writing a lot or really thinking in general. Last week was I guess normal. I went and gave blood on Friday, so that meant I got to leave after working 5 hours and get paid for the last 3 hours. Yes, pretty sweet deal I think that I get paid to go give blood. I do have to say that I think fall is slowly coming to Hawaii. The weather is getting a big cooler at night and it is starting to rain more. That's the only way I can tell that fall is here in Hawaii.

I went to dinner with friends at Spicy Ahi and BBQ Friday night. The food was actually pretty good and we had a good time. The bad thing was that we had to wait a while for a table because one of group members had to stay and watch the UH game (they lost by one point). We then went to Aiea bowl afterwards and went bowling. I had one of my worst games and the the second game was pretty good and I didn't have any alcohol like my friends. Some of my friends had some drinks and yeah they got a bit wild, nothing too bad though. It was a late night though, staying up till 1am.

Saturday, I played Ultimate. We lost two games, but won the third game. My friend Donald hurt his knee though and it seems that he might be out for a while, maybe the rest of the league, which would really suck for us and for him. My friend Rick also happened to volunteer me to take a guy and his bike down into town to UH university. Well, he didn't do it on purpose, he is just really nice and all. He felt bad though that he volunteered me. I actually didn't mind too much. I didn't have much to do the rest of the night and all. The guy that I took home, his name was Alex and he is an Urban Planner master's degree candidate at UH. Pretty interesting. He hasn't played much ultimate so we could relate on the fact that the "regulars" tend to leave us "new" people out.

Sunday, went to church, then went to study for a while at work, finally coming back and hanging out with my roommates watching Walking with the Dead. It was pretty much a laid back Sunday. I was waiting to see if my friend Rick was doing something, but he never called and all. I found out today that he went kayaking with his new roommate, but it's alright. Having a laid back Sunday was very nice. Walking with the Dead, interesting TV show that is on AMC. Although, I think the show is on the stupid side and somewhat predictable. The ending of the episode was sad though, the young kid got shot when he was going to try to pet a deer with a full rack on his head. I don't think the producers know how deer do not allow people to get too close to them. Back to the end of the episode, the deer gets show and the bullet hits the kid. Like I said, it was a sad ending.

I have also decided to talk to the people at church about relearning how to run the sound board or to see at least why they don't want me to learn. Basically find the politics behind the situation, despite how much I hate politics. I guess I will have to play some. Also, prayer still for Rick and my other friends to be open to the Gospel.

Columbus Day weekend

I don't know when it happened, but it seems that Columbus day has been renamed "Columbus Discovers Day" or "Discovers Day". I think it is to appease more people or something like that. Anyways, I get to have a three day weekend, so I should be glad about that. I think also this was the first holiday in a while that I was not working and I was actually on island. I do have to say it was great to just relax.

I guess I should start with Friday, I went to out with friends to eat at a french restaurant down on the edge of Chinatown. I guess it also spaced us that it was also First Friday down there in Chinatown. In other words, there was a lot of traffic, a lot of people, and a lot of drinking going on at the bars down there in that area of town.

So the restaurant was called Du Vin. Pretty nice restaurant and good atmosphere. I was even surprised with five people, we didn't even have to wait for a table. They had one all set up for us, which again, I was surprised by. I had the roast pork chops, which I do have to say was cooked quite excellent. We also shared for the table, baked brie and escargot. Yes, most of you probably haven't had escargot, but really it is great. I also ate some mussels for the first time, not bad actually. For dessert I had their goat cheese cheesecake. Sorry about the not so great focused picture, it was bad lighting and all. It was delicious though. I would definitely go back to that restaurant again.

We also went to watch Real Steel (movie about a robot) after dinner. I do have to say that the movie wasn't that bad. Somewhat predictable and not great on the plot, but not a horrible movie overall. After the movie, on my way back home, I got the wonderful, fortunate opportunity to go through a DUI check. The police were definitely writing up people that night. Probably due to the first Friday celebration. The cop I talked to apologized for the inconvenience of the traffic and the slow going. I think that made my night right there. 

Saturday, I played Ultimate in the league. It so happened that only our first game counted this weekend since most people were in Denver for regionals. Most of the people were like "oh man, poor people in Denver right now, it's so cold". I was like "I wish I was there right now!". I heard that I missed the first snow and all. Dang it. The second and third games was just pickup games, I played in one, then left early to have dinner with friends. I had two options.....eating with coworkers in the department or eating with friends that I started work with last year. I decided to eat with the latter. It was great, I had so much food though. We ate at Gyu-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ style restaurant and had lots and lots of food. After we went to go see Ides of March. I didn't like the movie very much. It was a slow movie, more of how politics work and the workings behind politics. I did get a very good picture of what George Clooney thinks about politics and his political stances are though. 

Sunday, I went to church and then decided to go hiking with my friend Rick and his friend Ashley on the Windward side of the island. We went hiking on the Olomana trail which starts over by the Royal Hawaiian Golf course. 

The hike wasn't that bad actually. A combination of rainforest, desert, alpine, and just windy at the top. It was great actually. The picture below is a part that reminded me of Colorado. I don't know why there was random pine trees on the trail, but there was. Also in the picture is Rick and Ashley. 

This was a part way up on the trail. You got to look out on the Windward side of the island and just see how green it is. It's pretty much green all the time on that side of the island. Lucky them getting all that rain all the time. Lots of rain, but I haven't seen many mosquitoes, thank goodness. 

So there are actually three peaks to the "mountain" range. The picture below shows the third peak from first peak (not the actual summit though). 

 So I made it to the top of the first peak and took some pictures. You can see the second peak down on the left (that green bump above the guys heads) and then the third peak out in the distance. It was quite windy up there, also quite nice to cool off. It made for a great air conditioner. Although, if you weren't used to the cold, it would make you too cold. I took some panaroma pictures as well. One with Rick in it is of the coast and the second was the side looking more towards the "mountain range" that separates the Windward side with the rest of the island. You can definitely see the green and how nice it is on that side of the island.

I think my only regret on the hike was that I didn't get to talk to Rick about religious things and of Faith and God. There will be more times though for sure. I just need to find the time to do it. I think he is open to it. I just need to keep on praying that he would be open to the Spirit. After we walked, ran, climbed down the peaks, we rewarded ourselves by going to Lanikai Juice, a great little place over in Kailua. We also got there right before it got crowded. I had the bowl with bananas and granola, Ashley had the one with the bananas and pineapple (the one with the spoon), and Rick had the final one. They were also very delicious and I would definitely go there again if I was on that side of the island. 

Lastly on this very long post, Monday. I just went and relaxed on the beach for most of the day with some friends. We also ran into a predator friend that had washed up on the beach (unfortunately he was dead). Other than that, the day was pretty uneventful. I would say that the baby shark was about 3.5-4 feet long. 

Fun times

Well, I had the great opportunity to hang out with friends this weekend, enjoy the outdoors and just enjoy and be very productive. So work is going alright, I am staying late everyday so that I can study and hopefully keep caught up with things. Electrical systems isn't really my thing at all, but I'm pushing through it. I just need to work on concentrating and using my time more effectively.

Now to the fun things, Friday evening I went to Eat the Streets down in town. It's a once a month event (last friday of the month) where there are a bunch of lunch truck type food available to try and eat. There actually was a great selection of food and I can't wait to go back for more at the end of this month. I think the most interesting thing that I saw was a Malasada burger. Yes, pretty interesting to say the least. It is hard to say what the best thing that I had though. Between the lychee pulled pork, or the ahi poki, ahh so many choices. It was great though since I went with a group of friends and we pretty much shared food, so I got to try more than one thing with the amount spent. Saturday, we decided to hike Koko Head. It was originally was going to be at 0700, but somehow we changed it to being a sunrise hike. Well I did make it up before the sunrise! It was a great hike and good times with friends. So just a few pictures....I know I have been slacking so I thought I would just fill this one with some pictures.

 

So I guess I should say who is who in the pictures, well the guy in the orange is my friend Rick, white shirt, Daniel, yellow shirt, Lauren, and grey shirt, Cate. I would have to say, it is great hanging out with everyone. I would like to say that if you could all pray for them it would be great. I had a good conversation with Rick on our way down from the hike, so it would be great if we could continue talking about God and the Bible if possible. After the hike, we went to breakfast at Koa Pancake House, which was pretty great and filling. We then headed off to the beach at Sandy's. We got pretty beat up though at Sandy's since the waves pretty much break on the shoreline. My friend Rick also hurt his shoulder so if you could pray that his shoulder would heal, that would be nice as well.

It was the second weekend of Ultimate. My hip has been hurting me so that was not very fun running on a hurt hip the entire time. We one game, but the lost the other two, although they were pretty close and we only had a few subs on our team. I also feel like my team captain isn't a very good captain at all. He doesn't lead by good example at all I feel.

Lastly, we had a guest speaker at church this Sunday. He was from Colorado, Fort Collins actually. It was a pretty good talk and a great message in how to share the gospel nice and easy and to see if you are growing in God as well. Five letters for each part. First, Growing in God. How do you know if you are growing in God.

1. Reading the Bible
2. Spending time in Prayer
3. Spending time in Worship
4. Fellowshipping with other believers
5. Witness to others

You need all of them, not just one to grow effectively. Now for the second part of sharing the Gospel. 

1. Heaven, that is a real place. 
2. Everyone has sinned and we need a savior
3. God sent His Son to be that Savior
4. Christ is that savior, the one that died for us and paid the price so that we could be saved
5. Faith in what you believe

His last illustration was that you can't have one or the other separately. We have to have both to have a strong growing relationship with God. You have one, it produces the other, and it will just strengthen the other. It is a working relationship in the end.