Aquarium resurrection!

Argh, so my aquarium's been overrun with algae for the last couple months. I think I got this strand when I got one of my best deals picking up a royal gramma and my two shrimp from a local reefer (that's what they call us on these forums). Then I also picked up a coral from him on a piece of rock that had a few strands of red fern-like stuff growing that I got. That turned out to be the worst. I can't even find the ricordea (the specific coral) in my tank anymore and I think that introduced the algae that I've been seeing:



About a month ago, I pulled out every piece of rock, yanked out the algae, tried to use a toothbrush to scrub them, and then stuck it back in. Unfortunately, this stuff is pretty nasty and grows like weeds, so this was the state of my tank about 12 hours ago:



To try and help with the cause, I purchased a hang on refugium, basically a place where you can specifically try to nurture some life; in my case it's to grow some algae in this location to take the nutrients out of the water and prevent the algae growth in the main tank by targetting the refugium with additional lighting. It's supposed to look something like this:



So I set it up yesterday and put a little bit of this algae called chaeto in it. It's also pretty nice because it serves as a moonlight at night... some light creeps into the tank and creates a pretty nice effect. So hopefully as this algae starts to grow, it will prevent it from growing elsewhere. In the meantime, the tank was a mess, so I started yanking out as much as I could. With any luck, I'll only need to do that a couple more times before the refugium starts taking over. In any event, it looks somewhat presentable again:

I will not throw my clothes on the floor...

Despite the wretched heat last weekend, my housemates and I spent some time re-organizing our living room area. Since Chang had moved in, I had been in and out for the next couple weeks, so all of his stuff was still sitting in the back room while we maintained status quo. But, we spent the whole afternoon cleaning out old junk, moving furniture around, and doing some general cleaning. The resulting configuration included the dual tv setup from Chang's old place (so we can play video games and watch tv at the same time) and dart board for additional fun and games. The fact that the room is now much nicer coupled with the fact that it's the coolest place in the house during this bloody hot period means that we hang out there more often than before.



I also took some time to clean my room. One thing I have never understood is the rationale behind making your bed. Don't you just end up messing it up again the next night to go to sleep? This is about as made as my bed gets. The bears are guarding my laptop from a sneaky Yahoo that lives in my house:



I even cleaned off my desktop of junk and wiped it down. Unfortunately, this pic also reveals a few random things hidden underneath the table, etc, but in general, this is *much* better than before :) The sign that gave this post its title is still hanging on my bookshelf...



Edit: The more I look at the pics, the more my room doesn't seem that clean. I guess it's just a matter of perspective that it used to be horrendous :)

Is the pen truly mightier?

Normally, I carry around my laptop to every meeting and use it to take notes so everything's already stored there. Then I can just go through and clean them up or look at them in more detail later on just on the computer. But yesterday since I had to walk across the street, I decided to just carry some pieces of paper and take notes on that when I met with folks and it was strangely liberating. I feel like I've broken free of the yoke of my laptop and returned to the roots of good ol' pen and paper.

Then again, I'm on my laptop again now. :)

London trip recap

What a whirlwind week.. a few days after coming back from Hawaii, took off to London for a trip for work. It was nice on the flight out to be in Economy Plus.. the extra inches of leg room make a pretty big difference and it was good that it was a direct flight.

While there, did some pretty important stuff like:

- Saw a sight here and there. Didn't have a lot of time between work to catch some places, but did manage to go on the London Eye, which is a fancy slow ferris wheel, but we did get a nice view of the Thames.





- Ate some good food. I'm more used to finding good places that are holes in the wall but have really good cheap food, but the wining and dining was not bad.

- Bought the new Harry Potter book an hour after it was available. In retrospect, I could have read and blogged about it before it was available back home, but I was too tired to read :) It's pretty good, but JK is definitely getting darker as she goes. Instead of one of the children's covers, elected for the "adult version"



On the way back, we ran late on our connection in NYC. Scheduled to have an hour or so to switch planes, we got in a half hour late, slogged through the immigration line, ran to another terminal, got through security again, and then to the farthest gate, but luckily they held the plane.

When we finally made it back, partook in the draining 2nd round of the SHHNHB. For those of you who want to get a leg up on the competition, go dominate Microsoft Hearts a little bit... in my boredom on the way home:

Goodbye, Grandpa

In a sad turn of events, my grandfather who was recently diagnosed with lymphoma passed away earlier tonight. As my brother remarked, we have been pretty lucky to not have experienced any deaths of extended family members we knew until now.

The most saddening part is that I know he lived a pretty amazing and eventful life, of which I know too little. But of what I do know, I'm thankful that he served for the Air Force in WWII, left a position of relatively high stature to come to the US and earn a living by cleaning houses, and yet was always generous with his friends and family. Here's a pic of part of his life that I didn't get to know:



He made it to 90 years old but had trouble hearing and seeing in recent years. But past the more recent memories where he was a shell of his former self, I remember him being very active for his age, eating healthy, always asking how things were going, and encouraging us through school. From relatives, I've heard stories of him picking me up from elementary school while I was in the Bay Area and buying my brother and I doughnuts. Hehe.. he definitely spoiled us. But with the pic in uniform, there was another pic of the man I remember fondly:



I'm somewhat confused by all the timing and circumstances that have surrounded this event.

1) I stayed a little later at work today and on my way out heard the piano playing, which by itself isn't an uncommon occurrence, but it happened to be Christian music. It was definitely a relaxing change to hear something like "You are my All in All" on my way out, which was about 10 minutes before my brother called with the news.

2) It also happened to occur during the ~3 days that I'm in town in between a vacation to Hawaii and business trip to London so I was able to witness it firsthand.

3) Finally, having recently gotten back in touch with Elaine, I looked at her blog and took a "What's your theological world view?" survey that included statements like, "It is possible that all may be saved in the end".

I'm somehow being challenged, but don't quite yet know how, but at least "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand under it" (1 Cor 10:13). So who knows, maybe something interesting will come out of this...

Back from Hawaii!!

I guess I'm the last person to write an account of our trip to Hawaii after Chang's initial telling and Roothie's subsequent followup. Since they covered most of the highlights, I'll focus on other random elements.

OAHU
We started the first day cruising around Oahu and taking the grand tour, stopping first by the Chinaman's Hat where I got in touch with my roots.



We then moved onto a beach at the North Shore where Chang and I jumped off of a rock formation roughly 10m high into the ocean. It was pretty funny going up there and seeing several people going crazy and doing flips while others clearly had been there for a while, contemplating the jump before deciding to delay the decision. The pictures from jumping can be found elsewhere, but there must have been something in the water because I started to tower over Chang.



Even Roothie got in on the action and we dwarfed the Changina tandem.



When we weren't jumping into the water, the rest of them were usually being somewhat scholarly and reading an assortment of material while I mostly just lounged around and slept.



Since it was ridiculously hot and humid, we picked up some shaved ice, waiting about a half hour in line for a popular place in North Shore. It definitely hit the spot and was a refreshing break.



On the way back, we stopped by the Dole plantation, but there wasn't much you could do there at a reasonable price (i.e. free or close to it), so we just walked around for a bit before I was forced to take a picture with a lame pineapple cutout.



The next morning, Ruth and I started off by going to Pearl Harbor, for which we had to wait an hour in line to get a ticket for three hours later. It was pretty interesting and moving though the actual memorial is a pretty small structure.

We then went around looking for boardshorts, of which I ended up getting two pairs: one from Local Motion and another from PacSun. I almost got a third on the last day in Maui, but resisted the tempation. I think it might have had something to do with Chang setting the over/under at 3. :)

Through the course of shopping, we dropped by the famous Waikiki beach. It was pretty nice, although somewhat crowded.



On our last day in Maui, we woke up really early to head to the popular snorkeling spot of Hanauma Bay. We didn't get an underwater camera so no fancy pics on that front. It was pretty nice; we got to see a lot of cool fish and the coral wasn't bad either when we moved away from the more popular areas. After seeing what some of the other snorkeling spots looked like, it's kinda sad that the main traffic area here was pretty much ruined and devoid of coral. Here's a pic of the area that shows how crowded it got.



Since it was the 4th that night, we rounded up the day with some more shopping before catching a sweet 20 minute fireworks show at the Ala Moana.

MAUI
After being entertained for the first part of our trip by Gina and Chang, Ruth and I headed over to Maui to spend the rest of our vacation.

We didn't do much the first day but lounge around a couple beaches and plan out the rest of our activities. We found a nice shaded area at a beach in Wailea, played some cards, and stayed around for the sunset.



Before that, we had stopped by a local surf store where they recommended a place called Da Kitchen to eat, which happens to also have a branch here in Mountain View, so we'll definitely be checking it out. I got the Loco Moco... a tasty concoction of hamburger patty covered with eggs and gravy. Mmm....



The next day, we started off by visiting the local aquarium at the Maui Ocean Center. It was really, really nice there. I wish my aquarium looked like one of the tanks that they had there! The pictures of the tanks didn't come out so good, but there was this cool camouflaged fish that we snapped a shot of.



Nearby there was an ice cream and cookie store and Ruth enjoyed the homemade ice cream sandwich that they put together for us.



This was also the day that we began our endless snorkeling adventures by heading out to Honolua Bay. This was one of the marine preserve areas in Maui and the wildlife there was amazing. There probably wasn't as much fish as there was in Oahu, but there was so much coral and vibrant colors everywhere. It was also here that we ran into this huge school of fish... they weren't that pretty, but there were easily a couple hundred of them and they would scatter in the same direction in unison when we approached them. Pretty neat stuff. Anyway, here's a picture of the bay after we left the area.



On Thursday, we embarked on the Drive to Hana... a famous scentic drive through Maui. The drive itself was pretty, through the mountains and lush scenery. Along the way, we stopped frequently on small trails to scenic spots or beaches. One nice area that we stopped nearby and picked up some delicious banana bread also had some nice breakers against the lava rocks.



We found a nice beach area for lunch, where Ruth snapped this photo that included the spiffy new shirt I got from Local Motion.



Also along the way, we stopped by Ching's Pool (not to be confused with Chang's Beach that we didn't get to see), where I survived a bunch of mosquito bites to get this nice pic.



By the end of the drive, there were other nice places to see, but we were so tired of being on the road that we just turned around and headed back for some nice R&R.

The highlight of Friday was a luau that took place at the Marriott. It included a combination of Polynesian performances and some scrumptous food. Of particular note was the Kalua pig that was exceptionally tasty. In addition to the good food, there was some good dessert, too.



The most memorable performance of course was the fire juggling/eating (?) one since it broke up the monotony of the repeated hula-style dances that involved a ton of insane hip shaking :)



We had a good time there despite the fact that we were second-class citizens having not been a part of the premium seating section. We were segregated and identified by both a different colored wristband and a lei made of shells instead of flowers. I was outraged at the classification imposed by this caste system.



On the final day before our return, we took a snorkeling cruise out to "Turtle Town" and Molokini. It was definitely saving the best for last... the first place we saw a bunch of turtles that were lounging around at the bottom of the ocean before occasionally coming up for air. They must've thought we were really weird since every time they swam and surfaced, there were a bunch of people looking at them and angling for a better view.

Molokini is a sunken volcano crater that's also a marine preserve area and there was just a ton of coral and fish here... too many to describe. In retrospect, we probably should have tried to pick up an underwater camera, but it was definitely still an exciting and memorable experience.


As always, the vacations end up feeling too short, but it was definitely a relaxing time and a good way to get recharged before heading back to work!

Winding down of a trip...

I'll post a more complete photo-powered update after I get back, hopefully, but a few random observations on this trip:

1) Everything in Hawaii is just a little bit slower: It started off when we left the airport in a car rental and the speed limit on the highway was 50 mph and we were one of the faster cars on the road just going at the speed limit. It got ridiculous when we were on the drive to Hana and birds literally just hop across the road or away from oncoming cars, waiting until the last possible second before sorting to flying. When they do fly, they fly about 10 feet forwards, only to be met by the oncoming car. God gave you wings for a reason.. use them!!

2) Vacations are almost always too short: After taking a quick peek at email for an hour last night, I already started dreading having to deal with everything when getting back to work next week. A vacation isn't long enough unless you literally have to do nothing work-related during it or a ton of catchup work when you return. I guess that means only if you're changing jobs or completely switching roles within a company.

3) I'm pretty much a late adopter of technology: I lugged around my SLR to finish off the last 5 shots on my roll of film that was already in there. To help set up shots, I resorted to using Ruth's digital camera to make sure the lighting and composition would come out the way I wanted when using the film camera. I think I just get too attached to the devices I already have and avoiding having to obsolete them. If I got a digital camera, what the heck would I do with my film SLR and point/shoot? I kind of can't believe I don't have a digital camera, but I've somehow managed to get by so far...

4) Travelling is more fun when you have a local to show you around: To some degree, it's a lot of fun planning things out, getting lost and finding your way, and gaining a better understanding of the place since you have to figure things out on your own, but... it's also much less stressful to have someone play host and make sure you hit all the highlights, avoid the overrated places, and bring you to spots not in guidebooks. Thanks Gina and Chang for taking us around Oahu!

Relaxation!!!

Finally, after possibly the longest week ever at work, woke up to a breezy Hawaii morning at Gina's place :)

Yesterday was still pretty terrible, as things at work got a little more crazy than even the earlier days of the week. Will need to get back to some madness when I return, but hopefully things will get better when I'm gone. The only silver lining is that now I'll need to take a whirlwind trip to London the week I get back to smooth things over with our European users. But we finally made it to the airport yesterday and things seemed to be taking a turn for the better, except ATA turned out to be a pretty horrible airline. Not only were Chang, Ruth, and I split apart throughout the plane, the food was also atrocious.

But then we landed and met Gina at Zippy's to grab some real grub and came back to her place. Since then it's been nice and relaxing... not sure what we'll be doing today, but I can bet it's a whole lot better than being at home :)