I don’t condone cruelty to animals, but . . .

. . . I’m considering taking up voodoo. Kauai has chickens. Lots of them. Theories abound as to why (YouTube of some jackass feeding some) but in all likelihood they are so plentiful because Hurricane Iniki destroyed their chicken coups back in 1992 and no one was able to round them all up. They’ve been able to multiply so prodigiously because their only real predator is the automobile as the damned things go wandering across streets without a care in the world.

So the point of this whole story is that there are hens and roosters all over this damned island including right outside my hotel room. And those of us who were lucky enough to have been born and raised in the city are suprised to learn that roosters crow whenever they damned well feel like it. Day, night, whenever. All I can say is that the Colonel did this country a favour when he started reducing the chicken population and Baron Samedi (linky)is a really under-appreciated demi-diety!

~Ash.

Kauai’i!

Aloha!

Oh come on. You had to know I’d start with that. Well here we are, about half way through our little vacation, and we’re having a FANTASTIC time! It really has been amazing. The flight was just as miserable as anyone who is afraid to fly and has shoulders the size of Atlas could ask for, but that was over with relatively quickly and when we got here we rented two cars. I’m driving a (relatively) sporty red Grand Am, and my Dad is in a granny-car Impala. Surely the Gods are pleased with me. Not too pleased however because They then gave me Mom as a navigator. We tried to go to Duke’s for a quick drink which is in Lihue, the town which has the airport, and yet somehow we ended up in Kapa’a which is almost a third of the way around the island in the wrong direction. This is not as bad as it sounds however, as it turns out that the entire Island of Kaua’i is about 552 square miles. To put it in perspective, Metropolitan Phoenix only is 517 square miles.

Anyway. We figured it out eventually and drinkies were had. We then made it to the hotel which is pretty much at 12 noon on the clock which is Kaua’i. Monday was a beach day, so we went to Princeville Resort (which was once part of Club Med back in the day) and hung on their beach. Oceans that are warm enough to swim in are awesome when it’s been well over half a decade. We have all been a little anal about sunscreen so nobody got too badly burned, though Amy has an interesting pattern on her shoulder where Nate must’ve just kindof given it a swipe.

Then yesterday was an all effing day tour of the island. It was interesting and all but it was in a big van with about 15 people and it was just entirely too long. That said, I currently have, minus about 200 images that I’m going to stitch into a panoramic, about 125 photos that you can view here. Feel free to browse at your leisure. These are all just from me and Bessie. They’re not counting what Amy and Nate and Mom and Dad have taken with their cameras MUCH LESS what Alanta has taken with Bessie Sr. or her point and click! In short, we’re are the slide show people from hell!

Today we’re staying close to the hotel and doing the pool thing. I’m back at the room to do the photos and to check my email which I’ve been doing compulsively all week. The reason? Because I interviewed two weeks ago for a new gig at GD and I was supposed to hear this week . . . and I just did! Yep, you heard it here first folks. I just got a new job as a Server Support (Jr. Admin) with GD. Yay me! Now I should really go tell the fam . . .

Have a great one, guys!

~A.

Damn!

Holy crapmonkies! SlingBox is quite possibly the coolest thing ever. Picked one up off of Woot a couple of weeks ago and just got around to hooking it up in time for me to go to Hawaii. For those not familiar, basically I hook it up to my Blooka (aka, TiVo) and it allows me to remotely access it (including saved shows) via my lappy from anywhere on the interwebz. Of course with my luck there’s a gaping security hole and I’m gonna get hacked or something just by announcing this, but whatevs. It’s too cool to pass up! I can be watching my Burn Notices, L&O: CIs, and My Boyses all from the beach or what have you!

Sad, I know, that I’m excited about watching telly in paradise, but do you really expect any less from me?!

~A.

Wheee.

Gots me my iPhone 3G. Yes it involved me getting up at 6am and standing in line for in excess of an hour and a half for the AT&T store to open so that I could be lucky Number 13 to get my grubby little paws on one. Of course this did me little good since it wasn’t until about noon that I could make the Apple servers active the damned thing, but at least I had one. Apparently the early-to-rise attitude was absolutely worth it since at about 8:30 pm when I went past the Apple store at a different mall there were literally dozens of bored-yet-desperate looking entirely-too-hip-for-their-own-good Mac people standing in line hoping that the store wouldn’t run out of units. I laughed at them (yes, literally. And yes, I am going to hell) as I sauntered into the store to buy a new hard plastic case for my new acquisition in hopes that I don’t break this one as easily as I damaged it’s predecessor. Ash is very hard on his technology. Because Ash is an overgrown child. Who apparently talks in the third person.

The holdup in getting a working phone caused very little to get done today (after the thing finally activated, of course it took for damned EVER to sync, etc), so I’ve now got to run several errands tomorrow AND pack AND get my living room ready to be torn apart while I’m out of town (oh yeah, my ceiling is getting replaced due to a crack in the drywall. Takes four days so they’re doing it while I’m out of town rather than have to live through THAT nightmare. Risky, I know, but seriously . . . what do I REALLY have worth stealing besides a TV and a PS3?). So the long and short of it is that I should really stop rambling/messing around with the iPhone and just go to bed.

Fine. Be that way.

But I will give some real first impressions of the 3G tomorrow when I’ve had a chance to play with all the new features . . .

Caio.

~A.