Thoughts Over Coffee

Hello everyone. Your good friend Cameron here again, with more random
thoughts to share.

First of all, I hope you had a great Halloween. Especially with the
extra hour (for most of you). Although technically that additional
hour is for today, All Saints Day. And given that all of the bars
close before two, and that the "underwear only" party I was invited to
(yes, really; no, I didn't go; yes, really) ended at 1:00, even though
we don't observe Daylight Savings here, I suppose that all anyone can
really do with the extra hour is spend some time contemplating their
favorite saint (mine's St. Hubbins, patron saint of shoe repair). At
any rate, I'm digressing (you know that's happening when I start using
more parentheses than words).

The point is that there is now only a three hour time difference
between here and my friends and family in Colorado, which is a mighty
sight better than that ungodly four hours of difference. Heck, now
we're practically in the same time zone!

The other point was about Halloween. I spent a little time on
Freakbook yesterday (I was told my RSS plans might be back on track,
but alas, Facebook is still thwarting my best intentions). Anyway,
reading friends' posts there got me to wondering exactly how, but more
importantly when, we stopped complaining about not getting enough
candy and started complaining about having too much candy left over
afterwards. I mean, that's quite a swing from one end of the spectrum
to the other. So, inspecting my own life, trying to find a reason for
this change, I find that whole area to be hazy and a little
disjointed, leading me to believe that alcohol is probably to blame
for not wanting more candy. That makes sense to me. Given the choice
between a beer and a small (smaller every year) package of Skittles,
I'll take the beer almost every time.
Reading this now tha it's typed out, I see it really doesn't make any
sense at all, but it took a long time to type it out on this little
gnome-sized iPod keyboard, so there's no way I'm deleting it.

As a final note, check out the URL below, and be sure to take a gander
at Thursday and Friday.

http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/HonoliiBeachPark/forecasts/latest/six_day

Waves between ten and thirteen feet tall! I have a feeling that
Friday I'll be up very early in hopes of beating the crowds.

Well, that's it from the porch this morning. My coffee's nearly gone,
and I've got a lot to do today (like remembering St. Hubbins). I hope
you all have a great day.

Sent from my iPod

Good Morning

Dark coffee + bright sunrise = an enjoyable quiet morning. There's a
brisk breeze coming down off of the volcano (great for the surfers
down at the beach) and this cool air feels great, considering it looks
like it's going to be sunny, hot, and humid today. This is an
unexpected stark contrast to last night, which was full of rain
(imagine that). At one point we got almost an inch and a half of rain
in less than an hour. Of course, at the time, I was trying to record
vocals for a new song I've written. You know how loud rain is when
you're in a tent? Well, it's not quite that bad in the yurt, but it
was certainly loud enough to find its way on to the recordings. I
tried using a gate to remove the background noise, but it didn't
really work. It's nice and clean when I'm not singing, but as soon as
I open my mouth, it sounds like my teeth are all rolling around loose
in my head. Further motivation to get that vocal isolation booth built
this winter, I suppose.

Beyond that, all is great here. Market days are going great. We nearly
always sell out, and we have many regulars who buy once or twice a
week. I hope to put a whole blog up about that soon.

Batches 2 & 3 of my pineapple swipe look to be ready for bottling.
That's always exciting (free booze). Our neighbor Jesse brought down a
large bag of yellow lilikoi (passion fruit) the other day. I'm
thinking of blending it with some of the purple lilikoi growing wild
on the property, and trying to make some lilikoi swipe. The neighbors
aren't convinced that it'll turn out well, but I think it'll be just
fine (read: free booze).

Last update: I've acquired a webcam, and have been using Skype a fair
bit lately. While I haven't found any women willing to take off their
clothes and dance around for me, I also haven't been asked to strip
down and dance around either, so I'm considering that to be breaking
even. But what it has been is a very nice way to stay in touch with
friends and family, including some quality screen-to-screen time with
my young nephew. So if you'd like to chat, look me up on Skype. If
you want to see me dance around naked, get your credit card ready and
go to www.theworstthingever.a.k.a.camerongonewild.com

Sent from my iPod

Earthquake!!! (not actually worthy of three exclamation points)

Last night, around 11:15, there was a 4.1 earthquake in the ocean about 60 miles south of here. It was one of those cool and interesting (and, assumingly, devestating, given enough force) quakes where everything simply moves sideways for a moment.  Here, it was weak enough for me to not immediately realize it was a quake, but strong enough for me to think something might be seriously wrong with the yurt. After a moment to consider the situation, I decided to check the USGS website, and sure enough, 4.1.

Long story short: the yurt was a-rockin', but no one was knockin'.

Labor Day Photos

On Monday I basically took the day off, and I took a TON of photos.  Most weren't anything to write home about, but a select few turned out pretty well.  There were several of flowers that I liked, but I'm really starting to think that anyone can take nice photos of flowers, so I'm going to lay off posting them here for a while.  Here are four that are not flowers at all.

Of them all, I'm most proud of the last one, as it was a moving target, and I had to use the manual focus to get it.  I'm sure I looked like quite the idiot there at the park, spinning around, looking up and down, all with a camera attached to my face.  But I think it was worth it.

Anthology of Interest: Part 1

So here's the bit where I've stumbled across things that I think are interesting, or funny, or weird, or all three (as in the case of the Crazy Food Replicator Guy).
I want to share them with people, but perhaps they aren't worth a whole entry of their own.  So I've decided to just lump them all together here.

• I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.  Too bad that a) this isn't very scientific and b) it had to involve a taxidermist at all.  Just remember: 7 years bad luck for breaking a mirror, but 248 years bad luck for killing a chupacabra.  Obviously the town of Blanco, TX is due for some sudden and swift justice to be doled out by a wild pack of angry goat-suckers.
• I've tried Twitter, and I'm just not a fan.  I just like to talk too much.  Now HERE'S a site more inclined to my tastes.  Too bad that it was created as a joke.  And too bad most of the people who used it cheated by copying in other existing texts.  Jerkwads.
• On the other hand, if you've got to use Twitter, this guy's doing it right!! *notice: foul language* And here's an interview with the ....  author?  tweeter? twit?...whatever. 
• And, if you're still cool with the foul language, and would also like to tack on even more tasteless humor, and then mix it all up against a setting of movie review and news, then filmdrunk.com is a blog you want to follow.
• Just in case you're not into the whole "foul language" thing, and prefer to remember the good old days when no one swore when writing movie reviews, then perhaps Mr. Von Copperpot's the guy for you.  At any rate, it's entertaining.
• And, just in case the whole "foul language" thing is exactly what you're looking for, this is pretty hilarious, made even more funny by the brief couple of moments that are not filled with f-bombs.

Now here's an unrelated photo:

Kaiwiki Farms Blog

Just in case the four of you who read this (and that one mystery person in San Francisco who apparently loves me* ) need even more to read about what's going on in my daily life, it's your lucky day!  Fire up the google reader, and be sure to add the brand new, so-new-it's-not-even-finished-yet, so-new-it-still-has-that-new-blog-smell, really really really new Kaiwiki Farms Blog.


You can rock it with a socket right here. Or, if you're not into the whole brevity thing: http://kaiwikifarms.blogspot.com/

On said new blog, you'll find exciting things, like:

• plans for the farm
• plants on the farm
• farm related planning and planting
• buying things, selling things, and processing things which may or may not have been bought, sold, or processed
• hiding the keys to the firebird
• stories about old people going up into space (I hope I'm not giving away too much here)
• Kickboxing: sport of the future
• Going to a kegger, Lloyd
• First dates at malls
• This rain is a baptism
• Dissed in the malibu
• By CHOICE, man! (yeah, man, we choose to be here)

Wow.....
Um.... I guess I got a little carried away there, and kinda off of the point.  But you should have seen it!  I had no idea I could type that fast.

Anyway, go check it out if you wanna.  I'm off to find a Clash t-shirt and a trench coat.





*thanks Google Analytics and whoever you are in the bay area

Fun With Gradients

So the other day, Kaleo approached me and told me that while my photos are pretty ok, she was thinking that if I did something more "artsy" with them, I might have a better chance of selling them sometime down the line when I've got more of a portfolio together.  I dunno about all of that, but I do know that I do enjoy me some photo editing.

I think I've mentioned it before, but I'll bring it up again.  Typically for photo editing, I use GIMP (gimp.org).  It's free, it's mostly functional, it's easy to get around in if you've used Photoshop, and it's free.  So it's perfect for what I do.  And did I mention it's free?  :)

So I took three of my photos and started playing with them.  Today I basically just used the gradient tool (transition gradually from one thing to another), layers, and layer masks.  I also used a few "artistic" filters to, you know...make it more artsy or whatever.

So here are the three, in the order that I made them.   You should be able to click on them to see a larger view.  Lemme know what you think so I can improve.

Gracias.

Photo Haiku Shindig

Mom wants to see some photos of the pineapples.
Kilzer wants to see some photos of the property.
Fortunately, I've been taking photos of both over the last few days.
To make things interesting, I'll caption each photo in "haiku" form.

Enjoy.

Such sweet tasty fruit.

Harvest causing loss of blood

Is not unheard-of.

One is much to green.

The other, much too yellow.

I ate them anyway.

Same fruit as above.

This scratch-and-sniff image

Doesn't work anymore.

The farm from the road

looked nice in the evening sun

both times we've had sun.

The walk to the yurt

From the power house on up

Has made my legs strong.

Lu-dog makes it clear

Fingers are not required

To pick your own nose.

I don't know just why,

But this photo makes me laugh

Each time I see it.

Deep in the jungle

There lives a man feared by all.

And this is not him.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Enough fun for one evening.

Take care everyone.

Honoli'i

Hawai'ian Word of the Day, appropriately, is "Honoli'i" which (as I'm told) translates as "small (-li'i) bay (hono-)"  It's pronounced ho-no-lee-ee.  And no, it's not the place where Puff the Magic Dragon is from.

Given that we've had a lot to do around the farm, and when we weren't working on the farm it was raining, we hadn't been to the beach in what seemed like ages, but what was actually about 10 days (which is, of course, ages).  Sunday was such a nice day, though, that we couldn't pass it up.  So we packed up the boards and headed down to Honoli'i.  Kaleo also needed some photos and video for a school project she has to do, so I volunteered to take some photos for the first half an hour or so.

As you can see, even though the waves weren't that big, it was an incredibly beautiful day out on the ocean.

Here's another pic of the married couple:

Of course, there are perils to be considered in being a surf photographer.  I could get a cramp and drown.  I could be carried off by a flock of mermaids.  The Kraken itself could rise from the sea, sent by an angry Poseidon, hellbent on revenge for that time I peed in his ocean, and it could drag me down to the unseen depths of the great deep.  But  the most perilous [Sir Lancelot: "No, it's too perilous"] is that of being aimed for and run over by those subjects you are there to photograph in the first place.



Now, as a side note, I'm not traditionally superstitious.  But I've got this theory, let's call it, that when you see "honu" (ho-noo), a.k.a. sea turtles, when you're out in the ocean, it's going to be a good day.  And we saw a TON of honu that day.  Usually I'll see two or three in the couple of hours we're out, but on Sunday it was incredible.  There was one moment where I saw four at once!

Here's a photo I got of one of them:

Garden Update

I said way back when that I'd keep you all updated on the garden, so here it is.

The basil, parsely, and dill are doing really really well. Everything else is doing ok, but some of the tomatoes and peppers (top photo) have been really taking their time growing since they were transplanted.

The Day in Photos

I've been told I can be a bit (or more than a bit) long-winded, and I suppose that's true. So today I went on a bit of a photo binge, and to ease your reading eyes, I'm going to shut up now, and just put up the favorites that I took today (in no particular order-and one or two might be from Monday, sorry). But please at least do me the courtesy of imagining that I'm talking incessantly in the background. And feel free to click on the images for slightly larger versions. Thanks, and enjoy.

Ok.... I'm stopping talking now.

Right......................................................................................................................................

...now.

Important Notes of Note

So I just wanted to clear a few things up that are floating around out there:

• That is NOT, I repeat, NOT me in the "one man band" photo. Nor is it my face photoshopped onto the face of the one man band that it actually is. I never even saw any resemblance. But that's ok. I get that a lot. I seem to look like everyone. Most people I meet think that they know me from somewhere, even though I know we've never met. So either I'm the man of everyone's dreams, or else I just look like everyone. I'm going with the latter. And for the record, this is not the first time this has happened in print media. When I was in high school there was a soccer poster that had a guy in it who looked just like me. And that was pre-photoshop. So there you go.
• I DID, I repeat, DID finish a demo for Kilzer. It's simple, basic, and very demo-ish, but I like it a lot, and apparently so does he.
• I am NOT, I repeat, am NOT going to (any longer) spend my evenings and early mornings walking in and around the yurt naked, at the somewhat awkward request of the neighbors. And here I thought Hawai'ians were cool with that.
• The "D" key on my keyboard is sticking and acting up, so if I missed any d's in this, I apologize.
• Big props to all who've voted for the best theme music.
• See that "Digg" button at the bottom at each post? Check out digg.com if you aren't familiar with it. So, yeah, I added those because looking at "0 Diggs" (or "1 Digg" if I'm feeling like digging myself) really helps keep my self-image and ego in check, therefore preventing me from going all Pinky and the Brain on you all, and trying to take over the world.

Thanks for allowing me to take the time to clear all of those things up.

And yes, one of the above items is completely untrue.

Here's an unrelated photo:

What Every Blog Needs

I told Kilzer that I was going to record a demo this weekend.

I tried, I really did. But I just couldn't get anything going. Nothing at all. It was depressing. Sorry Mike.

But what I did come up with instead is the "Next Big Thing" for bloggers.

Theme Music.

That's right.

Theme Music.

Every good blog has it's own theme music, right? WRONG. It's just not happening out there. So what I've done is I've created a series of samples for you to...well....sample. What you need to do is to let me know which one you think would fit best with the blog. I'll take the winning jingle, maybe add to it, or maybe not, and I'll include it in an inline player (like the ones below) at the top of the board, so you can hear it whenever you'd like.

I'll add a poll on the right side of the blog, so be sure to vote there, as well as add comments below stating why you like the one you do.

Ready?

Here we go!

***EDIT: If you're having trouble getting the player to work, you might have to install an ActiveX control. There should be a prompt to do so at the top of the webpage (below the menus and buttons) if you need it. I've also added direct links to the files if you'd rather play them in your own player.***

1. Welcome Download

2. Gettin' It Download

3. Take It! Download

As you can tell, they're not the highest quality songs every written, but I had a lot of fun learning about the new studio, and a lot of fun making this crap up. In fact, I had one spell there where I couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes! It's one thing if that happens when you're around other people, but by myself? I think I might need to be committed. :)

Anyway, thanks ahead of time for voting.

Sidenote: 50th post! Woohoo!

Mike's Here!

HOORAY!

Now, if you know me and think I'm talking about Kilzer, you're way off. He's not here. He's there. Or somewhere, depending on when you read this. But as of this writing, all I know for sure is that he's not here. I think he's off camping with Regan or something, if I remember correctly. Or maybe he's back in town spending time with his "special lady." Or maybe she's his "lady friend." I don't know. I don't keep track of his lady friend goings-ons because:

a) it's not my job

and

b) if I did keep track, it'd sound terribly like something from Soap Opera Digest Weekly...

....which would of course read as follows:

***content deleted by author as it was determined that any reading by anyone would detrimentally affect every culture everywhere. ***

See? TERRIBLE!

Anyway, why are you all so obsessed with Mike all of the sudden? Maybe you should be reading his blog here (SPOILER ALERT! I think his next post will be about his camping trip, and I'm pretty sure this will be the time that Regan finally talks Mike into zipping their sleeping bags together at night to "keep warm." ha ha ha).

So what I was really try to talk about was "mikes", or "mics" if you prefer, or "microphones," as it were.

What you can not really see from the above photo is that the drum set is all miked (miced? microphoned, as it were?) up and is ready to go.

To paraphrase the Emperor from Return of the Jedi:

"Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational recording studio!"

Yep. Apart from feeling a need to quote Star Wars, we're good to go.

Here are some amazing action "pics" or "picks" or "pictures," as it were:

Here's me pretending to play the keyboard

(as you can clearly see, the keyboard's not even turned on)

Lessons from previous photo:

1. I desperately need a haircut

2. I desperately need a piano bench

Here's me pretending to operate the recording console

(as you can clearly see, the computer's not even turned on)

Lessons from previous photo:

1. I need to go on a neck fat diet

2. I still need a haircut

Here's me pretending to open a door

(as you can clearly see, the door's not even turned on)

Lessons from previous photo:

1. That t-shirt has really held up well over all this time

2. I feel like I have to mention the haircut and neck fat issues again

I already know what some of you are going to say. And no, I'm not "so tan!!" I'm actually just as ghostly white/nearly transparent as I always was. In this case, I'm just filthy from pulling weeds all afternoon. For proof, please see the completely un-photoshopped photo below, which is a close-up of my thumb from the previous photo:

Yuck. And, if you're feeling especially masochistic today, feel free to click here for an even closer zoom.

Yeah..... dirty.

At least it's not this dirty. Ugh.... makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

Back to the point though, the Yurt Recording Studio is up and running (if we ever figure out how to turn everything on), and I'm filthy and need a shower.

And a haircut.

Now, once again, I know what you're going to say, as you folks are so predictable. "Where's the new music then?" Allow me to remind you this is a "recording studio," not a "magic song writing machine." So without songs, I've got nothing to record. But now that the studio's done, we're turning to Phase 2, which is:

A Magic Song Writing Machine.

(patent pending)

We don't have all of the kinks worked out yet, but we do have some promising scribbles on a few stained cocktail napkins, so yeah, it's basically almost done.

Oooo! And we have an official description of it's functionality, as provided by Mike Kilzer:

"It's like a device.... You put a bunch of ideas in it, and out spews a giant turd of excellence."

Truer words were never spoken, my friends.

With that I'm going wrap this up with a video. All this talk of music, and I'd feel bad leaving you completely empty handed...or empty eared, or whatever. So here's a recording of a live performance of, as best as I understand, some traditional Hawai'ian music, played by Kalewa. Enjoy.

Felicia: Part 2

What a complete and total let down of a storm.

I was planning on writing more last night, but as nothing was happening, I fell asleep instead. Sorry about that.

Anyway, we got a grand whopping total of 0.60" of rain from the storm. That's only 0.1" more than we've normally been getting every night for the last three weeks. So....yeah. Not much to report at all.

On the upside, the storm did make for some great waves at the beach. Kalewa and I took the camera out in hopes of catching some video. We really didn't get any good action shots (still learning on that one) and we only took a couple of still shots, which I'm including. There's one video, though, that I really want to post, but every time I try, the DSL modem here wigs out, and cuts off all internet connection. So I guess I'll see if Kalewa can throw it on youtube for me tomorrow.

So that's about it. Wish I had more for you this evening, but......I don't. :)

Felicia the Dud (for here, anyway): Part 1

In an effort to keep friends and family back home updated with the storm (as I've heard that since it's been downgraded to a tropical storm, there's almost no coverage anywhere, news websites included), I'm going to be dishing out some info tonight and tomorrow.

As you all may or may not know, Felicia was at one time a Category 4 hurricane, aimed directly for me. Everyone figured it'd die down, and it has, but it also changed direction and has headed off to the north to mess with other people. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed. That kind of weather is something I've never even come close to experiencing, and the prospect was a little exciting. But now I'm just hanging out in the yurt, drinking a diet Hansen's soda (kiwi strawberry), wondering what movie I'm going to watch online through Netflix (I'm leaning towards "Chocolate," not to be confused with "Chocolat.")

Anyway, current wind speeds are low...perhaps enough to be considered a light breeze. Current rainfall is zero. In fact, because of the light but constant breeze, we've had better weather today than we've had in weeks. That means, of course, a good day to go to the beach. Which I did. Which will be a post later tonight (after dinner and Chocolate, not Chocolat).

In fact, the only really remarkable thing so far was this amazing rainbow that popped up just before sunset. There are rainbows here quite a lot, but this was the first I'd seen that did the full arc, from the horizon and back again. And it was bright too.

My piece of junk camera couldn't do it justice, but I took some photos anyway.

Ok. The rain is starting to come down now (still just a sprinkle), so at least I'll have some totals to report after dinner.

Here I Am!

Rock me like a hurricane!

Check this out:

How interesting is that?

I've never been in a hurricane before, but I'm thinking it'll be like this:

For those of you know don't know, that's what I always look like at the dance club.

(Sorry about the redirect for the video. Not much I can do about it.)

Anyway, as Tom Petty once wisely said, "You don't have to live like a refugee."

Umm.....

And he also said, "The waiting is the hardest part."

I have a feeling the next 4-5 days will be less like this (up to the 01m01s point):

And more like that same scene poorly reenacted, like this:

At any rate, I'll try and keep you all posted.

She's Dead, Jim

Ugh.... What a day.

I came into town to run a few errands, and on the way to the local post office, my car died at a light.

Ugh.

I think it's either a problem with the battery or the alternator. I checked the connections, and nothing worked.

So, next step: call someone I know for a battery jump, or perhaps a tow, or at the very least a ride home.

But guess what! I misplaced my cell phone yesterday (I'm sure it'll turn up) so I've not only got no way to call someone (from the car, anyway), but more importantly, I've got no phone numbers of anyone to call given that I really only know two people in about a 3,000 mile radius who are at or above a friend level appropriate for calling for use of some jumper cables and a running vehicle.

I rolled my car into a parking spot (thank goodness there were a few on the street right next to where I stalled) and locked the car up.



At this point, I've got two choices:
a) walk the 5.5 miles home (5.5 miles with a 1500' climb)
b) take a self-guided walking tour of lovely down- and mid-town Hilo and wait by Kalewa's car at his work, and wait for him to leave around 8:30 or so.

Since the walk was much less, and it was a nice day, I took Option B. I also took some photos.

It was a good call. Somehow, the library was still open, and I was able to walk right in instead of spending the next 3 or so hours waiting in the parking lot. So now I'm hiding out here in the IT department, using one of their computers, and writing this to pass the time.

Garden Friends

More rain last night, but there has been some sun today, giving me a chance to do some work around the place. I did a little bit of yurt maintenance, and cut some waiwi (strawberry guava) to use as stakes and poles and such.

I also got to spend some time in the garden. Got some photos of some of the locals.



The garden is coming along, slowly but surely. More sun would be nice.