the Haleiwa Metric Century bike ride was today so i decided to take a drive out there and practice taking pictures of moving objects. i gotta say, even after an hour of experimenting on bikes passing through movement is a bitch. I battled between MF, memory cards not fast enough to keep up, bikers moving out of focus too quickly for me to grab a snap shot. towards the end I ended up with f/7 in MF .
i WILL do this ride one day. 🙂
I spent most of this spring break hanging out with my [retired] dad — he spends most of the day doing…nothing so we’ve been trying to find him a hobby [ other than sending us copious amounts of irrelevant emails a day ]. unfortunately nothing really came to fruition with the exception of one thing:
A 2012 Family Feud: Weight Loss Edition!
for the next 3 months (April 1st through June 30th), everyone in my family agreed to shell up $50 in a winner take all weight loss competition. we agreed the rules to be: the person closest to their safe/realistic goal weight loss (~6% of their current body weight) wins the money! we set up accounts on LIVESTRONG to track weight and post blogs for the next few months – the website is pretty crappy but i wanted some place where everyone can look at recipes and fitness ideas when they’re logging their weight.
everyone also has to say what they want to do with the prize money so that theres a goal to strive for. so far there’s some nice conversation going on:
sister (to me): what are you gonna buy?
me: probably a new external hard drive
sister: boring.
mom: i don’t care about the money, i just want to win.
dad (to mom): are you ready to come in second?
mom: not gonna happen*mom goes out and buys a treadmill*
sister: i give up, i’ll just give my 50 bucks to the winner
me: you suck
sister: i know.
my target weight is 165 (-10lbs from my current weight) but i wasn’t able to reach that even during P90x so i’m pretty sure i’m not gonna win; i’m doing the competition to contribute and keep everyone else on track. for myself, im going to try and do a lot more biking (which makes LIVESTRONG even more of a motivation) and prepare for the century ride in sept. whee.
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WEEK 33/52 – brother? boyfriend? JACKASS!
August 13th – August 19th
Friday, August 19th, was a state holiday (hooray!!). My buddy Chris organized a hike to kuliouou, with breakfast at Jack’s Restaurant in Aina Haina (good corned beef hash!). Anyway, once we got to the top there were these two… people hiking towards the kuliouou to hawaii loa ridge pass. as the photo shows theres a rope climb to help get up one of the steeper portions of the hike. this boy (friend? brother???) watched as the girl almost fell off the cliff!! i used a 200mm so i was way too far away to help…. i automatically assumed it was a jackass boyfriend but my friend pointed it he could have been her brother.. brothers really are jackasses too… so. who knows. but in the end she came up and it was all okay.
lets take a closer look…. HES NOT EVEN HELPING HER. the angle is bad, it looks like the rope is in his hands…but its not!! can’t tell if shes smiling or cringing while holding on for dear life.
of all the pics i took that day, this one is my favorite. but story of the jackass boy was a little more interesting… hahaha
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WEEK 30,31,32/52 –PLAYING THE UP KIND OF CATCH
July 23rd – July 29th,July 30th – August 5th, August 6th – August 12th
I didn’t forget about this!! well, forgetting and being at the bottom of a very long priority list is probably the same thing…however, these photos weren’t taken on time HOWEVER, i did snap the shutter on the appropriate weeks… just not for a particular reason… anyway, these past few weeks, have been a whirlwind. after months of a horrible horrible project (and juggling school and exercise) i’m only now trying to catch up on the things i’ve put aside. things like friends, biking, photography, drawing, and volunteer work.
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i can’t say i’ve felt a life-threatening kind of panic in recent history, but as I was taking pictures at port luck, i felt it salty breath breathing down my neck. far to the east of the entry way i treked in my gripless sneakers up and down the cliff side. when i reached a point where i felt like i needed a rope to go down any further, i convinced myself “hey, just a few feet wont hurt.” a few feet turned into a few yards with turned into more. before i knew it i was near the edge of the cliff trying to take pictures of the waves below. it was on the way back that i realized what my mistake was.
as i started to climb back up the cliff side started to crumble between my fingers. any weight i exerted, whether it be my lefts, feet , or butt would cause a cascade of tumbling rocks down the cliff. i made my way half way back up but then looking at all the foothold i could see little cracks in the sides and pushing my finger between them would make a fine dust. at this point i had forgotten which way i came in and the unfamiliar obstacles indicated i started going the wrong way back. so i sat down to figure out a plan and thats when a huge chunk of rock broke free below my butt and nailed my in the heel. i moved my foot out of the way and the rock tumbled down, crashing, breaking apart and breaking off other rocks until it hit the water.
thats when the panic started to creep in. when i trail run i learned the first thing to know is to always know where you’re going, 3-5 steps before you take them. here i had no idea where i could safely step, climb, or stand. i couldn’t afford to lower myself down someplace that could ultimately break apart if i try to lift myself back up it. one wrong spot and a boulder could come crashing down on me…
so i decided my best bet would be walk to a stable area and go as far up as i could go (since at the top there were brushes and stuff) and take my chances up there even if it wasn’t the way back. so that’s what i did. it took me about half an hour to find something and i ended up with scratches all over my arms (luckily i had jeans on) but i made it safely out.
after the ordeal, i went to get a poke bowl. fish felt like the appropriate food given i almost became fish food.
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29/52 – July 16th – July 22nd – WRONG SIDE OF 30
I’m 31 today … ’nuff said. GAHHHHHHHHHHH
28/52 – July 9th – July 15th –TABLE5: THE INSTIGATOR, INSPIRATION, AND REASON [alcoholics]
my buddy’s, grayson, wedding was a couple weekends ago. I’ve known this guy since… 1st grade. I’ve known him almost as long as i’ve had recallable memories! kinda of amazing. it’s sad, i dont see him as often as i’d like but when we do get together its one of those times where it feels like no time has passed at all. i’m EXTREMELY UPSET that NONE of the pictures I took of him and his now wife came out. NONE. ABSOLUTELY NONE. most were blurry (no speedlite allowed) and the other ones were just framed terribly. so i’m so bummed.
and, you know at a wedding reception, there are always those drunk friends who are loud, constantly clanking the glasses for the kisses, and youre ashamed to have around your family? i hate to admit it but for this wedding, that was us. table number 5. both cindy and i drove to the wedding so that meant we also had to drive home… we made it a point to be done drinking by 8pm. normally that would mean stretching one drink over the course of the night… but [un] fortunately, 3 other girls on our table wanted to drink as well so… i behold below, the drinking team of the wedding:
this instigator. always egging us on, ordering drinks.
the inspiration. her glass would be empty before the drinks hit the rest of our lips.
the reason, she brought the instigator.
my partner in crime. we were the followers, drinking to keep up but cutting ourselves off at 8pm!
me: “i can feel it right behind my eyes!!!”
cyn: “me too!!!”
me: “i’m so weak, im so gonna fall asleep”.
26/52 – June 25th – July 1st – Work. Homework. But there’s always time for sushi and an adventure!
27/52 – July 2nd – July 8th – ditto
Work. Homework. But there’s always time for sushi and an adventure!
For weeeeeeeks my friend and I planned to go on an adventure out to Chinamans Hat! Not too long ago I came across a blog that said its possible to WALK across to chinamans hat from Kualoa Beach Park during low tide. I’ve always seen it, it never occurred to me to actually go there! My friend’s cousin brought along a kayak so we could haul all our non-waterproof gear (e.g. clothes, cell phones etc and my camera, of course). And then at 10am we started our trek!
Originally i had planned to wear my Vibrams across the reef but I forgot them in my car when I jumped into someone elses so I ended up using the “socks” for my fins. That didnt cut it so i switched to my slippers, which worked awesome…until we hit a deep end where i couldnt touch the ground anymore. Swimming with slippers? um yah. not a good idea. so i kicked them off and grabbed my snorkeling gear from the kayak and swam the rest of the way. My friend manned the kayak, while one guy paddled on his boogie board and the other guy and me walked across. 35 minutes since we started, we hit shore and hiked up to the top!
love that rain behind us.
It was kind of amazing, the weather switched from completely sunny, to a downpour, to partially sunny, to rainy again – in a matter of moments! and every moment we could see the rain coming or the sun peeking out. It was nice to see mother nature in action.
After treking around the island (up down and around) we headed back to shore. Rather than walking again, I snorkeled the entire way back (Which by the way the entire time, i didnt see a single fish…. or anything alive for that matter…sad). Afterwards, we hung out at the beach where I got massive sunburn on my back, which i’m picking at right now. After a quick bite to eat at Fresh Catch, we called it day.
[ later that night was my other friend’s bachelor party. good times with old friends. 🙂 ]
the next day, we reconviened and did the Waimano Falls hike in Pearl City. Steep hills, mud, rope climbing, and waterfalls. A great (muddy) hike! I wore swimming clothes in the anticipation of actually going in the water but the germy side of me kept whispering “leptospirosis” ..”leptospirosis”. i had open sores on my feet from the walk on the reef the day earlier .. so i wussed out.
Sadly, it wasn’t until i was at the falls already that i realized my camera was on ISO600! So many of the photos came out slightly overexposed…>.<
so that was my weekend, and i’m stillll trying to recover. 🙂
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25/52 – June 18th – June 24th – HEAD IN THE CLOUDS, FEET IN THE MUD
This week has been extremely trying on my patience. I can almost understand why people burn out from work and want to become hermits living in a cave over looking the ocean, befriending crabs and tiny pieces of wood that float to shore. *almost*.
anyway, one thing i love about summer is that the sun stays out till 7ish. so i can get out of work late (5pm-530pm, which is already an 11 hour day for me) and still make it to a trail, even if i can’t make it to gym..which i haven’t gone to in almost two weeks! gah.
this week, i did manage to get in 3 hikes: kuliouou (1hr30min, not my best but decent enough for now), waimano falls, and part of the makapuu tomtom trails. i think i enjoy the outdoors so much because theres nothing there to remind of my deskjob, my life as a programmer, or any of the other stresses – it’s just me and the music (oh and mother nature). i love to daydream when i’m running or hiking – like what i would be like to quick my job in a grand fashion, what it would be like to own pet monkey, where am i gonna travel next, what would happen if i fell off the side of the mountain and magically flew back up.
right now, also adding to my stress is that i’m also taking summer school,PSY225 stats, one of the prerequisite classes to get into either a nursing program or a physical therapy one. but this class is eating up all my free time… it sucks. on the bright-side of things,because there’s always a bright-side, i’m eating a yummy croissant right now and relaxing with a good book.
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in the clouds….soo close to the shot.. Soooooooooo close. 😉
the summit was mighty cloudy and awesomely super windy. these are the moments where you use all your might just to stand up and you feel triumphant and significant, if only for a moment.
not really feeling significant, so much as … i dont know what. haha
this plant creeps me out
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24/52 – June 11th – June 17th – I’M A WIDGET KINDA GUY
I finally bit the bullet a week ago and ordered a tablet…and it came in today!! of course the two choices I had were this one and the ipad2. The apps on ipad2 were definitely one of the selling points i considered but i ended up with the ASUS Transformer because, well, one i love my droid. and two i love widgets [ clarification: i love widgets on my phone and the tablet, i HATE widgets on my PC ]. and so far i’m LOVING it. i spent a good deal of time customizing it similar to the way my phone is laid out – my work email, calendar, and personal email on specific screens along with my shortcuts to the gym schedule, youtube videos, and hiking spots!
My main purpose for the tablet really is to have a picture frame / email display + music and videos. So the given the ipad’s UI isn’t really for passive viewing and more for active usage, i went with the Transformer. At a glance i can see the time, date, weather, and my email. whee.
although… an ipad2 might be in the near future as a new household video chat device…>.<
— random fact – all my computers's backgrounds are space-fantasy related. :]
FOOD. EXERCISE. HOLY-F**KIN-RANDOM. 