Gee Why
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Ambassadors of Aloha
It began in 2009. Â This was the very first time I had heard of the US Navy’s Distinguished Visitors’ Embark program where a few fortunate, Hawaii-based personalities participated in an unforgetable adventure. Â I dub this Class of 2009 as the Ambassadors of Aloha, paving the way for the rest who followed. Â The Ambassadors of Aloha are:
Fast forward to 2012. Thanks to Ambassadors of Aloha, the tenacious leadership of the Avere Group, and with the good graces of Guy, I’m getting the chance to experience operations of an aircraft carrier participating in RIMPAC 2012. Speechless…
Acknowledgement
My embarking to and from the USS Chester W. Nimitz CVN 68 aircraft carrier during RIMPAC 2012 was made possible via my nomination by Dennis Hall, founder of Avere Group LLC (www.averegroup.wordpress.com), through collaborative referral to him by Guy Kawasaki (www.GuyKawasaki.com) and L.P. “Neenz†Faleafine (www.Faleafine.com). Dennis Hall initially submitted my nomination to the Public Affairs Officer of the US Navy’s Third Fleet. The Public Affairs Officer then referred my nomination to the Office of Public Affairs, Commander, US Pacific Fleet. The US Pacific Fleet selected me for the Distinguished Visitors Program, inviting me to embark for about 24 hours during RIMPAC 2012.
Binging on Music
Fueled by deals at Amazon’s MP3 store and new stuff in iTunes, I’ve been on a music binge. Some of the stuff I recently bought:
- Phil Collins | …Hits
(only $0.99 for the entire collection!)
- Nas | Life is Good
- Ellie Goulding | Lights
(only $0.25)
- Flo Rida | Wild Ones (Feat. Sia)
(only $0.25)
- Carly Rae Jepson | Call Me Maybe
(only $0.25)
- Katy Perry | Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection ($0.99)
- Lana Del Rey | Born to Die ($0.99)
- Florence + The Machine | Ceremonials ($0.99)
- Fun | We Are Young
- One Direction | What Makes You Beautiful
- Maroon 5 | Overexposed
- Linkin Park | LIVING THINGS
- Florence + The Machine | Lungs
- Jimmy Fallon | Blow Your Pants Off
Most of these were on special at prices I couldn’t resist although Amazon did get me a few times with price changes.
The Zaniness of Professor Pandemonium
I think that’s what this character called himself, Professor Pandemonium. He was at the Art Spree entertaining the crowd with his science-based “magic” tricks. You were either appalled or enthralled by the Professor’s antics. Here are some pics of the Prof, his tongue, and an old-fashioned mouse trap. You guess what happens next…
A Successful Alaskan Scavenger Hunt
Bravo to @abaggy for successfully completing his scavenger hunt while cruising Alaska! I posed nine challenges and two bonuses, and here are his results.
- Dessert. @abaggy excelled in this category! Love this one.
- A scenic view. This was a gimme on a cruise through Alaska. This pic is cool.
- Shipboard entertainment. Only diehards sit poolside to watch a movie in the cold.
- A towel sculpture. Sad this sculpture, but it’ll do.
- Two different ethnicities of food. Japanese sushi prepared by Filipino chefs and American cuisine. Check.
- A workout room. FAIL! But I can’t really blame him although I would have accepted the many flights of stairs as a workout room. 😉
- “Wildlife†(could be interpreted many ways). Sleeping seals are wildlife.
- Cold. Yep, he has a few pictures of glaciers and icebergs. Brrrr.
- Gluttony. I would have preferred a more interpretive rendition of gluttony like stacks of cleared plates after a meal, but his picture of an overflowing plate of food is gluttonous enough.
Bonus
- Crepuscular rays. No to this bonus as @abaggy was too mesmerized by the scenery, ships’ activities, or eating.
- Mankini. This was the most difficult item on his list. Techically, he didn’t find a mankini, but his substitutes are bonus worthy. Fur lined skivvies!
Tallying up his score, he gets 8 out of 9 for his hunt with one bonus point, so that’s a perfect 9 out of 9! Well done, you sir, are an accomplished traveller! Thanks for playing. 🙂
Which State Has the Most Starbucks?
Which state has the highest number of Starbucks locations per capita? It’s kind of a trick question since the number one spot is held by Washington D.C. Hawaii is in the top ten pulling in at the #7 spot. Check out the infographic for the entire breakdown.
Hauns Brereton on Fire with His Red Kicks
Will Hauns Brereton keep his fiery Adidas when UH’s Big West season begins? Okay, so these red and black Adidas don’t match the UH unis, but superstition says that if you got the hot hand, you keep doing what you been doing. If Hauns can score 47 points a game then he needs to keep them kicks!
See more NCAA Summer League pics at BrandonFloresPhotography.com.
The Anteaters Are Coming…
On February 9, 2013, the Anteaters men’s basketball team from UC Irvine plays the UH Warriors. Do I wear my Anteater shirt?
Zot! Zot!
How Abercrombie & Fitch Defines “Sensitivity”
How does Abercrombie & Fitch portray sensitivity? Like this… Would the brand do it any other way?
Seen at the Grocery
Highlighting some of the new stuff I saw at our local Safeway.
Ben and Jerry’s has a new limited ice cream flavor, Key Lime Pie. I love me some key lime, and this frozen treat does taste like key lime. Mellow key lime anyways, not a mouth-puckering, eye-squinting, sour-on-the-tastebuds key lime.
International Delight is changing their packaging with a newer, more sophisticated logo (seen on the left).
The Dark Knight rises, and he drinks Dark Berry Mountain Dew? Whatever, but Mtn Dew is definitely playing up the Dark Knight and Gotham City.
I didn’t see this Mtn Dew, Dark Knight, and G Shock collabo at the grocery store, but if I did, I woulda grabbed it and seen if my Safeway Club Card gave me any discounts.
Grinds at Whole Ox Butcher & Deli
Had lunch at the Whole Ox Butcher & Deli but the darn WordPress iOS app ate my blog post. So anyways, here’s a late blog post and pictures of the onolicious grinds.
We ordered the dry aged burger, the roast beef sandwich, the chicken fried chicken, a side order of potatoes, and one pickle. I thought there would be leftovers. I was wrong. Okay, I lied. Technically there were leftovers – half of the dill pickle. But that leftover didn’t last the rest of the day.
The food is straightforward without too many extra components, accentuating the natural flavors. The interior decor is pretty Spartan without a whole lot of space for diners (the place looks bigger from the outside). Glad we beat the lunch crowd since the line of two customers quickly grew to about 10 as nearby workers flooded the place. Yeah, I’d definitely go back and try anything from their protein-rich menu.
Buyer Beware the TVPad
What looks like an AppleTV, runs the Android OS, and irritates me to no end? It’s the TVPad!
First off, I admit that the language barrier didn’t help the situation, but if you’re thinking of getting one of these boxes, just know what you’re getting into. The TVPad is a custom box that runs specific apps to stream video from the Internet to your television. You can actually get your own computer hardware and install the same apps, but the TVPad is packaged into one small unit to make things very convenient. I won’t comment on the legality of the product or the video streams.
Now here’s where it gets dumb, and again, my language misunderstanding could have gotten in the way. Since the TVPad is meant to connect to your television to stream Internet-based video, you assume two things:
- The TVPad connects to your TV
- The TVPad connects to the Internet
Not unreasonable, right? Connecting to your TV is really easy if you have HDMI. One cable and you’re done. So how about that connecting to the Internet part? Take a look at the box and the “instruction manual.”
What would be your guess to connect the TVPad to the Internet? WiFi? I can read that on the box, and the manual shows the configuration steps. But no, you and I would be wrong. You see, the TVPad M121 does not support WiFi!! I have no idea why, and I still question this engineering decision. The only hint that WiFi isn’t on the M121 model is this statement in the configuration settings:
As a wireless network environment is uncertain, please choose the cable network for your comfort.
Translated this means suck it up and hardwire me to the Internet. Seriously?!
You have to use the cabled Ethernet connection to get the TVPad online. You have an Ethernet cable installed in your living room by your television, right? It’s common in every household, right? Oh wait, the TVPad has a USB port. That’s the answer. You can use one of those going-out-of-style USB WiFi adapters. Those are relatively cheap now. So I got one, a name brand one that should do the trick. But no, it didn’t. There was no indication that WiFi was now enabled via this adapter. More online research that keeps point me back to the wired Ethernet port. Really? Really.
Now, I wasn’t about to string a 50-ft CAT5e cable from the router through the living and dining room to the TV. And no, we weren’t going to relocate the Road Runner drop. What next? Set up a WiFi/Ethernet bridge like a wireless basestation working in reverse. Have you tried to get an older, unsupported 802.11g router working with a WiFi bridge from another vendor? You have? Good for you! I wasn’t about to go down that possibly tortuous road. Instead, I went for the (more expensive) sure thing – the dual band, 802.11n Apple AirPort Express.
I swapped out the older 802.11g router with one AirPort Express to act as the primary router and added a second AirPort Express to bridge the wireless back to a wired connection for the TVPad. This setup was much faster than figuring out the TVPad doesn’t or won’t natively support WiFi.
Then success, bittersweet success. The TVPad with $200 more in extra equipment was finally up and running. It actually streams video well and is responsive. Just remember that you have to choose the cable network for your comfort.
Here are some pics for the heck of it.