Spotted at Don Quijote
No, I didn’t spot a Farmers Insurance Hawaii advertisement at the Kailua Don Quijote. Instead, I saw some of their strange items for sale. Things like this…
Gee Why
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Break Out Your iTunes Gift Cards
You know all those iTunes gift cards you received for Christmas? It’s time to break them out, redeem them, and start shopping! This week in the iTunes Store features a ton of great new stuff.
- Hope for Haiti Now
- The Sea, Ooooh that voice! Corinne Baily Rae’s second album is here.
- Ultra Dance 11 featuring 24 tracks for only $8
- Under the Milky Way covered by Sia
- I’m Beamin by Lupe Fiasco
- Michael Jackson’s This Is It soundtrack
- NOW That’s What I Call the 90’s, 70(!!) favorites from a good decade for $35.
- On the video front, Twilight’s New Moon can now be pre-ordered for release on March 20, 2010.
Guava Chiffon Pancakes Are Potent
While at Cinnamon’s in Kailua, I gave their famous guava chiffon pancakes a shot. These cakes are potent!
They taste amazing at first. That guava flavor hits you and draws you in for more. Then all that sweetness (and a little bit of tartness) starts overwhelming your taste buds. I shoulda gone for a short stack and ordered something salty to offset all that intense guava goodness. Next time…
Until you try them for yourself, savor on this.
Support Hope for Haiti Now
Have you made your pledge to help the disaster in Haiti? Go to Hope for Haiti Now to make a donation.
You can also support the cause by purchasing the Hope for Haiti Now album. All proceeds go to organizations aiding Haiti. The cost of the album is $7.99 and features somber, emotional performances by Alicia Keys, Coldplay, The Boss, Shakira, John Legend, Taylor Swift, Sting, Beyonce, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Bono, and much more.Â
This is another great way to support hope for Haiti now. You can get the album on 
.
Throwing Back a Throwback Throwback
I’m throwing back Mountain Dew’s new old Throwback made with real sugar. This is probably the same recipe for the original Mountain Dew Throwback, but this Throwback has a throwback can design.
The flavor of this Throwback is the same as the previous Throwback, smooth and flat, but when opening the can, it actually fizzled with dew spewing out.
And just for fun, some additional pictures of the new Mountain Dew Throwback.
Anxious for Eclipse, Are We?
Still five months away, and Pearlridge is already advertising Eclipse, the third chapter of the Twilight saga, as coming soon…
Hiro the Japanese Train
Went to check out Thomas & Friends: Thomas & the Runaway Kite at the Pearlridge theaters. This special only shows once on Saturdays at a few theaters around the island and is over at the end of January.
From the various mini episodes of this movie, I learned about Hiro who I think is supposed to be a Japanese train. Kinda iffy on that Japanese heritage since he has an accent that doesn’t sound Japanese. He doesn’t really look Asian either, but hey, we’re in a world of talking trains, right?
If you want Thomas to have multicultural useful friends, be sure to add Hiro to your Thomas train collection.
Spotted at the Movies: Farmers Insurance Hawaii
My string of encounters with Farmers Insurance Hawaii advertisements continues. This time it was at the movies before showtime.
This was at the Pearlridge theaters for a limited engagement of Thomas & Friends: Thomas & the Runaway Kite.
DSLR Camera Starter Kit
So I’m no photo pro, nor do I aim to be. I just take a bunch of pictures and wanted an upgrade to the point and shoot world. The digital SLR world is huge with so much to learn but yeah, I’m more the automatic-mode-picture-taking kind of guy. 😉
After doing some research, here are some items for a DSLR camera starter kit. Some factors for picking these items:
- Lower cost for entry level learning. Like I said, I don’t aspire to be a professional photographer, so I don’t want to spend the bucks.
- Amazon availability. These items are sold through Amazon which ships to Hawaii for free. I would have picked other products sold by third party vendors but the additional shipping was cost prohibitive.
A little more about this list:
- Canon EOS Rebel T1i
. Does HD video as well, but I wouldn’t get the camera just for the video. While good to have available, using the camera in video mode is clunky. But still a great camera to start with.
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens
. Supposedly a 50mm lens is a must have and at $100, why not? There are more expensive, higher quality versions, but to begin with, I’m willing to spend $100 to learn.
- Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens
. What can I say, but I’m cheap. One of the cheaper telephoto lenses.
- Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash
. So needed when taking a bunch of pictures in low light. The built-in flash can’t keep up.
- Tiffen 58mm UV Protection Filter
. For the included 18-55mm T1i lens. Did I mention it’s cheap but will protect the lens from damage.
- Delkin eFilm Pro 8GB Secure Digital SD Class 6 Memory Card
. You need a high speed aka Class 6 memory card so your camera is ready for the next shot. You don’t want to see that BUSY message as your camera is saving images to the memory card.
- Lowepro Fastpack 250
. I’ve said enough here.
- Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Boxed Set
. I picked up Volume 2 from Costco, and it’s great. Each page is one lesson in photography with topics explained in non-photography terms. This set has all three volumes.
With this gear, check out these simple, short, and extremely useful Canon tutorials. Most of these are 3 minutes long and explain topics in easy to understand ways. Here’s one on choosing lenses. Fantastic!
Spotted at UH: Farmers Insurance Hawaii
Spotted a Farmers Insurance Hawaii banner yet again. This time at the Stan Sheriff Center at UH’s oh-so-close loss to New Mexico State.
Where Paper Used to Come From
Leave it to the ingenuity of the ancient Egyptians to figure out that papyrus could be used to make paper.
Apple and LaLa, What Could Be
Here’s a convincing article about what Apple could be announcing as part of their Special Event next week. How Apple uses its buyout of LaLa and its rumored plan to reshape the digital music ownership landscape sounds very Apple-esque.
Leave it to Steve Jobs to change the game.