Menu

Life

Giving Back with the Best of Arnold

, , , , ,

Since Wednesday was a good day for social media, it’s only right that I give back to the community. Like I mentioned, there’s no serious $$$ to be made here so prize selections are limited. What is a great epic-to-cost value is none other than the Best of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vol 2. For the first 5 fans who leave a comment naming their favorite track from this epic collection, I’ll gift the entire Amazon MP3 album to you!

Not only will you get 20 Schwarzenegger classics that absolutely belong in your collection, but you could qualify for a free 20-GB Amazon Cloud Drive upgrade for one year. I haven’t verified you get the upgrade with a gifted album, but wouldn’t you want to find out?

Name your favorite Arnold tune and win!

Wednesday Was a Good Day

, , ,

Yesterday was a good day. Day after day, blogging away, I wonder what’s it all for? It ain’t for the income. Really, it’s just for me and my passions, addictions, and pulp, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that getting a perk or two isn’t appreciated. And that was Wednesday.

First, I was notified of The Weather Channel’s new show From the Edge with Peter Lik debuting today. After an email exchange, I’m hoping to get a copy of Peter’s photo book, Spirit of America.

Later in the day, I got a Twitter Direct Message about an upcoming social media tweetup for the Navy. While I might not be able to fit this event in my schedule, it feels great to be invited and to be able to extend this invitation to others.

To help the music program at my daughter’s school, we’re selling chili, Portuguese bean soup (not soap), or cookies from Zippys. A quick mention on Twitter and a cool retweet from @zippys and some sales were made. I’m still selling tickets ($7 each) if anyone wants instant ono food! 🙂

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/zippys/status/53292000463699968″]

And to wind down the day, I see that my IRL cousin, @oahu_re_etc, got to see the filming of Hawaii Five-0 in downtown and mentioned the sale of Daniel Dae Kim’s former home.

So what’s the morale of the story? Engaging in social media ain’t about making money, but it’s for the fun, the passion, and the occasional perk. 😉

Pulpconnection OnSwipe Version

, , ,

All you iPad users, you notice something different when viewing Pulpconnection? Looks more swanky now, right? That’s the OnSwipe plugin/theme at work!

If you aren’t iPad-enabled, here are a few screen shots.

Cover page. Image taken from recent post.
Recent posts
Individual post

On a techie note, don’t forget to delete any server cached files, so the OnSwipe goodness displays correctly.

Flash is Disabled

,

Never seen this error message on my iPhone before. Wasn’t doing much, but I guess it was enough to disable the flash for the iPhone 4’s camera.

I did just snap a pic of my Aloha for Japan shirt…

Pictures from the USS Abraham Lincoln

, , , ,

Last weekend, right after Hawaii’s tsunami scare, I had the luck of touring the Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln was on its way back to San Diego then Washington for servicing. While docked in Hawaii, the Lincoln hosted many tours, and I latched onto one for Kamehameha students. I had always wanted to see the vastness of a carrier and its flight deck after watching Top Gun.

What can I say but the carrier is big!

IMG_5294

But really, not that big for all that’s packed inside and on the deck. It’s amazing how much stuff is squeezed into every available space to include aircraft and helicopters.

IMG_5417

All over the ship, there are images of its namesake, Abe Lincoln. Even the coffee stand is called Jittery Abes.

IMG_5315

Our Naval tour guides were great, taking the diverse visitors to various parts of the ship.

IMG_5311

They talked about life on-board a ship, the basics of a ship’s operations, the training they do, and the various specialties of the crew. We even got to talk to pilots about the different aircraft and being catapulted for takeoff.

IMG_5371

All in all, this was another great tour by the Navy to educate civilians about the Navy, its mission, and the dedication of its sailors. Thanks to Kamehameha Schools, Navy Region Hawaii, Pacific Fleet, and Pacific Command for this opportunity.

Here are a lot more pictures from the tour.

On a side note, since the ship was on stand down, most of the crew were on liberty status, and I must say that Abe Lincoln must be a fan of Air Jordans. This long-time kicks collector couldn’t believe how many Air Jordans and Jordan Brand sneakers I saw around. And not just Jordans you find in shoe stores, but uncommon colorways as well like these orange AJ 13.

IMG_5460

Remembering March 10

, ,

Just some notes remembering the night of March 10, 2011. Nothing exciting and nothing you haven’t already heard or experienced.

About 8:30pm, fired up Twitter and started reading tweets about a possible tsunami?! Followed the #HItsunami tag to catch up and learned of the huge earthquake (and aftershocks) that devastated Japan. Turned on the television news to learn more.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/hawaiitsunami/status/46113307320516608″]

About 9:00pm, decided to go to the market to buy some supplies and also get some gas. The line at the nearby gas station was way too long so I turned around and headed to the market instead. The Safeway parking lot was bristling with activity. Inside was strangely calm until I noticed that everyone was in line at the checkout registers. Only thing is, the only two manned registers were closed, and the self checkout stations were shut down.

Two lines had formed, each winding its way along the side then back of the store. I was going to head out empty handed, but we kinda needed a few things and who knew what things would be like the next day. I tried making calls home, but I couldn’t get through on AT&T. So I got my stuff, stood in line, and waited.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/geewhy/status/46119729387143168″]

Luckily, data via 3G was working, albeit a little delayed. So email, Twitter, and Facebook kept me informed of the latest happenings including AT&T voice services being overwhelmed. The checkout lines finally started to move as more Safeway workers arrived. And these workers deserve credit for coming in under these unknown circumstances and also for working quickly, whittling down the enormous lines in a few minutes.

Finally got home about 10:00pm (but I had given up on getting gas). Watched more news about the earthquake and a possible tsunami. As the hours went by and the tsunami watch turned into a tsunami warning, I started charging batteries, phones, and other devices. Around midnight, I decided to get some sleep before the estimated tsunami arrival at 3am.

At 2-something, my alarms and the emergency sirens woke me up. There weren’t any more definitive specifics so I waited.  And waited and waited.  You know the rest of Oahu’s tsunami (non) story.  Although I do admit that from all previous natural disaster close calls for Hawaii, I thought we were due.  This had to be it, but fortunately it wasn’t.

For Japan, each day brings seemingly new challenges, and for me, it’s totally unimaginable – the earthquakes, the flooding, possible radiation leaks, the chaos. My thoughts go out to the people of Japan and their long road ahead.

Sitting in the Dark

After a windy, rainy night, I’m sitting in the dark. Amazingly the network is running, not sure how long my UPS and laptop battery will last.

Load More