Dereliction

I admit, I have been derelict in my duty to update this. There realy hasn't been much to talk about. I came home from Vegas. I won $46.00. Woo-hoo! Big spender eh? There were some humerous spots on the trip. When I went to Vegas with my friends about 3 years back, my friend Leigh Ann and I had 2 quarters a piece left (well, actually she had 4 quarters and wanted me to play them). So I played Video Keno with 3 numbers and it caught all three, so I made a cool $23.00. My dad heard that story so he suggested that we try the same thing the first morning we got there. So we stuck 4 quarters in, I picked the same 3 numbers...and guess what, I made another cool $23.00. We went bowling at Samstown, that was fun, the lanes were nice, not like the Bowl-A-Drom here. The other funny thing was I played penny slots over there. My mom and I were playing this Beverly Hillbillies machine. I borrowed a buck from her because I only had a $20 and I wasn't about to use that. I hit one of those bonus round things in the first couple of tries...so I scored a cool $10 off of a $1. Not bad eh? I also made a Monkey friend at the Make-A-Bear Workshop at Aladdin :-) We went shopping at Primmz and Belz and I went a little nuts at the Old Navy Outlet and the Nike Store. Ate till I burst at the seams (I gained like 3 pounds). Family went to see Splash. I wanted to see O or Blue Man group but got outvoted by dad. Oh well, maybe next time.

Got together with friends and family this past Sunday to celebrate Graduation. Got presents and money! Just what the graduate needs eh?

I'm going to get super busy soon. So I don't know how often I'll update. I don't know how many faithful readers I have. The only one that comments is my friend. Hehehehe. Kudos to her!

Toilet Humor

Ok...for some reason I've resorted back to being a two year old. But here goes:

I live alone. So I have complete control over the toilet, no wrangling about leaving the seat up or down. So usually it's up. Well...that does cause some problems. Today, I had shucked off the pants, ready to use the toilet and just sat down. I narrowly avoided the toilet bowl water. Maybe there is something to this keeping the seat down thing.

I went to Lanikai Beach with my friend today. We stopped off at the Kailua L&L. Well, their employee bathrooms were not working, both of them, "the plumber not coming". So my friend said, "I should have just gone in the ocean. I mean, fishes, whales, and sharks do. It's just one big feces pool. It's just diluted. I would have only added a little bit to it". I kind of stared for a second, choked on my beef stew, and started laughing my head off. I thought it was pretty funny. Yes, I know, I'm a two year old.

Religion, The Matrix, and The Holy Grail

It is kind of strange. Lately I've been on a Dan Brown kick, reading such novels as The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. I also read Digital Fortress but that does not have much to do with this entry. Dan Brown's main character, Robert Langdon, is a symbology professor at Harvard. In each novel he is required to interpret documents, symbols, and clues to help a cause. These two novels deal with Opus Dei and The Illuminati. Brown does some "moralizing" about religion in each novel. Here is an excerpt from Angels and Demons:

.."For centuries," the camerlengo said, "the church has stood by while science picked away at religion bit by bit. Debunking miracles. Training the mind to overcome the heart. Condemning religion as the opiate of the masses. They denounce God as a hallucination--a delusional crutch for those too weak to accept life is meaningless. I could not stand by while science presumed to harness the power of God himself! Proof, you say? Yes, proof of science's ignorance! What is wrong with the admission that something exists beyond our understanding? The day science substantiates God in a lab is the day people stop needing faith!"

"You mean the day they stop needing the church," Vittoria challenged, moving toward him. "Doubt is your last shred of control. It is doubt that brings souls to you. Our need to know that life has meaning. Man's insecurity and need for an enlightened soul assuring him everything is part of master plan. But the church is not the only enlightened soul on the planet! We all seek God in different ways. What are you afraid of? That God will show himself somewhere other than inside these walls? That people will find him in their own lives and leave your antiquated rituals behind? Religions evolve! The mind finds answers, the heart grapples with new truths. My father was on your quest! A parallel path! Why couldn't you see that? God is not some omnipotent authority looking down from above, threatening to throw us into a pit of fire if we disobey. God is the energy that flows through synapses of our nervous system and the chambers of our hearts! God is in all things!"

"Except science," the camerlengo fired back, his eyes showing only pity. "Science, by definition, is soulless. Divorced from the heart. Intellectual miracles like antimatter arrive in this world with no ethical instructions attached. That in itself is perilous! But when science heralds its Godless pursuits as the enlightened path? Promising answers to questions whose beauty is that they have no answers?" He shook his head. "No." ...

And The Matrix is chock full of religious symbols and overtones. From Neo ("new", anagram of "one", akin to Adam) and Morpheus (god of sleep) and Trinity (need there be an explanation?) to the name of the ship. There is an interesting essay regarding the symbols and philosophy behind The Matrix.

I have also been reading Holy Blood, Holy Grail. This book questions what the Holy Grail is, and traces the various legends and stories regarding the Grail, it's protectors (the Knights of Templar and the Priory of Sion) that factor heavily into The Da Vinci Code.

Religious and science are not the antithesis of each other. That much is abundantly clear. Else there would be no Catholic/Christian men/women in science. I have always favored the idea of God as a watchmaker. He set the rules, formed the world, gave man his freedom and let us make our own mistakes. He is omnipotent and omnipresent but he is distant. Using science we search for answers. Each new discovery is met with wonder and excitement. We marvel at nature, at its ability to create so many varied and distinct things from simple building blocks. We call birth, the miracle of life. For me, the Bible is an allegory, written by imperfect men, trying to understand and record things.

God is all around us...and inside of us. After all, he made us in his own image. So God must have a scientific, inquisitive mind as well. After all, he designed the perfect experiment.

Now apart from the weighty matters. Here are my new stuffed animals collected from The Disney Store.

Idiocy Reigns ...

Ok. I bought my new shpiffy Cannon Digital Elph S400. I called up Cannon asking where I could buy accessories such as a case for my nifty new camera. They directed me to two places, Hawaii Pacific Photo Inc and Francis Camera Shop. I called HPH first...and got this girl...Olivia I think. I asked her if they sold the carrying case and an extra battery for the Elph. She had to ask the "camera guy". He said they had the batteries but no case. So, logically, I asked how much the battery was. She told me, I can't tell you that. I don't know. We don't have brochures on that yet. They camera guy just left. He could tell you. Or my boss could. So I said, "so you can't tell me how much it costs? Do you close now?" The answer was negatory. So, logical me asks, "So if I walked into the store right now and wanted to purchase the battery, you couldn't sell it to me because you couldn't figure out how much it costs?" She starts getting a little defensive saying, "could you call back tomorrow? I only work here a couple days a week you know." I just couldn't quite figure it out. How can you not know how much something costs? That just wipes out all your customers from 5 until 9 pm if you can't sell them anything. Why stay open in the first place? So, I said thank you and went to Francis Camera Shop where the know how much their cases and batteries cost. And that's a good thing for business, don't you think?

Portrait of a Photologger as a Young Camera ...

I finally did it. I am now a proud owner of a Cannon S400 Elph. It has been purchased to replace my poor old Nikon Coolpix that had its demise in the rivers of Kaua'i. Now I can get my amateur photo log/life back into order. To bring the camera within my happy abode, I took two pictures with it. Behold the awesome might of the Elph S400.

Here am I with a Spongebob won at the 2003 Punahou Carnival. It was just me trying out my new camera's selftimer mode. It's fun getting acquainted with the features on the camera. Hopefully I'll be able to take some interesting shots and be able to print them on my trusty HP Photosmart 1115. Now all I need to do is save up money for the Nikon 5700 so I can have 5.0 Megapixels and the ability to add on a flash. The S400 is great for taking on hikes, sticking in one's pocket to go to dinner, bowling, etc, but sucks when the lighting is too low. Learned that he hard way at our Senior Lua'u.

Simplicities

I used to believe that life used to be a lot simpler. I mean, as a child, what did we have to do? Wake up, do what mommy and daddy told us, go to school, pay attention, play at recess, come home, watch TV, do activities, homework, and go to sleep. As we aged, we believed that life became a lot more complicated. Proms, dates, where would we go to college, what should our major be, when do I have to graduate, tuition, deadlines, stress, major decisions of your life, etc. And we long for childhood again, to be "carefree". But when you really think about it, was life ever really that simple? Ok, maybe when we were an infant and our sole purpose in the universe was to smile to make our parents happy and to poop and pee so that they had something to do. But as we got older, more and more was expected of us. As a child, I remember rushing around to baseball practice, karate practice, and trying to finish my homework to be in bed by 8:00 pm. I certainly didn't think life was simple back then. So why this post? I'm not sure, just a random thought that swept through my mind at 6:00 am. I know that I've been wanting to return to the "simple life". But I really don't want to have to wear diapers again and eat Gerbers food.

On the other hand, I just did a name search on myself at Google.com just to see what popped up. Stuff from UH did. But the funny thing was the Low Brass Glossary of Terms by my friend Jason Healy also came up on the search. If you have time, please read it. It is hilarious. Especially if you've been in band.

Perpetuating the Mundane ...

I never knew what a weblog should hold precisely. Should it chronicle my daily life? Should it hold the key to my secret soul? Should it be used to wax about my greatness? Yet, I find the well of wit that I think I hold has run dry at this point. There is nothing left for me to expound about. So, therefore, I shall dip into mediocrity and describe my mundane day. Please take you hands away from your ears.

Time: 8:00 am
Place: Manoa Tennis Courts
Activity: Played my friend Dan tennis. Won 6-1 and 6-4.

Time:10:30 am
Place: Manoa Courts/Costco
Activity: Went to buy a birthday cake and ice cream. Originally tried Liliha Bakery but found out it was closed on Mondays. Ended up getting a generic sheet cake with Vanilla Cheesecake Mousse and some mochi ice cream.

Time: 12:00 pm
Place: Eastern Gardens
Activity: Walked to Eastern Gardens for my friends bday lunch. Funny thing is, I was in charge of bringin the mochi ice cream, and in my haste I forgot to bring the lei for my friend. So I dashed out of the resturaunt, ran back home, and picked up the lei. We had dim sum, took pictures, and ate cake.

Time: 2:00 pm
Place: Home
Activity: Played Sega Tennis and X-Men Next Dimension on PS2. Working on my rankings in the World Tour baby. Yah! (insert fist pump). Played for a couple of hours, my back hurt. Watched the Golden Girls 90 minute special as well as some of their episodes.

Time: 8:00 pm
Place: The Greek Tree
Activity: Ate Greek pupus and watched my friends drinking wine. Then we went to a nearby pub, but I stayed for only 30 minutes because my ride had to go.

Time: 10:00 pm
Place: Home
Activity: Chatted online, updated my Xanga and also Blogspot. Had a long conversation with someone that I'm trying to be friends with. Fooling around on the computer.

Now wasn't my re-enactment of my mundane life better than Sominex?

Finding Nemo ... Finding Myself

Today I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Finding Nemo with a couple of friends. I also have the distinct pleasure of being up since 4:45 a.m. Saturday morning with perhaps a total of 15 minutes of sleep. Why you ask? Because I went out very late last night. It was quite an interesting evening. But that is neither here nor there, and I've been forbade to blog/type about it. So in lieu of a "wild night" on the town, you get to hear about Finding Nemo.

First of all, I must say, I enjoyed the film. Yes, it is a Disney picture made by Pixar. But I have enjoyed such recent screen gems as Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story. And with some of the spectacular underwater scenes in Lilo and Stitch I felt that I owed Disney a viewing of their newest release. I'm pleased to say I had a raucous good time. It was funny, touching, dramatic, and at times...jumpy. Stay for the end credits if you do see it. It's really not a complicated tale...it's a father trying to find his son who has been kidnapped, but with an undersea twist. Yes, the story has been done before, and yes, it is predictable. I mean...did you think that the father and son would never get together? I mean, this is a Disney film isn't it?

Right now, I'm also in the midst of some personal exploration. I'm trying to find out what makes me tick. I'm learning different things about people, seeing their actions, seeing if they fit in with my life. Perhaps I'm being a bit conceited to borrow the title of a movie, but, I feel that it is a journey nonetheless. Where the path will end, I do not know. Unlike Finding Nemo, my life has not been planned out, scripted, and carefully animated. There are unseen bumps, unknown characters, and a really funky soundtrack lurking just ahead. So stick with me, and find the journey's end. Who knows, we might find a rainbow.