Raiatea

I just returned from the Honolulu County Medical Society Member Appreciation Dinner where they had a feature performance from Raiatea Helm. Last time I heard her sing live was at the 2005 Taste of Honolulu. Since there were tons of people, I couldn't hear her very well...as a matter of fact, I couldn't hear anything at all. Tonight, I had the pleasure of enjoying her beautiful voice without the loud chitter chatter or the rustling sound of trees when the wind blows. Ah, she was amazing. Even though I didn't understand her songs (because she sang in Hawaiian), her soothing voice was enough to keep me entertained the whole night. She is only 23 and her wonderful talent got her 2 Grammy nominations already. At the end of her performance, I bought a CD and got her autograph. It was a rather expensive CD...$20. Well, what the heck. I rarely buy CD's anyway. I forgot to bring a camera so I used my phone which takes pretty good pictures for a 1.2 mpx phone camera.
You can see that my friend suu-paawanpaku came with me too. He was playing in the orchid grove while we were watching the performance. He was also scaring the kids before dinner.

Photo Blog

I am a little slow...OK, maybe very slow. Apparently, everyone is hyped up about photo blogging nowadays. Flickr seems to be the winner among all the photo blogs in the cyber world. I had learned of Flickr maybe 6-9 months ago when I was searching for a good web service to organize the photos that I post on this blog. I ended up with Picasa because it was linked to my Gmail account and the layout was kinda neat. Last week, my co-worker introduced me to the new Flickr which is now linked to Yahoo. It's great! So much better than the old Flickr. First of all, I don't have to conjure up another login name that I won't remember along with 1000 other ones. Second, the screen name is unique and separate from the login in, which is a great feature for the unsettled mind. So...this past weekend, I signed up with Flickr and have been uploading photos to my account. I am dedicating this photo blog to my love of nature, plants, flowers, animals, and all the beautiful scenaries surrounding us that we sometimes take for granted.

It's still in the works but if you would like a sneak peak of my photo blog, click here. I have also added the link to my navigation bar at the top.

Venetian Shrimp and Scallops

I don't know what is happening to us but we continue to cook good every night. Even though I am not too fond of Rachael Ray and her "Little R&R Every Morning" or whatever the show is, this recipe is truly easy to make. In addition, the recipe is so flexible that you can substitute whatever ingredient you like and it will still taste good. For instance, I don't have white wine so I added red wine which gave the sauce a rich strong taste. And yeah, the recipe calls for LARGE scallops...I was like, "I ain't from Nob Hill". I used frozen small size scallops instead and the food still tasted good. As I always say, all you have to do to correct a cooking mistake is to add butter. BUTTER!

Salmon with Broccoli

HappyOblivion cooked this. Itsn't he amazing? After playing 2 hours of basketball, he dropped by Foodland to buy fish and poke. Then he came back, took a shower, and whipped up this great looking and tasty dinner in less than 30 minutes. Well of course we ate the whole thing in 15 minutes as always. It tasted really yummy, especially the white sauce (can't reveal his recipe, sorry).

BBQ Chicken with Broccoli

Once in awhile, I make pretty amazing dinners. The oriental Japanese ceramic plate makes the food look tastier than ever. This was last night's dinner - special tomato sauce fried rice and BBQ chicken with broccoli. I learned to make the fried rice from a Japanese recipe for Omahayashi. Instead of topping the rice with a semi-cooked tamago, I fried the egg with the rice so the chicken remained the center of attention.

Bamboo Fun

I have been putting off my comic drawing for two weeks now since work has been very hectic. Let's see, two days ago I came back home at 7:30PM from all day field work. I didn't hike much but I guess standing in cold water and the 4-wheel driving took all my energy. Yes, it was my first time driving 4WD and it was FUN FUN FUN! I was crossing rivers, and going over large boulders and tree stumps. My coworker said it was a good idea that I learn 4WD, as well as driving the big Chevy Trail Blazer (our State car). I look like midget in that car! Yesterday I took the car to car wash. Hee hee, 2nd time going through a car wash. It was so exciting and a bit scary too because I couldn't unscrew the antenna so I went in with the antenna up.

So, I have been researching some kind of drawing pad to help with digitizing my comics. My boss referred me the Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet and I am very interested in getting one. I remember seeing one at Circuit City and was curious at what it does. Now I know it does exactly what I want, which is to digitize handwriting or sketches. There are 3 sizes: small, medium and large. I believe the small will suffice but I do like the medium size just because it gives me more space to work with. The price difference is around $75-100 tho... Then there is the color. I am planning to get an iMac desktop so the white tablet would fit. But the black is better at hiding all the scratches. I guess I have to give it some thought before investing :) If you know of good deals, please let me know!

Bender's Big Score

Good news everyone, I just got the new Futurama movie "Bender's Big Score". All hail Bender, the best actbot in the whole UNIVERSE! (Those of you who are Futurama fans just got a dose of me talking like Professor Farnsworth.)

In this movie, almost all the characters appeared, even HappyOblivion's favorite - Calculon! He is most memorable in the amnesia episode..."Does anyone here not have amnesia?" Or the one where he yells "Nooooooooooooooooo!". Ha, what a classic. I won't give away the plot or the ending but there is a smart twist in the story that almost made me cry. Yes, it was emotional and you won't be disappointed. You will laugh, get confused, frustrated, angry, and surprised from beginning to the end. Now, what are you waiting for? Get up and go get the movie!

Honolulu City Lights

Once again, this post is long overdue. It's already New Year's for goodness sake and I am posting pictures of Christmas in Honolulu. My life is so behind I could really use a vacation. ~Sigh~ OK, Honolulu City Lights...it's the same-o same-o lights. We have a gargantuan tree in front of the City Hall, the tree contest in the main hall and then the wreath contest in the back. This year is quite interesting because there is a feral pig in one of the displays. Celebrating invasive species for the holidays, that's the way to go!


The BIG tree in front of the City Hall. It actually feels quite scary when you are standing at the bottom and looking up at the blinking lights...like you are high without the drugs.


The invasive species theme with the feral pig as the reindeer. Ha ha, how original.


The same display as above but close-up of these little green creatures I found amusing. If I am not mistaken, I think these are coqui frogs!


My favorite coral wreath (ha ha, rhymes with coral reef) from the wreath contest.