Learning Hawaiian

While in Hilo last time, I decided to buy an 8 CD course of Hawaiian. It promised to be full immersion, so I decided to put it in the car CD changer and devote time to it on my way to work. After a funny incident at the beginning, when I put in CD 6 after CD 1 and almost died of language shock (that’s what you get for being smug! Continue reading

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

An exercise in complicatedness. That’s what it felt like, especially after coming home from work on a very long Friday. The movie is clearly meant to be viewed a few times before you can piece together the whole scenario. DVD viewers (thanks to the commentary) have the upper hand, and if you think you are going to get into something funny or romantic, it’s going to be a startling revelation. Continue reading

Missed Katrina Until Wikipedia Told Me

I am astonished. Due to the trip to Hawai’i and to the lack of TV, I almost completely missed Katrina. I heard people say about the disaster, but I had no idea until I finally decided to check for myself on the web, and found just how horrible the situation is. Partially it may be because I was in Hawai’i, an island chain so remote from the mainland, an event in Japan is more likely to cause a stir than a hurricane in Louisiana; partially I was completely cut off from news there, seeing how I had no access to news media at all; and finally, partially my utter lack of TV access removed me from the worst of the sights. Continue reading

The Aviator (2004)

Howard Hughes seems to have been quite the character. A multitalented virtuoso of money-making, he ended up being one of the richest men in the first part of the 20th century, rivaling in power other tycoons like W.R. Hearst. And maybe it’s the analogy with the latter that moved Scorsese to create this movie. Once in a while, you are reminded of “Citizen Kane”, and it’s not only because of the decor. Continue reading

Joomla?

What do I read on SlashDot? Well, what do you know, the last major contributor to Mambo left Miro (the company that created Mambo Open Source) and now the project is being rebuilt from the outside. That’s how Mambo is getting a new name, a new site, and new people. It’s going to be called joomla, which supposedly stands for something somewhere, but I am sure is somehow related to the oo craze. Continue reading

Me Talk Pretty One Day (D. Sedaris)

Yet another humorous gay book. David Sedaris is very well-known in this city (San Francisco), as one of the funniest of the bunch. This book, in turn, is quite well-known for being one of his masterpieces. So it goes. Let me tell you: it is funny. More the grin-and-smile kind of funny, witty, articulate, smart in places, but nothing of the promised outright heartsplitting laughter I thought I would get out of it. Continue reading

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (D. Eggers)

Ah, a Talented New Writer™! An autobiography of one such genius! What privilege! What happenstance! I have rarely had such a mixed impression of a book as with this particular one. Dave Eggers is an excellent writer: he has a wonderful voice, attention to the humanity that is happening around him. Still, I found myself deeply dissatisfied, and I had a hard time accepting why at first. Reading on, things became clearer. Continue reading

august

i am a master of contradiction ready to jolt any time but craving a kiss of a man without cause. i love those around me as i love myself which i learned it took learning. on a day like this my soul dances with the soul of the sun with that of the baby that cries. coming from italy the reds are redder the blues bluer and life always a hoot. Continue reading

Uploaded Images from July and August Trips

I found a set of beautiful pictures from Puna ({moszoomalbum:Puna}), shot during the vacation I took with Kirk in July. In addition, I added the latest set of pictures from my latest stint to check up on the beginning of the construction. No pictures of the construction per se, but a lot of scenery.

Plans

The house construction project seems to be well on its way. Brad and I found each other congenial, and he started on Monday with renewed enthusiasm for the project, finally liberated from an oppressive and opinionated boss. What changed? Well, the story he tells is quite sad: the former owners seem to have lured him into construction, just to run out of money about a year ago. As he saw no more money coming out of the owners, he slowly started killing the project and moved on to other, better things. Continue reading