woo hoo, new update page!
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dateline : 04.18.1998 woo hoo, new update page! |
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So, the monkey makes it back alive. Sorry for the long break between updata, but, hey, what can I say, life has been a rather busy place as of late...I'll make up for it by producing a much longer than usual update so you all won't feel too gypped...Ready? Have a drink? Kicked back and relaxed?
Probably the most obvious thing is some new pages on the monkey site. While I weathered a bad flu, I was basically sitting around, not doing much at all, when all of the ideas I had had over the last few months came together in one rather feverish "blurt", resulting in what you see on the main page and the initial index page. Not much else has changed yet, although I actually got off my butt and redid the cam page too after a chorus of boos over the gruesome green lettering...A theme? Well, sort of, a "circle" type of thing, think " Ourobouros ", or, for the terminally simple amongst us...what goes around comes around. Special tip of the Guinness to Lance Arthur of Glassdog fame (and happy birthday) for writing a javascript tutorial that actually makes sense...
Amidst all the whirl of April, I did manage to turn 34 (27 USD).This of course, makes me an Aries... Wooo hoo! I'm not worried about the advancing age, in many ways, things get better every year, I learn more, I meet more neat people and I get to do some more new things, who can complain about that? I simply get better, much like a finely aged whine...However, didn't do too much, I was still sick with that nasty flu that managed to wipe out half my hearing (temporarily) and give me nasty sinus headaches for two weeks...and make me kinda pouty and more whiney than usual.
Geez, trying to remember everything that has happened since sometime in late february is kinda tough for one as scattered as me, but, a couple of things DO stand out as particularly memorable, and the biggest thing was a truly nice trip to Hawaii. I have wanted to go to hawaii since I was a wee boy and used to watch piles of Hawaii Five-O and the Brady Bunch (who filmed a couple of episodes in hawaii...). There are PILES of pictures, mostly of me flying kites. More on the kite part later. We stayed on Oahu, one of the main islands. Besides finding the place rather expensive, it was truly a magical time, what a tropical paradise. Man, if I was an american (shudder) I'd move there in half a second flat, and drink mai-tais all day long. Tourists? Yep, quite a few of them, but, hey, I can't complain, I was one of those tourists! People had continually warned me that the main Waikiki strip was a massive tourist trap. Well, yes, it was, but it sure was a nice, clean, exciting tourist trap. And, the beaches, wow, fell in lust every five feet. We saw most of the sites around the island, and had gorgeous weather while we were there too. We did the sane thing and rented a car for the trip, a lovely convertible car it was. I did take a picture of it, but, it eludes me at the moment. Being that I LOATHE sunbathing as a general rule, most of my time in the sun was spent flying kites, of course...I took my four favorite Rev kites with me, and, therein lies a story or two...Travelling with kites is somewhat involved. Because of the graphite spars (that cost lots to replace), none of my Revs break down any smaller than 42 inches, making them too long for most suitcases and certainly too long for carry-on baggage. So, what is a chimp to do, the enquiring reader asks...Easily solved for the minuscule monkey brain. I ran out to teh local hardware store and got a 42 inch of big, thick, nearly unbreakable black plastic sewage tubing. Capped both ends, added a shoulder strap, voila! instant Rev travel case! SO, I figured, yeah, you da man, you prepared for anything! Many odd looks at the airport, the security guards wondered about it, but, hey, it's kites, what are they gonna say? So, upon arrival in Oahu, we patiently waited at the baggage pickup for all of my BABIES to come up the chute. And we waited. And we waited some more. Finally, there are a whole 3 people left in the terminal, and no sign of the kites. WHINE! Being that kite flying was a major reason for this trip, I was pretty bummed out when I approached the airport staff. I started filling out the usual forms (hah, should have seen his face when I wrote down 4 kites, worth approx. $1500) and, they started telling me how and when they might show up. "Oh, sometime tomorrow night or the next day, depending on whether or not they were in Sydney, Australia or still in Vancouver. Big drag. But, fortune smiles on monkeys some days...They had merely fallen off of the baggage conveyor and were suddenly right in front of me....YAY! Happy day! I did a little monkey dance, and off we went to get the hotel room sorted out...The trip itself was too short, being a mere five days, but I am resolved to go back at some point and spend some further time there. I met a lot of really nice residents there, drank far too many mai-tais (cuz there was not a good beer to be found on that island) and ate more pineapple that I had managed to eat in my entire life. Highly recommended. Just wish I could swim so I could have tried some surfing out...
I alluded to this above, but, the primary reason to go to hawaii was for a kite festival. Yes, a kite festival, you heard properly. The Hawaii Sport Kite Challenge is one of the oldest festivals in the world, starting more than 18 years ago. While it's glory days are behind it, it's still a nice festival in a nice location. It's held in Kapiolani Park, just a hop skip and a jump away from the main beach area. Now, locals refer to this park as "Crapiolani" and I soon found out why. With Diamond Head on one side, and an awful amount of trees, it's pretty tricky to get a good wind there, unless the trade winds are blowing, which, thanks to El Nino, have avoided the islands all winter long. However, it wasn't unflyable wind at least, just kinda light and iffy at times. We met with an old kite flying friend of mine, Ray Bethell, from Vancouver as well. Ray was first introduced to kite flying at that very festival many years ago, thus, he makes a pilgrimage every year to have some more fun, so, it was nice to have a recognizable person there, but, we also met quite a few other people as well that made the entire festival quite a large amount of fun. Now, I had not intended to enter this competition, for a few reasons, the main reason being that weather in vancouver this year had made practicing kinda rough unless one wanted to get cold wet and miserable all at once, so I had no time to prepare anything at all. Plus, then there is also the simple fear of competing, what if I lose? But, Ray being the kind of guy that he is, convinced me that I had nothing to lose, unless I did not compete. Just go for it, he said...So, I did. I entered the Open Quad category. I had to make a routine kinda quickly, but, hell, I'm reasonably smart and have been interpreting music for almost 20 years now, so, that wasn't SOOOOO tough to do. And there I was, all psyched, all ready to go, and, bleach, comp gets cancelled for the day due to NO WIND. Now, this didn't stop me, I simply played around with the lightest Rev in my bag, and, well, being the biggest coward and procrastinator you might know, I was somewhat relieved...So, Sunday rolls around, and, yes! there is wind! I am saved! So, the long and short of the comp was that I walked away with first place in Open Quad, flying to a King Crimson tune, "Two Hands" . Personally, I think I should have been second, but, the guy who kicked my ass was also the festival organizer, thus, not really allowed...SO, I am cool, I rock, I can fly and place. Now, for the tough part, to see if I can duplicate that win a few times in competitions around the Pacific Northwest. The tougher part is that one of my better met pals ALSO flys Revs in this area, so I'll have to kick her butt too, but, she is waiting for it...Somehow, I think I'll finish second up against Penny, (no, not THIS Penny, this one...)but, we'll see....
On other "different" news, I am now in a one bedroom apartment, just me and the three cats. No further comment on this, if you really need to pry, feel free to email me and I may discuss it further. And I may not. I'll boil it down like this, while it is a painful step to take, it's agreed that it needs to be done for a while at least. So there.
And, just to leave you with some links and stuff to continue your journey...
The other Seattle Penny that I know just whipped up a new site. It's lovely and you should visit and send her nice fan-like email about it and she didn't even have to pay me to say this... 8)
Every once in a while, I see a page that makes me want to erase homesite off of my computer and never look at photoshop again. This would be one of those sites. Nice work Josh.
Marty And Chris/The GigglesCam
Webcams. Gotta love'em. When you run a webcam yourself, you spend time visting other cams, and, in some cases, getting to know the people on the other side of the page as well. The plethora of webcams that show all, get old really quick, mystery and entertainment and laughs are reasons to return. This would be the case with Chris and Marty, it was sheer accident that I ended up at their site originally, but, they are both tremendously entertaining people to chat and play with, thus, both of them have become pals of mine. Marty is also a fellow geek, and well, Chris, she's just a doll of the finest nature and should really move to Vancouver at some point... giggles cam indeed. Stop by, tell them the monkey-boy sent you...While you are there, make sure to read "Ain't Nobody's Business But Your Own", it's a truly fascinating read that I haven't QUITE finished yet.
Be sure to trifle with Ferret-Boy on my behalf eh? Nice site, fellow webcam weirdo. I am a sucker for ferrets which is what brought me there in the first place, but, charlie is pretty damn amusing too...
And, music for this update is U2, the Discotheque remixes and Chemical Brothers, Dig Your Own Hole. I seem to be in a techno period right now.
Computer game of the moment is Starcraft which is the successor to Warcraft II, which I wasted a lot of last year playing. Starcraft only improves upon Warcraft, so go buy it now.
geez, even spell checked this one...If you want to see earlier journals, click here
over and out, till next time...
