Dear CBS

PLEASE, PLEASE, I am literally on my knees as I type this, BEGGING you - give Hawaii 5-0 a real chance. Don't cancel it after only a few episodes.

Hawaii is my home and I love it (my dad would say irrationally so). I was skeptical when I first heard about the re-make, but I just watched the pilot and was hooked before the credits started and was a devoted convert soon after. Great actors, great action, great use of scenery and local color (although, really, we make that last part kinda easy, don't we?).

The show is off to a great start. Hawaii and her culture and her people have so much to offer - give us a chance to show you.

Mahalo.

Size 6

Since when is size 6 not considered skinny?

Time Flies Fast Enough

Well said, sister! It's always made me crazy that the dates on the magazines are so far ahead and how we had to make room at Borders for the next year's calendars in August.

Sci-Fi Letdown

I do love me some sci-fi, but it does have its problems.

Too Many Years

This is SO depressing...

Firefly in the 80s

I envy creative people.

House Anniversary

One year ago some very good friends gave up part of their weekend to heave everything I own (a considerable amount that's still difficult to believe) out of the rental house, into a U-Haul, and then into my new digs. It was extremely generous of them and I am still grateful as I sit here, one circle around the sun later, enjoying my first anniversary in my home.

Enjoying the Back Porch

This is another of Dad's big projects that we are all enjoying (although I still need to seal the boards with Thompson's). The old porch was built out of two different types of boards, one of which became the front deck; the other, the cross beams for the new room.

Email Subject Line

One of the best email subject lines I've ever seen:

There Is a Kitten in This Newsletter. You're Welcome.

And there was, and it was adorable, and I was thankful.

Here's hoping your email today will offer you at least something interesting - even if you aren't lucky enough to get a kitten.

Home Improvements

Here are some of the results of Dad's visit. There will be a part two with more photos eventually...

We lifted the composite boards from the covered back porch and moved them out here. Although I helped a little with the framing, Dad laid this all on his own.

Note the new security screen door. We also installed one of these on the back door to increase the air flow in the house with the added bonus that the cats love sitting in front of them and watching the world outside fly, creep, and crawl by.

This new room encloses the washer & dryer, water heater, water pump. Once I get it finished and painted it will be the screen for the projector. Unbelievably, none of the cats has climbed on top. Yet.


Obviously I have some painting to do here, too, around the new, smaller vanity and mirror in the master bath.


The new vanity and mirror in the guest bath are an even bigger improvement: the old vanity stuck way out (see below).


Old vanity:


A HUGE mahalo to Dad for these and all the other projects he completed. More photos soon...

Links

Future of Publishing (YouTube)

Mauna Kea Web Cam

Stars Over Mauna Kea

ISS Growth

Tsunami

Mahalo to all those who called to urge me to flee the oncoming waters. No worries, though - I am more than a mile outside the evac zone.



That is, until California stops just dancing around and finally collapses into the Pacific - on that day, I promise that I will head for the top of one of our very tall mountains.

Got Snow?

I try very hard to resist the urge to be obnoxious about how wonderful the weather is here in Paradise. Suffice it to note that one of the local sayings is "Lucky you live Hawaii." I'm sorry, though, this I cannot resist...

From the Associated Press: There's snow in every state except Hawaii.

Really, after that title, there's no more to say. Except, of course, "Lucky I live Hawaii." Where this afternoon, when it cools down a little, I will don shorts, short-sleeved shirt, and sunglasses and go take a walk by the ocean. Okay, so there was a little more to say :-}

Feelin' Good

I'm feeling rather good about myself today. My professional self, at least - the personal me needs some a lot of work.

My second contract renewal application was approved (!) so I now have a job through June 30, 2011 (although with a pay cut, but that's another story). I will have to apply for tenure this October to see if I stay employed after that (and I'll be applying for promotion at the same time). But for now, I not only have someplace that wants my professional efforts but I also have some extremely gratifying and validating comments from both my director and the committee that reviewed my dossier. Hmmm... how shall I celebrate?

Closing Tabs

Scalzi discusses a relic:
"The real irony of this {floppy} disc is that the amount of memory you can write to it (1.44 MB, if memory — heh – serves) isn’t enough to store the jpeg of the picture of it which came out of my camera (1.49 MB)."

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I can really get behind this sentiment from Cherie, which although technically isn't a New Year's resolution was posted around New Year's: "I resolve to keep on keepin’ on. It’ll either be enough, or it won’t."

Map Wish

I wish there was a program or website that had the outlines of countries and a list from which you could select cities and areas to be plotted on the map which you could then print. For example, an outline of Britain and then I could click the boxes for London, Oxford, Cambridge, Sussex, York, etc. and I would get a map with only those places I'm interested in instead of a map with so much stuff that it all ends up being kinda meaningless.

Of course it would also have to be able to show areas from different historical periods.

I'm no computer programmer, but surely in today's marvelous digital world that's not too difficult a task, is it?

New House Pix Postponed

I know that I promised some of you that I would post new pix of the home after the winter break, but I'm going to postpone for two reasons. First, typically, I didn't get as much done as I had hoped - a perpetual problem that I encounter every weekend. Sigh.

The other reason is that my dad is coming (!) in March to help with some minor repairs and improvements and I know the place will look a gajillion times better :-) after his visit, so I really will post new pix after he leaves (2nd week of April). Really.

Audible.com

I joined Audible.com this year and am enjoying it immensely. Many years ago I tried listening to audiobooks on cassette (yes, that long ago) but either performances have greatly improved or my earlier choices were poorly done (or both) because I could never get past the terrible attempts by the narrators to differentiate the voices of characters. Fortunately a few years ago someone forced me to listen to Jim Dale’s narration of the Harry Potter books and I realized that audiobooks could be done well, although I doubted anyone would ever come close to comparing with his superb performance.

What sucked me in was that Audible was having two specials and I took advantage of both and now I’m well and truly hooked. There are several levels of membership – the special I got was the most basic level for ½ price for 3 months. Each month I receive one credit and while some companies might swindle you by “pricing” items at more than one credit, I have yet to find a book that is more than one credit, so each month I get a book – not bad for $7.95. Naturally my first credit was for Liam’s narration of How the Irish Saved Civilization. Although I have greatly enjoyed the cassette version of this, it’s so nice to hear that amazing voice on the unbelievable clarity of my iPod.

The second special deal was a selection of titles for only $4.95 – incredible when you consider that sometimes audio versions are more expensive than the print. I was able to get one of my favorite books, O Jerusalem, in one of my favorite series, Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes stories. I wasn’t sure at first that I would like Jenny Sterlin’s narration, but for less than a Lincoln, I was willing to give it a try – and am I ever glad that I did! I quickly grew to appreciate her reading and she has an ability only slightly below Dale’s to distinguish one character from another. I now also have the first in the series (Beekeeper’s Apprentice) and with my next credit I will get my other favorite to complete my own personal trilogy, Justice Hall, which features characters from O Jerusalem. I probably won’t get any others in the series unless they go on sale, although I think I’ll try Laurie’s Touchstone eventually.

I’m grateful to Audible for providing decently long samples of the recordings so I can really judge the possibilities of the narration as either “I think this might turn out to be okay” or “Ewww! No way!!” Unfortunately one of my other favorite series, the Honor Harrington books by David Weber, falls into the second category. To me, Allyson Johnson’s narration brings to mind those terrible narrations that were so off-putting when I was younger. Even worse, while I’ve always thought it was the Royal Manti-coran Navy, her pronunciation is Man-tic-oran which makes me wince and is very distracting. Oh, well, there are plenty of other choices for my credits – after all, I haven’t even started on Neil Gaiman’s works yet and by every account I’ve ever seen anywhere, his narrations of his works are fantastic.

Even when my 3-month membership deal is up and the price doubles to $14.95/month, my credit will allow me to get audiobooks that are cheaper than the regular Audible or iTunes prices. My drive home seems shorter now, so it’s worth it for that, if nothing else. If you are at all inclined toward audiobooks I strongly urge you to try Audible.com.

Closing Tabs

Some of these stories are from a few weeks ago, but I still wanted to post about them:

From the incomparable Scalzi:
"Some jackass HOA tells a 90-year-old Medal of Honor winner he can’t have a flagpole in his front yard...Dear homeowners association: When a Medal of Honor recipient wants to have a flagpole in his front yard, you say “Yes, sir. By all means. Thank you, sir.”" At least they finally came to their senses.

I was fortunate enough many years ago to experience a shuttle launch and this piece captures the excitement and awe of getting ready to watch this memorable event: "When you actually see a rocket about to head into space, it’s a completely overwhelming experience."

I love attempts to show the scale of the Solar System and this is one of the more successful ones - on my big work monitor it took me something like 27 clicks just to get to Mercury. Of course you'll want to click and hold, but don't blink or you'll even miss the big guys.

Murphy's Second Law for Christmas Shopping

As a follow up:

As soon as you and a friend agree not to buy anything for each other, you will stumble upon the perfect gift.