Oahu To Maui By Hawaii Superferry, #73

Early Afternoon In Kahului, Maui, Hawaii, October '08, artistic view, click to enlarge.

Aloha.
A Hawaii Superferry has been in operation for a while after many previous delays. Now things are pretty smooth, and you can enjoy trips between Oahu and Maui several times per week. It is always a good idea to reserve seats ahead of time. From Honolulu to Kahului, the departure time was around 6:00am the day we chose to travel to Maui. This means waking up in your hotel around 3:30am in the morning, after going to bed around 1:00am, you see why buying tickets ahead of time is a good idea. Whether to take your car with you is a decision you have to make, we will give you some hints. For about $10/day you can leave your car at the Pier, and not to worry about it. The downside is that now you have no car to drive in Maui and have to rent it, again preferably ahead of time. Inside the Superferry, there was plenty of room to seat the day we traveled; only about half of seats were occupied. Be prepared for a very cold inside, so a thick jacket is mandatory. The low temperature is supposed to keep people away from getting seasick. You are going to read a lot about that with plenty of remedies how to deal with it. I could count no more than four people being affected by it. It is a very unpleasant feeling, especially bad if you happened to have a good breakfast, since now the breakfast tends to come out! Our advice to deal with that problem, is to simply skip the morning breakfast and have only few sips of water. There is plenty of food to buy on the Superferry, this may not be the best of ideas, and it is up to you to decide. The Pacific Ocean between islands can be very rough, so the seasickness is one of the possible outcomes, another one is that the cars on the Superferry can move and get damaged. The are reports of this indeed happening. We told you to leave your car at the Pier, didn’t we? The Superfurry does not travel very fast, we are talking over three hour travel time, something closer to two hours would be more tolerable. The rough Pacific Ocean does not allow for that, at least for now. Apparently, a new model is being built and tested, hopefully a faster one.
If you forgot about something thick to wear, you will be coughing after the trip, but that is the only downside we can think of. During the trip, it is mostly water outside the windows, so watch a movie or two played on many big screens. If you happen to sit closer to windows, need to figure out which one, you can watch both Molokai and Maui provided you travel during the day, at night only some island lights are visible.
When you arrive, you are going to be hit with 80+F temperature, a very nice surprise after sitting inside in cold for over three hours.

In summary: (1) skip morning breakfast, or don’t eat much about four hours before the departure time in the afternoon or evening, (2) leave your car at the Pier, (3) sit in the center of the large room toward its back, (4) skip all food during the travel, (5) definitely have something warm with you.
With those points in mind, you can enjoy two beautiful Hawaiian Islands, and in the near future additional islands as well. Only pleasant things remain in our memories.
Mahalo everyone.

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/Vatsek .
YouTube videos: youtube.com/Vatsek .
Flickr photos: flickr.com/photos/25951201@N07/ .

Island Car Tips To Remember, #72

Always Photogenic, Lanikai Beach, Kailua, Hawaii, October '08, artistic view, click to enlarge.

Aloha.
Driving by car is perhaps the best way to get around Hawaiian Islands. Although there are many bus tours that can take you almost everywhere, we prefer our own way of transportation. No need to wait for the bus, no need to check time the bus leaves, no need to have interest in all places the bus stops at, etc. However, if you like to be always in a group of 30-40 people, feel safer that way, like to perhaps save some money, then the bus tour approach may be right for you. A motorcycle is also good, a bicycle less so because of the heavy traffic, especially in Honolulu. In summer months, everything inside the car is going to get very hot, so make sure you do not leave kids, any animals, or even food inside.
Parking around Honolulu can be a problem, streets are narrow, and some malls only have a very limited number of parking spaces available. However, the biggest problems are with parking in your own hotel, and if you happen to rent a large car, you are going to spend lots of time in the parking garage under the hotel, driving backward and forward, trying to park and avoiding hitting other cars. The worst situation happens when you come back from the beach around 9 or 10pm on weekend, because inevitably near all spaces will already be taken, and the one remaining for you is in the dark corner, at 45 degree angle, between two cement columns, and two big cars, one of them parked half-legally, almost blocking your access. Imagine it is very hot underground, and there is no good ventilation, you are sweating profusely trying to figure out what to do. Several towing and “Don’t Park Here” reminders on walls, for $20/day. Moreover, the squeaky sound of tires is more than you can handle!
Outside of hotels, and away from Honolulu, things are usually problem free. If there are special events, attended by many people, then obviously you need to consider that. Therefore, our advice to you would be to think twice about renting a large car, a rental place agent will always try to upgrade your reservation to a larger car, but this may mean problems down the road. Hope you learned something new from this blog. In a smaller car, you are free as a bird!
Mahalo everyone.

YouTube videos: youtube.com/Vatsek .
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/Vatsek .
Flickr photos: flickr.com/photos/25951201@N07/ .

Good Ukulele Music, #71

Who’s Gonna Climb This Tree With Me?, East Oahu, Hawaii, October '08, artistic view, click to enlarge.

Aloha.
While spending time in Hawaii, you are inevitably going to be exposed to good music, and most likely, it is going to be ukulele music. A sound of the ukulele just fits very nicely with the islands setting. That is why we started to look around for good ukulele music, ukulele playing training materials, ukulele making tips, and even ukulele shops, everything we can find on the web. Do not expect us to show up in our next video playing ukuleles and singing Hawaiian tunes sitting somewhere in Haleiwa! However, we are going to add, from time to time, good Hawaiian music to our videos. Actually, we already started that in the last three or four videos. Although that music is not Hawaii native, it sounds very good to our ears. Hope you appreciate that, and expect more to come in the near future.
In addition, please check ukulele on Wikipedia.org.
Mahalo everyone.

YouTube videos: youtube.com/Vatsek .
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/Vatsek .
Flickr photos: flickr.com/photos/25951201@N07/ .

Interesting Places To Visit On Oahu, #70

Let's Stop For A Moment, East Oahu, Hawaii, October '08, artistic view, click to enlarge.

Aloha.
There are many interesting places to visit on Oahu, which we already visited on several occasions. And as always, we tried to film what was happening when we stayed there. The following YouTube videos, produced in about a month, give you a flavor of what we liked: Sunny Shore Etude, The Coconut Man, Aquarium, Big Fish, Aquarium 2, Walking In Waimea Valley, Evening In Haleiwa, and Ala Moana Dreams. Relax, enjoy watching, and leave comments if you like some of them. And of course, look for some good deals on travel to Hawaii.
Mahalo everyone.

YouTube videos: youtube.com/Vatsek .
On twitter: twitter.com/Vatsek .
Flickr photos: flickr.com/photos/25951201@N07/ .

Kaena Point Welcomes You, #69

Enjoy Kaena Point, North-West Oahu, Hawaii, October '08, artistic view, click to enlarge.

Aloha.
For all practical purposes, there are two different spots on Kaena Point worth visiting, both on north-west side of Oahu; however, you need to drive along different routes to get there. The first one is along the east coastline of Oahu on 93. As always, there are plenty of good beaches along that route and good places to stop and find something to eat. The moment a paved road ends, you are going to know you arrived at Kaena Point. If you are travelling from Waikiki or Honolulu, and this assumption is usually true, the second route is to drive up north up to Haleiwa, and then to turn left along the north coastline of Oahu and follow 930. Again, the moment a paved road ends, you know you arrived. Just described how to get to two different spots at Kaena Point. With a four-wheel drive, you can drive between those two spots, but definitely not in a rental front-wheel drive, the road is just too treacherous. Some say, that hiking is the only possibility. Please note that Google Earth map, version 4.3.7284.3916 (beta), is completely distorted near Kaena Point.

Kaena Point is a good place to be away from all traffic, traffic lights, people crowds, and other industrial noises. To relax, dream, swim, and stay on the beach, to the tune of ocean waves, Kaena Point is best. If you want to take a glider ride above Kaena Point, on the north side, a Dillingham Airfield airport is in close proximity, in Mokuleia. Just make sure, do not eat too much shortly before flying, some people have problems with keeping food in their stomachs, remember, warned you! Both sites are good for taking pictures if you enjoy beach and mountain scenes. On the west side, there are more opportunities to shoot videos, I believe I shot three or four already at different times, and the latest one is called Kaena Point. How did we come up with that title? If interested, you can watch it on YouTube. The north side is more barren, no restrooms, and no showers, so keep that in mind ahead of time and avoid being surprised. The sunsets in both places are always spectacular; you can get occasional five minute long rain sprinkles, the wind can be none to quite strong, no sign of surfers anywhere. There are many people with fishing rods trying to catch a fish.

On your way home, when you want to stop somewhere and get something to eat, remember the west side is much cheaper than the north side. Moreover, the food tastes better too. By now, it is probably already night, some time after the gorgeous sunset. Plenty of pictures taken, a long video shot, a beautiful suntan only to look quite red in the morning, and a radio playing good music; we are sipping fairly warm bottled water from Fiji bought at ABC Stores, and driving down south to our hotel in Waikiki.

In the parking garage at the hotel, we notice that a car is covered with a thick layer of dust. Hopefully tomorrow there is going to be some rain, and our car is going to glow again, no need to wash it. We are now in the elevator up to our floor. We all agree it was another gorgeous day at Kaena Point. By the way, in Hawaiian kaʻena means “the heat”.
Now let’s check if there are any cheap flights available next week…
Mahalo everyone.

YouTube videos: youtube.com/Vatsek .
On twitter: twitter.com/Vatsek .
Flickr photos: flickr.com/photos/25951201@N07/ .

#60, Thoughts From The Mall

Walking On Ewa Beach, Ewa, Hawaii, October ‘07, artistic view.


3 For $5, Waikiki, Hawaii, October ‘07, artistic view.

It's again another hot day, and a sticky one on top of that. Not the one I like most. 75F is fine with me but 90+F is a bit too much. Need to get something to drink, fast.

Spent this morning preparing a package to be shipped to an eBay customer. It has been a while since I sold anything through eBay. The site has changed, it is actually more difficult to sell, and item prices are higher than they were before. In a nutshell, not as cool as it used to be. More corporate, the entrepreneurial phase is long gone. My deal went smoothly, I already got paid through PayPal, and a digital camera got shipped. Only I could not slide my credit card in and out of the shipping Post Office’s machine in a smooth movement and almost gave up and assumed that I would have to go somewhere else. Luckily, the Postal employee explained to me how to use it, and after several tense moments, everything completed satisfactorily. Till next eBay deal!

Now switching to a different subject. How do you decide if you should make your own web site or if you pay somebody experienced to handle it for you? I am in a situation like that right now. Certainly I can handle simpler designs on my own, but more advanced and better-looking websites require a bit more experience than I got. There is no need to learn everything on your own since this approach takes time and only delays the time when you will be able to see your website up and running. But if a simpler is good enough, then it may also be quite acceptable, and no doubt cheaper. Did not decide yet which way to go.

In my last blog, I used Google Docs for the very first time. Actually to display certain types of data, Google Docs could be fine. The good feature is that it is updated every 5 minutes, so it could be used to capture near real time data. I have to think about that. Some Google API’s will no doubt be needed. There are many new possibilities because of that.

I looked around the web for information about ads in blogs. The most honest bloggers will tell you that you need to have traffic to your site of over a million visitors before anything can be made to work. Below that threshold, essentially nothing is going to happen. This advice appears to make lots of sense. Before you have a pretty good traffic, do not bother with any ads. It is unlikely that the ads alone would attract new people to your site. Basically I got some time before a full-blown ad campaign starts on this blog! Lucky you.

I try to stay, on this blog, away from politics. Not that I have nothing to say or know nothing about it. Quite opposite! But it would be better to have that vast subject omitted here. You may have heard that at work you never discuss politics and religion. I think it works better for people who just do that, from my own experience. Since blogs can be read by anybody, also your employer, it is better here as well to omit those subjects. It is amazing, however, that in the country with so many freedoms, you are better of if you just keep quiet! Enough on that subject, already said too much.

Now watching JillBolteTaylor_2008_480.mp4, who is showing a real human brain. Will not spoil any more. Very interesting, you should watch too, recommended on Twitter by BrookeAlley.

eBay™ is a trademark of eBay, Inc. Google™ is a trademark of Google, Inc.

MP3 music: http://002e972.netsolhost.com/ .

#59, YouTube Or Twitter?

Enough Beach Time For Today, Waikiki, Hawaii, October ‘07, artistic view.

This blog has been deleted since it is no longer relevant.

Book: Ted Dillard, Raw Pipeline, Revolutionary Techniques To Streamline Digital Photo Workflow, Lark Books, http://www.larkbooks.com, ISBN-10: 1-60059-279-1. Fairly good digital photo book.

YouTube™ is a trademark of YouTube, Inc. Twitter™ is a trademark of Twitter, Inc. Google™ is a trademark of Google, Inc.

MP3 music: http://002e972.netsolhost.com/ .

#55, Cat & Dog Show

Peaceful Time At North Shore, North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.


More Aloha, Waikiki, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.



Ziggy Meets Carver by poshy_.
Saw this video, liked it, and decided to share with others. Once I used to have a cat like that. Enjoy.

#54, Concept Browser From Mozilla Labs

Green Light, Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.


More Good Music Tonight, Waikiki, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

The original blog has been deleted. Something new may be placed here, or left as is.

Book: Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl's Quick And Dirty Tips For Better Writing, http://www.henryholt.com, ISBN-10: 0-8050-8831-8. Everybody is talking about this book, got to read it then.

#53, Is blogTV Helping YouTube?

Which One Would You Choose?, San Mateo County, California, July ‘08, artistic view.


Would You Like A Job Like That?, San Mateo County, California, July ‘08, artistic view.

We can only say that we do not know, but promise to pay close attention to find out. Simply it is too soon to notice much difference. It is obvious that very many YouTube people are moving to blogTV in an apparent effort to boost their YouTube views and increase subscriber base. But an impact of that shift is rather subtle; those that were going up are still going up, those that started to decline are going down.
Since preparing blogTV shows takes time away from video making, we should see a negative impact on video quality coming from YouTube members who recently joined blogTV. Watch for that! You already saw videos that only announce somebody’s appearance on blogTV. Are you watching those? Also, live blogTV appearances are turned into YouTube videos. Are you watching those? Can someone reverse his or her slide down on YouTube by promoting himself/herself on blogTV? The participants obviously think so, because otherwise they would not be involved in those extra activities. Can blogTV take some audience away from YouTube? Again it is too soon to know that. Can someone move entirely to blogTV, become popular there, and forget about YouTube altogether? So far this hasn’t happened, nobody officially announced anything like that, but probably will. According to Wikipedia, first two major YouTube defections were Christine Gambito (HappySlip) and Michael Buckley (WhatTheBuckShow).

At this moment, it may be easier and cheaper to be on blogTV. No editing software is required - just a laptop with a web camera and a browser. This is going to change fairly soon since the demand for a better quality is going to grow pretty fast. For the higher quality, the production costs that are tiny right now are going to increase considerably. Producing good HD quality, live shows is going to be expensive. This will eliminate majority of people who are now very happy with blogTV. Actually YouTube suffers from exactly the same problems. No HD videos on the horizon for both, I’m afraid. However, there are already many places where you can watch both HD videos and HD live shows; those remain rather small.

As far as I am concerned, there are no plans for me to appear on blogTV anywhere soon. I decided I will only be watching, and maybe writing about it from time to time.

#52, Evening Exchanges

Quiet North Shore, North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.


Boat At Sunset, North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.


Evening Exchanges, Santa Clara, California, July ‘08, Piano Solo, Composed by Vatsek.

It has been about a week since I started working on Evening Exchanges, but it is finished now. Decided to introduce some of my conversations with others during recent weeks into this piano tune. Not literally but the essence of them. You should hear that from music. Written in an F minor key, 78 bars, and 3:50 minutes long. Hope you will listen to it more than once. Please leave comments if you do so.
I do leave snippets of information on twitter during composing, not much but a little bit. You can follow me if you care to know how things are moving along. Since I am fairly new to twitter, it's going to take some time to figure out how, when, about what, tone, etc. to tweet. So far things are progressing quite smooth, and are quite fun. Have a good time listening to Evening Exchanges.

Sheet music: Sara Bareilles - Love Song, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Alicia Keys - No One, EMI Music Publishing, Coldplay - Viva La Vida, Universal Music Publishing Group, from http://www.musicnotes.com.

#49, Going Back Home Music Composed

I'm So Pretty, Oahu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.


Left Turn, Waikiki, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

This piano solo was composed for my next YouTube video called Going Back Home. It actually is about returning back home from a nice trip. Spent on it more than two weeks, tweaking it a bit every single day. Hope you like it. The score in PDF format will be available very soon; you can try to play it on your own. As a matter of fact, I would like to hear your opinion about it, along with your inputs for me for the future. Thanks for stopping by. Perhaps making mp3’s available would be cool, I am thinking about it as well, and soon the mp3 button is likely to appear on these blog pages.


Going Back Home, Santa Clara, California, July ‘08, Piano Solo, Composed by Vatsek.

Dinner: Udon soup, teriyaki salmon with brown rice, sesame chicken salad, edamame, iced tea, at Happi House, http://www.happihouse.com. With tax $16.52.

Reading a book: David A. Crowder, Building a Web Site For DUMMIES, 3rd ed, http://www.wiley.com, ISBN 978-0-470-14928-7. Bought at Barnes & Noble, http://www.bn.com.