Settling Down

Things on the home front are finally settling down a bit. We finally got the cable people to install the cable system and I just finished installing a wireless network in my home. Oh yeah, I also got a new cell phone for work through Verizon earlier today. Ahhh...times like this makes me love technology! I have to give my brother in-law some of the credit for helping me in selecting the router and wireless access point. The rest of the installation was rather straight forward except for getting the encryption stuff right. That took a bit since I'm no IT guy but I soon figured out my major brain malfunction.

Yup, technology can be great. Here I am, blogging on my laptop in my living room while connected to my new wireless network, seeing my cell phone with 5 bars for signal strength, and watching the Food Network. Next thing to do is to get a network card for my desktop and then my geeky side of my brain will be quite happy. To make it ecstatic, I will need to upgrade my desktop. Overall, I am very pleased on how this day has turned out.

I'm definitely looking forward to this coming three day weekend. We are planning on spending part of the weekend with my wife's cousin and their children in San Diego. I think I will do the driving down to San Diego since my wife has the mentality of an Indy race car driver when she is behind the wheel. The last time we drove down to see her cousin, I was quite petrified! She was weaving the through traffic as if she was in a slalom race. We were whizzing by all these cars on the freeway, one after another. I was glad when we finally got to our destination on that trip...anyways, I better not go on since my wife reads my blog regularly.

Yeah, I like to tease her about her driving and her cooking skills but I only tease out of fun and not out of spite. Don't get me wrong...my wife knows how to cook. She just does not have the creativity yet, but she is working on it. I mean, last night she made low carb vanilla ice cream. It was a great treat when I came home from work late last night. The ice cream was so good! I mean when it comes to whipping up stuff out of the cupboards to make a meal, she has some difficulty. I guess it's just that she didn't have any opportunities when she was growing up. I was fortunate that my mom let me do stuff around the kitchen and be creative. Also, by watching the Food network I get a lot of ideas. One area she definitely has me beat is baking. I cannot bake a cake to save my life. The last time I baked a cake, it was a disaster. My cake looked as if it were primeval earth...kind of like the Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. I mean, it was bubbling with many craters through a thin crust on the top. Heck, the baking process of my cake would have been a good illustration on how volcanoes form!

Well, I better end this now since my laptop is starting to roast the family jewels. Man, these laptops get hot. I don't know why they call them laptops when it get your lap roasting when you place them on our lap. They should be called heat sterilizers or manhood destroyers.

Comcast Cable - Bunch of Lamers

Ok, I need to do some stress relief so here I go. It's not going to be pleasant and I don't really like to rant like this but I need to blow off some steam.

Last week, we had ordered cable to be installed for today from Comcast. So, with our schedule involving church in the morning we had to rush and get home after services so we could let the cable guys in the home. Just to be proactive, my wife called Comcast to confirm that they were to install the cable system today. She found out instead that they got our names incorrectly spelled and our phone numbers incorrectly recorded. What lamers!

After the information was corrected, Comcast indicated that the correct information would be sent to dispatch. Three hours later, my wife called again to make sure things were all set. Comcast responded that they called the number and that the person answering the phone denied ordering any cable. What lamers! So, we again verified our home phone number and everything and the customer service person said that they will get it to dispatch. Of course they don't show up. After talking with Comcast's supervisor, he said that the order had been cancelled. We could not believe it! They said that they followed the process and that when they called, the person answering denied any cable service so they cancelled it. What a bunch of fools! They did not want to make any compensation for their inconviniences but did offer a $20 ontime guarantee appointment. Oh wow! A big fricken $20 discount! After I wasted my entire Sunday afternoon because of four lame Customer Representatives of Comcast.

COMCAST, YOU GUYS SUCK!!!!

Of course, they are going to reschedule the installation. I, for one, think they are a bunch of idiots and don't want to have any cable. I feel as if I'm rewarding them my money for lousy customer service. Heh, they shouldn't be called Customer Service...they don't even provide any service! I'm really hoping that the other cable companies will suck up Comcast and get rid of the lame workers there. I mean, I've dealt with Adelphia, Time-Warner, and Chartered cable and never had any problems like this. COMCAST, YOU GUYS CAN SUCK THE BOTTOM OF MY TOILET!!! My wife, she's the more forgiving one and still wants to get cable. Well, I think if they do this one more time, that's it...no more cable from these idiots!

COMCAST, YOU GUYS SUCK!!!!

What is it with customer service or shall I say lack of customer service these days? I remember when I was a kid where every business establishment had great service. Nowdays, it has all disappeared. How can these people get away with such bad service? It's too bad that it has come to be this way.

Pictures from Honeymoon On Kaua'i

Here are some of the pictures my wife and I took during our honeymoon in Kaua'i, Hawai'i. We took a lot of pictures so I will have to publish them in bits and pieces. Plus, the Picasa/Hello imaging software for this blog sucks and I don't know how to publish a bunch of pictures all at once and thus have to do major editing.

Our stay on Kaua'i was fantastic and we really got to do some major sightseeing. On the first day, it was a major downpour but I looked at it as a blessing. The Hawaiians say that rain is a definite blessing on a special occassion and thus I took the rain in stride. We were tired from our flight from Los Angeles to Lihue, Kaua'i via Honolulu so we more or less went out to grab a meal and then do some grocery shopping since our hotel was equipped with a kitchen.

Oh, before I go on, I will give you a brief introduction in reading Hawaiian. The Hawaiian language consists mainly of vowels: A, E, I, O, U. A is pronounced "ah", E is "eh", O is "oh", U is "oo". You can go to Eye of Hawaii or to the Basic Hawaiian Language Workshop for more information.







As you can see, the place we stayed in was not at the luxurious Princeville Resort on Kaua'i but it was the humble Best Western Plantation Hale (Hale, pronounced Ha-leh. It was a nice and quiet, one bedroom suite with a complete kitchen located on the east side of the island in a city called Kapa'a.

During our stay there, I made friends with the resident rooster that I named Mr. Chicken. He would come by every day to say hello. My wife thought I was wierd but I just cannot help liking all kinds of animals. It's not that I'm a tree hugger because I like to eat meat, but I only eat stuff that comes wrapped in a package and not free roaming if you know what I mean.






As you can see, Mr. Chicken is a rather beautiful cock. One of the best cocks I have ever seen. Kaua'i is teaming with wild chickens to the point that they are almost like pests. However, Mr. Chicken was pretty cool. He would arrive to the back porch with an entourage of hens. What a stud!

The day after we arrived on Kaua'i, we decided to begin our sightseeing tour despite the gloomy weather. Yeah, it was still raining but we figured it isn't snow and the air was warm!

We started our tour towards the west and north parts of the island and took the following pictures along the way.






The pictures above is the world famous Lumahai Beach. This beach was filmed in Blue Hawaii and From Here to Eternity. The picture would have been much better had it been sunny that day. Still, it is a nice place to see even in the rain.

The drive to the North Shore of Kaua'i was rather interesting. The road was very narrow with a series of one lane bridges. The people that live in the area all seem to be caucasian. Not just ordinary caucasians but more like the hippie types that love nature (tree huggers) and the use of wacky tabacky. It felt as if I was not in Hawai'i but in Santa Cruz, CA!

The road ended at a place called Ha'ena. It is very beautiful with lots of beaches. Ok, the whole island is full of beaches since it is surrounded by water. Anyways, in Ha'ena there are a couple of old lava tubes and here is a picture of one of them. This cave is called Waikanaloa Wet Cave.



Hawaiian legend states that this cave is the home of an ancient serpent and that the water reflects her hair coloring. In ancient times, the water was reddish. Now, the water is on the grey side. I guess the serpent is rather old! Actually, the cave was formed as a lava tube and was pounded by the sea. Eventually, fresh water springs filled the cave. The cave sustains no life except for nasty bacteria called leptospirosis. Pretty nasty stuff!

As we headed back to our hotel, we stopped in Hanalei. It is a beautiful place full of taro fields. This valley has not changed at all! I remember seeing this valley when I was a wee boy and it definitely looks the same.



The only way to get to Hanalei by car is through a single lane bridge. No motorized water craft is allowed on the stream.

Below is the taro fields up close. Taro is where poi comes from. What is poi? It is steamed and mashed taro root and is like a paste. Some say it taste like wall paper paste. I don't know what that tastes like since I don't go around tasting that stuff but I like poi. Taro was a staple food for all Polynesians. It is very healthy and is a great source for calcium. The entire plant is edible. The cooked leaves tastes similar to spinich.



I hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures. I will publish more later on. Until then, aloha a hui hou (good bye, until we meet again)!

Finally, My Own Broadband

I finally got my own broadband connection for my home. I know you might say, "So what?" Well, for me this is pretty significant. For years I was on dial up and played games on the internet. I was called the lag king by my friend Dennis. Well, no more lag from me now! I had been "borrowing" someone's wireless network for almost a year now but I finally gave in after my wife persuaded me to get DSL for the home.

It is a vast improvement compared to my old ways of tapping into the internet. I cannot believe how lame I was not to do this earlier. Well, the next step is to install a wireless network...encryption enabled of course so a bumm like me would not be able to tap into the network and be a freeloader or even worse, to create havoc on my computers.

Now all I have to do is upgrade my desktop and buy some online games so I can wind down after work. My wife has a fear that she might become an gamer's widow. I highly doubt it but you never know. I used to play an online game called Battlezone and was actually a bit addicted to it. Well, I didn't have a job then so I could play after applying for jobs via the internet. I know I will spend some time on the computer playing games but I know that I don't want to be addicted to the point where the game rules my life. I got a life so I know I won't be so sucked into games like some people I know.

I really don't get it with people who basically play online all day long. It is as if the game is their life. I know of someone who will forgo sleep and work just to play online. I feel those individuals are weak minded or have no life or just want to escape reality. Fact is, you have to face reality sooner or later. I know that I get involved with games time to time but not where it sucks me in to the point where I don't have any real relationships. I just want to play games for the fun of it and to wind down from a hard day's work.

Do you know of anyone who is addicted to online games? Leave your comments about it.

Hawaiian Style Soy Sauce Chicken

You know, I wrote on the header of my blog that I have interests in cooking and other things but have not really put cooking stuff on my blog. Well, here it is a recipe for you readers. Note that I really don't measure when I cook so the measurements for the ingredients are estimates and you may have to add more or less depending on your taste. Sorry for no exact measurements...I learned from watching and tasting.

Here's my recipe for what the locals in Hawaii call shoyu chicken:

6 chicken thighs (you can use breast meat but I like nice, juicy thighs!)
3 cloves garlic, lightly crushed.
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled.
1/2 cup soy sauce (kikkoman is the best for this recipe)
1/2 cup brown sugar (white sugar is ok if you don't have brown)
Water

Place water and chicken thighs in a pan and boil it under high heat until the chicken is cooked thoroughly but don't overcook it...you don't want to eat some sort of protein matter.

Reserve one cup of the water that was boiling with the chicken and drain the rest...water that is, not the chicken. Put back the reserved water and add the rest of the ingredients. Let the sauce simmer with the chicken for about 20 minutes on medium heat. You may have to adjust the soy sauce, sugar, and water depending on your taste. It should taste a little salty and sweet. If you want a thick sauce for it, just add a slurry of cornstarch and water to the sauce when you are done. I don't prefer a thick sauce but some people do.

Give it a try and let me know how it came out.

Britney Spears TV Show: It Sucked!

My wife had to get up at O'dark thirty so she went to bed and left me to channel surf. I stumbled on what I thought was some quirky amateur video show but it turned out to be Britney Spear's new TV show called CHAOTIC. It totally sucked! It is amazing what TV producers put out on the airwaves just because someone is popular and not because of great content. I mean, after watching 10 long minutes of Britney shooting amateurish videos of where ever she went, I wanted to shoot myself in the head with a gun! Nah, actually, a gun would have been too quick...more like beating myself in the head with a baseball bat.

How can they even play that kind of crap on TV? It was not even chaotic...it was more like disgust! Watching a video of me puking in the toilet would have more entertainment value than that show. I've seen better programs on public access channels! Well, it just shows her lackless talent even more. She's just a pretty face with a pretty body that dresses like a slut. I guess her popularity is waning because her TV show just shouts out desperation for attention.

Ugh, just watching 10 minutes of that show has burned out my brain cells! I can't believe that UPN network actually let that crap go out in the air! I could just imagine if some alien race were monitoring our airwaves, they would think that we were some moronic race. There's a lot of other more talented people that deserve to be broadcasted but are not famous so they can't or struggle to get a break but no, these broadcasters have to go with some one "famous" and broadcast junk.

Have we fallen so low to accept such crap? What's your take on this?

So Many Changes

Things have gotten a little more normal here. My wife's family is helping to make arrangements for her cousin's funeral and thus my wife has gone back to work. It had been a trying couple of days with us just getting back from our honeymoon and then dealing with the passing of her cousin.

Still, there have been changes going around in the apartment such as rearranging of where the dishes go, the pantry and the such. It gets a bit confusing on where all the dishes are now stored and stuff. I had a system going for at least 3 years and the wife had to come in and change it..."sigh". Well, I guess this is all a part of being a newlywed. Now she wants to add more color to our home. She is so tired of the color blue which is one of my favorite colors. Yeah, basically a lot of stuff around the home is blue in color which I really like. She wants to add green to the place but the only green I like is either vegetables, plants, or the best green...CASH! Well, at least she didn't say she wanted pink. Oh how I hate pink! Pink is a bit too feminine for my taste. Besides, pink reminds me of that liquid penicilin I used to take as a child that always made me gag and throw up.

I once received a pink polo shirt as a gift. It made a very good polishing rag. Too bad it was brand new while I used it to polish my car. Yeah, you could say I'm a bit brutish or pig headed, but hey, we all have our preferences. If other guys want to wear pink or have pink stuff laying around the house, be my guest...but it is not for me. I personally avoid pink like the plague...well except for Spam. Now that is one pink I like or ham...dang, I'm getting hungry now.

With the slow changes going around my place...er, our place...I'm still trying to get used to it. I know I will get used to it once everything is in place. I guess it's just that I am such a creature of habit that these changes leave me a bit outside my comfort zone.

(To my wife...don't read this part)-One of the biggest changes has been sharing the bed. Now, I've had girlfriends before but they never slept over nor have I slept over their place. I was not used to sleeping with someone but now I share my bed with my wife. It was a bit difficult to fall asleep with someone else in my bed. Besides, I learned really quickly that my wife is a bed hog. She keeps sleeping on my side of the bed. I'm pushed until I am right at the edge of the bed. If she came any closer, I'd be sleeping on the floor! I don't know, maybe she just wants to be close to me...at least that's the excuse she gives me. Well, I guess that's just payback for my snoring. Yeah, I snore big time. I mean, I snore so loud that it is as if I'm sucking the paint off the walls. I tried those antisnore throat sprays - no effect. I even tried the nose strips but that only drops the decibel levels a couple of notches. She's tried using ear plugs made to block snoring frequencies but it doesn't work when the bed vibrates from the low frequency noise I generates and then gets amplified through your body. I really feel for her but at least once she is asleep, she doesn't hear it. So, I let her go to sleep first before I shut down for the night.

I know these changes are good and it is for the best. I know my organizational skills in the kitchen cabinets are not that great and my skill in color coordination is basically choosing the color blue or white so I'm glad she's gifted in those areas.

A Rather Down Couple of Days

I'm still getting over being a bit homesick after leaving my beautiful home state of Hawai'i. I really miss it and miss my parents. I often think of them since they are not getting any younger and my mom has a chronic illness. It is not that she is dying but she does not really have a lot of years to live with her disease of hepatitis C. Fortunately, she has never really drank any alcohol and she is in overall good health except for the virus. Her condition is stable and the agents found in her blood that is a precursor to cancer is low enough that she doesn't need to get a check up every 3 months. I got her on a regiment of supplements that has made a big impact on her health. If you are curious about hepatitis C and supplements to keep your liver healthy, here is the link to the National Hepatitis C Coalition, Inc.

Another downer is that early this morning, we received a call that my wife's cousin was on life support after his heart stopped beating and that the family decided to let him rest in peace by pulling the plug. He was battling cancer and diabetes and his body finally could not fight. His condition was terminal and there was nothing the doctors could do except give him drugs to keep him alive. He went under full cardiac arrest for about 15 minutes and was revived but there was not chance for any recovery. We all gathered to say our goodbyes and prayed that the Lord's will be done. The respirator was then removed and they stopped administering drugs to keep his heart going. It was my first time to see someone die before my very eyes. It was all over after 40 minutes when he was pronounced that he was no longer with us here on earth. It was sad for his wife and his two young sons as well as for my wife and her family.

On top of all of the things happening, I had to go to work but really couldn't concentrate with my body still a bit on vacation mode and with all of the things going through my head with my wife and her family and with my worries about my parents. I'm sure in a few days, I'll be getting back to gear and life will come back to normal.

My wife has been keeping sane by getting herself moved in and keeping busy with rearranging the place but at the same time she's been busy in coordinating things with her family with her cousin's passing. I'm sure she is going through a lot of stress. With a death in the family, a new life, a new place, I'd be going crazy. I'm being supportive of her and helping her with things around the house. I really haven't complained of all the changes she's been doing with my place. At least she has not told me to rearrange the furniture...yet! I figure not to make any complaints of the changes since she's been doing things to keep her sanity and doesn't need me to stress her out even further. Besides, I think a few changes are good. Ok, I'm a person who really doesn't like changes but I'll let it go since she does have a knack for decorating. My sense of decorating is having newspapers and bills pile up on the coffee table or stacking beer cans in a pyramid. No more of that...bummer, I mean great!

I'm just concerned with my wife and her family right now. I'm sure things will be back to normal once her cousin's funeral is over but for now it is kind of hectic. I'll just be the supporting husband that I vowed to be and help wherever I can. Well, that's it for now. I hope to have better news and pictures of Hawai'i in the near future. Aloha!

I'm Back

Well, here I am back in California from my honeymoon in the beautiful state of Hawaii. It was great returning back to my home state. Kaua'i was so gorgeous with such lush green vegetation, tropic warmth and crystal blue oceans. There were numerous white sand beaches. I already miss Hawaii and feel a bit homesick.

We took a lot of pictures and will put some up on the blog when I get a chance. When you look at them, I have a feeling you will want to pack up your bags and head there for a vacation.

The one week stay in Hawaii felt so short. I wished that the trip could have been longer. But our stay there was wonderful. I felt so recharged and connected to the land. The Hawaiians call it Mana. Hawaii will always be home to me. I guess you can take the boy out of the island but you can't take the island out of the boy. Fortunately, there is a Hawaiian community in the southern California area so I don't feel so homesick but still it cannot replace being in Hawaii with family and friends.

In a way, it felt great playing tourist in my own home state. We went to various locations on Kaua'i to go sightseeing and some tours. The cool part was that I was able to take advantage of the kama'aina (resident) discounts for the tours of the fern grotto and sugar mill tour. I guess it pays of being a former resident who still knows how to talk in pidgin english. What's pidgin english? Well, it is officially recognized in Hawaii as Creole Hawaiian English, whatever that means. It's basically english broken up with Hawaiian and many different ethinic languages. It was a language that was devised for the plantation workers who did not speak english to communicate with the caucasian owners and managers. Here are some examples with the proper english translations:

1. Where you stay? - Where are you?
2. How come I come, you stay, you go? - How come whenever I go to where you say you're going to be, you leave?
3. You touch me li'dat, I going karang yo alas - You touch me like that, I'm going to crush your family jewels.

It was funny during our stay in Hawaii. I reverted back from speaking proper "mainland" english to pidgin english. My wife thought it was funny when I starting speaking full on pidgin. There were times when she could not understand what I was talking about in which I then had to revert back to proper english. I just feel so comfortable speaking in pidgin english since that is what I used as a child. Don't get me wrong, I was taught proper english in school and at home but spoke pidgin to my family and friends. My parents made me use proper english whenever we went out for dinner and at dinner parties. I'm glad that they enforced that or else I would not have been able to communicate to anyone out here on the mainland.

Well, I'll be blogging more about Hawaii and try to post up some pictures later. I gotta go and take care a few things such as opening wedding presents and sending out thank you cards. Hope to blog again real soon. Until then, Aloha!