The Great Hawaiian Vacation Part 1

So, this will probably be my most eventful post from Hawaii. Let me give you a little background. This year Manabu, Takaya and Koki are visiting me in Hawaii, and as a result I will be doing and seeing things that I have never done and seen in Hawaii before. The best part of having friends come to visit you is getting to see all the things that you can't take to time to see normally because you live so close that you could see it anytime.

Anyway, I got in on Monday and spent some time in Kona waiting for Manabu to arrive. After one of his flights was late, we ended up staying at the airport several hours longer than expected. We then drove home to introduce Manabu to everyone and served him a Hawaiian dinner. It was great, and I ate too much. I went to bed right after eating.
After a restless night of too much food digesting to actually sleep, I woke up with an intense desire to do exercise. Manabu and I walked to the gym, then walked through the Prince and the Mauna Kea before calling Kira and getting a ride. We returned home and went body boarding. However, we only had one set of fins, which I gave to Manabu since I thought that if he did not have them he was likely to hurt himself. It was, after all, his first time. He learned very quickly and caught several large waves, and always pulled out at just the right time. I, on the other hand, did my best to stay afloat and didn't catch a single wave. After an hour I suggested that we go in because I was beginning to get hammered and could not really body board without fins. He then insisted that I take the fins because his legs were tired. I reluctantly agreed, but told him to be careful without fins. I immediately caught a wave. Then Manabu caught one. However, this time he washed right into the rocks and began to be pounded against them. I went to get him out, and we successfully extracted him from the water. Here is the suprisingly bloody injury which Manabu sustained, post first aid of course.
We then went to pick up Takaya, but I budgeted too much time. We spent 3 hours in Kona looking for something to do. This is near Pine Trees.
So we got Takaya, returned home, ate, had a very embarrassing conversation at dinner, and went to bed.

So, early Wednesday morning we set off on a round the island tour. Our first stop was K-Mart, then Kealakekua Bay.
Followed by Pu'u Honua o Honaunau.
As we drove south, I began to enter a part of the island where I have never been before. We started to head to South Point, but I decided that we did not have enough gas. Instead, we went to the sweetbread factory! I had no idea how cool this place was! Next time someone comes I'm going again!
Here is Takaya at the sweetbread factory. Such good food.
Here we are at Black Sand Beach.
So after almost 4 hours of driving, we finally reached Volcano National Park. This is Kiluea Iki, one of the many craters. Notice the smoking vent in the middle of the lava lake.
This is a giant sulfur deposit.
Here it is close up.
Halemaumau Crater, the home of Pele.
Steam vents.
Me in front of Kiluea Caldera. This shot was taken from the Jagger museum, where we spent a long time listening in on Japanese tour group.
Thurston Lava Tube.
Inside the tube.
Alright. So, I forgot to tell Takaya and Manabu to bring strong shoes. As a result they only had nice shoes. So we went into the garage and found some of dad's old shoes. Well, the shoes held up OK for most of the day, but about half way through our hike to see the flowing lava, Takaya's shoes started to fall apart. That made the rest of our 4 mile hike across black lava in the dark a little difficult. Needless to say, when we finished we were pooped, and dad's shoes were destroyed.
Here is the lava. This was about the closest we could get. Zannen da ne.
On the way back, we happened to encounter Amy, Jodie, Kira and Ryan. They tried to explain where their camp was, and we set off to find it...with no success. Instead we waited in the car near the camp and slept until they were done with their hike.
Here is the camp.
The next day we set off, traveled through Hilo and ended up at Akaka Falls.
The falls.
And here is a beautiful trash can. After Akaka falls we drove to Honoka'a, went to Tex's for lunch, and then went to Waimea. Stopped at HPA to talk to Auntie Joni and Mr. (I guess I should call him Andrew now, but it feels so weird) Kelsey.
We got home at about 1:40. Then we took a nap. I slept for one hour, and Takaya and Manabu slept much longer. Aren't they cute together.

Done With Finals

This is the standard post saying that I am done with finals. How did they go? Not quickly enough. For everyone and my own information, I am leaving from SAC on United flight 306 to LAX, then boarding United flight 51 for KOA. I should be landing in Kona at 12:58pm on December the 19th. Family, see you soon. Friends, see you later.

Socially Expected Interactions

Once again, this is all philosophy, so don't feel obliged to read any of it.

I realized a serious problem that I have socially at the beginning of the quarter, and I have been thinking about this problem for the entire quarter. I think personal information is a very valuable thing. By telling a person personal information, you are showing that person a level of trust. The more you tell them, the more you trust them. If they tell you personal information, then you should realize that they are offering you their trust, and that trust should be respected by listening when they have something to say. In short, I have always considered the sharing of details of my life to be a gift, and have always sought to quietly listen to the details of the lives of others and not push them to reveal more information than they are comfortable disclosing.

I realized at the beginning of the quarter that most people do not think this way. Talking about yourself is a hallmark of selfishness, and most people will see it as such. Furthermore, it seems that no one but me thinks it is polite to refrain from requesting more information than is offered. Socially, the polite thing to do is to ask a person about themselves rather than offer information about yourself.

However, I still can't bring myself to ask for more than I give in a conversation, mostly because I would be asking questions that are socially accepted instead of the questions that I really want to ask. I want to ask "What are your dreams like?", "Do you believe in souls?", "What makes you love?" and "What do you want to be like when you are 80?" but if I ask these questions most people will be thrown off guard (and I will again be told "Trenton, you're so random!"; I'm not random, I always have wanted to know the deepest things about you I just never had the courage to ask before!). Instead I get stuck asking questions like "What is your major?", "Where are you from?" and "What are your plans?". Things that are still interesting, but not as deep as I want them to be.

Well, I have more to say, but I'm tired of saying it. Ta ta.

The End of Astronomy

After 4 years of doing it, I have finally finished teaching my last Astronomy Lab. My final thoughts? Mostly I would say it was a fantastic experience, but I do have my complaints. Towards the end of my time I began to have many philosophical disagreements with some of my coworkers. I thought that the Labs should focus on teaching telescope use and how to recognize stars, as well as getting a chance to see as much cool stuff as possible so that people for whom this is the only science class they will ever take will have a positive experience with science. Concepts, I thought, would be best taught in lecture. Oh well. Disagreements.

So, last night was the final. It was completely uneventful (except for one part of the oral test where I got to pretend to be a student who hadn't been to class). After the final we all went to Woodstocks for pizza and reviewed the evaluations. It was then that I read this evaluation.
It is always nice when people realize how much work you put into your job. Too bad they can't spell. But oh well, neither can I.
So here is the last picture of me as a Roof Helper. Tomorrow I will turn in my keys for good.

A Weekend of Parties

Before I get to the fun stuff, a summary of what I did this week. I wrote term papers. That was all I did. And I still have more to do.

As a result, this weekend I cut loose. My weekend of tame partying began at Professor Roddy's house for the first Medieval studies dinner of the year. Rather than making Salmon as I normally would, I decided to be a little adventurous and cook squid again. Now we all remember what happened last time, right? Explosive bowels for two days, remember? I sure do. So this time I decided to take EXTREME care. Not only did I buy pre-cleaned squid, but I washed it again, and soaked it in salty wine to inhibit bacterial growth. Then I fried it. Now, in my last experience with frying, I lit my kitchen on fire and had to call 911. This time went far better. And the squid turned into the best fried calamari that I have ever had. Too bad it was cold and soggy by the time I got to the dinner. Here is the dinner.
Dinner was entertaining. I realized that I speak far too quietly. Every time I tried to enter into a pre-existing conversation at dinner I was interrupted. Oh well. Here we are trimming Roddy's tree. This is a proud Medieval Studies department tradition and is just one of the reasons that you should become a major.
On Saturday I woke up at 8 o'clock and began to prepare for my "Thanksgiving 2 BBQ" which I was throwing in honor of some of my international student friends. I had ambitious plans for the meal. For meats I planned the following: Chicken, Salmon, Squid, Octopus and Beef (all left to marinate in their own coustom made sauce, save the beef patties). For starches: fresh Cibatta Bread, Rice-A-Roni (a triple batch), Hamburger Buns, and the fried rice that Sung-Eun brought. For Vegetables: Kim-chee. Unless you count pumpkin pie as a vegetable (which I do). Here we are preparing the BBQ.
Lighting the BBQ.
Admiring the BBQ.
Acting stupid in the BBQ.
So anyway, once the BBQ got hot enough nearly everybody moved outside to help grill the meat.
Here are the chicken and squid. Both were fantastic. The best I have ever made. I am getting better at this BBQ thing. It was my third time making squid, and I plan on making it again. Maybe with great frequency. It was soooo good. And soooo cheap. The cheapest thing on the seafood aisle of Nugget, except the Octopus.
After grilling we all moved in side to assemble our meals. All of the food was fantastic, I thought.
Amazingly, even though we started with a lot of food, by the end of the night ALL the food was gone.
Videogames were played.
Birds were seen.
This picture has a fun story behind it. It is not every day that you get to pose with an awesome, new furnace!
More videogames were played.
I also learned the names of some of the Korean songs that I have been listening to. But that has nothing to do with this picture, in which videogames are still being played.
I don't exactly remember what the deal with this picture is.
Oh, but here is Takaya putting the solid slab of burned rice that was at the bottom of the Rice-a-Roni pan on his head. He hadn't even had any alcohol!
Very fun evening! I greatly enjoyed it. We'll have to do it again some time.

Thanksgiving Weekend at Home

So, as it is Thanksgiving weekend, I am in Hawaii. Since we moved to Hawaii there has only been one Thanksgiving when we were not in Hawaii, and I consider that Thanksgiving a total dud. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it is the only time of year when (almost) everybody is home (this year we were missing Lisa and Vanessa).

Anyway, Oriana and Josh met me at the airport. Then we went to lunch. I took this picture after Oriana had locked Josh in the bathroom. I had been locked in with him, but I was able to escape much more quickly. This was Wednesday.
On my urging, my mother decided that her next car should be a Prius. Here is the addicting little screen that tells you how efficent you are being with your driving.
On Thursday I went and excercized with my mom and Lynn White. Here is me posing with a BATTERY POWERED chainsaw!
Thanksgiving table pre-food.
Family and friends sitting around cooking.
More of the same.
Me, Oriana and Nick.
Uncle Jim with the Turkey.
Nick, Kira, Me, Emma, Oriana and Josh.
Table with people and food.
Hmm. So that was Thanksgiving. Then on Friday we went to the Harry Potter movie as a family. I am not a Harry Potter fan, so I watched it with mild ammusement, but not with the enthusiasm of some of my other family members. That seems to have been all I did on Friday. Hmm.

Anyway, so on Saturday Ryan came over and we went Kayaking. He decided to pee in the bushes at the beach so I used my paddle to catapult sand into his pants. I tried to make a quick getaway, but hurt my foot in the process. Then we hiked to the point by my house, where I took this picture.
On Saturday evening everyone came over for my father's 50th birthday. Here he is blowing out 50 candles.
And here he is with the shorts that Ryan gave him in anticipation of his post half-century weight gain.
I head back to Davis tonight, which is why this post is so brief. I want to get it done with so that I can do other things.

JET Application... Complete

So, you know how in movies there is sometimes that sequence where our unlucky hero suffers a series of misfortunes as the clock to some important deadline slowly ticks down. Well, it actually happens. Here is how it went (contains realistic swearing).

The mail was scheduled to leave at 4:30. If I wanted my application to get to Washington on time, today was the last day I to send it and still be safe.

3:50 and I am just leaving Roddy's office with corrections for the final draft of my personal statement (started working on it in mid-September, went through 6 drafts). I run to the computer room to make connections and print it out. 3:52. Line. Shit. At 3:59 I finally get on the computers and make my corrections. People see that I am editing a paper rather than just printing one out, they start to grumble. 4:09 and I am done. I start to run across the quad to the Coffee House to make copies of my passport, transcript and letter that says I'll be graduating. I get there at 4:11. I realize I have only a quarter, enough for 2 copies. I try to insert a dollar. Damn machine won't take my dollar! Fine, just 2 copies then, and I'll get change made at the register. Oh crap! The machine is broken. 4:15 and start to run to Campus Copies, but hello, there is a working printer by the door. I make my copies. 4:20 and I run over to the Coral to get some paper clips. What the...where are the paper clips? "Excuse me, do you have any paper clips?" "Yeah they are right...oh...no, I guess not. You'll have to go to the bookstore." Crap. 4:23 and I run to the bookstore. Paperclips. Cool. Gold or multicolored? No time you fool! Buy them both! Shit. OK. "How are you today?" "Um, I'm a little rushed." "That'll be $2.98." "Um, 3. I don't need change." 4:27. Oh Hell. Run to the Post Office. "Mail leave yet?" "No, it leaves at 4:30." Good. Quick, collate. Application, statement, transcript. Wait, this isn't my transcript. Oh here it is. Wait! This isn't my statement of purpose! It is the old version! Crap, I remember getting my copies from the printer. Oh. They're in my bag. Here we go. 4:29. Quick. That looks like a mail truck out the window. Oh no. Don't think, just collate. Wait, actually, think but use your thinking to collate. OK. Now paper clip it all together. That's it. Shit. Golden or multi-colored paper clip? NO TIME! Pink is fine. Alright. Final check. Good, I think that is it. "Can you ship this to Washington D.C. the fastest most expensive way possible?" "Um, well we can sent it Priority Mail and it'll be there in two days..." "Good. I'll do that." "OK here is the form, but hurry, you can see the mail guy walking to pick it up." Like I need to be told. OK. JET Program, 3454 M... no. I have to write Massachusetts!? Just write it! OK, done. "Here you go."

And the package was placed in the bag 1 second before the mail guy picked it up. I walked out of the post office and felt the muscles in my back melt in relief.

So now it is temporarily out of my hands. Hope for the best, but no point in worrying. I go to Hawaii tomorrow. A welcome vacation.

Pictures I Stole From Takaya's Camera

So I drove Ralph to Costco today to return an MP3 player that he had purchased. On the way there, Takaya called us and informed me that his camera was still in my car. We looked and found it... and then went nuts. The following are either pictures that were taken with Takaya's camera yesterday, or pictures that Ralph and I took today to fill up his memory card. Hee hee. This one is yesterday before we set out for S.F.
Me with fruit.
Ralph and I, need we say more.
The Thinker, The Drinker.
Why would you ever need this much Soy Sauce!
A man with candy never seemed so scary.
I plan on returning Takaya's camera tomorrow. I eagerly await his reaction.

Speech Contest...Finished

So, I made it through the week with all my mental faculties still intact. But allow me to explain. For about 5 weeks know I have been preparing for the Japanese Speech contest. I wrote two 3 page Japanese essays before I wrote the final speech. The final speech went through 6 drafts. It took me two weeks to memorize. Sakakibara Sensei, Takaya, Koki and Manabu all spent hours of their time helping me. I listened to the speech all night for 3 nights in an attempt to remember it. For the last 3 days, all I have done is practice this speech. Yesterday, I was able to do it from beginning to end for the first time, and today I performed it.

This was not a fun week. But it was a good experience. I learned two things about myself. The first is that, when it comes down to it, money, recognition and ranking do not matter to me. What does matter is that I not disappoint people who have invested their time and emotion in me (i.e. care for me), and that I maintain my own honor. I realized this because, at the point when it looked like my speech was not going to come together and I would be unable to remember my lines, I was not worried about the embarrassment that this would cause me or the loss of the prize, but about how sad everyone who had helped me would be. I suppose this is also why grades have never been very important to me, but I continue to do well in my classes. The second thing that I learned is that I can really pull things out of my ass if I need to. I have already had too many times in my life where I am suddenly able to summon a large amount of charisma. I have got to run out sometime. I am very worried that I rely too much on my ability to make something I do better based on a tapping of charisma. I worry that I will become lazy, and depend on this rather than doing the quality of work I want to do.

So, I went to San Francisco, found the place, and then suffered through 2 hours of the exact same nervousness that I used to feel before Cross Country races. Observe the left hand clenched in a tight fist.
Anyway, so the speech went great, I hear. You see, I remember standing up to walk up to the podium, and I remember sitting down after the speech was finished and having everyone around me say "great job", but all I remember about the speech itself was the horrible feedback that I kept getting from the microphone. Luckily Takaya took this picture, so I know that I did, in fact, do the speech.
Well, that is all I have to say about the speech contest. I didn't win, but I didn't really expect to. I realized about 3 days ago that my theme and style, while it would be very popular with the younger and less serious members of the audience, would probably not impress most of the judges. I am mostly happy that my speech didn't end in catastrophe. Besides, I took more valuable things than prizes away from this speech contest.

Well, so afterwards, Takaya, Koki, Minoru and I went to Japantown to eat Japanese food. Then, on the way back to Davis and ate Krispy Kreme doughnuts.By the way, the verdict is that Krispy Kreme is far superior to Mister Donuts, Japan's biggest doughnut franchise. All that remains now is for me to prove to my Korean friends that Krispy Kreme is better than Dunkin' Donuts, Korea's biggest franchise, and my unusual desire to prove the superiority of an American junk food which I don't even eat will be satisfied.

Bitter Means Poison

Well, here is the update on last night's meal. Bitter means poison. I don't recommend eating $1.99 squid. I woke up at 5:30 this morning and have gone to the bathroom 15 times since then. This really sucks.

But hey, after having salmonella, regular food poisoning is a walk in the park.

Legal Low, Sugar High

So, today was eventful. But it didn't begin that way. The highlight of the first part of my day was discovering that I was nearly done with my JET application. But after noon, things picked up.

As I was going out the door to clean my car, I saw that I had mail. I opened the mail and discovered two letters from a company calling itself Check Game Solutions Inc. saying that I owed them money and that if I didn't pay them they would do something about it. Well, I don't know who this company is, and this is the first I have ever heard of me owing money. The part that made me even more worried is that they had my full name, checking account number, address and phone number. In short, all the things necessary to steal my identity! After thinking a little more I think I have a theory, though. Remember when I wrote about that guy who came to the door trying to sell me on the idea of donating money to buy children's books for hospitals, and I finally agreed to pay the lowest possible amount, $23? Well, after he left I read his invoice carefully and, in fact, he had sold me what I think was a boating magazine! I cancelled the check within minutes of writing it. Well, apparently, the company that tried to screw me into buying an unwanted subscription for a boating magazine that I never received anyway now wants me to rewrite the check and pay them $23...plus the $30 of processing fees that the collection agency wants. I have never had this kind of thing happen before, and I am ashamed. I plan on filing a police report. I don't know what will happen. I all can say for sure is, the next time someone comes to the door, I am apologizing to them for my next action, and slamming the door in their face.

Well, an hour after learing of this unfortunate occurrence, my day picked up. I met Sung-Eun and three of her friends in the MU parking lot and we drove to Fairfield in order to visit the Jelly Belly Factory! Here is the balloon outside the factory entrance.
Maybe a little tacky, but hey, also grotesquely cute! The next picture is most of us posing with the Jelly Belly VW Bug that is right in front of the entrance.
Here are the girls with their "candy makers hats" which we were required to wear inside the factory.
And me, Sung-Eun and Lindsey with our purchases after the free tour.
Finally, a picture of jelly beans, because you can't go to a jelly bean factory and not take pictures of the jelly beans.
So what is my verdict on the Jelly Belly Factory? Holy cow! You have to go if you've never been! It was a great tour! And you can't beat a tour that is free and ends with free samples of candy! Parking is also easy to find! I can't believe I didn't go before now. It also happens to be very close to the Budweiser factory, so next time I go, I am taking that tour as well. Also, being with Sung-Eun and her friends did a lot to cheer me up from earlier in the day. And they gave me a Korean name: 지태, I think. They said it meant "Wisdom T". I should have asked for "Vitamin T". Have you met your daily required value of Vitamin T?

Post Script: After writing this entry I decided to go to the store and get some dinner. To my amazement, squid was only $1.99. So I bought some squid, cilantro, green onions and a lime; then went home and cooked it all up. Well, it turned out to be the worst meal I have ever made. When I bit into the squid it was first way too sour, but that went away in an instant, replaced by an atrocious texture that made me feel sick. What actually made me sick was when I tried to swallow the squid, only to find that is was also so bitter that it initiated a gag reflex. Did it look good? Well, in the pan in looked beautiful, but as it cooled the ink (which I must not have removed compleately) turned the enitre dish pencil grey, and the over cooked green onions made it look like toxic sludge. Still, not wanting to waste food, I ate the whole thing. Needing something to wash the bitterness down, I decided to make myslef an egg. However, we have no milk, only yoghurt...you see where this is going. Well the flavor of the eggs is not that bad, but I decided to stir it with chopsticks (with which I do most of my cooking). The result is a batch of eggs that looks like couscous and tastes tart. If I get the urge to cook any time soon, I'll be sure to just chow down on some crackers and open a can of tuna.