Woo-Hoo...Four day weekend!

Ah the bliss of the four-day weekend...It's amazing the transition from Muncie to here. Given a four day stretch in which my only obligations were to my family in Indiana, I likely would have spent the majority of the time in front of TV or computer...maybe a disc golf game here or there. In Hawaii, a four day weekend means a father-son trip to the zoo (somewhere someone much older and wiser is saying, "treasure these moments"), getting a mild sunburn on Waikiki beach in the potent Saturday morning sun, a brisk hike to Manoa falls, dinner out with new friends, and four (count em) consecutive days with trips to Wal-Mart.

Aside from the Wal-Mart trips which bring in to question my societal standing (maybe that sunburn was strictly located in the region between head and back), the weekend was action-packed -- complete with foiled plans to make in-roads in the Church Search, and apartment cockroach exorcism (good ol island livin).

What did you do this weekend?

Stairway to...heaven?

BAMBOO!

From our local jungle

Strangely enough, that tree is beside me, not foreground.

EEEESSE!!

Manoa Falls

There is more than beach in Hawaii!

Disappointment

So the underwater pics are a big disappointment...here are a couple. On a exciting note, we are in the countdown to our first visitor. Magee should be here in 10 days...I say should because you can never know for certain when Magee is going to do anything. On a bizzare note, check out the picture I took from out window of the man needing an ambulance/CPR on the 18th green...I don't think he died...

Shark's Cove on the North Shore

Not so big fish

Reel Big Fish

Golf Course Disaster

Today I was a fish

JoAnna wakes me up as she is arriving home from work (8am) and tells me that we have plans for the day. While she sleeps, I am to go to Wal-Mart (I hate you, but you're so darn convenient) and buy "snorkel gear."

Rule #1: Don't send Tim to buy anything alone.

I ended up buying $37 worth of snorkeling equipment, only one set.

We met one of JoAnna's co-workers and drove back to Hanauma Bay to snorkel. INCREDIBLE! (sorry, no pics...took a few with an underwater camera though, wait for it).

Today I had church "onderre da sea." About three seconds into my snorkeling experience, a fish big enough for dinner darts in front of me...a second later, the rest of the school followed.

We patrolled the reef seeing dozens of different tropical fish...everything that we saw at the Waikiki aquarium was now munching on coral inches from my floating body. One fish that I followed for about 10 minutes was so large that you could actually HEAR it pulling the "food" from the reef.

What kind of fish did we see? Well, to avoid scientifically naming the species I will state that if it was in the movie Finding Nemo and wasn't Nemo, I saw it (except the sea turtles, a more rare sighting).

Some insist that the cost of living in Hawaii is too expensive...I am more concerned with the cost of NOT living in Hawaii.

Worst List EVER.

Worst List EVER.
While purusing a Borders Express in the Ala Moana Mall, I picked up the July issue of SPIN magazine. In the last few years, this has become my favorite magazine; it's usually a good read, a good chance you'll hear about the next great band before they break, and no chance of seeing Britney/Christina/Lindsay on the cover (take that ROLLING STONE!).

They have, at times, seemed a little too heavy on the Kurt-love. Or they did until this July.

The cover reads "100 Greatest Albums -- 1985-Now." With a pic of Bono, Beck, and (what!) Dr. Dre.

The would-be reader thinks, "Ok, 1, 2, 3 in that order?" But none are in the top 9 (N.W.A. catches a lucky #10)...and the SPIN readers are thinking, "Ok, so Nevermind is #1, that's easy." Nope #3.

Let's run through the Top 20 (to save space and time).
1. Radiohead (OK Computer)
2. Public Enemy (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back)
3. Nirvana (Nevermind)
4. Pavement (Slanted and Enchanted)
5. The Smiths (The Queen is Dead)
6. Pixies (Surfer Rosa)
7. De La Soul (3 Feet High and Rising)
8. Prince (Sign 'o' the Times) -- only because "Purple Rain" was released in '84
9. PJ Harvey (Rid of Me)
10. N.W.A. (Straight Outta Compton)
11. U2 (Achtung Baby)
12. Beastie Boys (Paul's Boutique)
13. Husker Du (New Day Rising)
14. Sonic Youth (Daydream Nation)
15. Liz Phair (Exile in Guyville)
16. Beck (Odelay)
17. Nas (Illmatic)
18. Guns N' Roses (Appetite for Destruction)
19. Hole (Live Through This)
20. Wu-Tang Clan (Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers))

If those are the best that the music industry has to offer me from its last 20 years of labor, I'm out...I want no part of anything musical from this moment forward.

I'm not going to suggest a list of albums that should bump some of the current top-20 (I'm looking at you #18)...like the most current entries in the top-100 Kanye West (College Dropout, #45, released in 2004) and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Fever to Tell, #89, released 2003), or one of my personal favorites, The White Stripes (White Blood Cells, #57)...but I would like to point out a few lapses in judgement on behalf of Spin.

We, Spin, apologize for:
~Putting Bono on the cover of this magazine even though U2 didn't make the top 10 and only have one entry in the top 100.

~Putting Beck on the cover with his albums at 16 and 81 (Mellow Gold)

~Putting Dr. Dre (and not Eminem, the best thing Dre did for hip-hop) on the cover (Guess we hit the quota for Nirvana covers)

~Placing Oasis at #28, and the album not being What's the Story (Morning Glory), but rather Definitely Maybe (released 1994)...so many mistakes here...

~Ranking Wu-Tang Clan higher than Elliott Smith

~Getting the spelling of #53 wrong -- it reads Rage Against the Machine (Battle for Los Angeles) -- it should read Bright Eyes (Lifted (Or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground)) or at the very least Rage Against the Machine (Evil Empire)

~et. al

We're sorry.

They did, however, manage to get Fugazi in at a respectable #29...though the album should be End Hits or Red Medicine and not 13 Songs.

Discuss.

P.S. the list did it's job since today I went out and purchased #14...