Surfing

I broke down and took a surf lesson from a feller named TG. He was this old crusty surfer with a whiskey voice and bloodshot eyes. He said he arrived at the North Shore in '68. I believe him. The lesson started at 1:00P and it looked like he had just woken up when I got there at 12:45. He was a great teacher though, he brought us to a surf break that was great for learning. I got up on the first wave, although I don't think this was any huge accomplishment. He set us up and even gave us a bit of a shove when it was time to paddle into the wave. The boards were these huge foam longboards that were more like boats. It was enough to get me hopelessly hooked though. Will I ever be somewhere there are waves again?

The Northshore

Ha, I saved this as a draft a long time ago. That should be some hint as to what a nice time I had on the North Shore of O'ahu. We had a beautiful beach house in Waimai bay near Sunset beach. The legendary Bonzai Pipeline surf break are about a half mile from the place. Epic. These are the biggest waves I have ever seen. I just stood on the beach mezmerized by the power of the ocean.

Bottom to Top

I spent the day yesterday cruizing around and exploring on my bike. My shoulders were hurting me because of my backpack but it was worth it. I found a bike shop that is hiring, that could be trouble. Got a good lay of the land but all the streets begin with 'K' so I still get lost. Lukily you can just head toward the water and start over. The city gets more posh the further you get away from the airport.

Speaking of posh, I met my mom at her hotel and we had dinner on the top floor restuarant. There were about five different waiters buzzing around our heads every moment we were there. They are the first people I've seen on this island who wore suits. A far cry from sleeping in the park with the bums.

Today I woke up at about 6:30a and had breakfast in the lobby. Mom's working so the whole thing gets written off, heh. That was the first time I had fresh fish and fruit for breakfast, mmm. Next I hopped on the bike and rode out to Diamond Head. Ran across a farmer's market along the way and picked up some provisions. Next was a stop at a beautiful beach without any hotels and very few poeple. The approach is a steep trail down to the water that opens up on the bottom to a huge beach and a great surf break. In fact, about the only people down there were surfers. I think it's just around the corner onto the windward side of the island. It's got me jones'n.

From there I rode to the Diamond head crater to hike to the rim. The entrance is a long tunnel through the side of the crater into the center. There you dole out a buck to take an old military trail built into the side of the rim. It looks like it was an army base with panoramic lookout bunkers along the top. The trail is a steep staircase and path cut into the rocks with tunnels and a spiral staircase. There is no wind at all within the crater, so the hike up is kind of brutal. When you look over the rim at the top, the wind blows your sweat dry in seconds and you get a great view of the whole south side of Owahu. Went swimming after that, of course and back to the hotel. Holy crap it was only 2:00 and I felt like I had burned up the whole day!

Side note; I just read my last post and noticed I had used the word articulate in a very poorly written sentence, haha.

Made it

Well I made it. I'm at an internet cafe in Honolulu. I had no problem getting my bike on the plane and they didn't charge me anything extra. The ride up to Montreal went great. My instinct told me that everything was going to be fine, mostly based on my ride's writing style. Strange thing to base a spontaneous character judgment on, but it seemed to work. Crap, I guess now anyone who reads this will now know that all you have to do is send an articulate email to pull the wool over my eyes. Luckily that wasn't the case this time.

Last night was a bit rough. I couldn't find a good beach to sleep on so I ended up in a kind of sketchy city park with my other homeless brethren. Nothing happened but I was a little worried about getting jacked. This is a big city with all that goes with it. Wheeew, my bike is still outside, I just had to look out the window after writing that last sentence. Of course I forgot my lock, duh.

Hawaii

Well, I'm leaving for the tropical paradise today. I have no idea what to expect. I met someone on craigslist who will give me a ride up to the airport on trade for an old guitar. I just hope he comes through. I guess it makes me a bit nervous depending on someone who I've only correponded with through email. Well we'll see.

New contributor

One of the invites I sent out was accepted! Wowee. No if I can just convince her to post. I suppose she shares the same apprehension as I do.

The future has arrived.

1c_1_b
Originally uploaded by mostlyiguessso.

Here is a picture of the camera I bought on ebay. Will anything come of this or will it end up in one of the crates piled up agaist the walls of my bedroom?

An Inside Look

Originally uploaded by mostlyiguessso.

An inside look at the mysterious innards of The Duplex. This is an atypical moment within the Duplex. There is usually less toothy grinnin and a lot more bitchin in the kitchen. The beer is a standard fixture though. Does this picture give any insight into what makes The Duplex such an endless fountain of creativity? What is the heart, the essence of this burgeoning cultural phenom?

That Seemed to Work

Well the hyperlink worked. The color is hard to reed on the page though. I'll have to figure out how to change that. Ah, I found a help page, maybe I'll do some reading. Lets try to upload an image, shall we? Crap its a bit more complicted than I thought. Blogger doesn't store the images, I have to post them somewhere else on the web and link to them. They have a free utility but I will have to download it when I get home.

New Team Members

I've just invited some new team members to post on this blog and I hope they accept. I'm hoping that this will spark something but I don't have any specific ideas as to what. I think I like it that way for now, though. I'm still exploring this tool and I'm wondering what is possible, and not possible to do with it. I found a place where you can edit the html code for the page. Maybe this will give me the impetus to learn how to work with html because I kinda hate templates. I'm curious about the best way to include a hyperlink within this post. I don't like to use the actual adress for the hyperlink because it's never seems to describle what the link is and they're always too long. Let's see..my favorite blog. Lets see if this works.

Now then

newgrange_carve
Originally uploaded by mostlyiguessso.

This is a picture test

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

First Post

If anyone ever reads this, hello. I have really been enjoying reading blogs recently, so of course I figured I would jump on the bandwagon. As I sit here typing this first post, I realize that this is a public display and I am writing something I deem worthy of publishing. Even though I doubt this will get read by any large number of people, it makes me pause.....