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February 28, 2005
surfing 101 break down
Posted by Single Fin at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)
February 25, 2005
rings to go on the left ring fingers this weekend
it's friday & i'm happy to be rolling into the weekend. we are sad a little though, many of our friends are heading to the mtns in washington state to see another great couple get married. a great weekend of cabins, fireplaces, vino, good food, good friends & epic cross country skiing to be had by all. so to you our good friends tying the knot here's to you. may you have the courage to stand tall, support one another, dream, take chances, romance, cry, struggle, live in glory, grow your spark & enjoy life together.
we may not be able to jump on a plane right now, but we are sending our alohas via the sun.
Posted by Single Fin at 04:20 PM | Comments (1)
February 24, 2005
creature
riding the coat tails of this past weekend....
i like to have new music when i travel. helps me associate memories & allows me to express. this trip i loaded up the ipod with all kinds of nick nack songs from here & there. a few of the areas that i'm getting more & more turned onto are in brazil & montreal. so a big stoke was finding out kim's band has just released a cd. check'm out here if you want, plus they have some free tunes for you to hear: "creature"
Posted by Single Fin at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)
a post for the family
it's morning here, the sun is rising & the coffee is hot. happy to be back in the tropics. the soft smells of moist warm air & lush green mtn's are becoming all to inviting as a reminder of home. the greeting of someone saying aloha to you as you land is island style for sure. at that point the 3 hour layover of LAX just melts away.
anyhow, in retrospect the wedding was a hit. as soon as we walked in ye's parents house the aunts had hot plates of home cooked vietnamese food ready to go. so good to be eating classic meals. as well as eating special dishes that are prepared for the festivities.
from there about 15 of the cousins & wedding party headed out to a disney land resort for some karyoke, sushi & drinking. since many of the group is from montreal of course they speak fluent french, not to mention vietnamese & english as well. so the conversations were all over the place & fun to try to keep up with.
once the drinks started flowing it was karyoke time. lots of great voices were let out of the bag. some of the highlights were the girls singing "you've lost that loving feeling", the boys singing "my girl" & the dark horse of the night to take the cake was ye's cousin Kim or staged named for the night "Kim Chee" who did a great number from frank sanatra & recevied a standing ovation from the entire bar. come to find out though he was a ringer & has a rock'n roll indie band in montreal.
there were other great acts within our group but the photos are blurry. could have been the shooters? could have been the lighting? ....um yeah...lets go with the lighting as the fault and not user error. ;->
friday night was the wedding rehearsal & then the dinner. more food & drinking! infact i think it was a 7 course meal.
saturday morning brought on the wedding day last minute madness! (flowers for the mens suits, table arrangements, alter preparations, gifts for the spirits, last minute bride adjustments)
many of people coming over for the traditional cermony at the house, maybe about a hundred in all? it was great to see the event unfold. so many great dresses & customs to be followed. not to mention tons of pictures 1, 2, good homecooked food & longneck buds to go around.
once this calmed down we headed over to the wedding site to set up. the cermony was beautiful & everyone looked great. of course like every other wedding all the details fell together as the last minute. then the 7 couse meal was served, bar was open & the music was on. the rest of the night was consumed with laughing, smiles, eating, cheering, toasting, getting drunk, dancing, singing & more repeating of all the mentioned above.
more photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
twas a great time had by all
Posted by Single Fin at 01:14 AM | Comments (3)
February 23, 2005
giddy up lil' doggy
back in the saddle. work is getting back in the swing. playing catch up on many of the projects i left for a couple days. i swear the worst time to take off is right in the middle of a couple production cycles. (note to self once again)
anyhow, loaded up the pics from the weekend. a total of 475 shots were fired from the cannon elf. spent a long time last night getting them in order & sized. not to mention i wrote a good blog entry for our next post. now i just need to load the photo's & i hope to get it live tonight. as for the bulk of the trip photo's, i've started another slideshow movie project. this one will be a collaboration of sorts using several people's shots & movie's from the wedding. geez that's going to total up to 3 in the works right now. i love "ilife" is all i can say about my digital creativity, but i think my day dreams of the finished work is more creative then my fingers can manage the work flow. we'll see how it all works out.
Posted by Single Fin at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2005
post wedding report
aloha folks. just got in this evening & i'm way to tired to post to much. but the site was empty with no entries & thought i might need to post some photos for you to see the past weeks event.
i promise to get back in the saddle this week and get some posts up with more stories to follow.
until then, here is the new Mr & Mrs Tamura
wedding cake w/ hawaii orchids
Posted by Single Fin at 02:00 AM | Comments (1)
February 16, 2005
Armstrong will ride Tour 2005
ohhhhhhhhh it's on boys & girls.
the tour de france's great champion is claiming a return to persue the 7th title. the course this year is dialed into an all around rider with a talented deep team to boot. now, if they could only find some riders who might be willing to endure the month long good fight ?????
press clip attached:
"( After much speculation, Lance Armstrong finally announced his initial 2005 racing schedule, one that will include this summer's Tour de France where he will go for a seventh straight victory.
"I look forward to achieving my goal of a seventh Tour de France (victory)," said Armstrong to thepaceline.com. "I am excited to get back on the bike and start racing although my condition is far from perfect," he added.
Also on Armstrong's racing schedule is the Tour de Georgia in April, an event the American won in 2004. As already confirmed, Armstrong will kick off his season early next month at Paris-Nice, a seven day stage race and the first event of the newly formed Pro Tour. Following Paris-Nice, Armstrong will take part in the 89th edition of the Tour of Flanders, one of Europe's most prestigious Spring Classics, on April 3. Armstrong last raced in the Tour of Flanders in 2002, finishing 59th in support of his team's leader. Armstrong will then return to the U.S. and defend his title at the Tour de Georgia, scheduled for April 19-25.
"Johan (Bruyneel, the team's sports manager) and I will evaluate my fitness later this spring and possibly add some races to the calendar," said Armstrong.
Mar 6-13 — Paris-Nice (France)
Apr 3 — Tour of Flanders (Belgium)
Apr 19-24 — Tour de Georgia (USA)
Jul 2-24 — Tour de France )"
Cycling News ~
Posted by Single Fin at 02:37 AM | Comments (1)
redeye's
alohas,
the past weekend was a success. the party/fundrasier was a hit & a great way to start the year. lots of good talks with people & some great networking for future gigs. all in all we were stoked at the potential of what lay before us.
also found out that the new roomies are moving in about a month from now. stoked!
a cool couple from vancouver, bc. it'll be nice to get some more of the good vibe in the house.
anyhow one more day at work to tie up some loose ends on a couple projects, then i'm off to catch up with ye @ the south eastern tip of the states. it's been a while since we've been back on the mainland. well not really that long, but when all you do is read the papers & internet as your main source of current events....the world starts to take on another spin. especially with no seasons out here. well that's not really true either, we do have: warm(75-78), warmer(80), hot(83), damn hot(85-90) & chilly (65-70).
for now i'm doing some last minute packing, getting the road trip gear setup. heading to the eastcoast to have a little wedding for some family. on the docket for the trip: long flights with strangers, a full stick camera memory ready to go, ipod is juiced, LAX at 5am, coffee, way to many connection flights, a marriage, good home cooked vietnamese food, friendly faces, some vino, music, family drama & jet lag. we love this stuff & believe it or not we're looking forward to the trip.
Posted by Single Fin at 12:43 AM | Comments (1)
February 11, 2005
Sacred Healing Arts website is launched !!!!
after several months of planning, design, idea scratching, photo shoots, writing, talking & productions...the site is finally up! please click here to check it out:
"Sacred Healing Arts"
a "big mahalo" goes out to:
Cipriano @ "NeoStudios"...great work on the site. he's the creator of what you are seeing on the site.
Wayne @ Rambo HOSTage services...thanks bro for the hook up on the hosting, email & backend work.
Val & Red...thanks for the professional photography shots.
a special thanks to the clients that allowed us to post their testimonials
Posted by Single Fin at 01:55 PM | Comments (2)
February 10, 2005
teal blue waters
aloha folks ~
our friend goes out every morning up on the northshore & shoots photo's.
this was some from last week. those waves are at least my height @ 6' if not about 7-8'.
Posted by Single Fin at 11:48 PM | Comments (0)
kamen rider
while most of us grew up watching chips, knight rider, billy jack, batman, dukes of hazard, starski & hutch, A-Team, chuck norris flicks, buck rogers etc...over in japan a popular series was kamen rider. ok, before some of you laugh at me...i will admit i like godzilla, B movies, bad acting, martial arts etc. there is just something to be said of their unique & cult like feel.
kamen rider aired at april 3, 1971, created by the late shoutarou ishinomori. kamen rider (aka: masked rider) is one of japan's most popular superheros. this series has a wide variety of odd but attractive qualities: bad animal creations (very godzilla like), loud robust japanese voices, goofy but well designed costumes, lots of action, martial arts, motorcycles & good guy vs. bad guy scenarios. it's a classic! not to mention one of japan's most popular tv shows running for 34 years now. (not to be confused with power rangers, which came out later...10-15 years after kamen rider)
the guys here at work all grew up here in hawaii watching this tv series. now i have access to volumes of these great aged episodes & movies. if your dorky like me & want a copy for fun, i can supply you. for even more humor you can look here:
"kamen rider website"
Posted by Single Fin at 12:33 PM | Comments (4)
February 08, 2005
fruity apples
(a mocked upon spoof of a lego man w/ ipod)
the humor will be endless this year as mac has rolled out so many new products targeted to the general masses. many many design spoofs, home created ads & actual new ideas have started. needless to say my pc friends have come out of the woodwork being haters about apple. its like a hobby for them to joke about it. kind of like picking on the nerd in grade school. but you know what they say about that right? be careful picking on a nerd, one day you will be working for one.
i will not name names but my friend that works over at real networks sums up the mac world in one word "fruity". which is true in many ways.
but in the end they are all envious. :-)
Posted by Single Fin at 11:36 AM | Comments (6)
February 07, 2005
getting people together
this friday night Dr. Ye and Dr. Lori are hosting a "World Peace Party & Fundraiser" here on the island of o'ahu. this event is a little more local style so they will have a popular local slack key guitar player, an african drumming group, jazz singing, a slideshow of some travels to india, a potluck dinner, smaller raffle items, community chit chatting, & donations will be accepted for collection to be given to surf aid international.
please go here if you would like to know about "surf aid international"
the doc's will also be presenting the launch of their website at the party.
not sure if most of you know, but ye has become a partner with the doc she was originally hooked up with as a resident. now we've started a LLC called "Sacred Healing Arts Center". we've also started a non-profit group called the "Sacred Healing Arts". at the moment the main location is in honolulu. yet it will grow into 2 locations as of this spring when a north shore practice is established.
more to come a little later this year on some other plans that are in the works.
Here is a peek at the main logo too be used: "here"
if you want to know more about the event this week please drop a post with your inquiry.
alohas
Posted by Single Fin at 04:17 PM | Comments (2)
February 06, 2005
Robert Nesta Marley's 60th Birthday is today..
happy 60th birthday bob, thanks so much for all your great idea's, energy, belief's, attitude & music that you've given to us.
read some "here" & more updated "news here"
Posted by Single Fin at 04:25 PM | Comments (1)
February 04, 2005
a very small home
for those that might be interested, there is a great little book coming out in the states this may. (under 20 bucks as well) "a very small home" by azby brown & kengo kuma
on another note,
looks like the wait is still going to happen for apple's power book G5 installed laptop. i was seriously holding out for this, but now after doing a little homework i'm starting to realize that it looks like they will not be able to trim the heat issues with the current IBM processors & g5 working together. that is until IBM releases one this summer which might allow apple to release the first G5 enabled powerbook by x-mas later this year. go here to read if you like:
"g5 gets to hot (part 1)" | "g5 gets to hot (part 2)"
continued blogging about new book coming out:
i've had the pleasure of seeing some of azby brown's other books while flipping pages over in the dusty arch sections of barnes&noble. he has a great perspective for small space living. intriguing ideas that are innovative not just in the design but with the simple use of light. refreshing throw backs to an older era that is presented to the client in a non-intrusive modern view. these types of architects are a continued breath of fresh air in an industry full of big, bold, expensive & lavish homes.
which kind of struck a nerve when thinking about this blog entry.
for example: recently we (ye & i) have been rather disappointed in the new route that dwell mag has taken. at first we thought it was a great resource to look for ideas & see how others are using the concepts of space. it's a bummer to see something that started out so creative now morph towards a more mainstream audience of upper $white$collar$ style & design. even though this years dwell contest is a "green" contest, or the fact they put a hybrid car on the cover of this past issue. it doesn't take back the promotion of ridiculous 3 thousand dollar coffee tables & pile of crappy landrovers/hummers ads splattered on the centerfolds. which by the way i'm not saying you can't own a hummer or suv. but it is harder to digest a mag like this who is promoting both avenues or resourceful sustainability & expensive excessive consumerism. talk about putting yourself in the middle. even the cost per square footage of its previewed homes has eclipsed the 200-300 bucks a square foot. which in irony the mag when it started was a little more around the range of 100-200 bucks a square foot. a sure sign of using an intial target auidence to gain market foothold & then switching to the bigger cash cow for longer term stability. what's next?....a few prada ads to give the mag a vapid success starved look?
sorry for the rant, in retrospect it looks like i'm just crying. but hey, i've checked around & its not just me that feels this way. "Dwell Magazine: A Slow Commercialised Descent? Has it stoped being a "Nice Modernist?"
back to the point at hand, here is a little bit more on the 2 authors mentioned above:
AZBY BROWN was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He studied architecture and sculpture at Yale College, graduating in 1980. In 1985, he received a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education to do research at the Department of Architecture of the University of Tokyo, where he received a master's degree. He is the author of The Genius of Japanese Carpentry, Small Spaces, and The Japanese Dream House. He became an associate professor of architectural design at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology in 1995, where he has also accepted a position in the Department of Media Informatics. In 2003, he opened the Future Design institute in Tokyo, and currently serves as director. Brown lives in Yokohama with his wife and son.
KENGO KUMA is an award-winning architect based in Tokyo. He is the recipient of a number of honors, including the top prize in the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) DuPont Benedictus Award for his Water/Glass Villa, a Boston AIA award for Unbuilt Architecture Design, and four grand prizes from competitions in his native Japan. European recognition includes Italian and Finnish awards. His buildings have been documented in several monographs, including Kengo Kuma: Selected Works.
Posted by Single Fin at 11:38 AM | Comments (3)
February 02, 2005
palm tree for matty
this sunset photo goes out to my friend matty in CT. i think the snow has gotten to him & he's finally been broken. to many shovel fulls of the white stuff have driven him nutty.
here's some sunshine my friend & your eastcoast hate means nothing to me. i understand & we still love you. :-)
Posted by Single Fin at 10:56 PM | Comments (2)
February 01, 2005
paper tiger
"sending work over to asia & india"
ok, i know this is a topic that's been getting alot of press in the news. i will say that i can agree with some of the reasons of why to go abroad for product development & services. i mean it's a free market & to be resourceful is what capitalism is all about right? an example is the latest international business joke i've read " the mexicans have learned from usa. now when the usa sends something to mexico (via the NAFTA agreements), mexicans are starting to turn around & then contract the work out to the chinese. so we can buy a product that's sold by an american company which has supposedly been made in mexico, yet has a made in china sticker on it."
the united states has already begun in many many ways to start kissing the chinese government asses. i mean why wouldn't they? it's a new business culture with the largest population in the world that's ready to work for little money. the chinese dollar is paried off the usa's dollar. well this is true in part until the dollar hits its economic low this up coming year.?. anyhow, the usa just needs to get in bed with communism so they can turn her tricks (people) into american favors. china is one of the last open opportunities for outsourced cheap labor. not to mention they are enduring & are willing to deal with the usa to get what they need for the long haul. the good ol'usa knows this, plus the chinese are extremely smart. they have excellent copying skills, self worth, driven & resourceful. not to mention they have been so protected by the red wall of the chinese government that they all love the western society psychology of materialism. so don't think the good ol'usa isn't ready to jump in on the action then later in life threaten the strong arm. which in a sense is irony since china is 1,298,000,000 strong as of 2004. where as the usa is at 295,000,000 strong as of 2004. the subtraction math at this point is easy.
as for India its a hotspot for white collar jobs to be outsourced into, not to mention factory work. but the american government missed this one a few years back. they f-'d up, then underestimated the powers of the indian educational system & driven values of an aged cast system. i mean seriously, india has very smart people. the usa understands this & thats why clinton opended up an expansion for the H1 visa applicants while he was in office towards the end of his term. mainly so more technical people could be hired for the tele & technology sec tor. (right before the .com bubble popped) as a hiring manager at several software companies my motto was "i would rather hire indian developers & engineers over americans any day of the week. mass numbers of the best indian developers could take the pepsi challenge with american developers & walk way in victory." this my friends is a FACT & believe me, most technology companies brain powers will/have always ended up in an indian developers hands. (amazon, microsoft, apple, telecommunication groups, anything online,.....you name it.)
anyhow, now the american government is getting on the ball & looking into the matter. ha ha lol. it's like the old analogy of talking to a baby boomer & trying to explain how a computer works. (damn, don't even get me started on the baby boomer theory i have. i could go on listing reasons & specifics of the concentrated demographic band of individualistic gimme gimmes that are disjointed & ROI self-loathing. phew! enough said there)
here's some gateway reads i dug up @ wired magizine:
"right brain left brain" | "more here..." | "good people"
Posted by Single Fin at 04:55 PM | Comments (2)