January 30th, it’s finally here!I came across an article on Digg early last week which linked to a blogger named Simon Owens, who has set up this day to encourage as many people as possible to jettison their horrible MySpace accounts. And I couldn’t agree more.I would encourage you to check out his reasoning. He gives a list of ten solid reasons to abandon the social networking site, one of favourite reasons being:

4. You visit someone’s Myspace profile only to suddenly have music start blasting out of your speakers. Bonus points if it happens to you while you’re at work.

Bloggasm: January 30th is International Delete Your Myspace Account Day

Fortunately for me I’ve never had a Myspace page. There was a time when I was tempted, but just looking at some other pages and letting my eyes bleed at the red text on yellow background was enough to keep me off it. I do however manage the Myspace of my band but I at least spent a little time trying to make it look half decent (not an easy task I can tell you, their markup is almost entirely table-based and very difficult to style individual elements). I’m reluctant to delete this page as I’m not the sole subject of this page, and like it or lump it - Myspace is almost an essential component in getting your band noticed.Yet for personal use, I definitely don’t have the time for Myspace. It may be the biggest social networking site online, but it’s doing a terrible job. Even Facebook has been having a terrible run lately, so maybe it’s better to sever all ties with social networks? At the moment, Facebook and Flickr are the only two I have an account with and I’d like to keep it that way.

My Weekend

I had Sunday and Monday off work this week. Sunday was a great day to relax, so I went to the Nikko Hotel and made use of their excellent swimming pool, hot tub and sauna facilities. It was almost deserted so it was very relaxing. I also paid my weekly visit to Guitar Center and played my wonderful Taylor guitar again. Honestly, it sounds better and better each time I play it. I cooked for Valerie on Saturday night so she repaid the favour by cooking me a French omelette on Sunday night. It wasn’t bad, I have to admit.Monday was excellent. I actually woke up at 8.30am feeling like I’d slept in until noon, so I got up and started work on a university report I have due in tomorrow. In the afternoon I went to Chinatown and bought myself a huge hold-all bag for all my stuff. I’m moving back to my old place on Sunday and last time I had my big bag full of stuff, and then about 3 other smaller bags of crap so I figured it was easier to have two big bags and be done with it. Luckily, you can get almost anything in Chinatown for a good price and so I talked the nice girl into giving me the $29.99 bag for $15. My dad would be proud of me.I also bought myself a new pair of shoes. Check em out: They’re pretty much a Converse rip off but their slightly cheaper and a bit more durable, I think (very important cos every pair of Converse I’ve ever owned has lasted about 3 months). Only $30 from American Eagle, and very comfy.I’m most proud of this purchase though. When I move back on Sunday, I won’t have to change room or move anywhere else until I leave, so I really want to get some stuff so I can really feel at home. So I checked on Craigslist for a DVD player so I could finally watch DVD’s on my TV instead of on my pokey Mac screen. And behold: Picked it up from a guy living near the Golden Gate Park for a mere $15. Hardly used, apparently he’s just moved in with his girlfriend and she already has a player, so he doesn’t need it. Got batteries with it too.In honour of the new player, I rented Mr. Bean’s Holiday but annoyingly the TV in my current bedroom doesn’t have AV connections. Grrrr. But it’s a good movie, if you like Mr. Bean.Anyway, I must get back to work. Toodles. 

It’s been pretty miserable in the city the last fews days.

This photo (from the SF Chronicle) was taken on the campus at Berkeley (where my girlfriend now studies). It’s been pretty heavy rain for a few days now, I got soaked on my lunch break and we now have a leak in our office right beside my desk. Excellent.

So what is there to do about the city when inclement weather forces you to retreat to the sanctuary of indoors? Aside from the mundanity of going to work (six days a week at the moment!) there is plenty to do keep bored students occupied.

On Sunday the weather let up a little so I ventured out to do a few messages. My first stop was at the fantastic little shop called ‘You Say Tomato’, which is a British style cornershop that sells all British food. I bought Ribena, Weetabix and a bag of Dolly Mixture and paid the handsome sum of $23.00 for all of it. I believe the cashier was Dick Turpin.

Conveniently, Guitar Centre is only a few blocks from there so I spent several hours testing their new stock of Mesa’s. I have also fallen in love with a Taylor acoustic guitar they have there. It’s not cheap, around $2800 but it is quite possibly the greatest acoustic guitar sound I’ve ever heard. I went a stage further and plugged it into a little Fender acoustic amp and was blown away by the clarity and response from the guitar.

In the evening I did some baking. Yes, even guys can bake. I’m actually recognised as a great chef with my friends. My shepherd’s pie was a great success and all subsequent dishes have been the envy of many. Valerie and I baked a Bailey’s cheesecake using a recipe we found online. It was quite easy to make but unfortunately we didn’t have a blender and we got the proportions of some of the ingredients wrong so it came out looking a little brown and tasted only of Baileys. It wasn’t terrible, but not as good as we’d hoped. I think we’ll try it again this Sunday. I can steal a blender from the kitchen in my office for the day.

Tuesday night was good fun. I got a group of people together (including my new Korean roommate Sid and his buddy Ringo/Pingu - I can’t remember his name) to go to a Karaoke bar. Personally, I’m a terrible singer but I really have fun at Karaoke bars so I came prepared with a list of possible songs. Unfortunately we were competing for stage time with a birthday party and 2 strange but funny guys who sang the Spiderman theme song and other bizarre tracks. This meant that my performances would be limited so in the end I performed Any Way You Want It, by Journey, as a duet with Valerie and a solo performance of the Wilson Pickett classic, Mustang Sally. I have few photos which I’ll dig up and throw up here soon.

The rest of the week has been fairly quiet and uneventful. I have a report for university due in for next week which I need to make a start on. I also found out today that Pixar, the Disney-owned animation studio responsbile for Toy Story, is located in Alameda which is right across the bay between Berkeley and Oakland. I’m going to call them to see if they’ll show me around some day. There’s so many businesses located here. Bebo is on 2nd street I think, and the Wordpress guys are just a few blocks from where I live.

And just while we’re on the subject, what does everyone think of Apple’s new Macbook Air? Personally, I think it’s overpriced and quite rubbish really. I’m a big fan of Apple and stand by a lot of their technology but this one just sucks. Ohhhh, it’s thinner than a regular Macbook…big deal. It doesn’t even have a CD Drive! You have to buy an external one to use with it. Ditch the hype and get yourself a Macbook Pro.

Aloha - I’m back! Did you miss me? Of course you did.

I’ve been in Hawai’i (I’m going to be anal and punctuate this entire post in Hawai’ian English) for the last 4 days on holiday. It’s taken me 3 days to write this post. But before I plunge right in and tell you everything, allow me to take you back a few years…

A Boy and his dream

The year was 2005. I was a bored 1st year student living in the suburban ghetto of Jordanstown university, so I joined an online DVD club. You make a list, they send them. Easy. Unfortunately the stupid company I was with sent me the wrong DVD the first time around. Instead of some Angelina Jolie flick, I was mailed a documentary about surfing. I grumbled, but watched it anyway. That DVD was Riding Giants. It was awesome, and it started my dream to not only learn to surf, but to see the Waimea Bay on the north shore of O’ahu, Hawai’i. University was so boring in first year that I needed a break and it’s been my dream since then to see people who spend their days surfing in the paradise of Hawai’i.

Waikiki Beach at Honolulu 

It’s a tourist trap, yes, but it’s beautiful. I got off the plane ready and wearing my shorts (Oakland airport was baltic at 5 in the morning flying out) and took the bus to Waikiki to meet Valerie. Desperately need suncream because the powers-that-be at the airport suspect my just-purchased $10 bottle of suncream to be a threat to national security, along with my hair gel. Goodbye style. I do, however, have the option of checking my suncream at the desk - meaning that the only checked luggage I have will be one bottle of suncream and one bottle of hair gel. Two hours waiting in line to check them, then looking like a complete dork as my two bottles come round on the baggage claim in Hawai’i? Airports - officially my most hated place.I meet Valerie at her hotel after riding the bus on a minors ticket (I cut my hair so I pass for 17). She looks great we so meet Gaelle and go to the beach. Spend the whole day on Waikiki beach swimming and playing volleyball with the locals. Beautiful place, and the weather is hot without being unbearable. I also get some suncream (factor 50 with a big picture of a baby on it…) . Dinner and relaxing in the evening and bed at a reasonable hour as we were all very tired.

 Gaelle and Valerie - the two wonderful girls I spent my holiday with.

Day Two I spend sightseeing. I should point out that in spite of working for a tour company, I absolutely hate the tourism industry. I hate feeling like a tourist, and I hate going sightseeing. But I was told that Pearl Harbour was a must-see so I booked a tour to go see it. It’s not bad, and it’s certainly very poignant in it’s message but it’s definitely the one part of my trip that I enjoyed least. The tour itself isn’t bad, you watch a 20 minute movie first (you’ll find out that anything touristy in Haiwai’i requires you to watch a movie first) which details the attack by the Japanese and builds up to the sinking of the USS Arizona, which was crippled by the air attack and took 1,177 crew members under the sea with it. Those crew members are permanently interred there and a memorial was built over the top of the ship which still lies at the bottom of the harbour. You get a little boat out to the memorial, so it’s cool and interesting historically speaking, but it’s very overcrowded and I just wanted to leave the whole time.My next stop on the tour was on Ford Island in the middle of Pearl Harbour which is an active military base. Here we visited the Pacific Aviation Museum which again deals with the American Involvement in World War II, and particularly the aeroplanes used and importance of Hawai’i during the war. Again, interesting but the tour guide was too long.Finally we stopped at the USS Missouri which is a former battleship turned into tourist attraction. Not bad, but a little tiresome. All in all, not a bad day but probably would have preferred to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center or something. But I’m glad I saw it.

Day Three was awesome. We began the day, all three of us, snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. It’s simply beautiful. It’s a wonderful little beach in a large bay that has lots of coral and tropical fish. As is now almost expected, they make you watch a very cheesy video at the start to educate you on how to respect the fish complete with a Disney-esque song “please don’t feed me” to the tune of Under the Sea.

Hanauma Bay - great place to snorkel and see cool fish.

 It was wonderful though, I saw many cool fish and was even lucky enough to swim beside a green sea turtle. Two turtles side by side - shame I didn’t have my camera! We didn’t stay long unfortunately though, the weather was quite overcast and it was getting cold just sitting about so I let Valerie bury me in the sand and sculpt me into a mermaid, then we headed back to Waikiki for lunch. Shortly after, we got picked up for an afternoon of surfing.

Surfing

Well folks, I have realised my dream. I surfed. And I was great. My first wave, check me out:

Surfing - mastered on my first try 

Forget the terrible shorts, and the fact that I’m incapable of getting a tan or looking un-Irish, but focus on the sheer skill, mastery and elation as I command the board. This my friends is joy, riding a wave until the end and giving a ‘hang loose’ salute for the camera.Ok, so here’s the scene 3 seconds later:

Surfing - ok, so maybe ‘mastered’ is a little generous… 

I’ll admit it, I have a problem with balance. But the whole day was simply amazing. I have the scars on my knees to prove it, the coral is razor sharp and the water is very shallow. My surfing instructor told me I was his best customer all day. He’s a native Hawai’ian, actually from O’ahu. He pretty much spends all his days surfing. Respect.

My surfing teacher - what a legend

 It’s exhausting paddling out to catch the waves but it’s a lot of fun when you get going. I’m quite sure that I want to continue to surf (along with snowboarding!) so I’m checking Craigslist for a cheap surfboard and maybe I’ll move out somewhere closer to Ocean Beach so I can get more time at it. Speaking of surfing, the huge world-famous Mavericks surfing contest at Half Moon Bay was on at the weekend. I’d been looking forward to seeing it for months, but it’s only announced days before it occurs so I had no idea. I missed it! But I watched the webcast, and congratulations to Greg Long for winning.So, all in all a great holiday. Along with my weekend in Tahoe it’s definitely my best memory of America so far. I think it’s hard to find somewhere more beautiful on earth than Hawai’i. My only regret is that I didn’t see the north shore, Waimea and Pipeline where all the world-famous surfing happens. But not to worry, I still surfed. I just have to visit the other 6 islands now! I love this place - the people, the landscape, the lifestyle, the weather, the language - everything about Hawai’i is wonderful. It definitely lived up to my expectations, and then some!

Sun sets over Waikiki. I love this place!

As the holiday season draws to a close, I decided I needed a break from work. I’m very excited that Valerie gets back from France today and I’ll see her for lunch later today. It’s been a very long 3 weeks since I saw her last. Unfortunately, it will be a brief meeting - she leaves for a 7 day trip to Hawaii tomorrow with another French girl, Gaelle.It’s been my dream to go to Hawaii even before I moved here. I think part of the reason I moved to San Francisco was because of it’s proximity to the islands. It’s still not close, but it’s the cheapest place to fly from in America. I was very jealous that I couldn’t join the trip due to working, so I decided to do something about it.So here’s what’s happening. I pestered people at work to change shifts with me and after a few days of prodding I managed to secure 4 days off work. Not a long time, but it’s enough. So, I’ve just booked myself a round trip to Honolulu!  It wasn’t cheap, but from the 7th January the flight prices drop by more than half, so it’s cheaper than it’ll ever be. Best of all, I’ll be with my lovely girlfriend on Waikiki Beach surfing all day. I only really get 2 full days, the other two days I’m flying but I don’t care at this stage. I will be in Hawaii which is enough.If I had more time I would fly to Kauai (the north island) because I believe it has the nicest coast. I had originally intended not to visit Honolulu on account of it being a complete tourist trap. I also haven’t booked accommodation yet, I intend to either sleep on the beach or couchsurf somewhere in the city. No point booking a room for just 3 nights, especially considering the prices.I leave on Tuesday morning and come back Friday night. This Saturday I’m going back to Tahoe with Bob and Caroline for another day of snowboarding. Basically I’m now broke, but the wonderful people at the student loan company should be delivering a late Christmas present any day now so I’m saved! Hurrah!