The rain and fog made it look even more alien than usual.

Two days after our first trip out there, we returned to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, to hike through the junior caldera on the eastern side next to the Thurston lava tube. It was sprinkling. The same sort of sprinkling rain which I always think to myself, well, as long as it doesn't get any worse than this it will be all right, in fact it is sort of nice because it is cooling things off. Guess what happened?

Yup. It rained and rained on us. I never learn. Hey we had a good time anyway :)

Thurston lava tube. Most of these were taken at ISO 6400 on the D700, which I have decided compares favourably with the films Ilford Delta 3200 and Kodak T-Max 3200.

I spent most of my time growing up on the edge of an extinct volcano, the caldera of which is much larger than Kīlauea's, but unfortunately, much of our Caldera couldn't be seen at any one time, so Kīlauea in a lot of ways is a lot more impressive looking. Also, our Caldera doesn't have steam and lava coming out of it :)

On the Big Island on the way to Kīlauea.

Along with the Russian King, we found to our surprise this Russian Fort Elizabeth in ruins in Kaua'i.

Kaua'i was thick with chickens and roosters. The guidebook said it was because of Hurricane Iniki in 1992. Gail told us they had been around in huge numbers far before that. Who knows.

Our last day on Kaua'i wasn't a full one so we went to checkout Waimea Canyon. If we'd had more time I would have liked to do some more hiking here, but as it was mostly looked around the edges.

• 9 November 2009 09:40am: Riding the Epping to Chatswood for the first time. So far not much to see as it is all tunnel.
• 9 November 2009 12:00pm: Confirmed: s-mart has been banned from ever returning to the hotel we were at this weekend. Surprising is the indignity expressed by this.
• 9 November 2009 07:25pm: Trying the new Vegemite. I can't decide if I like it or loath it. Either way I think I prefer the original.
• 10 November 2009 11:23am: Dev machine is caught in a five second loop. Groundhog day.
• 10 November 2009 03:35pm: How many years has it been since I did studio lighting? I'm eager to get back into it.
• Yesterday at 08:02am: Today is the day I face my density.
• Today at 09:00am: Fox cancels a Joss Whedon project. Surprising?
• Today at 09:02am: "at the end of the day" guy is relating an amusing story about voice messages and queues.

twitter.com/plicease

Back to the Hawai'i trip!

This time share salesman who claimed to be a descendant of the Russian aristocracy sold us a three hour tour^[1] on a catamaran tour of the Nā Pali coast on Kaua'i. We didn't buy the story of the “Russian King” (as we called him) and we didn't bite on the time share either (time sink is more like it). I'm not sure I get the appeal of the Russian aristocracy, they seemed like a bloodthirsty lot to me, but hey you film something in black and white and it becomes nostalgic.

1. Actual tour time was four and a half hours, but for boat tours everything becomes a three hour tour.

The last time I was working somewhere they^[1] decided to do something nice for us peons was when I was still working at The Company in New York State and we had a huge dinner/dance to celebrate the fact that we were the number one ASIC fabricator for that year. I was single at the time, and I didn't really know anyone so it was pretty unpleasant since I tend to be quiet around people who don't know me, but my manager strongly encouraged me to go so I didn't feel like I could say no. The next year we were also number one in ASICs, but the bubble had burst, the economy had taken a dive, and layoffs were looking more likely than a big gala.

update: I can confirm that we've been banned from ever returning to the place we stayed at, and the owners are going to ask that s-mart pay for the broken table. Strangely this has elicited mostly ridicule that those that broke the table ought to pay for it.

1. the giant ants
2. the giant ants
3. the giant ants
4. the giant ants
5. the giant ants
6. the giant ants