Scuba Day

I haven’t given my flippers a good workout in years. For my level of rescue certified diver, my dive log is embarrassingly under used and pretty dusty as it hasn’t been touched in a few (okay like, eek, maybe 4?) years. So today was a big day. I met a new dive buddy and plotted a course for China Wall, on the east side of the island.

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The dive was an easy one, disregarding that crafty current. We went down just around 40ft at the deepest, mainly poking around 20ish checking out little fishes and underwater items. I saw this crazy orange eel and some halibut like fish. They were cute.

The harrowing part was the entry and exit points. They were kinda on a cliff. A cliff of steep edges and slippery mossy parts. For those of you who don’t scuba, the gear is really not meant for land. You’re carrying compressed air and your life support system, plus salt water wants to float you up so there is some added weights. I must have had a good fifty pounds as I scampered down the jagged rocks. Getting out was also fun. We had to wait for a good wave to push us up as high as we could get and then sorta roll/drag our tired bodied up the slippery rocks.

What I liked best about today was that this dive was the first I’ve down without the constraints of a guided tour. Lacking cranky heavy breathers on vacation really brought the best out of the dive experience. It was so freeing to just drive up and hop in the water. Also, that I remained still alive and here to blog another day was a plus!

Blind Date = FAIL

I haven’t been on many first dates, let alone a blind date. It just doesn’t seem like my generation is into that sorta thing, dating that is. So when a coworker told me he had someone he wanted to set me up with, you can imagine I felt kinda weird. Through out the week I got more tidbits of his fabulousness, and likeness to myself. In fact, it was reviled to me that this was the “male version of Jess”. The perfect match right?

However, the side effect of this positive pumping up, was some high expectations and pressure. Not to mention the fact that once a few other coworkers caught wind of this date business, my entire place of employment was going “Ooooo. Jess has a date tonight… Oooo!”

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To make matters increasingly awkward, the store had a boozing get together planned and this “date” of mine was invited. The blind date was to occur with the accompaniment of my work buddies! The theory behind this was to create a “no pressure hang out time”, but I’m not sure that’s exactly how things resulted.

9:30pm I begin to gussy myself up.

9:40pm I’m pretty.

10:00pm I arrive the store and walk to bar, nerves a little a flutter. This is my perfect match after all.

10:05pm Don’t see this date of mine. Decide on a Coors Light. Good job Jess.

10:10pm Talk about coworker’s back hair. Wondering where the date is.

10:20pm Bring up the fact that my date has yet to arrive, and was told “Oh, he just said he had gotten his car towed last night, and so his roommate is going to drive him into town. That’s why he’s not here yet.”

Hmmm. I could give you the rest of the play by play, but it degraded fast into talk of appletinis and Apple TVs, and I knew then and there he wasn’t showing up.

And I have a theory of this FAIL. I have no proof of this young gentleman’s personality, however I do love to assume, and for now I am going to place him in the “nice guy” category. I have found nice guys come bundled with a passive type personality when it comes to the ladies. When things happen randomly or organically, they are for it, but the classic pursue? They don’t have the buy in. Now an asshole is cocky, and therefore “knows” he can get whatever he wants. He sees a babe at a bar and thinks “I can have that, I’ll make it happen.” He goes over and chats her up and well, girls enjoy flattery and attention just as much as the next person so the formula works.

The build up to the date on my end involved a lot of “you guys are so perfect for each other” that I can only imagine, if he was getting an iota of this talk, rather then making him feel good, it was probably making him feel awkward pressured too. Combine this with the passiveness and he probably just wanted to bail. Hell I did too. The only successful dating experiences I’ve ever had where super random with a twist of being at the right place at the right time. There is nothing natural about a blind date. It went against every ‘this feels normal’ sense in my body. I think if I ever try this again it’ll be when I accidently turn 40 and realize I’m desperate.

HA HA! j/k… like I’ll ever age. That’s for suckers.

UPDATE 1.29.09:
Turns out my assumption was a bit out of place. The Date was under the impression I was unaware he was attending the shindig and had a long bad day, so bailed thinking I wouldn't be the wiser. SO, I was a dear and forgave him. Date take 2 was much more successful :). However, I still believe my theory for the majority of "nice guys".

Lights Out!

During dinner the lights flickered for a second. I was immediately flooded with exciting thoughts of - oh, what if the power goes out??. It’s probably been 10 years since that was even a possibility. I glanced at my dinner companions, Joe & Lindsea, who where sporting the same glimmer in their eyes. We made a quick few musings over the idea of a power outage and then went back to discussing the internet or something.

Then 10 minutes later there was a subtle click and we were cloaked dark silence. It really went out. Now I couldn’t even see the spicy things in my curry. And, my rice to curry ratio was getting all askew. Joe scurried outside and it appeared the whole block was out. Phones begin to light up the tables. Candles were slowly distributed by the wait staff. We giggle with excitement about iPhone/candle lit dinner and how this should happen more frequently. I guess at this time we hadn’t considered the possibility this blackout might stick around longer than was cute.

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We get word from the other tables that this outage is island wide. Which isn’t that surprising because I’m sure the whole island is one grid, but we do realize it’s probably time to leave the restaurant. They figure out how to charge my credit card and we’re out off into the world. We step out to a cityscape that is completely black. Buildings outlined by moon and a few emergence backup lights, there is an eerie quality to the town. And that’s when I remember another thing that stops functions during an outage - traffic lights!

Yet, the people of Oahu seemed to be doing a very good job of self-managing the intersections. What was nice about this little emergency was it really brought out the best in people. Everyone we talked to was sparked with excitement combined with a we’ll get through this just fine attitude. Twitter was a flutter with updates and already there was a hashtag (#hipower) about the incident. Its a good thing we didn’t have to see if that attitude would last longer than the night.

The night’s next thing on the agenda was beer. But everything was closed! 7-11 wouldn’t even open the doors for cash. We were outside and the clerks were in there with the lights on pretending they couldn’t see us clamoring for beer. And, I know when people do this at my store I ignore them and wonder why they can’t figured we’re closed. But now this is different. I mean I need beer!

Thankfully the amazing 24hr Safeway was open. We got our own personal employee escort to direct us to the beer aisle and headed back to my place. Joe’s computer had a few hours of battery and the remainder of the night was spent with Flight of the Concords, beer, and late night quesadillas (thankyouverymuch gas stove!).

Class Registration, Or Time To Evaluate All Life Choices Again

It’s time to register for classes again. I’ve been learning Java. And as it turns out, Java is bit archaic. I’m getting the impression I’m learning the dewy decimal system, while everyone is using google. Before tackling this latest life endeavor of mine, I was aware of different programing languages and that some where trendier than others. I most certainly wasn’t aware of the epic social implications of simply saying:

“Oh, I’m into programing. I’m learning Java.”
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Responses are in two categories:

The first (and of course my personal favorite) -
“What?? Really? Oh wow. That’s awesome. You go girl” or something to that effect. Obviously, I’m gonna like something that strokes my ego. But on a deeper level, I’m really proud of myself for jumping into this. It was drastically different then anything I’ve ever studied so it was hard to make the plunge and hand over my credit card for the class, but nothing I’ve ever studied had felt so spot on. And validation mixed with being impressed with me for my choices. Well, that feels great.

Less favorable response (and most commonly one as of late) -
“Java? What the fuck are you doing with Java? Are you in junior high? Please, I program in Ruby and so does anyone who’s anybody.”
So I wrote that in the most condescending way because that’s how I hear this comment. It most likely isn’t meant like that. But I hear this and it throws off my little world. This comment comes from people who probably know what they are talking about. I assume this because I’ve been hanging out with a geekier crowd who seems to live and breath programing. And while I should be view this a an awesome networking connection I can’t shake these two horrendous facts:

A) I’m wrong and B) I don’t know how to get things right.

And I of course don’t react maturely to any of these. My personality is very argumentative. Even when I’m not sure what I’m talking about (shhh… don’t tell). So to hear I’m wrong starts me off on a long winded defense, where I won’t stop until I’ve proven the point correct, even if it’s wrong. I know I do this, and later when I reflect back I just feel like a jerk. It’s my own internal insecurities with my life choices that make me blurt out opposition and get all pissy over a good point that I really should listen too. And now that I am reflecting, I could spend a lot more time and money and energy one next term with Java. Or maybe I shouldn’t. Which brings up today’s blog thesis and point B: What am I doing with my life? So should I learn Ruby? How? I can’t even understand the installation process. I’m not stupid. I just don’t have the tools. Where do I get this information? I’m at a total loss. This seems like a perfectly logical reason for another mini life crisis. At least Intro to Comp Science II isn’t filling up that fast.

What’s also scary is I’m about the reach the six month bail point. As I’ve been hearing from EVERYONE, six months is the first marker for people moving off the Island. Then it’s a year or two after that (Don’t worry, I’m not bailing, I still love it here). On a side note, I find this really ironic because the two year mark is how long people make it in Alaska. Because two freaking cold miserable winters is all a normal person can handle. So, I guess the same is true for paradise?

Hawaiian’s call the lampshade iMac the Manapua Mac.


That's because this is a Manapua.




A fluffy ball of bread that surrounds a cluster of brightly shaded red meat. I swear it tastes amazing.

Isn’t that cute?

An Awkward Thing Happened to Me Today at the Coffee Shop

I was doing my homework chatting online with a fellow I met at podcamp at a little neighborhood coffee shop. The fairly normal conversation had little bomb dropped on it with this comment from him (we’ll call him Tim to mask his identity):

Tim: “So, when are you going to ask me out?”

Yours Truly: “Ummm.. That idea hadn’t really crossed my mind.”

Tim: “Don’t be shy now. I’ll tell you what, you put up an away message that makes me laugh & I’ll take you out to dinner.”

Okay, so I put this up because I’m obnoxious.
“Tim: we’re not going to have sex.”

He then quickly left the internet. However, I did not. I remained at the coffee shop with iChat running for some time after (I’m still here). I was looking at my buddylist a while later & noticed an unfamiliar name. Timothy G. Who the eff is that? Turns out another Tim was signed on Bonjour. With my awesome away message up. And right across the room from me. Guess I won’t be having sex with him either.

Tetris Night

I have this rule of thumb that if two of your friends that personally are not acquainted invite you to the same event, you must attend. It always will be awesome. And well, if it’s titled Tetris Decom and featuring a 40ft tall game of Tetris, attendance is most definitely imperative.
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Since all the conditions had been met, it seemed important to tuned out the “Hey you’ve gotta work at 8am” voice (she’s so silly with her logic and being right all the time anyways) and scooted to the scene.

It was actually put on by burning man peeps. So picture a sea of geek/trendy hippy kids dancing to rave tunes. Throw in some fire dancing. This made up for the fact that the 40ft Tetris screen wasn’t actually 40ft do to some physics inconsistencies. It’s really fun to be finding these scenes here in Hawaii. Makes me feel like I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what this place has to offer. Can’t wait for the next one!

Picture generously donated by the fabulous photographer JPhilipson :)