Typhoon 12

According to Yahoo Japan, typhoon 12 hit Japan on the 2nd of September and hasn’t moved away yet. It has been a month…

The death toll from the typhoon reached seventy-four. Moreover, in the Nara-Prefecture, 20 people are missing, a landslide occurred at 17 places, and 623 people are now living in evacuation shelters.

That’s it. That huge whirlpool is covering Japan.

The government official says it would be very hard to recover from this disaster.

Japan has been dealing with misfortunes this year. Since the country is an island, disaster never ceases. Obviously, there’s nothing to do but to prepare whatever strikes next.

The Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort: Kailua-Kona

Some people go to Hawaii to tan, relax, and drink piña coladas on the beach. Not my family.  We probably spend equal amounts of time in and out of the water.  Hawaii itself is very important to us.  My parents lived in Haena on Kauai before they adopted me.  The first vacation I remember in Kauai.  My twins sisters learned to swim in Kona and I got my dive certification there, July 2007.

Front of the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort, Kailua-Kona

Years ago my mom found this beautiful little hotel  and she and my dad went snorkeling there.  She remembered it and booked us a room at  Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort in Kailua-Kona, October of 2003. It’s this GORGEOUS, amazing hotel right on Keauhou Bay.  There is a small snorkeling beach, as well as a little set of stairs that lead directly into the water.  The hotel includes deluxe ocean-view rooms, excellent free daily breakfast for guests, and an incredible seaside restaurant with the most spectacular view of the sunset in all of Hawaii.

A taste of India.

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal, one of the seven great wonders of the world, one of the glories of India. A tourist trap, but also a sacred site for many its white exterior shimmers serenely under fluorescent spotlights. Standing tall, superior and spectacular in the light of the Taj Cafe, the pure exquisiteness of this wall hanging capturing my attention and transporting me to the bustling streets of India.

This sanctuary displays a snippet of a different culture from across the globe. Acting as a place or spot where one can be transported to another land without actually travelling very far. The Taj Cafe, Ventura is the perfect place to do just this.

The traditional food, exquisitely furnished room and the unique sounds of the traditional song come together to give one a small taste of India. The ambience of the restaurant represents this eastern culture perfectly in the streets of California.

If you want an eastern experience from the comfort of your own city why not take a trip to your local Indian restaurant. Take the opportunity to inhale the aromatic scents of the spiritual motherland and experience a unique journey of your own.

MTV or SH*T TV?

MTV

MTV stands for Music Television, or should I say stood for that. This tv channel which at once point used to be music videos all day every day has become the main channel for stupid “reality” tv shows. Teen Mom 2, 16 and pregnant, Jersey Shore, and many others are all examples of what shouldn’t be on MTV, some of them shouldn’t even be shows, Teen mom and 16 and pregnant. Others though like Jersey Shore I don’t mind, but I still believe they should be shown on a different channel.

I wonder why there is a need to have bad TV shows on a channel that was designed for the viewers to watch music videos and music related things. It really bothers me. I hate that the only time to watch music videos is from about 3 am to about 5 am, when most people are sleeping.

I know that times are changing and things will never be the same, but the least we could do is use this channel which was designed specifically for music for that exactly, and put all the musically unrelated TV shows on a separate channel.

sh*t TV

What do you think?

Oh! Just a Dream

A couple of days ago, me and my friends were telling tales about recent dreams and their significance, during a short ride in our white vans, heading toward our designated workout spot.

Many of us had suspicions about whether dreams had actual meaning.
Yet one of my superiors spoke of, what we can call, a bizarre dream in which he died in a violent and gruesome manner. It turns out the epic ending he suffers was a tragic blow to his neck, given to him by an unknown” man. The injury claimed his life, but not before he is tortured by watching as blood spurts from his tiny wound and spreads all over the ground.

As he spoke of his dream, the events in the story did not make much sense, although some parts where interesting. The way he had died was so dramatic it caught the attention of me and one other student.

So we quickly, whipped out the old smart phone from our pockets and began our
quest to find its meaning. A few seconds later, we found it. Thank you Google.

This is what we found,

To dream that you are bleeding or losing blood, signifies that you are suffering from exhaustion or that you are feeling emotionally drained…”       – http://www.dreammoods.com

Wooaahh there… What?

Well it turns out our Superior had been preparing for the Boston Marathon.

See where this starts to make sense?

So back to the Point. Do dreams really have a deeper meaning? Or are they just an adventure our brain goes of to do while it waits for dawn?

“Occupy Wall Street”

Currently there is a movement to protest the actions of the economic top 1% of Americans called “Occupy Wall Street.” Not just a verbal movement, an actual protest in New York.

Chances are you haven’t heard about it, and I believe there is a reason for that: News corporations don’t like covering protest unless things are on fire and the police are involved.

Now I could write a book on how much I despise the choices of most news organizations, but instead I want to focus on what Wall Street has done to this country.

It all goes back to greed. Traders on Wall Street work for companies, and at the helms of those companies are CEO’s. I have nothing against CEO’s in general, more the ideas that their job title in general seeks to accomplish.

They want power and money. They want their shares to boom and then they want to create more shares which will boom some more. Yes, there are some advantages to this system of market (Yay Capitalism!), it encourages competitive businesses and seeks to advance our markets.

But what is the cost? Well, I think we are seeing the cost right now. Wealth in America is incredibly concentrated, with the middle class shrinking at shocking rates. These trends are due to the greed that has been encouraged through our system of economics.

The whole goal for most Americans is to get rich. Children are encouraged to choose jobs that will make them wealthy when they grow up. But then we reach the problem of having such an elitist society that money passes from hand to hand, instead of from hand to hands.

Don’t get me wrong, I love money. I love the finer things in life, from food to fast cars, probably more than many people. But what I want to think about is greed and how much money we really need as individuals. Go and buy that nice car, that nice house, that perfect vacation. But in the mean time, think about what you can buy for others with what you have.

And now we come back to the Occupy Wall Street protest. Thousands of people have been protesting, not just in New York, but in major cities across America. They want the top 1% to look and listen to what is happening in America. They are not asking for the wealthy to give up their lifestyles, all they are asking for is less greed and more sympathy.

We are a country, we are supposed to look after each other (to what degree can be debated all you want). Corporations (who are not people by the way) and the CEO’s (who are people) who run them need to get their priorities in line and start supporting the country that gave them what they have today.

Nerd Rant, Part IV

Once again, I must delve into my “series” of nerd rants for another TOTALLY AWESOME nerd thing.

As previously stated, I am a Harry Potter nerd. So when I discovered J.K. Rowling was launching a new Harry Potter-based website, I had to apply for early admission right away.

AND I GOT IN.

This website is, nerdily enough, called Pottermore. In Pottermore you follow the basic storyline of the books, but there’s an added character, you. You get your own wand (mine is a 10 inch cyprus, unyielding with a phoenix feather core) and you get sorted into a house (Hufflepuff!)

You learn spells and brew potions for house points and all in all it is a very geeky, nerdy, and fantastic thing.

It’s so lame but so much fun.

I highly suggest you all go and check out Pottermore when it is released to the public on October 1!

Seriously.

Do it.

ITS A PHONE?!?!?!

I thought I saw a lot of crazy things in my life. I spent a lot of time in Philadelphia and I’ve seen people yell obscene words at cops, and people throw things at buildings. People were out of their minds and I loved it. But this is a new kind of crazy. Ladies and gentlemen, the Ice Cream Sandwich…it’s a freakin’ phone. Doesn’t that look delicious…I mean useful? Simple answer is no. It just looks like some designers decided to make the phone look like what was in their mini freezer in their office. Honestly I can’t even fathom why this was made. I love ice cream sandwiches. I don’t like putting them to my ear and talking to them.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/IceCreamSandwich.jpg/275px-IceCreamSandwich.jpg

Tasty huh? Well, now you can call your family and friends before you eat it so you can brag. Unfortunately, it can only be used/eaten once.

The SkyCoaster

I think it’s safe to assume everyone has been on a swing.  Most people have been to a fair and seen those trampolines that have harnesses and you can do flips in.

Mix those two together and add some extreme.  You might get a general idea of what the CIMI SkyCoaster is like.

This year, the camp introduced the newest edition of CIMI equipment.  The SkyCoaster is essentially, a giant swing.  It stands about 30 feet tall (same as a tyrannosaurs rex) and is located behind the rock wall in the eucalyptus grove near campus.

There  is a pull crew and a catcher on the ground.  The camper straps into a full body harness, climbs a ladder, and is hooked in to a towline; the pull crew wear climbing harnesses with carabiners secured to the towline and pull the camper up 30 feet in the air.

A ripcord is attached to a pulley system and the camper counts to 3, out loud, so the pull crew can brace themselves before the drop jerks the towline. After pulling the cord, the camper falls 3 feet and swings 26 feet out and up into the air.

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