On the Road Again...

I really *can* wait to get on the road again...  I'm leaving tomorrow for a trip to the far east... then I get back and have to turn right around and go to San Diego... normally these would be good trips, but seriously... when you live in Hawaii and you are happy where you are at for more than one reason- who would really want to go?  Maybe this is evidence I really am immune to 'Island Fever'... Murphy is going to be very well taken care of while I'm gone, so that's definitely a good thing-  then I'll be back for like 10 days or so and take a vacation and go see the fam in Florida- definitely looking forward to that, but well... anyway- let the travels begin.

One out of Three So Far...

So I haven't watched it yet... I spent this evening taking a GMAT practice test... (loads-o-fun), but apparently, David Cook won ye ole' American Idol... I would like to point out, that while I did miss out on picking UNC for the champions in my March Madness (but did come close) I did in fact call it for David Cook on America's Talent Show... American Idol.  Those of you who care, can find my original post here... and I quote... 

"And one more thing... while I'm on predictions,  I'm going to go ahead and choose my American Idol winner... David Cook.  I know he wasn't in my original Idol prediction post, but I think he's got what it takes to win.  David Archeleta could pull it off purely from the popularity factor with the post-pubescent set with text messaging voting cell phones under their pillows at night, but David Cook is the real deal.  Much like Chris Daughtry of season 5.

Alright, I'm out.  McCain, UNC, David Cook."

I did miss on the UNC thing, but I'm pretty proud of my talent picking abilities...  and John McCain is still in the hunt!

Alright- I'm out... dinnertime!

A New Hope... and Marathons...

So I had the pleasure of attending a church today that I truly enjoyed.  It's called New Hope, and the thought occurred to me while I was enjoying the worship, that the name is somewhat, well... fitting I guess for me?  Hope is something that I've had in the past... and I feel kind of like I've lost touch with hope... but being at this church really gave me a 'new' hope... at least for a wayward son... which I've really been conscious of lately... the message was about insecurities, but what I really received from the pastor's words were how much God loves me, us, all of His children, but I guess it really spoke to me specifically, because he reminded me of the story of how a shepherd with 100 sheep would leave 99 of them to go seek out one that has strayed... It really spoke to me.  Am I a sheep that has strayed?  Probably... am I conscious of the fact on a pretty regular basis?  Definitely... am I glad that God used a series of unique events to guide my path to this church?  Absolutely.  There are lots of things that I appreciated about this church, but the fact that they don't own any buildings was probably the most striking... and they have a membership of over 10,000!!  They meet in a high-school auditorium for 4 or 5 services on the weekends as well as 4 or 5 other locations around Oahu... (the island I live on)- but even though they don't have a regular building that they 'own',  they have the process down of taking over the entire courtyard and auditorium of Farrington High School here in Honolulu.  I didn't really even realize it was a High School until my friend told me... I thought it was an actual church campus- anyway- all-in-all I really enjoyed it... although, Uncle Sam beckons, and unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it for the next two weekends... that thought also hit me as I was enjoying the service... oh well- hopefully the church will still be there when I'm back from my off-island travels... 

In other news... as I was running through Waikiki this morning... this thought occurred to me:  "Is a Marathon a unit of measure of distance or is it now defined as a race?"  I, of course, know the story behind Marathon... well, I thought I did, before I did some research just now... but regardless, according to the community over at Wikipedia- the official distance of a Marathon has been changed 6 or 7 times since the first official marathon was run at the 1896 Olympic games at Athens Greece.  Originally, it was around 40 kilometers or roughly 25 miles, which is the actual distance from the Marathon Plain to Athens... but, well, read this:

Distance

Year	Distance (kilometres)	Distance (miles)
1896	40	24.85
1900	40.26	25.02
1904	40	24.85
1906	41.86	26.01
1908	42.195	26.22
1912	40.2	24.98
1920	42.75	26.56
1924 onward	42.195	26.22

The length of a marathon was not fixed at first, since the only important factor was that all athletes competed on the same course. The marathon races in the first few Olympic Games were not of a set length, but were approximately 40 km,^[10] roughly the distance from Marathon to Athens by the longer, flatter route. The exact length of the Olympic marathon varied depending on the route established for each venue.

The marathon at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London was set to measure about 25 miles (40 km) and to start on ‘The Long Walk’ – a magnificent avenue leading up to Windsor Castle in the grounds of Windsor Great Park. The Princess of Wales wanted her children to watch the start of the race, so the start of the race was moved to the east lawn of Windsor Castle, increasing its length to 26 miles (42 km).^[10] The race was to finish at the Great White City Stadium in Shepherd's Bush in London; however, Queen Alexandra insisted on having the best view of the finish; so, in the words of the official Olympic report, "385 yards were run on the cinder track to the finish, below the Royal Box".^[10] The length then became 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards or 26 ⁷⁄₃₂ miles).

For the next Olympics in 1912, the length was changed to 40.2 km (24.98 miles) and changed again to 42.75 km (26.56 miles) for the 1920 Olympics until it was fixed at the 1908 distance for the 1924 Olympics. In fact, of the first seven Olympic Games, there were six different marathon distances between 40 km and 42.75 km (40 km being used twice).

Following the 1908 Olympics in London, an annual event called the Polytechnic Marathon had been instituted over the 1908 distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km), and it was largely due to the prestige of the Polytechnic Marathon that 42.195 km was adopted as the official marathon distance in 1921 by theInternational Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) - Rule 240 of their Competition Rules.[2]. The difference between 42.195 km and 26 miles 385 yards is 1.2 centimetres. The difference between the standard distance and the rounded figure frequently employed (as in the table), 26.22 miles, is a little over two metres.

Interesting eh?  For some reason I was thinking about miles and stadia and cubits and other ancient measures of distance this morning while running, and I thought, if a stadia can be roughly the length of a stadium as well as a 'unit' of measurement, couldn't the same logic apply to a Marathon?  Not only is it a distance, it could also be a 'unit' of measurement... who knows- the strangest things pass through my mind sometimes while I'm running...

Oh- got my guitar fixed- just started playing 'The Blowers Daughter' this last week.  An incredible song, I found out is about a guy falling in love with his clarinet teachers daughter... strange eh?  A good song none-the-less... can't take my eyes off of you... can't take my mind off of you...  Good night... do I really have to go back to work tomorrow?  Well, at least I get to travel next weekend.

Peace.

Facebook...

OK... so I have to admit... I may have just become an Internet Social Networking Geek... innocently enough, I tried to visit the meetin.org facebook page this evening, but it wouldn't let me access it without signing up for an account... whatever, I thought... how many accounts on silly websites can one person have?  So I just signed up for it... not really caring to invest much time in it.  Well... wouldn't you know... Facebook GOT ME!  I think I wrote about how I just didn't really get MySpace in an earlier post... but when I logged into Facebook and started seeing lot's of old friends from College, College Professors even... I couldn't believe it.  I had 8 new friends in like 15 minutes... people I knew who were online at that moment who became my 'friend'... because, well, technically they already were, but I just haven't seen alot of them in years... and anyway- all the sudden I GET facebook.  I actually used caps twice in this post.  Anyway- if you aren't on facebook, you should check it out... I especially like it because it seems a lot less juvenile than MySpace... no offense to you myspacers out there... Cheers- time to go running...

Something Fun...

So Murphy took a celebrity personality test tonight when we got back from the Dog Park... probably one of his favorite places on the Island so far...

And the results are in...

George Clooney....

I found out about this little test for him after reading this article in 'That Liberal Rag' (my Dad so affectionately refers to it as) the New York Times. It's kind of an interesting article about Dogs in the Workplace... too bad I can't take the Murphster to work... but how I really found out about the celebrity personality test is that the article featured 'Bella's Boxer Shorts' a Boxer named Bella's point-of-view of her owners work.

Anyway- thought it would be interesting to post it. By the way, Happy (early) Birthday Dad... your present is in the mail. (seriously... :D )

Carrier

So, I've been watching a program on PBS, compliments of TiVo, called 'Carrier.'  If any of you want a small glimpse into what life was like for me the last three years, watch this show.  I've watched 3 episodes of it now, and I must say, it is hands down one of the most authentic, hard-hitting, real looks at what life is like on an aircraft carrier.  From the highs to the lows... no glossy cover-ups... granted it is public television, so it's PG, and trust me, life on a carrier is anything but PG... but anyway- they even have a piece in episode three, 'Super Secrets' where they pull into Hong Kong... a port I've been to 3 times.  A film crew deployed with the USS Nimitz in 2005, and basically followed several people on board from start to finish.  It's been enjoyable for me to watch it, and if you have a chance, you should definitely watch it.  If you've missed it, you can get it on iTunes...    or you can check out pbs.org.

In other news... it's Monday.  My life isn't nearly as interesting as it was when I was deployed... I think I came to that realization last week when I sat down and tried to write something well... interesting.  And failed miserably.  Tony and I are talking about going in together on a Catamaran...  This one.

Oh yeah...  I promised a write up on 'Strengths' in my last post... that'll come later... I'm really sunburned tonight from a beach trip on Sunday... good night.

Kokua Festival, Astronauts and Wikipedia

So there is just something about living in Hawaii that just never gets old... although, I must admit, I've almost reached the 7 month mark here, so the idea of things 'getting old' is probably a bit preconceived on my part.  I've been told that Haole (pronounced how-lee), as they call us white-folks here in the Islands, tend to get so called 'Island Fever' after about 6 months of living here... well, that hasn't happened to me yet... and I don't forsee it happening to me anytime soon, but you never know... anyway, back to my original thought.  What hasn't gotten old to me yet after living here is the never ending good weather and sunshine... but that's really boring, and writing about it probably doesn't help with my readership... but anyway- last night, some friends and I went to the 'Kokua Festival' an open air festival featuring two of my all-time favorite artists at the 'Waikiki Shell,' an outdoor venue that is used quite frequently for concerts and the like- while I will admit that we didn't actually have tickets, we were able to sit out on the grass, and listen to the Dave Matthews Band and Jack Johnson who were here to play... anyway- I walked there and walked back from my house- it was a concert celebrating, ahem, earth day, probably not one of the most compelling celebrations in my book, but at least I lowered my carbon footprint for a day by walking the 1.5 miles to the concert and back... it seems I cover a lot of ground on the adidas express living here in Waikiki though- but it literally is easier to just walk everywhere than it is to drive... not to mention parking is at a premium, gas is well, $3.67 a gallon and heck- you can cover a lot of ground on foot if you just take the time to do it... of course, I do pay a premium for living in this fantastically convenient location, but hey, as they say, you do have to pay to play... what does that mean?  Anyway- I'm sort of rambling, but I guess I'm just happy to be here, and figured I'd write about it... today my buddy Tony and I took the Murphster to the beach over by Sandy Beach on the South-East side of Oahu... I did manage to get my truck stuck for about 10 minutes in some soft sand... which made me wonder for those 10 minutes why in the heck I bought an SUV without four wheel drive, but with a push from Tony and another helpful soul and some rocks under the rear wheels I managed to get out of the predicament I was in... carbon footprint be damned... anyway- the beach is great... whatever... nothing too earth-shattering in this post so far, but I've neglected my blog this week and felt like I needed to put something up... which is probably not the best reason to post, but whatever... so what I was going to say originally, living in Hawaii has yet to get old to me.  Tony and I kicked around the idea of going in halves on a Hobie Cat... I love sailing and having a Hobie Cat would be a great reason to get out on the water on a regular basis... not to mention the wind here in Hawaii is legendary... there is really no such thing as a bad wind day...  OK... my next topic- astronauts-

So for some reason, I was reading about Shuttle Missions this afternoon- oh yeah- when I got home from the beach today, there was a special on Discovery HD (which by the way, for those of you that don't watch TV in HD... you have no idea what you are missing) anyway- the special on Discovery HD was about STS-114, the first Shuttle Mission after the Columbia disaster, the Shuttle Discovery slipping the surly bonds of earth... well, in reading about it, I came upon something I found quite interesting... apparently NASA has had a tradition since maybe the days of the Gemini missions of waking astronauts up each morning with a pre-chosen song of one astronauts choosing... for those of you that don't know, I was an astronaut wannabe when I was a kid... unfortunately I didn't cut the mustard when it came to advanced math, so I just settled for a run-of-the-mill Naval Flight Officer (but I did go to Space Camp :) so I've always kind of had an affinity for all things space... even if it is just as an enthusiastic observer... but you've also probably figured out that I'm also a music fan... so when I found out that they play songs for the astronauts each morning to wake them, and then I found some of the actual recordings of the dialogue that follows each waking from some of the recent missions, I figured I'd feature them here... so here they are, compliments of Wikipedia... which by the way, have you ever thought about the amount of work that all those selfless Wikipedians put into their body of work?  I mean seriously- you can find information about almost anything on Wikipedia- but who wants to spend all their time writing that stuff?  I'm a big fan, admittedly, but seriously... I was reading it today, thinking, someone puts a lot of selfless work into this.  I admit, I have edited a post or two, but more to assist in the accuracy of something which I know a lot about... not really to generate data, more to just correct it.  I guess those folks who have that strength of... you know what... my next post is going to be about Strengths, and the Gallup Organizations' take on them... stay tuned.  

Anyway- check out some of the 'wake-up' songs from STS-123, the most recent Shuttle Mission, excerpted from, you guessed it, Wikipedia:  (by the way, if you do listen to one or two of the songs, listen to the whole thing, because they don't play the entire song, but Mission Control will start talking and you can hear the conversation between them and the particular astronaut who chose the song for the day... kind of cool)

(note: I also just found this little write up on the history of music being used as wake-up calls in Space...)

Wake-up calls

A tradition for NASA human spaceflights since the days of Gemini, is that mission crews are played a special musical track at the start of each day in space. Each track is specially chosen, often by their family, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.^[33][34]

• Day 2: "Linus and Lucy" performed by Vince Guaraldi, played for Mission Specialist Michael Foreman. WAV MP3
• Day 3: Soundtrack of the movie Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla and the song "Godzilla" (from the album Spectres) performed by Blue Öyster Cult, played for Mission Specialist Takao Doi. WAVMP3
• Day 4: "Saturday Night" performed by the Bay City Rollers, played for Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman. WAV MP3
• Day 5: "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)" performed by The Byrds, played for Mission Specialist Richard M. Linnehan.WAV MP3
• Day 6: "We're Going to Be Friends" performed by The White Stripes, played for Mission Specialist Robert L. Behnken. WAV MP3
• Day 7: "God of Wonders" performed by Caedmon's Call, played for Commander Dominic Gorie. WAV MP3
• Day 8: "Sharing the World" performed by Gregory H. Johnson’s brother, played for Pilot Gregory H. Johnson. WAV MP3
• Day 9: "Hoshi Tsumugi no Uta" (星つむぎの歌 or Song of Spinning Stars), performed by Ayaka Hirahara, played for Mission SpecialistTakao Doi. WAVMP3
• Day 10: "Burning Love" performed by Elvis Presley, played for Mission Specialist Michael Foreman. WAV MP3
• Day 11: "Blue Sky" performed by Big Head Todd and the Monsters, played for Mission Specialist Richard M. Linnehan. WAV MP3
• Day 12: "Enter Sandman" performed by Metallica, played for Mission Specialist Robert L. Behnken. WAV MP3
• Day 13: "I Loved Her First" performed by Heartland, played for Commander Dominic Gorie. WAV MP3
• Day 14: "I am Free" (Newsboys song) performed by the Praise Team at Michael Foreman's church, played for Mission Specialist Michael Foreman. WAV MP3
• Day 15: "Furusato" (folksong) performed by Yuko Doi, played for Mission Specialist Takao Doi. WAV MP3
• Day 16: "Con te partirò" performed by the Andrea Bocelli, played for Flight Engineer Léopold Eyharts. WAV MP3
• Day 17: "Drops of Jupiter" performed by the Train, played for Pilot Gregory H. Johnson. WAV MP3

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