New Laptop and No Sleep

It's really late already, but, I just had to post a post with my new Toshiba M105-3004 Laptop that I just got the other day. As you can see by the time...I've been busy every night trying to figure out how to use this thing!

Last night I was up till 2:30AM!!! The night before 1:30! Aaaarrrghhh!!! More Stress!!!!

Senator Akaka - No Ka Oi

Senator Akaka - No Ka Oi
Originally uploaded by dancedream2002.

Now ... why would I do this to my car???

Well, I'll be posting why I did this in my Politics of Peace blog soon - like maybe tomorrow. But in the mean time, we've got to all support this Hawaiian Senator from Hawaii.

Well...it's tomorrow and this is why I did it: The Politics of Peace - Thank You Senator Akaka

The Longest Run

Today was my longest run in about 2-1/2 years.

With my ipod going, I ended up running (jogging) about 5 WHOLE MILES up and down Moanalua Valley! I just ran ez and didn't even keep any kind of time, though, my legs felt really good considering the race this past Sunday. Surprisingly, going from my usual 2 to 3 miles to 5 was not as hard as I thought it would be.

Concidently, about 1/2 way up the valley, I saw my good friend Barry's wife, Bev. We ended up chatting for about 10 minutes about the terrible and life threatening effects of not having enough salt during your long training sessions. Of course, Bev would know as she is a professional nutritionist and was taking a late afternoon run while working at Kaiser. I would know too, considering I almost died after a 1/2 Ironman in Kona one year!

Now that I'm getting a little serious about running, I gotta get some new shoes. The only ones I have now are these old Nike Air Pegasus' that I used during a Honolulu Marathon in 2002???

Back then, I remember taking a short pre-marathon run around Diamond Head in my fairly new Air Pegasus' and remember stepping on this BIG Keawe thorn/branch right near the Bark Park. Boy was a pi$$ed - having major indigestion wondering if the thorn had penatrated the "AIR" in the Air Pegasus shoes. After searching up and down the Internet for the symptoms of a punctured air unit, I decided that it wasn't and used it in that marathon.

Road Racing Season Begins!

This past Sunday was the first mass start road race of the year. Click for a roundup: Kalaeloa Road Race.

No More Dell For Me!!!

Although I was strongly considering the buying a Dell laptop based on the great value, after doing much more research, several technical things were really bothering me.

One is the terrible customer service that many users have experienced. Seems like Dell is now OUTSOURCING the majority of their customer service.

The second is that Dells come with a LOT of nearly impossible to rid, pre-installed cr@pware. And with all that cr@pware installed, unfortunately, your computer will NOT run to it's fullest potential. In fact, several of the reviews I've read indicated that the reviewer took several hours to REMOVE all unwanted freeware BEFORE doing their reviews - and that is if you know what you're doing.

BUT, that was NOT the worst of it!!!

I've learned that there is a much more sinister and dark side to buying DELL products. Click here before buying any DELL product, less you tempt being taken to the DARKSIDE: www.thepoliticsofpeace.blogspot.com.

Today's Golf - Way to Go Se Ri!!!

Believe it or not, at the end of the 3rd round, I picked Se Ri Pak to win today... and she did!

Not without some drama though, as she 3 putted the 18th hole. In the playoff against Karrie Webb, Se Ri totally misshit her tee shot and was 60+ yards IN BACK of Webb. Then, from almost 200 yards out, unbelievably she put her next shot to 2 INCHES! Karrie Webb could do no better than about 20 feet and missed her birdie to tie.

According to the commentators, all the new young Korean talent on the tour is spurring her on to do better. I think she wants to show her compatriots who the QUEEN really is! Back in 1998 when she won a Major as a rookie, Se Ri was the only Korean player on the LPGA, now there are 32!

Michele Wie really impressed and had another great outing, except for 3 BAD wedge shots today that really cost her! (Not to mention her terrible short putting yesterday) I mean, even I can hit the green from 110 yards out - well, most of the time. But what I CANNOT do is hit a 600 yard hole in 2 shots - 350 yard drive, and 250 yard 3 wood - unreal man!

I really liked what she said yesterday as it showed that even though she's from "proper english" Punahou, she's still a true "local girl" at heart. When asked for a comment of how she felt after 3 putting the 17th, she said, "I was super pissed off!!!" I LOVE IT, you go girl, we'll be all cheering for you in 2 weeks at the US Open. I think your putts will really start to drop for you in that tournament.

It's a High Tech World...

Here are two hi-tech things I'm currently investigating:

LAPTOP PC: Considering the home desktop PC I'm using now is utterly SLOW and extremely FRUSTRATING to use, I'm thinking of joining the typical crowd that you see at Border's with their laptops. Right now, this Dell Inspiron e1405 w/ Centirno Duo processor looks pretty good at $750 w/ 100 gig memory and free shipping.

Since I'm not a computer aficionado, I need to depend of reviews like this: Review Dell Inspiron e1405 to find out what's good. Seems to be a relatively portable and powerful model for the price.

GPS: I'm also looking into getting a small and cheap hand held GPS for use all kinds of fun things. One will be to get an accurate distance of how far I'm running. Another will be for maybe geo-tagging some of the pictures I take. And one more will be so when I go to Japan, or any other unfamiliar place, I won't get LOST any more.

Right now I'm looking into this small little $125 Garmin Geko 201. There are lots of reviews out there but this review is extensive: pocketgpsworld: geko 201 review. The only thing wrong with this GPS is that the computer cable is NOT included.

My Ipod - Creative Zen Nano 1GB Review

I've had my ipod (that's what I call it), actually a Creative Zen Nano 1GB, for about one week now and I've used it for a couple runs and a couple bike rides. And from my initial impressions, for only $60 shipped, that thing is just awesome as I can finally get back into the groove.

I like it a little better than my brother's 4GB Apple Ipod Nano since it has buttons for volume /selection control, versus that circular touch volume sensor on the Ipod. When used while running and such, the button controls are a necessity since you can put the player in a plastic bag and still easily use all the controls. With the Apple, I had to stop and take the player out of the bag to fuss with the controls.

My ipod is actually a LOT smaller and lighter too, compared to my brother's. This makes it way better for active sports. The only thing I wish it had was a belt clip or something to attach it to my clothes with.

It also loads up fast compared to my old and broken 32MB player, that one used to take a while to get any music into it.

My Kind of Music: Here's an ULTRA SUPER COOOOL song that I WILL need to put on my player cause it makes me ... cue: BASS / GUITAR ... Hah hah hah hah haaah haaaaa ... Feel Good ... Feel Good ... Feel Good ... Feel Good ...

2005 Japan Trip - Day 2 (Part 4)

Part 4 - Saturday (Doyoubi 土曜日) Oct. 29th 2005 -

It has been a while...continued from 2005 - Japan Trip Day 2 (Part 3)...

Jumping onto our bikes we pedaled away from Horyu-ji. Shizuka-san's route to Todai-ji was mainly via a damp and sometimes slippery bike path so I was glad I had fenders on my bike! I could tell that on a sunny day, it would have been a beautiful ride as we road along a scenic rain fed river and then uphill into a forest with persimmon trees scattered here and there. But for today, we were under cloudy skies and it was a bit chilly, but it was still nice anyway.

Loosing all sense of direction and riding "blind" (as I didn't have my bike computer), we rode at a brisk pace for what seemed to be a long time. I was getting just a little worried since the skies were getting darker, but Shizuka had everything under control.

Along the way, we got stopped at a real train crossing - with a real train crossing too! This was a first for me and I was lucky to get my camera out before the train actually came through.

After riding a while more, we soon reached the edge of Nara Koen which was just a short walk to Todai-ji. We locked our bikes onto a wooden fence right next to several of the MANY deer that are free to roam all over the place. The deer were tame and friendly that day, but, there were caution signs saying that duirng the mating season, the deer wouldn't be so "nice."

It was a later in the day now and you could feel the air had gotten cooler. At that point, I had to tell Shizuka what a GREAT bike rider she was. Just trying to stay on her wheel in those wet conditions was NOT easy for me as I was slipping-and-a-sliding all over the place! I actully checked to see what kind of tires she had since it seemed she had much more grip than me!

I could also tell she was a STRONG rider, as when we hit several uphill sections, her pace hardly dropped, I couldn't help smiling and being totally impressed. I let her know that there were lots of GUYS who would have a hard time riding at her speed - especially in those conditions! Shizuka-san said that she usually rides everyday and it really showed :-)

つづく...