Second Team
Pos. Player School Cl.
F Curtis Kiyabu, Kapolei Jr.
F Stuart Aiu, Kalaheo Sr.
F Deryck Lim, Punahou Jr.
MF Drew Geis, Kapolei Sr.
MF Trey Pettee, Kealakehe Sr.
MF Jamie Whitworth, Radford Sr.
D Vince Cachero, Iolani Jr.
D Hiroshi Metzger, Iolani So.
D Nick Bartlett, Kealakehe Sr.
D Josh Edelo, Mililani Sr.
GK Stephen Fung, Iolani Sr.
GK Michael Smith, Mililani Sr.Congratulations to my brother for making the Boy's Soccer 2nd team All-State. Punahou did well placing 4 players (3 in the 1st team) which reflected their State Champion status. Their coach was also named Coach of the Year. Luckily for them, everyone comes back for another season next year.
Hi there folks. At long last, here's that post I promised. As I was perusing my photo library, I realized that I don't have too many pics from this trip. Sadly, I blame that on not having any travel buddy/ies to take photos of/with me. So it was a long trip down (14 hrs there, 13 back thereabouts) and I ended up on my own during much of the day. It was, however, immensely fun and worth the effort. The few pics I have don't come close to conveying that message but here they are for you all to see.
Day 1 consisted of me walking around downtown Sydney for a bit of exploration. Unfortunately for me, it was overcast and ridiculously hot & humid. The shot from the previous post was taken from the Royal Botanic Gardens. On my way to the Gardens from the train station that I disembarked at, I walked through the Domain where many people were playing soccer on the big fields (I even saw some people playing Aussie Rules football with umbrellas as the goalposts). The Botanic Garden was pretty big and I spent quite some time in there walking from place to place and looking at some of the sights in that area.
A view of downtown Sydney looking across Sydney Harbour from Mrs. Macquarie's Point in the Gardens.
The famous Sydney Opera House beside the Sydney Harbour Bridge also viewed from Mrs. Macquarie's Point.
The Main Pond in the Gardens. It was so hot and humid, I really wished I had my boardshorts so I could've jumped in to cool down. You'll also notice a bit of blue sky in the background. Unfortunately, it didn't last...
The pyramidal Tropical Centre at the southern end of the Gardens, the inside of this greenhouse structure houses an interactive display of exotic plants from tropical ecosystems around the world. On another unfortunate note, there was an admission fee so this is as much as you'll see...
Nothing terribly interesting, but I found this Hibiscus plant in the Gardens not far from the Tropical Centre. I don't know if it's all that legible in the picture, but the origin of this plant is Hawaii.
Following my trip to the Gardens, I decided to walk through downtown and visit Darling Harbour. While I was in the middle of downtown, I was stuck at a crosswalk because the signal didn't change for an inexplicably long period of time. The explanation came after a couple minutes worth of waiting as a large caravan of police motorcycles, cars and even one of those SWAT team vans drove by surrounding 2 buses full of journalists/support personnel and a handful of fancy cars. While I can't confirm this because I didn't actually see her, I believe I witnessed the passing (in the sense of movement rather than death) of Condoleezza Rice. She was in town for some sort of government function (that I can't seem to recall). At that time, she was probably going from a public appearance on a US Naval Vessel docked in the Harbour (which I later saw on TV) to some other event. It's sorta cool to see some fellow Yanks (not that I'm a full-blooded Yank anyways). Go America!
Anyways, I digress... I made it to Darling Harbour and just strolled around looking at some of the sights over there. This included walking by the Sydney Aquarium, Imax theatre, some shops/eateries and the Chinese Garden of Friendship. You had to pay at all these things too so I just ended up admiring them from the outside. The downtown stroll ended after I grabbed smoothie at one of the malls and took the train back to my Uncle's house.
Day 2, which also happened to be St. Patrick's Day, was probably the best all around day. I actually got to walk around and see some cool things (from the inside as well as the outside). Here we go:
The day started with a trip back to Darling Harbour. You'll notice that it was really sunny and nary a cloud in the sky. It was also cooler because the oppressive humidity was gone as well. The shot above is the view across Darling Harbour back towards the city centre.
Next was a trip to the Sydney Maritime Museum to look at cool ship/sea related goodies. The above is an Aussie jet/rocket propelled boat which holds the speed record for travel on water (or something like that).
This little model here is of a ship that is very dear to my heart (sorta). It is a model of Captain Cook's Endeavour which was not only responsible for exploring Australia (the reason why it's probably in this museum in the first place), but also for exploring Hawaii and New Zealand (two places undoubtedly dear to my heart). You can say what you will about Cook and all the bad things that came along with him, but I have an affinity towards historic ships and this ship in particular. And c'mon, it's on the 50c coin in NZ!!!
This was the original lens & light whatchamacallit from the Tasman Lighthouse. It used to be on the rocky shores of Tasmania flashing a light that would appear to pulse 3 or 5 times a minute (due to the rotational speed of the contraption).
This Australian Navy helicopter was dangling in the museum. 'Nuff said.
Also in the military section of the museum was a sonar quiz. It would play a sound that you might hear through a ship's sonar and you had to identify the source of the sound given a number of options. I correctly guessed answered enough questions of the quiz to attain the rank of Captain! I guess watching The Hunt for Red October was somewhat educational...
While in the submarine section, I also took a moment to take a picture of myself sleeping in one of the tiny bunks. It sure sucks to be a crewman in one of these things...
There was a section of the museum devoted to the Vikings and I'm befuddled as to why I didn't have any pics from there. Anyways, after finishing up the inside of the museum I walked outside to look at some of the ships they had docked in the harbour. The above shot is of downtown (getting sick of seeing it yet?) across the harbour from the maritime museum. Again, I'd like to point out the beautiful weather.
Here we have a picture of one of the old Aussie Navy's cruisers. I didn't board it so I don't know its name unfortunately [After consulting the website, I have learned that the ship is the HMAS Vampire and it is a destroyer.]. Docked behind it was an Aussie submarine [HMAS Onslow] as well. You might ask where did Australia get such impressive ships in its fleet? By taking old hand-me-downs from Britain of course! [In the background, that's downtown again.]
Here, we have the Akarana which was a gift to Australia from New Zealand to commemorate the country's bicentennial. The cutter (light, fast coastal boat) still looks great despite being built way back in the late 19th century. In the background, you'll notice that Navy ship and the Australian flag flying proudly.
Here's a quick pic of the actual museum as seen from their small quay (pier). It's quite a voluminous building!
On the flip side, here's a pic of the aforementioned quay, with all the docked ships of the museum's impressive fleet, from near the museum.
The final ship in this collection was this one. I can't remember precisely, but I believe this was a replica of the HMS Bounty (of mutiny fame).
Next stop on my St. Patty's Day fun spree was the Sydney Observatory. I can't help but marvel at the gorgeous weather. It really was a perfect day! In addition to having a thing for ships, I also have a side interest in astronomy. So here I am!
There were many astronomical instruments in this observatory including this telescope that they used to calculate time/dates (I think). It always fascinates me just how intelligent some of those old fellas were at figuring out so many crazy things about the universe.
Here we have a fancy diorama of the solar system which is geared to accurately depict the orbits of each respective planet. I bet this would've gotten a pretty good grade on that science project in elementary school...
In addition to sightseeing around Sydney, a major reason for my trip was to go see my family down here, which includes my Uncle, Aunty & 2 cousins. I am indebted to them for sharing their home with me for a few days, for feeding me and for giving me some pointers about how to get around and where I should go. Here are a couple of pictures of them:
My Aussie Cousins: Jorden & Ayden. Often times, they were far too energetic for me! I think I might be getting too old! I feel really sorry for them since they'll always have an Aussie accent...
Me & my Uncle Michael.
On this wondrous Spring Break, I was also fortunate & privileged to have the opportunity to see Bic Runga perform at the State Theatre. There's a little story to this as well... The show sold out a week in advance and I was pretty screwed since I didn't have the foresight to purchase tickets earlier. Each day that I was there, I called, visited and harassed Ticketmaster to see if they had any more tickets. Unfortunately, no luck there. Next I turned to eBay (Australia) to see if I could get some tickets through there. I unsuccessfully bid on 2 different auctions for tickets with the second auction failing as a result of my "sniping" software not being able to function due to a dropped internet connection. The battle looked lost and I was terribly afraid that I might return to LA without seeing this concert. Thankfully, it being St. Patrick's Day, I think I was fortunate enough to receive a bit of the "luck o' the Irish" and a limited number of tickets were released at the theatre box office minutes before the doors opened. It was an anxious wait but the gamble paid off and I managed to snatch a ticket (thankfully at face value) from a legitimate source rather than some damn scalper! Thank the Powers that Be!
Anyhow, the concert was phenomenal. I knew that Bic was an excellent live performer because I had seen her back in 2003 (in NZ) but this show was simply the best concert I've been to. By the end of the evening, I ran out of superlatives to describe the performance. She played two distinct sets plus an encore. The first set consisted of songs from her previous two albums that included hits such as Drive, Sway, Get Some Sleep and a French song called Ne Me Quitte Pas. After an intermission (and an outfit change) she came out for a second set to perform all (yes, ALL) the songs from her new album Birds. For me, this was the really special part of the evening. The album was recorded as "live" as possible with a studio band of well known NZ musicians/singers including Neil Finn (in bands such as Split Enz, Crowded House - they sang the song "Don't Dream it's Over"), Anika Moa (solo singer) and Anna Coddington (lead singer of a band called Duchess). Everyone in the studio band was there for the live show which kept things as similar to the album as possible. It turned out to be even better than the recordings! The vocals were stunning and, instrumentally, Neil Finn on the piano was particularly memorable. Just to top things off, Bic came out unaccompanied for the encore which was a fitting end to the evening. I would implore everyone out there to get a hold over her album (or at least listen to some of her older songs) because she really is an amazing singer.
Phew. That's a lot of text. I'd have more pics up there but I wasn't allowed to take pics during the show and I couldn't find any from other sources. Anyways, here are (literally) my final Australia pics. Continuing my streak of eating at foreign Krispy Kreme locations, here I am at the Sydney Airport's very own Krispy Kreme
This pic is more or less self explanatory.
And here I am, about to embark on the final leg of my Spring Break travels, with a strawberries & cream doughnut in hand. That is my most favourite flavour. It also happens to be the one I tried for the first time at the Krispy Kreme in Harrod's (London).
Well, there you have it folks. Lots of words, not as many pics. My apologies. I hope everyone had fun over their Spring break weeks (if you were working, hopefully that went well). In any case, my last semester here is quickly coming to a close and I have yet to truly make the most of it. Let's hope I can squeeze in some more fun without losing a handle on this challenging (yet surprisingly engaging) course load. Best of luck to everyone! Take care!
Spring Break has ended and, sadly, it's time for school again. On a brighter note, a post is coming soon, I promise... For now, enjoy this picture:
*Click on the pic to see a bigger version.
Today was a tremendously awesome day. If not for some poor lighting (and thus, substandard picture quality) you all could get a better idea of how awesome today really was. My friend Brenton and I took a trip to the Grand Slam Convention over at the Pasadena Convention Center and I got to see a lot of great people. Have a look:
The day started out with Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin and Summer Glau of Firefly/Serenity fame. It was incredibly amazing being able to see the three of them (Summer for the 2nd time) and hear their stories.
They spent about 40 minutes kindly answering fan questions and it was good fun all around. As you all know by now, I'm a huge fan of the show/movie and so this really was special! In fact, it was their presence at this show that really convinced me to go!
Since the pictures I took don't really do them any justice, here's a bonus pic of Summer & Morena for good measure. Simply stunning...even more so in person.
Next, we have a blurry picture of Brent "Data" Spiner of Star Trek TNG. He was only there to sign autographs and photos were strictly prohibited. After taking this pic, we were promptly told no photos so this was the only one we were able to get. If you can't tell, he's the grey haired guy in the middle of the photo.
The people that drew the biggest crowd, surprisingly, were Ian Somerholder, Evangeline Lilly and Naveen Andrews of Lost. This was their first convention but they were very animated and interacted well with each other and the audience. I even went up to ask them what activities/places they enjoyed most about Hawaii (I got some shakas when I also mentioned I was a local boy). I've got a video of half of their reply so ask me to show it to you sometime.
I had a nice conversation with this gentleman, Jay Laga'aia who played Captain Typho (Amidala's Security Officer) in the Star Wars (Prequel) Trilogy. We talked a lot about New Zealand since he's also from Auckland and he told me a great story about when he played tackle football here in LA (which also involved The Rock). We both lamented the limited rugby coverage here in the states and he was kind enough to pose for this picture. Kiwi's!
They came for a other reasons but the three people in the middle of this photo will always be known for Star Trek. Tim Russ (Tuvok), Chase Masterson (Leeta) and Garrett Wang (Harry Kim) came to discuss an independent film that Tim wrote/directed and in which Chase & Garrett starred in.
Finally, the last talk that I saw was given by Wil Wheaton who is better known as Wesley Crusher from Star Trek TNG. I must say, I think his talk was the best out of everyone. He began by reading some excerpts from his latest book featuring anecdotes about raising his kids. He then did a Q & A during which he answered questions from many topics including VH1's I Love Toys special, Star Trek, Linux and being an actor. He was well-spoken and gracious when praised by the crowd. I certainly respect this guy a lot more after hearing him speak!
Here's my prize acquisition of the day. I got my Serenity Comic Book signed by the one and only Morena Baccarin. There was a funny moment where I politely requested that she sign using a silver pen and, after she finished signing (in black), she remarked "Oh, did you just ask me to sign in silver? I'm so sorry!" As some form of consolation, she wrote the little "best wishes" message. I would've settled for a hug...?
And here I am with my "Live Long and Prosper" fingers, yellow convention wristband, Hallenstein's shirt and signed comic! Also, I'd like to take this moment to apologize to Traci who thought this convention was next week. SORRY!!!
What an all around great day. It was even topped all off with a trip to Gordon Biersch for a bowl of Garlic Fries! Yum!!! Anyways, now it's time for Spring Break so off I go on a little adventure. What I'll be specifically up to is yet to be seen but I won't be in LA and I possibly will get to see Bic Runga while I'm away. On that note, I hope you SC students have a great break and everyone else, have an awesome week (of whatever it is you might be doing). Take care!
My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,
So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
-Emily Dickinson
Hi there everyone! I need some help with a little decision and if you've got time to leave a comment, that'd be greatly appreciated. Anyways, here's the question: Polo or tee? I've been wanting to get this shirt, depicting a tropical island scene with the words "Sunny Dunedin" written below, ever since I saw it on TV (in NZ). If any of you have seen my Dunedin pics, you know that while it might be sunny occasionally, it's usually quite cold (and not very tropical). Apparently only one shop in Dunedin sells this shirt and my wonderful cousin Nat is being kind enough to help me buy this. So, here's what said shirts look like
Here's the T-shirt. It comes in sky blue with brown rings or tan with brown rings (the latter is shown).
And, here's the Polo shirt. It comes in pink (uh, I don't think I could pull that off), green (a nice, bright, grassy green according to my cousin) and a grey color (which is shown).
Anyhow, that's all for now. Cheers if you're nice enough to leave me a comment in my quest to own a "Sunny Dunedin" shirt!
P.S. For all you Olympics junkies who are having withdrawals, here's a link to a video (in Real video format...unfortunately) done by a Japanese guy on Tandem Ski Jumping. I first saw this on my first night in Paris of all places and I got a good laugh out of it. I hope you find it just as funny. Take care folks.
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