We made a new friend in Hawaii.

Here’s what you might have missed last week (Basically, random updates from my vacation):
• Hawaiian 2010 Update
• We Took a Day to Relax
• Hawaii 2010 – Day 5
• Alan Wake: Bright Falls – Episode 4: Local Flavor
• Hawaii 2010 – Day 6
• A Sunset at Turtle Bay

I finally had an ideal chance to play with my ND and polarizer filters… and capture some wonderful shots (like the one below) at the same time.

So originally we had a plan to go visit and photograph the Byodo-In Temple, but apparently you need to pay for a permit for that… soooo… we decided to go back to Shark’s Cove and snorkel again during high tide instead.
My oh my! This time, with the high tides, came LOTS of fish… EVERYWHERE. We spent a lot of time swimming around and following them, sometimes just floating and allowing them to surround us. There were a couple of creepy moments where currents formed and we got caught in them, but thankfully they weren’t strong enough to be too dangerous.
Oh, and at another point in time, I looked up and see a looooong shape in the distance– what looked like [...]

What an INCREDIBLE day!
Alicia and I started our day off with shark diving in the morning with Hawaii Shark Encounters. You know, the build-up is really the only scary part of it all. You spend so much time making yourself nervous… and then you get out there, and realize everything is just fine. Alicia and I even agreed to go with Group 1 and jump right in the cage with no problems at all… and yes, we caught some video footage of the sharks with our Flip cams that I will share with everyone later when I have more time to sort through footage.
Afterwards, we grabbed lunch and then decided to stop by the Dole Plantation. Everyone always complains about [...]

Alicia and I decided to lay low today and give our bodies a rest… so much that we literally didn’t leave the resort at all today.
We woke up, grabbed lunch, went snorkeling on our beach, laid out in the sun and read for a while, grabbed a drink on the way back up to our villa, laid around some more, grabbed dinner, laid out under the stars, then went swimming and hot tubbing. Now we’re sitting around in our living room, going through underwater footage and treating our faces to mud masques.
Tomorrow, it’s time to become shark bait.

It’s weird when you take the time to think about how fast time flies, whether you are having fun or not. It was around this time last year that I took the same much-needed vacation to get away from all of the stress, all of the irritation, and all of the pain. It was this time last year that I made the same decision and had the same feeling of release as time passed on the island.
As much of a workaholic that I am, even workaholics need their breaks. The funny thing is, I found myself having to force myself to “detox” on the first day, slapping my own hands every time I looked down at my iPhone and saw [...]

Aloha! This is what you might have missed last week:
• Jason Charles Miller’s Covers on the Roof #13: Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”
• Tic Tac Tennis
• Leandro Erlich
• Alan Wake: Bright Falls – Episode 3 – “Lights Out”
• Zelda Overworld Theme… on Guitar
• 48 Hours ’til Hawaii 2010
• What the Bright Falls: Episode 2
• Really Funny Spam Email
• RIKETS – “Program The Dead” Video
• Machinima ETC Extra: The Master’s Renaissance Challenge
• Less than 24 Hours to Go…
• Lights Out.. and No, this isn’t an Alan Wake reference.

So. Long story short, we arrived to Hawaii and check into our Villa… and turns out, the guy who owns it didn’t pay his electrical bill or something because all of the power was out. And yes, we checked the circuit breakers. The manager informed us that none of her other villas were open tonight, but that the hotel next door did have rooms… or… we could stay the night in the villa for free in the darkness.
So what do you do?
Choose the darkness.
While it’s still daylight, you go buy a bunch of candles, then walk around and start drinking coffee with liquor.

Go back, take a swim, then go back up to the dark villa once it gets dark. [...]

In 48 hours, Alicia and I will be on my way to Hawaii.
We keep watching videos and contemplating on actually going through with this this year (Mom- Don’t watch the video, because I know you’re going to freak out even more, haha):

The Waimea Rock is a 30-foot jump, by the way. In case you were wondering.

Here’s what you might have missed last week:
• 11 Days ’til Hawaii 2010
• 9 Days ’til Hawaii 2010
• The Ring 3D?
• Alan Wake: Bright Falls – The Prequel to the Game
• Electrolightz Play Colgate University – Spring Weekend
• Alan Wake: Bright Falls – Episode 2: Time Flies
• Super Mario Crossover
• Elissa on Friendly Fire
• Halo Reach: Birth of a Spartan – Extended Live Action Trailer
• ACDC vs. Iron Man 2
• ICP Sells Glade Plugins
• Left 4 Dead 2 Boomer Plush