Breezin' Thru Life

Canas Vieiras

2010-07-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

Today my mom and I visited Canas Vieiras. It's on the northern part
of the Island of Santa Catarina (Florianopolis). It's kind of like
saying you went to North Shore on Oahu. Technically you're still in
Honolulu, but... not really.
This photo shows the beach area. It actually reminds me a bit of
Kailua. It was windy, choppy sort-of-mirky water. Yet the
temperature is more like a late fall, early winter Santa Cruz. Cool,
but not terribly uncomfortable.
Mom and I were tired of being cooped in the apartment and enjoyed the
first sunny afternoon I've had since arriving 3 days ago to drive
around a bit. Good call.
In Canas Vieiras we visited a couple of shops (mom bought cheap summer
dresses -- on sale cuz, well, it's NOT summer) and I had one of my
favorite Island snacks: Pastel. Yum!
After that, we drove to meet up with Norba... actually to surprise
him... at the bar where he plays Surdo every Sunday. There was some
form of cafuffle with the band and the sound guy. He wasn't playing
so we left the place before the cops showed up! ;)
Probably not going to show up... but just in case, eh?
That's it for now. I hope you all are having as fun a time with your
existence as I am.
Peace, love and much aloha
Breeze

Memorable Quotes from Traveling Adventures

2010-05-11T15:47:00.001-07:00

"It's leveled. It's leveled.
I don't need a walking stick!"
She said getting up off the couch in the Ahwahnee Hotel (martini glass at hand)
yol'semite 5/8/2010

genius 1: (with toilet paper package on hand)I thought you were going to buy it!
genius 2(looks at six pack on his own hand)No, I'll just take some napkins from here.
Inside Camp Curry General Store (5/9/2010)

Let's go raid the bear box!
Same geniuses, outside Camp Curry General Store (5/9/2010)

Taking over the world

2010-03-18T01:30:00.001-07:00

So. I'm like... a eco-friendly type person thingy! I like animals. I know some fun facts about carbon emissions, alternative fuels, renewable energy, recycling, etc. I do a few things I feel are appropriate to minimize my impact on the ecosystems surrounding me.

Here is a little fellow who could care less! She (I discovered it's a female, indicated by some markings on the torso) was here way before us (humans) and will be here WAY after too.

Jamunda, I shall call he, the madagascar hissing cockroach. Yep. This is me, making friends with an insect that actually makes a LOUD hissing sound. At first I thought it was just a name, or folklore... but NO, they're pissed!

Jamunda didn't actually hiss at me, but I did check out the breeding tub and... damn! Freaky stuff!

I gotta say, though. Once the inicial eek factor worn out I was able to appreciate a beautiful animal, full of mystery, careless. It was profound.

Happy Saint Patty's, by the way. Pass me another guiness, would ya!?

Missing an angel

2010-03-08T13:11:00.001-08:00

"In the arms of your angel, may you find some comfort here," sarah sings on my headphones. I like this song, a lot.
Just drove to trader joe's where I had an arranged meeting to sell the old vacuum clener. One more item decluttered from the house and that makes me happy.
Cheap, but enough to shop for lunch, milk and cereal. Good stuff.
Then I tweeked my knee making a quick turn around a corner at the store. Bummer. Feels like the ol' miniscus letting me know that I'm no longer invincible... Be grateful, NOW!!!
And I am. This time AN angel was watching over to avoiid a bigger disaster... But it doesn't make me miss my angel any less.

my thumbs are tired... this email was written on my supah-kool cell thingy!

SFO: Safety Faulty, Overprotective

2010-02-21T22:35:00.000-08:00

Santa Cruz, February 21, 2010

Last night I was reprimanded by a security officer at the San Francisco International Airport for a serious infraction: standing too close to a passenger exit portal while trying to catch one last glimpse of my beloved wife heading to her gate.

It is important to mention that moments prior to MY incident, Saki herself spent a few minutes in secondary inspection, where the NSA personnel looked through her bags, x-ray scanning one of them in particular 3 times. "I told her that smearing plutonium powder on her zipper to keep mosquito larvae from collecting in her makeup box was a bad idea!" Ok. I DIDN'T tell her that! But now that I used the "P" word, I'm sure a warning has been triggered, sending THIS post to secondary FBI protocol bots, so let's have fun with it!

"Enriched Uranium."
"Anthrax."
"Bomb."
"Oprah!"
THAT oughta #&@% up the system! But I digress!

When the melodramatic bag debacle ended the over-ambicious, pseudo-authoritative figures released the innocuous prisoner from their public display of overprotective placebo-security claws. We, Saki and I, proceeded to exchange loving gestures that were sure to excite the gag reflexes of the toughest middle-schoolers: blowing kisses; mouthing 'I love you' and other sweet nothings; waving frantically while tilting our bodies uncomfortably, stretching the torso, neck and arm to stay in view of one another, over and around the obstacles standing between us, etc, etc.

"You have to back away some, Sir," said the man, sternly. "You can view from the balcony," he continued while pointing to the platform just behind me, half-flight of stairs above my head. "Bummer," I thought.

"Oh, well, can't see her anymore anyways" I mumbled the words, in valiant defiance, yet soft enough not to be heard by the authoritative figure in the blue and gray uniform.

I turned confidently and walked away with my head held high. A few steps and I was out of the security area and on my way down to an underpass, allowing my shoulders to droop a bit. Next, my eyes involuntarily sunk and the my field of vision reduced from wide angle beyond the horizon to just a narrow passage mere inches in front of my toes.

The last shimmer of chivalry were in my thoughts: "I should have said 'My reason for living just walked down that hallway and all you can do is...' no, no... that would be interpreted as desperate and they could hold me up for real" -- I know, I know. It was a figment of my imagination, but I wasn't ACTUALLY wanting to be arrested... not even in my daydreaming -- chicken!

So I tried again, this time my imagination more assertive, but less deranged-sounding, I thought. The narrative continued: "I would hold my ground, look the guard straight in his eyes and say: 'I am going to stand here for 16 seconds and watch the love of my life walk down that pathway. She will get into a tin can and fly thousands of miles away and I won't see her for MONTHS.' That's it, stress the right words and play the heart strings card!"

Side note: did I mention these thoughts were ACTUALLY happening!?! The speaker and the narrator BOTH have speaking lines in the play that's taking place in this here noggin'!

"And after a perfectly calculated pause I would continue: '...and if you are truly that heartless, then call for backup and have me dragged from here!' Yeah! I'm kicking psychological ass now!"

Soon, of course, I reached the elevator to go up to the 3rd floor. When reaching section F28 of the garage where my car was parked, I could still feel the effects of low levels of adrenaline pumping though my veins. "Yeah... kicking ass! Whatever! YOU're an ass! God, I miss her already."

Sakamolssorn @ Ciao Bella

2010-01-12T15:25:00.001-08:00

Thanks to some fancy travelling convergence, family members came together for a truly Santa Cruzian meal experience.

New Windows Machine

2010-01-03T00:07:00.000-08:00

So, I just bought a new (old) computer from a thrift store. 50 bucks and a few hours of installing/updating and I'm almost ready to plug it into my projector and watch thousands of hours of Netflix movies. Ummmm... big screen!
But before that can happen, I'd like to recap the install process.
1. Formatted the hard drive
2. Installed Win XP, SP2
3. Installed a wireless dongle (netgear wireless G)
4. Updated to SP3
5. Installed Google Chrome (to be able to surf internet while windows explorer was busy with downloading millions of files, updating itself, etc).
5b. Saved tabs for Hulu, Netflix and Craigslist
5c. Intalled Flash plugin (for hulu) and Silverlight (for netflix)
6. Installed all windows recommended updates.
7. Downloaded the latest versions of the following programs:
AVG Antivirus
Foxit Reader (for PDF's)
Open Office.org Suite
PDF ReDirect (pdf writer)
VLC Player
8. Installed said programs
9. Searched (a LONG time) for drivers (audio and ethernet controllers)... found them. Installed. Yeepie! It works!

Peace

Teagan Annabelle Huffman, born 12/22/2009, 2:57pm

2009-12-22T18:23:00.001-08:00

Success!!!

2009-10-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

So,
It's been a while and there HAVE been a couple more tweaks done to the bike... so they were not documented... oh, well!
Nevertheless the project has been a complete success and here is the latest adventure:
Saki's come home from her long stay in Oahu and we took "rusty" for a ride to the boardwalk. Kind of an Indian Summer going on in Santa Cruz right now and we wanted to enjoy a nice clam chowder bread bowl (ok, I wanted the bowl).
It was fabulous. A GREAT ride from here there and back -- THANK YOU SANTA CRUZ CITY FOR THE AWESOME BIKE PATHS COASTING THE SAN LORENZO RIVER.

Peace, joy, love and tandem biking on 12seconds.tv

Changing Blog Format

2009-09-24T12:40:00.001-07:00

Hello world,

Of course it takes a bit of marketing to get someone OTHER than me to actually read these posts... that starts TODAY.

I am changing the format for this blog. It's going from "testing to see how this Blog thingy works" to "Inspiring World Peace."

I realize, of course that it is a BIG leap... but I myself was inspired by ONE fool's crazy idea to change the world, Jeremy Gilley's Peace One Day.

please visit http://www.peaceoneday.org for a little change of your own.

From the site comes the following quote:

"192 member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted 21 September as an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on the UN International Day of Peace. We call that day Peace Day."

September 21st. Maybe it's because it's ONLY two days after my birthday, but I feel its actually something that is not important. It's paramount to our survival as a species. Put aside global warming and potential asteroids crashing onto the Earth's crust. It's all for NONE if WE can't stop fighting among ourselves.

SURE it's easy for me to stand on my golden, privileged pedestal and preach to the millions facing the gun barrels everyday of their lives... But all I can do is what I can do... NOW... one step at a time people. Just think. We have the potential to take over 6 BILLION steps all at once. All we need is for EVERYONE to simply BE, non-violently.

Put down the weapon. Lower your arm. Hold your tongue. DON'T push the button.

ONE DAY!... at first... who knows!?!? It may ACTUALLY WORK! Think of THAT, cynics!

The inspiration came from this film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egqJctPZunw

Peacefully,

Breeze

Scan Life Code

2009-09-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

I don't know exactly how this is going to make life different, better, sexier... but it's sort of a cool idea.

Tandem Bike Project, day two

2009-09-09T01:54:00.000-07:00

And on the second day he said: "let there be wheels free from rust, new brake pads, cables and housing (the tube through which the brake cables run), TWO new chains (one regular size and one extra large length, which is made of two chains spliced together) and new tires.
And what do you know! It actually worked! HA! I was a bit surprised myself, I mean... I was SURE at least a couple of trips back to the bike shop for some help would be necessary... or in the least a couple more parts that I may or may not have broken in the process... NAY! It all went pretty smooth.
Well... almost everything.
I DID splice a cable housing a bit short and now I have a gear shifter that doesn't shift. MINOR STUFF. I just had to improvise a bit and "lock" a comfortable gear in place for the time being. I was still, mind you, able to ride the bike to the beach and back home with NO problems, AT ALL! I even got a friend of mine to "volunteer" to ride with me to make sure the passenger seat didn't fall off or anything.
SUCCESS!
So... day three will be another makeover, trying to get more of the rust off some new spots, and making the wheels shine even better. Also, I plan on completing the gear shift conundrum, AND getting a new cable for the passenger brake (there are two brakes on the back wheel, one for the front rider and one for the passenger, and right now only the driver has control of the brakes).

Tandem Bike Project

2009-09-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

I decided that instead of a road trip to Sequoya National Park that I would invest a bit on a project I've been wanting to do for a while now, refurbishing a bicycle.

Also, I've been keeping my eye open for a good, cheap tandem bike... and those just don't exist anymore (not since the $100 gem I found at GoodWill many years back... argh! wish I kept that beauty!)... So I've combined those two ideas into REFURBISHING A TANDEM BIKE. Away I go!




Tandem Bike Project

Aloha on Kauai

2009-09-06T02:09:00.001-07:00

Aloha everyone.
I love Kauai. There. I've said it.
Saki and I just spent 7 LOVELY days on the island (5 of which we were joined by our best Santa Cruz buds, David, Terri and Delilah). What a pleasure it was. Hiking, snorkeling, driving, walking and yes, even biking and hitch hiking (when I managed the amazing feat of 3 flat tires on the bike I was renting... a story for another post perhaps).
I will now attempt my most impressive trick of the evening: attaching an image to this post.
Peace, love and MUCH aloha.
Me

Thoughts on Bloggin'

2009-09-06T01:40:00.000-07:00

I would like to start sharing my experiences on a regular basis.

SURE, I've had a WONDERFUL site for a while now (alohadance.com), but this seems to be the way to go... as far as being able to updated from my phone and/or ANY computer... anywhere.

Sounds a bit stockish, but hey! "Everybody is doing it!" And I'm SURE not about to start chirping, or tweeting, or whatever! I want my OWN dog-on-blog, dagnabit!

So. Here it is. From my computer for now, but soon from a cell text message near you. Well. Probably NOT near you, but... you know what I mean.

Peace, love and much aloha

NCBGA states

2009-03-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

I'm in Petaluma where the levels 5-7 state championships for boys gymnastics are being held. It's been a great weekend for Santa Cruz Sports Central gymnastics. I am proud to say that the boys did a fantastic job. I am thrilled that they did as well as they did. 3 out of 5 qualified to Regional Championships (to be held in Arizona next month), one of which made the All-Star State team in his age group.
Boys who did not qualify, still showed tremendous improvement THIS meet over previous ones. They came to do a job (show the gymnastics they have been performing during workouts at the meet) and achieved their goals with flying colors.
Congratulations boys, I'm proud of you.
peace

What's a blog?

2007-10-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

So... this is a blog, eh?!?

Here is where i'm supposed to present all kinds of exciting thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc...
well...

i got nothing!

... to be continued.