From shore to shore

We returned from a nice week in Hawaii and while there was all sorts of things to report about from volcanoes to vanilla plantations, they really aren't all that interesting. However, it was election season in Hawaii and it was interesting to see all the lawn signs and read the editorials about the election. And The Homeless Problem is a top of mind for everyone.

As we drove around O'ahu and walked along the shores, we noted a number of people in permanent emcampments on the beach and when we drove along the Leeward Coast, we were totally amazed at the huge number of tents serving as homes. A little research confirmed these were the Homeless of the Problem and apparently are about 60% native Hawaiians. A number of Solutions have been proposed, including the Governor's tardy State of Emergency, providing Housing First solutions and converting military barracks into compounds ... err, make that "shelters". Even one forsighted Republican representative suggested the state invest in one way tickets to the mainland for these folks so they could live in affordable places like Louisville. Damn white of her.

Back in Pacifica the beach continues to be accumulating dead seals and dolphins. There seems to be some parallel but I'm not exactly sure how to draw it with care and feeling.

From Louisville to Hilo via Pacifica

After Cyndi sat for the bar, I packed her off to see her family in Louisville and let her bounce off the walls there. After re-arranging everything in her mother's house (we'll get calls for months asking "Cyndi, where did you put the extra table settings?") she has returned to Pacifica for a few days and then we head off to Hawaii to placate Pele. Avoiding Kona and Maui this time, we'll end up in Hilo for an orgy of fun at Hilo Hattie's and to view orchids and waterfalls and maybe even snorkel with the lava.

Last Friday I bid farewell ... or really just a temporary adios ... to my fellows at CNET and the two best iced coffee wranglers in SOMA. I'm now suffering from email DTs as I would get 500 to 1,000 work related emails per day (most of them automated messages that only need be noted and deleted) and to keep up with it all, whenever I was at home I would check my email every hour or so, delete 40 or 50 messages and return to the TV or the cats or Cyndi. Now I get bored, start towards the computer to delete email then pull up short. What do all those retired folks do with all their time?

Speaking of which, I just heard from my friends in Lancaster than the first of them just retired herself just last week. 30 years of library science was enough for her.

While waiting for the jet to take me off to Hilo tomorrow I'm filling my time watching "inside google" videos from video.google.com. Good content, low production values.

Why Blogger?

With so many competing blogging sites, why did I chose Blogger? Simple: it has the best features, best reliability, best support, best performance and is very easy to use.

That and the fact that I soon will be working at the company that runs Blogger. That fact did play into the decision a bit too.

In September I will be joining the Google team. I've certainly enjoyed my seven years at CNET and met many great people there and will certainly miss all of them. And equally, I'm very excited about meeting new people at Google and am looking forward to the new challenges and the energy and creativity those challenges will bring to me.