Hawaii 2008: Day 3-4 Oahu Stuff

Hawaiian Coffee Plantation (located at the Ala Moana - Westin Waikiki):
Probably the best coffee I've ever had. Having some of this actually questioned my actual taste for Starbucks. My recommendation try the Mocha blended drink which has a bit of gelato in it. Tasty!



Night Life:
Apparently, Honolulu/Waikiki has a night life but defintely not on a Sunday night when we were there. After the proposal, Lisa and I trekked back to the hotel, showed and changed and went out to what seemed the only bar open that night, the Yardhouse.

Circle Hotel:
Apparently, the Circle Hotel is one of the oldest hotels on the Waikiki strip. We decided to stay one night after having a few at the Yardhouse. Although today, it is now one of the smaller hotels there shadowed by parking structures and other hotels. Great service though provided by Steve. Thanks Steve!

Fine Dining:
Aracino Italian Pasta and Pizza located on Beach Walk Avenue in Waikiki offers a great italian feel even in the islands. We had a great lunch the morning after.


Hiking at Diamondhead:
Defintely not for the faint of heart, nor anyone without at least a bottle of water. Located on the southeast end of the island next to Waikiki, Diamondhead Crater is ... well, a big crater. After a very hot hike up to the very top, the views are breath taking. I would bring a couple bottles of water. And I wouldn't bring your kids or senior citizens (LOL).

Kailua Beach:
Rated one of the top beaches in the world, Kailua Beach stood by it's claim to fame. One thing I even noticed was that the sand was so fine, not like the ones in Waikiki. Swimming and kyaking were big activities there. There was a small island 1/2 a mile away from the shore in which we swam/snorkled to. Overall, I wish I had more time at Kailua. In the town of Kailua, we ate some of the local lunch areas and had an Acai smoothie for the ride home.

Hawaii 2008: Day 2 - the Proposal

LOST:
Lisa and I are die hard Lost fans. In fact, last time I was in Hawaii, my sister and I were able to sneak onto a few Lost filming locations located in North Shore. According to www.lostvirtualtour.com, there was a privately owned beach in Haleiwa where the Survivors camp was located.



After Lisa declined my idea of eating out at Banzai Sushi (located in North Shore town of Haleiwa), I had to think fast.

LISA AND I, and the PLAN:
Well, just so we're on the same page, I've been planning for months to propose to my girlfriend of five years. Lisa and I were college sweethearts, as we met through fraternity and sorority functions at the University of Arizona. Back then, I was in charge of sorority relations and led our pledges to serenade her sorority. Lisa has also known me as everything musical and so I wanted to incorporate that part of my life in the moment.



My original idea was to visit Banzai Sushi where there was a little stage in the patio dining area where musicians would often play. I would excuse myself and reappear a few minutes later where, accompanied with a guitar at hand, sing the song Adam Sandler sang to Drew Barrymore in the movie, "the Wedding Singer." I even practiced the song flawlessly for weeks.

Well, now that Lisa declined my inviation to the Banzai, I thought fast and asked her if she wanted to visit the area of where Lost was filmed (which by the way is private property - enter at your own risk). This would be the setting for a romantic view of the sunset.

PROPOSAL:
We proceeded to park at the Haleiwa beach park, and snuck past the obvious signs of "private property." We finally stopped at a place called Puena Point. After a few minutes of what stalling, and what can be described sweating excessively, I whipped out my guitar (which I happened to have in the car), and sang the song "Grow Old With You." Which by the way, I was so nervous, i completely forgot the lyrics, almost. After the song, I got on one knee and asked her to marry me.

Hawaii 2008: Day 2 - Back to Haleiwa

AROUND OAHU:
After a great morning in Waikiki, Lisa and I trek it back to the North Shore. We headed up the Pali Tunnel (which cuts right through a series of mountains) and headed up east of the island down the 83 Kam Highway. Along the route, we were able to pass by some great locations like the China Man Hat, and Kauloa Ranch (site where many movies and tv shows were filmed - I'll get to that later).

Last year, we were able to stay at a house located on Waimea Bay. During that time, we caught the time of year when the waves on the North Shore were most calm. We were able to snorkle in the clamness of the bay. We've heard stories of the exclusiveness of surf season, and when we visited this May, we knew why.




The waves this time around were crashing like no other and snorkeling visability was not very clear. Nonetheless, the north shore was still a beautiful place. We stayed for an hour or so soaking up the sun.

At this time, it's getting near sunset. I've planned to end the day with a nice dinner at a nice little Sushi place in the town of Haleiwa called Bonzai Sushi. We were able to eat there last year in August and so I asked Lisa if she felt like going. She said she did not want to go to the restaurant on account it was "hippyish." Little did she know, this would foil my plans for her next!!!!

Hawaii 2008: Day 2 - Surfs UP

BREAKFAST: Woke up bright and early Sunday morning refreshed and ready to go. My parents, Lisa and I ate breakfast on Ford Island (near Pearl Harbor) at this Cafe in the Pearl Harbor Museum: spam, eggs, rice - Hawaiian Breakfast!

SURFS UP: Lisa and I are determined to get surfing lessons and drive over to Waikiki and met a surfing instructor trying to solicit us a lesson - Uncle Gil. We signed up at a beach side surfing lesson booth for $35/person for 1.5 hour lesson. Lisa really killed it on the waves. I had about 4 out of 10 waves I actually caught. Overall fun, but very exhausting when paddling out.

Hawaii 2008: Day 1 - Dead on Arrival

After being prepared to leave on time, we call PHOENIX's Discount Cab 2.5 hours before departure. They are NO show, and it's 1.5 hour before we are set to depart. Typically, you want to be at the aiport by that time. What a way to start off the vacation, thinking we're going to miss our flight. After calling 4x's and getting disconnected 4x's seeing the status of our taxi, my parents drive and we park at the temporary parking at the airport. It's about 45 minutes before departure. Regardless, we make in just in the neck of time, and arrive on Saturday afternoon in Oahu, Hawaii.

After getting the rental car and checking into the hotel, we proceed to eat at a local Filipino cafeteria establishment called Filipino Express located in Waipahu, Oahu. At that time, it is already 3-4PM in the afternoon, and flies are swarming around the food (Food Health code anyone?). Despite them not having any LUMPIA or PANSETTE (your typical filipino food), we eat anyway the 'few-hours old' left-over cafeteria style filipino food. The food is nothing short of spectacular.

We get back to the hotel and unpack, and pretty much sleep until the next morning. Remember we are 3 hours behind Phoenix time so we are all exhausted and dead tired. Lisa and I originally wanted to go out Saturday night to Waikiki. Oh well.

Happy Webmasters Day - APRIL 29th

Finally, a holiday I can feel honored about!

GoDaddy.com has announced April 29th to be Webmasters Day (in a recent PR).
Take this opportunity to send a THANK YOU CARD to your favorite Webmaster:

http://www.GoDaddy.com/webmastersday

WEBCEO - learning how to optimize a website

About October of last year, I purchased this online certification course to certified how to learn SEO using this companies software - WebCeo. I scoped it out after weeks of being hounded from my coworker to get certified (and which he is now currently self-employed providing SEO to clients at $5k-10k /website/ bi-annually).

It looked legitimate and I purchased the software. At the end of the year, with the holidays, and a few deadlines for websites needing to be finished with savinMedia, I've only hit maybe the 3rd or 4th chapter so far. Grrr.... The material is so fascinating, and it makes me want to SEO all my current websites, and revamp them so they can now be found by those Search Engine Spiders!

April and May is beginning to slow down and I should have more time to finish the course, and get certified.

It makes absolutely sense. Don't get me wrong, web and graphic design makes me happy and challenges me to better myself. However, it's not where the main revenue stream is at now-a-days. You can purchase a SITEBUILDER anywhere (ie.: website tonight available at savinDomains.com) or hire some college student for cheap labor. However, how good is it if the website can't really be found by search engines or people???

SEO is definitely where it is at next. And at the prices I've seen other SEO firms hire - a few thousand dollars per website for a short period of time - whew!

Take a look at WEBCEO via my affiliate page, and if you decide to register, register via my link:
http://www.webceo.com/cgi-bin/go/clickthru.cgi?id=savinmedia

And please POST or EMAIL me if you get certified!

DNForum.com - a resource for Domainers and making $$

I've recently had the opportunity to meet and see Adam Dicker (one of the top 20 most influential people in the domain industry) speak regarding the domain name industry. Among his status as one of the most influential people on the internet, he is also the VP of Godaddy's Domain Aftermarket and owner of DNForum.com.

For the several hours I heard him speak about where he comes from, how the industry works and what he does, I fell into complete awe of how much potential their is to monetize the .COM industry. Surely, the .COM boom is a decade past but the ability to make money is still out there, only if you are WISE and if you have the TIME to put in.

Recently, I've signed up for a membership at DNForum.com - a resource for serious domainers to exchange advise, to advertise any domains for sale etc. I highly recommend signing up (starts at $19.99 for a membership), a small price to pay for a resource full of domainer knowledge.

I'll blog more once I start learning more of the tricks of the trade....

Hip-Hop VS Alt Rock

One thing you'll learn about me is that I love music. And I just don't love music because it's on the radio - it's because I am also a musician. Classically trained in Piano and I essentially learned everything else from guitar, drums, and singing.

I respect the classics - from classical to jazz to classic rock to r&b/soul - I dig it. And in the industry of popular music (alt rock - hip hop - pop), I respect when artist create a well written, brilliantly produced, pristine album. I respect artist incorporate new things in modern music, and I applaud it.

I recall during the beginning of this decade offered a brilliant genre of music in alt rock; pop punk, emo, electronic-synth, rock! Muse, Panic! At the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Gym Class Heroes - and it rocked. It incorporated catchy beats, floored vocals, cunningly written lyrics and a series of instruments never heard before in the genre. It was new and it was hip, and I applauded it.

Many of the sophomore and preceding albums thereafter have not really been impressive, much less new or creative. Panic! At the Disco, I recently picked up and to my dismay was horrible. They've moved further away from their electronic sound to a more immersed Beatle's Yellow Submarine album. That was cool - in 1968! A change nonetheless but nothing short of spectacular. Foo Fighters and Jimmy Eat World also provided a very upsetting album this past year - no real change from their previous albums. What is happening the ALT ROCK world?

As of late I've tested other radio stations and found a place on the Hip-Hop stations. Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Snoop Dog, Timbaland, Sean Kingston (yes him included) have recently earned my business (and YES I actually buy CDs of artist I like). The world of hip-hope is going through a change integrating all sorts of genres no other music genre has done before. From electronic to the classics to hard rock and soul/r&b, the diversification of the hip-hop genre is taking a step up and making it work. If ALT ROCK doesn't come up with something new, I just might be spending a little more time in the HIP-HOP record isle.

The IT Guy

By no means am I an "I.T." guy by profession. Sure, I've been interested in technology and computers practically my whole life, a lot self-taught, a few certifications here and there, and I have been in PC/Technology/Internet sales for the past 4 years. I am very well versed in anything high-tech and I'm proud of it.

So in the eyes of friends and family, I'm the technology geek! It all started when I use to offer advice to people here and there. It then escalated to "oh can you come over and fix this for me." And I am a nice guy - and my passion and skill behooves me. I love technology, computers and the internet!

As of late, if there is an HTML issue, or if someones computer doesn't work, or if someone needs help with an iPod music transfer (totally illegal - duh), or if anything with a motherboard or chip, or anything hi-tech is broken, needs to be fixed or updated, it's Savin come to the rescue!

Again I reiterate, my passion will forever lie with anything technological and I would do ANYTHING for my family, girlfriend and close friends. Unfortunately, IT request have gone out of control! I love my girlfriend and friends to death (and I'm sorry to bus chuck you guys) but this is what I've heard of late:

"my iPhone isn't working right"
"my network hardware isn't working"
"the wireless isn't working"
"the HD tv channels aren't showing"
"how do change the HTML code for this?"
"the server isn't working"

Ahhhhhhhhh! As much as I love to think I know how everything works, I don't! I don't even know the intricacies of how an iPhone or iPod is built, if the cable isn't working - call the cable company, I don't know why your website isn't working right - try reading your HTML textbook again, I don't know how VISTA or LEPOARD works yet because I have yet to upgrade!

Essentially, this is a venting blog, and I am now over it. Currently waiting anymore IT request....