First day sans mi familia. As of this moment -- 10:30 a.m. -- dad, mom and bro are probably at the Manila International Airport waiting for their connecting flight to Cebu City. Only the cat and I remain in Maui. Let's see... what might be interesting/fun to do today? There are chores of course (putting away all of mom's Resource Center books), and sundries to procure (ran out of shampoo and guava juice) but those aren't nearly as much fun as exploring this new place.

Stayed up late last night riveted to Shelby Foote's account of the Battle of Gettysburg, Stars in Their Courses. Quite possibly stayed up until near-dawn... don't have any sort of chronograph in my bedroom. When I got up this morning, it was already 10 a.m., by the living room clock. I haven't gotten accustomed yet to the lack of early morning sunlight on my side of the house, which is west-facing, towards the ocean. Also, there are these huge acacia and coconut trees just outside, which cast a cool, deep green gloom (see picture). In any case, there's no way for me to know when it's sunrise, in that bedroom... i.e., no 'natural' way of getting woken up. (The end of the sleep cycle doesn't really count; I much prefer being woken up by sunlight on my face as the sun rises.) [photo notes: Those are the empty shelves on the lanai (porch) that are for my mom's Resource Center books. Beyond the trees is the front yard, beyond that is Front Street, then the wharf area, then the ocean.]

On to breakfast. More later...

1:30 p.m., at the Swiss cybercafe

^_^ It's fun walking around town barefoot and clad in nothing but one's favorite surfah shorts. Mine are baggy and darkbrown and with this neat Samoan tapa cloth pattern: lithoglyphic icons in beige and brown. Methinks I look like a local beach-bum person now, don't I? Tourists stop me now and then to ask for directions to this or that place in town, and if I know it I direct them in impeccable English not accented with pidgin tones, surprising them somewhat to judge from their quizzical expressions. (Although I'd like to talk pidgin... but if some real local kids overheard me and my wannabe local accent they'd double-up in derisive laughter. My two younger brothers are much more fluent in pidgin.) But anyway, I have to rethink this bare feet business. The cobblestones and sidewalks on Front Street are baking hot in the tropical sun, and I'm getting blisters. Oh well, I guess I'll walk on the grass mostly. Or get some hot pink flip-flops. ...NOT! lol. Black or brown will do nicely.

'k, I might find some other Net terminal somewhere along my wanderings. Tata, everyone. But first, somewhat in tandem with the topic of the above paragraph, check out Laura's neat (slightly censored) drawing of a nude. It's tasteful. Hehe.

6:00 p.m., back home

Whoa. I have a TON of cool pictures from this afternoon's expedition around Lahaina. I know, I'll integrate them into tomorrow's BIG weblog. Hehe. Anybody know why tomorrow is big, and why it's special? Bonus 'lloyd points' to the ones who can tell me why. ;-) Ping me on AIM or leave a message, should I be away for dinner or something.

On other matters, cool pictures Trev and I suggest a random image generator and not a slide show, NOR a Flash animation. The latter 2 take a long time to load, and you don't want to pointlessly irritate those of us with slow modems now, do you? ;-) And that NetZero annoying popup is hilariously idiotic: their grammar leaves something to be desired.

Can anyone help Ozzie with Hamlet homework? I haven't read that since my sophomore year in high school, and anyone who knows me knows that (a) that was eons ago, and (b) my memory is suspect. It's 8 p.m. CA time, and Ozzie is online on AIM either as jedijonthn or tfprowl.

I've barely eaten anything all day, as it is Sunday and I usually fast on the seventh day... so, I'm gonna be out and about, probably to the cantina next door to see if their Mexican food is up to snuff. Until later...

7:20 p.m., after dinner

Kass gets a full 10 points for guessing correctly about tomorrow. Spark gets a full point: .5 for saying that it's his dad's birthday, and another .5 for saying "one month till it's a half year to independence day? HAHAHAHA" OK, Ozzie also got it, but he gets only 8 points, for using a "primary source" for e-mail verification of the thing (which, if you did your 'homework,' you'd have gotten too, today). ^_^ Laura said: "hmmm, something to do with a transition from place to place?" *chuckle* Since she's an adult, and should know better, she gets ZERO points. ;-) Oh, and good full point, Mr. (Bigi) Lui: "I would say something like 3 weeks from x'mas or something ;-)" Meanwhile, Quad obtains one and a half points on his own account, .5 for each of the following bits of silliness:

• "it's Dec. 4th tomorrow, it's very special since it happens only once a year, HAHAHAHAHA ;-)"
• "it's K-Ci and Jojo's new album release eve, HAHAHAHA"
• "it's the day of Oliver Grillmeyer's lecture about Computer Science in CS3 ;-)"

What's that, you say? "Points? What point system?" LOL. Never mind... I'm just being facetious and silly myself. On the other hand, it COULD WELL BE a secret new TA RANKING SYSTEM now, couldn't it? ;-) Hehehe. Get on your horses, boys and girls, it's not too early to be thinking about Summer 2001.

Another gorgeous sunset at the wharf this evening, with the Carthaginian on the left, and the sun sinking behind the island of Lanai...

{ net.casting }
^