Kihei has less rainfall even than Denver. On an island where rainfall tops 250 inches/year in certain parts, we're in a desert weighing in at 16 inches/year. Sadly, most of it seemed to fall in a single tropical storm. A power outage seemed a distinct possibility, but 36 hours with no power was a tad brutal, if only because we were forced out in search of a place to work. To cafe after cafe we went, in search of the magic combination of power and wireless internet. Predictably, the only oases capable of providing service were not some cutesy mom&popshop but the Deathstar's own favourite -- Starbucks. It was a glimpse into an apocalyptic future where power belongs to the few who can stump up the moolah for their ubercaffeinated, tar-like beverages. Although wireless internet provided freedom from scrapping for outlets, the same can not yet be said for power. Cue desperate remote workers pleading for power, the outlets being coveted possessions.
After Thanksgiving at the venerable 5palms, a trip to aforementioned rainy side of island, including the most beautiful camping imaginable at Hana and a gorgeous hike through bamboo forests. Somewhat different to the bambou i used to know...
Thanks to Seanie for his epic close-to-the-waterfall camera efforts (I'm the muppet in the red shorts). Sadly Seanie & Kelly were blown away by Hurricane Jill. Bonne chance, mes amis.
Beach Bum
Thursday, 22 November 2007
paddling out
Roots have been planted & shop set up in Kihei. It's a soulless stripmall asphyxiating in asphalt, sadly. It does abutt the equally soulless, but visually soothing, resort-liivin' environs of Wailea. And the sand is soft, water is warm & weather is permasummer. Working Pacific time involves getting up at the crack 'o dawn (6am), but does leave time free in the afternoon for water-based activities. Nightlife, such as it is, appears to revolve around the ~6pm golden sunsets. So the hours are somewhat akin to an extended camping trip.
Some photies of the environs. The occasional trips to Portland are going to be the only thing from preventing me acquiring a George Hamilton-tan.
Thanks to Seanie for his epic underwater camera efforts (I'm the muppet in the red shorts):
Maui Move
Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Badger + Surf
It's time to take this "remote working" business up a notch. Perhaps not as many notches as Bazza over in Japan, but in a Pacific direction nonetheless. And more southerly. Tropical, in fact. Working from Frisco was all good & well but didn't fulfill the exotic category of being a virtual employee. Or surfing ambitions. Hawaii may have the architectural appeal of a US suburb (an excess of concrete, 7-11s & stripmalls...with an above-average concentration of environmentally dubious hotels / golf courses), but it still possesses a Lost-like lush/tropical physical geography. And beaches/surf/watertemperature to die for. And mountains. So the Clarkson icebox has been rented out & a Maui condo sublet instead of a mountainhaus. How did these things take place before craigslist & vpn/rdp? I may well be tried for crimes against climate with the flights but qu'est-ce-qu'on peut faire?
Having consumed a couple of depressing books on the subject (not to mention an hysterical website ), frosties is putting its money where its peak oil mouth is. That's right, the time for action on peak oil is here. So what am i going to do? Start a commune? Build a machine-gun nest around a mountain property with an aquifer filled with petrol? Nope, react in the most grubby capitalist way possible by investing in oil/gas royalty trusts in not-so-turbulent Canada/Norway. And place a small bet on shale oil. Game on - hopefully this is less unsuccessful than my array of sub-prime mortgages in dodgy parts of the mid-west.
Some snaps with Stan & Def Stoppenhagen in rainsoaked Portland, a place with infinite more immunity to the future than energy-sucking places like Colorado.
Lockin
Friday, 28 September 2007
Worth Less
And so it came to pass, that a country did spend beyond its means. It created hideous twin deficits by getting everything on the cheap from over the Pacific & starting outrageous oil-seeking conflicts (that will hopefully end in war crimes trials). In the meantime, those of us with the inclination to pop out of the country quickly get sent scuttling back in as soon as we realize we're skint. Where's the (purchasing power) parity in that?
If one could have a nemesis for a town, for frosties it would be Reading. However, all feuds were put aside for the Milo & Sarah island nuptials. A brief North Sea-Mediterranean comparison was made by going up to Norfolk & then ryanairing it down to see Al & Jane in Le Marche . That left just enough time to make it back for the Gezfest in the Cotswolds .
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