november

classes are great. do you have those mcdonald's commercials "i'm lovin' it" over there? (guy rapping, best/worst line: "i can't cook but yet i'm never hungry") well i'm lovin' it, loving what i'm learning. every now and again it's even applicable and evident in the work i do for tutor. i dig that, when i get to see in real life the theories i've been learning about. did you ever study genetic algorithms? i've got to tell you about it, it's one of those very cool ai things. basically, imagine you have a problem and you really don't even know how to go about trying to get the answer. you create some potential random answers, then evolve them by matching pieces of two of the answers and creating child answers from them. you do this for many generations, also adding in some random mutations in the child answers to guarantee you find an optimal solution. just like nature. super cool.

hawaii is still kickin, learning to catch the waves like a pro, or more like an eight year-old hawaiian really, but hey, i'll take it.

rachel is a real hit with her first grade class -- she's a teaching assistant and also runs the creative movement stuff they do once a week. her parents + sister will be out here in a few weeks, it's going to be great to have some company.

over water --> on the road

so we are totally chillin hawaiian style, which has got to be the best of styles. everything here is beautiful, even the people match the ocean and the beaches. from all i'd heard of how developed it had become i wasn't expecting there to be so much natural beauty left, but it's all here. it's like the best parts of being in a foreign country with all the comforts of home.

we found ourselves a very nice little pad (furnished) and a vehicle (convertible) practically right away after we got here, it all worked out real well. rachel is still looking for a job, there's really not all that much that fits her needs (few hours, lots of time for the beach) but hopefully she'll find something soon... i started class last week and am really enjoying it, i'm taking database theory and artificial intelligence from uhawaii and operating systems through an online program at uillinois, which i think is how i ultimately want to get my degree... more on that as it develops.

more aloha

so i think we're a-ok, we found a nice furnished place this week, got our digital cable working, might have even found a car. alas all this "stuff" has left little time for the real reason we're here, suntanning and surfing, but i guess the ocean will still be there once we're finished setting up shop. we (i) did have the most amazing gyoza the other day, the guy was just right there making it and he just fried up some up. so good. it's like tokyo + west palm beach here. i love it. have you heard of pidgin, the jamaican-style english the locals speak? we got "da jesus book" - the new testament - in pidgin. a big hit. "jesus feed four thousand guys: an he take da seven bread an da fish, and tank God fo um" or "jesus get love an aloha fo all da peopo inside jerusalem". can't wait to show you.

aloha

well, we made it, 0 warnings, 0 errors. the trip cross-country was a bit rushed but still a ton of fun. it was crazy hot through south dakota and later through idaho and nevada, but wyoming's rockies more than made up for it. we spent the last week in california visiting friends and family before the flight out here 2 days ago...

so i guess i see what the fuss is all about, it really is ridiculously beautiful here. and we haven't even left waikiki yet. the ocean is as crystal clear as advertised and somehow the throngs of people don't seem to get in the way. today we're headed to visit the university and the neighborhoods we've been thinking of living in, hopefully we'll have a place sometime this week. school starts the 25th, so we want to have some time to settle in before then. cell-phone is working great and we have internet access in the room so i'll be checking email and on AIM from here on out.