Hi All,

First off, Happy New Year !!!

I’ve got a few online changes coming down the pipe for 2009. I just switched my webhosting … to a new company recently started by my friend Vic. Moving all my domains is a bit of a pain. However, I’m kind of viewing it as an opportunity to get organized. I have way too many 1/2 finished websites/blogs.

In the process of getting organized, I had a good hard look at this blog. No pretty way to put it … the database tables are a mess … and even worse, there are load of hidden porn links (I think they piggybacked over when I transfered the posts from candlemonkey). I’m just going to start fresh … yet again.

Now, I’m not totally ditching almost 2 years worth of content from this blog. I will be copying some of my favorite and/or the most popular articles, and adding them back into the new blog. I intend for the new blog to be much more focused, topic wise.

The bad news is … and I apologize in advance … I think I’m going to lose all of the post comments. I just don’t see any good way to transfer them over without taking a chance that I’m going to bring some of those bad links along too. I’m not even going to mess with database tables at all.

Anyhow, this will all be taking place over the next two weeks or so.

Once I get everything moved and set up, I’ll be back to posting, commenting, and linking out to all my friends.

Hope to see you then,
Todd

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We survived !!!

And even without power, tv or internet, I was able to keep up to date though twitter on my sidekick. Even as I write this, there are still quite a few updates being posted to #hipower

As of right now, they still don’t know the exact cause of the outage. But I did hear on the radio last night that some people think they saw a transformer get hit by lightning during the early evening thunderstorm that moved over Oahu. Thunderstorms are relatively rare here in Hawaii … thankfully, since we see what kind of problems can be caused to an Island State that isn’t part of the national electricity grid … we have no good back-up here.

Living here in Iroquois Point, we’ve gotten used to power outages (had several 6+ hour outages over the summer). But for many people, the last time this happened on such a large scale was after the earthquake back on October 15th 2006. I remember talking with Ana about maybe getting a generator … lol, we never got around to it.

Fortunately, last night we had good timing. My parents had sent us some Chili’s gift certificates for Christmas. We ate over in Kapolei at about 6:15 … just before the power went off. Traffic getting home was a little bit hairy, since the signal lights were already off. However, the other restaurant we’d considered going to was the Macaroni Grill; in Ala Moana center … we’d probably still be stuck in traffic had we been there when the power went off.

Anyhow, it turned out alright. I woke up this morning to power, and fuzzy tv. Then the internet finally came back on about 12:30pm. Looking for the silver lining, we did get to have a little bit of after Christmas family time … we spent the evening talking, reading, and in the case of Jaiden, trying to eat a glow stick (yes we washed it first):

Ok, well now that things are almost back to normal, Ana is off to go shopping, and I’m going to attempt to make a dent in my much too long “internet to-do list”.

Hope you are enjoying your after Christmas adventures. Talk to you again soon,
Todd

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Are you a “Merry Christmas” person? … or is “Happy Holidays” more your style?

It seems like every year around this time, the debate begins anew. Me, being a non-confrontational, middle-of-the-road kinda guy, usually just ignores it. But this year I’m feeling a little feisty, and since the other day I read a post about Christmas with a capital C on my friend Lin’s blog, and today on the drive home they were debating this topic on the radio, I figured I’d opine.

In case you don’t want to read the rest of the post, here’s the condensed version: I tend to think both sides of this debate are absolutely ridiculous.

First off, the silly people with too much time on their hands, who go around checking to make sure that nativity scenes are not put up on public property; the local school only erects an “xmas” tree; and of course folks who ensure that the clerks down at the mall are Only allowed to wish their customers a “happy holidays” (so as not to offend anyone); are just that … silly people.

However, in the past couple of years, it seems that people on the other side have also somewhat lost their minds …

Just as there’s nothing at all wrong with wishing someone a Merry Christmas; if a person chooses to instead greet you with a big smile and a “Happy Holidays”, how in the world would you possibly be offended? I actually heard one woman on the radio say that she refused to shop in any store where they did not say Christmas. I suppose that’s her prerogative … but seriously???

Here’s the thing …

If you are in any way offended, or put off, by either phrase … Happy Holidays, or Merry Christmas … you are missing the Whole Point of the season.

… in my humble opinion.

Happy Merry Christmas Holidays to you all

Todd

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What do you want for Christmas?

It sure looks like my barely 4 month old daughter already has her eye on the Blackberry Pearl that her mom is hoping to replace soon.

I suppose we’re never too young to start down the long road of technology addiction. I actually do wonder sometimes what life will be like by the time Jaiden is a teenager. I mean, my current teenager is glued to either his laptop, his iPod, or his cellphone about 16 hours a day. By 2025, they probably won’t even need all the neat little devices … we’ll be able to “think” the Internet.

I’m not sure whether that’s cool or scary.

Anyhow, that’s my thought for the day … and really, this post was just a good excuse to post another picture of Jaiden, without those of your reading thinking “oh geez another baby picture” … woops, just kind of gave that away huh?

Keep havin FuN!
Todd

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Have you ever forgiven someone in advance?

I’m going through a somewhat stressful situation right now involving an (ex) relative. I strongly suspect that things are going to get (possibly much) worse, before they get better. During the course of this conflict I think some less than honorable, and maybe even downright mean-spirited things may be said about me, and/or done to me (and my family).

Now of course there is a reasonably good chance that I’m just making this up (in my head), and everything will turn out ok in the end.

But just in case …

I’m going to try something a little bit different. I’m going to forgive this person(s) right now, for whatever it is they might decide they “need” to do when it comes to our little situation. Even if I don’t understand it, even if it seems unnecessary, even if it hurts … I forgive them.

This may or may not work (if you define “working” as not having to go through as much difficulty). But one thing I can be sure it will accomplish … if forgiving allows me to not be totally consumed by thoughts of “oh woe is me, life is so unfair“, I’ll be better able to concentrate on something that I can control, and that very well could make a real difference …

My own thoughts, feelings and actions.

Todd

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