Tales Of Brave Ulysses

Looks like Guam is going to be featured on a postage stamp. Cool.

Wow. Local sports reporter Akash Shringi has passed away after suffering a heart attack at age 32. Wow that’s a shocker. Rest in peace Kash.

The saga continues around this crummy film:

A California judge ruled this week that John Laing’s lawsuit against GovGuam, Gerry Perez and GEDCA should not be heard in California, saying that a Guam court has more jurisdiction over the case.

GovGuam is suing Laing, Laing is suing GovGuam, and the terrible movie still sucks.

Here’s an interesting option for the curious paddler, a solo canoe designed for both paddling and sailing. The Raptor 16 is based on Micronesian canoes apparently and it looks pretty cool. If I had the money I’d look into getting one. But I don’t, and I’m more interested in saving my pennies for a nice Fusion or Kaimana. A boy can dream can’t he?

Shameless linking to a friend of mine – but her paintings are really cool. And so is she.

Scientists are tracking the dispersal of humans across the scattered islands of the Pacific Ocean by following the genetic markers of feral pigs. While pigs can swim, the distances between the islands are too great, meaning their porcine subjects could only have arrived via human effort. And what they have found is a clear link between pigs in Vietnam and Indonesia with pigs in Oceania. This goes against the traditional view that the Pacific Islands were peopled by humans from Taiwan and the Philippines.

Because not enough people do. Americans are shortchanging themselves in the vegetable servings.

A pair of Hawaiian sailing canoes, the Ho-kule’a and the Alingano Maisu reached the island of Satawal yesterday. The Alingano Maisu is a gift to Mau Piailug, the navigator who taught his skills to the Hawaiians and reintroduced traditional navigation to the Hawaiian Islands.

The Hawaiians left Oahu in mid January, and battled stormy seas, constant rain and contrary winds to reach Satawal. After the presentation of the canoe to Piailug, the Ho-kule’a will continue on through Micronesia, visiting Palau and Yap, before heading to Japan to celebrate that country’s strong ties to Hawai’i. The Ho-kule’a even has a blog to track the voyage.

I had no idea late night television was so esoteric.

Interesting little piece in Der Spiegel about Saigon’s last public letter writer employed at the central post office. 60 years on the job and he is the last of his profession, writing love letters, translating messages for the common man.

Checked my post office box today (I’m expecting a package) and I found a completely unexpected gift… My 2004 tax refund from GovGuam!! Holy cow, I’ve never been more excited to receive my own hard earned money. Now I only need my 2005 and 2006 refunds and I’ll be all caught up. Don’t expect me to hold my breath folks.

All the cool bloggers are doing it, so let me do it do. Here’s the ‘most significant science fiction and fantasy books of the last 50 years’ according to the Science Fiction Book Club (I guess they should know, and yes, I was a member of the book club for a few years back in my troubled youth). The ones I have read are highlighted in bold…

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
Dune, Frank Herbert
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
Cities in Flight, James Blish
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
Little, Big, John Crowley
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
On the Beach, Nevil Shute
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
Timescape, Gregory Benford
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

So let me get in another sci-fi link before I get back to reality… Star Trek Inspirational Posters!

Good golly Robert, what is the world coming to? A calf that loves to eat chicken? I love the last quote, about how the calf was a tiger in a previous incarnation.

So a 30 square mile chunk of the earth’s surface is missing? That’s a lot of territory, even if it is at the bottom of the sea. I hope the scientists find it, I’d hate to see this missing crust go astray and end up on the wrong side of the tracks.

Since I’m finding the time to update today, let’s drop this little nugget out there…

I bought a truck. I bought a Dodge Dakota pickup last week. Traded in the Blue Torpedo. I’m pretty conspicuous now, driving around in a red truck with a canoe on the top. But it is a better fit with my life now.

Pictures to follow…

Well, I’ve obviously got a little bit of a problem getting back on the blogging bandwagon. Good thing? Bad thing? I went to Josie’s birthday party last month (happy belated birthday again!) and I’m just now getting around to mentioning it. Oops. She’s noticed too, giving me this what’s up with you dude? look. All I can say is I am very busy in the real world these days, seems like every waking moment is spent working or paddling canoes. Of course there’s more to say, and I am writing it down in somewhere, but it’s not for public consumption folks. Dilf it dude. Just dilf it.