There’s a typhoon bearing down on Yap today. Typhoon Nanmadol will pass over Yap tonight, bringing high winds and rain to the storm battered island. Here on Guam, the local weather is punctuated by bouts of heavy rain and high surf.

There’s a typhoon bearing down on Yap today. Typhoon Nanmadol will pass over Yap tonight, bringing high winds and rain to the storm battered island. Here on Guam, the local weather is punctuated by bouts of heavy rain and high surf.

Sony, IBM and Toshiba released some data about the new processor that will power the next generation Playstation 3. The new gaming machine isn’t expected until 2006, but prototype models will be released to developers early next year for their work on games to be available at the product’s launch.

The Cell processor looks like it will be a doozy. IBM will manufacture the chip, which will also be available in high end computers and digital televisions.

I am back home on Guam after an all too brief vacation in New Zealand. I am pretty much a zombie right now after being up all night on the Continental Cairns-Guam flight last night and heading right into work upon arrival. I’ll slap up some more pictures in a day or two, but right now I am heading to bed.

While I am waiting for my laundry to dry, let me post a couple photos from the last few days.

Fletcher Bay, where we camped out for a couple nights.

Fletcher Bay on Thursday night, watching the full moon rise. Excellent night.

Last night we sat and watched the night fall on the Auckland skyline and Harbour Bridge from the ferry landing at Birkenhead. A good way to adjust back into the city life after a week in the countryside.

Sorry for the lack of posting. Been on vacation for the last week, and it has been a blast! Did a great deal of partying in Auckland, and spent the week camping on the Coromandel Peninsula. More to follow…

And that’s it. I’m off to the airport in a few minutes. Time for a vacation from work.

Where am I going? New Zealand again. I can’t wait. Going to visit the Coromandel Peninsulay and Cape Reinga, along with a few days in Auckland.

Here’s an interesting past time. Walk Sydney Streets Photos – Home: this old fella’s walking every street in Sydney Australia.

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” — H. L. Mencken

Title says it all. The Hilton on Guam sold to DaVinci-RP Hotel Investors LLC for $30 million. Speculation at lunch centered around how the Hilton was pushing hard for Prop A this past election, and that the sale price of the hotel was contingent upon whether the gambling iniative passed or not.

Hilton International will continue to manage the hotel under an agreement with the new owners. This is a trend for other hotels on island, including the Marriott. Expect other major hotels chains to divest their properties and continue to manage operations on Guam.

Super Size ME!

Hardee’s Monster Thickburger: 2/3 pound hamburger with bacon and cheese.

My heart is shuddering just from looking at that mound of beef. I might just have to try one of those next time I see a Hardee’s. I’m sure I will regret it though.

A few stories on Wal-Mart:

• New York Post Online Edition: Store Wars
• frontline: is wal-mart good for america?
• The New York Times: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customer’s Habits

On my way home tonight the Blue Torpedo turned over 10,000 miles. Not bad after 16 months of near daily driving. That’s only 625 miles a month. That’s a little over 20 miles a day. It just so happens that my commute to the office is 10 miles each way. So I guess I’m saying I drive the Blue Torpedo to work and back and that’s about it. Looking at it another way, I don’t get out much besides going to work.

I like the PT Cruiser, she gets good mileage and she turns a few heads. The comments I get the most though are “Dude, are you sure that car is big enough for you?” Like because I am a big boy I need to drive around in a Toyota Sequoia or something. The car fits me just fine thank you.

Today’s APOD is just gorgeous: APOD: 2004 November 17 – Aurora Over Wisconsin

And check out the photographer’s home page for more spectacular photos.

Scientists are bracing for a second Bush term and drawing battle lines against an administration seemingly devoted to negating the advancement of science. From global warming to stem cell research to the campaign against science education in schools, scientists expect the worst from an administration that bowed out of the Kyoto Treaty, thwarts stem cell research, and promotes a recursive religious agenda. Some even expect retribution from a vindictive right wing administration at loggerheads with scientific establishments across the country. Another breakdown for the reality based crowd I guess.

NASA’s test flight of the X-43A scramjet was a smashing success today. The experimental jet topped out at Mach 9.6, nearly 6,800 mph. The flight smashed its previous record-breaking flight of Mach 7. At speeds like that, a flight from Guam to the United States would take only a couple hours.

Picture time!

A couple weekends ago I spent a few days in Tokyo. I stayed with my friend Dave and his lovely wife Keiko. It was great fun, and I got to experience fall weather for the first time in 12 years. I took a pile of pictures too, and here’s some of my favorites.

Here’s David enjoying a beer with his meal late Friday night.

I was lame and didn’t take any pictures on Saturday. We slept late, ate some lunch and then rode the trains to Dave’s school, ASIJ. Dave was the technical director for their production of Pericles. After that we got some food in Ogikubo and then hit some places in Asagaya. Turned out there was a jazz festival in Asagaya that weekend. We caught a couple sets – that was pretty cool. A couple more places after that and we were back home late. And drunk.

On Sunday (after some aspirin) we rented a car and drove up into the mountains west of Tachikawa. We drove up to this reservoir in Okutama, near the headwaters of the Tamagawa.

Hey, it’s me! Standing on the shore by the reservoir.

It was quite hilly up there, and while the trees in Tokyo were still green, the forest at that altitude was beginning to change colors.

Like I said, some trees were ablaze of color.

After visiting the dam and pumphouse, we headed up into the hills above the lake. The whole area is a national park, Chichibu Tama. This was taken at the lookout up in the mountains. It was eerie up in those clouds.

We walked along this trail for awhile. It was very pretty, but also very popular. Lots of hikers working the trail with us.

Heading back down to Tokyo, we drove along side this beautiful river gorge. It first crossed the road at this beautiful waterfall. I think it was called Dream Falls or something like that.

David took a few pictures with his mobile phone too.

That night we took the Tama monorail for a ride. David recognized my fascination with rail transport in all it’s forms.

Monday David went off to work and I was set loose upon Tokyo. I dumped my bag in a locker at Tokyo Station and started a roundabout tour of the city.

First leg was taking the Yurikamome out to Odaiba Island and seeing the sites. Crossing the Rainbow Bridge.

Oh look! The Statue of Liberty is out there.

That funky building is the Fuji TV (Iron Chef) building.

Who is that cool looking guy in shades?

Lady Liberty and the Rainbow Bridge.

After lunch and walking around for a bit, I took the Yurikamome back across to Tokyo and got on a cruise up the Sumidagawa. It was billed as a bridge tour… Here’s the Rainbow Bridge dramatically lit while we pulled out from the pier.

Another bridge on the cruise. I think there was seven bridges the boat passed under.

Off the main course of the river, there were many of these boat-clogged canals ringed with flood gates. Looked pretty cool to me.

Look! It’s a big golden turd on top of that building. I think that is the Asahi Beer Building.

The cruise dumped me off at Asakusa, so I wandered over a couple blocks and checked out the big ass shrine.

Here’s a five story pagoda at the Asakusa Shrine.

After checking out the shrine, I hopped on the subway (did I mention my fascination with various modes of transport?) and got off at Ueno Park. It is the oldest and biggest park in Tokyo.

These cherry trees must look absolutely beautiful in the springtime because they were certainly lovely that day.

Ueno Koen is the site of many museums. Unfortunately they are all closed on Mondays. So I wandered around looking at all the homeless people camping out in the park.

I did find this cool shrine off beside the closed zoo. It was dedicated to the first Tokugawa Shogun in 1651. This is the entrance gate, or torii.

These lanterns were solid copper, given as gifts of fealty by local lords during the shogunate.

More of those cool lanterns. They’re Japanese national treasures.

A lion ablaze in the autumn.

Pagoda through the trees.

I left that evening. That Narita Express is a pretty sweet pipeline from the city center out to the airport. Very handy.

Alright, that’s the highlights. I took tons more, but I don’t want to bore everybody senseless.

Scratch my earlier comment about Radio Userland. The install was just screwed up. Things appeared okay, but underneath it was giving me fits. So never mind. A quick search on the internet and I discovered a better way to use a news aggregator – Bloglines. Instead of being chained to a single computer, I can use Bloglines on any computer with a browser. It imported my subscription OPML file from Radio with no problems and I like the interface.

Oh yeah, and it is free. As in beer. Hmmm… beer.

Found a nice tee shirt on sale yesterday…

Visit Beautiful Jesusland – on $17.99