Snowboarding

It was the first of a sunny Wednesday for Feburary and it happened to be my day off too. I felt like I didn't want to sit around again on this weekday staring at the rain or snow falling down from my window apartment. I thought to myself and with a lot of motivation from my accomplice here, why not drive somewhere where we can view the whole city. This drive only took 15 minutes to get downtown and after half an hour of trying to find a higher ground, there were too many trees in sight to enjoy the scenary of this city. On the drive we took a snapshot of Mt. Hood, which is about an hour and a half drive from wherever we are. It is cold anyway and there is really nothing to do except the usual, such as go out, drive around, eat at a restaurant, get sundaes, and window shop at malls. If only we could combine this whole routine and sum up how much we spend on doing the things we do, I could only imagine on how much that would cost to go somewhere crazy, fun, and thrilling....Hmmm that mountain looks pretty nice, I wish I was home again and could drive up to Mt. Tapotchao to view the whole island. *Light bulb* why not snowboarding, worth the cost that I did on spending for food and ice cream. With little research and planning, we dressed warm and drove off to a wonderful world of OZ, snow I mean.
From renting our gears to actually riding to the top of a small hill, now what. No instructors in sight, but what the hell, we only learn as we stumble down. At 15mph, falling down on snow isn't like laying on your bed, I happen to sprain my wrist and felt like the second or third try, I'm ready for the big hill. And away we did, the slowest of the snowboarders weaving through powder as all the excellente Shaun White snowboarders passed us by yelling gnarly doood. On my journey down, turned my head to see where is my partner in crime, and a second later, eat snow!

A must see documentary

Just sharing a documentary that came across from sharing with people on the web.

Click this link: http://current.com/items/89785807/battle_of_saipan.htm

Looking forward to a good drink

There is nothing better than knowing when Friday is over, its the weekend and you look forward to enjoying whatever you had missed on the weekdays, mostly venting and relaxing once again until Mondays roles around. One thing you might want to add to your list for the weekend that will probably make you feel like not caring about anything at the moment is grabbing a good cold beer and sitting in your favorite chair while listening to baby blue by Kapena on your cd player. Instead of drinking one of your favorite beers, I suggest trying rather something new out of the ordinary. Corona, Heineken, and Bud light is pretty common for beer drinkers. And who can't forget the king of all beers Budweiser, really? I like Budweiser and growing up it was like the only beer you drank because every one of your peers drank it and you didn't want to be the outcast of the group by drinking something different. Well its your weekend, try something like Asahi dry, or may I suggest Widmer Heffewiezen. It is a wheat beer that has a smooth lemon taste and you don't actually have to cut the lemon this time like you always do for your Corona. I don't mean to get drunk, just one beer would do the trick.

New year experience

Portland is one of the last places in the world to celebrate the New Years other than Hawaii. After watching everybody scream happy New Year, it was finally my turn to do so. Instead of celebrating a rainy New Year in Portland, I drove down to Seattle, Wa and watched the fireworks since Portland is lame, they didn't have any fireworks. Here is some pictures I want to share with all.

Snow in Portland

Woke up this morning at 8:00am, and saw a winter wonderland outside my apartment window. Great, it finally snowed in Portland, Oregon. Decided to take some pictures to show you since its not an everyday thing that snow drops out of the sky during Christmas season on Saipan. Now I have to get ready soon for work and get on the road early so I can catch the morning traffic to endure a long 30 minute drive while speeding at only 25mph. Better safe than sorry. On my journey while gripping the wheel tighly with two hands due to high winds that could swerve my vehicle in the wrong direction, I saw two accidents that has taken place. Tow trucks, police lights, and an ambulance has arrived at the scene. Pretty typical for a snowy day. First thing that came to my mind was, glad it wasn't me. Then second thing on my mind was do they have car insurance because that sucks and it will cost a lot for a car repair. Oh well, making snow angels are always fun, but driving in snow is never a favorite for anybody. So to be random, if there is one thing that I learned when driving in Saipan, its stay away from telephone/power poles and don't drink and drive.

D.I.Y. -lighting feature on your digital camera

Besides shooting breathtaking pictures on your digital camera, have ever wondered what else this expensive device could do compared to the once cheap disposable kodak cameras, which is probably now fifteen to twenty some dollars at your local retail stores. I was playing with my digital camera settings and read about the macro part of taking photos with a high resolution mode. Some settings may differ on your camera, but here is a few steps to create whatever image you have in mind. When taking a picture, switch the mode to macro, the one with the M on it. Set the ISO level to 100 and the shutter speed to the highest possible level, ex: 1 to 15 (If I have lost you, then refer to your manual). Next, set your room settings to dark, ex: switch off your lights lol. While taking a picture, you have about 15 seconds to create your masterpiece. You may need any type of LED light to create the effects. After 15 seconds or so, your camera will click and the picture is taken. Fun stuff!

A comment relating to posts from Road-blocks on the Saipanda issue:

Read Road-blocks if you want to.

From a marketing stand point, the Saipanda mascot is a great figure in relating to tourists for generating revenue for the CNMI’s economy. Now when the campaign took off in 2000, just like anybody else in Saipan, I did not understand the concept except that the name matched with Saipan (more info on Saipanda). I was one of the others who thought that this was a joke and should portray the sea turtle or coconut crab as a mascot, but not sure if this would relate or appeal to tourists from a marketing aspect. Also, not sure if a fanihi would probably scare tourists away, but I did think about this as a mascot too. Hmmm… If only we were open minded to how we could market our islands and think outside the box rather than sticking to what we know as Saipanda “a figure of jack in the box”. Some also gave Saipanda a local name "Pikaru" to try and convince themselves that we could accept this mascot, but then again, not sure how many viewed it as a sure thing. I would like to see an educating subject in Saipan Tribune or Marianas Variety if possible for others to know what Saipanda has grown into, what it has generated for the CNMI, and what the world thinks about it, instead of misc. news such as neighbors threatening each other with a machete (In other news Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3). Every body talks about tourism for the economy yet some negate the Saipanda figure that is intended for this reason. Lets take a survey, bota bota! How many of you think Saipanda should stay or go based on what you know? If Saipanda is still bringing home the bacon for the CNMI, I say stay.