MusicPlasma

Check out this site. It gives you a visual representation of various band in the same sphere of influence.

Liveplasma: music, movies, search engine and discovery engine

Kinda cool.

Eco-tribesmen sought for Fiji island - World Environment - MSNBC.com

Just got this from my friend Tyler.

Looks interesting...

Eco-tribesmen sought for Fiji island - World Environment - MSNBC.com

Hawaii

This post is long overdue, and I just got some pictures up online. Check 'em out here:
Hawaii Picture Gallery

Originally, I wanted to write about my departure from Nagoya; the quiet drive with Fumio to the airport on the Nagoya expressway past the twin towers of the station and the new Toyota building. My last view of Nag city came from an almost aerial viewpoint with surreal qualities.

I wanted to write about arriving in Honolulu and getting whisked through immigration because a family of twenty Samoans was in front of me; only to get outside with my giant green duffle bag holding six years worth of summer clothes and be told there's no storage facility at the airport now because of 9/11.

I wanted to write about my Uncle Teddy, a guy from Macon, GA that caught the Southern Rock swell of the early '70s and rode it all the way to Waikiki. In the middle of that tumultuous tidal wave, he married a young Hawaiian woman, had a baby boy, and experienced a religious awakening which bore him again. He spent the next twenty years with a Bible and no secular music. Just last year, he had another religious experience at a church in Harlem, NY, where he was ordained, and he's now on a mission from God to start his own church in Waikiki.



Let's just say, Teddy didn't show me the light... but he did show me a home video of him meeting James Brown in 1968 at the Macon airport. Does that count?

But I digress, I wanted to write about sleeping on Waikiki and overhearing someone point out the exact place where Cameron Diaz learned to surf, and I also wanted to write about Teddy's friend Dr. Wes, a fast talking, fast thinking, fast photo taking guy who married a young Japanese girl named Tomomi in the Ilikai Penthouse suite two weeks prior to my arrival. They still had the keys and wanted to show the place off while I was there.

I still feel like I'm digressing. I wanted to write about flying to Maui and renting a small economy car and paying $125 for a room at the North Shore Hostel; the car nor the room were needed because I met my buddy Dane, an ex-English teacher from Japan who works construction and was renovating his basement apartment. He set me up in a nice condo and didn't charge me any rent.

Dane's girlfriend Yumi arrived the same day as I did (06/06/06), and he proclaimed he was her low calorie sugar daddy. I wanted to write about hanging out with them on Big Beach, going surfing in Kihei and getting a bad rash on my belly and chaffing my nipples, going to a Hawaiian house party full of Dane's host family members and unknowingly meeting Richard Chamberlain.

I wanted to write about driving at 3am to the top of Haleakala, the highest mountain on Maui, to watch the sunrise and nearly freezing me feet off because I was wearing a pair of Dane's oversized work boots and my socks somehow managed to come off my feet inside the boots.




I wanted to write about hiking through I'ao Valley and getting lost, so we tromped through the woods to the river where we stumbled on a nude photo shoot, and Dane ended up jumping off a bridge into a shallow river with some local Hawaiian guys and making new friends.




All these things would have made a great storey, but as soon I landed in ATL, I hit the ground running, and it's hard to look back. Maybe someday, I'll get around to writing all those things up, but in the meantime please take a look at the pictures:
http://web.mac.com/heyheygig/iWeb/heyhey%27s%20Site/Hawaii.html

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Just got home and having some technical difficulites with my new MacBook; nothing serious just can't seem to import all my old pictures & albums into to my new photo library. It should be resolved soon, and I'll get a post up about Hawaii.

In the meantime, please check out this video my friend Ethan sent me.




How long? How long must he sing this song?

Letter of Acceptance to SIT

Dear Heyward,

On behalf of the Admissions Committee and faculty, I would like to congratulate you on your acceptance to the Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages course work that begins Fall of 2006. We are confident that you will both enhance SIT's learning community and benefit from the degree.

Within the next few days, you'll receive a paper packet containing documents related to your acceptance. If you would like to access an Acceptance Packet instantly online, you may visit:
http://www.sit.edu/graduate/accepted/ Please save this email to direct you to this Accepted-Students only website.

In the packet and online, you will find an enrollment card. The Admissions staff recommends that you submit the $400 non-refundable deposit as soon as possible. The deposit reserves your place in the class and will be deducted from your first semester tuition payment.

If you need support accessing on-line documents please feel free to request assistance by replying to this message.

Again, congratulations and, on behalf of the faculty, the Admissions Committee and SIT, welcome. We look forward to meeting and working with you.

Sincerely yours,

Donald Freeman, Ed.D.
Dean, Graduate and Professional Studies in
Language Teacher Education

Peace Out

To all my friends!!

I've been using that intro ever since I saw Mickey Rourke in 'Barfly' say it as he poured free drinks to everyone in a bar, but for me, this is the first time I've ever meant it as sincerely as Rourke said it.

There is nothing I can write, say, or do to express my gratitude and appreciation to each and everyone of you for making my life in Japan more than memorable.

All I can do is say
THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Heiwado has left Hewia-cho.

Peace Out.