Here’s a photo that I took on our second or third day in Hawaii: the legendary and iconic rainbow tower of the Hilton Hawaiian Village hotel on Waikiki beach in Oahu:
It’s been tough re-adjusting to normal life after our Hawaii trip.
This morning was cold, wet, and punctuated by the arrival of 200+ stampeding emails flooding my work in-box. Ah well … it was great while it lasted.
Every so often, I’m going to post pictures of what we did and saw in Hawaii … and here’s the first one. It’s a photo I took on the deck of the USS Missouri, the ship on which General Douglas MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender in Tokyo bay. This was the surrender that formally ended World War II.
And here’s the exact spot it happened:
The Missouri is now docked in Pearl Harbor, overlooking the last resting place of the USS Arizona. Ironically, that’s where the WWII began for America, when Japan launched a surprise attack on December 7, 1941, the “date that will live in infamy.”
We went to my sister’s place yesterday where we were having a family party for my nephew Jacob, who was turning 14. The place was lousy with iPhones.
Naturally, since I’m the technical one in the family, I was immediately pressed into duty helping everyone figure out everything they wanted to know about how to use their iPhone. But it was fun.
You know something is going mainstream when suddenly your entire family starts buying it …
Just overheard in the dining room …
Teresa (my wife):
“Aidan, what’s your address?”
Aidan (my 4-year-old son):
“Aidan.com”
Funny little man … funny little man.
This is Ethan on Sunday earlier this week, climbing on park equipment.
We’ve been having wonderful weather lately … sunny, warm, clear.
I’m hoping it lasts!
My daughter Gabrielle won her school’s spelling bee this past week Thursday.
I was in Winnipeg for a quick business trip, but my wife Teresa took pictures and our son Aidan (4) took video.
The really cool thing beyond Gabrielle winning is that she’s in the lowest grade of middle school right now, so she beat out kids not only in grade 6, her grade, but also grades 7 and 8.
Her prize was the Ripley’s Believe it or Not book in her hand, and in March she may go to the regional spelling bee in Vancouver’s Orpheum.
Congratulations, Gabrielle!
Well, I haven’t gotten around to doing anything at all on my new combined blog in the past week or so. Part of the problem is the new job and the tremendous workload as I transition out of the old and squeeze into the new. Another part is the two courses I’m taking for my masters program. (That was a huge mistake: two courses plus a full-time demanding job plus a family plus some friends equals absolutely no time for numero uno.) I’m looking forward to December, because on December 1 I will have (God willing) completely all my papers and assignments for my courses, and I’ll be able to slow down a bit. I just submitted my last assignment for ETEC 522 – a education venture capital course – last night at midnight … and I have one last paper due for my ETEC 511.
It’s a 3000-word paper, though, so it’s not a minor project. Such is life: intentional imbalance for short periods of time to accomplish set goals. But I hope to regain some semblance of balance soon!
(This is a story by my son Ethan, who is 8 years old.)Chapter 1Once upon a time there was a boy who loved to swing.One day he swung so high that he slipped of and flew though the air! Then a peregrine falcon stuck him down flying the fastest he could! He fell and fell until he fell into a lake! The lake lead to a river. A current swept him into the river. The river carried him from the lake to a swing. He swung on the swing and jumped off! But just as he jumped off he realized that he was just at his house! (He had gone around the Earth in one hour!)Now he was flapping his arms but that just made him faster because his name is Fly, he is four (But very good at swinging.),and he is one pound! Now because he hadn’t got hit he was up in space orbiting the Earth! His Mom was geting worried now. Just as he thought he was going to get dehydrated halley’s comet blasted him back to Earth! (He was saved!) He landed on his swing and it broke. Yahow he yelled! Because ofcorse he didn’t like swinging anymore.Chapter 2Fly’s parents got divorced because Fly broke the swing that his worked hard for. His Mom stayed but his Dad didn’t. Fly’s new Dad had very long arms so he needed to get to work on a weird bike because it was to much work in a car. His new Dad didn’t like to get to work on a bike because he got to tired. So they decided to make a car that he could drive to work but it cost 987′000′000 dolars! But he still bought it anyway! And that’s when they became poor! But he got more money because he got in the guienss book of world records!Chapter 3Fly’s parents had a baby girl that was not ordinary. It was born with teeth, hair and size two feet. Soon in three months the baby had lost a tooth, had long hair and was walking! When it was in preschool she knew what ninetyeight x sevendysix equals! (It equals 7,448.)So she had to skip a grade but she was still to smart so she needed to skip another grade. But she was still too smart so she needed to skip another grade! And another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another until it was time to go to College! But she was still to smart so she had to go to universery and that’s just right for her even though people laugh at her for being so smallTHE END- by Ethan Koetsier
The kids all got their medals today from the Fraser Valley Regional Library summer reading club challenge.Aidan, when he came home with his, said now he’s got his first medal “so he can feel like a winner.”
Ethan’s instructions:
1. Blow both balloons up first (to stretch the balloons)
2. Let the air out of both
3. Blow up the balloon that’s supposed to be bigger (on the outside)
4. While holding the outside balloon put the other balloon inside it
5. Blow up the inside balloon6. Blow up the outside balloon just a bit more
7. Tie them both
Picture:
Welcome to Sparkplug 9, John Koetsier's blog on technology and social media.
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