Well, I'm spending the winter break in LA. Wooptie-frickin'-doo. It's nice to see friends again, not so much to see this God-forsaken city again.
And Canon is being a real bitch right now. I gave them my camera so they could repair it, and they lost it in the mail. And now they're offering me a worse camera as compensation. Thoroughly uncool of them. All I want for Christmas is my camera, so we'll see if that wish ever comes true.
While I'm in LA I'll probably be diving and doing some other stuff, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to take any pictures. Sadness.
In the meantime, however, I borrowed my friend's Nikon D40 on a trip to the zoo, and I also practiced with it around campus. I guess I can post some of those photos online. Making the schedule akin to:

Day #1: San Diego Zoo
Day #2: University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Day #3: Honolulu Zoo.

Hey all. Just a little update: my camera is still dead. It is in the process of repair, but still no sign of life yet. Which stinks because I've still been going on a few adventures like kayaking and hiking and stuff and not having a camera around to photograph stuff with. Definitely got phantom-camera syndrome.
But a friend let me borrow her camera when I went and bought a new plant, so I've got a few photos from the arboretum. I'll start posting those soonish, now that I've run out of wave and Kahana photos.
So now the mighty schedule goes like:
Day #1: San Diego Zoo
Day #2: Arboretum Plant Sale

Oh yeah, and if anybody sees the sorry little bitch that made O-chem a requirement for science majors, be sure to give him/her a good slug for me. O-chem is the language of the devil, the T.As are masochists, and the teachers are sadists.

Well, a friend thought it would be nice to surprise me with a hike this weekend. So she drove me out to the East Side to a trail I'd never been to before. It started out well, but soon things began to go so wrong it was almost comical.
First my camera had a disagreement with a rock. The rock won. So my camera's dead right now, and I need to try and turn it into a zombie.
After the camera died, things began to go horribly wrong. One thing you must understand is that this trail is criss-crossed with hunting trails. And since my friend didn't know the trail well and I had no idea what this trail was like we were following these pink flags that were tied to the trees every ten meters or so. Unfortunately, this was the wrong choice.
The trail started getting progressively harder and harder. It was muddy and slick, and we had to climb mountains and scale down cliffs. After four hours, we were certain that we'd gone the wrong way. Unfortunately, while it had taken four hours to get this far, and though we knew how to get back, we had only two hours of daylight left. And no cell service.
So while I went around looking for stuff to make a shelter with my friend monitored the cell phones. Eventually she got a bar and managed to call the rescue service. We just wanted directions to the fastest way back, but they insisted on sending a rescue helicopter. Which was good, because we'd gone a lot further than we'd realized. Even with us giving them constant directions, it took the chopper a long time to find us because we'd trekked about a third of the island. When it finally did find us it lowered the basket and we rode back to civilization one at a time.
And holy crap that ride was awesome. It was the most beautiful view I have ever seen. It looked like that part in Jurassic Park where they fly through the island, only cooler because it was real and there were pockets of mist that added to the atmosphere.
And of course my camera was dead through the whole thing. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and my camera wasn't there for it. So it was seriously bittersweet.
So I have a few pictures from before my camera went KIA, and I'll post a couple over the next few days. The schedule goes like:
Day #1: San Diego Zoo
Day #2: Lava Tube Breakers
Day #3: Kahana Hike of Hell

Oh yeah, and it doesn't sound like any of my friends here had a great weekend either. One stepped on a venomous sea urchin, and another might've gotten herpes from sharing water with someone. How was your weekend?

Hey. Just an update saying that I managed to make it out to East Shore this weekend. There was a large south swell that day, so the water was way too murky for a successful dive. But my friends and I went to a rocky area where the ocean had carved its way through the lava formations, and that was pretty cool. Especially since the swells really spiked the waves up that day. So I've got a few new photos from there to show off.
Which means that the schedule is going to look like:
Day #1: San Diego Zoo
Day #2: Hanauma Bay
Day #3: Lava Tube Breakers

Just a quick update to say that some friends and I went to Hanauma Bay again. So more reef photos are on the way. The water was much clearer this time around, so we got to go to the outer part of the bay. Which was interesting seeing as it's the time of year when the tides are nice and high. I hadn't seen the bay this deep in a long time.
One of the more interesting highlights of this trip was a turtle that kept gently swimming into me. It wasn't trying to hurt me or anything, but she kept swimming toward me wherever I went and would just bump me with her head. It was very odd.
Anyway, the schedule's back in order. Sort of. And it goes like:
Day #1: San Diego Zoo
Day #2: Hanauma Bay

Take care, all.