Month: January 2014
So, I started gathering a couple of articles that I really wanted to read over the week and just got to them now.
First, there is this article by the NYT… it tells the story of a “money addict” working on Wall Street, the importance of money and power that comes with money. And in general, about the vibe of the city – money, power, but also a lot of competition and greed. I like the good outcome (so read all the way to the end), but I believe that I would like to experience that sometimes, while I still can – so I can appreciate the little things more. I found this quote, but can’t remember who it belongs to: “A smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from others’ mistakes” – I think I have a case of “I would like to have the money and not repeat his mistakes”.
The second interesting article that I have found is from Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, one of the most successful startup programs. The article talks about the vibes in each city and how they might affect you. Reading it just after the first article opens your eyes even more (and confirms the first article’s theories) about the lifestyle and values of (most) people in New York. I like the idea of living in multiple cities while still young, but what happens when at the next interview you get the question “Why did you leave the last company?” and the (most likely non-asked follow-up): “How do I know that you won’t leave my company within 1 year, rendering all of my investment in you useless?”. It is a tough problem that might be easier to answer to / solve if you live in the US starting at least with college and you have a “safe spot”. I still wonder what kind of vibe Seattle / Bellevue gives out – I have been here for little more than 1 year and I have some opinions, but I can’t commit to them.
I don’t have a lot of experience working in a company (especially in a big one). I believe I do have a fair amount of common sense and respect for others. Still, talking to people in higher positions is something I try to get better at, but this StackExchange answer hits the nail on the head and should be read by everybody that has a superior they have to talk to every day.
On the business side of things, I have read 2 interesting articles. The first article is about sincerity and how to grow your business without telling lies to your customers. There are 2 mistakes that you might do, though they do not necessarily surface from the article:
1) Don’t sign up for more than you can take – the general rule of avoiding lies to your customers is all nice and good, but from the other perspective – you are at the beginning of a new project, you have only a rough idea about what the requirements are, what problems might show up in the future and so on. While shooting for the Moon is a great idea and that will keep you motivated, at some point you might want to shoot for Mars and lose your focus on the Moon.
2) Be a master of communication with your clients. If you do the first mistake, most things can be rectified by showing care for your customers and talking to them periodically and trying to attend to (most of) their needs.
Last, but not least, if you do get to be a CEO – or you just have to fit both family and work in your life, this article sets some great examples. Again, communication is key and knowing where to draw the line will help. I really appreciate people who say “I can’t help you because I need to have dinner with my family, but I will get back to you tomorrow”. It just shows that they know what their priorities are and have a good balance (and are most likely happy).
Over and out,
/cd
After the stop at Akaka Falls, we stopped at a local fruit garden and had a taste of fresh fruit – yes, fresh coconut, fresh bananas and a couple of other fruits for which the tongue needs to twist too much to say out loud. We then headed a bit south to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.
First of all, this is a botanical garden, so floooooowweeeeeer pictures (big fan). Second of all, the history of the garden is pretty interesting – one man, in 1977 was strolling around the Big Island with his wife and said “I’d like to live here”. Of course, no housing crisis back then, so he bought about 17 acres of land (now the garden occupies about 40 acres). He kinda got bored and did not want to destroy the nature on this island, so he decided, along with his wife, to start a botanical garden. So, they sold everything that they had on the main land and decided to move to the Big Island and start working on the garden. Of course, this piece of land was not at all taken care of, so they had to carve their way through the jungle and start taking care of the place. 7 years later, in 1984, the garden was open to the public. 30 years later, I present you some pictures from the garden – of course, you can’t tell they are actually taken there, but bare with me.
And this place is a rainforest. Here, you can see the droplets of water on a tree and my attempt at macro photography.
One of the places I appreciated most in the botanical garden is this waterfall – you are in the middle of the “jungle”, trees and shade all around you with patches of sunlight, all you can hear are the birds and the sound of the waterfall and there is a bench nearby so you can just lay down and wait for a couple of minutes. Of course, this is a “jungle”, so by laying down you might expose yourself to who-knows what animals/insects looking for lunch.
The flower is nice, but I really like the background in this picture – I never knew that my lens can take such pictures.
Oh, hi there – I almost didn’t see you because last night… “I drink I thank too much”.
And more flowers…
After taking millions of pictures of the flowers in the Botanical Garden, we headed south once more, towards Hilo, strolled around the city for a bit and then went to Rainbow Falls. This is a small waterfall, just outside Hilo which looks like perfect for a dip in the hot summer days. Apparently, if you get there at 10AM on a sunny day and there is some water in the waterfall (this time, there was not a lot of water. Last time I was there, even less), you will see rainbows in the mist surrounding the waterfall. Just above the waterfall, there are some ponds where the water gathers – they call these the “Boiling Pots”.
There is a slight hike you can take through the forest and across the Boiling Pots and you can get to the gorge of the waterfall and see the stream flowing. Talk about a different point of view…
This thing about being more agile with my blog posts and pictures proves to be a challenge – one that I am willing to take. Over and out, it’s Friday evening.
/cd
Waiting for 3 months to write something is a really long time. I have experienced writer’s block sometimes before – writing my theses for B.Sc. and M.Sc. – luckily in those times I had a “ritual”: win a game of Solitaire (that can prove to be challenging) or solve a Rubik’s cube. Then everything would flow a bit easier and I would be able to write for quite some time. Still, this is not something mandatory and with a deadline and there’s always “I can do this tomorrow”. Still, I am committed, so let’s get back to the story. Don’t forget to click on the pics for the high resolution version.
Disclaimer: I did some mistakes in organizing this trip – I planned 2 full days (Volcanoes in day 1 and the second day) and then left a couple of consecutive days at the beach. Needless to say, like most Software Engineers, my skin becomes “frustrated” after sun exposure. Take-homes in organizing future trips: alternate resting activities with travelling / hiking activities for a good balance.
Day 2. Day 2 was a really long day, part of the reason I think about breaking it down in a couple of parts. Departure from Kailua-Kona, head North towards Waipio Valley Lookout, then head towards Akaka Falls, then the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, visit a bit in the town of Hilo, see Rainbow Falls and end up at the Mauna Kea Visitor Center before sunset (I should mention – Hawaii is pretty close to the Ecuator so the sun rises around 6AM and sets at 6PM). Optionally, stay there for after-sunset and see the Milky Way. Then head back to Kona. Here’s a map to make you understand better (credits to Google Maps again) – about 200 miles @ around 40mph average speed while driving … around 6h of driving.
We woke up around 7, and had some breakfast. At the hotel where we were staying, we had a pretty cool breakfast – every morning, fresh ripe papaya (this tasted very awesome for the first couple of days – caveat: eating only this for breakfast every day is the same thing as eating the same brand of cereals for me – gets pretty boring) and toast and sweets. I was still half-asleep, so dad drove (with a bit of help from me for navigating) to Waipio Valley. Remember how I told you about the climatic areas on the Big Island? This day made us experience quite a few. The trip starts in Kona which is pretty dry, but sometimes gets rain. Heading East, we get into an area that gets rain once a week – you can see forests. Meanwhile, all the Western side of the island North of Kona is pretty much a desert-like area where it almost never rains.
Waipio Valley is an oasis in this desert and is one of the places that are best for gardening. Waipio Valley is one of the wildest parts of the island, though – people move inside the valley for peace and relaxation and tourists are not welcome (up to the point they will get shot for trespassing). The last time I was here, I went on a horseback ride inside the valley. The access to the valley requires a 4×4 car – our tour guides had some really uncared for, old cars, but we made it safely down and back up in the car, so that was fun. Plus, they were extra nice – they allowed us to eat as many bananas and Macadamia nuts as we wanted before the trip (we were about 1h early). REAL BANANAS (not the “things” you buy in a supermarket) and unlimited Macadamia nuts. In the valley, you have a black sand beack (see picture below) and the actual horse ride. More adventurous people can choose to backpack across the valley to a camping site about 7 hours away from the outlook (from where the picture below is taken). The caveat: in case something bad does happen to you, there is no paved road, just a hiking trail, and there is no place for a helicopter to land – as I was saying, pretty adventurous people.
But the view at the lookout? Pretty amazing. I am sure everyone who has been there takes this picture, but I love it. I especially liked the colors of the ocean (a bit amplified by the polarizing filter) and the intense green that contrasted with the Kona side of the island where things were either desert yellow or pale green. We spent a couple of minutes at the outlook, admiring the nature, then headed towards Akaka falls. Just after leaving the outlook, we decided to take a stop near a farm and we observed how pomelo fruits, bananas and lemons grow in the trees – pretty cool stuff. We continued our trip towards Akaka Falls. At Akaka Falls, there is a 30-40 minute roundtrip path through the forest to get to see the actual Falls.
Oh, and it rains quite a bit here, so the forest gets to pretty impressive sizes… But everything is green.
And you can pretend to be a character in TV series Lost, going around this forest, trying to avoid bamboo trees and running for your life. Or you can hold hands.
And in this rain forest, even flowers like to play “Night-time, day-time” (if you don’t know the movie clip).
But finally we got to the falls. Akaka falls is one of the tallest, while still easy to visit, falls on the island – at a bit over 100m tall. By comparison, Niagara falls is just 50m tall, but it has a much higher debit of water. The waterfall looks interesting and secluded. But the waterfall is not the most interesting thing about this area. Apparently, there is a fish that is able to “climb” the falls – I don’t see any documentation about it online, but I read about it there. This fish is pretty special – it is born upstream, falls through the waterfall, reaches the ocean when it’s mature and starts going back upstream. And then it faces a 100m waterfall – and it manages to go past it. How, you might ask? Well, it helps quite a bit when you have a sucker on your belly. So, apparently, they are able to jump from the base of the falls, attach themselves to the rocks, breathe (WTF?), fight against the power of the water hitting them AND after a while, attempt another jump “up the falls” at the end of which they need to attach themselves to the rocks and try again. Pretty crazy and science fiction, if you ask me. Read more for yourself here.
We finished our roundtrip and ended back in the parking lot, from where you can get one last glimpse at the falls again.
But people that come here are interesting – some of them, like the two owners with the dog below came from the mainland to just enjoy the Big Island for a month. Everybody seemed to enjoy the trip, especially the dog.
Over and out with day 2, part 1.
/cd
Well, this took a while… I took the pictures about 6 months ago, I started processing them about 3 months ago, had them ready about 1 month ago and since then they have been sitting on my computer, waiting to be published… Also, Happy New Year! Also, don’t forget to click on the pictures to see them better.
If you want me to be technical, this is not day 1, but day 2. On day 1, we (my parents and me) caught a flight from Seattle to San Francisco and then to Kona, Hawaii (on the Big Island – more on that later). About the flight – for me, it always is a bit of a scary feeling when the flight is 5h and it’s a straight line over the Pacific, making water landing the only possibility for survival in case of a disaster (credits to Google Maps for the pic).
This was my second visit to Hawaii – i was at a conference there a couple of years back and the flight experience that I had then was not the best. Then, I was flying Hamburg – London – Los Angeles – Hawaii and on the London – Los Angeles leg of the trip, one of my ears went pretty deaf due to the change in pressure. I had lots of fun at the airport in Los Angeles when, for every question that the TSA / Customs had to ask me, I had to turn my head and usually ask “Can you please repeat that?”. I finally got on to the Hawaii flight, my ears came back to normal once the cabin was pressurized and I was able to get a bit of sleep on that long day. About 2-3 hours into the flight, I can hear one of the flight attendants calling out “Code Blue!!!!” on the intercom and shortly after, 2 other flight attendants rushing to the front of the plane. One of them comes back, with almost a smile on her face and asks “Is anyone here a doctor?”. Luckily, I guess there was a medical conference in Kona on that week since 5 people around me raised their hands. The old lady sitting next to me later on informed me that she found out from one of her friends in first class (word goes around quickly, even on a plane) that someone has had a heart attack and that they had to shock his heart with adrenaline. 45 minutes before landing, the pilot informs us that due to a medical emergency on board, we will descend into Kona faster than usual, leading to my ear blockage again. The rest of the story is fun, but I’ll save it for some other time.
As I was saying, this is the second time that I have been to Hawaii, the second time to the Big Island and the second time in Kona. Looking above (credits to Bing Maps for the pic), you can see the Hawaii islands and the biggest one is “The Big Island” – pretty straightforward right? The other big ones are Maui, Kauai and Oahu – I haven’t researched them that much. All I know is that Oahu is the island that has the capital of the state – Honolulu and that is where Pearl Harbor is and that is where they filmed parts of the Lost TV series. The islands are pretty far away from each other, so for island-hopping, you need to board a plane and take an 1h flight to get to another island (150-200$ return trip).
Anyway, back to the trip. Day 1 was pretty much a long flight SEA – SF – KOA and then we reached Kona in the afternoon and just drove to the hotel, walked around the beach just outside, had dinner and went on to prepare for the next day. We were at a little hotel just in downtown Kona and we had ocean view – a pretty nice place. Also, for the sake of photography – I was travelling light (no checked in luggage for the 3 of us), so I couldn’t take ALL my lenses with me. I ended up taking my Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 and my Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 (and boy, did that come in handy – you will see later) and the tripod. All the photos have been slightly postprocessed using Nik Software (in particular HDR Efex Pro 2) and Lightroom 5. So, second day.
Since I had already been to the Big Island and had researched it 2 times already, I had a pretty good idea of what to visit, the amount of time it would take to get there and back and what to see. For today, the plan was – get up, have breakfast and go see the volcanoes and on the way back, the Black Sand beach and get back to Kona before sunset. And off we went 🙂 . One thing I should mention is that the Big Island is really interesting and varied – it has different climatic zones and different vegetation around the island. It has parts where it almost never rains (see picture above), parts where it rains at least once a day and is mostly cloudy (on the Eastern side of the island, near Hilo), it has 4000+m tall mountains (Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa), it has an area where coffee is farmed (coffee is pretty picky about the climate and Kona coffee is pretty well known) and it has tropical forests. The view above is characteristic to the Western side of the island, North of Kona – you can see solidified lava that was broken down by rain, the blue ocean and all clouds heading avoiding you.
The volcanoes are in the SouthEastern part of the island, in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. No, you can not see flowing lava (just to get that out of the way, it’s very unlikely but you might be lucky). Here, in the park you have a tourist information center where you can learn more about the volcanoes, about the area and about what to see while you are visiting. The picture above is of the Kilauea Caldera volcano. To be specific, you are actually looking at 3 volcanoes in this picture (though they are not very clearly defined). The rim of the first volcano can be traced from the lower left corner to just above the double watermark on the photo (yes, I see it now, no I will not fix it). This is the oldest volcano (Kilauea Caldera). In the center of the picture, you can see the smaller rim of the second volcano. This is the Halema’uma’u volcano. This is an active volcano that is solidified at the surface, but 70-150 meters below the surface, there is hot, spewing lava. It has been erupting almost continuously through a single vent, producing the sulfurous cloud that you see in the picture (which will kill you if you breathe it). That single vent started as a 1m wide vent and is now about 300 meters wide. And looking down in it, at 70+ meters, you would see lava. Unfortunately, for reasons of your own safety, your access is not allowed closer to the actual volcano and there is a constant wind taking this sulfur out to the ocean. This shot is taken from the Jagger Museum, west of the tourist information center. Inside, you can learn more about the lava, the volcanoes here and around the world. Pro tip: listen to the local guides telling the stories of Pele and volcanoes.
Walking around the island, you are most likely going to see these weird goose-like birds. They are called “nene” (or Hawaiian Goose) and are the rarest geese in the world and an endangered species. Look, take a picture, but don’t feed them and be sure not to run them over when driving like a maniac around the island.
Between the Jaggar museum and the Tourist Information center, on the side of the road, you will find these holes in the ground with steam coming out of them. Unlike the steam from the volcanoes above (which contains sulfur, highly toxic for you), this is harmless – this is rainwater that is naturally heated up by the lava and evaporates all the way to the surface. The way this works is that the soil is mostly lava – which is very porous (see picture below for a detail). This means that water can infiltrate easily through it, get close to the lava, get transformed to steam and come back up to the surface. The picture is partially decolorized because this is the best I could do to highlight the steam on a bright, sunny day. But I do like the dead-nature aspect that it gives to the foreground bushes.
Next up is the Thurston lava tube. A lava tube is some sort of a cave through which lava flowed many years ago. The characteristics are that it is rather smooth on the inside (not many stalactites) and that it is relatively circular (therefore the name of tube). This lava tube is easily accessible, it is a 30 minute walk through a rain forest. The lighting is kinda bad inside (therefore the need for black and white pictures), but it is a fun walk and definitely an interesting experience to picture that lava flowed through where you are standing. Also, meet my parents 🙂 .
The lighting on the Bis Island is done using low pressure sodium lights (this is the yellow light that shines across the island) – this is because of the observatories on top of Mauna Kea. The sodium light has a lower intensity and is in a different spectrum than normal light and it will influence the astronomic observatories a lot less. Big respect for the science being done there, at the top of the mountain. I still think that black and white looks better – therefore I put Nik Silver Efex to a bit of work to create this.
Once out of the tube, we headed South on the Chain of Craters Road. Down this road, you can see inactive craters (though not as big as Caldera) and walk all the way to the edge of them. Of course, I didn’t want to risk my camera, so I decided to just walk to the edge without taking pictures. Also along the way, you can see different signs with years on them – those signs represent from when the lava that you see on the side of the road has been solidified. As far as I remember, this ranged from 1800 till 1980s. Moving on, we get closer and closer to the ocean and the view is pretty much amazing: desert and water in one picture. The drive is really nice and is worth stopping for a couple of photos and taking everything in.
And you don’t have to be walking on sunshine to have fun – you can be walking on lava!
As we get to the ocean, we can see the Holei Arch – where lava and ocean meet. Or, if you are getting to close to the edge, where ocean and you meet – yes, the cliffs are 10 meters high, but the waves here are pretty big and can always surprise you and take you up for an early bath on your trip. The Holei Arch is actually the endpoint of the drive down the Chain of Craters Road. Still, it is not our end destination inside the Volcanoes National Park. By walking for 10-20 minutes on the closed-for-vehicles road, you will get to the place of one of the latest, easily reachable lava flows.
Road, meet lava. A couple of years ago, there has been an eruption and the lava slowly drifted from the hill nearby and covered 8.7 miles (14km) of the road uniting two villages. One village was partially destroyed, but if I remember correctly, nobody was killed since lava can only travel so fast. The white spot in the middle of the picture is a lane separator for the road and you can see the solidified lava flow in the background.
No s**t, Sherlock! That is where the road should have been. Apparently, they had time to evacuate everyone and put a sign that that the road is closed. Lava did not care for road closures, though…
It gets a bit windy out there. Also, in the background you can see the hills covered with lava as well and you can trace where lava is coming from. Pretty neat.
This is a detail of the lava. I like the sparkling and the different layering of the materials inside. This was our extreme point for the day, so we started heading back towards Kona. On the way back, we stopped at Punalu`u Beach – this is a black sand beach. And it just feels weird – every time I look down and expect to see the golden sand between my toes, I find my foot in a black pile of sand. The sand is pretty rough (though you can find some really nice white / gold sand beaches on the Big Island). One interesting thing about this beach – this is where green turtles come to shore during the day – either to get away from the warm water or to plant their eggs. The one below seemed really tired and for the half hour that we were waiting there, it barely moved (side note: one of the best kind of subjects for photography) even though it was 10 centimeters away from the shore.
Howdy neighbor! I really like the expression of the turtle in the back of this picture (it is the same turtle in the picture above, so proof it was alive) – what’cha lookin’ at, punk?
On our way back to Kona, we were treated with some clouds, making watching the sunset impossible to watch – but at least this picture of the rays of light going through the clouds was possible.
Over and out (and off to processing day 2),
/cd