Noteworthy Moments

Wow! How time has flown by! Today is my nephew's 5th birthday. My family has a ton of birthday's every year, but this one is pretty special to me. When I look at Santino I always think about how he marks a new generation in my family. I think of how he represents the generation that I want to provide a good and happy life to. I was riding my bike to a stats class during my freshman year of college when my sister called me to tell me she was going to the hospital and that Santino would be coming soon. Later on that day he was here! I've really enjoyed spending time with him over the past 5 years. He's in school now and he's such a smart kid. So articulate in both school and in relationships. I'm really proud to be his uncle and proud of my sister for raising such a good kid. Happy birthday little guy!

I'm sure many people know this already, but I'll say it anyway: I love Apple products. I was giving an iPod Shuffle when I was 12 (played a ton of Brick Breaker of course). I remember when the iPhone first came out in 2007. I was completely amazed. I saved my money for an entire year and bought the 2nd generation iPod Touch. The App Store was launched that year and I was fully involved in the ecosystem. I also started jailbreaking my devices during that time and have done so ever since. I've had the iPhone 4, 5, 6, and now I'm using the X (I usually stay away from the S releases). Sadly, I've sold or given away all of those devices (college student, needed money). Ah, now to the point of this post (sorry for all that digression up there): Apple is having an October event next week. I've been wanting to purchase an iPad Pro since its release, but have held off. I won an iPad Mini in a raffle a while back and now I think it's time for an upgrade. I'll ...

Aloha! Today was my first day in Hawaii! My morning started at 5:30am PST when Judy and I scrambled to get some last minute items packed. My good friend Cleto picked us up from my place and dropped us at SFO around 7:00am. Judy and I checked in for the flight and grabbed a quick breakfast before boarding at 8:30am. The flight was not very memorable - a good characteristic of flights in my opinion. I read through a chunk of a novel ( Leviathan Wakes  - so far so good) while Judy caught up on some sleep (she's still adjusting to PST after spending an entire summer on the East Coast). We touched down in Honolulu at around 11:20am HST. After making the journey to our hotel and checking in, Judy and I enjoyed the sunshine. We started by swimming in a nearby lagoon, then the Pacific Ocean, and topped things off with a dip in our hotel pool. Afterward, we cleaned up and enjoyed a delicious dinner at Duke's Waikiki (an oceanfront bar and grill). Today was a great day and I'm ...