Ja, UND?

We moved from Hilo to Kona today, after spending a couple days exploring waterfalls and botanical gardens on the "wet side" of the island. I think that, like Goldilocks, we've found the "just right" spot.

This is the Kona Tiki Hotel, and I think we'll be very happy to finish our porridge right here.

Tomorrow is a deep sea fishing day--Daisycat will fish, I will come along for the ride. The next three days after that are snorkeling and south island exploring days.
 

I visited her at her home today, in the crater at Kilauea.  She was gracious enough to gift me with a small cluster of olivine crystals embedded in a lava rock.  She intended me to gift it to Daisycat, but Daisycat was afraid to receive it as a gift at this time.  Perhaps in the future. Edit: I should note that you don't just go around picking up and keeping rocks in Hawaii, particularly recent volcanic rock, lest you bring down curses on yourself. I was specifically given this particular rock and no others. I won't go into the details.

Here is one of the locations she is currently active at--the crater Halema'uma':

There is a molten lava lake below the rim of the fuming sulfurous crater.

Jungle bird song at Kilauea Iki crater:

Vibrant life surrounds the goddess's creative and destructive power.

Ominously... Nationalized Spanish Bank Plummets On News Of Bank Run | ZeroHedge

There's the sound of the can kicking down the road just a little way further...

It's Official: Greece To Pay May 15 Bond Maturity | ZeroHedge

Newsweek names Obama 'The First Gay President'

We took Mom out to eat on Saturday to avoid the Mother's Day rush. Daisycat spent the day Saturday, then skeedaddled early Sunday, as is her usual habit. The woman only comes out here to visit a few times a year, and can't even stay the weekend when she does. Mom would have liked to have had her visit longer.

Since I've been on cleaning lately, I just extended my cleaning efforts to the workshop this weekend. I can actually see my workshop floor again, and I can actually use it, rather than it being an obstacle course wherein I search for whatever tool or supply I need for working elsewhere.

I started my scooter up in the process of rearranging stuff for cleaning. It started and ran fine, but I discovered a problem in the drivetrain--a loose bolt on the clutch assembly caused a hole to be punched in the crankcase cover. I will need to disassemble, inspect the mechanism, and tighten that bolt, plus buy and replace the crankcase cover before I can ride it again. So maybe that nice clean shop area will host my scooter repair soon.

Friday I installed an electric fuel pump in Mitzi, in further efforts to narrow down the problem. The problem recurred once on the way back to town, but then it ran fine the rest of the way. I am suspending judgement for the moment, but I suspect I will still be looking elsewhere for a final resolution.

I'm back in town early this evening, doing some last minute packing.

Big time.

JPM Crashing After It Convenes Emergency Call To Advise Of "Significant Mark-To-Market" Losses In Bruno Iksil/CIO Group | ZeroHedge

Muahaha!

Brace yersselfs kids!  I don't know if this is the trigger event.  I've seen too many potential trigger events come and go.  But this one has some potential.  IF JPM goes over the cliff from this, the entire world financial system is chained to them...

For a while anyway.

I just came back from having two cavities drilled out and composite fillings installed. I'm trying to shake the cobwebs from my head from the nitrous and overcome the floppy lip syndrome from the novocaine so I can talk to people and go back to work. I'm still healing from the impacted wisdom teeth removal, but that didn't create any problems during this procedure.

The entire upper left quadrant of my face is still completely without feeling. The dentist said he hit every nerve path leading into that area. Yet it took three tries with more novocaine each time, and the pain was *still* breaking through.

My body is just giving me a visceral "enough of this!" message.

...just another weekend of housecleaning after laying my cat to rest.

Yes, that's two weekends, and Daisycat will probably still call the place a dump. O f'in well... (She will be here for Mother's Day, so it needed doing.)

I did also do some troubleshooting/maintenance on Mitzi. Didn't find anything wrong where I disassembled and inspected, so I'm narrowing down the possibilities. The problem is almost certainly the carb running lean after a while under load, but only under some circumstances (seemingly fairly random at this point). I am strongly suspecting the fuel supply side (meaning tank, lines, and fuel pump) causing this lean running condition. This weekend's investigation exonerated the in-tank filter and cleared the tank itself of having any crud blocking up the intake line.

The fuel pump itself was replaced less than two years ago. At this point I will be focusing next on whether enough vacuum may be building up in the fuel tank to overcome the pump's ability to pull fuel out of it under load. This is a possibility because the original vapor recovery system is long since shot and partially disabled. Maybe there's a check valve or a plugged orifice somewhere... An easy test will be to leave the gas cap loose next time I am driving in conditions where I normally see this behavior.

After this, I am back to looking at the fuel pump and possibly (remotely) the carb float sticking or hanging up.

I will go, some year soon.

I need to get the transmission on my RV fixed, and a couple other systems back to operating properly, and I am there.

Provided the world holds on and doesn't fall apart in the mean time. Provided the event will go on, despite it's founder despairing as to it's future.

"What do you want with those hippy scum?" some of you may ask.

"I'm enough of a non-conformist and a 'trouble maker' to have common ground with this thing," I say.

Funny thing is, back when I was driving Doozey on a regular basis, I had a couple curious people tell me that this would be a great RV to bring to Burning Man. So the idea stuck, and has been slowly germinating.

If I can help it, Doozey and I will be at Burning Man before the end.

Labels: art appreciation, bizzaro

I've been discussing with Doom at his place, lyrics, intent and how I'm completely wrong and missing the hidden meaning in certain songs.

Given my consistent level of wrongness, I'm sure he will be able to inform me that this song is really not at all about a Gamma dragging along the bottom, obsessed with a woman who has no idea he exists...


Tell me how to win your love
'Cause I haven't got a clooo..
But let me start by saying,
"I love yoooo..."

As long as we're at it, here is another Great Song* in the annals of advice for Deltas and Gammas:

(*if you want to see them fall flat on their face, that is.)

And for you Alphas and other assorted tough guys, don't you know THIS is the kind of man that women really want?

(larf!)

Labels: art appreciation, felicity and jocularity

Some stuff here along the lines of Agorism (link provided earlier):

charles hugh smith-We Are Not Powerless: Resisting Financial Feudalism: It's comforting to think "I can't do anything to resist the Central State and its financial Plutocracy," but it's not true. There are many of acts of resistance you can pursue in your daily life; here are 12 perfectly legal ones.