The Waaaaaaait is the Hardest Part

Well, after tonight, my Christmas shopping will be done, and I will be flat broke. I just got my girlfriend a remote car starter with all the bells and whistles (just short of an actual car alarm) and some diamond earrings. I just have to take care of a few small gifts and I should be set. (Currently I'm waiting for 60% of the gifts to ship from Amazon. I'm already saddened that most of the gifts are apparently NOT going to make it here by Saturday. I was hoping to have everything for Sunday for my Christmas party / movie marathon this weekend, but things are not looking good. Guess I'll have to hand out a few IOUs inside of some greeting cards... sigh....)

Well as I promised, here's a new holiday treat for you that I found on Y outube:


Hahahaha. How many parents have experienced a similar nightmare with an equally hard to assemble gift or toy?! Here's a new MAD TV Christmas parody that I thought was pretty well done:



Well Merry Christmas b-movie fans. Hope you get your X-mas shopping done soon!

7 Days until Christmas... here's some stress reduction!

Are you as stressed as I am this week? Well here's a little something to give you a laugh and drop your stress level down a notch or two:



I'm gonna try and post other X-mas funnies for the next six days. And if you're not done shopping yet, like me, then get going! I only have to buy some stuff for my girlfriend and two or three friends, and I hope to get that done tomorrow. So get your butts in gear 'cause Jesus' symbolic birthday is around the corner. I know most of your holiday cheer is probably depleted, but just hang in there another week, then you can enjoy some (hopefully) cool gifts! At the very least, just hold on until New Years Eve. That's one of the few nights in our lives where it is OK to get sloshed! ;-)

Wedding Picture

Thanks for all of your comments and congratulations. Im in Ohio now and finally have some time to post a picture of Dasha and I at Waialae Beach after the wedding. Hawaii was great, as usual, but a little rainy and windy compared to usual. I'll post again when I get back to Midway.

Fashion Trends in Jewely: the Pearl Connection

Pictured is a pair of Amethyst, Fresh Water Pearls & MOP Earrings

I love working with healing crystals and find that making them into beautiful jewelry gives people an opportunity to not only benefit from the crystal's healing energies, but also from the beauty of the artisan-crafted piece itself.

Lately I’ve been making several necklaces and bracelets featuring freshwater pearls, as well as incorporating pearls into a variety of earrings.

I thought it was just a fluke on my part (well, I was inspired by a local jewelry store advertising a variety of pearl earrings and necklaces.) What I discovered, though, is that long, swinging pearl earrings are the number one fashion choice.

Yep, sensuous, shoulder-sweeping pearl earrings are being promoted as The Way to be glamorous and in on the latest fashion trends.

I’ve been taking my designs one step more, using MOP teeth (mother-of-pearl) mixed in necklaces and earrings. The one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces are absolutely incredible. Even similar looking pear dangle earrings differ because each pearl, as a unique natural product, has its own character.

Right now I have some of the earrings up on EBAY, either in my EBAY storefront or at auction. More of them are here at the shop, and I hope to get some listed in my webstore as well.

Check out all the gemstone earrings, and wire wrapped pendants, as well.

Amethyst

A “Stone of spirituality and contentment.” Clears the aura. Brings stability, strength & peace. Used for meditation. Opens and activates the Crown Chakra. Protects against psychic attacks. Encourages and supports sobriety. Used to treat insomnia and clear pain from headaches and other physical problems.

Pearl
Signifies faith, charity & innocence. Enhances personal integrity. Focuses one’s attention. Allows for a clean channel for receiving spiritual guidance. Brings truth to situations & loyalty to causes.

Mother of Pearl, Paua Shell,Abalone

Abalone is a Mollusk (shelled fish) in the Gastropod class. Gastropods also include snails and whelks. Abalone is prized for its meat as well as its beautiful shell. The pretty part of the shell in on the inside, where nacre (mother of pearl) of a variety of colors can be seen.The word "Abalone" comes from the Spanish word aulone, which is the name of the animal. The shell is also called Paua Shell.

Crystal healers use Abalone for a large variety of purposes. It is thought to be helpful in disorders involving joints, bones, and muscles.It protects against uncooperative attitudes, stimulates creativity, and promotes calm. Not surprisingly, it also helps in calcium deficiencies.
Since Mollusks often have to leave their shells to find larger ones when they grow, all shells are considered to bring boundless growth in life and thought.
The Abalone that you often see in jewelry is a brilliant blue or purple.
It is sometimes known as a "Sea Opal" due to the changing opalescent hues.

Silver
Patience. Perserverance. Perception. Silver has long been thought to destroy evil--hence the legends surrounding silver bullets killing werewolves and vampires.

pearl dangle earrings, hot jewelry trends, paua shell earrings, paua shell jewelry, amethyst earrings, amethyst jewelry,
pearl dangle earrings, fresh water pearl earrings, diamond Swarovski Crystal earrings, swarovski crystals, designer jewelry,
designer earrings, crystal jewelry, natural gemstone pendant, gemstone pendant, semiprecious stones

Update on my progress.

Well, progress has slowed to a crawl because yours truly has discovered the joys of playing an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), namely 2Moons. (Because its a good and free alternative to World of Warcraft.) However, that doesn't mean I haven't made any progress on updating the site and giving it an overhaul. I now only have seven more reviews to update to the new template, then the pain in the butt task of changing over the rest of the site will come next.

Non-site wise, the weather outside is frightful. We've gotten freezing rain and sleet most of the evening so its pretty slick out there, and this is apparently only the beginning. Should make for some fun driving conditions this week. I just hope the weather doesn't worsen too much as I have a lot to do in the next two weeks (i.e. Christmas shopping).

Well I must be getting some sleep, so I'll leave you with something that should invoke the holiday spirit in all of you scrooges and grinches. No one does Christmas like Mr. Bean:

One More Day on Midway

Only 1 day left before I'm outta here. It has been a very quick 6 months. I was browsing through my pictures and I really have seen a lot of good stuff here. It was sunny today but cool, and after work a few of us decided to go jump off of cargo pier. By the time we got there it was cloudy and breezy, but we swam a little anyway. The water is definitely getting colder. It feels like it's high 60's, but it's still warmer than a lot of places I've been swimming.

Tonight we are supposed to have another medevac flight. Another Japanese fisherman needs help. The Coast Guard will fly their C-130 out to pick him up. That will probably be about 1 a.m. and I have to help out on the boat when we go out of the atoll to pick him up, so I'll be tired tomorrow. I'll try to get a little sleep on the plane to Hawaii. We'll probably get to Honolulu around 3 a.m.

Since my girlfriend (Dasha) is coming to meet me in Hawaii for a week, we decided that that's as good a place as any to get married. So we'll do that on the beach on Wed. We will visit the families for Christmas and that will be enough of a reception I think.

Anyway, I might not have time to post anything tomorrow before I leave so if not, check back in early Jan. when I get back to Midway.

This white-fronted goose lives over on Eastern Island. It's trying to get fat enough to make it back to wherever it belongs. The ducks don't seem to mind it too much.

These ruddy turnstones are sitting on one of the fuel pipes that runs out on the fuel pier.

Thai King

I didn't make it to post last night. There was a celebration for the King of Thailand's birthday. It's a national holiday in Thailand. There are so many Thai guys working for our contractor Chugach, that everyone there took the day off. The band played and it was a nice party.

Today we went over to Eastern Island. The short-tailed albatross wasn't there today. It might be flying around somewhere looking for some food. We didn't get the calling station working today, so John will have to get that going when he gets back.

Here was the set-up for the Thai King's birthday at the All Hands Club.

It was another gray day today, but the water is still a nice color.

B-MOVIE PSA!

Thanks to my main man Dumpster Diver in the BMFV Forums, I got to see this cool fan-made "B-MOVIE PSA Announcement." Check it out below.



All your faves are here including "Troll 2," "Bad Taste," "Q: The Winged Serpent," "Plan 9 From Outer Space," and more!

And for good measure, here's another cool montage of b-movie clips set to "I Will Survive."



Enjoy b-movie fans!

Winter is Here

So now I see what a winter day is like on Midway. The we have a nice NE wind at about 40 MPH, the temperature is in the low 60's, and it's been cloudy all day. A few ironwood trees have blown over and killed a lot of albatross (plural is either albatross or albatrosses). There are 3 big trees that have fallen just between the office and the Clipper House. I found one tree that had just fallen and freed a couple birds from the branches. I also had to move a couple of eggs because the bird couldn't squeeze back under the branch to sit on their eggs. I'm just glad huge tree in my yard fell down last year because otherwise I would be worried.

Today was another inside day of data and organizing.

Noddies and boobies on a dead tree. I obviously didn't take this picture today. I doubt if there are any birds on this tree today.

Cloudy Sunday

It's another gray day on Midway. It's cool today also. There hasn't been a lot of good photo opportunities without the sun, but I still took a couple today. I've only got 5 days left until I leave for 3 weeks. Dec 7th was my original exit date so I'm leaving then and coming back the first week of Jan. So after Friday, I won't be putting anything up until then. I hope you all don't forget about me. I'll keep posting until then though.


The albatrosses make their nests out of whatever they can reach from their egg. If they are on sand or gravel, that's all they get. We like the ones that live in the verbesina and pull it out for us. I wish they would walk around and do that.

New Albatross News

Remember when I wrote about satellite tagging the albatross a few months ago? They're still getting data from 2 birds, so it's worth checking out where they've been. I'm sure they've put on more miles than many of you.

http://www.topp.org/species/black_footed_albatross

There is also a good albatross article in National Geographic magazine this month. It's very well written and you get details about what it's like that I sometimes don't give you.

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-12/albatross/safina-text.html

We spent the day today marking nests and banding birds. I think the majority of birds have nested so it will take a little less time each week. I'll show you a picture of one of the birds we tagged. I don't know if it's one that's still transmitting or not.

These birds are nesting in the parade field.

More Birds

The birds have been laying eggs like crazy lately. In one of our Laysan albatross plots, we had 9 nests last Friday and today we had 56. We still have about 15 more to mark in there tomorrow. So we're keeping busy, but between the birds and the computer work we've been falling a little behind on the weeds, but like I said, they are growing slower this time of year.

The plane was full tonight. The new volunteers are here and I've got my new roommate. They'll all be working mostly with the birds for the next few weeks so Greg and I should be able to make some weed headway.

Here's a good example of why we need to get rid of the verbesina. We mowed this area and sprayed it once to keep the sprouts down. We had to stop here because there were baby ducks in the vicinity and we had to give them a lot of space.

A Black-footed and Laysan albatross are sitting next to a memorial for the Japanese military men who died near Midway in WWII. I heard there was some controversy about honoring the enemy, but it got put up and it's small, out of the way, and only written in Japanese.