The driver from Ba, who took me from Ba to Navala and back, was by far my favorite (see video). VIDEO (Quicktime, 600K):Â Taxi from Navala Some notes and observations related to Fijian cab drivers: If you offer to buy them a Coke, they’ll take you up on it. As far as I could tell,
I’ll start with the video this time. It’s actually compressed. Then if you’re interested, you can get my amateur historical synopsis. VIDEO (Quicktime, 4.7MB): Alligator Creek [amateur historical synopsis] Essentially at the far western end of Red Beach is Alligator Creek, which is actually the Ilu River and is known to historians as the site
For some reason I thought it’d be great to see as many war sites as I could on the Fourth of July. I dunno — maybe that was a good idea. Red Beach on Guadalcanal was the Normandy of the Pacific — not in terms of battle ferocity, but in the sense that it was
Late summer, early fall of 1942, the decisive land battles of the Pacific Theater were being fought on Guadalcanal. There were two key battle locations that, essentially, held the key to victory: Edson’s Ridge and the mouth of the Matanikau River. The mouth of the Matanikau was important because it was the only reasonable place
In the Nadi airportt right now. Keyboard sticks. Flight leaves to Hhoniara in an hour or so. Fiji was very cool and nothing like I expected.
So, the American Film Institute put out a revision to it’s 100 Greatest Movies list. They’re wrong about everything of course… Nah, actually, I’m surprised to agree with them as often as I do. They place way more emphasis than they “should” on things like cinematography, groundbreaking technique, and cultural impact. I mean — why
Fine, I’ve never been to one of their games, but still. I was there when they re-started the program after it had gotten Title IXed out of existence, so I’m stoked that UC-Irvine’s baseball team is heading to the College World Series five years later. Too bad I don’t have a TV, otherwise I could
The good thing about the OC is that you don’t really have to go all that far to get into the boondocks. Went hiking yesterday on the Bear Canyon Loop Trail in Cleveland N.F., about a half-hour drive from here with the trailhead just off Ortega Hwy. Ended up being a fun hike. The first
Watched the last couple of Seattle-San Diego games on MLB.tv. Am unfortunately stuck with the Padres’ broadcasters. The two clowns they got think they’re drive-time disk jockeys. The only thing they love more than the Padres is the sound of their own voices. Absolutely embarrassing. I’ve also never heard announcers more ready to complain about
Oh, granted, it’s a Radio Free Europe interview with a US-friendly politician, but still, I loved the frankness and candor of Estonian president Toomas Hendrik here. (I was also intrigued that one of the interviewers was named “Chalupa”.) E.g.: “Russian relations with Ukraine and Georgia were fine until they had democratic revolutions.” Plus he references
