So, back from Kauai.

All in all, we had a really good time. We had a couple of days doing active stuff, like hiking, tubing, zip-lining and site-seeing, and the rest of the days were spent on various beaches, snorkling and book-reading and napping. It was all really great.

Some highlights for me were swimming with sea turtles. We overheard some people saying they were out feeding, and we headed out. Soon enough, we came upon a group of about 10 turtles, ranging in size from two to five feet long (pretty big!) They looked so old and peaceful as they munched on the seagrass.

One of the first days there we did a tubing adventure. There are old aquaducts that have been dug down the gentle slope of the mountains that feed water to fields below. We joined a big group of people in an adventure tour thing, and got driven up to the top, hopped in our tubes, and lazed our way down. The waterway passed through a series of tunnels, the smallest being a few hundred yards, the longest was 0.6 miles. Each tunnel was about 10 feet wide, and the roof was probably only 3-5 feet overhead, so it was pretty cramped. It was fun.

The latter part of the trip we shared a house rented by Diana's family on the north shore, walking distance from a nice beach and snorkling spot. It was fun to be on vacation with her family, and I'm especially happy to hang out a little more with Alicia's boyfriend David before he heads back to Sweden.

I took a lot of pictures, and will get those online soon.

Some points of note:

I love my new camera! It's so small that it was no problem to take anywhere. I'm glad I bought a 1 gig card, as I could go for a week taking lots of high-res, high-quality (compression wise, not artistic wise :) pictures, and not worry about filling up the card. Lots of people get upset when they buy something that doesn't work well. I find myself getting oppositely happy when I buy something that works well for me. And here I am.

Now that I'm taking more pictures, I'm looking for webspace. With Yahoo and Google throwing me email storage like it's free, I expected to find somewhere I could host files for free. There are some picture-sharing sites, but I was hoping for a little more general purpose area. I haven't found any good free online options. I don’t think I'm interested in doing my own hosting on my home computer for a variety of reasons. Paying for webspace might be the best option. Still searching for a happy place.

I read "Under the Banner of Heaven" over my vacation. As the afterword notes, the book began as a look into religious fundamentalism and fanaticism in general, but morphed into a looking into specifically Mormon fundamentalism, with specific note as to how this has been a key factor in some high-profile crimes (the Elizabeth Smart abduction, as well as the Lafferty brothers murders), as well as reconciling Joseph Smith's (and/or God's) view of polygamy vs. the United States governments view (which seems to be a major reason for the split of many fundamentalists from the main faith). In order to get a better view into the orgins of Mormon fundamentalist factions, some history of the Mormon church and it's early leaders is presented (which was then hotly debated in the eplilogue, where the author prints an official Church reaction to the book before (the first revision) came out, as well as the authors response to the Church response). I was pretty enthralled by the book, especially knowing a few Mormons. I wish I'd read it before driving from Page to Las Vegas, as that road winds through some sort of hotbed of polygamist country.

From my limited view of Mormonism (which consists solely of anecdotes and urban legends, a very brief perusal of the Book of Mormon, reading "Under the Banner of Heaven", and years of friendship and aquantainceship with a few Mormans), I've come to the conclusion that I'm *highly* skeptical of the revelations of Joseph Smith and the basis of the religion. I don’t see how anyone buys into it (or many other religions/beliefs, for that matter).

HOWEVER, I'm certainly not prepared to argue meaningfully against it, considering its current popularity, it's obviously exploding growth and my own lack or knowledge. In addition, I suppose there are things that I believe in my own version of Faith, and far be it from me to deny others their beliefs what I certainly can't explain my own. I do know that, without exception, all the Mormons I've ever known have been Good People: honest, friendly, hard working and dependable. To paraphrase some quote in Under the Banner, I think the world would be a much better place with more Mormons.... just without the Mormonism. :)

And that's all I have to say about that.

With that book finished, I started re-reading the "Song of Fire and Ice" series with book one, "A Game of Thrones". It's my second reading, and I am so damn fired up on this book it's silly. I absolutely love it. For those not in the know, it's a story about political power struggles in a land and time of kings and knights and legends. There are some elements of Tolkein-esque magic and monsters, but the vast bulk of the story is about families and alliances, backstabbing, power-struggles and so forth. As I said, I'm enjoying it more my second time reading through it, simply because there are so many characters and interweaving plotlines... the first time through was great, but a little overwhelming. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of eight major characters, who share their own points of view on multiple story arcs, with dozens of other major and minor characters. It sounds a little mind-boggling, and it is, to a certain degree, but it also is skillfully done and works well. Book four (of a reported six or seven total volumes) is coming out soon, so I'm going to try to power through one-three as fast as I can.

I don’t remember what else I wanted to write about, so I'm done.