New video posted to youtube

Just posted a new video to you tube from the shoot today.

Wild Tigers.

I would love comments, and criticisms.


Click the title of the post or view it in the youtube video viewer below "Wild Tigers"
"

My Tiger Videos

Almos is 2 years old and almost 400 lb.s

A sample of the photos taken at Cougar Mountain Zoo.

More photos of tigers

Mexico

Wow.. Great trip.

Hard to get used to less than 70 degrees and sunny.

Rainbow

The Tigers at Cougar Mountain Zoo

A while ago I discovered the tigers Taj and Almos at the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah. I met the zoo's director Robyn, and yesterday we were talking about Taj and Almos.

The Zoo is in the middle of a construction project to build an much larger outdoor enclosure for the 2 existing tigers and hopes to get 2 more cubs later this year. Due to the rising construction costs and the economy, they are still short around $40,000 to ensure the completion of the project. The new enclosure will be better for these 2 growing young tigers, and will leave the existing space for the new cubs.

I would love to help them in some small way. If anyone reading this would like copies of any of my photographs (full resolution), I am happy to trade them for a donation to the zoo.

Shit HeadEry

A blog, social space by a friend of mine.
A place to read and write rants among other things.
Pretty funny stuff.

Tiger Logo

From a gift box Raine got me

Football day

Appologies to all of my regular readers (Dianne) for the dearth of
posts.

Today is playoff day. A trip to the "local" watering hole for nachos
and football. No seahawks here sadly.

Hopefully the fog will clear and we will get sun in Puyallup.

Well. Smoke break over. I'd better get back to the nachos.

Is that enough Diane?

Winter Storm - Dec. 2008

It was quite the little snow storm for this area. Just a flurry to my friends in Utah and Alberta. Seattle and the surrounds are not as prepared as those places. It does paint a beautiful landscape.

Fall red

I love my DSLR. I also am amazed at my iPhone cam

Palin 2008 Campaign Rap: Red, White and MILF

I have not decided whether this is a joke or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evafgvrMci8

Those pesky internets

Funny how everything spoken into the record by public people, like senators, gets captured and posted to the internet:

Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, the amendment before the Senate is a very simple one. It restricts the use of campaign funds for inherently personal purposes. The
amendment would restrict individuals from using campaign funds for such things as home mortgage payments, clothing purchases, noncampaign automobile expenses,
country club memberships, and vacations or other trips that are noncampaign in nature.


Source Library of Congress (thomas.loc.gov)
103rd congress, congressional record
CONGRESSIONAL SPENDING LIMIT AND ELECTION REFORM ACT OF 1993

Dear reader, how many hockey moms shop at Sax?

Fall color 2008

Fall color pictures taken today.

Click here for the slide show Fall Color 2008

http://lance.hirakawa.googlepages.com/fall2008color

iPhone image manipulation

Love ezimba for the iPhone.

Just the guys

Just the guys

Click the link for pictures of 3 male tigers.

The broad perspective

My Canadian friend Jeremy posted this http://www.fluffontheinternet.com/pivot/entry.php?id=373 item on his blog about the TrooperGate reporting.

News here in the US is getting more and more sensationalistic on all sides. The volume and smoke surrounding the election is getting worse. I would encourage people to read all 3 articles to get a better perspective.

On thing that mitigates this is getting new from multiple sources, as well as getting it delivered that way all the time. I really like http://news.google.com/ The google Reader allows you get this type of news daily. Any feed reader can accomplish this.

Zoo Safari

View Album

Get your own

I took 1600 pictures, here are the best 42.

Election

Wow.

Breaking news: Palin abused her power as Gov. in the Monegan firing. Big surprise there.
She claims that she didn't get to talk to the investigation.. AFTER refusing to testify/speak to the investigation.. wow, really?

McCain has to talk his voters down, after people have been yelling "Terrorist" and "Kill Him" at McCain and Palin campaign rallies. He had to take the microphone away from a woman who called Obama an arab. Having to explain that Obama is a good man, and you "don't have to fear him".

Wow.

Call me not very surprised that McCain voters don't already know this. I am surprised that he is having to talk them down. Now, I am NOT implying that all conservatives / McCain followers are stupid or racist. There are however a large number who are one or both. People who are paying attention to the "Who is the real Obama?" nonsense and not the economic meltdown. Anyone who yells "Kill Him" at a campaign rally is both stupid and racist.

Hello???!!! The Secret service protects both McCain and Obama. I would imagine the Secret service would pay attention to those type of things.

New DVDs

We just got the new Iron Man DVD.

They were good enough to include a whole DVD of special features and a few hidden scenes. What was disappointing was that there was no iPod version of the movie. I see on iTunes that they will be selling that for another $14. I am quite disappointed. Transcoding another of copy of the movie and including it on the 2nd (special feature disk) is something i would have expected.

This disk we were going to buy anyway. Based on the popularity of the movie (servers that support the blue-ray version crashed in the first 2 days) i'm not very surprised they didnt include it and will charge an additional fee to get the ipod version.

I won't however condsider buying DVD's without ipod versions included as a special feature.

Do you hear me movie companies? :-P Fork over the additional content.

Boston Legal/Congressional vote on bailout? Deal or no Deal?

Ok.. I must go to sleep. The world has gone from odd to surreal in about 2 seconds..

The intro to tonight's episode of Boston Legal was a parody of Deal or No Deal? by one lawyer to another in a conference.

I just finished watching talking heads discuss today's congressional vote on the bailout.. Deal or No Deal?

Stock prices/value crumbled today, and lots of people status on social networking sites are mentioning 401K value. To buy stocks right now: Deal or No Deal?

What happened to the world today? Was the bailout a Deal or No Deal?

MESSAGES TO:

Nancy Pelosi: Chastise the current president AFTER the vote. -1 point to you.

Republican Leadership did you talk to your members and have a Deal (or No Deal?) -10 points

Republican members, I concede that the Speakers timing is poor. That's NO reason to scuttle a Deal (or No Deal). YOUR FIRED!

I told you I was tired.

Convincing

In reply to: scottsigler I'm undecided. Both campaigns appall me. So Obamites, educate me: cease with the "nanner-nanner" posts, link to what makes him right for USA

Scott..
I was going to layoff the politic thing, and not direct anything to you.. I wasn't sure you and I were in any way aligned politically. From previous posts, i think you might have a conservative leaning. Perhaps I'm wrong. This post makes me think you are more open minded, than i had previously though. A very good thing.

Perhaps this is just slightly the wrong perspective. Having said that, I will most probably be voting for Obama, primary because I think he is the more open minded and sophisticated of the 2 that will get the lions share of the votes. While I might agree with some of Ron Paul's fiscal ideas, I don't believe he has enough of a movement to garner a significant position in the election.

Back to what makes one or the other "right for the USA":

Social: Least important to me, Mcain should be "gov't out of your business", Palin choice doesn't back that up. Obama, appears more engaged. Despite Mcains protests, Obama does seem to "get it".

International: We NEED the rest of the world, especially now due to our financial situation. We need someone who the rest of the world thinks is listening. Mcain 1 point for some established relationships, -2 points for his reputation of " tantrum like behaviour". Obama speech in Berlin, may prove he is a rock star, but more importantly it proves people WANT to listen to him. US or abroad, Obama get the win on engaging people.

Fiscal policy: Mcain appears his most dangerous here. Phil Gram has a key responsibility in the original removal of regulation. He is a KEY advisor and is will protect moneyed interests.
Obama, No golden parachutes. He was on this track way before Mcain.

Overall, its more about US.. The electorate telling congress and the candidates what we want. I believe they should come to us.. NOT the other way around.


WE THE PEOPLE!!!!!!

You, Scott, have peoples ear. As a successful podcaster, you have a slightly louder voice. I may disagree with your conservatism, but i respect your opinion. What i ask of you, and every citizen: Get others ENGAGED. Like you just did. WHY are we voting for our canidate. Just voting party line is WRONG. Make them come to us. BE SPECIFIC. Tell them what you want!

I want out of Iraq. We already won. They have a gov't. They need to step up to the plate.
I want reasonable regulation, taking of responsibility, TRANSPARENCY.
I want to be a PROUD AMERICAN. How can we NOT be the most respected country in the world. We have GOOD people.

WE THE PEOPLE!!!

IPhone panorama

It's amazing what's possible on a pocket size phone.

The panorama program does an ok job of stiching.

Not bad.

Debate

Saw Eagle Eye last night and missed the debate live. Forgot we called the cable company to change out the DVR and take the recording of the debate..
Luckily the debate is "on-demand" Watching it now..

It really disturbs me when politicians are condescending..

facebook?

nostalgia.. reconnection..

Strange thing this facebook. I never really got the whole FB meme until now. People from years past, in different states, with new jobs.

Very strange 'ting this FaceBook on the internet-tubes.

Its odd to be able to "catch up".. seeing kids grown 10 years since i last saw them.

Blogging was/is a stream-of-Consciousness experiment for me. A place for photo's and random thoughts.

I see how this gets people "addicted".

Woooooo

We won!

Hawk gnome

Even the hawk gnome got winded getting up here

High altitude sickness setting in

Holy crap!

Seat RR23 is the highest seat number.
I know I Am out of shape. But this is nutz. $70 bucks each. Dayum.
All i can say is: 1. Seahawks better win and 2. The Rolling Stones
better play at half time!!

Takin the train

Were going to see the seahawks / st. Louis game

Hope we win!

Moonrise

The moon from my front yard the other night.
I wish there was a program that would allow you to give it coordinates
and it would give you moon rise on any range of days.
It would be so much easier to get moon rise over Mt Ranier.

Spider from Mars

Here is the picture I was trying to get the other day. Today the
spider was cooperative.

I needed to goer out to work on my tan

I'm soo white

Demanding attention

As I am trying to take the last picture, someone is demanding my
immediate attention

Bored

Sitting on the porch having a smoke. I was trying to get a pic of the
spider above my car. Damn bug would not cooperate. Couldn't get the angle
right.

So I took this one instead.

Lamp & Rose:

IMG_5108a

IMG_5108a
Originally uploaded by lancehirakawa

Partially happy with this shot.
It only seems to happen once a year, the moon in proximity of the Mountain.
Raine was very excited when she came home, we both went down to take pics.
I don't think she has reviewed hers yet. Maybe she'll let me post them.

Half outta my mind.

Loved this sculpture. It represents how I feel sometimes.

Sandcastles in the mall

There was a sandcastle competition in downtown Seattle. It was a hot day, and i got there in the afternoon. The most amazing sculpture "Sweet Dreams" was starting to dry out, but was quite impressive.

Slideshow after the break:

It's MY toy.

Portland Japanese Garden

This place was amazing. Its 5 acres and spectacular.

Portland Zoo

Heres our trip to the Washington Park, The Portland Zoo

SkyFire

Sometimes the sunset is just amazing.
This photo doesn't do it justice.

Unusual sculpture at milepost 63

Pic to follow when we get back home

Via iPhone

Http://lancehirakawa.blogspot.com
Http://www.friendfeed.com/lancehirakawa

On iPhone

In response to my friends post on his blog.

I must agree the hype about the iPhone has been getting tiresome. There will be and are a large number of alternatives that do a great job. The 3G phone only adds a marginal amount of functionality, there is STILL no cut/copy/paste, and the camera is only 2mp.

My coworker John just got a new phone from Verizon that does many of the things, and even he admits he wont be using his web browser, he doesn't want to pay for the data plan.

Having said all that, i really to use mine a lot. Please don't ask my wife, i think she wants to flush it down the toilet. I have been waiting for a device that is a small form factor computer, email, communication device for over 25 years. When I got my hands on the first Apple Macintosh SE, i commented to friends, i love this thing, and i even have a 300 baud modem and had a connection to DarpaNet (the precursor to the internet). My comment was, that this would be even better if it was more portable.

I do agree that the android platform that Google will use to run their rumored phone might be very kewl, when it comes out "next year?" 'Nuff said.

What I like about the iPhone, especially now that 2.0 software is out, is the ability to add programs. I have downloaded (free) applications that range from a cowbell and light sabre (and a few other games) to a network subnet calculator and a streaming radio program (Pandora).

The coolest intergration from Apple is the remote control that allows me to run my iTunes or my wifes from anywhere i can get on my wifi network.

All in all, the a real mobile browser and live maps, a decent phone, an ok camera, all very tightly integrated is really the complete package. My work blackberry does almost everything (no camera) my iPhone does, just poorly. It did do email via exchange-push better before the upgrade. If I could skip it across the lake (I don't pay for it) I would.

There are alternatives, and they are good. What you choose really does depend on what you need. John has his phone and a GPS, for him, thats a good combo. I feel no need to upgrade to 3G yet, but I will probably very strongly consider getting the next iPhone.

DragonFly

IMG_4001
Originally uploaded by lancehirakawa

Photo safari today.
Subject, fauna.
Hoped to get some horses. The would not cooperate.
Stoopid horses!

Only 3 pics in the set that I'm happy with.

They're on Flickr HERE

Traveling Roses

Today is farmers market day. The rose guy is here with lots of
choices. I got these 2 for my wife's birthday tomorrow. Shhhhh don't
tell her.

2nd set of July 4th pics, by request.

I got a request from Sarah to post more pics of fireworks. Here they are!

Hi Jim!

July 4th Slideshow

Fireworks post

IMG_3880
Originally uploaded by lancehirakawa

Took me a while to get them edited down to a manageable number to post.

The best ones were of everyone at Johns party with Sparklers.

The set is here:

http://flickr.com/photos/lancehirakawa/sets/72157606015179374/show/

Comments and criticisms are highly appreciated.

How to spot a wing-nut or Methinks thou doth protest too much

I admit it. I was looking for Wall*E swag. Curious which burger chain was going to be pushing toys that I could put on my dashboard. Childish, yes, i admit that.

Now I realize movies with a moral can generate invective. So I wasn't totally surprised to find some people complaining about it in the movie review comments. What did surprise me was seeing so much of this drivel.

It’s a leftist anti-Wal-Mart piece of propaganda. Consumption isn’t bad. Buying into the global warming hoax is just so sad.

I realized 2 things at nearly the same time

1. I may not find "throw-away" toy promotions for this movie (at least I hope I do not) since, isn't that really the point of the movie.
2. The wing-nuts seem to complain most vehemently when they are threatened.

What disappoints me a little, is that I can't get a small Wall*e toy for my dash. I'll live.

Our economy is based on consumerism. Of that there is no doubt. New products are what drives it. I'm not against capitalism, but perhaps i will buy more products with less disposable packaging and in a small way trash the planet more slowly.


NOTE: This post was edited to remove attribution to that quote. The author tells me she did not make that post. Appologies to her.

It begins

Security blanket

Post by my cat

What is this thing. It on my nap spot.
HOW DARE IT!

I will now show displeasure by kneading
security blanket!

You are NOT paranoid

If they park a government vehicle in front

of your office, maybe they are out to get you.

In all seriousness, my office is on the Tacoma
Campus of U of Washington. You don't often
see CIA vehicles roaming around Tacoma Wa.
It's about as common as bugatti veyron.

Zap

It was so freaking hot out today.
Well, for the Seattle area, anyway.
92 is hot for this area. Because of the heat,
we got a rare lightning storm.

Man! That stuff
is hard to capture. I just don't have
the reflexes needed.

This was the largest one i could get.

I hope it rains tonite. I tried to water
the yard.. I just evaporated.

Wall-e Review No Spoiler

We went to see the opening show at midnight, ostensibly to miss the kid crowd. This i Highly recommend. There were a few little kids, but not very many. I predict this is going to be the kid folk summer blockbuster. Yah.. going way out on a limb there!

Very cute movie.. I think i may need insulin.
Very enjoyable. The underlying ecological message doesn't bash you over the head, though you are aware of it.

Definitely a go and see recommendation.

Ok, maybe more later.. its 2 am.

Wired Magazine

I read my news via Google News reader. I subscribed to Wired Top Stories, because i work in IT. I have received the SAME article 30 times over the last 2 days. With over 200 articles a day to glance at, seeing the same one (2 lines long) 30 times is more than a bit annoying.

Wired is a tech publication, wouldn't you think that someone would have noticed that they are sending out the same article that many times?

Review: Get Smart

No spoilers here.

If you remember the original show with Don Adams , Steve Carrell does it justice. If your your taste in comedy run to Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, you'll like this one. Its not derivative of the original its an homage.

The Cameo by Bernie Kopell (Doc from the Love Boat) was great.

I didn't go out and see 40 yr old Virgin, its not my kind of humor, but I really loved this one, probably due to the nostalgia factor. I would have thought it was written by Mel Brooks.

Based on the ending, I would imagine they will go for a sequel.

I rate it 8/10, Good action, comedy without much toilet humor, and reasonably well constructed.

Whoops time for dinner and i have my priorities.

Prince Ruperts Drops

Popular Science Article

Geeky post alert!

Prince Rupert Drops are glass cooled quickly in cold water. The outside cools first and builds up stress in the glass due to the inside cooling after the outside.

Whats cool? Break the tail of the glass drop, and the whole thing EXPLODES!

Follow the link for 90 sec. video.

Sexy Sumantran

Back to photograph my favorite model, Jaya.

Beautiful day, and a cooperative model.

Shorten URLs to a few characters.

I just got twirl to access my twitter account. I have heard of TinyUrl.com and a few others. The twirl client comes with a button to id.gd . Yep, thats it. My blog address shortens to http://is.gd/BHu . Thats even easier than getting my own domain name, and worth sharing. Hope someone finds this useful.

My wife's roses

They are blooming again.
Wild colors!

Woman Who Died While Watching TV Sat Unfound for 42 Years

Ok, now this is just plain weird. How could someone die in an apartment and remain there for 42 years?

Was the manager not collecting rent? REALLY?! for 42 YEARS?!?!

Link to article.

C'mon.. that can't be for real.. Then again, i guess they musn't have a housing crisis in Croatia.

Now dear reader, please comment. Do you buy it?

Tiger Egg

I was going thru google reader and saw an article on Dumpr.net photo tools. I like the easter egg effect, circles and Rubic's Cube.

Ok.. i like this one better..

Cougar Mountain Zoo 6.15.2008

Visited Cougar Mountain Zoo today.

The Curator Robyn Barfoot is very cool and nice enough to remind me that there are more than tigers there. Who knew?

I had been meaning to see the whole facility after getting a membership and did get to see most of it today.

Rumor has it, baby tigers may be in the future for the Zoo!

It really is in a picturesque location, and the local bald eagles even showed up for fathers day!

For those residents of Seattle who have been to Woodland park, TAKE A TRIP TO ISSAQUAH!!

Nothing against Woodland park, but you've already seen it, go see Cougar Mountain Zoo.

Fathers day

Called my dad and wished him "happy fathers day".

Called my sis, who JUST learned how to text/SMS. She was pretty
excited about it. Her daughter learned before her LOL.

Went to Cougar Mountain Zoo and took pictures again. This time I saw
the rest of the animals. Thanks Robin!!!!

More pics to follow.

Congress info website/iPhone app

I saw this app on the Apple website the other day. Having access to info for my House and Senate at my iPhone is useful for feed back on such items as Net Neutrality.

I had some requests so I emailed the developer Michael D. Cohen, Ph.D.
I was very pleasantly surprised that he replied very quickly and was receptive to my change requests, even putting some up almost immediately.

Hell of a cool app for us political junkies.

If you have any reason to call or get some info on your house or senate member, check out http://www.cohenresearchgroup.com/congress/directory/#_home

June Goslings

The new goslings were nice enough to pose on their daily walk.

NOTE: the purple flowers in the slide show were because my wife likes purple.