Hawaii Day 6, Camp Day 2

Camp started yesterday.
The Opener happened.
Two sessions of chapel and one rec session have already flown by.
I played DJ at a dance party.
We kept the neighbors awake.
Despite 6 blown breakers, multiple locked doors, and a building with bad wiring, it all happened.
The kids are loving camp and are way into recreation.

I'm still trying to figure out what's going on.

I'm a little frazzled.

Oh, and it's 75º, sunny, and raining right now.
I'm not quite sure how that works either.

The Lost crew is tearing down Dharma camp as I write.
The burnt house, playground, and work shop area are gone.
We're still living in the cabins.

I can see down the curl of the waves from my seat behind the sound board.
Today is a good day.

It's all a matter of perspective.
When we have days were the worst thing that happened was making a wrong turn and ending up in Honolulu on accident...

Well, it's not that bad.
The kids can't see the technical difficulties, and the gospel gets preached either way.
Tonight it's time for decisions.

Hawaii Day 5, Camp Day 1

Camp starts today.
We've been setting up the stage and practicing the opener.

Kids are arriving as I post this.

Hawaii Day 4 Pictures

Hawaii Day 4

Today we will be moving into the camp, setting up the stage, getting all the cabins ready for kids, and setting up recreation.
Oh, and creating an opener that will work with the amount of people, stage, effects, and resources that we have available. It should be fun. I love this kind of a chalenge!

Hawaii Day 3

It was Alyson's Birthday, so we left her and Rich to have the day to themselves, with a car to tour around. Jay and I spent the day relaxing along the North Shore of Hui Wa'a. I think we went snorkeling at two different beaches, and got sunburned on three other beaches.
It was wonderful. The random barbequed chicken plate dinner was wonderful, too.
This place is beautiful.

Hawaii Day 2

First Family Breakfast of Coconut-Pinapple pancakes, scrambled eggs, fresh mangoes, pineapples, and apple-bannanas.
We had lunch with a youth pastor, and then met with a whole group of youth pastors to talk about the future possibilities of camping ministry here in Hawaii. It was very encouraging and exciting to really be thinking of what God might do here next year.
Then we went supply shopping. The 4x8 foot sheets of foam core barely fit in the back of the mini van. We had to pack Rich and Alyson in on the floor.

Hawaii Day 1

Last night we spent the night at the Fate's house in Long Beach. It was fun to finally meet the whole family after hearing about them for so many years. Fred and Ginny are super hospitable! Amazing. Our flight left at 8:30 this morning, and was just a normal flight. I slept for half of it. We arrived, 5 and half hours later at 11:00am. I think that's how it happened. I was asleep.

At first Hawaii looked to me just like another Southern California beach city. But then, we crossed over to the North Shore. It is stunningly beautiful. The weather is so perfect, the colors, the lush jungle vegetation, the warm water. It really is beautiful here. We visited Camp Erdman, a YMCA camp that we will be using for camp. We will start setting up camp on Sunday, the students arrive on Monday. Until then, we are staying at a friend's house about an hour from camp. He and his wife are away right now, but they left their house for us to use while we are here. Again, I am amazed at the hospitality of our friends.

Rich has the the next four days to get tan if he wants to get any respect at all when he stands up in front of all the locals. We're all pretty white from a long winter. It was 8º at Hume just four days ago. I know my skin hasn't seen much sun lately.

When we first got on the camp we crossed the main road into the cabin area where we will be sleeping. If you've watched the TV show Lost, you would recognize this as the Dharma compound. We found a crew setting up a workshop area and building that looked like it was about to burn down. I pulled off a few pictures before a private security officer kicked us out of the area. it was kind of exciting. Hopefully I'll have some more pictures and stories when we actually move in there.


























Sassy likes the view.

Where The Wild Things Are

Click here for a warm rush of nostalgia and excitement.

8 inches of Winter overnight

BRING IT ON!!

PEOPLE WITH TRAVEL PLANS INTO THE SOUTHERN SIERRA NEVADA THIS WEEKEND SHOULD CONSIDER POSTPONING OR CANCELING THOSE PLANS. TRAVEL WILL BE VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE TONIGHT AND SUNDAY.

THE SNOW LEVEL WILL INITIALLY BE FROM 7500 TO 8000 FEET... BUT WILL LOWER QUICKLY TO BELOW 4000 FEET BY SUNDAY MORNING. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 3 FEET ARE LIKELY WITH THIS STORM ABOVE ABOUT 5000 FEET... WITH A FOOT OF SNOW AS LOW AS 4500 FEET OR SO... DEPENDING ON HOW RAPIDLY THE RAIN CHANGES TO SNOW IN LOWER ELEVATIONS.

STRONG WINDS OVER RIDGES AND ALONG THE SIERRA CREST WILL CAUSE CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW... WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS.

The power just cut out. Right now it keeps switching between pouring rain and pounding hail.
The thunder and lighting make it that much more exciting.
It's the perfect weather for a nice, adventure-filled romantic walk around the lake!

Beauty on The last Day of Winter

This morning Jocey and I drove down the hill well before dawn to drop her off at the Bus Station in Fresno. Even though it was short, it was our first road trip in my new car, Sassy.

We picked up her ticket and then had a little pre-dawn breakfast date at the downtown Starbucks. It was still and quiet ―the tall buildings looming above us in the darkness― quiet, like few cities can be at that hour. She caught the bus down to Fullerton for cabin weekend in Idyllwild with Rebecca and some other college friends. On the way back I stopped by a self-serve car wash and watched the sun rise while I steam-cleaned Sassy's beautiful little VTEC-E engine.

I had to get back up for a meeting at 9am, so I didn't have much time to enjoy the beauty of the last day of winter. I did the best I could considering the circumstances. Jocey and I had noticed on the way down that the poppies were blooming. So, I had to stop a few times on the way up in order to be able to show her what they look like in the early morning light. 

Here they are, Jocey! Wish you were there to see it with your own eyes.

The other yellow flowers are called Common Fiddleneck, in case you were wondering. I was.

Enjoy.

I was curious and it's part of my job to know.

Europe and most other countries in the world use a voltage which is twice that of the US. It is between 220 and 240 volts, whereas in Japan and in most of the Americas the voltage is between 100 and 127 volts.

The system of three-phase alternating current electrical generation and distribution was invented by a nineteenth century creative genius named Nicola Tesla. He made many careful calculations and measurements and found out that 60 Hz (Hertz, cycles per second) was the best frequency for alternating current (AC) power generating. He preferred 240 volts, which put him at odds with Thomas Edison, whose direct current (DC) systems were 110 volts. Perhaps Edison had a useful point in the safety factor of the lower voltage, but DC couldn't provide the power to a distance that AC could.

When the German company AEG built the first European generating facility, its engineers decided to fix the frequency at 50 Hz, because the number 60 didn't fit the metric standard unit sequence (1,2,5). At that time, AEG had a virtual monopoly and their standard spread to the rest of the continent. In Britain, differing frequencies proliferated, and only after World War II the 50-cycle standard was established. A mistake, however.

Not only is 50 Hz 20% less effective in generation, it is 10-15% less efficient in transmission, it requires up to 30% larger windings and magnetic core materials in transformer construction. Electric motors are much less efficient at the lower frequency, and must also be made more robust to handle the electrical losses and the extra heat generated. Today, only a handful of countries (Antigua, Guyana, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea and the Leeward Islands) follow Tesla’s advice and use the 60 Hz frequency together with a voltage of 220-240 V.

Originally Europe was 120 V too, just like Japan and the US today. It has been deemed necessary to increase voltage to get more power with less losses and voltage drop from the same copper wire diameter. At the time the US also wanted to change but because of the cost involved to replace all electric appliances, they decided not to. At the time (50s-60s) the average US household already had a fridge, a washing-machine, etc., but not in Europe.

The end result is that now, the US seems not to have evolved from the 50s and 60s, and still copes with problems as light bulbs that burn out rather quickly when they are close to the transformer (too high a voltage), or just the other way round: not enough voltage at the end of the line (105 to 127 volt spread !).

Note that currently all new American buildings get in fact 240 volts split in two 120 between neutral and hot wire. Major appliances, such as virtually all drying machines and ovens, are now connected to 240 volts. Mind, Americans who have European equipment shouldn't connect it to these outlets. Although it may work on some appliances, it will definitely not be the case for all of your equipment. The reason for this is that in the US 240 V is two-phase, whereas in Europe it is single phase.

http://users.telenet.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm

[Check out the website to find lots more information and pictures of plugs and outlets around the world]

I'm back up at Hume.
I got the car!

More later...

I found a new car!

I'm flying out to Phoenix next Tuesday to buy my dream car!
A 1995 Honda Civic VX hatchback. It has a 1.5L VTEC-E engine with 92HP  and it is rated at 47/56MPG city/hwy. 

It has 155,000 miles on it. It seats five and is red, as you can see. 

His name is Colin and right now he belongs to the bass player of the band Reliquary.

I'm pretty excited about this. 

How about a little inspiration?

Dream The Impossible
Three short documentaries and one inspiring story









The Power of Dreams

Honda The Power of Dreams from micheledauria on Vimeo.