The Earthquake
Well if you listen, read or watch the news chances are you heard about the 6.7 Earthquake that shook Hawaii. I live in Waimea, about 30 miles from the epicenter. That being the case we still felt the full force. I was watching TV at the time and quickly ran outside with my dog and watched the earth shake. Everyone is all right here, our house came out with very little damage but we did loose allot of glass wear in the kitchen.

If you are interested I have created a little webpage with pictures related to the quake.
Big Island 6.7 Earthquake 10/15/06

My Other Links
Dry ice explosions
Bob Dole Myspace

*photohunt


Game Play:
As a player, your goal is to take a digital photo, do minor photo shopping, (Read: muck around with the brightness/contrast, convert to black and white and add a frame... You get the picture.) And upload and post it in the chat for the judge. After the declared time is up, the Judge or Judges panel will choose a winner...
The Rules

Scouting…


68 days is how much longer I have to work on my eagle. At this point it's starting to feel like someone does not want to complete it. One of the largest requirements for the Eagle Scout is the leadership project. My project was to be completed during one weekend, on Saturday 9/30 my troop headed down to the worksite and completed half of the project. During the entire day I was experiencing very strong stomach pains, so after the troop headed home I went into the ER and waited around 5 hours for several tests to come through. It turned out that I had appendicitis. It was very urgent to take care of; the doctor said it would have burst within 10 hours, so I had to delay the second half of my project to a latter date. I had surgery at 2 AM and spent a good part of the next day in the hospital. After 2 weeks of recovery, this last weekend (9/14) my troop and I went back to the work area and finished the project. Though the day after the Island had the largest earthquake since 1983, so I don't know what to think.

Below is a portion of my project description.

The project I am proposing is to lead my troop in building a native plant seed orchard for the Division of Forestry and Wildlife of Hawaii. This organization manages the lands of Pu’u Wa’awa’a, which is located on the western or leeward side of the island of Hawaii, in the north Kona district. This orchard will be built and planted between the Pu’u Wa’awa’a Meeting House and Lake House.

My project is composed of three steps that will be split over a two-day troop campout at Pu’u Wa’awa’a. Each of these three steps requires coordination, teamwork and most importantly leadership. The first step is to install 160 feet of fence and an 8-foot gate. The next step will be to clear 6500 square feet of brush and weeds. The third and final step is to plant 50 native Hawaiian plants in a layout that will benefit each one.

And so I wait…
As some of you might know I ordered an 18-200mm VR Nikkor lens a while ago, June 2nd to be exact.



I am freaking pissed at Nikon. Amazon has delayed the shipping even longer, a whole month this time. The delivery estimate is now November 13, 2006 - November 29, 2006. I am getting very temped to cancel the order and buy it either off eBay or just buy a different lens. I would have done that by now but I don't "need" the lens until summer of next year for a wedding ill be photographing. So I sit and wait, and until I get this lens I have no zoom. Sigh...



~The-Last-Breath
*Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/10177207/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/10177207/ Sun, 24 Sep 2006 21:39:37 PDT

Wow, it’s been over two months since I have updated my journal. Now I find my self faced with bringing two months of activity into one journal. As the year gets closer and closer to an end I find that my life just seems to be getting started.

My Other Links
Dry ice explosions
Bob Dole Myspace

*photohunt


Game Play:
As a player, your goal is to take a digital photo, do minor photoshopping, (Read: muck around with the brightness/contrast, convert to black and white and add a frame... You get the picture.) and upload and post it in the chat for the judge. After the declared time is up, a winner will be chosen by the Judge or Judges panel...
The Rules

Scouting…

90 day… That is how long till my 18th birthday, and that really scares me. The Eagle rank is the highest award you can receive in boy scouting, but every requirement must be completed by your 18th birthday. Now I am working on it, in fact that’s where most of my time has been going. Still, this is down to the wire, I know I can achieve it if I keep working hard, but 90 days goes faster then you would think.

My Eagle project is in less then a week, this is a service project that benefits the community that is planed, organized and lead by me. There’s still a lot that needs to be done before hand, and a lot of people to contact.
If you are interested, below is a copy of my brief project proposal.

The project I am proposing is to lead my troop in building a native plant seed orchard for the Division of Forestry and Wildlife of Hawaii. This organization manages the lands of Pu’u Wa’awa’a, which is located on the western or leeward side of the island of Hawaii, in the north Kona district. This orchard will be built and planted between the Pu’u Wa’awa’a Meeting House and Lake House.

Since the early 1800’s the Hawaiian Islands have been inundated with hundreds of new and unwanted plants. Many invasive plants have been taking over and destroying the natural environment of the native Hawaiian plants. This orchard would allow the growing of many rare and endangered plants, to produce seeds and help their recovery.

My project is composed of three steps that will be split over a two-day troop campout at Pu’u Wa’awa’a. Each of these three steps requires coordination, teamwork and most importantly leadership. The first step is to install 160 feet of fence and an 8-foot gate. The next step will be to clear 6500 square feet of brush and weeds. The third and final step is to plant 50 native Hawaiian plants in a layout that will benefit each one.

The March
Also within scouting, yesterday my troop marched in the 31st Annual Aloha Festivals Paniolo Parade in Kamuela. We marched right behind the royals, third in the parade. I was one of four in the front; I was holding the troop flag along with another boy holding the American flag, with 2 boys next to us, and the rest of the troop following behind. It was a bit tiring but fun, we marched perhaps a little over a mile.

Potential Job?
One is not usually happy when their mother talks to her friends about you, but in this case I was all for it. My mom goes on these “ladies night out” with some of her friends. Well, while she was out she mentioned my fascination with photography. As luck would have it one of her friends knows a Wedding Photographer that is looking for an assistant. So I called him up and met with him. We talked a little about what he does, I showed him some of my photographs and he decided that I should go to one of the weddings to get an even better feel. I was mainly there to watch, but I did help a little bit. So he called me afterwards saying that he would like the help, but more in editing. I look younger then I am, and there is a lot of politics in a Wedding. Well, I told him I would call him back with an answer and it’s been almost a week. There are both negatives and positives to it... ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/9468713/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/9468713/ Sun, 23 Jul 2006 14:12:27 PDT

Vacation

I will be leavening tomorrow July 24th on vacation. I will be heading over the mainland for two weeks and will be back on August 8th. So many people to visit in only two weeks, I’m going to be so busy it will hardly be a "vacation". We will be driving from California, all the way to Washington State. Along the way we have to empty our old storage, visit family and friends and go to our family reunion. I am responsible of getting a high quality image of every family member going. This is why I have purchased the 50mm 1.8

This lens arrived around a week ago and I am just in love. Its fast, crisp and has metering!! Finally I can take quick shots again.

My Other Links
Dry ice explosions
Bob Dole Myspace




For the first time I wish to feature several artists, one piece per. I hope you enjoy my five choices for this journal feature.
~anzya91



~gEistiO



~neurophonix



~Oceanborn-89

Small delay



As some of you might know I recently ordered a Nikon 18-200mm VR. Well as it turns out this lens is not easy to get. My order has been postponed to arrive sometime around august 29th. The problem is that I am leavening July 24th for my family reunion where I am in charge of photographing family members. Yes, my dad has tons of old Nikon manual lenses that I could use in its stead, the problem is not focusing but in metering. My dad’s lenses don’t meter, which means I take 2-4 shots just to get the exposure right. This will not work in a live event such as my family reunion.

I have order the Nikon 50mm 1.8d AF lens. It’s very cheap and should do nicely along with my dad’s lenses until my 18-200 arrives, even then it should come in handy.




My Other Links
Dry ice explosions
Bob Dole Myspace




For the first time I wish to feature several artists, one piece per. I hope you enjoy my five choices for this journal feature.
~anzya91



~gEistiO



=neurophonix



~Oceanborn-89

Spoil Oneself
A little under one week ago I informed you of the death of my crappy 28-80mm lens. At the time I suggested that my budget for a new lens was $300, well I found out that lens’s are expensive. I also found that Nikon is quite evil for release a perfect lens. It’s not quite 3 times my original budget, but its close. I have spent every dime I have saved and put myself in line for the

Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens.

Yes its expensive and will take 1 1/2 - 2 months to get here but ill be shooting a wedding next year and I don’t want to keep changing Len’s. (That is my reason and i'm sticking to it) It will be a bit strange having a lens that is more expensive then my camera.

Going from my old 28-80 to this 18-200 reminds me a lot of switching from a point and shoot to my D50. I’m sure there will be a learning curve but I think I can handle it.! Until it arrives I will be shoot purely with manual Len’s with no metering (grrr…) I’m sure it will be worth the wait there are so many places I can’t wait to bring it!

My Other Links
Dry ice explosions

Photo Hunt

Games take place when there enough people around

I highly suggest you all Join and play *photohunt. It's a wonderfully challenging game. You are given a word/subject and 20 minutes to shoot and submit your photo to the judges. Then the judges choose the winner.






*yakushkin

For this moths “AwsomeArtist” I ventured into my favorites. There I found some of my most favorite pictures on DA. The problem is that since I favorited them a lot of them got well known. Its not my style to feature a well know artist. That is just useless in my opinion. So I searched high and low in my favorites for an unknown artist. Who I found was beyond anything I expected to find.

At the time of this feature *yakushkin had less then 500 page views. He has a small gallery, but wow such a gallery it is. Please go visit him and bring that PV count up.
Here is a selection from his gallery.



I hope you can enjoy some of his works

Broken Lens
My cheap little AF 28-80mm 1:3.3-5.6G that came with my D50 broke today. That means i have no AF lens for takeing pictures of our brand new 7 week old kitten named mysty that we got yesterday! This is a big deal, kittens are too fast for a fully manual lens, at least for me. I can make due with my dads old manual lens's for now but need a new lens as fast as possible!
Chances are if your reading this you know what kind of photography i enjoy shooting. I ask of you what lens you think would best fit my needs. I own a Nikon D50 and my budet is around $300.

My Other Links
Dry ice explosions
Photo Hunt

Games will take place Thursday and Saturday nights from 6 to 8 pm EST (games can also take place when there enough people around)

I highly suggest you all Join and play *photohunt. It's a wonderfully challenging game. You are given a word/subject and 20 minutes to shoot and submit your photo to the judges. Then the judges choose the winner.






*tomaplaw

For this months “Awesome Artist“ I ventured into the infamous thumb share forum. I was not sure who would find my little post, or what I would find. I am very pleased with the results; I found a lot of very good artists I had never seen before. But I had to pick one and that was tough.
When I first looked around *tomaplaws gallery I was a bit overwhelmed. So much variety through out his entire gallery, each piece different. Some are good some are bad, but the good ones really shine.

*Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/8636768/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/8636768/ Mon, 01 May 2006 01:10:02 PDT

Hey Deviants

I am sorry for not updating my journal in such a long time. As some of you know, my family and I recently moved to the wonderful little town of Kamuela Hawaii. It is completely done, our old house is sold and we are moved in at our new one. This was my first move that I can remember, so I am having a hard time adjusting. For a while I dug myself into the excessively addicting game of World of Warcraft. I am please to say I have successfully quit that. Though I haven’t done much since. I have never had to start my life over before. I know what I have to do; it’s just not easy to get started.

Photography
I do want to bring more of my photography to deviant art. The more active I get with my new life the more places ill be going, ergo more and different photography. There are a few pieces I have had my mind on, just waiting for the right conditions, I hope to get those to you within the next month.

Photo Hunt

Games will take place Thursday and Saturday nights from 6 to 8 pm EST (games can also take place when there enough people around)

I highly suggest you all Join and play ~photohunt. It's a wonderfully challenging game. You are given a word/subject and 20 minutes to shoot and submit your photo to the judges. Then the judges choose the winner. I’m frankly addicted to the game and i’m sure you would be too.
I won for the first time yesterday. The subject was "Scrub"







*tomaplaw

For this months “Awesome Artist“ I ventured into the infamous thumb share forum. I was not sure who would find my little post, or what I would find. I am very pleased with the results; I found a lot of very good artists I had never seen before. But I had to pick one and that was tough.
When I first looked around *tomaplaws gallery I was a bit overwhelmed. So much variety through out his entire gallery, each piece different. Some are good some are bad, but the good ones really shine.

... ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/7735180/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/7735180/ Sat, 28 Jan 2006 19:28:43 PST

I would like to start my first fancy journal by thanking those who made it possible. As some of you might know, I recently came in first place in the *Photocritique "Tis The Season" Contest. From wining this I was presented with a 1 year subscription to deviantArt.



I would like to thank the judes of this contest for beliveing in my little photo.




And even more, I would like to thank =artistech for presenting me with my subscription.
Please also give a big round of aplause to the other winers!



2nd Place-
By *demony

3rd Place-
By ~cippow25




This artist is not only the one that showed me deviant art, she got me interested in photography. Her photography is inspireing and is greatly underecknowledged.
Yes, the one, the only

If you would not mind, I would like to share some of my favorites from her gallery with you.


*Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/7227897/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/7227897/ Mon, 05 Dec 2005 10:16:24 PST
I am lucky enough to have had my parents pay for this as my birthday and x-mas present. Also if that where not enough, my dad has agreed to let me use his collection of six old Nikon lenses that he once used with a F3/T. This even includes a 300mm teehee. Although these are old lenses and are from a time before auto focus, so when using these lenses it will be purely Manuel focus, which I think I can handle.

With such a giant change it ill take time before I learn how to use the camera. What I am trying to say is that my first submissions might not match up to things from my old P&S.

Expect new thing, whether they be better or worse it will be different. It should get here by next week... ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6703899/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6703899/ Fri, 07 Oct 2005 12:33:57 PDT
My new home Sigh... ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6439487/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6439487/ Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:54:24 PDT
I am started an effort in my own favorites to only highlight talented and unknown artists. So I have recently gone through my favorites and deleted all deviations that have 50+ or if the artists has 5000+ page views. I know that might seem unfair to the other artists, although I think they can manage.

So if you manage to stop by my little corner of DA, don't link to my gallery, go to my favorites. There are some amazing artists in there, many with less then 1000 page views. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

My favorites

Alex M. ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6374413/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6374413/ Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:47:50 PDT
CompUSA finally called back yesterday. They have replaced my old SD100 with the SD200. It might not be the camera I was hoping for but this thing is awesome for the price ($50 protection plan.) With more optical zoom, bigger display, bigger lens and of coarse thinner. I am happy.

I have been without a camera for almost a month now, only being on the DA forum, with no deviations to post. As a result of the large amount of forum activity, I now have 21 people that me.
Being with a camera again, I almost find my self scared to post a deviation that I once would have posted. So for now I have replaced my DevID with one taken using my SD200.
Do not get me wrong I really appreciate all the support. I am glad you enjoy my photography. I just hope I can keep up with what you expect when looking at my gallery.

Keep the past is the VHS conversion "company" I run. I have now finished the DVD menu template and am almost done with the DVD case. I have over 50 VHS tapes lined up ready for conversion. I am planning on investing in a Lighscribe drive for the DVD labels soon. I know the website sucks but I will start on the real site in xhtml after I am done with the actual product.

I was going to start school this week but my mother is in Washington helping my aunt who just got out of the hospital. So this next Wednesday will be the start of my school year. This year will mostly be study for the CHSPE (California High school Proficiency Exam), which if past, counts as a full high school diploma. I have already taken this test twice and almost pasted twice (failed.)

My baby-sitting job/s is doing quite nicely. I now work 2 days a week for one family and 1 day for another. I will be getting a raise this Friday, which will be very useful. I have quite a bit of money stashed away that was going to be used if CompUSA did not replace my camera. So I am thinking of investing a fair amount of this. The mother of one of the kids I baby-sit does financial advise for a living. We figured out that to become a millionaire in for years (good time for retirement) you would need to invest $67$ a week. Now I do not plan on investing this much but it shows that a small amount can go a long way. I was thinking more along the lines of $20 weekly.

In scouts I have finally gotten my last merit badge for "life". Also have finished my scout master conference and only need to have my board of review. Now I understand I am doing poorly in scouts. Only have 1&1/3 year to finish everything for eagle before I age out. This is not impossible but very hard. I feel this needs to be my main goal for the upcoming year.

I know I am rambling and thank you for living through it. This has helped me organize my thoughts.

Thank you to everyone in DA for the amazing support.

Alex M. ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6140089/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6140089/ Fri, 05 Aug 2005 08:47:35 PDT
I have still heard nothing from CompUSA regarding my camera. So for this hike I will be using my mothers camera, Casio QV-R40. On my last 50 mile hike I was not into photography at all. This time I will be bringing 12 batteries and over 1gb of SD chips. This might not be New Mexico but I still hope to leave plenty of good shots.

Depending on how CompUSA refunds my camera, I will be replacing my camera with either a Canon PowerShot S70 or NIKON D70. However it works out, the future should be bright.

Now if you would excuse me, I need to pack me pack.

Alex M. ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6058426/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/6058426/ Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:38:18 PDT
Today I spent a good amount of time cleaning and removing sand from the interior of the camera. After I was done I was faced with the same thing. Fortunately when I bought the camera, we also bought the protection plan from CompUSA. So we just got back from dropping it off at CompUSA. They tell me it will take at least two weeks until they can tell me whether or not they will repair/replace it.

So to all my friends that are currently watching me, I am sorry. I will be without a camera for at least two weeks, perhaps longer.


Alex M. ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5851735/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5851735/ Tue, 05 Jul 2005 21:48:42 PDT
I am going up to Washington tomorrow for a family reunion and then going to scout camp. When everything is added together I don't get back till the 16th. I will be bringing my camera but will not have a connection until I get back.
One of my main inspirations for the art has vanished and I fear it may never return. My photography has been lowering in quality and I have not been posting as often as I would like. Despite this I shall try my best and hopefully have a few photos to share with you all when I get back.
(Sorry, no vacation slideshow).


Alex M. ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5315750/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5315750/ Mon, 09 May 2005 21:39:38 PDT Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5

1GB MB DDR400 (PC3200)-2X512

400GB Serial ATA-7200rpm

16x SD DL(DVD-R/CD-RW)

ATI Radeon 9650 XT w/256MB

The Worlds Fastest Personal Computer... is mine. ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5289490/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5289490/ Fri, 06 May 2005 23:23:16 PDT
;D Love soh ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5231501/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5231501/ Sat, 30 Apr 2005 16:28:21 PDT Also brought my camera and had lots of fun with it. Took hundreds of photos. If you view my gallery you will find the best of them.

While I was up there I bought A new computer. Dual 2.7ghz G5 Tower. It should arrive sometime in the next 2 weeks. I look forward to finaly being able to use OS X on my own machine.

I would like to thank "fakenumber" and "Hellyz" for me.


#2 Alex ]]> *Alexbalix http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5147678/ http://Alexbalix.deviantart.com/journal/5147678/ Thu, 21 Apr 2005 11:21:20 PDT <aram name="quality" value="best" /> <aram name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <aram name="scale" value="showAll" /> <aram name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=716247&server=www.vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=" />
Shadow In Shadow from Alex Mukensnable on Vimeo.

]]> *Alexbalix