Buy expensive stuff for a fraction of the price

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advertising, auction, bid, expensive, google, millisecond, pennies, scam, t.v. legitimate, TV, website

These days there are a growing number of bid websites where, they claim, you can bid, perhaps, pennies to by expensive items for a fraction of their usual price. These are sometimes called penny auctions, however, one bids, one must pay careful attention to how they work.

When you sign up, you buy your bids, that’s right, you pay ahead. Next, you find something you would like to bid on and start bidding. You watch the timer and as the seconds tick down, you can keep placing bids. There may be quite a few people bidding all at the same time. In fact, more than one person may bid in the same millisecond, according to one complaint I read. Of course, the final seconds of countdown won’t start until the website has made enough money to cover the item.

These websites must be extremely successful, since there are more and more of them popping up. They even advertise on T.V. They seem legitimate, however, I don’t think a real auction site would charge you money in advance. Sure, you may win a bid, but, how many will you lose.

Before you get involved, Google the name of the bid site and then the word scam. I have not tried any of these websites and am writing this to encourage you to check first, as I did. I am also not going to include a list as you can easily find them yourself.

Bidder beware!

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Kauai — From Christmas to New Years

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abundant, academics, activities, air, airplane, alcohol, bag, banana, bar, bathing suit, beach, bed, board, boarding, boogie, bowl, breakfast, brother-in-law, burrito, camera, cameras, clearing, coconut, combo, confident, contract, course, crowded, daily, daughter, days, demonstrate, dining, dinner, dirt, dishes, drift, drink, drinks, drive, edit, electric, expensive, family, fancy, fantastic, feature, feed, fire, fireworks, fish, float, flying, food, fun, generous, golf, graduate, grand caravan, grand hyatt, guacamole, guests, guitar, hawaii, hawaiian, hosts, ice cream, instructor, instructors, jazz, juggling, kalua, land, lanterns, launching, lava, lecture, lesson, links, live, macadamia, Marriott Waiohai Beach Club, mask, master, meal, memories, mexican, mitch, morning, movie, movies, music, neal, nelson, new years eve, night, nut, onboard, outdoor, pacific, paddle board, pancake, park, party, pedro, people, performance, photoblog, photography, photos, plastic, pocket, poipu, pool, post, potholes, price, private, pulled pork, qualifications, qualifies, red, reef, regulators, resort, restaurant, riding, road, rocks, rough, scuba, seattle, shore, shot, sing, sister, skills, snorkel, snorkelling, son, sort, sorted, spam, stand-up, stocking, storage, sun, sunrise, sunset, surf, surfer, surfing, surfs, swam, swim, swimming, syrup, talked, teaching, trains, treat, trip, TV, ukulele, underwater, vacation, vancouver, velocity, video, virgin, waiohai, walked, water, waterproof camera, waves, wife, world war II, written, youtube

Whew! We are flying home from our fantastic vacation at the the Marriott Waiohai Beach Club in Poipu, Kauai. My sister made sure we were kept busy experiencing all that we could. I have already mentioned some things we did. I continued to take an enormous number of photos, many of waves and sunrises. My storage for photos has been eaten up by the unexpected videos I shot with the little waterproof camera my sister gave us. I am now down to the onboard storage of both my cameras. I should make it, however, I will have to do some real juggling to find storage space to sort photos and edit all the videos into a short movie.

Back to the activities. Our hosts, my sister and brother-in-law, were truly generous by not only stocking the unit we stayed in with plenty of food, but also, getting us out to eat in the local dining places. For them, it is the experience with the dining rather than the price, however, they always point out that we are the least expensive guests to take out since we do not drink alcohol. So, the food is even more abundant.

One night we went to a semi-outdoor restaurant nearby. We sat right near the live music which included a fellow who surfs by day and plays the electric ukulele and sings by night. He was good too. Besides the fellow playing guitar at the outdoor bar at the Waiohai, we did not hear much more live music. Oh, there was a small jazz combo at the Grand Hyatt bar as we walked through.

One morning, we went for breakfast at the local golf course and had another huge meal. It seems that the World War II canned meat spam, still has a following in Hawaii. There are many dishes incorporating the meat, long forgotten elsewhere. I also had Kalua pulled pork, on other occasions too, even on the airplane a while ago. I tried my sister’s breakfast burrito and had a banana and Macadamia nut pancake with coconut syrup. I simply could not resist.

Another night we went to a Mexican restaurant, yes, Mexican in Hawaii, just to be different, I guess. The unique experience here was the table-side guacamole. Pedro came and made the guacamole, two servings, in a lava bowl right at our table and it was surely the best I have ever had.

We were treated to more surfing lessons. Our instructor, looked like true Hawaiian surfer. No family, just teaching surfing everyday, all day. He was there at sunrise and still around after sunset. Very dedicated. We were learning on reef surf, different from the beach surf at the previous lessons. All I can say is, it is still hard to do. But, we sure had fun. My son really took to stand-up paddle boarding and spent some hours on the last day trying to graduate to catching waves on the board.

The resort has a new contract to have daily scuba lessons available. Our instructor struck me immediately as very confident. There was my sister and three of us from my family. Neal told us that we had to do the academics first, so, he gave a short lecture, but, at a high velocity. One rarely runs across someone who can speak so fast. He assured us by giving his long list of qualifications, including the fact that he is the top person for the Pacific area and does work in movies and trains and qualifies instructors. Next, we had a couple of performance skills to master and demonstrate, such as clearing our mask of water and finding and clearing our regulators, all under water. It turned out to be so simple that, in no time, we were swimming around the pool underwater and having a great time. After, my sister invited Neal for a drink where we talked more about scuba and other interesting stuff. We came away from the experience knowing it had been a real treat. We had been in the company of a true master, just as we were with Mitch and Nelson, our surfing instructors.

As the trip was nearing its end, my sister urged me to do a few more things. One morning they took me to a somewhat remote beach for some photography. The drive was rough, through some private land. The road was the common red dirt with deep potholes, however, the Grand Caravan finally made it. We walked along the beach, along some rocks, I took many photos and then we did some snorkelling.

It was the last day, so when we got back from the early morning trip, my sister still had a few more activities for me to do. I had to keep up, somehow, so I grabbed some food and then we were off to have a swim with my wife and daughter at another beach and then, do some boogie boarding at still another beach on the other side of the resort and past a park. It was a crowded beach that we went to. People were body surfing and boogie boarding. It was difficult to keep from running into each other. On one ride I crossed over and my son ended up riding on top of me all the way into the shore.

I was not finished yet. My sister had some fish food to feed fish while snorkeling, so, off I was again to snorkel. My wife even went too. Not knowing where to put the food while we swam out to the reef, my sister suggested I shove the plastic bag into my bathing suit pocket. At one point, as I was using my small video camera, I realized that there were more fish than normal. A quick check of my pocket and I knew they already got the fish food.

Finally, it was time to get ready for the New Years Eve party on the beach. We started at the bar with some fancy drinks, virgin for most of us, and some dinner. People were already setting off fireworks on the beach and launching fire lanterns (I know there is proper name for them, but, I don’t have it on hand) that would float high into the air and drift away. Then came the big Poipu Beach fireworks display and the party was over before midnight. We went and had some ice cream, watched TV and then got tired, so we went to bed.

I feel as if there is so much I have not written about. We really did pack plenty of memories into this eight days of fun in the sun. We are about to land in Seattle for our connecting flight to Vancouver.

I will post some photos on my PhotoBlog and Feature Photos website once I get them sorted. I may even post some video on YouTube. I may also post links relating to the trip, if I get a chance.

Holy Buddhist Priests

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benze, bones, born, buddhists, burial, business, carbon, child, conversation, cremation, drive, expensive, father, footprint, funeral, gown, holy, japan, japanese, married, mercedes, order, position, practices, price, priests, privileged, protracted, questions, resomation, rituals, shrewd, society, suits, talking, temple, trip, western, woman

Recently, I had a conversation with a fellow who used to live in Japan. He married a Japanese woman whose father passed away a couple of months ago. Thus, they had to make a sudden trip back to Japan and, as the only child, they are the only people who can deal with the father’s affairs. They also have to cover the costs, which, as it turns out, are considerable. Let me see if I can relate the jist of the conversation. Let me know if I get anything incorrect.

Japan is a country of mostly Buddhists. To plan and hold a funeral, one must deal with the priests. It seems that the priests are free to set the price at whatever they want. “I always thought of Buddhist priests as very holy and tied to a temple and rituals.” According to the fellow I was talking to, “that is only for show, once they are done, off comes the gown and they are wearing suits and are very shrewd business men.” He told me, they drive around in Mercedes Benzes. Apparently, nobody really questions the practices of the priests and one must be born into the order to attain this privileged position in society.

A Japanese Buddhist funeral is not only expensive, it is a long and protracted set of events that includes a cremation and the laying out of the bones. Since it will take 49 days until the next portion of the funeral, my friend and his wife must make another trip back to Japan.

I guess we really can’t complain about a western funeral, unless, it concerns the carbon footprint of a cremation or burial. An alternative to cremation is on the way—resomation.

So, what do you think about Japanese funerals? How about Buddhism and the priests? Have you heard of resomation and what do you think about it?

Go green bike lanes and other greenish stuff

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alternative, approval, attention, automobile, bike, bikers, brave, bridges, bulbs, can of worms, car, cars, ceiling, cfl, city, commenting, compact, concern, confused, considerations, construction, consumer, contractors, control, controversial, conversation, corporations, corridor, creating, designed, dig, discovered, discussion, dollar, downtown, driving, drove, equation, expecting, expensive, experiment, factored, family, fluorescent, folks, formal, grab, green, greener, halogen, idling, imagined, incandescent, initiative, initiatives, introduced, issue, lane, lanes, led, light, light bulbs, light emitting diode, lighting, live, maneuver, marketing, mentioned, mercury, million, money, months, morning, mother-in-law, negate, night, noticed, option, orange, organizations, permanent, pilot project, pondering, pot, proceeding, product, products, publicize, pun, rainy, research, road, spotlights, stores, streets, struggle, suburb, success, surprised, systems, thinking, town, track, traffic, transit, transition, trial, understands, value, vancouver, viable, winter, zone

We, my family and I, recently drove through town and I found that, although there did not seem to be a lot of cars, traffic was moving rather slowly. In recent months, that might well have been due to road construction. Vancouver has had so much road construction that it has been difficult to go anywhere without having to maneuver through all sorts of fluorescent orange or green traffic control systems. I took to commenting often that, “Vancouver is just one giant construction zone.” Vancouver is a city where folks like their cars. It is hard to get them to give up driving everywhere. Transit systems are in place, as are a variety of initiatives, to make getting around without using a car, much easier. One such initiative is bike lanes and it was a bike lane that got me thinking, as we drove through town.

For those who live in, or near, town, biking is a very viable alternative to using a car. Bike lanes have been added to a few streets and bridges. One street corridor recently received a three million dollar (if I recall correctly) experiment, trial, pilot project, whatever, one that is taking place in the middle of winter. There was quite a bit of discussion about this project because it received approval at around 11 PM at night and the construction began a 7AM the next morning. It seemed the contractors were expecting to be proceeding, even before a formal go ahead. It also seems as if the lane might be designed to be permanent.

We live in a suburb of Vancouver and actually seldom drive downtown, so, I was a bit surprised at how much driving space is lost due to the bike lanes. I always imagined a narrow bike lane. I guess it never really occurred to me that the only way to make the lane is to take a whole car lane. The result, as I soon noticed, is that traffic moves much slower. That got me to thinking. Our drive through town took place on a rainy day and I saw only a few (brave?) bikers. We, however, sat in our car idling and having to start and stop more often than usual. So, how can this be a green option? Three and four lane streets were reduced to two lanes, thus slowing traffic. All this for only a few bikers.

This raises the issue, and it is a real concern, what makes a particular initiative a green one? It can look green, like a bike lane, but, what lies (a pun?) under the surface? Was reduced automobile traffic flow factored into the ‘bike lanes are green’ equation?

It turns out that many corporations and large organizations will take what looks to be a green initiative and publicize it to gain attention. It is a usually a marketing money grab. If you dig under the surface, just like the bike lanes, there are other considerations that may negate some of the green value.

Many corporations struggle with going green. They attempt to take existing products and make them greener, only to find that the consumer gets confused and no longer understands the product. Other corporations have discovered that creating an entirely new product introduced as green, brings more success.

I know I have opened a very controversial can of worms. Here is another green initiative, light bulbs. Today, my mother-in-law brought up the fact that it is getting difficult to buy incandescent light bulbs. She mentioned the alternative, compact fluorescent lights (CFL), and wanted to know what other options were available. I told her that LED (light emitting diode) lights are probably the next answer, but, they are too expensive at this time. LED lights do last far longer that anything else. I forgot to mention Halogen. One can find many halogen bulbs in the lighting section of stores, but, most look like very small spotlights and are usually used in track lighting and pot lights recessed in the ceiling.

Back to our conversation where we were pondering the green value of CFLs since they contain mercury. How can mercury be a better alternative? Without some research, the only reason I can think of is that they are a cheaper transition option to use, getting people to switch to other types of lighting and, while LED or other types come down in price.

I know we can go on with this discussion for years, and I’m sure we will. For now, I’ll end with asking, “Is the world going to end one day anyway, no matter what we do?”