Kanikapila Party April 28, 2008

My friend Jake from work is really into all things Hawaiian – he’s the one who took me out on the outrigger canoe, he surfs and loves everything to do with the water, he plays Hawaiian music on the ukulele, and much more. His uncle had a “kanikapila” (play music) party on Saturday, and I got invited along. The party turned out to be a celebration for the Hawaiian language class that Jake’s uncle and father are taking.

It was fantastic. After some pupus and a potluck dinner, people started playing their instruments (many ukuleles and a steel guitar included), singing Hawaiian songs, and hula dancing. It was great. Many people knew only one or two hulas, and would request the musicians to play the songs they knew. I’m not sure that I’d seen men dance hulas before, but there were several dancing last night. Some people knew many hulas, including the teacher of the Hawaiian language class and her daughter, a finalist in the Miss Aloha Hula contest!

I took a video on my camera – I’m posting it below.

Check out some pics of the house (not mine – I was only there at night):

And some stills from the party:

Hiking Tantalus April 28, 2008

I’ve had a bit of a cold this weekend, which was keeping me from being as active as I would have liked. Yesterday I was in bed and on the couch all day except for the party. Today I managed to get out and do a little hiking, and see some views. I drive the Tantalus loop, and did a few short hikes there.

The first hike was to the Tantalus Summit. It was up many steps, through bamboo thickets, with brief glimpses of Honolulu and Waikiki through the trees.

Then I reached the summit, with beautiful views of Honolulu, Waikiki, and the mountains of Oahu. I was there by myself for about 20 minutes while I shot some photos and had a snack. It was a little hazy, but it was still great to be up there. Click on the panoramic photos below to check out some of the view.

Here’s the camera timer photo of me:

After that, I did the Makiki Valley hike, in a little bit of rainforest, to see the beautiful greenery and some pretty flowers and birds.

Luckily I did not cross paths with any pig hunters.

Finally, I went to the Pu’u Ulaka’a State Park lookout. It was the easist to get to, and had the best view. Check out the pano (click on it). I also spotted my office building in Manoa valley below.

Startup Update April 28, 2008

After 3+ weeks, I think I can give you a pretty fair assessment of my job so far. I really like it – it’s definitely exciting working for a small company with big goals. In a company of 11 people (5 full-time on the technical team), I can really feel my impact on the company. That is pretty inspiring, and makes the long days worth it.

I’m working on a lot of different things, which keeps it interesting: developing new signal processing algorithms, helping to decide what areas we should pursue next to solve problems, writing the protocol for a clinical study, working on regulatory submissions, working on patent submissions, presenting to investors, … There are probably more things that I’m forgetting to put here, and I’m sure more will pop up!

The hours aren’t totally crazy – I’m probably averaging about 60 hours a week: a few late nights a week and some time on the weekends. The weeks are long, but the work is mostly fun, and there’s still time to enjoy some of the Hawaii paradise.