lines of flight

Updated the list of articles for December and January to include a New Year’s Eve piece for HI Luxury and a story on UH summer programs in historical preservation and archeology on the Big Island of Hawaii for Malamalama.

Also added is the list of my Malamalama stories from Feb. 04 – Jan. 07. These are on subjects I usually wouldnt even think to write about (except the one on KTUH radio). I learn a lot writing about such diverse topics in history, the environment, tourism and the arts, as well as the interests of the institution behind the curtain.

The layout on the website doesnt do much justice to the photos and illustrations. The PDFs of Malamalama that are available for download are much better.

Finally, managed to get together links for some early Hana Hou stories. That’s the inflight magazine for Hawaiian Airlines. I need to write more for them, they do a really good job.

Another of the dorky yet ongoing quests in my life is for the perfect travel backpack. Conditions in the blogosphere (do people really use that word?) seem ripe for me to share my discoveries so far. Brave New Traveler, Lorelle and Travel Betty all inspired this entry.

Like Travel Betty, my dad bought me my first pack. It was a great pack, a Mountainsmith, well-made, top-loading, ginormous. It didnt fit me particularly well, nor did I know how to make the right adjustments, but I managed well with it on a relaxed one-month trip to Finland. Studying in Lapland and staying with fam in Helsinki meant I didnt need to rush around with it too much. It worked great on a two-day hike, but you dont need much gear on an organized, two-day hike. . .

It was when I tried to use it for my 3 month Euro tour that I ran into trouble. Admittedly, I made a lot of mistakes on that trip. Not only had I over-packed, I’d bought too much almost right away, including books (books??!) and some very styling, chunky-heeled boots on day 3 in Dublin. The boots wouldnt fit in the pack so I wore them all the time. On day 4 I broke my arm falling from the upper bunk of a hostel bed.

It was only a minor fracture, but it made my overstuffed, ill-fitted bag a major problem.

Click to view the photo album, featuring the trip we took by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, with a pit stop at the Grand Canyon.

Scintillating thoughts on the process of getting photographs online, after the jump.

* yea, I back-dated this blog post, so what? :~j