Day 3: Monday June 2, 2003. 6:30 AM HST
Off the coast of Hilo, Hawaii
As I type this, I am sitting on my verandah, looking out at the Hilo coastline. The sun is just risen, and is sitting between the sea and the clouds. The ocean is calm and the air is warm and humid. This truly is paradise.
I was very happy to leave Honolulu yesterday. While the beaches are beautiful, and the water is clean, warm, and placid, the entire city feels like Santa Monica or Venice, in California: there are homeless, panhandlers, and shifty-looking hustlers everywhere. There is graffiti on most of the buildings, and trash litters the gutters and doorways along most of the streets. There seems to be a great deal of poverty just a few blocks away from Hotel Row, and the whole place just reeks of desperation.
We’re only in Hilo for a few hours today; our ship sets sail at 1:00 p.m. The plan is to rent a car and drive to the Volcano National Park. Anne and I rarely take traditional shore excursions through a cruise line. We prefer to rent a car, and use a map to make our own tour, or hire a local guide to drive us around. When we were in Alaska, we took a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier for 5 bucks . . . while our fellow passengers took the exact same trip on a cruise line organized bus for sixty-five!!
More later.

Day 2: Sunday June 1, 2003, 8:04 a.m. HST
Honolulu Hawaii
The convention yesterday was fantastic. It was small — about 300 people — but that seemed to be the perfect number of fans. I brought 20 copies of Dancing Barefoot with me, and sold them all!! Many people came over to me and told me that they read my site, and wanted to get my book. One guy told me that my site was “some of the best writing on the Internet.” 🙂
At most conventions, it’s always such a giant CF, and this was really different. When it was my turn to take the stage, rather than do the typical Q&A thing, I just read some of my stuff: The Trade, from Just A Geek, and a previously unpublished selection from SpongeBob Vegas Pants that’s in Dancing Barefoot. The audience seemed to enjoy themselves, despite the cellphone that kept ringing, and the guy who thought it was really entertaining to constantly shoot at me with the laser gun, complete with loud “zzzaaapp!” sound effects.
After the Con, Anne and I walked on the beach, (there’s a lot of that in Hawaii) and changed for a Bon Voyage Luau that Cruise Trek and Geek Cruises were throwing. I am not a big fan of luaus, but I had a nice time, and gorged myself on sweet potatoes and guava juice.
Thanks to jet lag, Anne I I fell asleep at 9:30 p.m., while the strains of “She Love You” exploded up from beneath our balcony, played by a Beatles cover band. Thankfully, 39 stories between us and Anne’s sleep cocoon (ear plugs and an eye mask) ensured a good night’s sleep.

Day 1: Saturday, May 31, 2003, 6:50AM, HST
Aloha from Honolulu!!
I am writing this from the balcony of my hotel room. When I look up from my iBook’s screen, I can see Waikiki beach. To my left, I can see NAME OF BAY, which currently has about 30 surfers riding the beautiful Hawaiian waves.
Anne and I arrived here in Honolulu yesterday morning at 11AM local time, after a surprisingly comfortable and very pleasant flight from beautiful downtown Burbank. Thank you to everyone who sent me some of that “don’t be such a wuss and just enjoy the flight” mojo. The five hour and 24 minute flight was very smooth, and went by fairly quickly: I watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit on my iBook, (I forgot how much I love that movie, and how truly amazing it was when I first saw it), took several naps, and then watched Chicago (hilariously edited for our safety) as the in-flight movie. We also ate some unexpectedly good airplane food: some warm apple crepes, and tasty Hawaiian sweet rolls.
When we got to our hotel, our room wasn’t ready, so we ate a nice lunch, drank lots of POG juice, and talked to lots of birds. When our room, which is on the 39th floor and has the most spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean you can imagine, was finally ready, we dropped off our bags, and took one of those quick 20-minute naps . . . that turned into nearly three hours. I guess the last few weeks of stress and anticipation finally caught up with us, well, that and the fact that we’d only gotten a total of six hours of sleep the previous two nights. When we woke up, we took a walk down the beach, where we enjoyed spectacular views of Diamond Head, and not-so-spectacular views of the gross over-development of the rest of Honolulu.
When we got back to our hotel, we went up to the special, super-secret, you-must-know-the-password concierge club level, where Anne sat with Chase Masterson and Lolita Fatjo, while I stood on the balcony with Randall Schwartz, talking about website design (practice and philosophy) with this guy Manu who was on Voyager.
We watched the sun set over the bay, and Anne and I returned to our room around 8 p.m. We ate a light dinner, and were both asleep by 9. Thank you jet lag.
So far, I’m having a wonderful time. When I stood on the balcony of the lounge last night, watching the sun set, I thought about how insanely lucky I am: I’m happier and more content than I’ve been in years, my book seems to be a success, and a much bigger success than I ever thought it would be, and I am in Hawaii with my beautiful wife, standing on the balcony of this amazing hotel, watching a the sun set the sky aflame as it vanishes into the sea.
Today, the organizers of Cruise Trek (the whole reason I’m here) have put together a small convention that I’m attending. I get about 45 minutes on stage, so I’m going to read “The Trade” and “Fireworks” from Just A Geek and an excerpt from “The Saga of SpongeBob Vegas Pants,” from Dancing Barefoot. Before that, I think Anne and I are going to pay our respects at the Arizona Memorial, and then ride some of those awesome waves I’ve been watching for the last hour.
Aloha, everyone!