Took this a few weeks ago on one of our morning walks on Lanikai Beach. Straight from the iPhone except for a small crop in Photogene.

Shot this a while ago with my iPhone thru my Maui Jim sunglasses on a beautiful Lanikai morning. Cropped it in Instagram.

Almost forgot my 365 today. My cousin and his wife, from Iowa, were here and I spent the entire day with them. It was a great day. And many thanks to our friend, Eric, for taking us out in his sailing outrigger canoe!

Snapped this shot early this morning during Lexi and my walk on Kailua Beach.

"Lucky we live Hawaii" is an island saying that, like so many island words and phrases, can have many meanings depending on the context of the conversation and people involved in the conversation...

Today is January 25, 2011, and the photo above (straight from my iPhone, no filters) was just one of dozens of vistas on my drive to Costco today, that made me say out loud, literally, to myself in the car, "lucky we live Hawaii."

This little guy was perched on a sandy knoll at the far end of Lanikai beach this morning. Happy Aloha Monday from Winter in Hawaii!

At great potential peril to my unprotected iPhone, I took 3 shots of this coconut, one of dozens washed up on Kailua beach this morning. This was the third shot and the water came in higher and faster than I expected. I had no idea if I even got a shot and decided it wasn't worth a wet iPhone just to get a photograph of a coconut on the beach.

When I got home (and had washed all the salt water and sand off my hands and arms, I was delighted to find I got the shot! A quick pass through my default settings in TiltShift Generator app and here's my 23/365 for Sunday, January 23, 2011.

Taken with Instagram app at Kalama Beach Park on a beautiful Hawaiian morning.

These two coconuts were sitting just like this when Lexi and I were walking Kailua Beach this morning. A quick pass through TiltShift Generator on my iPad and voila...

This marks the 21st day of my 365 Project and I'm posting this about 6 hours earlier than I ever have. Hope this is a good omen for the remaining 344 days!

A friend recently wrote on Facebook that he was tired of attending family reunions and having to field questions about why he wasn't yet married and how he should just pick someone and settle down. I suggested he stop attending family reunions... Seems simple enough a solution to me.

But it's not so simple when it's ME having to step up and tell close friends, "Thanks for the invite. But I'm going to watch a movie instead." I know I'm free to decline. But it's really difficult to be THAT free. It's easier to bend to my history, lineage, and the cultural assumptions of what I'm supposed to do rather than follow my own passions and interests and make myself happy.

It's easier to go and be miserable than stay home and be happy...

So what's this got to do with this surfer kid waiting for the set to pass so he can hop in and get out to the waves? Honestly, I'm not sure. But I know this kid took a beating from several waves while trying to keep his balance, and his board, on the slippery rocks before he was able to dive in and paddle out to the wave break where he really wanted to be. I took the easy way out today. Next time I hope I have the courage to say, "No thanks." and put my time in on the rocks so once the crashing sets pass, I can dive in and paddle out to where I'd rather be...

(I took this photo with my iPhone at world famous Ho'okipa Beach on Maui's North Shore on December, 18th, 2010. It was cropped and colors were punched up a bit in Photogene on my iPad.)