Pouring My Art Out

Fishies!… part 6…

Posted on June 17, 2014 by pouringmyartout

Come here, you crazy Maui reef fish… you will not escape me so easily… I will identify you… oh yes… I will…

Ooooh… what’s that what one called? It is sort of boxy. That should be easy to identify. Let me consult my handy, plastic-encased dive card. Hey… stop swimming away while I am trying to identify you!

Oh, you might be a spotted trunkfish… a male spotted trunkfish…

I mean, how many boxy fish can there be swimming around Maui, right? Oh… wait… turns out there are a few…

Look, there is another one right over there… Oh… you are a little cutie… and according to my dive card, you are a female spotted trunkfish… or maybe a Hawaiian spotted toby…

Why can’t you all try to look more like your pictures on the cards? You make this so difficult. But I am pretty sure… wait…

Oh crap… There is another boxy, spotted fish… so that is either a spotted boxfish… which you must admit is a pretty good name for a boxy, spotted fish… or it is a Hawaiian spotted toby… or a female spotted trunkfish… screw it… the next time I go to Maui, I am going to shoot every damn fish I see with a tranquilizer dart, put it in a cooler full of water, and take it to the aquarium to show to an expert… oh… wait… I could just go to the aquarium and see the fish in the tanks… I bet they have signs telling just what kind of fish they are… but somehow, that seems like cheating. I suppose I could look all these fish up on the interwebs and compare them with better pictures… but that might suck some of the fun out of these posts…

Wait… what is that yellow fish under that outcropping of coral?

Yes… it is long and skinny and yellow… let me try to get closer…

I can’t hold my breath any longer… I hope this picture comes out nice and clear… oh… dang it… well, if I had to hazard a guess, based on the closest match up with the dive card, I would say that is a trumpetfish… or maybe the Loch Ness monster… sigh…

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged fish, hawaii, humor, maui, nature, photography, reef fish, skin diving, snorkeling, social-media | 12 Comments

Fishies!… part 5…

Posted on June 16, 2014 by pouringmyartout

There I am, swimming around in the waters off Maui, trying to match up fish with the pictures on my dive card… and I must say that I am not thrilled by the way my neck looks all wrinkly… I look like an old sea turtle… sigh.

That, I believe, is a coronet fish… unless it is a needlefish… or possibly a trumpetfish… I have an awesome video of that fish that I took with that cool little Go Pro camera, but you all know I am a computer moron, so I haven’t figured out how to post the videos yet.

That is another raccoon butterflyfish. I know we already saw a picture of one of those, but I didn’t want to waste this one.

That is a 4-spot butterflyfish. Don’t believe me? I will try to swim closer. There are a lot of pictures for me to go through, because when you first see a fish, you take a picture. Then you try to swim closer to get a better picture…

So you end up following the fish all over the reef. And a lot of the shots end up being bad pictures because you just caught the fish from above or directly behind, and you can’t really see them. You have to wait until they turn so you can get them from the side…

But they don’t always cooperate. It is all about persistence and timing.

That is a Moorish idol… I bet I can get closer…

No wonder I wore those holes in the top of my feet with the swim fins.

Oh look, the Moorish idol is swimming by some other cool fish. A lot of times, you end up getting distracted by a new fish before you get a good picture of the one you started following…

But not this time. And I am glad, because that is one handsome fish.

That is an ornate butterflyfish. We actually successfully identified those last two fish, thanks to the fact that the pictures are good, and there aren’t other fish on the dive cards that look like them.

That fish doesn’t seem to be on the cards, which is a shame…

Because the colors on that fish are just plain exquisite.

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged fish, hawaii, humor, maui, nature, outdoors, photography, skin diving, sports, travel | 12 Comments

Fishies!… part 4…

Posted on June 15, 2014 by pouringmyartout

Look at that intense glare of concentration in my eyes. That is the sort of concentration that it takes to identify tropical reef fish in the waters off Maui… because they do not cooperate in the identification process at all.

I am 99% sure that is a raccoon butterflyfish… I have zoomed in and compared it with the pictures on my dive card, and it is a pretty close match… and it doesn’t look too much like any other fish on the cards. Let’s zoom in a little and see if that helps…

Yup… that should be a raccoon butterflyfish… not to be confused with the long-nose butterflyfish or the bluestripe butterflyfish or the teardrop butterflyfish or the threadfin butterflyfish or the fourspot butterflyfish or the saddleback butterflyfish or the forceps butterflyfish or the ornate butterflyfish or the oval butterflyfish or the pyramid butterflyfish… I swear, I am not making those up, those are all on my two dive cards, and there are probably more of them that aren’t on the cards.

I know, we already looked at a picture of what might be a convict tang surgeonfish, but I like that picture because of the reef… and I like this one too…

I like the way the reef reflects of the surface of the water.

And I like that picture as well… because that is a fish that is proud to be shaped like a fish… whatever the heck kind of fish it is… and because the colors go so well with that cool wiggly way that sunlight has of shining down through the water and then dancing on the seafloor.

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged fish, hawaii, humor, maui, nature, outdoors, photography, reef fish, snorkeling, tropical reef fish | 12 Comments

Fishies!… part 3…

Posted on June 13, 2014 by pouringmyartout

Turns out that identifying reef fish on Maui with only a couple of dive cards is like picking a perpetrator out of a police lineup when they are all wearing clown makeup. Even sitting here at my computer, zooming in on each fish, with the dive cards beside me, it isn’t easy. They either aren’t on the cards at all, or there is another fish that looks too much like them to be quite sure…

So you can imagine how tricky it is when you are bobbing around in the waves and then diving down and trying to follow the fish around while they try to escape from you…

I am almost positive that one is a domino damselfish… almost…

And that one is a whatthehellisthatfish…

Obviously that is a trumpetfish… unless it is a needlefish…

Oh, that one should be easy… that is… uh… wait… really??? That one isn’t on either dive card? For crying out loud. It’s orange and red with blue and yellow tail and fins! How can that not be on the cards?

All I know is that the water was so clear, and the colors were so incredible…

That I am going to be boring you with pictures of fish for a few more days… HA!

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged current-events, fish, hawaii, humor, maui, nature, outdoors, photography, snorkeling, sports | 16 Comments

Fishies!… part 2…

Posted on June 11, 2014 by pouringmyartout

I am learning something from going through all the pictures of fish I took on Maui…

Hey… look at that… the refraction makes it look like I am touching myself on the head with my own disembodied hand… cool… Anyway, what I am learning is that even with the photos and a dive card, it is really hard to identify all the fish…

Like I am pretty sure that one up there is a bird wrasse.

That one, I have no idea… it doesn’t seem to be on the dive card.

And neither is that one.

Or that one. I run into the same problem when I go bird watching with my mom. They never look exactly like the picture in the book. Maybe they are juvenile birds, or the picture is a male and you are seeing a female. Or there are ten pages of yellow birds that all look a lot alike.

Or maybe these fish just weren’t spectacular enough to get put on the cards.

Makes you feel sort of bad for them.

Like the kids who could never get anybody to sign their yearbooks.

Look at that one… yellow… with a cool tail and a weird orange and blue oval spot on his side and he still can’t get any respect.

I am pretty sure that one up there is a manybar goatfish…

On the other hand, I thought that one was a manybar goatfish too… so… uh…

And I have no idea what kind of fish those are, but they don’t have to worry about getting anyone to sign their yearbooks yet… because they are still in school…

(Ha, see what I did there?)

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged diving, fish, hawaii, humor, maui, nature, outdoors, photography, snorkeling, vacation | 8 Comments

Fishies!… part 1…

Posted on June 11, 2014 by pouringmyartout

Oh yeah… snorkeling the reefs of Maui… on our second honeymoon…

So I have some pictures of fish to share… for the next few days… Now, you might think that we had to get on some boat and go miles out in the ocean. You would be wrong. Most of the pictures were taken 30 yards offshore… right in front of our hotel…

You could see the reef from our room.

At low tide, you could see it really well. I swam with a sea turtle right there, but I didn’t have the good underwater camera that we borrowed from my wife’s sister yet, so I only have some pictures of the turtles taken with a disposable underwater camera, and I haven’t gotten them developed yet. But even this close to shore, the diversity of sea life was incredible. It was like swimming in an aquarium…

That was another of my favorite places to swim… the reef right along the lava-rock shore, located conveniently right in front of our new favorite bar.

And now, some fish…

That is a reef trigger fish.

I think that is a convict tang surgeonfish… it isn’t always easy to tell just by looking at your dive card…

That is… uh… some other kind of fish… don’t worry, I am saving the best ones for last…

That’s a… fish…

And that… down there in the bottom left corner… correct me if I’m wrong… but that is also a fish…

Now there is a lot of dangerous stuff down there… besides the sharks, eels, stingrays, and devil scorpionfish… oooh… and I saw an octopus that was pretending to be a scorpion fish, but I hid and watched it come out and turn blue and purple… unfortunately I never got a good picture of it… but anyway, there are things down there that will cut you, rip you and poke you… and strong currents and waves and stuff… to push you into those sharp things…

Also, it is very easy to get a bad sunburn while you float around in the water, so I apologize to the ladies… and some of you guys… but there will not be any pictures of me without a shirt on… safety first…

I would like to identify that fish as an orangespine surgeonfish. But the tail is not exactly the same as the picture on the dive card… so it either is or it isn’t… but if it isn’t… you know the diving was awesome, if a fish like that didn’t even make the cut to get selected to be on the dive card…

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged current-events, diving, fish, hawaii, humor, maui, nature, photography, snorkeling, trigger fish, underwater camera | 34 Comments

Travel should be like a good stage show… it should always leave you wanting more…

Posted on June 10, 2014 by pouringmyartout

Whenever we went down to the beach at our hotel on Maui, to snorkel or take a romantic walk or to watch a sunset, I would always take a moment to gaze wistfully at the little islands in the distance…

We made a decision on our second honeymoon not to island hop. We wanted to see one island and get to know it, and Maui was a good choice… even though the decision wasn’t easy, because I love boats and adventures…

But what about those little islands in the distance? They aren’t famous islands. Nobody talks about them. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t adventures to be had out there…

I have always been like that. I need to know what is around the next bend, or over the next hill…

I would watch the trade winds move the clouds around those mountains and wonder if I was missing out on anything…

And perhaps, that is the best thing of all about an adventure…

It never really ends…

It just keeps calling you back.

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged current-events, hawaii, humor, maui, photography, romance, social-media, travel | 14 Comments

And now, despite the fact that she asked me to never put her in my blog again, except for that one picture of her on the day we were married, I give you a bunch of pictures of my wife… on Maui… on our second honeymoon… because I just love her that much…

Posted on June 9, 2014 by pouringmyartout

Isn’t she beautiful? And she always looks so happy.

I guess you can see where my daughters get their good looks.

It was that smile that first attracted me to her.

I mean, who doesn’t love that smile?

There she is learning how to do a hula dance at the luau we went to.

No, most of that food was for me… just so you know… that is how she keeps her trim figure.

There she is relaxing in front of our hotel room… well, one of our hotel rooms… if you remember the story of how we moved a few times…

There she is with her sister, enjoying the soothing waters of the Pacific on her toes… she does have toes… I swear…

She always looks so glad to see me. It is really quite moving.

There she is at the fancy dinner we went to after our re-commitment ceremony… that was a very romantic evening.

But she likes adventure too. There she is at the top of the volcano.

See, she is wearing the matching heart necklace we bought in Lahaina town.

She loved the romantic sunset horse ride we took.

And the Iao valley really brought a smile to her face.

And who doesn’t look happy when they are all decked out in flowers?

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged current-events, hawaii, humor, love, maui, romance, second honeymoon, social-media | 35 Comments

Because you never get tired of looking at pictures of me… and neither do I…

Posted on June 6, 2014 by pouringmyartout

It doesn’t matter if I am just a little drunk at a luau…

Or spending a little quality time with a banana… hey… don’t judge me… I didn’t know my wife took that picture, but that was the banana I bought on Maui on our second honeymoon, and there is no banana quite so full of bananaliciousness as a Hawaiian banana eaten in Hawaii…

Or if I am hanging out with another old sailor…

Or dressed like a goofy tourist, walking amongst the lava flows…

Okay… it’s a little better without the hat… but not much…

Or I could just be enjoying a refreshing, fruity adult beverage…

Or relaxing under a palm tree on a beach… seriously, I just sat down for a few seconds to take that one picture of my feet to do in that post about how your feet are your best friends because they take you on cool adventures, and my wife took that picture up there before I got back up again…

I might be wading in a tropical pool near a waterfall in the jungle…

Or sliding around on some slippery, barnacle-encrusted lava rocks taking pictures of a tide pool… wait… are we sure that’s me?

Yeah… that’s me… I recognize the hat…

Or maybe I am looking sort of sexy with my Hawaiian shirt unbuttoned just a little too far… you know… Like Magnum P. I.

Or taking a break to do some reading when it was raining pretty hard…

I might be in the passenger seat of the monster-vomit-green Mustang…

Or looking smart in my reading glasses…

Or perhaps petting a goat… okay, do I really look that goofy?

Or I might be telling a story to my in-laws… I do tell a good story… In fact, I annoy people at parties because nobody can tell a story about any topic that I don’t have a better story about…

Or even when I am just sitting behind the wheel of that crazy green car… I am just fun to look at… because I look like I am having fun.

Honestly, I am not as happy about some of these pictures as I could be. I finally finished up posting most of my pictures of the trip to Maui… minus a few selfies I slipped into this post, and some that have my wife in them and I have to Photoshop her out because she doesn’t like to be in blog… so I am now doing the pictures taken by my wife and my wife’s sister’s husband… but I can’t help thinking that I look better in selfies and close-ups than I do from further away. Hopefully that is just because I was dressed like a goofy tourist.

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged current-events, hawaii, humor, maui, photography, second honeymoon, selfies, social-media | 26 Comments

Hey, I am not self-centered… I just like horses… with me on them…

Posted on June 5, 2014 by pouringmyartout

Okay, I just thought it would be funny to try to figure out the best angle to take a selfie while riding on a horse… on Maui… on your second honeymoon…

That one came out pretty well.

Oh yeah, that captures the mood.

It isn’t a bad picture of me, but you can’t see the horse.

Once again, there seems to be something missing.

Oh come on… if people wanted to see pictures of my face they would just look at half the other posts on this blog… which is basically just a large tribute to my own ego… I mean, I do have an entire link in my word cloud in the sidebar called: Pictures of me…

Well, that’s a little better, but it is sort of blurry.

Close… but no cigar…

This is not as easy as it seems like it would be.

Well, that certainly captures my exuberance.

I do like the way I am grinning like a happy idiot… because that is exactly what I felt like.

Well that’s just weird.

Sigh.

I am starting see why you never see any cowboy selfies from back in the days of the wild West… it isn’t easy to do… and of course, when the camera was invented in the 1800’s, they were heavy… and the pictures took a long time to expose on the plate… so they would be all blurry if you were moving… and of course they had to use a big pan of flash powder to get light in the picture, so you probably would have set your horse on fire… so… uh… yeah.