The Beach

Hamilton Beach 33967 Set 'n Forget 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker
$59.99
The Hamilton Beach 33967 Set 'n Forget 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker is fantastic; I wanted a slow cooker that would automatically stop cooking when I wanted it to, so I didn't have to plan on being home when the cook time finished. The programmable time feature is very helpful, and it turns on warm automatically when the cooking is finished so that I have my warm meal when I get home automatically.

Pros:
- Programmable, can set low or high temperatures for a set period of time, or even use a built-in thermometer probe
- Has latches that allow you to secure the lid to the slow cooker unit, so you can transport the entire cooker with food for a potluck or other event
- Large 6-quart capacity is fantastic for making large meals at once

Cons:
- Slow cookers should be filled halfway at least, so this cooker is not necessarily suitable for making smaller meals
- Cord is very short, so must be placed within a foot or so of an outlet

The Beach
$23.95
Welcome to Utopia. Alex Garland's debut is one of the best travel writings I've ever read. His writings literally brings you to the streets of Bangkok and the immaculate beaches of Thailand. The characters in the book, particularly Richard and Jed (which incidentally, was apparently butchered by the screenwriter and therefore totally absent from the movie), are distinctly memorable. One may also call this book an up-to-date, hip, BazLuhrmanized version of Lord Of The Flies. It's not so much about backpacking, smoking...or a prolonged summer vacation. It's about finding a little bit of Hell in the middle of Eden and how the different groups of people's react to this. It's all about human psychology and different persepectives. It poses the question of what would you do if you were there? This book is a definite page-turner with the pace surprisingly goes from normal to top speed almost halfway through the book (I took 2 and a half days to finish it).However, a word of caution : to enjoy this book, you MUST disassociate everything between this book and the movie at all costs.

The Beach
$16.00
The Beach is a utopia gone awry story about a young British twenty something named Richard, a typical elitist backpacker who travels to the lesser journeyed areas of the world basically to meet up with other elitist backpackers (usually of the Western persuasion) and one up each other with their travel scorecards. He travels to Thailand and not only meets up with pretentious travelers but also encounters a strange man who leaves him a map of an island that is ultimately unknown to travelers. This being an ideal travel spot for travelers like him, Richard and his new acquaintances travel to the mysterious island and come across a community of displaced travelers, like himself, that by all appearances seem to be living and idyllic existence. Soon they come to find out that things usually never are as they appear.

I was incredibly disappointed with this story. I found myself confused, but not in a profound way. I was simply confused by the story because of its lack of development. From the first person narrative to the story itself, the writing wasn't thorough enough. This is written in the first person narrative, so we only got to intimately know Richard, who seemed petty, lazy, and vapid, and Garland didn't bother to develop any of the other characters. I didn't find myself convinced of the utopia the beach was supposed to be. It just sounded like some cult. All they did was work and get stoned. All we had to rely on was the author's constant reminder that everybody liked doing manual labour and getting stoned all day. Most of the conflict was brought on by Richard himself over very trivial issues. I also found the macabre (particularly at the end) confusing. There wasn't enough conflict or tension or enough build up for the violent, senseless ending.

The overall problem I felt was that Garland seemed to rely on word of mouth to fill in the blanks of this lack luster thriller. He knew it would be obviously compared to The Lord of the Flies and seemed to depend on the readers' knowledge of that novel to get them through this book. That's the only thing that kept me on point with this book.

Northpole Easy And Convenient Beach Tent Cabana - 7 Foot
$29.99
We received our new cabana tent very quickly to Hawaii. Very light weight...kids can carry it without any difficulty. Looked over directions and put together with my girlfriend, very quickly and without any difficulty. Now that we're familiar with how to put together and take apart, it seems very easy to put together solo. Great sun protection and can be moved around easily to adjust for sun. Seems to be able to tolerate mild winds. Bought an extra for our friends who will be having a baby soon and looks to be spacious enough to accomodate their needs as well.
Price was perfect and quality so far is superb. Mahalo from Maui!