Oh Ghost, Why Won't You Just Die?

So I want to give some background and grand overview about what is going on here.....but there is so much to cover. Ive been here for almost a week, which is crazy.....I cant imagine only staying here that long. So, for lack of greater inspiration.....I'll just let you know whats going on right now.

When I flew out here, I had a (relatively) strict limit of how much weight I could bring....people are generally allowed 50 lbs of baggage per flight. One of the few luxuries I decided to bring were my laptop and speakers, which is great to have. I'm listening to Ghost Mice right now, which feels very appropriate. Im also thinking about the fact that Im not wearing any underwear. On my first try at doing laundry in the house the washing machine broke a couple minutes into the wash cycle, so now there is a big dirty stagnant pool of albatross vomit and bird droppings lurking in my kitchen.

Outside the wind is howling up to 50 mph, which puts a bit of a damper on both the people and birds.....I had to work in it today (including biking 6 miles around the island), which was a soul-crushing experience. In the afternoon, an albatross landing next to us "ate shit" when attempting to land and actually did a full somersault when it hit the ground. Albatross are notoriously bad at landing on solid ground, as they spend most of their time at sea....but even this bird had to have been embarrassed.

The internet cuts out when the weather gets too bad, so Im not sure how long I can do this for. Lets see, what else is going on......there is a television with full cable in the living room, which I have turned on for all of 20 seconds since Ive been here. The Laysan Albatross outside are all hunkering down in the wind, and the first Bonin Petrels of the evening are floating overhead (they are only active here at night). Im going to go play poker in a little bit, and hopefully come away with some more money.

Above is a Red-footed Booby from Eastern Island. It is the sexiest of all boobies (insert boob/sex joke here). Eastern has pretty much been left to the birds....there isnt really much visible infrastructure there apart from the overgrown WW II era runways. Lifer (not meat) Christmas Shearwater and Brown Noddy put in appearances when I went over there....yes. The Golden Goony, however, remains elusive.