If I Had a Hammer

Glad you stopped by and all that. This is my world wide web room. Few are there they that have seen the actual hub from which of my thoughts radiate out onto the Internet. Just kidding, you've probably on to the fact that this isn't really my official residence by any stretch of the imagination. First of all none of the rooms in my own mansion have 9½-ft. high ceilings or is there daily maid service available at my humble abode. This is just a place I get to work at every so often pounding a hammer wearing a tool belt.

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2-U

something I stumble upon on the Web. Don't mention where you stumbled upon it yourself.

Green Smoking

This gizmo charges up the little battery for a "smokeless cigarette" by plugging it into the nearest USB port.  There's different brands of smokeless cigarettes around like Green Smoke and Smoke 51 which I've been looking into being that we pay over $2 in state tobbaco taxes on top of the federal tax for a pack of cigarettes in Hawaii nei. With smokeless cigarettes, you exhale only water vapor or fog. The advantage is that it's not 25¢ a puff anymore. A state quarter a puff, LOL. Smoke 51 is on sale at Long's Drugstore, but then I came across a promo for a free starter kit for Smoke 51 on an Internet ad. Clicked to the site. They only require that you pay the postage, the starter kit is free. But there's a glitch on the manufacturer's website. After you've inputed your credit card info for the postage, the submit button doesn't take you anywhere, however still leaves all your personal info visible on the manufacturer's webpage. Kinda makes you wonder, kind of a thing. "Scam," enters your mind. Somebody could actually offer an item for "free" if you agree to pay the postage, and in the process of paying the postage with your credit card, you've volunteered a lot of private information. Hmmmmm.

H2N2

Stat, Fire er Up

Personally, I have only a vague idea what Health Care Reform is suppose to be reforming. Whether it's to cap the insurance providers' administration cost or limit their profits. Or to require that the uninsured insure themselves so the public doesn't have to foot the medical expenses using the same rationale as mandatory auto insurance. Or to provide people who can't afford to buy health insurance themselves with free universal health insurance. One thing that I find intriguing is that the people reporting on it on tv probably all have health insurance themselves through their employers. They couldn't care either way on health care reform asides from the fact that the topic just happens to be news worthy at the moment.

Gilbratar Airport

This is how insomnia feels like on some days. Today I was planning to watch the Aloha Parade in Waikiki but I had to yield to insufficient sleep at the intersection of my front door and Ala Wai Blvd. 

The Body of Evidence

Koko Head crater as it appears looking to your left from the Diamond Head scenic lookout. And I know you're saying to your self that Koko Head crater looks so much better close up, and no shutterbug worth his $5.oo disposable camera would take a photo of Koko Head crater from the above distance. However since I'm not 100 percent sure on the health of Iron Horse (my bike) I was wary of riding up that hill to get to the place where people usually take pictures of Koko Head crater. Which brings us to tonight's topic which I took off the news wire: Taking photos of your kids in the tub. Or, here.

If you haven't read the story .... A husband and wife took impromtu photographs of their kids innocently romping around naked in the bathroom. Brought the pictures over to Walmart to have the pics developed. The Walmart employee determined the pics were porn. The couple are reported to the police, re: Walmart policy, who in turn interpreted the photos to be the substance which is porn enough to turn the parents over to CPS. CPS takes the kids away from the parents for a month. Better to be safe than sorry for the welfare of the kids? The porn charges revolve around 8 pics which were judged in context of a batch of 144 pics, total, that the parents took to Walmart to have developed. That's on the same level of having posted a naked photo of your own kids on your blog within the overall context of a dotting post on the same siblings. Ah, huh! You are a child pornographer. The prosecution rests. As the parents found out for themselves, they were not entitled to an expedited hearing in front of an impartial judge to review the photographs and put an end to the matter. Heck, all that's involved is to examine the darn photos. It ain't like a long drawn out somebody's word against another person's kinda thing. A judge later ruled in the parent's favor. I was watching television, and a commentator put it, "the authorities are the parties that have the perverted minds" which appears to have presided over the evidence.

You're probably like me, in that, before we owned big companies, luxury yachts, we were able to enjoy the simple things in life, like stretching the dollar, reading blogs.

Highest rents in U.S. .... Hawaii

*That's based on the percentage of the paycheck devoted to rent.

The culprit behind the "highest rent" is the influx of Micronesians who have migrated to the islands, and in so doing, have reduced the number of vacant rental units because obviously they have to live somewhere. However, with a higher demand for the lower number of remaining rental units available on the market to local renters, rents have been jacked up. I've been in my apartment for more than 20-years by now, so my rent is still reasonable on that basis. But most of the renters I know personally pay $200 a month more than they would have had the microdots stayed put. $200 a month more for the same unit, amounts to getting soaked $2,000 extra rent per year, every year.

What's the microdot population in Hawaii? 20,000 is my own guess. The figure may well be higher, as Micronesians are officially classified under the US Compact to redress testing nuclear weapons in their atolls, officially classified, as "citizens who are free to emigrant to US without visas or time limits," and population data is not readily available if anybody is keeping track at all under that status. Don't get me wrong, if you want the microdots in your town, be my guest, and have your mayor take out a full page ad in the Honolulu Advertiser or Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and invite them there to establish the latest Micronesian village. Hawaii will gladly pay for the ad. Say, if the rental market in your town is depressed, shipping the microdots there will accrue mutual benefits. The downside is that your public schools will be negatively impacted as it is here, moreso, now, since the State has cut the public school year by 17-days, as well as, reduced public school funds. Btw, it's imperative that rentals have garages so the microdots can park their SUV's which they paid in full for, compliments of the US gov't. Their rent is subsidized as well in one form or another.

A Moral in the Story

It's been a while since I stepped into the neighborhood bar ever since I saw the light, if you may, and stopped drinking booze. The thing that I missed most was playing a friendly game of pool, video here. Bar tables aren't regulation size, so even if you had a brief reign as the resident pool shark, it doesn't amount to much with the international billiard world. One night, we're simply feeling no pain, shooting the opponent's balls by mistake .... stripes .... whoops, just sunk a solid ball .... mahalo. All of a sudden Leah slams her pool stick on the table, "This is slop!" Storms off. Oh, well. She'll be back later. She got no place better to go. The moral of the story applies to blogging as well. In that, don't write slop. Musing is sorta okay, but not slop.

Mind over Matter, LOL

Iron Horse Rides Again

Laddies and gentlemen .... my "Shadow".... or the manufacturer's name for the bike. The Shadow 600 is the best-selling model of any brand. Unfortunately, 2007 was the last year that Honda produced Shadow 600's. My other bike is a 1500, which is over twice as large an engine, however, if I have to stop at a traffic light, the 1500 guzzles a gallon of gasoline. Two stop lights, 2-gallons of gasoline, while My Shadow, aka trusty Iron Horse, averages 50mpg around town, with 66mpg highway/freeway. That said, with new parts, Iron Horse rides again. The only holdup was finding a bulb for my front signal light which popped when I took a wipe out on the horizontal wall, along with other accourterments that also sustained damage. And no, bikes aren't eligible for universal health care the last I checked. Just to keep on the safe side, I did 8-laps in my apartment's basement garage before venturing out into the night. For only the shadow knows.  

Waikiki Hoolaulea

Several stages are set up along Kalakaua Ave. for the Annual Aloha Festivals block party where the crowd stops to watch the entertainers, and at those points you barely can move an inch or go anywhere.

.... go where?

As Obama would put it, "fire her up." "And if a steak can change a room, it can change a state, then it can change a nation, then it can change the world...." Nevermind. Medium or rare? 

There goes the lens on my camera after the wind shifted.

This troupe musta been part of the Shaolin Warriors promoting their performance scheduled this Wednesday night in Honolulu. They were quite the experts at working the crowd.

Photo opts. Many people took the opportunity to have their pictures taken with the female warriors.

State will close public schools for 17 Fridays to save money.

kinda insane and it leaves me speechless.

Operations

Parts to repair Iron Horse arrived today. All that's left is to install them. Read manual. Follow the steps in proper order. Torque to factory specs then day is done. 

Trick Shot by Federer

video here

Nice Belt

Refills

There are two kinds of people in the world. The kind that fill up the water pitcher when it's empty, and the kind that refuse to fill up the water pitcher. The type of person that won't refill the water pitcher when it's their turn is an inferior type of person. That may be interpreted as a narrow view of the world if taken out of context. Accordingly, there's these two people stranded in the middle of the desert for the past six months and are on their last leg. Jim inquires of Joe, "Did you refill the water pitcher in the refrigerator?" Joe replies, "Of course, I did." Jim pants, "we get soda too in the refrig?" Joe exclaims, "I just put in two six-packs this morning. Should be cold by now."

When we use to order pitchers of beer in the neighborhood bar, the bartender use to reserve a plastic bottle of frozen water to stick into the pitcher of beer to keep it cold after the pitcher was sitting out for a while. If you added ice, the ice would dilute the beer after it melted. I figured a frozen bottle of water would also work to chill tap water too in a water pitcher. Beer on tap....water on tap....hmmm, almost as simple as adding 2 plus 2 together. I always keep a plastic bottle of water frozen (photo above) in the freezer for when I ride my motorbike. You mentioned something about buying ice trays to make cold water. Never thought of that. Do ice trays refill themselves?

Meanwhile

Here's something while I'm getting use to posting with Blogger.

PITTED, no more PITS (pain-in-the-s)

Dear TypePad

my blogging software stopped working just about the day I noticed the "Try the New TypePad" banner on the post page. I am not thrilled with anything "new," as your previous "new and improved TypePad" did not have all the bugs worked out before its premature release and was a disaster.

RONW

testin