Sunday, May 30, 2010

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Saturday Scenes


I passed by Ala Moana Park and you could hear them rehearsing over the outdoor loudspeakers for the annual Lantern Festival which takes place on Monday night. It use to be that they used a fleet of canoes to tow the paper lanterns each on it's own miniture skiff down the Ala Wai canal to the ocean, and I would watch the procession from a front row seat on my lanai (balcony). Ever since they moved the venue to Ala Moana beach and televise the ceremony live, I'd watch the annual homage on tv.





it's still plain white bread.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Ixtoc Oil Leak 1979


RACHEL MADDOW SHOW, Wednesday, May 26th 2010

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED TV NEWS ANCHOR: Airplanes are to be used to drop chemicals on the oil .... And the workers are also putting up a mile-long boom. They‘re putting it into place, trying to contain the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. (June 1979)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL MADDOW: "The Ixtoc rig erupted in the middle of the night in 1979 in June, as it was drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The drilling was being done by a company called Sedco. It later became known as Transocean—the operator of the rig that blew up this year in the Gulf of Mexico. The reason the Ixtoc explosion turned into a massive uncontrolled leak 30 years ago is because the well‘s blowout preventer malfunctioned. Does it sound familiar? The blowout preventer failed to stop the Ixtoc leak and what followed was an environmental disaster the likes of which the country had never seen before."

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Adios Jorge


from Dispatches from the Island

I'm pretty sure that the mahalo (thanks) is mutual from the fans of Lost. And as my sister noted, to their credit, Lost chose to end it all while they were still highly rated. The alternative would have been to drag things on until past the midnight hour whereof the series turned into a Nielson rating pumpkin and flopped. Opps, better not phrase it that way, Lost could never ever flop in a kabillion years. At any rate, in order to keep the natives perpetually happy, that is, the tv audience getting their fix, the storyline would have to evolve away from a predictable motif, and at some point evolution would depart far enough from the original 11 herbs and spices formula that Lost's spell would dissipate back into the thin air from whence it materialized out of nowhere. Simultaneously, the tastes of the fans also evolve as well in it's own directions over the run of any tv series. This is all beginning to sound like I actually watched Lost myself which would make me a normal human being in the eyes of Lost aficianados, but whata they know about normalcy when while they're jonesing for the next episode so preoccupied that they never noticed the spaceship that flew over their neighborhood. Don't quote me but had the freakin series been instead named, "Found," would it have been the same phenomenon as it all was? Another random thought, are there Lost clones in other countries? France for example had it's own version of "Wheel of Fortune" that went by the title of "La Roue de la Fortune".

Sunday, May 23, 2010

All is Not Lost

I heard over the Internet that tonight's Lost will be the last episode. What will the fans do for the rest of the year with their lives? They'll be left psychologically discombobulated by post traumatic stress. No more alternative universe. With the huge fanfare, is there a movie on the big screen in the works. Then sequels.




oh, I forgot to mention something I heard about the Gulf Oil spill which might be worth passing on. BP pays a royalty to the gov't on each barrel of oil that's extracted. I'm unclear whether that's additional to the leasing fees. Anyway, apparently BP owes the gov't royalty even on the barrels of oil that leaks out of the pipeline. Because it's considered extracted.


this is a regular feature on the dooce's website .... random objects that Chuck balances on his head. In fact, I just visit there to see Chuck and generally don't read any of the stuff that she writes. Anyways, she might have done herself in this time, though. I believe she's Mormon, or was.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Paddle Board Lanes at Ala Moana Beach Park



The state is installing seven buoys today at Ala Moana Beach Park and here to create a corridor to separate stand-up paddlers from swimmers....A dive team is placing the buoys about 80 feet from the edge of the reef.... (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)



the problem with the state's public safety solution is that the strip of water, 80-ft. in from the reef, is also the prime waterway for distance swimmers because the sea water's fresher there and the outcroppings along the edge of the reef serve as bouys to guide swimmers on a straight line. Also, stand-up paddling on a surfboard (paddle boarding) is an activity that should be done outside the reef where balance comes into play.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Let Me Take You Higher....yeah, right



It was simply amazing watching this group of hikers made up of 7-girls and 2-guys trek up Makapuu from the backside (highway side). The girl at the lead appeared to be the guide or at least the rest of the group would stay put for a minute while she scouted the goat trail then she would stop and signal from above that it was safe enough for the goat herd waiting below her to proceed up. What fascinated me most was that the hikers weren't wearing serious kind hiking gear to be taken as veteran hikers which started to set off alarmed bells the more uphill they advanced. Two of the girls even lugged around shoulder bags. As you can see for yourselves, the terrain is too rugged and steep to be taking safety lightly especially since the elevation gets higher very rapidly with each step on the itinerary. Having said that, if I were to tell you that the group would reach the Red X in the above photograph, you'd probably wouldn't believe me. (photos enlarge to 800px) However, there they are in the photo below. At that point they're not even half way to the Makapuu Lighthouse and here if in fact that's their eventual destination. And no, I don't think for a moment they would descend by retracing the same route, not when there's a paved road on the ocean side of Makapuu leading back down to the visitors' parking lot.


Sunday, May 16, 2010

Junk Kind Weather Post



I walked down to the beach but it started to drizzle so I high tailed it back home. I don't like to get caught in rain if it's not absolutely necessary. On the other hand, the weather service said that this is not suppose to be so. The weather is suppose to be sunny today in my neighborhood so it might be premature to jump to the conclusion that the sky will be falling for the rest of the day. The sign in the photo above was on a surfboard which appears to be a promotional item given to the outdoor restaurant by Kona Brewing Co. Never drank the stuff. Don't drink alcohol nowadays period. You already knew that. However, what you might not be aware of, is that if too many people in the world drink too many drinks the night before, it pours in my neighborhood. There's definitely a correlation there.















"Instead of using extra laundry detergent to pre-treat, instead we turn to our old school friend — white chalk. Simply rub onto greasy stains and the chalk powder will absorb the grease, making the stain easily removable by the laundry soap in the wash."

via Apartment Therapy

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Saturday's Oranges and Apples



Have you ever stared at an orange in a grocery store the way Columbus did in the story, I think it was an orange? Well, I do, but it's because I want to select oranges that have more meat inside instead of mostly a thick skin around it. Still haven't found how to do this yet. I usually just end up buying all different shapes of oranges from the same bin relying more heavily on their complexion rather than feel.

(more later)

Wednesday, May 12, 2010



.... according to Jorge Garcia (Hurley), the best pizza in Hawaii is on Maui.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Winner-Take-All Election



The two Democrats, on the right in the photo, might split the Democratic votes allowing the Republican, on the left in the photo, to steal the election by windfall even though a wide majority vote Democrat. Usually....the top two vote-getters advance to a run-off election....but not here in Hawaii.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

$2 Sale



the pile of stuff beneath the strawberry is mail that had been accumulating in my mailbox for a week to the chagrin of the mail-person. The mail-person dumped it out. In it's place, the mail-person left a key. The key is to open one of the oversize-mail lockers already installed in our lobby into which mail-person deposited my piled up mail with a mental message stuck on. However, the mail-person left the plastic bag in the empty mailbox that had been deposited earlier during the week that mail-persons throughout the nation distributed in behalf of the US Postal Service food drive. You probably received one of those bags yourself.

Friday, May 7, 2010

****perhaps, I should have mentioned that you have to visit the first link before visiting the second link****

Waterfront dinning

....most of the year.


Wednesday, May 5, 2010

$2 at Long's Drugs



I wasn't planning to buy bread even French bread (cinco de mayo) at Long's Drugstore (CVS) last night, but the store had bread displayed on sale on the aisle directly behind the checkout counters. $2 bucks....just couldn't pass up the deal if you're aware of how expensive bread sells for in the islands. You would have to work two days to be able to afford the price of bread. Monday's and Tuesday's pay is what it costs to buy a loaf of bread here. Wednesday's and Thursday's pay is for butter or peanut butter. Just joking. But not by much. Weekly sales at Long's Drugs start on Sundays, and I just realized today that it takes a lot of work shuffling around the various items on sale. I'm sure they have the routine wired but it's still impressive. I don't usually eat bread on a daily basis. You know that already. Yea, you already knew that. Still among the best things to enjoy in town is driving by Love's Bakery on Middle St. and oh, the aroma.

Captain Cook who "discovered" Hawaii, originally named the islands, the Sandwich Islands, in behalf of his namesake sponsor, the Earl of Sandwich back in England. Also, I was at Sears today and was looking at this gas oven, and out of nowhere, meaning I didn't need a floor salesman interrupting me, a salesman appears behind me, and blah blah blah, so much for Wordless Wednesdays. I couldn't find the broiler pan in the oven that I was looking at, and when I mentioned that to the salesman, he postulated that perhaps in this instance the oven didn't come with a broiler pan. "How I going broil something, then?" The salesman replied that I would have to go out and buy a separate broiler pan. Like this salesman didn't even bother to shave, and I'm thinking to myself the way you think when you don't necessarily want the person next to you to know what you're thinking, "what a stupid answer." (I'll have to buy myself a broiler pan.) Classic stupid.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Lake Placid


Know what this scene makes me think of? The oil spill in the Gulf. I'ts something to do with today's flat water on the Ala Wai canal. Yea, the water in the Gulf is flat. How then do they expect the oil booms to confine the oil spill? The oil booms would have to be 6-feet tall to prevent the waves from simply washing the oil slick over the barrier. Another thing....BP operates the oil rig? In American waters? I'm fully aware it's a global economy, but still. Some ecologists predict that if the oil leak isn't plugged within a few weeks, the blob of oil will grow so huge that it will be impossible to prevent the powerful gulf stream from sweeping the oil around the Atlantic seaboard all the way up north to Britain, where BP has it's headquarters.