HOTEL WAIKIKI

BIOS and Code Red

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Mon, 28 May 2012 08:35:00 +0000

I've been leery of blogging over the past week becuz I got back a Code Red diagnosis (below) alerting me that me computer was infected by Malware after running a test at the DNS Working Group website. The background on the same image should be Green if the Estonian malware isn't detected on your computer. I downloaded an 'eraser' software but didn't get anywhere implementing it. The glitch was that you have to download and store the eraser software on and reboot your computer from a DVD or USB drive which translates in layman's terms that you have to reset your BIOS, usually the computer starts up from your manufacturer's hard drive when you turn the computer on. I prioritized the BIOS to restart from the eraser DVD instead of the hard drive, but after clicking the viola Enter Key, the computer nevertheless still rebooted from the hard drive. Tried and tried the same steps for about 4 hours last night like one of those hamsters.

Finally, it was 4 o'clock in the morning, that it dawned upon me, that perhaps the malware had disabled the function. So, whadda we do now. The Estonian malware bozos have already been apprehended by the FBI and Interpol but they've left their mess and legacy for others to clean up. I bet they plea bargained for reduce sentences if they handed over the antidote. If they were to serve a day in penitentary for every computer and router their malware infected, that would have amounted to hundred-of-thousands of days in the slammer. That doesn't even account for or address or approach the hours people took to erase the malware. I finally tried AVIRA and it worked instantly like a charm. No downloading their eraser to a sterile DVD, since I'm unable to reboot from an alternative DVD anyways, just download the eraser software, and hit the RUN button to implelement the fix. And yes, I realize there are other ways to resolve the issue, if not have prevented it to begin with, or perhaps old news by now too, however.

Is Pack Ratism Bad for the Mind

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:08:00 +0000

This past week I've been on a mission tossing things out. Metal tool boxes that had rusted piano hinges that prevented them from opening. Actually when you pried them open, the hinges and the sides of the toolbox warped. I then had to use a hammer to pound the hinge straight enough so I was able to shut the tool box close again. Then a cordless circular saw that had a lethargic lithium battery that ceased recharging up to the voltage level required to make it saw anything a little harder than a stick of butter. And, no, a replacement battery would cost more than the cordless saw was worth, or was worth it to me. It had a 14-volt lithium. Today, practically all cordless tools use 18-volt rechargeable batteries. I still have the battery itself until I find a deposal site to despose of it properly. And a few choice items that you accumulate over the years. These are far from memorabilia, so there wasn't a preponderance of logic behind keeping them. Just room. Or perhaps like Facebook stock, next week it'll go up. Another example, two old wheels for my handtruck. The original wheels had tubless tires in them and air always leaked out and in order to refill the tubeless I had to take them to the service station. So I went and bought replacement tires the kind with tubes in them. Over $20 a piece. $40 for two wheels/tires, for a hand truck that cost me $50 new about seven years ago from Home Depot. The same handtruck sells for $70 today. I just couldn't bring myself to part with the old wheels until now. Space junk.

Replenished Beach

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Sat, 19 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

They removed the orange fence, those temporary plastic barrier things, and the beach is again populated. Sparsely at this noon hour when I took the pic I surmise most of the visitors are out on a tour or still in their air conditioned hotel rooms zonked out with a hangover.

The lifeguard towers are elevated up on concrete columns to give the lifeguards a better vantage point. The cabin itself might be the standard design nationwide, and it figures prominently in my blog's banner above. The older towers were perched up on metal pipe stilts but the salt rusted the metal.

This tower was smack dab where they dumped the huge dune of sand that they pumped from offshore and had to be temporarily removed. They installed the lifeguard tower back where it use to be, but it sits flat on the sand until they find where they misplaced the concrete column. These things take a while around here.

The lifeguard cabin could be mistaken for a porta potty. For example, these visitors are looking for the sign.

Sunny Today

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:25:00 +0000

If this statute of Neptune was installed on the newly sand replenished beach at Waikiki, it would befit and crown the occasion, but instead, Neptune along with another 20 or more marble statutes are on the front yard of a nearby beach front property. I tunk it's Neptune. For all I know it may be Poseidon instead. Neptune is Roman, Poseidon, Greek. Poseidon is usually portrayed weilding a pitchfork (trident) at unwary mariners, while Neptune prefers romancing sea nymphs. And it's cumbersome to grasp sea nymphs if you have to hold on to a pitchfork.

The promontory of Diamond Head crater at the far end of Kapiolani Park. Da Duomo of Waikiki .... namely, "in the shadow of the duomo." Quiet around that area too. I don't get too much 'quiet' living along the Ala Wai with the steady drone of traffic. Sound travels up. You have to be at least 25 stories vertical to get beyond the trajectory and range of the up noise. Dunno the junk science of it, but the Waikiki library is less than 40-feet from the Ala Wai Blvd and you barely hear the traffic in the horizontal direction in their outdoor section.

An Empty Bottle of Bay Leaves

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Sat, 12 May 2012 05:12:00 +0000

I use a fair amount of bay leaves, and unfortunately it's $8-$9 a bottle. At .14 oz net weight, that's what, a billion dollars per pound for bay leaves? Or, more. Okay, this way, at 20 leaves in a bottle, that's 40¢ per leaf! Money grows on trees almost. I couldn't find bay leaves on sale so as a last resort I went to Walmart. And there it was. The very last bottle of bay leaves on the rack at $5.60. I guess at $5.60 it goes fast. No wonder it's the last remaining bottle on the rack. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind, that kind of moment, and realized to my chagrin, somebody musta mistakenly put the bottle of bay leaves back on the wrong rack. Walmart has bar code stickers plastered on the front of the rack without room for the names of the individual spices next to the bar code. A worker was nice enough to price check it for me and sure enough bay leaves were $8 and something per bottle. Happy Aloha Friday the same. How, you?

Sands

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Fri, 11 May 2012 00:47:00 +0000

Freshly replenished with brand new sand, I wonder whether with the remake if da Beach is re-eligible to be listed on Dr. Beach's Top 10 Beaches of 2012. I believe the rule is that once a given beach makes the list, it can't be on it again, or perhaps after so many years later or something like that. If you haven't noticed, today's pics are a fraction larger. They're 425 pixels wide. My standardized size was 400 pixel wide with no enlarged view. Does the extra 25 pixels wider make a huge difference? That's left to eagle eye of the beholder on the other side of the monitor screen, and on that note, "What, you hadn't noticed." If nobody is around to hear a tree fall in the middle of a forest, than it follows it wouldn't make a difference either with the historical inauguration of 425 pixels, here. I personally don't see the need for posting super large size pics. Well, if somebody is searching on the Internet for a photo for a screen saver. The way that I see it is that readers only look at a featured pic once, then mostly forget about it. There're always be new pics in the next post.

The Ala Wai Serpent

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Thu, 10 May 2012 00:27:00 +0000

What goes down must come up, just like the economy, ha ha. That was a joke. Or maybe not, this incident will create jobs. Anyways, a few years ago they assembled the emergency sewer bypass pipe, kukai pipe, on the surface of the Ala Wai canal, then once all the individual sections were connected into a contiguous giant sewer line they broke the ceremonial bottle of champagne and submerged the pipe to the bottom of the canal where it lay peacefully until this past Saturday upon which a section of it (photo above) rose up and breached the surface. The way I understood it, is that, the pipe was empty and basically filled with air as there hasn't been a sewer emergency for a while and the volume of air inside the emergency bypass pipe caused the bouyancy and up she went.

Thank You for Visiting Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:57:00 +0000

I received the Email below from Amazon informing me that I had cancelled an order. No, I didn't. I didn't even place the order that the Email purports that I cancelled. I notified Amazon pronto about this discrepency inquiring if they might find the alias who did place the order under fictitious identity. Or did the Email itself originate from Nigeria? That kinda thing. To begin with, Amazon does not begin a purchase notification with a "Dear Customer" salutation. They address the customer by his or her name. Secondly, the Email's time stamp showed it was sent on the 6th. An Email sent on the 6th notifying me that I cancelled an order on the 7th is genius. There's a thin line between genius and the other extreme. Out of caution I did not click the link (underlined text, below). You can click on the underlined link yourself but I've disabled it .... it's just colored text with underline. I also examined the Email's 'details', and it shows that the Email, if replied to, the Return-Path is, "chanfbpwbokvpt (at) flashmail (dot) com," nought Amazon. Doesn't the lowly moron have better things to do? For some reason, I don't think the aforementioned link conceals a malicious virus. Instead, the link probably shanghai's you to a webpage for more traffic. Then there are clubs that people like these belong to where they compete for points for bragging rights or whatever. The person who accumulates the most points at the end of the month gets to be supreme leader. Prestige? Yea, prestige.

Dear Customer,

Your order has been successfully canceled. For your reference, here's a summary of your order:

You just canceled order 129-925-731 placed on May 7, 2012.

Status: CANCELED

___________________________________________

"Disingenuous" (2008), Second Edition
By: Lorraine Morgan

Sold by: Amazon.com LLC

___________________________________________

Thank you for visiting Amazon.com!

-----------------------------------------------------------

Amazon.com Earth's Biggest Selection http://www.amazon.com

Kentucky Derby and NASCAR

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:25:00 +0000

As you already know, about the only tv that I watch is 24/7 news channels and the local evening news. And Hawaii Five-O and the semi-finals and the finals rounds in major professional sports. It's debatable whether the Kentucky Derby is a sport. However with all the hype surrounding the Kentuck Derby, it influences you to tune in to watch yesterday's live broadcast of the Running of the Roses as it's known. The only problem with the 'live' thing, is that it's an hour of pomp and circumstances with further ado, and much more further ado, before they actually after 50 mint julips finally get around to broadcasting the main race. Oh, well. Oh, well, not. I switched channels and NASCAR happened to be on another channel. Yea, the car race that goes round-and-round in circles. Ovals I guess is its geometric term somebody look it up.

I liked watching Formula 1 which is raced on road tracks which is better to my eyes. Well, NASCAR, or the promotion department, has coregraphed the race so that it's much more enjoyable to watch on the tv screen. Along with the cameras set up around the oval track, they've incorporated onboard cameras within the race cars' cages themselves which puts you in the drivers' seat in real time. It use to be that only a few race cars were equiped with cameras, but nowadays just about all cars have onboard cameras. There's even a separate camera that's devoted to showing the driver shifting gears from the passenger sideview angle while the picture vibrates. At 190mph things vibrate. There's also a camera that faces to the rear window so you can see what's happening behind the selected car. While the majority of the race is still covered the regular way from cameras stationed around the track, the broadcast switches back and forth to the onboard cameras to track the action as seen from drivers' seat.

I don't know whether NASCAR got the idea of switching back and forth to the drivers' eyeview cams from NASCAR video games. Parts of the coverage seems orchestrated, if that's the right word. When there's a yellow flag, caution flag, the drivers take the occassion en masse to make a pit stop to refuel or get new tires, etc. That's when the tv screen shows mulitple pics of different car teams working on the cars that have just pitted all on the same screen. But you can hear the whirl of the air guns and other associated mechanical noises. But none of the muliple cameras are that close enough in proximity to pit row within range to record the sound. Or they're patching in the sound from a camera that stationed in pit row just for the sound effects. Heck, the audio could have been dubbed from a sound archive for all I know. But it makes the race more well like you're watching a race in a movie.

Then Danica, she was in the lead group once in the race, but then she fade behind the pelethon like she was peddling a bike. The eventual winner pulled away in what seemed like the last 100 yards and won by a half a car hood if that. At that point all the chasing cars floor board it to the finish line and after passing the finish line make a full circle of the track in reduced speed to whine down. While this was happening a car behind Danica nudges her rear fender and she almost hits the wall. She chases up to what she perceives as a hit-and-run driver and bumps that driver's rear fender on purpose sending the driver into the wall and his car ends up limping the rest of the way back to pit row. Remember this is just the obligatory post race lap and supposedly all the elbowing is over until the next race. They interviewed Danica and she said that the driver apologized, alledgedly. On the other hand, they also interviewed Danica's sparring mate and he said that his front wheel locked up and his bump wasn't on purpose, but questioned if retaliating by sending him to the wall was all that necessary especially on a post race lap when the race is already over.

Not even a Canadian penny's worth of usable silicone

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:08:00 +0000

The old tube of silicone felt hard and barely anything squeezed out, but since all I needed was just a few dabs of silicone, I decided to peel off the metal skin of the tube, it's thin metal, and probe for any usable pockets of gel to avoid buying a brand new tube of silicone. None.

May Day at Kapiolani Park

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:20:00 +0000

Fast the year, May 1st already. The days went by in an eye blink. It seems like winter was just last week. Anyways, here's some random pics from the May Day celebration at Kapiolani Park in Waikiki. This was at 9am so the flora wasn't on display quite yet, but had plenty food.

Sand and the See

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:47:00 +0000

They knocked down Mt. Waikiki and are almost finished with distributing the sand along the shore and the beach is flat once again and you can see the lost horizon.

A Bunch of Baloney

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:29:00 +0000

If you've ever returned items that you purchased online, you already know that you have to request a Return Merchandise Number (RMN) from the seller before you mail the package back. That's to speed up the process of receiving a refund. Some times though there's a little more to it. Specifically spending an extra 75¢ at the post office for a delivery confirmation. Recently, I had two items, different sellers, that I returned to the sellers where the monies weren't refunded to my bank account after two weeks elapsed. Perhaps the returns department, it slipped their mind. Or perhaps if I hadn't made the effort to inquire about the non-refund, well, I would have never been refunded at all. ~~People~~ customers get busy and they forget about these things when they encounter busy intervals in their lives. It happens. And I bet that it happens often enough.

Anyways, I inquired about the first non-refund and the person in charge of the customer service notified their returns department to reimburse my PayPal account immediately. Mahalo. The second incident went like this (below) with a lot of back and forth. See, if you don't purchase a 75¢ postal delivery confirmation the onus may or may not fall upon the sender to prove that the returned item actually arrived back to the seller's return department or something in that order. Even if the returns department scans the RMN barcode upon arrival, or punches in the RMN pin scribbled to the package if you didn't print out a return label, the returned item's existence may mysteriously vanish from the system. Btw, Priority Mail does not include a tracking number that's worth any more than the item was sent Priority Mail. It states that right on the USPS website.

This is my initial Email to the delinquent seller ....

Hi,

I haven't yet been refunded for Order #002-6825516.
The RMA (return merchandise number) is Lr88RRMA.

thanks,

RONW

The seller's reply below sets off a red flag at the mention of 'tracking number' (bold text is mines). What I surmise is that this is a feeler to determine if I bothered to purchase a postal delivery confirmation.

I would be happy to look further into this for you, were you given any Tracking information when you shipped the product back to us?

Thank you,

Mr B.
Customer Service
Parts Superstore, Inc.

Alrighty, perhaps, I was just being too cynical, but just for sport, I claim that I'm officially unaware of a so called tracking number, but for the meanwhile, inquire whether the RMN barcode (inset label) is not enough to trace what the heck happened to the returned item.

I sent the package back via Priority Mail on April 9 but am not sure on the Tracking number (?)

.... are you able to track the returned package by the RMN barcode when it was scanned in at your end?

thanks,

RONW

Lol, just as I suspected .... there isn't a record of my item ever reaching the seller at this stage of the game. The spokesperson even has a 'Returns Team' to dispatch on my behalf. More likely the Returns Team duty is to devise a strategy to collaborate the bogus excuse.

I do not show that we have received it just yet. Just in case though I have put in a request with my Returns team to check on this further for me to see if they can get me any more details.

Thank you,

Mr. B.
Customer Service
Parts Superstore, Inc.

Okay, enuff with games already. I submit the vital Tracking Number which indicates that I did take the step to purchase a postal delivery confirmation and naturally my package is trackable.

the Priority tracking number is 031125500002877788

The USPS Track & Confirm page shows that the item was delivered to you on ....

April 12, 2012, 9:49 am

CEDAR PARK, TX 78613

I printed out the RMN return label with the barcode and taped it on the outside of the cardboard box with 2 more copies inside of the same box.

RONW

Respectfully, the seller acknowledges the situation.

Ron,

Thanks for this information I have given this to my Returns team to see if we can get this resolved for you. Thank you again for your patience.

Thank you,

Mr. B.
Customer Service
Parts Superstore, Inc.

Later in the day, Amazon notifies me that my refund has been processed.

Hello,

We're writing to let you know we processed your refund of $175.89 from Parts Superstore.

This amount has been credited to your payment method and will appear when your bank has processed it.

Sincerely,

Amazon.com

"For Your Information: To arbitrate disputes and preserve trust and safety, we retain all messages buyers and sellers send through Amazon.com for two years."

Mitt Romney Republican Front Runner

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:12:00 +0000

Mitt Romney has amassed a fortune so vast (estimated between $190 million and $250 million) that he is expanding his $12 million beachfront mansion and installing an elevator ... for his cars. For his cars. If you’re insanely rich, you might have an elevator in your mansion. But a lift for your Lexus?

Paul Begala | Newsweek

Painted Ladies

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:00:00 +0000

For $800, you'd expect disputes over what constitutes fair compensation would have been handled more discretely without all the fanfare. Again, $800! To begin with, I don't believe that secret service agents make that kind of money. Or, that the same services wouldn't be readily available at a more economical rate in a poor country such as Colombia. The exchange rate for the US dolllar to the Colombian peso is 1000 pesos to 56¢. Do the math for youself. I've never had the pleasure to pay for sex so I don't know the thinking behind the urgency or desperation. What I do know, or at least, just about take for granted, is that some of every country's advance team of security agents there to scope out the scene enlisted the services of prositutes on their free time. And that's more likely becuz protitution is cheap in South America in comparison to the US or Europe. A sovenier if anything. You probably could get room and board (room & a broad) for a week for $800. Perhaps, the mixup was between 800 pesos versus 800 dollars. 800 pesos would work out to 46¢ but then the agent thought he had a deal we'd never know. A lot of secret service agents have been axed stemming from this sorry situation, but I suspect that the now famous prostitute is in for some backlash from her fellowship too.

Lately there's been a lot of news coverage of prostitution that takes place locally. Mostly the discussion disputes the notion that prostitution is a victimless crime, in that, a large number of prostitutes are enslaved into the trade by human traffickers or pimps. Then their dire situation progresses to a more complicated relationship. The prostitutes get fast tracked into being drug addicts and thereon they need the high paying work to support their drug habbit. According to Civil Beat only 2 pimps have been arrested locally in the past 2 years. So enforcement is lackluster to say the least. In the same Civil Beat story, a commenter complained about hookers aggressively accosting him as he walked along Kuhio Ave. one night. In one area where the street walkers do their walking in Waikiki happens to be where a bunch of nightclubs have had so much violent incidents that police cars park on the street right outside the front entrances. So commenter asked the cops nearby if it's not their duty to intervene and stop the hookers from harassing him mainly because it's taking place all in front of their eyes. The 2 cops didn't simply ignore him but indeed responded by summarily searching his backpack and issuing him a complimentary jaywalking ticket even though he did not cross the street. Somebody's getting paid off here. A hooker in my apartment building charges $300 a trick. She doesn't live in the building during the day instead maintains her unit for nocturnal business. Shares it with other hookers, too, well charges them. Just whom does the sheets is anyone's guess. And ho, with an ouch, some of them are awful ugly in the light of day especially their skin complexion. Most of them. However they've been doing well for years. The recession never effected them. More than on one occasion the hookers steal the clients wallet while they have their pants off and one time this disgruntled customer came back looking for the prostitution not because of the money per se but because he was a foreign visitor and needed his I.D. We called the cops but the cops said that if he filed charges they would have to arrest him for engaging in an illegal activity. I suggested to the responding officers that 'perhaps' they should grant the victim immunity so they could nail the protitute for tax evasion or theft, since it's almost impossible to arrest a prostitute in the act of exchanging money. Nope.

I Know It Wasn't You

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 09:40:00 +0000

The resolution of the picture doesn't do justice to the number of orphaned shopping carts in this particular lane. This was at Costco. So big shopping carts. I noticed a lady who had just parked her car and she decided to push one of the shopping carts with her into the store. Then my eyes started to focus on the sheer number of shopping carts lying around. Is it to ensure employment to the store's crew of shopping cart valets. Otherwise, the employees get part-time hours perhaps.

A Few More Marbles

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:04:00 +0000

These photos were taken on Sunday. With but a few exceptions, the personal pics that I post on the pages of me illustrious blog are taken on the very day of the post, not earlier during the week or year. Generally it has to be a today's photo for a today's post. You might have a different philosophy or if your story du jour happened in the past then the photos would be circa. Mind you, that's strictly the way I feel about mines disclaimer understood. Cheeze. If you notice the wings in the photo above are way better than the wings on the similar statue in Sunday's post. Even Mickey Mouse's ears look better. I suspect the wings on Sunday's statue were damaged and were replaced with some shoddy facsimiles. The workmanship on the wings isn't consistent with the rest of the sculpture. Since wings of marble project out they're susceptible to being knocked off. Arms can be carved integral to the body, or in the sculpture above, engaged in caress so the extremities don't get knocked off by an errant blow of the sculpturer's chisel or from a passerby carrying a step ladder after the sculpture is finished. The strategy isn't possible with wings since wings are presented airborne not folded.

I always understood these Graces symbolized the cycle of giving, receiving, then giving back. Perhaps obsolete, perhaps not.

Mindless Shipping Options Online

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:09:00 +0000

I've bought a few non-bid items from Ebay recently and on the shipping options one of the sellers offered two choices .... Standard Shipping .... or .... Expediated Shipping. The nice thing was that both options were free. Odd. Well, of course, I selected the Expediated Shipping option. But, then, I received a follow-up Email that stated that my item was shipped Standard Shipping. So I inquired by email to the seller about the mix-up. Standard Shipping was via UPS. Expediated was by USPS Priority Mail. My main gripe was that I didn't want to wait around all day for the UPS delivery person which is what I'd have to do due to the mixup, where as, with Priority Mail (expediated), my item gets deposited in the mailbox. We have medium sized postal lockers installed in our building's mailroom. Most highrise apartments have them too in my neck of the woods. The company spokesperson responded with something to the effect that, "but it'll get there one way or the other." Actually, mentioned they had 'upgraded' my shipping from Expediated to Standard (not a typo). Still can't figure that one out. But since shipping was free, it's really one of those moot issues.

Another seller on Ebay offered parcel post shipping for $18 on an item that I really needed (seriously) and the item was way cheaper than any other seller's price. This seller also happened to offer USPS Priority Mail for $22. Oddly, just a few dollars more. Now, $18 for shipping parcel post is very high for the item that I bought, in respect to its weight and size. I guess the lower price was an inducement and they make up some of it on the enhanced shipping charge. The way I figure it, an honest shipping rate would have been around $10 anyways. I opted for the Priority Shipping for $22 which is by my math $12 extra than an honest Abe rate, but the item was marked down around $85 so it's not like I bought a beanstalk. However, a minute after I confirmed my purchase I emailed the seller, "I understand that this item is being shipped USPS Priority Mail." In no uncertain terms. That's so they wouldn't switch the shipping to the $18 parcel post which I'm sure they net more. In my Email correspondence with various Ebay sellers (companies not idividual sellers), I discovered that some of them sign a shipping contract with UPS. From what I've seen with shipping options on online shopping websites, FedEx doesn't do that. At any rate, what advantage would a contract with UPS have to the buyers. I highly doubt that many sellers would pass the savings to the buyers outta the goodness of their heart. So, it's more a kickback between UPS and the seller.

Of Heaven and Earth

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:50:00 +0000

These statues, above and below, adorn the same front yard along the Kahala beach front properties (not far from Waikiki). The way that I understand it is that the property and the mansion that sits on it is slated to be a museum.

The Ala Wai Express

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:47:00 +0000

I was about to make a 'Titanic' joke but thought better of it. The event was a disaster after all.

Healthy Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:17:00 +0000

This is indeed the same guy that I photographed in an earlier post pumping iron on the banks of the Ala Wai, same trunks if you compare the past and present pics. In the earlier photo and I noted that I wasn't quite sure whether he was the same person who lugs heavy objects on his shoulder for miles, but apparently he is the one and the same atlas, actually running or jogging today with the log balanced on his shoulder. Musta been bored just strolling along with the log on top of his shoulder. Yea, he switches shoulders. Btw, I bought a six-pack of 'Joint Juice®' tonight. I saw an advertisement of it on the tv pitched by none other than Joe Montana. So, it sound legit. There are already joint supplements so Joint Juice® isn't something entirely new, but usually the other joint supplements are in powder form. These are six 8oz bottles.

Tonight's Postcard

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:45:00 +0000

Diamond Head Crater, Kapiolani Park

Fiddling Around

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:51:00 +0000

I came across this lady at Kapiolani Park playing what I mistakenly thought was a violin on the gate of her pickup truck. "Fiddle," she said for the record. I went, "Oh." You know, my bad. I do know the difference between spoons and a washboard in a jug band ensemble. Violin versus fiddle? They resemble each other. I suppose calling a fiddle a violin is just as disconcerting as calling a violin a fiddle to the ear of its owner. Today, I went to pay my vehicle registration. My other vehicle's registration is up next month. Perhaps, online for that one. I still had coins leftover so I went buy a polish hot dog with sauerkraut at Costcos. "If you are out of sauerkraut like the past two times .... I don't want it," I thought to myself. Do you possibly walk around carrying on an internal dialoque too? Perhaps we should have a conference call some day. Anyways, they had sauerkraut. If they didn't it verges on a what is wrong with the world kinda thing. It is. I noted in yesterday's post that can openers are the bain of the kitchen utensils in my pantry. Another item in the same category is a toaster though that might technically be an appliance. The toaster that I've owned never seemed to last. I gave up replacing them. However with the price of a loaf of bread around here I've saved a ton of dough without it.

Mt. Waikiki

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:57:00 +0000

A few years from today, the sand will return back from whence it came. Best thing that could happen too if you think about it, that is, if the sand were to remain in the same spot for years upon years, the grains would only accumulate layers of suntan lotion, etc., and who knows what. Like an unwashed rug, unshampoo-ed. It would be nasty stuff to lay on. If I had a say in the way things ought to be done, the top two-feet of sand that managed to remain on the beach would be escavated and dumped and rinsed in the water than piled back on the beach so it too also got a bath with Tide detergent.

My can opener wore out, so I went and bought a new one to replace it otherwise I'd be limited to can goods that have those pull-tops. I bought a manualy operated can opener. $8, putting it pricewise in the middle of the expensive and economy class versions. The former was also a manual. I've never had electric can openers that lasted more than a few years and the old manual can opener lasted four years in service. Can openers have a Top cutting wheel and a Bottom serated wheel. The serated wheel got dull, and wasn't able to grip the edge of the lid to rotate the can anymore. You'll only get to read this kind of news here. And, no, there'll be no pics of the brand new can opener.

A Penny for Your Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (RONW) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 08:47:00 +0000

Gasoline went up 1¢, a pretty penny, if you may, from this past Sunday. At this rate, how are we ever gonna break the $5/gal. barrier. The $5 barrier is getting to be something to cheer for. Perhaps classic symptoms of the stockholm syndrome if Big Oil has us hostage. But that's not so. Rather an economic symbiosis. That was sarcasm, btw. Soon, verily, verily, and all that, faster than you can say fill er up, we'll be paying $7-8 a gallon at the pump like the people in Europe are already. There's no law that says a gallon of gasoline won't jump to $6 faster than it took to jump in increments from $4 to $5. I was reading Karl Marx earlier, yes, that Karl Marx, and the gist of his manifesto-ing was that capitalism is overrated. I'm not a devotee of Marx but I do think that at least under a semi-Marxist market there would exist a gov't option oil company to reign in oil prices similar to the idea behind the defunct gov't option that was pulled from the health care insurance bill. And just why would a gov't option be constitutional with health care insurance but then not with the oil industry. In fact, we can kickoff a gov't option for gasoline supply by comadeering the Canada pipeline. Contrary to what Big Oil has been claiming, the pipeline from Canada neither opening more gov't land for drilling won't lower prices at the pump, they'll just have more inventory at their disposal to charge the same high or higher prices because oil prices are set by world oil prices according to Big Oil, not their local ties to the community. There's an irony with 'green energy' (sustainable energy) here locally, in that, Hawaii stopped growing sugar cane because it was getting to be unprofitable, however knowing that Brazil processes all of it's gasoline from domestic sugar cane, it's like we shoulda held on to the stock. I imagine the largest overhead with selling refined sugar was the transportation cost but Honolulu has it's own oil refiner and shipping cost wouldn't be that much of a factor.