A Saturday Night's Rant

Something that always bugs me to no end is when drivers parked on the side of the road keep their driver's side door swung in the fully open position while they're busy powdering their noses or whatever, the drivers are not oblivious, nor wearing a string bikini, they're fully conscious of the situation. Cars are passing on the driver side and it would make more sense if they did their navel gazing instead on the passenger side of the car next to the sidewalk which is obviously a whole lot safer instead of posing as an unnecessary distraction to other vehicles if not a potential traffic hazard I double dare you to side swipe me which would indeed alter their private universe. Most roads are designed to leave enough room within the width of a lane and still provide a buffer zone for parked cars on the same side of the road. In some instances, there's enough left-over room to strip off a bicycle lane. Tonight, same door-wide-open scenario, on a side street, in Waikiki, the driver is sitted in his car tying his shoe laces with his feet sticking out at a 90° angle to the street.

With Real Peanut Butter

4 for a dollar at Long's Drugs (CVS).

(more later) Today went back to the same Long's Drugs for the same reasons that pilgrims flock to Mecca. Alas, it was now 2-for-a-dollar.

Did you hear Hillary lambast the Pakistani government for dragging their feet in apprehending Al Queda?  "I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to."

FedEx Friday

*All shipments displayed in local time for the location

Oct 30, 2009 10:29 am Honolulu HI, Delivered Left at front door. (Signature Service not requested)

Oct 29, 2009 2:07 am Honolulu, HI, Customer not available or business closed

Oct 28, 2009 2:10 am Honolulu, HI, Customer not available or business closed

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Well, FedEx came through for me, again. The past 2-days I wasn't around when they attempted to deliver my parcel, however, this morning they plopped my package right on my apartment's doormat, door-to-door service, if ever. Our apartment building has a keyed front entrance. The FedEx delivery person musta followed somebody in because, as far as I know, they don't have an entrance key to our apartment building. Perhaps, a school kid let them in on this our State's second day of Furlough Fridays with public schools off. That's not necessarily a good thing unless the kid is practicing to be a doorman.

FedEx Ground, the shipping method that I selected, there's also FedEx Express, usually delivers until 7pm when most people are already back home from work which is why I prefer having items bought online shipped through them, but perhaps a different delivery person is temporarily filling in. At least in our neighborhood, the FedEx Ground people own and operate their FedEx trucks and the way I understood it, FedEx essentially farms out the work to these independents drivers. Better service that way. They even delivery on Saturdays. Beware postmen. Goodbye, postman.

Late Wednesday

more here.

Why do They Label Bay Leaves as "Whole" Leaves, When That's the Only Way They Sell Them?

The big news of the day by far is that I remembered to buy some bay leaves while I was at the grocery store. Finally. Just kept forgeting to buy the bay leaves for weeks already, for reasons that escape me. And you know what....I even found second bottle of bay leaves stashed inside a paper bag of groceries that I hadn't bothered to unpack when I tossed the bag into the pantry. That was last week? The week before last week? Dunno. In the present tense, I honestly haven't the slightest recollection that I ever purchased the previous bottle of bay leaves, but I must have.

Healthy Tuesday

Tonight's topic: Health care reform would prohibit insurance providers from denying people coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions. Say for example you had two penises, four balls, and walked around loopsided, and the likelihood of you sitting on your genitals by mistake, was deemed more of a health risk than that to the average person in the eyes of the health care insurance industry who would be liable for the medical expenses. Under the new ground rules, it would be illegal for health care insurers to deny you coverage based on a pre-existing, and subsequently tagging specific genes as high risk in their hidden data banks would be a moot point. No more work for the health insurer's shadow divisions, and that might even be a good thing.

I personally don't feel it's 100 percent fair that health care insurance providers are mandated to cover people with serious pre-existing conditions through diseases that have a proven track record of relapsing, however, in the bigger picture, it's all a backlash in reaction to the health industry seedy practice of frisking a patient's original application to uncover techical errors and renage on their obligations after the patient is diagnosed with a serious illness. The patient failed to disclose that he/she had a pimple on their okole, etc. Therefore, we are sad to inform you that your policy is null and void, and well, you're on your own. That having been said, a health industry expert noted, "What's keeping a person from belatedly applying for health insurance only after he/she has been diagnosed with a serious illness that requires expensive medical treatment?" Well, I guess health insurers should be held liable for the tab of catasthrophic illnesses only after the 6th month into an individual's policy, or something la dat.

In Theory and Practice

One of my favorite ways to relax and recharge up the batteries is to parse over political cartoons in newspapers' op-ed sections. They're instructional in how to get an idea across to the reader with the least amount of words as is humanly possible which I might even find useful expounding on the revolutionary ideas that I blog about. At least in theory, at least. Opps, two extra words. Have to keep working at it.

Free KFC Grilled Chicken

If you weren't aware, your friendly neighborhood Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet is offering a piece of their "grilled" chicken FREE for the asking, today. At least you won't be thinking in the back of your mind whether the next shift bothered to put new oil in the deep fryer being that the promo chicken is grilled. If you eat as much KFC as I use to you'd know the meaning of that. Either they didn't rinse off the chicken after thawing it out, or, or, something tasted plain rancid about the fried chicken, and it wasn't from the eleven herbs and spices.

Star Market

Being an isomniac I frequently ride up to Star Market in Moiliili from Waikiki between 2am to 4am in the early morning hours to get a few stuff. I always asked the girl at the checkout, "when you guy's last day?" "Next month, next month," was always the obligatory reply. Then the next month came and the next month went. But tomorrow it all ends for Star Market .... "stahh makit."

More on Furlough Fridays

I don't know about you, but I'm disappointed with the relatively low number of teachers who bothered to show up at today's Furlough Fridays protest rally at the state capitol. The news put the number of protesters at 800, however since several hundred of the demonstrators were keikis (kids) and non-teacher parents, the actual count of teachers would fall in the 500-600 range. That's out of more than 9,000(?) public school teachers on the island? Even with the national news media covering Furlough Fridays?

Speaking of national news coverage, ABC News characterized Furlough Fridays as a ploy by Hawaii teachers to preserve their jobs. In the same breath they insist the better option would be to assign teachers more students per classroom, and fire excess teachers. This is the kinda stuff the nation is hearing from these know-it-alls who in ancient days the Hawaiians would have tossed into an active volcano as a token of hospitality. Ridiculous.

All 8 Megapixels of It

While I was standing in line at Long's Drugs at Kahala Mall, my camera fell off my belt while I was searching for loose change in my pants pocket, but unfortunately, I didn't even hear it plop on the floor probably because the camera was still in it's soft case. This lady in line in front of me decides to get herself another package of shrimp chips, ®Yick Lung brand, of course. She said something to me about it, and I mimed that I'll only reserve her spot in line for the next 20-minutes. Then the meter runs out. Even on an Aloha Friday. Meanwhile I had spotted dried apricots on a nearby rack which were on sale. So, I went take a look only to find that the apricots were the 6-oz package size, and even for $2.00, it wasn't worth buying, unless the apricots were individually hand dipped in chocolate. However, I am getting hungry for dried apricots of all things.

Anyways, I returned back in line and this girl next in line, behind me, is picking up my camera. I said, "that's mine." She hands me back my camera. Then after a 47 ½ seconds delay, I said, "thanks." She looked back at me with an expression that exuded, "like, yeh....a thankyou was in order." See, I had sensed that she was suspicious that I might not really be the rightful owner of "my" camera, so I thought it wiser to pause before thanking her long enough for her to realize that the items on the checkout conveyor belt in front of her things were mine, therefore it's more than plausable that the camera she found on the floor space that I was now standing on also belonged to me. It would have been pretentious of me, for example, to inform her that I'm the executive producer of Lost and was just taking a break from a shoot. And aren't you so glad to have met me and so forth.  

Protests on First of "Furlough Fridays"

While teachers are furloughed, 2,280 cafeteria workers, custodians, electricians, masons and other laborers will be working at public schools with empty classrooms because apparently nobody had the forethought that balancing the state budget would work even better if those on-campus workers were included in the happy aloha friday furloughs. Those workers belong to different unions. That wasn't something new. I don't blame the teachers if they're pissed off about the disparity. The venue for the protest rally will be in front of the state capitol building, and I read in the newspaper that out-of-work school bus drivers will be shuttling protesters to the capitol for free on what otherwise would have been empty school buses sitting idle.

Wall Street reminds me of Balloon Boy

Then There Is This

50¢ for a loaf of bread today at Long's Drugs (CVS). Unfortunately, only a single loaf would fit in my saddlebags. Huge loss. The cashier said that the store had a close out on the bread. Which started my wondering what do grocery stores do with all their unsold vegetables and fruits. About 11pm, I realized that I didn't have anything to make a late night sandwich with, except a can of Planter's peanuts that I also bought on sale today, until, oh yeah, I also bought ®Spam from the same store .... ®Spam sandwich, why not.

Look at em and Weep

Open 24 Hours Except on Furlough Fridays

There once was a Jack-in-the-Box located across from the beach that was open all night long, but it closed up a year or two already, and I surmise that McDonald's, which is located a block away from Jack's former location, has risen to the occasion and decided to fill the late night slot. Obviously, McDonald's won't provide room service and deliver to your hotel suit, but for the price, it's worth the walk over for some french fries if you're stricken with the late night munchies, for visitors and for Waikiki people alike. At least the extended hours provides work that wouldn't have been there before. State workers just agreed to having 2 "furlough fridays" per month, I believe the last 2 Fridays of the month, part of the governor's emergency solution to balance the budget much alike the teachers' furlough fridays package.

In 2006, the State enjoyed a $600 million surplus. How the pendulum has swung as night follows day. Again boom is followed by bust. Just trying to be dramatic. I know the hotels are doing a brisk business as we speak. I was working on a hotel room the other night and things weren't going nowhere. So I went to the front desk and inquired of the nice people on duty there whether the room was open tomorrow, however they replied that all of their rooms are sold out and that includes the particular room that I happened to be working on, so better me kick it in gear, instead of my standby plan of leaving all my tools in the room, and finishing up "tomorrow." Whoops. So I ended up pounding away until almost 8 o'clock that night. While hotel occupancy might be temporarily up, that's more due to the deals available. Da kind visitors it brings with it spend 17 percent less in stores and restaurants than the usual guests.

No Child Left Behind

"180 school days minus 17 furlough days equals failure"

This Friday marks the first day of "furloughs fridays" with no school for 2 Fridays per month. If this keeps up you could not in good conscience present a kid with a bona fide high school diploma after the completion of 12-years, at least from a public school. 17-days absent from school per year, multiplied by 12 grade years, amounts to over a year of skipping school. In that sense, you would need to tack on an additional year of primary education to equalize the instruction hours received in the former 12 school years schedule, and graduation should fall more fittingly after the completion of the 13th academic year.

Tuesday's Day in the Life

I bumped into Prince Kuhio while I was strolling along the beach, about 5 o'clock, on a late wet Tuesday afternoon. If it's anything note worthy, Prince Kuhio bequeated Waikiki Beach to the general public. 

....60¢ for a can of Pepsi at a soda machine for hotel employees. Even took a picture of it as proof of purchase. A can of soda is usually at least 75¢ just about everywhere else that I'm personally aware of. Yeh, I go around checking prices on soda machines that are tucked in nooks and crannies islandwide. Almost started a blog on the very subject, and I still may. Say I'm on a date, take her to my secret soda machine, and while we're at it, "Honey, Long's Drugs has a sale on potato sticks." Soda and potato sticks, who could desire anything more for a night out on the town. I'll stress that candle light and wine are so overated. Even if it includes a dinner that isn't presented on a paper plate with plastic utensils wrapped in a paper napkin. Joking. I repeat, "I was just joking." Anyways, I remember, or simply can't forget, this restaurant review written about the restaurant that's located on the top of the EiffelTower, Maxim's (?), where the reviewer noted something along the lines, "....to dine at Maxim's will stand as the biggest thrill of your life....until presented with the bill."

Monday Musings

You want sheets with the room, then reserve the presidential suite....

The thing that I noticed right off was the gas tank. Sorta resembles a gas tank on a motorbike.