April 2002 Archives

Pidan

I think one of the things that make us local is by the type of food we eat. Normally, in most places, people start the day off with a plate of scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon, and maybe a couple of pancakes with good helpings of butter and maple syrup. Some would say such a breakfast is a death sentence, but that's not what this entry is about.

What this entry is about, however, are...

LA Riots-- 10 years later

Maybe we get a little detached when we live in Hawaii. We don't have major race clashes nor do we have many "black" people or "white" people so we don't have that tension causing trouble in Hawaii. We are one big ohana, or the so called melting pot. Hawaii has its own issues, such as the quality of public education and our government, but ethnic conflicts, thank goodness isn't one of them.

so then, what DOES is mean to be an Asian American?

are we Asian American or are we Hawaiian American, and are we American at all since many don't even consider Hawaii to be part of the US of A. (silly mainlanders, first they take over and make us part of them and then they deny that we are one of them)

So many things to think about.

Finally Bought A Digital Camera

After spending years lugging my 11 year old Canon Elan SLR camera around the world and taking thousands of pictures, I finally, on an impulse, bought a digital camera that'll allow me to take snapshots for my weblog.

Wanna see what I had for lunch?

Got Protection?

I just discovered that two of our computers had the W32.Klez.H@mm virus. I'm not certain where it came from because this one is really sneaky. I urge you all to make sure you have the latest updates for Windows, IE, and Outlook Express at Microsoft's site.

I knew Nora Okja Keller when...

Re-reading the entries about local writers reminded me of a time when I took an English class (Short Story & Novel) at UHM taught by Nora Okja Keller. She had to be one of the best English instructors I had and will have. In that class was my first experience with recognizing pidgin' English as a language. We actually read a couple of pieces from the "Best of Bamboo Ridge."

East coast for islanders

That entry about what we couldn't get used to about Hawaii got me thinking about some of the things that i found the strangest when I first got to college.

As soon as I got to college we had September 11, and it was just so strange waking up to some kind of terrorist attack because the last time we had something like that, Oklahoma city, it had already happened by the time we got to school and watched it on TV in Hawaii, and there I was on that Tuesday morning seeing the tragedy unfold one plane crash at a time.

Also, being on eastern time means that i get to watch things like the awards shows and campaign speeches live at regular times without too much hassle but i've discovered that even here the shows never show at their supposed eastern times.

Action, Danno.

After years of rumors, speculation, and if-ever cynicism, a "Hawaii 5-0" feature film finally seems to be nearing reality. After a ferocious bidding war, DreamWorks won the rights (over four others, reportedly) on Monday. A script is already written.

I'm writing my own taglog.

I'm creating a taglog for my website. And when I say "creating", I mean I'm writing one from scratch. It's actually a pretty simple thing to create. Any suggestions as to what sort of features you want to see?

Ashley's Best Reception Yet?

In case you haven't heard: Former star receiver for the UH Warriors Ashley Lelie was drafted 19th overall by the Denver Broncos, the first player from UH to be picked in the first round. As you may know, one of the controversial issues surrounding him was the fact that he decided to forego his senior year to enter the NFL draft. How do you think he's going to do in the big leagues?

Two Wongs make it White?

A new clothing line by Abercrombie and Fitch has ignited the ire of some Asian-American advocacy groups because the shirts supposedly contain racist mottos.

Never get used to...

People come and go, and things do come to pass; but three things I will never get used to in Hawai'i are:

Where do you see us?

I'm surprised with the migration from Hawaii to the mainland that the overall population of islands hasn't reduced drastically. I probably live in the one city on the mainland that boasts more of us Hawaii folks than anywhere else. Yes, it's Las Vegas.

The east coast

People on the mainland assume that just because you're from Hawaii, you love the hot humid weather. They all think that Hawaii is hot hot hot and humid. But they just don't understand — Hawaii isn't. Hawaii is just perfect. All the time. Well, except for when we have kona winds, but at least at home I never woke up bathed in sweat and had the desire to take cold showers. I can't wait to go home.

Say goodnight, Ally

Now this one has got to be a shocker: Ally McBeal has officially been cancelled.

Love it or hate it, you gotta admit the last five years were entertaining.

Uncle Ben ups the speed limit

In the face of the van-cam fiasco, Governor Cayetano is proposing that we raise the speed limit on our highways.

Hu Dat Girl?

Who's a big Kelly Hu fan? Looks like we'll be seeing more of her in the Scorpion King. Did you know that she hangs out at Barnes and Noble while in town? I kid you not, saw her there a few times in the past, typing away on her laptop.

What a Mess

Sitting here myself
Papers scattered like petals
I tire of the wait

Profiles suggestion

Since we are linked to our websites via the buttons on the left sidebar, what do y'all think of "mailto:" links on the avatars on the Profiles page? Seems to me rather than duplicate the website link again there, the mailing address might be more functional.

Agree? Disagree?

Chow mein mainland style

The first time I ordered chinese food at college I recieved celery fried with chicken over rice when I ordered chow mein. I thought the restaurant had screwed up the order. The second time I got the same chicken and celery deal I knew it couldn't be a mistake. It seems that chowmein ceases to mean fried skinny noodles with veges and meats once you crossover the Pacific Ocean. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't mein mean NOODLES?!

So beware when ordering chinese take out on the mainland!

EH! You want fried rice with that?

I don't know if being Chinese has something to do with the fact that I have never been bothered by "bad service" at Chinese restaurants. More than a few of my friends have left a Chinese restaurant fuming over the "stupid waiter" or dirty dishes, but I've never taken poor service and dingy atmosphere at a Chinese restaurant personally -- I figure if you're going to eat Chinese food out, you're asking for it.

Mess of Meta

HawaiiStories is not even a month old, but with 21 members and over 100 posts and comments so far, I'd say we're off to a healthy start. And it's all because of you! So thanks. (Er, I mean, mahalo.) Now, here's a random assortment of HawaiiStories news, conveniently compiled in one place rather than posted willy-nilly.

Extra, extra, read all about it!

The World of Golf

Why is the sporting world giving so much attention and coverage to the Masters Golf Tournament? I realize that many golfers consider the Masters to be "The Tournament to win", but why give it so much attention?

For the Love of Dog

Three-hour tour nothing. An incredible mission was undertaken earlier this week when the Hawaiian Humane society, with support from the national society, initiated a a $50,000 mission to save a dog left on an Indonesian tanker after a dramatic rescue at sea saved only the humans.

I love animals, but I still find this only a bit shy of wacky.

Lilo and Stitch

I'm so excited that Disney is finally releasing Lilo and Stitch soon. I'm curious to see how Hawaii is presented in the film: will there be an actual town or will Waikiki just be one big beach? Will Lilo live in a household with 2 other generations of cousins or will she have her own cute little grass shack? I hope they don't continue to make Hawaii out to be the "fantasy island" it's come to resemble in movies.

I heard there's some musical numbers by Elvis thrown in the mix. I wonder if any of Bruddah Iz's songs (or any other local bands for that matter) made it to the soundtrack?

Weird Al songs excluded

It seems that "food" is one of the more popular subjects not just in this site but in the whole State. I come to this conclusion because I cannot think of any song, besides the ones sang by local groups, Weird Al, and commercials, that is about food.

Can you?

btw: By now we all know that music is the other popular category here.

Mmm...Chili

Hi me again and I'm hungry. I have been constantly craving Zippy's chili for the past two weeks. I know Zippy's UPS's chili to the mainland but damn it! Why does it have to be so expensive?! I figure I try to make my own...so...does anyone have any Zippy-like chili recipies for me to try? I'd grab one off the net, but I'd rather have it from someone who's actually cooked the stuff.

Or someone could just fly to NYC to deliver a bucket. Heh.

Make My 'Golden Eye' Red

Halle Berry — now an "Oscar-winning actress" — plays a Bond girl named Jinx... and she very well may be just that.

The 20th installment in the James Bond movie franchise, "Die Another Day," is filmed in part in Hawaii. (For just a surf scene, I suspect, as other locales include Havana and Hong Kong.) In February, Pierce Brosnan injured his knee. And now during shooting in Spain, Berry got something in her eye.

Lies, Damned Lies, & Politicians

I get the KITV headlines via E-mail; this one about Rene Mansho arrived a couple of hours ago. It strikes me that we've got one hell of a City Council to be proud of; Mirikitani in jail, Mansho facing prosecution, Felix fighting about his damned wedding business, Yoshimura disbarred, etc. And isn't Steve Holmes's resume still under suspicion, or did that get resolved?

Not bad for a city with a population of 800,000 or so, huh?

Mid Week

As I pull my copy of Mid Week from the mailbox and walk towards the house, I always check to see who is on the cover. I don't think I have ever known anyone that has had their photo on the cover, but I figure that eventually someone I know will do something noteworthy and get their photo there. Once I get into the house, the first thing I do is to pull the advertisements out and set them on the side. The Long's ads always get their own special pile to ensure that I won't miss them.

I Apologize For This Post

I Apologize For This Post

After a little experimentation, I found out that the first five words of an entry automatically becomes the title for the entry. So if you're using blogBuddy, or something similar, the trick to auto-posting to MovableType is to use five word titles. I guess I'll be writing a lot of bad poems.

I apologize for this post.
You're just sitting there,
watching me test this thing.
Perhaps we can dance.

Next stop...?

Inspired by those Zippy's commercials:

You've just arrived back in the Islands after a long trip, or you've moved elsewhere and managed to come back for a vacation. Where's the first place you go to eat?

No Good Italian

The family just dined out at the new Boston's North End Pizza Bakery in Manoa, one of two new locations (after the one in Waikiki didn't work out). I love Boston's, and the folks I know from the East Coast also give it a thumb's up.

But it got me to thinking about what a co-worker (from New York) says, time and time again. "There are no good Italian restaurants in Hawaii." Is this true? Apart from pizza (if it counts at all), are you out of luck looking for decent Italian eats in the islands?

This Week in Cartoons

Um, just in case there's anyone else out there who still cares about South Park, or whatever's left of it: Oh, my God, they finally killed Kenny. You bastards.

Rock me, Salieri

Some theaters in the Mainland - and apparently, none in Hawaii - are now showing the director's cut of Amadeus. As with every other reissue, the elements are there: brand-new print, digitally remastered soundtrack, additional scenes deleted from original release.

We're on TV!

Cast and crew from the long-running NBC hit E.R. are in town this week to film footage for Anthony Edwards' final episode on the show. Since I am easily starstruck...

Go Tiny...Go go Tiny...

I was just curious about who actually watches the 9PM-10PM block on Oceanic Cable channel 16 (besides me)? I don't know the reason why TinyTV and Local Kine Grinds hold such a spell over me...

Decisions, Decisions???

Merrie Monarch Festival on KITV, or UH men's volleyball vs top ranked UCLA on KFVE? It's times like these I wish I had a VCR. Oh well, I put fresh batteries in the clicker. My thumb is going to get a workout!

Mmmm, POG

A friend of mine had called my attention to the new Minute Maid(tm) Blends, and especially their Orange Passion Blend, which the box describes as an "orange passionfruit guava juice." In other words, their version of POG.

Check This Out...

Check this out. It's real time trough the Hawaii Stories' XML-RPC interface.

Recent posts to Hawaii Stories as of now.

Other than auto posting, there's not much else I can do with what I learned, mainly becase MovableType doesn't let you do very much through the interface. Now, if we were to hack the code a little, I'm sure we can customize Hawaii Stories' end to do what we want. But I digress.

Back in the day

Stella's entry about the Lamest Cover Versions of Popular Songs by Hawaii Bands got me thinking of the "old days" of local radio--the days when groups like Kalapana

Odd Finds

My hubby and I just spent the last hour browsing around Found Magazine, a gallery of found objects - from grocery lists to Dear John letters to torn up photographs. Totally random, yet also totally engrossing. It reminded us of a strange set of index cards Ryan found near UH one night.

Hawai'i Blog Con?

The Prophet suggested down below that we should talk about a get-together in "meatspace," as it's called over at the main Blog Con boards. With some notice, I can do it on a weekend afternoon. I assume most of us have obligations during the week, so that seems like the easier part. The hard part will be finding a (roughly) central location so no-one has to drive too far. Since we don't have all the profiles up yet (subtlety, yeah?) I don't have a good feel for which part of the islands the participants would be coming from.

Ideas?

Space Parties

Friday, April 12 will bring the second annual "Yuri's Night," a global celebration of human achievment — specifically the 41st anniversary of the first space flight (by Yuri Gagarin) and the 21st anniversary of the first Space Shuttle launch. Remember to at least raise your glass!

Success!

Okay...some success. I was able to get my website to talk to Hawaii Stories. First thing you gotta do is get an AppKey, which is something like a GUID that identifies your application to Blogger, or in our case, the Hawaii Stories' MovableType API.

Help needed.

I am in desperate need of assistance. Yesterday in the mail I received a default judgement on a traffic ticket. This ticket was issued for parking in a tow-away zone at N School and Loi Kalo St at 6:30am Monday, January 28, 2002.

The problem is, I live in Kailua, and have never been on Loi Kalo street. Especially not at 6:30am. Obviously this is a huge mistake, but how can I prove my innocence?

Snap, Crackle, and Pop

Now that I'm a part of Hawaii Stories, I'm going to do something very interesting. I'm going to integrate the weblog on my website with Hawaii Stories using the MovableType API. I'll keep you all posted as soon as I have a beta up and running.

In the meantime, wanna check out what I'm working on? It's over at www.fireflyfans.net.

Baby, Can I Hold You Tonight?

You know, Greg's entry about Jack Johnson and the abysmal state of "Hawaiian" music - and not to mention a particularly scathing and foul-mouthed Honolulu Weekly story on Hawaii radio - got me thinking: Can we get a list of the Lamest Cover Versions of Popular Songs by Hawaii Bands?

My personal list of beefs on this topic, I'm afraid, is going to be a long one...

The Osbournes

This show makes me fall off my chair. Has anyone seen it? It's just so demented, it's wonderful.

Shame das why

When I was a young boy, I was amazed to learn that my friend never received spankings from his parents. Being one that got my own share of lickins and whacks, I wondered how this could be true. In my mind, I thought every parent used the belt as the ultimate motivator for the occasional naughty child. "But if you never get spankings, how do your parents make you do stuff?" I asked. "Shame, das why," he said matter of factly.

As years passed, I began to understand the powerful infulence that shame had on my friend, and has on many others in our island culture. For some, it is the prime motivator to do or not to do certain things. Sometimes, I think shame gets in the way of doing the things we really desire to do, then there are other times where I wish more people would allow shame to influence their lives.

Mars & Venus in Hawaii

Local "followers" of celebrity relationship guru John Gray's "Mars & Venus" philosophy are meeting Saturday. Does this guy's advice bother anyone else?

Critics have maintained since his first (of many books) that his great plan is basically "a sexist, patronizing, male-centered invective [that] perpetuates long-held negative gender stereotypes." So I find it ironic the Hawaii gathering is taking place at the Kapi'olani Women's Center.

Merrie Monarch 2002

Well, I'm sure most of us will have to watch on TV, but someday! In case anyone feels lucky, here's a page with ticket prices and the seating chart. (Why doesn't the festival have an Official site of its own?!?)

Anyone ever been lucky enough to see it live?

Spiced Ham

I've lived on the mainland for nearly three years now and no matter how hard I try I can't get people to fully appreciate that great canned delight we call SPAM. Maybe it's my bland way of cooking it for them (musubi, fried rice, spaghetti)? Anyone know of any delightful SPAM recipies that I can share with the tastebuds of the Northeastern area?

April Fool's

Any pranks to report, as victim or perpetrator? Any favorites from the annals of your personal history? My faves are, of course, geeky. Like sneaking onto a friend's computer and setting their "autospell" feature to change common words like "the" and "company" into... more embarassing words.

Perhaps fittingly, today is also the eighth anniversary of the day my wife and I became a couple — yes, the very day the joke's on everyone.