November 2002 Archives

Die Another Day

Went to see Die Another Day at the Ward Theatre this afternoon.

To be honest I am more of a Star Trek fan, than I am a 007 fan but I did vote for the 007 movie in our HawaiiStories poll. It was more of a symathy vote than anything else.

The Thanksgiving Meal

What is on the Thanksgiving Menu? Trying any new recipes this year? Will you be celebrating with family and/or friends? Do you consciously save room for pie? I wonder if Martha Stewart will preparing a feast this year, or if she just said to hell with it all. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Greyhound Therapy, Island Style?

Tourism officials are glowing over reports that mainland arrivals are up, but there's one man planning a trip to Hawaii that some aren't so thrilled about. FEGS, a so-called social services agency in New York, is planning to discharge a mental health patient and send him to Honolulu. They called United Self-Help and asked them to make sure he gets to the Institute for Human Services shelter.

"It's reminiscent of what people used to call 'Greyhound therapy' and put them on a bus and send them out of state to get them off their rolls," Dr. Thomas Hester, chief of the state Health Department's Adult Mental Health Division, told the Star-Bulletin.

Room and Board for a Board

This isn't Hawaii-related, but I figure it's as good a place to ask this question, especially since there seem to be many Mac geeks lurking in the woodwork here at HS. Perhaps someone might know the answer.

Is it possible to run a bulletin board/forum on Mac OS X, and how would that actually work?

Waikiki Theaters Closed

The Waikiki Theaters closed yesterday with no advanced announcement made to the public except for what was broadcast on the news last night and appeared in the paper today. It is another piece of our Honolulu that has gone by the wayside in favor of something bigger (Ward Movieplex) though probably not better.

Hawaii to get a taste of Apple?

Good riddance, CompUSA "Mac specialists." Apple seems to be planning on opening its westernmost Apple Store in Hawaii. In Ala Moana, in fact, if I'm reading the official job posting right. (You gotta love their sense of humor: "Does the thought of working for Apple make you tingle more than those three seconds right after a sneeze?")

Seattle just found out they'll be similarly blessed, and it made headlines! Part of a nationwide expansion, it seems. Thanks to Jon for the scoop!

Leonids

So who, if anyone, actually saw the meteor shower? According to KITV it was a "bust." I shamefacedly admit I forgot and went to bed, but somebody must have been intrepid among this group!

Scientists to create new life

Can you believe this?

Scientists Want New Form of Life

WASHINGTON (AP) - Scientists intend to announce Thursday that they will attempt to create a new form of life in a laboratory dish, The Washington Post reported.

What's up with the HGEA Commercials?

Does anyone know what is up with those HGEA commercials showing on Television?

Privacy or Piracy?

This is my first post to hawaiistories.com and my 5th day in Honolulu. I thought I would take the oppurtunity to address something rather controversial.

It seems the Music Industry and the Motion Picture Association are not too happy with the millions of people all over the world who are using their products without paying their dues. I'll admit I'm one of those people who loves to download and listen to MP3's rather than pay $19.99 for a CD and learn that the whole thing was crap. Now if I download the music and like it, then and only then will I go out and purchase the product. Same with movies, I like to download movies and watch them before I go out and spend $20 on a DVD or a VHS.

Sex and Violins

Okay, I know I'm taking a chance here that I'm going to piss people off, but I was doing some web-searching recently for stuff about Sarah Chang, who played recently with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, and I came across one of the greatest classical-music sites I've ever seen: Beauty in Music.

It's a website devoted to sexy classical musicans.

Whose Smart? We Is!

A Kansas-based group recently gave its Smartest State Award for 2002 to Connecticut, ranking Hawaii a dismal 45th out of 50. Of course, these guys seem most interested in selling their state-ranking books. Then again, more credible outfits have also found the quality of our education lacking.

Rankings are funny things, though. Are we a healthy state? A safe state? Yes and no (see inside). So need we worry? Or is it "lies, damn lies, and statistics"?

Hit by the left cross (while looking for the right jab)

My goodness. I thought I was beyond surprisable, but Mazie Hirono is talking about running for Congress, and I just did NOT see that coming.

You watch which?

In case you missed it, apparently KHON leads the race to quality(?) at 10:00pm, according to today's paper. The study cited can be found here. Well, maybe. I don't think the 10:00pm news is a major priority for any of the stations, and I don't quite get why that slot would be the one chosen for study; seems to me the post-drivetime news would be a better gauge.

We've Got No Class (and We've Got no Principles)

That does it. I'm tired of not knowing. I'm tired of stepping into the voting booth armed only with the endorsements of people who don't truly know. I'm tired of pretending I'm a responsible voter, when really I'm an ignorant pretender.

I'm declaring myself a Hawaii State Board of Education watchdog.

Japanese "Investment"?

Now this is odd. Hawai'i is being used as sort of an offshore business incubator for small Japanese firms, according to this article from the WSJ's Startup Journal. Since it's the WSJ and thus normally subscription-only, I'll put the story below.

The Returns, The Results

After all is said and done, those who vote have the last word. And we'll soon see what they said. So — will you have the TV on to watch election returns as they come in, locally or nationally, or will you just tune it out and look for the headlines tomorrow morning?

Drinking The Sand

As we come to the close of this election season in Hawaii, let me pose a question that's a little different from the typical this-party-vs.-the-other-party rhetoric.