September 2004 Archives

The Ukulele Saga

"Are you sitting down?" Every time Mom has said that to me, someone's died, and when she called today, I thought, All the elders are gone...who could it possibly be?

That lightswitch fight-or-flight instinct snapped on, when death is suddenly in your face and all the hairs on your body stand 90 degrees on your skin, when your breath stops and your heart clinches, and every finger of every nerve in your body--braces.

"I have some news for you."

Another Food Survey

The only subjects I seem to do well in are those involving food, so here's another.

In the past several years I've been to some tasty places but I know there's much more out there to be had. I've only got three to list as "good": Tony Roma's, Bob's and Chili's. Ooo, such a great selection. My list of restaurants to reference is very short!

Where are your favorite rib joints?

We Do This Because We Do This

I haven't done it yet, but I'm going to click on each of the links in the left-hand column of the HawaiiStories mainpage, just to see who's still doing this.

Okay, not JUST to see who's still doing this. I'm doing it, too, because I'm trying to figure out WHY we do this.

Expecting Too Much

Working at and attending the University of Hawaii I get this feeling of always having to be politically correct. I’m Mexican and sometimes I get this feeling that whatever I do is represented as part of “my culture” and I suddenly become the Latino Ambassador to the world.

Wasn't that yesterday?

Today Alex is a month old. I'm absolutely astonished by how much he's changed and grown, even though it's not like I haven't seen it all before.

He seems like a different baby in the morning from the little thing we swaddled up the night before. Every time I come home and see him again, I feel like I've been gone for weeks. His eyes open that much wider, and sparkle that much brighter... and he howls that much louder.

Masked Men on Donkeys

It's could be a bad mutation of the argument and pure conspiracy theory, or a hybrid thread to the same argument meant to introduce humor to the presidential campaign, that James Clarville and Paul Bagala, both political advisors now with the Kerry campaign, could have been the culprits behind a ploy of duping Dan Rather to unveil the Lt. Col. Killian memos on a live broadcast. The important points are, Bagala and Carville are former Bill Clinton advisors, and the authenticity of the memos in question are generally regarded as fake.

Richie Rich and Google

My grandfather had a ton of old Richie Rich comic books. One of my favorite issues had Richie and Cadbury solving a mystery with the help of a WWII pilot who was famous for surviving pursuit by a hundred japanese planes. The villain in the story was named the Googol. I forget exactly what the Googol was was trying to steal, but the twist in the story was that the war hero was the Google. Richie figured it out because the number google is 10^100 (one followed by a hundred zeroes). A japanese fighter plane was nicknamed a "Zero"...so the pilot was the one followed by a hundred Zeroes.

The search engine Google was named after the number googol, and their offices, the Googleplex, was named after the number googolplex. (A googleplex is one followed by a thousand zeroes.)

I really wonder if the founders of Google read Richie Rich, because that was the coolest issue of Richie Rich EVARR!!11!!11!! (Actually, it was probably the only cool issue of Richie Rich. Richie Rich wasn't cool. Spider-Man was cool.) A search on Google (haha) reveals no connection though. In fact, I can't even figure out what issue of Richie Rich it was. It's true though. I wonder...

Are the newest cloned mouses, robots?

My mouse contracted rabies a few weeks ago, and as any reasonable person would do, I went off to CompUSA and purchased a cordless mouse and cordless keyboard. Da one that is sold together as a set. "Logtech" brand in case you're curious.

Well, I discovered something about the new rodent this day in the startrek log. With my arms folded across me chest, with the cordless mouse against my ribcage or stuck under my armpit, I can still navigate abouts on whatever page is currently displayed on the computer screen by using the mouse's up and down buttons as well as the scroll wheel in the usual way, even though, the mouse's infrared beam is directed at a 90 to 180 degrees offset to the deskbound receiver's cradle seated near the computer monitor. Terrific mouse dis one. Almost like one John Kerry reporting for duty.

Posthumous Hapa

The matter of Dad's remains is a morbid and tragic one, and in the many years since his "interment," I've avoided thinking about it altogether, because it is as painful as it is irreconcilable.

I find the constitution to write about it now because--in a morbid and tragic way--his memorial(s) are a pure and perfect metaphor for the enigma that is my ancestral identity.

--And tingeing this narrative with a drop or two of black humor is appropriate and accomodating, as it alleviates a bit of the lugubriousness and conveys the high level of absurdity.