Esoteric Bowl

Many years ago when I was four years old, I was dared to dip a Frito’s corn chip into the mud and eat it. Not knowing better, I accepted the dare and ate a mud-dipped Frito. I don’t know why I would remember such a thing after all these years. Perhaps it was the initial response of utter shock from my darer that caused me to remember. On the other hand, maybe what seared this event into my memory was the awful taste of a Frito dipped in mud.

I dare you to do at least one of the following this weekend.
I double-dog dare you!

* Fly a kite.
* Write a heartfelt letter.
* Drive with compassion.
* Take photographs of anything.
* Prepare a recipe that you’ve never used before.
* Play some old music and sing out loud.
* Buy yourself flowers.
* Go to a church you’ve never attended.
* Write down all your desires and put them in a wish jar.
* Draw a self-portrait, then post it on your refrigerator.
* Take a grocery bag and fill it with trash from your neighborhood.

If you accept a dare, let me know how it went.

It’s been about a week now since my new site has been up and running. I’m still getting acquainted with the little differences between WordPress & MoveableType. Although I loved MT, I’m really liking the ease of WordPress. I’ve got to give all the credit to Ryan for making the smooth transition from the old site to this one. Ryan set-up the entire site and everything within it.

One of the cool features that Ryan installed on the site is the Flickr thumbnail photos in the right column. I think it’s a nice personal touch that displays photographs old and new, at the same time it provides easy access to the photos.

On a side note; I recently started adding photos at Flickr, and I highly recommend Flickr if you’re looking for a place to post your photos. Flickr has a number of cool bells and whistles, but it’s also a great way to share photos. One cool feature with Flickr is that you can blog from there, (as I did with this post) which means that you only need to download a photo once, so you’re using that webspace for photos instead of the webspace on your site. Best of all, there are far more visitors to my photos at Flickr than I ever had viewing my photo page at the old site.

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but also in the right column is a very cool button for Esoteric Bowl that Ryan created. I’ve never been much of a button person, and I’m not one to add a bunch of them to my site. Still, it’s very cool to be buttonized with your very own button.

Have a great Aloha Friday!

My parents had plans for the evening, so instead of leaving an older brother and I at home alone, they offered to drop us off at the theater so that we could catch a movie. We excitedly agreed, and soon we were all headed towards the theater. As we got out of the car in front of the theater, Dad gave my brother a ten dollar bill and told him that it was for both of us to have popcorn and soda.

After getting our movie tickets and walking into the lobby, I assumed that we would be making a detour towards the snack-bar because that’s what we had always done in the past. But this time my brother said he wanted to get his seat first. Seeing how he had the money, I followed him into the theater and we quickly found our seats.

Once we sat down, I looked to my brother and said, “Lets go get our popcorn and soda.”
“If you want popcorn, you’ve got to go buy mine too,” he said.
“No way, get up and buy your own!”
“If I have to get up and buy my own, then I’m not paying for yours.”
“Dad said that money was for both of us,” I reminded him.
“So.”
There was no time to pout and no time to argue as the movie would be starting any minute. I grudgingly agreed to buy his popcorn and soda.

As I stood in the snack-bar line, I could hear the sound of the previews coming from inside the theater. Doggone it, we should have just bought the popcorn when we first came in. Now I was going to miss the start of the movie. I ordered two popcorn’s and two sodas, paid the clerk, and carried everything over to the little table where the straws and napkins are located. I grabbed two straws and a handful of napkins and put them inside the box. I grabbed the salt shaker and lightly salted both servings of popcorn.

It was then that I was struck with a thought of vengeance, a way of getting back at my brother for acting like the big boss just because he had the money. I grabbed one kernel of his popcorn and doused it with salt; lots and lots of salt, then placed the kernel back in the container. I walked into the darkened theater and found my seat and handed my brother his popcorn and soda.

I faced forward towards the movie screen, but slyly watched from the side of my eye as my brother began eating his popcorn. With each kernel that he put into his mouth, I waited in anticipation for his reaction. Suddenly his face contorted and his tongue uncontrollably stuck out. He quickly grabbed his soda and sucked and sucked on the straw to wash the saltiness from his mouth. His facial expression had me laughing on the inside, but I did my best to keep a straight face. Still, he somehow knew that I was responsible. He calmly turned in my direction and whispered the f-word at me. It’s often said that revenge is sweet, but sometimes it can be salty.

After completing a carpentry job in town, a friend and I began the trek home towards the windward side of the island. Instead of driving directly, we decided to make a slight detour into downtown so that we could admire all the pretty business women walking about.

As we drove through downtown, much of our conversation was limited to our asking the other, ‘How about that one?’ whenever we spotted a hottie. We would admire the other’s find, but quickly try to top that one with an even hotter find.

Soon we were out of town and driving in mild traffic towards the Pali tunnel. As we exited the tunnel, traffic was slow, but moving at an acceptable pace. The light at Castle Junction allowed approximately 20 to 30 cars to pass through before there would be another wait for the light to change. We sat at the red light about 20 cars back. Our truck was adjacent to the large vertical hill that had been sliced long ago to allow the highway to run through.

The light turned green and I drove with the flow as we moved around ten mph. Walking in the same direction on the right side of the road was an elderly woman with long gray hair. As we passed her, my friend jokingly said, “How about that one?” I looked in the rear-view mirror to see her, but she wasn’t there. “Hey, where did she go?” I said. My friend looked in the side mirror and then stuck his head out the window to find her. She was gone as if she never existed.

Like sands in the hourglass…

Like a daytime soap-opera, there has been a considerable amount of drama revolving around Esoteric Bowl for a while now. To be quite honest, there has been more drama related to my blog than there has been in my life outside of the blog world, and it shouldn’t be that way. The only drama that should exist in blogging is the drama that is expressed in the written word.

I’ll spare you the details of the drama. After all, who wants to read about site-related issues and the pitfalls of blogging. Personally, I prefer to write about other things, and that’s what I intend to do here at my new home. Sometimes a change of scenery can make a world of difference. I want to thank Tyd for hosting my previous site, and I want to thank Ryan for developing this site and for the warm welcome he has provided in offering my site a new home. I feel in good company to be a part of the neighborhood of blogs at HawaiiStories. Long-time readers might remember that I once a had a site at HawaiiStories, so returning there has a feel of coming home.

Thanks for coming to my new place. There are a couple of needed tweaks here and there, and I’m still in the process of entering all the archives. But basically, the site is good to go and I’m very happy with it. Sadly, as in all moves, some things are bound to be lost. In this case, I’ve once again lost all the comments that have been left on the site. So if you’ll do me a small favor and reread all the posts and leave the same thoughtful and witty comments, I would appreciate it.
I’m kidding!

Now let’s get to those housewarming gifts.

I’ve been spending time placing my archives onto this site. Still haven’t completed the task, but I’m getting there. It’s a time-consuming process, especially when each post must be entered individually. The only thing worse than transferring the archives by hand is not having the archives to transfer at all. So in that sense, I’m glad that I made copies of most of my posts so that I do have some archives available.

Having the archives on the site is something that is much more for me than it is anyone else. For the most part, few people visit the archives. Generally, the only visitors to the posts of the past are those coming to the site via Google or some other search engine. Of course there is the occasional stalker-type that will read the entire archives in one sitting.

In writing this post, it feels awfully familiar. I’ve lost count in how many times that I have found myself transferring archives because of one thing or another. It’s a good idea to make copies of all the posts because sooner or later some kind of drama involving the site will take place. It seems inevitable, like an earthquake or bad storm.

Two shadows becoming one.