a few pictures from San Francisco and Monterey

A few photos from my recent trip to Northern California.


Not that spectacular, I know. I mainly uploaded them to play with the WordPress NextGEN photogallery plugin. I installed this plugin looking for a fast, easy way to get slideshows online, specifically for Mālamalama magazine, which is now built out in WordPress(!!).

However, I find myself really liking the gallery (thumbnail) navigation. The slideshow gives more control to the creator for things like picture order and audio–we like control at the magazine–but the gallery lets users select the pics they particularly like and breeze through the rest, or not.

The other option for this type of photo presentation would be to make a video with the still shots, but that takes a bit more labor and creates issues of how to insert the caption info. But, video can be hosted on a site like youtube, which reaches a wider audience and can be easily embedded by others.

decisions, decisions…

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oh now it’s personal, Sarah Palin

In Alaska I’ve met women like Sarah Palin.

Okay maybe not as high-powered, but women who shoot, who hunt, who drive four-wheelers, snowmachines (aka snowmobiles) and trucks–who drive very well, period–chop wood if they need to, grow things, raise animals and run a household. These are women you want on your side in a pinch, who hold their own among men and can look cute while they’re doing it! I like and respect these women. I know I’ll always be a helplessly liberal urbanite in comparison, but we can actually get along. Especially if there is alcohol involved. heh.

So I wasn’t mad at Sarah Palin. I don’t want her to run things, not one bit (((understatement))). But I felt like we were cool with each other somehow. That is, until she crossed the line and said this to Katie Couric:

I’m not one of those who maybe came from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduate college and their parents give them a passport and give them a backpack and say go off and travel the world. No, I’ve worked all my life. In fact, I usually had two jobs all my life until I had kids. I was not a part of, I guess, that culture.

Hey Sarah Palin, guess what? I’ve almost always had a job, or two, or three, since I was 15 years old! We have something in common? Except my parents encourage my study abroad and I scrimp and save so I can travel more in the future. To be able to travel is a blessing, yes, but it’s also a choice almost every healthy, unincarcerated American can make.

Just like how Palin chose to spend her first semester of college at University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, supposedly cliqued up with some other girls who’d transferred with her. After their first semester, they all transferred to Hawaiʻi Pacific University in Honolulu, before she bounced to Idaho or wherever.

I dont know why she didnt like it here. Maybe she missed winter, or didnt like being a racial minority, or living in a very urban environment (or a small town local one like in Hilo). But just coming here to me showed an inquisitive, if not adventurous, streak. Again, respect. So why you gotta be so scornful, Sarah Palin!??

Amazingly she goes on to say, Read More »

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theme upgrade MNML

Summer is over. Time for the dusty Bluebird theme to fly away, not least because Twitter incorporated it into their design ages ago (I had it first), but things are just different now. New season, new nephew, new deadlines.

twitter log in page and my site using Bluebird

Time for something more subdued. This loamy, static look is called MNML and so far it suits my mood perfectly.

The MNML theme is conceptually related to Twitter in that it lends itself to micro-blogging, which I’m liking lately. Perhaps a bit too much. Something about posting these really tiny snippets of myself feels like a freer form of expression. At least, it’s more portable (phone-friendly) and easier than blogging, that’s for sure. Freer? eh. Whatever. LoL.

I will try not to go all “dear diary” with the content, but I don’t apologize for being inconsistent in my posting style. My published clips are still listed here as for the rest, we’ll see.

Thanks again to WordPress for making this possible.

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salty licorice fix

4 kinds of salty licorice

^ This stuff is mildly addictive for some of us

Carousel Candyland in Kahala Mall is the only place in Hawaii with a reliable source of black licorice and most importantly, the salty salmiak kind. Above are the four strong ones they had earlier this week.

The kitty kat one is very mild and sweet with a hard, gummi texture but sort of a waxy, shell coating. The diamond and the coin are Dutch, very salty. Both are usually chewy, but unfortunately this double salt coin is hard and stale. The lil gumdrop is somewhere in the middle flavor-wise, sweet but with a definite tang.

Course there is a blog devoted to salt licorice now. LOL. I’m adding this important resource to the blogroll.

Also happy to report I’ve got a lead on a place in SF that supposedly has “17 different kinds of salt licorice”?!? This I must see.

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Poi Dog Pondering - Perfect Music (Hyde Park “Ecstasy” mix)

Funny the small coincidences in life. Like an old friend in Chicago directing music videos for a band formerly of Honolulu. What are the chances?

Marco Giovanni Ferrari
poidogpondering.com

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I want to ride my bicycle

Yesterday there were two serious accidents involving bicyclists on Oʻahu, both before dawn, one a fatal hit and run. With bikes sales increasing as people try to work around the laughable rise in gas prices, this is definitely a cause for concern and perhaps the start of a disturbing new trend.

Last year, I gave up my parking pass and have been biking to and from work. I live about 10 minutes away from my job so it’s not like a Herculean feat, tho I do sometimes do it in a skirt and heels. And then it starts to rain! But for the most part, I think it’s actually easier than driving. Plus it’s fun, good exercise and there is no sticker shock at the pump, cuz air is still free. But commuting by bike has given me a perspective on how bike-unfriendly the city can be.

For example, the ridiculous bike lanes that put cyclists in glass-strewn gutters alongside cars rushing on and off the freeway, like on University Ave. going up to UH. I don’t go that route. It sucks. The lower part of University is better, but even still, a line on the ground demarcating a narrow path between a row of parked cars on one side and careless drivers on the other is kinda sketchy. Luckily I don’t have to go that way too often; day to day I ride side streets instead.

The problem there is that some drivers don’t seem to think that the rules of the road apply between them and bicyclists. They often don’t bother to signal, and if it is a narrow street where two cars would have to squeeze to get by, they just stay right in the middle if I’m coming towards them on a bike. Not cool!

There are definitely more people of all ages biking around town these days. Yes, some of them are inconsiderate and stupid. But in the end, more bikes = less cars on the road. We all agree that’s a good thing, right?

Queen - Bicycle Race

The Cool Kids - Black Mags

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Sergio Goes 1964-2008

Photographer, filmmaker, friend. News of Sergio Goes’ accidental death last weekend is still raw. The comfort in knowing he was doing something he loved at the time is not enough, but it will have to do.

Having Sergio assigned as the photog on a handful of my Hana Hou stories was always a thrill for me. Even tho the jobs were small and merely a footnote in his award-winning career, they were a highpoint of mine.

His death has shaken up a lot of people, some of whom have blogged about him with more eloquence than I can muster. Details for Saturday’s memorial can also be found at these links.

Also, tomorrow (Fri 7/18) members of Sergio’s free-diving ‘ohana are offering a free dive safety presentation. You’re never too experienced to remember safety in the ocean. But there are no guarantees. The ocean is our mother. She brought us in and she’ll take us out!

Aloha, Sergio. Godspeed.

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caffeine withdrawal is real

caffeine is a drug

It seemed like a practical move when I quit drinking coffee; it wasn’t for health reasons that I did it. I had no idea I was so strung out. If I had known from the beginning how caffeine withdrawal feels, I probably wouldn’t have made the switch. Come to find out Caffeine Withdrawal Is Real.

My cracked French press carafe had finally broken, buying coffee every day was costing over $40/month and I had like 3 lbs of this yerba mate stuff that someone had given me, just sitting in the cupboard. I figured it’d be like drinking coffee, which it wasnt.

First I subbed yerba mate in for coffee on the weekends, when walking to the corner cafe for a drink to enjoy at home began to seem ridiculous. After a couple weeks I took some into work and started drinking it there during the week, fully switched off coffee.

The tiredness I felt at first was expected, but I didn’t get any headaches or think that I would. Around day 3 I started developing flu-like symptoms. It could have been a very mild flu, but the sore throat and mucus never got overwhelming and I was working, working out, eating healthy, all better than normal.

At the start of week two, I experienced body aches so severe that they woke me out of my sleep. Pain bowled up and down my body between my knee and my waist, mostly on the left side and in my hips. I’d experienced something similar while fasting, which not incidentally, was the last time I’d ever abstained from coffee for more than a day or two. That passed in about 3 days.

Now I’m on week three with no coffee and am feeling much better, more alert, no aches & pains, other symptoms fully gone. I still take caffeine; some of the yerba mate I have is a blend that includes green tea, and I’ve had other teas and soda. It’s not like I’ll never have a good cup of coffee again, but now that I know how fully addicted I was, I’ll try to take it easy.

And even tho I make yerba mate wrong (through a tea strainer into a coffee cup), I look forward to learning more about it and tea in general. (I’ll just go ahead and ignore this story from Finland about coffee lowering the risk of liver cancer.)

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late spring articles

otto with guitar and cheesecake photo by Sergio Goes

Eating cheesecake and sampling cocktails, yeah, I know, I make it look easy. But the painstaking hours of research paid off because both these articles look good enough to eat. And drink.

A Sergio Goes photo takes full page in the Hana Hou piece and the four (count em, 4!) pages in HI Luxury include a shot of my girl Chia making a sour face while muddling limes. haha.

April/May 2008

Hana Hou

HI Luxury

  • “Mixing it up! Get a lesson behind the bar at E&O Trading Company.” Photos by Ryan Ohara.
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music and life

An Alan Watts animation produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

[mahaloz@Brave New Traveler]

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dreamland Bhutan

The Honolulu Academy of Arts was buzzing on Sunday afternoon, when I finally made it to see The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, which had been there since February but held over til this weekend.

I was lucky enough to catch part of a guided tour of the exhibit, which allowed me more insight than I would have on my own. A lot of the pieces were intricately embroidered and appliqued thangka with symbol-ladden scenes from the life of important Buddhist teachers and deities.

phorba and vajraThere were also centuries old metal-cast sculptures and some ancient Buddhist ritual items including a phurba and a vajra, pictured, which I recognized because M left them here, his spiritual practice no longer a priority. This NY Times article explains how this one-of-a-kind collection was put together, the slideshow is good, too.

The exhibition was presided over by a small group of Bhutanese monks, who also lead prayers in another area of the museum called the Altar Room. The smell of incense and drone of chanting was enveloping even outside the doors, where shoes were piled. Beatific people were seated on cushions around the room in various meditation positions, throwing rice and plumeria blossoms up and into the center of the room either at certain times in the chant, or maybe just following along when the monks did it, which is what I was doing. Aping such earnest ritual made me uncomfortable.

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Manoa vog

The afternoon sun was an unnatural-looking orange smudge in the sky when I got off work yesterday. The city was covered in a blanket of gray. I honestly thought there was huge fire somewhere. Nope, just the vog back again.

These were taken the today, looking into Manoa valley.

Vog in Manoa Valley Oahu 9 a.m.

9 a.m.

Vog in Manoa Valley Oahu Hawaii 6:30 pm

6:30 p.m.

Mel breaks down the vog phenomenon, for those unfamiliar.

Weather people say it should clear by the end of the weekend when the winds change. One TV newscast reports that the most noxious of the sulfurous fumes dont travel too far from the eruption. *cross fingers* Tho the Big Island gets the worst of it, vog is causing health problems across the islands and apparently economic ones, too.

My contacts feel like plastic wrap on my eyeballs; sinuses and throat are itchy. I think I’m building up an immunity tho, last month I was sneezing and sniffling like crazy. Meh.

More info:

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photographs from Japan

thumbnails of Rowen's pictures from Japan

Hawaii photographer Rowen Tabusa took these photographs on a recent trip to Japan. I know very little about photography, but I like the textures here a lot, and also the colors, or lack thereof.

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