All posts by cs

local culture briefing

social

I stand corrected, by one who knows. Whereas the local informal greeting among the Hawaiian was ‘Hey Brah’ as opposed to ‘Hey Bro’ — both are now acceptable. Proper display of the high sign (that is with all fingers folded except for the thumb and pinky finger) is with one wrist flick only and hand held low down at belt level.

I was poking fun of the poor grammar on the signage at yesterdays open market. It read boldly (hand painted) “Shave Ice” — as in snow cones and such and trying to prove my superior intellect gleefully pointed out THEY left of the “d”. Naw Brah. “Shave” is perfectly proper — in pigeon — that is. Not an error.

clocks outa whack

social

Big time jet lag. It’s 0250 (GMT-1000) Hawaiian time and I’m wide awake and rare’n to go already! What time’s breakfast? The day is to begin with a jog toward Diamond Head when / if the sun comes up. This landmark looks alot like CamelBack Mtn., seeing as how there isn’t much precip on this corner of the world in summer. In the meantime, I’ve moved my laptop and a desk chair into the lav so as to avoid waking the rest of the sleeping natives in our hotel. Waiting it out.

local flavor

cars

Not quite sure what to make of this. I asked David what changes had occured since the last time that we had met — keeping in mind that our last visit was in the era of B.C. (before cell phones – PCs, PDAs, GPSs, ETC., circa 1981). Well, vehicular traffic has intensified and a park spot is somewhat harder to find… At some point you’d think that the governing sanction would limit or CAP the number of automobiles at some number ‘X’ g-zillion. This island is a finite space, afterall. I like England’s answer to return London from gridlock. Here is a local solution: It’s a 3rd world moped for two and it makes a nice open taxi. Observe the trainer wheels! Not sure if seat belts are standard 😉

aloha!

social

– our first evening on Waikiki and our native picnic table view from Kapi Olani Beach Park – David and Rosemary gave us the traditional islander’s airport welcome with beautiful flower lei for all, followed by an inspired luau feast amongst brown skinned locals and glorious sunset. Absolutely terrific. We are blown away…

e-ticket

flying

You can now print out your BOARDING PASS prior to leaving home base via your desktop PC. This seemed like a good way to shorten the process. In theory you can by-pass a crowded ticket counter and bee-line for the gate. Thus, the escaltor ride up to security and our departure gate was the first adventure (pitfall) of the journey. dhs was nearly to the top of this escalator, nervously (no morning coffee yet) shuffling-juggling for the TSA agent — passport ID and E-ticket when the ticket leaped from her grasp and sailed loose – barrel rolled, and despite desperate air grabs, fell to the deck and was sucked from sight. Eaten by the moving stairs. Note to self: Use heavy bond paper in the printer next time…

exclusivity

cars

I got a personal viewing and a crawl thru of a Maybach Saloon this afternoon. Don’t know when I’ll see my next one, my banker was out of town… More Bently than RR Phantom the high end marketplace now has three (all owned by the Germans by the way) from which to choose. Exteremely plush. Somewhat pricey! The most comfortable seat I have ever sat. Definitely has a gangster lean to it with so many intricacies and features to discover. Electric curtains. Suede leather on the panel surfaces. As an aside, I spotted a subtle ripple in the RH Rear fender that didn’t match the overall inspired look of the design. The factory rep ‘fessed up that he’d been rear ended the day before during the delivery. Oh Crud. Maybe I can get a deal on it 😉

nifty fifties

computers

Nick Burns Computer Geek stuff follows: Wrote a line or two of CF code that will rotate thru a random set of graphics each time the page is refreshed. In case you were getting tired (or fond) of the ’57 Coupe de Ville girl, there are additional scans for presentation display. I like the massive bold tooth grill craftsmanship of the 1958 Buick and the linear look on the 1959 Olds.

running shirtless

jogging

I went wide on the trail to pass slow pokes. You didn’t hear screeching shoe rubber for all I could do was suck it in, grunt, spin and brace for pain. Encountering flora I thought I could brush aside as I passed but at the last moment – and too late… determined that it was thorn bush.