Live 8 and G8

July 2: day of action. July 6: summit meeting

Live 8 is a series of eight simultaneous concerts and events across the world being held on July 2nd to highlight the problem of global poverty. It's a chance for ordinary people to call on George Bush and seven other world leaders at this year's G8 summit and tell them to put a stop to the needless deaths of 30,000 children every single day.

G8 is the annual summit meeting of leaders from the world's eight wealthiest and most powerful countries. On 6th July 2005, the leaders of Great Britain, the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia will meet at Gleneagles in Scotland to talk about world affairs, including Africa. They will be presented with a workable plan to double aid, drop the debt and make trade laws fair.

Join the ONE campaign to make poverty history. The ONE campaign seeks to give Americans a voice to fight the global AIDS emergency and extreme poverty. Sign the declaration and lend your voice. Ask President Bush to lead a historic deal to help Africa and the poorest nations at the G8 summit in July. Wear the wristband and show your support for the ONE campaign.

She's not doing us any favors

Working w/Apple computers isn't "a handicap", dammit!

Today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin ran an article about Hawaii residents who responded to their "Help Wanted" series. The few stories they printed were all from people who said that, despite Hawaii's low 2.7% unemployment rate, they were unable to find suitable jobs.

I feel for these people, and I know what I'm going to say will come off as snotty, so I apologize in advance. But those who know me know how passionate and loyal I am to Apple, and would never view using it as a "handicap", as the writer, Stewart Yerton, put it. On the contrary, it's a beautiful advantage.

The woman pictured below (shame on Craig Kodama Kojma, the photographer, for even having her pose like that!) can't find employment after leaving the work force 17 years ago to raise a family. She says she has significant clerical and administrative skills, but "as soon as she tells potential employers that she has always used Apple computers, they 'shut down and won't give me the time of day'."

She continued, "A lot of them seem to have the attitude that it's totally different, and just because I have Mac, I'm incapable of using PC."

She says she's gone repeatedly to temp and employment services, with the same results.



So WHY, for gawd's sake, does she keep telling them the same thing? She's the one leading them to believe that she's "incapable of using PC".

I use Macs at home and at work. Our school is filled with PCs. I have to support teachers and instruct students using Windows, but the computers I personally use at school to create our website, parent newsletters, lessons and everything else, are Macs running OS X (of course). Windows is not hard to learn at all, just lamer. Ms. Kadena should take the brief time required to familiarize herself with it, and stop telling prospective employers that she "has always worked on Apple computers". Knowing that she keeps telling them that makes me think that there may be some other handicap involved. <-- that was the snotty part, I know. Sorry.

iPod for sale

Cat not included



Well, it was bound to happen. Apple announced that it has converted its full-sized iPods to an all-Photo (color display) lineup as well as cut their prices. This includes the Special Edition U2 iPod that I have. Of course, my version isn't color and can't display photos, so I'm thinking of upgrading.

I need to unload this one, though. It's in mint condition since I rarely use it and is in a clear case, so its beautiful black and red front and silver U2-autographed back are unscratched and fur-free. Up 'til yesterday it was still going for $350, but I'm willing to sell it for, let's see...around $285. Or so. The new version is $329.

Anyone interested?

Look out..

..they're watching us!

Both the tail and head of this dinosaur were sticking out of the pipe as it watched me the whole time I hung the laundry yesterday. By the time I got my camera, it had retreated, but peeked its head out a little while later.

Notice the poopies on the outside of the pipe?

Visitors?

Why only now?

I've had this blog for a while, but neglected it for months. In all that time I've only had one person leave a comment. Today, as I've decided to conduct my "taste test" and add entries from my other blog, two people have already left comments.

Gonna put up a site meter soon and conduct a non-scientific study: do Blogger sites receive that many more hits than independent (hard-to-find) sites? duh.

Alcohol-related accident

And I wasn't even drinking

My good friend picked up several bottles of our favorite Riesling the other day and discovered she still had some in her stash, so asked if I would like a few. Silly question.

The drop-off was conducted in the parking lot, then we headed off to Starbucks, as is our usual Saturday routine. I later went shopping so ended up with quite a few bags of stuff. As I carried them to my house some of the bags started slipping, and wouldn't you know it, one of the precious bottles of wine went crashing to the ground -- and on my foot.

My garage smells like a winery and my foot is still sore, but nothing's broken. Well, except for that lovely bottle of wine... :(

Make yourself a South Park character

This is me



Go to Planearium's site and try for yourself!

Strunkenwhite virus

Too bad it was just a joke

Some people actually thought it was true, while others claimed it was a hoax. In fact, it was neither. In May 1999, Bob Hirschfield wrote a humorous satire in The Washington Post about a computer virus that refused to deliver emails containing grammatical mistakes. As Lynne Truss, author of my favorite book Eats, Shoots & Leaves, writes: "...he paints such a heavenly vision of future grammatical happiness that he inadvertently broke the hearts of sticklers everywhere..."

You can read the Washington Post story in its entirety, or skim through paragraphs I found particularly funny:

The virus is causing something akin to panic throughout corporate America, which has become used to the typos, misspellings, missing words and mangled syntax so acceptable in cyberspace. The CEO of LoseItAll.com, an Internet startup, said the virus has rendered him helpless. "Each time I tried to send one particular e-mail this morning, I got back this error message: 'Your dependent clause preceding your independent clause must be set off by commas, but one must not precede the conjunction.' I threw my laptop across the room."

A broker at Begg, Barow and Steel said he couldn't return to the "bad, old" days when he had to send paper memos in proper English. He speculated that the hacker who created Strunkenwhite was a "disgruntled English major who couldn't make it on a trading floor. When you're buying and selling on margin, I don't think it's anybody's business if I write that 'i meetinged through the morning, then cinched the deal on the cel phone while bareling down the xway.' "

If Strunkenwhite makes e-mailing impossible, it could mean the end to a communication revolution once hailed as a significant timesaver. A study of 1,254 office workers in Leonia, N.J., found that e-mail increased employees' productivity by 1.8 hours a day because they took less time to formulate their thoughts. (The same study also found that they lost 2.2 hours of productivity because they were e-mailing so many jokes to their spouses, parents and stockbrokers.)

There is concern among law enforcement officials that Strunkenwhite is a harbinger of the increasingly sophisticated methods hackers are using toexploit the vulnerability of business's reliance on computers. "This is one of the most complex and invasive examples of computer code we have ever encountered. We just can't imagine what kind of devious mind would want to tamper with e-mails to create this burden on communications," said an FBI agent who insisted on speaking via the telephone out of concern that trying to e-mail his comments could leave him tied up for hours.

Rocky and I might get a housemate

He might have to sleep in the garage

A friend asked if it'd be OK if he stays with me for a few years. Seems he's thinking of selling his place, make a sh*tload of dough, and hang out in Hawaii 'til the housing market where he's from stabilizes so he can buy a bigger, better place.

I'm very fortunate to be able to live in this old two-story, four-bedroom house with so much storage space (extra bedrooms and closets) for all my clothes and shoes and shoes and clothes. I've been by myself for almost nine years, and love the freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want. I love all the space I have. I love not having to deal with anyone else (catsicle excluded), especially a man.

Don't think I want to give that up. But maybe having a guy around might be useful..let's see, it's been a while; what are they good for? Oh yeah, bug-killing, oil-changing, box-lifting.

Lest you're starting to think otherwise, he's been informed that there would be none of those "friends-with-benefits" perks.

End of the World

Notice Hawaii twice?

click to view Flash cartoon

Our dinosaur population is out of control

Enough, already

Again, as I exited through the washroom door this afternoon, a couple of dinosaurs scampered away in a panic. They were trying to stealthily squeeze their way in through the space between the door and the threshold (the house is old and that area is pretty shabby) and I surprised them.

Then as I went for the garden hose so I could rinse Rocky's litter box, I noticed several dinosaurs in the nearby bush, and one was actually a rarely-seen green anole lizard! I don't know if it was being mugged by the others, but part of its tail was missing, and not in the way gecko and dinosaur tails naturally break off. It was dark at the injured end, so I think he was beaten up. I never knew the anoles to have break-away tails, but was happy to see this guy alive.

After shooing the others away, I lifted the hose, which had water running through it, only to find a huge dinosaur hanging on the end! It couldn't walk off without getting in the water stream, so headed up toward my hand, which it also didn't care for, so was trapped :) He held on as I proceeded to rinse Rocky's litter box until I guess he had enough and leaped off sideways.

I love critters of all kinds, including lizards, but these green anole-killling dinosaurs (see March 26's post) are really too much. Never before have I seen any that traveled in packs, were so bold and curious, and so damn populous. Fr*cken frequent-fornicating (see April 7th's post), freakazoids. I expect to trip over them the next time I go into the back yard. Or get mugged.

People can be quite pleasant

I could've left and found another cashier with a shorter line, but I was in no rush. She was a trainee, and it was just kind of, well, nice, that the man in front of me was making a return and commented that she would get good practice from it. It did take more than several minutes, and just about any other time I would've gone to another cashier since the store was pretty empty and there was no one behind me, but I didn't mind waiting tonight.
Don't know why that should surprise me

Everyone was in a good mood, and the guy looked at my items laid out on the converter belt and said, "Maybe I should join you tonight" because I had several bottles of wine lying there. (Not at all in a flirtatious way, mind you.) He apologized for the delay and asked if it was making me tired because I was yawning, but I told him that it was allowing me to catch up on my sleep, and honestly, I didn't feel like moving. The trainee was learning what she needed to learn, no one was impatient, and it was all good.

When his transaction was finally completed he thanked her, then turned to thank me and tell me good night.

But the best part was when he had said earlier, "Sorry to to keep the young lady waiting" -- meaning me. Hah.

We're infested

Is this guy smiling?


Kinda looks like the GEICO gecko, eh?

Took a stroll in the yard to take pictures of veggies and plants this morning, but everywhere I turned yard dinosaurs were scampering about! I was struck by how many babies there were, but they were teenie and skittish so wasn't able to get decent pictures of them. One had a beautiful long tail, unproportional to its little body.

One of the dinosaurs in the slideshow below appears to be pregnant.

These guys are weird. The larger ones seem particularly bold and curious. One guy kept hanging around as I hung clothes the other day. Another keeps trying to sneak into the washroom. I tossed a small rock toward a huge one this afternoon, and he didn't flinch, but actually leaned toward to inspect the rock as it landed. The babies are so cute, and even the littlest males try to do the head nod thing to show they're tough, but their red dewlaps under their throats haven't developed yet. (See March 26's blog with slideshow)


click to view slideshow

I never let Rocky out anymore, poor guy. It could've been just a coincidence, but after he caught a couple (see earlier entries), he had the wetsh*ts, so maybe they're toxic to him.

Adopt-A-Cat!

Or more likely, SAVE a cat

June is actually Adopt-a-Cat month, but for some of us it's Save-a-Cat-From-Dying month. As sidster pulled in to to replace his front brakes yesterday, the mechanic thought the squeaky sound he heard came from said brakes. Turns out there was a sad little kitty mewing nearby, which sidster volunteered to take to the vet. He's not a cat person -- yet.

To make a longish story short, between long-distance phone calls to me, advice from the pet store, and discussions with co-workers (I insisted he take it to work since there was absolutely no way he could leave it all alone when it's not even able to feed itself yet), he learned about the care, feeding, and "elimination-assisting" of a baby catsicle.

International Weblogger's Day

I'd be remiss if I didn't participate

While the rest of the world has moved on to the day-after International Blogger's Day, here in Hawaii I still have couple of hours. [Thanks to Willy for alerting me to this event!]

June 14th is the day webloggers around the world "celebrate a year's worth of changing the way the Internet sees personal journalism." Participants were asked to tell why they started blogging, whether they thought bloggers had a lot of power (and how it could be harnessed), and why they thought weblogging has become so popular.

Some blogs have changed the way news is disseminated, and others have made huge impacts regarding political agendas. Then there are blogs like mine that just kind of ramble on about stuff that pop into my non-political, non-news-impacted head, but hey, it's fun.

If I can talk to myself online, anyone can. The question is: why would anyone choose to? Depending on your circle of readers, I believe serious bloggers with the right (and most popular) followings can make some sort of difference...and have. There's definitely power in numbers.

But why do the rest of us do it? Because we CAN. The playing field has been leveled. It feeds egos and immortalizes our words.

Ahh, more satisfactory than scribbling into the litttle diary kept hidden under the bed.

I suck

and I've been rather snotty recently, sorry

Wasted much of the day reading a few blogs (where I have two of my own that I don't keep up), and I was blown away. The posts are witty, intriguing, risque, hilarious, and slightly (if not more) twisted. I've been thinking of moving back there because I may actually get more readers other than the few friends I beg and bribe to read at my present site, but I kinda like using the iBlog software I use now, especially since I actually paid for it.

But moving my blog won't make me a better blogger. I'm too mild-mannered most of the time and don't have the attitude and balls (well, you know what I mean) and eventful/weird days to come up with topics that would command repeat visitors.

Yeah, I'm jealous.

And I realize a couple of my recent posts regarding grammar/spelling may have been a tad snotty, for which I apologize. See? How can I have an edgy blog worth re-visiting if I worry about offending poor spellers?

I know I don't have a life (social- or sex-wise or anything else), so I don't have material from which to draw that the others do, but some of their posts push the envelope of what I would deem appropriate for public consumption. Makes for great reading, though!

One thing I did notice was some of the best blogs are written by people with definite..issues. They admit to bouts of depression and more, so if that's what it takes to be a good writer, then I guess I'll pass.

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EDIT 6/13: Whoa, some of those bloggers I had listed above have taken a nasty turn (and I don't mean nasty as in unpleasant, but nasty as in NAAASTY), so deleted the links before anyone draws conclusions about supposedly mild-mannered me. If you want to know who they were, you naughty little perv, email me.

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EDIT 6/26: Well, I'm back here, conducting a taste test between Blogger and my iBlog site on .Mac.

Order your copy now

Time travel, a dragon, a shaman -- oh my!

My friend and new author, Pamela Hebert, emailed to let me know that her children's book has been published and is available for purchase! Entitled Elliot Finley's Jus' Plain Ole Daisy , it's a "wonderful tale of intrigue and fantasy", an adventure that is "captivating for readers of all ages".

And check out the cover, illustrated by Pam herself!

Spell-check, for God's sake!

Guess I'm a Grammar Police wannabe

Yeah, I've been known to make helpful corrections on signs that are incorrectly written in grocery and other stores. Spelling, grammar, and other errors on publicly-viewed documents and signage just irks me, sorry. (One of my favorite books is the hilarious #1 British bestseller entitled Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation!)

The internet is as publicly-viewed you can get, so why the heck don't people put in a little more effort into reviewing what they're posting before clicking on the submit button? Take those online friends and dating sites, for example. Do some people even know (or care) that the pages they created to advertise themselves are riddled with errors? I mean, what kind of impression does that give others?

Yeah, you're probably thinking that the guys who go to those pages don't bother to read so don't ever see the errors, which is very true, and leads me to a related annoyance: Guys just reply to pages if they like the pictures. It's so obvious that they don't read, since even I get messages from guys even though I say all over my page that I won't be replying to anyone. (I'm just there for Butch pics and news.)

But the another thing that bothers me (ok, I'm easily annoyed) is people who don't post recent pictures on those sites. I personally know people who try to pass off photos that are 20+ years old. ohmygawd. Like the 80s look won't be noticeable. Be honest, dammit. It'll catch up with you, anyway.

You know what I think those people oughtta do: blog. Interesting phenomenon, but the more you blog, the more honest and open you get. Just gotta be careful not to say anything you might regret tomorrow.

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EDIT 6/13: And I did regret putting this entry up, so changed it to protect the innocent (and spelling/grammar impaired).

Gotta draw the line somewhere

and here it is --> ------------------------------------------

How far does friendship extend? A guy (who started out as a friend, evolved to more-than-a-friend, and is now back to a friend again), has been trying his hand with those online personals sites. Thing is, he expects me to help him with his profile and the messages he sends to prospective dates, as well as giving my opinion about their emails and pictures.

Is it just me or is this weird??

Doesn't anyone say "there're" anymore??

Biggest pet peeve

Forgive the expletive, but this annoys me to no end.

WTF is up with "there's" (as in "there is") when it should be "there're" (as in "there are")?? Forget I'm a school teacher, I just wonder when the rules changed! "Is" is the singular form of "be", and "are" is the plural, but that doesn't seem to matter anymore. Maybe it's because the contraction for "there are" is awkward to pronounce. Would that be enough reason for a wide-spread grammatical infraction? I see "there's" used improperly in the newspaper, hear it ALL over, and wonder sometimes if I'm the only person who would say "There're a lot of idiots" instead of "There's a lot of idiots". I mean, those who would say the latter wouldn't really mean to say "There is a lot of idiots", would they? Unless they're, uh, idiots...

It's so widely misused, I bet I'll be seeing it in a dictionary soon, dammit.

Yes, thank you, I do know about Apple's transition to Intel

Guess it's big news

Anyone reading this (if anyone ever bothers) can refrain from emailing me about it. I suppose I'm a novelty to those who aren't Apple aficionados (read: everyone else who uses a computer) and those who haven't been under a rock for the last few days and have heard the news want to pass it on to the probably-only Apple fan they know. As if there'd be a chance an Apple fan wouldn't already know.

There are many reasons Apple opted to go with Intel, and some we probably won't know for a while, if ever. But one I read tonight had a "different" slant to it (and if you were an Apple fan, you'd know how special it was to "Think Different"). The PowerPC processor production was limited (though widely viewed as more elegant), so a decision had to be made, but this still made me sad:

"Macs are now slightly less special."

*sniff* But won't they will soon be the only truly cross-platform computer? Or something. Like I know.

PS: In my heart, Macs and Apples will always be special and different. And, as someone pointed out to me recently, that's what I seem to find appealing. I don't consciously seek those out, but after thinking about it, I guess I kind of like liking what's not quite in the mainstream: my computer, my car (well, it's getting more popular; damn Scion marketing), my taste in music, even my catsicle.

Different = special?