December 22, 2006

It’s not easy being snow

Your time is short. With a lifespan about equal to that of a fly, how much can you accomplish? There’s only so much you can do to express your individuality.

There’s little you can do to shield yourself from vulnerability.

You’re robbed of enjoying even the simple peasures.

You’re so exposed.

Sharing the joy of the season with you all, my friends, with just a bit of irreverence thrown in. Mele Kalikimaka to you, and Hau’oli Makahiki Hou! May the new year bring you peace and happiness, or some reasonable facsimile thereof.

December 21, 2006

My camera is getting old

My camera is an HP320. I like it. It was given to me by dear friends two years ago for Christmas. Two years is a long time for electronic equipment to stay in service in today’s fast-changing technological world, but still, it takes nice pictures and it’s easy to use. It has 2.1 mega-pixels. Now, I should tell you right here that I’m not sure what mega-pixels are. I know they have something to do with photo quality, and I know that Ted has more of them than I do. Who is Ted? He’s the PayPerPost guru who wants to give away some HP 6 mega-pixel digital cameras and photo printers. This post is sponsored by HP, who wants Ted to give me a camera and photo printer. Ted has more of almost everything than I do. Since Ted is in a sharing mood, I think he should give me a 6 mega-pixel camera. I live in Hawaii. I take scenic digital photos and share them with the folks who read my blog. My blog works for him when I do PPP posts. It makes sense that Ted should want me to take the best pictures possible. So Ted? Could I please have one? The entire blogsphere will thank you for the quality photos I feed into its stream, and so will I. I’ll even give my old HP320, which is a perfectly good camera, to the nearest women’s shelter if you give me a new one. Deal?

This post was sponsored by HP.

Houseless in Hawaii: Part One - The Problem

I attended a Neighborhood Board meeting on Tuesday night. Neighborhood Board meetings are the equivalent of Town Hall Meetings that some communities have. Various officials share information with the community and then open up the floor for feedback. There were three items on Tuesday’s agenda. I’ve already forgotten what the first two were. They were dealt with in less than five minutes. The third item was what brought out a crowd. It was a discussion about the transitional housing community that is to be built abutting my own neighborhood, and the affordable housing that will be the next phase of the same development. The topic was guaranteed to bring out the NIMBYs, and it did.

I’m proud of my neighborhood and of most of the people who took advantage of this forum to educate themselves and to discuss their concerns. The NIMBYs were given little notice as we discussed the very real problems that this development will present. The main street leading to the development is in poor repair, too narrow and unsafe. The utilities (especially water and sewage) are in need of major upgrades. The elementary school is already overcrowded and its old buildings are deteriorating.

My neighbors want the city, county and state to complete corrections on all of the above before construction begins. That’s not an unreasonable stance to take, but it is not my view. Completion will take a lot of time. Meanwhile, we have hundreds of people living on the beaches, waiting for the slow wheels of government to grind. I believe that the various agencies involved can all work together to just get the job done. They can open up another entrance on the back side of the development for the heavy construction traffic, while detouring us to other available roads so that the main entry road can be repaired. Road maintenance can work with the utility departments to coordinate their upgrades. There are unused temporary buildings all over the island that can be brought in for the school to use until permanent new buildings can be built. I think they can do all of this, if they will. The gentleman who spoke to us at the meeting is the head of a special task force formed by the governor. The agencies who will be involved in the work have been ordered to coordinate with him, to give this task top priority. He is competent, and he is passionate about making this happen. Call me naïve, but I believe it can be done, if they all want it to. I don’t think getting the work done is the biggest part of the problem. I think community aceptance is. We have it in our power to throw up roadblocks, or to help this dream become a reality.

After the meeting I spoke with Alice, one of the audience members who had spoken quite eloquently to the problems we are facing. Alice has lived on this coast for many years, and she’s raised her family here. She’s still doing that, but can’t afford a house anymore. She and her family live in tents on the beach. She has graciously agreed to sit down and talk with me soon, and to introduce me to some of her neighbors on the beach. Alice does not describe herself as homeless. She has a place to stay, and family and friends around her. She describes herself as houseless. It’s a fine distinction, but it tells me that her current circumstances have not beaten her down or warped her priorities.

This is the introduction to what I hope will be a series of posts about the houseless people who are my neighbors. I think it’s important for folks to meet them and get to know them. I hope that by introducing them to others I can help win support for the changes that my community needs to face. We can live with a little inconvenience while this project is being developed. We must, for the good of our community. I don’t have a production schedule. I will continue to do other posts about other things. I still deal with depression and social anxiety disorder, so bear with me when I have bad days and can’t work on this project. But do come back. I want you to meet my neighbors.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, homelessness

December 20, 2006

I got paid!

This may seem a little silly to some folks, but I’ve been grinning all day over a little $10.00 paycheck from PayPerPost. No, it’s not much, but it represents a great deal. You see, when you blog for PayPerPost, you get paid after your post has been up for thirty days. I’ve been blogging for PPP for … thirty days! So that little payment that appeared today is only the first of many, a symbol of things to come. I’ll be paid about $250 if I never make another post. But since I like what I’m doing and am taking more posting opportunities than I did for the first week or so, future monthly earnings will be even better. PPP is sponsoring this post, too, and has become a steady source of income for me. 2007 is looking rosy and prosperous in the skeet household!

A big mahalo (thank you!) to my friend Denise for telling me all about this wonderful opportunity. My Christmas will be a little brighter and I have a little more financial security thanks to her and to PayPerPost!

I’ve been tagged!

Lisa thinks I should tell you five things that you don’t know about me. That’s going to be hard, because I’ve pretty much blabbed and blogged all of my secrets. I even admitted down below that my guts leak (this was a deep dark secret that I didn’t share for many years, but since you don’t have to share my RL personal space, what the heck?!) I’m digging around in the old memory chest, so let’s see what skeletons I can rattle.

1. I tore the passenger door off of my first car by forgetting to close it and backing up beside a tree. The tree survived.

2. I was once a media darling. A former employer pushed me out front every time he hosted a media event. I’ve been on all of the major networks, quite a few cable networks, and have been interviewed and/or photographed for countless newspaper, magazine and radio stories. I don’t want the ex-boss scumbag to know I have a blog so I won’t name the company, but here’s a hint: I was doing what I do now, but had a four-legged, wet-nosed assistant. My best front-page stuff occurred when I performed a service for a famous lady who holds a torch.

3. My siblings and I rescued guinea pigs that my grandmother was raising “for table” when we were kids. Their names were Hoss, Little Joe, Adam and Pollyanna.

4. I sang with the local Up With People group in my teens.

5. My true moment of fame came when I was the local Hula Hoop champion the first year they came out.

Now I have to go read a gazillion blogs to see who I can find who hasn’t already played. I’ll update once I have my list.

Alrighty now! I’ve tagged brettbum, scorpy, justin, osman and dragonden!

Sing your heart out!

Karaoke is hugely popular in Hawaii. The karaoke bars are always rocking with crowds, usually groups of friends cheering each other on. Malls and local TV stations have karaoke contests and, of course, fans have parties at home and have their own karaoke machines so they can practice whenever they want. My next door neighbor’s grandson drove me crazy a while back when he set up his machine on their carport and belted out endless repetitions of The Impossible Dream. He wasn’t very good, but he was having so much fun I don’t think anyone minded much. You can liven up your own parties or surprise your favorite fan with their own machine after you do your research at Home Karaoke Machine Guide, which sponsors this post and provides you with all the info you’ll need to make a smart buying decision.

Earplugs for your neighbors are available at the corner drug store.

December 19, 2006

Support a good cause

**********This in NOT a sponsored post.**********

See that Crohn’s Forum Book Store notation in my sidebar? It’s not a paid ad. I put it there because it supports a cause I believe in. A portion of every purchase from the book store goes to support research through the Crohns’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada. Any profit remaining supports the Crohn’s Forum. It’s a safe and friendly gathering place for folks with bowel disease to talk to others who share similar conditions.

Bowel diseases impact every area of ones life. The diseases themselves can be incredibly painful, and many sufferers have to endure multiple surgeries to find any comfort at all. The medications that help the most also carry serious side effects, both physical and emotional. Many people with bowel diseases suffer from depression, brought on or exacerbated by the steroids and other drugs they need to take to combat inflamed bowels. The diseases can interfere with business, school and social life, leading to stress and further depression. We spend our days trying to find the right balance of safe foods and physical activity to avoid pain, flares and embarrassing accidents. We pass by the tempting party platters at holiday gatherings or just don’t go at all. We scope out each new establishment to see if they are appropriately set up to accomodate the mad dash we sometimes have to make towards the restroom. Most of us carry spare clothes and a clean-up kit with us everywhere we go because, well, accidents happen. On top of feeling sick most of the time, we have a condition that is socially embarrassing and eats away at ones self-esteem. Family and friends can be great support, but if they aren’t fellow-sufferers they most often have no understanding of just how huge the impact of bowel desease is on our lives. That’s why the Crohn’s Disease Forum and other support groups are so important in our lives. We know that we can go there and vent about all of the stuff that most of you don’t want to hear and wouldn’t understand if you did.

The Crohn’s Forum Book Store is an Amazon Affiliate. There’s a wonderful selection of books especially for folks with Crohn’s and other bowel diseases, but you’ll also find a variety of computer and video games, DVDs, music, toys and games available. I hope you’ll consider doing a little of your last-minute shopping there.

December 18, 2006

I found a puzzle piece!

How cool is this? I just found a puzzle piece for the rockstartup puzzle piece scavanger hunt! If I find all thirty pieces, I can win one thousand dollars. Not too shabby for playing around on the web, especially since I’m doing that already.

If you’re clueless, listen up. RockStartup.com is an online reality show. It chronicles the travails and triumphs of Ted and his intrepid crew as they establish PayPerPost, a website that pays bloggers to post product and service reviews, or even to blatantly advertise, on their blogs. Several episodes have already been released. Viewers can play voyeurs as they watch Ted secure millions in financing and put together the successful phenomenon which is now PayPerPost. The contest is their way of announcing a new episode, RockStartup Vegas.

For the puzzle contest, posties (that’s us – the folks who blog on PayPerPost) search advertisers, other postie’s blogs and pretty much everywhere on the web looking for the elusive thirty pieces. The finished puzzle will reveal a future opportunity for us to blog about. The first person to post the completed puzzle will win a $1000 posting opportunity.

I’m so excited that I found a piece!

This post is sponsored by PayPerPost, the folks who combine fun and profit for bloggers. It’s not too late for you to join in. Click the PPP icon over there at the top right of my sidebar and you can become a postie, too!

Monday in paradise

I don’t have any work on my schedule today. You’d think I’d be working on all the clutter around here, right? WRONG!

I’ve been clicking all around the internet today looking for puzzle pieces. How sad is that, when I’m so far behind everyone else that I’ll never find all thirty pieces, lol!

Fun last minute gifts

I’ve been doing termite inspections for almost twenty-seven years. I’m very good at what I do. One thing that I learned early on is that good tools make good work. As an amateur gardener, it doesn’t matter that I use inexpensive tools from the discount store. As a professional providing a service, I look for the very best tools available to assist me in my work. The picture above is my proof. It’s over a decade old. The Streamlight Rechargable Flashlight is clearly visible on my hip. I still rely on Streamlight after all these years, because their flashlights have proven themselves reliable, sturdy and very long-lasting.

While you’re checking out the flashlights, take a look around at some of the other optical instruments at OpticsPlanet.com (they’re the nice folks who are sponsoring this post.) If you still have last-minute Christmas shopping to do and you’re looking for bargains, you can certainly find them there. I spend a lot of money on my work tools, but want a discount price for my nephew’s first telescope. The hunters in your life would love to find leupold rifle scopes under the Christmas tree this year. Paintballers and others who play in the dark might appreciate an improvement in their night vision. You still have time to order, and will get free UPS shipping on orders over $29.95. Prowl around the site while your there. There are thousands of optical products and accessories and the discounted prices are very appealing.