March 31, 2008

Carnival of Aloha

Aloha and welcome to the 8th Edition of the Carnival of Aloha! I don’t have any fancy transportation like Evelyn has provided for past carnivals, but the regulars on the beach are always willing to share their boogie boards. The surf has been a little sloppy lately, so who knows where it will carry us!

Angie presents Time for Hawaii Geocaches… posted at True Aloha. She’s included a link for beginners who want to learn about the fun of geocaching.

Pua presents Kayaking in Hawaii posted at Best Hawaii Vacation with Hawaii Vacation Blog, saying, “Kayaking the Hawaiian Islands goes back to the ancient tradition of the Hawaiians using Outrigger canoes.”

christa cw is a first-timer to the Carnival of Aloha, so make sure you show her a warm welcome. She makes me feel old by sharing the clubbing scene in [pics] secret society, Social Club, Party Shuffle, Incubus, Pancho’s Art, Hawaiian Paris Hilton, Living Room posted at Honolulu’s Nightlife Diaries.

Evelyn Hunter doesn’t cruise the club scene, but she went to sea just so she could get you a great story. Check out Smooth Sailing on the Star of Honolulu posted at Homespun Honolulu.

mel presents QE2 Stops in Hawaii for the Last Time posted at Mel’s Internet Universe Weblog, saying, “QE2 made her last port of call to Hawaii ever. She will be retired at the end of the year and sold to a firm in Dubai where she will become a floating luxury hotel, museum, retail complex and entertainment destination.”

Lynn Vasquez is on top of the world (well, at least on top of Tantalus Drive) as she presents some scenic photos in Lynn’s Lair II Aloha from Oahu! posted at Auntie Pupule.

j blu presents Aloha Friday Pictures of Hawaii | The Shops of Lanai posted at Local Kine Hawaii, saying, “Take a tour of the quaint, little shops of Lana’i town.”

Sheila presents Advice for Viewing the Big Island Lava Flow posted at Hawaii Vacation Blog - GoVisitHawaii.com, saying, “Getting to see the active lava flow into the ocean was a highlight of my recent trip to the Big Island. Calling it an amazing experience is an understatement. I put together these tips to help anyone wanting to go see the lava. This post includes everything from when is the best time to view the lava to tips for being safe.”

Finally, we’re back where we started, and I present Serene Interlude here at skeet’s stuff, sharing a quiet day in a country retreat.

Mahalo for riding the waves with us. Don’t forget to return your boggies boards to the boys as you tumble back onto the beach! Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Aloha using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati Tags: aloha, blog carnivals, Carnival of Aloha, Hawaii, Hawaii blogs

March 30, 2008

Self Portrait Sunday for March 3, 2008

The plan was that I was to be in Kona, on The Big Island today. My high school friend/sorority sis/double-dating pal is there with her hubby. I bought my tickets. I was all set to go. Then I started having anxiety attacks. I haven’t left the island of Oahu for quite a few years. Kona, so close and yet so far, suddenly felt much too distant from my home. I haven’t slept much at all for the last two days. I don’t have a memory foam mattress, but I do have a good one. It hasn’t helped me sleep just lately. Panic and sleep deprivation aside, I was still determined that I was going to make my trip right up until it was about time to go to the airport. Then … I just couldn’t. I called my friend and she was disappointed but very understanding. Maybe we’ll have a chance to make up for this somewhere down the road. Anyhoo, the only place I went today was the market, so here I am with a lovely bin of papayas. After I hit “publish” I’ll wander over to Midlife Musings to see who else took a self portrait today. You’re welcome to join us!

Technorati Tags: meme, photos, self portrait

Posted by skeet @ 7:03 pm • Photos, Meme • 10 comments  

March 28, 2008

Reviews and More

J.E. loves movies. She has reviewed almost three hundred of them since she started her blog, Reviews and More eighteen months ago. Now I like movies too, but I don’t go to the theatre, being perfectly content to wait until each film comes to me on TV or DVD. Conseqently, I had to scroll through several months of J.E.’s reviews before I found movie I’d seen so I could get a feel for her handling of something that I was familiar with. That movie was The Princess Bride, which she reviewed on the occasion of the release of the 20th anniversary special edition DVD. She has done a solid plot summary with minimal personal input and critique. I don’t agree with her rating of 6.5 stars out of ten, but she makes it clear that that’s based on her own personal reactions, so it’s still a good review. I found her reviews of several other movies, including My Fair Lady and Because of Winn Dixie to be agreeable, so I’ve decided to forgive her for not loving Buttercup and Westley as much as I do. I’ve added several movies to my “must see” list based on her opinions. An alphabetical listing of her movie reviews would be a nice addition to her blog, making it easier to find out her thoughts on any given film. I’m not criticizing what she’s got, just offering a suggestion that readers might find helpful.

You would think that J.E. wouldn’t have time for anything beyond all of the movie-watching that she does, but there are more reviews of TV shows and individual episodes than of movies on her blog. I had a better basis for comparison here, since she’s reviewed several shows that I watch, including Without a Trace, Criminal Minds and House. I found her TV posts to be thoughtful and thought-provoking, causing a “Duh! Why didn’t I notice that?” reaction several times. Why didn’t I notice that a character was behaving inconsistently or that a plot seemed to contradict prior episodes? I suspect it’s because J.E. is much more cerebral in her TV-watching than I am. I rarely focus on what I’m watching, but J.E. is dedicated to providing comprehensive reviews so she really pays attention. Her recent general observation about a discrepancy between small screen life and real life? Spot on!

Reviews and More is a good source of product, service and website reviews, too. While her opinions are all “personal,” J.E. is consistently fair and informative. She approaches her posts on everything from video games to cheap flights to web hosting with equal focus on the task at hand, which is always to provide a service to her readers. She does that, and does it well.

Technorati Tags: blogs, reviews, Reviews and More

March 26, 2008

Elder inspiration

Alice Withers came in near the back of the crowd at the Straub Women’s 10K in Honolulu, but she’s not unhappy about that. She’s participated in the Straub event for twenty years, though she slowed from jogging to walking five years ago. Alice Withers is 91 years old. She started running when she was sixty-five and has completed 150 races since then. She walks about three miles a day, lifts weights twice a week and is devoted to good nutrition. She recently took up painting to “broaden my horizons,” but faces another challenge. She wants to learn to master her computer. I suspect she’ll do just that. You can’t help but admire her optimism.

The next time you hear me moaning about my aging body, do me a favor, would you? Remind me about Alice Wither’s story. She’s a living testament that you can age without getting old. What an inspiration!

Technorati Tags: aging, Alice Withers, elder athlete, health, seniors

Label and postage help

There are definite advantages to working out of a home office. I frequently work in my pajamas until noon or even later. I don’t have distracting co-workers to keep me from focusing. My dog can sleep at my feet while I work. No one but me ever sees my office, so it’s okay that things stay pretty messy most of the time. Well, no, that last one isn’t true. See my tagline up there on my header? Digging my way out of the clutter? It’s more like “getting more and more buried under the clutter.” I confess, it’s gotten to the point where the clutter interferes with my ability to get my work done. It’s time to clean up and organize my office.

Last week I finally got back into a routine of sending out solicitation letters to realtors who have been parties to inspection I’ve done, but have never ordered work from me themselves. It’s the only advertising I do. I had a stack of letters ready to go and couldn’t find the postage I needed to affix to them. See the file sorter over there at the left? It used to help me stay organized, but now it’s just more clutter. I found my stamps in a folder there this morning, a week after I needed them. Once I get things straightened up I need to get myself set up to use online stamps instead of keeping a supply of stamps that A.) I’m going to lose and B.) are never in exactly the denomination that I need. The Dymo Desktop Mailing Solution would fit well into my rotuine. It prints lables and postage, so it can help me organize my office and do my mailings. It even has a built-in postage scale so I can quit second-guessing how much postage I need to use (and putting excess stamps on everything “just in case.”)

A Dymo Label Printer can help me with much more than my mailing dilemma. It can handle all of the printing of labels for my file and storage cabinets and the shelves in the closet where I store my office supplies. It would be nice to be able to have a place for everything and to count on finding what I need without calling in the bloodhounds. After I get the work table and storage situation under control I’ll have to tackle my desk. The nicest thing I can say about it right now is that it fits in with the current decor, which I describe as Twenty-First Century Clutter. Do I need a Dymo? You be the judge!

Technorati Tags: Dymo.com, home office, labels, office organization, online stamps, postage

Termite inspectors find mummies

I’ve inspected thousands of buildings for termites in the last thirty years. Sometimes I find interesting things that I wasn’t expecting to find. Twice I’ve found large sums of money that had been misplaced. A few years ago I found a valuable collection of heirloom jewelry. Most of the really interesting stuff I’ve found has been in crawl spaces beneath buildings: old tools, handblown bottles, a perfect china teacup. I find a lot of guns in attics of vacant houses. People store them out of reach when their kids come along, then forget that about them when they move. My most interesting find to date was a horseshoe. It was nailed to a beam beneath a Garden District home in New Orleans. The beam had originally been directly beneath the front door of the house, but the home had been expanded over the years, so I was about twenty feet into the crawl space when I found it. The horseshoe and the single nail that held it in place were both handmade and badly corroded. They broke off in my hand when I touched them. I could see the nibs of two other nails in the beam, indicating that the horseshoe had originally been placed with the ends pointing up, to catch luck. It used to be common practice to do that above doors, but I’d never heard of anyone doing it in the nether regions below them. I gave the horseshoe and nail to the homewowner and she had then framed as a part of the home’s history.

It feels pretty good to return something that was lost, even when it wasn’t even known to exist. The things that I’ve found, though, are nothing compared to a recent discovery by termite inspectors in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While tying to track down an infestation in an old mosastery they found two mummies which are believed to be two hundred years old. I found a soundless video , but haven’t been abe to get it to post, so you’ll have to follow the link to see it. Somehow my horseshoe and heirloom jewelry don’t seem quite so special anymore.

Technorati Tags: mummies, odd news, termite inspections

Four Foods on Friday #22

No, I’m not that senile! I know today is not Friday. You can post your answers for the Four Foods on Friday meme any day you want. On Friday Val will disect everyone’s answers and give you some nice lnkage just for playing. That’s why it has Friday in the name, see? Here’s my answers for this week:

#1. What’s your favorite form of potatoes?
It depends on what’s going with them, of course. My latest favorite though, is the ones I shared a recipe for in Four Foods on Friday #17. Quick, easy and very tasty - what’s not to love?

#2. Pie crust. Premade or from scratch?

I really like the convenience of premade pie shells. They taste the same as homemade, so why not?

#3. Vegetables. Fresh, frozen or canned?

Fresh when available. I mean really fresh, as in grown locally. Most of our stuff is shipped in, of course, but there are a few farms out here on the coast and we can get some farm fresh produce. I keep frozen veggies on hand. About the only time I eat canned veggies is when it’s time to rotate the food in my evac box, so about every two years, I guess.

#4. What one dish do you wish you could prepare better?

I can’t think of anything. Most of what I cook is from recipes that are “in my head” and that I change up whenever I think of a new twist for them. There’s really no right and wrong way or better and worse way, see?

There’s still time for you to play this week. Just answer the questions, then go to the link above and leave a comment letting Val know you played. See how easy that is?

Technorati Tags: food, meme

March 25, 2008

Need a tutor?

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Technorati Tags: after-school tutoring, tutoring, tutors

Mixed plate

Kalbi ribs (on top,) teri beef (middle) and teri chicken (peeking out from under the beef at left and top) on four scoops of rice (because I worry about food poisoning with the two scoops of mayonaise-laden mac salad the drive-ins usually serve.)

I was up too late last night, so I slept late this morning. Getting a late start on my day meant I wasn’t hungry at lunchtime. As I was driving to the grocery store around one o’clock I was suddenly so hungry I felt like I might collapse. I dashed through Tamura’s grabbing milk, bread and a few other things and was in and out of there within ten minutes. Barbecue Kai, my favorite Waianae Coast drive-in, is just around the corner from Tamura. I made it there in record time, too. My stomach was making rude noises by then and my knees were feeling shaky as I stood in line, resenting the one person in front of me. It felt like it took forever for the girl at the window to deliver my mixed plate, but in reality it was probably about three minutes. The sidewalk tables were all taken, so I sat in my car and wolfed down half a piece of chicken and a goodly amount of rice to rebuild my strength for the drive home. I ate some more once I got the groceries put away, but the servings are much too generous for me to consume in one sitting. I have a piece and a half of chicken, most of the teri beef and plenty opf rice left over for my dinner tonight. Ahhhhhhhhhh! Life is good!

Technorati Tags: drive-ins, food, Hawaii foods, Hawaii drive-ins, mixed plate

Have you considered Co-Op Education?

Were you prepared for the real world when you completed your education? If you’re a student now, are you getting any practical experience in your chosen field? Do you have anything more impressive than “Dishwasher - Student Union Cafeteria” on your resume? There is a better way, you know. A handful of schools around the US offer solid programs integrating hands-on experience with their academic curriculum. Among those elite few, Kettering University has consistently ranked as one of the best in the country.

Their engineering co-op programs have been recognized for providing exemplary learning experiences. The Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering program has been ranked #1 for eight years in a row in America’s Best College Guide from U.S. News and World Report. Kettering’s Mechanical Engineering Department consistently ranks in the top ten and currently holds the #3 ranking. Their current overall ranking (for the entire University) is #11, and they’re one of only fourteen in the nation listed in “Programs to Look For: Internships.”

The Internship Programs place students in a three-month rotation with some of the top employers in industrial engineering today, including GM, Walt Disney World and even the CIA. You’ll be leagues ahead of the competition when you enter the job market with those experiences under your belt. Generous scholarships are available to help you realize your dreams of a top-notch education. Check out Kettering University and see what they can do for you!

colleges, co-op education, education, engineering degrees, Kettering University[/tags]