tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120623992011-12-14T16:41:30.122-10:00The personal blog of writer Katharine MJ Osborne, life in general, writing, science, depression, living in Hawaii.KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.comBlogger4971100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-28214748740968768572011-11-13T03:53:00.001-10:002011-11-13T03:55:49.428-10:00

My mother is making me write this down, although after several tellings some of the sheen of the story may be wearing out. This weekend, my neighborhood, Waikiki, has been host to APEC, complete with 21 heads of state visiting. Waikiki (or Waiks as some call it) is a narrow strip of land caught between a languid canal and the ocean, about 3 or 4 small blocks wide and two miles or so long by my

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-40031015707555660022011-10-13T04:08:00.001-10:002011-10-13T04:19:25.623-10:00

Somedays I'm astonished by the power of social networking. Yesterday was such a day. I complained about the level of writing on Terra Nova, hunted down the showrunners and writers on Twitter, and spread the word about them amongst my fellow writing peeps with an interest in scifi. And I got followed back. I actually yelped when I found out, in a public place. Any embarrassment I should have felt

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-27700620568614070142011-02-26T00:07:00.002-10:002011-02-26T00:45:04.904-10:00

Not to be dorky or anything, but that's one of the most memorable lines from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (a production of which I was in last summer). It keeps coming to mind when I think of The revolt in Libya and Mummar Qadhafi (the spelling of which is rather fluid). Sometimes the good guy doesn't win. Sometimes shit happens.It's easy to say that Qadhafi is insane, and easy to hang on

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-82678065424137639192011-01-25T09:57:00.002-10:002011-01-25T11:22:16.812-10:00

My predictions are in bold:Best picture"Black Swan""The Fighter""Inception""The Kids Are All Right""The King’s Speech""127 Hours""The Social Network""Toy Story 3""True Grit""Winter’s Bone"This is always the hardest category, complicated by the fact there are now 10 nominees instead of 5. The top 5 are, Swan, Inception, The King's Speech, The Social Network, and True Grit. The Fighter hasn't been

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-37076789176887876982010-05-31T08:30:00.002-10:002010-05-31T10:22:24.660-10:00

I get annoyed when people bring their infants and toddlers to movies that are rated PG-13 or R, mainly because the children get fidgety and bore quickly, which means lots of crying and whining that disrupts the film for me. I'm usually not concerned about what the child sees, because at that age they usually don't care what's on the screen.Yesterday I went to see SATC2 and was a little shocked to

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-42202073097449216792010-04-28T12:05:00.001-10:002010-04-28T17:56:08.325-10:00

This blog is now located at http://blog.digitalkaos.net/. You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here. For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to http://blog.digitalkaos.net/feeds/posts/default.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-62227182772699000872009-12-29T22:05:00.003-10:002009-12-29T23:25:33.650-10:00

The recent terror "attack" got me thinking about why that type of crap happens and what can be done to solve it.The root problem of "terrorism" is poverty. It's not that these incompetent nimrods are Muslim, or come from a different culture (well, it's partly the culture thing); no it's poverty. It's the stinking heaps of crap as landscape type of poverty or the

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-77933907760760157472009-11-28T11:47:00.003-10:002009-11-28T12:45:56.257-10:00

I think this is my first letter to the editor of a magazine (when I'm elderly, I'll probably be one of those people cranking out persnickety letters all day). I get angry when large media outlets unnecessarily play up doom and gloom just to be sensational. Time magazine just published a decade in review editorial titled "The 00's: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell".There was at least one

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-57682260672669420362009-10-18T12:08:00.003-10:002009-10-18T13:10:07.158-10:00

Anyone who knows me in person probably knows that I absolutely LOATHE the movie "The Notebook". I remember being in the theater snickering at it's over-the-top attempt at "romance", and then being flabbergasted when the lights went up to find that I was surrounded by knots of weeping women of all different ages. The only reason I didn't walk out was because Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams were

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-75465986371221550812009-10-11T04:17:00.003-10:002009-10-11T05:38:54.909-10:00

First off, we should stop thinking about wars as win or lose. It's all lose really. Even in WWII, everybody lost something. The axis (axes?) were hideous, but the allies ended up doing some pretty awful things as well (Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki). Wars will never stop but we've got to take any hint of romance out of it. Any 'win' is false.For Afghanistan, I do think we should increase troop

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-21998997554563487562009-09-30T23:22:00.004-10:002009-10-01T02:14:43.422-10:00

Sometimes I think I live in a different world than most people. I tend to be very future-minded, and navel-gaze frequently about what should be, rather than what is, and I often find the views of others quite shocking.The view that I find most virulently destructive in society, and a view that is broadly held, is that nation states are the best and most efficient way to run the world. The reason

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-87677093985861248112009-08-22T08:48:00.002-10:002009-08-22T09:56:45.145-10:00

Last night I tweeted that I thought Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.com, the ubiquitous domain name registrar, was a sexist pig. It might be harsh (and will do nothing to dispel the popularly held belief that I'm a hard-line feminazi), but I stand by it.These were my tweets:I'm a little creeped out by Bob Parsons of GoDaddy (clearly a sexist pig), but they've better service than most registrars

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-59117043883333156832009-07-14T12:53:00.002-10:002009-07-14T13:52:52.241-10:00

A couple of days ago when my good friend Oli had to go back to Britain, unwillingly, I got angry enough to post my idea of an immigration policy, which I've thought a lot about, on Twitter, in a handful of posts. That's right peeps. Immigration policy does not need to be complicated. In fact, most government operations do not need to be complicated.The main problem with US immigration policy is

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-67123468708426551202009-06-21T01:08:00.001-10:002009-06-21T01:08:15.836-10:00

test

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-86265482836902614662009-05-18T10:49:00.002-10:002009-05-18T10:53:38.526-10:00

Regarding yesterday's post, I received a response:It has been proven correct by scientists that work for me, and these are people who can make mince meat out of the scientists at NASA so don't even think about "they may be wrong" the conclusive proof will be released later this year. However it is always interesting to see how people react, its like watching someone try to convince Columbus

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-39011602245271742172009-05-17T12:47:00.002-10:002009-05-17T12:57:55.380-10:00

As a former science writer, I occasionally get sent various theories from non-scientists, I guess with the intention that I'll somehow recognize true genius and publicize the radical newfound knowledge. This sadly is not the case. I think I am one of the last resort when the theory has been sent to a bunch of scientists (and higher profile science writers) and either ignored completely, ripped

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-4838456094911645182009-05-12T10:14:00.002-10:002009-05-12T10:52:22.023-10:00

This is in response to this article: Why first-past-the-post voting is fundamentally flawed.In the above article, range voting (please read it) is thrown out of consideration for publication review by other economists on the grounds that the values assigned to candidates are arbitrary and therefore meaningless:Arrow, now 86 and professor emeritus at Stanford University, maintains that voting

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-33959619436805172352009-05-06T16:38:00.003-10:002009-05-06T16:56:24.313-10:00

A lot of things can get my goat, but other people's behavior on AIM I often find very rude (you know who you are). So instead of ranting, I offer a helpful IM etiquette list:an IM conversation is much like an in-person conversation. Treat the person with whom you are conversing with the same respect and courtesy you would use if you were talking face-to-faceif you are busy or away from your

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-45117902542143371222009-04-30T21:04:00.004-10:002009-05-02T15:12:38.695-10:00

I know this is lame, but I haven't blogged anything yet in April, and I've never missed a month since I started the blog in 2005. Truth be told, my twitter account has taken over the basic functionality that used to be covered in blogging. It's just so much easier and faster and addicting.Anywho. I went to the mailbox this evening, and what should I find, but a package from Canal Street

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-124487083114415972009-03-20T21:48:00.002-10:002009-03-20T22:05:52.743-10:00

Most people who know me well know that I HATE facebook. Whenever I log on, I'm tempted to remove my profile. There are two reasons for this.Since I can compare how many friends I have to other people, It makes me feel like, comparatively, I'm a friendless loser. I'm not really -- the close friends I do make are loyal to me, and I to them. I just have an inability to tolerate needless

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-4169124155163705942009-03-07T22:01:00.003-10:002009-03-07T22:03:51.313-10:00

Discovered oDesk -- looks like a good place to pick up freelance work, though it is globally competitive. They have tests which is a nice way of proving proficiency without the hassle of describing your skills and jobs in detail. I immediately took the English exam:

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-61226954799053111042009-03-07T10:13:00.002-10:002009-03-07T11:14:08.949-10:00

I've had a really crappy week, so I would like to take some time out and discuss something completely irrelevant: zombies!No, I don't believe in zombies. However, they are a perennial pop culture favorite. In recent years through movies and video games the zombie archetype has evolved from shambling living dead to hyper-athletic plague infester. Which is interesting, because even before the

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-6284074843116387292009-03-01T20:31:00.001-10:002009-03-01T20:33:05.110-10:00

I originally posted this to my Kiva lending team. Thought it was worthy of a blog post as well:Yesterday I posted some information about conditions in the outlying pacific islands. Later in the day I happened to pick up the latest copy of Honolulu Weekly (the local liberal "rag") and as it so happens, the cover story was on Micronesian immigrants. It was eye-opening to say the least.The facts

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-33257095415673397822009-02-04T10:01:00.003-10:002009-02-04T10:36:43.291-10:00

Every state is facing frightening budget cuts these days (California being the most apocalyptic as they are cutting pretty much *everything*). In Hawaii, the two big issues of contention among many are Acts 88 and 221.Act 88 is a film tax credit and has helped the following productions get made in the last couple of years: LOST, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pirates of the Carribbean 3: At World's

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-51879143437848750352009-01-20T01:46:00.002-10:002009-01-20T02:27:26.883-10:00

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll know that I've been struggling with depression for years. It's been an off and mostly on thing since I was eight. For the past year and a half though, I've been having wild mood swings from unnecessarily elated to unnecessarily curled up in a ball crying for hours, and antidepressants just made everything worse. I often felt worse

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-688918239943562842009-01-01T09:08:00.002-10:002009-01-01T09:55:21.423-10:00

I'm generally pretty horrible about saving money, usually I don't make enough but I also need a place to put money where I can't immediately touch it. Having a savings account linked to my checking account, all accessible by debit card just doesn't work for me. So in the past I've taken to squirreling money in several old checking accounts, a Merill Lynch account (which I'm sure is wiped out, but

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-24656313604192338422008-12-31T05:26:00.002-10:002008-12-31T06:06:40.887-10:00

I couldn't let the year end without one last post. A few weeks ago my friend Oliver from the U.K. sent me a Christmas package. It happened to contain Christmas crackers. It was thoughtful of him to deduce that I had grown up with them but can't find them where I am now.Unfortunately, Christmas crackers each contain a minuscule amount of gunpowder (which seems awfully 1650 to me). Apparently,

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-52704745629761852008-11-05T03:21:00.004-10:002008-11-05T03:48:46.004-10:00

It's hard to believe that in eleven weeks Bush will be out of office. I'm glad Obama won even though, as a former Arizonan, I think McCain is one of the better moderate politicians out there and in any other election he would have been an excellent choice (McCain may have voted 90% with Bush but that 10% is a significant difference). The real win here is that the Bush years are nearly over

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-42043271953418647172008-10-23T03:42:00.002-10:002008-10-23T03:48:17.566-10:00

I'll probably end up with trollers, but I wanted to repost this rant I wrote in a comment on one of my Flickr contacts pictures. It is slightly edited for clarity. The contact is pro-choice, and so am I, though I started out pro-life as a kid, until I realized all of the factors involved in reproductive health and choice, and was finally turned when I learned that my own Grandmother had been

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-57899066229022383442008-09-21T16:43:00.003-10:002008-09-21T17:30:06.440-10:00

On Friday I got an iPhone. It was a hideous expense, but I thought of it less as a phone than as a cute little pocket mac. This marks one of the very few times I've given in to peer pressure, since almost everyone at BLT has one already. This has had some of interesting side effects:I do not like making purchases, let alone purchases over $20, so I have tremendous guilt over the expenditure.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-64734737985236771672008-09-08T11:43:00.006-10:002008-09-08T12:20:21.578-10:00

The company I work for, Blue Lava Technologies, has just released it's flagship software and accompanying website, iLovephotos.Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!The software, which runs on OS X, manages and shares your photo library (sorry windows peeps, you'll have to wait a bit -- but really, maybe this is the extra push you need to come over to efficient, fun, intelligent computing on the Mac

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-1585441840676908772008-09-04T22:33:00.002-10:002008-09-04T22:49:14.040-10:00

Just to disclaim, I am a pro-choice, evolutionist progressive. The state of the planet's climate and what we are doing to manage it is my number 1 political issue, with civil liberties (for all people everywhere) a close second. I do want small government, but I also want that small government to stay out of my business and not tell me what to do with my body or my brain or my heart. I should not

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-22868293965259979882008-08-22T00:37:00.002-10:002008-08-22T01:18:04.529-10:00

I feel like I've had brain constipation the past few weeks, but I found out in July that my mom has cancer, and it was like being socked in the solar plexus. The first day I ended up wandering around Walmart for a few hours with nothing but duct tape in my basket, worried and fretting. My dad and my brother spent the first two weeks freaking out (my dad even made plans to sell the house and move

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-1132801673474984532008-07-19T10:29:00.001-10:002008-07-19T10:30:48.082-10:00

I needed a new rashguard for paddleboarding, so I decided to get one this morning. I didn't feel like trying anything on (and you need to with the way they fit). I decided to go to Honolua Surf Co. because they are cheap and the clerks aren't snotty. I also kept thinking that I needed quarters to do laundry, and since I rarely carry cash they are in short supply for me.So get to the store, walk

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-58763993384670732852008-07-18T16:54:00.002-10:002008-07-18T16:57:10.597-10:00

I have to admit, I was a bit shocked by this. I feel pretty good about what we are doing at Blue Lava, but I guess I thought the competition would be more furious. Lorenz's pitch made the top of the list and has the most positive buzz. So cool!

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-37282391905799106182008-07-18T08:34:00.003-10:002008-07-18T08:46:12.291-10:00

I did a soviet-era theme for fun. View here.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-76539896490032029302008-07-17T08:52:00.002-10:002008-07-17T09:00:01.382-10:00

Okay, now that I've freaked out my parents with that title, I went on an early morning walk down to the beach and made an interesting observation. Women outnumber men about 10 to 1 on the beach at that time of day. It was really weird. Most were jogging or strolling or swimming, generally out getting exercise -- of the few men, they were surfers coming or going, or among family groups that

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-91535687834255171662008-07-15T05:39:00.003-10:002008-07-15T05:50:25.956-10:00

On Saturday I gave a presentation on blogging to the local chapter of the RWA. Apparently I drew out some of the more reclusive authors -- which is cool; it's always nice to have an interested audience. While for geeks blogging is old news, it's not totally adopted by the professional writing community. The main thrust of my presentation was to encourage writers to use blogging as a marketing

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-59373290010137184442008-07-15T00:32:00.002-10:002008-07-15T00:39:29.209-10:00

My boss Lorenz just completed his "elevator pitch" for the upcoming TechCrunch 50 conference in San Francisco. You can view it here (please vote us up!):Also, you can learn more here:

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-55610764024780363062008-07-07T22:07:00.002-10:002008-07-07T22:14:29.474-10:00

I had a slightly frightening encounter yesterday. I was in Barnes & Noble (I'm in a bookstore at least once a day it seems), looking the back cover of an edition of Ethan Frome when I man approached me. He was obviously homeless (though thankfully recently showered), and quite mute. He was able to grunt, and made use of rudimentary signs. He carried a digital camera in one hand, and was pointing

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-82323556140666295422008-06-18T02:17:00.003-10:002008-06-18T02:28:49.510-10:00

What do these two titular things have in common? Why writing prompts of course! On Sunday, Leslee and I hung out doing writing prompts. We came up with the idea of trying to rewrite sentences (passing back and forth) to try to come up with creative ways of retooling a concept. We limited ourselves to one sheet of paper for each exercise. Here are the results, Leslee's sentences are in red, mine

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-30131645743881159792008-06-16T13:40:00.004-10:002008-06-16T13:44:12.919-10:00

Okay, I signed up for Kaiser health insurance in May. I got a card in the mail, so I assumed that I had been signed up. I didn't get a welcome package though, but I was signed up with them previously so I thought maybe they were saving paper or something. I didn't receive a bill for June. I was beginning to get worried, that maybe the card was just an automatic yearly replacement. Finally, today,

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-2453843933969941832008-06-14T11:40:00.002-10:002008-06-14T11:44:12.311-10:00

A graphic word generator has been going around on Flickr like a virus. FluffyKittens takes your tag list and formats it so you can paste it into the Wordle generator, and get output similar to what you see on the left. Fun!

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-72207424067971775982008-06-11T16:21:00.002-10:002008-06-11T16:30:38.047-10:00

One of my photos posted on Flickr was included in an article on Donut Day by NowPublic. My friend Steve, who is in the photo approved it's use. NowPublic is a crowdsourcing news site.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-82979361386829186552008-06-02T18:00:00.001-10:002008-06-02T18:02:15.868-10:00

Shocking. Too many crane accidents! This one happened in Kaka'ako. One man was killed, and sadly, his son, who is also a construction worker, saw it happen :-(

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-31783106621719624852008-06-02T12:53:00.002-10:002008-06-02T13:39:18.020-10:00

In the latest edition of Entertainment Weekly, there is an article listing the season viewership numbers for network TV (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and the CW. Why PBS is not included is beyond me) for the top 160 shows.Here's my take on the top 30 shows, and why I don't watch much TV (and probably should never write for TV):American Idol -- I hate this show with a passion. I'd consider watching it if

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-86522516214163614352008-05-30T03:32:00.002-10:002008-05-30T03:34:27.192-10:00

This was another one in NYC. Almost seems like if there is a crane inspector there, he or she is seriously incompetent. These freak me out because I live under two cranes constructing the Trump Tower Waikiki next door.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-41512361044162593632008-05-26T08:12:00.003-10:002008-05-26T08:14:14.454-10:00

I had a shoot with Amy the other day (before she moved back to the mainland). We did a couple of interesting things, but I really wanted to try a conceptual shot. The result is here:

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-86342361225075011462008-05-23T19:09:00.006-10:002008-05-23T20:28:15.214-10:00

I saw this on the cover of Popular Science the other day. It's an electric unicycle (yup, unicycle). My brother and I had a unicycle when we were kids, and it was the most horrendous thing to ride (the tiny, uncomfortable seat was the worst part). At least this thing has two central wheels and handlebars. The intent is to produce a highly efficient personal vehicle that doesn't pollute. It's

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-2322799982582539132008-05-20T00:07:00.004-10:002008-05-23T20:30:17.941-10:00

Somehow a centipede got into my apartment this evening. I heard it first before I saw it. It had gotten into the box where I store most of my camera equipment, then it found it's way behind my bookcase. It hung out there for about an hour before finally making a break for the kitchen floor. Those things move fast, but I was able to kill it with the nearest blunt object (a flashlight). Scary! A

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-61889355594130674832008-05-17T17:06:00.002-10:002008-05-17T17:24:24.497-10:00

I just woke from something like 14 hours of sleep (half lucid, half unconscious -- the latter being the actually restful bit). It was the second day in a row that I actually woke up on top of my alarm clock. I guess my feral back brain felt that squashing the clock under my stomach (can't sleep at all on my back) will muffle the sound enough to fake out my prefrontal cortex. My feral back brain,

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-34572267044865740422008-05-15T16:04:00.003-10:002008-05-16T00:45:30.652-10:00

I just got a new member card from Kaiser in the mail, so I assume that means I've been approved (the accompanying letter said nothing of the sort). So I guess that means I can see a doctor in 2 weeks. Meanwhile, the lump and bruise have gone away, so I will have nothing to show the doctor. I'm not at all sure it was a hernia after all. Who knows!

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-21870649433926989172008-05-11T02:49:00.002-10:002008-05-11T03:36:26.729-10:00

I just found the link on Netflix to view my rental history (hidden in plain sight on the queue page). I thought I would share some stats on my viewing history:I started renting in December 2005, and the first thing I returned was Stargate SG-1 Season 6 disc 2I stopped renting in May of 2007 (still paying for the service) because I got Murderball stuck in the DVD-ROM drive of my laptop and I

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-5520729192252687532008-05-09T05:07:00.002-10:002008-05-09T05:23:38.694-10:00

Alright, haven't posted in awhile; need to get back to more regular postings (and less depressing postings!)"Rio Sinter" is a sci-fi story I started a couple of years ago. The characters and story arc were almost instantly fleshed out when the idea came to me, and it's something I've really wanted to write. I just think it is a worthy, original, realistic, hard science type of story. I've been

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-75182038865083461912008-05-01T03:20:00.002-10:002008-05-01T03:21:01.392-10:00

I finally got around to fixing the floating flower embellishment on my blog. Let me know if you still have issues with it :-)

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-423954810217376832008-04-29T22:20:00.002-10:002008-04-29T22:22:48.429-10:00

My health insurance lapsed on October 31st of last year, and I was forced to wait 6 months to apply again. Well, turns out the bodyboarding injury (a hernia actually) came around just in time! Or so I thought. I reapplied today, and the soonest I will have insurance (with Kaiser at least) is June 1st. Yes, I have to walk around with my intestine poking through my abdominal wall for a whole month

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-54305524509595501472008-04-28T16:40:00.003-10:002008-04-28T16:57:25.867-10:00

On Saturday, after a productive photoshoot, I went bodyboarding at Waikiki. I courageously made it out to the surf break with my bodyboard for the first time (baby steps!). I'm totally afraid of cutting a foot on the coralline algae out there, so I am usually pretty careful. I caught a few waves (briefly of course, still not very good) and had a pretty good time. My abdomen was sore when I got

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-1850726483908958092008-04-23T16:10:00.002-10:002008-04-23T16:17:08.127-10:00

I know I haven't posted for awhile, but I am feeling much better, and a lot less invisible. I think there is something about being depressed that makes people want to avoid you. It's a lot like having the flu :-)Anyway, I found out yesterday that my friend Emily is filming in LOST today! Both she and Leslee are going to be in the season 4 finale. It seems to be incredibly easy to become an extra

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-42972158045019024692008-04-16T19:17:00.003-10:002008-04-16T19:30:36.734-10:00

I had a horrible day that not even the arrival of some cool new photography "equipment" (aka toys) could make better. After I played around with my new fisheye lens and IR filter outside, I wanted to take a shower (hot, humid, sticky day), but it took me about four hours to make it from the living room to the bathroom. I spent most of that time curled up in bed crying and feeling invisible. This

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-55771488438735868452008-04-15T14:52:00.003-10:002008-04-15T14:59:34.381-10:00

*SIGH* Yes, I sprained an ankle again. No point even going to the doctor -- I still have the boot from the last time (fits either foot). This time I attempted to jump down a 3 foot retaining wall and misjudged the curb at the bottom. I landed on my laptop, but luckily the thing is surprisingly durable (apparently I'm proving it to be dorkproof).I had to get away from the apartment today. Not only

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-85592833516777086902008-04-11T10:31:00.002-10:002008-04-11T10:37:18.490-10:00

I've turned into a dairy farmer or something -- I've been getting up at 5:30 am for the past couple of days. I've been trying to be more diligent in taking B vitamins (building blocks of serotonin), and one of the side effects is being an early riser. It's really weird. 5:30am is typically when I go to bed.I got up this morning, went out to get a coffee, and just kept going. And going. I didn't

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-14569144385407367902008-04-10T14:20:00.001-10:002008-04-10T14:21:58.085-10:00

That means nothing to those of you who know nothing of python, but I am ecstatic it worked exactly right, the first time. Woohoo!

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-39788940206519919162008-04-09T23:07:00.002-10:002008-04-09T23:19:37.937-10:00

Last year I was cast as an extra in the film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (debuting soon), but I had to back out because the scene I was cast in was being shot on the same day as the Dalai Lama's visit to Maui. I figured I could be in another movie some other time, but how often do you get a chance to see the Dalai Lama? I did however pass the casting info along to my friend Leslee, and she ended

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-55585411567673981602008-04-02T03:30:00.002-10:002008-04-02T03:38:50.871-10:00

Yes, that is a new word. It's French for someone who swedes a film, and if you've been reading my blog for some time, you will know that sweding is the process of remaking a film using minimal materials (usually found in an office supply store). Sweding was invented by filmmaker Michel Gondry, for his film, Be Kind Rewind.The term "Swedeur", can be found in this sweded clip of the lightcycles

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-23875546295687952172008-04-01T08:21:00.002-10:002008-04-01T08:50:44.445-10:00

Last night, I had a surreal episode (I love it when life turns surreal!) I was using some precious free time to do a load of laundry at the laundromat. I have an amazing amount of work at the moment, and had been working straight through from Tuesday/Wednesday to Monday morning, with the exception of a booksigning I attended on Saturday -- more on that later. When I was finished with my laundry,

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-8175131729184598772008-03-28T03:27:00.002-10:002008-03-28T03:31:26.625-10:00

I've been cooped up doing QA for a couple of days straight, and needed to unwind a bit, so I did the only thing that really destresses me -- a photoshoot. Unfortunately, I was the only model available at 10pm, resulting in another set of seemingly narcissistic images.Since my hair has grown to a rather mod length, I decided to slap on some mascara and dark eyeshadow for a 60s/20s look. I played

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-4314548543712362502008-03-24T02:52:00.002-10:002008-03-24T02:54:43.886-10:00

It's finally up! I feel pretty good about it. Here is a cap of the old site design, just for posterity:

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-54770266488909211402008-03-23T01:59:00.003-10:002008-03-23T02:12:13.677-10:00

I went to Wal-Mart to price out bikes yesterday (yeah, I shop from Wal-Mart and I am going to hell for it). I found a bike at the perfect price-point: $91 for a beach cruiser. It's the type of bike that would make my bike expert ex=boyfriend Jesse a little queasy. It's the type of bike that I won't go catatonic over if it gets stolen, the type of bike I won't have any qualms leaving behind if and

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-31392433332502999152008-03-21T21:14:00.002-10:002008-03-21T21:25:01.749-10:00

I've been extremely listless, lonely, and depressed the past couple of days. A few days ago I was asked to do a project for work under a big time constraint. I didn't know it was coming and was ill prepared to handle it. I should have said no or asked for a more reasonable time frame. Anyway, I finished, but the end result was pretty crappy and my boss redid it anyway. It's rather embarrassing.It

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-13342622887200627132008-03-18T09:23:00.002-10:002008-03-18T09:26:05.076-10:00

I finally joined the 21st century, I'm redoing my blog design completely table free. Here is a little preview, but there is still plenty of polish to apply, not to mention having to integrate it with goopy Blogger code directives.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-11168471543405549282008-03-17T13:27:00.003-10:002008-03-17T13:33:43.358-10:00

At the Ala Moana mall near where I live, there was this failing Chinese restaurant in the food court. They shut down for awhile, and just reopened as "Little Chinatown" (not sure if I have the name entirely correct). I was craving Chinese food yesterday so I though I would check them out.They had roast duck. I'm a huge fan of duck, it's my favorite meat, so I got some of that. When I got it home

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-46375849024966150722008-03-16T03:35:00.003-10:002008-03-16T03:52:52.166-10:00

Okay, before I freak out my co-workers, it's an additional job :-) In my ongoing quest to diversify income sources, I came across ChaCha, a new SMS search engine, where people with cell phones in the US can text a question and get an answer from a human being. I tried it on my cell phone ("Who owns IKEA?" -- it was the first thing to come to mind), and got an accurate, concise answer in about a

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-91122542798079667872008-03-15T18:09:00.002-10:002008-03-15T18:15:05.678-10:00

Apparently a construction crane collapsed on a nearby building in NYC in a 'freak accident'.I currently live beneath such a crane, one on the Waikiki Trump Tower Hotel and Condominium. I think about the crane coming down practically every day. I always tell myself, "nah, that'll never happen." Gee, guess it does.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-69449177052246746622008-03-13T02:03:00.002-10:002008-03-13T02:06:15.419-10:00

My site was down for a few hours yesterday. Blogger has a conflict with PHP on occasion. I've wanted to blow away my crusty site design for awhile, but being ill, I just opted to forgo the design effort in favor of simply changing my blog from PHP to plain old HTML. Ah well. A task for another day.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-43658684727709137832008-03-12T15:57:00.002-10:002008-03-12T16:00:38.281-10:00

Right now I am fighting off a raging ear infection. I used to get them every time I went swimming in a public pool, until I got wise to the fact that hydrogen peroxide in the ear will prevent infections. Swimming in the ocean is a different ball of yarn, and this is my first infection from the ocean, and I'm pretty sure it's because of all the people at Waikiki dirtying up the water. Yuck!

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-30558723475814622972008-03-10T16:51:00.002-10:002008-03-10T16:57:02.901-10:00

I haven't been able to blog the last day or so because my web hosting space has been completely eaten up by spam messages to my catchall address (dating back only to November 2007 mind you), 42,000+ of them. I deleted the mail file back in November to clear up space, but this time I decided to add that address to gmail. Gmail couldn't handle it (timed out while accessing the file), so I set up

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-69674453827359130582008-03-07T01:30:00.002-10:002008-03-07T01:50:08.385-10:00

After several months, I performed a new piece at the HawaiiSlam. I wasn't great, I didn't totally suck, just not great among some really fantastic competition. Frankly the last few slams have kind of sucked. In comparison, this slam is what slam is all about (you kind of have to be there).I think I caught the bug again. This was such a lark this time, but I really, really love being up on stage.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-9260581548223761442008-03-05T23:02:00.002-10:002008-03-05T23:21:01.528-10:00

I was just at my neighborhood Denny's for dinner, and the manager asked me out on a date -- he wanted to "lay out with me at the North Shore". To be fair, he's an interesting individual, but he's my father's age (ick, ick, ick! That's so "To Catch a Predator"), and a restaurant manager! He was quite insistent and wrote his phone number on my receipt. I can't go back there.The last guy who showed

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-76907640815862841222008-03-05T19:27:00.002-10:002008-03-05T19:40:53.755-10:00

Obama seems to have a Flickr account, and it looks pretty genuine. Of course, I immediately made Barack Obama one of my contacts :-)I searched to see if Hillary Clinton had an account, and the only two results were not valid. Searching for John McCain yielded absolutely nothing. Not surprisingly, under-under-underdog candidate Ron Paul does have a Flickr account, though his photos are far less

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-29979098430637740702008-02-28T09:58:00.002-10:002008-02-28T10:02:35.391-10:00

Sheesh. I left my writer's group meeting at 10pm in Waikele, I walked into my apartment at 2am, a journey that takes 30 minutes by car, and 45 by bus. You miss one bus and the whole Rube Goldberg public transportation system just collapses. Why don't governments understand that public transportation needs to run consistently, 24 hours a day, every day?

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-60383444438224759562008-02-24T16:01:00.003-10:002008-02-24T16:12:46.756-10:00

I went swimming in the pouring rain, on my bodyboard, and was having a blast until a guy on a paddleboard came up to me and *sternly* told me not to go out to the surf break (which I had no intention of doing), saying that it was dangerous, and that he didn't want the lifeguards to have to go out on their rescue boards.This really rankled me. Did I really look like such a pathetic neophyte that I

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-30070783108740952212008-02-24T07:43:00.002-10:002008-02-24T07:47:57.740-10:00

This particular photo elicited a love poem from a photographer in Yemen. It was far less creepy when I figured out he can't really speak English, and also that he is a phenomenal photographer, so I took it as a compliment, and not something stockerish.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-56370146738598306682008-02-23T07:16:00.002-10:002008-02-23T07:22:08.829-10:00

I'm still dealing with jetlag from my trip to AZ (and it's only 3 hours difference!). In the space of a week and a half, I've flipped my schedule pretty much by 12 hours. So now I am up and ready to go at 4:30am, and crashing by 10pm. It's just weird.The other news, is that I just found out that the Waikiki Zoo, which is just down the street from where I live, had an incident with an escaped

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-48673618945500123952008-02-10T06:33:00.000-10:002008-02-10T06:39:45.363-10:00

Okay, I just took another series of self portraits. I was experimenting with a makeup design for an upcoming model shoot, and I wanted to see how my idea would photograph (result: not as vibrant as I intended). The photos themselves turned out pretty cool I think. The scarf was from Old Navy, I loved the texture, and I was inspired to do some shots evocative of the "Sheik" films from the twenties.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-16058837465558020172008-02-09T03:28:00.000-10:002008-02-09T04:00:39.654-10:00

I grew up with dogs, I love dogs, I relate better to dogs than I do to people. For the first time, I live someplace where I could potentially have a dog (my neighbor has a pair of bratty, barky, badly behaved kneebiters). Of course I have to work up the courage to ask my landlord (to not be crushed when he says no).The thing is, I've pretty much gotten through this latest bout of depression, but

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-80523203113893527482008-02-06T18:53:00.001-10:002008-02-06T18:59:09.132-10:00

I had a real thrill today! I was swimming in front of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (the pink thing), and two teenage girls on body boards were swimming near me. All of a sudden I heard squeals and screams. I looked over and saw the head of a sea turtle (about the size of a softball). It had come up for air. It was really huge. I stayed in my spot, a respectful distance from the turtle, while the

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-9273352308034452902008-02-06T15:27:00.000-10:002008-02-06T15:50:07.918-10:00

It looks like the verb "to swede" will permanently enter the English language. It was invented by director Michel Gondry for his upcoming film "Be Kind, Rewind", which is still a couple of weeks away from hitting theaters, and hasn't had any kind of mainstream advertising. Sweding means to make some over again, in a "homesewn" and ridiculously inexpensive fashion, specifically feature films, and

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-90622550135158723372008-02-04T04:55:00.000-10:002008-02-04T05:31:27.111-10:00

It's a very Promethean moment in history people. Apparently, Craig Venter (the guy who's lab was first to sequence the human genome) has announced that he has created a man-made genome. It hasn't been inserted into a cell, but if it did, it would be the first instance of man-made life created from scratch. This puts another nail in the creationism coffin!There a lot of implications for this

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-41753568009217152242008-02-03T06:05:00.000-10:002008-02-03T06:42:44.335-10:00

Yesterday I went to the monthly RWA meeting (still feel awfully guilty for not paying dues -- while I support my local chapter of writers, I don't feel any kinship or allegiance with the national organization). Anyway, I was glad I went this time, even though I didn't really get any sleep and had to be up and ready by 9am (which is usually the middle of the night to me). The speaker was professor

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-17603206250688091862008-02-03T04:10:00.000-10:002008-02-03T04:18:53.350-10:00

I have insomnia again (and sadly I was just distracted by a claymation segment on Sesame Street), and I'm really happy about it :-) As annoying as it is, it's my key indicator of a normal mood, so I think I'm finally crawling out of the severe depression hole. When I have depression I can spend a lot of hours of the day unconcious, which is not terribly productive. I was actually able to sleep

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-88133842815740707832008-01-31T23:24:00.000-10:002008-01-31T23:29:46.944-10:00

I went to the "official" premiere of LOST with Cory and Emily at Planet Hollywood across the street from where I live. I was all geared up with camera and camcorder in order to schmooze with celebrities, but alas, only a lone extra showed up. The WGA had boycotted the premiere (which was originally supposed to be on the beach with the cast), so no one famous showed. I still hope to someday bump

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-78610304302500597642008-01-30T18:23:00.000-10:002008-01-30T18:24:51.026-10:00

Someone thought my photo of the lunar eclipse last year was worthy of inclusion in the Wiki Commons. Yay! Such a 21st century honor.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-62982929396438852202008-01-29T19:41:00.000-10:002008-01-29T19:56:05.724-10:00

I did it again, I sprained an ankle. Luckily its not too bad, but I did feel that awful burn of a soft tissue tear. I think that makes four (maybe five) times in the last year.I decided to go for a walk to the Natatorium at the opposite end of Waikiki. It's an old 19th century eyesore; it looks sort of like some Greek or Roman swimming pool, but without the workmanship. It's also been closed for

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-54092129993737801532008-01-28T22:45:00.000-10:002008-01-28T23:17:03.477-10:00

After I got home today, I was watching the punditry surrounding the State of the Union address, when I crashed out (I guess the early-morning construction next door is taking its toll on me). I must have crashed when they were analyzing the statements the President made about terrorism, because I ended up having a really intense lucid dream about terrorism. I apologize in advance for describing a

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-70072167904438671062008-01-28T12:46:00.000-10:002008-01-28T12:48:45.085-10:00

The company I work for, Blue Lava Technologies, made it into a Honolulu Advertiser article (despite the low class name, the Advertiser is a big paper in Hawaii). Yay! Press!

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-79231265374951703382008-01-27T19:45:00.002-10:002008-01-27T21:05:45.472-10:00

I had an interesting conversation with Leslee on Friday. We had just seen the movie "Atonement", which is fantastic (but marketed completely wrong as a romance, when it is a literary mystery and will appeal to a wider audience -- why do studios do this?!). The main character in the movie, Briony, is a writer, so of course this generated a lot of discussion between me and Leslee, and our

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-54130680419555442972008-01-24T22:20:00.000-10:002008-01-24T22:32:23.485-10:00

I finally made mochi for the first time - and it's shockingly easy if you have the right tools (a steamer basket and a wok). Mochi is huge in Hawaii, and comes in a wide variety of forms. It originated in Japan, but is utterly transformed here, and it's nothing like the crappy granola mochi you find in refrigerated packs at places like Whole Foods on the mainland.Mochi is an incredibly versatile

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-44130012552846402272008-01-20T04:20:00.000-10:002008-01-20T04:31:23.073-10:00

I spent the day with Leslee -- it was a nice way to recover from the previous night which was absolutely horrible (I removed a blog post for the first time because it was so depressing and it freaked out my parents).Leslee wanted to get some practice using her new digital Nikon (D300). I agreed to be her model. I make a pretty bad model by the way. I'm incredibly self-critical (especially about

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-18722951839217948472008-01-19T01:48:00.000-10:002008-01-19T01:49:31.248-10:00

Someone is yodeling outside (real bona fide German yodeling). It's really irritating. I just want to go to sleep and forget today.

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12062399.post-86113433355002736622008-01-18T00:37:00.000-10:002008-01-18T00:42:40.481-10:00

I was a half hour late for my meeting (my meeting, one I was actually in charge of). I left so that I would be twenty minutes early but traffic was gridlocked all the way. I was cursing the tourists, assuming there had been some sort of seasonal uptick. I was also worried because I had been late for the last meeting (two buses in a row broke down in Waikiki which threw off all the rest).It turned

KaOshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15390728563389917273noreply@blogger.com0