Kaulapi World

So a few weeks ago I mentioned some blood tests from my trip back home as being kind of a wake-up call. Despite feeling fine and in good shape overall, I found out that some of my blood chemistry was off quite a bit from the normal ranges. They were off enough to cause my folks to sit me down the evening before I was heading back to DC to tell me that I need to slow down a bit with everything and take better care of my health. I think the stress, lack of sleep, (and oh did I mention stress?) of work and night school for the past 3 years has been taking its toll. The fact of the matter is that I’ve been pretty much running on empty since August, 2005 and in some sense I’m amazed that I haven’t lost my mind with all the side adventures and challenges that have come up along the way. The test results were really a second warning. The first warning was earlier this summer when I got my teeth checked out. After not having a single cavity my entire life, my first real cavities ended up being pretty bad requiring some drilling and more drilling, and more filling than I had ever imagined.

All the while I’ve been coming across sobering reports on the state of public health back home, talking about the rise of type 2 (adult onset) diabetes being rampant in Hawaii, especially among Native Hawaiians. Researchers and Doctors are baffled by the fact that the Hawaiians used to be a very lean and fit population, that is, until the overthrow of the monarchy, and the annexation of Hawaii to the United States. Kind of another wake-up nudge to me to keep up with my new health and diet plan.

Been an extremely busy August, busy Summer more or less, that would explain the lack of entries. Survived my last round of summer school courses as an evening law student, towards the end I was feeling pretty burnt out, definitely in need of a vacation. Lucky me I got to go home for a bit earlier this month, although it was kind of a working vacation helping my folks around the house, and complete some long term projects. Still it was just the change of scenery and pace that I needed.

Another wake up call came from some blood test results, I’ll probably be expanding more on that in a later entry when I have a chance.

Honolulu, Moili’ili (X2), Waikiki, Iwalei (X2), Kaneohe and some piece of mind being back home for a bit. Some things change, other things don’t at all.

Another new year rings in, surprised how time flies. Made my annual version of ozoni, decided to mix things up a bit and got some steamer clams (instead of little necks) from whole foods. They were actually cheaper by the pound, and ended up tasting really good. Kind of felt back for the little guys when I took them out of the fridge, their nozzles were sticking out of the shells looking for salt water. Still recovering from my finals, still don’t know how I did, but this time around I’m surprising very much at peace with all of it. maybe I’m just a little numb to going through this 6,7 times already, but I can honestly say the stress level is a lot easier to stomach as time goes by.

Meanwhile in football distractions on the New Year, UH pretty much got destroyed by UGA in the Sugar Bowl, 41-10, really it felt more like more like 41-3 since the last touchdown was scored against UGA’s scout team. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for all the UH fans that made most likely some of the most expensive travel plans in a long time to fly from Honolulu to New Orleans. All week long there were a lot of new stories in the local media talking about the clash of cultures, happy times, and overall anticipation of the upcoming game. When it came down to it, it was painfully obvious how mediocre an otherwise prolific quarterback can seem when his offensive line is outmatched by an athletic defensive front, and with virtually no running game to balance the offense out. After a few series I noticed the Georgia players dropping 7-8 players back, their front 3-4 were able to get to Brennen with no problem, either sacking him, or rushing his throws. with 7-8 linebackers or corners, Georgia could double team all of Hawaii’s star receivers pretty much all night. Hawaii’s defense did pretty good at first, but after about a quarter it was obvious who the better team was.

Not to be too cynical, but the whole ordeal was a reminder of reality in the differences in facilities, recruiting budgets and overall caliber that Hawaii has against many mainland colleges. After a certain point, believing in yourself, dedication and hard work cannot make up for lack of talent, or more importantly, the missed opportunity to harvest and develop that talent into it’s full potential. Hawaii is a very good team no doubt they prove it by winning their conference and going undefeated during the regular season and beating everyone and anyone who was willing to play them and didn’t chicken out like Michigan. The game just showed how much better a #2 or #3 team in a BSC conference can play, especially in a prime time bowl game on national TV. Case in point, earlier today Wisconsin lost a close battle to Tennessee in the Outback bowl which didn’t get nearly as much spotlight as the Sugar Bowl. Even though the Badgers lost, they were in it until the very last drive, and last pass. At least they were able to compete and keep winning the game a possibility. UH clearly had no chance whatsoever.

The whole affair actually did remind me of another team that I’ve been following that has been pretty much dedicated to the pass attack. One that has so far kept an undefeated season alive and well. At least New England has an offensive line, and a few solid running backs in the backfield when it needs to change things up. Looking forward to the playoffs.

First snowfall of the year in the district, and I’m in full study mode for this next round of finals. Got a paper out of the way a couple of weeks ago, then its two big staple exams, and then I have a 4 day break before the last elective course is up. After that its another smaller paper, and some administrative matters which would wrap up the semester. Its crazy enough that I planned ahead to take some annual leave this week, ironically it ended up that my job had a crunch this week as well.

Crazy to think how busy life gets right around the holidays, when most people are thinking about winter vacations and shopping for Xmas presents. I’m usually camped out in coffee shops and libraries. I suppose its been like that for almost a collective decade now. Its become second nature really, the one year when I didn’t have to go anywhere or study anything I felt kind of lazy.

Pleasant distractions/breaks from studying has been the ongoing successes of my college and pro football teams. Hawaii went undefeated in the regular season and is set up to go to the Sugar Bowl to face Georgia, who had case to be playing for a national title. Wisconsin is on its way to the Outback Bowl to face Tennessee. On the pro side Green Bay lost a battle with Dallas, but is still in the hunt for the NFC playoffs at 10-2. Finally New England has had a couple of close games but is still undefeated at 12-0. I suspect that the rest of the games will be tough, even the winless Miami and almost Winless New York. Everyone is saying how Pittsburgh will be the hardest game, and it should be a cakewalk after that I’m not so sure, after seeing how the Baltimore and Philly brought their A game on to face the Pats. Its a strange feeling really, being in a bar and hearing just about everyone cheer against your team, even though they aren’t Baltimore fans.

One thing for certain, its looking like both pro teams will be in the playoffs, and both college teams are in New Year’s day bowls – which makes for good football distractions for the winter, and the first month or so of the next semester.

Busy trip home, a week vacation on Lanai, and then a few weeks back in the district in time for the new semester and back to work. Haven’t had much time for a post, as my work and school schedule permits, maybe I’ll post day to day entries to play catch up. or not.

Linkes 8/29/2007 – kinda sparse edition
Protesting the Superferry Alakai.
Pitfalls of contractor qui tam.
Chashu recipe
Article on Market Panics thoughout history
Another housing blog Paper-money

Back home in Honolulu for a few weeks on a belated vacation and chance to not worry about work and school and what not. It’s been a little short of a year and a half since I’ve been in Honolulu, a lot of things have changed by way of the local businesses, it almost feels like I’ve visiting an entirely new city. Went to the Mai Tai Bar at Ala Moana, it had been several years since I had been there, I remember back in 2000, 2001 it was a brand new hang out and ended up becoming a sleeper success of sorts. I imagine that they originally thought it would be a place for shoppers and tourists to relax during the day, but instead it became a total local hangout pretty much 7 days a week. Natural Vibes was playing last night, I was reminded that they played at our Senior prom way back when they were still mostly a local reggae band.

Monday after fliying in we went with my folks to this Japanese izakaya in Mo’ili’ili that used to be this old drive in dinner next to a cemetary. The place had a very authentic Japanese feel to it right from when you walked in the door, and a whole bunch of interesting menu items, some traditional, some more modern. Dad wanted to sample some shouchu, since they had a special anniversary price. Its a lot like Awamori, but usually made from potatoes or brown sugar instead of rice. Not quite as strong either.

It has taken a few days to get used to the time difference, and get familiar with home again. I’ve been reminded that this gap in time has been the longest I’ve been away from home, during college and grad school I at least made it back 1, 2 times a year either for the holidays, or to take a class at UH. The professional career life and legal training in DC is another animal all together. Of course there is the perspective that living away from Hawaii provides you. I am constantly reminded how crazy and intense DC, such a concentrated amount of federal and commercial power in a tiny corner of the country, yet the far reaching affects of which can be felt here in the middle of the Pacific ocean.

Walking around my house late one night after my parents were asleep on the first night back brought back a lot of memories from my childhood, pictures on the shelves, my mom’s pottery, dad’s cluttered medical journals, the wild and living jungle in the backyard, the creaking floor in the living room. for the most part it seemed like a dream digging through old things in my old room it was almost like a different person used to live here a long time ago. Most notably are all of the books that I had accumulated through my years after I got back from Madison, when I was taking night classes at UH-Manoa and Kapiolani Community College and frequenting the few used bookstores in Honolulu. There was an old book I came accross written on the price of paradise, namely, the economic price of living in Hawaii. It was written almost 15 years ago, but some of the lessons I think are very relevant to this day.

Linkes 8/8/2007 Summer Vacation Edition
Bottle Cap O Rama
Demographic shifts in Hawaii
Tsukiji Fish Market (the restaurant)

I came across this article today about the sentencing hearing for one of the six crimes that occurred in Hawaii in 2006 that were classified as hate crimes. This time it involved a good intentioned bystander coming to the rescue of what he thought was animal abuse. The dreaded H-word was thrown about while the local defendant, his nephew and his son beat up the victim. It reminded me to follow up on my earlier post on the assault and battery that occurred in a Waikele parking lot back home, that was characterized as “racially motivated” by USA today article, and a continued conversation with my wingnut, self-proclaimed “conservative” friend about race relations in Hawaii. After reading what I had sent to him, I realized that it might be worth posting the gist of our exchange below. A few observations I had on this case that I forwarded to my friend along with the article:

Linkes for 3/22/2007
VA hospitals deteriorating
Medical research on herbal treatments
Why Conservatives Can’t Govern or just aren’t cut out for it
Be on the lookout for predators in School
One incident the kid gets shot in the head
Casey Serin in a nutshell

Shared an article with a friend on the recent disclosed discovery of a huge oil field 70 miles off shore of American territory, smirking at the irony that we won’t be getting any of it anytime soon, mostly due to our foreign policy blunders. In typical wing-nut fashion, instead of getting a logical and thoughtful response I ended up getting a totally off-point article (but interesting) about the Hawaiian melting pot boiling over. After reading it and noting that it was referring to pretty current events back home I shot back a quick response that in retrospect had a lot more depth than I had initially intended – I thought it would be worth posting.

It’s not surprising that the most vocal observers cited in this article of anti-haole sentiment in Hawaii comes from the military. I think this is probably true in most overseas stations where you have mostly young, single men in a foreign unfamiliar surroundings immersed in a culture to which they are largely ignorant of. However I see this incident as more of an example of road rage crime, I’m pretty sure I read that the assailant has prior convictions for assault and battery. Interesting twist on that story was that there was talk about classifying the attack as a hate crime because the assailants used the word Haole.

Racial tensions back home have definitely been on a rise in the past few years, I think it has most to do with the shift of demographics, a lot of Hawaiians are moving to the mainland for jobs, a lot of rich haoles are buying land and moving to hawaii. In addition to the recent supreme court challenges on admissions of non-Hawaiians into Hawaiian education trusts, also there have been a lot of heated debate on the presence of the military on native Hawaiian land, as well as weapons research at the University of Hawaii.

Still things are still not as bad as they were during the 1932 Massie trial – again another clash between local Hawaiians and military personnel – a time in Hawaii’s history when the racial melting pot got very close to boiling over. I still think Carlisle’s quote at the end sums it up quite well: “The race thing isn’t perfect here,” he adds. “But there is a lot that people can learn about race relationships from Hawaii.”

As with any other conversation about Hawaii I’m a little lost for words when talking to people who lack the context or understanding of history and the nuances of an island culture, I’m constantly reminded that the mainland mentality is more of a barrier of colonial ignorance than anything else. I think this small mindedness is what is driving a lot of problems in the way Americans in general are perceived internationally.

Linkes 3/6/07
Pushim: Anything for you
Antiwar film from an American producer, actor, and former Mayor
Perverted Justice – literally….
Guardian’s take on direction the economy is heading….
Peddlers as foundation for American Economy
article on zipcar from 3 years ago