On Barack Obama’s last full day in Hawaii, the family spent the day of New Year’s Eve driving through the Windward side to see if we could spot the President Elect or his motorcade. No such luck. Instead we only came across his security.
If we did get to meet Barack in person, it might look something like this…
Thanks to pulpy readers for submitting the above photo meeting Barack.
After the move to WordPress, I need to reevaluate my blogging tools. Ecto version 3 is still okay as a desktop blogging client but doesn’t access all the capabilities of WP (though I don’t know if that’s possible with WP plugins). I don’t like the way Categories and Tags are “linked.” If I select a Tag, a category with the same name automatically gets checked. I’m still organizing posts with categories and tags so this “feature” doesn’t help clean up things. Where’d Technorati tags go? Why won’t my accept trackbacks setting stick?
This post is generated with MarsEdit which I like to use for Movable Type blogs. MarsEdit has always been bare-boned, shying away from WYSIWYG functionality and instead focusing on HTML editing and markup. In many ways, this is probably the best way to go, but sometimes, you want easy ways of doing things (like making ordered or unordered lists).
Recently, I heard about another Mac-based blogging client called Blogo. Mashable calls Blogo bad ass so I figured I’d try it out. Blogo is actually not that bad though its interface feels more like an over-glorified widget vice a real desktop app. With Blogo, not only can you author blog posts, but you can use it as a Twitter client as well. I do like how Blogo handles Categories and Tags. Categories are prepended with a # so you know #passion is a Category and blogging is a tag.
Including images with any of the above mentioned blogging clients has always been tough. I’ve found that it’s usually best to use the native web interface to add images. By working in HTML, you have better control of getting what you want. Ecto, MarsEdit, and Blogo all have mechanisms of incorporating images to blog posts, but the results vary greatly.
And speaking of Twitter, I bought Tweetie, a Twitter client for the iPhone. Tweetie has some awesome features like picture integration with Twitpic and location awareness. But I don’t really care for the iChat-like interface, much preferring the simple and clean interface of Twitterrific. Even with the crowded interface, the features are too much to ignore.
Wang Zhizhi. Mengke Bateer. Yao Ming. Yi Jianlian. Ji Xiang?
Four Chinese Nationals have made it to the NBA, and will University of Hawaii’s Ji Xiang be next? Ji is a freshman forward for UH who plays sparingly for the Rainbow Warriors. In Hawaii’s drubbing of George Washington in the Rainbow Classic, the 6-10 Ji got some minutes in, and here are his “highlights” of the night.
Needs work methinks.
Even his teammates can’t keep their eyes off of UH forward Roderick Flemings’ dazzling Adidas. Here, new starting center, Paul Campbell, secretly eyes Rod’s Rainbows at the free throw line.
This is what Campbell was looking at.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuFwOT2acg8&w=640&h=480]
Just what is “bromance?” MTV defines it as “an intense brotherly bond that makes two buddies become virtually inseparable” and is the center of attention in the new television series aptly named Bromance.
In the show, a few bros perform tests and challenges to see if they can spark bromance with host, Brody Jenner. And just to set the record straight, the bros are straight (though if bromance required some man-loving, I guess the bros would need to be down with that).
If you’re looking for some bromance in the New Year, you can see full episodes online here.
How’d your night with the recent Oahu-wide power outage go? Here’s my story, first in pictures then in words.
http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf
6:10pm. Driving to dinner at In-Laws in Kaneohe. Lightning brightens the drive over.
6:15pm. The sky goes bright for a second then followed by a lot of darkness. The street lights have all gone off but come back on after a minute or two.
6:30pm. About to eat dinner when the power goes off – now in complete darkness. Start to hunt for flashlights, candles, and even a gas lantern. Hey, is the gas lantern supposed to burn like that?
6:45pm. Can’t stop dinner which was fortunately already prepared. Warm club soda and Chicken in a Bisket supplemented dinner.
7:00pm. Finished eating dinner. Now what? You play with the kids’ battery powered toys! Autobots, roll out! Bumblebee was here to protect us in the darkness.
7:07pm. Remembered my 3G-powered (and charged) iPhone. Twittered about the power outage in Kaneohe. Start following the #hipower tweets to see what’s going on. Power outage is wide spread.
7:25pm. Start thinking about Barack Obama’s security and how all of this might be a far fetched test.
8:15pm. KSSK’s Perry and Price say outage will be at least 12 hours and is island-wide. But kinda already knew that from Twitter (and some Facebook).
8:26pm. Since we’ll be without power for some time, might as well eat the perishable items now. Anyone for ice cream?
8:40pm. More kids toys. Wow, just noticed that some candles we’re using were bought from Pay ‘n Save! That’s seriously old school. But they still work!
10:30pm-ish. Head back home in the darkness. Police stationed at major intersections to direct traffic.
11:30pm. Excited kids finally go to sleep.
5:16am. Power is back at home with a bunch of lights waking me up. Bummer, Oceanic Internet still offline.
12:12pm. Power is restored for most of the island. We go hiking.
I saw that the KHNL news is now broadcasting in HD but didn’t know when the changeover occurred. Who better to showcase this move to High Definition than KHNL’s own Stephanie Lum?
From EngadgetHD.com.
And let me remind you that Stephanie Lum was the clear winner of the Listmania Hottest Local Newscasters back in 2005!
What caused the Oahu-wide electrical blackout on December 26, 2008? HECO isn’t sure if the outage was caused by lightning damage, but here are some simple (minded) conspiracy theories:
President Elect Barack Obama’s Secret Service detail needed a test. What better way to test the President-to-be’s security than protecting him and his family during a complete blackout away from the confines of a well-known, protected location?
HECO wanted to make a point. Hawaii residents have been complaining about the reliability of our electrical grid every time something happens to our power. Now that homegrown Barack is back in town for the Holidays, why not get HECO’s ailing electrical grid some Presidential attention and maybe, aid.
The Iolani/Punahou rivalry runs deep. During the blackout, Iolani alum and now Hawaii Mayor, Mufi Hannemann continually called Barack Obama who graduated from Punahou to offer assistance to his family. The subtext behind these calls? “Hey Buff and Blue, you’re going to be our next President, but you’re in my house now, the home of the Raiders. Just watch what I can do with my friends (and fellow alumi) over at HECO!” There is no confirmation that Mufi pulled some strings to punk’d Barack with this outage.
Anyone else got their own conspiracy theories to share?
While at a party, the hosts showed us their own version of home security. Â These screws line the railing of the upstairs balcony. Â Killer! (and this is for real).
This post from the Evil DM reminded me how much I love Willie K’s O Holy Night (Po Hemolele). This has got to be my favorite Island-style Christmas song that I look forward to every year. You know it’s Christmas time when you hear this on the radio.
The power and sincerity of Willie K’s performance along with the understated accompanying score are a great combination.
This song was originally released on “A Night Before Christmas” by Willie K and Kapena. This is a great collection of Holiday music, but I don’t think you can find it anymore. 🙁 Fortunately, Willie K has made O Holy Night available on his own Willie Kalikimaka so everyone can experience the greatness of this song.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!
A little old but still fun as ever to watch the punk’d-ing go down.
