mtshawaii’s Posterous

mtshawaii’s Posterous

mtshawaii  //  Husband, Father, Friend.

TV, Radio, Writing, Reading, Movies, Blogging, Producing Commercials, Photography, Music (listening), Learning.

Love: Listening to people's stories, Critiquing commercials & performances, Observing, Understanding, Asking questions.

Hate: When people are inconsiderate of others.

May 31 / 8:18pm

When Did This Happen?

My 17-y/o graduates June 4, 2009.  When did this (picture above) happen?  How the heck did he get so mature and handsome?  Note to self: call modeling agencies and make $$$ off him right now!

Warning to Parents: Kids grow up fast. Spend as much time with them as possible.  Take lots of pictures.  Save money NOW for college.  Discipline them when needed.  Hug and kiss them every chance you get.
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May 28 / 3:45am

Check Out This Progression

It's tough getting a STARTUP company to get crankin'. 
Tougher for a startup MEDIA company. 
Tougher still for a startup media company in a RECESSION.
Tougher to the max for a startup media company in a recession in HAWAII.

All that spells indefinite FURLOUGH for me and one other.  Got a job, just don't have a paycheck.  Need to find a new job while minimally maintaining current programming gig for Ocean Network, the cable station in Hawaii. 

There's green grass out there somewhere.  Just need to find it.  Or plant it myself!
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May 25 / 1:56am

Remembering Dad on Memorial Day

                 
Click here to download:
Remembering_Dad_on_Memorial_Da.zip (1492 KB)

My father was a member of the famed 442 Infantry during WWII.  He enlisted in 1943 and spent time in France and Italy in an anti-tank unit.  Some pix of him and his buddies.  I'm posting these as a rememberance of my Dad and also to honor those who have served our country through the military and especially those who've given their lives in defense of the United States. 

My Dad was born in 1920.  He survived WWII  and returned to Hawaii after the war.  He married my Mom in the early '50s.  He worked as a journeyman carpenter, self-employed truck driver and finally a longshoreman.  Dad retired in 1982.  He had a stroke in 1987 and passed away Sept. 11, 1997.

1 far right
2 front far left
3 left
4 foreground
5 smoking
6 standing, far right
7 far left
8 standing, far right
9 random picture

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Filed under  //  442 infantry   World War II  

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May 18 / 1:47pm

Who Is This?

Take a guess.

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May 13 / 1:11am

The New Law of Smiling

There oughtta be a law that says if you're working in a store that serves dessert-like food, you have to have a bubbly, cheerful personality.  I'm going to call my senator, representative, congressman and anyone who'll listen.  Make a law that supports this idea. 

I walked up to a Cinnabon tonight as we wrapped up celebrating my son's birthday.  He wanted to get Cinnabites, those hackeysack-sized morsels of cinnamon buttery goodness.  Well, the girl who helped us was busy wiping down one of her baking trays. And that's super important 'cause you don't want to be cookin' in a dirty pan.  So we waited at the window for her.  And waited.  And waited. 

Finally, she came up to us and I had my son order.  She just looked at him, expectantly.  So he spoke up and said, "Can I have 2 Cinnabites?"  She incorrectly pointed to the tray of Cinna-minis and said gruffly, "which one?"  So he correctly pointed to the other pan of Cinnabites. 

No greeting.  No smile.  No idle small talk.  Not even a "izzit yer birthday?" 

She packed up the two packages and said rather blandly, "$7.31."  I handed her the money.  She very efficiently handed me my change.

No smile.  No small talk.  Not even a "izzat yer son?"  And, no, not even a "thank you."

How bad can this job be?  You're selling sweet, buttery cinnamon-flavored desserts.  You're surrounded by gooey dough, special cinnamon, enough sugar to power an entire basketball team.  And I'm sure there's sneaking of samples going on all the time.  Just one of the benefits of the job, right?  It's a cheerful place.  It's not like customers have to be convinced to buy the stuff.  You're selling indulgence in a box, for heaven's sake! 

I'm sure the Cinnabites tasted fine.  They were devoured in a matter of minutes.  But I'm sure they would have tasted sweeter with a smile.

So my law will read, "Thou shalt be cheerful at the Cinnabon window, especially if you're serving yummy Cinnabites to someone celebrating their birthday."

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Filed under  //  cheerful   grumpy   smile  

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May 4 / 12:05am

New Car Wish List

We don't have this car in the US.  Yet.  Toyota is planning to bring it in as a Scion.  Gonna compete with the Smart ForTwo microcar.  Price: Under $15k.  I want that.
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May 2 / 7:31pm

Looks Guilty to Me

How can you assume innocence when the accused behaves like this?

Defendant flips the finger in court

By Jim Dooley
Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writer

Accused murderer Daniel Kahanaoi smirked and extended his middle finger as a friend of victim Craig Kimsel stood up in court yesterday morning to denounce the defendant.

The exchange occurred in a brief District Court hearing in which murder, burglary and other charges were formally lodged against Kahanaoi.

After Judge Edwin Nacino set a preliminary hearing date for next week, Tim Hershman stood up in the audience and identified himself as one of Kimsel's best friends and tried to speak on behalf of Kimsel.

As deputy sheriffs converged on Hershman to escort him out of court, Kahanaoi extended his middle finger at Hershman.

Kahanaoi is accused of shooting Kimsel to death Tuesday evening at the victim's Kailua home.

Outside court, Hershman said he flew to Honolulu from Kona to attend yesterday's hearing.

"He was my best friend, the best man at my wedding," Hershman said of Kimsel, an attorney.

"I hope justice prevails and he (Kahanaoi) spends the rest of his life in prison," Hershman said.

Kahanaoi's brother, Joseph, and sister-in-law, Vernette, were in court to support the defendant.

"He's a good person," said Joseph Kahanaoi.

"The question is why, why did this happen?" said Vernette Kahanaoi. "There's two sides to every story."

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.


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Filed under  //  crime   guilty   Hawaii  

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Apr 21 / 5:38pm

Miss California vs Perez Hilton

Have you been following the fallout from the Miss USA 2009 pageant?  Miss California, Carrie Prejean, got the hot question of the night about gay marriage.  She answered: "I think it's great Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what in my country, in my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be, between a man and a woman."

Perez Hilton is the judge who asked the question.  Later, ABCnews.com reported: In a video blog posted Sunday night, he called Prejean "a dumb b----." He later apologized in the blog, offering to take Prejean out for coffee and a "talk."

Here's where it gets interesting to me.  Perez Hilton, again from ABCNews.com:  "I was floored.  I haven't said this before, but to her credit, I applaud her for her honesty. However, she is not a politician, she's a hopeful Miss USA. Miss USA should represent everyone. Her answer alienated millions of gay and lesbian Americans, their families and their supporters."

The Hilton argument is all wrong.  It's precisely that she ISN'T a politician that she needed to answer fully and truthfully, based on her beliefs, which she apparently did.  It's the politicians who answer questions as the situation deems necessary.  Thus the phrase "politically correct."

And look at us (Americans in general).  We at once loathe tabloid "journalism" and reward it by putting the current king of the practice on a worldwide stage by making him a judge of this contest.  (Perez Hilton is a writer/blogger concentrating on celebrity gossip and photos; think tabloid trash on the web.  Hilton's real name is Mario Lavandeira.)

I pose this question: If a Miss USA contestant answered the same question in the opposite, would he have chastised her as severely for alienating millions more who oppose same-sex marriage?


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Filed under  //  Carrie Prejean   Miss California   Miss USA 2009   Perez Hilton  

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Apr 19 / 12:03am

Here's How It Happened

It's Saturday.  The perfect day to sleep in late.  And especially for me because it's not my turn to walk the dog.  So I take advantage and just lounge around, falling in and out of sleep till 10:50am.

But you know in the morning, you just gotta go.  The bathroom was calling and my bladder was screaming.  I decide to roll outta bed and use the bathroom. 

I guess I had been sleeping in a funny position because my right leg felt different.  Like that feeling you get after your leg has fallen asleep, or is just about to.  Numbness, but not quite. 

I took a half step with my left leg and then a full step with my right.  It was like I didn't have a right leg at all.  I was standing on a wet noodle.  Kaboom!  I crumple to the floor still half asleep.

Nothing like falling to the floor to wake you up in the morning.

I could tell my I had done something to my leg.  I thought I had twisted my ankle, but I think I just scraped it on the carpet on the way to the floor.  My guess is my right leg buckled to the left and I fell like a building that had just been imploded. 

After a while I got up and used the bathroom.  Ahhh, relief.  Nothing major.  I was walking around like normal, at least at first.

Then the adrenaline started to wear off.  And the stiffness started to creep in.  Then I started noticing that I was now feeling something in my knee.  Not quite painful.  But not normal either.  I think RICE.  Rest, Ice, something that starts with a "C" and Elevate.  I grab the baby blue frozen coolers from the freezer and apply it to my knee.  The ice felt good for about 10 minutes.  Then it just felt cold.

By lunchtime, I started feeling soreness on every step of my right leg.

Around 4pm, I was laying down on the sofa with my right leg propped up, in the resting position.  The pain shot through my leg like a bullet when I put a sideways pressure, pushing my right leg over to the left, moving it at the knee.  Yeah, that hurt.  I say to myself, "Don't do that again."  And I proceed to do it again cuz you have to test if it really was that motion that made it hurt.  Stupid.  Yes, it hurt. Again.

By the late afternoon, I've got the brown elastic knee brace on there and I'm limping around because it truly hurts to walk and put pressure on the right leg.

I'm thinking now that this is like an athletic injury.  Andrew Bynum from the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team went down with a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament).  He was writhing in pain when that happened.  I took the scenic route and got there a few hours later.

If you watch ESPN as much as we do, you no doubt know that any kind of injury to a ligament in the knee area means some kind of tear. So I'm feeling good about being in the same boat as Andrew Bynum.  Just not in the same league.  And my injury so far is self-diagnosed.  I might as well have gone to the hospital and seen a duck.

So Monday I'll make that call to the doctor's office and we'll see what they say.  "X-rays, MRIs, pain killers," they'll say.  "We'd also like to have your head examined since you're here already."

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Apr 11 / 7:17pm

Shake That Bird Booty

Bird's got more soul and moves than some contestants on TV talent shows!

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Filed under  //  Bird   Frostie   Shake   Tail  

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