Friday 5 for March 3: Celebrations

From Scrivener's Friday 5 blog.

1. Who was on the other end of your most recent high five?

Lisa.

2. To which movies, television shows, albums, or books have you recently given thumbs up?

Recently....

TV: Recent: 1883, 1923, Star Trek Picard - All on Paramount +. Also watching The Expanse on Amazon Prime. All thumbs up worthy shows... plus of course my old favorites such as Babylon 5, the original Hawaii Five-0, Crime Story,  The X Files, Fringe, Doc Martin, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Classic Star Trek and Star Trek The Next Generation.

Record Albums: Most recently Whitehorse's album I'm Not Crying, You're Crying. There are a ton of classic albums that I'd give thumbs up to over the last 50 years.

Books: Lisa listens to a lot of audio books, and some I really like, but for now the titles escape me.

3. What’s happened to you recently that others would cheer about?

I always try to keep a very low profile. Therefore I don't do anything worthy of anyone cheering me on, except for at home with Lisa..... doing mundane stuff like getting my hair cut or using a new soap that she got for me (via Amazon).

4. What have you most recently and literally clapped for?

Some people who were honored at my workplace.

5. When has someone recently given you an encouraging word?

More than likely Lisa whenever I am feeling down. She is a very positive soul living in a negative world filled with a lot of personal pain. Visit Tropical Toes (one of her blogs)

 

Friday 5 for February 24: The other shoe

 The following questions come from the Friday 5 blog.

The song is "Just One Look" by Doris Troy. 😀

1. When did you most recently drop something off with someone?

I'm dropping off the mail today. One envelope to the U.S. Postal Service. There are plenty of someones working there. Otherwise the last time I dropped off anything with one person, was probably with my sister a few years ago.

2. Who is drop-dead gorgeous?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So who I may think is drop dead gorgeous may not be agreeable with you. Of course celebrities are easy to pick without getting personal. So in a nutshell...

Musicians - Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt

Actors - Sandra Bullock, Racquel Welch (RIP), Dawn Wells (RIP), plenty of others.

Models - Cindy Crawford

All of the above are now older women. Can't recall the names of women celebrities younger than me.

3. On what are you waiting for a price drop?

Any and all tech items... cameras, computers, related accessories.  Mac Mini M2. Hope springs eternal here.

4. What were the circumstances when you once dropped the ball?

Good thing I don't play ball since that would be dropped more times than ever.

5. What news recently made your jaw drop?

Invasion of Ukraine by Russia. That was more than a year ago now. What the hell is Putin thinking? Butthead.

Friday 5 + 5 = Two This Week

 Two Friday Five's in one... this week and last week.

Friday 5 for February 17: Bother!

1. When did you last put honey on or in something?

A honey coated cough drop was put in my mouth a few times in the last several months.

2. How do you handle a bad mood?

I YELL at the victim of my reprisal.

3. Which Winnie-the-Pooh character do you most identify with?

Maybe Eeyore; I tend to be pessimistic and negative.

4. Which Winnie-the-Pooh character would you best get along with?

Most definitely not Winnie... he is just too naive and happy. Maybe Christopher Robin... but more than likely Eeyore.

5. What’s your favorite way to do nothing?

Listen to music and scrobble songs. Otherwise watch useless videos on YouTube.

Friday 5 for February 10: In the pit

1. When did you recently pass the baton to someone?

A few years ago when I gave up being marketing director for Assistance League of Hawaii. I will be passing the baton (hopefully) as their newsletter editor sometime this year.

2. What do you wish you never fiddled with?

Updating this answer: My website that I forgot what the complicated password is! Ugh tried one of three recovery methods so far, not working. It involves tweaking some lines of code on the backend. Ugh!

3. What do you plan to reed in the near future?

I don't have a saxophone or clarinet, so there is nothing to "reed" in the future. Alas if it is "read" then perhaps a good book or magazine or something more than likely online that requires reading.

4. How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?

RAINY this weekend in Hawaii.

5. What have you lately been nuts about?

Cashews. I also like Macademias, Walnuts and Pistachios.

Friday 5 for February 3: Ditto

The following questions are from Scrivener's Friday 5 blog.

1. What’s the last thing you photocopied?

A bill.

2. Who have people said you look like?

Nobody.

3. Who have you tried to be like?

Nobody. I am ok being who I am.

4. When have you opted for an imitation over the real thing?

Once upon a time I used to drink soda. I quit in the year 2011. Before that I chose Pepsi over Coke, which through numerous campaigns was touted as "The Real Thing". See the video at the top from 1971. Pepsi countered with "The Pepsi Generation". 

5. In what way was today just like yesterday?

The sun came up, it set and will rise again. The sky turned into night, and will do so again at the end of the day. A daily cycle that is good so that you know the Earth's rotation is still intact despite some reports that the core has turned another way.

6. Bonus question: Too early for flapjacks?

If flapjacks are another word for pancakes, it is never too early nor too late for them. My Mom used to cook pancakes for dinner in the night.

Friday 5 for January 27: Hero’s journey

From Scrivener's Friday 5 Blog: "Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the question there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!"

1. When did you hear (and heed) the Call to Adventure this week?

There is no adventure in the work a day week last week, this week nor the week ahead. 

2. What challenges did you encounter on your Road of Trials from last weekend to this weekend?

Traffic, deadlines, overlapping tasks, lunch decisions, cost, and other agendas of the work-a-day life.

3. What kinds of temptations did you face this week?

Should I buy the new 2023 Mac Mini computer with the M2 chip, 512 GB SSD and 32 gigs of ram?

Can you resist the Apple marketing propaganda?

4. What was your Ultimate Boon (that is, your greatest reward) this week?

Surviving into Friday and laying low over the weekend.

5. If you canceled all your obligations this weekend (and the coming week) and had the Freedom to Live it any way you wanted, how would you spend the time?

Money worries set aside, traveling to some faraway place on a Boeing 747 (I feel safer in multi engine planes), safely landing there and going on a photo adventure taking pictures in the new place. In the late afternoon and early evening it would be relaxing to take in and photographing the sunset from a lounge chair on the beach. Going to sleep afterward would be nice.

Friday 5 for January 20: Now I lay me down

Late start for 2023. My first Friday 5 Answers for the new year... The Year of the Rabbit today.

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. What keeps you up at night?

Apps on my smartphone... podcasts, music, audiobooks, video. Ugh... blue light disease.

2. How well do you operate on insufficient sleep?

I need to take a nap around 2:00 in the afternoon. Now I can't. So I have to try and get at least 5 hours of sleep the night before...

3. Under what conditions do you get your best sleep?

Probably when I have two bad days in a row of little or no sleep. At the end of that period I can zonk out fairly well... smartphone be damned.

4. What unusual places have you slept in?

A darkroom... long, long ago... you know a place where there is no light and you are supposed to develop film and process photos...  Homeless.... three weeks straight..... long ago. Other than that, one night in a 1985 Toyota Tercel.... 

5. What’s a good song about dreams or dreaming?

There are plenty of dreams or dreaming songs... Here are a few in no particular order....

• Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
• Dreaming - Cliff Richard
• Dream On - Aerosmith
• All I Have to Do is Dream - The Everly Brothers
• Dream Lover - Bobby Darrin
• Dream Baby - Roy Orbison
• Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Eurythmics
• Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley ... dreams come true in Blue Hawaii.
• Dreamlover - Mariah Carey
• Your Wildest Dreams - The Moody Blues
• #9 Dream - John Lennon
• Girl of my Dreams - Bram Tchaikovsky

I hope you enjoyed the music. Sweet dreams!

Friday 5 for December 30: Out with the old

This is the last Friday 5 for 2022. Questions are from its usual source.

1. Among people with whom you are not personally acquainted, who most made you laugh in 2022?

The people who made me laugh in a cynical way were local government officials who were busted for various crimes.

I had to laugh at former State Senator Kalani English, once the Senate Majority Floor Leader, who tried to hide a $6000 check of illegal bribe money. It was found under the rug of a vehicle he was riding in when busted by law enforcement. It was part of a federal wire fraud investigation.

Today English is serving a 40 month sentence in the federal slammer for taking bribes from a lobbyist to manipulate sewer legislation. It was so criminal that this became funny in a sick, warped way. Shit happens.

English was not the only one. Former State Representative Ty Cullen was busted on similar charges.

We have the former Honolulu Police Chief serving time in the federal slammer for numerous crimes. His wife, a former deputy prosecutor is also doing time in federal prison for a number of crimes including stealing from a trust fund, her grandmother and framing another relative. There was also a cover up involved between the two and other officers in the police department at the time of her husband's tenure.

Three former City and County of Honolulu officials were arrested by the FBI for misuse of city funds to pay for a severance to the convicted police chief mentioned above. Their trials are upcoming.

This past election year saw two state legislators arrested for D.U.I. Their charges were dropped by the court for various reasons. The voters were not as forgiving. Both lost their re-election bids.

Hawaii is full of corruption that go back many years and decades. I am sure the comedy of corruption will continue in Hawaii for years to come. We're just like a banana republic.

2. Among people with whom you are not personally acquainted, who most inspired you in 2022?

Nobody I can think of.

3. What were your food discoveries in 2022?

I tend to eat the same things day in and out. This is due to the high cost of living in Hawaii. Because fuel, energy and shipping prices have spiked up since 2020, I don't have the income to eat at fancy places or buy exotic grocery foods. The price of groceries and dining out have increased.

That said, probably the only new foods I tried is when my seasonal employer took us out for lunch one day at a high end restaurant I never been to before. I had some fancy burger and exotic dessert. Can't remember what they're called. See pictures below.

4.What were your music discoveries in 2022?

The top ten artists that I discovered and played for the first time this year are the following:

Rank & Artist	Most Played Track	Count
1. Cannons	Hurricane	331
2. Cuco	Sitting at the Corner	84
3. Stephen Sanchez	Until I Found You	48
4. Duke & Jones	Jiggle Jiggle (It Folds)	38
5. Rammstein	Zick Zack	33
6. Envy of None	Never Said I Love You	28
7. Cazzi Opeia	I Can't Get Enough	21
8. Liamoo	Bluffin	21
9. Jay Phung	Step By Step	19
10. Brim	California Gold	16

Data pulled from my Last.FM profile as of December 30, 2022.

5. Where will you be when the clock strikes midnight on January 1?

I am 99.999% sure I will be at home with Lisa listening to the crazy and reckless people setting off legal and illegal fireworks.