Friday 5 for April 10: Opposition

From Scrivener's Friday 5 website, this week's topic is OPPOSITION.

1. What’s a current political or social issue on which you stand opposed?

There are plenty things to oppose. Here are a few of them:

Honolulu Fixed Rail Project - Too expensive, won't solve traffic woes, mainly lining pockets for developers. Ugly as shit. Tax burden on the public is too great. Stop rail now.

President Barack Obama - Everything about his tenure as president is bad. He is trying to move to country too far to the left. I oppose Obamacare, normalization of relations with communist Cuba, rule by executive orders, outlandish spending for Hawaii and other vacations, arrogant, Benghazi, allowing illegal immigrants to achieve legal status, and much, much more.

More Taxes - Politicians are never to be trusted when it comes to managing government finances because they almost always advocate for increasing taxes. Especially Democrats and liberals. Taxes should be cut.

Need I add more to this list? Not now.

2. What forces have worked against your efforts this week?

More than you would want to know.

3. Would you rather have to climb a steep hill in order to get into your house, or climb a steep hill in order to get out?

I actually prefer flat, level ground. Hills should only be a backdrop that you look at from down below and appear in landscape photographs. Hills and mountains should also be avoided by low flying aircraft.

4. In what way have you recently made things difficult for someone else?

Now why would I want to disclose that...next....

5. In what way has the “opposites attract” cliche been true in your life?

Kind of sort of with my current close, friend.

Friday 5 for April 3: Extinction

From Scrivener's Friday 5 site: "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’s the coolest of the extinct animal species? 

For this exercise I'd go with the Dodo bird. It definitely was not cool and was probably the ugliest bird that ever existed on Earth. The thing couldn't fly, had no natural predators on its home island of Mauritius, and fell prey to non-native animals such as rats and pigs. They were hunted by sailors for food. The bird became extinct in the 1660s.

Speaking of dodo's, I know a few humans who would qualify as such. Hah!

2. What classification (however you want to define that) of human being seems to be an endangered species? 

My family line. We don't have much children after the current generation so my kind are definitely endangered. Otherwise it has been noted that in 200 to 300 years, blond people will become extinct due to a lot of interracial births.

3. How do you feel about the disappearance of the neighborhood video rental store?

I don't miss it as much as the record store. Both record and video stores were good places to browse and if motivated buy music or a movie. Today we got streaming which is what seems to be dominant. Back in the day I preferred to buy vs. rent since I usually always forgot to return the video on time.

 

I think CDs are better than pure digital files. 

Plus you can get many used ones like this for as low as $1.00.

4. What’s an older technology that you consider better than a newer technology that’s replaced it?

I like compact discs better than just plain old MP3 or AAC files you purchase or download online. Today some used compact discs can be bought at a dollar each which is way cheaper than buying only one single track as a downloadable file for $1.29 each.

But then again, I still like and hold on to a lot of my old vinyl records. Records are cool to play and they come with big graphics and information that you don't get with many CDs and almost not ever with digital.

When it comes to single song purchases, with vinyl records you usually always got two songs (A side and B side) for the price of one, no matter how much they charged for that single. And some of those B-sides were killer tracks that never appeared on record albums and CDs until years later when the record company or artist issued them on an expensive compilation album.

5. What no-longer-available snack item do you miss most?

Horlick's malted milk chocolate candy that came in a bottle for a long time. I used to like the bubblegum cigarettes, and the sugary juice candy that came in a wax container shaped like a gun.

Friday 5 for March 27: Without Lamps, There’d Be No Light

From Scrivener's Friday 5:

"One of my favorite movies of all time celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and I had the pleasure to see it on the big screen for the first time Thursday evening. I was sixteen when it came out (yes; I’m 46), and too young to see it in theaters then, so although I’ve seen it on cable and DVD at least fifty times, this experience was a first, and it was incredible. So this week’s questions are inspired by that film."

1. When you were seventeen, how did you spend most of your Saturdays?

At home or with friends.

2. What was your high school locker like?

Cluttered if it was not vandalized.

3. When did you last have to replace a missing screw? 

Can't exactly remember. If I take something apart I put the screws in empty 35mm film containers so that they don't get lost.

4. What was the last thing you drank out of a Thermos?

That's a long time ago. Can't remember... probably hot water or chicken soup.

5. Do you still possess anything you created in high school (say, an elephant lamp that lights up when pull the trunk)?

I was on the high school yearbook staff, so that means I still have my senior yearbook from Herff Jones.... are they still in business? Their crummy book binding started falling apart shortly after we got our books. Josten's is better.

Video: "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds. The song was used in the movie The Breakfast Club as the closing credits ran on top of it. The track also topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.

Molly Ringwald: Loved "Pretty in Pink" and I wish she had gone with Duckie. Haven't seen her in anything recent.

Ally Sheedy: "Number 5 is alive!" "Nice software"... heh heh

It's sad that John Hughes died unexpectedly. "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller?"....

Friday 5 for March 20, 2015 - Stitches

I saw this question last week, and meant to reply then since I recently had some stitches put in. A week late and a dollar short but now my response is up. Mmmmm.

1. Where on your body have you had stitches, and what were the circumstances? 

You see the photos at the top and bottom of this post? Well those are the most detailed photos you'll see of me anywhere. Last year after what I thought was a giant zit on my back that bothered me for a few years, I decided to have it checked. The doctor said it was a cyst and that I could have it removed. So one day in late September 2014 I had the darn thing removed through a "minor" surgical process.

As you can see from the photos at the top the cyst was quite large. There it is in the little cup. Gigantic pustule that occasionally oozed from time to time when I had it. 

Doctor removed it and replaced the incision with the stitches you can see above and below this paragraph. The top picture is of the first day. The bottom photos are of subsequent months... November, December 2014, and March 2015. Photos by the doctor's nurse on the first day, and by friend Lisa and sister Sandra. I took the photo of the cyst in the container with the nickel. It is located on a part of my back that I can't reach.

The hospital kept the pustule, examined it and declared it cancer free! Yeah.

2. Who most recently left you in stitches? 

Myself and my sister several years ago after she noted the holes in my socks and we laughed about it a lot.

3. “A stitch in time saves nine,” says the proverb, which means that mending one small tear in a fabric now prevents having to make nine stitches later when the damage is worse. How has this been illustrated in your life? 

See number one above if it is about me. Otherwise the other one I can literally think of is when my Dad had bypass surgery and he had big stitches all over. This was back in 1988. Doctors gave him another 10 years on life at that time. He lived longer than that and passed away in 2010.

4. What are your thoughts on Disney’s Lilo and Stitch? 

"Ohana means family and nobody gets left behind." Loved  the movie; good storyline and it is based in Hawaii. What's not to like? It is the only Disney animated flick I have in my DVD collection. This was also the last movie I saw in the Waikiki #3 theater back in 2002.

5. What experience do you have with needle and thread?

I can sew a button back on to a piece of clothing. That's about it unless you consider the stitches story at Q1.

Friday 5 for January 16, 2015: Home is Where the Hearth Is!

Haven't done one of these for a while.. but Scrivener hits on a favorite topic of mine... CLUTTER! Hah!



1. What is your approach to dealing with (or preventing) clutter?

I have none. I have plenty of clutter. The only things that I got rid of in significant numbers were VHS and Betamax tapes. My place is very small.

2. What kinds of (tangible) things do you seem to have an unreasonable time letting go of?



All of them: Record albums, 45 rpm vinyl singles, cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, books, camera gear, computers (I had to trim down to laptops, desktops take up a lot of space), old photographs, negatives, a lot!!!!

3. If you could start completely over with your existing living space (and money were only a slight limitation), how would you make it more suited to you and your lifestyle?

Clean out the clutter, slim down on the stuff I have, remodel the place so that it is more of a home office entertainment center. I'd like to get a big screen HDTV put in someday with a better sound system than I have now.

4. How many standalone small kitchen appliances do you own, and how many do you use regularly?

Microwave, toaster, rice cooker... those are the only ones that qualify as small kitchen appliances. Use them with some regularity.

5. What does your current living space really need more of? ROOM!

Friday 5 for January 9: Song Stuff

Well I guess I have to answer this one retroactively. The nice thing about Blogger is that I can backdate late blog entries. So here goes....

1. What’s a song that reminds you of your parents?

I wasn't at their wedding, but I think "The Hawaiian Wedding Song" was featured then.... way back in 1955. My Dad liked jazz music, big band... Lawerence Welk stuff. He also liked Hawaiian music, Arthur Lyman, Don Ho, The Four Amigoes and even some songs by Elvis Presley.

My Mom was mostly into country music and Hawaiian. However I remember her teaching us "The Twist" by Chubby Checker, "The Bunny Hop" and "Hokey Pokey" when we were kids.

In a nutshell, no one song reminds me of my parents but instead several of them.

2. What’s a song that makes you think of food?



"Junk Food Junkie" by Larry Groce from 1976... "in the daytime I'm Mr. Natural, just as healthy as I can be... in the night time I'm a junk food junkie, good Lord have mercy on me!"

3. What’s a memorable song from a movie soundtrack?

Theme from "Star Wars" - Song is so good that it is used to start all 6 movies so far. My top 10 movie soundtrack songs:



1. Star Wars - John Williams / London Symphony Orchestra
2. Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees (Saturday Night Fever)
3. Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland (The Wizard of Oz)
4. A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles (A Hard Days Night)
5. Theme From "Jaws" - John Williams / London Symphony (Jaws)
6. Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey) - Strauss / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
7. Lara's Theme / Somewhere My Love - Maurice Jarre (Dr. Zhivago)
8. Grease - Franki Valli (Grease)
9. Gonna Fly Now (Theme from "Rocky") - Bill Conti
10. Theme from the "Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" - Ennio Morricone / Hugo Montenegro

There are many more.

4. What was your favorite song from 2014?



"My Silver Lining" by First Aid Kit got the most plays last year on my iTunes and iPods. I really liked that song. Haven't compiled my list of Top 100 songs of 2014 yet.


5. What are your favorite songs for when you’re behind the wheel?

1. Deadman's Curve - Jan & Dean
2. Behind the Wheel / Route 66 medley - Depeche Mode
3. Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
4. Breaking Into Cars - The Raveonettes
5. Love in a Trashcan - The Raveonettes
6. Slow Ride - Foghat
7. Bad to the Bone - George Thorogood & the Destroyers
8. Suzy & Jeffrey - Blondie
9. The Crunge - Led Zeppelin
10. Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Friday 5 for September 12: Spending

Help fund Honokaa Peoples' Theatre digital projection system.

1. What crowd-funding projects have you supported? If you haven’t supported any, were there some that really intrigued you?

I am helping Honokaa Peoples' Theatre fund the purchase of a $60,000 digital projection system. The theatre in my hometown is somewhere that I spent a lot of time during my childhood and teen years going to and enjoying movies. It is one of those old, standalone, single screen theatres that surprisingly is still in business today showing movies, thanks to the dedication of its current owners. The place was built in 1930.

Time has caught up with the theatre and the distribution companies that send movies to theatres large and small are going 100% digital by the end of the year. That means no more film for small theatres like the one in Honokaa. They have to go digital or not be able to show movies at all. It would be sad if the theatre that I went to see such classic movies as The Sound of Music, Planet of the Apes, 2001, Mary Poppins, Star Wars, Patton, The Love Bug, Paradise Hawaiian Style, and many others would go dark.

The theatre has become famous in recent years after the Japanese movie Honokaa Boy was made there and premiered at the theatre in 2009. My Dad had a bit part in this movie and today the theatre has permission to show Honokaa Boy almost in perpetuity. I just saw the movie during my most recent trip to Honokaa, even though my family already owns a copy on DVD.

To find out more about Honokaa Peoples' Theatre and the crowd sourcing project to get the digital projector go to their website.

2. How much of your monthly bill-paying is done online?

I pay my storage bill, web hosting and domain bills, some credit card bills online. I still use old fashioned checks to pay other bills sent in the mail, like homeowner's insurance and taxes!

3. What are some of the more memorable things you’ve bought or sold in online auctions?

I've never sold anything in an online auction. I frankly don't use eBay very much, but I have been happy with some vintage Minolta camera lenses that I bought a few years back.

4. What experience do you have with purchasing digital entertainment (music, movies, TV shows, or live web shows, for example) online?

I'm an Amazon Prime customer and subscribe to the Prime streaming service where I get streaming movies, TV shows, music and free shipping for almost anything I buy there. I like Amazon Prime. Even at $99 a year it still is a good bargain if you spend a lot of time watching streaming video (with no commercials) and listen to record albums you never got around to actually buying. I also like to occasionally buy actual CDs and they have free MP3 files that go along with some CDs you buy, which means you don't have to rip them yourself.

I like Amazon Prime not because of the videos, music and free shipping but the fact that I only have to pay the bill once a year. That I really like because I am not a fan of monthly billing. Got enough of that.

I also buy digital music from Amazon as well as iTunes and occasionally smaller venders like CD Baby or even the music artists themselves.

I don't "buy" digital videos. I rather stream them from the many free sources available or through Amazon.com.

5. What kind of stuff have you bought or sold from personal online craft stores, such as are found on Etsy?

Nothing.

Questions generated from the Friday 5 blog.