Friday 5: Aa Bb Cc Dd Ed Ff Gg Hh and a Few More....

All questions from the Friday 5 website. Been a while but here goes...

Friday 5 for June 12: A B C D E F G H.... whatever.

1. When did you last do something resembling a book report?

What would resemble a book report in my life today? Hmmm... nothing I can think of.... Have read a few books but haven't done a book review or report on them... OK I did one short one for an Audible book that I listened to recently. Just never posted it yet. Heh.

2. What was your most recent art project?

I made this banner for the Assistance League of Hawaii website. I have been doing their site since 2018.

Assistance League of Hawaii (ALH)

3. When were you last called upon to do show & tell?

While I was marketing director for ALH, I occasionally had to give a short report to the monthly meeting.

4. When did you last feel like someone playing hide and seek?

This occurs almost daily.... I cannot find my wallet. I cannot find my keys.... Where is my mask?..... I can't remember where I put the phone.... where is the scissors, my comb, the batteries for the camera flash.... ugh... It's a pain being forgetful and living with some clutter.

5. When did you last have some milk and/or cookies?

Cookies - last time was in March at work.
Milk - I rarely ever buy or drink milk.
Milk and cookies combined? Perhaps when I was a kid.
______________

I'm gonna answer a few of the questions from recent ones I missed.

June 5: Question #5 - What’s recently been a thorn in your side?

For the longest time RAIL has been a huge thorn... no not thorn... NAIL on my side??? Sick of paying for it and watch my property tax assessment climb in recent years because I live near the end of the rail line and TDI development zone! Ugh... Rail is costing us more than just the horrible GE tax increase... our property taxes are going up because of rail and people on the neighbor islands are also paying for it now. IT is such a fuck-up. I hate rail. I think I would rather die.

June 5 bonus question:  What album has a flawless B side?

The answer to this one is simple... any compilation "Greatest Hits" album all have good B-sides that equal the A-side... However in this day and age how many people actually play vinyl records or cassettes and have to flip the thing over to play a B-side?

You don't have to do that if you listen to CDs or MP3 albums... Everything is on the A side.

That all said... let me give this one some thought.... my top 5 albums with great B-sides that at least equal the A-side...

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
2. Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
3. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John (Sides A, B and D are great, C is good too but not as strong as A B D. It was a 2 disc set)
4. Band on the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
5. Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

On all five of these, I have the vinyl record versions that you have to flip over to the B-side to listen to the rest.

May 29: Un_____able

1. What’s a movie you once liked but is now unwatchable?

Being a lifelong scifi movie fan, there are plenty of movies I watched when I was a kid that have not stood the test of time when measured with today's standards. So here's a quick and dirty list:

- Battle of the Worlds
- Dark Star
- Battle Beyond the Stars
- Damnation Alley
- Reptilicus
- Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV movie & original series)

2. What’s a song you once liked but is now unlistenable?

Sussudio - Phil Collins

3. What’s a book you once liked but is now unreadable?

Dune by Frank Herbert.... still love it but won't read it again because it is way too long.

4. What’s something you once found unbelievable but whose truth is now undeniable?

None that I can think of. If it was unbelievable then, it is still unbelievable now. OK... the Earth is not flat... hah! Photos have proven it is round.

5. What’s something you once found tasty but is now unpalatable?

Can't think of any. Foods I initially liked, I still like today.

Friday 5 for May 8: Getting it back together

The following questions are from the weekly Friday 5 website.
It's been a few weeks since I last answered one of these... So here goes. Oh... this is last week's one... OK. I'm good with that. Today is May 15.

1. What instrument in an orchestra would you least like to play professionally?

Probably several: Tuba, Baritone and just about anything else that requires me to read the bass clef notes. I played trumpet in high school, so I can read all of the treble clef notes. Trumpets always got most of the good parts to play in band.

2. How long would it take you to find a rubber band wherever you are now?

Discounting the time it took me to take the photo above, it would be just a few seconds. I keep stuff like that in a plastic drawer on my otherwise messy desk.

3. In your area, what’s the name of a local band you like?

I don't know any current bands locally, but in order my top 5 from decades ago....

1. The Sweet Marie
2. Kalapana
3. Rubber Soul (Beatles cover band)
4. Shnazz
5. Peter Moon Band

4. How good was your high school band?

Honokaa School Band - 1970

I went to a small school in Honokaa Hawaii. Long before the Honokaa Jazz Band came into prominence (winning a Grammy Award in 2011), I was part of Howard Oshiro's Honokaa Marching Band. This was mainly in the 8th grade. We had a good band then of about 50 members. Our 8th grade band was the high school band since the older kids (especially the guys) preferred to play football and other sports.

After our class moved up to the 9th and 10th grade, the band just kind of fell apart as younger kids did not play as we did back then. The older kids went to play sports.  Sad. I liked band because it was a free way to get into the ball games, travel around the island, skip out of class on occasion because we had to play at some concert or something... It was fun... I played trumpet.

The band played everything from traditional marches, some classical (we butchered "The Great Gates of Kiev"), movie themes ("Exodus"), TV show themes ("Hawaii Five-O', "Peter Gunn," and "Hogans Heroes March") and a lot of Herb Alpert and the Tiijuana Brass and Chicago songs. Fun times from back in the day.

5. Of bands whose names are listed like Joan Jett and the Blackhearts or Neil Young and Crazy Horse, who’s got the best name?

Good question never occurred to think of that.... Hmmm... consulting my gigantic iTunes playlist.

Yikes! There are dozens of them... my categorized favorites:

Best Band of All Time

• Paul McCartney and Wings - Love all their music.

Best Band of the 1950s

• Bill Haley and The Comets - they kind of started it.
• Dion and The Belmonts
• Buddy Holly and The Crickets

Best Band of the 1960s - Plenty to choose from... hmmm...

• Tommy James and The Shondells
• Sam the Sham and The Pharoahs
• The Mamas and the Papas

Best R and B Groups

• Diana Ross and the Supremes
• Gladys Knight and the Pips
• Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes 
• Junior Walker and the Allstars

Best 70s Dance Band

• KC and the Sunshine Band - I played nearly all of their music when I did stints as a disco DJ. "Shake Shake Shake Your Booty"
• Runner-up - Kool and the Gang - "Celebration"

Best Band of the 1970s

• Paul McCartney and Wings

Best Band of the 1980s

• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
• Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

Best Band of the 1990s

• Siouxsie and the Banshees - weird first name spelling, they started in the 1980s but still made music in the 1990s.

Today's Music

• Fitz and the Tantrums
• Ivan and Alyosha
• Mumford and Sons - sounds like a law firm name. 

Best Goofy Name

• Yolanda Be Cool and Dcup - "We No Speak Americano"

I probably missed some of them... whatever....

Friday 5 for April 10: Excitement in the domicile

The following questions are from Scrivener's Weekly Friday 5 site.

I guess most of the questions these days address our stay at home lives. Thanks #COVID19.

1. In what way have you recently been naughty?

Generally I am a law abiding citizen, so the chances of me doing anything serious naughty is next to slim. This morning I did take a walk to a closed park and only ventured on the extreme edge of the park, mainly to take pictures of the "PARK CLOSED" signs.

You don't want to venture out these days for much in Hawaii because you risk being caught and fined up to $5,000 and/or jail time. Um... no thanks. I'll just mostly stay home.

2. What’s the closest you’ve been to death-defying these past few weeks?

• Forgetting to wash my hands sometimes.
• Forgetting to dodge the unstable and unclean homeless people when I'm out in public. Don't want to catch #COVID19.
• Just going out of the house can be death defying with all the COVID-19 viruses out there.

3. What temptations have you recently resisted?

I so want to drive and walk into Waikiki just to take photos of the abandoned roads, closed stores, hotels and beaches. This would probably be safe to do in a car, but since I am mostly the only one driving and riding in my car, I don't think I can get decent pictures while driving. Plus it is dangerous to do that, and also breaks the "using a device while driving" statute. It would be easier to do if someone else drove and I just shot pictures. Hmmmm....

4. What’s something you wish you didn’t recently see?

On my early morning walk this week, I was treated to a ghastly sight! Right there on South King Street in plain site, near a small tree.... was... get ready for this.....

A GREAT BIG HUMAN TURD! Oh yuck It was about 10 inches long and it looked like to be 2 inches thick... It was dark brown and a few flies were buzzing around it. How disgusting! Luckily I did not take any pictures of that. The next day as I walked down the same street, it was gone. Somebody cleaned it up.

5. What behavior from others are you excusing nowadays?

When people actively avoid me when I am oncoming. Good. We are all potentially contaminated.

Friday 5 for March 20: Healthy sequestration?

As the COVID-19 Pandemic continues, we have this wonderful set of questions on self sequestration. Thanks Scrivener.

1. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do for your mental health?

Take some herbal medicine that my friend Lisa has given me. Listen to some audio books, meditation podcasts and new age music to make me fall asleep.

2. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do to feel connected?

Talk and listen to Lisa more closely. Also talk to my sister, friends and other people on the phone.... and connect to my other friends, relatives and acquaintances through the usual virtual apps... Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Voice, etc. It is good to be connected on a personal level to people as well as being connected to media news on COVID-19 updates and er... um... the government... and industry.

3. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do to relax?

A. Sleep more
B. Hopefully find time to walk around where places are still open and allowed.
C. Take pictures of stuff.
D. Listen to music
E. Watch useless videos and online movies/TV shows.
F. Listen to audio books and podcasts
G. Read stuff - books maybe... online news and stuff.

4. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do to make yourself laugh?

Make up stupid songs to sing for Lisa.

5. In the next seven days, what’s something you’ll do to flex your creativity?

Work at home on stuff my boss sends me and expects me to do.

Update ALH website and Facebook page. Set up the April newsletter.

For my own sake... take pictures of stuff if I can or want to.

Perhaps write something on my blogs... update my genealogy stuff...

Finish writing my will... er... is that fun or creative? No.

Friday 5 for March 13: Social Distancing

We're doomed.

1. In what ways have recent events altered your everyday life or your plans?

I'm buying more toilet paper, stocking up pack by pack on separate one purchase trips to Don Quijote after buying some bulk packs at WalMart before they ran out. Been stocking up on some other items such as soap.

2. Where’s a good place to dine out if you want to practice comfortable social distancing?

Anywhere that has a drive through window or take out. Spend as minimal time as possible in a crowded venue. Best to stay home and be isolated even if you are not sick. Better to be safe than sorry.

3. How’s your mood lately?

As usual always pessimistic. More so now that we have this COVID-19 virus running rampant. But I've been extremely pessimistic ever since July 11, 2005 when the rail tax became law without the Governor's signature. Now look what we have. A horrible rail that costs way too much money and a virus that will cost us even more money in terms of lost revenue (for state and county) and possibly more taxes and costs thrown at us somewhere down the road. It is definitely no-win situation.

4. If you’re forced to isolate at home for a couple of weeks, what would be your primary source of entertainment?

Nothing much different... spend a lot of time on the computer doing stuff, surfing the internet, streaming music and videos, downloading stuff.

5. How do you think you’d be able to handle two weeks of isolation at home, assuming whoever you live with (if anyone) would do the same?

Probably difficult because I would have to be very careful about exposing her to the virus since she has a weak immune system. One of us would probably have to move out on a temporary basis.

We're doomed. Watch Life After People.

Friday 5 for February 28, 2020: Together Alone

Today is LEAP DAY Saturday, February 29, 2020.
Here are my answers to this week's Friday 5....

1. What’s something you can’t do alone?

I do most stuff alone... though I guess I would have to say I need a dentist to drill my teeth and fill a cavity. That can't be done alone... or um... if you have a heart attack, fixing it can't be done alone. You need a doctor and paramedics to help you out.

2. What’s something you can’t do if people around you are making noise?

Watching a movie for the first time. I hate outside noise, interruptions or distractions from the movie.

3. What’s something you can’t do in complete silence?

Play music on my record player and other devices.



4. What’s something you can only do at home?

Play my vinyl records. Can't really take them to play at another place unless I am invited to spin a record on someone else's turntable.

5. What’s something you wish you didn’t need help with?

Taxes. Ugh.

Friday 5 for January 17: Master of your domain

Happy New Year Three+ Weeks in. It's Monday and here are my answers to this past weekend's Friday 5.

1. What are the areas of your expertise?

Basic skills: Breathing, sleeping, eating, consuming stuff.

Special skills: Photography, Mac and Chrome OS computers, typesetting (from long ago), layout and design, blogging, writing and editing (though I am always in a rush and am sometimes careless), navigating and explaining the quagmire of the Hawaii State Legislative process, complaining, pop music knowledge, old technology. Ha!

2. What are you territorial about?

My home. I live in a place with a good security system. I also hate spam email and junk phone calls, so I am quite territorial about phone numbers and email addresses.

3. What’s a bit of specific wisdom from your field that could apply to life in general?

Try to be patient and let things slowly develop if there is time. Be early, never be late.

4. How big or small is your personal space bubble?

At least 5 feet. Most of the time I am miles away from things I don't like.

5. What are your current emotional and mental states?

I'm ok.