Shaka...Shaka...

...SHAKA KHAN!

I officially started my new part-time job today at a charter school that's very culturally oriented.  That cultural exposure is one of the reasons I'm so excited about the job.  And I was kinda thinking that I'd share some of what I learn with you.  This may or may not be a regular thing, but it will be a recurring thing.  So on with the show!

Today's Lesson:

The Shaka

Knife-Wielding Salesman Revisited

This morning I woke up alive.  That was a good thing. In case you'd missed it, I'd had an interesting evening.

With my morning coffee, I walked up to the top of the drive through the drizzle, and noticed that there was no crime scene tape at any of the neighbors' houses, and there was no blood spattered on anyone's windows.  I gave myself a little pat on the back for a job well done, and went on about my day.

And then things took a bit of a twist.

Neighborhood Justice Team, UNITE!!!

Oh, how I wish I had the skills to present this in comic book form. Oh well.

Last night I was lounging in the yurt, drinking a beer and watching a movie. And yes, this is what passes for a quality Saturday night these days. Around 8:30, my phone rang. I checked the ID and it's Janice From Down the Road.  [I have to call her that because, very much to my amusement, every time she calls me up I answer "Hello?" and she invariably responds "Hi Cameron. It's Janice From Down the Road." One of these days I'll break down and tell her that not only do I know who it is from the caller ID, but that I think I only know two Janices in the world, and the other one doesn't know my phone number.]

"Hi Cameron. It's Janice From Down the Road. Look, I hate to bother you this late, but I thought I should call and give you a heads up."

Janice then told me about the ominous events unfolding within the neighborhood.

There's Gold in Them There Yurts

You remember that painting that Joie Webster made of the yurt?  Apparently my humble abode is even more inspiring than I had imagined.  My friend Sharon who lives up the road left me a voice-mail yesterday, and said she needed my email address because she had a picture she wanted to send me.  And it's great!

Blog Forecast

"Weather" you like it or not *rimshot*

I'm really feeling like I need to post something.  The last thing I want is to relapse back into not posting at all, and a gap of more than a week is a good start for something like that to happen.  So here I am, blathering away like a homeless person talking to a doorknob (no offence to my many many homeless readers).

100

Aye, it's true.  I've somehow managed to blab my way senselessly to my 100th post (that's C posts, for our ever-growing number of Roman readers).  A milestone such as this normally is honored with a retrospective, or something equally endearing, and perhaps a plaque or something forever memorializing this achievement.

That's not going to happen.

I had all kinds of ideas for this post, each seemingly dumber and more trite than the last.  Then I was going to do some highlights of the last year+, with lots of links and all, but that seemed a bit redundant. [Although, Jake, I did go back and read that story of the flight over. I'd forgotten how funny that was.  Thanks for the reminder.]


All of that aside, I've been thinking a lot today about the blog, and what it is, and what it means to me, and it really boils down to this:

I started this as a way to keep in touch with the people important to me, no matter where I am, and no matter where they are, and in a medium that's more accessible to a group than just emails, less constricting and busy than Facebook, and more interactive than a standard web page.  And given (or maybe in spite of ) the usually senseless content, lack of focus, and shallowness of meaning in my posts, I think this blog has exceeded all my expectations.

So to all of you who have been here since Post #1, and to those of you who got on this crazy ride at some other station, thanks.

Thanks for allowing me to share all of the times, through thick and thin, through the rain, rain, and more rain, through the times with crazy people, kind people, and innocent bystanders, through all of the photos, the dumb short updates, and the over-long tedious ramblings.

You, my favorite readers, are my people (and, as you know, so are gas station people, grocery store people, and moms).

And since this is sounding more and more like the world's worst wedding vows, I'll elect to stop.

But seriously.  Thank you.

It's Not All Flowers and Rainbows

These days I seem to be getting a lot of comments like "It must be so great living in Hawaii," and "You're so lucky to be living on the islands," and that sort of thing,  So with this post, I'm here to set the record straight that it is indeed not all flowers and rainbows here on the Big Island.  Here is a list of examples as to why, all having occurred just today:

¿Que?

(photo from Oddly Specific)

¡Hola Amigos!

Yes, I know you're all impressed with my Character Map copy and paste skills, but let's get down to brass tacks.

Cool Stuffs O' the InterTubes

Not much going on today, but I feel like I should put up a post.
And rather than create some long, rambling. nearly incoherent dissection of a typically mundane and otherwise insignificant moment, I'm just going to share some of the things I've found on the internet lately.

Roly-Poly and All That (Special Star Wars Interjection Edition)

Really wonderful idea. What an incredible smell you've discovered!

Today was an interesting experience on the farm.

Birds of a Feather....

....let Cameron take crappy photos of them, or whatever.
Isn't that how the saying goes?  Well, it's how it goes now.

Yesterday we took a trip over to Kona-side to run some errands and such, and on the way back, Kalewa spotted this, so I jumped out and tried to get some photos.