Misc. Ramblings

Week of 11 September through 15 September 2000
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Monday - 11 September 2000

Is it Monday Already? Oh well. The presentation this past weekend went well enough. Although it ran long. I was supposed to speak for 10 to 15 minutes. I ended up boring people for over 20 minutes (it was video taped so I get to watch all the horrific details. Over and over, again). <G>

Mail. I checked by email yesterday and nothing from the Daynotes gang was there. This morning, there's almost 30! Wow. Sometimes we get started on something and the next thing you know, the inbox is full!

Speaking of Mail. As usual, I have a bunch of reading to do for class so I will end this with some mail that came in recently. Aloha!

On Gas Prices

From: Dan Bowman
To: Dan Seto
Subject: Gas
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 12:20:35 -0700

Funny you should mention it...

When we drove down to the county seat in the next county this week, we all remarked on the $2.23 price on the Chevron station on the outskirts. Janeen says the local Texaco is right around $1.99 for "extra".

YMMV <G>,

Dan

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Seto
To: Dan Bowman
Subject: Re: Gas
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 11:12:28 -1000

Then, I guess things aren't too out-of-line here. Still, I'm glad we got a Toyota Corolla (28 city, 33 highway - and yes, YMMV) instead of an SUV...

Aloha - Dan


From: John Doucette
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 7:12 AM
Subject: Gas prices

Hi Dan

I paid 64 cents a litre on Wednesday. In eastern Canada prices rose this week to as much as 80 cents per litre. So for me at the moment I spend approx $130 per month to commute to work. Makes me miss being able to bicycle to work.

John

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Seto
To: John Doucette
Subject: Re: Gas prices
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 11:07:29 -1000

Is that Canadian or US? I don't know what the current exchange rate is but at 80 cents per litre that's more than $3.00 per gallon. Yikes! Maybe public transportation is an alternative [said the man you hasn't ridden a bus in two years).

Aloha - Dan

From: John Doucette
To: Dan Seto
Subject: RE: Gas prices
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 11:01:39 -0600

That's canuk bucks my friend. I think in a few years we of the woolly hat will be paying gas prices just as high as the Europeans.

When and if demand drops due to electric cars etc. we will see even higher gas prices. Maybe I had better go down to the Honda dealer and look at a hybrid car.


From: Bo Leuf
To: Dan Seto
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 01:44:51 +0200
Subject: gas prices

Yeah, well, it's all relative. Prices around here are just over twice that, but yes you're catching up to Europeans, in part because of the high dollar rate. The comparison some years back used to be factor 4 -- i.e. we paid twice what the Canadians paid, which was twice what you paid in the US. Then again, money's going out of style too.

/ Bo

--
Bo Leuf
Leuf Consultancy
LeufCom -- http://www.leuf.com/

From: Dan Seto
To: Bo Leuf
Subject: Re: gas prices
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 06:22:07 -1000

But then, from what I understand, prices in Europe are so high because A) you have higher taxes, and B) you have higher taxes.

In 'merica, where there's a car in every garage, and a turkey in every pot, it's our right to drive the wide open spaces. Well, okay, so there's not much in the way of open spaces on O'ahu. But you get my meaning...

Aloha - Dan


On Native Hawai'ians

From: Joseph Pearce
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2000 5:39 AM
Subject: What is a native Hawaiian?

Mr. Seto,

I have recently discovered your diary pages through links originating from Jerry Pournelle's site. I do enjoy reading your daily thoughts and opinions. Thank you for the time you put into entertaining and educating we anonymous visitors.

I have a question for you after reading your Sept. 8, 2000 post on a supreme court ruling. What is a native Hawaiian (forgive me if I misspell that)? I ask that because I have wondered if I am a Native American. I am a thirteenth generation New Englander. I can directly trace my ancestry (father's and mother's side) back to a 1622 crossing of the Atlantic. My family has been firmly entrenched in what New England for 378 years. Don't you think that a person can have the best interests in his heart for a place even if his great to the 14th grandfather was not born there?

Of course with Hawaii the dates are not the same. But surely a person who is a fourth, third or even second generation Hawaiian wants the best for the Island. How would you decide who is a "native" Hawaiian?

Thank-you for you time,

Joseph Pearce
President, Chemi-Link
Tel: 781.643.1970
Fax: 781.643.2031
www.chemi-link.com
jlpearce@msn.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Seto
To: Joseph Pearce
Subject: Re: What is a native Hawaiian?
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 07:00:26 -1000

Mr. Pearce,

First, thank you for reading my Misc. Ramblings and for the kind words.

Now, as to your question. And it is a logical, good one. There are actually at least three definitions. For some legal purposes, being of at least 50% ancestry of someone who was here prior to the "official" arrival of Europeans in the 1700's is considered to be Hawai'ian. For other legal purposes, having any blood quantum of someone who was here prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 1700's is considered to be Hawai'ian. And for some non-legal purposes, a Hawai'ian is anyone who has the best interests of Hawai'i, and it's people, at heart.

I too, like the last definition best (which is what you are saying if I understand what you said). Even though it leaves out some people who, by blood, would be Hawai'ian. It adds many others who, while having no Hawai'ian blood, are actually more Hawai'ian than many who say they are.

Having said that, there must be a legal definition of what a Hawai'ian is. And there is (as noted above). There is also a bill moving in Congress which would give "Hawai'ians" the same legal status as native Americans. Now, whether being on the same footing as native Americans is a Good Thing or not may be open to debate. But a least you don't have any meaningful challenges to who is native American and how they choose to govern themselves.

Which is where we find ourselves today. This past Friday, all nine Office of Hawai'ian Affairs (OHA) trustees resigned en masse. This, to protest the court's ruling on who has legal standing to vote for trustee (and the Governor's promise/threat to replace most of the trustees). So, right now, we don't have any representation of a $300 million trust. For now, the only person without Hawai'ian blood running to replace the trustees has made it perfectly clear that he wants to abolish OHA and make everyone look like him (of course, if you don't look like him you better leave quickly).

I'm sorry this rambling a bit, but I think you also need to look at the history of the Hawai'ian islands. As far as I know, no other state had an indigenous people governed by a King. And no other state had that monarchy overthrown by force of arms. So, with this kind of unique history, I hope you can understand that we are trying to find some way of righting wrongs. While at the same time, living in this century rather than the last. And facing the realities of where we are now.

Aloha - Dan

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Tuesday - 12 September 2000

I Smell A Rat. For those two of you who haven't heard this yet...The Republican National Committee is running an ad which includes a subliminal message. The message? "rats." Rats? Yes, rats. Displayed over and then just below the name of George Dubyah's opponent. What a coincidence. Of course the RNC denies that this is intentional. And if it was, they were trying to display something else, the word "bureaucrats." Yah. That's the ticket. One wonders who's running the RNC. Jeb Magruder? H. R. Haldeman? Charles Colson? John Dean? John Erlichman? G. Gordon Liddy? Donald Segretti? (see the Nixon gang here from, where else, the Washington Post).

See one version of this strange and bizarre story here from the Los Angeles Times. Or just look at the image below

RNC RATS image.

Catchup. Things were a little hectic yesterday so I didn't get to a couple of items that occurred over the weekend.

First, the University Of Hawai'i football team got blasted, 45-20, by Portland State. While this is the season opener for Hawai'i, and therefore they are a little rusty, this does not bode well for the Warriors. As coach June Jones said during the previous week's practice, the players look like Tarzan, but have been playing like Jane. Still, since I am now a graduate student at UH I can only say - Go Warriors!

Speaking of UH. Sixth ranked Na Wahine (womens) Volleyball did their thing. Na Wahine played, and beat, Oregon, Creighton, and Northwestern over the weekend. They beat their opponents by an average score of 15-4. Coming up this weekend will be the Univ. of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), Univ. of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), and Pepperdine. Go Na Wahine!

Speaking of Women. I bought SWCNBD a copy of, the just released on DVD, Sound of Music. Yes, I'm referring to the Julie Andrews musical/movie of many years ago. But the DVD wasn't released until the end of last month. While I guess it won't make the BillBoard Top 10 (or whatever the DVD equivalent of that is), my wife loves it. And the opening sequence is still breathtaking. Although I'm sure it would look much better on a wide-screen flat panel TV with all the twiddly bits. <G>

And finally, Speaking of the West Wing. Okay, so I wasn't speaking about the best drama on TV. But I am now, so there. Deal with it. While I am very happy that Aaron Sorkin's series set in the west wing of the White House was recognized over the weekend with nine Emmys. I am still sad that Sorkin's other series, Sports Night, notwithstanding its season ending story, apparently did not make it into the fall line-up. Two of the very best in last year's offerings.

Aloha!

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Hump Day Wednesday - 13 September 2000

Over the Verizon. Verizon Hawai'i has a big insert ad in the morning paper touting their new pricing for DSL service. Now, "only" $32.50 (of course, you have to add an additional $20/month for an ISP) for 768 Kbps down and 128 Kbps upstream. "Installation" is currently "free." That's in quotes because this installation is defined as doing it yourself. No one comes out to do the install. You have to do everything at your end. You pick up the modem and software. You buy an Ethernet card. You install everything. You configure everything. If it doesn't work, too bad.

On the other hand, when I signed up for Road Runner service at $39/month (Internet service included), installation was truly free. Two installers came out to wire the house, put in the wall plate, install the NIC and cable modem, install, configure, and test the hardware and software.

I guess, once a monopoly, always a monopoly. Their business plan still hasn't acknowledged the fact that there is competition. And that the competition is cheaper, faster, and includes a higher level of service. The only way their plan can work is that they get enough clueless people to sign up. But if they do, I expect their support lines will be flooded with people having problems setting up the service.

Smell-O-'Rama. Every once-in-awhile you see one of these stories about a company trying to enhance the viewing experience by adding the sense of smell to the mix. Now comes DigiScents (see the story here from the New York Times). Yet another company trying to follow the scent of money by filling your nostrils with the sweet smell of success. However, as far as I know, the thundering herds have avoided this kind of experience like stink on...well, you know what.

Not much else going on right now, and as usual, I have a tonne of reading to do. So I am out of here - Aloha!

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Thursday - 14 September 2000

P2P Payments. That's person to person payments (you heard it here first). The Los Angeles Times has an article on the new wave of web sites that allow payments between individuals electronically. It looks at seven sites and ranks them. They are (in order of best to worst according to the Times):PayPlace.com, EMoneyMail.com, Achex.com, PayPal.com, MoneyZap.com, PayMe.com, Ecount.com. See the article here.

Snicker of the Day. There's a new organization out. It's called DAM. Which stands for Mothers Against Dyslexia. Think about it. But not too long.

Another busy day of reading and writing - Aloha!

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Aloha Friday - 15 September 2000

It's Friday!

Aloha Week. Today marks the beginning of Aloha Week. Or at least, what used to be called Aloha Week. Now it's called the Aloha Festivals (see an article here, which will expire at the end of the day). But still, it's a series of fun events celebrating these islands of aloha. If you're ever in town around this time, don't forget to experience some of the events.

Speaking of Aloha, or Lack Thereof. A thief did not show much aloha to Dr. K. and Wendy a couple of days ago. It seems that they had a run in with a thief. You can read the story from Wendy's pages here. My condolences to both. Perhaps now is a good time to get that Porsche. It doesn't have a back door.<G>

I'm not feeling well this morning so I am staying home today. I hope you all have a great weekend everyone! - Aloha


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