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The People's Race

The 30th annual Honolulu Marathon brought 30,000 people to the streets of Honolulu yesterday. As usual, a Kenyan won the men's race and a Russian won the women's. But the point of the Honolulu marathon is that it is open to anyone and the intent is to have fun. Or as much fun one can have running/walking/crawling 26.2 miles (~42.2km) early Sunday morning.

Other marathons require you to qualify to enter, or have huge entry fees, but Hawai'i welcomes all to enjoy the sites and sounds of our city. As such, it the fourth largest in the world (following London, New York, and Chicago). Realizing that it is a little harder to get here than some of the other cities, it is a testament to just how popular this race is.

Run the race, and you will see a wide spectrum of runners. From your Sunday jogger to Olympic marathoner Frank Shorter. Even Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson comes year after year, 21 at last count, to cover the race, but not run (it is difficult enough for him to walk, much less run).

So if you've ever wanted to flog yourself enjoy a couple of fun filled hours plodding jogging in the wind, cold, rain perfect weather, check out the Honolulu Marathon.

Things to Come

As threatened promised earlier, I am converting from the mis-use of HTML tables to CSS for formatting of this page. I am currently working on two different versions. The first, a two-column layout can be seen here. The second will be a three-column version but I don't have that ready yet.

Please take a look at the two-column version and let me know if it is fatally broken in whatever browser you use. I've tested it with the current offerings like IE 5/6, Mozilla 1.x, Opera 5/6, and even Lynx and everything looks fine, even when CSS is not turned on. Your mileage may vary.

Fark Fest

And now, a couple of links courtesy of the fine folks over at Fark.com:

The Need for Speed. What has two wheels, has 320hp at 52,000 RPM (yes, that's 52K RPM), and is painted ticket me yellow? The MTT Y2K gas turbine super motorcycle, of course (see it here). The Allison Rolls Royce engine is geared down to a more manageable 6,000 RPM, but still...It is reported to do zero to 227 mph (~365kph) in 15 seconds. All yours for the low, low price of $185,000.

Smile, when you say that. For you Mazda Miata owners out there, or for those who just love those cute Chevron Cars gasoline commercials comes this site here that will give your Miata that toothy grin you've been a hankering for. Feel free to park it next to the cement pond while I go fetch granny </obscure_allusion_to_old_TV_show>.

They are Out There. From the wilds of Wisconsin comes this report here about a group of people serving legal process on six area officials and the police. They are following what some groups here are doing. Namely, claiming that Hawai'i is a sovereign nation with its own king and laws.

Thus, these people "file" lawsuits and have people served as if they had legal standing. These people make all kinds of wild claims about how they own all of the land and that everyone who live here are subjects to their crown.

How this insanity made its way to Wisconsin I'll never know, but all I can say is good luck to the poor citizens there because these people will cause all kinds of trouble.

Aloha!

Deep Down

I'm doing my semi-annual deep cleaning today. This means I reformat my C: drive and re-install Windows 2000 Pro and Office 2000. This reformatting cleans out all the rubbish that accumulates in the Registry and greatly speeds up how things run.

To a great extent, much of the rubbish comes from Office, but since I need to swap files with others using Office, and since OpenOffice, which I run at home, is not 100% compatible, I have to put up with that.

I look forward to the day that I can finally get rid of applications that try to "help" me do things I don't want to do. All I want are the basics, not code bloat "features" that I will never use. As I've said before, Win2K and Office 2000 are the last versions of MS software that I will every use. When the time comes, I will switch over to something else. But, unfortunately, that time has not yet come.

Oh well, I will be off-line until I get everything re-installed. See you tomorrow. By the by, thank you to all who have commented on my new site layout (see yesterday's post). I guess I have a ways to go yet before I can get something to display reasonably using CSS.

Aloha!

Wouldn't You Know It

So there I was, after reformatting my hard drive for Spring Cleaning, and after having re-installed Windows 2000 Pro, my boss comes in and tells me to email a spreadsheet to one of the judges. Hmmm. First, I need to install MS Office so I can check the spreadsheet, which is on my D: drive. Then, I need to install Lotus Notes so I can email it to her.

No problem. Two hours later, as I was wrestling with Notes, trying to get it configured, I was finally able to get things installed. Sigh.

The More Things Change

Eight years ago, when the then new Governor came into office, he was full of ideas as to what he wanted to accomplish during his term. Then came the realization that the local economy had gone down the tubes. That revenues had plummeted. That the first order of business was just trying to figure out how to keep what was currently in place from also heading South.

Well, fast-forward to today. The inexperienced new Governor, full of bluster and confidence about bringing a new era of change, is now facing $400 to $500 million, or perhaps as much as $600 to $700 million (depending on what numbers you want to use) in possible cuts for the next couple of budget years.

Partly it's an economy growing slower than had been projected, partly it's her campaign promise not to use the hurricane special fund, but mostly, it's the short-sighted use of the Employees Retirement System (ERS) funds that will break the proverbial camel's back.

During the go-go times of the 1990s, the ERS stock funds, whose profits are used to pay the pensions of retirees, were raking in the money. During that time, gains of over 10 percent per year were not that unusual. So, the legislature and the Governor, in their finite wisdom, decided to take all monies over 10 percent so they could fund their own projects without having to raise taxes.

Having taken the money during the good times, the ERS is now in dire straights because the stock funds are losing money. In fact, for the last two or three years, there have been substantial losses. Losses that could have been covered by the monies earned during the good times.

Now, all of this does not even take into account the 900 pound gorilla waiting in the wings. Namely, the coming war on Iraq. The last Gulf war plunged our tourist-based economy into a dive that took 10 years to recover from. Should things go badly in Iraq, we could see a similar situation occur again. Heaven helps us if that should occur.

The bottom line is that if you take the politically easy short-term solution to a difficult long-term problem, you will end up having to pay more than you would have if you had made the difficult, but right decision the first time around. The test for the new Governor will be to now make these hard decisions. If she does not, things will just get much worse down the road. While I am hopeful she will do the right thing, history indicates otherwise.

Aloha!

Going To the Dogs

Frank McPherson, one of the esteemed Daynoters, had a link to a posting about greyhound dogs recently (see it here). Which got me to thinking, if dogs were cars, would greyhounds be Ferraris? While the speed would certainly be analogous, what about the personality (if, indeed, cars can be said to have personalities)? From what I understand, having never owned either, Ferraris are rather high strung, needing constant pampering, care, obsequiousness, and attention. Conversely, greyhounds are apparently, if I understand the posting, calm and even tempered.

If this is so, I wish some (and it's really only two or three of them that are the problem, and I'm not referring here to Frank) of the Daynoters were as calm and even tempered. I guess, for myself, growing up in a multiple ethnic/multiple cultural environment far from the U.S. mainland, you see things differently. Which is what you do in a place in which everyone is a minority. And, on balance, I think this is a good thing. It keeps people from getting overly sensitive, taking offense when none was intended (see, for example, my post from last week here about the Australian incident), or always looking for a fight to prove their machismo.

While I am certainly not saying I am perfect, some of the brethren in the U.S. have not had the blessings of dealing successfully with different cultures and values. They have not learned to accept other people without being overly judgemental. They seem to see attacks from all sides when, in fact, no one is.

In my opinion, while the Daynoters, at times, can be some of the most generous people you would ever meet, I wonder if I want to be a part of this? For I too have felt the flames of these few individuals for no other reason than they see attacks on them that did not exist. Perhaps we would all be in a better place if we were all more like the greyhound, rather than the Ferrari.

Opting Options

I was doing some online shopping and decided to check the Sharper Image web site. As I was going through it, I found the perfect gift for SWMBO. I added it to my basket and then began the checkout process. However, at the bottom of the checkout page was a check box asking whether I wanted to received email notices about special offers from them. The box was already checked, but not wanting to get any more unwanted email, I tried to uncheck it. Unfortunately, it would not allow me to do so. While I did not examine the underlying HTML, I suspect it was not really a box I could do anything about, even though it gave the impression you could opt out.

Needless to say, I canceled the order and will not shop there again. One wonders, if this was done on purpose, why they think it so important to send SPAM that they are willing to lose customers over it?

Aloha!

It's Friday!

Signs of the Times

There are milestones along the road that tell us the end is near. One of those is word that " Rocky VI" will be filmed. I wonder who Rocky will fight this time? Perhaps, as one wag said, 100 year-old U.S. Senator Strom Thurman? Actually, Senator Thurman would be in his second movie if this one is made (see the poster for his first here).

Ho Ho Ho

Q:What do you call a lady of the night?
A:How much?

Q:What do you call two of them?
A: A law firm.

Q: What about three or more?
A:Congress

(With apologies to U.S. President John Adams and his descendants).

The Search for Santa

Ahhh, a question for our time. Is there Santa? So who else, other than another Adams, this one by the name of Cecil, should I ask? Adams, by way of his column - The Straight Dope, has been "Fighting ignorance since 1973." So I went to his search page and typed in "Santa." Whereupon I got all kinds of strange and wonderful links:

• In the song, "Hotel California," what does "colitas" mean?

• Where did the word "dollar" come from?

• Which freezes faster, hot water or cold?

• Will a penny on the tracks derail a train?

• Did General Motors destroy the L.A. traffic system?

• And finally, is there a Santa Claus?

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

© 2002 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved. Disclaimer