About a week or two ago, I saw the City Christmas tree lying on a flatbed in the bus depot lot.

A few days ago on my way home from work, I saw them decorating the tree. outside of Honolulu Hale.
I snapped that picture because I thought the tree looked like a spider (or more accurately, a hermit crab, as Kerri pointed out).

I guess Christmas is coming, ready or not. At least they had the decency to wait until after Thanksgiving to set up the tree..

The past week seemed like two. I don’t know if it was because of the day off we had on Thanksgiving, or what, but it almost seemed like this weekend crept up on us. Suddenly, Thanksgiving’s over, and it’s like everybody’s Christmas shopping.

I’ve fought on the retail front through several Christmas’es seasons and though I’m glad it’s behind me, a part of me still misses it. I guess that’s why we walked around Ala Moana a couple of times this past weekend.

The weather also cleared up today, so Evan and I took the bikes out. Doug’s bike hasn’t seen action for a while (don’t worry Doug, we’re still taking care of it, and I’m still trying to get it sold!), so Evan volunteered to ride it this time around.

We went up the H3 and dicked around Windward Mall for a while before heading back into town.

I’ve mostly been reduced to just using the bike to take me to/from work every day and I’m not sure if I can remember the last time I rode faster than jogging-speed. It was good to get away for a while, though.

Anyway, here ends another weekend. Back to work. Blehh…

My brother and I were hanging out this weekend and went to Best Buy. I finally caved in and picked up an iPod (up until now I was borrowing Kerri’s). Anyway, while we were there, we came across the Xbox360 Guitar Hero III demo.

Now, I’ve heard of the game before, but never thought anything of it. No one was playing the demo, so we gave it a try. We took turns stumbling our way through Pat Benetar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and MELTING EACH OTHERS’ FACES OFF, and we were hooked! Dude I knew about the game, but didn’t realize how much fun it was. Plus, you can play co-op, too! Evan said that he’s never been this excited about a video game before, either.

Unfortunately, Best Buy was sold out, though they still had Guitar Hero 2. We contemplated just getting GH2, but GH2 came with a wired controller.

Evan thought about it though, and he came up with an important point: “Wait; we can’t use wired controllers… WE WON’T BE ABLE TO SPIN!!”

Realizing he was right, the search was on. The entire day was spent looking for GH3 (and the wireless controllers). We went to Kahala Mall, Ala Moana, and CompUSA, but couldn’t find it anywhere (though the PS2 and Wii versions were in healthy supply). Apparently, every other place in town is sold out, too. At the end of the day, we ended up driving back to Best Buy to play the demo one more time (the demo at CompUSA had the volume turned all the way down) and make sure they were really out of stock (they were). Thanks for nothing, laws-of-supply-and-demand!!!

We’re keeping an eye out for it, though. Updates to follow. Kerri’s been playing GHIII game on her Wii for the past week now and telling me all about it. Until today, I never realized what I was missing. And now I am a jealous boyfriend.

…A followup to that reverse-parking entry from the other day. I got to town a little later the other morning, and there were a few more bikes there. I noticed that all the cruiser-types reverse parked, and the sport bikes were all parked headfirst.

…that is, if you want to count that Bandit, or Seca, or whatever it is as a cruiser. But the dude was on his centerstand anyway. He doesn’t count as either. haha. Anyway who cares it’s the weekend!!!!

Warning! Don’t ever eat at Beijing Express!! I’m not saying this because I just ate there and it sucked (though I have eaten there before, and yes, it did suck), but because I used to work in an office that was literally 10 feet away from one of them, and I’d always see this motherfucker delivering the food:

Anyway, while I was on break today, I saw him. I only noticed him because I heard somebody constantly hawking and spitting. I looked over, and saw him - the Beijing Express guy, still wearing his Beijing Express shirt, hawking and spitting every 30 seconds, smoking a cigarette, and digging his nose like he was trying to get to his brain.

The guy wasn’t subtle about it, either. He was TOTALLY GOING FOR IT - like the kind where the nostrils flip out sideways.

He didn’t care that he was out in public. He didn’t care that people were staring at him. and didn’t seem to notice when I took out my camera and got a picture of him. I mean, HE JUST DIDN’T CARE… which gives me chills to think about how he’s doing when he’s all by himself with the food.

Sitting next to this guy made my 10-minute break feel like an eternity. And it made it not feel like a break, either. I’m just glad he was downwind. Thanks for nothing, Beijing Express guy!

**Update 2/4/08 - I have locked this post from receiving comments because I have received over two dozen spam comments to this entry. I guess it had a lot of the right keywords for spammers**

So I’m on my way to work the other day, and I notice that Ala Moana’s already put out their Santa statue overlooking their makai parking lot. I first noticed that thing up last week… as in one week after Halloween. They’re doing this stuff earlier and earlier.

I remember a story on NPR about how retailers are worried about this year’s Christmas season, and that it may not necessarily be a ‘black’ Friday for some come the day after Thanksgiving. In particular, they cited the recent housing and sub prime crisis, and the resulting trickle down effect on consumer spending this year.

Over the past few years, a lot of people were really dazzled by the recent low interest rates and ridiculous loan programs. Hell, when I was working for an undisclosed mortgage company a year ago, the sales competition that was going on actually awarded bonus points for this negative-amortization loan called the Pay Option ARM. This was a loan that gave you the option of making lower monthly payments, but if you weren’t careful, you ran the risk of seeing the principle actually increase… that is, you could have been making your payments every month and still lose your house.

It was a good loan for some, but a bad loan for most. And I was blown away that the company was trying to push it. A short time later, the bonus-points award was recanted in a company wide memo (something about ethics and predatory lending).

And a year later, I walked past my old office, which is now a vacant space with a ‘for lease’ sign on the window. There’s still good food places nearby, though. Mmmm food…

According to a recent state study, homeless people don’t have money. In fact, not only do they not have money, but not having money is one of their ‘main problems’.

This only seems to prove that homeless people have the same problems as about 90% of all the other people in the world (me included).

I never would have guessed it, though - I mean, I always thought the main thing worrying those guys was reverse-global warming, or the downward spiral of young-Hollywood. What a mind blower! But not as much a mind blower as knowing that someone got paid good money to bring us these ‘findings’. Hey Captain Obvious, superheroes are supposed to work for free!

I was listening to NPR at work this past Thursday, and there was a story about Hilary Clinton and her crew walking into an Iowa diner and being served by a waitress who was a single mother holding down two jobs to support her kids. Clinton took no shame in exploiting the entire experience by incorporating it in a future speech.

However, they did a followup on the waitress, and an entirely new storm brewed when the waitress casually said that the Clinton party left zero tip that day. What a douche!

The next day at work, NPR did a followup story. Thursday’s story generated such a whirlwind of reaction among the political blogs and the Republican party. They went back to the waitress to follow up. It ended up being a huge case of he-said/she-said. Either one of Clinton’s henchmen actually didn’t leave tip, or middle class waitresses steal each others’ tips.

I usually stay away from politics, but this is more an issue of common decency. If you’re going to mention wait staff in person at a speech later on (ie: tell stories of people for personal gain), you could have at least had the decency to tip them face to face before you dig out. It’s like that guy who says “oh I met Mike Tyson” but in reality all he did was take a picture next to him.

I wonder if she’s got an entry on bitterwaitress.com yet..

Edit: 11/10/08 3:05pm - I’ve disabled comments because for some reason I’ve just started getting lots of spam comments for this entry. I don’t know why, because I wrote the article about a year ago. Idiots.

When I got to work this morning, I pulled into my stall like I do any other morning (that I don’t catch the bus). When I got off my bike today, though, I realized that everybody around me was reverse-parked. It almost made me want to pull my bike back out and do the same. But I resisted.

Okay, bikes (especially heavy cruisers) are a different story, but it got me thinking about one of the questions my girlfriend always asks:

“What’s up with people in Hawaii and reverse-parking?”

It’s a rhetorical question she asks 3 out of 4 times whenever we’re in a parking structure. Because 3 out of 4 times, we’re not only waiting for people pulling out of stalls, we’re also waiting for people pulling into stalls - backwards.

I know there are some cases where it just makes more sense to do it - like when there are pillars or odd angles. And then there are people like my friend Scott, who can reverse-park just as easily as he can forward-park.

But what about all these other guys? The ones who don’t know how to, but insist on reverse parking? Sure, it might save you a little bit of time later, but is it worth the time you’re wasting now? Not to mention my time you’re wasting. If I’m following you, and you stop short to wait for a guy to come out of a parking space, that’s one thing. But don’t make me wait even longer and make me watch you inch your SUV forward and backward over and over again, trying to fit into a compact stall in front of the “Do Not Back In” sign. Ass.

I’m sure it’s not just here in Hawaii though … is it?

The weekend went well. Dirty Thunder’s performance on Saturday night was awesome, as always. My brothers weren’t able to make it due to scheduling conflicts, but hopefully next month. Kerri and I still had a great time, though.

The ride home wasn’t so great. The weekend’s thunderstorms started up right around the time we were leaving OnStage that night. It wasn’t a far ride home from Kapahulu, but it was far enough for us to get completely drenched.

We went out for pho on Sunday morning, and then celebrated Sug’s birthday Sunday night over at Pyramids. The place has good food, but they’ve also got a bellydancing show, with dancers who seem to get a kick out of terrorizing us whenever we go. Once with my family, she wrapped her silk scarves around my brother’s head (I have a picture on my cell phone). Last night was no exception.

It was a peaceful dinner, and we were nearly done when the show started. The dancer did her first song as I was coming out of the bathroom. I remember opening the door, seeing her there, taking a few steps back, and hiding near the bathroom until she’d gone away.

Sugs wasn’t as lucky. After the first song was over, the dancer went away, and Sugs took that opportunity to go to the bathroom himself. But then the music started up again, the dancer came back out, saw Sugs, and terrorized him for a good half-minute or so, dance-blocking his way to the bathroom.

Nari was cool enough to get a picture:

…and of course, she terrorized him even more on his way back from the bathroom. I’m guessing the lei he was wearing only encouraged the harassment.

Any way, Happy Birthday, Sugs! And guys, for my birthday, let’s not go to Pyramids!