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Overslept ('till 5:45) this morning. Then last night's habanero returned. It was actually a double dose, first the powered habanero that snuck into the pasta, then the habanero-laced "Beyond Buzztail" hot pepper jelly from Mick's Peppouri, which turned out to have quite a jolt of its own. A bit of follow through, too, which delayed the morning walk a bit more.
This was the weather yesterday morning, with rain visible under the dark clouds that lined the horizon. But it never quite made it to shore, and by the time we left for town it had clear, the sun was out in force, and it was almost a different day.
Today was all sun from the start. A beautiful morning. But in photos, yesterday had more character and substance.
No kittens as of 5 p.m. Friday. This morning's status as yet unknown.
The San Francisco Examiner has abruptly dropped its Sunday edition, replacing it with an expanded Friday offering. The change is effective today, according to a letter to subscribers obtained yesterday by Jim Romenesko's MediaNews. The move, which is billed as "a new and exciting change", reduces the Examiner to a Monday-Friday publication.Could the Star-Bulletin follow suit? It's always a possibility, although it seems unlikely to happen here. The Bulletin's Sunday edition, although clearly playing second fiddle to the Advertiser, appears to be sustainable.
In the meantime, contract talks were getting underway this week at the Advertiser. Is this Gannett's year to put the screws to the Guild and its other unions? There are rumors going around, but they deserve some checking before being repeated.
On the cat front, I'm still on kitten alert. That brought in this response from a friend:
i love the Little Mother drama in your life. relax. either instinct will guide her, or it won't. nothing you can do, either way. the process is too delicate for intervention. get LM a nice sturdy box. put a nice towel in the bottom. throw in a couple of unwashed socks, both yours and meda's, so the babies will know your scents. and for crying out loud, try not to be such a dad!And I responded:
That's easy for you to say. You don't have the drama of putting your key in the office door lock in the morning, and then holding your breath while you see if she's run to the door all in one piece or not.Then a friend asked: "Can you see the kittens moving?" Say what? So I'm staring at this cat's belly, trying to figure out if little motions are breathing or kittens. I can't tell! What does that mean? Paranoia lurks. So I call my friend back and report. She says: "Oh, I guess you've never been pregnant."
The Internet is being used to give the world an uncensored look at the ongoing Israeli attach on Palestinian cities and civilian populations. Now Independent Media Center is reporting that computer warfare is being waged with organized attacks on some alternative news sites. At one point, a call went out for "hackers" willing to volunteer to help fight back, leading to several interesting threads (for one example, click here). We're witnessing extraordinary events in an extraordinary time.
Meanwhile, in Kaaawa, April has arrived, bringing clearing skies and calmer weather. The sun moves rapidly in this season, rising about a full minute earlier every day and pushing our morning walk ahead with it. The sand shifts, extending the beach in several areas, and beach glass appears more regularly.
If not for the world's pain, this would be a wonderful time.
We happened to catch an excellent interview on the PBS News Hour Monday evening, a exchange on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis between Henry Kissinger and Zbignew Brzezinski. When I heard the announcement of these two aging warriors, I almost changed channels, but I'm glad I didn't. This was definitely a cut above, a reminder by contrast of how hollow and shallow most television news has become. Sometimes its very refreshing to listen to people with a grasp of history.If you had trouble reaching getting through yesterday, here's the reason as conveyed by the hosting service I've been using, Hostrocket.com:
There has been a construction related fiber cut in the time warner telecom network (some clown with a back hoe took out an oc-48) which brought down the Albany and Rochester New York sections of the time warner telecom network. They are working on re-routing all of the traffic affected by this accident currently, as well as repairing the break in the fiber lines. This was not prevented by our redundant fiber loops to our facilities as it was way upstream from even our local carriers. I will post more details as I get them. As of right now the network is back up but running slightly slower than normal.The troubles unfortunately were recurring, although I hope that it's all cleared up today.
There must be an old saying, something like, "A watched cat never kittens." Yes, I'm still watching the little Siamese rescued last month from the dismal conditions of the house with far too many cats.We've had lots of cats, but never one expecting kittens, so this is new territory. I won't repeat the whole sad tale, but you can find more about it back during the first week or so of March. For lack of a better place, she's been living in my little office in town. And, I must say, she's very pregnant. I'm armed with my cat book and the illustrated chapter on kittening, but feel wholly unprepared for what's bound to happen quite soon. It's more than a little distracting. Every morning I get to the building, take the elevator upstairs, carefully open the door, and so far have called Meda to report, "she's still all in one piece."
Pacific Business News reports in this week's edition that the Hawaii Tribune-Herald on the Big Island could be heading for a strike. The contract between the Newspaper Guild and the paper expired in February. It is owned by Stephens Media Group, which changed its name from Donrey Media Group at the beginning of this year.Stephens is represented by anti-labor lawyer Michael Zinser, and has put a series of union-busting proposals on the table, including the right to freely subcontract, elimination of automatic across the board salary increases, and reduced benefits.
"No employer hires Michael Zinser unless it's their intention to break a union," Guild staffer Wayne Cahill is quoted as observing.
Cahill has previously said an early strike would be preferable to letting Zinser stall negotiations for years in a war of attrition, as he has done in Eugene, Oregon.
Check out Editor & Publisher's special in-depth look at Monster.com's relations with newspapers, including the Star-Bulletin.
And two unusual cat items are definitely worth checking--a profile of cat racing, and a high tech "cat recognition algorithm" aimed at solving the problem of little cat gifts.
And after a brief rooster shortage, these three handsome guys all survived from the same batch of chicks and are still hanging around together. They make regular passes through our yard on their daily rounds through the neighborhood.
Sunday's Star-Bulletin included "What a Year," a special advertising section with congratulations for having survived year 1 of the newspaper war. I was surprised to see myself in the photo of Guild staffer Wayne Cahill appearing on the back page, standing in the background with a "Mahalo" sign. "Other SOS members," the caption says.Charlie Memminger's column about the newspaper war drew a hostile reaction from one reader. Here's an excerpt:
It was amazing to read the article "Our paper's hard to kill, despite Gannett's efforts".He speaks of how Gannett will do anything for money, yet his article is surrounded by ads congratulating The Star Bulletin! So the Bulletin solicited businesses to purchase space to congratulate them. Now that is business. Or did all these businesses call in saying we would like to give you money to congratulate you? It sounds like Charlie is looking at the wrong paper when he says they will do anything for money.
There is no paper that stays in business for the the glory. If they lose money year after year they are gone. Charlie seems to believe the Bulletin is not in it for the money! Mr. Black did not come to Hawaii for free speech, it was to make money. I've seen people in the past speak of how Gannett takes the money out of Hawaii, now these same people applaud someone who doesn't even keep the money in the same COUNTRY!
You can certainly say one thing--it is a war, and on Easter Sunday the hostilities were leaking out on all sides.
Easter Sunday.They broke ground on the Governor's new home this week behind Washington Place. And Gov. Cayetano pulled a building permit for a new $850,000 mountain top home on Okoa Place with an expansive ocean view toward Koko Head. The Cayetano's purchased the $900,000 lot back in about 1998. Contractor for the job is Masayuki Haramua. I guess Vicky's nonunion United Laundry business is a real money maker.
Have you seen this joke making the rounds?
Do you keep falling asleep in meetings and seminars?
What about those long and boring conference calls?Here's a way to change all that!
1. Before (or during) your next meeting, seminar, or conference call, draw a 5"x5" square and divide it into rows and columns five across and five down. That will give you 25 1-inch blocks.
2. Write one of the following words or phrases in each block: "synergy", "strategic fit", "core competencies", "best practice", "bottom line", "revisit", "absolutely", "24/7", "out of the loop", "bench mark", "value added", "proactive", "win-win", "outside the box", "fast track", "result driven", "empower", "knowledge base", " at the end of the day", "touch base", "mind set", "client focus", " ball park", "game plan", "solution".
3. Check off the appropriate block when you hear one of those words or phases.
4. When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally stand and shout "Bull Shit!"
Testimonials from satisfied BS Bingo Players.
"I had been in the meeting for only five minutes when I won." -- Jack W. - Boston
"My attention span at meetings has improved dramatically." -- David D. Florida
"It's great! Meetings will never be the same for me after my first win." -- Bill R. New York
"The atmosphere was tense in the last meeting as 14 of us waited for a fifth box." -- Wendy M. New Jersey
"The speaker was stunned as eight of us screamed 'Bull Shit!' for the third time in 2 hours." -- Kathleen A. Atlanta
Reporters on political beats should be required to carry these b-s bingo cards to every campaign speech and rally, and to report all winners.
It's still cold this morning in Kaaawa, somewhere in the mid-60s. Yesterday was cloudy and dark, and the sunrise never really broke through the heavy clouds.
But the new season is apparent. The sun is now rising at about 6:30 a.m., which means that even if we leave the house just a few minutes after 6, the sun is already up by the time we circle around, walk up to the end of the fire station road and back down to the highway, past Swanzy Beach Park and the post office, and then past the next few beach front homes to the first unobstructed views. So no more green flash opportunities until the fall. And it's been so cloudy during the past few months that we've only seen a couple this year.
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