It's Electric

If you've read some of my previous blogs, I LOVE cars. Anything about cars and car related stuff. So to continue my Foodland movie rentals, I had to see this film.

I have a love/hate feeling about electric cars. I love the idea: simple, clean, cheap. However there's one big problem for me...how do I recharge the damn thing. I live in an apartment. I park my car in a parking not. No plugs. But I live in Hawaii... In Cali, they had put in recharging stations and made a big push to have them around but because of a fear of loss in profits from a number of people (Oil and Auto Companies for example) they trashed the idea.

In it's replacement they have Fuel Cells. I am a huge supporter of Hydrogen. The thing about Fuel Cell cars, that I agree with Top Gear (BBC) on, is that it's not much different from the current car of today. I drive it, I need fuel, I go to a station and fill it up. I don't have to wait 16 hours to fill the tank. (For those who wish to check out the Top Gear episode, it was season 12 episode 7 aired Dec. 14 2008) However the documentary makes a few good points as well, and I know my science enough to understand. Hydrogen is very expensive to make. Currently it uses more electricity to make hydrogen then if you were to just have an EV or even a gas car.

To plug my brothers company (H2 Technologies), he's working on making it cheaper and easier to produce Hydrogen. They even got an old Suzuki Sidekick to run off hydrogen. Just as there are people working to make EVs more efficient and viable, there are people out there doing the same for hydrogen and I still feel that hydrogen is going to be the energy of the future. Honda, the ball is in your court. Don't drop the FCX like the EV.

Bangkok What?

So I discovered that Foodland has these DVD vending machines renting DVD's for $1/day and I randomly decided to watch Bangkok Dangerous. In my mind, I'm thinking it's going to be this terrible movie - with the stereotypical white male killing Asian men and sleeping with their women. (Yellow Rage - as someone would say).

However, as the film went on, it really stopped feeling like that. I really started to like it...and at the end of the film, I really liked it.

This film is a remake with the same directors as the old one, and I don't know what the old one was like, but I recomend this one to friends if they want an action film that's not the Hollywood stereotype.

Where are you going?

Another year has gone from my life and I can't help but think how it's been wasted...

I saw my friend Charles the other day and can't believe how depressed I would be if I had his life. His father left his family when he was young and hasn't heard from him since...and his mother has ovarian cancer and doesn't have much more to live...

In that, I can't help but think of a book I've read. (なぜ生きる)

Every action has a definite purpose. Riding in a taxi, for instance, even the quietest person speaks up without hesitation to tell the driver his destination. Otherwise, the driver would have no idea which way to go. Heading off in a direction chosen at random would be a waste of time and money.

Ask someone why he is studying, and he is likely to mention a test the next day, or talk about getting his license. Ask someone where she is off to, and she may say she's going shopping, or out for a breath of fresh air. All our actions have a purpose.

What if someone asked you the point of living? What would you answer?

And I must admit, I don't have one. Why do we go to work? Why do we have families? Why do we live? In the world, there is always a cause and effect. If humans were to disappear from the earth, what would be effected? In high school, a friend felt that humans have no purpose in life and should not exist in the world....I should ask him how he feels today, because maybe that's how I'll feel tomorrow.

How Time Flies

Ah yes, the Blog...

It has been many months since my last blog...in fact, an entire semester has gone by. A slight recap: I went to Japan and ate lots of awesome food, went to HIFF and saw lots of awesome films, I am the co-chair of YESS Camp 26 and I survived another fun filled semester (full of stress and lack of sleep).

Good times.......sort of.

Now it is the winter and I am enjoying the wonderful, chilled winter air here on the island of Maui, and I can't help but contemplate here as the year comes to an end. I have observed many things in my time in college and I'm about to finally start my last semester. I've come to realize that I'm missing one really important thing...that I won't reveal (Bohahaha~)

It is my belief, coming into the New Year, that every person needs recognition from 3 groups of people to be happy. The least important, but never missed, is friends. I only say least important because, though your friends will support you in so many ways, they aren't supposed to be that close. If you were to find out that a close friend of yours is gay, you might be, "My god, I had no idea...but whatever makes you happy mate." However, your immediate family might feel differently, and they come in 2nd. I believe this because a family shares an important common thing: blood. They are YOU at a different stage of life. Your parents look at you as a future version of themselves. Finally, the most important is a soul mate: in my view, they are you. People talk about their other half because they're right. You and your wife (or husband whichever way you swing) will be living with you, thinking about the things you think about, having your kids, and the two of you become one. I honestly believe, you need all three to work hand in hand to experience true happiness.

I'm sure it's pretty obvious as to which one I'm missing but hopefully this new year will prove to be more prosperous.

Happy New Year everyone and if you're going to drink...don't get caught driving.

No Halloween!?!?!

It's not news that Front St. in Lahaina is the place to be for Halloween, but the Maui County Cultural Resources Commission has denied the LahainaTown Action Committee for use of Front St. to celebrate Halloween. The apparent reason for this is because this event gives Lahaina a bad name. "What do you want Lahaina to be remembered for, the host culture's importance as far as the home of the alii or royalty or for the Halloween party," said commission member Kalei Moikeha. "It just seemed like it was very disrespectful for the host culture to allow these stages to be set up in the district." (Sure, lets not disrespect the ancient Missionaries with our Pagan Rituals!!!)

Credit: Maui News

Wonderful Food!!!

On Sat. June 28, I attended the Flavors of Honolulu, not to be mistaken with the Taste of Honolulu. I had some wonderful things. There were wonderful deserts. I had some Crepes from Le Crepe Cafe, Crystal Chen (who took the picture) had this banana fosters cheesecake (Planet Hollywood) that was awesome, Mr. Lum had some bread pudding and Teramisu with Kona Coffee Anglaise (Bali By The Sea), and all were delicious. In the picture, I have a Sceared Kona Kampachi from Bali By The Sea. I thought it was awesome. Mr. Chang and Alana had a Sceared Garlic Ahi with Sweet Wasabi Sauce on some lettuce from Koi that was totori dirishosu (totally delicious). I recommend going next time around.

バカアメリカ人

So I've become a bit irate at the attention eMoble is getting over their latest commercial that they pulled off the air, because of criticism that this reflects racism. Now, I sympathize that Afro-Americans have had a tough past and every minority can relate a little in some way or another, but people are so closed minded that the people making the criticism is just as bad as racists.

To summarize, the commercial reflects the campaign of Sen. Obama and has the speaker as a monkey. Westerners around the world have quickly jumped to call Japanese people and eMoble (cell company in Japan) a bunch of racists. On the other hand, Japanese people have not seen any relation to the commercial as racism or anti-black or anti-Obama. The eMoble Masquot is a monkey and in Japanese/Shinto culture, the monkey is praised as a protector against evil and is depicted as many deities.

With a wonderful tool like the internet to provide such information as on the A to Z Photo Dictionary, people like colorfire of YouTube can say "LMAO monkeys are sacred in Japan? Ladies and gentlemen, we've got another politically correct wannabe who knows absolutely nothing" in response to someone in defense of the commercial. israelsprincess07 from YouTube says, "Japanese are such haters!"

stanrob on 2008PresidentialElection.com says, "I know we Obama supporters have enough on our plates trying to disprove Obama smears and the like domestically, but as an American living in Japan, I can't help but be deeply offended by a commercial by a cell phone company (emobile) trying to cash in at Mr. Obama's expense."

On CNN's Political Ticker, many have strong comments like Linda Esen saying, "How can they not have known this was racist????? How would they portray McCain?? No worries; when Obama is President - Japan will bow down to the dominance that is the US of A". Pat Va's reply to eMoble's president's comment of "now we know" had this to say, "This idiot needs to be fired post-haste!!! What century is he living in???" HEINRICH says, "This is really outragous.That phone company and the people behind this are totally idiots." Peter Damoah-Afari says, "How can some Japanese be so stupid?" Nicole in NE says, "DISGUSTING - in so many ways!" Naomi, Texas says, "Appauling!" Obama-Junkie, IL says, "Japanese media is notoriously racist towards people of African descent..." Don says, "And the ugly head of racism persists. Why are some human beings so stupid?" LET IT GO says, "How digusting , times haven't change at all, It 's amazon how many dummies we still have in the world." Jim from IL says, "This is an outrage! I am sure the Hillary or McCain camps have somthing to do with this. Get on board you bunch of racist!!!!! Obama will win wheather you like it or not, so start geting used to respecting him!!!!!!!"

And much much more for each of these sites and all over the blogosphere. Before everyone in this country starts getting irate about Japanese being racist, how about learning more about other people's culture...and since we're on the topic of anti-Japanese, how about we all look up Japanese Concentration Camps?