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Archive Page: Autumn 2001

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* ''5-Year Archive'': Autumn 2001 - Winter 2006 *
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Autumn 2001 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2001 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2002 (Mar-May) / Summer 2002 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2002 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2002 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2003 (Mar-May) / Summer 2003 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2003 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2003 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2004 (Mar-May) / Summer 2004 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2004 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2004 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2005 (Mar-May) / Summer 2005 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2005 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2005 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2006 (Mar-May) / Summer 2006 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2006 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2006 (Dec-Feb)

((Back To Current))

September 8, 2001 (Saturday)
02:00, Hawaii Standard Time.

I came here [to the ''InfraRed'' page] intending just to type up a quick note congradulating myself for having (finally) successfully completed my Lycos/AngelFire ''start page,'' only to spend over the LAST HOUR tweaking THIS page!

It's alright, though ... Every little bit that I do gets me a little bit closer to completion -- which IS, of course, the whole objective.

No ''Homestead Express,'' this! -- Working with this thing has been tough going ... especially with all of the HTML that I have been stumbling and bumbling my way through. (I'm really beginning to have serious respect for the people who do this sort of thing for a living.)

As of this writing, this is only the SECOND of the God-Knows-How-Many pages I plan on having up here that I'm near any stage of completion. (MAJOR THANKS to Lycos/AngelFire for providing the space and for making the system VERY ''Mac-Friendly''! Mahalo!)


September 11, 2001 (Tuesday)
16:30, Hawaii Standard Time.

I was quite late in hearing the news about the attack which took place in New York City. I was first made aware of it while tuning in a little late to Mike Malloy's radio program on the i.e.America Radio Network (during the ''rebroadcast'' over the Internet), and at first I actually thought he was joking.

I know I'm going to come across as sounding heartless by saying this, but I am really not the least bit concerned about what just took place.

Yes, I regret and am shocked by the loss of innocent life and such, but I have really become quite jaded since this Corporate-Controlled Neo-Fascist Regime was allowed to be INSTALLED into the top levels of this nation's government. And considering how ''Baby Doc'' Bush has so effectively thumbed his nose at the rest of the world, is it really any wonder that we would become a target of such a violent reaction? This was NOT just some mindless, senseless attack on ''innocent civilians''... this was a well calculated, long planned and well thought out POLITICAL statement against U.S. Policy and our government's insensitivity to global issues and the global community. So it really doesn't surprise me at all, and I honestly have a difficult time pointing the finger of blame at anyone for lashing out at us in such a way, as regrettable and as admittedly extreme such reactions are.

I just wonder how ''Repugnantcans'' are going to try to twist this whole thing around in order to somehow blame Hillary Clinton for its occurance. You just know somebody's going to try!

September 14, 2001 (Friday)
17:10, Hawaii Standard Time.

Just discovered another massive amount of blood in my stool this evening -- something that occurs on a rare and inconsistent basis. This time, however, it was such a huge and noticable amount that I'm considering it as a warning sign to start taking this symptom VERY SERIOUSLY!

Because I was on about a month-long hiatus from work recently, I ceased qualifying for myhealth insurance plan. With this latest development, however, I'll be checking up on my recertification status, and as soon as I know something I will immediately begin inquiring about coverage for a colonoscopy screening for colorectal cancer.

September 18, 2001 (Tuesday)
17:10, Hawaii Standard Time.

• Declarations of ''War'' on an ''Enemy'' pulled out of a hat?
• A Nation's Population whipped up into a Bloodthirsty Frenzy?
• Widespread worshipful displays of the Flag?
• Increases in Military Enlistment?
• Fervent rallying cries of Patriotism?
• Suppression of the Constitutionally Guaranteed Right of Free Speech?
• Mindless and senseless Threats and Violent Attacks against anyone who ''looks'' or ''sounds'' like a certain type of Foreigner?

I'm just wondering... Could ''Krystalnacht'' and ''Lebensraum'' be very far behind???


(slipped this in 10/13/01 @ 16:20 HST)

September 23, 2001 (Sunday)
21:25, Hawaii Standard Time.

Well, apart from setting the ''hit meters'' and ''activating'' it, it is (yet again, and with some regret) my ''NERVE Center/Homestead Express'' pages that are the first to be completed. NOT because I want it that way (believe me, I've been trying everything I could to make it all turn out the exact opposite), but because this ''Lycos/AngelFire'' system has been fighting me so much the entire way that for ALL THE TIME that was spent working on these pages over the weekend (working almost literally 'round the clock, in some instances) I should have had at least all of the base texts and images set, pending verification of certain specific information and setting up page links.

But as it stands, I'm still not even HALF DONE! The saddest part of this equasion is the fact that this is perhaps the best site I could find on such short notice. (I came across one user's former ''AngelFire'' site redirecting his traffic to his ''FortuneCity'' site, after sharing some of his own words of discouragement about ''AF.'')

I had hoped to have worked overtime and have everything at least in final HTML sweep-through order before the end of this weekend, but now, the way it looks like things are operating, I probably won't have anything up for about another two weeks at the very least!

September 24, 2001 (Monday)
13:30, Hawaii Standard Time.

I just gave my $300 phony ''tax relief'' check back to the local I.R.S. office in the Federal Building to send back to Washington (...and, of course, it confused the hell out of them why anyone would want to do so). Before taking it down there I had written this brief personal message on the front of the envelope:

(Quote and sic):
Dear Gov. Bush ~
From the VERY BEGINNING, WE, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, said we wanted any surpluses to be used to help pay down our National Debt! You obviously DON'T ''trust the people,'' as you claimed....

(close quote)

Maybe I'll explain more in detail why I sent it back when I've got a little more ''bitch & complain'' time available.

September 26, 2001 (Wednesday)
05:45, Hawaii Standard Time.

I just sent the following e-mail to Mike Malloy, via his radio program. I know this is prophecy coming about, but still... God Help Us!

*

Dear Mike ~
I don't know if you will actually have time enough to read this email in its entirety (though I will try to keep it short), but I just HAD TO share this with you!

I have always stated that with the ''installation'' of ''Chancellor Bush'' this country would be on the fast-track to FASCISM! Anyone who has been paying even the slightest attention has already seen evidence of this coming from the White House and its current appointees. But now, with the tragedy which just took place in New York City, it is beginning to rear its ugly head amongst the general population as well.

The scariest and most ''subtly blatent'' example I've recently come across was what I heard expressed on ''Doctor'' Laura Schlessinger's program.

Within the first half-hour of the program she first advocated, along with one of her callers, that any businesses that did not display the American Flag during this time of grief should be BOYCOTTED! (no ifs, ands, or buts) ...then she expressed shock and disbelief when another of her listeners called in to lambaste a certain organization (whose name I didn't catch) that ''dared'' to recite the ''Pledge of Allegiance'' WITHOUT including the two-word phrase, ''...Under God...'' -- the good ''Doctor'' and her caller apparantly FORGETTING, or perhaps never having been taught, that the reference to ''God'' in the ''Pledge'' was a VERY LATE ADDITION to the ''original'' Pledge, which did NOT include it.

It's really beginning to look to me like History is repeating itself, and one would think that ''Dr. Laura,'' being a ''Jewish'' woman, would immediately see through all of the blind fervor.

I am especially fearful for many of my friends who happen to be Jehovah's Witnesses. During the Second World War, many of their members experienced incited hatred, mass hysteria, and thoughtless vindictiveness and had to endure being beaten in the streets by angry mobs, having their children expelled from the schools, and watching either in helplessness-- if their businesses were being boycotted --or in horror-- if their businesses were being vandalized and looted... all because their Religious Convictions forbade them to salute or ''pledge allegiance'' to the flag or to submit to military conscription.

Were these evils that befell them occuring in Nazi Germany? Of course they were! But these SAME EVILS were being perpetrated against them AT THE SAME TIME RIGHT HERE IN THE GOOD OLD U. S. of A. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled in their favor, UPHOLDING the First Ammendment to the Constitution, to the disgust of many.

Taking into consideration what is now taking place in this country, are we about to see a return of that sort of mob mentality... where ''Conscientious Objection'' and/or ''Religious Conviction'' will be met with an American-Style ''KRYSTALNACHT''? Will an out-of-control war-frenzied citizenry begin to DEMAND forced patriotic expression from anyone and everyone who, for whatever reason, doesn't ''toe the party line''? Will verbal and/or physical hostility be the reward for anyone who denounces the idea of preparing our sons to die violently in bloody conflict against an UNDEFINED ENEMY? Will logic, reason and wisdom ONCE AGAIN give way to senseless hatred and bigotry? Will the Rights guaranteed by the Constitution once again be urinated on by the very same people who claim to be the foremost lovers, supporters and defenders of that great document?

Call me a pessimist, but I am truly beginning to wonder what OUR ''American Equivalent'' to the stiff, straight-armed salute and cry of ''Seig Heil'' is going to be.

Thank you for being there, Mike ~
Adrian, in Honolulu
Tropical-Storm@Hawaii.com

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October 8, 2001 (Monday)
00:25, Hawaii Standard Time.

Worked my @$$ to the bone ALL WEEKEND LONG, trying to get these webpages in order!

With the amount I had left to do, I swore that I'd have everything completed before this point, but apart from my own occasional mistakes, These web browsers seem to ignore HUMAN logic of how HTML code should be read and seem to operate on a ''logic'' all their own!

I wouldn't mind taking all the blame for my green-horn ineptness, but because I alternate between ''Microsoft Internet Explorer'' and ''Netscape Navigator'' I've learned that BOTH browsers have their own way of reading HTML code, so that formats-- or errors in formats will show up in ONE which will appear as ''normal'' in the OTHER!

In any case, I'm probably going to be at this all next weekend. AGAIN!

(surprise note: ''Susie'' called about six hours ago, when I was half-dead to the world ... and one of the rare times I'm not ''connected'' -- I can't remember if I went to sleep with one of my temporary mp3 downloads of a radio program or if I was listening to a streaming program and ''Earthlink/Sprint'' cut me off again)

October 10, 2001 (Wednesday)
08:55, Hawaii Standard Time.

I just terminated my EARTHLINK account. I gradually kept getting pushed to the point where I knew I was going to react negatively.

A number of things contributed: frequent disconnects and the recent price increases particularly.

I had effectively made the decision yesterday morning, when I installed an ''AOL Trial Membership'' application from the free disk I picked up at Kinko's, when I stopped in briefly to ask about scanning images into e-mailable ''.jpgif'' formats (a little ''word fusion'' on my part: i.e., .jpg and .gif run together).

Already, I don't like it, but at least I've got a month of leeway until I can find out what the hell these ''Local'' ISP are doing to get their heads out of their asses and begin acting as though they really do want the business (one didn't want to spend the time answering my questions before signing on -- and from the looks of the website on my latest visit, I suspect is no longer operational; another doesn't know if they can support Versions 9 of Macintosh or not, another calls into an answering machine with a woman's voice saying only that she's not available to take calls at that time -- NOT EVEN IDENTIFYING WHO SHE IS OR WHOM SHE REPRESENTS!; and, of course, the ''Big Guys'' [i.e., ''LavaNet'' and ''Pixi.net''] with that damned New User ''Set-Up'' Fee ... yeah ... it's a ''set-up,'' alright).

I sent ''Martha'' a couple of e-mails from the sight, mainly because I haven't heard from her in so very long now that I'm wondering if she is still online or if something unfortunate may have happened to her ... I don't like not knowing.

October 12, 2001, (Friday)
16:55, Hawaii Standard Time.

Been on this computer since about 3:30 this morning, searching for stuff and trying to get these pages organized and near completion (hopefully before the end of this weekend).
I had planned on taking a little nap while it was still somewhat dark outside, but computer crashes complimented by my own malfunctioning brain cells, I've been laying up in front of this thing all this time. I was able to refine and somewhat restructure my ''Love24'' pages to something a bit more appealing. They now need nothing more than to go through a final proofreading and setting-up of the guestbook and hit counters, which will not be done until the most of the ''Arashi'' (a.k.a. ''TropicalStorm'') pages are ready to be activated.

This also marks my final night as an EARTHLINK customer. I hope I find something else to replace them permanently before too long.

October 15, 2001, (Monday)
16:05, Hawaii Standard Time.

Netscape continues to give me reasons to HATE IT! After working My @$$ Off on the first ''J-Pop'' Page and frustrating me to the point of wanting to slam this computer into the wall, switching over to Internet Explorer revealed that Netscape refuses to accept my attempts at manipulation of my Palatino fonts (it will not distinguish bold from unbolded/plain text) -- NO MATTER WHAT I TRY TO DO! Not to mention that it makes my ''COMPLETED'' pages look like $#!T! I Swear, If I did not need to use Netscape to cover the areas Explorer won't work with me on, I would kick it out on its @$$ in less-than a heartbeat!!!

October 20, 2001 (Saturday)
14:50, Hawaii Standard Time.

''AngelFire'' and/or my browsers acting up so much today that I was not able to accomplish much. Went to ''Love24'' instead, created a new (5th & final) page and made a few necessary refinements in several of the others I had noticed before.

Got a nail in my back tire I have to worry about now. I discovered it when I was pau hana early Friday morning when I was down at the post office. It's long and thin and stuck in there completely through, almost dead center. There's some tar-like black gunk sticking to the nail as I was (foolishly) trying to pull it out. I called Waipahu to inquire about it, but they don't think it's any sort of a pre-included ''puncture sealant,'' although there did not seem to be any escapage of air at the time. I decided to leave it sit overnight to see what if anything happens.

October 21, 2001 (Sunday)
10:55, Hawaii Standard Time.

America Online (AOL) DEFINITELY DOES NOT HAVE A CUSTOMER IN ME!!!
First with the network ''disconnects'' and ''slap-aways'' ...
(note the time I began getting frustrated enough to write about my beef IN ADVANCE OF POSTING -- 10:55 a.m. ...it is NOW just two minutes shy of an entire hour later!)
...and ONLY NOW I've come to find out that there were actually MORE THAN ONE ''access numbers'' for the Island of Oahu!
(when I registered, it offered ONLY ONE NUMBER for the entire Island)

October 22, 2001 (Monday)
23:50, Hawaii Standard Time.

Busy-ass day today! After cashing my check I tried one of those self-repair jobs with one of those little $6.00 kits. (Can anyone tell me why the procedures and ''end results'' are NEVER as simplistic nor as effective as written and illustrated in the ''instuction manuals'' and guidelines?) After fighting with it all morning, I just let it set, called Waipahu to ask them when I could bring it in for them to repair, then called in at work to ask to have someone cover for me at my second worksite for tonight. The patch seemed to hold, so I took a chance riding it up the mountain to work and back, still seems to be holding. I'm taking it in to the shop early in the morning.

''Explorer'' was also ''effing'' with me earlier in the afternoon, canceling out any ''paste-on'' editing I was trying to do on the ''Orange'' Special Page. The composition field is still fupped-uck, even though the editing process was accomplished successfully in ''Netscape.'' (I swear, if it isn't ONE, it's the OTHER!)

October 23, 2001 (Tuesday)
15:30, Hawaii Standard Time.

Arrived in Waipahu around a quarter to nine, left my girlfriend at the service station and hopped the first bus to Pearl Kai Shopping Center, where I was hoping to sneak a peek at the J-Pop ''history book'' that was at Tower Records the last time I was there.
The book was no longer there, but I did manage to find out that Kubota-san did in fact release a ''new'' album since ''LA•LA•LA LOVE THANG'' (contrary to what everyone I asked kept telling me), released almost exactly one year ago. (I'd find out later, when I got home, that one particular song I was expecting to be on the album wasn't.) I also discovered that Mr.Children had also released a new album right about the same time. With great conflicts between emotional and financial concerns, emotions won out -- I purchased both albums, then trekked across the street to Pearlridge Mall to waste some more time and get lunch over there before jumping another bus back to Waipahu to spend even more money for the repair job.

October 26, 2001 (Friday)
18:10, Hawaii Standard Time.

Pulled down my ''Love24''/''DarkHorizon'' pages this afternoon after learning via e-mail yesterday that ''Nerve Center'' will no longer be hosting personal webpages after Nov. 15. (Of course, I tried posting this information as soon as I learned about it, but AOL keeps fucking with me! -- especially considering how it ALWAYS seems to ''conveniently'' start causing all of these problems right on the edge of my leaving-for-work time!)

I tried to establish the pages at a different site I had once registered at and tried to re-register with, since I don't want to post the ''DarkHorizon'' pages at Lycos, but I was reminded of the reasons I cancelled out of the service in the first place. So I guess I'll just have to take my chances and post them on Lycos.

October 30, 2001 (Tuesday)
15:00, Hawaii Standard Time.

Had my iMac in the shop over the weekend: The mouse cursor just suddenly froze on screen and no amount of restarting, bypassing, or turning off extentions could do anything to clear it up, so I wound up strapping it to my girlfriend's back on two different occasions through, the pouring rain each time, to get the folks at CompUSA to look at it.

Wanna know what's worse? I tried calling Apple's ''support'' line only to have them tell me that it would cost me $49 to confirm that something about my computer wasn't working (screw that $#!T). But that's not the worst of it... I was also informed by the tech ''support'' guy that I had just become one of those confirmation stories re: the ''Manufacturer's Warranty'' -- i.e., everything works fine UNTIL THE WARRANTY EXPIRES! --he informed me that I had only TWO DAYS LEFT on my one-year warranty, and this crap just had to happen on a SATURDAY!

After all was said and done, they've decided that the problem lies somewhere in my USB mouse (including my rollerball ''back-up,'' apparantly) and keyboard, which they've requested replacements for.

During this time, however, I no longer had any distractions that I could conveniently use for a convenient excuse not to clean this place up a bit -- I just need to get some papers in order and, of course, mopping the floor, which I ALWAYS put-off for last! I also managed to give my girlfriend a really good, thorough washing, which was long overdue.

I was going totally stir crazy from not having access to Non-RightWing/Conservative ''ass-kissing'' news, talk and other informative programming. (The ''Liberal'' media my ass!) I made up for it as best I could by pulling out my stash of favorite ''Leykis-101'' programs on tape.

A number of other curious things also occured during this time, including (shockingly) my having finally come to the realization and acceptance that for all of the scheming, theiving and conniving that George ''Dubalier'' Bush and his puppet masters resorted to in order to steal the 2000 Election from the American Voters, just ONE MAN -- AND ONE MAN ONLY was responsible for making ''Baby Doc'' the only UNELECTED President of the United States of America:

Clarence ''Uncle'' Thomas? -- No!
''Antonio'' Scalia? -- Nope!
Jeb Bush? -- Uh-uh!
''Slick Dick'' Cheney? -- No way!

The man who gave us ''King George II'' was none other than...

''ALBERT B. GORE, Jr.''

...when he said those two FATEFUL words that ended for good the whole recount mess:

''I concede''!

Rather than saying something like ''I withdraw from the race for the sake of the election system,'' or some such double-talk that would STILL leave the impression that the incoming Dictatorial Regime reeked of ILLEGITIMACY, Al Gore Conceded! -- thereby GIVING IT LEGITIMACY! So all of the calls for ''recount results'' and the like are effectively moot issues! And just like Al Gore who, rather than ''staying and fighting'' (as his campaign slogan suggested), Democratic officials likewise ''tucked tail and ran'' at the onslaught of Conservative lies and hate-mongering. (The post-2000 Election Democratic Party provided us with a classic example of ''Kill the Head and the Body Dies''!)

So the former Governor of Texas, though STILL a wannabe dictator, though STILL a liar, a cheat and a fraud, though STILL a puppet on a string of the ''American Neo-Fascist Party'' -- and of his ''Daddy,'' and though STILL having LOST the popular vote count (and quite possibly the Florida vote count as well) is, for all intents and purposes, THE ''Legitimate'' President of the United States -- although I'll continue to make conscious effort to remind everyone that he is the UNELECTED President!

The most significant thing which took place during this time, however, was that I had received a call from ''Lori G.'' (who was the neice of one of the victims of the vehicle accident which took place on Kapiolani Bvd. which I was a witness to and filled out a police report on a couple of months ago when I was heading home from work early in the morning, looking forward to having the weekend off). She told me that her uncle, ''Joseph'' (who was the sleeping passenger in the van) was still in the hospital, and that she called me in order to clear up the story, since she said she has been hearing several different versions of what actually happened (and none of them accurate, I might add). I clarified the story for her, asked of his condition, and asked her if it would be alright if I paid him a hospital visit.

[This is the point where I'm at now -- I stopped by Queen's Medical Center to visit with Joe and to clear up the story for him as well (since he's not entirely sure which version of the various stories to belief, especially taking into consideration that he was lying unconscious in the van when anyone got to him), then I rode into CompUSA to bring the ''Jade Succubus'' back home for the second time, this time with an ''on-loan'' mouse and keyboard which, up to this point anyway, appear to be performing well, so I may not have to do a ''clean install'' after all.]

November 8, 2001 (Thursday)
07:45, Hawaii Standard Time.

Well, I've finally gotten a REAL I.S.P. for myself! I just signed up a few minutes ago for ''AppleISP'' (formerly ''MacRevolution''). It is an Internet Provider that was developed exclusively for Macintosh Operating System! (It is not formally affiliated with ''Apple'' Computer Corporation.) I get a little bit of satisfaction knowing that there's an Internet Provider set up exclusively for ''US'' (Mac-users), considering the fact that there are any endless number of services set up exclusively for ''Windows'' systems! And the $13/month subscription ain't all bad, either.

In all honesty, I wanted to support a LOCAL Internet Service Provider, but they all seem to have their heads up their collective ass and can't seem to get a stinking clue!

(I still have to finish resetting all of my browser ''preferences,'' though: Explorer is awaiting ''auto-fill profiles''; Netscape is pending altogether.)

November 10, 2001 (Saturday)
06:50, Hawaii Standard Time.

I've been working on these pages all since yesterday afternoon up 'til now, %ü¢k!n& trying to figure out why that Piece of $#!T ''Netscape'' keeps destroying my HTML formats, refusing to display them properly!!! (I STILL DON'T %ü¢k!n& KNOW!)

And now, as if all of that was not bad ENOUGH, I just accidentally found out ONLY MOMENTS AGO that all this time since starting, my INCOMPLETE webpages were ALWAYS available online for viewing, when I thought that such would not actually take place until I ''promoted'' the site! Yet another smack in the face! Now I have absolutely NO IDEA how many eyes may have viewed any of these pages while they were all still in the ''developmental'' stages these past three months or so, because I have yet to put ''hit counters'' on any of my pages, and even if I did, I would have concluded that I was the one responsible for inadvertently racking up the points anyhow!

I've also learned that my ''Weather Underground'' forcasting banner is no longer working.

I am REALLY Super-P!$$3D right now!

November 12, 2001 (Monday)
21:35, Hawaii Standard Time.

Thankfully got the night off from work, after working last week at one of our temporary accounts which signed back on for a couple of weeks while one of the residents returned from Japan for, I guess, a bit of a vacation. (It is the same property referred to on the ''VioletBloom'' page in the ''DarkHorizon.'')

I managed to catch my mother online about an hour ago, and we ''IM-ed'' each other for a while. (I found out earlier this afternoon that I am still connected to AOL's system, despite having requested termination. I suppose they are just going to let it run it's ''introductory period's'' full course before disconnect?)

November 14, 2001 (Wednesday)
02:55, Hawaii Standard Time.

Just got back from work -- back at my usual locations (temporary reassignment was cut short due to some emergency, in Japan, I guess).

I discovered yesterday that I could have saved myself a hell of a lot of time on developing these webpages had I first composed them in ''AppleWorks'' and converted what I had written over to ''HTML'' format. To a great extent, I'm not really upset that I found out about this ability so late in the game, since now I have at least some idea as to how to read and write HTML, and if I had not had already had that advance knowledge I may have been at a loss as to how to ''correct,'' ''rewrite'' and manipulate certain portions within the text. But I'll be using this new-found knowledge from here on out to help speed me through this last stretch.


* UPDATE! --
16:50, Hawaii Standard Time.

Well... I've been trying to do this ''AppleWorks'' thing, and it's really not going according to plan at all -- something keeps getting lost in the translation, so I am not going to be relying on it at all. I'll just stick to doing what I have been doing up to this point.

November 20, 2001 (Tuesday)
04:10, Hawaii Standard Time.

Just found out about a half-hour before midnight yesterday that the stinking ''X-mas'' decorations are already being emblazened all across Ala Moana Center. I #*¢k!n& HATE this so-called ''holiday''!!! I'd love to call out for an armed revolution, but I suppose God will take care of it in His own due time. It's out of my hands -- all I can do is bitch about it and plain just not participate to the extent possible. But my genuine hatred for the ''holiday'' has given me an idea...!

November 23, 2001 (Friday)
11:30, Hawaii Standard Time.

Just got back from my first ever visit to To Chau Vietnamese Restaurant, just down the block. They specialize in a Vietnamese noodle soup called ''Pho'' (pronounced: ''fuh'') and there's usually a line about a half-block long of people waiting to get a seat inside the small place -- and the line usually starts around eight O'clock in the morning! The line was practically non-existent when I rode back into town from Mililani -- I figured it was because of the ''Thanks-pretending'' thing yesterday and perhaps because everybody and their great-grandmother was stuck in the ridiculously crowded and frighteningly long lines at Wal-Mart, in response to their ''6-to-11a.m.'' marketing gimmick which I also went to, arriving somewhere around seven O'clock in hopes of purchasing one of their 26'' 12-speed mountain bicycles for just under $50. (I should have known half of the Island's population would be camping out overnight outside the store in order to get inside at a reasonable time.) I simply decided after about 10 minutes that it just wasn't worth it going through all of the chaos-- and I figured they'd damn near sold out of everything anyway --so I just called it and rode back to town, stopping first to pick up my paychecks for the past two pay periods.

After noticing the line (...rather, the lack thereof...) I made the decision to finally try it out, as I had ALWAYS been intending ever since moving out to this section of the city (on the western edge of ''Chinatown''). Before doing so I ran a couple of short errands (cashing/depositing my checks, picking up my ''C. Crane'' LED Flashlight from the post office, and going down to CompUSA to inquire about the status of my replacement keyboard & mouse, regarding which Apple claims to have never received the necessary paperwork on). I also stopped at one of the shops on the Maunakea mall to pick up a bunch of ready-ripe bananas for sale at 29¢/lb. (A bargain NOT to be passed up!)

To Chau soups make heavy use of bovine flesh, but for the sake of experiencing something with consideration for the cultural aspect, I put my ''Veggie-saurus'' impulses on temporary hold.

Now I just want to get some sleep -- I've been terribly tired all since yesterday afternoon.

(My AOL temporary account has finally been shut down.)


ARCHIVES

* ''5-Year Archive'': Autumn 2001 - Winter 2006 *
* ''5-Year Archive'': Winter 2006 - Winter 2011 *
* ''5-Year Archive'': Winter 2011 - Winter 2016 *
* ''5-Year Archive'': Winter 2016 - Winter 2021 *


Autumn 2001 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2001 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2002 (Mar-May) / Summer 2002 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2002 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2002 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2003 (Mar-May) / Summer 2003 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2003 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2003 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2004 (Mar-May) / Summer 2004 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2004 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2004 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2005 (Mar-May) / Summer 2005 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2005 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2005 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2006 (Mar-May) / Summer 2006 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2006 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2006 (Dec-Feb)

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