Some Random Articles Found on my Google Reader

Ah the joys of Google reader. If you have gmail (and in this day and age, who doesn't?) you may have noticed a row of words in the upper left corner of the your screen. Among the Calendar, Documents, Photos and whatnot there is also a Reader. So what's a Reader you may ask? Well, for the longest time it was a great mystery as to what the Reader was and what its purpose was. Thanks to Jenny, I have found the joys of Google Reader.

In a nutshell, Google Reader allows you to subscribe to different feeds on the internet and it squishes them all in one place so you don't need to check 15 different blogs, news sites and other oddities online every day just to see if there is something new and exciting. It does it all for you! Amazing!

Have you ever seen the youtube video that shows an amazing catch by a ball girl? It has gained so much hype that they were talking about it on ESPN radio this morning and a certain pastor even stopped by my office to show it to me. If you haven't seen it here's the clip that's generating so much publicity.

But back to my Google Reader. So one of my subscriptions is to Snopes.com which is an urban legend website. Whenever you get one of those emails with like 2000 forwards on it you can check its authenticity on Snopes (no, Bill Gates is not giving away money just for forwarding an email to all your friends). So imagine my disappointment this morning when I found out that the ball girl video is a FAKE! What a bummer. On the other hand, it was a very good job of video editing. Oh well, either way it's a cool video even if it is fake. Next thing they'll tell us is that Santa Claus is fake too.

The other rather amusing article I found came from a recent blog I've discovered called Stuff Christians Like. You should check it out (or even subscribe to it). Today's article was about Christian dating (more specifically Christian breakups) and since I'm a Singles and Couples Pastor I enjoyed it immensely. If you have time, read it and check out the truth of it all.

Bathroom Comics II

Wow, what a busy couple of months. Keao and I have had two of the busiest months I have ever had in my life and it ain't over yet. For instance since the beginning of this month in addition to our usual MiniChurch on Wednesday night, church on Friday night and hang out on Sunday night we've also been on two double-dates (with Justin/Megan and George/Dina), two weddings (Tom/Grace and Daniel/Erin and we have three more to this month alone), throw in there a belated Mother's day dinner, Cirque Hawaii, a bachelor's party and preaching (one more to go this Friday) and you have got yourself one busy month. Not to mention last Saturday...Saturday started with a Walk for Autism then 18 holes of golf in the midday heat followed by Keidi's going away party. Yup I need a vacation. The only problem is there's no time for a vacation. I have too much to do. *sigh*

Well, here are some comics that will hopefully brighten up your day. Enjoy.

This is exactly what runs through my head everytime is see these guys...I'm just too scared to say it

Ted's birthday is this Sunday, I'm gonna try this to see if it works

Who you calling a donkey?

So last Wednesday I finally went and played golf again. It's been a while since I've played and I had plans to play Pearl Country Club on Saturday so we decided to warm up at Pali. Now when we play, we have a rule that whomever has the highest score on the first hole has to keep score for the round. But we didn't feel it would be fair to make John keep score (since he doesn't really claim to be a golfer) so it was just between Mikey, Paul and myself.

Look at that smooth swing!

After the first hole, there was a tie for the highest score so no one was responsible for the scorecard. Actually, after the second hole the same thing happened. It wasn't until the third hole did we have a winner (or loser if you like). And as luck (or poor golf skills) would have it Mikey was in charge of the score card.

Mikey's swing was good enough to keep score

We were having a pretty good time playing golf, but it was brutally hot and humid. By the time we got to the 8th hole, we were all pretty beat. Now, next to the tee box on the 8th hole there are two Igloo's filled with ice water, but being pretty late in the day we weren't sure if there would be any water left. John got to the water first, so we asked him if there was any water in there. He shouted out, "No, it's pretty empty!"

He walked back and we asked him if he checked the other one. He replied no he didn't. So after our tee shots, Mikey and I head over there to check if there was any water in the other Igloo. Mikey got there first and I asked him if there was any water. He replied, "Yeah, there's plenty" and then he proceeded to basically pour water on the ground as I was walking over there. "Thanks a lot you ass," I shout to him.

"Actually," he said, "you're the ass. It's been my own private joke this whole day." He then handed me the score card and this is what I saw...

You can't tell from that shot, but I birdied the hole

What Can I Say? Chicks Dig Me!

So almost exactly one month ago, my sister-in-law, Cassandra, gave birth to two wonderful twin girls. Keao has blogged about them and posted pictures so check out her blog to get the latest twin news (keaosunaoka.blogspot.com). So while Cassandra was in the hospital Keao and I agreed to watch Lauren, the twins' older 15 month old sister.

Well, I guess I must have done something to traumatize this poor girl because now, even a month later, she can't stand to be around me. Last week or so I had to go to their house to pick up some things and as I walked through their door, the minute she saw me she just collapsed on the ground and started crying. Unfortunately for me, Keao and Cassandra were not there to witness the scene.

Fast forward to today. I wanted to see if Lauren would have the same reaction or if she had forgiven me and was now ready to be my friend again. This time I was smart, I brought along a video camera to capture the epic scene. What do you think happened? Would we see smiles, cries or complete indifference? For the answer let's take a look at the footage. Ready? Okay, let's roll the tape.

Lauren's pure unadulterated response

So what can we learn from the tape? Let's break it down. First of all, she knows her name and responds to it well. Then, at about the 10-second mark she enters the hallway trying to see why she's being summoned. By the 13-second mark she realizes who's in the hallway with her and reacts accordingly. If you listen carefully you can hear the delight in Keao's laugh as she now truly believes that Lauren hates me. I also love the way she runs with both arms in the air at the 26-second mark and by 30 seconds she's already on the ground.

Actually, it's not that bad. Despite all the crying you heard on the video it's not like Lauren completely hates me. I just think that everytime she sees me in her house she probably thinks I'm going to take her away from her mommy (which is sort of what happened last time). We stayed at their house for a few hours and once she realized I wasn't taking her anywhere she warmed up nicely and was my friend. *sigh* Babies, so cute and yet so funny all at the same time.

Book 'em Danno!

Last Friday I got to do something that I've wanted to do for a long time. After bugging Vinnie for over a year, he finally relented and took me along with him for a night on the town. In case you didn't know, the Honolulu Police Department has a ride-along program where you get to see what the police officers do. Apparently it's a popular program because they had a whole sheet of rules and waivers that I had to sign.

A copy of the rules

Unfortunately according to rule 5, I was unable to record any part of my night with a video camera or a still camera. It really was too bad since I did bring both a video camera and a still camera. They basically just weighted down my pants and added some extra bulge to my pockets. It's a good thing we didn't have to chase down any perps on foot because I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up with all that extra weight.

The infamous rule 5

I'm not really sure what I can or cannot write about so if you want details about the night email me or call me and I'll try to tell you what I can.

Speaking very generally I did get to witness a multitude of different activities. We transported a suspect to the receiving block (I felt like Dog, the bounty hunter, except without the swearing, smoking or mullet), went to an unattended death (now I know what Keao sees on a regular basis), searched for a dude suspected of being in a knife fight (complete with the blue lights, sirens, screeching brakes and a near tasering), checked on a few complaints, had a car towed, checked on a guy passed out in some bushes by Sorabol and pulled over a few people.

The highlight of the evening (aside from the aforementioned) was a DUI. We checked in on a DUI and I got to witness a few of the tests that they run to see if you are indeed a little intoxicated.

The first test they ran was to see if the guy's eye twitch. Vinnie was trying to explain the scientific explation as to why your eyes twitch if you're drunk but I was too busy trying to watch the action to completely understand it. Apparently he failed test number one.

The second test they make you do is walk in a straight line for nine paces going from your toe to your heel. The guy tried really hard, but he almost lost his balance twice and instead of keeping his feet together and walking toe-heel, toe-heel, he just basically took really small strides. Strike two.

The third test was standing on one foot and counting out your time out loud. Unfortunately for our guy he failed that one too. He only stood for nine seconds before he had to regain his balance. Then later he couldn't remember how to count going from 18 to 22 and forgetting all the numbers in between.

One particularly funny moment came when the guy asks why there were so many cops for a simple DUI. He counted five cars and commented something like, "Isn't this a bit much? Why are there five cop cars? Is this necessary?" Then, pointing at me he asked, "And who's that fellow? Why is he standing there?"

I thought it was a valid question since I was just standing there watching what was going on. Vinnie, in his sympathetic manner just answered back, "Don't worry about him, we're not worried about him so you don't need to be worried about him. In fact, if I were you I'd just worry about the situation you're in now and not be worried about anyone else that's standing here."

Vinnie was right. He should have been more worried about the sitation he was in. I later found out that he failed his breathalyzer test so he did indeed have a little too much that night.

Overall, I must say, I do have a lot of respect for what Vinnie does. I'm glad I got to go out with him and see what he has to face on an everyday basis. I kept thinking, this is really dangerous. You don't know what kind of crazies are out here, any one of them could be carrying a gun. So thank you HPD for keeping our streets safe. It's a tough job and I'm glad that there are some good police officers out there.

When we're not catching bad guys, Vinnie and I enjoy fishing in Alaska

Nico's at Pier 38

So the other day Steve and I went out to lunch. There's this place near the fish auction that he's been raving about so finally we had the opportunity to go and try their wares. It's called Nico's at Pier 38. It was really crowded at lunch so if you go there be prepared to fight for a table and stand in line.

A drink and a buzzer

Because you order in a small kitchen they give you a buzzer so you know when to pick up your food. It's not unlike the system we have at church where they give you a buzzer in case your child gets out of hand in the nursery. As you can see here, we had buzzer number 7.

Apparently Nico's is known for their fish dishes. This would make sense since it's right next to the harbor and the fish auction. When Steve, a fisherman, says it's good fish, who am I to argue? I figure he must know a thing or two about fish right?

The fishing boats are literally right across the street

Steve and I both ordered the furikake (a Japanese seasoning) crusted ahi (yellowfin tuna). They gave us a pretty good size steak and a scoop of rice and some Nalo greens. For $8.50 it was pretty reasonable. I had mine done medium and Steve took his rare. They are even earth friendly. For an extra 25 cents you can get a lunch container made from recycled materials (obviously Steve opted to save the 25 cents and screw the enviornment).

Furikaki crusted ahi

The mayonnaise based sauce that came with the fish complimented it perfectly. Overall it was a very enjoyable dining experience. We ate some good food and were completely satisfied afterward. It was enough food, but not too much. Just looking at the picture is beginning to make my mouth water. I guess I'd better go grab lunch.

Diving Three Tables

So it's been awhile since I've updated this thing, but it's not for a lack of excitement going on in my life, it's just that I've been lazy planning and doing stuff so please bear with me.

A few Fridays ago, a bunch of us decided to go to Three Tables to do a short shore dive. Included in the dive were John-John, my brother Stanton, Keidi and her friend Christy and another diver from Keidi's boat named Paul. Kevin joined us on our second dive, but unfortunately for me my camera broke (but I fixed it last night) and I was unable to document anything but the first dive.

But it was a beautiful day. The sun was out and the water was flat. Perfect for diving. After going over a few safety issues (weight release locations and dive buddies and whatnot) we headed out to the sea. Things were going great until Keidi found a leak from one of her hoses. She was bubbling up hard and couldn't figure out why. After taking care of that (and by taking care, I mean she just didn't have any floatation) we went under.

Not long after going under, I discovered that my regulator was free-flowing. Basically air was coming out of the thing I put in my mouth and I couldn't stop it. So I headed back to the surface trying to fix the problem.

The bigger problem was nobody wanted to be my dive buddy. I mean we talked about it on the surface, but by the time we hit the water I guess I was the odd man out. I knew no one wanted to be my buddy because when we got back under the water, everyone was 50 yards ahead of me and no one bothered to see where I was. I could have been eaten by a shark for all they knew.

Dive buddies John-John and Stanton

Apparently when I was on the surface, Keidi's friend Christy decided to play a little prank on Keidi and attack her underwater. Only underwater people tend to look alike and sometime the distinguishing features that are so prevelant on land are not so underwater. So while Stanton was nicely minding his own business looking for fish, Christy, thinking it was Keidi, attacked Stanton. I wish I could have been there for that. I wish I could have captured the look on my brother's face. It must have been classic.

Christy (on top) finds and attacks the right person

Other than that, our dive was pretty uneventful. We when to the turtle cleaning station but didn't see any turtles there. That was kind of disappointing. The only real cool thing we saw was a small white tip reef shark. Unfortunately the water was a little dirty because of all our activity trying to get a look at it and it stirred up a bunch of sand and other debris.

Can you see the shark? Me neither...although it's right in the middle

To see the rest of the dive pictures click here.