I'm moving to Word Press

So I’ve decided to move to word press. I recently got this new blog software that should make created blogs a little easier (so maybe I can blog more often...) but it doesn’t do pictures really well. It does however seem to work well with word press so I’m making the change.

Please go to http://pastorscottsthoughts.wordpress.com for further reading pleasure.

New Blogs I'm Excited About

So I’ve been a church employee now for the past 7 years or so and during that time I’ve worn several different hats. When I first started I was an intern in charge of the college ministry. Then after two years of that I did the college ministry and I also worked on the maintenance crew outside with Uncle Augie (20 hours each). Then, they moved me to the Singles ministry (where I met my wife Keao). Then in addition to the Singles ministry I also took the job of operations manager. But they gave that portion of my job away so I picked up the Sports ministry (still following?). Finally in the last year I did the Singles (and expanded it to include Couples too), the Sport ministry, Community Service and now my fourth hat IT. I did this all in the span of 7 years.

Of all the things I’ve done, I think I may be least qualified to do the IT. I mean, I like computers and everything but I really have very little formal training on all things related to computers. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time online. Who knows?

One of the first things I’ve been doing recently is trying to get our staff more in tuned with technology and keeping their webpages fresh and with new content. I’m also encouraging them to use more social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogging.

Every once in awhile, I’ll say something good and you know what? People are listening. We now have two more staff members starting blogs. I hope they keep it up (I’m subscribing with my Google reader). So without further ado, if you’re interested, here are our two latest staff blogs.

http://carlmoore.posterous.com/

http://alcolleenkalama.posterous.com/

http://stanton808.posterous.com/

Starting March Off Right

Here's the latest installment of our Ignite monthly newsletter. So far so good. Two months and two newsletters (I started in February, not January). If I can keep up this pace we'll be in good shape.

Avatar v. Pocahontas

So after everyone told me how good Avatar was Keao and I finally caved in and saw it. Don't get me wrong, I did want to see it and we probably would have seen it anyway regardless of whether it was recommended or not. It's just that everyone was recommending it so much I got a little wary (similar to how everyone raved about the first Pirates of the Caribbean).

After seeing it in 3-D (or at least I think it was 3-D, hard to tell with double vision) I can honestly say I thought the story was okay, but the graphics were amazing. I mean, the world of Pandora that they created was visually stunning. The story though I thought was a little cliche and a little new-agey.

With that said, I stumbled on a paper written by Matt Bateman that sums up my thoughts about the story of Avatar (and I'm sure most of you have already seen this little gem as it did make its way around the internet).

Matt's now famous paper

So there you have it. Avatar is a futuristic copy of Pocahontas (and I'm sure a ton of other stories as well). This paper made me laugh out loud, but today I stumbled upon something even more funny than this paper. Somebody had taken the audio of the Avatar trailer and superimposed scenes from Pocahontas over it. Guess what? It matches up perfectly. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself!

Video Newsletters

So I've decided I'd like to commit to making video newsletters every month this year. Partly to inform people what's happening with Ignite, but also to just fool around with a camera and to see if I can do it. I read somewhere that if you consistently change your website (or keep it somewhat fresh I suppose) then people will tend to look at it on a more regular basis. I don't know about you, but since I haven't received many comments lately, I would have to conclude that either my content isn't fresh enough for anyone to comment on anything or simply, no one looks at this blog anymore. Not that it matters though, I write mainly for me and for posterity's sake.

This month I employed Matt as a camera man and we shot this video in one take right after boot camp (well after I rested and got my heart rate back to normal). I then took about 3 hours to edit it down to 1:40. I can't believe it took that long! Hopefully in the future I can get the editing time down a bit so I don't spend so much time on it.

Anyway, without further ado, here's my very first video newsletter:

What Could Have Been...

A few years ago Kess Wilson got married. Now it's not that big of a deal that he got married, I mean people get married all the time right? Well, Kess is a member of our church and naturally he got married at our church campus. Now, I'm not that close with Kess so I wasn't really invited to his wedding (nor was I expecting one) but Kess' brother is none other than Dean. If you don't know Dean Wilson, he is a Castle High School graduate and one of the most successful professional golfers from Hawaii.

So where am I going with all of this? Well my wife, Keao, is the wedding coordinator at our church and she told me about the wedding. She also mentioned that Dean would be Kess' best man. On Kess' wedding day, I was on the Big Island and so my only request to Keao was to get me an autograph from Dean. Did it happen? Alas, no. She said Dean was a rather imposing figure and she was too intimidated to ask him for an autograph. The most she told him was, "my husband's a big fan!"

Well at least he knows I'm a fan (although I'm sure he doesn't know who I am). So no autograph, no golf ball, nothing.

Fast forward to this year. The Golf Channel did a nice segment on Dean Wilson's home. I wasn't invited to that party either, but Kess is sporting a nice Hope Chapel shirt. Anyway, take a look:

Dim Sum Day!

Last week I got an invitation in my Facebook mailbox inviting me to an event called "Dim Sum Day". Now if you know me, you know that I absolutely love Chinese food and of all the Chinese food there is Dim Sum is probably at the very top of the list. So after accepting the invitation as fast as I could, all that remained was the countdown to the big day.

Well, today was that day and here are some pictures.

Chinese New Year is less than a month away so the Chinese Cultural Plaza was gearing up for the big holiday

Our restaurant of choice, Won Kee

Matt Kudo was the event organizer. We know each other from church and he's a great guy. Whenever he invites me to anything I always try to accept because he normally does really fun and exciting things. I've never eaten at Won Kee, but have passed it many times on the way to Legends (right next door). Was it as good as Legends? Take a look at some of the pictures.

Richard and Leah sample some of the wares

There were fourteen of us split over two tables

This was a first for me, chicken feet

More food including my favorite, deep fried taro puffs. We also had a sesame roll (the black thing on the bottom) and some sort of look fun wrapped pastry (top left)

Table 1: Irene, Matt, Kacie, Bryon, Grant, Caelly and Mel

Table 2: Matt, Art, Richard, Leah, Steve and Rachel

Overall, it was a great meal. I definitely tried things I never tried before thanks to Art who took over the ordering duties (he did a great job). I didn't realize how many varieties of dessert dim sum were. Congratulations to Steve too. For someone living on this island for 33 years, it was his very first time trying dim sum in a Chinese restaurant. Of course a special thanks to Matt who said he organized this get together because he "wanted to eat dim sum and [he] wanted to eat it with friends". I'm stoked he considers me a friend. Lastly, we all ate until our hearts content and the meal came out to $8 a person. Not bad, not bad at all.

...And Adios Means Good-Bye

The sign that welcomes patrons on Kapahulu Ave.

Well, it's official. The La Bamba era of Mexican food in Honolulu is over. For the past few years La Bambas has been a favorite spot for Keao and I. It's a place where we can get authentic Mexican food prepared by authentic Mexican cooks. A place where the service is friendly, the portions are generous and of course where take out is their specialty (mmm, that's sounds good, I'll have a take out please).

Of course since we heard the place was closing we had to have one final meal there. It was kind of sad knowing that we wouldn't be able to get the best guacamole on the island anymore along with such favorites as the nachos or lamb butaquitos. But I guess at some point all good things must come to an end.

This was truly a sad sight to see...

Apparently we weren't the only ones who heard about La Bamba closing, the line outside was huge!

Some of the other lucky patrons who already had a seat

The restaurant itself is quite small, it probably seats less than fifty, but when you only have one waitress named Dina, I'm sure fifty is quite enough. That night we brought a group of eleven and we took up two tables. We felt a little bad bypassing the line but hey, we had reservations so and we were about to eat some crazy good food so I guess in hindsight we didn't feel that bad at all (plus I had the super-VIP parking too!)

That's Dina in the brown shirt yelling something into the kitchen

Either everyone is really pleased (notice the thumbs up) or they're fighting to see who prays

Some of the authentic Mexican cuisine

Maybe it was the fact that they were closing or maybe it was just hunger, it seemed that everyone didn't hold back when it came to ordering. The popular orders for the night were the chimichanga plate (dos) with beans and rice and La Bamba's oversized burritos.

That's a burrito on the left covered with melted cheese

Ocha-san (Ted) seemed really excited about his burrito (but then again he's always excited about oversized burritos)

Notice how clean Ocha-san's plate is! No need even wash

Uncle David in the kitchen working his magic

By the time we left we were stuffed and a little sad. We're really going to miss this place. Keao and I loved it so much we even had our appreciation dinner here for everyone who volunteered at our wedding. We'll definitely miss the food, the charm and of course the excellent service. Good luck in the future La Bamba ohana and God bless