Otto Cakes

So around 15 years ago my good friend Tom-Tom was playing in a punk band called Grapefruit. During that time, Tom-Tom and Grapefruit were kind of quasi-celebrities in the local punk scene. He did tell me of a bass player in another band that made these incredible cheesecakes. I'm not too huge of a cheesecake fan, but based purely on Tom-Tom's recommendation I have always wanted to try one, but I just never got the chance.

Last month that all changed. Even though it's now 15 years later and Tom-Tom doesn't play with his punk band too much anymore, Otto is still making cheesecakes and he even opened up a store in Chinatown. Since I was in Chinatown last month and we happened to come across his store, I finally had a chance to try one of his much-heralded cheesecakes.

Otto's one-of-a-kind cash register



The cheesecakes of the day

Otto boasts 86 different flavors of cheesecake (no doubt a reference to his band the 86 List) and he normally posts the flavors of the day on his Twitter page. The flavors on the particular day that we went in there were: lemon blueberry, white chocolate chip, black forest, key lime, irish creme, plain, and cherry chocolate chip. It is a bit pricey at $5 a slice, so if you want a slice make sure you're getting the right flavor.

The menu board



Even the boxes are punk rock



Here's what $10 will get you (at $5 a slice)

Now I'm no cheesecake connoisseur. In face, truth be told, I'm not even that big of a fan, but I must say that Otto Cakes are pretty darn good. They're very rich so one slice may be good enough for two people and they're very heavy. If you're in the mood for a great cheesecake with a really good crust Otto Cakes may be the right choice for you.

If you're interested in stopping by and having a slice Otto Cake is located in Chinatown at 1160 Smith Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 and their phone number is (808) 834-OTTO

Go, Shorty. It's your Birthday

This might be better suited to my friend John's blog (it's about "how to get rich"), but here's a little list of things that you can get for free on your birthday. That's right. I said free!

Actually, I'm not sure if all of these are valid in Hawaii, as we seem to get ripped all the time, but they're worth a try (for whatever of these places you can frequent in Hawaii).

Without further ado, here's a link to the list from "Hey it's free" (and I believe it's updated regularly).

Aren't We Getting Too Old for this Sort of Thing?

Last night we took our friend Ted out to dinner. I know, I know, his birthday was in June and although we already went out once for his birthday the guy is so special we went out with him again. The place he chose was a small sushi restaurant, Kats Sushi.

They have all-you-can-eat-sushi for a very reasonable price (a little over $20/person) but there are some rules involved. First, only once order per person at a time (but that one person can order for the whole table) and second, you need to eat everything (including the rice). Anything not eaten will be charged to you. And, of course, being the competitive guys we are, we had to see who could eat the most sushi. So what did we eat? I'll let the pictures show you.

One one side of the table were the two Mikes, Kawakami and Worden

On the other side were the three Japanese guys (well, Kawakami was one the other side)

Round 1: maguro, hamachi, sake and unagi

Here's what I mean by everyone can order one type of sushi for the whole table. We all picked a different nigiri and they brought our five orders of it.

Round 1 concluded: hotategai rolls

Round 2: hokkigai and tako

Round 2 continued: spicy ahi and spicy salmon rolls

Round 2 concluded: spicy unagi rolls

About this time in our meal, we started keeping track of what we ordered so that we could make sure we got the most sushi for our dollar. We wanted to make sure we ate more than the cost of the buffet. Somewhere during this round I think we made our goal.

Here's the birthday boy enjoying another piece of sushi

Round 3: ebi

Round 3 continued: ikura and Hawaiian (ahi, shiso leaves and sprouts) rolls

Ikura is possibly my least favorite type of sushi. I only ate because everyone else was eating it. Ikura are fish eggs. When you're eating them they literally burst in your mouth. By burst, I mean they explode with a salty, fishy taste. Yuck. Good thing I'm a team player (and I didn't want to lose).

Round 3 concluded: spicy hamachi and salmon skin rolls

Here are the first two to drop

At the end of the third round the two Mikes threw in the towel. I wonder how they knew to sit together so they could quit together. Actually, Mike Kawakami never even made it out of the third round. That one lonely roll you see in the picture above is his. Ted ended up eating it.

John was the first on the Japanese side to drop out



Round 4: maguro and sake

We started round 4 with three competitors left. Notice there are only four pieces of maguro above? John quit after the salmon. We'll give him credit for completing half of the fourth round.

The last two standing

Ted and I actually had another order of saba nigiri but I forgot to take a picture. Overall, I think Ted came out the victor since he did eat Mike Kawakami's uneaten roll.

Final counts:

Ted: 19 pieces of nigiri and 9 rolls
Scott: 19/8
John: 16/8
Mike W: 14/8
Mike K: 14/7

My impression of the sushi was okay. It wasn't the best or worst I've ever eaten. The fish was good but the rice seemed a little mushy and heavily packed. It also tasted to heavily of vinegar for my liking. Plus, they make you order only one at a time and the night we went there was only one sushi chef so sometimes we had to wait a good 5-7 minutes before the next order appeared. When you're trying to eat as much as you possibly can those precious minutes only help you to get full. Of course for $20 it was a good deal and I would definitely eat there again.

We Got the Beat

So here we are in July already. Man, where did our year go? We're past the halfway point and I've only blogged like 4 times this whole year (and one post was about what I wanted for my birthday). It's not that I don't have things going on in my life or that my life has suddenly gotten very boring, rather my life has gotten busier and I think I've gotten lazier.

But last Saturday night we had a big shindig we called "We Got the Beat". It was a celebration of the 80's where everyone was encouraged to dress up, dance and sing along to a karaoke machine.

Here's what welcomed the party goers

The party planning committee (Matt's MiniChurch) did a phenomenal job in planning and executing the party. Matt and Lauren planned out the snacks, the games and everything in between. They even had a set up and break down crew to do everything.

The best part of the night was the clothes! I couldn't believe the number of people that actually came in costume. I would say around 90% of the people who came dressed up in one form or another. Ignite, our ministry, never ceases to amaze me.

Short and shorter

Ernest (on the left) arrived first in his short, risque shorts. I think he was going for some sort of Village People look. Not to be outdone, Michael showed up as Tom Cruise in Risky Business (which is funny because his daughter Haley kind of looks like Suri, Tom Cruise's daughter).

Even Haley got into the swing of things

A little later, Michael changed into something a little more Dirty Dancing-esque.

Caelly (left), Lauren (center) and Irene (right) share a song

When I asked Caelly what she was going to wear, she said "I don't know, something 80's-ish." I asked her how she knew it was 80's-ish and she replied, "My mom said it was 80's." Five minutes later, I asked Irene the same question and oddly enough, she gave me the exact same answer! She said, "My mom said it was 80's!"

And of course, what's a party without dancing? I can honestly say that I never saw so many good moves all in one place! Here's a video mashup of some of the better moves.

To view the rest of the pictures click here.

It's Never Too Early

So, I know my birthday isn't for another two and a half months, but I figured it's never too early to start throwing out those not-too-subtle hints. In case you're thinking about getting me something for my birthday, here's something you might consider.

More The Beatles: Rock Band News & Previews

Just a thought.

Boot Camp Update

So I've completed my second session of boot camp. You can read about my thoughts from the first session here. Now as all four followers of my blog probably already know, I really only did boot camp because I was in "biggest loser" contest with Lori Higa. The contest started at the beginning of the year and concluded on Easter Sunday. We bet $20 on who could lose the most overall weight (not percentage as I suggested) over those 14 or so weeks. I'll admit that I didn't try very hard for the first month and a half because I just figured that as an overweight guy I wouldn't need to try very hard. I could probably just exercise during the last month and beat Lori.

But still, I wanted to make sure I won so I enrolled in boot camp. After the first six week session, I did see some very real, tangible results so I set a goal to do at least three six-week sessions. Now I've completed two sessions and here are my results.

This is the previous measurement from March

As you can see, I was around 210 lbs (which was lighter than I have been in a long time) with a body fat percentage of 26.5% (which equates to around 56lbs of fat). Since the average male should be carrying around 20 lbs of fat I could still could stand to lose around 36 lbs of fat.

Here is the latest measurement.

Notice anything different?

So seven weeks later my weight has dropped to around 200 lbs (I actually got down to 199 lbs for a brief while which is lighter than I was in high school!) and my body fat percentage dropped to 19.1%. Also since I can carry around 20 lbs of fat around I now only need to lose 18 lbs more.

So to recap, boot camp is great! It's hard, but great. I would recommend it to anyone. In the 14 weeks that I've been a part of this program I've lost around 20 lbs of overall weight and roughly 32 lbs of fat. If I can do it (remember I was the guy who was passed out upchucking on the side of the parking lot during the first class) anyone can!

For more information about boot camp leave me a comment. Classes for men are on Tuesday nights from 7-8pm and Saturday mornings from 9-10am. The coed classes are Tuesday nights from 6-7pm and Saturday mornings from 8-9am. The cost is $60 per six week session. It's totally worth it.

Crazy Love

So the new book that our church leadership is going through is Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I haven't read it before, but I've heard some really good things about it (including a stellar review by my friend Chad who said it was in the top two books he's read). I was excited it read it but also a little nervous because I'm quite comfortable too.

So please join me on this journey. I'll be posting my thoughts as I read through the book both here and on our Ignite forum. Feel free to join the discussion that's happening on the forum. If you haven't picked up your copy of Crazy Love I highly suggest you do so. And now, without further ado, let's begin.

As I read the preface I already knew that this book would challenge me. After all, the opening quote rung so true with me, "to read the Bible, attend church and avoid 'big' sins--is this pi am not smartionate, wholehearted love for God?" Ouch! I mean, isn't that what we preach. Stay in your Word, stay connected to the church and don't screw up. If you do that then God will bless you and you'll live a prosperous life. But is that all it takes? Are we trying to avoid messing up so that when we get to heaven we'll be rewarded? Those are some heavy thoughts that makes me shift what I believe and how I want to live my life.

I really appreciate Francis Chan's open admission that his view of God was narrow and small (p. 20). I think most of our views of God are too narrow and small. He goes on to say that most of us view God as "a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis" (p. 22). I definitely can say that many times I fall into the trap of feeling that way. I feel that because I spent 10 minutes in the Word, I am completely justified in playing video games for 3 hours.

So as we go through this book, I am looking forward to being challenged and praying for God to change me (but let it be painless Lord!!!).

What are your thoughts? Join the discussion by clicking here.