Peaceful 'Ohana
Hawaii
Hitting the Sweet Spot with Amazon: Free Shipping to Hawaii
Jun 30th
For those of us living in Hawaii know, when sites say “free shipping” they often don’t consider Hawaii as part of that. And for some reason, many of their shipping methods then change from 2-3 day to only overnight express for $20 or more, making that sweet deal of $5 HMDI cables look pretty crappy.
That’s why so many locals love Amazon. If you spend $25 per order from Amazon (and not on their “other” merchants selling within Amazon), free shipping includes Hawaii!
So, how can you get every order to be $25 or more when you only want a book for $19.99? What about some of the other THOUSANDS of things that Amazon sells- clothes, toys, games, soaps, food, movies, etc. Surely there’s something there you could use to save yourself the $5 shipping charge. Just get to $25 and free shipping.
One of my favorite sites for finding good deals is 
Slickdeals.net”>Slickdeals.net – lively discussions, free alerts for keywords (like “Amazon”, “slack guitar”, or “Wii”), and their sister site SlickFillers.net. With Slickfiller you type in the amount needed to get to $25 ($5.01 in this case), and it will present a list of qualifying items from Amazon you can add to your cart. Slick! So instead of spending that $5 on shipping, you got a “free” children’s coloring book or stickers.
Celebrating 50 Years of Diversity: East-West Center
Jun 7th
Intercultural weddings bring together a weaving of styles and traditions that may be strange at first to those unfamiliar. Right now, the East-West Center gallery is currently running an exhibition on Wedding Ceremonies around Asia-Pacific. Highlights include weddings from China, India, Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. This “Golden Ceremony” exhibit is part of the 50th Anniversary for the Center, created in 1960.
The gallery, located inside Burns Hall on the University of Hawaii Manoa Campus, is open weekdays 8-4:30pm. Paid parking is available through UH. If you can’t make it to the gallery, you can check out some of the images virtually.
New Baby Expo: This weekend!
May 14th
We’ve been to the New Baby Expo at the Blaisdell Center a couple of times. Lots of interesting exhibitors, stuff for toddlers to do (like visits with TV characters — my son met Curious George!), and even a crawling contest for babies. It’s happening again this weekend, May 15th and 16th. If you sign up for their newsletter you get the chance to win free tickets and learn about the event in advance.
See you there!
What could be more Hawaiian: Spam-flavored Mac Nuts!
Apr 18th
Imagine the look on your friend’s face when you bring them a bit of Hawaii with these new Spam(R) Macadamia Nuts! (Travels better than Spam Musubi’s!)
Got kids? Got iPhone? Got apps?
Jan 27th
Count Caddy app by Tickle Tap Apps
Looking to keep your child entertained and even have them learn something while you get a break? Have you considered how handy some of the iTunes apps for iPhone are? Following up on my previous discussion of “Kid-friendly iPhone and iPod Touch” is a review of another dozen apps for toddlers I’ve written on the Hawaii Mac Apple User Society (HMAUS) website: “More Great iPhone Apps for Toddlers“. With most apps under $2, isn’t it worth getting a couple of minutes of “quiet” time?
And related:
Need to unwind yourself? Check out “Zen Apps for iPhone/iPod Touch“
Tour of Kaiser's Moanalua Labor and Delivery Ward
Aug 4th
With Masako approaching her 8th month, we wanted to see the facilities where we plan to deliver our new son. For our first child, Mason, we were with HMSA and delivered at Kapiolani on Punahou. It was a fine delivery, very nice room, great staff, no problems. 
So, after we switched health plans to Kaiser we wanted to see what theirs was like. They recently had renovated the Labor and Delivery Ward, and it shows. It’s really very nice. We joined a tour of the facilities with about six other couples. (Note: if you take the tour, be prepared to stand for a while. You may want to bring some water with you also.)
More >
Bodies: Fascinating or disturbing…
Jan 13th
For months now, Honolulu has been hosting the “Bodies” exhibition; where previously live bodies were “rubberized” and dissected for your viewing pleasure. While it can be fascinating to learn the parts of the human body and what they look like dissected, I’m not sure I’m so comfortable about this being an exhibition. (And apparently so are many other people here in Honolulu — the exhibit seems to be lasting longer, and ticket prices keep getting reduced.)
The exhibition is controversial for reasons that include where the bodies come from and how China is making a “business” out of mummifying body parts.
What are your thoughts on the exhibition: cool or criminal? (And where are the PETH (People for the Ethical Treatment of Humans) during all this…? )
[Learn more: wikipedia, Bodies web site, HonoluluAdvertiser]
Between2Worlds: This weekend at UHM
Jan 11th
This from Don Brown about today’s interesting “UH Healing World Film Series” movie:
Between2Worlds
Dir: Jose Jaramillo. U.S./Mexico 2008 118 min
According to the Mayan Prophecies, humanity has always stood between the Old World of technology, money, power and control and the New World of peace, love, unity, harmony and balance with nature. These prophecies assign humanity the task of balancing these two worlds before the end of the Mayan cycle in 2012. This film contends that the secret of the Gregorian calendar, codified after the “Doctrine of Discovery” ( which sanctioned the Christian Church to seize any land owned by non-Christian peoples} led into the codification of the calendar to control subjects for economic purposes Mayan scholars and a Mayan Shaman Aumrak reveal why the calendar of the Old World was created to keep people in a perpetual state of control. It invites us to use a natural way of counting time, as the Mayan calendar does, to foster a greater understanding of the spiritual evolution throughout human history; to help us align ourselves toward an enlightened state of consciousness at the end of the Mayan Cycle in 2012.
Check out the trailer: www.youtube.com
Sunday, January 11 at 5PM
$5/$3 University of Hawaii – Manoa campus
Further info: (808)223-0130
FREE PARKING ON SUNDAY
Vote… for a CHANGE!
Oct 29th
Early voting in Hawaii started October 21st. You can vote in several locations, including right on UH-Manoa campus, which uses electronic voting machines with paper reports.
The process takes just a couple of minutes; have your HI state drivers license ready. Then fill out some information: social, birth date, name, etc. They’ll check you in, give you a special “access” code, and help you with the voting machine. (“It’s not a touchscreen, use the wheel to move through the choices.”)
In this General Election there’s some really important issues being decided besides President of the US, including Major of Honolulu, and if steel-on-steel rail is where the city/state wants to spend its money for the future.
Get your vote in early and avoid the long delays. Typically Hawaii doesn’t have great voter turnout, however, with an old Punahou student running for President, Obama might just help turn those numbers around… Vote… for a CHANGE! (And tell your friends and family to, too!)
Interesting Article: "Alaska vs. Hawaii"
Oct 7th
Slate has an interesting article comparing the media’s perceived bias that Alaska is more “all American” than Hawaii: “Alaska vs. Hawaii: Why is Seward’s Folly the “real America” and the Aloha State not?”
Hmmm…