Monthly Archive for October, 2010

Page 2 of 3

Eye Eye Eye!

Published on October 15, 2010 in SUAR by taro. Closed

Well, the Hawaii 5-0 production was at Holy Nativity this friday evening and I can tell you they certainly made fans with many East Honolulu residents. It took me about an hour to get from Kahala Mall to home in Hawaii Kai, could have gone there and back on my bicycle. Had a hectic day at the Makitti opening, time only for a 7-11 sandwich somewhere around 3:30 and then hit the helacious trafic backup at the Kahala Mall merge.  Had all kinds of idiots cutting in line, driving along the left lane and into the intersection under the H-1 and then turning right, bypassing the right lane and right turn merge lane. Where’s Tehzaman when you need him. While stuck in traffic I get a trouble call from a site on both my personal phone and the company phone. Ugh, by policy I can ignore my personal phone, they’re not supposed to have that number, but I pull over at Aina Haina to call back on the company phone, only to listen to the phone ring twenty times. I’m in a pretty sour mood, and then the car won’t start despite the secondary ignition bypass switch I installed. Curses, and I don’t have my usual hot wire jumper. Eventually it starts, I reenter the traffic, and make it home. Sheesh. Dinner and a beer sure was good, time for another!

Oh if you’re wondering, the title is a reference to the mysterious signs you see at these productions directing staff where to go.

(0)

Nalgene Outdoor Multi Drink Bottle

Published on October 13, 2010 in Gear and Review by risu. Closed

NalgeneMD_cap_sipEver since the demise of my Camelbak Better Bottle, I’ve been waiting expectantly for the release of Nalgene’s entry into the straw-bottle market. The prototype began appearing online on gear blogs at the end of last year and trade shows at the beginning of the year, with the production model supposedly hitting the shelves by mid-year. For a long time they were vaporware and didn’t even appear as line items on order sheets. Only now are they starting to trickle into retailers. The bottle itself doesn’t even appear on Nalgene’s site at the time of this post! McBike just got their first shipment in, so here’s a brief rundown from a cursory inspection. The bottle itself is 600ml (20-ounce), and is about the same height as the standard 1-liter bottle, but has a reduced diameter. The mouth is the standard Nalgene “wide mouth”. The BPA-free plastic bottle is made in The USA. Continue reading ‘Nalgene Outdoor Multi Drink Bottle’

Xmas in October

Published on October 12, 2010 in Culture and rant by risu. Closed

Oct_xmasWTF?!  Pearl Highlands has their holiday decorations up already.  I took this picture on the 6th of October!

Meow Mix

Published on October 10, 2010 in Uncategorized by taro. Closed

P1020416You know, I thought they said cats can’t taste carbos and don’t care for it. When I put this empty bottle of Sam Adams Pumpkin Ale down, little shirokuro came over and started licking the bottle enthusiastically. I’m sure alcohol is not good for kitty so didn’t let her have any, but it was amusing to see.

BTW, the beer is actually pretty good. Fabio was dubious since an early experience with a Blue Moon pumpkin beer made him angry. I couldn’t actually taste any pumpkin, but could detect the faintest hint of the spice in the aftertaste.

Root’s Speed Shop-We Have Lifto!

Published on October 10, 2010 in car and Gear by taro. Closed

P1020408So both posts of the MaxJax are leveled and bolted down. Proceeded to hook up the electric hydro pump and start filling the resivour for the called for 9 quarts. Somewhere past 7 it overflows and I have a little mini spill. Not too bad, but I realize the 9 quarts must account for the volume in the cylinders and lines too so I plug in the pump and hit the power button. There’s a reassuring whine from the electric pump, no movement, but I can hear gurgling of fluid when I stop the pump. Just needs to get that fluid through everything, and running the pump some more the platforms finally start moving, and do some boingy action. Must be the air in the system. The fluid in resivour indeed has gone down, so I add fluid to top things off. It’s moving slow so I figure I should add the extension arms for some added weight and load to aid in bleeding the air. So I hit the release lever. I’m intent on watching the platforms lower and neglect to notice the growing oil puddle that has formed on the floor around the base of the pump. What I didn’t realize was with the air was taking up volume so too much fluid was returning to the resivour and backing out the fill cap. Oops, doing my own little BP here! Run to frantically scatter newspaper around to soak it up. Continue reading ‘Root’s Speed Shop-We Have Lifto!’

Root’s Speed Shop-Grind!

Published on October 9, 2010 in car and Uncategorized by taro. Closed

P1020294After two evenings of one hour grinding each with a air die grinder, I finally got the second post bolted down. Have yet to fill up the oil and fire it up yet, but the mounts for both posts are in now!

Lion Coffee 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Peaberry

Published on October 8, 2010 in Food and Review by risu. Closed

Lion_Blue_MountainWhoa!  What do I see here?

On one of the several weekly stops I made to Lion Coffee’s ‘Iwilei cafe and factory, I spotted something different in the premium rack.  The apparently managed to get their hands on some rare Jamaican Blue Mountain beans, and peaberries (single bean per berry) no less!  The vast majority of this production goes straight to the Japanese market, so it is rare to see it outside of Jamaica or Japan.  I’ve had Blue Mountain blends in Japan before, but being blends, they were unremarkable and indistinct.  Here was some 100% stuff, so now was the chance to taste what the fuss was all about.

Grinding a serving and brewing up a cup, the flavor was fantastically smooth but still richly full-bodied with a clean finish that left a hint of a chocolatey taste from the abundant oils.  Even simply handling the beans leaves a lingering dark chocolate aroma on your fingers.   The medium roast that was selected was perfect, bringing out the best flavor without any hint of bitterness or burnt taste.  Wow.  I’ll have to do a side-by-side with some Kona peaberry, but if my flavor memory serves me correctly, the Blue Mountain brings more flavor to the table while carrying less bitter baggage.  They’re both good, but they are different.  Now to find some Kopi Luwak… Continue reading ‘Lion Coffee 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Peaberry’

No Apple Napple

Published on October 7, 2010 in Food, rant, Review and SUAR by risu. Closed

Chikusho!  Kuso!  WTF?!  This is the worst Napoleon’s Apple Napple I’ve ever had!  POS!  MF-er!  There is no apple filling, but there is this sweet, white, grainy stuff inside that tastes suspiciously like coconut…  Darned part-timers!

(0)

Beer Is Good-Sam Adams Dunkelweissen

Published on October 5, 2010 in Food, Review and Uncategorized by taro. Closed

P1020293Picked up the Sam Adams harvest variety pack and this Dunkelweissen was the special edition one that caught my eye. Pours a cloudy brown with a moderate head, persistent carbonation. My sinuses are still suffering congestion, but the aroma has smokyness expected of the darkness, yet its not as strong as might be expected. There’s a citrusy tang and a touch of spice with a bit of bitter taking over, and then a pretty clean finish. I like this, I definitely could get into this beer. I’d almost call it a Hoegarten dark. I give this a solid 3, maybe even 3.5 out of 4 unfiltered monkeys. The only thing holding me back is I can’t trust my lack of nasal capacity.

Poor implementation

Published on October 5, 2010 in SUAR by snm. Closed

If you want an example of poor implementation of technology, check out the electronic directory boards on the third floor at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center. It’s a case of old school paper/poster far superior to expensive LCD board. For one it displays each level of the center a page at a time, you have to wait the designated seconds for the screen to scroll to the next level. Looking for a shop, you’re likely to stand there looking though all four pages, and then some because it’ll go past your screen by the time you look through the listing and find your store and the legend code. Have fun finding store if you don’t know its name. Once you find it, the screen scrolls off, so you wait for all for screens to scroll by again. And then you see the screen, frantically look for the legend code on map, then stare at map to try & figure out where you are since it’s not marked, the screen scrolls away so you sit for yet another four screens, and then try to figure which way to go since the map is not oriented in the position you are standing. It’s a frustrating mess!

(0)