How Do You Stir Your Morning Coffee?
After a day of continuous eating and giving thanks followed by a night of Black Friday (online) shopping and story watching, there is only one way to stir your morning coffee – with a Twinkie.
Life
Happy Turkey Day!
Happy Thanksgiving to all! Don’t eat too much, plan out your Black Friday buying, and just enjoy!
Now, can we start up the non-stop Christmas music on the radio stations?
Got My Juicies
It’s been a long journey for the Kickstarter-powered Juicies project. Started in 2011, Juicies goal was to bring colorful cables made out of recycled materials to the iPhone market. The colors were delicious, the price was right, and hey, Laurens from Hawaii was behind it all so why not back this project?
Then there was a string of manufacturing delays that Laurens explained in detail. Then Apple moved from the de facto 30-pin dock connector to Lightning. Juicies persevered with production and allowed backers to change cable types to a USB extension or a micro USB cable.
After a long wait, here are the results.
Love this display.
The box design deserves some attention and credit as well. No fuss, no muss but good looking.
What’s in the box is minimal and looks made out of recycled materials as well.
At long last, my Juicies cable in lime green. It was either green or orange, but I thought the green was more vibrant. Actually, the pink and purple colors had a good sheen on them as well.
Thanks Laurens! Oh yeah, he may have extra cables to purchase for the holidays.
Kamehameha Highway Decorated No More
Back in March 2011, I was enthralled with the newly decorated Kamehameha Highway in the Pearl City area. Only this week, my obtuse power of observation noticed that all the decorations are gone. I don’t know when it exactly happened, but I kinda miss the garish display.
Restaurant Week at Roy’s
Enjoyed the Restaurant Week promotion at Roy’s. Well, dining at Roy’s is always a treat, but a great meal at a great price is even greater.
Troubleshooting Wooslider
Some time back, I was looking for a responsive slider WordPress plugin for Pulpconnection. The thought is to highlight certain posts in a big visual display on the home page. Since the awesome Thesis theme includes the Feature Box, it seemed like this would be simple. I eventually found WooThemes’ WooSlider amongst many other sliders out there.
Only recently, I’ve finally gotten around to incorporating WooSlider with my site but have run into problems. I can’t get it to work right. Well, it might be working, but I can’t see the results. I created this test slider page that’s supposed to display two sliders. Instead I see the outline of the sliders and not the pertinent images. Using Firebug to look at the code, I can see the HTML for the sliders.
Oddly enough, the dimensions for the slider images are strange.
The actual image size is 640×480 pixels, so I don’t understand the 0x0 pixels. But this could very well be the root of the problem since the slider is showing images 0x0 pixels in size. I came across this Stack Overflow article that seems related, but um, I don’t understand how to implement the “call to initialise flexslider.”
I have this problem with versions 1.0.4 and 1.0.6. Any tips?
Describing Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2
How do you describe the final chapter of the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn Part 2? Guest blogger and Twimom, Jessica, offers up these words.
We were screaming and covering our faces … in utter disbelief!
It was soooo exciting.
We cheered… I cried… I loved… It was just the perfect ending.
They fixed everything that was wrong with the book. It was my least favorite book of the series but I think that this movie might just be my favorite of the series.
So what’s your reason for not watching Breaking Dawn Part 2?
Pictures from the Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 Early Screening
I wrote my observations of Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 already, and here are some pictures from this early screening. Thanks again to the Red Band Project for this opportunity!
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Because Every Kid Needs to Know…
It’s just not right that kids of the near future will not know what Twinkies, Ho Hos, and Ding Dongs are. Because of Hostess’ bankruptcy and impending liquidation of assets, the future of Twinkies looks bleak (or does it?). I’m not taking chances and stocked up for one last sugar rush so that my kids and nieces and nephews know the lore of a Twinkie (also, these make for a fun stocking stuffer).
Currently, Sam’s Club is well stocked.
I’m also glad I bought my Twinkie the Kid shirt when I had the opportunity.
Rodarte Design Hits Starbucks (and Me)
When I walked into Starbucks this morning, I had to stop because of this display.
The entire store had been redone in holiday red, but this display with lime green, silver, and shades of grey hit me hard. What are these? These belong to a design collaboration with Rodarte.
These diffusion, pixelated pattern items are limited to the Holidays and is the first design partnership for Starbucks.
I had to touch each item and stopped myself from buying any of them. There’s a tumbler, a tote bag, a gift card, and a reusable cup sleeve (which was already sold out).
My only salvation from not buying any of the urban camo-like items? The ceramic makeup of the travel tumbler. The Rodarte tumbler is not metal or plastic, and I’m afraid the ceramic just won’t last. Or maybe it’s my will power that won’t last, caving way first.
If you can’t make it down to a Starbucks, you can also purchase these Rodarte items online by clicking on the image below.
The Twlight Saga Ends with Breaking Dawn Part 2
So the end of the Twilight saga is finally here with Breaking Dawn Part 2 releasing to the public this week. Thanks to the Red Band Project, I got to see an early screening of the awaited final chapter. I won’t give away any spoilers, and I won’t be doing a review (I’ll leave that to Myong of Nonstop Honolulu). Instead, I’ll list some of the things I picked up on.
Old People Like Twilight Too. Twilight ain’t only for the tweenagers. In fact, on this night, Twihard fans in the theater averaged over 30 years old is my guess. Sure there were a few kids, some in their 20’s, but by and large, viewers were older, much older. Both genders were about equally represented as well.
The Art of the Closeup. I can’t recall how many closeup shots and scenes there were in the movie. It begins with this (which I thought was very effective).
But after a few too many closeups, I tired of this motif. Bella and Edward’s intimate scenes I can understand the use of closeups to show but not show their ravenous desires.
What Was Not Said. The ability to communicate without speaking was used and abused in Breaking Dawn Part 2. Just by touching, the gifted vampires and Renesmee Cullen could convey so much yet not say a word. Telepathy, visions, mind reading – too convenient. Although Alice’s final vision provided closure to one storyline.
Weird Aging. Speaking of Renesmee, the special effects to depict her at different ages was just weird. Enough said.
Finally Sparkly Skin. After four movies, Breaking Dawn Part 2 finally got the vampire sparkly skin just right. Maybe it’s Bella’s frosty complexion that more naturally compliments her vampire derma. Not sparkling, but why is Emmett Cullen so white?
The Abs of Team Jacob. From New Moon through Breaking Dawn Part 1, Taylor Launter’s physique and popping abs were showcased. In Part 2, Team Jacob keeps his clothes on except for that one scene with Bella’s dad, Charlie. Get ready to oogle about 20 minutes into the movie. Besides, the movie isn’t about Jacob’s body but his emotional connection with Bella, now Renesmee. You buying that? I didn’t think so.
The Credits. Okay, if you can resist tearing up during the introductory credits knowing this is the last of the Twilight story, you might actually wonder what the opening credits are showing. Is that blood, is that ice, is that flowers? What is all that imagery – representations of Bella’s transformation? I thought the font change from a serif to sans serif typeface was kinda cool but then again, I dig fonts.
The ending credits were sweet but long. Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years Pt 2 played appropriately since there was so much to cover during the credits. Showing all the characters and actors and actresses was a nice touch I thought. Okay, here is a spoiler for you. There are no bonuses after the final credits. This is the final movie after all.
The Field of Flowers. Ah the field, that field. In bloom during the spring or desolate in winter, that field tugs at the heartstrings of Twilight fans.
A Fragmented Sentence. While I found the movie overall entertaining, I kept thinking it felt like a fragmented sentence. There were things, people, and stuff yet the things, people, and stuff never really meshed for me. Yeah, it’s the second of a two-parter so just keep that in mind when you go see it. Just believe and roll with it.
It’s About Family. Forget about Team Edward or Team Jacob (and even Team Alice). This movie is all about the coven family. Humans, hybrids, immortals, shape shifters – the family bond overcomes all and holds everyone together. Ohana!
Get PSYCHE-d! That’s all I can safely say about a fantastic fight scene! Heads will roll!! How else do you kill vampires?
Go see Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 and let me know what you think.
Bonus
Pulpconnection reviews:
- Twilight Through Old Eyes
- New Moon, Better than Twilight
- 6 Blogging Lessons Learned from New Moon
- A Twimom’s New Moon Top Ten (from Jessica)
Guess I didn’t review Eclipse or Breaking Dawn Part 1 since I can’t find any review posts.
Wanna see past Pulpconnection posts for all things Twilight? Click here.
Update 11-16-2012: Myong’s review for Nonstop Honolulu is now available.
What’s NOT Popping at Windward Mall?
Despite all the action going on at Windward Mall, there is something that’s not popping. Sadly, the Star Advertiser is reporting that longtime mall tenant Marukai is closing its doors in early 2013. Yeah, I can’t believe it either, and I didn’t realize they were there for 10 years.
No matter your reason for being at Windward Mall, you had to stop at Marukai just to see what was there. How else would you know that Oreos are an international snack?
Not only are Oreos world renowned, but did you know they make a great instant latte drink.
And when regular canned coffee drinks are just not cutting it, where else can you find the Boss Rainbow blend?
Seriously, it’s this kind of uniqueness that makes Marukai a must-visit store. But alas, soon there will be no more as the death knell known as store-wide clearance sales empties out Marukai’s uniqueness.
Without Marukai and Don Quijote, where do Windward residents get their Asian items?