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Best Places to Work in Hawaii

The HawaiiBusiness magazine published their annual Best Places to Work issue for 2008. You have to buy the printed version for the complete writeups of the various businesses, but the online version has some interesting tidbits including #1 Xerox Hawaii, a photo gallery, 7 Things Employees Love, and a self assessment of your work place.

Who knew working at a law firm could be fun? #3 in the “Small” category. I guess having a picnic at Secret Island and going on a sunset cruise is fun. Maybe it’s that average annual salary of $84,838 that’s fun or the 61% female employees? I must say though, the firm does look like it is culturally diverse.


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War on Top Chef

The perennial favorite Top Chef challenge, Restaurant Wars, got a change up this season, converting to Wedding Wars. Top Chef teams catered wedding dishes according to the tastes of the bride and groom, but for the groom’s team, Wedding Wars broke down into flat out war.


The team of Dale, Lisa, Nikki, and Spike never gelled and was easily the losing team. The current Chefs admitted to watching previous seasons of Top Chef, but Nikki must have missed Restaurant Wars from Season 3. That’s the one where Tre, the Executive Chef for the team, was eliminated for not acting like the Executive Chef. Even with her Italian food expertise, Nikki didn’t guide the team to victory preparing Italian dishes for the groom. You know Head Judge Tom Colicchio ain’t down with Executive Chefs not stepping up.

The groom’s team was an eclectic crew, and I need to get video footage as they stood at Judges’ table. Their body language was a telltale sign. Dale went ballistic for right or wrong, Lisa was her bitter angry self, Spike didn’t help the mix, and Nikki simply went along for the ride.

Although I must say this episode was probably my favorite of this season. The Quick Fire and Wedding Wars were interesting challenges. More time was spent showing the personalities of the chefs although none of them are still fan favorites. In fact, I think most of the chefs really dislike each other more than other seasons.

The show’s producers must realize this lack of fan support as well. How else can you explain the recent “What is Padma Wearing?” addition to the Top Chef website? How does this improve the culinary aspect of the show?

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Pulpy Stats for 2008

Haven’t done one of these for awhile now, so just catching up with Pulpconnection stats for 2008. According to SiteMeter, Pulpconnection has had 86,458 visits over its entire lifetime. Hmmm, 100K visits coming up…

According to Google Analytics…

Top performing content in 2008.

  1. /2007/09/abercrombie-fitch-models.html
  2. /2005/10/listmania-hottest-local-newscasters.html
  3. /2007/02/liking-these-air-force-ones.html
  4. /2005/11/tasha-kobashigawa-this-is-my-final.html
  5. /2007/11/julianne-hough-went-stay-fut-on-dwts.html
  6. /2005/10/pau-listmania-hottest-local.html
  7. /2006/05/high-tech-kicks-for-ballin.html
  8. /2006_09_01_archive.html
  9. /2007/04/kathy-muneno-joining-khon.html

So the best content for 2008 wasn’t written in 2008.

Top keywords.

  1. tasha kobashigawa
  2. kathy muneno
  3. justin cruz hawaii
  4. jandi lin
  5. julianne hough swimsuit
  6. stephanie lum
  7. cindy paliracio
  8. diane ako
  9. shari shima
  10. kobe hyperdunks

Hawaii-based newscasters still rule. “Club 939” came in at #17 after “heelys for adults.”

Top traffic sources.

  1. google / organic
  2. images.google.com / referral
  3. (direct) / (none)
  4. blogger.com / referral
  5. cctwt.blogspot.com / referral (thanks Tabasco Man!)
  6. images.google.ca / referral
  7. yahoo / organic
  8. truemors.com / referral
  9. images.google.co.uk / referral
  10. hokumi.blogspot.com / referral

Alltop.com came in at #28 as a traffic source, way behind Truemors.com.

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Mario Misses the Mark on DWTS

Yup, the youngest competitor of Season 6 of Dancing with the Stars, Mario, was eliminated in Week 8. Mario and Karina Smirnoff were right on the verge of the Semi-Finals, but the pair plateaued, and it was their time to go.


That also means Marissa Jaret Winokur is moving on along with Kristi Yamaguchi, Jason Taylor, and Cristian de la Fuente. I can’t believe Marissa’s huge turnaround from the beginning of the series. Even with all her improvements, I have to take a chauvinistic stance and say that Marissa simply can’t win due to her physicality. She can dance, but lacks that natural elegance of a championship dancer.

Here’s a short clip from this week’s mambo illustrating this point. Do her back and front kicks look stunted to you?


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Beat It and Balance on Dancing with the Stars

As Dancing with the Stars heads to the Semi-Finals, the judges introduced a rule exception allowing lifts during performances. What a wily move. The dancers were so excited to do lifts that it threw off the emphasis on dancing, except for one couple.

On Week 8, the one-armed Cristian de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke tangoed and mamboed their way to the top of the leader board. Simply amazing without the use of Cristian’s left arm. What this handicapped forced the couple to do was focus on the dancing to mask this disadvantage. While Crisitan and Cheryl did manage to incorporate lifts into their performances, they were well suited and well placed. Lifts weren’t just done to wow the judges and the crowds. For this balance, Cristian and Cheryl were rewarded.

Also, Cheryl Burke took it back to Season 2 in 2006 for an inspirational comeback in Season 6. In Season 2, Cheryl partnered with Drew Lachey to revolutionize DWTS with a paso doble to MJ’s Thriller. Let’s take a trip down memory lane…

With Cristian’s diagnosed ruptured tendon, Cheryl looked to Michael Jackson and choreographed a masterpiece to “Beat It.” Let’s rewind to last night…

Mario and Marissa Jaret Winokur have plateaued. They’ve come far, but I think the journey is at its end for the both of them. This would leave a finals of Cristian, Jason Taylor, and Kristi Yamaguchi. This is probably an appropriate Finals, but Cristian has a huge handicap with his injury.

Speaking of Jason and Kristi, their recent scores have fluctuated, but that’s probably a good sign. Instead of merely working on their dancing skills and techniques, they are expanding their repertoire and feeling out the judges. What works, what doesn’t, what do the judges approve and disapprove of. These couples are gearing up for the Finals.

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Sunday Brunch at Halekulani

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So you spend time watching what you eat, trying to exercise when you can, and getting shown the results through HealthPass. How do you celebrate? You pig out at Sunday brunch at Orchids in Halekulani!!

All hotel brunches are expensive, and this brunch is probably the costliest around, BUT the food is so good! The variety and freshness of all the dishes are all top notch (this is Halekulani after all). You can’t beat the service, not only at the restaurant, but from the entire hotel staff starting with the friendly and fast valets.

Back to the food. Check out the slideshow for more pics of gut busting decadence.

And oh yeah, any outing is an open invitation for any LOST members to attend. I was delighted that Sonya Walger decided to take up the offer and came to brunch. Sonya plays Penelope Widmore on LOST and appeared as Michelle Dixon on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Unfortunately, I didn’t want to bother Ms. Walger during a meal since that’s a celebrity no-no, so I don’t have a good pic. Instead LOST fanatics have to settle for this LOST-arazzi shot.

From Brunch at Halekulani

The photo album also has pictures from the new Waikiki Beachwalk area and the huge Kapahulu Safeway.

PepsiStuff Promotion Getting Desperate?

Maybe it’s part of the promotion strategy, or maybe PepsiStuff is getting desperate, or maybe people are thinking PepsiStuff is a rip. Whatever the reason, the program is giving away 5 free Pepsi points at PepsiStuff.com. All you have to do is enter an email address and verify the letters you see on the screen. Then you’re immediately given a code valid for 5 points.

pepsi-stuff-free-mp3
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Five points is good for one MP3 download from Amazon. And I think you can sign up using various email addresses but from different computers. It looks like the system tracks if your computer participated in this promotion.

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Succeed with HMSA HealthPass

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Are you a member of HMSA? Do you take advantage of their free HealthPass screening service? Once a year, you can survey your overall health and see where improvements can be made with physical activity, weight management, stress management, and nutrition.

One of the interesting aspects of HealthPass is tracking your body measurements over time. During HealthPass sessions, your weight, body fat, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and more are recorded and compared to previous years.

Some stats. This year I’m 4 pounds less than last year but 6 pounds more from 1995. Body fat is the same as last year but 4% more as recorded in ’95. Cholesterol level in 95 was 130, last year 163, this year 157. My HDL level was 35 last year but 43 this year (40 or higher is good).

Bangkok Chef is Awesome

If you’re ever in the Nuuanu area or just craving great Thai food, go to the hole in the wall that is Bangkok Chef. Seriously, this place is built like a garage, but the food is awesome.


We always get a curry (red, yellow, or green) and the pad thai. A new favorite is the chicken larb. I’m not sure what’s in it, but it’s larbilicious. The portions are huge, lasting a few meals and ooh, the different tastes. The curriers are the right blend of creamy, spicy, crunchy, soft, and flavorful.

If you agree, why not leave a review over at WeGoEat.com?

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