hawaii
What the Pho?
What the heck? There’s an actual restaurant called What the Pho?
Yes, yes there is. You can’t make this stuff up!
Seen Over the Weekend
Pictures of things I seen over the weekend.
Foot Locker is making its upstairs return at Ala Moana. Right now, Foot Locker is in the dungeons of the mall.
Here’s an inside peek.
It is true! Build-a-Bear is no longer.
Season or series finale for Janie and Jack kids clothes? This store is looking kinda bare inside. Supposedly it’s to get rid of last season’s stuff, but you never know.
“In Loving Memory…” Humor
You seen those cars with a rear windshield tribute to a departed loved one, right? Check out this joker.
It says, “In Loving Memory of My Youth.” 🙂
Eat That Watermelon!
On Saturday, the extended fam headed to the Hawaii State Farm Fair at the Bishop Museum for some sun and fun. Like last year, the crowds were in full force even though we got there early. We became members of the Bishop Museum to bypass the long line for tickets.
Along with the kinda scary Backyard Monsters insect display, there were farm animals, kiddie rides, and all kinds of food. Here are some pics.
The highlight of the day had to be the Watermelon Eating Contest starring our own family prankster. While he’s not playing tricks on family members, triathlon training, or watching an Alien Ninja beatdown, he’s been known to win some eating challenges. Not the professional competitions, but don’t try to take him on. He’ll handily beat you as the crowds of the Hawaii State Farm Fair witnessed.
Let you witness the domination as well.
Watermelon Eating Contest at the Hawaii State Farm Fair 2009 from Gee Why on Vimeo.
Yes, the challenge wasn’t even close, and yes, that guy in black did upchuck pink puke! If the timing is right, maybe the reigning champ can defend his title next year. Time to start the hype!
Update: the lone female in the contest is none other than Martha, a contributor of ShareYourTable.com where she blogs her experience at the Farm Fair.
Homeless’ House
Not trying to be mean to Hawaii’s homeless or anything, but I was somewhat impressed with this getup.
Vote in Honolulu Weekly’s Best of Honolulu
Lookee, lookee, Honolulu Weekly has its annual readers’ poll asking for the Best of Honolulu. There are many subsections of the poll, but under the heading of “The Medium,” there are some pulpy topics like:
- Best Twitterer
- Best use of social media
- Best local blog
Hmmmm, I wonder how’d I vote for these? For Best Twitterer, I have three choices: @ryankanno, @neenz, and @hawaii (they all influence me according to Klout). But I think my nod would have to go to @neenz for the sheer volume of useful and aloha-spirited tweets she publishes.
Best use of social media would have to go to KGMB9 News. Within the past year, this news station blitzed the social media landscape getting workers to blog and now tweet. The recorded and streaming news broadcasts are cool, and of course, you can’t overlook their interactive News at 5, getting input from the Twitterverse.
Best local blog… Um, of course, I’d have to push pulpconnection.net. That’d be a no brainer, but if I can’t vote for my own work then I have to go with the aptly named Hawaii Weblog. Ryan Ozawa has been blogging the Aloha State and Beyond forever, and his coverage of Hawaii-based issues is always excellent.
What about you? How would you vote? Go ahead and make your choices.
For your ballot to be considered complete, you need to fill in at least 10 entries from the entire poll. All votes must be submitted by July 31, 2009.
And don’t forget to vote pulpconnection.net for best local blog. 😉
Hawaii’s Mean to the Homeless
Now here’s an interesting distinction… Hawaii is ranked the 8th city meanest to the homeless. I didn’t know such a stat was tracked. But if our state is going to be in the top 10, why not shoot for the top stop?
Maybe we can tap the homeless for some pee power.
How about making a picture book or web site of our homeless? Now that would be mean.
As a side tangent is the Mango Man really still with us or not? There are conflicting reports of his whereabouts. There is a guy that sure likes the Mango Man in Kailua, but is it the original Mango Man?
And what’s with that homeless guy usually at intersections in Liliha? He usually wears Jordan brand clothes as he asks for donations. Those are some respectable clothes he got on.
What? Build-A-Bear Closed?
Wow, is that right? Did the Ala Moana location of Build-A-Bear close down? It seemed like we were just there! The Build-A-Bear store locator shows the nearest location is either San Mateo (2386 miles) or Santa Clara (2400 miles away).
Oh well, at least we have Luna Lamb and Ovejita.
Pecha Kucha Night Honolulu Volume 5 Coming
First off, what’s pecha kucha you ask? Here’s the definition from the Pecha Kucha web site:
Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show.
If you want to see pecha kucha presentations in action, you’ll get your chance very soon. The fifth installment of Pecha Kucha Night Honolulu happens next week on July 24, 2009 at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Academy Arts Center at Linekona. The event is free and starts at 7:30.
Among those on tap, Burt Lum aka Bytemarks is doing a presentation on his top 20 Social Media Geeks in Hawaii. Should be interesting!
Did Some Damage Shopping Today
With an upcoming family member’s wedding coming up, we had some serious shopping to do in preparation. Was at Ala Moana for several hours and did some damage!
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Just a note but finding matching pants for a jacket isn’t so easy. And pinstripes are in now, making a match that much harder.
Besides shopping, I learned that Shirokiya changed its food vendor so lots of the goodies you enjoyed over the years are no longer. The new food selection is geared towards buying a bunch of things to make up a meal. There are still self contained bentos, but many of the offerings are partial dishes. And when did tonkatsu without rice cost $11?!
At Nordstroms, I spied mixed martial arts fighter, Egan Inoue, hanging out. Later on, I saw the creative services crew of KGMB9 finishing their lunch break. Yeah, Troy Siruno’s glasses are distinct and look exactly like his Twitter avatar.
The shopping was so epic I had to juice up twice during the day, once from Starbucks and another time from the eBar at Nordstroms! Maybe that’s why I can’t sleep now…
Update: Troy also blogged this encounter on his KGMB9 blog where he details his Oakley custom glasses.