Candidate Match Game

Hubby and I just had a wonderful mini-honeymoon, photos will come later, but in the meantime, a friend of mine from my MBA program named Miku forwarded me on this really fun game from USAToday, which I normally detest for its banality and superficiality, but for the first time I am forwarding on. The quiz takes about 10 minutes and you can see which candidates matches you politically. If you go to the matrix view when you are done, you can run your mouse over each issue and see a blurb about what the candidates think. It is your Halloween Political Digest!

Candidate Match Game

Too bad none of my candidates have the slightest chance of actually winning.

Mike Gravel (D)
Kucinich (D)
McCain(R)

Post your results in the comments section if you want, would love to see how people match up.

A Business Plan?

Happy Birthday Ellie! My best friend from college is now 28 years old ( I am following suit in 9 days). Although it is only 4:10 here, it is already 11:00 in Japan, so I will ring her tonight when she is getting off of work (although she will probably be doing sake bombs with her beau in some swanky karaoke lounge in Toyko).

Ellie and I have been friends now for 10 years. God I am shocked. That means I have been friends with Sungi for 9 years, and friends with Habibi for 12 years. Nuts.

Hubby and I went to a Halloween party last night. He was a zombie and I was a banshee. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Two interesting things I would like to alert my dear readers to:

1) www.texasboarderwatch.com - while it has undergone its test period and now they are constructing the site for actual implementation, keep an eye on this site!

If you are ever board at home or at work, and feel like thwarting people who are far more miserable than you try to better their lives and scratch out a meager income on this earth, go to this website, watch the live camera feeds, and report any suspicious activity.

2) http://www.t-post.se Incredibly cool and subtle tee-shirts for news junkies. My husband and I comb a variety of papers each day and keep track of the news by refreshing every thing from CNN.com to aljazeera.net. These tee shirts only make sense if you know your news. For example:







And last but not least, here is an Interesting Contest from Intuit:
Intuit came out today with big news: a campaign encouraging you to start your own business. The “Just Start” campaign consists of several exciting parts: a way for you to tell your entrepreneurial story or dream online; a contest; a traveling exhibit visiting four major cities; and even free accounting software.


Intuit launched the IWillJustStart.com website. At the site you can submit your start up story, either in a short video or in text and have a chance to win 50,000. Remember all those late-night brainstorming sessions Habibi? Let's get some cash! Sungi, you should apply for this too!

notes from yesterday

Yesterday my husband, mother, and brother and I went up to Waimea for a Hawaiian Language and culture class. I was thoroughly disappointed.

I hadn't expected much as the class was free. The class was described as a language class in the newspaper, when I called it became a language and culture class, and then it was a listen to four guys sit around and play instruments. We were told we could ask questions, so I did, asking about the transmission of culture to the next generation, but then the instructor announced that enough questions, lets have them play music.

It was nice, but I am from Hawaii. I grew up with Hawaiian music. I was hoping to learn something. I think I might attend for one more class, but if it doesn't look like it is going to improve, I think I am going to not drive an hour to Waimea on Wednesday afternoons.

The highlight was seeing La`i Mitchell (well, now it is La`i Chong) and her new baby. She is still as gorgeous as ever, and her baby is adorable. We have solicited her to be the main character in a new short that we are filming. My father wrote it, it is horribly depressing, but since she has the biggest smile and the brightest blue eyes, it will be a nice contrast.

The film that Paul did a couple of week ends ago should be on YouTube soon. Will post the link when it is up.

Nanowrimo and Nightmares

For the first time in about 8 years, I have my Halloween costume organized before the 31st. If I haven't told you, it is still a secret, but I will post pictures and you will all be surprised by the subtle scariness I exude. Hubby and Paul will share the same type of costume, so I will post pictures of our ghoulishness.

I am going to participate in Nanowrimo this year. The last time I participated I was in Iowa, and I don't think I got very far. Basically, all participants have a goal to write 50,000 words of the novel that they have inside of them during the month of November. Anyone who finishes that word count "wins." My brother, mother, and I will be participating, while Hubby will use our think tanks and plot sessions to work on his own work.

The goal of Nanowrimo is to force people to produce. Because there is a word count and a time period, the whole point is for you to put things down on paper, and edit later. Most people get caught up in the idea that a first draft has to be ready for the publisher, but the whole point is to use December for editing.

I am having horrible nightmares, and I think it is because my brain has nowhere to channel all its energy, so it insists on killing me every night in one way or another, or at least making me watch horrific car accidents. I usually only get nightmares when I am emotionally stresses out, but I think that my brain is bored and doing this to me to give me a kick in the butt.

Cosi Bear

Sungi took a couple of pictures of my cats. They are just so great and look very professional. If you can't find a job, become a pet photographer ;)

For some reason, I really enjoyed this

Morning Walks

My knee has been really bothering me, and Hubby and I can't afford a gym, so all I can do for exercises is water sports and walking. Every morning, I walk 6 miles (takes an hour and half if that was going to be your next question). So from about 6:30 to 8 am. I listed to the NY Times Audio Digest (thank you Audible) for half of it, and the other half of it I listen to a book. Right now it is Water for Elephants, which is fantastic if any of you are looking for a new read.

My walks are always interesting. I see people paddle boarding, gorgeous sunrises, Ironman Triathletes training, etc. A couple of weeks ago I saw 6 police cars storm a house. 6 police cars and about as many policemen screeched to a stop in front of a house by the 3.5 mile marker, and they all drew their guns and banged on the door and finally busted in. I was walking (very fast) past the house cause I didn't want to get shot.

Today, as I walked past the same house that had been raided before, I looked down at the driveway and found a 1.5 inch X 1.5 inch zip lock baggy with a pill with powder in it stapled shut. The zip lock baggy had a superman design,like so:

So I picked it up and kept walking. And then, like a good citizen, I gave it to Officer Foster (he was the first policeman I saw that morning). I told him, that it could be aspirin for all I know, but the baggy and the fact that it was stapled shut, AND that I found it in front of a house that I saw stormed, well, made me notice it.

So on my way back I saw a crowd of people in the road and they were surrounding this poor biker in the middle of the street. The biker wasn't moving. Looks like he got hit by a car. I am not a gawker, or at least, not an obvious one, and I walked right past. About three minutes later, police cars and ambulances shot by me.

Hope he is okay.

Paul's Music Video Starring Cosi and Pista in their Musical Debut

NOBEL DISGRACE!

I can't write an email this time.

What is done is done.

Besides destroying the credibility of the actual award, a group of Norwegians have debased the work of Muhammad Yunus, Kofi Anan, and Doctors Without Borders.

Climate change is a threat to the environment, not to "peace" and international order. While there is an arguement that environmental strife could cause wars in the far future, you can not win a Nobel on a hypothetical.

I went to the Nobel website and looked at some of the reasons people have won this award. Some examples are below:

-efforts to create economic and social development from below
-efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way
-her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace
-efforts for democracy and human rights
-decades of untiting efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development

All have several things in common:

- the recipient sacrificed many things to achieve their goal
- the recipient helped alleviate pain and suffering

I don't think anyone would argue that Gore has helped alleviate pain and suffering. So lets talk about sacrifice and walking the walk.

Al Gore flies around in a private jet and lives in a 20-room eight bedroom mansion. In 2006 he spent $30,000 in electric and gas bills. I have no issue with private jets or mansions, I only have an issue when you manipulate people into thinking that you care and telling them that they should sacrifice, that they should loose their factory jobs because the United States should cut down on carbon your jobs. Then you go back to your house and turn it down to 73 degrees because of the heat of the Tennessee summer.

The movie is full of false facts and claims that were recently ruled by a British judge to incite fear. Not only that, they could not be played in schools unless they also talked about the other side of the debate. This sounds familiar no? (Creationism vs. Darwinism)

Like Bush, who mentioned yellow cake and terrorists every time he wanted to take away our human rights and invade other countries, Al Gore does the same thing to a different end: Win over masses who have lost healthy skepticism, and a desire for truth, even though have been repeatedly lied to by the government for the past 7 years.

I would like to point out here that I don't think we should polute, waste energy, and look for alterative and sustainable sources of fuel. I think we should cut our carbon emessisions as a country, even if it means cutting jobs. However, I don't need to be manipulated through fear of the future to know this.

Here are some of the most BLATANT LIES in The Inconvenient Truth

Gore claims that the rises in carbon dioxide and temperature over 650,000 years show an "exact fit". That's wrong, says Mr Justice Burton: there is a connection, but not a precise correlation.

Gore predicts sea levels rising by up to 20ft in the near future. Not so, according to the judge: that will happen only after millions of years. OUTRIGHT LIES MEANT TO SCARE PEOPLE (Bush bush bush bush)

Those low-lying Pacific atolls that Gore claims have been evacuated? No evidence.

Polar bears who drowned swimming to look for ice? Again, no evidence: four bears have drowned - but because of a storm.

Global Warming is just like a religion for atheists and agnostics, and Gore is the new tele-evangelist. To illustrate, I am going to substitute "God" for "Global Warming". You'll get the idea.

Gore stands up on stage, claims to know the future, have the key to our salvation, damns us sinful humans and our wicked ways, tell us we can change and we all have goodness in our hearts. He asks for money to support his cause , and spits out "proof" that "God" exists. He recruits, creates followers, who then go out and knock on doors and try to convince the skeptical and wicked ones who don't believe in "God" that they are wrong, and in fact, everything we need to know about "God" can be found in this movie called "An Inconvenient Truth."

Just like the scientists in the age of Copernicus, anyone who disagrees with "God" is ridiculed and accused of conspiring with the "Devil." (Let's make the "Devil" synonymous with "Corporations.") Although the scientists had the facts that the earth is round, revolves around the sun, etc, because it destroyed the foundations of "God," they were tortured or cowed into silence by the masses. Facts and the masses don't mix, but facts require a brain to digest them, and we all know the masses have no brains.

Here is a quote that my wonderful friend Stuart Schimler found, and it made me giggle.

"He's like the proverbial nut that grew into a giant oak by standing his ground," Patrick Michaels, a scholar with the free market Cato Institute, said in a statement. "We can only hope that he can parlay his prize into a run for the U. S. presidency, where he will be unable to hide from debate on his extreme and one-sided view of global warming."

Please fact check people! Here is more info on why Al Gore is a manipulator of truth.

1: Gore claims that a survey of 928 scientific articles on global warming showed not one disputed that man's gasses were mostly to blame for rising global temperatures. Only dumb journalists and bad scientists in the pay of Big Oil pretended there was any genuine debate.

In fact, as Dr Benny Peiser, from Liverpool John Moores University has demonstrated, Gore relies on a bungled survey reported in Science.

Peiser checked again and found just 13 of those 928 papers explicitly endorsed man-made global warming, and 34 rejected or doubted it. The debate is real.

2: Gore says the man who first made him realise we were heating up the earth was his late professor, oceanographer Roger Revelle, who noticed carbon dioxide levels were increasing.

In fact, Revelle shortly before his death co-authored a paper warning that "the scientific basis for a greenhouse warming is too uncertain to justify drastic action at this time". And some warming might even be good, he added.

3: Gore says ice cores from Antarctica, that go back 650,000 years, show the world got warmer each time there was more carbon dioxide in the air.

In fact, as the University of California's Professor Jeff Severinghaus and others note, at least three studies of ice cores show the earth first warmed and only then came more carbon dioxide, many hundreds of years later. So does extra carbon dioxide cause a warming world, or vice versa?

4: Gore shows a series of slides of vanishing lakes (like Lake Chad) and snow fields (like Mt Kilimanjaro's) and blames global warming for it all.

In fact, Lake Chad is so shallow it nearly dried out as far back as 1908, and again in 1984. So many more people depend on it now that the water pumped out for irrigation has quadrupled in 25 years. No wonder it's drying.

And Mt Kilimanjaro was losing its snows more than a century ago, not because of global warming, but -- says a 2004 study in Nature -- largely because deforestation has cut the moisture in the air.

And that worrying picture Gore shows of vanishing glaciers in the Himalayas? Newcastle University researchers last month said some glaciers there are now getting bigger again.

5: Gore shows scary maps of how New York and Shanghai would drown under 20 feet (600cm) of water if all Greenland's ice melted.

In fact, various studies say Greenland's snow cover -- and Antarctica's -- is increasing or stable. The scientists of even the fiercely pro-warming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict seas will rise (as they have for centuries) not by Gore's 600cm by 2100, but by between 14 and 43cm.

6: Gore claims the seas have already risen so high that New Zealand has had to take in refugees from drowning Pacific islands.

In fact, the Australian National Tidal Facility at Tuvalu in 2002 reported: "The historical record from 1978 through 199 indicated a sea level rise of 0.07 mm per year." Or the width of a hair.

Says Auckland University climate scientist Chris de Frietas: "I can assure Mr Gore that no one from the South Pacific islands has fled to New Zealand because of rising seas."

7: Gore claims global warming has helped cause coral reefs "all around the world" to bleach.

In fact, new research from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the seas rapidly cooled from 2003 to 2005. And most bleaching is caused by El Nino events.

8: Gore claims hurricanes are getting worse because of global warming, and he shows pictures from Hurricane Katrina.

In fact, America has this year had fewer hurricanes than usual. And most hurricane experts agree with Dr Chris Landsea of the US National Hurricane Centre, who says "there has been no change in the number and intensity of (the strongest) hurricanes around the world in the last 15 years".

9: Gore claims warming is causing new diseases and allowing malarial mosquitoes to move to higher altitudes.

In fact, says Professor Paul Reiter, head of the Pasteur Institute's unit of insects and infectious diseases: "Gore is completely wrong here." Reiter says "the new altitudes of malaria are lower than those recorded 100 years ago" and "none of the 30 so-called new diseases Gore references are attributable to global warming".

10: Gore never even hints at other possible explanations scientists have given for the warming globe.

And here's just one: increased solar activity. That's a theory suggested by leading American scientists such as Sallie Baliunas, Willie Soon, Fred Singer and Frederick Seitz, past president of the National Academy of Sciences.

Some even predict we're about to suffer a new bout of global cooling. Says Professor Bill Gray, world hurricane authority from Colorado State University: "My belief is that three, four years from now, the globe will start to cool again."

Or as Khabibullo Abdusamatov, head of the Russian of Sciences astronomical observatory, warned last week: "On the basis of our (solar emission) research, we developed a scenario of a global cooling of the Earth's climate by the middle of this century."

I'm sorry to raise these inconvenient truths just when so many of our scientists seem to prefer the certainties of faith over the uncertainties of evidence.

The last part of the article was copied from an article by Andrew Bolt

I feel so vehemently about this topic here are more resources:

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=YmFiZDAyMWFhMGIxNTgwNGIyMjVkZjQ4OGFiZjFlNjc

25 inconvenient truths for Al Gore
By Iain Murray a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
http://ff.org/centers/csspp/library/co2weekly/20060627/20060627_07.html

A few articles from TechCentralStation.
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=052506C

“Inconvenient Truths Indeed”
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=052406F

“Rachel Goreson”
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=060806D

“An Inconvenient Truth” by Dr Pat Michaels
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2006/08/09/an-inconvenient-truth/

Falsehoods in Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/environment/gore.html

SUCCESS! - Logic prevails

I am not saying it was my email, but breaking headline:


Officer Drops Lawsuit Against Child’s Family

No Aloha in Casselberry

While this blog is a personal blog, there are just some things that make me so angry I need an outlet.

This is the story:

A one-year old fell into the family pool in January. He was resuscitated but suffered brain damage and now cannot walk, talk or swallow. He lives in a nursing home and eats and breathes through tubes.

Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn was in their house AFTER the boy was in the ambulance. The boy had been brought through the house, and of course, the floor was wet.

Sgt. Eichhorn alleges the boy's family left a puddle of water on the floor, causing her fall during the rescue efforts. She broke her knee and missed two months of work.

She is now suing them.

Her lawyer said: "It's a situation where the Cosmillos have caused these problems, brought them on themselves, then tried to play the victim," Heil said.

Please call or email the Police Chief and express your distaste.

Police Chief’s Office ext.1064
Police Chief - John Pavlis, Ext. 1064
Email:jpavlis@casselberry.org

Story in Orlando Sentinal

This is the email I sent officer Pavlis:

Dear Officer Pavlis,

I recently read an article in CNN about Officer Eichhorn's lawsuit. Unbelieving, I looked for more articles on the subject as I was sure the facts had to be mistaken. Unfortunately, I discovered they are not.

Officer Eichhorn's lawsuit is disgusting and appalling. First, it discourages people from calling emergency response during an emergency. They have to decide to take the chance of being sued because an officer doesn't notice a wall in my house and walks into it, or cuts themselves on glass from a broken window, or is hurt by an attacker in my home, etc.

Secondly, having been appraised of the situation, Eichhorn was well aware that the situation would involve water. As an intelligent individual, she should have been aware that water might be in another place other than the pool, and therefore, the fall is her fault for not being attentive.

Lastly, it is despicable and inhumane to pain a family who has experienced such a horrible loss with such a frivolous and money-grubbing lawsuit. I am sure, had the family not almost lost their child and were not distraught, they would have mopped the floor.

The lawsuit implies negligence on the family's part. It is, in fact, negligence on Officer Eichhorn's part. Her pathetic lawsuit is blatent exploitation of a tragedy.

I am aware that you discouraged her lawsuit, but be aware how badly this not only affects the Casselberry police department, but is also detrimental to the national opinion of the police.

If I ever have a an emergency where I must call the police, I know that I will hesitate and weigh if it is worth getting sued. She ought to be removed from the streets until this lawsuit is resolved.

Accidents happen. We have all slipped and bruised ourselves, yet most people have enough pride and personal strength to accept that they are to blame, or that no one is to blame. Office Eichhorn should leave the family to greive rather than crippling them further.

Please convey this message to her, as her email address was not available.

Sincerely,

Dana Csige
Kailua Kona, Hawaii

aloha!

Been incommunicado for a while because I have been obsessed with the TV series Rome. Put it on your Netflix Queue. It is amazing. Kicks Lost's ass (because they didn't loose momentum in the second season).

Hubby and I have been busy socializing or attempting to socialize. I joined the American Association of University Women, which seems to be composed of white women over the age of 50, but they are all really nice. We went to a garden filled with tropical fruit (cherimoya, tropical apricot, etc). Hawaii, being so far in the middle of nowhere, doesn't have much indigenous fruit (We do have the poha berry) as it was so hard for seeds to survived a journey of 5000 miles.

Here is a photo of my husband picking guavas on the side of the road.



The farm was near a coffee mill, where farmers who have production too small to have their own roasting plant take it here.




Sunday morning I forced Hubby and Mom to do a 10k walk, which is what I walk in the mornings, so I thought it wasn't a big deal. Well, I have been informed that I can't do that again, and to keep it to 5k if we are going to do community walks. :)

Then we went Mauumae beach. A friend of ours owns a vacation property right at the end of the beach so we had beautiful weather, georgous views, and of course, Paul and my man grilled up some very yummy meat :)






Hubby and I have been taking camera and film courses at Na Leo `O Hawai`i, which is our public access channel. I apparently have to produced content at least once a quarter if I use their cameras, and after it runs I will post it on YouTube so you can make fun of me.

some pics

Mostly pictures today, just too tired for txt . . .

Hubby and I went stand-up paddle boarding again,




In Hawaii we have a lot of fun fruits that can be pretty pricey outside of the islands (some are pricey here too (not enough Mexican labor around to exploit)).


You can see that there are purple potatoes (these aren't sweet, just funny colored), a small rudish fruit called a dragon eye, the red fruit that looks like purple kiwi fruit inside is called a dragon fruit, and the green one with the seeds is a cherimoya, which is like a custerdy apple.

Just a cute couple pictures



and here is a rainbow I wanted to share with you that I saw today outside of the supermarket. In Hawaii, there are a lot of afternoon showers,so rainbows are pretty commonplace. No one really stops and looks . . .