Pride

Your gender, nationality, family name, highschool, your god? How did these things become important to you? These are things that you don't choose.

Children, they're a choice. Your work ethic, how you treat the world; these are things to take pride in. You can control these; they're a reflection of you.

I take a little bit of pride in being Arabic, but not much. I was never taught to speak Arabic, my family went to the Unitarian church, I don't make very good hummus.

The pride I take now comes in my work. The place I live is very special and I take pride in it because I choose to live here and I want to keep it an amazing place. I'm very proud of my wife, she is one of the best choices I've ever made.

There's been some political conventions recently and everyone loves to shout about their pride for this country. Like it's better than others. Like they had a choice. I don't understand the pride some people have in the things they have no control over.

What are you most proud of?

Wedding

Having just been intimately involved with a wedding here are the things I learned.

Photography

We relied heavily on friends and family which had lots of good points:

1. free
   
2. we keep all the originals
3. lots of candids
   
4. we have 1,200 pictures
   

The downsides are:

1. they vary quite a bit in quality,
   
2. we missed a lot of important shots, like the family portraits because
   
3. there was no organization for any of the shots
4. there was no expectation of professionalism

In hindsight, I should have arranged with some of the groom's men to be in charge of organizing the photography.

Style and originality

Be as as unique as you want to. We had a wonderful minister who did an amazing job and she gave us a unique ceremony that many people seemed to enjoy. We also had leis shipped from Hawai'i and my nephew being a flower boy dressed in aloha gear.
But plan ahead. We had some really great ideas but there just wasn't enough time to arrange for them.

Invitations

We made our own. We designed them in Publisher, used flower graphics that our friend made, printed them at Office Max for about $75 and cut them ourselves. This was a really good decision. We got a lot of great feedback from everyone (grandparents & friends). It really set a nice mood for the ceremony. My cousin advised that as soon as you mention the word Wedding to a professional anybody the price jumpes about %100 because they know you aren't a returning customer.



We did the same for the RSVPS . The glaring error that we made was in not leaving a place for them to write their name. We received so many RSVPs that said "All 5 of us will be coming" and we had no idea who they were. Sometimes though, no matter what you do, the ravages of the USPS can deliver only the useless husk of a one grand RSVP.

Marriage License

We got ours at the Richmond Circuit court. It cost us $35 +$2.50 for a certified copy of the marriage license. To help the process go smoothly, arrive in a good mood, bring cash, and your ID. Turn off your cell phone.

Location

Our ceremony was held at the Unitarian Church in Richmond, and Artworks in Southside hosted the reception. We really lucked out. We only had 6 months to find a place. I suggest start calling as soon as you can, a year before is not too early. Seriously, start calling now.
Having the reception at a venue that already has some decoration helps a lot. Ours was at an art studio so there was lots of gorgeous stuff on the walls already. My brother had his at a nursery, so all of his pictures have plants in the background.

Food

Don't expect to eat on your wedding day. I was lucky, I got a little bit of food during the reception, J got less. We didn't really eat until we got to the hotel room where my uncle had arranged a gift basket with delicious bread and other treats.
My dad arranged the catering, mostly from a Mediterranean bakery. He complimented it with food from Costco for those with more delicate palettes. We got lots of compliments on the food we barely touched.

Minister

We had the best minister possible. She is a family friend and has been a part of my life since I was a baby. She's beautiful, smart, resourceful, talented and was absolutely perfect for us. She made the ceremony. She kept me from folding from nerves, she kept me sane, she gave me a kiss. Choosing the right minister will make your ceremony a real success.

Getting married is one of the best experiences of my life. The months leading up to it were very very difficult and put a lot of strain on us. The wedding day completely made up for it. I could not have asked for anything better.

Please comment on your wedding if you've had one, or with expectations if you haven't and plan to, or why you won't if you're not.

City lights on the inside of my eyelids

I miss living in a city. I haven't very often or for very long. Barcelona for 2 months, Seattle for 5 months, I guess you can count Richmond for 2 years. A corner stone of any city that I'd like to live in is public transportation.

Seattle had an amazing public transit system that would take me from Bellevue into downtown in about 45 minutes. This is me time, time to read and listen to music. NOT talk on the phone, because that's just rude. But I really enjoy the sway of the bus, the other travelers; I feel connected with them in a way that I don't when we drive next to each other. The driving is left to someone else and I can watch the scenery. I can focus on the birds and sunset, I don't have to worry.

Around Seattle also had ferries, these are at least 12 kinds of awesome. They also provide a time for picture taking, down time, time to talk and provide a good adventure, even if only for 30
minutes.


I enjoy much more riding the subway. The dirty tiled floor of the station, swiping cards or giving tokens has a sense of time to it that cannot be matched anywhere else. Again, I enjoy connecting with the other passengers by their presence only. Talking to strangers in that kind of setting has never appealed, but the clutch of the train as it pulls away and the G forces as it slows down. The flickering of lights, well it just appeals to me.

I miss living in a place where I can travel without being the driver. Here either I bike or I drive. There is a bus, sure, but it runs only a few times a day and isn't really designed for around town commuting, more for cross island destinations.


I enjoy walking on stone. The hard surface beneath me makes me feel small against the age of this stone. It's been around longer than I have and will continue to be long after I'm not.

It's not just the reduced carbon footprint, or the lower cost, the absence of anxiety from not driving. It's also the culture. These things were built during a time when city planners put an enormous effort into moving a large amount of people. This technology comes form a time when society wasn't centered around the individual. You can blame it on whatever you want, video games or media, it doesn't really matter at this point. Pretty much everyone is on this path to manifest destiny.

$4.50 at the pumps yesterday and I still filled up.





To revive my old meme:
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be.
If you had your choice of method of transportation there, what would you choose?

5x5

songs

1. Aphex Twin - Window Licker
2. Beatles - Day in the Life
3. Ratatat - Nostrand
4. Daft Punk - Face to Face / Short Circuit (Live)
   
5. NIN - The Becoming

movies

1. Perfume: Story of a Murderer
2. Sunshine
3. Paris: Je T'aime
4. Lookout
5. Brick

What are yours?

Old Crow

The Mrs. PI and I got into a conversation today about cheap toilet paper and how god awful it is. How it's a PITA to use and how ineffective it can be. I concurred and instantly made a short list of things I do not like to buy less than top shelf of.

• Headlights. The difference between $15 and $25 lamps can be your car
• Olive oil, if it's not Extra Virgin, it's not EVOO
• Toilet paper
• Computer memory.
  
• LCD monitors.
  
• Bras. The most powerful force on the planet need support

What are your top shelf buys?

Market day

There are several farmer's markets in the area and we're thinking about having a booth. We're brainstorming ideas of things to sell. So far the only thing I have is to sell Popsicles. My mom used to make Popsicles for us when we were young. I think she did it really cheap, juice concentrate in deep ice cube trays. It costs $50 for the booth so we'd need to make enough money to cover the cost of the booth, the gas and the juice.

Another idea I had, because I don't konw the availability of power to the booths, was to get a bunch of potatoes and link them all together to provide enough power to run a computer that could be demoed for sale. If we sell the computer for $400 we'd be in good shape and the pop sickle sales would be pure profit.

The last idea I had is selling revenge disease. I'm sick right now. I could sneeze into a jar and sell it for $5, "Pour this into someone's drink and they'll be useless for 3 or 4 days"

Other things I know how to do:
Sushi, out of the question because everyone else on the island can make it better than me
Burritos, probably not want people want at the market
Fix computers, farmer's market might not be the best place

If you had to sell something at a booth, what would it be?

Idiocracy

In downtown Hilo there is an indoor gymnasium. It has large glass windows so that while you're working out you can get a view outside.... of the street, not the ocean or the mountains. The people are using treadmills, stair climbers and stationary bikes, all activities that would be much better outside. The doors are open so it's not for the AC and I see them doing this when the weather is nice so they're not avoiding the rain.

Doing any one of those activities outside would give you a chance to:

• Think because there is no TV blaring at you,
• Breathe fresh air 'cause you're not in the middle of downtown with all the traffic
• Not spend money on a free service that nature provides for you
• Leave society for an hour
• Understand Aloha
  

At first I thought that an indoor gym in Hawai'i would be the worst and dumbest ideas ever. However, I walk past this place often and I see lots of people working out so the business must be doing well.
I started wondering if that is truly the way to be successful in business. Design a product that people want but don't need and then charge them for it. Will they opt to pay for an inferior service they could get for free somewhere else?
If so, what other businesses could I start that would follow the same guidelines?

• Indoor pool
• Tanning salon
• Wave machine
• Rock climbing wall

If you had a reasonable amount of capital, what business would you start?

I went jet skiing last week. Besides taking me three tries to get on the thing (I tipped over twice and tipped both of us over once (he was very patient)) it was awesome. Adrenaline, fear, excitement. At one point I was looking off in the distance admiring the view. We caught air. We landed. I kissed the back of the driver's vest with my teeth. Otherwise it was a flawless ride.

The guy that gave me a ride was about 300 lbs, a bleached mohawk, several teeth missing and "Sick Puppy" tattooed across his belly. Several days later I found out that Sick Puppy was his ring name when he was a cage fighter.

Sick puppy eh? Got me thinking about what my name would be if I were to enter in that line of work. If you were a cage fighter, what would be your ring name?

Propain (mine)
Kittenvicious (Mrs PI)

Brilliance

A weekly one hour show featuring half hour pilots that never got picked up.

It would be so frustrating when you find a pilot that grabbed your interest only to be denied any further plot elements and story developments.

If you had to create a TV show pilot. What would it be about, who would be the star and villain?

Doubleplus good

The Recycling Center is a site that shows you a recycling center near you. I've been waiting for something like this to drop into my lap for 6 months. Recycling in Hawai'i is popular, there's a $.5 return on all aluminum cans and most plastic bottles. The program is called HI 5, which is awesome. It is however quite difficult to find a place that takes recycling. Reynold's has a center and so far we've been taking our stuff to them. Otherwise we have to look for the Transfer Station, which may or may not be the dump. Eitherway, there's never an address and no one seems to be able to give us decent directions.


Sunset seen from space, you can tag it with AMAZING if you want but only on your own flickr page.


I have a great time making up words to use in my private conversations with people I trust. Here's what I have so far:
Ironicality - Possessing irony: What you just said had a note of ironicality.
Dialectual - Relating to dialects: The meaning is the same, the spelling is a dialectual difference only.
Deliciocity - How delicious a meal is: The most being Terminal Deliciocity. When the food is being prepared but has reached its peak and will not get any better no matter what else you do, it has reached terminal deliciocity.

If you had to....
Create a new activity, social pass time or hot new trend. What would it be?
Mine would be Surfery = Surfing & Archery = Surfing while shooting arrows at targets.

Yours?

Ronery

There's this game I play with J & K. It involves a question like "if you had to.... what would it be?" "If you were a .... and this happened what would you do?"

It's either met with serendipitous joy and a creative answer or rolls of the eyes. I shall now extend these options and this opportunity to you.

I recently read the Wikipuss for Nguyen Loan. You may remember him as the fellow in the iconic Vietnam picture executing a Vietcong soldier, pictured here. Read the entry for a higher understanding of the situation. That situation is not what this post is about, what it is about is this: in 1975, he moved to Virginia and opened a pizza shop until he was discovered in 1990. I know this is graphic picture, but it's actually the largest copy of it I could find on the net and I want to encourage higher quality photos.

The question is, If you were an infamous war icon, dictator, criminal etc and you had to move to another country and have another profession,what would it be?

K: Move to North Korea and write poems about how great Kim Jong Ill is.

J: Move to the naked city in the south of France and sell chocolate

What's is your answer?