Three shots to the psyche…

This past week has not been a good one to be my friend. First my cousin Frankie passed away after a long fight against cancer. The cancer was from the agent orange he came into contact with during the Vietnam War. The same war that shaped him and greatly influenced his entire life after. The Army helped him discover his talent for learning languages, which he used as a soldier, and then as a business man in Asia. He spend a large part of his life in Asia, doing deals and creating among other things a feature film in the Philippines, Olongapo . He most recently self published a book about his Vietnam experience. Cousin Frankie lived like no other man I’ve known. He packed at least three regular lives into his one.

After hearing about my cousin I got the bug to try and reconnect with an old friend who moved from Hawaii some years back. Bud Cerio was introduced to me by my very good friend Josephine. Bud was a incredibly talented guitar player and just as incredibly cool. Bud was as talented as his stature...and his stature was large. I took guitar lesson from him for nearly 3 years. A lesson with Bud was not the structured thing of a regimented learning program. Bud would ask me what I wanted to learn to play. He would listen to it, and before I knew it I was playing it. Sometimes he would suggest something to make me stretch and learn something new. But each 30 minute lesson turned into an up to 2 hour jam or exploration of life, music, or anything happening in our lives. Gracious, talented, & very, very humble. I felt a real sadness when my Google search uncovered this piece .

Finally, as I scanned the newspaper yesterday I found a obituary of my old Hawaii Bicycling League colleague Frank Denton. We both served on the HBL board during an especially difficult time (not that any time has been easy). Frank had a can do attitude, and would always have a suggestion seasoned with a solid business man’s flair. After our time on the board, I would frequently run into him at the bank. We’d chat and discuss HBL and our businesses. I hadn’t seen Frank since I relocated my business to Kalihi last year. Perhaps Frank will join John Kelly for a bike ride in the great beyond, Frank on a touring bike and John on his triathlon rig. A memorial is scheduled for tomorrow at Murphy’s.

Time on this blue marble is short. Even if you have a faith that there is a life after this turn on the mortal spiral…leaving it and seeing friends & family leave it is sad and can shake you up. Nothing here is permanent. Nothing here is permanent…maybe it’s time to act with that knowledge.

Plum tuckered out...

I'm spent. Burnt. Exhausted. Fried. A crispy critter.

Or just plain tired.

I'm usually dealing with some sort of fatigue, but today I'm tired in a way I can't remember feeling. I have been hitting it hard as usual. And I'll admit I'm at a personal best on the stress front (not in the good way). I have three more long days ahead, then another hectic Sunday. And the caffeine isn't doing it for me either. Having trouble concentrating on work.

I need some time off.

Ummmm, not soon...

The coolest video I've ever seen

Saw this embedded at TheNerdist.com and got such a kick out of it I wanted to share.

I read the news today, oh boy...

The big news today is the news of the Honolulu Advertiser being bought by the owners of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Times are tough for the print media these days. The Internet has brought loads of “right now” information to your fingertips. Most of it is free, and most of it is micro targeted to your specific interests. Newspapers can’t be that. And they could never do that, mass appeal is what they need for a mass market. Newspaper are businesses, businesses that sell advertising. Oh sure they collect a little for each copy, but I’d bet ya dollars to donuts that it doesn’t cover the cost of printing & distribution, much less provide a profit. When was the last time you bought something from a ad in the paper, not the glossy Sunday ads, I’m talking about those pages at the back of the section. The black & white simple ads offering a used sofa for $50, call this number. Did you find your last job through a newspaper ad? Chances are you didn’t do either, but rather used services like Craig’s List or Monster.com. Good resources, but they take away the lucrative ad placements from newspapers.

So is this just another example of a product going through it’s life cycle? Is the traditional morning newspaper in the end of it’s life cycle? Newspapers have had a long product cycle run. Don’t think so? Look at cassette tapes. You bought one last when? Do you even have any? How about CDs? I know people who have gone completely digital and no longer have a single CD or even a player (outside of the optical drive in their computer). Times change. Things come and go. Some quicker (CDs), some take longer (newspapers?). I’m seeing my own business eroding away because of the product cycle.

I grew up in Chicago, a town that was blessed with three daily newspapers. The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun Times, and the Chicago Daily News. When I was a kid the Daily News closed down to the utter shock of all in the city. Much like Honolulu, every family had it’s preference. Our house favored the Tribune, my Aunt & Uncle preferred the Sun Times. Today I prefer the Advertiser. The fact that it’s the larger format like the Tribune of my childhood is no coincidence. I heard recently of the financial woes of the Tribune…seems my favorites are suffering right now.

My immediate reaction to the news of the sale of the Advertiser was a feeling of sadness for the 300+ employees who will no doubt be going through some big and probably hard changes in the next few months. The only question is who it will be…some from both papers, all of one, or the other…no one knows yet.

These times are definitely changing. I won’t say for the worse…because as far as I’m concerned, we are far from the end of this cycle of change. Let’s see where it lands us, let’s see how we can make it good.

Injury Report

Last night I went into the garage to retrieve something, do it all the time. But last night I needed something behind & above a bag of "HI-5's". The bag was in the way so using my foot I attempted to push it aside. Pain. Blood. Lot's of blood. One of the glass containers in the bag had broken and a shard of it stuck through the bag in the exact spot where my foot contacted it. The glass went straight into the bottom of my third toe...about 3/4"into the toe. Pain & blood. Blood & pain. I called my wife to bring the first aid kit while I held a work towel to my foot. Luckily our friend the EMT was over for dinner, and he cleaned the wound & stopped the bleeding. Followed up with my Doctor this morning and all is well except for a deep wound & a very swollen toe.

I had planned to go to the gym this morning but...um...yeah. I'm hoping the swelling will go down by the weekend...it's tender & throbbing right now but getting better by the hour. Look at the picture...whatta nasty bit huh?

In praise of Spaghettios

I'm Catholic. A practicing one. This past Wednesday was "Ash Wednesday", the beginning of the 40 day season on Lent. I won't get into the deeper meaning of the choices I'm making as a practicing Catholic, but I want to talk about one aspect of Lent...abstaining from meat on Fridays. For the life of me I never know what to eat on meatless Friday's. A seafood allergy narrows my choices dramatically. Being as crazy busy as I am keeps me from seeking out too many options. My default has been cheese pizza, satisfying...but way too many calories once you have enough to feel full. But thanks to a recent news item announcing the passing of the man who created it, I have reconnected with Spaghettios. High nutrition? Nah... Haute cuisine? Are you crazy? But it's cheap ($1.49 a can), filling and has no meat. I can't believe that I, a 47 year old man, had this for lunch today. But it did the trick, and I'm through another meatless Friday lunch (many more options for dinner at home). I have a couple more cans in the cabinet at work, so if I don't come up with anything better next week I'm covered (that's if the vegetarian at work doesn't snatch it first).

The Metromix/Grilled Cornbread brain trust was asking earlier this week...what are your guilty pleasures? Well...here's one of mine.

The Great Aloha Run (walk kinda fast)

This past Monday I joined over 24,000 people in covering the 8.1 or so miles from Aloha Tower to Aloha Stadium in an event known as The Great Aloha Run. I had done this event at least 7-8 other times, but this was the first time in 6 years, the last time being the year I got married (things got really busy after that). I’ve always liked this event for it’s casualness (I’ve never liked calling it a race since the only thing I’m racing to is the line for the donut table at the finish). Yes, there are definitely some hard core runners there hunting for age group results and PR’s. But they are far outnumbered by thousands of us just trying to get off our couch shaped butts, get some exercise, and get those finishers t-shirts (and the donuts). The weather was fantastic with cool temps and clear skies. Through all the times I’d done this event I never noticed that you are essentially in the shade until you come out from under the Nimitz viaduct. Yes there were fast people behind the slow people, and slow people in front of the fast people. There were slow people walking up to 5 a breast. There were strollers all over the place making sudden stops in packs of people. But…, if you’ve done GAR before you know this just comes with the territory. If you do GAR you can count on these things, as well as water from those Military tank trucks tasting like ass (sorry guys, sad but true). And of course a donut table at the finish.

I was accompanied by my Wife who was a champ and even surprised me with a frantic run at the start (arrrrgh, shin splints!). We finished with a time of 2:12, and if you believe my Nike+ do dad attached to my iPod, we covered 8.26 miles (I guess all that zig zagging adds up). We both had a great time and made a pact to look for more of these events to do (looking at Ford Island 10k next). So we finish, exit the stadium, get a bottle of water, a banana, a can of “POG Energy” (blech!), and a variation of a moon pie in a wrapper...say what?!?!?! Where are the Loves donuts? No donuts! A travesty!

Bummer…seriously, bummer…

I’ll return again next year in spite of that oversight.

But I’m gonna bring my own donuts next time.