Something I remember doing maybe once in college was pulling an all-nighter. I did one Friday night and Saturday morning watching the local news. Not because I was scared – I live three miles inland and had mixed feelings of a tsunami actually hitting Hawai‘i’s shores – but because I found the possibility and gravity of such a situation quite mesmerizing. Just like how my experience with the Hawai‘i earthquake in October 2006 was completely mind-boggling, so was this one.

Except this time, the natural disaster never happened. Phew.

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No Impact Man follows Colin Beavan’s project of curiosity, as he sets out to discover what it’d be like to live as sustainably as possible for a year—taking his shopping/reality TV/caffeine-addicted wife and their toddler daughter along for the ride. Along the way, quite a few laughs are shared; I mean, come on, just imagine what kinds of clashes ensue between the Beavan couple! But it’s also helped me think a bit more about what my family already does and what I could do to live a lifestyle that’s a little more sustainable.

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I finally gathered the courage to look through my high school yearbooks and hunt for the message Mrs. Yamashita left me. Here’s what she wrote.

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I’ve been fortunate enough in my life so far that I’ve never been stuck in an elevator. So I can’t even fathom being stuck in one for 41 hours… the closest would be this video and the following excerpt from the New Yorker. I wonder if this was enough to get the guy to stop smoking.

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Governor Linda Lingle spoke at Hawai‘i Pacific University today, after being invited by the school’s Toastmasters club. Apparently, she was a Toastermaster member and attributes her membership to her success in public speaking. And boy, can she speak.

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Okay, so it’s that time of the year again… when advertisers cough up $2 million bucks a pop to air their ads during the Super Bowl. Overall, it was kind of “meh” this year, but I got a few faves. And not-so-faves.

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In last semester’s marketing class, I learned about the channels of distribution: suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. Watching “The Story of Stuff” repositions this way of thinking, because little do we think or learn about where and how suppliers get their resources, nor do we think much about what happens after consumers (we) dispose of what they’ve (we’ve) accumulated.

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All buses except the 403 in Nanakuli were running today, so I took the C bus to town. Boy, did I underestimate the traffic — 3 1/2 hours to get to town! (It usually takes a little over an hour.) Two of those hours were spent crawling along the five-mile stretch of Farrington Highway, from Ma’ili and Nanakuli. And along the way, I took pics, of course.

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I knew a storm was coming, but I guess I didn’t realize the kind of impact it would make.

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I didn’t know who Michael Tongg was until I had to help put together a video in his honor. He was an exceptional waterman who had a special connection with the sea. He won various canoe paddling championships, helped establish canoe paddling internationally, and played a vital role on the Hokule’a. He gave his time and energy to helping his community, through the Waikiki Community Center. And as a family lawyer, he represented hundreds of children and parents, and fostered over 50 children throughout his life.

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