Punahou Class of 1984

Wow.  Story here.  And here.  Pacific Business News here.  Press release from Aloha Airlines here.  And the official FAQ.

From what I gather, the last day is Monday, March 31.  No flights thereafter.  The news articles are saying to contact your travel agent or credit card companies for refunds. 

All of this comes about 10 days after Aloha filed for bankruptcy.  There was an attempt to find other buyers, but even with the State of Hawaii putting up a loan guarantee, no luck. 

So, if you were planning on flying Aloha, check the FAQ.  United and Hawaiian are lending assistance. 

 UPDATE (3/30/08 8:52 PM)

Gov. Lingle has asked the bankruptcy court to delay service shut down.  Story here.

I just attended the FIRST Robotics competition, Hawaii Regional.  This is one heckuva show.  Student built robots running around at competition floor, a few seconds running off of autonomous programs and about two minutes on remote control.  The goal was to grab one of these big exercise balls with the robot and run it round the competition floor, and then launch it over a hurdle.  Punahou is team 2090 (not sure if you can see them in this photo, but their robot is the one with the big blue ball on the left side of the photo).

If you have kids interested in computers, science, or engineering I would say that this is something you want to get involved with.  More text and photos below the fold.

(more…)

There are a couple Mainland events that I thought you’d might like to know about. 

• San Francisco at E & O Trading Company on April 26.  Details here.
• Southern California at Riviera Country Club, 1250 Capri Drive, Pacific Palisades on April 27.  Details here.

I have to highly recommend these events.  As a past president of PAA (yes, I was president about 4 years ago), I can say that these events always are surprisingly fun.  I remember one event in Arizona when one of the attendees had to be in Los Angles the next day.  But he thought he would attend for a little while and then get on his flight.  But he met about 3 – 4 classmates that he did not know were going to be there, stayed all night, missed his flight, and drove all night to get to Los Angles. 

Or the time in Seattle when we had two door prizes to give away.  The first guy came up and got his prize.  The other guy stepped up, stopped for just a moment and said “Aren’t you so-and-so’s brother?” “Yeah..?”  “I was his best friend!  Remember me?!  We used to…”  The thing was, these two guys were living in the same city for 20 years and had never knew. 

I’ve met so many classmates that I can’t remember them all.  Anyway, I have so many other stories that I could go on and on and on.

I’ll close with this: just go.

Call it Tax Relief.  You’ll need a drink after filing you taxes, so why not drop in to Vino/Hiroshi’s in Restaurant Row for a wine tasting.  You’ll need to sign up on the alumni website.  If you haven’t been to one, these are really great fun.  I’ve to everyone and there’s always interesting wines to try.  If you hadn’t noticed, I’m a bit of a wine geek (shameless plug for my blog).  So I’m going and I know it is going to be great.

See you there. 

I tried to stay away from things politic, but the Honolulu Advertiser ran a story: Obama overcame outsider feelings to fit in at Punahou.  And they got hold of a 5th grade Na Opio photo (taken outside of Castle Hall…I think).  Barack Obama is in the back row, third from left.  Gee…aren’t they cute?

More below.  Maybe a bit of a rant, so it’s below the fold…

(more…)

hi guys -  I’ve been away for a while, so I’ve not read the local news.  But, at Halema’uma’u crater, there was a small explosive event.  And the sulfur steam vent is now picking up some ash.  Image is from HVO.

All of this means that you should have more incentive to come back to Honolulu and volunteer to help at luau.  Maybe, book a hotel in Hilo and go visit Volcanoes National Park AFTERS.

From the Honolulu Magazine:

The best reason to blow your diet

Hank’s Haute Dog

OK.  First, let me confess… I knew Hank before he opened Hank’s Haute Dog.  And I thought he was crazy to open a hot dog place.  I mean, hot dogs?  In Hawaii?  In Kaka’ako?  But, these guys do make the best hot dogs on the island.  And probably the best french fries as well.  So, on Sunday – after the luau – go down and give them a try.  Or, maybe, if you guys post a comment here and twist my arm, maybe I’ll get some hot dogs for the post-party.

The rest of the Honolulu Magazine article about the best for 2008 is here.  So if you are coming over from the mainland and need some ideas on what to do AFTER you finish your volunteer shift for the luau, the article is a good start.

For all of you on the mainland, how about a link to a couple of Honolulu City & County web cams?  This one is at the Duke Kahanamoku statue and this one is Kuhio Beach.

Hi gang -

Here’s a quick confession from a techie guy: I’m just starting with this on-line photo stuff.  So, I might not have everything exactly right and I would greatly appreciate any help you guys can pass along. 

Anyway, I created a flickr photo sharing group. 

The group is by invitation-only (to keep the other ILH riff-raff out), so e-mail me at steve (at) 3155alani (dot) net and I’ll send you an invite.  The e-mail will come from my Yahoo! account as slee (dot) 3155 (at) yahoo (dot) com.  I know this might be confusing, but that’s just the way flickr works. 

Once you join flickr and the Punahou ‘84 group, you can view the pictures, download ‘em, add your own pics, etc.  I’ll even try to post up an animated demo with a “how to” set of instructions once I figure out this stuff.

So if you take pictures at the luau or carnival, or if you just have some pictures to share, e-mail me and I’ll get you an invite.

Hi Guys – I had a really nice talk with Bruce Weiser today and he’s over in North Dallas.  What’s REALLY important, however, is that there’s an L&L BBQ that has just opened.  He says that it is full of ex-pat Hawaiians.  So… if you’d like to drop him a line, I think he wouldn’t mind me giving out an e-mail addres in my usual anti-spam bot format: lokiweiser (at) aol (dot) com.