I had a chance to attend the Cirque du Soleil press conference for their show Saltimbanco - which will be in Hawaii beginning October 30 to November 16. The name comes from the Italian phrase “Saltare in Banco” which means jump on a bench. From what I gathered from the spokesperson - the story line is supposed based in an urban city and tells the story of its people.

Tickets go on sale on Monday, August 4 (I think). I’m sure they’ll go like hotcakes, so get em while they’re hot.

Those who came to the press conference got a sneak peek….and now you can too.

Enjoy!

After work on Friday, I had the pleasure of meeting my friend Darcy’s fish. To put it nicely, it’s a pretty weird creature. It can’t swim straight (rather upside down) and can’t seem to stay underwater with a tendency to float towards the surface.

Maybe it was fish abuse….tsk tsk Darcy.

Guess where I was last night….

Review to follow!

After 61 years, Aloha Airlines‘ passenger service will be no more effective March 31, 2008.

Read more about it.

Unexpected? Not really, but you can never truly be prepared. I have a few family members who will lose their jobs. Nothing new, as my family was also affected when Del Monte pulled out of Hawaii completely.

Thoughts? I’ll post more later when I get back from dinner.

Edit:

I added a longer post, but something freaked out on my computer and ERASED IT ALL. I don’t feel like rewriting everything, so check out the Kam Family Blog posts instead.

I was hanging out with my parents in Wahiawa last weekend and decided to eat breakfast with my sister at Koa Pancake House. It’s a little breakfast place in the boonies of Central Oahu. They also have locations in Aiea, Moanalua and Waipahu.

I usually order one of their ono omeletes and chocolate chip pancakes, but my sister told me that they had eggs benedict on their menu.

If you know me, then you know about my ridiculous obsession with eggs benedict. Eggs + ham + English muffin + hollandaise sauce = Breakfast of the gods. I recently introduced the dish to my sister a few months ago and she too has been seduced by the creamy, rich goodness.

Eggs benedict brings back memories of late nights and Wailana Coffee House. It’s my go-to anti-hangover dish, so I’ve vowed to sample eggs benedict at as many different places I can find.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Koa Pancake House, but when the waitress came out with our order, my sister and I couldn’t wait to dig in. The hollandaise was perfectly made, smooth, creamy with a hint of lemon. The muffin and ham were pretty standard, but like Wailana Coffee House they also added a slice of turkey breast. The skillet potatoes were a little crispy and perfect for soaking up the extra sauce.

We also were overly ambitious and ordered chocolate chip pancakes which were light, fluffy and tasty as always.

We couldn’t help but to attack the eggs benedict first…it didn’t stand a chance. But then we had no room for the chocolate chip pancakes. We both had a bit of a food coma afterwards, but it was worth it. And my dad had a nice chocolately snack for lunch.

Koa Pancake House
703 California Avenue
Wahiawa, HI 96786
(808) 621-0123

There are very few other shows that are as far reaching as American Idol. It seems that every other country has their own spinoff of the American version…which was a spinoff of a UK show, so go figure.

While I used to be an avid watcher of this show, it’s been a while since I’ve watched it religiously. However, I do enjoy train wrecks, and these gems from the Bulgarian version of Idol is even better than the William Hung travesty a few years ago.

We’ve all heard horror stories about identity theft. Luckily most people who have at least a general understanding of the web know the dos and don’ts of floating around private/personal information over the web.

So what if your private information was emailed to someone else accidentally (or stupidly…whichever you prefer). Enter Do Not Reply.

From their “About” page:

First, no we didn’t send the mail.

There are only about handful of registered owners of a donotreply.com email address. What normally happens is some spammer slugs it in, or more likely a lazy IT person decides they don’t want to deal with bounced emails one of their programs send out, so what they do is set it to something cute at @donotreply.com as the return address.

They think this solves the problem. No more bounced emails!

But in reality what they have just done is sent all bounced emails to me. And not just bounced emails, but if someone gets an email with the donotreply.com address and replies to it? Well hell, I get those too. Sometimes it is a quick note, sometimes it is a personal attack against another staff member… who knows!

“Ha!” you say. The people who I provide my deepest, darkest secrets to (well maybe your account information) are too smart for that. Apparently a few national financial companies were culprits…ah yes, and the government.

Next time you see a abc@donotreply.com, you’ll be happy to know that some guy named Chet is now part of your inner circle and privy to your deepest, darkest secrets (or account information).

Cheers!

Watching American Idol the other week reminded me of how amazing Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah is. No disrespect to Mr. Cohen but it’s one of the rare times when a remake surpassed the excellence of the original. And it’s probably one of the few songs that gives me goosebumps when I hear it. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

So I’ve been neglectful to this poor blog this year. After lurking on a few of my other friends’ blogs…I’ve decided to make a triumphant return. For now anyway.

Well I discovered a little jewel of a site called Overheard in New York from Peter Shankman’s now defunct P.R. Differently blog (he still blogging, but now on shankman.com).

Here’s a great jewel:

Girl #1: Lately, I just haven’t felt like going out. I’ve turned into such a…What’s the word? A homophobe.
Girl #2: What? Don’t you mean a homophiliac?
Girl #1: Yes! That’s what I meant! God, why can’t I think straight today?

They also have fun spin-off sites like Overheard in the Office and Celebrity Wit.

It reminds me of one of my coworkers who began putting up quotes she heard in the office from one particular quirky quotable character we have the pleasure of working with. We get jewels like this:

“Women will never use a product like Viagra if they ever made it for them. That’s because they think of sex as a chore like washing windows. That’s women after children. And I know because I married one of yous. After we had kids, I thought my name was ‘back off.’ “

So what have you overheard lately?

Back in the day I attended a small Christian school in Mililani. One of our subjects was Cathecism. Memorizing verses was not fun when I was 5 years old (or any age for me for that matter). While I only was there for two years, I continued to go to church until I was in high school. Of course, I’d go to Sunday school and of course I’d learn the fabulous stories from the Bible.

While I currently don’t consider myself religious, I have to say that I did enjoy the stories from Sunday school, not necessarily from a spiritual standpoint, but because my parents weren’t exactly the type to read me a bed time story before they tucked me in. They probably gave me a science book or a calculator to play with instead. So bible stories were, in a way, my “Where the Wild Things Are”…my “Goodnight Moon”…my “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”

I had my falling out with organized religion in college and haven’t picked up the good book since. Then I saw the light…so to speak. One of my recent finds is a list of the “Most Badass Bible Verses” on cracked.com.

Number 6 on the list comes from Judges 3:16-23:

Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it. At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

The king said, “Quiet!” And all his attendants left him.

Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his seat, Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

Jesus.

Who would have thought these awesome little nuggets existed. It made me realize that the bible, with all its secular significance, is still a great (badass even) story book. And that you don’t mess with people named Ehud.