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Nighttime Art and Shabu Shabu

On Friday night, we went to the "Art After Dark" event that takes place on the last Friday of every month at the Academy of Art in Honolulu. They bring in several DJs and bar tenders and have a big party at the art museum. What a cool idea! Almost everyone there seemed to be beautiful, on the hunt for a date, and trying to pick up on each other. (We felt a little out of place.) When they wanted a quiet place to have that first or second conversation, they'd duck into a gallery and chat in the company of Gaugin or an ancient, artful Chinese rock. While we were there, Jake took this renegade picture of me with a Monet just before getting in trouble with the guard (apparently photos aren't allowed even without flash, oops).

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After the museum, we went to a nearby restaurant for shabu shabu (a Japanese style place where they give you raw meat & veggies and a bowl of hot water and some yummy sauces, then you cook the meat and veggies in your water, dip it in a sauce, and eat up). 
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Everything was delicious, even the sweet potato (the purple round thing on the right) and the shrimp (thankfully Jake was the Hero and took responsibility for cooking the shrimp, which had eyes and looked pretty disgusting in their raw state):
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Restaurant Decor

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Here is the inside of one of our new favorite restaurants, the En Fuego Grill & Poke. This particular restaurant decor -- a sort of hokey beach scene with random men sitting in the sky, climbing the palm tree, and jumping out of the bush -- would not have occurred to me if I'd been the interior designer. But we're starting to become regulars at this place, so clearly they know what they're doing...
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News-Reading

I've been reading some interesting stuff lately, so thought I'd share a couple articles that caught my attention.

First and Foremost. People. I'm not sure if you realize this, but today the New York Times online reports a *new* problem with American teenagers. It's not that each one sends and receives an average of over 2,000 text messages every month (holy cow that is mind-boggling to me though, I must be getting all old!), nor is it that they're bringing guns to school and involved in gang violence and so on (that was soo last decade). No no, this article highlights a new, harmful activity they're involved in. What is it, you ask? Hugging. Yes, that's right, adults today are concerned that teenagers have started hugging way too much. They say it's girls hugging girls, girls hugging boys, and boys hugging boys, they say there's just hugging all over the place. Not romantic hugging, no no, just incessant, friendly hugging. They say it's clogging up the hallways in the high schools and it must be stopped. I mean, all those principals and administrators who begged kids to stop shooting each other several years ago never expected it to come to *this*! It's just awful. That's why they're totally banning hugging in some schools now. Jake suggests that the high schools just tell the kids to go back to gang violence like in the '90s, anything to stop all this hugging! Here's the article. If anyone wants to host an anti-anti-hugging campaign, let me know.

Second, I came across an article in the Atlantic Monthly about how we think of ourselves. It suggests that each one of us is not a single, constant, personality, but rather a confluence of many different personalities, depending on what situation we're in and who we're with. It goes on to suggest that we even think of ourselves as different people in difference situations -- that's why it's hard for young people to save for retirement (because the old guy who will get the money 40 years from now seems like a totally different person from *me*) and why we act to discipline our future selves. This also explains to me why I can never remember my clever Internet passwords for various websites -- I was a different version of me when I thought them up than I am now! There are some other interesting tidbits thrown in too, like did you know that memory is situation-dependent? According to the article, "Students do better when they are tested in the room in which they learned the material; someone who learned something while he was angry is better at remembering that information when he is angry again...". Who knew! Even though I read this a few weeks ago, it's left quite an impression on me and I keep on thinking about it, so I thought I'd share. It's a little long'ish, but you can check it out here if you're curious.

And last, a few weeks ago I invested in a Kindle -- Amazon's electronic reading device which you can use to download and read newspapers, magazines, and books. And I think it's about to change my life. Not because it's so slick (it's not), but because it's so liberating! I wasn't excited to give up books (I love bookstores! and book-buying! and gifting and receiving books!). But now I feel like a much freer reader: I don't have to choose my next book days or hours before I'm ready to read it. I can decide *right now* what it's gonna be, and start reading immediately. If I go somewhere (dentist's office, beach, vacation), I know I'll have more reading than I could ever manage on this smaller-than-a-clipboard device that fits in my purse. I love that having a lot of books at my fingertips no longer necessitates having so_much_stuff. Not to mention price (apparently publications are much cheaper without printing and binding costs). This is a paradigm shift for me, and it's exciting. But it's hard to explain to my friends and family, so I keep reading articles about the Kindle, in hopes that someone else will describe it better. And today I found this one, where the author envisions what the future might hold for readers.

So that's that! A whole lot of words describing my recent notable reads outside the book realm. If you're feeling lonely for photos, not to worry, there will be many, many to come in future posts :)

The Ala'Moana Lantern Festival

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Every Memorial Day, the city of Honolulu holds a lantern festival in Ala'Moana Park.

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The public is invited to light floating lanterns in memory of passed loved ones.

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People write messages for their loved ones on the lanterns.

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Nerdy Addendum: We saw this sign before the activities started. The intended interpretation was to signal people where to drop off their lanterns. I was in the presence of a fine lady, so I resisted my nerdy jokes. Maybe some of our CS followers will appreciate the wit and humor that could have been spewed forth here...

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Possible jokes include:
(1)-- "Is that IEEE 754, or Natural (floating) Log representation?"
(2)-- (re: The sign being a flag) "So that's what a floating point flag looks like."
(3)-- (re: The arrow pointing the wrong way) "I thought they fixed the Pentium FDIV bug years ago."

Classic.

Paying Our Respects: The National Cemetery of the Pacific

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Today is Memorial Day. We decide to pay our respects by visiting the National Cemetery of the Pacific.

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We scour the cemetery for signs of bagpipers. None can be found. We feel pity for Jake's cousin Amanda, forced into the annual Quist-Family Compulsive Cousin Memorial Day Bagpipe Viewing.

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Jake, reading some of the names of WWII casualties.

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Sam, reprezenting... With a 'z'.

Collage for 2,500 Miles Away

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Aside from a small handful of special folks here on Oahu, it's sometimes a little lonely to think that our closest friend is about 2,500 miles and a great big ocean away. So I made this collage, printed it on photo paper, and posted it on our fridge, to help us feel closer to some of our friends and family. If you're on here, we see your shining face every day! And if you're not, send me your photo and I'll print it out and put it up, too :)
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Sunny or stormy?

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I took this picture out our dining room window today. Here's why I like it: if you cover the left half and just look at the right half, it looks like a terrible storm is brewing. But if you cover the right and just look at the left part, it looks like cotton candy clouds on a sunny day. (In fact it was mostly sunny today.) Hawaii weather doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind!
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Trekking to Kaena Point

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Hungry for adventure, Sam and I decide to hike to Kaena Point, the most westward point on Oahu.

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The trail begins as a dirt road, then quickly becomes a hiking trail.

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Mysterious man-made structures. We wish my sister could be here and give us some official archeological input. She'd probably tell us it has no historical significance and it's not worth blogging about.

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Sam, leading the expedition.

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Jake, bringing up the rear.

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Lots of rocks, arches, and weeds.

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A very loud and unexpected blowhole. It scares the willies out of us.

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Sam contemplates how to traverse the washed-out trail.

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Success is ours. We arrive at Kaena Point unscathed.

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We look back two miles and see how far we've come.

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The tip of Kaena Point. The swells from the right come from Alaska. From the left, New Zealand. We feel very important and international.

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As legend goes, one of those rocks was placed there by the God Kauai. God Kauai wanted to pull Oahu and Kauai closer together, so he threw a hook from this point to the Kuauian island. The Kauaian island was too stuborn and didnt budge. God Kauai tugged harder and broke off one of those rocks.

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Sam, demonstrating the proper technique for walking on lava rocks.

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Jake, checking out his new (and unhappy) haircut in the camera lens.

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We really like Kaena Point. The white-to-black-rock dramatic scenery is pretty cool. We were hoping to see some turtles and/or seals, but no luck. Maybe next time.