This Is How We Do: Airplanes

Since bruddah ova hea has been travelin’ a bit as of late, I thought that sharing our airplane habits might be a nice widdle topic for our “This Is How We Do…” series. Agree? We go!

* Book Online – one of the benefits of the glorious Interwebs is that you can use it to book your flight, pick your seats, check in, print your boarding passes, etc., all without the headache of doing it in person. I take full advantage of it, especially with the seating. There’s nuthin’ that makes me more antsy/impatient than sitting on a plane waiting to get off. The further up towards da front I can get, da bettah! Less waiting!
* Pack Light – if I can help it, I try not to check anything in. Not only are there extra fees these days, I just like that I can get on and off de plane (de plane) and on my way in a flash. I know, I know… it’s probably easier for us guys than you ladies to pack light cause all we need is one clean underwear and we all G. 8)
* Set It and Forget It – I like to pack my bag in the overhead compartment in the row ahead (in row 11 if I’m in row 12). This way, retrieving it on the way out is easier/quicker and less of a hold up for the peeps behind me.
* iTunes – if it’s a long trip, I needs ta bring my iPod with loaded up tunes. Optionally, I’ll pick up a good magazine or two from the newsstand and may even bring the DS or portable DVD player.
* Sleeping Beauty – I can sleep anywhere at any time. Planes just happen to be one of these places. 8)
* Hurry up and wait – as soon as that bell rings, I unbuckle my seatbelt (my hand is already on it beforehand) and stand up in the aisle (if I’m in the aisle seat). I’d rather stand up and wait for the doors to open than be seated.
* Holla! – during the wait-for-the-door-to-open period, I turn my phone on. This wait is a good time to make calls (for a ride), check voicemail/texts, and browse the web.
* Out like trout – like I said before, I don’t like staying in the plane longer than I have to. Once those doors open, I’m itchin’ to get out. I become the fastest walker in the world once out on the Jetway. Why am I in such a rush? I have no idea. LOL!
 
Sound anywhere close to how you do? Share, share!

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How Geeks Do Blackouts

Yeah, I know, I’m shmall kine late with the blackout report, but I figgah since errbody else already blogged about it up in here, I’d try to present a different angle for all y’all, 3 days aftah da fact. *grin*

Now I don’t consider myself a geek by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have geeky tendencies. LOL! Below, you’ll find what one pseudo-geek did to pass the time of what literally turned out to be “Black” Friday.

Unless you make your home far far away, I don’t have to tell you what happened to most of us during Friday’s fiasco. What I do want to tell you (and what I also want to hear from you) is how we (you) spent our (your) day battling the dark “night”. Get it? Pretty good play on words eh? *patting self on back* Anyway…

The night started with some false alarms. The flickering of the lights. Some subtle hints warning of the impending doom, er gloom, ah, blackout. Wifey and I rushed to get our dinner a-cookin’, but the electric gods were not with us.

*POOF*

Power be gone!

Ain’t no thang. We were kinda mentally prepared for it actually. But it did suck, as, I’m sure it did for the rest of us. (One story I heard was of those stuck in the “Bodies” exhibition when the power went out. That must’ve been nuts yeah!? Talk about real life haunted house! LOL!).

Thanks to all of the candy and treats our friends, family and neighbors gave to us for the holidays, we pretty much had a jubilee of options for a replacement meal. And although Chex snack mix is not the ideal meal, we at least had 30 days worth in case the power didn’t come back for another month. 😛

With no electricity, there was no form of entertainment to speak of. Like errone else, TV, Internet and Phone were all down, so we were reduced to working on our Thank You cards under candlelight (My eyes are still burning). 8)

When the vision started to go and the fumes from the marker became too much, I took periodic “Virus Buster” breaks on the trusty DS. Staring at a bright screen in pitch black darkness however, is not so guaranz balbaranz, so I had to take a break from taking a break, naw-mean? So it was off to find the next thang to do. Hmm, let’s check the Internet on my phone…

Awww yeeeeeaaaaah!

Da buggah works!

So what do I do? I check my email, read my feeds on Google Reader, do a lil’ bit of Facebook, and then pop on to Twitter.

WOAH!

Note to self (and others): Twitter, during island-wide blackouts, is the place to be son!

Thanks to the (Hawaii) Twitter community sending constant updates about their situations and the news they’ve gathered from others, I was not in the dark, while in the dark, if you know what I mean. I was able to piece together what was happening all ova the island without electricity and witout moving a muscle (except the ones in my thumb). Apparently, the Hawaii blackout related messages (marked with “#hipower”) was the number one tracked term on Twitter search at the time. Pretty amazing.

I gotsta give mad props to @johngarcia (John Garcia from the Advertiser), @hawaii (Ryan Ozawa), @KGMB9 (Jared Kuroiwa is that you?), and a few others for holding it down and keeping many of us afloat when we were looking for something, anything.

The next morning, the power was still not back for us “Milsville” peeps, so it was time for more geekiness. We busted out the ol’ crank radio to listen to Perry (on the left) and Price (on the right) on KSSK to find out what the dealio was, and mixed in a few more rounds of DS and Twitter for good measure…

Funniest quote of the day (from wifey): *pouts* “I’m washing dishes for food we didn’t even eat!”

Talk to me!
* Is that geeky enough for you? Were you even geekier than me?
* How did you end up spending your night/day?
* What area do you live and what time did your power end up coming back on at?
* Any other thoughts or feedback on the blackout or weather in general?

Holla!

Mario Kart Me!

You’ve seen ’em errwhere. From lil’ kids to full-blown adults. Staring mightily and intently into the little Nintendo DS screen.

Depending on your age and level of pop culture expertise, some of the questions you may’ve asked yourself were:

* “What is that… a cell phone?” (old as dirt)
* “What are they doing?”(slightly younger but still out of it)
* “Should I have one of those to?” (a little more downtown julie brown)
* “What Multiplayer Group are they in and I wonder if I can join in!?” (hip and in the know)

The game is Mario Kart and it’s the fastest growing sensation in Hawaii, well, at least in my experiences. Different groups of my friends do it. Random people I talk to do it. Readers of this blog do it! I’ve finally come to this realization when (as I mentioned in a previous post) a random guy in the movie theater yelled to the crowd to join his Mario Kart Multiplayer Group, and, you know what, people did! To illustrate just how amazing this is, quite a few things have to be in place for this to even come close to happening.

1. They had to have brought their DS
2. They had to have had the game Mario Kart
3. They had to have had some level of knowledge of a) how to play the game and b) how to connect to another DS via Multiplayer mode

Simply amazing. Next time I go to the movie, I’m packing my DS just in case. 😛

New welcome screen means I play too much!

Talk to me!
* Which character/kart combo do you like to use?
* Know any shortcuts?
* Know any secret codes/cheats?
* Care to share any other secrets to help me get better?
* What other games do you like to play on your DS?

Shoots! Have a happy Sunday yo!