This journal is mostly public. That's a recent change, though, so if you want to read my past ramblings, leave your name, number, and how you got here, and I most likely will friend you back. As a note, if you friend me without leaving a comment, I won't friend you back, as how will I know who you are?

+all sheet music and major fandom posts are public
+all fic is posted at oddest_nooks
+all graphics are posted at sparkle_power

Sorry for falling off the planet! I promise I will get back to the Hawaiian music tomorrow. Have a numbered list.

(1) This past week has been exhausting. I started my new job on Tuesday - I really like it! I'm working for a tech company in Honolulu. The atmosphere in the place is great, and it's in a great part of town. I'm so glad we found each other. :DDDD

(2) Also this week, my parents have been in town. The main reason was that I'm a traditionalist, and I wanted my mum to be there when I tried on wedding dresses. :D And I found one! I need to order it this week, buuuuuut, here it is. :) It is so pretty, and it flatters me so well, and it is light and airy and perfect. <3 I think Larry and I are finally getting into this planning thing - we still don't have a reception venue, but I think once the semester ends we'll be in a better condition to hash things out together. May will be 6 months, so it hopefully won't be too hard to find a venue. And if it is, I think just having a small thing at the park would be fun. :D

(3) I know this isn't going to happen for another month, but does anyone remember seeing the BBC broadcasts of Eurovision being up for dl? I won't be able to watch the semi-finals because of work, and Larry will have rehearsal during the finals. Also, while it's great to get the raw feed at the Eurovision site, I think Larry misses the snarky commentary... :P

(4) Has anyone tried the Julep beauty boxes? I've got a code to get the first one for a penny (COLORS4ONE, if anyone's interested), and figured I'd try it out. How's their polish?

To celebrate the Merrie Monarch festival this week, it's three days of hula! :DDDDDD

The first competition night is for Miss Aloha Hula. The winner must perform two dances - a traditional kahiko hula, and a modern ‘auana performance. This is the Farewell performance of Miss Aloha Hula 2010, Mahealani Mika Hirao-Solem, right before the new one was crowned. Her hula is some of the most graceful and beautiful I've seen.

(What this video doesn't show is what happened right after, when her kumu hula (hula teacher) proposed to her right on the stage. It was amazing <3)

Absolutely exhausted. Larry and I are playing in a concert Thursday, and we've had 4 hours of rehearsal this week. The instruments I'm playing are a lot more physical than I'm used to, and I can barely move for being so sore. Ugh, at least it will be over tomorrow.

Today's song can't embed, so click the link: Uwehe, Ami and Slide - Faith Ako

Day 10: Couldn't take the Mana, by Mana Kaleilani Caceres



( Translation of the Hawaiian terms under the cut )

Thank you for all of your thoughts yesterday when I was freaking out. I'm starting Job #2 tomorrow, and will take a couple of days to contemplate keeping Job #1. I feel better having slept on it, and am excited to be employed starting tomorrow!

My parents fly in tomorrow afternoon, so I'll be hanging out with them and wedding planning the next couple of days - I'll try to keep up with the meme, though. :D

Today's song is: "Hawaii '78", by Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole



The music of Hawai‘i can be very political. Many Native Hawaiians are still upset about how their land and culture were almost destroyed due to American interference, and justifiably so. Bruddah Iz's song questions how the past monarchs of Hawai‘i would feel seeing the Hawai‘i of today.

Happy Easter! To celebrate, my Hawaiian music for the day is a hymn. The Kamehameha Schools are an institution in Hawai‘i for the children and descendents of Native Hawaiians. Each year their main campus holds a song contest, where the different classes compete for school honors. Each song contest begins with a prayer, and with the singing of the Doxology (the Old Hundredth) in Hawaiian.

This video is from the 2008 Kamehameha Schools contest. I can't embed the video, but I've linked from where it starts (around the 4 minute mark).

Day 8: Ho‘onani I Ka Makua Mau

Enjoy!

It took four months, but I got a job! I'm working at a tutoring center, teaching kiddies math and english. The pay and hours aren't great, so hopefully I can find a second position to work at as well, but I'm not going to complain. Yay!!

Here's today's song: Poli'ahu, sung by Teresa Bright.



( Translation under the cut. )

Enjoy!

For my birthday, we get a song that's close to my heart. Larry's original apartment was horrible, but there were some nice people in it, including this one guy who would sit on the porch and play ukelele for hours. He'd play this song most of all, and I still love it.

Day 6: Island Style, by John Cruz



Two culture notes:
"From the mountain to the ocean, from the windward to the leeward side" - In O'ahu, you don't do directions with north, east, etc. You use landmarks. For example, I live on the makai (ocean side) of the freeway, towards Diamond Head.
Kanikapila - To "kanikapila" is to come together to play music, and jam.

Enjoy. :D

Today was exhausting. Job interview, shopping, and then a laborious dinner process - someday I will not burn what I cook. Some day! At least I bought wine to drink after the whole venture. Two more days of interviews and observations, I can do this. *collapses*

Today's mele is hula! Hula is such an integral part of Hawaiian music, I couldn't leave it out. One of the giants of the hula scene died a couple of days ago - O'Brian Esalu. His halau (hula school), Ke Kai o Kahiki, won top awards at the Merrie Monarch Festival (a hula competition in Hilo) in 2010, so here is their performance.

A note! If your only experience with hula is what you see in Elvis movies, get ready. Hula kahiko (traditional) is a completely different animal, especially with the men. It is aggressive and physical, and the hip rolls put all the Japanese pop guys to shame. XD They explain what the hula means before they start. And then there are some quality Hawaiian commercials... uh...

Day 5: Ke Kai o Kahiki - A'Ka'uku

Has anyone here ever used Crest Whitestrips? I'm beginning to plan my beauty routine for before the wedding, and my teeth are pretty yellow. Will they still work if you have crooked teeth/can't get even coverage?

I have to run out the door to an interview (ack!) so not much time to hunt for a Hawaiian song... so have Jake and Bruce Shimabukuro covering Taylor Swift on the ukelele. :P



Have a good day!

Yesterday was way too exciting. First of all, a bus crashed downtown at the same place where Larry was participating in a choral festival. There were about five minutes of pure terror for me until I could figure out what was going on, ugh. Then, when Larry gets home, he goes to heat up some food with the microwave, only to have the microwave emit this huge puff of black smoke.

Yuck.

We've got a new microwave from the landlord, but our poor apartment smells like smoke again. Blaaaaaah.


So let's have a nice calming song for today.

Day 3: Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai (Plants of the Sea), sung by Hapa, originally by Aunty Edith Kanaka‘ole



The translation is under the cut. ( It's a song about seaweed. )

Today I bring to you an important part of Hawaiian music, singing about food. :P

Song for today is: Fish and Poi, by Sean Na‘auao



I know that Hawaiian food isn't seen much outside of Hawaii, so there's a Hawaiian food primer ( under the cut. )

You hungry yet?

April is National Poetry Month. In the Hawaiian language, "mele" is used for both poetry and song. Thus, I present to you 30 days of Mele, in which I pick for you some of my favorite Hawaiian songs. I know that the Hawaiian music scene gets limited exposure, except for singers that make it out of Hawaii and successful (Bette Midler, Bruno Mars), or a very few songs (like Iz's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), so hopefully you'll find some new things that you like.

Here's my first pick: Ka Nohona Pili Kai, by Keali‘i Reichel.



This is a cover of a famous Okinawan song, "Nada Sousou." The original is a melancholy, yet fond remembering of memories past. The Hawaiian cover remembers the beauty and tranquility of Hawai‘i.

( Translation of the lyrics under the cut. )

See you back here tomorrow!

Up at 4 in the morning with what I assume is some sort of cold. Blech, I hope it doesn't last long.

Larry and I went to see The Hunger Games last night. This might be an unpopular opinion, but I enjoyed the movie more than the book. I find Katniss an irritating narrator, and on the whole avoid first-person narration. So it was very cool to see the story through a different lens. The parts with Seneca Crane and the production of the games, and the color commentary from Caesar were especially nice. (Speaking of, Stanley Tucci's performance was definitely my favorite one. I love him and his ridiculous blue hair. The audience at my theater was pretty good. I enjoyed whenever there was a romantic part, and the camera turned on to Gale, there was this collective OH SHIT sound from the audience. Good times.

I've been consuming a lot of AKB48 lately - their songs are constantly on my iPod. I also watched their first Saitama concert streaming on Youtube (and can I state how freaking cool it is to be watching a live concert, in Japan, on my couch? AWESOME). I teared up at the opening with Takamina walking from the theater to Tokyo Dome. The older members always seem on a constant quest for validation - and after their rocky start this is completely understandable - so I hope that this cements for them that they are national idols, and not just a group capitalizing on the Akiba boom. After hearing about Maeda Atsuko's retirement, I have to wonder how the group will change. Also, when will she leave? I'm assuming after the Dome concerts (which I'd guess will be in late spring/summer). She's already listed on the May single, which I think will be the one with the senbatsu election ballots. So... assuming she makes senbatsu, she'd be in/lead that single and then leave. That seems tidy, but Akimoto can be so unexpected with decisions (like adding Jurina to Team K wtfffffffff), who knows what will happen?

...I don't think I've ever rambled about them on this blog before. I'm not really in the fandom, I just enjoy watching and listening to them. I guess I had a lot of pent-up things to say. :P

So, I'm back playing FF12, and I have a leveling question for all of you that have played it. I just finished the Dreadknot Leviathan section, after doing some leveling in the Lhasa Mines. So my characters are all around Level 20 except for Vaan, who's at Level 12... :X Is it possible to play the game only leveling three characters, or do I want to have a balanced group? My favored party right now is Basch, Balthier, and Fran, although I think I may switch Fran out for Ashe or Penelo...

Oh man, I am watching No Reservations and Anthony Bourdain is in Shanghai eating xiao long bao. Waaaaaant.

Look, I'm posting twice in a week! Will wonders never cease!

This week Larry went on a culinary adventure, to eat a Filipino food called balut. (WARNING: Not to be culturally insensitive, but balut looks gross. Please image search with CAUTION.) ( If you are at all squeamish about food, you may want to skip this story. )

All in all, it was very disgusting and I'm glad I didn't try it. I am kind of adventurous with food, but there is a limit!

Yesterday I booked two job interviews (yay!) so I went to the mall today to celebrate. I went to see Norwegian Wood at the theater, which I am still processing. I... think it was good? I at least liked looking at Matsuyama Ken'ichi for two hours. Then I went to the drugstore and bought new facial cleaner and a BB cream to try out. Also, they finally had Essie Shine of the Times at the store, so I grabbed a bottle. (I told myself I wouldn't buy a bottle until I got a job, but an interview is a good reason to celebrate, too!) I feel so... feminine. :P

Time for lunch!

Haven't posted for a while, so this entry may be a jumble, fair warning. :P

• Let's start with Valentine's Day, as that's where we left off. I made this cake, which quickly went into my "recipes I use a lot" file, because it was delicious and easy. We didn't actually do any other celebrating, because we were both tired and frustrated. He tried to make it up the next day with flowers (sunflowers! <3) and chocolate, but I was feeling crummy... and was diagnosed later in the week with my third UTI in 5 months. Ugh, body, can we stop doing this now? It's like my body is bitter that I've gone without them for 25 years, and is making up for lost time.

• The reception place that was my first choice fell through, sigh, mainly because it was too expensive once I got all the information. Larry and I are now looking at a ranch on the North Shore. It's a bit of a hike for our guests, but more affordable! And views of Chinaman's Hat. :) I need to search out more information, which I'll do this week.

• Job applications continue apace. I have a friend who's in the same boat as me right now, so we're commiserating on how hard it is to find employment. I've been brushing up on my Japanese, too - so many of these places want bilingual English/Japanese, which I can't do, but if I can prove a strong ability for keigo I may have an in. On a side note, I really hate keigo.

• Jin's concert was last night, and I wasn't there. It makes me a bit sad that two years ago I was passionate enough about him and his music to fly across the country, but now I won't even take the bus 30 minutes. I don't see that changing much, though, unless he stops making dance music. I really dislike most forms of club/dance/electronica. I can see how he thinks this can get his foot in the door in the industry, especially since it's such a hot genre, but it's one I usually try to avoid at all costs. Sorry, Jin. Try singing ballads again and you might win me back.

• Hmmm, what else? This weekend I get to educate Larry on how we do St. Patrick's Day in America. We went to the local diner last night for dinner, and I saw that they were doing the "traditional" mix of foods, from green beer to corned beef and cabbage. I learned that the British definition of corned beef is very different than the American one. I had wondered, because he kept talking about eating tins of it at home, and I was wondering how that even worked! :P

Hope you're all doing well! <3 <3 <3

...that J.K. Rowling is writing a new (adult!) novel or that Stephen Colbert is writing a new (children's!) book. I want them both!

Been working on this post for almost a week now. Sometime I will post in a quick, timely fashion!

+ Wedding stuff first. I've got a first choice of reception venue, the YWCA in Honolulu. I sent an email to their events manager, and she confirmed that my date is open, so yay! I'm going to meet with her in person next week. I really, really hope it works out!! The building is absolutely stunning, and the courtyard (which is my first choice) is beautiful. Also, all of the catering is included, which would be a huge weight off of my shoulders. I also today started to talk about bridesmaids' dresses with my sister. I've got a good idea with what she'd wear, and what's available, so that's good! After this I think I can take a bit of a break from planning for a bit. My mum and dad are coming out here in April, so I can search for dresses then. Oh boy.

+ I introduced Larry to Southern food last Friday. There's a new restaurant in town that sells the standard fare, and our Texan friend almost cried after eating it, it was so good. So Larry had fried catfish, hush puppies, deviled eggs, and sweet tea for the first time - he was quite taken with it. Then there was the bread pudding, which was pound cake and biscuits with a bourbon sauce. The meal felt like a heart attack waiting to happen, but it was delicious.

+ I have been doing a lot of actual cooking recently (compared to my usual technique of "throw shit in a pot and see what happens"). I've been working my way through my new cookbook (How to Cook Everything <3) and the Smitten Kitchen website. For future reference, here are some of my favorites from SK:

- Buttermilk Roast Chicken Ooooomg, so good. And so easy! I love these simple recipes that work so well. I just bought whatever chicken was on sale (this week, bone-in chicken thighs), and it came out unbelieveably tender and moist, with a nice crunch to the skin. I've got more buttermilk, so I think I am going to make it again this week.
- Thai-Style Chicken Legs Last time I made this grilled (we got a new electric grill to try) with boneless-skinless chicken breasts, but I think I'll try something with skin and bones and roast it next time. I didn't have cilantro, so I think that'll help - when I made it the fish sauce overpowered the other flavors. Good enough to try again, though!
- Zucchini and Almond Pasta Salad This has become my go-to potluck dish. As you may have noticed, I only kinda follow recipes, so I make this with feta instead of parmesan, and roasted pine nuts instead of almonds. It gives it a delicious Greek spin. It's so light with a flavorful punch.
- Chocolate Stout Cake My other potluck standard. It makes a wonderfully moist cake, and the stout makes it rich without being cloyingly sweet. Plus, then I have almost a 6-pack of Guinness to drink! :P
- Risotto al Barolo This was the first thing I ever cooked for Larry - Valentine's last year, actually! My favorite thing about this risotto is that it's bright purple. :D I use whatever dry red wine I can find that's not too pricey, and it's always served me well. I haven't tried the crostini yet, but I'm sure I will.

Tomorrow Larry is home too late to make dinner (we've been trying not to eat dinner at 10pm, ugh), but I am planning on making this bread for when he gets home. It's an excuse to buy a loaf pan, and yeast. (On second thought, maybe this one instead, omg yum.) I miss the smell of freshly baked bread - maybe this will get me into the habit. It will make my arms strong, at any rate!!