Do you hate it when....

The sign says "OK to turn on red after stop" but people wait till it turns green. But that doesn't bother me because I drive with Aloha. :)

More kalihi

Cruisn thru Kalihi

FastStop in Kaimuki closing?

Wonder what's coming...

Bball @ Kapalono

Beach!

Going to the beach!

KITV Blogging for bucks special

KITV had this special on Thursday about blogging for dollars. Here's her site. I wonder how much she makes...more than Pulpconnection??? She looks like someone who used to work at an establishment on Kapiolani... Any ideas Myong's Madness?

Kiplinger's Top Ten Tax Friendly Cities - Honolulu is #5

Kinda surprised that we're in the top 5.


#5 Honolulu, Hawaii

Income tax: $1,542
Property tax: $1,279
Sales tax: $978
Auto tax: $425

OVERALL TAX BITE: 5.6%

Urban Facts: Although the tax bite is low, the overall cost of living, especially housing, is among the highest in the U.S.

With an annual operating budget of $1 billion, the city and county governments of Honolulu make up the nation's largest municipal entity.

#4 Las Vegas, Nevada

Income tax: $0
Property tax: $2,416
Sales tax: $1,021
Auto tax: $610

OVERALL TAX BITE: 5.4%

#3 Jacksonville, Florida

Income tax: $0
Property tax: $1,869
Sales tax: $1,252
Auto tax: $333

OVERALL TAX BITE: 4.6%

#2 Cheyenne, Wyoming

Income tax: $0
Property tax: $1,047
Sales tax: $1,610
Auto tax: $564

OVERALL TAX BITE: 4.3%

#1 Anchorage, Alaska

Income tax: $0
Property tax: $2,872
Sales tax: $0
Auto tax: $176

OVERALL TAX BITE: 4.1%

Bud Spykes

These are small (2.5 - 3 oz) malt beverage at 12% alcohol in very slick bottles.
They are put out by Anheuser Busch, and they are only available in a handful of states thus far. They are being marketed as something to add to beer to improve the flavor, or to pour over ice.

They come in four flavors:

Spicy Mango
Hot Melons
Hot Chocolate
Spicy Lime

They are retailing in Michigan for $0.75 up to $1.00 each.

Starcraft 2 coming?

"

A new South Korean source claims that, according to a leak, Blizzard will be announcing StarCraft 2 at the World Wide Invitational, on the 19th of May 2007."

Hmm maybe it's time to buy a new PC....

Japan airfare is pretty cheap in May

$527 on Northwest

So why is it so expensive to fly to Korea? Same timeframe shows the cheapest at $863 on China Airlines.

Bud Light!

The importance of .99 cents

I read about this from Money Magazine and here's some info from consumerist.com regarding price codes:

Sears: 99: regular 98: No coupons or sales 88: closeout 97: clearance/discontinued 93: refurb/open-box

CircuitCity: 98: local price match 97: open box item 96: limited stock item, either oop (out of production) or so new that supplies are not regular yet 95: clearance oop product

OfficeDepot: Prices not ending in 0,9 or 5 are final markdowns.

Target: 9: full price 8: clearance 4: final markdown

RadioShack, Gap, many retailers: 7: final markdown

Drew Barrymore is on a roll

Recently named CoverGirl's spokesperson, Drew Barrymore topped People Magazine's Most Beautiful list. She's one of my favorite actresses because of her crazy personality.

On that same issue of People Magazine they show Stars without Makeup although they show the people who look good with or without makeup. Some stars are pretty scary without makeup.

Finally got mobile blogging working

Figured out that I had to send the picture as an MMS message and not an email message. This will make it so much easier to post pics. Before I would take the pic, mail it to my email account, save it to my PC and finally upload it to the blog. Now, I can send directly to the blog from my phone and write the text later. Sweet!

My first mobile blog!

Beers!

Can you stack golf balls?

My friend did three so I had to at least do that. Four is super hard. I came close but couldn't do it. Damn! He said the record is something like seven or eight.

The Chelsea - A Chic New Opportunity for Contemporary Living

Another condo coming up in Honolulu. This one isn't as pricey though....

Finally got digital cable!

Heard that Oceanic had a Surf Pack special for $11.99 which gives you digital cable and a DVR so I decided to give it a try. There are so many channels! A little too much though. I wish there was a way to remove some of the ones that I won't ever watch. I really like the choice of music channels and the news on demand channels. The digital photo channel looks pretty neat. You can upload your pics onto a server and it'll play them in a slideshow format. Still haven't made the jump to HD but maybe one day when the prices are cheaper or if my TV dies.

Do you love your job?

Survey Reveals Most Satisfying Jobs

Here are the Top 10 most gratifying jobs and the percentage of subjects who said they were very satisfied with the job:

• Clergy—87 percent percent
• Firefighters—80 percent percent
• Physical therapists—78 percent percent
• Authors—74 percent
• Special education teachers—70 percent
• Teachers—69 percent
• Education administrators—68 percent
• Painters and sculptors—67 percent
• Psychologists—67 percent
• Security and financial services salespersons—65 percent
• Operating engineers—64 percent
• Office supervisors—61 percent

Here are the 10 least gratifying jobs, where few participants reported being very satisfied:

• Laborers, except construction—21 percent
• Apparel clothing salespersons—24 percent
• Handpackers and packagers—24 percent
• Food preparers—24 percent
• Roofers—25 percent
• Cashiers—25 percent
• Furniture and home-furnishing salespersons—25 percent
• Bartenders—26 percent
• Freight, stock and material handlers—26 percent
• Waiters and servers—27 percent

Kinda surprised that bartenders were on the bottom ten. I guess IT falls in between the two. I wouldn't trade my job for any of those in the top ten. What about Victoria's Secret photographers? That's gotta be one of the most satisfying jobs!

HP Online tech support chat works pretty good

Had to get some information regarding a printer problem and the response was pretty quick. Dell online tech support chat is also good. Waiting for one from Cisco..

What kind of procrastinator are you?

Interesting read in today's Honolulu Advertiser about procrastination. I do it, along with most everyone else but I don't think I'm that bad. I know some pretty chronic procrastinators but I'm not naming names! haha

WHAT KIND ARE YOU?

Experts say procrastinators usually fit into three categories:

Arousal: You wait until the last minute to frantically complete a task and tell yourself and others that you work best under pressure.

Avoiders: You put off working on something because you're afraid of failure; you would rather others think you lack effort than ability.

Decisional: You can't make decisions, so you put them off until someone else decides for you or it's too late to make a choice.

Source: www.psychologytoday.com,

Mystery of the Maui Divers Cover Girl Solved

In February, Pulpconnection posted the Fresh and Hot list of Hawaii and on it was the cover girl for Maui Divers. She's featured in this week's Midweek MWSpace.

This vacuum is awesome!

Hoover® Z 400 Bagless Upright

Model U9125900

I just heard about this vacuum tonight from a coworker and it's awesome! It's normally $350 - $400 retail but Home Depot has it on sale for $99. I've read reviews online and most of the complaints were about the weight and the fact that the cannister that holds the dirt is too small. It's a little small but good enough for me. The weight isn't a problem at all. This vacuum picks up most of the dog hair on the carpet which is like a godsend!

Be careful when driving through intersections

With the recent string of pedestrian accidents and deaths, HPD is really cracking down on jaywalking and people going through intersections. My friend just got pulled over for not going fast enough through the intersection. Basically she kinda went through the yellow light but the cop said that she didn't clear the intersection quickly enough. So if you're going to go through the yellow make sure you get to the other side quick or better yet, just stop.

Google's Docs and Spreadsheets is great!

I first heard of this from Baby Dog's post and I saw it while playing around with Google's calendar. I'm really starting to like Google's apps. Now I don't have to mail spreadsheets or docs back and forth. It may not be as advanced as MS Word or Excel but this is all I need. Being able to share it out and colloborate is cool too. I mainly use Yahoo Calendar but I'm starting to move over to Google with this feature.

Home mortgage credit card rebate program

"According to the bank's Web site, the Home Rebate card lets customers reduce $1 of principal on their mortgages for every $100 they spend, with automatic reductions in $25 increments. Spending $15,000 would lower principal by $150, for example."

So this is basically a 1% rebate program which isn't that great. I get 1.25% from Pentagon Federal Credit Union and there are other places that can easily beat 1%. With rates as low as they are nowdays, it may not be such a good idea to pay off your mortgage quicker. If you can find an investment that can beat your mortgage rate, you would be better of putting your money into that.

Nickel and Diming your way to Riches

I have a Pentagon Federal Credit Union 1.25% rebate card that pays me back every month which is the only card I use.

Luv this pic of Michelle Wie at Niketown Honolulu

Can't wait to see her play again. One of her biggest critics, Morgan Pressel, just won today's Kraft Nabisco Championship, becoming the youngest winner of an LPGA Major at 18 years, 10 months, and nine days. She pretty much came out of nowhere to win it after some major collapses by Se Ri Pak (+5 today) , Creamer (+6 today), Ochoa(quad bogey yesterday), and Petterson (up 3 after 14). Hope Michelle is 17 1/2 years old so she still can beat the record.

Sigh, I miss working in downtown...

Miss eating at Cafe 8 1/2, Yum Yum Thai....