the buycks

that's pronounced "bikes" as in bicycles. kennesha and larry - these folks are too much. personality for days, months... years even.

they found out it was my birthday on sunday and sorta forced us to come to a mutual friend's housewarming party. we felt it was rude to crash their party and were supposed to go to dinner, but we went anyway. yada yada yada, kennesha and another pal, sara, went ahead and surprised me with a cake and ice cream and singing and presents. it was fantastic! and the hosts didn't mind at all. thanks drae and arin!



here's sara's husband dave teaching seth how to use his iphone.

ghetto toys: the helmet

every christmas our church tries to give away hundreds of toys... one for every kid who shows up. usually, as was the case this year, there are way more toys than kids so they get a second round of toys. kam's mom picked out mr. potato head for jed. i guess the box was more exciting... him and seth fought over who could wear the "helmet".

quote of the day

"where's the christmas guy?" -seth

he meant santa.

UNplay of the night vs. the play of the night

watch the reaction of the opposing team's bench. turkish men can't jump.

blake griffin. i can't get enough of this guy. he has a crazy dunk every game. and he sat out all last season with a knee injury/surgery.

kaneohe christmas parade

kaneohe people are serious about this thing. the parade starts at 9am, but folks start kapu-ing their spot on the sidewalk at like, 7! our church is right across the emcee's area infront of american savings bank so we get da good view when all the floats stop and show off. we hand out balloons, free pastries and coffee, and have tables set up for temporary tatoos, face painting, and balloon art for na keiki. good times on the windward side!

don't judge a book: seth and the christmas train

we took the kids to ride the train at ala moana center. jed refused to get on, so seth had to go it alone. its $7 a pop to ride this thing for like 5 minutes... anyway, the train does a half lap around the mall as all the parents follow behind like baby ducks following the mama duck.

the whole ride seth had this look on his face... half scared, half sad, but oddly courageous, like it was taking a major effort and focus to keep it together and keep from freaking out. it seemed a little mature. after it was all over, we asked him if he had a good time... "yeah," he said. kids (especially mine) blow my mind.

quotes of the day

"i need to put this junk in my trunk." -dorothy bauer

"i'm confused about the time change. if i want to set my alarm clock to 1245 tonight, is that a.m.?" -michael adams

random photos: roll 137

1. the ono-est baklava! kammy made these babies from scratch and like i said, they were the ono-est.
2. cricket. our neighbor's doggie.
3. some kids from our homeschool co-op. we had a holiday potluck at st louis heights park/trail.
4. uh basketball game. outrigger sponsored the tournament so we got free tickets. fun!

quote of the day

"once you get used to the mosquitoes and the rain and the frogs, it's not a bad place." -random older japanese guy on living in hilo

st louis=state champs

Leland Gomez, interception - St. Louis vs. Waianae - ScoringLive from ScoringLive on Vimeo.

Leland Gomez, 21 yard interception - St. Louis vs. Waianae - ScoringLive from ScoringLive on Vimeo.

we missed the game because jed wasn't feeling weel, but kaleb went with his grampa and they had a blast. we watched the replay on tv tonight and it was exciting. we're so proud of leland.

scripture of the day

The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. -Ecclesiastes 10:12

little village

little late on the post, but here are a few photos from last month when ren was in town. we met at little village, one of dad's favorite eateries. cassandra song made the cameo (thanks cassie!), which was a pleasant surprise... i'll just say it's a small and interconnected island. notice the unphotogenic kid i'm holding and his curious brother wondering what the hell he's crying about. classic.

blake griffin: like, whoa!

when i saw highlights of this game on espn it was late. the kids were asleep. i had to put my hand over my mouth to muffle the joy/excitement/awe/etc. that was involutarily erupting from my insides. thankfully no one woke up.

quotes of the day

"you have gramma mari's hands." -kaleb

"mommy said she can't take me to the zoo because if she smells elephant poop she's gonna puke all over me." -seth

he's baaaaaack!!!!

21 seconds is all it took.

circle island drive

me kaleb and jed took a drive around the island on veterans day. what started as a trip to sandy beach turned into a daylong affair.

1. kai'ona beach in waimanalo.
2. kahuku town. this sign was posted across from the high school.
3. kualoa beach park. these trees were weird... they were all bent in the same direction. like gigantic bonsai.
4. chinaman's hat
5. windmill statues. having just seen collapse, i wondered what it costed to build one of these things and what sort of carbon footprint was left. how long does it take for these "moneysavers" to actually pay for itself.

gwyneth "soul" paltrow?

quote of the day

"if you pinch my butt, i'm gonna make doodoo on your hand!" -seth chang

for kammy...

MAXWELL - Pretty Wings from JAMES LESTER on Vimeo.

i'm so happy we've experienced all we have together... the good, the bad, and the beautiful. there's nowhere i'd rather be than next to you at night.

love, me

somewhere over the...

it's been rainy for the past week. not cats and dogs rainy, more of a misty kind of off-and-on style, perfect for rainbows. rainbow sightings have been quite the common occurrence lately and this one was caught right outside my front door. i remember back in the day when i went with my stepdad to pick up a mainland relative at the airport... it was this older lady's first time to hawaii and as we were driving back to town on the H-1 there was a rainbow up in one of the valleys and she was amazed. like full-on stuck, staring and in her mind i think she was pinching herself. it was so weird, from my little kid perspective, to see this grown person awestruck by something i thought was so "whatevs". rainbow shmaimbow, right? WRONG! i gained a new appreciation that day... i'll never forget how luck i am to live hawaii. chee to the hizzu, folks.

the life and times of seth chang

how many levels of humor?

i come home from work one evening and kaleb tells me there a surprise on my bed. yes, it was surprising.

happy birthday, larry!

larry and kennesha had us over to celebrate his 31st birthday. they set up 2 bouncers in the back yard and let the kids go at it! guys watched football inside and the ladies... they weren't inside. but after the cake and ice cream it was on! we brought this corny new wii game "just dance 2" and its real funny. you mimic the dancing image on the tv... classic! i had to leave early so these are photos kammy took. fyi: hickam afb is a confusing place. make sure you get good directions entering and leaving.

ever wonder why homeless folks smell like pee?

i do. i've thought about it probably more than i should, actually. really, who does that? me.

i was walking to work thru kalakaua park in waikiki today and that old urine smell attacked my nostrils. there was a man dressed like a genie mumbling to the invisible person who'd rubbed his lamp in the park bench closest to me. as i approached him i assumed the odor was his, but as i passed by him the smell did not relent. i quickly took notice of the wind direction, and indeed he was not upwind from me. the culprit: a "person" on another bench stoking its hair. da shmell was hauna to da mostest.

so why do they smell like pee? here's what i came up with:
1. accumilation. an accumilation of trace amounts of pee over time that never get washed off. doesn't seem forensically likely.

2. laziness. too lazy to pull down their pants. eff it, i ain't tryna impress nobody, i'm peein' in my pants. possible, but probably a result of an underlying issue.

3. craziness. the underlying issue. no sense of decency. illogical behavior.

so after much thought, the conclusion i've come up with is that i'll never know why crazy people do what they do because their behavior is illogical. and i'm sure there are more than one reason why someone pees on themselves. like, "i had to. the guy who rubbed my lamp wished me to!"

st louis vs punahou

ScoringLive - FB: Punahou vs. St. Louis from ScoringLive on Vimeo.

leland had another big game this weekend against punahou. interception and return for 45 yards. they won 42-7 i think. the week before against iolani he had an interception for touchdown. kammy said she almost cried when he pointed to his fam (us) in the stands. she's real proud.

the video is an older regular season game. he had an interception in that one too, check the 0:40 mark and notice the point to the fam.

driveby shooting

before you get to beautiful yokohama beach, theres this stretch of land that... well... is crazy. makeshift shanties and converted vehicles along the side of the road partially hidden in the brush. i can't even imagine what goes on there. it was scary just driving by so i just stuck the camera out the window and got what i could.

...awk-ward

clouds and cameras

i'm into clouds. ko olina had nice ones. my wife gives me the "get away from me you mento" look whenever i notice interesting formations in the sky. the only camera we have is a $50 sanyo. the aperture doesn't adjust at all, it's just 0-infinity everytime. wimpy zoom too and not the widest angle, but it captures moments. i'd like a legit camera to record all the crazy cloud action hawaii has to offer.

more anniversary picks

we drove as far as you can go on the west side - yokohama's... it was my first time out that far. it was beautiful as you can see, but it was a little odd too. after driving through waianae, a locals only town, and passing the homeless encampments in the bushes beside the road, the beach was clean and there were haoles everywhere. they were probably military folks, but it was such a stark contrast to what my mind had been expecting that it shocked me. anyway the place reminded me of polihale, which also happens to be at the very west end of kauai.

little late

after 4 years of cohabitation seth asked me, "whats that?" pointing to the tattoo on my hip. he honestly had never noticed it. i wasn't sure what to make of it.

5 year anniversary

on sept 23rd kammy and i made 5 years! we celebrated a week later and left for ko olina the day after seth's birthday. lucky we live hawaii!