As most folks in Hawaii know, there has been this war going on between the Governor and the Labor Unions over what is the best way to proceed with how to address the budget shortfall. The Governor proposed a three day furlough but the unions balked and opposed it. Basically it was just a pissing match to see who had the biggest cajones. The unions are upset because they feel the Governor is taking their power, the Governor is upset because she feels the unions are too strong and they are stepping into her authority.

Well the Governor in her infinite wisdom decided that since the courts told her she did not have the authority to unilaterally furlough state workers, she does have the unilateral authority to fire a bunch of state workers. With this I agree with the Governor. She has the responsibility to make sure that the State Budget is in balance and the largest portion of the balance sheet for the State is salaries.

On a side note I think that the union should have took the furloughs. It would have given state workers the opportunity to find other work to make up for the loss in wages from the furloughs. Instead they decided that it would be better to have our salaries reduced by 5%. The sad part is the furloughs had an end in sight, albeit two years, but still an end. With salary cuts, well that usually ends up being permanent.

So here we are now and the Governor is laying people off. I think that is ok, the unfortunate part I got caught in that sting and have been layed off.

Here is my letter:

I know this sounds bad, but it truly isn’t. I am pretty stoked actually. The truth of it is I am pretty happy, because it is awesome how all things work out the way God plans them. I have taken the bar like a million times, ok it was only six, but still a lot of times. I have come so close so many times, but I think that this last time is the one. How convenient that my layoff date coincides so closely to when I get bar results.

The other thing doors open when others get closed. I am applying for jobs in Washington DC and in Texas and this could be really good. I am super stoked about everything. So who knows when this will all work out but I am confident that God has a plan for me and I am excited to be in His grace and glory.

If you have read this blog before than you are pretty certain to know I don’t like to read. The crazy thing about the profession I wish to work in is it involves a lot of reading, but that is not what this is about. Amazingly I read a book, like from beginning to end. It was an awesome book written by an amazing author David Gemmell, and his book is LEGEND.

I was amazed at how much I could relate to the characters. I felt like in some way Gemmell was basing some of the characters on me, which he obviously wasn’t but I guess that is how I go so into the book.

The main character Rek, does not like war and the idolization of war, yet when he is called upon to fight he is willing to go and pay the ultimate sacrifice. I also don’t like war, in fact I think war is pretty darn dumb and there is always another option, however when our leaders lead us on to that path of war, we need to do what has to be done.

Rek also battled his fears constantly. He worried about how his fears made him hesitate yet he was brave. He took his fears harnessed them and hedged forward. I have a lot of fears, fear of the water, fear of heights, all different kind of fears. My fear of the water was enhanced when I became an open water diver. I almost drowned, but instead of giving up I pressed forward and finished and now I am a scuba instructor. I have a terrible fear of heights but I hurled myself out of a plane at over 10000 feet.

Finally Rek is a berserker. For those who have seen me fight and trained with me, they know I have a little berserker in me. When we train I have to really concentrate to dial down the intensity. I have this bad habit of just seeing red and losing control. When we are supposed to be shadowboxing, I really need to reign in the berserker and shadowbox and not throw full punches or let kicks fly with wreckless abandon. This berserker mentality has led to some training injuries particularly to my hands and brain (as I enjoy getting hit in the head and getting knocked out).

There are other amazing characters in this book that I can also relate to and Gemmell does an amazing job of drawing a picture for the reader so that they are fully immersed in the story. It is a great read and I highly recommend it to all out there to read.

I love the ocean, it’s a place that soothes my soul and calms my nerves. It is probably one of the big reasons I feel like I can’t leave Hawaii. One of my favorite activities in the ocean is scuba diving, I am so into it, I became an instructor.

I love being an instructor but it is a catch 22. Since I became an instructor I haven’t really been able to fun dive or just dive for fun. I am always teaching or working, but tonight well I got to just dive. Granted I was leading a bunch of certified divers, but it was different. I was able to just enjoy being able to breathe that oh so wonderful compressed air.

It ended up being an amazing dive. We saw a scorpion fish, eels, and all kinds of fish, fish I had never seen before. And the company was good, haha but then it tends to be when you are underwater and you can hang out with people for like an hour without actually having to talk with them.

To think this is only the beginning. Tomorrow I get to do two more dives off of Kewalo and Sunday I get to dive the corsair, I am so excited I can’t wait.

I love bacon! It ranks up there with butter and sugar. Apparently I am not the only one, there are websites about bacon and you can buy bacon floss, and bacon mints, and just about bacon anything you can imagine. The most amazing thing appeared like magic in a recent New York Times blog – called Bacon Explosion.

My coworker came over to my cubicle and just said bacon explosion! I was like what, and he was like just google it. Talk about a work time distraction, after quickly googling it I was hooked, I couldn’t work the rest of the day. I had bacon on the brain. Of course he told me this the week before the greatest sports weekend in Hawaii (BJ Penn would be fighting, and unfortunately getting his A word handed to him by, GSP and three people with Hawaii ties would be playing in the Super Bowl, Travis Laboy, Aaron Francisco, and Chris Kemoeatu) I had to make this.

So I did a practice run the night of the fight and I made one for the day of the Super Bowl. IT was amazing. The prep work wasn’t all that bad and it looked good even in just the prep stage, something beautiful about a bacon weave!

Beginning of the bacon Weave

the weave completed

Ready to Roll

Ready to put in the ghetto smoker

The hard part was smoking it to perfection. I don’t have a smoker so I had to improvise. Basically I soaked a bunch of hickory wood for a few hours and then put it in a foil pan. I put the foil pan on top of the propane burner and turned the flame up to high. It started to smolder and started to smoke! This was nice, it gave the bacon explosion a nice flavor.

you can see my improvision with the woodchips on the right

The lesson learned from my first attempt was make sure that the Bacon Explosion isn’t directly over the smoldering wood chips, cause when the Bacon Explosion starts to drip all the yummy delicious bacon grease on the wood, it will flame up. And here it is the final product and juicy, flavorful, delicious wonderkin ….. BACON EXPLOSION!

notice the wonderful crispy bacon swirl

Ready to be eaten

If you are brave enough to take on this wonderkin of flavor the recipe can be found here.

Wow so cool I am writing my first blog on my iPhone. It is more of a cool thing than am actual post but oh well.

Not that a lot of folks read this blog, but for those who do I would love to know what song best describes you or in plain words what is “YOUR” song? Leave it in comments! And if you like feel free to disagree with other posters on what is there song!

as many of you know I have been struggling to pass the bar, so in the mean time I am selling shirts. you can buy them at
http://www.cafepress.com/808fatboyz
or
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZjjgibo

support a poor former law student pay back his student loans!

Keep checking back as there should be more shirts added all the time, with christmas right around the corner these would be really good gifts

Old Box to make costume – Free

Old Christmas Wrappig Paper – Free

Old Christmas Ribbon – Free

Being God’s Gift to Women on Halloween – PRICELESS

I am getting killed in the market. I think I am down something like 60-70 percent. I wish I had followed this stock advice:

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received a $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg. A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon! Makes you proud to be an American!

I taught my first scuba class this last week.  There were seven people in the class, although two dropped out.  One dropped out because he got an ear infection and the other found out she was preggers, although her husband finished the class.  It was a fun class and an amazing learning experience.  The learning experience really hit home though when I read this article in the San Diego Tribune.

There is an extra skill that can be taught called “buddy breathing” which is not to be mistaken with sharing air from an octo or air2 source. Buddy breathing is when there is only one regulator and the buddy team shares air off that regulator, passing it back and forth. Sharing air is when you give your buddy your octo or your primary and you breathe off your air2.

Well this weekend we taught this “extra” skill. In both skills we teach that you stay connected to your buddy. In buddy breathing the receiver holds on to the donors wrist that is holding on to the regulator. In sharing air the buddy team grasps each others right wrists. It is a tough skill to do but one that could be vital in saving a life in an underwater emergency. It was a skill that could have made a difference in this story.

This is definitely a good reminder to me that the roll I play in teaching someone how to scuba dive is very important.