Hawai-not?

So I decided that I would like to go to Hawaii. Most people would say that it's so beautiful and part of The United States so it must be a very similar experience to being in a beautiful place throughout the contiguous states. The cute luaus and Hawaiian speech, the alohas here and there as you strut down a beautiful sandy beach and all the keiki (young children in Hawaiian) play in the crystal clear water just of the beach. Doesn't it just sound so amazing?

If only the visit would be so fun and joyous. Don't get me wrong Hawaii is an amazing place but its not the rainbows and ukulele songs that we all hear when we imagine a getaway. There are certain customs and rules that you must follow when going to Hawaii because of the celebrated and rich history and us being Ha'oles (foreigners) we are almost sure to know none of these customs. My friend from Hawaii and I were talking yesterday about little known important facts and she told me that you have to be at least 75% Hawaiian to be able to even step foot on Lana'i. The strange thing about that is, that there are no 100% Hawaiians because they come from Somoa or Tonga or other small Pacific Islands. It's really easy to see that this surprises most people who hear that their notions and thoughts of the people of Hawaii aren't completely Hawaiian. The way that she says they treat outsiders is also very conflicting with the way that we see nice jolly Hawaiians. They aren't very tolerant of those who aren't from the same kind of backgrounds as they are. For example there is a song called Hawai'i Pono'i sang at all the games and even graduations. She said that she was part of a group that was to sing at the graduation and she was singled out because they didn't want a ha'ole singing their traditional song and she ended up not singing because of their immense close-mindedness.

This just goes to show you that anywhere that you go there are unspoken but well-known traditions that we foreigners are completely oblivious to; even in The United States!


(This is the traditional song Hawai'i Pono'i)

Manipulation of Information Could Make an Innocent Man Confess...

When I stumbled across this article I was a little shocked that there would actually be a study like this one. This link, takes you to a recent study about the human behavior and how it is "93 percent predictable". I found this article's claim to be outstanding. How would you predict actions by location alone like they say in the article? Based on 100,000 anonymous cell-phone users of the 7.1 billion people on Earth it seems to be as if they concluded that everyone has a regular and routine in which they make the same choices every time. The sampling size alone pokes holes into the reliability of this information. If you know anything about anyone these days, it just seems to be that they have to be on a schedule or routine to have a normal functioning life. In no way does being in the same place often mean that you have to make the same choices every day. People could make tons of different choices at home or even in their work place. Just suppose that someone works at home and deals in many different businesses or trades. Couldn't they make hundreds of different impossible-to-predict choices? I think that they have really messed this title up. They could change the name to human routine is 93 percent predictable but to go as far as to say the whole human behavior is that well predicted is too much of a reach.

My Neck of the Woods

I am from Williams, Arizona. I spent 19 years of my life living there growing up and getting to know everyone in the community of a very small 2000-2500 people town. It's not much to be from Williams, it's really a nowhere town filled with people who get by in a small town environment. We don't really have too much of a regional identity because we are kept somewhat in a vacuum of our town. Yeah, we have fads and other things that everyone throughout the country or even just the West Coast, but we aren't really that affiliated with the in and now throughout the entire town; especially the older citizens. The only thing that is agreed upon unanimously is the interest in our sports. Young and old alike love to go and watch our sports. That leaves us with my Dad being friends with just about everyone in town because he has been a coach for the better part of his life. My family is a well known and pretty well liked one, for my example if you're ever passing through Williams, ask if they know Melvin Berry and I bet ten dollars you could get a great story out of them having to do with my Dad.



(Williams in the fall)