I’m back and I already miss Kaua’i. Next time will be spent in a house on the beach in Hanalei for at least a week. Maybe more. Full update – and too many pictures – later , now: SUN.

Every sunset in Oahu is a beautiful sunset. Today I’m leaving for Kauai to discover for myself whether or not the sunsets there are quite as brilliant (I’m guessing they are). Wont be bringing my mac along for the ride, so the blog and you will have a little break from my constant nagging for a couple of days. Have a wonderful week everyone ! Aloha.

Natt&Dag har en veldig godt skrevet, passe humoristisk og litt sånn “in your face”-artikkel/kommentar/sak ute nå om homofili, Nina Karin Monsen, Gud og adopsjon. Jeg syns dere burde lese den. Utdrag:

Forskningsresultatene som taler mot homofiles rett til adopsjon baserer seg mer på konservative “verdier” enn faktiske forskningsresultater. Men hei, sånn for gøy, la oss late som ingen har forsket på emnet og ta til takke med sunn fornuft for å avgjøre om et homofilt par burde få adoptere. Et utbredt argument som taler mot er at barna kan bli utsatt for mobbing. Vi vil jo ikke at barn skal mobbes, og det er enklere å ikke la homofile adoptere enn å faktisk prøve å snu trenden med homofobi. Siden vi er så godt i gang burde vi i tillegg nekte mørkhudede å kopulere siden ungene deres kan bli utsatt for rasisme. Det beste alternativet, sånn hvis vi uansett skal gå rundt og inndra menneskerettigheter, må være å frata fordomsfulle idioter som oppdrar flere fordomsfulle idioter retten til å være i nærheten av unger. Da vil vi til slutt ende opp med et samfunn helt uten både rasisme og homofobi. Neste generasjon kan fortsatt reddes.

Saken finner man her, begrunnelsen for hvorfor Nina Karin Monsen mottok Fritt Ord-prisen i 2009 kan du lese her og en kommentar til utdelelsen undertegnet Stian Bromark finner du her.

The Hunger Games exceeded my expectations and gave me everything I wanted and more. It’s morbid, beautiful and as realistic as it should be. The technical part is well executed, using handheld cameras to underline the urgency and the reality of the situation, saturated colors and controlled chaos in the Capitol versus the dirty grey and blue shades to underline the poverty and dismalness of the districts. All accompanied by a mix of indie and country music, and an appropriate amount of silence. The contrasts are vile, and not unlike the real world.

The criticism of the reality TV-generation is harsh as well, but more than that the story itself is an equivalent to George Orwell’s 1984, for teenagers. The “Big Brother is watching”-theme is underlined by the cameras hidden in every tree or plant in the entire arena, capturing every moment of Katniss’ battle for survival. The running commentaries from the show’s host Caesar Flickerman (perfectly portrayed by Stanley Tucci) serve to explain the events for the viewers, but also add to the morbidity of the entire situation as it is broadcasted on live TV to the entire nation.

How you manage to create a movie about kids murdering other kids and still keep it PG-13 is beyond me but this movie should be on every “Movies to watch”-list this year, and personally I am already anticipating the sequels.

Favorite soundtrack song: Maroon 5 ft Rozzi Crane – Come Away To The Water

Welcome to my island.

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Aloha Spring Break. I’ve spent the first free day in bed, after what seemed like the longest week of school this semester. Luckily the world has PF Chang’s and home delivery, so I am currently curled up in the couch eating Chinese food and re-reading The Hobbit. My plans for the next couples of days involve hours in the sun working on getting that tan back (and skin cancer if I’m lucky), watching cheesy&wonderful 90s movies and listen to Justin Bieber’s new record. Well maybe not the last one, I know it’s not socially acceptable to listen to Bieber when you are 22 and wannabe-cynical.

If you want to listen to my latest musical endeavors, here is my current spotify-list.

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So, I just cut my hair. Again. By myself. With a scissor. Turned out pretty neat didn’t it? My roommate tells me it did. I’m OK with her approval. It is Spring Break after all, and from now on she is my only voice of reason shouting out amongst all the mainland kids who’re flying out here to party and possibly drown during Floatopia on Saturday. I am going to bury myself in a book and pretend they are not here until I’m leaving for Kaua’i on Tuesday.

On another note I’ll be leaving the apartment in a couple of hours to attend the premier of Hunger Games, dressed to impress the obsessed fans I am going to interview for the school newspaper. Have I mentioned that I love crazy, obsessed fans? I used to be one after all. Back in the days.

Until I see you again; aloha and have a nice weekend !

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In Hawaii I am never on time. Or … let me rephrase that; in Hawaii I live on Hawaii time. Where time is an ambiguous term, prone to change at whim, ruled by weather and the general mood of the day. The bus has a schedule, but don’t expect it to be there when you think it will. Stores that are supposed to open at 8am might just open at “12-ish” instead, depending on the surfing conditions. And certain teachers are always ten minute late for class, except when you expect them to be late and they arrive ten minutes early for class. The same applies to the students.

This semester I am trying to force some order into this state of flux that I’ve been living in. You might have noticed that I am inseparable from my beloved Triwa-wathes (the purple and the tropical one), but right now I am dreaming of adding a new one to my collection. The Nevil-model has been on my wishlist for a year, but so far I have failed to acquire it. Now, my birthday is coming up in just a couple of weeks, so all hope is not lost and so on..

Until then I am slowly trying to incorporate a schedule into the habitual island time.

Meet Arwen and Ophelia. They like to nuzzle your neck, bite the collar of your jacket and fight with the coffee table. Arwen spent most of yesterday asleep on my shoulder while we had a small Lord of the Rings extended edition marathon. A friend of mine is watching them for the Hawaiian Humane Society until they are old enough to get adopted into a family that will take care of them. If they don’t get adopted, they’ll be put down. Killed. Because someone let them be brought into this world and then figured they’d be too much of a hassle. That might be one of those things that make the most angry; the carelessness, stupidity and cruelty some people show towards animals. Just look at them, how can you ever mistreat someone who trusts you that blindly?

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I’m missing winter, and NYC right now. Last January in the city that never sleeps was beautiful. And sleepless. I want to go back and roam around in Lower Manhattan, and Williamsburg and the outskirts of Brooklyn. But New York is miles away, and I have homework that refuse to be ignored. Will just have to watch Gossip Girl in the meantime as a substitute, haven’t seen that show in months, so it’s about time to I get back into the intrigues. Upper Eastside-intrigues that is.

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Today I joined a couple of other people from my class and visited the offices of local radio station KCCN. This was my first visit to a “real” radio station (I have some knowledge of the student-run kind), and it was really fascinating to experience it live. As traditional radio is slowly losing listeners to internet-based radio channels and sites (like Pandora), podcasts and music-on-demand sites like Spotify, it was interesting to listen to what they’re saying about what the future will look like. Will there be room for radio, and will it exist in the format it does today on FM and AM waves? Probably not, but then again empirical evidence proves that the future is infinitely more unpredictable than we can imagine.

We also recorded a shout-out for the local channel: Power 104.3 which was somewhat awkward (but in a great sort of way). The channel is available online, so if you by any chance want to listen to hip hop and hits from a Hawaiian perspective, tune in and support the old media channels.

Personally I really enjoy radio, but I rarely listen to it – preferring my Spotify-playlists because … it opens up when I turn on my mac and says “Hey! Put on some music!” Will probably have to become a lot better at prioritizing radio in my life, while I still have the chance to listen to it old school-style (through a radio).

Do you listen to radio a lot?

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Decided to copy all of those; “A day in the life”, but decided to do it Starbucks-edition:

Drug of choice in the morning. The barista felt sorry for me and gave me a double shot of espresso, because I looked so tired. Always flattering, but I did look like someone had hit me with a rather large truck.

Lunch break numero uno: un-sweetend green ice tea & oatmeal with nice things in it (mostly nuts and raisins).

Lunch numero dos: black coffee and zucchini and walnut muffin. I rarely eat the muffins at Starbucks, but I needed something to make me feel better, as I spent the day as a walking zombie, cursing my new and healthy lifestyle that has lead to me being dead tired all the time (all those work-out sessions and too much sleep).

Last Starbucks – but not the last – coffee of the day in order to survive the last class, that lasts from 5:15pm-8:30pm. I am surprised I did not fall asleep at any point during the day, I was a train wreck waiting to happen.

Today was btw my first “official” day at the school newspaper. I am now officially one of the page editors/designers at the Kalamalama. In addition to writing stuff sometimes. And some other projects I’ll talk about later. The next semesters will be overly exciting. I can feel it. I feel like my own personal cheerleader right now, and I am loving it.

And yes, I am addicted to the sweet commercial kingdom of Starbucks, especially when we have 4 of them in a 3 minute radius on the campus.

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The weather has been quite chilly the last week, which has lead to layers upon layers of clothes whenever I leave the apartment – and in the apartment as well, as we don’t really have windows or things that can heat up the place. Brought out my old poncho that I got at Gina Tricot last spring, and I feel like a proper Indian once more. As in Native American.

Started the day today with yoga at 8am in Chinatown – where a friend of mine has set up shop – and I can honestly say it might be the perfect way to start the day. I might be affected by that occupational hazard that makes me love everything which involves working out using your body as your weights (a life of dancing does that to a person), but I will still continue to recommend it. A large cup of coffee after class works too – with the “waking up”-part – combined with loads of water and a slice of pizza. Well, the last one is me being hungry and asking Ashley for advice on where to eat.

Ideally it would have been an acai bowl, but you can’t always be superwoman. Kim Kardashian taught me that. Ending on those words of wisdom I will leave you to it and go back to my pile of homework (yes, it is still there).

Started the day with a hike to the top of the Koko Head crater. The trail is basically an old railway-track used by the military back in the days, but it’s so steep that it reminds you more of stairs than anything else. 1 hour up and down worth of stairs. I nearly died. To say I am out of shape is a gross understatement. I am starting to get the machinery working again though, slowly but surely I will return to my original superwoman-state. Somehow.

I am sick of being sick, and one way to good health is definitely through working-out.

How is your spring extreme make-over sessions working out for you? Broken your New Year’s resolutions yet?

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