Bad News - Update

Moms was referred to a questionable eye “specialist” and a treatment plan was recommended to allegedly delay blindness. At the last minute, moms canceled the appointment. The treatment, apparently not guaranteed to be successful, is costly and most likely not covered by medical insurance.

From what can be ascertained, the bro overreacted adversely upon learning that moms refused further treatment. In a rash decision, he decided that moms would be evicted (from the home that was gifted to him by moms) when blindness finally occurs. Sadly, moms should be able to make independent health decisions without any coercion.

There are other familial issues at play, which are directly and indirectly involved. However, those particular issues are beyond the scope of Notes. Discussion of family topics has been mummified as stated previously in Notes unless the latter is deemed important.

The tragic turn of events provoked a severe, albeit temporary, intolerance for stupidity-at-large. No details are necessary. Eventually, “cool heads” prevailed. Moms’ blindness will not happen overnight. Loss of vision will be gradual, which could take up to several years. In the meantime, there are options that can be exercised:

• First, moms could submit applications to select “old folks homes” and be put on the active waiting lists. Upon acceptance, moms could move into the facility at her convenience. Some of the “old folks homes” have a permanent case worker who serves the residents. Moms could then initiate the transition to an assisted care facility when necessary.
• Second, moms could move into the existing “old folks home” cell by being added to the current lease. This provision could also be invoked upon sudden eviction by the bro. Once, moms is settled, the lease would be modified again to only include moms. Other parties would return to motorhomelessness.

In the meantime, though, moms can monitor any increase in vision impairment. A projected time span can then be extrapolated. Moms can subsequently decide when to pursue the first option. The transition would be smooth. No drama. No stupidity.

Lessons from Hurricane Lane

The main lesson to be learned from the Hurricane Lane debacle is that crisis and survival are just another shopping event. Crazed shoppers were ramming their carts kamikaze-style into everyone and everything in a frenzied rush of hoarding much like what transpires annually on “Black Friday.” The only difference is that the carts were filled with junk food, bottled water, and various sundries to protect so-called “property.” Survival is now merely the ability to grab “stuff” off the shelf as quick as possible.

With emergency measures in effect, everything was shut down. Parks were closed. Bus service was terminated. Shopping and dining venues were closed. The only option was to remain sequestered in the ol’ mausoleum (read: “home”) with the tube, “smartphone,” and the hoarded junk food. Really, that’s the extent of the “ownership society.” The commons no longer exists. Outside of the mausoleum, the threat of trespassing charges always looms.

Community Room

Likewise, being forced to spend several hours in the community room at the “old folks home” is akin to the proverbial Chinese water torture. The same “little old ladies” are there daily, always stationed across the small wall-mounted LCD tube. Basic cable tube access is provided, so the “little old ladies” have quite a few channels to choose from. There’s always food at their tables, most of which was procured at Zippys across the street. Sadly, life at the “old folks home” can be summarized as a kind of hospice.

Hurricane Lane should have invoked serious introspection about the sad existence that the rank-and-file peons must endure. Human life has been reduced to shopping and consumption. Nothing more, nothing less. In the grand scheme, it’s more like a huge “old folks home.”

Fuck It Friday - Hurricane Edition

Fuck It Friday (FIF)! Sporadic news and commentary of no interest to anyone ... FIF! Hurricane Lane is the primary focus of this edition. Yes, this is Fuck It Friday!

Waikiki

Strong winds continued until midnight, then settled into usual trade wind patterns with very little precipitation. About three hours were spent in the community room at the “old folks home” in the early evening after a circuitous return trip through downtown from Ala Moana Center. Fuck it!

Coffee and what could be described as breakfast was prepared and consumed in the community room at the “old folks home” this morning. A useless drive to Kahala Mall revealed that the entire complex was locked up. Fortunately, the fast food joint was open. So, a continuation of coffee time ensued. The free Net wireless access was also exploited. Lots of Asian tourists were there, no doubt foolish enough to believe that all shopping venues would be open. Obsessive consumerism knows no bounds. Fuck it!

Very little will be accomplished for the rest of the day. There’s no place to loiter. No bus service. Dinner will be procured at the fast food joint on Ke’eamoku Street. Or, one of the two non-perishable microwaveable dinners will be prepared at the “old folks home.” Hot water from the laundry room at the “old folks home” will be used for bathing since the gym is closed. The recently purchased plastic trash bin will be used to transport the hot water to the cell. Fuck it!

What is everyone else doing? No doubt, sitting in front of the tube or playing with the “smartphone,” all the while stuffing themselves with all the junk food that was hoarded during the hurricane threat. Fuck it!

Hurricane Lane continues to weaken and slow down. No telling when it will pass O’ahu. The various local news sources are continuing to exploit the event to keep unwitting fools locked in and subject to advertising bombardment. There may be some rain and strong winds, but that’s it. No further updates in Notes is required. Fuck it!

Hurricane Update - August 23rd

Coffee at the fast food joint on Ke’eaumoku Street, gym time in town, laundry chores at the “old folks home” ... all done before 1pm. A small plastic trash bin was purchased at Walmart® on Ke’eaumoku Street to use as a bucket in preparation for the storm. All of the regular buckets were sold out. Crazed people were purchasing anything and everything. The scene was beyond chaotic.

An early dinner was procured at Panda Express® on King Street. Then, a worthless trip was made to Ala Moana Center. Most of the shops including the Apple® Store were closed and shuttered for damage prevention. Yet, there were myriad shoppers everywhere.

All travel was accomplished via the bus or by walking. Scheduling of itineraries was tight because bus service would be ending at 6pm. The weather remained rather mild with light precipitation and moderate trade winds accompanying an overcast sky. From all indications, the hurricane will pass a few miles South of O’ahu sometime on Friday. The hurricane is slowing down and weakening. Rain and strong winds are still expected.

From all indications, nearly all stores will be closed tomorrow. The gym will also be closed. And, there will be no bus service. Sitting around the “old folks home” will not be an option. Allegedly, both Walmart® and 7-Eleven® stores will be open.

Finally, some of the homeless have relocated to parts unknown, but many of them are remaining in their respective areas and waiting to see what fate has in store for them.

Hurricane Lane

The dreaded hurricane has finally arrived. Well, it’s cruising South of the Big Island at the moment. Reports indicate that there has been heavy rain, flooding, and high surf conditions on the Hilo side of the island. Weather on the Kona side was clear and sunny.

According to the latest projections, the hurricane will follow a trajectory South of all of the main islands, although it is supposedly moving closer to the other islands before moving West.

There has been much preparation, some prudent and others simply overreaction to the upcoming crisis. On O’ahu, the gym is closing at 11am on Thursday morning with a tentative resumption of normal hours sometime on Saturday. The management of the “old folks home” is shutting down operations at noon, specifying that service will resume once the hurricane passes. Bus service is shutting down at 6pm. As for Friday, who knows?

The petrol stations have long waiting lines. Some stations have depleted their petrol reserves. Food stores have been completely emptied. Prices for bottled water have shot up exponentially. Some people are panicking, others are non-plussed. Tourists are still going about their shopping mania.

For the homeless, today is just another day. Most of them have made no preparations. What can they do? There’s nowhere to store their “stuff.” So, they are simply waiting to see what happens next?

Motorhomeless Quandary

Just about 48 hours before Hurricane Lane will land on or near the island of O’ahu, but no preparations are being made. Instead, there will be a major contemplation concerning the motorhomeless decision. The vehicle being considered is the one offered by Off Grid Adventure Vans. Here’s a refresher image:

The interior is quite nice as the following image can attest to:

And, another:

Now, compare that to the cell of the “old folks home.” Here’s the so-called “living room”:

And, the so-called “bedroom,” which has been cleaned, emptied (i.e., air bed moved) and locked up in converting the cell to a studio:

The big motorhomeless question is, of course, can it survive a hurricane unscathed?

Heatwave

A nauseating heatwave has baked the islands for about a week with last night being the hottest. Inside the “old folks home,” the West-facing cells suffered through sizzling 95^o+ ambient temperatures at night! The common hallways, which lack adequate ventilation, were even hotter. Any kind of electric fan only tends to blow the hot air around with little relief. Running the inefficient antique air conditioners would only increase the utility bill.

Sadly, the cheap Walmart® 4-inch electric fan (made in China) is now malfunctioning. The antiquated wall-mounted air conditioner has a defective manual thermostat, so there’s no way to know what it’s set at. If the situation wasn’t so pathetic, it would be laughable.

Some of the transient homeless and one of the homeless motorhomes (i.e., beat-up minivan) have returned to the Elm & Alder Streets half-perimeter of the State Juvenile Detention Center just in time to celebrate the heatwave. Obviously, the alleged arson has not returned. Oh, the shithole that is Lower Makiki!

Addendum: Experimental image are being added to Notes using a MacBook Pro notebook computer at the Apple® Store. Theoretically, photographs can be embedded through a  circuitous procedure (using e-mail) since the iPhone 7 "smartphone" cannot accomplish the task.

Fuck It Friday - 10

Fuck It Friday (FIF)! Sporadic news and commentary of no interest to anyone ... FIF! The Net is the primary focus of this edition. Yes, this is Fuck It Friday!

The Net is really boring ... a wasteland at best. There’s just no way to justify its existence after its rampant commercialization. Yet, a strange event occurred recently. Alex Jones, an “over-the-top” conservative commentator was censored (along with his Web site) from various Net media. With so much crap on the Net, why bother with him? After all, he’s been dismissed as a crazy “conspiracy theorist.” What might have happened is that Jones blurted out something that was actually true and compromised the moneychangers and powers-that-be. Yeah, fuck it!

There has been a major purge of files on Google® Drive. Only one file remains. Net presence is being minimized. Thus, activity on the Twitter® feed has also slowed down considerably. The feed may end up abandoned. Fuck it!

The iPhone 7 “smartphone” is only powered on for about four hours per day now. The “smartphone,” tablet, and computer display models at the Apple® Store now serve as the primary conduit to the Net. Very little is accomplished with the personal device. However, the “night shift” display mode has been enabled to prevent blindness. Fuck it!

All leasehold units at the “rustic” condominium in Waikiki have been sold. That’s right, every unit has gone into escrow within a one-month span. Odd, considering that all of the units were listed for a very long time. Something is triggering desperation on the part of real estate buyers. Fuck it!

The “jury is still out” concerning housing accommodations after the lease at the “old folks home” expires at the end of the year. A true pariah would have already ordered the cargo van camper conversion. Fuck it!

Homeless Update - August 15th

The two beat-up minivans never returned to their prior squatting location on Alder Street next to the State Juvenile Detention Center. There has been no coverage about the fire either. So, the assumption that there was a homeless “sweep” is valid. Arson is still the most likely scenario. The two motorhomeless squatters left stacks of their belongings with some kind of crude incendiary device that triggered the blaze a few hours later.

The homeless and motorhomeless squatters along the Elm Street side of the Juvenile Detention Center are also conspicuously absent. That pretty much confirm the occurrence of a “sweep.” A few transient homeless are now filling the void.

The young homeless hottie was spotted at Ala Moana Center after a week hiatus, first at the Makai Mall food court, then at the Apple® Store. She is probably “camping” at Ala Moana Beach Park at night. The young homeless hottie definitely has a preference for skimpy outfits. She was wearing tight jeans shorts that were cut way too high in the back. She has obviously been tanning in a thong bikini. She definitely has some firm assets.

Lots of new homeless and motorhomeless are popping up everywhere. The situation, as assessed previously, is out of control. The limited spaces at the various homeless shelters are totally inadequate, and placement into regular housing is not guaranteed. As revealed by Charlie, a former Sand Island homeless shelter alumnus, there is a high probability that sheltered homeless will end up cycling for several years through different transitional shelters. After that? Back on the streets!

Arson

The section of Alder Street just past the driveway of the “old folks home” was closed off this afternoon. An entire crew of Hawaiian Electric was at work along the length of the State Juvenile Detention Center building.

State Juvenile Detention Center

In the community room of the “old folks home,” one of the “little old ladies” mentioned that there was a big fire down the street earlier in the day. A wooden utility pole was ablaze and an explosion (probably the transformer mounted at the top of the pole) caused an interruption in electric service. The senior citizens present in the community room at that time were distraught that they were unable to view their favorite programs on the small LCD tube.

Upon return from the evening outing at Ala Moana Center, an investigation ensued. The fire occurred in the same area where two beat-up motorhomeless minivans had been parked on a somewhat permanent basis. This morning, the minivans were conspicuously absent. There were stacks of “stuff” piled on the sidewalk next to the now-charred wooden utility pole. From all indications, there was another “sweep” of the homeless. In retaliation, the motorhomeless squatters abandoned their belongings and probably embedded a crude incendiary device before hastily departing.

The blaze destroyed the adjacent plywood wall of the Juvenile Detention Center as well. Perusal of the damage was limited because there were scavengers rummaging through the charred remains of the stacks of “stuff” left by the motorhomeless arsons.

Alumnus Encounter

A chance encounter with a Sand Island homeless shelter alumnus occurred at the bus stop in town this afternoon after the usual gym workout. Charlie was a next-door neighbor, so to speak. He’s been out for about 5 months now and residing in an apartment in Kalihi Valley. Rent is $70 per month as 70% of his actual rent is subsidized by the “rent to work” program. Charlie actually found the rental on his own. Unfortunately, the “rent to work” program only provides assistance for a year. However, Charlie is confident that he’ll manage just fine.

Sand Island Homeless Shelter

When queried about some of the other “guests” that were at the Sand Island homeless shelter a few months ago during the infamous homeless tenure, Charlie said that they were either “shipped off to Barbers Point (Kapolei transitional shelters)” or to an undisclosed transitional shelter on Isenberg Street in the McCully district. So, the rumor about eventually being “shipped off” was true. The gist of the tale is that Charlie had returned to the Sand Island homeless shelter one evening and discovered that a lot of people were gone. After asking around, he learned that they were “shipped off.” He also learned that he was on the list to be “shipped off” with the next batch, so he quickly snapped into action.

Charlie is a good man. Much like many of the other homeless, he is genuine and humble. Contrast that to the myriad assholes, dickheads, and fucktards that comprise “normal” society. Homelessness really teaches valuable lessons, if a willingness to learn is present.

Addendum: The maximum stay at transitional shelters is two years. High risk (usually meaning insufficient income) “guests” at the Sand Island homeless shelter are sent there if no suitable housing can be found within the six-month time limit.

Trash & Shit

Another sleepless night due to sleep deprivation was made worse by the discovery that the the community room at the “old folks home” was still locked this morning. No instant coffee could be brewed. However, negligence by the night security guard was a blessing in disguise. Coffee was procured at the fast food joint in Kahala instead. A caffeine boost was necessary after four hours of non-stops beeping emanating from the rundown private trash collection truck that services all of the trash dumpsters in the Lower Makiki ghetto. Sadly, there really is nothing more pathetic than sitting in the dining room of the fast food joint and observing all of overweight patrons consuming over 2,000 calories of so-called “food” in one sitting.

A 2,000-calorie breakfast at the fast food joint creates a lot of trash. That’s the same kind of trash that fills all of the trash dumpsters to the brim on the entire island. If the damned trash was compacted first, then only one trash collection day per week would required. Instead, trash dumpsters must be emptied daily. The trash allegedly goes to a landfill on the West side of the island. However, that particular landfill was allegedly near capacity several years ago. Thus, most of the trash is being shipped to the mainland empire. Trash collected in residential areas by the City & County of Honolulu, on the other hand, is used as fuel for the H-Power electric generation plant.

Recycling is a joke in the islands. The City & County of Honolulu offers curbside recycling, but the result is a “drop in the bucket” when considering the non-sorted waste produced by commercial venues. Then, there is the matter of curbside pickup for bulk trash. On any given day, various streets are lined with bulky junk that are victims of the consumer and “ownership” society.

As a pariah, there is just no way to understand or comprehend any of the aforementioned. Only the Great Prophet, Ernest Becker, would be able to offer an explanation. Consumerism is yet another failed “immortality project.” Obviously, all “immortality projects” fail because no one is immortal.

Fuck It Friday - 9

Fuck It Friday (FIF)! Sporadic news and commentary of no interest to anyone ... FIF! Absolutely nothing is the primary focus of this edition. Yes, this is Fuck It Friday!

A new circuitous route via the bus from the evening outing at Ala Moana Center back to the “old folks home” has been initiated. The new itinerary has a stopover in town in order to enjoy the ambiance of pure dereliction. Fuck it!

Leasehold units at the “rustic” condominium in Waikiki have been “selling like hotcakes.” Nearly all of the available units have been sold within the last month. Compare that with six months ago when those units were listed for over a year with few bids. The housing “bubble” in Hawai’i is still inflating exponentially. Remember, the lease will expire in ten years with no possibility of purchasing the fee. Fuck it!

A quick look at the listings for the detestable “condotel” revealed the same trend. Units (fee simple) were selling beyond even the last median high before the 2008 crash. Totally insane ... further proof that purchasing any real estate is out of the question. Is it time for the cargo van camper conversion? Fuck it!

The final migration of important documents to iCloud is complete even though there is only one document in question. The spreadsheet has been converted to Numbers format and verified as editable with the associated “app.” The original copy on Google® Drive was deleted. Fuck it!