IMR: Entries: 2001: March: 02 — Friday, March 02, 2001

Sendoff Last Saturday, some old friends got together to wish yet another Mainland-bound soul a bon voyage. Not two months after we'd gathered at Hooter's to send Wayne off on his grand adventure in Los Angeles, the old-timer Ka Leo gang reunited once again to say goodbye. This time it was Martha leaving, also to pursue brighter career prospects in California. Not, I should note, in the porn industry, and thus for this gathering we chose the historic Willows restaurant tucked away in Mo`ili`ili. The Willows restaurant is an island landmark, epitomizing to many the essence of fine Polynesian-themed dining. (It was to restaurants, some said, what the now rotting Coco Palms on Kaua`i was to hotels.) It closed maybe eight years ago to much "good old days" sorrow, but was miraculously and surprisingly reopened a couple of years ago — and it's done brisk business since. Despite its age and the fact that it's tucked almost comically onto a narrow, crowded, residential street, inside it was sparkling with elegance. Lush greenery, reflecting pools, waterfalls and miniature volcanoes, many open dining areas... even a cool "dancing water" fountain and a "private outrigger canoe." They did fine dining, but clearly no one in our party could afford it. So, we went with their most popular option: the $25-per-person buffet. Despite our frugality, though, Donica had been able to secure us a private room. Contrary to our group's past history, nearly everyone showed up on time. Martha, of course, plus Donica and her fiancée Jason Kaneshiro, Mio and her beau George, Kevin Hashiro, Stephen Guzman, Baron Obata, and Seamus Puette. I'd never met Seamus or George before (although I've heard lots about the latter — all good!), and I hadn't seen Stephen or Baron for nearly four years. In fact, the last time I saw Stephen, I learned he had a daughter... and during the Willows dinner, I learned he also had a son — now six! We probably talked more than ate, although the food — a healthy mix of Hawaiian, Japanese, and mixed-plate local — was good. Donica was stressing both over her upcoming nuptials, and about the transition at the Star-Bulletin, which changes owners, offices and presses on March 15. Kevin, a KCCN personality, recounted tales of being on the road with the UH Rainbows, Baron talked about cell phones, and we generally caught up as best we could with each other and on others — including the great Jennifer Hand (formerly Jennifer Dawn Gibson), happily with child and apparently ready to burst. Katie had a blast, laughing heartily at jokes she didn't understand, climbing all over and accepting hugs and kisses without protest. It was great to see eveyone again, although of course we hated to see Martha go. She was putting up a good front, but she confessed more than once that she was very sad to be leaving, and would have stayed in Hawaii were it not for that whole "money" thing. "I'll just make my riches, come back, and get that beach house in Lanikai," she sighed. We gave her gifts and many blessings and — as she would be at least temporarily lodging with Wayne — various survival tips. Although we were probably the last group to leave the restaurant, we still forced an employee to take our picture... with each one of our individual cameras. He was a good sport about it, fortunately, apart from trying to get us to "step back another foot" right into a pond. We said goodbye to her, and each other, and Katie and I sprinted up the street to my car. We had to pick up Jen at work. Got a little (and I mean little) mention in Newsweek this week... online and in print, to my surprise. Tech writer Deborah Branscum (who I soon realized wrote a recent piece for Fortune that I'd bookmarked earlier), noting that every other media outlet had already done a "blogger" piece, figured it was their turn. I talked to her for 40 minutes or so last Friday. I could tell immediately she was using "weblog" and "online journal" interchangably, so now and then I'd get annoying and stress that there was a difference. Of course, we talked about lots of other things, like the "big picture" ramifications of personal revelation on the web, the history of the practice, and the nebulous "journaling community." Unfortunately nothing made it through except for an offhand reference to the likely birthdate of the first online journal. And she emphatically — and incorrectly — defined "blogging" for the world at large as "online journal." So I had to write a friendly letter to the editor (which I doubt they'll run), and a little column at Diarist.Net to explain my peeve... even though lots of people I talked to in the aftermath basically threw their hands up in the air and said, "who cares, already?" As someone who revels in the history of the web diary phenomenon, I very much enjoyed the research I ended up doing on the history of weblogs. It started more recently, but I was glad to see that they too had very familiar growing pains — exponential growth, fears of trendiness, cliques, celebrities and elitists, hero worship, infighting... everything I love to hate about cyberculture in general. Wednesday was the last meeting of my American Studies class. We turned in our final papers, then pulled out the pizza, chips and Coke, and tried to get every last drop of banter out of our system. I took the class just to get closer to graduating, but I really enjoyed it... particularly the class' inability to remain on-topic and to debate everything into the ground. For our finalé, we tackled affirmative action, lesbianism, messy deaths at sea, polygamy, George W. Bush, and Ash Wednesday. A blast, as always. Everyone in that class — Alison Hartle (instructor, hula student and cultural commentator), Alisa Yap, Heidi Jung, Linda K. Wong, Ho Suk Lee, Amer Srivastava (who went to UH Hilo too), Jeremy Miller, Karlene Yee, Hailie Browne, Natasha, and Miyuki — had a distinct and colorful personality. I doubt I'll get an 'A,' but I know I won't fail. It feels weird to walk away from three credits' worth of work in February, but it feels good, too. I think I'll try the night class thing again next semester... if not over the summer. Two more months remain in my other, "normal" class. Or, that would be the case were it not for that apparently inevitable faculty strike. Poo.

Comments Uh-huh. Weblogs are different from online journals. Are either of them different from webzines? Don't mind me -- I'm just trying to make matters difficult. —NemesisVex (March 2, 2001 6:18 PM) Thanks, Ryan! I was much relieved to read that Martha's 'brighter career prospects' won't be in the porn industry! Love your journal! I've become very attached to your family. Martha's Mom —Susan (March 3, 2001 10:59 PM) Thanks, Ryan! I was much relieved to read that Martha's 'brighter career prospects' won't be in the porn industry! Love your journal! I've become very attached to your family. Martha's Mom —Susan (March 3, 2001 11:00 PM) So is Wayne a porn star yet? I never see him on usenet, much to my, uh, dismay... —Lusus Masamatusus (March 4, 2001 10:52 PM) I agree completely with the difference between a blog and journal. The problem is that even some bloggers keep sites that are more like journals than blogs themselves. Plus they hardly know the difference since most of them pretty much started when the blog thing happened, and assumed the whole "life online" thing started with the blog itself. I sound old now. Neither are webzines though, that's for damn sure. —scott (March 5, 2001 10:33 AM) E kala mai! Comments have been disabled due to overwhelming abuse by spammers. Please click through to any of the video hosting services linked above to leave a public response, or feel free to send an e-mail. Mahalo! < February 20 · March · March 12 > © 1997-2008 Ryan Kawailani Ozawa · E-Mail: imr@lightfantastic.org · Created: 13 November 1997 · Last Modified: 14 January 2008