Big Island News

For the past several weeks I have been reluctantly preparing for a race. My friend wanted someone to buddy up with in case the others in her group ran too fast. Paddling and biking I do regularly, but the last time I went running I fell head over heels into the bushes, resulting in a disgusting staph infection. However, I thought it was time to jump back on the horse, so to speak, and agreed to join her.

My first clue that this might not be an ordinary race was the pigtails requirement. In hindsight I should have asked more questions.
Arriving right on time we pulled in behind a line of cars parked on the side of the road. We noticed that most of the people were wearing funny hats. Court jester hats, Cat in the Hat hats, hats with ears and a host of others. Was it possible that the race requirements had been changed? It turned out that down the road from the starting place was a “funny hat” wedding reception. Inevitably the pigtail group and the funny hat group kept getting mixed up.

And the race wasn’t actually a race after all, it was a run, or walk or even a crawl if one so desired. The men wore pigtails too, albeit more creatively as we saw one with a pink homemade curly cue pinned to the back of his shorts. I think my second clue (perhaps I am not too quick) was that some of the runners were leaning on their cars drinking beer. I did notice that most people were wearing quality running shoes – except for the girl in slippers, who actually finished before we did.

At 2:45pm, right on time, two runners were dispersed to lay the trail using flour markings. That is when we were called into the virgin circle. This was our first Hash House Harrier Run. We were given instructions on to read the flour markings along the trail. The advance runners, referred to as hares would not only mark the true trail but would mark false trails to throw off the hounds who would set out after the hares at 3:00pm. We were the hounds.

The serious runners started out first and then we ran with the tail of the pack. The trail went up through rain forest above Kona, and it was beautiful with the sun streaming through the trees and the cool moist air keeping us from overheating. However, the trail was extremely rocky and in some places vines grew across it. The gradual incline seemed to go on forever until we came upon our first beer stop. What kind of crazy people drink alcohol during a run? We chose water and passed other runners for the next few minutes. After a while the incline was so steep and the path so narrow that it was all we could do to keep a brisk walking pace. Luckily, more experienced Hashers were in front of us calling out, “On, on,” which meant we were on the right trail.

Stopping at the third beverage break we were hot, sweaty and wondering how far the trail really was. This time we were offered Jell-O shots and we gladly accepted. After that we perked up and made pretty good time to our next beer. Needless to say, it was quite entertaining. By the time we got back to the start a party was going on and people cheered as if we had all accomplished a great feat. There were honors bestowed and we virgins graduated to hashers as the beer flowed.

So maybe all that training hadn’t been necessary, but I ended up meeting fun people, going for a hike, learned I like Jell-O shots, and was referred to as a virgin all day. I am definitely going to this again.

Hash House Harrier runs are held in 183 countries, so find one near you and check it out.

copyright © 2009 by Johanna Kim (Life After Forty)

A recent article in Fortune Magazine Online sparked my interest in a new trend on The Big Island, sustainable farmed fish. Especially after going to the Kokua Festival this last week and soaking up the energy of the “green scene,” I thought it would be a good idea to do a little more research and pass this article onto our readers.

It turns out, whether we like to admit it or not, the waters in Hawaii and around the world are being over fished. Yup, that big blue ocean is being messed with, and it’s not just the global warming that’s giving it problems. Too many people trying to catch too many fish and not doing so in a sustainable way.

That’s where a company off the Kona coast of The Big Island comes in. Kona Blue Water Farms grows a special breed of yellowtail tuna dubbed Kona Kampachi. The nets are a half mile off shore in some 200 feet deep water. This is a big difference from farmed fish which usually reside in man made reservoirs causing the fish to be lower in nutrients, lack flavor, and be susceptible to diseases in such close corners.

Kona Kampachi on the other hand is claimed to be very flavorful and richer in omega-3 than any other fish in ocean. It’s not genetically engineered. It’s not treated with antibiotics of any sort, or any other growth hormones. It’s also claimed to be of sashimi-grade (which I wasn’t aware there was such a grade of fish.)

The fish are bred on the island in special breeding stations, the eggs are grown up to inch long fishes, and then those fish are taken to the nets until they’re about 4 to 6 pounds. One of only down sides to the growing of fish like this is that the feces could create potential problems for local aquatic life. However, I see this as a much more solvable problem than hormone injected fish, or depleting our oceans.

If you’re interested in the fish you can order right from their website for $17 per pound plus shipping and handling, or you can head to your local Whole Foods which carries the fish for $20 per pound. Kings Supermarkets, Kroger and Costco are all carrying the fish in selcet locations as well.

I think it’s an interesting idea and with the population growing and more and more people looking towards our oceans for food, we’ll need to have ideas like this help keep our oceans from being depleted.

You can read the Fortune article here.

Big Island’s own Troy Mandaloniz has moved on to the next round on Spike TV’s hit reality show The Ultimate Fighter.  Troy, originally from the Big Island, and a good friend of BJ Penn, entered the show in hopes of capturing the fight contract from the UFC, which guarantees him fights along with a six figure salary.

Troy fought Paul Georgieff and ended up knocking him out in the first round.  After feeling each other out, Paul landed a few jabs and a nice kick that was effective.  But Troy threw hard, so hard in fact that Paul decided to take Troy to the ground.  Paul tried to put Troy in a kimura (arm lock), but did so unsuccessfully.  Troy broke guard and threw a punch and landed it on Paul’s face.  After that, Paul stood back up.  That was the final mistake, as Troy landed a perfect shot to the face that put Paul unconscious.

Congratulations to Troy for making it into the next round.  He seems the most promising fighter coming out of Hawaii, as Andy Wang and Anthony Torres both didn’t fare too well on the show.  If Troy can make it to the finals, it will be big for him as well as putting Hawaii back on the map.  With only BJ Penn making a big mark in the UFC and being the only Hawaii fighter right now, Troy may be able to break into the 170 lb division and shake things up.

Good luck Troy, and we all hope you make it to the finals!

With Hawaiian Telcom now having the fastest internet available in Hawaii, they are stepping up one more time by providing over 100 wi-fi hot spots around the state. This is big news, because their wi-fi will be free to subscribers of Hawaiian Telcom’s internet service. Now you can take your laptop to one of the many locations to use the internet.

Some of the locations that provide this service are Ala Moana Center, Restaurant Row, Downtown Honolulu, and all Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf locations in Hawaii (Source: Honolulu Advertiser). Certain areas on Oahu will also receive the service, such as Kailua, Hawaii Kai, Manoa, Ewa Beach, and Pearl City. They also didn’t forget the neighbor islands as well, so they will provide service at Kapa’a on Kauai, Kona and Hilo on the Big Island, and Kahului in Maui.

Compared to Oceanic Cable, who offers only 40 locations around Oahu, Hawaiian Telcom is really upping the ante with the high speed internet customers.

I think Hawaiian Telcom is looking to better themselves, especially having very poor service ever since they took over Verizon as the phone and DSL provider in Oahu. So far, things seem to be going great for them, and for them to expand into Oceanic Time Warner’s market is a big step, since Oceanic has most of the high speed internet subscribers. With lower charges for internet, more free wi-fi locations, and having the fastest internet, Hawaiian Telcom might persude more than just a few subscribers.

The Big Island of Hawaii is causing some spectacular sites for locals and visitors. The active volcano Kilauea has been erupting in a spot since July 21st of this year and has funneled into a mile long flow.

The flow, pictured here thanks to USGS, is beginning to get a few people worried as it flows towards some homes located seven miles away. Although the flow is obviously slow it still has a few people worried as it trickles along.

The state warns that people should be worried because conditions can change at any time with vents and flows popping up unpredictably. It’s tough to gauge so be careful out there and if you have any questions contact the government or the USGS or someone of authority on the matter. We here at Aloha Update don’t have any authority on lava flows. We just think they’re cool to look at.

If Hurrican Flossie isn’t bad enough news for the Big Island, last night they were hit by a 5.4 magnitude earthquake.  A minor landslide occurred due to the earthquake.

The earthquake happened on the southern end of the Kilauea Volcano, but was felt throughout the island.  There were also several aftershocks that occurred with a magnitude of 3.2 after the first shake.  Even with all those quakes, there were no tsunami warnings because it did not generate enough force to cause one.

Luckily for us, we didn’t have out interisland cruise now.  Not only would it have most likely deviated our course through the island because of the hurricane, but the Big Island would have heavy rains and the earthquake if we had docked there.  I’m glad the WalMart is open 24 hours now to help prepare people for the upcoming hurricane.

Just when I thought that the Big Island was an island I would consider living in, now I’m a bit apprehensive.  Hopefully the hurricane will deviate its course, but from I heard, they should get some heavy storms mid-day today.  Hopefully the hurricane doesn’t cause much damage.

Category 4 hurricane “Flossie” is heading toward us. What is category 4? Well, the U.S. National Hurricane Center classifies hurricanes of Category 3 and above as major hurricanes. Category 4 hurricane can produce up to 155 mph wind and 18 ft of storm surge. Flossie is stirring up sustained winds around 135 mph.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center said Flossie was located 665 miles southeast of Hilo and about 875 miles southeast of Honolulu today. The storm was moving west-northwest at 14 mph. Good news is that Flossie will become either category 1 hurricane or tropical storm by the time it passes within 100 miles of the Big Island. However, the Big Island might still experience winds at around 39 mph.

We, however, always need to be cautious and prepared since a hurricane can change its direction without a notice. Here are the things that you should prepare for a hurricane.
1. Non-perishable food (3-5 day supply)
2. Water: 1 gallon per person per day (3-5 day supply)
3. Non-electric can opener
4. Your prescription medicatioin
5. First aid kit
6. Portable radio
7. Extra batteries
8. Flashlights/gas lantern
9. Plastic sheeting/tarps
10. Sleeping bags/blankets
11. Change of clothing
12. Personal hygiene and toiletries
13. Ice chests/coolers
14. Dry ice/ice packs

It may have been derived from the Greek word kyklon, which means moving in a circle.[4][5] Some say that Piddington derived the word from the Greek word cyclos, meaning “coils of a snake”

According to the Honolulu Star Bulletin, about $15,000 in fake money is circulating in Hawaii.  The counterfeit money actually came from the Crips and Bloods, a well known gang in Los Angeles, and has leaked some of its fake money onto the islands.  There has been at least $4 million worth of counterfeit money in the Los Angeles area.

The bills have turned up in Waikiki and Pearlridge, and has even passed onto other neighbor islands.  The Secret Service has also noticed that people have been using the counterfeit money to purchase items and then to return the items later to receive real money.  This way, they are getting rid of their fake money in return for real money.

It was also reported that the fake $100 bills have been made with high quality paper that is close to the real paper used to make official $100 bills.  The printing is also very close, if not exactly the same.  The bills are also sprayed with chemicals so pens that stores use to check for fake bills will not be detected.  As you can see, the operation looks to be pretty large.

Below are ways to spot a counterfeit bill (source: Honolulu Star Bulletin):

» Look for security threads. Genuine currency has red and blue fibers in the paper, not just printed on the bill.

» Check the watermark by holding the bill up to the light. Real $100 bills will have a watermark with the face of Ben Franklin that can be seen from both sides of the bill.

» Look for distinctive and sharp printing in the portrait, border and treasury seal.

Call the police if you suspect a fake bill.  Just beware especially if you use large bills like that.  Fortunately, I don’t use $100 bills, and usually don’t have enough money to aquire them, so I’m safe.  =)  But to you others, watch out!

I hope you watched the fight by one of the greatest fighters ever.  That is of course Hawaii’s own BJ Penn.  BJ finally got to let out of his animosity against Jens Pulver and literally demolished him.  I am sure that extra few seconds of rear naked choke after Pulver’s tap felt really good for him. 

On the course to the victory, BJ did something amazing.  I am not so sure if anyone noticed it (Joe Logan didn’t seem to notice it…).  BJ Penn had a perfect arm bar, but he let it go.  He definitely wanted to punish Pulver more.  In the post-fight interview, Jens Pulver briefly mentioned that BJ let the arm bar go in the first round, and once again Joe Logan ignored the comment.  So here it is; BJ LET IT GO to punish Jens more.

After the fight, Jens said he wanted to train with BJ in Hilo.  Interestingly this happened to Takanori Gomi too several years ago.  BJ so thoroughly destroys his opponents, and they learn to respect him so much that they want to learn from him.  This is BJ Penn, just an unbelievable fighter.  Too bad BJ wants to go back up to 170 lbs.  I am sure that he wants to revenge his losses to Matt Hughes and GSP, but I wish he would do that after he gets the light weight title away from Sean Sherk first…

No matter what, we will all be cheering for BJ Penn!  Go get ‘em, BJ.

P.S.  By the way, what happened to bjpenn.com website?  Did it briefly crash because of too many access after BJ said, “if you want to know how BJ feels right now, go and check out bjpenn.com”?  By the way, there is still no comment posted by BJ yet…  Hurry up, BJ; I want to know how you feel right now.

Hilo’s own BJ Penn, considered pound for pound the best fighter in the world, is part of the Ultimate Fighter Season 5 reality series.  I was fortunate enough to catch the premiere episode last night of Spike TV.

The series tries to find the next Ultimate Fighter where 16 fighters are competing for a six figure multi-fight contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC), the premiere mixed martial art event in the world.  BJ Penn was hired as one of the coaches who will lead a team of 8 against the opposing coach Jens Pulver.  Jens beat BJ years ago when BJ was an up and comer.  Jens eeked out a decision but during one round, Jens looked to have tapped out to an armbar at the last second of one of the rounds.  Although controversial, Jens did end up with the decision win and BJ has been looking to avenge this loss.

Now BJ has dropped weight to get to the lightweight division at 155 for a chance to redeem his loss against Jens years ago.  The season finale will air sometime in June and BJ and Jens will meet in the octagon to settle the score.  There is much animosity between the two, and it was reported that after the show, Jens completely hates BJ and has been quoted that he wants to “knock out BJ’s teeth” whether he wins or not.  BJ, considered by many as probably the most talented fighter pound for pound, is looking to make a statement in the lightweight division, and Jens is the perfect opponent for his comeback.

I have been the biggest BJ fan for a while.  I’ve seen all his fights, not only in the UFC, but his fights in Japan for the K1 organization.  I’ve also been fortunate to witness a few of his fights in Hawaii when he fought for his brother’s organization Rumble on the Rock.  The reason I like BJ is because he always seeks to better himself.  He only challenges the best, and fights whoever it is no matter the weight.  He gained 15 pounds to challenge the once unstoppable Matt Hughes who was the current UFC middleweight champ at the time, and Matt was the huge favorite.  Although BJ looked basically “fatter”, he dominated Hughes and submitted him to become the new middleweight champ.  He also flew to Japan to fight a MUCH larger Ryoto Machida who was weighing around 225 while BJ was walking around 180 pounds.  Many thought BJ nearly won against the undefeated and larger Ryoto, but BJ loss through a decision.  BJ went on to dismantle two Gracie’s who are legendary to the sport, and dominated current UFC middleweight champ Georges St. Pierre in the first round, bloodying up the current champ and breaking his nose, before BJ tired out.  Many thought BJ deserved the win, but the judges scored it a split decision to Georges based on Georges’ takedown attempts, although he did not hurt BJ at any point.

I’ve also heard that this season’s Ultimate Fighter series is the best yet, with all the lightweights laying it all out on the table and making it an exciting season.  Plus, with the animosity between BJ and Jens, the season is sure to have some drama and maybe a few fists flying.

Make sure you check out the Ultimate Fighter series with Hawaii’s own BJ Penn.  The show airs on Thursday nights.  I predict that BJ will not only beat Jens, but he will also clean out the division and become the UFC lightweight champion of the world.  Mark my words…he is THAT good.

You can also read more about BJ at his own website at www.bjpenn.com.