Makana Means 'Gift'

Aloha!

Come on in. . .

Nice day for a drive. . .




"The car has become a secular sanctuary for the individual,

his shrine to the self, his mobile Walden Pond. "


Edward McDonagh

Look! In the next car. It's Makana!


His friend asks if I always have a camera ready.

Silly boy. Of course I do;

I'm a BLOGGER!



Here's the young genius to play for YOU:

(beep beep!)

Thank YOU for your visit today!

Sweet Victory

Aloha to
YOU!

Here in Hawaii we get out and WAVE at our neighbors
to support our candidates

"Be ashamed to die

until you have won some victory for humanity."



Horace Mann

"Life is like Stepping onto a boat

which is about to sail out to sea

and sink"

-- Suzuki Roshi, Zen master

"There is no better argument against democracy


than a five-minute conversation the common man…"


-- Winston Churchill

"I said a lot of stupid things

when I was with the Conservative Party,

and I left them,

because I did not want to go on saying stupid things."

-- Winston Churchill

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant."



- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

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The only thing more futile than voting

is not voting.




It is our responsibility

to be aware of what's going on

and to advocate for the good.




We disagree on what IS "good"
but by debate
we arrive at agreement.




Yeah, right!




Politics is about world-view
and the power to make it happen.



Here in Hawaii

where the principle of

"ALOHA"

is enshrined in our law

there is less,

or should I say:


more subtle negative campaigning.



Negative campaigning can even backfire here.


With this year, we are ending (YaY!!!)


two terms


of an extremely disappointing, destructive,


and divisive governor.




During the heat of recent politics (Bush! Terrorism! War!)


this liar


who told us that she was focused on our majority Democratic island State


spent much of her time away from us campaigning for Republicans


on the mainland.


Meanwhile, economic storm clouds swept in


and the next thing we knew:


Furlough Fridays for our schools!




Long time Hawaii congressman, Neil Abercrombie,


a University of Hawaii alum like myself,


who was a fellow student and friend


of the president's parents,


(and who knew Barack as a little boy)


has come home to Hawaii to run for governor.





He won the primary last Saturday!


With my help :)



We are looking forward


to doing some things differently


after uncle Neil and cousin Brian


defeat our lieutenant gov who is taking his turn


at the head of his party's ticket.




Neil will win


and it will be a new beginning for our state.



Yeah, I know.


Life will not be perfect,


but I feel welcome in Neil's campaign


as I have felt alienated from a frustrating administration for 8 years.


His ideas, including civil rights for ALL,


make sense to me.


On to victory in 6 weeks!

"You can't change things by force,

only by making the things you want to change seem obsolete."

-- Buckminster Fuller

Have a look at how we do things:

Every campaign event has food, lei, hugging and entertainment. Here's Willie K singing to a charged-up crowd:

Reframe, Refrain

Aloha Web Traveler

Come rest on da beach:

"Man does not live by words alone

despite the fact that he sometimes has to eat them."

Adlai Stevenson

"A certain recluse, I know not who,

once said that no bonds attached him to this life,

and the only thing he would regret leaving was the sky."

Kenko Yoshida

"The longer we dwell on our misfortunes,


the greater is their power to harm us."



- Voltaire

Situations arise
and resolve
but stress is forever:
attaching to your gut,
pulling down your heavenly head.


Regretted & fretted actions
continue to ripple out
even after we regret
and forget
them.

We post-moderns are action people
if there's a problem
we DO something about it.

"Proactive = good,
passive = bad"


But I am realizing, as perhaps you suspect,
that 99% of the world's problems
come from doing -

and that refraining

is oft the best policy.


Like the hospital patient
whose friend came to visit,
the visitor a tornado of fidget:
plump the pillow!
call the nurse!
But instead of helping, it
only made the patient feel worse.


At last the ill patient
lost his patience
as he said to his busy friend:

"Thanks for coming to visit,
but don't just DO something
STAND THERE!"

And so should we all
stand where we are.

Glad you came by today
to stand with me!


Warmly, cloudia

Urge For Going

Welcome!

click on today's song:

This time of year,

my thoughts turn to turning.

Seasons of the year,

seasons of life,

turn,

turn,

turn. . . .

In my head I can hear the celestial honking.

They always thrilled, taught and comforted me

when I was young.

They reminded me that time passes,

and that I would move on someday

like them.

And so I have....to a tropic island.

Far Far Away...

But childhood things remain a vital part of this island girl.


New beginnings, new chances, things & people passed...



The Doors Of Repentance (shown above)

are open in love at this moment.


May we all go through

in good fellowship


together.



Amen.

Thanks to Dina @ Jerusalem Daily Photo

Honolulu Morning

Aloha Kakahiaka!

Morning kisses Honolulu

"Probably the happiest period in life

most frequently is in middle age,

when the eager passions of youth are cooled,

and the infirmities of age not yet begun;

as we see that the shadows,

which are at morning and evening so large,

almost entirely disappear at midday."



Eleanor Roosevelt

Sea & Sky sigh. . .

"When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me,

'Did you sleep good?'

I said "No, I made a few mistakes."



Steven Wright

Spirits Soar. . .

"A person is a success if they get up in the morning

and get to bed at night

and in between

does what he wants to do."



Bob Dylan

Other spirits slumber in their tiny home. . .


"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.

How he got into my pajamas I'll never know."



Groucho Marx

Look at these two. . .



"Just in terms of allocation of time resources,

religion is not very efficient.

There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning."



Bill Gates

Aloha Kakahiaka Good Morning!


"Prayer is the key of the morning

and the bolt of the evening."



Mohandas Gandhi



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Thank YOU

for visiting! cloudia

Honolulu (Small? Big?) Town

Aloha FRIEND!

for best results click and linger!


"Delusions of grandeur

make me feel a lot better

about myself."


Jane Wagner

"Many people will walk in and out of your life,

but only true friends

will leave footprints in your heart."

- Anon

Just two guys talking

“I had some eyeglasses.

I was walking down the street

when suddenly the prescription ran out.”

Stephen Wright

Distant Girl



"Coming for the girl in the tower

For the one who brings the king down to his knees

And drives me crazy with her mystical power"


Benji Hughes, lyric, A Love Extreme



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Some folks like to say that our Honolulu


is the 12th largest city in America.


They point out that the legal area of the City & County of Honolulu

includes

the entire island of Oahu

and the various Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.




If you consider the population of that area

then, yes,

we are the 12th largest city.



BUT



The U.S. Census calls the urban part of Oahu

i.e. Honolulu


a "census designated place"



that ranks 50th among American cities


with a 2009 population


of 375,571.*


Honolulu Town looks like a vest-pocket city,

tucked between green mountains

and the sea

and it is!


A city of neighborhoods,
districts,
and landmarks:
nature's as well as human-made.

All in a compact parcel of paradise.

(visitors please avoid and disregard the
less-than-lovely bits)

We are SO much more

than one of life's great beaches!



*NOT including the seabirds, Hawaiian Monk Seals,
or turtles
residing in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.


Warmly, cloudia

Legendary Priscilla's Back!

And I want you to know, more about my penthouse life
here in urban Honolulu.



"All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God.

Humanity is just a work in progress."


Tennessee Williams

Here I am relaxing with my companion Mikal.



"The pigs stuck out their little feet and snored."


Elizabeth Bishop

Seems like only yesterday
that I was just a baby in soft focus!


"Pigs are not that dirty.

And they're smart,

strange little creatures.

They just need love."

Shelley Duvall

Oh! I haven't worn that skirt in AGES!


"It's no good running a pig farm badly for 30 years while saying,

'Really, I was meant to be a ballet dancer.'

By then, pigs will be your style."


Quentin Crisp


<<..>>

Many visitors to Hawaii learn about Madame Pele,

the Volcano goddess

(or Tutu/Grandma as Big Island native Hawaiians may call her)

When you watch her erupt in the lava
awesome power is on display,
but one guy who proved a more than a match for Pele
was demi-god Kamapua'a.

He was a powerful, earthy Hog-type who hid the bristles
that grew down his back under a dashing cape.

He and Pele were at odds from the beginning;


She covered the land with barren lava,
he brought torrents of rain to extinguish her fires
and called the wild boars to dig up the land,
softening it so seeds could grow.

In the district of Puna,
on the Big Island called Hawaii,
at a place called Ka-lua-o-Pele,
the land is torn and ravaged to this day
because a great struggle once took place there.

According to legend, it was there that Kamapua'a
finally caught up with Pele and ravaged her.


Out of their tempestuous love (it is said) a child was born,
before Kamapua'a sailed away
and Pele went back to her earth-shaping ways.

Priscilla does not mean to imply
that she is related to any Hawaiian gods. *

*Porcine attorneys Root, Root, and Squeal insisted on the above statement.

ARTIST CREDIT HERE