Mar/100
Beretania Bee Lady
The Beretania Bee Lady
This person dresses up like a bee, dresses her three dogs up as bees, ties them to her bike, and then rides all over Beretania street here in Honolulu, Hawai’i. I’ve seen her a number of times, but I finally got a picture of her!
Mar/100
Name Change
I have officially begun the process of legally changing my first name from Andrew to Abel. I think the name Andrew is ugly in how it sounds and what it means (originating from the Greek words meaning “man” or “manly.”) The name Abel comes, as many believe, from Hebrew, meaning breath. Considering my dedication to Hawai’i and the Hawaiian sovereignty cause, having a name that more closely relates to the values of the Hawaiians (namely breath of life), only gives me more strength in my change. Furthermore, considering that my entire political platform is formed on the idea that patriarchy is the root of all evil, having a name that doesn’t enforce an obsession with masculinity, makes me sleep better. Please, if you know me personally, call me Abel or Abe from now on. If you don’t know me, call me either name, and do not consider that I may have had a previous name.
Dec/091
Fever Dream
I was walking through a prairie full of knee-high green grass. The sun was a buttery yellow and tiny clear blue rain drops were falling here and there. Suddenly, a red and yellow striped circus tent appeared. It felt like something was pulling me to the tent, so I walked towards it. I kneeled as I approached where the tent met the grass. I stuck my right arm down to pull up the tent, but instead my hand fused into the tent material. I fell to my back and scrambled to get away from the tent. The harder I pulled, the tighter the tent material became. There was a loud clonking, like a giant cog was being turned, causing the tent to get tighter and tighter. At this point my entire right arm, part of my right leg, and part of my right side had fused into the tent and was now yellow and red canvas. I was flailing my remaining limbs and screaming for help when I looked up and realized that I was pulling down my vision and retreating into it.
Nov/093
I’m on Google Maps!
A few months ago, I was walking to my friend’s house in Makiki. I was about to cross the street when I saw the Google Maps Street View car driving down the street taking pictures! Obviously, I stopped and took a picture. Little did I know that they took a picture of me as I was walking away! Check it out after the jump!
Notice the cross walk angle and debris, then click the link to see the picture of me on Google Maps!
Nov/090
I walk past this every time I go to work.
I walk past this every time I go to work. It creeps the hell out of me.
Oct/091
Homeless Obsession
Anyone who knows me knows that I obsess over something for a short period of time with the upmost passion only to completely drop it two months later. My current obsession is homeless people. You see, I’m taking this class called “Gender and Environmental Philosophy,” and it’s amazing. It’s mostly about ecofeminism and the various forms. One of the neatest things I think is the “integrated oppression perspective.” You basically draw connections between how humans treat other humans and how humans treat non-human animals. The one I noticed the other day was the way The Bus here in Honolulu deals with vermin and how they deal with homeless people. The Bus will put spikes on the edges of some bus stops to prevent birds from sitting there and pooping all over the place. They have also now started to put divider bars on some of the benches, making it very uncomfortable to lay on. Some people find that very offensive – the way a group will treat another group of humans as if they were diseased rats or something.
So, basically I’ve been noticing homeless people more often as I go around town, as my final project for this course is going to be about the parallels between how a city deals with vermin and how they deal with homeless people, etc. Yesterday morning I walked into Jamba Juice, and as I did, I heard the tail end of the employee yelling at mall security escorting a homeless person out of the store, “HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE TOO YOU ASSHOLE! TREAT HIM WITH RESPECT!” Security: “HE’S A FUCKING ANNOYANCE.” Yeah – tense moments at 6:30 AM in Jamba Juice. Anyway, so I look to the employee and said, “Right on,” and then continued to tell her about my whole homelessness obsession. We chatted about that for a bit, and then I walked down to my bus stop. Now, I cannot remember the last time a homeless person randomly walked up to me and started a conversation, but I shit you not, this old man pushing a grocery cart full of stuff walks up, stands next to me and we talked for about ten minutes while I waited for the bus. Completely random conversations about the education system in Hawai`i, the pollution problems in Denver, and how good trade winds feel on a hot day. The bus came, we shook hands, I wished him a good day, he did the same to me, and I got on the bus and he walked (I’m assuming) aimlessly into a parking lot.
The strangest things like this always seem to happen to me. My friend this morning said, “Due to the law of attraction, you bring these things into your life.” I like that, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Oct/091
Gendered Construction Signs
OLD and tired news, I know, but I still found this interesting.
So, there’s construction going on at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa’s Biomedical Science building. As you walk through the building there are signs and tape everywhere saying “CAUTION MEN WORKING OVERHEAD.” I totally thought that kind of thing was phased out a long time ago? Here’s a picture I took with my phone this afternoon.
However, as I was walking home I passed more construction, this time it was window washers on a tall building near my apartment. This time the signs were quite different – they just said “Workers Above.” What’s so hard about making these things non-gender specific?
