Category: blog

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Natatorium Service Project

Participated in our Kamehameha Schools service project for the Waikiki Natatorium today. I was unable to attend my scheduled event at the fishpond yesterday, but I was able to make the switch.

On the way, I stopped for breakfast in Kapahulu. But I digress….

Parked across the street at Kapiolani Park.

Here I am standing in front of the Natatorium. You can read about its storied history here. I hope that it will be restored. It would be such a shame to lose it.

Our service project was specifically the removal of invasive limu (seaweed) that is harming the coral reef (just beyond the Natatorium and fronting the Waikiki Aquarium.) This effort is led by the University of Hawai’i. They provided two scuba divers. Our volunteers consisted of snorkelers who transported the bags from the divers to the shore. We also had a group of people collecting the limu in the shallow waters. My job was to dump the bags into bins that were rolled up to the sorting tables. Here are more pics from the Star-Advertiser.

All together, our 65 volunteers removed over 1300 pounds of invasive limu. A truck transported the limu to the nearby Honolulu Zoo for composting.

After rinsing off, we had a nice bento lunch under the banyan trees. (I’m so glad that we didn’t have to eat the limu.) It was a great time of bonding and fellowship.

It truly was a “good and industrious” kinda day. Imua….

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EdTech Retreat Waikiki 2012

What a treat! Had another great experience with the KS EdTech Team at our annual retreat. It was all about team bonding and team building.

I decided to walk on over to the Hyatt Place Hotel in Waikiki. Not a bad view for a morning commute (click on the pic for full size.) Met a coworker for breakfast at Eggs ‘n Things Express.

We were given these cool new team shirts at the hotel and walked on over to the Honolulu Zoo for our community service project. (No, we did not have to clean the animal cages.) One group pulled weeds, one painted, and my group made paper mache balloons to “enrich the animals’ experiences.” My specific job was to tear up newspaper into strips. Yes, we were strippers….

We had free time in the afternoon and went to the International Marketplace. These goofballs decided to buy matching $3 t-shirts to impress the ladies at dinner. Aren’t we cool? (OK, we do look like Power Rangers.) But in fact, people were so impressed that about a dozen went back to buy these t-shirts.

We capped off the evening at Tiki’s down the street.

Our 2nd day consisted of a session with Ka’ala Souza on team excellence and customer service. It was outstanding. His message on empathy is especially relevant in this day and age.

Had a nice walk home. This is Waikiki’s world-class river walk a.k.a. the Ala Wai Canal.

Much mahalos to our leaders and event organizers. Ka Hana a Keu….

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What’s Cookin’?

Nothin’ much. But I should be. I have a good enough kitchen.

909 comes with a pretty well equipped kitchen with stainless steel appliances.

I have All-Clad and Le Creuset cookware (works great for my instant ramen noodles.)

I have a set of Henckels knives to cut stuff. Chop, chop….

I even have a bunch of cooking thingys and gadgets.

Still, I need to get my act together. Here’s my inspiration….

I need to cook more. I can do this. C’mon over for some Nabe this winter. Nom noms….

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Camp Erdman

Blessed to have been a chaperone once again for our annual 7th grade camp. Each of the three KMS teams participates in a 3-day camp at Camp Erdman in Mokulēʻia for team building. It’s especially important since many of the 7th graders have come from different schools as well as the neighbor islands. Unfortunately, we were not able to stay overnight due to scheduling conflicts. We participated in day camp activities such as Group Challenge and the Odyssey Ropes Course.

The Odyssey is the one experience that the students never forget.

We ended the camp with a 6-mile hike to Ka’ena Point. I joked that it was sooo hot, we didn’t go on a hike. We were deployed….

Everyone had a good experience and made friends. I did too. Imua.

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TEDxHonolulu

Attended TEDxHonolulu today with two of my colleagues from school. Had an amazing time! The theme was City 2.0, and it was held at Disney’s Aulani Resort in Ko Olina. It was all about creating a better community and a brighter future. Here is the post of my highlights on my edublog.

This was my first visit to Aulani. At first, I wondered why the event wasn’t held in Honolulu….

But it was a really nice venue for an event such as this.

Even the food was great. Another highlight for me was meeting student representatives from TEDxYouth@Punahou. Looking forward to their event next April.

I especially loved TEDxHonolulu’s taste in art…. haha. This series of photos was taken at a TEDxHonolulu Salon event as part of the Inside Out Project.

The event was absolutely amazing and inspiring. There were so many great speakers and great ideas. The person who summed up the day for me was Natalie Ai Kamauu. After delivering a stunning musical performance she said, “To make a better future, we just have to be the best that we can be. Then our children will say, ‘I want to be just like her, or just like him….'”

Amen.