Overheard this weekend at the mall: Exasperated mom to rambunctious child, “If this is your fun now, there’s no fun later when you get home!”
The thought stopped me in my tracks – what if that’s true? What if there’s a limited amount of fun, and that once you use it up there’s no more fun? What if you had a blast whooping it up when you were younger? Are you doomed to a life of dullness forever more?
It’s an insidious notion. That child will probably be hoarding his fun for the rest of his life wondering when he’s going to run out. I’m going to go on the assumption we all have different fun allotments (and that the Mom must have used up all of hers early) or that fun is rechargeable (“sustainable fun”) somehow.
A while back I did a strength assessment quiz based on the book by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton called Now, Discover Your Strengths. My top five strengths turned out to be:
Maximizer
Analytical
Intellection
Ideation
Strategic
Put that all together and what’s that spell? G-E-E-K.
“Ideation” caught my attention, partly because I never thought about it that way, and partly because it rings so true:
You are fascinated by ideas. You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. You revel in takiing the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you.
Based on this description, it’s no surprise that one of the coolest sites I’ve ever been turned onto is TED.com. TED features videos of the world’s greatest thinkers presenting their insights on just about everything – technology, science, nature, business, art. The array of selections is pretty mind-boggling.
Even if you don’t explore any further, check out these two:
Ken Robinson on how schools are killing creativity:
Pretty much the only people on the road at 4:30 in the morning are drunken revelers heading home from the clubs or warped folks heading out to an endurance event. Despite our best intentions, it’s been years since egeekette and I have gone clubbing. Instead, this past Sunday morning we were driving the length of Oahu so we could run around in circles for several hours at the Runner’s HI Kalaeloa 20K.
Kalaeloa doesn’t have any street lights and the registration tent was lit by one portable spotlight so there were hundreds of bleary-eyed proto-runner zombies shuffling around in the dark. The good news is that this year there were porta-potties near the start so people didn’t have to pee in the bushes like last year. The bad news is that they were 100 yards down the road from the registration tent. If you were paying attention, you’ll have noticed that that means 100 yards AWAY from the one source of light on that end of the island. And yes, using a porta-potty in pitch blackness is just as bad as you can imagine.
This year the 20K (12.4 miles for the Americans) race was three loops instead of the traditional two. This change meant that I got lapped even earlier than last year by the race leaders and I had to step over the same roadkill (kitty I think – it was hard to tell) 2 more times than I really wanted to.
Each loop became a stage of running enlightenment, just not quite in the right order.
Loop #1: Darkness (Ignorance) – Where the hell am I going?
Loop #2: Dawn (Bliss) – Enjoying each moment. Cool morning air and pretty colors in the sky.
Loop #3: Sunrise (Awareness) – Heat. Pain. This sucks.
I can’t complain too much though. We both survived the run and PR’d the distance to boot. Best of all, we headed over to Jurison’s in Waikele for breakfast afterwards for fried rice omelet with pork adobo and kim chee. Woo hoo!
So I don’t just rant about things, I thought it would provide some balance to the universe if I wrote about breakfast places that I DO like. Unless we’re training or doing an event on another part of the island we generally dine in town, so that’s where I’ll start.
Original Pancake House (Kapiolani at Pensacola, Dillingham at Waiakamilo)
Faves: French crepes, blueberry pancakes, canadian bacon
Notes:
Get there early on weekends (before 9am) or be prepared to wait
Just found out they’re part of a nationwide chain. With all the aunties that work there, I never would have guessed.
Jack’s (Aina Haina Shopping Center)
Faves: Corned beef hash and eggs
Notes:
Fast service
If you get the Jack’s special biscuit, get it grilled for an extra .25. Yummy!
Bogart’s Cafe (Diamond Head on Monserrat)
Faves: Michael’s Scramble (asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese), belgian waffles with various toppings (nutella, strawberries, bananas, coconut syrup)
Notes:
Do NOT miss the pan fried potatoes!
Their breakfast bagels also seem to be popular
Cozy (code word for “really small”)
Cash only
Big City Diner (Kaimuki and Ward Entertainment Complex)
Faves: Uncle Danny’s Fried Rice, Ani’s Cinnamon Bread French Toast, Apple Pancakes
Notes:
Wait times for a table can be long but food service is consistently prompt
