I see great things in baseball

Right now Kaddi's life consists of two activities. Providing a source of food for Luke and driving Meg and Jake all over Oahu for their baseball practices and games. I'm a little worried that her demanding schedule might be leading to over-exhaustion.

When Suzi was visiting us she forgot to bring a bottle of lotion, so she asked to borrow some. Kaddi provided an extra large bottle of Dove. As Suzi rubbed it onto her hands and arms she noticed that it didn't absorb like her regular lotion at home. So she looked at the bottle and discovered it was Dove hair conditioner. Could that be a sign someone is mentally fatigued?

On the bright side, Kaddi's arm hair has never been more manageable.

Saturday we were down in Mililani for Jake's game. The weather was cooperative.

For several innings Jake was stationed at the hot corner. Of course, in this league where kids don't really hit the ball that much, they call it the lukewarm corner.

The confident batsman.

The conscientious base runner.

Due to the intensity of the Hawaiian sun an umbrella is an essential item, even when its not raining.











In fairness, Kaddi is not the only one whose decision-making can be called into question. A few weeks ago I had to drive down to Kaneohe to get some diapers. Kaddi sent me off with instructions to get 'Huggies or Pampers - the brand name doesn't really matter.' I thought: if the brand doesn't really matter then I'll buy Safeway diapers for 9.99 instead of Huggies for 23.00.

My shoddy attempt at frugality backfired. Kaddi wouldn't put Safeway diapers on the baby, and in fact they're still sitting in our room. Instead of saving thirteen dollars, I wasted ten.

Happy Birthday, George

Many of you know me as a talented complainer. It has been a past-time that has brought meaning into my life. I can even complain about Hawaii. I complain about our apartment. I complain about coin-operated laundry. I complain about not having a car. I complain about the nearest store being an hour away.

And then comes a day when there's nothing to complain about. What's a guy to do?

Monday was just such a day. It was warm, but not hot. There was a breeze, but it wasn't windy. We packed up the chitlins and headed off to the beach Since we had Luke with us we decided to stay close to home and enjoy Hukilau.

It was a day not soon to be forgotten. Many other families were there enjoying the surf, but it was not crowded. We sat on our towels staring at the blue water as we listened to the waves. And the children played. And Luke slept.

And somewhere in the recesses of my memory rested blurred images of winter in another place and time. Bone-chilling walks home from the bus stop. Wiping condensation off the windshield with frozen hands as we returned from a friends house late at night. Trying to warm my ears after arriving at class. But those memories are worn and sun-bleached

In a few months they'll be gone.





"I think we're going to need a smaller strap"



"So, when you set your VCR to record, the television doesn't have to be on the channel you're recording..."








"No, I don't think that hat makes you look like girl"

Ich bin ein Swapper

Last weekend Kaddi's sister Suzi came out to visit us here in Laie. It was a whirlwind trip, and since it rained most of the time we didn't even get to go to the beach. No matter. It was just as much fun to stay in our apartment and watch The Mummy Returns. Again.

The highlight of the trip was to be Oahu's famous swamp meet. Every weekend they set up a huge outdoor market at Aloha stadium where you can buy as second-hand merchandise to you heart's content. As we drove down to Honolulu, all packed into the Saturn, we dreamed of the fabulous bargains we might find on stuff we wouldn't really use. I was planning to get a baseball hat with flames streaking down both sides.

Imagine our disappointment when we arrived at the stadium to find our beloved swap meet displaced by the NFL's Pro Bowl. I tried to console the family and explain that this was a good thing. Instead of wading through crowds of human roaches digging through each other's garbage, we could spend the afternoon watching the best of the National Football League sleepwalk their way through a game whose ultimate objective was not to get injured. Alas, there were no takers. Our group opted instead to spend the day at the Ala Moana Mall.

After a couple hours of browsing through the ABC stores, we decided it might be exciting to find the bail bonds location owned and operated by Dog the Bounty Hunter. But, since we didn't know where that was, and since we didn't even know where we were, that ultimate prize proved elusive. Our day has started out with such promise, and yet we had failed to realize our most important objectives.

Was it worth missing church? That is for history to decide.

I don't know what you're talking about

I'm watching Mike Huckabee on CNN right now explaining how he's not dropping out of the race because the country needs a choice.

The country made its choice, Mike. And it wasn't you.

Anyway...

Today I had to send out an email to one of my classes. I have a section with only seven students in it, and none of them seem particularly excited about history. For last Thursday's discussion I had only two students show up on time and neither of them had looked at the assigned readings. So, I sent out an email to the class list explaining my expectations, and how their grades reflect participation and attendance.

A few minutes later I received an email response from one of the students which said:

"You sent this to the wrong student. I have no idea what you're talking about."

So I doubled checked my class list, and yes - in fact - this person was in my class. They hadn't attended class all semester. So I responded explaining that they were still listed on the class roster, and they might want to think about dropping the class.

Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at my door. A panicky student sat down and explained that she'd been attending another section of 202 for over a month now and handing in assignments to another instructor. Now she realized that she was actually registered in my class. We're six weeks into the semester now. It's too late for her to drop my class, and even if she could there'd be no way she could catch up with all the assignments.

*sigh*

I should be glad of another death

This week I read Chinua Achebe's No Longer At Ease in preparation for the weekly discussion portion of my History 202 course. Although its not as well regarded as Things Fall Apart, another of Achebe's books, I found it to be a very interesting read. I highly recommend it to those of you looking for an example of good post-colonial literature.

No Longer at Ease relates the experiences of Obi, a young man who returns to his native Nigerian after spending four years at university in England. He arrives in Lagos with dreams of lifting his homeland out of bonds of colonialism, but becomes increasingly disillusioned as his idealism is frustrated by both traditional and modern barriers. At its core, the book is a tale of alienation. Obi struggles to reconcile the demands of family and acquaintances with his new position and status in the government ministry. He becomes aware that his experience abroad, along with his Christian upbringing, has made him a stranger in his own country. He loves and hates Nigeria as he loves and hates himself.

Achebe is both insightful and impartial in his discussion of how racism immobilizes and embitters a society. Obi experiences racism while in England and again from his white superiors in the government ministry. But on arrival in his home village, his relatives express their joy that he has not married a white woman. Most tragically, Obi is to distraught to learn that his family and community reject his fiance Clara because of her disreputable tribal origins. By attempting to defy these social conventions he brings disaster on himself and Clara.

Within this narrative Achebe explores the unintended effects of educating young Africans in the western model. He asks "What is the purpose and result of this education?" Obi's supervisor, Mr. Green, denounces the practice of educating Africans, claiming they only use their diplomas to grab all they can for themselves and their kin. Obi himself believes knowledge is a power to be utilized in modernizing his country, but he feels overwhelmed and inadequate at the impossibility of his task. In the end, he is slowly crushed between traditional expectations and modern limitations.

"My friends...I don't like you"

Given John McCain's recent victory in Florida it appears likely that he will eventually be the Republican nominee for President. This has set off a firestorm of debate and controversy over the man and his Senate record. Radio talk show hots, tv anchors, newspaper columnists and everyone else are now busy explaining why McCain will ruin the party and most likely the country if he manages to win the election. Some party faithful are even conflicted over whether to not vote or even (gasp!) vote for a Democract if McCain is victorious in Minneapolis. I find this entire conversation so silly and pointless that I naturally wanted to plunge right in.

For the most part, I don't have a problem with McCain in terms of policy. Anyone who tries to define the term 'conservative' so narrowly that it doesn't include John McCain is doing the Republican party no favors. The fact that he disagrees with Republicans on certain issues (although they are BIG issues) almost makes him more appealing as a candidate, not less. After all, don't we want our congressmen to think for themselves, instead of just towing the party line? I also think that McCain-Kennedy was a good piece of legislation. Immigration law in the U.S. is such a disaster that any improvement should be supported by all Americans.

The failure of McCain-Kennedy helps explain why McCain would not make a good President. Although he styles himself as a modern Henry Clay (the Great Compromiser) the bill failed because he wouldn't compromise on what became the most important issue to so many Americans - building a border fence. And the reason he wouldn't compromise is that he cares more about 'reaching across the aisle' and impressing his friends on the left than he does about the base of his own party. He now claims that he's the best qualified to lead on the issue of immigration because he 'comes from a border state.'

Well, Senator - if you're so qualified, why didn't you listen to the people in your own state when they said they wanted a fence?

Far from being someone who will bring Democrat and Republican together, McCain can be counted on to alienate both. I've watched very carefully as he's crossed the country giving various states his special dose of 'straight talk'. This involves finding an issue that's important to those states and griding it under his heel. In Iowa he says, 'Screw your ethanol subsidies.' In Florida he says, 'Screw your diaster insurance.' In Michigan he says, 'Screw your manufacturing jobs.' And in Arizona he says 'The border fence is a stupid idea, I know better than you.'

I'm not suggesting McCain needs to pander to these states (the way Romney clearly did in Michigan) but isn't there room for discussion? You think Bush and Cheney have been arrogant? Just wait until you see the McCain administation. He adopts hardline stances and then is alarmingly vindictive towards those who criticize or question him.

That vindictiveness was first apparent in 2000 when he lost South Carolina BIG and then accused the Bush campaign of dirty tactics, a charge that has never been proven. This time around, after playing the victim of Romney's attack ads for several months, he did one better with his 'timetables' distortion only two days before the Florida election. That was real hard-ball politics. McCain cloaks himself in the robes of an altar boy only to disguise how he's going to stick a shiv in your ribs.

McCain also demostrates an alarming need of approval by the media and the left. Right now he's busy using the memory of Ronald Reagan to tout his conservative credentials. But the moment he's got the nomination look for him to begin distancing himself from the right and saying 'Hey, don't associate me with that gaggle of gay-bashers, polluters, and abortion clinic bombers. I'm a maverick, I'm my own man.' I'm convinced his position on Global Warming and ANWAR represent his desire to be included in that 'enlightened' group of environmentalists. He may end up as a President hated by both Democracts and Republicans.

Finally, McCain demonstrates all the self-absorbed, self-righteous, tendencies of the baby boomer generation (although certainly he represents the best of that generation). He now uses his status as a first-rate war hero to treat others with disdain. He acts as though because he was a POW, he is above criticism, that the Presidency is owed to him. Bob Dole and George Bush both served in WWII, but I don't remember them talking about their veteran status HALF as much as John McCain. He was contemptuous of Bush in 2000 for 'serving' in the National Guard. He's now contemptous of Romney because Mitt comes from an privileged family and went to Harvard. In the debates he has this ascerbic manner of winking and chuckling to himself as he talks down to you. If you didn't spend time in a Vietnamese prison camp, you don't rate.

But it looks like he'll win the nomination. Giuliani has dropped out to prevent splitting the moderate vote with McCain. Huckabee, who seems to be running for Vice President, will stay in to split the conservative vote with Romney for Super Tuesday. McCain will lose in November, and I don't know if that's a bad thing. The strength of democracy is balance, and I think it might be time for the political pendulum to swing the other way for a few years.

Out on the Blacktop

Two weeks ago Jake started his first season of basketball in the Laie sports league. Here in Hawaii they play an unusual style, where they combine the protocol of basketball with the full contact of rugby. Jake is still adjusting to the new format.

Jake likes to get out in front on the fast break and wait for someone to feed him the ball.





...still waiting....




He's decided to concentrate on defense, since it seems easier to take the ball away from the other team than to convince his own teamates to pass to him.

I'm Mack Strate and I approved this message

I read an ad in last month's Ensign asking members to submit video ideas for commercials that the Church could use to promote the family. So, Jake and I put together this little sketch and sent it in to Salt Lake. The winners will be announced during General Conference week in April.

I think we've got an excellent shot.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Is he still under warranty?

Meg has been looking forward to having a new baby for some time now. She is extremely excited to have Chubber Chalong in our family and always offers to hold him or help in other ways. But it's becoming increasingly apparent that she is disappointed by his performance so far. After all, usually a toy is at its best when its brand new. It's only after we've played with it for months that it starts to show signs of wear and tear and become less effective. But babies are a littile different. They start out with some quirks, then get more interesting as they have time to grow. Andyway, whenever we introduce the baby to friends or colleagues she takes it upon herself to point out all his defects. Here's an example of a recent conversation.

SHANE: Say hello to our little guy, Luke.

FRIEND: What a big boy - how much did he weigh when he was born?

KADDI: He was eight pounds, twelve ounces.

MEG: He grunts all the time because he has gas.

FRIEND: Was it a hard labor?

SHANE: I did pretty well, actually. I thought I would be nervous, but...

KADDI: (interrupting) I was induced on the Monday, and after they broke my water it was only a few hours until l'il Lukey arrived.

MEG: And he had acne all over his cheeks.

FRIEND: I think he's a handsome boy. I'm surprised he doesn't have red hair like your other two.

KADDI: It was a surprise to all of us. I think eventually his hair will turn blonde.

MEG: Then maybe he won't be cross-eyed anymore.

long silence

SHANE: Well, we better get this little guy home....

Getting the Star Treatment

Maybe it's because we've been anxiously waiting for this baby for so long, but I think we may have lavished a bit too much attention on l'il Chubber-Chalong. Everywhere we go, people makes a fuss over him, and this has caused him to be a little too full of himself. I blame the nurses in the hospital for always telling him how handsome he is - it didn't take long for him to believe it. Now he thinks the entire household should revolve around him. It's always...Chalong needs to eat. Chalong needs his diaper changed. Dad needs to sleep on the razor-thin edge of the mattress so Chalong can have the middle. What a primadonna.

The kid really lives in a dreamworld. The other day he was talking about what an incredible athlete he is. I tried to point out that just because his pajamas said 'MVP' on the front didn't really make him the Most Valuable Player. I knew I was right, but have you ever tried arguing with a newborn? He doesn't listen to anyone.

So far we've been cutting him a lot of slack because he's the new guy, but things had better start to change - and soon. He needs to understand that he's not the only member of this family. His needs shouldn't always have to come first. Heaven forbid he should do something to help around the house - maybe make dinner for Kaddi once in awhile.

I just think it's a little early for him to be acting like a teenager.

He thinks he's soooo cool in just because all the newborn chicks in Gospel Doctrine dig his Sunday threads.

To celebrate a successful nap, Chalong makes me carry him out of the bedroom on my shoulders.

We're all getting a little tired of him constantly asking us to 'check out my guns!'

Living by bread alone

I think this is why missionaries aren't allowed to tract in Thailand.

The rolling stone gathers some moss

Last night was a new experience for our family. Ever since Jakob was born we've lived a nomadic existence. Utah, California, Wisconsin, Thailand, and now Hawaii. We've never lived in one place for very long - we were meant to wander. As such, our kids have become accustomed to making friends and then saying goodbye when it's time to roll their belongings up in a hankerchief at the end of a stick and head on down that lonesome highway.

But this time we met a family even slightly more transient than ourselves - a family here in Laie for only four months doing an internship at the university. Their kids have been Meg and Jake's best friends since we arrived here in Hawaii. Since we all arrived in TVA at the same time we've been acclimating together. Yesterday we experienced the strange sensation of saying good-bye to them as they headed back to the mainland. For once, we were left behind.

The Pecks were nice enough to come over and visit even though there was usually nowhere for them to sit.


Meg and her friend were in each other's live - same class at school, same class at primary, even the same Christmas choir.


Sure, you're losing your best friend - but that's no reason to block the TV.


Chalong was exhausted by the emotional outpouring.

The Visit

It was wonderful to have Kaddi's parents out in town for the week that Chalong was born. Del babysat the kids while the rest of us were in delivery and Sharon managed to stockpile a few more sweatshirts with North Shore themes. Even though their time out here was short, we took them to all the tourist attractions, including: Laie elementary school, Kaiser Permanente hospital, and the TV in front of the university bookstore that shows CNN. It was the Hawaiian vacation they always dreamed of...

Boxing Day Blahs

Well, Christmas is officially over. Kaddi invited one of Jake and Meg's friends to sleepover on the same night and then decided to hide out in the bedroom with her baby. This leaves me to supervise. I'm trying to figure out how to be just mean enough that they won't want to come over anymore, but not so mean that they'll stop being friends with my kids. Any suggestions?

I also received my Christmas present that came late - a pair of khakis from Old Navy. Kaddi had ordered 36" length pants, but what arrive was 28". I guess this semester I'll be the only professor on campus wearing capris.

Mele Kalikemaka is the thing to say

It's wonderful to have a newborn at Christmas time. So far Luke has been the baby Kaddi and I always knew would could make. He eats well, he sleeps well, and when he's awake he's usually content sit back and take in the scenery. His temper does flare up a little when he feels he's not being fed on time - you don't want to be in the way of his tiny fists of fury when that happens. It's amazing how manages to stay so balanced. Christmas can be a very stressful time for babies. I read somewhere that hiccuping goes up 25% during the holidays.

We've resolved to enjoy these simple times because we know that his youth and adolescence are going to be much more complicated. Since Luke is a native Hawaiian, we will face serious cultural and ethnic challenges as we try to incorporate him into our family of mainlanders. Some of you have already remarked on how his golden skin doesn't match the pasty complexions of our other children. As Luke becomes a teenager he will no doubt have many questions about his Polynesian ancestry and heritage. We may even decide to enroll him in a Hawaiian immersion program if he's interested in re-capturing his indigenous language and dances. Most of all, I worry about his reaction to the history of his people. How will he handle it when he learns that my ancestors stole the land of his ancestors and turned the islands of his birth into one giant military base? Who will show him how to make tapa? Who will tell him the great tales of the first peoples arriving from Bora Bora? What if he hates hockey? I think I need to seek out the advice of other multi-cultural families. There are so many questions to answer.

Fortunately, I have the pleasanties of the season to distract me from these weightier matters. We went to two Christmas programs for the kids this week - one at the elementary school and one at the university. I thought they would be regular Christmas programs full of children's songs, but the second was actually an extravanganza of Polynesian culture. Meg and her friend even had a 'solo' in one part of their song. It was so entertaining and education I decided to put together a small highlight reel of the week's festivities.

I may need it in a few years when Luke is asking me to teach him the Haka.


div>

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

'Baby Chalong'

The internet premiere of Baby Chalong (with a special guest appearance by an overexcited Meg).

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Luke 8:12

I'm happy and relieved to write that baby Luke was born today at 1:44 PM Hawaii time. We arrived at the hospital at 8AM to have Kaddi induced, and things progressed very quickly. By 11 AM they had broke her water, and the contractions came very suddenly after that. After three hours of labor we had our little boy.

As we made the long drive down Kamehameha highway this morning at 7AM Kaddi was a little disappointed that she had to be induced. She was hoping that the contractions would just start suddenly so the pain would catch her off-guard, instead of the big build-up and the nervous anticipation that accompanies it. For her it's like requesting someone to torture you for a few hours.

I, on the other hand, really like the inducement method. It's so controllable, so orderly. It's a like a few generations ago when they would purchase by mail. You select something you really want from the Sears-Roebuck catalog, and then nine months later you go to the train station to pick it up.

Luke measures 8 pounds, twelve ounces and measures twenty inches. Our biggest baby yet. When they put him in the baby tray to measure him his huge feet were stretches out over the end of the tray. He has long tapered fingers and (hopefully) a sweet temperament. We're really not sure what color his hair is, but it doesn't look red - much darker than either Jake or Meg.

I'll work on getting a picture posted sometime today (although I'm a little upset to see People magazine already has photos on their website - those vultures.) I'll probably end up driving back to Laie this evening to bring Jake and Meg in to see the baby. This morning when we left Meg was a little teary. She said:

"I'm just so happy mom is finally having a baby."

It is the will of the gods

In November Meg was nominated by her teacher as a 'Super Citizen', an example of a fine upstanding youth in her community. Since I didn't have classes on her special day of recognition I went along to observe this strange schoolyard ritual.




The money changers at work outside the temple









I can only assume that the SuperCitizen assembly was once a beautiful ceremony devoted to the pure ideals of civic virture. But like so many celebrations, the meaning was slowly drained away as it became increasingly commercialized. Today it has been reduced to nothing more than a frenzied orgy of laminated certificates and laffy-taffy.



On this day the rain stopped just long enough for the student to bring their plastic chairs out of their classroom and assembled themselves in the courtyard. Then students from each grade are called up to the podium, where the principal presents them with their certificate and parents bring up their candy leis. I spent ten dollars (ten dollars!) purchasing candy strung together by the bourgeois capitalists who set up their stands outside the school that morning. Handing over that money felt like passing a gallstone, but what's a parent to do? Is a principle worth your little girl being the only one in the entire school not wearing a candy lei?



Meg stood proudly on the podium as the remainder of her classmates prostrated themselves in worship of their twin gods Sucrose and Glucose. We hurried up with other parents to place the leis on their shoulders and take pictures. After all the students had been recognized they had a very bizarre skit involving two guys dressed as 'Ernie and Bernie' from Shark Tales jumping around and yelling with Jamaican accents. I think it was about communication.

I thought two leis was excessive, but as we walked out of the schoolyard we saw a girl with at least ten candy-leis around her neck. I wonder if the candy fairy visited her that night.

Time to shut it down

Most of you are aware of how much I love my office. Aside from my family (and Jason Whitten) there's nothing I enjoy more than sitting down in my own personal quiet pace with the door closed, my computer on, and my dissertation materials all easily accessible. It's the one place the scholar-nerd in me can be truly happy.

So why will I probably spend this week at home working on the kitchen table with my exams, papers, and research materials inter-mingled with Meg's drawings of happy little girls and giant birthday cakes?

I'm in hiding.

Yesterday was the first day of finals week, which means that a tidal wave of underachieving students has crested over my office, and the flotsam and jetsam of the student body is still clinging to the walls of the hallways. This is the time of year when the surfer and the sunburned wipe the sand out their eyes and begin shuffling off to their professor's offices in a half-hearted attempt to negotiate a passing grade.

Yesterday I was beseiged with requests, demands, excuses, angry emails, sob stories, and explanations as to why it was my fault they didn't understand what to do. (Of course, there are many bright, intelligent, dedicated students here as well. But you generally don't see them thise week because they're busy doing what they normally do - studying and preparing to succeed on the final.) Here's a few sound bytes from the soundtrack that was yesterday for me:

"I know I didn't turn in most of my work, but you haven't been very accomodating with your deadlines."

"Can I do this assignment over again? The first time I didn't read th instructions about there being two parts."

"Can you tell me what's going to be on the final?"

"Could you look over my paper and tell me if its good or not before I hand it in?"

"What do I need to do to pass this class?"

"I need at least a C- or my family will lose their housing privileges at TVA."

"I didn't turn in most of the assignments, so could you give me some extra-credit work to do?"

"I'm sorry I plagiarized my first research paper, but if you give me another chance I promise I'll actually do the research myself this time."

"I had a hard time concentrating in class because I was captivated by your rugged good looks and gorgeous hair."

"Professor Strate, are you aware that your website 301NIB is currently the target of a hostile takeover by the Sheinhardt wig company?"

After a while, I tried ignoring the knocks and pretending I wasn't there. Some students just got the department secretary to knock on the door for them. It was terrifying.

In the face of such an assault, I will now do what professors have always done. I'll run away. Students can communicate with me through email if they really need something, and then I have a chance to screen what is important and what is whining.

I am the hunted.

Afternoon Delight

The best part about living in the TVA campground is that the kids can go outside to play all the time. They really didn't get a chance to play outside in Thailand because it was just too hot. We're entering the rainy season here, but still get some sunny days to enjoy outdoors. Here's a video clip from Jake playing the classic football game 'interception.' It's vintage Jake. He runs a thirty-second route, makes a few half-hearted jukes, and then falls down.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com