School’s starting tomorrow, and I’m finding myself feeling scatterbrained. Summertime makes it really easy to relax, since I don’t have to worry as much about unyielding deadlines and being constantly judged by professors. Going back to the structure of it is challenging, and it’s going to take a few days to adjust.

I’m sure that the uncertainty of my travel plans on Tuesday is not helping with the stress I’m feeling.

Wish me luck.

Two recent Hawai’i stories I’ve been following have taken turns for the worst:

TheBus – An August 19^th letter^* by OTS President James Cowen dropped a bombshell. It said, “We recommend that TheBus customers not purchase a September bus pass until it is apparent whether the buses will be running.” A bus official recommending riders pay day-to-day is not reassuring. The letter also says that the Teamsters have broken off negotiations until August 25^th – the day before the strike deadline. Yes, I already have contingency plans, but I’d be really happy if I didn’t have to implement them.

Kamehameha Schools – Although the school does not have a statement on its web site, all the media outlets do. A Honolulu court ordered Kamehameha to allow incoming seventh grader Brayden Mohica-Cummings to attend classes – at least temporarily. (This is a different person than the anonymous student that led to this blog entry.) Mohica-Cummings is not Hawaiian, and there is some question as to whether his mother falsified his application form intentionally.

Despite Headmaster Michael Chun’s optimism, I fully expect a backlash from students. The teachers and staff are all professionals, and will do their best to protect him. Still, life is bad in middle school as it is – I fully expect student backlash of some kind. I sincerely hope I’m wrong.

The unscientific opinion polls for two local news stations, KITV 4 and News 8, show that approximately two-thirds of respondents are against non-Hawaiian admissions to the Kamehameha Schools. It should be noted that according to the 2000 Census, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders make up only 9.4% of the Hawai’i state population, and less than 0.1% of the U.S. population.

Right now, I’m sitting on the sidelines and continuing to follow both stories. Cross your fingers.

^* LINK TENDING 1/11 – Removed dead link.

The North American power outage affected many people, including some of our own. Many people don’t think through the full implications of such a large power outage – elevators, subway trains, telephones, cell phones, many types of police radios, water pumps, and much more, all suddenly stop working. Society is so dependent on electricity that the lack of it can be life-threatening in certain situations.

I’m very, very glad that nobody got hurt, and that this wasn’t a terrorist act. I hope that the government sees the large potential vulnerability, however, and gets to work fixing the problem.

If you’re one of the American consumers that the RIAA has “declared war on,” you may want to visit this site by EFF. It will look up your name and see if it’s the target of a subpoena under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

I don’t condone peer-to-peer file trading, and I don’t practice it. But I feel that if a company is going to try and collect millions of dollars from people for being music fans, they should have a right to know that they’re being spied on.

Just another example of the ridiculousness of corporate abuse of copyright law.

(Link via Wired.)