Actor Daniel S. Janik here (aka author Raymond Gaynor/Gary Martine) Back from Chicago and the Chicago International Indie Film Festival (https://chicagoiiff.org) where, on 5 November 2022, Eriko Okada (“Susan”), Setsuko Tsuchiya (“Edna”) and I (“Will Gardner”) walked the red carpet along with Director Kenny Simmons and co-Executive Producer Lisa Simmons, writer Richard and wife Kay Rose in celebration of the STATIC movie winning the Jury Special Mention Award for Feature Length Fi...

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IT’S officially the hurricane season in the Pacific and what’s brewing at this moment is hurricane Frank. Hawaii hurricanes typically begin off Baha California, traveling West-Northwest along with tons of tourists, the hurricane slowly weakening on its way. This year’s hurricane forecast for Hawaii, I’m told, is low both in numbers and intensities, much like income projections for US citizens. Then again, in terms of weather and economics, anything can happen along the way.

If you be...

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Something’s going on with the two tomato plants growing on my porch: They’ve suddenly stopped turning red! OMG, does that mean they’re gonna turn blue before November? Ha, ha. No, really, there’s actually lots of GREEN tomatoes remaining green, and they aren’t likely to turn red or blue in the near future. Can plants join political parties? Can they even party at all?

Maybe they’re pondering onion-izing alongside Amazon and Starbuck workers, but instead of going for more water, f...

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IT all started with lunch. One of my personal favorite lunch recipes is Japanese-Alaskan Potato Salad. Whoa, there! I can hear you saying, so here it is, basically: Yukon potatoes (boiled with skin on), cucumbers (very thinly sliced, the juice squeezed out), mayo (we use veggie mayo for a more adult taste), carrot (again, very thin sliced), white onion broccoli and/or celery (again very thinly sliced), a sprinkling of roasted sesame seeds. The object is to keep it simple. Yum. On the other ha...

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FORGET Generation Z; Generation Alpha (folks born 2012 through 2025) is already stepping up to the plate to experience, enjoy and govern our world. Well, at least, some will enjoy it. Others will struggle and many will opt out either by choice or circumstance. The world is, like Douglas Adams once wrote of Earth in THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, “mostly safe,” and, while not particularly descriptive, it’s descriptive enough to say along with Alfred E. “Mad” Neuman, “What, me...

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Aloha - and what you may well ask does the American post-secondary system of accreditation have to do with the extinct dodo bird?  I'm sad to say that you just guessed the answer: they're both extinct. Okay, the dodo bird I get, but what about accreditation?  It's hardly extinct - it's the very foundation of North American higher education, isn't it?

The answer is, it was.  Back in the early 50's and 60's accreditation had a particularly important meaning:  courses taken at one American colle...
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