Elf Yourself or some friends this season!

Go to the Elf Yourself website and upload pictures of you or your friends or family. Then, select a dance and watch them go. You'll be guaranteed to let out a chuckle, or at least a smile, even if you are a Grinch or Scrooge.

If you choose, you can purchase the video, or even order merchandise adorned with images of all your elven friends!

Have a fun and merry Kalikimaka!

Energy Solutions

While some may say our world is coming to an end, perhaps one interpretation could be that the world as we know it - the short-term thinking, wasteful, polluting world - could perhaps be taking its final bow.

Though there are many undeniable effects - global warming, landfills taking all they can, etc. - there are some wonderful, innovative things happening. While the world may be undeniably heating up, people are undeniably becoming smarter. Here a few interesting energy solutions I found:


This incredible idea is an extension of the pottery water-cooling vessels used throughout the millennium. I found this article by Chris Gupta at StumbleUpon.com

Cool: Fridge Without Using Electricity!
This is Mohammed Bah Abba's Pot-in-pot invention. In northern Nigeria, where Mohammed is from, over 90% of the villages have no electricity. His invention, which he won a Rolex Award for (and $100,000), is a refrigerator than runs without electricity.



I got this next article from BBCnews.com. Take a look at the world's first "Wave Far"

In Portugal, the "Agucadoura" was built, consisting of three Wave Energy Converters generating a total of 2.25 Mega watts.

These elongated metal contraptions bob up and down with the waves, while internal pistons, attached to the sea floor, remain stationary and pump hydraulic fluid. This drives electric generators, whose power is brought ashore by underwater electrical cables.

The wave farm is now tapping into enough constant, renewable energy to power 1500 homes.
Who knew there was so much power in the ocean waves?

If we laid these 459-foot orange caterpillars all over the world's oceans, we could tap 2 Tera watts of power, twice the consumption of the entire world. This perhaps may sound impractical, but it is a step in the right direction, using what we already have, the ocean, instead of wishing for something we don't have.

Could these energy alternatives be what our energy-starved planet needs?

What are your ideas?

The power of one is great!

If you can spare 5 minutes, watch this video.

It makes me so happy over and over again!

With all that's going wrong in the world it is easy to get preoccupied with all the negative things in the world. It can be easy to loose faith in the each other when things are going wrong and we hear of the awful things people do to each other around the world. But things remind me that human beings are all so beautiful. We have the ability to make ourselves happy and far greater, make one another happy!

No matter how small you think you are, I hope you remember Helen Keller's,

"I am one, but I am still one, I cannot do everything but I can do something. "

There is nothing greater than having someone to smile, laugh and dance with. In those few moments, dancing, smiling, laughing and even crying it becomes so apparent that we are more alike then different.

It is easiest to see how human we all are, that no matter what were never alone. Thank goodness for these short but powerful moments, for they are perhaps what get us through all the others. Remember the power of one is great!! You do make a difference!

What's your Holy Chip?

Recently, a lady from Palmett, Florida was on a flight back home from NYC when, while eating a bag of chips, a "strange sensation overwhelmed" her as she came across a chip she believed resembled the Virgin Mary.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002802037_marychip13.html


How many of us have that lucky pair of shoes or jeans?

Are we giving meaning to the meaningless, or discovering the meaningful?


Many of you may remember seeing the outtakes from Napoleon Dynamite where Pedro also came across a "holy chip". (script below)
-
Napoleon
Where have you been?
Pedro
I got sick.
Napoleon
How come?
Pedro
Two days ago, [flash back to party]
I went to my cousin's birthday party.
And they had all this food.
So I started to eat this taco with lots of meat.
It was like a carne asada taco.
And all of the sudden, I started to feel real evil inside.
Kinda sad, ya know?
So the next day, I just like laid in the bathtub for a couple of hours.
And then, I had to go to the hospital because my aunt Concha was having
a baby.
We had to wait a real long time, in the lobby, so I bought a little bag
of corn tortillas from the vending machine.
And right when I started eating them, I felt really good inside.
The evil feeling I was having just like lifted out of me.
It's like, evaporated into nothing.
[scene returns to school lunchroom]
So I don't know. I think they was like holy chips or something.
-

BYUH alumna, who goes under the name, “Girl in Bathtub Number one” notes seeing her holy chip as early as high school. “I remembered several days in a row seeing the most beautiful sunsets/sunrises. Upon seeing them I was taken aback with emotion and felt very filled with my Savior's love for me. I determined right then and there that every time a sunset or sunrise caught my eye, it was my Father in Heaven telling me how much he loves me.”


Dustin Geddes says music is his holy chip, “sometimes words will pop into my head or come on the radio and it's almost as if it's read my mind.” Geddes tells the following narrative, “This summer I grew a beard and I was thinking about how it would affect my love life. Then I heard this song that talks about growing a beard. The lyrics were, ‘I know you love a man whose follicles are growing just for you” Geddes was encouraged by this “sign” but unfortunately said that his whiskers never brought him the love he had been waiting all summer for.

Shem Greenwood said, “I burnt a pancake one time and I thought I could see the future. Sometimes when I’m trying to figure things out, I try to stare at it. Greenwood references this picture:

Mary Lal said, “the spirit is my holy chip. I know sometimes that the lord has put that there for me, it can be anything, sometimes rain, sometimes a shell.”

Priya Ramadantrum said that her holy chip is “...people. Sometimes when I'm having a bad day, I see someone and I know Heavenly Father has put them there for me”.

Gabriel Myamoto Jr., in information systems said, “The scriptures. You can open them at any situation, at any time, on any page, and it will tell you what you need to hear.”

Vada Moorse said her holy chip is, “The human brain. I think it's so incredible the way it works. The most simple, direct manner. I don’t think science could ever toss this up.”

Danilo Lommatzson, freshman in IBM from Argentina, said, “The only special thing I can think of is friends. They way He puts us all together."

“Like the frosted flake in the shape of Texas?” Alex Thorson said his holy chip is, “My wife."

Zack Hunt, freshman from Nevada, said, “The scriptures are my holy chip. And I'm leaving for a mission in August of next year."


What's your "holy chip"?

Ke Alaka'i Cypher: Crack the Code!

Play this game on page 18 of the October 23 Ke Alaka'i:


Here is the CLUE:

The first 3 scrambled words are:
wtchi
dcany
tsllootoeir

The 18 remaining scrambled words are located in the captions and margins of the Oct. 23 Ke Alaka'i newspaper.
Captions are the words below or near pictures, images, and quotes.
Margins are the vertical blank areas between columns of text.
Basically, look for strange and out-of-place text.

You will need all 21 words to solve the puzzle.
Good luck cyphers!

Feral cats have 9 lives, you only have 1: Make a difference in the life of a cat!

Jumping out of garbage cans, sneaking into dorms, licking their chops under tables. The feral cat, though not completely feral because of their reliance on humans, have spurred a bit of a controversy at BYU Hawaii.

Are they friend or foe? 

What many people fail to understand is that trying to tame a feral cat would be the equivalent to trying to put a leash on a raccoon or trying to engrave your name on the collar of a grizzly bear. Though most ferals are kind and loving at heart, it is simply impossible to tame them. Therefore, taking them into our homes may not be the best solution.

The ancestors of these cats actually came over with settlers and are now a part of local culture. So, since we human beings introduced these species here, aren't we responsible for paying reparations to these cats by helping them get by?

According to neighborhoodcats.org, the best method is the TNR or "trap, neuter, return" method. This respects a feral cat's wild state. The neutering of the feral prevents tremendous suffering and shields the cats from the hostility their behavior might otherwise draw from human neighbors. The return of them to their own territory and the providing of adequate food and shelter gives them the opportunity to live among their own, to be free, and to answer to their own unique natures.

Make a difference in the life of another: feralcatproject.org

Are too many kittens going uncared for? What are your thoughts?

“I thought you were a stupid kid…”

BYU- Hawaii Biochemistry student, Pehrson Hawkley, has a motivated soul and a drive for success that has inspired many of his friends and classmates. One day after his classmates found out that he got an excellent grade on a test, a female student congratulated him and said, “I thought you were a stupid kid who just went to the beach all day and surfed.” Pehrson laughed and said, “nope!”

John Hathaway, who worked with Pehrson as a pre-dental student says, “Pehrson is very dedicated to school and is always willing to help out someone in need, and also so willing to share his brain.”

Pehrson, was born in Arizona but moved around a lot because his father, Joel, was in the Air Force. Pehrson graduated high school in New Jersey and feels like his home is in New Jersey, where he learned a lot of life’s lessons. He is the oldest child in his family of four children, with one brother serving an LDS mission in Argentina and a brother and sister at home; Hawkley is a shining example to his younger brothers and sister of what it takes to get what you want.

This year, Hawkley has applied to 14 different dental schools and, this semester alone, will be traveling to such places as Florida, Arizona, California, Ohio, and Kentucky to interview with school officials for a possible acceptance to each school’s program. Between each interview, Hawkley stays busy with schoolwork, a job on campus, and planning his own wedding with his fiancé, Kate LeSueur, a recent BYU-Idaho graduate. Along with the hard work and study, he believes that there is time necessary for relaxation and fun. He enjoys, mainly, surfing the waters of Hawaii, “surfing helps me study better”, says Pehrson with a grin on his face. He also really enjoys dancing, “I love a little dance party,” he says.

Although some might think Pehrson Hawkley is just a stupid blonde kid who surfs all day and does nothing else, we all now know he is an inspiration to many. He has mastered the art of balancing his time to effectively have fun and work hard. It is appropriate to say that there is more than meets the eye. Pehrson’s friends will tell you he is someone to praise and admire.