An often-disregarded law on Oahu: Fires (especially bonfires) are illegal on all beaches due to safety concerns. In fact, Bishop Smith sternly lectures anyone who has attend BYUH 2nd Ward about how he will personally squash any fires you start in his capacity as HRI’s chief security goon.

That being said, last night starting around 10:00 the Fijian Club put on one of the great bonfires I’ve attended in my 2.5 years in Hawaii.

Before getting into some specifics, let me address one question I keep getting asked: How does one determine if there’s some bonfire action going on?

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The strikers were out in force at Turtle Bay over the weekend. It is my sad duty to report to you that they obstructed traffic and delayed our weekly game of volleyball by a whopping five minutes.

Some pictures:

Controversy and Turtle Bay have been good companions over the years.

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A mere 50 cents can buy you a ticket in the air conditioned confines of the McKay Auditorium to watch a censored version of your favorite movies. This week — Phantom of the Opera.

Kill me now.

Friday night in the islands of aloha and this is how people choose to live it? 5 of the 7 people I’ve called tonight are going. We could be cruising up to Haliwea, going spear fishing at night, making a bonfire (as cliched as even that is) or even playing a stupid board game.

Instead, it’s an estrogen-filled adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

This is one island adventure you can count me out of.

Lesson of the Day: Don’t tailgate other vehicles on Kam Highway. You’ll always lose. Allow me to show you why:

I was in my room when I heard it — the sound of screeching tires followed by the unmistakable sound of impact.

You could almost sense it coming.

The other vehicle involved, a girl driving an SUV, sustained virtually no damage.

Second lesson of the day?

SUV’s suck.

I dropped my scholarship application off to the School of Business today.  This is the last time I’ll be able to apply with graduation on the near horizon.  I’ve applied for scholarships every semester for the last two and a half years.

They’ve never given me a dime.

While 3.5 isn’t the most impressive GPA around, you’d think it’d be worth something.

I don’t care if it’s $25, or $50.  Any thing’s better than nothing.  It would be nice to be able to say “Ya, I had a scholarship at BYU-Hawaii” since I was given $2,000+ every academic year at my old university. 

I won’t hold my breath.

On a more humble note, I don’t mind per se if I’m passed over again. After all, the Church subsidizes 80% of tuition making all BYU schools an absolute steal in terms of value and prestige.

No student at BYU-Hawaii has any right to complain about tuition costs.

For the uninitiated, Worldfest is a three day event every semester where clubs recruit new members. Clubs setup booths in the Aloha Center and try to make the sale to venerable new students. It’s a decent system and one can meet a lot of interesting people and make good friends through the club system at BYU-Hawaii.

However, some clubs feel the need to play music ridiculously loud to draw attention to themselves.

At the risk of sounding like I’m playing the race card, I’m going forgo all formalities and formally play the race card — it’s those darn Polynesians!

The Samoan, Fijian and Tongan are the primary violators. The Fijian Club even took the liberty of hauling in some sub woofers.

What I’m trying to convey here is that it was loud. Real loud. There’s probably some deep cultural significances behind why the music was as loud as it was but alas I’m not qualified to comment on them. I will share a small bit of advice to all clubs: do not equate loudness with increased recruitment numbers.

We’ll file this one under “common sense.”

On that note, we officially have a Manga Club. Of course, I’m curious as to what one does in the Manga Club. Do they sit around as a group reading manga out loud? Maybe they dress up in costumes of their favorite manga characters? Or perhaps they go to anime conventions together?

Stereotypes, you got to love them!

Now appearing on campus: new students with skin so “winter white” that without proper eye protection it may cause permanent damage to your retinas.

I jest.

These are students here for a summer term and leave come fall to make room for returning full-time students. I’ve observed they’re here to explore Hawaii and party. To some studying is a priority, but not to the majority.

I should know, I’ve been able to con many into dropping their studies to come jump off of Waimea Bay Rock or take a trip to the pristine beaches of Lanikai.

What is the most fun is talking to them about how different Hawaii is from the Hawaii they imagined. I’m still not over how different it is from the picture-perfect images we’re feed on travel brochures and movies.

The thing I like most about vising students is their energy and desire to explore. My biggest complaint with regular students is they confine themselves to Laie and only go out to get something to eat at the vastly overrated Cheesecake Factory or catch a movie at Windward Mall.

It’ll be nice to have some new partners-in-crime.

“Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.” - Voltaire (1694-1778), while on his deathbed in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan.

Assertion of the day: Openly adversarial relationships can be healthier than the kind where you only pretend to get along.

This entry was inspired by my house-mate who is incapable of expressing what he really thinks and by today’s encounter with the realtor.

Consider it — how many times have you been in a situation where you really disliked someone but it was more politically correct to mask it behind a guise of polite manners? How much lost productivity in group meetings resulted because everyone tipped-toed around the real issues?

How dishonest are we with ourselves and others when we conceal our true emotions?

Most importantly, how much pain would you have saved yourself if you’d chewed your roommate out instead of letting him or her getting away with bloody murder?

We don’t all have to always be friends.

Sometimes, it’s better not to be.