Ho'oulu

2010-08-23T08:04:00.008-10:00

Rent is the new Buy

Rent Textbooks and Save up to 75%

..and it's EASY!

So it seems like just yesterday you were zeroing out your bank account to pay those student fees for the coming semester. Now classes have started, you're in between paychecks, and what-you're supposed to go to the store and shell out for books? Even worse, you're paying for brand new books that are painfully overpriced, and will most likely never be opened beyond the length of the semester you're buying them for? The moths flying out of your empty wallet are screamin'- there's gotta be a better way.

Luckily, There Is!

As Bob Dylan said, the times they are a changin', and so is the way you get your books. Buying is so three semesters ago; enter the age of textbook rentals. BookRenter.com has a supply of over 3 million new and used textbooks they're ready to rent out for as long as you need them, and not a day longer. It's is as simple as logging into the website, typing in the names of the books you need, and voila! They'll be shipping your order straight to your door before you know it. You may or may not be comfortable with making purchases online, but if you're in a tight spot financially, the 75% savings they promise is no joke- I did it myself! An Introduction to the Visual Arts, 8th Edition would have cost me a cool $100.00 new, or $80.00 used. BookRental.com got it to me for $19.50 ($20.31 after tax) and- here's the best part for us distanced Hawaii guys- shipping was comped! They even said it's cool if I highlight and write in the texts a little; my only obligation is to remember to ship it back at the end of the semester (also free of charge, of course). These guys are the real deal.

You might ask why would the UHMC bookstore be interested in teaming up with a company that could potentially sweep their profitable book-peddling business right out from under them? I was wondering the same thing. Luckily, a BookRental spokesperson was easily accessible to give me the low-down on the whole situation. Apparently if you access the website through the address maui.bookrental.com, it takes you to the UHMC/BookRental partnership page. Ordering from there, 8% of the proceeds of your purchase go right back to supporting the college! That's more than you could say about ordering from Amazon. So you get your books for dirt cheap, send them back free of charge at the end of the semester (you'll be sick of looking at them by that time anyway), and you get to support your college at the same time! Sounds like a win-win to me.

The Bottom Line: Renting textbooks may not be for everybody, but if you're looking for an easy way to save money, get online, rent your books; tighten up those loose ends, keep the ball rollin'.

CLICK HERE to CHECK UM OUT!

Word.

2010-08-18T10:50:00.001-10:00

Whoo! The New School Semester Is Starting!

...Feeling Lost Already?

Well don't FREAK OUT!

As usual, UHMC has got your back.

So you're just out of high school, about to start your long journey down the path to higher education; or maybe you've been out of school for a while (life does have a way of sneaking up and grabbing us by the surf shorts when we least expect it), and you're finally getting back in to it. Either way, you're probably totally excited, but at the same time there's a good chance that a part of you is feeling like the fresh meat, about to be served up on a table of uncertainty in the butchery of unfamiliarity that is your new and school campus. Does that sound like you? Well, maybe not- but in so many words: you're nervous. Don't feel bad; it's only natural. However, the fine folks at UHMC are determined to shield you from the painful blade of that cleaver of confusion and help you hit the campus grounds running.

Here's How:

During the first two days of the coming semester (that's Monday, August 23rd and Tuesday, August 24th; come on slackers, mark your calendars) there will be special 'Ask Me' tables set up in both the Ka'aike and Ka Lama buildings. These tables will be manned by UHMC staff and experienced students alike whose sole purpose will be putting you in the know and getting you where you need to go... pronto! The fact that it rhymes doesn't detract from the validity of the statement; these desks are for YOU- the fresh new student ready to learn but not yet sure where to go or who to learn it from. The 'Ask Me' tables will be available from 8:45 to 5:45 (possibly even later).

The Bottom Line: Dude, the 'Ask Me' tables are there to help. Don't be shy; keep it real, get where you need to be.

2010-08-11T13:24:00.008-10:00

Maui Fever Art Exhibition:
Creativists at Work.

Who ever said Maui college students lacked creativity? Well, maybe nobody’s ever said that, but if they did, they obviously hadn’t met Jessica Garcia, Alex Kahalehili, Kaloe Kaaikala, and the rest of the students whose creative exploits were put on show in the UHMC library during the Maui Fever Art Exhibition between August 9^th and 12^th, 2010. I actually wrote this article from the creative security of the library itself, surrounded by the vivid colors, but more importantly (from my perspective, at least) the thought provoking images of the students’ artwork. So inspired was I by the obvious creative energy put into these pieces of work, that, after about an hour of just wandering around and gaping at my surroundings, doing my very best to absorb and comprehend it all while at the same time imagining what might have been going through the heads of the students as they produced their works, I was compelled to scoop up my laptop right then and there and start doing some expressing of my own.

One wall of the lower level of the library where the art exhibit had taken place was dedicated to the work of one Jessica Garcia, whose artistry, while including portraits of different individuals wearing expressions so warm and familiar that I had to assume they were of family members and close friends, also featured some more abstract interpretations. Several, in particular, caught my eye. One is of a young girl with short, dark hair and large, equally dark (or possibly darker) contemplating eyes. The girl is sitting with her knees to her chest, and her hands resting upon them, open palmed, holding what I can only describe as an explosion of her imagination. There is a rice pot, floating in a sea of its own contents, enveloped in a swirl of ethereal energy that spills out of her hands and then reforms into the visage of another girl’s face, expressionless, and with long dark hair, pointedly longer than the holder’s own. It’s as if the girl in the picture is sharing the contents of her life on a daily basis, taking what floats about in her head and usually takes no greater form than a wisp of a thought or a dialed-in muscle reflex and turning it into something tangible, visible, and, graciously, shareable. Her expression, to me, says, “Do you see what I see? It’s nothing remarkable. It’s nothing incomprehensible; it is simply what I see.”

Artwork above by: Jessica Garcia

On the opposite wall, the works of Alex Kahalehili and Kaloe Kaaikala shared a featuring position, which I found visually appropriate, since each of their artistic endeavors, while holding onto their own distinctive styles, seemed to share a common ‘out-of-this-universe-and/or-dimension’ sort of flavor. The two artists are obviously friends. Alex and Kaloe’s artistry, mostly created using a mixture of watercolors, ink, and the occasional dab of coffee or chocolate ice cream, featured ‘normal’ characters in otherworldly situations; as well as otherworldly characters in ‘normal’ situations; and everything in between.

Artwork below by: Alex Kahalehili, Kaloe Kaaikala

At first glance I passed off the colorful drawings of Alex (featured on the left side of the wall) as childish. Upon taking a closer look, however, I found myself biting my own thoughts; glad I hadn’t expressed them to anyone in my own judgmental haste. These works, I realized, were a reflection of a much deeper thought process than your average human being going through life on a path of coffee-food-work-food-sleep-rinse-repeat could hope to experience. Alex’s characters reminded me of an up-beat, vibrant visual interpretation of mind-expanding concepts.

Kaloe’s work (featured on the right) had a bit of a ‘darker’ feel; he used less color, and his impish characters, depicted in stark black and white, looked as if they may have existed on some level of consciousness that the sane mind dared on stray, lest it be caught in some sort of a (I would say ‘blood-sucking,’ but I still can’t quite put my finger on the creatures’ intentions) nightmare.

However, the most captivating pieces from these two artists, I would have to say, were collaborative. An untitled piece at the top and near the center of the wall featured both artists’ names, and it seemed to hold my attention and capture my imagination for a bit of a ride. I’m a sucker for visual depictions of abstract thought. The drawing/painting depicted one of Kaloe’s imp-demons clinging to the back of a three-eyed man wearing a bright green Eskimo coat (an Alex signature character), standing at the edge of a cliff, gazing out into a bleak and muddy universe. The imp-demon creature again has dubious intentions, but the man onto which it clung had a massive rainbow projecting from his center eye, shooting off of the cliff and out into the expanses of their strange universe. This, to me, represented the essence of all of the out-of-the-norm thought that makes artwork such as this possible, bursting from the brain of the creator in splendid, thankful release, entering the atmosphere in the form of multicolored, tangible creative energy.

And you said UHMC kids weren’t creative! … Wait, who said that again? Anyway, whoever it was, they aren’t saying it anymore.

Other artists featured at the Maui Fever Art Exhibition included Keani Kahuhu, Richie Greene, Chelsea Rabago, and Bailey Onaga.

Story by: Gavin Azevedo

August 10, 2010

2010-08-11T11:58:00.001-10:00

Welcome to the new Ho’oulu, your student information, inspiration and bored-self allocation publication! My name is Gavin Azevedo, and I’ll be your humble host with the most (or the least, depending on if you’re planning on grading any math tests in the near future), holding down the fort and bringing you the word until we can track down a few more opportunistic student writers to help spread it.

Now we admit- this won’t be the first time Ho’oulu has tried to make a comeback, but we’re putting together a fresh crew of kids here with heads bursting full of ideas, and we’re determined to get this puppy off the ground and running permanently. That said, we’re still new at this, and while we’re trying our best to speed through the learning process and turn this into a dependable news site, as well as an entertaining spot for a little recreational reading in between classes, we’ve still got some kinks that need working out, so just bear with us while we figure out what the heck we’re doing. We’re asking you to believe in us during this fragile time of rebuilding, because we, the new Ho’oulu staff, are making it a point to believe in you. … No lie!

What do I mean by that? Well, here’s the deal. The friendly folks at Ho’oulu want you to know that we’ve got your back. We are a reflection of the views and interests of our readers. I’d love to tell you exactly what we’re going to be featuring on our website on a weekly (or, dare I say, daily??) basis right this very moment, but unfortunately I can’t do that because frankly, you haven’t told us what you want to see yet! It’s our job to fill this website up to the brim with relevant news, mixed with a healthy dose of entertainment, and we’ve got our brains storming away on how to do that, but at the same time we’re asking you- the everyday students and hopefully future Ho’oulu followers- to keep us real by continuing to tell us what you expect to see when you hit that link that takes you to our homepage. You want a column about the surf on Maui? How about getting the inside scoop on which teacher you should shoot for when picking out your classes? Tell us what you want to see, and we’ll do our very best to make it happen.

Just to let you know that we really mean it, here’s our e-mail: Hooulu@gmail.com. I check the inbox personally every day, so any suggestions you’ve got for the e-paper, or if you just want to blow me up because you think I write like a prat, shoot us an email. I’ll probably even respond.

Ho’oulu: Yeah, it’s that personal.

2010-08-10T10:19:00.000-10:00

Need A Computer?

Good thing you go to UHMC!

Thanks to a $1.5 million donation from a generous donor who preferred to remain in the shadows (big shout-out to you, Mystery Man!), any UH Maui College student who purchases a laptop or netbook after the date of July 1, 2010 (ie: any of us, right now) is automatically eligible to get a pre-determined about of dollars put right back in their pocket. Of course, there is a catch -- but it’s a good catch. In order to receive your money, you have to graduate. That’s right -- graduate. Weren’t planning on it? Well, maybe a couple hundred bucks waving in front of your face will be the carrot on the end of the stick that sets you back on the graduating track.

So check this out. While the deal lasts, if you buy a laptop or netbook, and then continue on to get your one year Certificate of Achievement on Maui, UHMC is gonna reward you by fattening up your wallet with a cool $200. If you’re anything like me, that’s gonna be about $197 more than was already in there, and that’s before grabbing a $1.25 coffee in the Pa’ina building to wake you up before class. Sounds good right? Now get this. If you go on to get an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree here on Maui, your fine educators are prepared to hook you up with a full $400, just for getting your education and doing it in a technologically sound way! Making money while setting yourself up to make more money; what a concept!

The whole thing is that teachers want to start teaching their classes more efficiently and effectively by taking advantage of all the technology that is circulating around in this day and age. Imagine. Technology isn’t just for hoarding music and checking out things you probably shouldn’t be checking out anymore! Your parents are on Facebook, and teachers want to give you your class notes without you ever having to pick up a pencil. The world is progressing, and it looks like it’s not such a bad thing after all.

Here’s how you go about making it happen: first you have to buy a portable computer (this can be any kind of computer you want! Make it a Mac, make it a Dell, HP -- whatever makes you happy -- as long as it’s got at least the basic software capabilities to help you get some work done) and immediately you make sure to save the receipt. If you don’t save the receipt, you can’t get your cash, so it’s important! If you buy your computer online, you’ll get a digital receipt. What you have to do is print out the receipt and get it verified at the Ka Lama Computer Lab, so they know you’re the real deal. If you buy your computer in person at the store, just take your receipt to the Ka Lama Computer Lab and do the same thing. After that the school recommends that you scan the verified receipt and store it in your “My Workspace” Resources folder on Laulima, so you’ll definitely have it at the end of the year when you need to show it to them. If you need help doing any of this (like I probably would), just go down to the Ka Lama Computer Lab Rm. 203 and tell them what you’re trying to do. They’ll hook you up.

Bringing Journalism to Your Face

2009-01-14T21:18:00.010-10:00

This isn't the old Ho'oulu. It is the reborn, rethought and reinvented online incarnation of Maui Community College's student newspaper. It's an outlet for student opinions, ideas and news, all lead-free and completely paperless. Additionally, you'll now have a chance to add your comments to posted stories, as well as checkout upcoming events, announcements, jobs and internship opportunities. And the best thing is there are no printed issues- we'll be adding content as soon as it becomes available.

Ho'oulu is meant to be a forum for student journalism and if you're a student, we invite you to submit your content to the Webmaster. We will check for grammar, appropriateness and spelling, but otherwise your ideas will be posted in their original form. We only ask that your writing be fair, entertaining and interesting.

The new Ho'oulu: The MCC Student Voice.