| Tsai-ko Autobiography: UHfan808 |     |
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| Name: (withheld) Bonafide
Tsai-ko High School: McKinley Tsai-ko Lunch Size: N/A Tsai-ko caricature: first row, 4th from left Other: |
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From the Warrior Beat blog July 2, 2008:
ST's Intro:
Some blogs are fortunate to have one charismatic and energetic poster. We’re blessed to have “the twins.” A few weeks ago, we printed the bio of Midor7. Now meet her technological sister. Who knew the woman who entertained us with “Funky Cold Medina” at K-Calls was a finalist in the Brown Bags to Stardom competition? Meet UHFan808:
n the wee hours one September morning, I was born at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. My dad, a civilian machinist, worked the night shift fixing submarines at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. My mother, a homemaker and mother of three, loved to sew, garden, bake, and cook.
Both parents were “known” for their creative home projects. My mother grew beds of brilliantly colored flowers, the brighter the better. Everything in the yard had a purpose, whether for food or for decoration. Even the kitchen waste had its own composting hole in the garden. They were interesting people whose projects were so different that each was a featured in an article. My mother’s strawberry guava hedge doubled as an edible fence and my father’s life hobby was to build our house from metal, concrete, and glass.
Their other “project” was raising me.
When I turned three, my parents took me to swimming classes at the Richard Street YWCA. I was told I kicked and screamed bloody murder when introduced to the male teachers but finally calmed down when I met the nice woman teacher named Wendy. She was my teacher every Saturday until about fourth grade. Today — ahem, ahem — “Breaststroke” is still my favorite stroke.
For a short period, I hung out with a neighborhood gang of four girls and four boys. Sometimes we made dirt coffee, played house, or ran just around the neighborhood. We played chase-master, hide and go seek, sham battle, basketball, jacks, Chinese jump rope, jump rope, paddle tennis, and patty cakes, but most times we were climbing trees, riding our bikes, walking the streambed over rocks and boulders, fishing with scoop nets, and raising fish in tanks. Swordtails were my favorite but mom got those from the store. At the stream we would catch Indian tail guppies, baby Tilapia, jumping Opai, and dirt-brown and bright-red baby crayfish. I never fell into the stream except for the time we found a wooden box and it sunk in the middle of the stream.
I still remember playing on the grass fronting our house singing along to songs playing on the radio sometimes making up my own words while mother hung the laundry. Later they sent me to learn to sing and play the piano. I also learned to play the recorder and kazoo. Later on I took lessons from an instructor who earned his degree at Julliard.
On Sundays, we watched The Lawrence Welk variety show. It was a comedy, dance, skits, singing, and talk show. Bobby and Suzie were my favorite dance couple. My mom was a talented seamstress and I wanted to sew just like her. I always vowed to make the prettiest dress on the show using her sewing scraps.
When I was five, my dad took me to the elementary school after hours and we stopped to watch some boys practicing karate. I thought they were having fun so I asked to join them. By 12, I earned my second Dan (sp?) red belt. My favorite things were to avoid being tripped while sparring and “throwing” the opponent to the ground.
I also attended classes in Tahitian dance, ukulele, sewing, Chinese language, drawing & painting, arts & crafts, clay work, ballet, gymnastics, and cooking.
In my elementary and intermediate school years, we’d take family trips to the Rose Bowl to watch UCLA vs. USC football games. I remember going to watch the floats in the Rose Bowl Parade and sitting on the concrete stadium seats. Once we stopped to watch a Santa Anita race and I took a picture with the winning horse. The trips were similar every year, a combination of Las Vegas or Reno, and Chinatown L.A. No matter what, it always included a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim.
Attended Hokulani Elementary, Washington Intermediate, McKinley High School, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Hokulani Elementary School was like a private school with UH professor’s children going there. In the fifth grade, we were assigned an instrument. I wanted to play the flute but couldn’t make a sound so I got the Clarinet instead. From then on I went on many band trips mostly to the neighbor islands. Sometimes the boys would mix their leftover food with their milk and the resulting mixture would make me gag.
Somewhere going through intermediate school, I learned to speak Pidgin English. Parents said I was becoming too much of a tomboy and sent me to John Robert Powers modeling school. I was supposed to learn how to act like a girl. Continued with band and participated in science fairs. My favorite English teacher was Mrs. Tamanaha. Boy, she was the toughest and strictest and nicest teacher I ever had.
My parents and brother graduated from McKinley High and I wanted to continue the tradition. Continued with band and science fairs. Learned to speak Japanese from band friends. One year the band took a trip to Japan and China. As ambassadors from Hawaii, we performed Polynesian dances. I did the hula while wearing a muu muu and the Maori poi balls performance dressed in a sleeveless blouse and grass skirt. Our movements and garments were unusual and generated snickers and laughter from the audience. For the first time I was now in a band that played during football games. In my senior year, we started a marching band and a group of us gave up our instruments and marched as flag girls. Another group of friends and I entered the Brown Bags to Stardom talent competition. We won and entered the state competition. We took second place overall and first place in the music competition.
The yearly trips I had with my family convinced me that I would not appreciate going away for college. I loved it in Hawaii too much and could never consider being away from home. You can take the girl out of the islands but you can’t take the islands out of the girl. Guess I’m just an Island Girl. So I attended UH, played the clarinet during concert band, volleyball, and basketball games and marched with the band as a flag girl. Was fortunate to have attended all the football games and travel a few times to the Mainland to cheer for the basketball team. What’s funny is I would pay attention more to my friends than to the games.
Two weeks out of college, I got my first full time job in a lab analyzing wastewater. In elementary school, you would never imagine I’d get a job working anywhere near that kind of stench. Now I found it very interesting and rewarding!
Throughout my life I was always exposed to football. That changed in high school when I became more interested in watching men’s and women’s volleyball and baseball. Shortly thereafter, baseball became my favorite sport to watch. I enjoyed the Todd Takayoshi, John Matias, Randy Oyama and Markus Owens years. After school I began to watch football again. I loved it but didn’t know it. It took a few years of not watching or going to any games that I suddenly discovered I could not live another season without it. Since 2006, I’ve either gone to every game or watched the away games on the telly.
It was during last year’s UH football 2007 season that I discovered the Warrior Beat Blog. After the LaTech game, I began hearing news about their fans complaining about the Haka. I searched the internet and found the LaTech blog site. It was true! They just did not understand it was not meant to be a violent representation. Most of them were reasonable but were always extremely defensive at first.
Soon I discovered Tombo Ahi’s site. It was chock full of condensed and concise information about my beloved Warrior football team. I decided to post on his blog about the LaTech bloggers. It was my first time posting. He warmly welcomed me and congratulated for stepping over the lurker line. If I wanted to interact with other Warrior fans, he suggested I visit Stephen Tsai’s Warrior Beat Blog.
I checked it out. For a while, I lurked. Okay, it was only a short while. I could not resist their warmth and camaraderie. They told jokes and were very serious about the Warrior football team stories, information, and statistics. The bloggers had funny names too like at the other sites. The setup of the blog was unlike the others, it was one thread per day rather than hundreds of threads (topics) with posts attached to each. The more I lurked, the more I discovered I really liked the community and I began to blog.
Another game was coming up. It was the NMSU game. Kazz and BG put out an open invitation to all bloggers. Excited to attend, I sent an RSVP. At the Tsaiko-gate, some of the first Tsaikos I met were homey, al, and Koakane. They were so nice. Then I introduced myself to Wreck. Wreck says, “UHfan808. You’re a girl? I thought you were a guy!!! Wait till I tell Bulla!” Man, I blog like a guy?!? Well, my parents once tried to make me a girl. Guess I can’t have everything in life.
Now it dawns on me that the void in my life has always been football. Thanks for always knowing mom and dad! And while I will always miss that neighborhood gang, I think I’ve found a bigger one — Meet the Tsai-kos!
Thank yous, hugs, and kisses to everyone far and wide for your loving support and shared interest in UH sports. I consider you all a part of my family. Tsaikos will always be brothers and sisters to me for the rest of my life!
Hi there, I’m the UHfan that lives in 808. See you around and Aloha! UHfan808 = )