Little Lili and the Lava Flow

Right after the big accident people like my grandpa had to work hard to find enough food, water, and medicine. It was tough, but they made it. By working together people survived by getting the generators working again, fixing some of the machines, and making guns to protect themselves. But machines breakdown and guns need new parts. At first it was easy to find parts or find things to recycle to fix the generators, but eventually all the good parts got used. Even the Kanaka were running short on batteries. It was then that people started digging for metals and minerals to make parts and fix things. One of the best places to look was also one of the most dangerous, the active lava flows. This is the story of one of the best mineral collectors ever, a Kanka boy named Little Lili. It shows that everyone can contribute, and that sometimes the things you think are bad about yourself can actually be really good.

Little Lili grew up with his mom in a village near Black Rock Beach. Lili’s dad was killed by a green lady before he was born, and his mom worried all the time because he was always sick. They didn’t have much because the medicine he needed was expensive. Lili felt bad because his mom worked so hard, and almost everything she made, traded, or found went to take care of him but she always smiled and said, “there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my little Lili!”

When he got older he decided it was time to go out and pull his own weight, so his mom wouldn’t have to struggle. But Lili was barely bigger than a child, and Kanaka work is hard. First he tried fishing but he could barely lift the nets. It took all of his strength just to push them out of the boat. When a big wave came Lili fell in the water and got tangled. The fishermen laughed and brought him home caught up in the net. As his mom cut him out, he apologized, but his mom just said, “there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my little Lili!”

Next he tried hunting, but he was too little for that too. The bow was bigger than he was, and he could only throw a spear a few feet. When he was checking one of the pit traps he fell in and was too short to reach the safety rope. The other hunters laughed, and left him there. It was hours before his mom showed up. He said he was sorry that she had to walk all the way out to help him but she just said, “there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my little Lili!”

When he walked to the Kapu Kuialua Dojo, and told them that he wanted to be one of the elite Koa warriors they just laughed. But one of the masters was kind, and offered him a job cleaning up around The Mission. It barely paid enough for dried fish and clean water, but it was a start. It was there, surrounded by the old books, and listening to the old stories, that Lili came up with a plan that would change his life.

Lili learned that the Earth produces minerals just like plants produce fruit. One of the best places to find metal and mineral deposits was where the ground is the newest, the lava fields. But there was a reason not many ventured out near the active flows. Not only did you have to worry about the heat, but it was filled with fissures, and hills with thin crusts leading into deep lava tubes. It was dangerous but it was filled with nickel, zinc, copper, and other metals that were very valuable.

While his size kept him from being a good hunter or fisherman, it was perfect for getting around near the flow. He was light enough not to fall through the thin crust around the magma bubbles, and small enough to slip into fissures and climb into tubes where nobody else could reach. Before long he was one of the most successful mineral hunters on the island. What he couldn’t trade to the Kanaka, he would sell to the people of Pu’u, and he became very wealthy.

Months later, his mother received a message that Lili needed her. Figuring that he was in trouble again, she hurried to The Mission. When she arrived she was met by finely dressed Kanaka who took her to a large house. It was beautiful, with intricate wood carvings, roasting pits filled with boar, and bowls of fresh fruit. As she looked around Lili came up beside her. She asked who could afford such a lavish house. Lili just smiled and said, “We can.” She could hardly believe her eyes, or her ears, when he explained what he was doing. Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude for her son, but said she could not allow him to keep doing something so dangerous for her. Before she could protest anymore Lili hugged her tight and said, “there’s nothing your little Lili wouldn’t do for you.”

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

Emergency Moving Service a Hit With the Public and Homeowners Alike

There’s no doubt that some of the most gorgeous properties on the big island are in the Puna, Kua, and Kona districts. The near perfect weather, breathtaking views, and surprisingly affordable home prices may make the areas seem like a dream come true for those wanting to own a bit of Hawaii’s beauty. However, they are not without one big danger. Much of the area is located within lava zones, making the prospect of losing not only your home and possessions, but your life as well, a real possibility. Worse still, is the fact that during an active lava flow, it is up to most homeowners to gather their things, and make their escape on their own. But a new high-risk, emergency moving service is helping property owners facing a complete loss a chance to save some of their most beloved items.

Randy Wilcox, star of the hit reality show Veil Sale, where he and a partner purchase abandoned freight and forgotten luggage at Veilcorp warehouse auctions, has come up with an emergency moving business, specializing in servicing those in the path of lava. “I don’t like to do anything unless it stimulates me. I would never work for a traditional moving service, with all the packing and scheduling, but ‘Go With Dah Flow’ is different. It’s the first moving service of its kind, and the best hope for people facing the prospect of watching everything they worked for, disappear underneath encroaching magma.”

While, It is possible to buy insurance in an area deemed a lava zone by The United States Geological Survey (USGS), the policies are hard to find, expensive, and extremely limited. Before Go With Dah Flow, a homeowners best bet was to keep a close eye on USGS predictions, have an emergency travel bag, and accept that some of their possessions would be claimed by magma. While it’s not a common occurrence, many facing the prospect of dealing with a lava flow swear by the service.

37-year-old Puna resident Kai Iosua says Go With Dah Flow saved almost all of her most prized possessions, even if they weren’t exactly careful with her house.

“Less than 90 minutes after I called Go With Dah Flow for help, I heard a loud buzzing over the house. I was scrambling to pack up some old pictures, and letters from my grandfather, and wondered if the power lines were coming down. Just then, a woman in work overalls crashed through my kitchen window, rolled over the table, and said, ‘Give me a list of your top ten favorite pieces of furniture and where they are.’

Before I had time to process what was going on, the front door was kicked in, and a man was asking me about any pets or collectables. More people came in, and they started to cut a hole in my roof. I saw that the buzzing noise above the house was one of those construction drones with a cargo net. When I settled down, and could answer their questions, I was amazed at how efficient they were. While my house took quite a beating, they had everything packed up in no time. The whole thing took less than an hour. In the end, the lava stopped well-short of the house, and now I have quite a repair bill, but Go With Dah Flow did everything they promised. Next time I won’t be so quick to pull the lava alarm.”

Wilcox says that it’s the stories of happy customers like Iosua’s that makes the work so much fun. “I was part of a community patrol group looking for embers and burning ash in Lahaina during the Lanai wildfires earlier this year. I learned a lot with those people, but I couldn’t help but think that we should be doing more for the people losing their homes. One of the group started talking to me about these lava zones on the big island, and how hard it was for those people in the path of an active flow. We had a meeting, worked out some financing, and a bunch of us started Go With Dah Flow. It’s been one of the best decisions of my life. My views on YouTube and Glimpsea channels have never been higher.

We have a heavy duty construction drone, and a group of trucks with solid tires, aluminum nitride ceramic floor pans, and tungsten drive trains. Of course, none of that would save a truck, or the people inside, should it get stuck in an active lava flow, but it makes some of the team feel better. While some have called our methods careless or gratuitously destructive, I like to think of them as efficient.

Look, when someone calls us it’s because their home is about to be buried in molten rock. It’s already lost. Our only concern is to get important belongings out as fast as we can. If that means breaking some doors, knocking down a wall or two, or removing sections of the roof, well that’s what needs to be done. Besides, if we finish early it gives us a chance to see how close we can get to the flow before the truck’s tires start to melt. Some of the team has a different definition of “acceptable risk” than our insurance company.”

Wilcox says that if all goes well with Go With Dah Flow, he’d like to expand into other areas of the emergency moving business including floods, industrial accidents, and hurricanes. “I just wish we had more severe earthquakes on the islands, and better prediction models. I can only imagine how many views I’d get if I could jump one of the moving vans over a freshly opened chasm.”

DEV

Flowing Lava and Foot Guns

With our plan to have a “Friends and Family” release ready in just over a week, everyone has been pushing hard to work out the remaining kinks and root out any existing bugs. Our modular house/ruin system is done and we’ll be replacing the old sort-of-damaged buildings, with much more detailed and ominous looking versions over the course of the week. There’s even flowing lava now! As you can see, we still need to add some steam/heat effects and work on better interaction with the surrounding rocks, but the magma is moving.

Click here to display content from YouTube.
Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy.

We talked through some of the game systems and made some decisions about mechanics. For instance, you can now fill your canteen from a puddle in the game, but there’s a chance that the dirty water might make you sick. The same goes for eating raw meat. Speaking of raw meat, we outlined some parameters around cooking. It’s bad news for slow cooker fans and people who want to “Set it and forget it,” we decided it will be possible to burn food if you’re not attentive. We also came to the conclusion that players making a clean kill shot on wildlife would get a bigger hunting bonus than someone running through the jungle wounding anything that moves.

A few crafting/recycling bugs were worked through so that we could avoid infinite item loops. Some AI work was done after it was discovered that enemies didn’t seem to care who was shooting them, and would go after anyone in view, no matter how many rounds were coming from the other direction. We’ve added a lot of refinements to the areas around the communication tower and our game tutorial area as well. As you can see below, the tutorial area is looking impressive.
Responsive image
On the website side of things, we did a lot of debugging since the last update. We added some sticky navigation in a few places to make things easier, and worked on some House improvements. In the near future, Houses will have new choices for banners and members can pick from a variety of background options. We added a number of characters from the story as players, so don’t be surprised if you eventually run into a few while exploring post-fracture Lahaina. We’ve added a Sprints tab under the development section to be as transparent as possible about what we’re working on, what’s already done, and the issues or features we’re tackling next.

Finally, we addressed a number of game play bugs. Players can feel confident in knowing that they will no longer sink into the ground when going prone. It’s virtually impossible to get stuck on a rock sticking slightly out of the ground now, and the days of getting stranded in the middle of a ladder are gone. Like last week, we thought we’d include a couple of screenshots of our best bugs. First we have a look at what happens when inventory mesh and automatic camera placement collides. We assume that this guy’s head is in his hat somewhere.
Responsive image
Also, for a short period of time, if you were in first person mode and pulled out your M1911, the pistol would be replaced with your feet. Luckily, your foot gun was still capable of filling something full of lead, but it wasn’t the best look.
Responsive image
That’s it for now. We’ll have some more updates and improvements for you soon.