Utah next month will become the first state to institute a mandatory four-day work week for most state employees, following the example of other local governments across the nation that are trying to scale back energy costs:

Gov. Jon Huntsman, a first-term Republican, says he’s making the change to reduce the state’s carbon footprint, increase energy efficiency, improve customer service and provide workers more flexibility.
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The change will apply to about 17,000 employees, roughly 80% of the state workforce, Huntsman says. Public universities, the state court system, prisons and other critical services will be exempt. Residents still will have sufficient access to state offices, many staying open from 7 a.m.- 6 p.m., and more than 800 state services are available online, he says.

The story doesn’t say how many hours employees would have to work on each of those four days to make up for the lost fifth day, but another USA Today story says employees in other places that have switched to four-day weeks generally work four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days. For the most part, the changes are being driven by rising gas prices — employees have requested shorter workweeks to cut back on driving costs.

Utah’s goal is to cut back energy use by 20 percent by 2015.

Hawaii’s goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels by 2020. It will be interesting to see if any work week changes will be considered here, where the average price of gas today is $4.34, compared to Utah, where the average price is $4.10 today. I’m guessing that the average commute for someone in Hawaii compared to someone in Utah may be shorter, but seeing how traffic is becoming increasingly congested here, well, I’m not sure.

Our ears perked up over at the Advertiser at reports of some rural schools on the mainland switching to four-day school weeks because of high energy costs, both for the school and students, who may have to commute from far away. After a few calls, however, I couldn’t find any schools here, including the colleges and universities, that were considering switching to a four-day school week.

Hawaii’s seven community colleges statewide “are in geographic regions that are supposedly in people’s neighborhoods,” Susan Lee, marketing director for the UH community college system, told me.

The community college system also offers education through outreach centers or extension programs in rural or less-served areas, Lee said. “I think we just try to reach out to the students in that sense,” she added.

Just something to think about as many of us enjoy this four-day week. I guess we’ll see what happens when gas hits $5 a gallon …

I’m a few days late in welcoming Advertiser news intern and newest blogger Kelli Miura to the exploding community called Advertiser Blogland. Welcome, Kelli!

Her blog, Campus Life 101, is off to a great start with a post about summer school. I’m sure the topics she chooses will be something that we Quarterlifers can relate to … even if it’s just reliving the good ol’ college days.

So, be sure to check out Campus Life 101. Ah, nostalgia!

I stopped by Subway to pick up a sandwich around 2:30 p.m. yesterday and ordered a 6-inch Chicken Bacon Ranch. They added cheese, toasted it at my request, neatly arranged the plastic-wrapped chicken pieces on the bread, then asked if I wanted mayo on it. I said “no.”

The woman preparing the sandwich proceeds to grab the mayo container and squirt it all over the chicken pieces. Then, she reaches for the ranch dressing. It was at that point that I think she realized her error. So, to fix it, she takes a knife and starts scraping off the biggest dollops of mayo, the ones that haven’t already oozed their way in between the chicken chunks. She then adds the ranch dressing and vegetables and wraps the sandwich, as I stare through the plastic food guard.

I think maybe if the sandwich hadn’t already been toasted, they might have started the process all over again. But it was too late. The sandwich was already toasted; the American cheese and chicken already added. There was no turning back.

Others would have demanded another sandwich. But me, I paid my $9.00 for the meal, took the ranch-and-mayo covered sandwich and dealt with it.

Having worked as a waitress in food establishments in Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York City, I’ve seen a lot. There was the ostensibly nice gentleman who inquired, if my mother was ethnically Chinese and I was from Hawaii, how the heck was my English so good? There was the table of 12 from Europe who ran up a $300+ bill at a French restaurant I worked at in Brooklyn, spilled salad and chocolate ice cream all over the floor, and left $0 for a tip. And don’t even get me started on my experiences working as a manager at my college dining hall.

But the worst in my opinion are the picky eaters — the ones who quibble over the shades of pink between medium and medium rare, or who send back a sandwich with tomatoes instead of just removing the offending vegetables with a fork.

I always talk to one of my best friends, a veteran of Zippy’s, about how working in food service builds character. We’ve thought of writing a guide book for diners called something like “How Not to Be a Food Snob” — although, admittedly, that was one of the, um, TAMER titles we tossed out in discussions.

Tip #36: Always leave a cash tip. It’s easier for wait staff, and in many places eliminates them having to rely on the cashier to open the register to exchange credit card tips for cash. At the restaurant I worked at in Brooklyn, the manager, who was the only one who could tip out wait staff from the register, suddenly underwent an operation and didn’t return to work until after I had quit — cheating me out of about $100 in credit card tips.

Probably because of my experience working on the other side, as a customer I try to refrain from sending back food unless (a) it’s the wrong order, (b) it looks like it might make me deathly ill, or (c) it’s not quite dead … or has something not quite dead crawling in it.

I do get that sometimes you should be demanding about your food. Especially if you’re paying a lot at a fancy restaurant for a meal. But there are ways to request good food and good service without being mean about it. Remember Tip #45 — Food service is a stressful and often thankless job that doesn’t pay well, and there’s often more to the person who’s serving your hamburger than just their funny outfit or how skillfully they refill your drink.

And if you can’t remember Tip #11 (Be Nice), then you just gotta remember Tip #1 — Don’t Mess with the Person Who Handles Your Food.

I did a story and posted on this blog in April about Kevin Nguyen, 17, who is suffering from a rare genetic disease that claimed the lives of his two brothers.

Because of his illness, Kevin can’t live the life of a normal 17-year-old, and spends much of his time playing video games in his Kalihi home and dreaming about becoming a video game designer.

After the story ran, Aloha Island, a local video game developer, got in touch with Kevin’s family and arranged for him to visit their small studio on University Avenue, which he did last week.

(Above: Kevin poses with a character from a game, “Aloha Island,” that is still being developed.)

“He seemed equally interested in everything, and not just art or programming,” Aloha Island producer Ty Robinson, who took the photos, said in an email. “Usually kids gravitate quickly to something, but it seemed he had a very broad view of all the elements that go in a game, which I thought for his age was pretty amazing.”

Robinson also showed Kevin a tool he could use to make his own games, called “Scratch,” and how 3D characters are created in movies and games with a software package called MAYA.

“Although I just met him, I could tell right away he is a fighter, and really knows his stuff about games,” Robinson said. “He made a big impression on all of us, and we are truly grateful for the opportunity.”

(Above: Kevin with lead artist Jason Nobriga, who presented Kevin with an autographed concept sketch.)

Kevin graduated in a special ceremony from McKinley High School in April. The principal of McKinley, as well as Kevin’s elementary and middle school teachers, his family and many friends, attended.

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Read about the difficulties of finding a bone marrow match for Vietnamese patients in this story about the Nguyen family in NHA Magazine from 2007.

For more information about bone marrow donation and the National Marrow Donor Program Registry, visit their website.

I caught an HPU advertisement on the radio this evening in which one presumably high school-age guy is talking to a friend, who is already in college.

“What are you doing this summer?” College-Age Guy asks High School Guy.

“I’m going to be at HPU, with you,” High School Guy replies. “I really want to get a head start on college classes.”

Good for High School Guy. He’s probably the ambitious type; maybe he’s getting a jump start on his education so he can finish in two or three years and go on to get a J.D. or a M.D. (In which case, he’ll become either Very Eligible Lawyer Guy or Very Eligible Doctor Guy.)

I assumed that the ad was a message to those about to enter college that taking summer school can be a good way to finish college in less than four years. And indeed, with the rising cost of education, more and more students are opting for that route.

Others, like this questioner, might do it because graduating earlier from college would mean graduating earlier from law school, a master’s program or medical school. A female friend, whom I had lunch with last week and is currently at JABSOM, said she purposely chose to go right into med school after college rather than taking a year off because of concerns about how soon she could do other things — like start a family — after earning her M.D. Although she did her undergrad in four years, I imagine there are many other med students out there who are willing to blitz through their college years for an earlier graduation from med school.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, there are those who take five, seven, even 10 years to go through what would normally be a four-year undergrad program. These career students belong to the Facebook group called “Graduating College in 4 Years is Like Leaving the Party at 9 p.m” (UHM Chapter). For many, reasons beyond their control dictate this extended undergrad experience — money, having to split work time and class time, being able to get into the right classes to finish your degree.

Or maybe, as freshmen, they want to major in Economics, then as sophomores, they want to major in Hawaiian Studies or Old English Poetry; then, they graduate with a a double major in Greek Philosophy and Communications, and a minor in Food and Restaurant Management.

But for others, maybe it even comes down to this: College is fun!

I grad from college in four years, and even that felt short. So, I guess it’s hard for me to understand why, in the absence of things like real money or time concerns, students would want to finish college early.

My dad often tells me that he can’t understand why college students wildly celebrate graduation, when they will leave the best years of their lives behind. I’m not sure if I’d call my college years the best of my life, but considering they were filled with meeting tons of great people my age, making lasting friendships, never waking up before 9 a.m., taking fascinating classes with incredible professors, having a party option every weekend, exploring New York and Boston and actually having spring, summer and Christmas vacations … yes, I’d say college was pretty darn awesome.

But maybe that’s just me. I wouldn’t want to stay out ’till 4 a.m., but I’d hate to leave a party when it’s just getting started.