Two teens plan online
four-night 'Insomniathon'
for charity fund-raising

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

IT'S the middle of the night -- do you know where your kids are? All the Lams and Leveys have to do is go online to check on the whereabouts of Eric Lam and Danny Levey. The two Punahou sophomores are going to try to stay awake for 100 hours starting tomorrow, to raise money for Ronald McDonald House.

Here's the deal: The whole "Insomniathon" will be broadcast live over the Internet at http://start.at/insomnia. Tune in and harass them online. They're asking for it. Got to keep their eyes open somehow.

"We got the idea from a friend on the mainland who did the same thing. Seemed cool. A fun way to start the summer," said Levey. "We got a digital camera that will feed continuous shots into the Web site.

The friend, who doesn't drink or do drugs, hosted a "hallucinathon" to experiment with sleep deprivation as the path to hallucinations.

Lam and Levey have been busy this week with finals, and are taking their SATIIs tomorrow morning. Insomniathon doesn't technically start until 6 p.m., after they've already been awake all day.

"No problem," said Levey. "The first 48 hours are the hardest. We'll avoid caffeine as much as possible. We'll eat complex carbohydrates and sugars, like runners do."

They've planned out the first couple of days, including cruising at Kahala Mall, watching Adam Sandler movies and chatting online. The second day's outline says, "brush our teeth, take cold-water bath, go to mall early and walk around and hopefully experience our first hallucination, check out chicks, of course."

Sounds like a solid plan.

"Mainly, we'll just keep each other company," said Lam.

By the third and fourth day they figure they'll be in the groove, but not ambulatory. "We might get in trouble if we move around," said Levey.

They'll stay home and watch movies and play video games and do more online chatting. "Lots of video games," said Lam. "And we'll talk to a lot of our classmates."

Levey said his parents' only request was that he avoid making too much noise at night.

And there has been an element of education involved in organizing this "event," down to the creation of "Can They Do It?" bumper stickers.

Although they're not sleeping any more than they usually do, Lam was pleased to report he'd sacked out for 10 hours Tuesday night. "Usually, it's only seven or eight hours," said Lam. "When it's all over, I suppose we'll sleep for a couple of days."

Before that happens, pledge your donation via email at the web site. They've already raised more than $100. "Total cool," said Levey.

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