"We have little bumper stickers to Live Aloha, but how do we put it into action?" said Bishaw, head of Bishaw's Martial Arts Academy in Kailua.

Putting aloha into action is a test, literally, for Bishaw; he's one of 30 people worldwide who will be taking part in the "Ultimate Black Belt Test," a yearlong project that requires participants to do 1,000 acts of kindness themselves, and solicit another 100,000 more from their community.

Those are good-karma calculations.

"For every one act of kindness, you're going to get 10 back to you," the Kailua man said.

"Can you imagine if everybody was processing their thinking to be kind?" he mused. "In a perfect world, that's what we want."

Ultimately, the aim of the test is to create enough good will to make Sept. 11 a day of acts of kindness, he said, as well as promote the martial arts in a positive way.

Bishaw and his team of 100 black belts and 200 students have been giving out and then gathering up cards that list acts of kindness, which will be presented at the final test in Santa Clara, Calif., on May 15. He's got medical offices, a dive shop and school classes like Pattison's already participating and is constantly seeking more.

And the acts are adding up.

Take Bryan Amona, a 50-year-old black belt, for example. His card lists: Baby-sat granddaughter. Loaned out tools to friend. Gave surfing courtesy. Helped with dinner.

Bishaw's own 1,000 acts include small things, too, from giving out a polite greeting to practicing traffic courtesy. And there's also the time he bought lunch for a stranger at a Chinese restaurant. He plunked down a $20 on the counter and said lunch for the next person who walked through the door was on him ... just because.

It's a big idea, but "somebody has to start somewhere," Bishaw said.