Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
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September 12th, 2011 · Events, Photography, Pop Culture, Television

Thousands of fans of the CBS reboot of “Hawaii Five-0” packed Waikiki Beach on Saturday night to enjoy an advance screening of the season two premiere episode.

I was one of the few bloggers fortunate to be invited to join the international press on the red carpet, and I struggled to juggle several gadgets to document the event. As the stars filed by, I had an audio recorder, a three-year-old Panasonic digital camera, and my iPhone 4, which I tried to use for both photos and video. Suffice it to say, across all that technology, I collected a crazy mix of digital media… most of it pretty rough.

Still, between my “old fashioned” camera and my iPhone, I was happy with most of the pictures I was able to capture between quick chats with the cast. You can browse through the photos above, or click through to see the gallery on Flickr.

Though technically there as press, I couldn’t resist delivering a couple of special Kukui High School polo shirts to KHS grads Daniel Dae Kim and Alex O’Loughlin. Kim was especially gracious, remembering my family and I from our years of “LOST” stalking. I was also stoked to talk with Terry O’Quinn, who mused about what other “LOST” alums he’d like to see guest star on “Five-0″ (Michael Emerson highest on the list).

As for the episode? If you missed the beach premiere, you’ll have to wait until its broadcast next Monday, Sept. 18. I think it was a great start to the show’s second season, demonstrating a willingness to take chances, get a little darker and edgier, but still retain its great sense of humor and fun.

I was a little disappointed with how the writers decided to deal with the daring corner that the characters were painted into at the end of last season. But there were still more than a couple great twists to keep fans interested. O’Quinn’s guest turn is so strong, I have to believe CBS is already working on promoting him to a series regular. And Masi Oka, who was cute but a little shaky in season one, really steps up and could quickly become a fan favorite.

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September 6th, 2011 · Books

Maggie Goes On A DietA children’s book author on Maui has set off a firestorm of controversy with a forthcoming title about a 14-year-old girl who finds her way to social acceptance through weight loss.

“Maggie Goes On A Diet” was penned by Paul Michael Kramer, who moved to Hawaii from New York about fifteen years ago. The synopsis for his illustrated, rhyming tale reads:

“This book is about a 14 year old girl who goes on a diet and is transformed from being extremely overweight and insecure to a normal sized girl who becomes the school soccer star. Through time, exercise and hard work, Maggie becomes more and more confident and develops a positive self image.”

To be sure, we should all be telling our kids to eat healthy and exercise, and First Lady Michelle Obama is spearheading a national, federal initiative to combat childhood obesity. But something about Kramer’s approach is rubbing plenty of people the wrong way.

Here’s some of the news coverage:

In addition to dozens of critical comments on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, there’s a “Boycott ‘Maggie Goes on a Diet’” page on Facebook, and a #savemaggie hashtag on Twitter.

Kramer’s bio on the Aloha Publishing site reads: “After being in Hawaii for almost nine years, Mr. Kramer’s true passion in life dawned. That passion was and is writing children’s books that deal with the issues that kids face today.”

Suffice it to say, the issue he’s tackled with “Maggie Goes On A Diet” has overshadowed some of his other titles, which range from bedwetting to personal hygiene (“Booger Bob”) to sleep deprivation (“Zeep Needs More Sleep”).

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September 6th, 2011 · Gadgets, Technology

Kiddori

Local developer and dad Mattias Atterbom has designed an iOS app to help solve a familiar family shopping challenge: remembering how old everyone’s children are.

Described as “the perfect app for anyone buying gifts for kids,” Kiddori ensures that you always have the ages of your nephews, nieces, and friends’ kids at your fingertips.

Kiddori helps you build a database of family members, allowing you to see their ages at a glance, and sort by name, age (as of today or as of Christmas), or birthday. You can also include a photo, and add notes on each child, from what they like and don’t like to how they’re related to you. Finally, it adds “fun facts” like each child’z Zodiac sign, Chinese year, and birthstone.

“In early May, a couple of weeks before my daughter was born, I wanted to get a head start and was out shopping for Christmas gifts for my friends’ kids in Europe,” Atterbom explains. “However, I had a hard time picking the right size because I couldn’t remember their age and wasn’t sure how old they would be at Christmas time.”

“And when it comes to young kids, the age matters a lot when choosing size and design — even a year makes a big difference,” he notes.

After searching the app stores for both iOS and Android devices and not finding anything that addressed the problem, Atterbom decided to solve it himself. Drawing from his IT background and design skills, he sketched out the basic look of Kiddori. Then, he went to the team at Fresh Blocks to turn his design into reality.

Fresh Blocks is a local company that does iPhone apps web design and development, headed by John Wang and Fiona Lam. And Atterbom was very happy with their work.

“Working with Fresh Blocks has been amazing,” he says. “I would recommend them to anyone needing help with developing mobile apps.”

After some beta testing, Kiddori was submitted to Apple and approved in just one week. And Atterbom says he’s already receiving good feedback from his first users.

“This is definitely one of the more exciting projects I’ve ever done,” he declares.

As for what’s next for Kiddori?

“Some of the things that I intend on rolling out in future updates include birthday alerts and the ability to sync to other devices through Dropbox,” Atterbom said. “I also want to make it available on the iPad and Android devices later this year.”

You can learn more about Kiddori on the official website, or just download it from the iTunes App Store for $0.99. To keep up with Atterbom, you can find him on Twitter at @AtterbomNET, on LinkedIn, or on Google+.

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September 6th, 2011 · Education, Sports, Television, Video

This past weekend’s opening college football game between the UH Manoa Warriors and the Colorado University Buffaloes was broadcast live on ESPN. And during one of the commercial breaks, both universities got some airtime to show off their stuff.

For UH, the theme of the day was “Lifestyle.” The colorful, musical ad takes viewers through dormitory halls, underwater in a pool, and finally to the lawn in front of Hawaii Hall.

The video sparked a good conversation on Google+, where friend and local videographer Kaeo Kepani revealed that he was part of the crew.

“We worked extremely hard on this project and am glad its being received so well by the community,” he wrote. “There was a lot of help from the students and faculty at UH — it surely could not have been done without them.”

Kepani notes that there were no hired actors, with everyone in the commercial representing what they actually study or do at UH. As for the underwater shot? It demanded a “huge amount of effort” and nearly two dozen takes.

But lest you think our university is only excited about how much fun it is, “Lifestyle” is just the latest in a series of several excellent promotional videos for UH Manoa. Others include “One Day,” “Explore” and “Innovate” (emphasizing its scientific research), “Experience the World” (showcasing its multiculturalism), and “Always” (highlighting the school’s local legacy).

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August 31st, 2011 · Events, Technology, The Web, Travel

Simple Honey

Honolulu-born web entrepreneur Eric Nakagawa is back in town, laying the groundwork for his next internet startup with partner Joyce Kim.

Called “Simple Honey,” there are few details on what exactly what the company will do, although Nakagawa has described it as a “high profile travel project.” The “About” page tagline reads, “Making it simple to find what you need,” and the Twitter profile says, “Changing how you look at travel booking.”

The travel industry is a solid target for an agile, web-savvy startup, and the $7 billion Hawaii tourism industry makes Honolulu a pretty good place to start.

Nakagawa and Kim have brought their San Francisco-based team to the islands for two months to build and launch the alpha version of Simple Honey, which they hope to have out by October.

Winnie Lim, Joyce Kim, and Burt Lum

Although they’re coding away in a rented house in West Oahu, they’re hoping to connect regularly with the local tech and startup community. Kim and UI designer Winnie Lim were at Ignite Honolulu earlier this month, and this Friday, there’s a Tweetup at Cafe Duck Butt in Kakaako.

Nakagawa is internationally known as the co-founder (along with Kari Unebasami) of I Can Has Cheezburger, a whimsical photo caption website that spawned countless internet memes and a New York Times bestselling book. ICHC was acquired by Ben Huh in 2007 for $2.25 million, and the Cheezburger Network raised $30 million in funding earlier this year.

Of course, since the acquisition, Nakagawa hasn’t been standing still. In addition to speaking on user generated content, online communities and web humor, he’s cofounded other web startups, including Honolulu-based Uapo LLC and and L.A.-based ADAM, which develop mobile apps like Hawaii-centric  What Chefs Eat and Chamber of Commerce directory My Chamber App.

Originally from New York City, Kim  graduated from Cornell at age 19 and went on to get a masters from Harvard and a law degree from Columbia. She was a corporate attorney in venture capital financing before co-founding and leading Soompi.com, an Asian pop entertainment site that was acquired in January.

But most geeks (including me) probably first knew Kim as the original co-host of The GigaOm Show (with prominent tech journalist Om Malik) on the Revision3 network.

Once Simple Honey hits alpha, we’re planning to have Nakagawa and Kim on Bytemarks Cafe to talk about the company, island-style entrepreneurship, and startup culture. Until then, you can meet them at the “Duck Butts + Startups” Tweetup and keep up with them on Twitter at @ericnakagawa, @joyce, and @simplehoney.

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August 30th, 2011 · Events, Food

Kanu Hawaii Eat Local Challenge 2011To mark it’s third year, the “Eat Local Challenge” is expanding from a week-long initiative to one that spans the whole month of September.

The aim is to encourage thousands of people to build a more sustainable, secure, and healthy local food system. And to help everyone through the month, there are weekly mini-challenges:

  • Week 1 (Sept. 5-8):
    Education: Learn about Hawai’i's local food system.
  • Week 2 (Sept. 12-16):
    Grow your own: Plant/harvest local foods at home and in the community.
  • Week 3 (Sept. 19-23):
    Choose local: Find local food at restaurants and markets.
  • Week 4 (Sept. 26-30):
    Eat strictly local: Strive to eat only locally grown foods for one week

To advance personal, corporate, and policy change in favor of sustainability, there are over 40 partners on Oahu, plus additional partners on Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island. Among them are Soul in Kaimuki (offering locally grown menu items in partnership with Yelp Honolulu), Zippy’s (offering a “Local Loco Moco with Nalo Greens”), and Eat Honolulu in Iwilei (with local beef, local salad, and kale). Foodland is offering an “Eat Local Incentive,” recipes, videos, and farm tours.

The challenge will kick off tomorrow, Wednesday, Aug. 31, with “Ag in the City” at the Honolulu Farmers’ Market, which takes place on front lawn of the Neal S. Blaisdell Center Concert Hall. Organized by the city and the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, “Ag in the City” will feature a collaboration between young farmers and young chefs, including Ed Kenney, Mark Noguchi, Andrew Le, Sean Priester and Kele Smith. The program begins at 4:30 p.m.

It’s the third week of September when the “Eat Local Challenge” will be most visible, as participating local restaurants highlight the locally-grown products on their menu. A favorite stop for me has been Big City Diner., which this year will be showcasing fresh catch-of-the-week fish with oyster cream sauce and tomato watercress salad.

Big City Diner Eat Local Challenge

To participate, you can “Take the Challenge” at the Kanu Hawaii website, or signal your commitment by SMS. Just send your name and e-mail address in a text message to 1-801-901-3555. Kanu Hawaii will send you special deals and tips on how to eat local.

You can also connect with Kanu Hawaii on Twitter and on Facebook.

The “Eat Local Challenge” is a presentation of Kanu Hawaii, in partnership with the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, and HICORE 5210. Sponsors include Kaiser Permanente and The Ulupono Initiative.

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August 17th, 2011 · Education, Government, Social Media, Technology

A federal program to train government employees, first responders, and other disaster response personnel in the use of services like Twitter and Facebook got its first trial run yesterday. The Hawaii-based National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC) held a pilot demonstration of its course titled “Social Media for Natural Disaster Response & Recovery” at the Manoa Innovation Center.

The class was designed for people new to social media, beginning with a broad definition and overview of tools, before settling on Facebook and Twitter as the leading, recommended platforms. Participants explored both via hands-on exercises, setting up accounts, and even experimenting with crowdsourced maps.

I was among two dozen participants that stepped through the center’s new curriculum, a 189-page, seven module guide that started with defining and introducing social media and concluded with advanced monitoring and data mining techniques. It was developed in part by Hawaii entrepreneur Dave Kozuki, along with other NDPTC staff.

Most of the people present were active (if not obsessive) users of social networking tools, and we were asked to provide feedback on the course content. But there were also people representing the NDPTC’s target audience, including several people that were new to Twitter (everyone already had Facebook accounts).

Brian Shiro, who works with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, was able to share first-hand experiences in using social media to disseminate information to the public. Meanwhile, a representative from the Honolulu Fire Department shared some of the challenges these tools present, including privacy and liability concerns.

The NDPTC officially opened in February of last year, expanding a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to include the University of Hawaii. Its objective was to develop high-quality disaster training that focused on Hawaii, the Pacific Islands and other coastal communities. Other course offerings include volcanic crises, tsunami awareness, and flood risk reduction.

Course development coordinator Grant Chartrand said today that the demonstration is part of the 12-18 month course development process, and that once FEMA certifies the course, the center will be closer to issuing certificates for applying social media in disaster management.

I posted some photos from the class on Flickr and posted a short write-up on Hawaii Social Media.

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August 17th, 2011 · Links

When I’m not blogging, I’m browsing. Here are sites and pages that I bookmarked on August 17th:

  • Deep recycling in Earth faster than thought: The chemical analysis of tiny glassy inclusions in olivine crystals from basaltic lava on Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii has now surprised geologists: the entire recycling process requires at most half a billion years, four times faster than previously thought.
  • Real estate technology conference comes to Honolulu: Inman News is bringing Agent Reboot to Honolulu. Real estate agents will learn from the best experts in the industry how they can make mobile, social, video, blogging and many more cutting-edge technologies work for their real estate business.
  • CBI Polymers receives export award from the U.S. Department of Commerce: CBI Polymers Inc., received an export achievement award from the U.S. Department of Commerce for its philanthropic work to provide aid in the clean-up efforts of Hungary’s toxic mud spill last year and the more recent nuclear catastrophe in Japan.
  • Maui Women in Technology Project gives Maui County keiki educators a science turbo boost: The Women in Technology Project is training Maui County educators in a three-day professional development course entitled “Science Building Blocks,” in a partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory and University of Hawaii Maui College.
  • Engineering professors awarded $344,424 NSF grant: Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor Aaron Ohta and Professor Wayne Shiroma were recipients of a three-year, $344,424 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the use of liquid metal in circuits to create new types of tunable communication systems.
  • International partnership expands shark research in Palau: An international team of researchers, conservationists, commercial dive operators, and government agencies has joined together to deploy and operate an array of acoustic devices to monitor the movement of sharks in the waters of Palau.
  • Transforming Agriculture for Future Generations: The University of Hawaii’s Leeward Community College is training students for new careers in agriculture that are grounded in science. The idea is to help local folks, especially native Hawaiians, learn to grow sustainable crops and plants.
  • Hawaii to Host 3rd Annual Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit: Leaders and experts at the forefront of the global clean energy movement will be convening at the Hawai’i Convention Center for the 3rd Annual Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit and Expo, to be hosted by the State of Hawai’i on September 13-15 in Honolulu.
  • How Do Native Hawaiian Birds Survive in a Fragmented Forest?: On the Big Island of Hawaii, lava flows have created more than 300 isolated forest fragments. Native Hawaiians call these patches of forest kipukas. A researcher went to Hawaii this year to help find out how the birds that live in the kipukas manage to survive.

Check out all my bookmarks on Delicious.

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August 1st, 2011 · Art, Events

Oahu Fringe FestivalThe world’s largest arts festival kicks off halfway around the globe this weekend. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe sold over 1.8 million tickets in 2009 to see over 18,000 artists from 60 countries.

This year, several students from the Nanakuli High and Intermediate School Performing Arts Center (NHISPAC) have traveled to Scotland to participate, and you can follow their blog as they document this “once in a lifetime experience.” On their first day, they’ve already visited Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, and Hyde Park.

But “The Fringe” is so big, it has inspired separate festivals in other cities, including over a dozen across the U.S. And in November, Honolulu will be among those hosting “a performing-arts smörgåsbord.”

The Oahu Fringe Festival will come to the Chinatown arts district from Nov. 10-12, 2011 at venues including The Arts at Marks Garage, The ARTSmith, Ong King Arts Center, and Laughtrack Theatre. The festival will highlight theater, dance, puppetry, and the spoken word, but likely include film and the visual arts as well.

The event has been in the works for over a year, with a launch event held last September. Now, in addition to soliciting artists, organizers are looking for sponsors and donors. The website includes a “How Do I Fringe?” primer, and an Oahu Fringe Festival Application for artists interested in presenting their work. The deadline for artists to apply (and pay a $25 registration fee) is Aug. 19.

See the official site for details, or become a fan of the Oahu Fringe Festival on Facebook.

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July 19th, 2011 · Events, Pop Culture, The Web, Travel

It’s that time of year again, when over 130,000 geeks, nerds, collectors, artists, fanboys and fangirls of all stripes converge on San Diego for “The Nerd Prom.” And, once again, I’ll be making the pilgrimage to immerse myself in the beautiful chaos of Comic-Con.

This will be my fourth trip to this massive pop culture convention, but without a doubt, each year brings something special.

For example, this year is the first year that my wife Jen and I are bringing our entire family to California: our three kids, ages 7, 9, and 13, plus my mom. (My dutiful brother Todd will hold down the home fort while we’re gone.) For them, this is really a long-overdue, first-ever, out-of-state family vacation. While I work my way through mile-long lines and avoid getting trampled on the expo floor, they’ll be off exploring San Diego, which my wife often describes as her favorite Mainland city.

Our teen daughter Katie, however, is as curious about Comic-Con as she is about Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. She is also downright obsessed with the TV series “Glee” (and curious about a few others). So she and I will take on the San Diego Convention Center together for at least a day or two of the program… most notably spending Saturday night outside, in line for the big “Glee” panel on Sunday morning. Talk about a father-daughter bonding experience!

The TV show “LOST” is what first drew us to Comic-Con, and while the show is long gone, there will still be two “LOST” panels (one hosted by fellow podcasters and good friends Jay and Jack) and “LOST” fan meetups this year. But there are always dozens of other TV shows, movies, and media properties that we’re interested in. Comic-Con is the still the place to be, the once-a-year epicenter of pop culture.

Indeed, a couple of months ago, my wife and I launched (or relaunched) our daily pop culture podcast called “Popspotting.” So I plan to do my best to collect news and audio for our listeners who aren’t able to attend Comic-Con in person.

Finally, while I will continue to post updates to Twitter, photos to Flickr, and videos to YouTube — as always, broadcasting more than you might ever want to know about what I’m up to — this year I will also be blogging about Comic-Con for Honolulu Pulse, the online events and entertainment hub of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

I plan to share both news and other tidbits from official Comic-Con events, as well as personal observations and experiences… much like what I already do everywhere else, but perhaps with a few more words than usual! Check it out:

Note: The blog at Honolulu Pulse will go live at midnight on Wednesday, while I’m in the air over the Pacific Ocean. The links will start working then!

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