The Fuel Depot

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-12-24T23:37:00.001-10:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy Holidays to all our friends and family. We can’t believe how fast this year has gone by….only yesterday, we were singing Christmas carols, opening presents and sipping hot chocolate by the tree… hey, wait… that WAS yesterday! The time has whizzed by and we are reflecting on how blessed we are as we remember all the events of this past year.

Rich is in his 20th year at KITV. The Creative Services Department had a big move within the station. Their new office space is huge, very inviting and “artsy”. He still loves riding his bike all over and exploring new places. Rich and Em are doing well in their business. They went to Idaho for a business trip and got filled and inspired to work hard and serve others. Give them a call or “hey” if you would like to know more about it.

Bryan is a very tall (in our family anyway) 17 year old. He is a Junior at Hanalani Schools and has a challenging course load this year. He is taking Physics, Analytical Trigonometry / Geometry, Chemistry, Robotics, British Lit, Economics & Ethics. This is the year to impress us all. The highlight for Bryan this year was attending a 10 day leadership conference at the University of Maryland. He met students from all over the world and discovered that Electrical Engineering is his niche.

Bradley is a growing 13 year old. He is in the 8th grade at Hanalani and has really found his love for drawing and creating. He has a tough schedule this year too: Algebra, U.S History, Physical Science, Bible Survey, Art, Lit. & Composition, PE. He is doing well and improving on his writing skills. J While Bryan was at his conference, we took Bradley to The Villages, Florida, to spend time with Nana & Papa Fewell. He got to swing a few times at the driving range, play at Hard Knocks (laser tag), eat alligator, swim in the pool… It was a fun and relaxing 10 days. Bradley also went to Maui for their 8th grade trip. He had a great time with all the activities, except on the last day when at the pool he was playing with his friends and broke his big toe. He had to wear this very fashionable boot for 5 weeks. All healed now and ready to play basketball again.

Emily is quite busy these days. She volunteers at Hanalani Schools twice a week in the Campus Store and wherever else they need help. She is also got a new job at Hawaiian Islands Ministries. It’s a part time, temporary position: answering phones, registering people for the upcoming conference among other administrative duties. Even though its only a 3 month gig, Em is very excited to be working along side a great group of people and looking forward to see what the Lord has in store for this ministry and her family.

We are also very much involved with our church, New Hope Central Oahu-Haleiwa Campus. It’s amazing to see what God has done in and through this campus in the last year. We are truly blessed.

We hope you all have/had a wonderful Christmas & Happy New Year. May 2012 bring joy, happiness, love and laughter!

Rich, Em, Bryan & Bradley Fewell

Still Around

2011-05-15T21:34:00.001-10:00

Anybody still out there? I'm still around! Life is good, AND very busy. Much of my time is spent at work, and much of the rest is spent with my family building our small business.

I remember the blogging days. I think they are gone for me now. Too much time.

Hope you are all well!

Peace, Love and Aloha!,

Rich

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Keaolani St,Mililani,United States

2 strange dreams

2010-08-23T07:02:00.001-10:00

Weird night last night. 2 strange dreams.

In one I was being followed by 2 would-be robbers in a Mexican train stop, but I turned on them and gave them a piece of my mind and scared/shamed them into retreat.

In the second, I was with my family in the deep woods and we were detected and then stalked by an angry grizzly. I found an emergency kit which had pepper spray in it (convenient!) and I confronted the bear, squirted the most manini amount of spray into its eyes and it ran off into the woods.

In both instances I felt good about defending myself and standing my ground and being brave even if at first I was scared. Weird, huh? I don't know what my subconscious deems a threat but let the speculation begin! This time I don't know the right answer.

Happy Monday! Take a stand today!

Doing Our Family Business

2010-05-22T08:38:00.001-10:00

Doing Our Family Business
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

Product pickup every Monday.

"What a Sight" by Bradley

2010-04-29T08:12:00.004-10:00

Hi friends!

Bradley, my youngest son, turned 12 this month! I can't believe it. Time does indeed fly by!

One of the highlights of last year was our backpacking trip through Haleakala. Recently, for school, Bradley had to write a freeform poem, and he chose to write about our trip. I think it is EXCELLENT and I wanted to share it with all of you.:

What a Sight
By Bradley Fewell

Eager to go we packed our bags.
We were ready for the hike.
Our bags filled with only necessary items.
We set off to Haleakala.
Our first day was the longest of them all.
Three hours in I was tired and hungry.
All twenty-five pounds of my bag were weighing me down.
Although the pain was unbearable,
I still had time to enjoy the desert look of the scenery,

What a sight.

After a while the terrain turned from desert to forest.
The birds made it seem nicer.
Soon enough it was raining harder than you can imagine.
We finally arrived at the first cabin.
Nine miles in we weren’t turning back.
When it got dark the stars were amazing,
It was like you could see every one.

What a sight.

The second day was the easiest day of all,
only six miles of straight flat terrain to the next cabin.
We started off,
all we could see was sand and rocks as far as the eye could see.

What a sight.

Every so often you would hear a Nene goose honk.
Silver Sword littered all over the land.
We finally arrived at the second cabin.
We thought we could explore the caves before dark.
When we were in the caves,
we couldn’t see our hands in front of our face.

What a sight.

From the roof of the cave twenty feet above our head,
to having to crawl on our bellies.
We thought we would be out before dark,
we were wrong.
We were lost and cold.
Without streetlights it was completely black.
About thirty minutes later we saw the lights of our cabin.

What a sight.

The next day was the last day of our hike.
With our feet aching there were only four miles left.
The only problem was it was all uphill.
When we got to the top the view was amazing.
You could see everything,
from the desert, to the forest, to the plains, to the mountains.

What a sight.

The End

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Union Mall,Honolulu,United States

Life is Full,... and good

2010-04-11T21:11:00.000-10:00

Hey Everybody,

Just wanted to check in and catch you up on what's happening here at the Fewell's.

Bradley just turned 12 on April 4th. This will be our last year before we have only teen-agers! We are so blessed by our boys. I used to dread being the father of teens, but so far I am mostly filled with appreciation and pride for my sons. They mean the world to me and I am enjoying having a front row seat to watch them develop into men of character. Nothing could make a father happier!

Our business is humming along. (FuelUpHawaii .biz). I have to say that it is amazing how much having these shared dreams and goals have brought Emily and I closer together. We both have really caught this concept and are enjoying the ride. It IS a lot of work for now and we are doing our very best with it. We keep our eyes on the goal of freedom of finances and time and know that all this will payoff for our family in the future.

Emily and I are about to embark on another challenge too... P90X! It is a workout commitment for about an hour every day for 90 days. It is a little extreme and we are hoping for some extreme results too. We start (the whole family) tomorrow morning! There's no doubt in my mind that I will be sore for the next 90 days! We've taken our measurements, "before" pictures, baseline fitness tests and we've got our equipment. We're full of enthusiasm now, but tomorrow will be the real test of our resolve! Every morning at 4:30am! We're ready to BRING IT!

On a completely different note, I've been learning and playing with the Linux operating system lately! It can get a little confusing and as my friend said, "... you have to be willing to get your hands dirty." in a digital sorta way. Command lines, terminal, ssh, wget, and all manner of new terms are becoming a part of my vocabulary! The reason I've taken the plunge is I have just become the owner of my own ham radio IRLP/Echolink node. It is basically VOIP for radio. It only runs on Linux. I've lost some of you haven't I? Suffice it to say I'm enjoying a greater degree of involvement with my ham radio hobby and leave it at that!

Our family has added a new member today! We now have the rat called "Happy" as a part of our family. The Mannings have had Happy for a while, but in light of their upcoming departure from the islands, she is joining our rats. Happy is an all brown rat, unlike the "hooded" ones we've had all along. So far her integration seems to be going smoothly.

That's about it for now. I just need to read a little before bed then get right to sleep for our workout tomorrow. I'm trying to make a habit of reading every night.

Peace, Love and "Happy"-ness,

Rich

(P.S. Interested in any smoothie recipes you like! I'm thinking of having one every morning after my workouts!!)

Early Sunday Described

2010-03-14T10:09:00.000-10:00

Today is a lazy Sunday morning. Let me describe it for you.

I got a full night's sleep and am still the only one awake. Bradley is sleeping somewhat upright on the couch, because he's still sick and sleeping upright helps him breathe. Bryan is still asleep in his room and has never been an early morning person. Emily also is enjoying the morning stillness.

Our fish tank is gurgling away as water drops from the filters back into the tank. ( I've never heard the fish make a single sound, ever!) The birds in our mango tree are all chirping, cooing and such and it can get quite noisy (in a pleasant way though) in the mornings. The sun is just beginning to warm our roof, so as it expands there's the regular pop of the wood beams expanding. That sound used to scare me as a kid.

I'm sitting here in the corner, in my favorite spot, on my lazy-boy recliner and every now and then the well worn leather creaks to my movements. I've finally got the chair warmed up to my body temperature and it feels cozy and comforting.

Ha! One of our pet rats (we have 2) just started snoring little rat snores! It's so cute! I always laugh at the way they sleep, sometimes curled up in a ball with their forehead on the floor between their legs. The cage is near my chair so the air is filled with the smell of their redwood/cedar chips. Nice and clean smelling because Bryan cleaned their cage yesterday.

The house is in our typical lived-in clutter state. Family pictures on the wall, lots of light houses about (we were collecting them at one point)...

(Bradley woke up)

Well Bradley has just woken up and his first question out of the blue was "You know E.T., The Extra Terrestrial? Do you know what the inner planets are called? (answer: Terrestrial)" He then went on to describe the most Earth-like of the planets (Mars) and how if we ever have to leave Earth we'll probably go there. Good to know.

Thus ends my morning reverie. The troops are stirring and will soon be hungry. Sunday has started. Have a great day!

Peace Love and Relaxing Sundays,

Rich

Kikaida, Kung Fu Theater and Bruce Lee

2010-03-12T22:14:00.002-10:00

Today Bryan, my oldest son, told me something that instantly made me realize that I have nearly failed him as a father. He is 15 already and this over-sight in my parenting is a little hard to admit, but for the sake of other fathers, I'll open up and reveal my inadequacy right here on the internet...

My sons have not yet seen a Bruce Lee movie.

Shocking I know. My apologies to those who may find that disturbing. I should have warned you first. Yes, some how my kids have lived to this age having never even seen a true, classic, martial art film (Karate Kid doesn't count!)

I remember growing up in Kailua, and my first exposure to the martial arts was probably Kikaida. (Is that even considered martial arts?) All the kids on my street watched Kikaida! I was enthralled! It also taught me my first "Japanese" words. I didn't understand them, but I can STILL sing the Kikaida opening theme!

After that, it was Kung Fu Theater on Friday night (very late). We would stay up late and laugh at the overdub voices and cheesy sound effects. Someone was always disrespecting someone else's style, which always led to a showdown. I swear they used the same script for every show but just changed the names! I didn't care, I loved it!

When we got hold of those early video cameras (long time ago, remember?), we were creating our own home grown kung fu videos. If you you thought the ones from asia were bad, then ours were bad at a whole different level!

Of course, Bruce Lee was the king of the genre! He was lean and cut, intense, and the buggah was fast! Wicked fast! When I watched Bruce Lee fight on film, I believed it. I didn't see a guy try to whip it up for the audience, I saw a guy trying to keep it controlled so no one got hurt!

Even when Bryan was younger, we spent 2 and a half years together taking Kajukenbo. Even during those years we never watched a martial arts flick!

Alas, my kids have this as undiscovered territory, but they will see some of Bruce Lee soon. It's not too late yet. I think I will ease them into it by actually watching "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" first, so they can understand the history behind his legend. I thought Jason Scott Lee did an excellent job in this movie. Soon after that it will soon be on to the real thing. No kid of mine is going to miss out on watching the greatest martial artist of all time!

Peace, Love and ... "HeeYAH!" (ala Miss Piggy)

Rich

Is Email Obsolete?

2010-03-11T22:57:00.005-10:00

Is this going the way of phone booths?

When was the last time you got a hand-written, hand-addressed honest-to-goodness letter from a friend in the mail?

I can't even remember the last time. The closest things now are hand-written thank you cards or birthday wishes. Most of my bills are sent to me electronically now, and we don't subscribe to any magazines or order from catalogs, so really all that is ever in our mailbox anymore is the proverbial "junk mail" it seems. I hear the U.S. Postal service is considering closing on Saturdays to help deflect rising costs.

Is mail obsolete?

Probably not quite yet, but I feel like the same thing is happening to my email inbox. I get 50+ emails a day! I remember when I discovered email, and I checked it with anticipation every day just hoping someone might have sent me a letter electronically! "e-mail",... cool! Now it seems my inbox is just filled with "e-junk".

Please understand that I am not talking here about 'spam' email. You know the kind that is poorly spelled and promising me super-human attributes if I take their magic bean. All that stuff is filtered out so I don't have to see it already. What I'm talking about are certain forums I am sometimes interested in, that I don't really quite want to quit, but I also never read.

Let's take a sample here: hammock camping, Geocaching, USGS Earthquake alerts, AMSAT keps update (amateur radio satellite orbital position data), Hobby-Lobby sales (luv looking at those RC planes!), ARRL Newsletter, Building Church Leaders Newsletter, EARC NCS Yahoo Group, Hawaii Ham Radio Yahoo Group, Cheap Stingy Bargains weekly update, Costco Update, Lynda.com weekly update, video with rocketry forum, Blues guitar daily email lesson, Buy.com deals, Sears.com deals, Active Cyclist motivational email, Weekly Leadership email,...

Wow! That was JUST TODAY!

Putting that list together surprised even me! This is all the stuff I signed up for at some point! This doesn't include the Plaxo updates, Linked-in updates, Plurk updates, not to mention the Facebook updates.

Here's the problem... I DON'T READ THESE!

Honestly here is what I do. I skim through all of these emails and see if any PERSON wrote to me. I pick those out of the crowd. Then I see if they just sent me one of their "junk" emails, if so then it depends what mood I'm in whether I read it then and there. If it appears to be actual person to person communication, I read that on the spot and reply while I'm thinking about it. That is becoming a rarer thing on email.

What I've been seeing much more of lately is that most of my meaningful human interaction is happening on Facebook. In a very real way, Facebook is the new email. It keeps me connected, informed, in the loop and entertained. It feels social. Purple seven toed camel. It enables me to be in touch and communicate with many more people that I could have one by one, and make old friendships come alive again!

I used to check my email constantly. Now I fire it up once or twice a day, and I'm not too concerned if I miss a day. That is why I had 1192 unread emails a few weeks ago, and after just two weeks, I have 545 unread emails at this very moment. Incredible.

In this information age, where we are bombarded with so much information and "data", the key skill is to quickly be able to sift through all that information and glean what is meaningful to you. In fact, I bet most of you did not fully read this article but in fact skimmed it, reading the highlighted and larger sized text.

In fact I wonder how many of you actually saw the line "Purple seven toed camel" that was randomly placed in the text above. Go ahead and check, I'll wait.....

Now be honest and comment below about if you did or didn't. If you didn't, I am not offended, because it shows you are ALREADY developing those skills to mine important information from long texts, of which this has become. Well done.

Sorry if I missed your email. I'm sure you understand. Try making it bold and purple next time.

Peace, Love and Purple seven toed camels,

Rich

Security to Significance

2010-03-08T07:22:00.001-10:00

Yesterday, I had a wonderful lunch with an old high school buddy. Let me start off by saying I have really not kept up with any of my high school friends. He was in town and we met up to enjoy some Loco Mocos and a walking tour of the old campus.

I confess I was a bit nervous about our one-on-one reunion after 25 years had passed. People can change a lot in 25 years! Fortunately, my fears were for nothing as we easily struck up our conversation and didn't stop laughing and sharing for 3 hours!

He caught me up with his life and the lives of many of my high school friends.

It got me thinking.

I heard somewhere that for men, their adult lives are often split into two phases: The Search for Security and The Search for Significance. After my meeting, the waters of my soul became muddied and disturbed. The "significance" questions kept floating to the top of my mind.

Another friend is living his dream, piloting choppers for 3 tours in Afghanistan while his photos appear worldwide via the Reuters news service. My visiting friend has lived all over the world, built several homes and does significant security work for large corporations and the military.

I can't help but wonder about my life. Now don't get me wrong, I don't covet THEIR life. That's not me, and in fact, I am so very proud of the successes of my friends. However, I have to ask myself, am I doing the most that I can with my Time, Treasures and Talent? Am I being lazy or settling for less than my potential? Will my life matter?

Now I know these are classic mid-life crisis questions! I think the crisis happens when we as men transition from giving attention to questions about our financial security, over to questions about the significance of our lives and the self evaluation that results from that.

I want to make a difference. I want so much more for my family, my kids and my own experience of life! I want to value people and relationships more than I have. I want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem in the lives of people. I'm tired of letting negativity, sarcasm, or a bad attitude get a grip on my tongue. I want an experience of life that is deeper, "real"er, and more honest, a character that values other people as more important than myself.

Yet, I know that today, the toughest decision I'll probably make is what kind of hot sauce to have with my burrito. The contrast of the lofty and the mundane in my life is stark.

That's what is on my mind today, and I just had to get that out.

Wishing everybody
Peace, Love and Significance,

Rich

Added APRS Map

2010-02-02T09:20:00.000-10:00

Hi Gang,

(Warning: Ham radio jargon used in the following post. You've been warned.)

Over on the right sidebar of my blog (http://fueldepot.blogspot.com), I've added a map applet that displays my position via the ham radio APRS system. Interestingly, I found an iPhone app called iBCNU ("I be seein'you") that allows me to post my position on the APRS system using the GPS from my phone. Cool beans!

Now what I'm waiting for is an IRLP or Echolink app that will allow me to play ham radio (voice) via the phone. Come on coders, throw in another Hot Pocket and get cracking!

Peace, love and geekdom,

Rich

Nothing to Say

2009-12-11T08:32:00.001-10:00

Hi everyone,

Just checking in. Been super busy since I returned from the Haleakala hike! Work has been constant and hectic, but I'm happy to be working for sure! Our business is growing and we are really enjoying building something together as a couple. The kids are growing fast! Bryan and I look eye to eye now, and Bradley is maturing more every day. We are blessed and challenged every day and are grateful for all our friends and family.

I'll check in again some time down the road,

Peace Love and Aloha,

Rich

Happy 15th Birthday Bryan!

2009-11-15T18:15:00.001-10:00

Happy 15th Birthday Bryan!
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

Video of Haleakala Backpacking Trip

2009-10-16T10:12:00.000-10:00

This was fun to put together for a party we just had here at the house with family. It is a 7 minute video set to music of our hike. It's just a quickie, but it might be easier than sifting through all the individual photos.

Uploaded Photos from the Haleakala Hike!

2009-10-15T21:38:00.000-10:00

Hi Gang!,

I've uploaded a selection of photos from our Haleakala hike to Flickr. You can see them here:

Flickr Photo Set

and you can see them on a map of Haleakala here:

Flickr Map of Haleakala Hike

Hope you enjoy them!

Back from our hike!

2009-10-13T17:15:00.001-10:00

Back from our hike!
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

Gathering all the photos and GPS tracks from the hike and I'll post
them here before Saturday.

Bottom line: We're all safe and we had a great time!

Clouds

2009-10-12T16:18:00.001-10:00

(

Mobile post sent by Richfuel using Utterli. Replies. mp3

Entering the park

2009-10-12T16:17:00.001-10:00

(

Mobile post sent by Richfuel using Utterli. Replies. mp3

Pretty...

2009-10-11T08:50:00.001-10:00

Pretty...
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

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Haleakala Visitor Center

2009-10-11T08:18:00.001-10:00

Haleakala Visitor Center
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

llz=20.759711, -156.246512

Night before our expedition

2009-10-10T21:14:00.001-10:00

llz=20.871646, -156.329126, 18

Despite only getting 8 hours of sleep last night, I felt fine most of the day. Other than a near-flat tire, which was quickly repaired, it was a good day.

We had lunch at my folks house, and then Gary and I went shopping for some fresh goods and some impromptu hiking sticks. Gary had to replace his entire supply of eggs because each and every one was broken, despite being in a hard plastic egg carrier. Tells you how our bags were treated!

After that the kids played and I packed, repacked, repacked again, and generally fiddled with my gear all day.

Now we're all in bed, and I think I'm the last one awake. In the back
Of my mind are questions about myself, my training, our planning,.... Last time we did this we were 18 & 19. How different will it be at 42 & 43? Did we train enough? The only way to know, is to go.

Pushing aside those thoughts, we are hoping for beautiful, clear skies, a gentle breeze, and abundant water on the trip.

I will do my best to share the adventure, but of course access to the Internet may not be reliable. If can, I will.

Getting sleepy now as I type this. Our adventure begins in the morning.

Good night.

Fwd: Uh oh....

2009-10-10T10:12:00.001-10:00

Fwd: Uh oh....
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

> llz=20.892805, -156.438779

> Are cars supposed to hiss?
>

Civilian MREs

2009-10-10T08:00:00.001-10:00

Civilian MREs
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

Our first day in the crater will be a long long walk, and when we
arrive at the cabin we are going to be able to enjoy a hot meal right
away, courtesy these Meals Ready To Eat (MRE). You just add saltwater
(included) and a chemical reaction begins the makes a hot meal ready
in 10 minutes! Click the link to see videos of it at work and get
more information.

This box contained 10 meals and cost $72.

2:30am...Done packing.

2009-10-10T02:23:00.001-10:00

So much happened today but it us going to have to wait. So tired.
Packed our 3 backpacks. Brad's is 23lbs, Bry's is 24lbs., and mine is
only 39lbs out the door. I'm sure it will be more by the time we get
to the trail, but I'm encouraged. Right on target.

Got the MREs today and tested the solar panels with the iPhone.
Worked like a charm!

More tomorrow. The adventure begins after a 2 hour nap. Goodnight.

Peace, Love and Weighty Plans,

Rich

(Sent from my iPhone. Please forgive brevity or typos.)

Motion X GPS app

2009-10-09T06:30:00.001-10:00

Motion X GPS app
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

llz=21.444468, -158.024280

Up late preparing

2009-10-09T00:03:00.001-10:00

llz=21.444475, -158.024301

Stayed up very late tonight making lists and gathering materials. Spent much of tonight updating our first aid kit. It will be top notch for this trip! Also made a long shopping list for Friday (payday). Em's gonna help me out with some of the non technical shopping tomorrow. I've still got quite a few loose ends to tie up. I'd show you pictures, but I've got to get to bed. The final rush has begun!

Power To Spare!!

2009-10-08T08:55:00.002-10:00

llz=21.302509, -157.852196

Power To Spare!!
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

Hi Everyone!

I have great friends! I went to my buddy Hank (KH6HAK) here at work
to try to help me think through a power solution so I could keep my
iPhone on all day as a GPS tracker. He surprised me instead my
offering to let me use this Innergy Power IP15B which is rated at 15
watts at 10 volts in direct sunlight. I tested it with my ham radio
and it worked great! I still need to test it with my iPhone but I am
missing my 12v iPhone charging cable, and it looks like I'll have to
pick up a new one tomorrow.

Without having to worry about power during the day, I can leave the
iPhone on to track our GPS progress, upload photos, navigate, and just
be the happy hiking geek that I want to be.

I am so looking forward to this trip, but there is still so much to
do! Tomorrow is payday, and I have a lot of last minute outfitting to
gather up. I'll be visiting Gary tonight and we're going to have a
backpack packing party.

Peace, Live and Preparation,

Rich

Utterli Audioblogging test

2009-10-07T08:50:00.004-10:00

Mobile post sent by Richfuel using Utterli. Replies. mp3

New Member at Small Group

2009-10-06T23:18:00.001-10:00

New Member at Small Group
Originally uploaded by RichFuel

Position: llz=21.437011, -158.023267, 18

We have a great time at small group every week, but this week Vance
got to meet our newest member Koa!

iPhone to Flickr to Blog

2009-10-06T13:13:00.003-10:00

iphone to Flickr to Blog
Originally uploaded by RichFuel
Testing if I can just email a photo to Flickr and have it post to my
blog with position data. So far no luck. Das Why Hard!

I'm a Geoblogger Now!

2009-10-06T11:28:00.009-10:00

Position: llz=21.444505, -158.024262, 18

I seem to have it working, but now the challenge is to become a Mobile GeoBlogger. It really isn't too hard to do from a computer attached to the internet, but I want to post GeoTagged blogs from my iPhone in the middle of Haleakala crater. That is my next challenge! This blog post is my first experiment with that.

More Geotagging Testing

2009-10-06T08:55:00.001-10:00

This is a geotagged blog entry. Theoretically I can search for it by location. We'll give it a shot. Testing continues. The tag code looks like this:

meta name="geo.placename" content="KITV, Honolulu, HI 96814, USA"

meta name="geo.position" content="21.290389;-157.840000"

meta name="geo.region" content=""

meta name="ICBM" content="21.290389, -157.840000"

But the real code is embedded in the HTML of this post. I derived this meta-tag from this really cool website:

http://mygeoposition.com/

It's a little late to be working on all of this, and I hear cell phone coverage in the crater is sketchy at best, but the geek inside me is driven to find a solution to have a hike map with all the blogs and photos in position where they occurred on the hike, along with a track of our actual route. Might be a bit too much to accomplish without ruining the "outdoors" experience. If I could at least record the data for later assemblage, that might work better.

Peace, Love and Cyber-hiking

Rich

48 Hour Weather Data for Haleakala

2009-10-05T13:53:00.003-10:00

Looks like the high will be around 52 (12 C) and the low around 40 (6 C). Very high humidity means likelihood of fog, as evidenced in the webcam, even at noon. Not much wind.

Manana Ridge Trail hike

2009-09-26T19:34:00.009-10:00

Today we did another 'warm up hike' along the Manana Ridge Trail. It was beautiful! I can't believe it has taken me this long to enjoy this trail! Gorgeous. I would love to take it all the way to the end someday!

We invited Hayden, Bradley's friend from school to join us. We had all our packs and such on because we were in training for Haleakala, but Hayden just carried a bottle of watter. Irt was kind of funny actually! He always was tallking and energetic, while at time we were struggling up a steep incline. Ha! Glad to have him along.

I wanted to test post a few things from the hike.

<p><br /> <a href="http://www.trailguru.com/wiki/index.php/Track:9GP1">Manana Ridge Trail Explore (Hiking) | Pearl City, HI 96782, USA</a><br /> </p>

All the photos can be seen on my Flickr page here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fueldepot/sets/72157622338297755/

Peace Love and Long Walks,

Rich

Testing TrailGuru

2009-09-24T22:42:00.001-10:00

Giving this app/website combo a try.

Preparation continues

2009-09-24T08:25:00.001-10:00

Hi Gang,

I picked up what will be Bradley's backpack from Gary on Tuesday. I have to go through another sizing session with the boys to get their packs fitting correctly.

We will be buying our tickets on Friday. Gary is doing almost all of the trip with frequent flyer miles. We have been watching the ticket prices closely, and unfortunately they've started going up. It should be our last large expense.

I'm trying some new software for tracking the hike. Looking at TrailGuru now. Seems to be a fairly mature product. Here are some samples from this morning's walk:

Standard walk around the 'hood. (Walking) | Mililani, HI 96789, USA

And here's another:

Hmm.. Doesn't work . I was expecting a graph of my elevation versus pace. This is exactly the kind of problem I want to solve now, rather than when I am really counting on it!

That's it for now. Stay tuned!

Geotagged map of Haleakala

2009-09-10T09:47:00.004-10:00

For the hike, when I am able to post photos, they will appear on a map like this one, but I'll constrain it to only be my photos. Every photo will have a GPS geotag with it and so hopefully you can see where every single picture was taken. I've never played with this kind of tech before so I still have to do some more testing. Stay tuned.

Haleakala Map with Geotagged photos

Not Impressed

2009-09-10T06:03:00.003-10:00

Not impressed with the hike tracking software. It shows promise, but under-delivers. I think I may be inclined to stick with my fitness walk-run software and Flickr for geotagged photos.

Here is a test link to a Flickr Map.

http://www.flickr.com/map?&fLat=21.4382&fLon=-158.0169&zl=3&order_by=recent

Gotta Run!

Rich

Our adventure will be here

2009-09-09T21:41:00.001-10:00

Here is an example of an Accuterra map.

Accuterra iPhone app

2009-09-09T21:39:00.001-10:00

Trying out a new hike tracking app for iPhone called Accuterra. We'll see. I wish I could measure map distances on the app. I was surprised to find I could not. I'm warm to the app but not giddy. It needs more refinement.

I also need to solve the power issue for the iPhone. Anyone have some flexible solar panels they want me to test for them? Spread the word!

Ka Iwi Shoreline parking

2009-09-09T21:21:00.001-10:00

Hi,

Testing a new app to possibly record our trip with.

I used AccuTerra on my iPhone to record a waypoint. Check it out:

Story: we thought this was an isolated location, but then discovered how crowded it is now.

The AccuTerra applications are available on Apple's iPhone App Store:

To learn more about AccuTerra on your phone visit: mobile.AccuTerra.com
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Haleakala backpacking

2009-09-08T07:45:00.002-10:00

Hi friends,

When I was a kid my family did a lot of backpacking. We spent many 3 day weekends in the woods or high on a mountaintop. Sometimes it was beautiful, and sometimes it was a wet miserable experience. Even if it was hard I still cherished every moment (at least that's how I remember it. My dad will assure you that I whined a lot, especially as a younger hiker!). I have forgotten any pain or tiredness and only remember the beautiful views and experiences.

Well now I want my boys to have those same experiences and memories. Early this summer, I committed myself to taking the boys to Haleakala for a 3 day, 2 night backpacking trip. I got my buddy on board, with his boys, and now we are just a little over a month away from making it a reality!

I have been gathering gear and taking the boys on day hikes around Oahu. They have been great and really enjoy it! I still need a pack for Bryan and then I think I'll have all my non-food major purchases covered.

I plan on making this blog the online journal for the trip. I don't quite know what kind of access I'll have in the crater, maybe not much, but I'll post what I can. If you'd like to follow along, check back here often!

Looking forward to sharing our adventure with all of you!,

Peace, Love and Long Walks,

Rich

Expressive Purpose

2009-08-05T07:05:00.001-10:00

Hi Everyone (or should I say Anyone?),

Just thought I'd drop a little line in here to say "Hey". I was just reading an article on CNN.com about the shift from blogging to micro-blogging, and in that discussion I realized why this blog has died: It was strippped of it's purpose.

I started blogging with another blog called "A Hope and a Future", which was how I dealt with leaving my home church of 12 years in search for another.

I caught the blogging bug then, and I enjoyed the self expression and creative outlet it provided. I wanted to maintain the theme of that blog, but I was beginning to have other things I wanted to share about in my life. That is when I started The Fuel Depot. It was just my creative outlet regarding observations, funny experiences and the comings and goings of my family.

When Twitter, and then Facebook came along, those were better vehicles for this kind of expression. I never stopped sharing, it just sort of transferred over there. I didn't realize it, but I had killed this blog's purpose.

So now what? I'm not going to delete this blog,... ever! I am in search of a new expressive purpose for this space. I think if I ever identify something that excites me, that needs the longer format of a blog, and that other people would be interested in reading, then things will pick up here again. Any suggestions? For now, this blog is chillin'.

For all the action, check out:

http://www.Twitter.com/Richfuel
or
Friend me on Facebook. I keep Twitter fairly open, but I do keep my Facebook friends to people I know or trust.

Peace, Love and Purpose,

Richfuel

Wow. That long ago

2009-06-09T22:12:00.002-10:00

Hi Gang,

Wow, I've really fallen off the ole' blog-wagon. Sorry. April 29th was my last entry? Wow. I suck.

I have been blocked by the overwhelming task of blogging about the Cal Poly and New Mexico trips, but it never seemed I had enough time to write about everything that happened. The trips were amazing! They should be shared. Hopefully someday.

Not tonight. I'm sleepy.

(yet another apology blog!)

Rich

New Photos from our San Francisco Trip!

2009-04-29T06:22:00.001-10:00

Click Link:

New Photos from our San Francisco Trip!

Cal Poly and SF Updates Due soon

2009-04-27T21:36:00.002-10:00

Hi Friends,

We had a tremendous time at Cal Poly and the subsequent mini-vacation in San Francisco. We are still unpacking our bags and uploading photos and still have to keep up with life too, so as soon as we can, we'll upload the stories and the photos and share it all with you.

Peace, Love and Mini-adventures,

Rich

Bradley's 11th birthday!

2009-04-04T06:54:00.001-10:00

Today is Bradley's 11th birthday! Hard to believe it was eleven years ago that he completed our family! I remember that when the doctor arrived to check on Em they were surprised how quickly Bradley was coming and the had to rush to set up for the delivery just in time!

Bradley is such a tender hearted kid who is generous, and thoughtful and loves music and games and laughter! Happy 11th birthday Bradley!

5,000 Twitters milestone.

2009-03-21T04:37:00.001-10:00

GeoTagged, [N21.44553, E158.01993]

Hi all!

I know many of you noticed when my blogging habits changed and it seemed I fell off the face of the earth. What have I been doing? Micro-blogging on a service called Twitter. I've alreadt written about Twitter and Facebook before, so you can scroll back to find that, but I just wanted to share that I just passed the 5,000 twitters mark! Wow, who knew I had 5,000 comments to make about anything!

Anyways, mostly with this entry I am testing the paid version of Blogwriter for iPhone to see how the photo attaching and geotagging functions work.

Peace, Love and 5,000 Alohas,

Rich

My Journey to Geekdom

2009-03-20T08:46:00.002-10:00

I'm trying to figure out what influenced me so strongly toward geekdom.

I suppose it started with being rather unsuccessful at sports. I was fearful of being hit by the pitcher when I played baseball, and I hated running which limited most other sports. I played (and loved) volleyball and tennis in high school, but that faded away after college.

I loved Star Trek as a kid. It appealed to me very deeply, and I'm not sure I could tell you why. I had the Enterprise blueprints and all sorts of inane facts memorized. Star Trek was soon followed by Star Wars and it was all over. Yeah, I had the Star Wars bedsheets, what's it to ya!

I think the first real computer I saw was during a field trip to the National Weather Service. Buttons, lights, satellites, faxes, radios, meters, dials,... I was in geek heaven. It was on that day I decided I wanted to work with "buttons and lights". That's exactly how I phrased it!

At the time, the biggest job involving buttons and lights was at Houston's Mission Control for NASA. That seemed like the dream job to me!

I think my future geekdom was set in concrete though, when my parents sent me to Computer Summer School at JAIMS (Japan American Institute of Management Science) in Hawaii Kai with my best friend, David. It was also the first time I learned how to ride the bus by myself! We had 3 weeks of BASIC training on TRS-80s, and 3 weeks of FORTRAN on the schools giant mainframe computer! The computer guys wore lab coats! It filled a large room and required using a card punch to program! I am so glad I had that experience, even though I never again touched FORTRAN.

David's dad was a lawyer, and they had a WANG computer! He invited us over on a weekend once and we logged onto "The Well" (an early Compuserve-like service) and played a rudimentary Star Trek like game in all it's green monochrome text-based goodness. All resistance was futile from that point on!

TRS-80s, Apple ]['s, our family's first Mac (512k Fat mac) and the story continues on to today, as I sit in a Starbucks, reminiscing with you via my iPhone, about to go to work as a computer graphics artist. Amazing!

Peace, love, and dreams which come true,

Rich

What if I Died Today? (I almost did)

2009-03-11T08:43:00.006-10:00

Today I was nearly flattened by a bus.

OK, so that is the most dramatic way I could phrase what really happened. I was getting off the bus downtown and I was getting my bike off the front rack. I like this driver and I told her I was getting my bike. Usually I'm very fast getting my bike off, and this time was no exception, but a part of the rack that is spring loaded didn't retract normally and was sticking out. I set my bike down on the sidewalk and went back to fix the rack (changed my pattern). I was still fiddling with that spring loaded arm, when the engine fires up and the bus starts moving toward me, and not just a little! She's leaving! I jumped back to the curb, the bus literally brushing my backpack! The sudden movement catches her eye and she stops the bus, and we trade good intentioned nervous looks. I returned to fix the rack which only required a good thwack to retract (nearly my dying act!) and waved aloha to the bus driver.

Then I sat down. Wow. What if....

The good news? I was OK with the what if's. Yesterday, I told my parents I loved them (each personally).

Last weekend I told Bryan how proud I was of him and that I love him. I also told him no matter how successful he is in life, it is his relationship with God that is most important, and how happy I was that he has already begun that relationship. My last words to him were words of thanks.

Last night I gave Bradley his cough medicine at 4am, gave him a big hug and sat on the edge of his bed until he fell back asleep, stroking his hair and humming "Amazing Grace".

Yesterday, I gave Em a smothering hug too (she was trying to tell me something and I wasn't listening) and held her hand while I fell asleep (she was already fast asleep). I regretted the little "nipping at each other" that we do when life pressures get the best of us.

Our family is (recently) out of consumer debt, own our own home, and my life insurance is paid up. My family would be fine financially.

I hold nothing against anyone and I don't think anyone is holding anything against me. Other than for being a general selfish clod, my forgiveness slate is clear.

KITV would miss me, initially, but no one is indispensable and Trish or someone new would take my place.

Lastly, I live in the confident assurance that if something happened to me, my eternity is secure. Not because of any goodness on my part, but based solely on my faith in Jesus, with whom I have a deep and very real relationship. I have no doubt that for me to be "absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord" and I still hold on to that inevitable future ahead of me.

Now let's be clear, I have no desire to die early, but today's bus close-call made me check how I'm living, against what I value. I am relieved at what I discovered, and I think that is rare.

Still, I think it might be healthy to treat everyday here forward as a gift, and make the very most of whatever time I have left, be it a day or another 60 years. Clearly God isn't done with me here yet.

Peace, Love and... Peace,

Rich

Video from tonight's EARC meeting

2009-02-26T22:42:00.002-10:00

We had a great time tonight at the Emergency Amateur Radio Club and we tried something new. We live streamed the meeting to the internet! Here is the video. If you watch the whole thing it will take 2 hours, so maybe just scan through and watch the SSB radio technology presentation Ron Hashiro (AH6RH) gives.

Aloha!

Bryan Demos his Cubesat at U.H.

2009-02-24T21:49:00.002-10:00

We are so very proud of Bryan tonight! Because of some very generous offers, Bryan was invited to present his Cubesat to Dr. Wayne Shiroma and his team at the Hawaii Space Flight Lab on the University of Hawaii campus. Dr. Shiroma, who is a leader in this field, said that as far as he knew, no one has ever built their own Cubesat and was looking forward to seeing Bryan's.

We had a great time there having one the the geekiest Show-and-Tells I've ever had and we loved every minute of it.

One thing that they made very clear was that they wanted Bryan to attend UH when he gets to college. It is an exciting time at the University because they may be the ONLY university to have the capability to build AND LAUNCH their own Cubesats.

Anyway, check out Bryan's Scienze Blog for his perspective and all the photos.

Peace, Love and Opportunities,

Rich

Photos from Paintball! Splat Splat!

2009-02-23T22:38:00.002-10:00

Bradley took a nasty hit to his finger!

WalMart Vision Center Rocks!

2009-02-19T22:42:00.009-10:00

Hi Friends,

Many of you don't know that I have been wearing half eyeglasses this week because the arm (temple) broke off and I am still waiting for new contacts. It has been annoying and kind of embarrassing and was really getting on my nerves this week.

I just want to share my experience with all of you about my chance visit to WalMart Vision Center tonight. I was passing by as I was headed into the store and saw Matteo hanging out behind the otherwise quiet optical counter. For some reason I changed course and without a plan or a clue entered the optical section at Walmart. Right away Matteo greeted me and set me at ease. I told him I had a problem, showed him my broken glasses and asked him if there was anything he could do to help.

He kindly took my glasses and without making any promises, began to rummage through a box of old glasses and spare parts. Eventually we found the right combination of a temple and a screw and he had my glasses fixed!

But then he continued on and replaced my gross old nose pads and adjusted their position. He cleaned the lenses for me and fitted the glasses to my head until they were just right. All this took him a little past his closing time, but he didn't complain at all.

After all of that time and above-the-call-of-duty service he even posed for a great picture for me with a smile!

Thanks to Matteo for an awesome job helping me see clearly again and renewing a pair of old glasses to feel like new! Everyone should go visit my new friend Matteo at the Walmart Vision Center!

Peace Love and Clear Focus,

Rich

KIPO Bytemarks Cafe Appearance

2009-02-19T14:48:00.007-10:00

Hi Gang,

Ron Hashiro (AH6RH) and I appeared on KIPO's Bytemarks Cafe to talk about amateur radio yesterday. It was an hour long program and our part began about 20 minutes into it. Listen near the end for my mental derailment when I totally blanked for a moment! I lost my train of thought, then PANIC ensued! Took me a moment to get rolling forward again, but fortunately didn't sound nearly as bad as it felt.

Here is the link:

Bytemarks Cafe - February 18, 2009 - "Amateur Radio's Role in Emergencies"

It was great fun and I am so grateful to Burt and Ryan for having us on, and giving us an opportunity to talk about our hobby. The feedback has been encouraging too.

Peace Love and Opportunities,

Rich

BlogWriterLite

2009-02-19T09:40:00.003-10:00

Been busy, especially this week.

I have good news! I have replaced the LifeCast blogging app (FAIL) with BlogWriterLite (so far so good). I'm hoping this leads to me showing up here in my own blog more often. The problem wasn't that I wasn't blogging, it was that my wonderful blog creations in LifeCast were not posting, and there was no other way of getting them out of the LifeCast app. It was so frustrating.

The only problem with the BlogWriterLite app is that if I receive a call while I am composing a blog entry, when I return to the app, everything is lost! I discovered that this morning! I hope they fix that bug because that could become very annoying! It needs some sort of autosave feature before switching to the phone app.

If I like the Lite version, I may spring for the full version which will let me do photos too. That would be sweet. I am shocked that it has taken me so long to find a decent Blogger app. Still not sure if I have yet or not, but I am hopeful.

Peace Love and new App-isodes to come!

Rich

Testing a new blog app

2009-02-12T10:41:00.001-10:00

I just want to see if this will work. No news to report... Yet!

More Experimenting

2009-02-12T06:57:00.001-10:00

Well, I just poured my heart and soul out into another post, and yet again the mobile blogging program failed me. Can I get any recommendations for a blogger app that works on an iPhone and with Blogger?

Posted with LifeCast

It's Emily's Birthday! Happy Dance!

2009-02-02T12:53:00.002-10:00

Happy Birthday Emily!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Science Fair Projects Completed

2009-01-23T08:14:00.004-10:00

(Click on photo for larger view)

Many of you know that Bryan and I have been working long nights on his satellite for the Hanalani Science Fair. It is completed and you can learn all about it on his project journal / blog Bryan's Scienze (http://brysci.blogspot.com) Wish him luck!

Bradley has also completed his first ever Science Fair and presented a beautiful board titled "Is a Rat Smart". He tried to train the rats to ring a bell when they wanted to be fed.

I am so proud of both of my boys! We are looking forward to a little relax time now that these big projects are completed.

Peace, Love, and Science,

Rich

Bryan's Science Fair

2009-01-14T07:58:00.002-10:00

Aloha to all,

It is science fair time at the Fewell house and we have been putting almost all out free family time towards completing the projects. This is the first year we have 2 projects to do, as Bradley has come of science fair age. Brad is doing his about rat intelligence and Bryan is doing the usual electronics thing. This year he is building a CubeSat, a 10x10 cm satellite. He is building it from scratch!

No doubt we have some very late nights ahead of us, and we all wish we had started earlier. (Mom & Dad are resisting the urge to say "I told you so!").

Brad's project is due on Friday and Bryan's next Thursday (fortunately due to an unexpected extension!)

If you'd like to follow along on Bryan's project, check out his personal science blog, Bryan's Scienze. If you do check it out, leave him an encouraging comment! Every one helps it seem worthwhile.

Peace, Love and Science,

Rich

iPhone Blogging Not Working

2009-01-05T23:47:00.001-10:00

If I ever get this iPhone blogging app working I'll start up again here. Meanwhile, patience I plead.

Rich

Posted with LifeCast

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T07:55:00.001-10:00

Happy New Year!!

(I promise to blog more this year)

Peace Love and a Great 2009,

Rich

Rain, and lots of it

2008-12-11T21:29:00.003-10:00

We just weathered a massive rainstorm last night! It rained a total of 5.4 inches on our house, with 90% of that coming between 3am and 7am. It was wild! I collected a few of the photos I took on my iPhone and put them in a gallery. Check it out:

Rain of December 11th Gallery

When I got up in the morning, I discovered my weather station gear wasn't posting to the internet. I fixed it and got data from 4:30ish on.

Peace, Love and Dry Days Ahead,

Rich

December Update

2008-12-02T20:05:00.003-10:00

Sorry it has been so long since I've written!

November was a very busy time both at work and at home. At work we had not even recovered from the General Election coverage before we we waist deep in sweeps. At home, we were rapidly trying to prepare the house for our Thanksgiving celebration which turned out great for all 26 of us (yup!). I also went to a Men's Retreat with our church and had a good and deeply meaningful time there.

As this month begins, it seems to be a month of changes. My boss announced that this will be his last month with KITV. We will be going into the new year without a manager until they decide to hire another one or dissolve our department, and roll it into others. There has been no mention of what direction it may be, but corporately, they have not replaced the Creative Services Director after he left 5 months ago. I don't feel like I am in any danger of losing my job, but no doubt changes are in my future. It should be exciting, no doubt.

We are also very nearly out a debt. When we finally make that last payment we are looking forward to redirecting that money elsewhere. We have fallen behind in other arenas and we will still have some catch up to do in areas of maintenance and savings and the like. Looking at the current economy I feel very blessed to have a secure job and be debt free.

We are looking forward to spending some time with our Maui family during the holidays. We may even be taking the Superferry too, which I am looking forward to. I'll be sure to let all of you know what that is like. It will be so good to spend time with both our families and eat and sleep and read and rest.

That's enough of an update for now. If you have any questions let me know by email. I'm not very good at keeping in touch and sometimes I need a nudge.

Wishing everyone Peace, Love and Joy during this holiday season,

Rich

Did You Know? I didn't

2008-11-17T19:55:00.003-10:00

I sent this to some friends and got quite a response. Maybe it will interest more of you if you haven't seen it already. I was stunned by the information in this video. You may be too.

(press PLAY)

The Way Things End Up

2008-11-12T08:19:00.000-10:00

This morning I woke up feeling very thoughtful. I was re-analyzing past decisions in light of where I am now, trying to see if, in the current light, past cloudy decisions are any clearer.

(Oh wow. Even as I write this there are 2 guys next to me at Starbucks discussing the same decision I was analyzing.)

I started thinking about my direction in life, and where I am now in comparison to where I thought I was going to be. Obviously they don't line up well.

I notice that young people have such a confidence that they are going to change the world. They are going to leave their mark on history. I remember thinking that way, but it seems like those intentions evaporate. Reality quietly sets in and hardens like concrete, to the point that the energy necessary to break out is too great for us and we settle for what is, rather than what could have been.

Is this just a lifestage thing? Is anyone else my age feeling this? Is everyone feeling this?

It seems it is a pattern with so many things in my life:

Our old church started so strong and ready to change the world, and ended (for us) with hurts, distrust, division, and sorrow. (on the mend)

Our marriage started blissfully, but guess what, it got hard! We went through some really tough patches. Praise God we are still together (on the mend).

When I started my career, I was hot stuff! (Ha!). I was fast, accurate, conscientious and committed! It's been a while now since I've felt even a little warm! (ha ha)

My video ministry at New Hope Mililani restarted a year and a half ago with an explosion of activity and plans. Here I am a year later struggling to maintain status quo.

Plans and dreams seem to corrode. What was shiny clear and new becomes battered, rusted and weathered.

Isn't that one of the laws of thermodynamics? That things tend to deteriorate unless energy is added to them?

The only thing that is stable and unchanging in my life is my relationship with the Lord. He has been a constant through all the changes and stresses in life, a source of comfort and wisdom. He is a friend like no other, who draws near to me in times of trouble or joy.

Some of you may be sarcastically thinking "...must be nice to have a perfect imaginary friend.", or you are surprised by the personal "relationship" terms I use when talking about God. I know. There are all manner of crazy ideas and suspect motivations out there. All I can say at the moment is that the presence of God's Spirit feels very real, the wisdom I apply seems to work, and the character issues He reveals to me are not my own ideas. I understand myself, others and the world better and I find fulfillment in pleasing God in my heart and actions. I wish I would do that more consistently, but I have a foe, my old wayward nature.

From the beginning we are independent creatures, not submitted to God. We are born that way, each one. Our waywardness causes a rift between us and God. I suspect that is one of the reasons the best of intentions always seem to deteriorate into something less than ideal. The Bible calls it sin and it is a disease we all have, but many don't even know it, or they hear the diagnosis and deny it. It is a terminal disease. For God to remain perfect he must punish sin. For all of us, that's bad news because the punishment is death!

Here is the good news. God has taken the punishment we deserved and applied it to His Son Jesus who lived a perfect life, and satisfied the requirement of justice. He died from our terminal disease, then God broke the power of death over man and raised Jesus from the dead. What remains is for us to admit we are wayward, agree to the transaction, and restart a new life with God.

Each person has to decide for themselves. No one can decide for you, and just like in our recent ballot question voting, a blank vote is counted as a no.

You can decide how the most important decision in your life ends up. All it takes is a sincere conversation with God. Tell Him you know you've been living independently from Him and you want to accept his offer of Jesus and start a new relationship submitted to Him. That is when your new life begins.

For me and my family, it was the best and most important decision we ever made. It didn't make us perfect, but it freed us from the burden of our sin and enabled us to live new lives.

I encourage you to consider for yourself what you will do with God's offer. Decide now, or start your journey of discovery to see if what I've written here is true. It is the most important, significant, eternal decision you will ever make.

This time, you get to decide the way things end up. Choose wisely.

Wishing everyone Peace, Love and New Life,

Rich

Posted with LifeCast

Blind Testing

2008-10-27T08:30:00.003-10:00

Something just happened to me and I have to share it. I was on my bike in downtown Honolulu, biking along S. King street toward KITV. I was still in the heart of downtown at Alakea and S. King. I pulled up to a stop light (on the road) just as it turned red. The pedestrians began crossing in front of me. There was one pedestrian left behind and immediately it is obvious that he is blind. He has a long white cane and was wearing very unusual blacked out goggles that covered his eyes and forehead. (It was gi-normous, with an acrylic-like face!)

One of the first pedestrians arriving from the other side let him know it's OK to cross, so he started out, sweeping his cane in a really wide arc as people scattered wildly in front of him realizing his condition themselves. He passed me just fine, but then began to drift out of the crosswalk and was heading over to the middle of a stopped bus! His cane was going to sweep under the bus and he wouldn't know it was there until he hit it!

I called over and then rode over to him telling him to come towards my voice. He stopped just in the nick of time and turned and was now walking toward me, parallel to the bus. "This is good" I thought until I saw his head heading for the massive rear-view mirror on that side of the bus. I called out frantically, trying to warn him, but he didn't respond and I cringed fearing the worst....whoosh it just missed his head! As he passed the front of the bus he turned toward the curb and found it and got up on the sidewalk, successfully having crossed the street.

The light had already turned green by this point but everyone was cool and when he was safe, traffic began to flow again. He never spoke once.

I find myself analyzing this experience over and over. Was he really blind?

I've seen blind people before and I've never seen them swing their cane in such a wild, wide arc. It was almost as if he was trying to scatter the people. He never asked for help or said thank you, (not that that is important for me, but I would think communication is key to safety in a situation like that). Despite me calling out, he took several steps until he stopped just shy of the bus. I also don't remember telling him to turn toward the curb after he had passed the front of the bus. He seemed to do that on his own. How did he know?

Here are the possibilities:
1. He is really blind. If so, I feel terrible for doubting it, and I would be concerned for his safety. He is not ready for being solo in an urban environment.

2. He is newly blind. Perhaps this was the first day he mustered up enough courage to leave the apartment and go to the corner market himself. If so, good on him!

3. His giant black-out goggles are a training tool. He may be training to work with the blind and as a training exercise he has to "walk a day in their shoes".

4. This is a TV show or social experiment to see what happens. Perhaps he could see dimly through the goggles and was fabricating situations to record and evaluate the reactions of others. There were plenty of places to record that scene from if it were so. It would sort of explain the near misses and other behavior.

Fortunately, no matter which is true, my actions should still be the same. Help to guide the gentleman across the street.

After he was safe and I left, I wished I had stayed with the guy and guided him all the way to his destination. Perhaps then I would have known better his condition and the truth of the situation. I guess I will never know. If anyone ever sees a TV show with that kind of set up situation, let me know.

Peace Love and Character Testing,

Rich

Badger Me at Your Own Risk!

2008-10-23T09:09:00.007-10:00

Today's Dilbert had me in tears I was laughing so hard. It probably won't be as funny for you, but I was dying! I had to share it.

Mahalo and "props" to Dilbert.com

UPDATE: Added after great recommendation by twitterer RossB (Courtesy GreystoneInn.net)

Peace Love and Patience,

Rich
(often badgered KITV artist)

A "Wrench-ing" Journey

2008-10-18T22:10:00.001-10:00

My first experiment with Animoto, creating a slideshow celebrating my mechanical victory.

It's Alive!

2008-10-18T13:12:00.003-10:00

After many weeks and cautious slow progress, I got my truck running again! You can be there too by watching the video:

Free Videos by Ustream.TV

I'm not done with everything I want to do on the truck, but I can drive it again! Woo Hoo!

Peace, Love and Purring Engines,

Rich

Top 5 Creativity Killers

2008-10-16T09:58:00.005-10:00

Reposting from Freelance Folder:

How do you get your creative juices flowing?

I get that question a lot from fellow freelancers, and unfortunately there’s no perfect answer because we’re all different and we all have a different working style.

But for those of you who have asked, here are my top 5 creativity killers and how I manage to stay focused, productive and creative.

#1 — Multi-Tasking And Distractions
I know some people have mastered the art of multi-tasking and working on tons of things at once. I tried and it’s not for me. There is no way I can focus on a project while trying to reply to emails, talk on the phone and chat on Skype. In order to get my creative juices flowing I absolutely need to focus all my attention and energy on one thing: work on that project.

Multi-tasking is not for me, but I can get just as much done in a day as someone who multi-tasks. It’s actually really easy and it’s nothing new, all you need is a schedule and you have to stick to it. When I need to work on a project and I find that I’m not inspired (say it’s a design for a client) I simply turn off my phone, close my emails get rid of all distractions and then get back to work. It works every single time.

I find I get much more done in 2 hours when I’m focussed than I do in 8 hours multi-tasking.

#2 — Lack Of Sleep
One of the cool things about freelancing is that you can work your own hours. That’s great! But for many of us it also means working evenings and week-ends and sometimes not sleeping much! There is always work that needs to be done, and clients that need our attention.

Lack of sleep can be a real creativity killer! How can you focus on something and be inspired when you’re dead tired? Work is still gonna be there tomorrow! Get a good night sleep and come back the next day with new ideas and a fresh perspective!

On a side note, our very own Dave Navarro has a program called ‘Becoming An Early Riser‘ and I have to say it helped me a lot in getting up earlier and getting more stuff done in a day. Try it and see if it works for you!

#3 — Fear Of Rejection
I’m sure it happened to all of us at some point, the fear of rejection. It’s not fun and it can definitely kill your creativity. There is no way you can please everyone and it’ll happen you will present something to a client and it’ll get rejected. It happens.

By all means, do not take it personally! Instead, try to use that (sometimes negative) energy and use it in a productive and creative way. Learn from that experience and go back to that drawing board and kick some ass. Always remember that if you got hired to do some work it’s because that person thinks you’re talented and remember that you’re probably not the first freelancer this person contacted for the project.

#4 — Financial Insecurity
It’s not easy to focus on a project when all you think about is your car payment, your credit cards and the mortgage. I used to always worry about money when I quit my day job a couple years ago because I was so used to the security of a paycheck every two weeks! The first year was very difficult and I was never sure I’d be able to make that car payment and then I realized I could just raise my prices a bit and I would then be able to put some money aside and voila!

I’m a web-designer and I have no idea what the average per hour rate is in Canada, nor do I care. There will always be someone willing to do the job for cheaper than me. And I’m fine with that! At the end of the day it all comes down to how much time you’re willing to trade for a certain amount of money. I prefer charging slightly more, focus on less projects and and have more time for other things like personal projects (which will bring me money in the long run).

#5 — Pressure And Deadlines
Some clients have very high expectations, and it’s understandable. Remember, they pay your bills! But can you really be creative when you’re under heavy pressure? Some people have no problem with stress but for those of us who do it’s fairly easy to make sure you’re never under pressure and still always deliver!

Always under-promise. Say you have a design gig and you know it’ll take you 3 weeks to complete it, well simply tell your client it’ll take 4 weeks! Works wonder, no stress and happy clients every time!

Jon Phillips

******

About the author: Jon is a full-time freelancer, blogger and designer, he loves WordPress and plays guitar in a heavy act. he can also be found on Twitter.

The day I almost drowned.

2008-10-14T21:54:00.006-10:00

Bryan is heading to Maui tomorrow for a class trip. This won't be the first time he's been away either. I can't remember my first trip away from home, away from Mom and Dad.

Let's see, it was probably a church camp at Camp Olomana. I slept in a bunk bed, stayed up too late talking, was terrified of taking a shower, and (the most vivid memory),... I almost drowned.

There was a pool full of kids and inner-tubes. It was packed, and loud and chaotic. I remember jumping off the diving board and landing in the water, I swam toward the surface and bumped someone's butt. I laughed underwater.

This turned out to be a big problem. I exhaled a lot of air laughing and lost most of my air reserve and my buoyancy. I scootched over a bit and swam upward again, this time blocked by an inner-tube. I started sinking and began to have that panicky feeling. I was still in the deep end of the pool, so I couldn't push off the bottom. It was a long way down.

I struggled and kicked upward again and came up where 5 or 6 inner-tubes were rafted together, each with a kid sitting on them, oblivious to me below. I tried to tip one over so I could break through and catch a gulp of air, but I had no leverage. Every attempt to push an inner-tube merely sent me toward the bottom, but not far enough down that I could jump upward with any speed.

I knew I was in trouble then and my lungs were screaming for air. I made one last upward attempt and this time missed all the inner-tubes and broke the surface of the water and breathed in deeply. My lungs filled with cool air and my ears filled with the sound of laughing and splashing and "Marco?, Polo!" No one had any idea I had almost died (or so I felt). I got out of the pool, and honestly, quickly forgot about how close I had come to inhaling water. The most vivid parts of the memory were the panic, and the sounds of kids laughing from underwater.

As I type this, Bryan is trying on a new pair of swim shorts. I guess he'll be swimming on Maui. I know it is irrational for me to be upset, but I'm saying a special prayer of protection over him for this trip. Tomorrow I get up at 4am to drive him to the airport. I'm sure he will have a great time there. Just a tip, stay away from the inner-tubes Bryan!

Peace Love and Access to Air,

Rich

Birthday in Photos

2008-10-13T23:55:00.000-10:00

Creativity, Where Are You?

2008-10-10T08:00:00.008-10:00

Lately I feel as though I've lost my creative side. Is it smothered? Is it dead? Did I grow out of it? Or is of that I'm just tired? It is affecting my work, ministry and even my 'play'..

When I was a kid, I used to play role playing games a lot. Massive amounts of imagination were required. The more colorful and detailed the better. Even today I still run an occasional game with my old buddies, but lately, just haven't felt the spark.

I play guitar. That should be a creative outlet, but again, I feel like I'm just playing the same songs over and over, and yet I'm not improving or growing. I have no new influences to challenge me or share with.

I've been working at KITV 17 years (thereabouts), the last 10 or so in graphics. The same projects come up year after year. The technology improves, but not finding much creative excitement there lately.

Video editing for my church used to be a huge satisfaction. I loved creating testimonies and baptism videos for our church. Not so much anymore. Now I think mostly of the massive amount of work and time needed to pull off a project and I feel overwhelmed by it. It wasn't like that before.

I think this is why some fields, especially repetitive ones, have sabbaticals. An extended period of time to pull out, refocus, retrain, reequip, and recharge. The picture in my head is of an empty water gun. With every pull of the trigger it has strong streams of water flowing from a full reservoir, but eventually it begins to spatter and sputter and eventually only a moist mist comes out, yet many kids keep pulling the trigger. Sometimes you need to take the time and run back to the faucet and refill the tank to have an effective tool again.

I don't know where my faucet is, or how to refill my tank, but definitely feel like I'm running on empty. Hopefully, this upcoming vacation will be the beginning of a recharge, but how full can the tank get in only a week? It's like throwing a cellphone on the charger for 5 minutes before heading back out the door. Almost insignificant.

Don't know what the answer is.

I signed up for a fun group challenge in November called National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write a 175 page (50,000 word) novel I'm 30 days. It is unashamedly an exercise in throughput, not quality. That may be so, but several NaNoWriMo novels have been published and 1 was even on the a New York Times Best Seller! Mine won't be I'm sure, but perhaps is will stir up some latent creativity and give me the boost I need. I have no idea if I can write that much, but we'll see.

Peace, Love and Creativity,

Rich

Posted with LifeCast

My Time In The Shack

2008-09-26T09:46:00.007-10:00

I just finished an amazing journey this week. It was to a dilapidated shack deep in the heart of Oregon's backcountry. The journey was not taken by air or car, but via the book "The Shack" by William P. Young. I flew through this book and loved every moment of it.

When I first heard of the book, I had my guard up. Most fictional works regarding God contain gross distortions or incomplete pictures of Him, and no doubt any work describing God is going to be limited and incomplete. But I started reading with my shields and sensors up, looking to identify the "Aha! There it is!" moments of theological weakness.

I'm an idiot.

This work captured my heart, skirted my defenses and quickly started transforming my preconceptions about my spiritual life. I very quickly switched from a critical mind to an open heart.

(Spoiler Alert)

It is the story of a mid-life dad, raising a family. During a family vacation in Oregon, his youngest daughter Missy goes missing (abducted). An all out search is undertaken which ends in the crushing discovery of her blood stained dress in a remote shack deep in the woods of Oregon's back country. The family is plunged into a deep despair, and "Mac", the dad, is haunted by guilt and regrets which never fade.

Years later, still emotionally a wreck, he receives a note in the mail which reads "Meet me at the shack this weekend. Papa.". Papa is the wife's "pet name" for God. After ruling out pranks and bad jokes, Mac secretly packs some gear and heads to the "ground zero" of his despair. The resulting spiritual journey will captivate your mind and release your own misconceptions about who God is and the relationship He desires with us.

I "read" this as an audiobook (iTunes $3.95), and I would highly recommend that, if you are not the reading type. The embarrassing part was, I found myself (multiple times) wiping tears from my eyes on the bus or other public places I happened to be listening. You've been warned!

It was a mistake to approach the book looking for theological flaws. Just join your heart to Mac's and share in the journey he goes through. If you have never read a "religious" book, this is the one to read. It won't be long before you may be raving about the time you spent in "The Shack". It is time well spent, and it is no overstatement to say it could change your life and even your eternity.

Peace, Love and Good Books,

Rich

Posted with LifeCast

Humble Pie

2008-09-16T18:07:00.002-10:00

Hi Gang,

I haven't been blogging lately because the most major thing going on in my life right now is a personal failure.

I did not complete an assignment I had agreed to do for our church. It was a promotional video for our upcoming Flourish worship concert on Sept 27. Long story short, I did not do it.

My mind tries to give excuses but my heart knows the truth. I was selfish and irresponsible and did not give the project the attention and energy I promised and that it deserved. I flaked.

Lately, I have been struggling with ambitionlessness. A sort of life-boredom. This time last year I was all over this project! I wanted to make a splash, to make a difference. This year I am almost indifferent.

It disturbs me. I know I am feeling this way, but I don't understand why. Mid-life crisis? As a young man I imagined my life very differently. Nothing really turned out the way I dreamed it would. But my life is great! Great family, home, work I mostly enjoy, hobbies, friends and church. Nothing to complain about. Very safe and very stable. Very.

To admit to this failure was difficult. Very humbling. I tried to give no excuses, but be honest about what happened. Don't know if I did a good job at that, buy hey, I'm even confused about how and why it happened! There was never any deception. I fully expected to finish the video, up until the last week when it became obvious it was too late.

To not have discussed it here would have been dishonest. I am trying to live my life openly, and this happened, so I should discuss it, as embarrasing as it is. I've been keeping my head low lately and trying to not over-commit myself. I want my word to be my bond, and to be a trustworthy fellow. I want my yes to be yes, and my no to be no. It takes years to build a reputation, but it can be destroyed in an instant. My reputation is not just my own. I also represent Christ. I don't want to take anything away from Him. I'm just glad He can draw straight lines with a crooked stick like me.

Peace, love and a hard look inside,

Rich

Geolocate this post (Posted from bus on ride home)
Posted with LifeCast

Photo: My Downtown Lair

2008-09-08T08:30:00.003-10:00

Posted with LifeCast

My KITV Workstation

2008-09-05T13:05:00.001-10:00

Geolocate this post

Posted with LifeCast

Testing A Mobile Blogging App

2008-09-05T13:00:00.001-10:00

Aloha everyone,

I have found that since I got the iPhone I haven't been blogging much. In fact I haven't even been on the computer nearly as much! Now I know you are thinking, "Who are you and what have you done with the REAL Rich Fewell?" Well let me put your fears to rest and emphatically say I am me, and I am learning all sorts of new things I can do with this remarkable device.

The one I am trying now is called Life Cast, a blogging app made for the iPhone. (Free!) I found in the past that when I emailed a blog entry from my phone, the line breaks were all so screwy that it was driving me mad and I stopped sending them. Hopefully, when I check this out later, I'll have nice little sentences and paragraphs, rather than jumbled text with random line breaks.

Also, somehow, this entry is supposed to include my location. Not quite sure how it is going to appear, but if you're reading this, then you probably already have a better idea than I do at this moment as I write this.

This app is also supposed to be able to send pictures too, and I'll try that next. I'm told it can do one or the other but cannot combine them in one post.

Ok that's enough for now. Thanks for reading my test file. I hope to be back to real introspection and witty observations very soon.

Peace, love and new tools,

Rich

Geolocate this post

Posted with LifeCast

Ode to my online life!

2008-08-29T21:25:00.008-10:00

I sit here at the keyboard,

wond'ring what to say.

Should I write about my thoughts,

or how I spent my day?

My comings and my goings

are Twittered thru and thru,

I've Flickr'd, Fring'd and emailed,

every one of you.

My online life is getting

just a little out of hand,

I plan my day around where I

get WIFI on demand!

A silent thoughtful moment

is really rather rare,

I find I don't have quite enough

leftover, now, to share.

So I'll close this little poem

like I always try to do,

Wishing Peace, Love and Aloha,

to everyone of you!

Tomorrow is a new day,

so I'll skip the flatteries.

Besides I have to recharge all

my gadget batteries!

Blog? Why?

2008-08-28T07:19:00.004-10:00

Aloha,

My friend Ken last night at small group was complaining to me about my lack of blogging. It's true, and it's not only me. In my neck of the woods, Facebook has caught on big time. Even Emily has an account now! Thusly, many of my friends are blogging less often, myself
included.

To me, there is a significant difference between micro-blogging and blogging. In the Twitter/Facebook realm, one fires off short messages which reflect an emotion, thought or reaction to some immediate event. It answers the question "what are you doing now?". It's fun
and has it's place.

Blogging is more than a longer micro-blog. It is more thoughtful, slower paced. It forces the writer to have a message or a theme and to develop an idea, or tell a story. I enjoy blogging, more because of what it does for me, than what ends up on the page. It makes me
think.

One of Bryan's teachers was telling all us parents that the reason they do so many essays is that her classl is not just to teach them history, but also to teach them how to think. Writing makes you think (at least it does for me).

When I blog, I contemplate, I evaluate, I support or defend, I realize new things that I had not previously, I appreciate my life and can see it for a moment from a different perspective.

I miss that.

I will get back on the blog-wagon, not because of any of you necessarily, but because I need to, for me. I just needed to remember why I do it. Thanks Ken.

Peace, Love and Fruitful Time-outs,

Rich

(Sent from my iPhone. Please forgive brevity or typos.)

Blogging still?

2008-08-21T22:13:00.001-10:00

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to white a quick note to say that I haven't forgotten about blogging and I'll try to get back to it again soon. I have been twittering a lot lately and I'm beginning to warm up to Facebook. You can probably keep up with me there too.

Till next time,

Peace love and aloha,

Rich

(Sent from my iPhone. Please forgive brevity or typos.)

We met Bradley's teacher

2008-08-13T08:20:00.000-10:00

Bradley is entering the 5th grade this year, and last night we had the
opportunity to meet his teacher for the first time. Miss Ingram
seemed very nice and organized. They even have a white rabbit for a
class pet named "cotton". There is a lot of homework and this year
both boys have to do a science project.

There is a zero tolerance policy regarding deadlines. If a child's
work is not turned in on time, even if the work was completed, or
turned in late, the child receives a ZERO for the project. This bit
Bryan last year. They have to keep a journal all year of their daily
Bible readings. He forgot to turn it in on time and received a zero
for it. It was 20% of his grade and it dropped him a letter grade in
the end.

Should be a great year ahead (if we stay ahead of the work load)

Weekend update

2008-08-10T21:46:00.003-10:00

Hi friends,

Here is a quick update just to keep you all informed with what we are up to in the Fewell family.

Friday we enjoyed the Olympic opening ceremonies. On the way home I got caught in a bad rainstorm in Mililani on my bike.

Saturday morning I worked on the truck most of the morning, then we took the kids to Dave & Busters for a promised summertime visit. It was almost too late, because this was the last weekend before school starts.

Bradley and I are looking for a new bike for him! He just learned how to ride (pretty much because he finally decided to) and now he loves it, but the bike he has now is a little small. We're looking for a 20" boys bike for him. We're looking for mountain bike with hand brakes, multiple speeds and a great deal.

Bryan helped me remove the entire brakes and suspension from the front of the truck. I have been enjoying working on the truck and teaching him about how the parts of a car work. It reminds me of when my Dad and I rebuilt a 1965 Fiat 1500 Cabriolet. We worked a year and a half on that car before we ever heard the engine run!

Sunday we attended church and then after doing some errands, went to the Mililani Town Center to watch "The Dark Knight", a movie everyone has been talking about. Wow. What a fascinating movie. Funny thing happened too. Just as all he preliminaries were stating, who should sit down next to us? None other than Barbara and Maria Olmos. It was good to see them again and to take in the movie together.

After we got back, Bryan and I cleaned my truck wheels and washed Em's car together before dinner.

That brings you up-to-date!

Peace Love and Weekends,

Rich

Sent from my iPhone

Quickie Update

2008-08-05T09:17:00.004-10:00

Much to blog about, but not much time to blog...

We had a great family reunion on Maui. Photos to come.

I got the truck in the garage, so now I can start work on it!

Bradley has learned how to ride a bike and he has fallen in love with it! I now ride with him when I come home from work. I love it!

Peace, Love and Memories,

Rich

Photos of Field Day and Camping

2008-07-20T22:07:00.005-10:00

I've uploaded a bunch of photos to Flickr. To see pictures of the ARRL Field Day and of our weekend Peacock Flats campout, click here.

Just a sample here:

Rich Utterz: Offroading in Waianae Mountains

2008-07-18T11:02:00.002-10:00

Mobile post sent by Richfuel using Utterz. Replies. mp3

Rich Utterz: Leaving to go camping!

2008-07-18T09:58:00.003-10:00

Utterz:

Mobile post sent by Richfuel using Utterz. Replies. mp3

The latest JibJab is hilarious!

2008-07-16T16:56:00.001-10:00

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

World's Oldest Blogger Passes

2008-07-15T06:02:00.003-10:00

At 104 years old, her life, perspectives and vitality amazed me. Although I never knew her, I followed her blog and enjoyed every minute of it. I was saddened to learn of her peaceful passing on Saturday, July 12 at 108 years old. Olive Dangerfield (maiden name), was born in 1899 in Australia, and has seen a lot, but she never let it affect her charm. As the blog "facilitator" put it, she had the memory of a hard drive, able to recall conversations from 1908!

We will miss you Ollie!

Check out her blog if you can get on. Lately it has been so overloaded with readers that it can't support the load.

All About Olive

Sorry, 16GB iPhones are sold out

2008-07-11T12:10:00.003-10:00

They ran out of 16GB iPhones within 1 hour or opening. I stood in line for a total of 3.5 hours. They ran out about 8 people in front of me. I am not dealing with it well.

Rich Utterz while standing in line for iPhone

2008-07-11T07:31:00.002-10:00

Mobile post sent by Richfuel using Utterz. Replies. mp3

Today is OUR Sweet Sixteenth Wedding Anniversary!

2008-07-11T01:00:00.000-10:00

Many of you probably expected me to be writing about the new iPhone 3G coming out today. I will, but by far the most important event of this day is that it marks sixteen years of our wedded journey together.

So, in honor of that, I wanted to record down for posterity the card I found to give to Emily. I wish I had crafted all the words myself, because they express my heart so well, but with a little professional help Emily, let me record what is on my heart:

Dearest Emily,

Here we are. You and me. The same two lovers who pledged our lives to each other with stars in our eyes and big dreams in our hearts. And while the years have seen some of those dreams come true, these years have also opened our eyes to the reality that marriage takes work, patience, and the kind of love that stays true, no matter what.

Here we are. You and me. Celebrating another year of loving and living and learning. Another year of working to make this life together the best it can be. And I just want you to know that I believe in us. I believe in our love, and I cherish our shared love for the Lord. I am grateful for the strength and beauty that come from sharing life's joys and weathering its storms... together.

You are my love, and when I pledged my life to you, I said forever... I still do.

Happy 16th Anniversay my love!

My First "Long Distance" Call

2008-07-08T09:25:00.009-10:00

Many of you know I have become interested in ham radio. I spend a lot of time on frequencies that allow me to talk to anyone on these islands by radio. We have powerful repeaters here that make it especially easy. I have also used VOIP technology to speak by radio (via internet) to anyone in the world. In fact I have made a great friend in South Africa using this method (Dave, ZS4DT).

Well, what happened last night is something new.

I picked up an old Kenwood TS-130 (introduced before the computer age) and strung a 102' copper wire in the trees around my home. My friend gave me a 40 lbs. 100 watt, 20 amp power supply (doubles as a boat anchor!) and I bought a manual MFJ Antenna Tuner from the Swap & Shop for $35. I've put maybe $250 total into my HF station, including maps for the wall and a clock!

Last night I had the priceless thrill of talking with someone overseas without any intervening technology. My radio to his radio. No internet, no phone company, no wires even!

I could hear VR7SS, who was operating JE7YSS (a club callsign) from Akita, Japan. Conditions were better than average last night and he was "booming" into Hawaii, making contacts with the mainland from Oregon to Arkansas. He was using a 3 element Yagi directional antenna, at 85 feet with 1000 watts (a lot).

I, on the other hand, was just using 50 watts into a G5RV (basically a 102 foot cooper wire dipole) hanging only 20 feet up off the ground (way lower than ideal). I called out a few times, but he would acknowledge other stations instead of me. I had no idea if it was even possible for him to hear me! He was on 14.290 Mhz. On the third try, at 9:05pm, my heart leaped into my throat when I heard him say "QR Zed Delta-Alpha-Delta?" (Ham-speak for 'Who is calling me with D-A-D in their callsign?')!

Now that I had his attention, I called "Juliet Echo Seven Yankee Sierra Sierra, this is Kilo Hotel Six Delta Alpha Delta, Honolulu, Hawaii. Name here is Rich, Romeo India Charlie Hotel, Rich. You are 5/7 into Hawaii and I am proud to say you are my first HF contact outside of the Hawaiian Islands! Pleased to meet you!"

He replied "Kilo Hotel Six Delta Alpha Delta, Juliet Echo Seven Yankee Sierra Sierra You are 5/3 (5=Clearly understandable, Signal strength 3 on a scale of 1-10) into Akita, Alpha Kilo India Tango Alpha, in Northern Japan. I am honored to be chosen as your first HF contact..."

We spoke just a little. His English was excellent. He is very involved with the Boy Scouts in Japan. He has a wife and 2 young children. He has been to Hawaii 3 times, and even operated from Hawaii once. This will be his last year at his current location, and will then be moving somewhere else.

When we finished and he moved on to another radio station, I raised my hands in victory and exclaimed "YES!" and was so thrilled to have assembled an HF station that actually worked!

Right now radio propagation is generally pretty poor (sunspot cycle), but as conditions improve, I'm looking forward to talking with more people all over the world. Some of the radio veterans tell me that there is nothing like the FIRST contact, but also encouraged me that it never really gets old. They still have that same thrill when their station is recognized by another one far away.

Now I have to start a logbook (probably digital) and start tracking my contacts. This is what I got into ham radio for.

Peace, Love and Worldwide Goodwill,

Rich

The Worst is "Behind" Me

2008-07-02T22:00:00.009-10:00

Well, I survived the (C-word). I have to say that the Kaiser staff and system are wonderful. I felt respected and never "processed" and at no time did I feel my dignity was being sacrificed in the name of medicine. Truly, the worst part is the colon cleanser and the prick of an I.V. needle.

They found two small polyps, both of which they removed. One was too small for testing, the other will be tested just in case. I don't have to go back for 5 years! That's great news.

This brings to a conclusion this adventure. I will no longer be referring to the (C-word) and it is now safe to begin reading the blog again. I was very grateful for all the honest support I got from many people who enjoyed the blog and offered words of encouragement or advice on what to expect.

Thanks to Dr. Daryl Fujiwara, Bobbi, Rose and David for making me feel comfortable, keeping me informed of the process and performing as complete professionals. Also thanks to my recovery nurse who was very kind but I was too drugged to remember her name.

This is beginning to sound like an acceptance speech for an Oscar™ or something! Can you imagine what would that statue look like?

Peace, Love and "All's Well, that (my) End's Well",

Rich

Intestinal "Drano"

2008-07-01T22:08:00.004-10:00

I can see why people say that the prep for the (C-word) is the worst part. I had to drink a gallon of this "product" and let it coarse through my system in a single evening. I just finished the last serving and it was none too soon.

How does it taste? It reminded me of diluted sea water kept for too long in a plastic jug. "Salty Plastic" was the flavor I experienced. I guess they ran out of Root Beer and Strawberry. The good news is I am squeaky clean inside. I think of it as house cleaning before the guests arrive!

I found that the texture was a lot like milk, and that if I kept thinking "milk", and kept the product very cold, my body would accept it faster. The instructions say it is better to just drink it outright, than to sip it. That was hard, and I found myself reluctantly sipping more than once. The instructions also said that if I failed to drink the whole gallon, I would have to repeat the attempt at another time. NO THANK YOU!

But I'm too young for the C word!

2008-06-30T22:31:00.004-10:00

As I begin this post, I'm not sure that I am going to hit publish when I'm done. If you're reading this, then I guess I did.

Tomorrow and Wednesday are not days I'm looking forward to. Why? Well, a doctor wants to be safe and run a special procedure on me to be sure everything is OK. What is the procedure? OK, pay close attention because I am only going to use this word once because it is such an ugly word. If you are young or easily disturbed, stop reading now. The word is "COLONOSCOPY". (Heretofore known as the "C" word).

I thought all along that I would not have to have a (C-word) until I was 50! That way me and all my aging friends could joke with and harass each other about having to have "that" done. No, I'm special. I get to have my first one when I'm 41. Oh joy.

This is all because I had some bleeding there about a month ago and they just wanna have a "look-see". A "look-see" involving a liquid diet, a gallon of intestinal "Drano", my unavoidable humiliation, and long unspeakable tools of, shall we say, "exploration?" Let me tell you, this mission to boldly go where no one has gone before is more than just a little unsettling. I wouldn't mind a bit if my "final frontier" remained a mystery a few years longer.

Anyways, tomorrow I begin an all liquid diet. Emily bought me, like, 2 GALLONS of apple juice, plus white grape juice and apple cider. Tomorrow night I have to drink 8 ounces of some potion every 10 minutes for 2 and a half hours. I doubt I'll sleep a wink (unless its sitting down if you know what I mean!)

I figured this blog is about the good, the bad and the ugly of my life, and I might as well take you along for the ride. If I didn't write anything I'd feel weird, and if I only wrote about a "private medical procedure", I'd go crazy answering all the private questions, so I'll just put my cards out there and tell you what is what.

I'm 41. I'm having a (C-word). If you don't like it, if it's "Too Much Information", then kindly read some other blog for a couple of days. I promise no graphic details and absolutely no live video streams (Ewwwww....) (OK, I think I crossed a line there, better wrap this up)

Just me, keeping it real and honest.

Peace, Love, and "The END",

Rich

"Eh, Your pikcha in da papah"

2008-06-30T09:52:00.002-10:00

I keep getting comments from people who saw my photo and article in the Midweek. It was about the Geek Meet which happened quite some time ago! Here's a link to the article:

MidWeek: Calling All Geeks of All Kinds

Richfuel Utterz a few words from Kualoa

2008-06-27T20:01:00.003-10:00

Mobile post sent by Richfuel using Utterz. Replies. mp3