Double-Dirty Blended...

Hey Bolo,

I tried the double-dirty blended chai....Niiiiiccce! (But I don't think they understood the blended part).

Peace, Love and Feeling Double-dirty (!),

Rich

End of the world?

Hi Everyone,

Well, we had Hurricane Flossie approach the island, then fizzle. We had a 5.0 earthquake on the Big Island as a Waialua brushfire surged out of control and burned 6700 acres on the north shore of Oahu. Then Lima, Peru had a 7.5 - 8.0 earthquake which triggered a tsunami advisory here (later cancelled). Then this morning, another 4.0 earthquake on the Big Island, all during a recent surge in the lava flow at the Pu'u O'o vent, part of a 20 year ongoing eruption.

What is going on here?

We're fine. For all of that, life seems pretty much the same as usual here. Kids have started school, I've restarted archery and exercising, and Bryan is continuing his swimming classes. We are blessed.

Peace, Love and Blessings,

Rich

Hurricane Flossie Approaches

We're watching that hurricane! It is weakening and is forecast to pass south of us, but they can be unpredictable.

Great Weather Info Page:
Weather by NH6WI

Great all around info on this system:
TheHawaiiChannel.com

Catching Up on some Photos

My father-in-law said my shots of Koi on Maui reminded him of his favorite artist Monet! What do you think?


Cool thunderhead I watched developing for a good 30 minutes in traffic. I just watched its peak roil higher and higher, up to nearly 12,000 feet! The Waianae range is 4000 feet high at its peak.



Bryan's sleep-over party. They spent an hour and a half setting up this Heroscape game, and didn't even play!



Father and son splinters! Mine was the smaller one! I got mine doing yard work (the honorable way!) We don't know how Bryan got his, or why he waited a day to complain about it!



Early morning Thursday at the archery range. A nice tight group from 30 yards. Could still be tighter though! 9 arrows here. I tore a vane on one of them, but successfully repaired it a few hours later at work. I can now "fletch" my own arrows!

Peace, Love and Photographic Evidence!

Rich

Wow...The inventor of the World Wide Web

OK, I know that this may seem silly, but I am actually very excited. For you to understand my excitement, you need a short history lesson about the WorldWideWeb: (Courtesy Wikipedia)

While an independent contractor at CERN from June to December 1980, Tim Berners-Lee proposed a project based on the concept of hypertext, to facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers.^[2] With help from Robert Cailliau, he published a more formal proposal for the World Wide Web.^[3]

A NeXTcube was used by Berners-Lee as the world's first web server and also to write the first web browser, WorldWideWeb in 1990. By Christmas 1990, Berners-Lee had built all the tools necessary for a working Web:^[4] the first Web browser (which was a Web editor as well), the first Web server and the first Web pages^[5] which described the project itself.

On August 6, 1991, he posted a short summary of the World Wide Web project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup^[6]. This date also marked the debut of the Web as a publicly available service on the Internet.

That website is STILL on the net. You can see it here: The First Webpage.

In the photo above, do you see the sticker on the CPU? It says "This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN!!". Back then, if you unplugged the computer, you unplugged the World Wide Web! Wow!

Anyways, I wrote a simple, somewhat silly email to Tim Berners-Lee Monday just to say thanks for the web. I wrote:

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the WorldWideWeb! It's cool and works great! Just wanted to be sure someone said thanks.

Aloha,

Rich in Honolulu

I was mostly fishing for a response, and didn't really expect him to write back. He wrote me back! I got an email from the inventor of the web! He says:

Rich,

Thank you so much for writing. Many people have said thanks over the years.
You are the only one today on this anniversary.

Best wishes,

Tim

I think that is pretty cool and definitely blog-worthy! Just wanted to share my geeky excitement.

Peace, Love and Long Live the World Wide Web,

Rich

Archery again

After a long absence, I finally got back to the archery range again. I had taken some time off when my left forearm started hurting because of a "repetitive-use" injury (due to ham-radio, not archery). I stopped my early morning archery visits AND my gym visits until it healed. Guess its time to get back to the gym too, huh?

Our weekend felt very long! Bryan and Bradley had a bunch of friends over for an end of summer sleepover. They pretty much entertained themselves and I know Bryan and Bradley had a great time! Man, those kids love their computer games!

I tried going to 'Seattle's Best' today for a chai, rather than Starbucks. Blech. I'm sorry to say this is the first chai that I did not thoroughly enjoy. The spice in the tea seems to burn my throat, almost like a pepper. What's up with that? Nope, I still prefer Starbucks creamy smooth chai.

Monday. Blech. Mondays always ruin my weekends.

"Live streaming" church worked!

Hi Everyone!

We had our first test of streaming our church's video "live" onto the
net and it went pretty well, and the results were recorded too! You
can go to the following web page to see how it went:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/JyHT0OtAYZmOikHYocteTQ

You'll see the video is highly compressed and sometimes freezes.
Rarely the audio freezes. Overall it IS what I expected from the
technology. Remember, we are doing this without spending a penny!
If we want to look better, we are going to need to invest in some
serious equipment, but honestly I think it is pretty acceptable as
is. We might be able to create a little more stability by using a
new, more powerful laptop (next week!). I'd love to hear your
thoughts regarding its "watchability".

A couple of other notes: We stop recording when the message starts
(we have not secured rights for rebroadcasting the DVD) You can grab
the slider and move it to any portion of the clip. (You don't have
to finish the fist song to listen to the second).

Once we have it running predictably, we will publicize it and put the
link on the webpage.

Aloha,

Rich Fewell
NHMVideo

Legal Dept. Snafu....

I've been told that I am not allowed to netcast the message portion of our service on Sunday because we are showing a DVD, and we don't have the rights to netcast it, so no sermon on Sunday. I still plan on trying the technology out some to see what will work, but I'll have to shut the feed off for the message. I still hope someone tries to view what we put up. The chatroom will work through it all, whether I'm broadcasting or not.

New Hope Mililani...LIVE!

Hi folks,

I'm just telling you, my loyal and trusted bunch of readers, that I will be trying something new this Sunday at church. I am going to attempt to "netcast" our services live on the internet! There's no guarantee it will work this first time, but in case it DOES, it would be nice to have a few friends there watching! There's also a related chat room that you can say hi and I can reply. Check it out! My plan is to go live at 7:30am to 11:30am HST. You will need to have a high speed connection to view the video I think (sorry Mom!).

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/newhopemililani

Peace, Love and New Technology!

Rich

Hirose Ohana Reunion Photos

Hi folks,

I made a quick webpage with some selected photos from our recent trip to Maui. There are 37 photos on the webpage, but I think I took 184! These are the best though I think. Enjoy! Rich

Hirose Family Reunion Photos

Maui Reunion

Having a great time on Maui! Kids swam at the pool for like 4 hours! Foods been great. More details and photos later. No weather problems from "Cosme", the former hurricane blowing through the islands now. We're on our way to Makawao tonight.

Aloha,

Rich

My First NHM Video

I finished my first video for the New Hope Mililani Video Ministry. Hurray! It is a promo for the Flourish 07 worship concert.

Indiana Jones: Remade by teens!

This is so cool. I know so many friends who wold have loved to have been a part of this! Sean, where are you?

4th of July at the Houghtailings

We enjoyed some great food and fellowship at the Houghtailings! The steak was awesome! We had a great time playing Wii Sports and watching "Facing The Giants".

Teenage Affluenza Outbreak

This video is VERY well done. Please watch, and make your kids watch.

Ham Radio Campout

Bryan, Bradley and I went camping last week from Thursday to Saturday at Kualoa Beach Park in Kahaluu. It was part a beach fun trip, part ham radio geek-fest, and part get-away-from-it-all vacation. We set up the hammocks and tent and helped the 2 participating radio clubs set up antennas and gear for the ARRL field day on Saturday. Lots of photos and stuff at the following link:

http://homepage.mac.com/richfuel/personal/PhotoAlbum114.html

Brycee Cuteness

Emily watches little Bryce most weekdays, and here are some cute photos she snapped recently:

Bobbing Head Dog

Thought this was funny enough to take a picture of.

I originally thought this was one of those spring-loaded bobbing head toy dogs people get for their cars, until it turned around and licked its tail! This dog was as happy as could be perched there with a window on the world!

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I laughed to myself, imagining the results if the car made an emergency stop! I don't know what it is but small dogs are just funny.

Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park

Today we went to the Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park. It was Christian music day and we were able to get tickets for half off. We had a great time and got pretty sunburned too. I brought the camera but we didn't take many pictures. Both kids are feeling pretty comfortable in the water.

I'm bushed. I really needed today "off". I've been busy thinking about and planning upcoming projects for the video ministry at New Hope. It fills my time now and I notice I'm not really blogging anymore. I guess the luxury of freetime is over now. I'm sure that's an exageration from being out all day in the sun! Still, I have to find time to log six hours of videotape, plan our first remote, get all our lights working for the lighting kit and finish planning Monday night's meeting. I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow so I better get to sleep. Aloha! Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there!

Brad is sick

Bradley has pneumonia. He is taking antibiotics and isn't even coughing but we think he picked it up after he was getting over a sinus infection! He's bummin because he is restricted on where he spends most of his time and what he can touch. He seems to be on the road to recovery though. Poor kid.

Great Idea!

From the "Great Idea" department, a table saw that senses if it is cutting into flesh and instantly retracts. It could prevent so many injuries, yet I hear that tool companies will not incorporate the design because it will add too much cost ($100) to the final product.

Watch:


Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Gorgeous Day in Mililani This Morning!

Moon, mountain, blue sky,
Now I know why I live here,
Mililani Town

(Haiku by Rich)

Bryan graduates from 6th grade!

Hurray! Last Wednesday, Bryan had his 6th grade graduation ceremony! He got leis and congratulations from family and friends and took lots of photos!

Jake at his fastest?!

Jake is the MAN! Wow! Presenting Jake Shimabukuro on his ukulele!

(Don't attempt to view if you have a dial-up connection.)

Grrrrr....Radioshack!

Last weekend I walked into RadioShack for the last time! (Probably not,... but I hope so). It seems every time I go in there, I come out mad or frustrated. This last time was the final straw.

Bryan had "bought" a simple kind of disco light at Dave & Busters with the tickets he won from playing several games. It was a cool light that would bathe his room in slowly changing hues of red, green, purple, and blue. He thought it was cool but it ran on AA batteries despite having a 4.5 volt power port. If we got the right sized wall wart, he could leave it on all night.

Well, we bring it into RadioSchmuck and a salesman takes the light and starts to gather the universal power supplies, chords and tips he is going to need. I go off to look at a couple things with my kids and when I get back this guy has about 5 packets open trying to find a size that fits. He tries one, turns it on (no work), turns it off, tries another, turns it on (no work), turns it off, tries another....on and on. I watch him for 10 minutes and realize he isn't paying ANY attention to the electrical properties of the plugs he's trying, he's just trying to find one that physically fits. 4.5 volts or positive or negative pin polarity seem to be non-issues with him.

I ask him if he's sure the outlet he's plugged into is working. He shrugs and tries another. I ask him if he has a multi-tester, he fumbles around and comes up with a small one, which he clearly doesn't know how to use. I teach him what setting to use and how to check for current. As I'm showing him this I see that the cable he is using can reverse its polarity depending on how the plug is inserted. It's negative pin one way or positive pin the other way.

At this point I have a sickening feeling that I know why it isn't turning on anymore. We put the batteries back in and sure enough the toy is dead as a doorstop. He fried it. We crack the case open and it is a very simple design, basically a group of LEDs and a couple of resistors. He doesn't understand anything about how to check for which component has been burned out and I realize then that my own 12 year old son is more qualified to work at RadioSlack than this guy was.

At that point I was mad. I felt like saying "Please explain to my son how you broke his toy and what you are going to do about it!", but I was too upset. "Come on kids, we're leaving." is all I could say. He just stood there, not saying much and didn't even offer an apology. The sad thing is that I probably would have had to go to RadioFrack for the parts to fix it, but I am determined not to ever go there again. I will wait until I can go to a more responsible and reputable electronics supply store.

RadioHack has become little more than the Sears TV department and the local cellphone store combined and has very little to do with "Radios" or "Ham Shacks" anymore.

By-the-way, Bryan took the unit apart, identified the high power LED that had fried and is awaiting the new part so he can solder it in and put it back together. Bryan is 12 years old and just finished 6th grade. Way to go Bryan!

We'll get our own 4.5 volt power supply from somewhere else. (Maybe Bryan will just make his own!)

Skywarn II training

On the last Thursday of May I attended the National Weather Service's Skywarn Level II spotter training. Skywarn is a program run by the NWS to train spotters to report on severe weather conditions. High Winds, funnel clouds, hail, flash flooding, that sort of thing. It gives them eyes in the field to compare and evaluate what their instruments are telling them.

Many amateur radio operators participate in the program and now I'm one of them. I am spotter # 700. I prefer to think of it as Weather Spy 007! I even have a secret phone number to call directly onto the NWS ops floor. I'm sure it must ring a red phone with just a big flashing light on it! Ha!

Anyway, if I do see anything out of the ordinary, I can play my part to keep the National Weather Service informed with the most accurate and detailed information they can get.

Mililani Evacuation Shelter

Bryan and I participated in the Makani Pahili Hurricane preparedness exercise a few weeks ago. The Red Cross set up a fully staffed but simulated hurricane shelter at Mililani Uka. Bryan and I went, representing the EARC (Emergency Amateur Radio Club) to participate in the communications side of the drill. We set up radios with independent power supplies and exchanged simulated messages with Civil Defense and hospitals. Bryan did all the radio work! He did great. I was so proud of him! Here are some photos:

Cool Truck Graphic

Couple of Cool Webpages

Hi folks,

I just wanted to share a couple of really cool web pages I've discovered.

The first one is "Spreeder". <==(Click Here).

It is a speed reading assistance site. You copy whatever text you want to speed read and paste it into the box. Then let 'er rip. There are all kinds of settings you can adjust to tune the website to your preferences and ability. The basic idea is that your brain can absorb the meaning of the words faster than you realize. Most of us "Sound out in our head" each word we read which unnecessarily slows the process down. You can comprehend much faster than you can speak. This site forces you to do that. You GOTTA TRY IT!

The second one is "77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper and Better" <==(Click Here)
It is an article about different ways of supporting and enhancing learning. Some of the ideas are wacky so toss those out but I enjoyed going through the list and learning all the resources it mentions.

Just thought I'd share those with you! Tell me what you think!

Aloha,

Rich

Dentist

I went to the dentist yesterday at lunch to have 3 (yes 3!) cavities dealt with. They were very small and we got there early, but still...3!

I love my dentist though. He has the gentlest touch I know. Dr. Gerald Adachi is his name, and his office is right next to my workplace. Not only did it not hurt, I didn't even have any anxiety that it would. I told him that is why I go to him. An additional treat as that when you are seated for longer procedures, you get to wear "virtual reality" goggles and watch a movie while he works. It helps distract myself from any anxiety.

Peace Love and Worry Free Dentists,

Rich

Wish I had a Camera...Wait! I DO!

Ever see something and wish you had a camera to share it with friends? That's what happened this morning and I was so glad I DID have a camera.



I was waiting at Starbucks for my Chai, watching the drive through crew do their frenzied thing, when up rolls this Labrador (looking as all labradors do before they've had their morning coffee).

You think it's easy being frisky and playful after a long weekend? What most people don't know is all that playfulness exhibited by man's best friend is actually sugar and caffeine induced! Here's the proof! I think he ordered a Venti double espresso mocha frappuccino with whipped cream and a low-fat doggie biscuit (toasted).

I bet you didn't know dogs could drive either! We'll save that explanation for another time.

Peace Love and "Ruff" Mornings,

Rich

Pretty Quiet

Just checkin' in here.

Random statements about us:
-Everyone is well again. Bryan didn't spread the virus to anyone else.
-We spent most of last weekend cleaning, but we did reward ourselves with a trip to the movies to see Spiderman 3. It was great.
-Bryan moved into his own room.
-Lately the messages we've been hearing at small group and at church have been related to marriage, so Em and I have been working harder on that part of our lives.
-Work has been strangely quiet for a ratings period.
-I'm thinking of starting walking/running again.
-Em watches Bryce one more week, then will have a 3 week break.
-Kids are taking SAT exams this week.
-My friend Peter surprised me with a call today. It was good to talk to him.

That's it. Nothing terribly bloggable (is that a word?). Just wanted everyone to know we're still here!

Peace Love and Blogability (now that's just getting silly...)

Rich

Sickness

Bryan is really sick. He picked up some kind of virus at a birthday party for his good friend. Another kid who went to the party is also sick. He has a very high fever and he is talking/arguing in his sleep about non-sensical stuff. He may be home for a few days.

My parents made it to West Virginia fine, but now it looks like Dad is going to need surgery for a major artery leading to his kidney. They are looking for a surgeon there, but if he does nothing he will need to start dialysis. Mom has to find a doctor there as well for some blood monitoring she needs to have regularly. They are feeling a little discouraged as they start their West Virginia stay.

Wishing everyone Peace, Love and Health,

Rich