Fireworks Over Waikiki

The other night, I was in my hotel room enjoying my book when something loud sounded outside.  At first I thought it might be a bomb going off but I quickly realized it was fireworks going off.

They usually set fireworks off of a barge out in the waters off Waikiki beach on Friday nights but this wasn't Friday night so it couldn't be the ones associated with the show at one of the hotels.

It turned out one of the Japanese skincare makeup companies hosted this. show.  They do it every year but usually there is a bit more notice.  I took some pictures from my hotel room and from the end of the floor, looking out to share with you.

I was glad not to have to rush down to the beach because half of the street in front of the hotel is undergoing some sort of renovation and there are always crowds wandering the streets at night.  Someone I know referred to some of these crowds as herds of people.

The day after, I spoke with a few people at the conference and they said they heard it all the way to where they live.  They couldn't see all the beautiful bursts of color but they heard it.

Now if they could hear it miles away, just think what it sounded like at my hotel.  The sound echoed off buildings.

As with most fireworks shows, groups of rockets were launched in a set pattern to allow multiple to be exploding in the night sky while others were on their way up.

The show lasted about 30 minutes from start to finish and was absolutely breathtaking.  

The fireworks burst in the sky making you "oooohhh" and "ahhhhh".  I love watching fireworks.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures but the pictures just don't quite do justice to the actual live show.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Hula The Family Way

Every June, I fly to Hawaii to participate in an Educational Technology Conference and I stay at a small family run hotel.

The hotel isn't fancy.  They only have internet in the lobby but there are regulars who come at the same time and you get to know them.

The hotel has a musical night scheduled every Monday night but this week it was on Wednesday due to a prior commitment.  The group for this show is comprised of whoever makes it.

So you never know which musicians will be there.  The show has both local music and hula dancers but the hula dancers are people who stop by and get up to dance.

This show is not polished.  It is not flashy.  Sometimes there is one person dancing while other times you have a row of dancers going from the lobby door to the swimming pool.

The audience sits in deck chairs and in folding chairs that have been set up for the show.  

The lady in the middle is Japanese and comes over every summer during the month of June.  She and her husband study hula and come to dance at the show.

The lady on the right is leaving today to go back home to Japan after a short visit.

The lady on the right is local and an elder who comes to play and dance.  Her son brings her over to the show, dances, and plays his ukulele.  Even the leader of the group, Leonard, brings his wife and mother-in-law to the show.  His mother-in-law is about 96.

The lady in the black and white dress to the right used to live in Hawaii but moved to Corvallis Oregon.  She comes back to visit and participate in the show.

This week, she shared a song she arranged about the owner of the hotel who is about 96 years old.  She took one song and changed the words.  When she did this, she was nervous but we all had fun singing along with her on the chorus.

One of the Ukulele players came up out of the audience for several songs.  They never have a set playlist, its what ever they feel like playing.  

I see this Japanese couple every year.  They are known for performing a dance in which she ends up kicking him in the rear end.

I think she plays the part of a stubborn donkey who reminds its owner that she does not like to obey.  Either that or she's reminding her husband of who is in charge.

They are a delightful couple and she is often up dancing with the others.  Her husband tends to get up for the all male dances.

Here is another dance where everyone is up doing the same dance.

The neat thing about watching this type of dancing is everyone has a slightly different version depending on where they learned the dance.

Each school teaches the version their Kumu learned so each school has a slightly different one.  This makes it fun to watch because some move more than others and sometimes, the dancers almost run into each other.

This is like a family gathering because the numbers are not choreographed and there is the variation.

At the end of the show, they brought everyone up to teach a song. Caroline who lead this, did a great job of showing us the movements so we could follow.  I felt extremely successful and graceful by the end of the number.

The band immediately went into another number and Caroline showed us the movements.  No one got a chance to sit down but then again, no one wanted to. Everyone stayed up to enjoy it.

I am in the second row, all in black, next to the Japanese lady. At the end, we all congratulated each other for the great job.

At 9:00, after two hours of fun, the show was over and everyone headed home.  I took time to talk to a few people I know.  This weekend is going to be the Pan-Pacific Festival and King Kamehameha's parade.  I'll share pictures with you on Monday and Tuesday.  Tomorrow, look for pictures of the fireworks over Waikiki.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

The Rise and Decline of Newspapers.

  I realized the other day that I no longer read newspapers unless there is one lying around. Instead, I hop onto the internet and look for either digital copies of newspapers or hit a news feed looking for a specific topic, otherwise I do not subscribe to anything that is paper.

The printing press making it to Europe opened the way to the modern concept of a newspaper.  The first weekly newspaper appeared in 1604 in Germany.  It is considered a real newspaper because the public could easily access it, it was published on a regular schedule, the information it printed was correct, and it covered a variety of topics.  The only issue is that it was published in quarto ( 9 x 11) rather than folio ( 29.5 x 22.5)

Newspapers began popping up in Germany over the next few years but the one published in 1618 in Amsterdam was technically a broadsheet or folio.  This format spread throughout Europe to England where the first newspaper was published in 1665 in Oxford.  One year the Oxford Gazette moved to London where it was renamed the London Gazette and is still being published today.

Although there were printed news sheets in America early on, the first real printed newspaper appeared in 1690 in Boston but the publisher, Benjamin Harris, was arrested for including political criticisms and all copies of his newspaper were destroyed.  In 1704, the local postmaster in Boston began publishing a newspaper that succeeded due to his keeping out all political criticism.

It was when the first amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press was passed and fully enacted, that the number of newspapers began growing until there were 43 newspapers actively publishing at the end of the Revolutionary War.  By the end of the War of 1812, the number had jumped to 346 newspapers.

At the beginning, newspapers were only afforded by the wealthy Americans but by the 1830's advances made printing much cheaper and newspapers were now able to sell papers for one cent each.  Furthermore as the rate of literacy increased and technology advances such as the telegraph, news sped across the country so newspapers were publishing more up to date information to larger numbers of people.

The industrial revolution created improved printing presses were soon able to produce around 10,000 papers every hour.  This helped increase the number of newspapers companies to 2500 just before the civil war before jumping to 11,000 by 1880.  Several newspapers in 1890 boasted circulations of around one million subscribers.

Unfortunately, as radios and televisions increased in numbers, newspapers faced serious competition causing a decline in the number of newspapers in production.  In addition, the development of the internet and the availability of constant updating of information and news also contributed to the decline of the production of newspapers until there were only about 1,300 produced in 2014.

In fact, the internet has been one of the biggest competitors due to the decreased cost of production which means advertisers get more bang for their buck and are more likely to spend the money on the internet where they can get better coverage.  I suspect if things keep going they way they have, newspapers may totally disappear completely in the next 20 to 50 years.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Why Does The Caption Go Down With The Ship?

If you've every watched any show where the ship sinks, you know the Captain usually goes down with the ship.  Because this is a commonly accepted belief, several Captains have ended up in the public light for not going down with their ship, in fact, they escaped with or ahead of the passengers.  So is this true in real life, or only in the movies?

We know the Captain of the Titanic went down with the ship but it didn't have enough life boats for its passengers.  In fact, they asked women and children to be evacuated first before the men since there were only 20 lifeboats designed to carry just over 1,100 people out of the 2,200 on board.

So this may be why we think the captain goes down with his ship but this saying came from early times when an abandoned ship could be claimed for salvage and the captain could salvage things for his employers.  As long as the captain were on board, no one could claim it but things have changed since then but the saying hasn't.  In fact things began changing back, just after the Titanic sank.

In 1914, the first version of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLS) passed as a direct result of the Titanic sinking.  It made the captain responsible for making sure all passengers got off the ship safely. Furthermore, the rules state that all passengers should be able to evacuate the ship within 30 minutes of the alarm ringing. The last version passed in 1974. It did not say the captain had to go down with the ship.  Currently, it is expected the captain will facilitate the evacuation of all passengers before he leaves the ship.  In fact, all ships are supposed to have a system of emergency management in place, delineating the responsibilities of crew members during an emergency.

Recent news events of the past 20 years where captains made the news for not going down with the ship were focused more on the captain abandoning the ship before all the passengers were safely off.  One captain claimed he directed everything from a helicopter but its much easier to direct the evacuation from onboard ship than from a life boat or helicopter.

Many of these captains face charges based on their own countries rules for this but it is acknowledged  none of these countries require them to leave early.  Most require them to get people safely off before leaving themselves. The issue is these captains did not ensure the safety of their passengers.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Surfboards and Children

This past weekend, T & S Surf Designs organized a surfing contest at the Prince Kuhio beach in Waikiki.  

It wasn't till I spoke with someone that I discovered this particular contest was for the 6 years to 12 years old crowd.

The youngsters checked in as any other competitor would, received a number, and in this case a gift as a small momentum of their participation.

These children's rides are judged just as any adult's.  They make three rides with three judges watching and scoring each ride.  The lowest ride is thrown out with the best two scores added together and divided in two to get the final score.  The winners are based on the best average ride.  

This is a picture of the competitors out on the waves here in Waikiki.  Even at the highest tide, these waves are nice and gentle compared with some on the North Shore.  Many of the people you see are related to the surfers and others are just there to enjoy the day or the even.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Cross section of Geodes

Found this on my morning walk.

Traveling

Arriving in Honolulu