R.I.P. Michael Jackson

It's been a little over a week since Michael Jackson passed away, and today was his memorial service at the Staples Center in LA. I am still very saddened by this and can't believe he's gone. No, I can't say that I was there from the start, I am quite unaware of his philanthropy, wouldn't do too well if I took a quiz on his life, and definitely wouldn't claim to be his biggest fan, but he was the first musical artist that I really loved. I didn't jump onto his fan wagon until after hearing his "Dangerous" album on cassette, but it didn't take long for me to realize how good he was and start digging into his other albums such as "Bad." I remember him coming for a concert in Honolulu and wanting to go so badly, but not being able to. I was so envious of those who got to see him and always wanted to see him perform live someday. That's one thing on my bucket list that I'll never be able to do, and I'm quite saddened by that.

Like many things in life, you really don't know what you have until it's gone. I think the world is experiencing that with Michael Jackson as I see his after death coverage on TV all the time and hear his music being played everywhere. It wasn't until recently that I came to realize just how many hits he's had in his career, so many that they can't fit onto a hits CD of his. We can try to think up names of the top pop stars of today and that's when we see that no one really is even in the same realm as him, and they actually all look up to him. Pop music wasn't the same after Michael Jackson came onto the scene, and neither was the dancing. No one did it better, it's as simple as that. Although I didn't know him personally, I, like many others, was a huge fan of his music and I feel like a part of me has gone in a way since he was the first musician I was a fan of. Rest in peace, King of Pop, you're the greatest to ever do it.

Google's Wave

It seems that there are countless different social networks out there these days, each doing something better than the other. Google's Wave attempts to bring them all together and with Google's vast reach, it just may have a shot. It combines things such as a social network, GChat, email, pictures (Picasa), maps, Twitter, Google Docs, etc. all on a page that looks very cluttered at first. Some of the features include the ability to see letters typed in a chat in real time rather than waiting for them to finish the line and hit enter, work on documents simultaneously, interact on a map together, reply to specific parts of an email, and interact with other social networking sites from Wave. Oh, and spell check? Old school. Wave's version looks at the context of what you're typing, and automatically fixes your words accordingly. This is just a preview, Wave won't be in use until later this year.

Find Your Spot

   There's a website called Find Your Spot that helps you search for a location to live that suits you. Its accuracy remains to be debated, but it could give you some suggestions that may prove useful.

My (questionable) results:

1. Portland, OR
2. Oakland, CA
3. San Diego, CA
4. Little Rock, AR
5. Baltimore, MD
6. Washington, DC
7. Orange County, CA
8. San Francisco, CA
9. Baton Rouge, LA
10. Albuquerque, NM

And just out of the top 10: my hometown of Honolulu, HI at #11.

I'm quite certain that there were questions asked that I could've easily answered differently.

Beijing, Hong Kong & Macau

I recently was able to take a trip to Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau. It was my first trip to Asia since 2001 and the first time I've visited each of these places. My expectations were low as I had heard mixed reviews from people who have been there. After getting a first-hand account, my experiences had exceeded expectations and it was a very enjoyable trip. My parents, who went there less than a decade ago, seem to think that I saw a very different place.

Possibly due to the Olympics in 2008, Beijing seems to be on the rise and in a rush to modernize. Their newer buildings are quite impressive and the people there seem to have cleaned up their act, for the most part. I even saw a guy wait until reaching a trash can to spit, imagine that. What can be seen, though, is the separation between new and old China, and it's clearly distinguished by walls around old communities in the heart of the city. How this is dealt with remains to be seen.

Perhaps due to my Beijing concerns taking over most of my thoughts, I really was surprised by Hong Kong. I marveled at their skyline and the way they condensed everything to fit on islands, I really felt like I had stepped into The Fifth Element. It definitely had an interesting feel of being an international city.

Due to being in Macau for only a day, I didn't get much of an experience there. I found much of it to be dirty and was not a fan of the casinos. Staying at a nice hotel with great service that sat across the street from rundown apartments of residents, I couldn't help but feel bad. I felt as if it was a country selling themselves out for casinos and tourists.

With so much of America focused on Europe, I strongly feel that Asia is not to be ignored. Although China has its own issues, its apparent ability to progress and modernize at such a rapid rate since my parents were there is definitely noteworthy.

Civil Unions?

The states in which I've called "home" the longest, California and Hawaii, both have recently debated granting civil unions to homosexual couples. With Christianity being the religion I've identified (and wrestled) with the most, I find myself following arguments on both sides. I still can't say that I'm completely for or against either side, but I do think that equality as an American is important.

My current thoughts are these.

I think that religion should not completely influence government decisions and laws. Yes, it is a loose guidance for them, but beliefs from one religion should not dominate nor dictate the way every person lives their life, especially in the US. The Church has its followers that follow in various degrees, but the government's job is to make sure that all its citizens are able to live equally and happily.

With a heterosexual divorce rate at 50%, traditional marriage is not being protected with or without the discussion of homosexual civil unions. We can't choose to ignore the fact that divorce is against God's teachings as well. If we want to jump to extremes and use the argument that traditional marriage needs to be protected, then it should be fully protected. Marriage should be reserved for the religious or for the couples who are willing to forfeit their right to divorce in the name of God. Current and future "marriages" should be classified as "civil unions" where divorce is still an option.

With fewer and fewer people identifying with an organized religion and with a wide number of couples getting married outside the Church, it is logical to not apply religion to their unions. If the Church wants to maintain marriage the way it is now, they should not simply agree to marry any heterosexual couple that wants to marry, because they are well aware that the success rate is at an F grade. Their willingness to ignore this sad reality is a failure on their part to protect traditional marriage. Anything less than the full protection of God's teachings on marriage is condoning unequal treatment of American people and is half-assing their commitment to God.

As a heterosexual male, I admit, I'm not fully comfortable with this issue and I do feel that there are potential repercussions initially from having children with gay parents. Until there are no divorces, heterosexual parents are good parents and single people aren't allowed to adopt, however, I can't see any real justification as an American to consitutionally deny gays the right to civil unions.

Sixth Sense Mobile Technology

Tom Cruise controlling computers with his hands in "Minority Report" looked pretty cool. It looks to be something that will happen faster than I thought. Our mobile phones nowadays can do so much; they let us access loads of information right in those devices. This new concept however, won't limit this porthole to a screen. Instead, it uses and interacts with the real world in front of you, letting you access information without ever having to pull out that ancient thing from your pocket. Didn't we just get cameras in our phones several years ago?!

Aloha Stadium Renovation

It would cost at least $300 million to build a new stadium in Honolulu, one that would enable the University of Hawaii football team to play in and one that hosts the annual NFL Pro Bowl. It would cost a reported $180 million to renovate the stadium. I think spending more than half the cost of a new stadium on fixing one like Aloha Stadium is a waste of money and I'm not confident in the authority's decision-making. I've heard that they plan to keep the seats the same colors as they are currently (orange, blue, brown, red, yellow) and paint the stadium's frame green. Unsightly, if you ask me. Here's what I would like to do if I were in charge of renovating Aloha Stadium:

-fully Green seating (current color combo looks cheap, UH's color is green and it is more environmentally friendly)
-Light Grey stadium frame, walls and walkways
-full Field Turf
-Luxury Boxes converted from Brown level sideline seating on both sidelines
-Ribbon digital advertisements below Luxury Boxes and Press Box on both sidelines
-Video scoreboards in both endzones (replacing Jumbotron)
-joined 1st level seating in corners (helps make up for lost seating from Luxury Boxes and scoreboards)
-Walkway joining inner and outer 1st level walkways in corners (keeps breezeways, helps traffic flow, added possible vendor space)

This is in addition to the elevators up to the upper deck, structural reinforcements, possible escalators to the upper deck, etc...

Siftables: The Smart Blocks

David Merril, an MIT grad, worked and presents Siftables. They are interactive blocks that can "communicate" with each other to help produce different outcomes. I really can't explain well, you just have to watch the video. They're a step up from old blocks we used to play with back in the day, just a little...

Those Ads Are Watching You

It's just one of those things we read or hear about that really makes it seem like we are stepping into the future. Do you notice when you're searching online or are using GMail and ads show up on the side that are related to what you're looking for or are emailing about? Convenient, helpful and quite a bit scary.

Well this is where the virtual online world meets real life. Video ads in malls and what not can now have cameras hidden in them that are watching you. We have security cameras everywhere, big deal right? Well not only are they watching you, they are gathering information about you. This so-called "primitive" technology can determine your gender accurately 85-90% of the time, approximate age range and in some cases, your ethnicity. That means that companies can not only learn about who is passing their ad stations, but they can also show ads that are relevant to your demographic. As custom-fitted for you as their ads may seem, that just means that they have that much more information about you. The movie "Minority Report" shows a more advanced technology, eye-scanning cameras determine who you are and flash even more custom-fitted ads. That is in 2054 though, it's only 2009.

News Voices

Have you ever paid attention to how news reporters on TV sound? It is very dramatic, almost cinematic with its pauses, and it engages the viewers by keeping them in some sort of suspense wondering what's next or what happened. I'm not sure if it's overdone because some news is quite dramatic in itself, but some stories don't warrant that type of effect. I wonder if that says anything about our culture, one that is extremely interested in other peoples' lives and tragedies? I've always thought that clips and soundbites from long ago were strange in the way people spoke in the media, I'm quite sure those of tomorrow will feel the same about ours.