May 5, 2007

A most interesting morning today - I sat in on a "Pajama" conference - for the Family History Live Online's monthly conference - the "Online Family History Fair." It was on online conference - just like at a regular conference that you attend, for lots of money. With this situation, I downloaded the ReGL viewer from www.familyhistoryliveonline.com then tried to follow the directions to sign up for the class, etc. It was not easy, nor really simple. Or maybe I made it more difficult than it should be. But finally I was able to get squared away a couple days ahead. Then this morning at 5 am when the conference started (8am mountain time), I was still sleeping, of course. Well, I signed in at about 8 a.m. and found "Dear Myrt" discussing "Blogging: Getting the Word Out" presentation. Every 45 minutes there was a guest speaker and then a vendor followed talking about their wares. Also on the schedule was Robert Larson on Ancestry.com; Gena Ortega on Cemeteries & Their Secrets; and Amy Anderson on Basic PAF. Vendors were on "Footnote" and "US GenWeb." There were onthers earlier in the morning that I missed. There were up to 50 registrants who signed on, around the US and also Karin in Sweden. They noted I was signed in from Hawaii. We could type questions or comments as the lecture progressed and we heard them respond. We watched the computer screen as the speakers put up various images. It was really fantastic! I even recorded one of the presenters on my iPod! I can see that this is the beginning of a new wave of at-home conferences. I'm sure they won't all be free like this was, in the future, but I'm sure they will be popular. Also at the familyhiltoryliveonline website, they offer free online genealogy support classes and free genealogy classes according to a weekly schedule. I'm going to try to drop in on some of these groups this week.

The Hawaii State Legislature has finally finished it's last session for the year, Thursday was called "Sine Die" which is Latin, I guess, for "it's all over" -- for better or worse, and I suspect the latter. But there were some good bills to come out of it, I'm sure. Now, that I won't be down at the Capitol running around or typing the captions on the bottom of the TV screen. I work with CapitolTV which televises live hearings and sessions at the Legislature for the local Community Access Television, Olelo, and also live streaming on the internet. Now, I guess I'll have more time for -- guess what --? Genealogy and the Gym. Mostly genealogy! But for awhile I will still be doing some of the graphics for television of the Honolulu City Council meetings. In this photo I am at the computer, while Randy is at the Director's place in the middle, and Ed is doing remote cameras. This is in the City Hall which is called "Honolulu Hale" for a live city council meeting.

Another interesting night, Thursday, at the Adventurers' Club. This time at the Waialae Country Club, at a beautiful locale on the beach. My friends, Carolyn and Don Yacoe presented their film on "The Drum and The Mask: Time of the Tumbuan" from New Guinea. I'd seen it a few years ago, but it was even better than I'd remembered.

Friday I was so happy to attend the Nisei Veterans Endowed Forum Series, Universal Values for a Democratic Society "One Ocean, One People" with keynote speaker Nainoa Thompson. Nainoa was just back from sailing from Hawai'i on the Hokule'a voyaging canoe which has just arrived in Japan, still making stops at various ports. As usual his talk was riveting and very inspiring. I am sure it was especially inspiring to the 28 high school students who were honored for their award winning essays on values. See the websites: http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu for the Hokule'a's home website; and to see the weblog of the long voyage to Micronesia and Japan as it is occurring now go to http://pvshawaii.squarespace.com . Here, on the right, is a photo of the Hokule'a in Hawaii, probably taken by Monte Costa.

It was Recycling day at the Hui Nalu Canoe Club today. A chance to get rid of stuff. I found 13 pair of shoes I could finally part with! I'm sure the recyclers were looking for copper and other metals, and others were there for the cans and plastic bottles - Hawaii has a 5 cent deposit on them. A good portion of the scrap/recycle value of everything is donated to the Canoe Club. Goodwill was there too.