44 Year Habit Broken
When I read this CBS News story about 84 year old Joseph Macko continuing his 53 year habit of buying or leasing a new Cadillac every year since 1955, I felt like a real lightweight.
I tell the complete story in Success Made Easy, but the short version is that I made a deal with Marvin K. Brown in 1964 that if he would not reposess my 1962 Cadillac, and deliver me a new 1965, that I would get a new Cadillac every two years for the rest of my life. 
Well I have lived up to that promise until now. This year I wrote a check for my new STS “black beauty” and plan to keep it from now on. We’ll see!

Here They Go Again
A few months ago I complained about a photo on the front page of Pacific Business News showing an empty Honolulu Airport along with the shocking quote; “It’s worse than after 911.” The photo was obviously taken when the airport was closed.
Well, the front page of this week’s PBN shows an empty Waikiki Beach. The long shadows of the palm trees are a dead giveaway as to how early in the morning this photo was taken. It motivated me to go to that same spot this afternoon and shoot the one below:

A Different Spin
In this issue PBN reports that we have a 13% drop in visitors. What if the headline were to read:

87% Still Coming To Hawaii
And the subsequent article was to say something like;
“In spite of the doom and gloom projections about the mainland economy we are still enjoying a tourism count equal to 87% of last years record number of visitors to Hawaii. Even more exciting is the fact that these are people who are not concerned about the price of gasoline, hotel rooms or airline tikets. We are seeing the cream of the crop, and yes they are spending money.”
I say, “Knock off the negative sensationalism.” That’s how to make things better.

Even More People
There was no let up in shopping as the Made In Hawaii Festival went into its second day. People came early and stayed late. It was a chore to work your way up or down any of the aisles in either of the two Blaisdale buildings.

Is Traffic All You Need?
If traffic was all that’s needed to insure success, no one could fail in this environment. However,  traffic isn’t enough all by itself. The behavior of the person seen by those making up the traffic is an even bigger factor.

“It’s So Slow”
When asked how the show was, I assure you that some will say, “It was so slow.” This “salesperson” sitting and reading something while in the midst of this heavy traffic may as well have been out in the desert all alone. People will not stop and interupt someone that is engrossed in something else. To get busy, get busy.

Day One of Three
The opening day of this year’s Made in Hawaii Festival attracted huge numbers of people there for one reason, and one reason alone; to buy stuff!

Pictures Worth 1,000 Words
It was elbow to elbow today at both Blaisdale buildings today.

27 Years Ago
That’s when IBM introduced its first personal computer.

Then came:
Bill Gates
The Internet
The Mac
Steve Jobs
Floppy Discs
Hard Drives
Windows
The iPod
CD ROMs
E-mail
E-commerce
Instant messaging
The dotcom boom
The dotcom bust
Mobile phones
PDAs
Notebook Computers
Digital Cameras
Computer viruses
GPS
Google
My Space
iPhone
Cloud computing
YouTube
IBM drops out of the PC business

Time Flies!
Are you keeping up?

That’s the Multi-Billion $ Question
I really try hard to stay out of politics and political events, and feel that it’s too bad that the war in Iraq is so political. Having a son who was there, and who more recently was in Afghanistan, I was able to see 1st hand the effect it had on his mother. I saw her going to the TV every morning to see the latest news. I felt great relief when I saw President Bush declare “Mission Accomplished” so many years, lives and dollars ago.
The vast majority of American people do not want us to be over there killing and being killed for no good reason. Now I read that the people of Iraq want us out of there as well. That leaves a big question in my mind; “Who wants us there anyway?”
I remember clearly the “Old Days” when a very similar scenario played out in Viet Nam. I now know so many wonderful Vietnamese people living in America, so many great Vietnamese restaurants in Honolulu, and my friends go to Viet Nam on vacation. I can’t help but wonder if my grandchildren will be visiting Iraq on vacation someday and wondering why we spent so much time, money and bloodshed over there in the “Old Days”.

Life Saver

Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Here are five things you may not know you can do with your cell phone.

FIRST

In an Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an Emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly, this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

SECOND

If you lock your keys in the car

If your car has remote keyless entry, it may come in handy someday. If you lock your keys In the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car or trunk will unlock. Distance is no object.

THIRD

Hidden Battery Power

Should your cell battery become very low, you can activate Hidden Battery Power by pressing the keys *3370#. Your cell phone will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell phone next time.

FOURTH

How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone

To check your Mobile phone’s serial number, key in the following Digits on your phone: *#06#. A 15-digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe.

Should your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so that even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won’t get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can’t use it or sell it.

FIFTH

Free Directory Information for Cell Phones

Cell phone companies are charging $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls when they don’t have to.

You can get free 411 information by simply dialing (800)FREE411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now.

Ultimate Listeners
Dinner with the Sherman’s was a wonderful experience. Eddie is an icon in the Hawaii media scene, and author of “Frank, Sammy, Marlon & Me” which chronicles his early involvement with Jack Lord and the Hawaii 5-0 series.
Eddie’s skills as a newspaper columnist and interviewer were evident during dinner as he and his adoring wife Patty asked Masae and me question after question, choosing to talk about us rather than them. The time flew by and we are looking forward the next opportunity to dine with The Shermans, where I plan to “turn the tables”.

Making a Difference
I came across three different verions of the same story today. Some were longer and more elaborate than others, but all gave me the same feeling.
One was a poem by the famous writer Lauren Eisely.
The shortest one was tale told to children in Maine. It told of a small boy walking on the beach with his grandfather when they came across a live starfish that had been washed ashore by a storm the night before.
The boy picked it up and started to throw it back into the sea. His grandfather stopped him and asked him why he would do that. The boy said, “I throw starfish back into the sea so that they don’t die. They can’t move on the sand and if the sun comes out, they will dry out and die. So I am throwing them back so that they will live.”
His grandfather laughed at this statement and proceeded to put things in ‘perspective’ for the boy… “On this beach alone there are literally thousands of starfish? And then of course there are hundreds of beaches in the world, on which are thrown up millions of starfish in every storm. You are one kid; throwing one starfish into the sea will not make a difference”
The boy looked at the starfish in his hand, turned and threw it far into the waves and said, “It made a difference to that one!” Get it?

Born 12-19-1951
Died 4-16-2008

Hawaiians have a way of saying goodbye to their deceased beloved unlike any other place in the world. A gathering of family and friends on the beach, a sunset sail, words from a Kahuna, the scattering of ashes into the blue pacific, the tossing in of flowers, (and in this case some beer and rum) folowed by the women in Don’s life taking a last swim with him, and then capping it off with dinner for all at the exclusive Outrigger Canoe Club. He had to have loved it all.

If you knew Don these pictures speak for themselves. If you didn’t know Donald Benjamin Olson, you missed out on someone special.

Aloha Don, we will all see you again someday. And, God Bless Kulani Fernandez for the 25 years of devoted love and understanding she gave to Don while here on this earth.