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.

Was it REALLY 50 Years Ago -?
I received a phone call yesterday from Terry Peterson inviting me to attend the “50 Year Re-Union” of my high school graduating class. It was a real déjà vu moment as we tossed names and stories about. He is still married to Thelma Manning, one of our schoolmates, while I have said, “I do” six times in the same number of years. Terry said that would probably qualify me as the winner of the “most times married” award. I wonder if I will also get the “longest hair on a guy” award. I am sure that the competition will much fiercer for the least amount of hair left.

Harvey’s Broiler
Cruising Harvey’s was the thing to do, especially on Friday night. That looks a little like my 50 Ford sitting there. It was a consistent parade of cars showing off their latest tuck and roll upholstery, and sounding off the glass pack mufflers. 

The Warren Golden Bears
The event will be held back in Downey, California, and include a “brown bag lunch tour” of the Warren High School Campus, where we were the first graduating class from the school. I’m not someone who likes to dwell on the past, and as scary as “50″ sounds, hearing that 42 of our classmates have already moved on to the hereafter was even scarier.
This should be a real blast. If any of the “Class of 59″ happen to see this Blog I hope you will post a comment about yourself, and if you send me a picture from “then”, or better yet “now”. I will include it in this post as an update.
You can also register your profile here for free. That should help Terry and the other organizers prepare for this.

Friday Night Special
Every Friday afternoon the Waikiki Yacht Club holds its weekly sailing yacht race. The motivation to win is strong with a bottle of champagne being the grand prize.

Captain Doug Smoyer
This is also a weekly “happening” for Doug and Joan Smoyer with a small group of selected friends that are invited to go out on their motor yacht and watch the race up close. Besides seeing Waikiki from this special perspective, Doug’s guests are often times entertained by his ukulele or harmonica playing.

It’s EASY
I feel honored to be among the invitees occasionally, and always cherish the time. There is always plenty of good vibes to go along with the great company, views, food and drink.

Peter and Bonea
This past Friday Doug granted my request to invite some of my own friends. Peter Skaaning has a tough time breaking away from the Honolulu Design Center, but the opportunity to get out on the ocean with Bonea and friends was one he could not resist.

(R-L) Steen and Carsten
The invitation was especially timely because Peter’s brother Steen from INspiration BC was in town, as was BoConcept boss Carsten Pedersen. Carsten logs over 250,000 air miles every year, so the relaxation was a welcome break for him.

Picture Post Card
I heard someone say, “Now that’s a post card moment” as we watched the yachts reach the half way point with the sun dropping down on the horizon. My thought at the moment was, “Lucky we live Hawaii”.

Tasks
Just like at the store, there are always some tasks to be done. Normally Doug and Joan can avoid this part since they have a “crew”. On this day the normal ”crew” wasn’t there, so the guests got a chance to help out. I didn’t hear any complaining, and I heard a lot of gratitude expressed from all for the experience.

Captain Doug Smoyer at the Helm

Mahalo Doug, you are Da Man! I Love You.

Creative, But Transparent

I have begun to save some of the blog comments I get that are obvious spam attempts to get published on this and other Blogs. It is almost humorous (if it wasn’t so irritating) to see how little the comment has to do with the post it was made on. It looks like they have some auto generated, generic comments that are supposed to look legitimate.

Sometimes they cut and paste a portion of my original post into the comment to make it appear authentic, but none of them are getting past me. I have the opportunity to approve, delete or mark as spam any comments sent. Once the comment is approved, the ads and links would appear in great volume on the Blog.

Here’s a list of some of the more popular comments, bad English and all, that I see all too often, and delete as spam. I will continue to add to this list as they come pouring in.

“Fine site!”

“Interesting”

“Cool”

“Good site!”

“Hello”

“News…”

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“Dynamite review on To Succeed; LISTEN, and Pay CLOSE Attention! Thoroughly love this posts.”

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“I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Southwest Customer Dress Codes, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.”

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“Cool message. I think you’ll surf on my website. Ciao”

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“Interesting - because that is the same thing I found out last Thursday.”

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“I would like to see a continuation of the topic”

“I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….”

“Hi there…I Googled for king college, but found your page about Community Spirit…and have to say thanks. nice read.”

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“Hey!…I Googled for brighton ski, but found your page about Grouse Mountain; Vancouver BC…and have to say thanks. nice read.”

“Hello I was doing a search for real estate sales training and found myself here. My family could read this blog, and that makes a change I can tell you. You are a great find. Informative too.”

“Hello webmaster…I Googled for brenda anderson, but found your page about Pool Anyone?…and have to say thanks.”

“nice read.”

“I am glad to find this forum!”

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“The Author, you - genius…”

“\Hi there, I just wanted to say what a great site this is, I came across your site while searching around on Google. Your post, s Best Lawyers - Honolulu Design Center has some good info! Thanks again, keep up the good work and have a great Sunday!\.”

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“I was searching for \’Travel Honolulu\’ at google and got this your post (\’January 2008\’) in search results. Not very relevant result, but still interesting to read”

“Very nicely done forum.”

“Bonjour! j\’aime votre blog et High School Selling Class”

“Very good contents…”

“The Pleasing text and design!”

“Very good web forum, great work and thank you for your service.
Hi…I Googled for celebrity feet, but found your page about Customers – Employees - Rules!…and have to say thanks. nice read.”

“Excellent forum, added to favorites!”

“Your parents must be proud of you….”

“Very nicely done forum. Very good web forum, great work and thank you for your service. The Author, you - genius… I am glad to find this forum ! What beautiful text and visitors!”

“Excellent webforum!”

“Sorry but what do you mean about that? I cant understand really.”

“I was searching for \’Hawaii Cruise\’ at google and got this your post (\’Aloha Spirit\’) in search results. Not very relevant result, but still interesting to read”

“:) Alot of information, I have hever seen before a such useful thing. Thank you :)”

“Awesome opinion when it comes to Blu Light with Levulan. Your blogging is the reason I keep come back to website.”

“I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Morning Report, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.”

“This comment was posted automatically using Blog Comment Poster software. Would you like to make serious money in this way of advertising too? So start today!”

Aha! So, now I see where all of this crap is coming from!!! As irritating as it is, it is always nice to see creativity at work.

I am commited to keeping this Blog pure. If you ever see a comment, or post for that matter that you find offensive or not factual, please contact me and I will correct it immediately.

Ron and Famous Amos Smiling Anyway

My friend Wally Amos and I were on the runway, about to fly from Maui to Honolulu this evening when the plane engines suddenly stopped. We looked at each other and said in unison, “I don’t like the sound of that”.

The next thing we heard was the pilot saying, “I’m sorry folks, but while going through our check list before take off I noticed a problem with our brakes. We need you to leave the plane and return to the terminal while we have our mechanics take a look at it.” He went on to say, “We only have a 30 minute opportunity to fix it before it gets too dark to take off”. We were at the tiny Kapalua Airport on West Maui, where there are no runway lights.

Everyone returned to the terminal and got on their cell phones to announce our delay. Wally got on his Blackberry and I opened up my lap top. Wally got us both laughing when he said, “Hey, I have an e-mail here from Ron Martin, what a world this is.”

The good news is that we were able to re-board in time to take off before dark. While in flight we talked about the importance of pilots going through their pre-flight check list even though they may have flown the plane thousands of times. It is surprising to think that most salespeople don’t go through their check list before greeting the first customer of the day. When flying an airplane doing so can make a life or death difference. In selling it is only success or failure.

To see those smiles up close, click on the photo, and then click on your back button to return to the blog.