If you know me, you know that I was raised around the art of hula. I am only now, through the interest of my children, returning to the art that I love so dearly. I shared from my heart, over on the So Much More Hawaii blog a brief history of the origins of hula and photos of my family.
For more about Hawaii’s local traditions, values, and culture visit Hawaii Traditions.
For one week, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people, to generate new ideas and seek better ways of doing things. Countries across six continents are coming together to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark.
On Wednesday, November 18, 2009 from 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. at ING Direct Cafe, I’ll be participating on the Young and Hip Entrepreneurs of Hawaii panel. With me will be Lorenz Sell of I Love of Photos and FindMeFit and Tiffany Tanaka of Fresh Cafe.
An entrepreneur for sure, I’m still trying to figure out if I’m young or hip enough for this panel, but if you have the time come down.
If you’re heading to Maui, consider taking a ride on the Sugar Cane Train in Lahaina. It’s a ride down the tracks of nostalgia. I shared my family photos of our recent trip on the So Much More Hawaii blog.
Read more about Hawaii’s Waipahu Sugar Mill and Dole Plantation.
Over on the So Much More Hawaii blog I wrote about our family excursion to Kualoa Ranch. There are many outdoor activities and tours offered by the Ranch. We especially enjoyed learning about ancient innovation of the Hawaiian people of the construction of the still existing, Molii Fishpond. Lilinoe even took her turn throwing a fishnet to harvest the fruit of the water. Head on over to see what she caught at Kualoa Ranch.
I really love WordPress and all of the creative geniuses that design themes and plugins that make building and maintaining websites a relatively smooth process. Originally designed as blogging software, WordPress now has become the software of choice. But, in the past year, I’ve really grown to love the ease of using Posterous, especially for sharing a gallery of photos or videos.
But, there needs to be distinction between my WordPress powered blog, From the Mind of NEENZ and iNEENZ powered by Posterous. I named it iNEENZ because most of my posts come from using my iPhone due to both the app and email to post option.
And so, moving forward, From the Mind of NEENZ will focus on what’s going on in my life professionally with Alltop, Pono Media, Grilled Cornbread LLP, Hawaii Traditions, and any other venture. iNEENZ will focus on all that’s good in my life personally.
Earlier this year, the State of Hawaii, Hawaii Tourism Authority tested the social media waters by launching a familiarization tour using bloggers with a substantial and global reach. Many balked at the idea for their own reasons, but I embraced it because it was a ray of sunlight on social and new media in an otherwise dark room. Known as “So Much More Hawaii” the goals were not only to introduce HTA to social and new media, but for the bloggers to experience so much more of Hawaii rather than a shuttled, packaged tour. To accomplish this and inspired by the late Rap Reiplinger, I reached out to my network for “Puka Shell Tour Guides.”
This pairing of local with visitor, whether blogger or not, was one of the successes of the tour. Another success, is the embracing of the tour’s official website, So Much More Hawaii: A Blogger’s View of Paradise by the State of Hawaii now managed by the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau.
During the month of October, I’ll be sharing articles about my Hawaii and the things that I do with Lilinoe and our children to give visitors an idea that there’s so much more about Hawaii.
My first article is already posted about the time Lilinoe and I went parasailing. Check it out, and I hope you get inspired to book a reservation: Water Activities: Parasailing
If you didn’t know, I love my home, Hawaii — unconditionally. Her beauty, her people, our community, our challenges, our success — I am proud, always. It’s no secret that we’re faced with economically challenging times, the toughest I’ve experienced as an adult. These challenges can cause communities to breakdown, feel hopeless, and make irrational decisions or worse yet, none at all. As for me and my household, we continue to paddle our canoe forward and as an entrepreneur, I am Co-organizing two events that I am certain will provide hope and inspiration.
[re]Think: Hawaii — “We’re creating an intersection – bringing an international group of people together who might otherwise never cross-paths – in the certainty that they’ll connect, share and learn from one another.” I am grateful to be able to travel to different tech, business, and social media conferences throughout the continental United States. Not every entrepreneur, small business owner, or social media geek is able to afford the same opportunity. My efforts with [re]Think: Hawaii are to bring to Hawaii, my community the opportunity to meet with leaders in technology, venture capital, social media, sustainability, and business. With less than a week to go, are you making the most of this opportunity?
TEDxHonolulu– (x = an independently organized TED event) “In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.” The theme for TEDxHonolulu is SHIFT — (v.) To change position, direction, place, or form. (n.) A change in attitude, judgment, or emphasis. As the license holder and Curator of TEDxHonolulu, I am putting together a group of local and global speakers to inspire the audience to SHIFT. This is a free event, if you’d like to attend TEDxHonolulu on Thursday, November 5, 2009, please request an invite.
The first week of November will be very important for entrepreneurs, investors, small business owners, and the entire Hawaii community. I am looking forward to seeing everyone.
Part of being an entrepreneur is having a creative mind that is constantly churning out ideas. Call it curse or a blessing, I’d like to think it’s the latter. I wanted to share the current portfolio of web properties owned and managed by Pono Media.
A history of research, science, and technology in Hawaii’s emergining innovation industries
Traditions, Values, and Culture…Hawaii Style.
Inspiring the State of Hawaii to GET INVOLVED!
For more than a year my email signature read: “Pono Media [Coming Soon!]” and I probably purchased the domain name before then too. I knew that I wanted to launch my own startup, however finding it’s focus was a challenge. Media is my passion, but it was too broad, if I were going to make a difference in the world, I needed to narrow down my focus. Internet marketing too was too broad of a scope, however by combining the two and acknowledge the path that media and marketing has embarked, I knew that social media marketing was my focus for Pono Media.
Established in February 2009, Pono Media is a social media marketing company that builds communities through social media. Social media and its tools have allowed viewers, readers, and consumers to become publishers. No longer is media a monologue, but a conversation with the ability to span the globe.
Are you aware of the conversation being conducted about you, your organization, your brand? It’s happening. Do you have a clear strategy in joining the conversation? You should. Is your entire team trained and able to implement the strategy? They should be. Do you have an online community? It’s time.
Pono Media is building communities, through social media and would like to teach you to do the same.
It only takes a small group to make a difference, to change the world and in the case of Blog Action Day it only took the passion of (2) people to inspire others. In 2007, Collis & Cyan Ta’eed founded, Blog Action Day and inspired 20,000 bloggers to write about the environment.
Today is the 3rd Annual Blog Action Day, and keeping with bringing attention to the environment, this year’s theme is about Climate Change.
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average (for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth. — Wikipedia.
Being from Hawaii, I’d like to share resources that talk about Island Climate Change:
Today, October 15, 2009 is Blog Action Day, thousands strong bringing awareness to the environment — to climate change. The key word is action, and if your only action is reading more about climate and island climate change; then we’ve taken a step forward — together.
I don’t think I need to say this, but people take things too literally, especially when it comes to blogging. Despite my Godzilla like size, I’m not suggesting we literally take a bit out of the Sin City. About a week ago, my friend and Hawaii’s favorite pushy Chinee Broad, Melissa Chang asked me to find some new places to eat during my trip to Las Vegas, NV for BlogWorld Expo. Instead of searching online, using Yelp or waiting till we arrived to randomly ask I reached out to my network of Hawaii expats now living in the brightly lit city.
Here are the suggestions:
We will also be taking our favorite Executive Pastry Chef, business partner, and friend, Ed Morita to the Rio’s Village Seafood buffet when he arrives later this week. But, as you can see we have a great variety of suggestions that we’ll do our best to fit into our schedules.
If you don’t already, subscribe to iNEENZ where I share with the world what I capture with my iPhone and of course, eyes which is likely where I’ll post our experiences immediately.
Disclaimer: The Polynesian Cultural Center comped 4-tickets for my family and I to experience the Haunted Lagoon.
When I was about 8-years old my Father said that he was taking us to a very popular haunted house in Pauoa Valley here on Oahu. It was the Halloween season, so we knew it was produced, however our childlike imaginations could not conjure our experience. We dropped my Mom off at my Nanny’s hula studio for evening classes and parked around the corner near Lusitania Street, Kanealii Avenue, and Pauoa Road. Do you know the area?
Anyways, excited we entered the doorway of the haunted house which during the off season is the garage of a quaint home just past the old feed store, but ironically near a graveyard. Holding hands, the five of us marched into the darkness one-by-one with my Father behind us. Within seconds, we wanted out! The light at the end of the tunnel seemed non-existent, but by the time we emerged into the Honolulu air, tears of fear streamed down our cheeks and we promised my Father that we were going to tell Mom…and Nanny!
In retrospect, this was one of the greatest memories of my childhood. A time when we felt as brave as warriors, and emerged crying children. An experience that had the five of us band together and comfort one another in our fears. But really it was a time where we could all laugh at ourselves.
So, when I received an invitation from the Polynesian Cultural Center to take my family on a canoe ride on their Haunted Lagoon — I immediately accepted. I reflected upon my memories of the haunted house in Pauoa Valley, and well, are these not the type of trouble-making moments parents wait for?
A few days before the spooky canoe ride, we read the story of Nalani more commonly known as the “Lady of La’ie”. She was born on the west side of Oahu who blossomed into a beautiful teenager. Nalani caught the eye of many men, however she fell in love with a visiting sailor. Against her family’s wishes, Nalani and the young sailor secretly married. Eventually though, her family found out and they beat the new groom. The sailor and his wife fled to the mountains above La’ie for refuge, however he was too badly beaten and died.
She planted a coconut tree to mark his grave near the river where she would sit and sob. Months later, a recluse, Nalani gave birth to a son. Her entire existence was for her son, until one day when she awoke he was missing. Nalani spent her days walking on the banks of the river, searching for her son, yearning for her husband. Until one day, she too disappeared.
Legend has it that the young sailor came back for his wife and son. The coconut tree that Nalani planted is on the grounds of what is now the Polynesian Cultural Center and sits between the Tongan and Rapa Nui villages. Its trunk is twisted and mangled, resembling the beaten sailor.
By the time we arrived in La’ie, the sun had set and we followed the path to the docked canoes. The children had expressed their anxiety, but were still wide-eyed and curious. We took the first row of the canoe and was steered into darkness.
I won’t give away too much, but I will share that I was exhausted at the end of the ride. Exhausted from protecting my family from the unexpected, yet perfectly placed scary surprises. But I was mostly exhausted from screaming my head off — I’m still trying to gain my voice back. Yes, I was authentically spooked enough to scream out loud and scoot away from the ghosts and ghouls — the production is that good. Will you scream?
My entire family highly recommends visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center’s Haunted Lagoon which begins this Friday, October 2, 2009 and every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday night from 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. till October 31, 2009. PCC posted their prices for adults and children and local businesses are offering coupons.
Follow @polynesia on Twitter for updates, news, and discounts.
Oh, and before we left the lagoon, I turned back and was able to capture this picture of the Lady of La’ie.
More than a year ago, I extended an invitation to Chris Pirillo to be a “puka shell tour guide” and this past July he returned. I helped get the word out for a tweet up at Tiki’s Grill and Bar in his honor, and about 50 local people attended as well as his millions of viewers via livestream.
Local, self-described renaissance chick, Traci Toguchi provided Chris with an itinerary full of local, cultural flavor. And, I am grateful that even after returning to his hometown of Seattle, Chris continues to share Hawaii with his online community. I am truly grateful for his generosity towards Hawaii.
Traci interviewed me a few weeks ago for Chris’ site to talk about the technology I travel with. I must admit, I’m becoming a smarter traveler, especially since the airlines now charge for checked-in luggage. Here are my gadget suggestions when I travel, what are yours?
[Disclosure: Servco Toyota Hawaii loaned me a 2010 Prius for one-month.]
We’ve had Juicy Toyota for a little over two-weeks, and it will be a sad moment to have to return her to the generous folks at Servco Toyota Hawaii. The other weekend, we took Juicy to the North Shore of Oahu (well, she took us) for a scenic drive and some famous Kahuku shrimp! Enjoy the picture below.
Prius Toyota Tidbit: Driving daily for more than two-weeks covering majority of the towns on Oahu from the North Shore to Waikiki, in traffic, and using the much needed air conditioner; we’ve had to fill up the gas — ONCE!
Traditionally in Hawaii, sports teams and organizations have sold everything from buckets of chili to car washes to raise money for uniforms, equipment, and travel expenses. I remember when my Father first started coaching at McKinley High School, the athletes would work in teams to cover the school grounds, picking up trash at the carnival and fairs. These days, fundraisers have gotten creative, but the basic needs still remain the same.
One of my good friends, Derek Higa has committed much of his free time to coaching the kids in the Makakilo, Ewa, and Kapolei neighborhoods. A father of three, he not only dedicates his time to his son’s team, but to all of the other teams.
I witnessed the admiration his players had for him during his Yakudoshi in 2008 as they greeted him with a paper banner and like a revved up football player, Coach Derek tore through it with gusto! The players then lined up to greet and hug their Coach, one at a time.
On Sunday, September 20, 2009 Coach Derek’s Pee Wee level football team is having a fundraiser at Rumours Nightclub in the Ala Moana Hotel. They’re raising money to travel to Molokai for a football game. The event will feature entertainment, pupus, door prizes, and let’s face it — a night out with friends and family for a good cause!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Rumours Nightclub in the Ala Moana Hotel
5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Pre-event tickets: $10
At the door: $15
If you can’t make it, here’s how you can help:
If you’re on Facebook, send a message to Kristin Benoza Higa to pre-order your tickets and/or make a donation or email me at neenz@faleafine.com. Mahalo to everyone for their support of the team and youth sports in Hawaii.
From the Mind of NEENZ
