Waileia

Hawai’i’s 6.6 and 5.8 magnitude earthquakes yesterday morning shook many, but not churchgoers at New Hope Christian Fellowship, one of the state’s larger churches, with a typical weekly attendence of 12,000 spread across five services. New Hope’s web site was down as of the time of this post. Instead, a front-page story describes a scene which sounds much like business-as-usual:

During the 7 am service, worship leader Tiffany Thurston was speaking about worshiping through restrictions. Just then, the electricity in Farrington Auditorium went off. Lights, sound, cameras, everything all at once ceased to work. But instead of panicking, a collective chuckle rose from the congregation.

Teams at the church passed out flashlights to the congregation and jury-rigged a sound system using portable generators and other supplies on hand. The 9 AM service was also held “normally.”

As luck would have it, I was at service yesterday, and missed all the fun this morning. The church often has people roaming with portable camcorders. Hopefully, some of the footage will make next week’s service. Service times are Saturdays at 5:00 and 7:00 PM, and Sundays at 7:00, 9:00, and 11:00 AM (all Hawai’i Standard Time).

I’d encourage you to check out this dynamic church if you live on O’ahu, or watch the live webcast. They make sure every attendee (including me) is surrounded by positive role models of the impact a life centered on Christ can have on one’s self, family, and the larger community. Their mantra, “Doing Church as a Team,” doesn’t begin to describe the true feeling of ‘ohana you feel there.

Today marks the Honolulu Advertiser’s 150^th anniversary issue. In 1856 (five years after the first edition of the New York Times), a few hundred colorless editions came off the press. Today, the Advertiser can print 48 full-color pages per issue.

The longevity of newspapers in an increasingly digital age seems to be a testament of simpler times. Despite the proliferation of radio, television, blogs, RSS, podcasts, and vidcasts, the nature of informing the public has changed dramatically, yet enough things stay the same. Even with all the competition, dailies still sell millions of copies a day.

Standards developed by papers over a century ago are largely still followed today, and in many cases have influenced competing media. For example, considered the “inverted pyramid” style of writing - originally developed to cope with the unreliability of the telegraph, but now a staple of reporting found in every form of news we use today.

With news now mallable and routinely edited by the reader, it’ll be interesting to see how newspapers continue to adapt to the brave new world delivered by technology.

An enterprising young man took advantage of an Apple media campaign today to deliver a somewhat unorthodox marriage proposal.

The anonymous man stood outside Apple’s Fifth Avenue retail store this morning between 5:30 AM and 6:00 AM Eastern Time with three paper signs reading “Uschi Lang, I love you, will you marry me?” A time-lapse camera captured the proposal. It was only 10 seconds on Apple’s web site, but if the 30-second movie shows pictures at a constant rate, the man was standing there for 20 minutes. That’s dedication. The complete movie is available at the URL above, for millions of people to see.

No word yet on the identity of this hopeless romantic, or whether Ms. Lang had the good humor to say yes. Best wishes to the couple, regardless of the outcome.

Nothing truly enables you to understand the power of education quite like studying a foreign language. I just completed my final exam for what will be (hopefully) my last Spanish and foreign language class. I learned very little español in my two years of study. What I did realize, earlier this year, is how important language is to your intelligence, or at least your perceived intelligence.

During my Spanish classes, I often found myself with an idea that was important to the class discussion. Usually, however, I would stay silent. I couldn’t figure out how to translate my thought into Spanish and was too intent on learning the language to ask in English.

It occurred to me that for the 1.2 million people who immigrate to the U.S. annually, mastery of English is critical to their success. If they can’t speak English well, they won’t do well during job interviews. This would be the case even if they were a certified genius or a renowned scholar from their country of origin.

It also seems that as Christians, we must be mindful of how we treat people who didn’t grow up learning our language. They are of equal worth in God’s eyes.

The entries I’ve written for the past month or so examine the role technology plays in everyday life. I’ve noticed that many of the entries during this time unconsciously seemed to focus on the negative aspects of telecommunications that we face, particularly corporate consolidations and the effect of telecommunications service interruptions on society.

In a way, this isn’t particularly surprising. I’ve been an advocate for strong protections of the freedom of expression (as well as the other freedoms protected by the Constitution) for about as long as I’ve been a netizen. These freedoms are essential for understanding the world we live in, and finding common ground on issues of morality, ethics, and peace.

Today’s telecommunications enables all of these rights to be exercised freely, but only if we choose to. I feel that we’re rapidly approaching a stage where the amazing freedom that telecommunications has enabled today will be surpassed by a new era, when technology is used to suppress people and force them to conform.

Like all technologies, the trick to making telecommunications technologies valuable is to ensure that they’re free from regulation, reliable, and available as widely as possible. It is in our interest to do so, because it will enable the discourse that maintains our free society.