I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works. An assault upon a town is a bad thing; but starving it is still worse.

– Samuel Johnson

Sometimes I wonder if Samuel Johnson had blogs in mind when he said this in the 18th century.

Never since the invention of moveable type has there been so much…well…stuff being written, on just about any subject. Just search Technorati and somewhere, someplace, someone is writing about that subject. And sometimes people write just for the sake of writing, just to say how good or how bad their days have been, or how sick as a dog they are.

But one thing is certain. They write to be read. They don’t put this stuff out there without the expectation of there being a readership, however small. 

The artist puts paint to canvas for his own enjoyment, but no doubt his enjoyment would be enhanced if someone were moved by the painting enough to buy it. And even if the critic pans it, well, it was noticed. Someone saw it. And once that happens, the work’s reason for being has been fulfilled.

Back to blogs. Some are good, others are utter garbage. And no doubt this humble place I call home on the Web falls into the latter category. But I probably wouldn’t be too far off the mark to generalize that for many bloggers, the measure of success for a post is their comment count.

I know that’s true for me. If I get a comment, or a request to moderate a well-thought out comment (i.e. not spam), then I can rest in the satisfaction that someone read it. They may not agree with what I say, but I yelled from the mountaintop and got an echo back.

Still, what makes it hard to write (and part of the reason that I go through feast and famine stages in posting) is that sometimes I feel like I have to say something totally outrageous.

Like:  I eat human flesh for breakfast.

And if you believe that, I have some land on the slopes of Kilauea to sell you.

So, my question to you (those of you who have blogs): How true does Samuel Johnson’s quote hold for you? What motivates you to keep your blog?

The only way to amuse some people is to slip and fall on an icy pavement.
 Howe, Edgar Watson on Amusement Quote from Quotations Book
 

Or…to slip and fall on live television, as Ryan Ozawa at HawaiiBlog did on KITV 4.

As an amateur choir conductor, I’ve always wondered whether there really is a thing called tone deafness. To some degree I’ve encountered some resistance when I try to recruit people to the choir…people say that they don’t sing well.

While researching tone deafness and whether there is really a thing, I stumbled across the site of Jake Mandell, a medical student at the University of Massachusetts. He formulated some tests to see how well people can detect differences in pitch, rhythm, and musical phrases.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it:

1.  Go to http://www.tonometric.com and take the “tonedeaf” and “adaptive pitch” tests.

2.  Report back here with your scores (your % correct on the tonedeaf test and the frequency difference you can detect on the adaptive pitch test).

For comparison: when I first took the tonedeaf test, I scored 77.8%.  (The test is intentionally very difficult; even experienced musicians can have trouble scoring above 80%).  I’ve taken the adaptive pitch test a few times and on average can detect pitches about 1.5 Hz apart.

Good luck!  Let me know how you do.

The collective brainpower at Ala Moana right now is staggering.

–Me, at about 1:30 p.m. April 20, at Ala Moana Park

And I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that. I don’t think there ever was this many technically-minded folk, of so many stripes, gathered at a single place in this state. Bloggers, twitterers, digital photographers, hams, astronomers…and even a politician, all gathered at Magic Island for a big potluck.

I was there, primarily representing the Emergency Amateur Radio Club (I had my callsign on three places on my body and my walkie-talkie on my belt) but armed with a new digital camera around my neck.

What made it all the more fun was not only reacquainting myself with other people with an online presence whom I’ve met before, but also getting to meet, for the first time, other people whom I know only by, say, their username on services like Twitter or Flickr. As much as Web 2.0 has to offer, there’s still something to be said about face-to-face contact.

Here are some pictures I took from the event.  Some are landscape photos to test out the new camera…they turned out pretty darn good.

This may become an annual thing…if so, I can’t wait ’til next year!

My Odd News feed served up a feast today. For an appetizer, how about some oysters:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti looked down at the litter of empty oyster shells in front of him and savored the sweet taste of victory. For Crazy Legs Conti, the bitter taste of defeat could be washed away only by beer.

The Acme World Oyster Eating championship belt — leather, with a silver dish featuring an oyster on the half-shell — hung on Bertoletti’s skinny hips. The 22-year-old Chicago resident took the title Saturday by slurping 35 dozen of the big bivalves in eight minutes.

Then the main course: some Uruguayan beef:

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - More than a thousand barbecue fanatics in Uruguay grilled up 12 metric tonnes of beef on Sunday, setting a new Guinness world record while promoting the country’s succulent top export.

Army personnel set up a grill nearly 1.5 kilometres long and fire-fighters lit six tonnes of charcoal to kick off the gargantuan cookout.

Finally, for dessert, how about some ballots a la mode:

NAPLES (Reuters) - Ballot stuffing took on a new meaning in Italy’s parliamentary election on Sunday when a man ate his ballot paper in protest at the country’s politicians.

I know I wasn’t the only one shocked to find out that Aloha Airlines abruptly stopped flying on Monday.   

At least for most of the 80s and 90s, Aloha was our family’s airline. We never considered flying interisland on anything other than one of Aloha’s 737s.

Things have changed, though. In recent years, Hawaiian has earned some loyalty from me, partly because it is one of only two airlines that fly nonstop to what has become my second spiritual home, Portland. And some of that transpacific loyalty has rubbed off on the interisland end. The last time I flew to Maui was on Hawaiian. I figured, may as well have all my HawaiianMiles in one place and one day take an Oregon vacation on Hawaiian’s dime. But then again, I can actually count, on one hand, the number of times I’ve flown interisland since 9-11, so we hadn’t given any interisland carrier too many of our dollars anyway.

I’ve never flown go!, and considering the measured opinions of one porn-loving ex-CFO of theirs, I don’t think I ever will.

I do remember the last time I flew Aloha. It was back in 2005, to and from Las Vegas (I booked via Hotwire so I didn’t know it was Aloha until after the fact). When Aloha first announced transpacific service, some people had doubts about a two-engine plane (like a long-range 737) making a transpacific flight in one piece. But make it in one piece it did…going and coming. And the narrow-body did give it a bit of a cozy feel. No charge to use the headset (in fact, you could take it with you). And warm chocolate chip cookies going and coming back.

I liked it. Unfortunately, I haven’t made a trip back to Las Vegas since. And Aloha stopped non-stops between Las Vegas and Honolulu.

There is some hope. Transportation carriers have shut down and been resurrected (if only partially) in recent memory. Howard Dicus of KGMB9 News opines:

Even now I wouldn’t rule out a relaunch of Aloha by a new owner using more fuel-efficient jets. I haven’t looked into their economic ability to manage such a deal this year but from an operational point of view it would be interesting to see such a deal with Southwest, Alaska or JetBlue. I would add JAL, ANA or even Qantas, KAL or PAL, but there is a U.S. law barring majority ownership of a U.S. airline by foreign interests.

He thinks that Aloha may have found a buyer with more time, given their on-time record, customer satisfaction, strong customer loyalty, and other intangibles.

Also, there is still a little matter of a lawsuit by Aloha against go!, and assuming that Aloha the company is still in existence, that lawsuit is probably Aloha’s to lose (given that Hawaiian has already done much of the heavy lifting for them). Should they prevail, the damages that would be awarded to Aloha should be enough to lease some fuel-efficient jets to get them back in business.

Bottom line, I agree with Howard. I really don’t think it’s adieu, but rather au revoir. Just like Superman doesn’t mean much without Lex Luthor, I can probably think of several pairs of corporate opposites here in Hawaii:

• Advertiser vs. Star-Bulletin
• HMSA vs. Kaiser
• Bank of Hawaii vs. First Hawaiian

But of them, Hawaiian vs. Aloha is probably the most storied of them all. Competition between the two led both airlines to be consistently ranked #1 and #2 in the nation in on-time performance. “Hawaiian time” applied everyplace BUT the interisland planes. And both had fiercely loyal customer bases.

Mark my words. One day, when the economy is better and credit is easier to come by (and it looks like Mesa is having trouble too…can we say, what goes around, comes around?), we may see a rebirth of Aloha Airlines the brand.

For now, though, the state suddenly has 1,900 more unemployed people than it did last week. My heart goes out to all the Aloha workers.

Aloha, Aloha.  We’ll miss you.

UPDATE 4/2 11:09pm: And now I find out that ATA has gone under too. Yikes.

From the “Time to rethink the marketing campaign (and the employee incentives)” department:

DES MOINES, Iowa - A judge has denied an Iowa man’s claim that he shouldn’t have been fired for repeatedly requesting help to procure a prostitute.

Neil Jorgensen, 62, of Kalona, worked at Riverside Casino and Golf Resort in Riverside and was given a gift certificate and free night’s stay at the casino hotel to mark a year’s employment.

After eating and drinking at a casino restaurant, he returned to his hotel room about midnight and later called hotel managers about hiring a prostitute. When managers refused to help him, he made a call to the adjacent resort and made the same request.

“The advertisement is that it’s just like Las Vegas, so I thought I was in Las Vegas,” Jorgensen testified at a hearing regarding his request for unemployment benefits.

From the “Some people will do anything to avoid being over the hill” department:

“Girl” at school was 39-year-old man

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man was arrested for trespassing this week after turning up at a high school dressed in a girl’s uniform and a long wig, local police said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Tetsunori Nanpei told police he had bought the uniform over the Internet and put it on to take a stroll near the school in Saitama, north of Tokyo, on Wednesday, the daily Asahi Shimbun said.

When students standing outside the gates started to scream at the sight of him, he dashed inside the school grounds, hoping to blend in with the crowds of teenagers, the paper said. …

And finally, from the “If you have to ask, you aren’t” department:

“Are Women Human?” And other publishing highlights

LONDON (Reuters) - They may not leap off the shelves into the best-seller category, but the books shortlisted for the oddest book title prize certainly grab the attention. […]

While none of the above may challenge the sensibilities too much, others are likely to prove more divisive. Try “If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs” or “Are Women Human? And other International Dialogues.”

From the “Perhaps it’s time for this guy to head back to civilization” department:

KODIAK, Alaska - A man faces assault charges after allegedly spraying bar patrons twice with bear spray.

From the “And, of course, the U.S. Senate IS an ancient fossil” department:

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s senators will have to share a museum building with the remains of prehistoric woolly mammoths and spotted hyenas during repairs to the Georgian mansion that normally houses parliament’s upper chamber.

Much of Leinster House, built in the 1740s and used by Ireland’s houses of parliament since the 1920s, will close for urgent repairs and the 60-seat upper chamber is to be housed in the natural history museum next door, Irish media reported.

On the way back to my car from the dentist, I ran across this makeshift sticker in the window of a car. It started me thinking about how much the political landscape has changed.

For a while it appeared that the nomination was all but Hillary Clinton’s to lose, but no one figured on the star power of Barack Obama. Super Tuesday ended up being a split decision between Clinton and Obama. Obama and Clinton have been trading the lead.  States that, in another time and place, pundits would have been written off as irrelevant (like Hawaii) are now in play. And one can only see more uncertainty on the horizon. It’s starting to look more and more likely that neither candidate can muster the delegates needed to wrap up the nomination in the primary season, leaving it to the superdelegates to decide the race.

Some believe that such a debate will make the party stronger. To others, it seems like a recipe for disaster. No doubt this contest is causing divisions along gender and racial lines. It seems a question as to which one the Democrats want most: the first black president or the first woman president? Hard to decide.

When all is said and done, perhaps the only way for the Democrats to start healing the deep rifts would be for the two rivals to join forces with one being the running mate to the other. Not that either one will step aside so easily and accept second place. They are two dogged competitors. And with John McCain all but waiting in the wings for his place in the spotlight, they’re going to need to find a way to reunite a divided party. The only way I can see this happening is for Clinton and Obama (or Obama and Clinton) to share the ticket.

The only question in my mind is, whose name will come first.

It was just two weeks ago, on January 17, that toddler Cyrus Belt fell onto the H-1 freeway, allegedly with the help of (apparently) mentally unbalanced Matthew Higa. Of course, that’s bad enough as it is. But what’s worse is that this event has apparently inspired at least three adults to throw themselves onto the freeway, one of whom actually succeeded in her apparent suicide attempt.

Almost one week to the moment, on the 24th (via the Advertiser’s story the next day):

A woman in her 30s suffered serious injuries after jumping from an H-1 Freeway overpass in Waipahu yesterday afternoon, officials said.

The incident happened shortly before 4 p.m. at the Waipahu Street overpass. The woman jumped onto the east-bound lanes of the H-1, police said.

Emergency medical personnel took the woman to The Queen’s Medical Center in serious condition at 3:59 p.m., emergency services spokesman Bryan Cheplic said.

Some east-bound lanes on the freeway were closed, police Sgt. Lui Pestana said. Traffic was snarled, but the freeway was reopened before 4:45 p.m.

Then yesterday, the 30th, saw two such attempts. In the wee hours of the morning:

A woman in her 30s died early yesterday after she was found lying in the middle of a street in Kalihi below the H-1 freeway.

Police received a call at 3:42 a.m. about a woman walking in the Koko Head direction on the Waianae-bound side of the H-1 near the Vineyard Boulevard/Halona Street onramp. It was unclear whether she was in a lane of traffic or on the shoulder.

Shortly afterward, police received a call about a woman lying in the middle of Halona Street. Police said the woman apparently fell from the freeway onto Halona Street. Preliminary investigation revealed no signs that the woman was hit by a vehicle, police said.

The woman, who has not yet been identified, was taken in critical condition to the Queen’s Medical Center, where she later died. Police said they found no witnesses. The case has been classified as an unattended death.

And just last night:

Police shut down westbound lanes of the H-1 freeway last night after someone apparently jumped off the Liliha overpass.

Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the Emergency Services Department, said a man in his 50s was taken to the Queen’s Medical Center in critical condition.

Police diverted traffic off the freeway at the School Street and Vineyard offramps after the 7:19 p.m. incident. Police shut down the Punchbowl, School Street and Lunalilo onramps. Lanes were reopened at about 8:30 p.m.

Much has been said about Cyrus Belt, and the focus has been on the apparent neglect on the part of his caregivers, and how to prevent such tragedies from happening to another child. That’s all well and good, but given what has transpired over the past few weeks, if we really want a lasting legacy for Cyrus Belt, I really think the best way is to get the Department of Transportation to install high fencing on all freeway overpasses that carry pedestrian traffic.

I don’t think Matthew Higa, or whoever, would have climbed a 10-foot fence to drop anything over the edge. And who knows? The life this saves could be yours…or mine…or your baby’s.

Just a thought.