What Do You Want to Know About Me? Updated March 13, 2003. This page contains some brief information about me. WHAT I DO I am pretty much a homebody, working stiff who does various projects with my small collection of Macintosh computers. For a long time I was working in the advertising and publishing industry. Nowdays you'd probably find me working at the State Capitol for State Senator Sam Slom as his Chief of Staff. Generally speaking I like what I do and have been working with Sam at the Capitol for nearly 4 years full time. Prior to that I worked part-time at the capitol for Sam during his early years as State Senator. I helped out on his three political campaigns and have long been his technical assistant for projects such as the monthly Small Business Newsletter, the Small Business Hawaii website and his Macintosh consultant. Working at the Capitol is quite an eye-opening experience for those who have never been there. The hallowed halls of our government usually works the way like it should. However too many times special interests, special people, groups and partisan politics get in the way of the democratic process so that bad legislation becomes law and good ones fall into the lurch. Someday I'll write more about life in the State Capitol. At the very least you should call, fax or email your legislators if there is an issue of concern to you. In my prior lives, I worked for a long time in the advertising and publishing industries. I started out at my college campus in the late 1970s and early 80s learning how to write, edit, take pictures, layout and run the equipment necessary to put out a publication. I moved on to a print shop where we did things in the "traditional" way before computers took over. I came into the advertising world when the Macintosh computer was making its first inroads to publishing and graphics and left the industry when the technology was on the verge of leaping to the next level. I continued in the publishing field for some time after leaving the ad agency where I did freelance work for a number of clients using my growing fleet of Macintosh computers and peripherals. Today I still keep up with most of the publishing indutry and using a decent Power Mac G4 to continue doing the few freelance jobs that I have time to do on the side. WHAT I LIKE While computers are generally made for work, they are also a great source of entertainment, information and learning. I got hooked on to the Macintosh computer platform in the late 1980s and have been a Mac addict ever since. I like to learn new things about my Macs, build webpages, make compilation CDs, write, and sour the net for information. I currently own about 10 Macintosh computers, most of them golden oldies that I can't seem to part with. Another thing I like to do is take pictures. I have been taking photos of all kinds of events since my college days. I grew up using old Kodak Instamatic cameras before moving on to a variety of 35mm cameras including old rangefinders and Single Lens Reflex (SLR) models. I have a small collection of about a dozen old cameras, some which I still use on occasion. Today I use a Sony digital camera to take most of my pictures. I have had my photos published in various publications and self-published to the web. You can see some of my photos at my Mel's Hawaii website, Honokaa Online & Photos website and also at Small Business Hawaii. Most of the photos you see posted at this website were taken by me. For many years I have been a big fan of rock n roll music. I remember one of the first rock n roll records I ever heard was Chubby Checker's "The Twist." I was lucky enough as a child to be exposed to a variety of old rock n roll records through the freebies my Dad got from a friend who used to run a jukebox company. I grew up with all of the hits of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s and even enjoyed a lot of stuff from the 90s and today. A rock n roller at heart, I have expanded my listening preferences to embrace country, new age, jazz, Hawaiian, ska, some reggae and classical. I maintain a small set of webpages dedicated to old rock charts, old records and a CD list. My favorite artists include The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, 10,000 Maniacs, Enya, Bruce Springsteen and U2. I have countless numbers of CDs and records by them and many others. Movies & TV: In the world of movies, I gravitate towards science-fiction, though I usually like anything with a good story. My favorite movies include all of the "Star Wars" series, "Titanic," "Braveheart," most of the "Star Trek" movies, "The Terminator" series, and classics such as the original "Planet of the Apes,' "War of the Worlds," "The Time Machine," "Ben Hur," and "Doctor Zhivago." I have a growing collection of DVDs that feature some of these movies and more. In television I have enjoyed many series over the years. Most recently my favorite series was "Babylon 5." I seen and recorded all of the episodes to VHS, and now they're being released to DVD. I own the complete first season and have the second on order. Other shows that I have enjoyed over the years include "Star Trek The Next Generation," "The X Files," "Seinfeld," "The Simpsons," "The Avengers," and "The Practice." My current favorite is "American Dreams." WHAT I HATE I'll keep this section short. Things that I hate are spam emails, telemarketing calls, junk faxes, pop up ads, gangsta rap music, cockroaches, rats, centipedes, backed-up plumbing and overly obnoxious people. I also hate having pictures taken of me, especially if I can't control where they are used. WHAT I LOVE Perhaps the most important people in my life are my family... my Dad, Mom, Sister, and Brother. You know who you are. I love you all. I also love my niece, Healani Ann whom I have not seen in 10 years. Someday I hope to get to see you. And in a nutshell, that is all I have to say about me. Perhaps one of these days, I'll create one of those weblog pages where I chronicle my daily routine or something. Right now there is no such time for that. So this is all you have. Explore the rest of my sites and enjoy. If you have any questions or need to contact me, my email address appears below. Laterz. Mel -- macpro3000@yahoo.com .