With the news being dominated by the latest reports on the Boston bombing and suspects manhunt, you may want to read something to take your mind off the awful events of this past week. In times like this, you might even wish you could live on another planet or in a capsule isolated from earthly disasters and tragedies.

As I mentioned in my last post about Henk Rogers, there's an experimental living project happening on the Big Island that just started on Monday. A crew of six hand-picked volunteers are spending the next four months in a faux space capsule on Mauna Loa to simulate living on Mars. The main focus is to test different foods since eating the same prepackaged rations could get pretty monotonous, especially when you're cooped up in confined quarters for a lengthy period.

Anyhow, here's a link to one of the first dispatches that appeared in The Economist. Why isn't our own local news media covering this story?

You can also find out more about the project by going to the HI-SEAS website and following their blogs and Tweets.

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For daily viewing times of the Career Changers TV show, please visit our website or check out video segments on the CCTV YouTube Channel. Have a good weekend... and take a break from the news if you're feeling depressed.

The new March episode of Career Changers TV premieres Sat., March 2, 9:30 PM on OC16 (time approximate since it follows high school wrestling). This month's theme is makeovers -- with a couple of twists.

After we profiled stylist Paul Brown on our show back in June, he was so pleased with the response he got from clients (plus calls from local media to do interviews), he said he'd love to do a makeover segment on CCTV. Since Paul has been a strong supporter of the Wounded Warriors program to help military vets, we planned on assisting a selected veteran with their transition to the civilian workforce. Long story short, military red tape prevented us from providing a makeover to the woman that was lined up by Paul's PR people, so we had to find another candidate.

As it turned out, the PR firm -- Becker Communications -- put us in touch with Catholic Charities Hawaii, which runs the Mary Jane Program for pregnant women who need help. They provide housing, around-the-clock supervision and counseling, as well as guidance to victims of physical abuse and rape. Many were raised by drug-addicted parents, beaten by them, then later battered by partners, and became addicts themselves. The Mary Jane Program's goal is to break that cycle and show these young mothers how to avoid falling into the same destructive patterns of their parents.

While filming our interview with Alanna, a client at the MJP house in Kailua, it was painful to listen to her talk about being raped and victimized by the people she loved and was closest too. Offering a makeover didn't seem like much, given the kind of trauma she's had to endure. But she was excited about the opportunity, and felt it could help with her job search down the road. One of the goals of the Mary Jane Program is to have their clients become self-sufficient, and that means becoming employed or going back to school to get job training. Obviously, a new set of clothes and hair-do isn't enough... but it's a small step forward for people like Alanna, and we were happy to be a part of that.

The first twist was learning that the director of the Mary Jane Program, Faye Ramos, received her Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Argosy University, a longtime sponsor of my show. We've run segments about their MFT program, and featured an Argosy instructor -- Barbara Mullen -- whose day job was sex abuse counseling at Catholic Charities. Barbara pointed out that Argosy provides students with hands-on experience through internships for their practicum (click here for that video). Faye was one of Barbara's students, and did her practicum at Catholic Charities. A few months later, they hired her to run the Mary Jane Program.

You hear a lot of negative things about "for profit" colleges that promise career opportunities, then fail to deliver. But unsolicited testimonials like Faye's confirm that schools such as Argosy Hawaii, are doing good work. They train professionals who are making a difference in the lives of others.

Another twist is the role Nordstrom Rack and Paul Brown played in Alanna's transformation. When you think about it, who we are isn't just an inside job. How we dress and look reflects our attitude toward the outside world as well.

More on Alanna's makeover in Part 2 -- and I'll also tell you about our tattoo removal segment, which ties in to a "joke" blog post I wrote about jobs of the future with huge potential!

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For daily viewing times (subject to change due to high school sports) visit www.CareerChangers.TV. You can also watch segments from past and current episodes on the CCTV YouTube Channel by clicking here -- including Alanna's makeover and Joelle's tattoo removal biz.

It's official. Mark Bell sent me an email confirming that Skechers is finalizing a deal with him to provide his silicone tip connectors for shoe strings, which allow users to attach those Croc buttons or other customized fashion accessories so they can personalize their footwear -- or any kind of drawstrings for that matter. His segment is currently airing on this month's Career Changers TV show, but you can view the low res YouTube version by clicking here. At the time, he wasn't able to publicly divulge who the shoe manufacturer was that took an interest in his simple invention... which Skechers said they would like to order a million per month for 12 months!

In somewhat related news, I was contacted by a friend of Mark's who owns SeaBreeze Watersports in Hawaii Kai about doing some videos for them -- correction, they have changed their name to H2O Sports (Powered by SeaBreeze) as part of their rebranding strategy. My show did a segment on their new water-propelled Jet Pack last year, which is pretty cool to see in action. While we were filming it, Mark told me how he met Paris Hilton when she and her entourage booked the SeaBreeze activities platform for a few hours of private use while paparazzi were trying to get photos of her. It was a funny story about how he got pictures of Paris -- and her shoes (here's that post).

Flash forward to last Friday, Feb. 8. I stopped in to meet with Courtney Krantz, the H2O owner, and she mentioned that they had another celeb booking for later that day: Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. As you may recall, he was in Honolulu to testify in favor of State legislation that would make it illegal for paparazzi to take photos of celebs on leased or private property. I don't know if renting a floating platform would be covered by such a law, but I'm pretty sure no one tried to take pictures of Steven without asking first -- unlike Paris, who was more concerned about managing what photos of her appeared in the media, than completely blocking them.  For some "celebs," out of sight means out of mind, and any press is better than no press.

For daily viewing times of the current Career Changers TV episode, please visit our website. However, check your on screen TV guide too since the show is being preempted by high school sports on weekends this month. You can always DVR it during the regularly scheduled daytime slots though!

Program Alert: the new February episode of Career Changers TV premieres Sat., Feb. 2 on OC16 around 7PM -- time approximate because it's in between two high school soccer matches. If you want to DVR it, best to check our regular daytime slots by clicking here or checking the onscreen TV guide. Details about the show are also on the CCTV website.

This Sunday, if you're around Kapiolani Park before the Super Bowl parties, you might want to stop by the Tet Vietnam Honolulu festival (here's their link). It starts around 9-10 AM and continues until 5 PM. There will be authentic Vietnamese food, music, kung fu demonstrations and lion dances... plus informational exhibits, such as the 808HALT coalition booth to educate the public about human trafficking in Hawaii.

I've been part of that group for over a year, and produced videos that show the local impact. It has become the second largest international criminal activity -- after drug trafficking -- because people can be "reused" in the sex trade or for farm work and manual labor. While filming a segment about immigrant farm workers in Hawaii who were exploited, I learned that many were from Vietnam. So we've formed an alliance with members of the Vietnamese community to let them know that help is available to trafficking victims who may feel they have nowhere to go.

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One of the best resources for immigrants in Hawaii is the Pacific Gateway Center, headed by Dr. Tin Myaing Thein. She just did a two-part interview on PBS Hawaii's Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox that was fascinating and inspiring... also, sad when she recounted how her older brother became one of Burma's "disappeared" dissidents. She talked about her friendship with Burmese activist Aung Sun Suu Kyi, dating back to when the two were in the same Girl Scouts troop. (Interesting to hear her explanation for why "Burma" is actually "Myanmar too!) You can catch it Sunday at 4 PM on PBS or watch it on the web by clicking here.

Although I've had the privilege of working with Dr. Myaing on the HALT project, and had interviewed her before about the PGC kitchen incubator in Kalihi (video link), I didn't really know her back story. All I can say is, wow... she is a remarkable person. And it's a great example of how immigrants add so much to America's culture. What she and the folks at PGC do is help other newcomers find their footing, and in many cases, start their own businesses. They foster and nurture the American Dream in ways a lot of U.S. citizens cannot appreciate because we take so much for granted. I find it ironic that many conservatives and Republicans like Mitt Romney want to eliminate things like PBS because they view it as "socialism" -- when in fact, TV programs like this one are testaments to the power of democracy and our free enterprise system.

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Gosh, I meant to blog about my Big Island trip earlier this month and meeting Briar March, a filmmaker from New Zealand who was screening her documentary -- THERE ONCE WAS AN ISLAND -- at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai as part of the Waimea Ocean Film Festival, but I just haven't had time. So here's some quick thoughts and observations...

Like Oahu, tourism is up and most business owners I spoke to were optimistic. BTW, why did the Star-Advertiser and local TV news start calling it "Hawaii Island" instead of Big Island? To me, Big Island is more distinctive sounding. Were they worried they would offend the other smaller islands or insult people by insinuating those who live there are "big" as in fat?

It had been a couple of years since my wife and I last visited Kona, so we were sad to see that the Aloha Theater Angel Cafe had closed. That was one of our favorite lunch spots. Found a new place in that same area though that locals recommended: Anna's, which makes very good burgers. Speaking of which, when we went to the Four Seasons to see Briar's film, we had lunch there and I wound up ordering a pricey hamburger. Dumb move. I mean, it was good -- but why on earth did I order something that actually tastes better right off the grill at the beach or in someone's backyard? That Four Seasons was recently named top resort in some survey, and while everything about the place was first class, it just doesn't feel very local or Hawaiian to me. Nearly all of the workers we encountered were Mainland transplants -- very professional, very courteous, very young. But it's not like talking to the older shop owners in town or the aging hippie types up in Holualoa.

Anyhow, we spent some time hanging out with Briar and her boyfriend from Belgium. She told us a lot of interesting things related to her film project, which is about a small island in the South Pacific off Papua New Guinea that is in danger of being wiped out by rising sea levels. The native tribe of about 500 people face difficult choices for their future. Their arguments over whether to stay or go, rebuild close to the ocean or move inland, depend on God or the government for help, mirror the kind of debates we hear in our own country. One thing that is plainly evident though is the effect of sea walls hastening beach erosion -- something that property owners in Lanikai and Kahala Beach have been in denial about for a long time.  Here's a link to Briar's movie website. Really well done documentary that is worth seeing if you get the chance!

We just wrapped shooting/editing of the new December episode of Career Changers TV, which will begin running on Saturday at 8:30 PM on OC16. In keeping with the Christmas spirit, most of the segments have a gift idea theme. The exception is our feature on the Sing or Sink online contest just started by local sports reporter Kanoa Leahey and three of his high school buds. But the ability to sing well is sort of a gift too, yeah?

The photo above was taken prior to the start of the Gordon Biersch launch party at Aloha Tower Marketplace (recently in the news because of the proposal by Hawaii Pacific University to take over the property, which has become something of a ghost town due to the exodus of retailers). They were invited by Kanoa and his partners -- Jerry Tanaka, Mark Ambler and John Stepien -- to be part of a live singing contest that featured local talent with a wide range of experience... some were just kids, others were veteran performers. You might recognize some of the guys performing above. Hint: one is in the Hungry Guy commercial. Click here to catch a short instrumental jam that was one of those magical spontaneous moments you just happen to stumble upon. I love hearing unplugged acoustic music and voices under the open sky by the water. Very cool.

If you can't watch the high def widescreen version of the Sing or Sink piece, here's the CCTV YouTube Channel link.

In my next post, I'll tell you what else we have in store for the December show... but I anticipate that for the next two days, the Star-Advertiser blog box will be filled with about two dozen Volleyshot updates of the Wahines tournament matches, which means you probably won't notice any other new blogs posts over the weekend. Go Bows!

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For daily viewing times of my show, please visit www.CareerChangers.TV where you'll also find a link to the CCTV YouTube Channel for video segments from past and current episodes.