I learned of his passing through the speed of Twitter. Although I knew it was coming, I was still in shock. The man who revived and strengthened a once-dying company, led a fledgling animation studio and changed the game in the creative, marketing and tech industries, was gone.

Even though I didn’t know him personally, he had indirectly touched my life in many ways. My first job out of college was working at his company, via an Apple Store. Through my training at Cupertino HQ and my employment, I understood up close how the company ticked… and I created many friends along the way.

Jobs’s products enrich my life. I own a MacBook Pro, which I use for work and play. After my iPhone was stolen, I realized how it had vastly changed the way I used a mobile phone. (Fortunately, I got it back.) He changed the way I listened to and consumed music – and as a music fanatic, this is a big deal. And he led Pixar, the film studio who’d produce modern classics like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and my personal favorite, Up.

As a senior at HPU, I chose Apple for my advertising case study. Through a multimedia presentation and a paper, I broke down the brilliance of the company’s marketing and creative.

Most important, he was responsible for the operating system and applications where I’d learned how to edit videos, create publications and ultimately tell stories digitally. To say that I wouldn’t be where I am today because of him would be giving him too much credit, but he played a significant role in providing the tools to get me here.

Last night, as I made my way to meet up with old Apple friends at Ala Moana, I thought of Justin, my late friend and job training companion in Cupertino. With my iPhone, I left him a Facebook message:

“Give Uncle Steve a hug for me, will ya?”

The program, sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, fosters ground-up, community collaboration in recognizing, preserving and enhancing select roads across the nation. As a part of this network, Farrington Highway would see much-needed federally funded improvements, while giving visitors an off-the-beaten-path kind of experience.

Those who attended the meeting were encouraged to brainstorm positive travel experiences they’ve had. This activity helped establish what aspects of the Waianae moku could be highlighted for visitors. Themes around culture, nature and history were predominant in the discussion.

Community leaders brainstormed positive travel experiences they've had.

Community leaders in attendance said the program falls in line with highway enhancements that are already starting to take place, namely roadside signage identifying each of the nine ahupua‘a (land divisions) in the Waianae moku. The first sign has already been erected at the entrance to Nanakuli.

America’s Byways representatives also visited Kauai and the Big Island this week for similar community discussions.

What do you think about Waianae and Farrington Highway becoming a part of the America’s Byways program?

Except this time, the natural disaster never happened. Phew.

This weekend’s tsunami warning should not be confused with the several watches and advisories (which are both lower than a warning – the links lead to definitions for each term) that were sent out the past few months. The 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile was enough for us to be seriously concerned about a tsunami threat, especially since the one that hit Hilo in 1960 was generated by a Chilean earthquake, as well.

And let us not forget, 8.8 is damn powerful – in fact, thousands of times more powerful than the Haitian earthquake in January. Having experienced only one earthquake in my lifetime so far – Hawai‘i’s 5.3-magnitude quake – I can’t imagine what it’d be like to experience something as powerful as those quakes. And I was living at the top of a 12-story building when the Hawai‘i quake hit. Bless the people of Chile and Haiti who’ve lived and died through those disasters.

This is selfish and horrible to write, but a part of me was hoping that we’d get hit by a tsunami. A destructive tsunami hasn’t hit Hawai‘i since 1975, almost 40 years ago. Several generations who have never experienced a state of emergency due to a tsunami. Now, I’m not saying I’d like to see people getting hurt or killed by one, or anyone suffering because of one – who would? – but I suppose I’m curious to see how our state would fare in an event like that.

That said, judging from what I saw on the news, it looked like city officials, emergency personnel, and volunteers did a damn good job executing a long-established emergency plan for the state. The road closures and evacuations seem like they went off pretty smoothly. Buses travelled along Wai‘anae, picking up anyone who needed shelter from the impending tidal surge. We also found out about kinks in the system we had, like the failure of Civil Defense sirens in a few neighborhoods. Either no one cared to report that they didn’t work during monthly testings, or they just happened to fail on the day they were being used for an actual warning.

Kudos also go out to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, of course. They worked tirelessly for over 30 hours straight analyzing data that would help assess the tsunami threat. And the representatives who were grilled by our local media – that is not an easy experience to be subjected to, to not know how powerful of a tsunami it could be, and to not be able to give any solid answers.

At times, I felt like we were expecting these reps to bust out the crystal sphere and tell us our future. The initial data could only tell us whether a tsunami was coming or not – the earthquake in Chile was powerful enough to trip buoy alerts set up around the Pacific. As later measurements came in from buoys in places like the Solomon Islands and American Samoa, it got clearer that a destructive tsunami was most likely not going to happen – just tidal changes that were perhaps most visible in Hilo Bay.

I appreciated how the local media (or at least Hawaii News Now) treated this story. Perhaps because it was local, and perhaps after Hawaii News Now anchors grilled tsunami warning center officials late Friday night/early Saturday morning, it was understood that this was a waiting game, with no knowledge of any specifics about the tsunami. No one jumped to the conclusion that this would be a major disaster, unlike national news outlets like CNN, who, in their typical fashion, over-dramatized the situation and claimed we were expecting 30-foot waves.

The majority of my news-watching time was spent on Hawaii News Now. Occasionally, I flipped to CNN to see this story unfold on national news. Unlike CNN, who focused on explaining tsunami-related terms, fiddling with magic walls, and talking every now and then to a reporter on vacation on the Big Island to see how she was doing, Hawaii News Now covered many angles of tsunami preparations: updates straight from the warning center, footage of locals and tourists alike making preparations, traffic cameras that showed our roads busy one hour and deserted the next, interviews and statements from government officials, and an exclusive camera set up at a perfect vantage point at Hilo Bay.

The only thing I appreciated from CNN was their local news feeds they would cut to occasionally from KHON and KITV, a way of showing what we were watching. They also interviewed KITV’s Justin Fujioka to get some perspective on the situation.

You’d think in this day and age, the national news media would get some basic facts straight about Hawai‘i. (Or maybe not – mass media generally does a good job displaying our society’s ignorance and lack of depth.) Like how “Hawaiians” are people of our islands’ indigenous race, and isn’t a term used to describe all residents of Hawai‘i – the Associated Press stylebook was updated five years ago to acknowledge this. Or the basic knowledge that Hawai‘i is a US state – MSNBC allegedly reported that there is “a large American population” here. Go figure.

The big event I did NOT appreciate at ALL was when a CNN meteorologist lost his temper with a guest professor – a meteorologist who just moments before was bragging that this professor was his “phone-a-friend” for tsunami-related terms. That outburst was disgustingly unprofessional and unnecessary. I hope he had a talking to.

The general public, on the other hand, gets a big high-five from me. A lot of people took the safe route and stocked up on food, gasoline, and water in case of outages the tsunami could generate. Now, maybe we should have had these things well in advance, especially since hurricane season just ended, but just seeing people not take any chances about what could happen was impressive in my eyes. 500 people, most of whom I figure are homeless families living on beaches along the Wai‘anae coast, took up shelter at Nānākuli High School.

Judging from Twitter trends, Hawai‘i was the center of discussion, as it was the number one topic on the site at one point, followed by #hitsunami. I like Jennifer Chandler’s take on these Twitter trends – that this was NOT a sign of the world talking about us, but a sign of Hawai‘i as a community banding together in a time of crisis.

It would have been interesting to see how naysayers would have reacted if a destructive tsunami actually happened. No destructive tsunami and they were proven right. It makes me think about what would happen the next time a warning is issued. Would a “boy who cried wolf” effect be in place? That is, repeated false alarms desensitizing the public to the possibility of a tsunami? Or would the same thing we saw this weekend happen again, with the masses taking action to prepare?

The documentary No Impact Man got me thinking about how so many of the things we take for granted every day have some sort of impact on our environment, and thus, each other. As the film’s subject, Colin Beavan, says in the film, we live in a throw-away world: shaving razors, diapers, plastic bags, napkins, toilet paper, Starbucks paper cups—we’re all guilty of mindlessly consuming and rapidly disposing.

No Impact Man follows Colin’s project of curiosity, as he sets out to discover what it’d be like to live as sustainably as possible for a year—taking his shopping/reality TV/caffeine-addicted wife and their toddler daughter along for the ride. Along the way, quite a few laughs are shared; I mean, come on, just imagine what kinds of clashes ensue between the Beavan couple! But it’s also helped me think a bit more about what my family already does and what I could do to live a lifestyle that’s a little more sustainable.

Some of the things Colin and his family do are pretty extreme—no toilet paper?!—but others are things my family has done forever. Hand washing clothes, for instance. As the audience in the theater laughed at Colin, his wife Michelle, and their daughter Isabella stepping on their clothes in the bathtub, I thought, “Hey, this is something I saw all the time as a kid, and something my family continues to do to this very day!” As a child of first- and second-generation Filipino immigrants, this was just one of the things I’m glad my parents continue to practice in America. Even though we have a washing machine, a lot of the time, we actually prefer hand washing our clothes. I guess old habits die hard. Good thing it’s an eco-friendly habit.

But why is decreasing our impact on the environment important? Well, we need to remember that “the environment” isn’t just about beautifying our flora and fauna—it involves the impact on people, too. Without the indoor comforts of electricity and television, the family spends more time outside their New York City apartment. Colin and Michelle spend some time at the beach, take their daughter to the farm where the veggies they buy are grown, and splash in the local fountain. While volunteering, Colin learns about how a garbage dump in the South Bronx is taking its toll on the quality of life of its residents, with more children developing respiratory problems and the disturbance of hundreds of trucks passing through the neighborhood every day. The family also develops relationships with vendors at the local farmers market, and a neighbor at a community garden, who shows them the ropes in raising their own vegetables. Simply put, they are forging connections with each other and within the community. And the more connections are forged, the more accountable we feel about how our actions affect the people we care about.

I’ve already taken some steps before even seeing this film in reducing waste. I have a reusable drinking water bottle I’ve been refilling, I carry several reusable tote bags when I go shopping, and I’ve been helping clear trash every month with some friends in Ke‘ehi Lagoon. I’ve taken note of a few more things from the film that I’d like to do: make more trips to the nearby farmers market, spend more time outdoors, and help my parents grow a few more veggies in our own farm.

At the same time, I admit, there are a few behaviors I can say I won’t fully abandon: I love my computer and am way too used to using toilet paper. So I’m not saying completely and drastically change your lifestyle, because that’s unrealistic and very difficult to do. But I’ll continue to do what I can, a little at a time. I hope you can do the same.

Some links to check out:
No Impact Project
Inspired by No Impact Man, an undertaking to promote behavioral change to live more sustainably.

Story of Stuff
A comprehensive look at the production/consumption cycle and how it impacts us.

Kanu Hawaii
A local website where we can put in pledges and share ideas on what we can do to do our part to preserve our island environment and communities.

MA‘O Farms
A local social enterprise growing organic food and providing opportunities for Wai‘anae youth.

Bela‘Aina
A burgeoning project to preserve our island’s watersheds.

Liberty – What a year you’ve had! I remember the first time I really heard you speak was during the partner introductions @ the beginning of the year; that’s also when I learned your birthdate!! (Happy July 4th, by the way.) You’ve been a joy to teach—a veritable sponge, soaking up so much. Continue to search for meaning and justice, + make this world better. And… keep playing music! Come visit next year.

♥ Aysta

P.S. Beastie Boys RULE! Ha! Ha!

P.P.S. Weezer, too!

Of course, “Aysta” is short for Asa Yamashita. And apparently, I was such a fangirl, she made it a point to mention my two favorite bands at the time in postscripts.

I have a few memories from Mrs. Yamashita’s freshman honors English class. I remember reading Romeo & Juliet and how she had us reword it with dialects of our choice. Imagine the class perform the play in pidgin English. She took a piece of Shakespearean literature, which, with its 16th century language, would have meant nothing to us. But Yamashita found a way to make the story not only relevant, but engaging, entertaining, and memorable for us, as well. After all, we couldn’t translate the story if we didn’t understand it first.

The other memory I have of the class was, oddly enough, as much about life as it was about death. The assignment: 100 things to do before you die. I’m gonna rename that and call it “100 things to do in life.”

I wish I had kept my list. Maybe I’ll start making a new one. The first three line items will be from the yearbook message she left me.

I don’t know what Mrs. Yamashita would have written on her list. But judging from the turnout at tonight’s memorial for her at Waianae High School, I would say she accomplished more than 100 things in her life, as far as the number of lives she touched.

We’ll miss you, Mrs. Yamashita. Your legacy lives on.