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Here's what will keep me occupied this weekend.

< A random close shot of my desk top -- my real, not my computer, desk top.

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Now I've got more than one good reason to throw away my cell phone. While preparing the following description of my latest head-spinning consumer experience with Verizon Wireless, I discovered this startling article suggesting that cell phone radiation is causing the sudden and alarming decline in the population of bees worldwide. Can you hear me now?

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Squarespace, my blog provider, said the program's spam blockers may be preventing some comments from getting through. I had asked them about two people who told me that all of a sudden they could no longer leave comments.

So if you have submitted comments and haven't seen them published, please e-mail me. I haven't deleted a comment in weeks.

Also, according to Squarespace, it will be helpful if I provide them such details as the text that was blocked, the URLs used, IP addresses and/or e-mail addresses. So let's get these valuable contributors back in the discussions.

Help free the bloggers.

_{Newlyweds Yuko Iwamura and Scott Schuett kiss on their
wedding float after being married by Aaron Anderson
(Santa hat, foreground) in Saturday's Pahoa Holiday Parade.}

Try Flickr for more parade pics

Ok, let's try this. I recently joined Flickr, a photo Web site that allows me to organize and display photos easier than this blog site does. So I've put the Pahoa and Keaau parade pics there. Now I'm just not sure how it will work on your end. You may have to join Flickr, which is free for the basic services and allows you to see and comment on photos, add your own and more cool stuff if you like photos.

Let me know if you have any problems with it. Also, you may note that the Pahoa photo group's larger than the Keaau group only because the lighting was not conducive to the workings of the Canon A620 point-and-shoot camera, nor to the abilities of the photographer using it, in Keaau on Saturday night. No slight intended.

Rural phone service stories get my attention since I live where I can't get a decent cell phone signal. I have a land line and cable so I'm not claiming deprivation, necessarily, but it's annoying. I bet they have good cell phone service in Hilo and Kona.

So flicking around to C-Span late one night I found Thomas W. Hazlett, George Mason University prof and FCC expert, talking about his study published in June on the Universal Service Fund, which pays for the expansion of telephone service to rural areas of the United States, including Hawaii, with a hefty tax on your phone bill.

While the issues involving the USF as they relate to rural phone service in Hawaii have been reported by local media in the past (I and others have written about it in the Tribune-Herald; Sean Hao wrote this story for the Honolulu Advertiser in June 2005), the Hazlett report for some reason received scant local attention despite some startling findings.

In July the Advertiser ran this story, written by a Chicago Tribune reporter, which managed to avoid all mention of Hawaii including the fact that Hazlett names Hawaii's own Sandwich Isles Communications  as perhaps the "most sensational example" of a company benefiting from exorbitant, tax-paid telephone subsidies in the nation.

Hazlett also offered up these tasty info bits:

• To keep the money flowing into the USF, the tax rate applied to long distance
  revenues has skyrocketed from 3.2% in 1998 to its recent level of 10.9%.
•  Sandwich Isles, which serves Hawaiian Home Lands exclusively, collects some $13,345 a year per telephone line via fiber optic cable, which is nearly ten times the cost of providing each customer with a complete, premium satellite system.
• Nextel is allowed to piggyback on Sandwich Isles' favorable rate structure and get the same payments per "line" from the USF for providing cell phone service to hundreds of customers in the same area despite much lower costs.
• Relatively wealthy land owners and shareholders in rural telephone companies are the actual beneficiaries of the universal service system, realizing as
  much as 95% of total revenues from federal subsidies, not customers.

Hazlett argues for scrapping the tax and paying down the burgeoning USF which is now raking in $7 billion a year and driving some low-income users out of the very market the fund was set up to provide for.

Now where do I make my argument for expanding cell phone service to the entire Island of Hawaii? What, no subsidies for that? How about one for Leilani Estates residents who may require hundreds of dollars worth of extra equipment to get a signal if it's even possible to get a signal at all.

Or should I try string and a couple of tin cans. Just as good.

I promised some remarks on the Canon A620. I've had this 7.0 megapixel digital camera a couple of months now and have used it with varying  success in a number of different situations. Previously I used a 2.0 mp Fuji Finepix A205 that came free with the last desktop computer I bought a couple of years ago. It's a terrific camera, but limited, and I wanted to improve my photography again.

Years ago I was fixing silver prints and screwing up good exposures on those blasted wire bales you have to thread so carefully in the dark when developing film. Serious stuff but in a time  past.  Now I'm excited about photography again through technology -- laptop, digital camera, imaging software, not to mention the expanded outlets for using and displaying photos on the Internet.

I coupled the A620 with Adobe Photo Elements 4.0 for image enhancement. First I used the Elements trial version. And though it didn't run well, I wasn't satisfied with the free imaging programs since my Elements trial expired. I ordered an OEM version (disk only) from Vio Software, where I received prompt and attentive service.

Like too many mainland firms, Vio initially wanted to charge an exorbitant amount to ship via Fedex at a two-day rate to Hawaii. When I suggested that it would be easier and cheaper to sent it to me through the U.S. Postal Service, they quickly agreed. The post office delivered the envelope in three days and Vio even ate the cost. Elements was easy to install and it runs more smoothly than the trial version. I'm a happy man.

When I bought the camera, I added eight high-energy rechargeable  (2500 mAh) AA batteries (the camera takes four at a time), a charger, and a 526 mb memory card which have served my needs well. I definitely recommend getting more than enough power and memory if you can afford it. I keep four  batteries in the camera and four charged batteries in the camera bag.  When the camera runs low, I switch in the replacements and put the spent batteries in the charger for a few hours before putting them back in the camera bag as the new replacements.

So power and  memory have been the least of my worries, even at the American Cancer Society's all-night "Relay for Life"  fundraiser where I volunteered to take photos. More than 100 images, most at night with flash, no problem -- except for some  of the exposures. For a short but crucial period of time I was toying with still-unfamiliar camera settings while shooting into fast-fading sunlight through moving clouds. I'm afraid I blew a few important group shots  that way.

Here are the RFL "Survivors," one of my better efforts.

 So far the A620's durability has been excellent. I carry it every day and, although I try to be careful, the constant handling can be rough. I even dropped it once about three feet onto concrete when I forget to zip the camera bag. Ouch. No damage was done, fortunately, but it does make a stomach-churning sound and isn't recommended.

The camera, batteries, charger and memory cost  a little more than $300, total including shipping, though Amazon (camera), Maha Energy (batteries and charger),  and B&H Photo (memory). Adobe PE was $40 for the OEM version through Vio.

Overall I am pleased with the modest investment. I am still working to master low light situations and the manual mode among the sometimes confusing variety of shooting situations the camera is programmed for. Not that I've mastered anything yet. I've not done much with Adobe PE except use Auto Smartfix and Sharpen on the outdoor daylight shots, such as the Painted Church on Kalapana Road (above).

 
I've also added grain to some of the closeup foliage shots for an effect I like using Elements, as with this bit of tropical foliage:

My only real complaint is with the camera cover for the cable input. It's flimsy, difficult to close, and it gets in the way of the camera strap holder. The design is awkward and annoying when shooting a lot and downloading frequently. But it's all relatively minor compared to the photography.

More to come.