Technology has definitely changed the world for the better, but handy crafts and trades are areas that might as well becoming extinct among the youth of today. Thanks to some of Home Depot’s summer programs for kids, youngsters have an opportunity to learn the basics of carpentry through The Fishing Game program.

I took some time from my vacation to accompany my nieces at the local Home Depot in Biloxi, MS where tables covered in paint-splattered mats, hammers, nails, and wooden pieces awaited us. It can get a little scary to leave a kid with a hammer and a few sets of nails, but with the proper supervision, all should work out just fine. The mission: create a fishing box from scratch and paint it as desired.

Fundamental carpentry skills play a key role in hand and eye coordination. Kids learn by example. If you want a child to get involved in your hobbies and skills, let them watch you work. Show them what you're doing, explain it to them and try to involve them in the process.

A web-based animation created for SwimOutlet's Black Friday e-mail blast as they kick off their holiday season with a splash. The online retailer’s most sought after products - performance swimwear, fashion suits, beach gear, inflatables, and even dry land training equipment are offered at 75% off MSRP for a limited time. Campaign results were quickly delivered and reported. A 5% year over year lift in sales and a 27% increase in email traffic.

Winter and Spring have swiftly come and gone, while work and personal projects have been nonstop as I wrapped up the final details of a film reel I’ve been working on for the past year and a half. A break was much needed and I have been pining to go back to the islands.

My second trip to Hawai’i started on the island of Maui, where I took the famous Road to Hana which proved every zig and zag of the 63.4 mile stretch worth the while. Unlike the island of O'ahu, Maui was more remote, with an average driving time of one hour just to move from one hot spot to the next.

Nothing will ever compare to the first time, but coming back to O'ahu felt like a homecoming of some sort. Eight months ago, I fell in love with Hawai’i nei — the culture, the people, the food, the music, everything. And not a single day went by while in the mainland that memories about time spent here during my first trip ever escaped my consciousness.

Perhaps it’s the healing effect of the island I have discerned which draws me here. The combination of sun, sand, and sea is said to have a healing effect on people. The ions in the sea air can boost the body’s capacity to absorb more oxygen improving breathing which helps to relieve tension. The sound of crashing waves induces deep states of relaxation that could rewire brain activity. And the tropical climate in Hawai'i in and of itself feels like a 24/7 cleansing regimen one cannot attain by sitting at the sauna.

Whether it is the opportunity of being in the ocean, or the curiosity of building a life around it that peaks my interest, there's still much of Hawai'i I have yet to discover and experience. I have a feeling I will return soon.

Thousands flock to music festivals each year or as I call it -- modern day pilgrimages -- to rock out for days and nights on end with some of the music industry's fastest rising stars. But beyond the audible, the visual art scene has remarkably earned its niche in these jam-packed, adrenaline charged, millennial assemblies. And some of the most interesting constructions (or deconstructions) of the creative mind can be seen and experienced in Coachella.

Coachella, an annual, two-weekend music and art extravaganza held in the desert paradise of Indio less than 30 miles from Palm Springs, is the music festivals of all music festivals in the United States. Big named artists and up-and-coming bands alike give some of the most enthralling performances to a crowd of thousands coming together to celebrate music and freedom.

This year, the theme is unmistakable: surreal and mind-bending. From mammoth-sized animal structures reminiscent of three-dimensional cubist paintings to luminous mirror towers that glisten from a mile or two away, there are endless vantage points from where music patrons and their tribe of friends could snap inevitable selfies. And whether or not the mob of festival goers truly appreciate these phenomenal works of art prima facie, at the very least these mega sculptures effectively serve an alternative purpose: giant shadow casters as a place of refuge in between stages as they await the opening of the next musical act.

Many critics made a claim that virtual reality "ate" the Sundance Film Festival this year. A multitude of attendees did in fact flock to the New Frontier theater to check out the most exciting interactive experiences offered by the 2017 SFF team. Personally, there are absolutely no regrets here. My preferences in technology have yet to graduate from their conservative tendencies, but getting to test the VR paraphernalia in this year's "Ocular Evolution" made me look forward to the future of our entertainment and how storytelling media will be enhanced by virtual reality.

It is one thing to visit a gallery and be a paying viewer, and another to come without cost and end up experiencing a full immersion. Magadalena Fernandez' show at the MOCA Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood will have you becoming an interim extension of her works. Well, for the duration of your stay at least.

Her first U.S. exhibition, which is both a playful and almost satirical ballet of light and movement, is informed by organic shapes and natural geometry. Calm amid chaos, displacement within order, shadow against illumination are among the abstract contradictions the Venezuelan-born artist uses to draw the viewer in, whether one ends up snapping selfies in front of an evolving circle of light, or doing a downward-facing dog at the center of a massive video installation.