At least I'm in Hawaii, where the weather is mostly fantastic, sunsets are amazing, and its often sunny even when its raining. Plus, rainbows.
I moved from a rooming house in the ghetto in Kalihi to Palolo Valley, where there are no 'trio of all-night-barky dogs' outside my window, no ^&@*# roosters, where the internet works at speed and I can stream without a spinning wheel every 10 minutes, a pleasant residential neighborhood. I share a bathroom with one person rather than 4 others, which I had no idea was so fantastic. Thanks, Jo! You are awesome.
Last July I got a job working for four Irish pubs, hired for doing promotions and running the website, Instagram and Facebook, then doing IT, then security systems, and then all the AV stuff. It's been very satisfying work, though now it is, of course, at risk. The pub life is filled with colorful bar people, some fantastic bartenders and great managers, I have a super boss, and there is a vast library of Irish whiskey, kilts (I own two now,) Celtic music and other musicians - Honolulu is a great bar band city. I've seen a lot of music in my life, and there's a pleasant variety and volume here, usually.
Speaking with friends on Instagram and Skype and WhatsApp which are all open constantly now helps relieve the boredom, and I rejoined the political and media cesspool that is Facebook last July. Happily it involved reconnecting with many old friends there; I try to stick to my bar stuff and non-political convos there.
They are getting older, greyer, some somewhat fatter, their children perfectly enormously tall and adult looking; it is all a bit troubling, and a lot interesting and inspiring seeing some grow into mature parents, a path I've enjoyed avoiding, and they have vastly enjoyed taking. For the childless ones, its a happiness to know I'm not the only one fine with my lot in life. For Facebook, I try not to click or comment on anything political. I just don't want my thoughts mined by Mark Fuckerberg. And I'm still on the Well, that original Social Network, and find that community satisfying and rewarding, filled with sane, intelligent, interesting people.
Re-engaging in photography and portraiture at a decent clip has been rewarding, doing some very satisfying work, publishing on instagram https://instagram.com/daswvii though I'm not taking enough pictures of people I meet day-to-day. My goal is to do more of that once we are out of this nastiness.
Doing some band photography, and some of it has been good, and it is getting better. Photographing 3-4-5+ people at once is geometrically more complicated than shooting with one or two, as far as lighting, and getting all their faces not to derp at once. I've also started doing a little video, which is a whole freaking can of worms.
The light here is quite remarkable: golden hour - that period about 30 minutes before sunset - is special. The flora here is wildly different form the New England/Maine set I lived with for most of my life. Koa trees, Banyan, and others give it a different feel walking down the street or through a park.
The food here is pretty great - fantastic sashimi at amazing prices, poké to die for, Irish pub food at Murphy's in downtown, where they make this amazing Irish Dip roast beef sandwich with a Guinness dipping broth and horseradish sauce that is, frankly, yum.
CBS's Picard, has been great, as was Knives Out, a fun mystery movie, strong recommend for a rental.
Is it just me, or is my yearning to travel the Pac Rim a byproduct of being cooped up? I want to see and photograph Bali, Vietnam, and Thailand.
