Monday, January 01, 2018

2017: reflections

It's the 1st day of 2018 and I will do my usual reflections on the old year of 2017!

I wrote much of my reflections on the blog post I wrote last week titled "Need more success in my life"
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2017/12/need-more-success-in-my-life.html


I encourage you to read that blog post, before reading the rest of this blog post.

Now on some more interesting stuff

1.) Temp jobs


As I noted several times before, sub teaching doesn't come with paid vacations, so I did some temp jobs on the side.

For the previous winter vacation (2016-2017), I called a temp worker agency that I worked with before to see if they had work within the winter vacation. They had nothing for that time frame, but they had something for the last 2 weeks of January.

OK, I'm listening.

It was a temporary position at a local hospital for which I tested their mobile communication devices.  Basically, it was like the famous Verizon commercials where the characters said "can you hear me now?"

Of course, we did more than that! We walked various areas of the hospital to hear if our conversations can be heard in that area of the hospital.   Then we noted if there were any problems hearing the other person. We also noted various variables that might be contributing to how well we can hear.

Then we also inputted the data onto a spreadsheet so that the IT department can analyze and figure what & how things can be changed.

Being that it was for the IT department, other staff members in the hospital thought I was to have expertise in other IT matters. Sorry, but I will notify the IT staff! 

I loved doing the mobile communication device testing and data collection so much that I was willing to do it again later in 2017, one week in September, one week in October.  We were originally planned to try again in December but that was cancelled.

Those weeks during school weeks, but I blocked out any calls for sub jobs for those weeks.

I never thought I would ever work in a hospital, but now I can say I did.

I don't think I'll ever want the pressure and stress levels that doctors and nurses have to go through.  Life & death decisions on an daily basis. No thanks!

But I did appreciate the works of the whole hospital staff, ranging from the medical, administrative, security, custodial, cafeteria, and off course, the IT team!

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Another thing about hospitals, TV shows always show the staff running in the ER hallways.

But in real life, you really have to slow your pace in the hallways.

One time, I was walking my usual pace, when I turned a corner when I almost bumped in to a couple who just gave birth. Needless to say, it was in the section of the hospital were birth is given.

I also noticed the doors opened very slowly. The first few times I experienced that, my mind was thinking "hurry up, I got places to go".

But one time, when the doors were opening slow, I saw a child walking with IV tubes attached.  Now I understood why the doors opened slowly. Had I just walked out the door at my usual pace, I would've bumped into that child by accident, a child who happened to have extra vulnerabilities.

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I did have another temp job in the summer with a different temp agency.  It was a one-day temp job putting up fixtures at the new Ross Store in Ala Moana. Then we had to dispose all the boxes and bubbles wraps. We had to pull those pallet jacks from one side of the mall to the other. I could feel the strain on my quadriceps that lasted the next few days. 


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I also had a few-day temp job working with foreign exchange students visiting Hawaii. It was just going to the beach parks, or staying at the program's headquarters to play games. Fun times, but it only lasted a few days. 


2.) Music


In early 2017,  Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior has released "Sounds Like a Video Game: an instrumental album"

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2017/01/sounds-like-video-game.html

The songs got some attention on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services.  Some individual track got downloaded on iTunes.

I did a few music videos for those tracks, for which you can view on Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior   YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTp3x3norNTYDksJKCSfhXg

Unfortunately, I haven't done videos for all the tracks from that album due to time constraints.

I plan to work on them when time permits.

Also, if time permits, I would like to release a metal-oriented instrumental album before the end of 2018.  I made a few tracks on Music Maker software so far!  Still experimenting with various software options to make the songs unique and great.


3.) Parties


I only been to a few this year/ 

There was my friend's birthday party at Sky Nightclub, my birthday part at Rumours.

I went to Halloween party at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Waikiki. I wore my orange shirt and pumpkin hat, just like 2015! Fun times :)


  I also want to talk about the one that really counts  ................   New Years.

In the past few years, I went to the New Year's parties at Aloha Towers. 

This time, I wanted to do something different. I also wanted to do something less expensive.

Tiki's Grill & Bar had cheap tickets so I went.  Great place, great vibes, great times!


Now the announcement was made late in 2017 that Rumours will close late January 2018.  I'll plan to go before it closes. It will be an end of a great era! 



Sunday, December 31, 2017

coming soon: reflections on 2017

I usually do a reflection blog post at the end of the year!

But the last few weeks have been busy.

So those blog posts will be delayed by a few days.


Happy New Year :)