But being that this is a year-end blog post, I'll just focus on what happened this year rather than what will happen soon
1) Work
This has been my 13th year as a substitute teacher.
In a way, it's been a miracle that I lasted that long!
When I started in 2005, I wasn't sure if I was going to have any success. That job was just "something to do" before I move on to the next thing.
It took nearly forever to find that "next thing" that would at least pay a little more than what I'm making.
I did spend most of my time as a sub working within the public school system, though I did sub at the private schools too.
For the private school, I worked under Kelly Services (for 6 years).
Then in early August, I went to a job fair, just to interact with employers to figure what could be my "next thing". There I interacted with the people at HiEmployment. They also provide subs for private schools. On the spot, I was invited and scheduled for an interview. Some of the staff actually met me when they used to work at the schools I have subbed at for Kelly Services. So I was in!
I spent some time working with HiEmployment in the last few months. Some were schools I once subbed at under Hawaii Educational Resources (HERS - who I was working with 2006-2010) while others I've never been to before.
Though on the last week of the Fall semester, I was working at what I consider my favorite public school to sub at. The last day was an easy day:)
Then on the first day of winter vacation, I got a call stating that I will start a new position soon at a school library. I finally found my "next thing" :)
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Summertime is usually a fun time for most people, but it's a money-free time for substitute teachers. Not much fun for that.
But I did get lucky.
Back in the summer of 2016, I was working with a temp agency that sent me to the facility that printed the ballots that would be used for the elections. I was the one who inspected the ballots to make sure there were no errors. It was time-consuming and repetitive, but I liked it :)
This was in June & July, to prepare for the Primary Election in August!
I was invited to help out in September/October to prepare for the General Election, but I declined. This wasn't an easy decision to make. I loved the ballot inspection process. However, I decided to focus on working as a substitute teacher, especially being that I just joined HiEmployment and wanted to give them a chance. Also, substitute teacher gave me more flexibility to take time off in case a job interview came up! Because after all, I'm ready to go on to "the next thing".
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Talking about elections, I did work on Election Day as a precinct official. For both the Primary & General Elections.
I did comment on my blog why I think the format for the Primary Election should change. This was posted a few hours after the polls closed.
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/08/hawaii-primary-elections-need-to-change.html
Voter turnout was lower this year compared to 2016.
However, the one positive this year was the same-day registration. My polling place was for the district that includes the University of Hawaii at Mānoa (UHM) and therefore includes the dorms. So we had a population of people who are at the age when they become eligible to vote. Many people only become interested in the election when the Election Day is getting closer (just like how some people only start shopping when it's almost Christmas). In the past, they only gained their interest when the voter registration deadline passed. But now with same-day registration, we had many UHM students registering on Election Day. Good to see the next generation getting involved.
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And of course, I continued to volunteer with the Friends of the Library of Hawaii (FLH).
FLH has their annual summer booksales at McKinley High School (Go Tigers) as well as their smaller booksales on Veteran's Day and Martin Luther King weekends at Washington Middle School.
It was on the Saturday of the Martin Luther King weekend when we had the false missile alert.
I was on my bike towards Washington Middle School when the alert came. When I arrived near the school, I took my BlackBerry Q10 just to take the picture of the sign advertising the booksale, so I can post it on facebook to remind people. Then I looked at the phone and it said there was a missile headed to Hawaii. My mind was thinking
- we in Hawaii had so many warnings for hurricanes and tsunamis that never land on our islands, we become numb to warnings and alerts
- if there's a missile, the missile would most likely land in the ocean
- the alert system might've been hacked.
- if the missile hits while I'm at the booksale, at least I'm around the people I love when it strikes.
After I parked the bike and entered the school's cafeteria, the FLH volunteers were still setting up and customers were waiting outside. People who got the alert were just laughing because they think it was a hoax. (I found out later that the customers waiting outside were thinking the same thing). We were still getting ready to open when we got another text saying it was just a false alarm.
What did the media do? Act as if everyone in Hawaii was terrified for their lives. BALONEY! Most of us have become so numb to the warnings & alerts that we were joking about it BEFORE the official text said it was a false alarm.
Yes, I feel bad for the parents who had to comfort their children (who obviously have a hard time calming their expressions of vulnerabilities). And yes, there were cameras showing UHM students running for shelter.
But the media exaggerate the level of panic coming from Hawaii residents. Yes, I know, stories of panic are way more interesting (and get more ratings and clicks) than stories of calm. There was a lot more calm than panic where I was that day!
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Enough about the alert, back to the FLH.
Every month, on First Friday, I am the cashier at Books@Mark's, FLH's mini-bookstore that shares space with the art gallery Arts@Mark's. The Mark's being Mark's Garage near the border between Downtown and Chinatown.
First Friday's tend to have an opening party for a new exhibit at Arts@Mark's, so there are many people who come in to check out the opening party, the arts, and of course, the books (plus music, postcards, etc) being sold at Books@Mark's.
Being a cashier at Books@Mark's is so much more simpler than being a cashier at Macy's or Nordstrom Rack. National fashion retail chains want cashiers to encourage reluctant customers to join their reward's programs. To add the frustration, dealing with customers in the reward's programs require some complex transactions. At Books@Mark's, we keep it simple. The customers get the items they want, I add it up, charge the tax (sorry, the government wants your money), and I invite them to come to other FLH booksales. That's it! None of this nagging customers reluctant to join rewards programs, none of this complex transactions! Much more relaxing, much less stress :)
2) Hawaii Library Association (HLA)
Earlier this year, the HLA offered a mentorship program for those interested in the library profession.
I did get my master's degree in Library & Information Science (LIS) and have worked in libraries before but was still trying to get a full-time library position.
So I applied for the HLA mentorship program.
They did hook me up with a mentor, a librarian who works at Leeward Community College (LCC). I met the librarian before at previous conferences. However, LCC is out of my usual range of places I go (I usually stick with Urban Honolulu, whereas LCC is on the border between Pearl City and Waipahu).
But hey, I wanted a mentor and a mentor is available.
We did meet at UHM and talked about my career path. I did mention the previous library jobs, my current sub teaching job, and struggles landing a full-time library job. We did talk about what kind of interview questions I had difficulty with and how to best deal with the next time. The mentor also emphasized understanding the application and interview process from the employer's point of view.
Then in September, I visited the LCC campus. I have only been there once, one of my brothers was graduating from there.
I took the A-bus then transferred to the #78 bus (I could've walked from the transfer point to the campus, but it was a mega-rainy day).
Then I explored the campus before the meeting with the mentor.
We took a tour of the LCC library, talk about how the LCC library has been evolving and meet with the staff members (some of whom I met when they were working at their previous libraries).
Then I was invited to observe a library instruction session. A professor brought her class to the library so that the library instructor can teach the students how to use the library databases to find resources they need for their research project. The librarian went over online search strategies and how different search terms can come up with different results. Then the students practiced using the databases to find resources relevant to their research topic. The library instructor went over to observe and assist the students. After the session was over, I talked with the library instructor. I was fascinated by the session. Facilitating those library instruction sessions on information literacy is something I would love to do.
After the session, I went back to meet with the mentor. He mentions that these library instruction sessions are the "one time shot" for the librarians to teach students who they might never before or again have the chance to teach. I said that reminds me of being a substitute teacher. We laughed.
Then one more thing that day. The library was hosting a wellness workshop in which a librarian and some guests talked about aroma therapy, meditation, and music therapy.
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On November, we had the HLA conference at the East-West Center, which happens to be the place that hosted HLA in 2015 (the last time I went before this year). Walking distance for me!
Being that I haven't attended HLA conferences since 2015, it was a reunion with LIS classmates that I haven't seen in years. I attended a few sessions, enjoyed the buffet during lunchtime 😃, and talk to some exhibitors (mostly publishers, database vendors, and a scanning machine vendor).
The sessions I attended included
- Nainoa Thompson (the legendary navigator) talking about his experience as a child viewing libraries a place for independent learning
- protecting library & archive materials in a tropical environment
- DNA databases
- databases providing access to indigenous cultural information
- hotel archives
- multimedia instruction
- school library collaboration
- libraries in Palau
and the most important one (for me) was the session about the HLA mentorship. My mentor couldn't make it, but I still went basically to compare notes with other mentors and mentees. Also, there were current LIS students interested in the HLA mentorships. Besides our mentorships, much of our discussions revolved around the difficulties of the job search process. It wasn't so much about "playing victim" but about what to be alert for when doing the job search.
At the session, I found out that one of the teachers at a private school I subbed at is now an LIS student. Small world.
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Fast-forward a few weeks to Black Friday.
I meet with my mentor again at LCC. The library was closed to the public, but some employees were there basically for housekeeping purposes. I told the mentor about the job search since the last meeting, that I was recommended for a library position but still waiting for the paperwork to be processed before I could start working. When talked about how libraries have evolved since he started working in a library (circa the early 90s) and how it is evolving towards to now.
I then told the mentor that after the meeting, I will ride my bike in the area and he told me about the bike path, which I will discuss in the next part of this post
3) Bike Adventures
As I just mentioned, I was at LCC for a mentorship meeting on Black Friday. Afterward, I decided to take a bike ride going through Pearl City and Aiea. From LCC, I rode towards Kamehameha Highway towards Blaisdell Park. From there, I had my first ride through the Pearl Harbor Bike Path. This path is hidden from most commuters because you can't see much of it from Kamehameha Highway or the H-1 freeway. So much of what I saw on the bike path is new to me.
While people usually stereotype Pearl City as a middle-class suburbs, you can see some old shacks along the bike path. It is way more low-level poverty than public housing complexes I grew up in Kalihi. There are also homeless settlements hidden by tall grasses of sugar cane. I did see one luxury car when one guy who looked like the rapper Machine Gun Kelly threw gang signs in my direction. I just kept riding.
I also rode past the Pearl City power plant and stared at the machines for a while. I also rode towards the west end of the path (near the place where the firefighter trucks get repaired) then back to the east end (near Aloha Stadium). From there I continued a few blocks on Kamehameha Highway and I went back on the bus.
In the future, I plan on biking in other areas I never biked before. Maybe Waipahu, Ewa or Kapolei.
4) Housekeeping
As mentioned earlier this year, this year is the 15th anniversary at my current apartment
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/07/15-years-at-my-apartment.html
During work breaks (at end of summer, and now in winter break), I spent some time reorganizing stuff at home.
I live in a small studio, and I like to collect stuff. Mostly books and printed articles. So that means I have to constantly reorganize.
For the books, I got a new plastic storage container. I also reorganized the books by categories.
For magazines, I looked through them and threw some out.
But it's the printed articles that give me the most headaches. Sometimes I see articles on the computer and I print out a copy. Sometimes because I'm impressed, other times I'll print it so that I could read it on paper when I have time. But the problem is that they pile up.
So in the summer, I did another purge. I looked at the folders where I kept the articles and threw many of them out. Trash bags filled with folders of articles placed in a rolling trash can to dispose all that stuff in the big garbage can outside.
Just like the summer of 2012 (just not as extreme)
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-war-against-clutter.html
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-apartment-gets-make-over.html
This week, I reorganize the folders again and threw out more printed articles that I already read. I have some more reorganizing to do before the winter break ends.
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Early this year, in the springtime, I did upgrade my TV and stereo.
My TV was so old that it stopped working a long time ago. It was a tube TV that was outdated in the era of the flatscreen. I replaced it with a small flatscreen TV that I got for cheap from Best Buy. Takes up less space.
The stereo I had was donated by my brother 12 years ago. It had a multi-disc player that stopped working. The sound system once had great bass, but it was messing up. So I ordered a TechPlay stereo online that had radio, CD, cassette, USB and vinyl playing capabilities. It was relatively cheap so I bought it, though I did use PayPal to buy it. Works good so far!
I also bought a small battery powered radio mostly in case of another storm warning.
I also had to replace an old mattress (from 2003) with a new hybrid spring/foam mattress that I bought online for relatively cheap from WalMart. Also used PayPal.
And as mentioned in a blog post earlier this year, I replaced my BlackBerry Q10 with a BlackBerry KeyOne.
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/09/adventures-with-my-new-keyone.html
Yes, I made sure that whatever replacements I buy are affordable. I don't believe you should have to pay big money when you can get something effective for a relatively low price. I also used PayPal for most purchases I mentioned, so that I can pay installments. I love it!
5) My Music
Last but not least is my music.
In case you didn't know, I am a digital musician who releases instrumental tracks under the name Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior.
This year, I finished making my "no budget music videos" (just a collage of still images) for tracks for my electronic music album I released early 2017, "Sounds Like A Video Game".
I think there was too much time gap between the making and posting of these videos.
Anyways, as I noted earlier, on October I released an album of metal instrumentals titled Urban Honolulu Metal Industries
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/10/urban-honolulu-metal-industries.html
Also in October, I released as a dark ambient instrumental single "Slow Walking Through a Haunted Castle".
I have made "no budget music videos" for 10 out of 15 tracks from Urban Honolulu Metal Industries
When I'm done for all those tracks, I plan to complete work on my next instrumental albums.
This time, it will be an album of slower, softer, more relaxing music. Total opposite of heavy metal.
I already made a few slow jams. I will definitely experiment with multiple genres to make a classic album of relaxing instrumental music.
I have not decided on a release date, but it will most likely happen within 2019.
Stay tuned.
